CYCLING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5732, 27 November 1896, Page 3

CYCLING.

_, _ ,v eVcßsts had a "church TteDtoWto^ • last when about iarade» o* ®sm, *r lnrty **■■** 61 k Taieri Churc] ,n hour's spin t<? fine Dasft . hed from n .here the Rev J. Will- flreS^ now is the Jorfnthians,- vi., 2:' rt ßelialS]. ». c o j .ccepted time ; behold- now-- fe JV 'oquent alration/' The sermon was' an' «\ wor^ me, the preacher emphasising 1 - tsl*p It 'now" — now is the accepted tihiß)- 1 toes not appear that thene-wasany spscfft. eason for this emphasis;, unless it waecag'y i, warning to cyclists tb- avoid a' pfface' \\ vhere " scorching " is' the normal condi-- * ion. Mr Will judiciously mixed his brahv- j itone with treacle, or- its equivalent, for ] ;he report adds that, "before mounting their- ' aachines the riders were kindly regaled 1 [^ vith milk from the manse."' It is a sign of \ ;he progressiveness of the- times to find \ ;hat even in Scotland cycling on Sunday is ] :olerated by the "unco quid." The- con- 1 rener of the Sabbath Alliance of Scotland, 2 ?or instance, considers Sunday golfing' a much more heinous sin than Sunday cycling. Indeed, it is doubtful whether he considers the latter a sin at all. On a re- j ;ent occasion, when the reverend gentle- < men appeared before the Town Council of 1 Edinburgh with a petition against games, ] and especially golf, being allowed in the public parks on Sunday (that such a peti- ■ tion was necessary is a sign of the awful i degeneracy of Scotland), he stated, in reply to a question by a flippant town : councillor as to why cycling was not included in the petition, that cycling was "merely a form of locomotion." This is a rather unfortunate definition, fcr it can be made to apply to railway and steamboat travelling. At a recent meeting in Falkirk held "for the promotion of Sabbath observance," the speaker who was put up to deal specially with the Sunday cyclist was good enough to say that he was not against cycling, and did not hold that cycling was a sin. Nay, more, he did not even hold that cycling on Sunday was a sin. But here he drew a subtle distinction. "If a man found that as a matter of necessity he required to go a certain distance on the Lord's day he was just as well on a cycle as on his feet ; but cycling on the Sabbath for pleasure was a distinct contravention of the Sabbath day." Warming to his work, the reverend gentleman proceeded to denounce ministers who held services for cyclists. He regarded Sunday services for cyclists, he said, as "an example of the sheer silliness that sometimes arose from the craze for pleasure." Mr Will possibly stands condemned by this dictum, for the Dunedin cyclists profess to have derived much pleasure from their ride to Taieri on Sunday last. Most people, however, ;will fail to see the " sheer silliness " of the matter, or the wickedness of cycling ten or twenty miles to church when places of worship could be reached by a walk of a dozen steps.