Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 178, 23 April 1891 — A Teachers Homily. [ARTICLE]

A Teachers Homily.

Last weekB daily papers informed the »publio that Mr. Theo. H. I)avies and a Major Russell R. A. [British Royal Artillery, we pre*umej would hold a u speciaJ. seryice for children and young people" at the Y. M. C. A. rooms on the following Sunday afternoon. One is led to enquire what there ean be '•«[leeiai" about these two gentlemen,—the one a presumably wealthy merchant and the other — as he hangs on to the R. A. — ]iresuinabiy a professional soldier, v:irt of whoae busmcss when aetive!y engaged is to destrov human 'J:fei —-that they ■ shculd Ket themHelves up as the epeeial teachers of rehgion to children and young people, over the ninety-and-nine other regular teachcrs located in the City.

We are not insinuating for one moment that these two gentlemen were not actuated by first class motives as in such cases practised and recognized, J?ut the illustrates a ohaee of our conveniional christianity, wherein the ghoddy and the humbug are as solid as armour ' plating. Would any shabby looking pilgrim who livēd up to the doctrines of the New Testament and consequent--3y had no bank account, say the Apostle Paul for instance. who had only *ne coat and probably a patch on his oants, and who never carried a gun, be invited to take »hand in anything special or ordinary in a Y. M. C. A. Hall ? Kot mueh.

The underiying principle of the cuTrent raodern Ghristianity, ]8 the aB6umption that any bl©at<3d individnal wbo has money enough t© hire a hall and a secretary, and to print a prosp#H)tus is qualified to spread Christian knowledge among the poorer multitudes, g,nd that eyery body who has not a bank account ought to be drynursed in Christian doctrine by any bottle-nosed ' capitalist who chobses to take a hand in the movement.

And this naturally implies . other assumption, that wealth is ldway e acquired honorably, and that poverty is always acquired disbonor|ibly, else tbere is neither oeme n'or reason in a plan by whieh the rkh snuffler always starts to teach ihe poorer indi vidual who does not snuffle. N obody ever made a gi*eat fortune by Christian prin3iples, for these principles are constructed on so stryt a plan that they make the accumulation of wealth impossible. HardJy anybody ever succeeded in living up to thē doctrines of the New Testamtnt and having enough over to send eve* a emali donation to any society for the spread of morality among the poor. The gcspel that was promuigated in Palestine is so exoeedingly uncompromising as

to make it a3most certain ihat ! thje parties who spend eoin jn the spread of Christian principlefe need t® get some Christian princiiples to spread.

The average philanthropic movement is not an evidence of philant* thr©py, it is merely a proof that the philanthropist had * enough to get his naine in th4 papers: and the individual whom he proposeß to teach and "elevate" is often his mental superior, and the person throiigh' whom hiß bank account swell. Things in general are fleetir/g and unstable, and tho aggressively pions section of the human race is ephemeral in its character, but the art of eheap and greasy piety has no end.

It would be interesting to hear the Artillerv oflicer preach from the words u He that UF©th thc sword shall fall by the sword" and to hear him give an estimate of the probable number of children who are orphans, in various parts of the fsirfch, throJigh their parents having been butchered by mili* tary majors, while engaged in d*fending th«ir hearths and homes from f®reign invasion—the Boudan in Egypt for instance. We are not in a position tō kn®w whether in this combination of gospel, the sword is mightier than the profit monger, in appearing in public m a etanding contradiction to the doctrines of peaee and self-denial of sterling Christianity; but we would humbly suggest to any pious 4t R. A." and P. M. who have a high pressure impulse to spread themselves out in benedictions to voung an<i old, that "Darkest Ēngland" is just now a promifting field, wber6 owing to the tra~ dition born of centuries of abject reverence for capitalistic evangelists and majors of "good family," the rural Hodge will ex:st, in all human probability, for another half century before he opens his sleepy optics to the fnct, that the wealthy sleek capitalist wh» is seized with a yearning to lavish heavenlv gifts on the poor, u without money and without price," has made the world very weary, and was fortunate i.n having hitherto escaped unkicked, unbattered. and uahung.