Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

flfocmtbl^ XCreasur^ No. 35.—NOVEMBER, 1896. THE EXPONENTS OF CHRISTIANITY. From time to time the great Christian bodies of the country are moved to make pronouncements upon practical matters connected with religious life. It is now a forgotten duty that is enforced ; at another time some sinful indulgence or amusement is marked out for special denunciation, accompanied with earnest warnings and protests against its danger to physical and spiritual well-being. The advantage of having the morality and practical religion of the country supervised in this affectionate and authoritative way is one that cannot be over¬ estimated ; and to thoughtful people the voice of God is undoubtedly recognised when the wisest and best of his children, and the most devoted students of his Word, give utterance to their belief in what is for the good of their fellow-men. Unfortunately for the higher interests of the Principality, there is to all such pronouncements a counter opinion. No sooner does the word go forth that any particular iniquity has come under the ban of our church courts, than a host of ignorant and interested partisans rush forth to the contest, and by a species of false reasoning that can only be the product of a deluded mind, endeavour to uphold and justify their favourite sins, and to depreciate, as of no importance, the opinions of men who by profession and character are the teachers and guardians of public morality. Possibly the worst offenders in this particular are the cheap and illiterate newspapers, from the deluge of whirh the country is at present in danger of being swamped. The newspapers in question are kept going in the interest of sin. Their conductors and contributors are men who would not be admitted as members of any Christian church, and their foul advertisements are paraded with a publicity so outrageous to every canon of morality and taste, that one is tempted to vent his indignation in the wrathful words of olden times by saying that these men are reserved to the vengeance of eternal fire. The evil would be somewhat mitigated if the irresponsible tap-room scribblers who uphold the iniquities of the country would confine themselves to the defensive, or would have the honesty to avow that they seek nothing but the gratification of their own passions, and the filling of their own pockets, by meeting a demand which they themselves are doing their best to create. But deluded by the falsehood which is the essence of wrong, they not only justify their abominations as innocent and harmless, but vilify and attack the pious men of God who condemn them as the enemies of human happiness ; and then with a boldness begotten only of the devil, they will pervert the very words of the Almighty, and seek to draw from Christianity itself a countenance