ROUND THE CHURCHES.

Observer, Volume X, Issue 621, 22 November 1890, Page 7

ROUND THE CHURCHES.

At one of the Salvation Army street meetings, the Captain, wishing to check some unseemly behaviour, cautioned the offender that he might be put in tk© Observer.

The ' Tab.' was crowded last Sunday night to hear darling Tommy. It was quite like olden times, before the Lord had sent his besom of destruction to birch the Baptists of Auckland.

Mr Birch says he is so busy healing diseases with oil and prayer that he has no time to prepare sermons. He should go into the Milner Stephen business, and not draw salary for work which he does not do.

Some pi'onf. Bant,ifM,s were fo anxious to read what the Observer had to say about Birch, and were so afraid of being contaminated by its other contents, that they cat out the piece they wanted to read and solemnly burned all the rest. Good for trade.

At the next monthly meeting of the ' Tab.' it ia said that a letter from Rev. C. H. Spurgeon will cause some sensation. It deals with the dispute between Mr Birch and his deacons, and also with the queer dispute about Mr Birch's passage money from England to NewZealand.

It takes .£ll a week to pay current charges, salaries, &c, in connection with St. Matthew's Anglican Church, Auckland, and 'tis said that the income doas not average more than JS6 weekly. Hence the anxiety to get hold of those trust funds for the stone (broke) church.

Salvationists have been enjoying a week of selfdenial, abstaining from lollies and every luxury except the War Cry, in order to raise money for the good cause. The Cry says that 'thousands of pounds are spent weekly in toffee and other succulent morsels.'

The Incumbent of St. Surplice's gave last Sunday evening a most eloquent address. He showed the inefficiency of Sunday Schools and the needlessness of religious teaching in day schools, for that it was at home that the parents had been taught religion when they were young. No one doubts but that religio, as that word was understood in the time of Christ, is now taught at St. Surplice's.

' Onlooker ' writes as follows :— • Some of the friends of Mr Birch have been industriously asserting, and repeating, and circulating that Mr Birch is 'being cruelly persecuted. The assertion is wholly false. The truth w just the other way; is at the direct opposite. The protest against him, and against his coarse vulgarities his been gentlemanly. The conduct of Birch towards Yarley was outrageously abominable! Ketribution sure."

Our ministers and deacons have often bewailed the absence of young men from entertainments, oonver* aaziones, etc., held in connection with their respective churches, and various hare been the reasons brought forward to solve the problem : but during the week a young lady has given her opinion. She says the boys roll up in shoals to a free show, but when parting & shilling comes in they are too mean to go, preferring to buy detestable tobacco to going anywhere to enlighten their obtuseness and gladden the minister (not the girla of course, boys) with their presence.

The ' Maiden Manoeuvres ' were calculated to upset the saints ot Ponsonby ; but the casualties were not numerous. •

The Baptist Union Conference passed n motion in favour of religious instruction in schools, moved by Mr B. Bell in an able speech,

Ekv. J. J\ Hintoi*, Dunedin, is President of the New Zealand Baptist Union for next year, and Mr F. Battley, Auckland, is vise president.

Some Baptists believe in using their ' prayerful influence ' against the totalisator, and others discharge instanter any employee they know to gamble.

Jubilee services were held on Sunday last in the Methodist churches, followed by public meetings this week. So far, there has very alight interest evoked.

Mks Hampson laid the memorial stone of Auckland Salvation Barracks. Now that the lady has fallen from grace, her name has been obliterated from the stone, in a very rough manner.

When the Baptist Conference was sitting in Auckland, it was suggested that lievs. North and Cornford should settle the matters at issue between Rev. W. Birch and a large section of his congregation ; but the pastor declined to suboiit anything to their decision.

Evangelist Spurgeon tells a good yarn about a conversation he overheard concerning himself during his trip up the coast. He wa j announced to address the passengers on the deck, and he heard one passenger say to another in a very gruff voice— ' I say, Bill, are you going to hear that preaching cove, Spurgeon?' 4 Who is he ?' 'Oh ' don't you know. He used to hold forth in Auckland as the King of Baptists.' 'Oh, yes, that covey whose father holds forth at Home, and his brother got into some trouble going to America. No, I am not goinjf to hear him, my blood might boil at him.' Send along the next, Tommy !