“WHEN GLADNESS WAS SHUT OUT.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18547, 22 August 1928, Page 8

“WHEN GLADNESS WAS SHUT OUT.”

ARCHBISHOP CONDEMNS OLD-FASHIONED SUNDAY.

URGES THAT CHILDREN SHOULD PLAY CRICKET AFTER EARLY SERVICE.

“Preserve your children from ih® old-fashioned Sunday, where gladness was shut out. How glad I wa* in those days when Sunday was over! “If I was living ray life again I

would go with my children to an early service—go with them, not send them. Then I would have a game of cricket with them. I would take care that religion was the brightest, greatest thing in their lives.” So spoke Archbishop Julius last evening in an address on “The Boy and Home Life” to members of the Y.M.CA. Parents’ Association.

Mr C. H. Burson, who was in the chair, in introducing the Archbishop, commented on the fact that New Zealand had given even America a lead with Parents’ Associations.

“ If I were to start poultry-keeping without any knowledge of fowls, people would say that I deserved failure,” said Archbishop Julius. “If I were a youth, and got married, and had a child or two, no one would take any notice. But it takes a clever man to rear chickens.”

The speaker qiroted Sparta as one of the countries where the State had taken charge of the children, saying that they belonged to the nation. The Spartans were, therefore, a very efficient and warlike race; but they were very narrow. Again, the women were not much account. Again and again the experiment had been tried and had failed. The human child had a character, and a possibility of development that was beyond the power of any hard and fast regulation. There was the parenthood and affection that passed understanding.

Many young people got married, and were faced with the greatest of all responsibilities without having had any previous thought about it. There was the experience one had when one was a child oneself, but in perpetuating that experience one might merely be carrying on a very bad precedent. Children were smart and quick, and they were very quick to react to any influence.

Personality counted in every indivi* dual case, but personal experience did not count for very much. Besides, experience must necessarily be limited. One child was not like another. And what did the ordinary lad and his wife know about it? Experience such as the average person had was a very narrow foundation. What happened was that methods were based on the conventions of the day. “ I have very grave doubts about it,” said the Archbishop. “ I am a democrat, but I know that public opinion is very often wrong. That, perhaps, is only natural. It is a fact that children are fed and clothed in accordance with public opinion. When I was young it was thought that if you slept with a window open you might as well order your coffin. Doctors follow the fashion. They give a medicine till they are sick of it and their patients are sick of it, because fashion decrees that medicine. “ The liorqe is the true training ground of the boy and of the girl, and what that home is, so will the children be in alter years. “ What a chance you have here! But it isn’t the builders that make the home; it is the parents. Discipline is a great factor. In the old days there was a great authority in the hands of a parent. Again, it was a great thing to have a home beautiful. Beauty is an attribute of God Himself, and it is not necessary to buy it in shops. I can assure you you can have a beautiful home on very, very little money. “ Then your children must have occupation. It’s hard now, for there are those confounded—l beg your pardon, those cinemas. They want to go eight nights a week! You must give children something to do, and make the home attractive for them. I have known men who have grown old without a hobby. It’s an awful state of things. (Though, don’t let a boy think that because he can take a clock to pieces hfe is a born mechanic. There are too many mechanics! ) “ Parents, take an interest in your children. Let your home be a Christian one. Your boy may not be a £reat success, but let us hope he is brought up to love and fear God.”