The Star. TUESDAY, NOV. 29, 1892. The Pew Rent System.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7432, 29 November 1892, Page 2

The Star. TUESDAY, NOV. 29, 1892. The Pew Rent System.

Aechdeacon Fabbar is nothing if he is not extreme, and in his extremes he is most various.- His latest variety is the discovery of the reason why the working men have left off going to church. It is all in consequence of the pew system. Abolish the pew rents, and all will be well again ; the working man will return to his church when he can find the forgotten road, and the clergy will once more be in touch with the maßßes. The pew Bystem is no doubt responsible for a good deal. The venerable and versatile Archdeacon is not the only man in Orders who has set his face hard, and lifted his voice loud, againßt that system. Many times has tbe public been told that the churches have been monopolised by broadcloth and silk ; that they are ordered, as if the floor of heaven — the place to which they all lead, and on which they are supposed to be modelled — were largely reserved for " the quality," an insignificant space being left for the rest, who, after all, perhaps will have to be endured up there. Men every bit aB terribly in earnest aB Archdeacon Farrar have dilated on this theme. But many of them have gone deeper than he, assigning quite other reasons for the want of accord between the clergy and the working classes. And, to their honour be it said, they have acted upon, that opinion, and laboured hard to find a remedy. The sign of that remedy ia the East End curate, who is a modern growth, and the success of the remedy iB the large congregation that curate invariably possesses. As to the pew system, it is part of that bad state of things which accompanies the spread of riches and the decline of true religion. A revival of religion is at hand, and it is largely the outcome of the serious attention the well-to-do people are beginning to give to their duties towards their fellow creatures. The revival will reform the pew system with other things requiring reform.