Cylchgronau Cymru

THE WELSH WEEKLY. July 15, 1892. OPEN COUNCIL. POLITICS ON SUNDAY. To the Editor of the Welsh Weekly. Dear Sir,—In your last issue, a letter appeared under the above heading, and as the writer does not seem to know all the facts, perhaps you will allow me to supply them. The meeting, which was held on Sunday afternoon, June 19th, was not called for political purposes. It was a meeting convened by the Railwaymen of the district, to present £50 to a person who was dismissed from the service of the Taff Vale Railway Company, at Merthyr, for (it is said by Rail¬ waymen) his prominent action with Trades' Unionism. How much truth is in the assertion I do not know. The Colliers and other Tradesmen were asked to join the procession, and show their sympathy with Trades' Unionism. Some trades refused, and would have nothing at all to do with it, and I can emphatically state that the better class of workmen in all the trades were conspicuous by their absence. Our two M.P.'s were also invited to speak, two platforms were pro¬ vided—one for each, and I am sorry to say they attended and spoke, but Mr. D. A. Thomas felt that he was not doing the right thing, and plainly told his audience that he did not agree with Sunday demonstrations. Why he didn't act up to his convictions I cannot understand, because during his whole Parliamentary career he has always acted strait- forwardly and conscientiously. A week later a meeting of the Merthyr Tydfil Women's Liberal Association was held, and a resolution was proposed and carried unanimously, de¬ ploring the fact that a demonstration had been held on Sun¬ day, and expressed a hope that in future the senior member for Merthyr would have the "courage of his convictions!" The people of Merthyr resented the demonstration, and public protests were made in several of the Nonconformist Churches. I merely send you this explanation in order to shew you that we, as Liberals, had absolutely nothing to do with the affair at all. I may state that the reason why the meeting was so large, was the fact of Mr. Pritchard-Morgan having promised his supporters that he would, after having been fooling the constituency for a week, give a decided answer as to whether he was going to offer himself as a candidate at the General Election, and that brought a bigger crowd than would otherwise have been there. However, I quite believe that we as Christian people must in the very near future take a decided stand, and with a determination, born of conviction, refuse to allow the Sab¬ bath to be desecrated. Yours truly, DAFYDD. To the Editor of the Welsh Weekly. Dear Sir,—I take no exception to the view your corres¬ pondent R.E.I, has taken of the action of the two Welsh Members of Parliament, who addressed their constituents in the Merthyr district on a Sunday. In a world so full of intol¬ erance and bigotry, where all events are distorted, and every principle more or less misconstrued, it is not at all surprising that such a departure from the customs of the country should be viewed somewhat askance. But being myself possessed of the natural instincts of fallen humanity, I cannot find it in my heart to condemn the departure; for I believe in har¬ monising the broadest humanitarianism with the strictest orthodox theories of the divine mission of Christ. There cannot be any danger that the doctrines of grace, of the atonement and of justification, will get sadly out of gear if our political leaders will aspire a littie more to serve God by helping man. Wales, we are often reminded, is undergoing religious persecution from within, and its working population has been of late raising its voice in bitter complaint against the screw of the capitalist and the tyranny of the landlord. If we refuse to try and remedy wrongs which degrade our very humanity, and which render it impossible for men to lead a divine, or even a decently human life, I consider it nothing less than casting pearls before swine, to preach the gospel of " peace and good will" to such men, smarting as many of them are, in the very throes and travail of much that is con¬ trary to personal liberty and independence of mind. The Rev. Hugh Price Hughes once said that people nowadays are so busy saving souls, that they forget all about saving men. We in Wales, certainly require more of the "man-saving" gospel, and I admire the two M.P.'s referred to, for bursting asunder the bonds of religious etiquette—for after all what else is it —and once in a way give the hard toilers of the Merthyr district a sermon on the social life of this world, where they are supposed to find the way into a happier one. If it is the mission of the church to interpret the love of God to the world, surely it is the duty of our leaders in season and out of season—on Sundays as well as on week¬ days—to help to ameliorate the condition of those whose life is so miserable that they cannot understand his love. There has been a little too much of the passive, some might be disposed to call it the contemplative spirit of religion in the Principality, and this somewhat aggressive departure initiated in the Merthyr district is certainly a rebuke to it. Religion must not be held in leash. It must altogether be free to fulfil its mission, in whatever direction that circumstances may lead it. And next to the total evan¬ gelisation of Wales, and as a necessary step towards it, religion has no higher work in our midst to-day, than to labour for the relief and elevation of the masses. Your correspondent must remember that we are a mixed fold in this world. There are goats as well as sheep, and the worst of it is, our skins have somewhat got mixed. But if you wish to try and save the soul of one of the former, by bringing him to Christ, you will probably find you can get more directly at your object by way of making life tolerable and society possible, than by way of doctrine and theological arguments. I certainly cannot conceive it antagonistical to the Gospel of Him who wandered among men, seeking to help them in this world and save them for the next, to preach on Sunday afternoon, once in a way, a practical sermon on the issues men have to decide in committee-rooms, and confront in the polling booths ; for such issues in reality offer opportunities for serving God in a very practical way. The Kingdom of Christ was undoubtedly furthered in Wales by the passing of the Sunday Closing Act, and it will again be furthered when the " Direct Veto " question is solved. I admit these are texts which cannot with propriety be preached from the pulpits, but to be blamed for accepting the alternative and preaching them in the highways, is rather inconsistent in my opinion. " He's true to God who's true to man, And they are slaves most base, Whose love of right is for themselves, And not for all their race." W. A. ROBERTS. 30, Wellfield-road, Walton. 11th June, 1892. THE LATE S. P. TREGELLES. To the Editor of the Welsh Weekly. Friend,—I trust thou wilt allow me to inform thy readers that I am not responsible for the "Sir" at the commence¬ ment of my communication in last week's issue, nor for the "June" at the end. These matters of using the singular pronoun to one person, abstinence from compliments and from using the heathen names for the days of the week and the months, are to some of my friends and myself comparable to the small tithes of mint, and anise, and cummin, which are by no means to be put before the weightier matters of the law of Grace, but not on the other hand to be neglected, so far as we individually are concerned. Editors of secular newspapers usually make what they consider the necessary prefix, but as the Welsh Weekly con¬ nects itself with religion, I thought it the more necessary to notice an alteration of the kind. The " plain " language appears to the writer more consis¬ tent with Christian simplicity and the brotherhood of man¬ kind, than the usual styles of address. Having been requested to furnish a specimen of Dr. Tregelles' Welsh, the following may interest thy readers. Gwel y Brython, rhif 41, tudal. 344, a chofiant byr am Eben Fardd gan Dr. Pugh, Tremadoc, 1864. "Clywais drwy y Parch. Robert Williams, awdwr y Geirlyfr Cernyivaeg, am farwolaeth fy ngwerthfawr a'm hanwyl gyfaill Eben Fardd, ac ar ol hyny derbyniais gerdyn oddi wrth ei ferch, Mrs. Davies, i'r un pwrpas. Bu fy ngohebiaeth ag Eben Fardd yn parhau am o gylch ugain mlynedd. Yr ydwyf yn sicrhau i chwi fy mod yn teimlo yn ddwys golli un a garwn mor fawr fel cyfaill, yr hwn pe buasai wedi ei osod mewn cylch bywyd eangach, a fuasai yn cael ei adnabod yn fwy cyhoedd." Erratum.—In my letter last week, 15th line from end of column, work should read world. Thine sincerely, JOHN S. SOUTHALL. A DOMESTIC CONCERT. The scene opens with a quintet in which the king is playing the violincello, or as I should have said in the language of the Court, " in which His Gracious Majesty condescends to honour the violincello with his august bow." The Princess of Wales is gracefully meeting over the harp, the Duke of Newcastle is sawing away at the violin, the Duke of Devonshire at the viola, and Phillip Dormer, snrnamed the witty, is "tootling " the flute. There is a moment of confusion. The performers regard each others with anxious looks ; but the Royal bello marches on with the calm tread of the elephant. Some try to catch up His Majesty by skipping a few bars, the others slacken the pace, the chaos only gets worse. The harp fancies that there has been some change of movement, and goes off at a gallop ; the viola, knowing that His Majesty is accustomed, when he misses a bar, to commence it over again with paying any attention to the other performers, goes back to the last difficult passage ; the flute imagines that His Majesty has left out a few bars, and rushes off in a wild steeple chase in persuit. But His Majesty goes on calmly on the even tenor of his way. The maids-of-honour are choking with suppressed laughter; the four combatants whisper to each other what is to be done. It is impossible to recover the thread and emerge from the maze ; they can-only play on steadily. Knowing that they cannot get any worse at all events. Suddenly the king has finished. The princess looks at her father-in-law's music and discovers that he had turned over two pases by mistake ; His Royal Highness then sits down again and religiously plays out the pages he had missed, while the others go on with their respective parts, all five coming in at the death almost at the same time. Only to think that all this happened before Wagner was thought of. THE "DAILY GRAPHIC" ON THE REV. HUGH PRICE HUGHES. Mr. Hugh Price Hughes, the leader of what is termed) > believe, the Forward Movement in the Wesleyan denomina- tion, is a firm believer in aggressive Christianity. He is also a firm believer in himself; and he is quite right in being so- He has undertaken a great work, and unless he believes id himself first no one else is likely to do so. But his present belief in himself is based upon his vast accomplishments i*1 the past. It is not every leader who has so firm a basis »0' his self-confidence. But even more thorough than his behp in himself is his belief in God. I am old-fashioned enough to think that with two such creeds within him he possesses sufficient faith to move mountains. With such a a*9*1' therefore, it is inspiring to talk, albeit one cannot comprehend, much less realise or share in, his intense, unquenchable enthusiasm. He is first and foremost a reformer. Root and branch he is a reformer of the most uncompromising kind. He gives no quarter, he makes no allowance for erring humanity; with a resolute intolerance, an absolute ignoring of all that h»s hitherto gone to the composition of society as it is, with a» enthusiasm that frequently exceeds his discretion, he rushes in where wiser and older men fear to tread. He is some¬ times wrong, he is often right, he is always perfectly sincere- And, after all, it is this sincerity, this single-heartedness, this intense faith and humanity of his that wins him many friends, and that secures him against the attacks of the very few enemies whom he has made during years of aggressH* Christianity, and strong-hearted attempts at reformation- His fault is, perhaps, that he is too good. He expects too much of his fellows, he is indignant that he finds so little- But, nevertheless, he lives only for his fellow men. ^n enthusiast to his finger tips he sits in his arm chair with no sign of restfulness; eager, earnest, energetic ; now and ag*lB leaning forward to emphasise some remark, to put forward some extraordinary theory, which theory, however, v matter how novel it may be to his hearers, he general contrives to ground upon a good sound basis of cornm00 sense. A Radical of the Radicals, therein departing fr0^ the old-fashioned Whiggism or tepid Conservatism of ** Methodists of a past generation, hating priestcraft as tw very invention of the Devil himself, yet he is not without » certain latent ecclesiasticism of his own. From what he h*9 has now and again let fall in conversation with me, aim08 unconsciously perhaps, he would be more rigid regarding th encroachments of the laity upon the privileges of DJ ministry, as he understands the term, than many of the ne school of ritualists that has lately risen up amongst u* There is much that appears contradictory in his charaete* > the one element, however, which knows no variableness ° shadow of turning is his love for humanity and his entir belief that in this world no man may dare to live '° himself alone. ,, To such a man, therefore, the possibilities and ** potentialities for good that exist in a well-regulated County Council have an intense fascination. Therefore, when called upon him I laid before him a scheme of question concerning the proper relations between the Civic Govefl1' ment and the Churches. "Now," said I, "do you consider that the Church, &* which I mean not the Church of England only, or the Chui* of Rome, but the whole State of Christ's Church milit*n, here on earth, the Church, in short, as described by °l Hooker in his " Ecclesiastical Polity," do you consider th* the Church has hitherto failed in her share of the gove*11 ment of a great city. Ought she to throw in her lot he* and soul with the County Council, and so make reparati0 for a neglectful past ?" "I think this," he replied, "whilst I quite agree W» those who hold that outwardly the Church has no earths right to interfere with the Council, yet I have a clear convi tion that it is the duty of the County Council to obey Chris • Civic Government is as much bound to carry out Christi* principles as any private individual. That is where •** Church and the Council should meet. It is not for parsons to attempt to govern the Council; it is only ° duty to assert the principles on which it ought to governed. The Church must endeavour to secure be the ■ch election of good men only. Only thus can the Chur1 attempt to influence the Council, and that influence wiH "" good so long as it is not used for ecclesiastical or sectan purposes. I don't think the Church should drag the Coun j Council at its heels. The Council is doing marvels in way of moral reformation. It can well be trusted to do * right work in its own way." "Now, Mr. Price Hughes, with such vast duties perform, would it be unfair to pay certain official members the Executive an annual salary ?" "I think, emphatically, that the 'Cabinet' should paid. Many of the best and most practical men are p°° ' and it would be foolish to lose their services through mistaken idea of economy. But I quite realize ceF\L possible evils in connection with the payment of meinbe ■• Emphatically n it" he continued, in reply to a question mine as to how far general politics should affect the eleetio of candidates; "general politics should have no part these elections. How ridiculous for me to refuse my vote man who believed in Home Rule for London i»el because he was against it in Ireland. We must separa municipal from Imperial polity. In Brighton the two » entirely severed. The difficulty here in London is grea ^ because we are a chaos, and we have no time to cre ^iy second organization; therefore we take what we have reaw to hand. At the same time I feel this, that the Progressi policy of the L.C.C. cannot be carried out while we have obstructive Government in the House of Commons.'