THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL QUESTIONS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VIII, Issue 395, 17 February 1898, Page 15

THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL QUESTIONS.

Amidst the bickerings and dissensions recently associated with church matters nnd the general administration of church work it is refreshing to find a busy . gentleman like Mr George Fowlds willing and able to prepare and read a paper before the Congregational Union, now sitting in Auckland, on the great social question involved in “ the Christian attitude towards poverty.” We regret to say that the Christian attitude towards poverty has in many cases in this colony and elsewhere been like the persons who left the wounded man alone and only helped him with their prayers. Judging by Mr Fowlds’ utterances, as briefly reported, there is not only a truly sympathetic pulsation in his heart for poverty and distress, but also an honest desire to devise means to relieve many of the great social evils which beset us as a people, amongst the chief of which are poverty and distress. We entirely agree with Mr Fowlds in his contention that mere almsgiving by the Christian church in a spasmodic manner will not adequately meet and remove the troubles referred to, and we are inclined to give some support to his further contention that our charitable aid system, in its form and administration, is rotten to the core, and does, in its practical results, tend to manufacture, instead of remove, poverty and pauperism Mr Fowlds is reported to have said that he had not overlooked intemperance as a cause of poverty. To make men free in the truest sense they must make them

sober. It was not enough to liberate them from the tyranny and oppression of bad economic laws, but they must also be liberated from their own evil lusts and passions. We do not think any contemplative person in the community will cavil at Mr Fowlds’ utterances, and we are prepared to go further and express the opinion that the gentleman alluded to has for years past, by his pen, his public utterance, by his life and conduct, and more particularly by his practical Christianity, been steadily but surely assisting in the onward movement of the great causes he has so sincerely at heart,, and his moderation and reasons, as adduced before the Congregational Union, had double force because of the recognised moderation which distinguished them. At the same meeting the Bev. Thomas read a paper on “The Attitude of the Church to Intemperance,” but we cannot congratulate the rev: gentleman on his success. We have always endeavored to divest our minds of prejudice when speaking of clergymen and'their work; nevertheless it has always appeared manifest that the gentlemen of the cloth are never eminently successful in any matter outside mere theological questions almost entirely of a theoretical nature. In dealing with the rev. gentleman’s utterances we have no desire to question his statement re the distress and misery that is the result of the excessive use of alcoholic liquors. At the same time we ask, has the church as a whole shown, except by precept and excessive declamation, an earnest practical desire to alleviate this distress ? We think the question must and will be answered by a most emphatic negative. It appears to us that the only religious body that has any organised and systematic effort to cope with the evil in a practical manner is the Salvation Army. The members of the Army go out into the bye-ways and the gutters of society, and when they find distress there

is no delay caused by railing at the cause of the calamitous distress, but at once take effective steps to bestow the aid urgently needed. Personally, the fanaticism of the Army is often railed at, but there is no denying the fact that these organisations have been highly successful, and we congratulate them on the same. We have no desire in any way to detract from the great merit which is due to the promoters and earnest workers in our women’s homes established principally for “rescue work,” and we wish God’s speed to such establishments as Mrs Cowie’s Home in Parnell, the Magdalene Home in Canterbury, and others of a kindred nature ; but we venture to express the opinion that the churches as a whole, as represented by the clergy, have accomplished very little in the advancement of the best interests of these homes. So far as the Canterbury home is concerned, the Government grant in aid of it has been bitterly opposed by a section of the church for the alleged reason that it is a Boman Catholic institution, notwithstanding the demonstrated fact that the managers, who are Roman Catholics, have never allowed the question of creed to interfere with either the admission or the residents of the home, and in considering the whole question involved in poverty and distress, the dispassionate observer must come to the conclusion that sections of the church stand as the greatest obstacles in the way of progressive relief to those in dire calamitous circumstances. Take again the action of the churches when there is any calamity to deal with, such as the Hawke’s Bay floods. In this case the Trade and the racing community showed a large and systematic munificence. If the churches were lavish the members thereof did not allow their left hand to know what the right hand had done. Beferring directly to the Bev. Thomas’ paper the writer is singularly illogical when he condemns the system of licensing hotels. The part of his paper referring to this question shows how impracticable he is when dealing with a subject which has agitated the public mind for years and years, but so far as we know, no statesman has propounded any scheme that comes within the pale of practical politics whereby alcoholic liquors could be retailed except through the medium of licensed houses. One of the stock arguments used by Mr Thomas’s compeers is that the local bodies support the licensing of houses in order to obtain as local revenue the money paid for the power to retail liquor, and inferentally he takes the same view of the question, as he states it was “ approved of by legal sanction and through the moneys received for licenses participating in the fruits of the Trade.” As a matter of fact the practical man who has to be brought daily into direct contact with “men and things” knows full well that unless we had the calamity of national prohibition, by legal process, the only alternative for licensed houses would be the free and unrestricted sale of alcoholic liquors, and a trade in them as unfettered as that which obtains in the sale of milk, tea, and sugar, and

the other commodities used for culinary and other purposes in every-day life. We should be sorry to see any attempt made by any congregation to check the free utterances of their respective ministers, but we are assured that it would be better for the flock and better for the shepherd if the former were led by the latter into green theological pastures.