"BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS"

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19128, 24 September 1936, Page 14

"BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS"

METHODIST'S ATTACK

"DAiVtJKR TO THE STATE"

LONDON, July 15. The life of "bright voung things" was condemned by the Rev. Ehsor Walters in his presidential address to the Methodist Conference at Isiewcastle-oii-

Tyne yesterday. "I have no desire to utter fierce denunciations of wealth, for I have seen wealth consecrated to the service of Cod

tnd humanity," he said. "I know men of wealth who lead simple and Godfearing lives. "But there is a; section of the coiftnunity which is a danger to the State, whose life seems to consist of cocktail and sherry parties,' cabarets and midnight revelries.

"There are decadent 'bright you: 1 ,.-; things' who are the forerunners of gloom and disaster. Let these people be warned. We live in stern times. Every

patriot must seek to build a community cased on brotherhood and humanity." The 'Methodist "Church, he said, was not moving forward. The decline in numbers, the surging tide of material•sm, the prevalence of a new paganism, md the breakdown of the Lord's Day should banish complacency. x lf they substituted theatrical displays and worldly entertainments fqr spiritual fellowship and turned their churches into social clubs, their days might well be numbered. The Methodist Church, said Mi'Walters, was at the cross-roads, and t!i3 question was whether it should turn left or rigid. The right-hand turning led to apparent safety and was seen in a policy diieflv of economv. and resulted in the

dropping of ministers, the closing of manses, the sale of chape's and of Sunday school premises, without any veil-designed plan for consolidation or advance. The left pointed the way to a new world order.