THE LONDON SUNDAY.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 664, 27 November 1902, Page 20

THE LONDON SUNDAY.

Dr. Joseph Parker, of the London City Temple, belongs to that somewhat rare species of spiritual pastors and masters which can retain a philosophic serenity even when contemplating the Sunday question. In a characteristic contribution to “ 'The Times,” he ackowledges, with a chastened approval and entirely without alarm for the religious future of the metropolis, that England has lost . ita “ mediaeval ” Sunday. The last thirty years have produced, without any particular striving and crying, a “ liberalising ” of the Sabbath. The testimony, of Dr. Parker (remarks the Melbourne J ‘ Argus’’) agrees with, the evidence .of every observer who revisits, the haunts of . ancient. gloom on a London Sunday. ?it . is' not that the churches have been left desolate, nor., ttat the streets are any more full of Nons of Belial flown with insolence and wine than they were when the French satirist pictured his exasperatingly truthful “ Dimanch® a Londres.” On the contrary, .religious duties are performed with the better grace because they are more voluntary; - and opportunities for rational employment of the hours have removed half the; temptation to the mischief with which Satan is wont to provide idle hands on an ultrarigid Sabath. . •? ,• ••*■