Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The New Zealand Evangelist

Local Religious Intelligence

Local Religious Intelligence.

Nelson.Opening of the Presbyterian Church.

On Sabbath last, the Presbterian Church, in Nelson, was opened for public worship. The Rev. T. D. Nicholson preached in the forenoon and afternoon, and the Rev. S. Ironside in the evening. The services were numerously attended; at the forenoon service there were, at least, 360 persons present, and the collections taken amounted to the sumof £13 10s. The collections of the day amounted to the handsome sum of £23. On Monday evening, a very interesting meeting was held in the Church, when addresses were delivered by several speakers, and various pieces of sacred music were sung on the occasion with much taste and spirit. The proceeds of this meeting realised the sum of £7.

Karori.—Tea Meeting.—

On Tuesday the 22nd ult., the tenth anniversary of the colony was observed as usual at Kaori [sic: Karori], by a Public Tea Meeting in the Chapel. The children of the Sabbath School were first served, afterwards the general company. About 250 persons, young and old, partook of the “cup which cheers but not inebriates.” After Tea Mr. Woodward was called to the chair, and addresses were delivered,—by Mr. Green, on the demoralizing tendency of horse-racing and what are called rural sports, especially upon the young,—by Mr. Inglis, on intemperance, and the objections usually page 287 started against abstaining from intoxicating drinks;—and by the chairman, on the importance of Sabbath School instruction. The day was delightful, the arrangements good, and the Tea-meeting was decidedly the best we have ever seen at Karori.

Wellington.The Fete.—

The Anniversary sports have passed off, so far as we have heard, without any serious accident, or any glaring immoralities, except the usual modicum of intemperance and its ordinary accompaniments; and of this much we are truly glad. We are no croakers. We are not disposed to say “What is the cause that the former days were better than these?” We are fully confident the tone of moral feeling in the community is rising. There has been a felt necessity on this occasion to lop off or keep down the most offensive excrescences of the system. The prime actuating, and moving spirit did appear in the proposed “Drinking and Smocking Matches“; but this was too much of plain truth to meet the public eye, or be taken under the patronage of a Governor, even in this the most distant colony of the Crown,—the farthest removed from the great centre of civilization and religion.

Satan strives hard in these times to assume the embodiment of humanity; but according to an old popular tradition, he can never in any case divest himself of the cloven foot. In this instance, when the amusements were patronized by the representative of majesty,—when they were supported by such an array of the brave and the fair—and when they were followed by such crowds of the sober and decent,—surely we must conclude that the presiding genius of the sports was an angel of light; but, even overlooking the booths and the evil spirits imprisoned within them, and ever and anon taking possession of incarnate forms, and displaying their diabolical nature—the cloven foot peeps out, and reveals the true character of the originators, in the suppressed prizes for swallowing beer and consuming tobacco, and thus training candidates for the “bar” and the “tap.”

page 288

We leave our readers to cogitate upon this subject. The effects of these sports do not terminate with the week of the fete. We know of at least three or four most melancholy histories that date their origin principally from the Fete amusements of 1849. Nothing is more certain than that, to those who provide temptations upon a large scale for the young, the thoughtless, and the undecided, there will be a settling day in connexion with the sports of a graver character than they seem to expect. Guilt will be charged upon the proper parties, and effects will be traced to their true cause,