Mr. Lloyd George delivered a striking address on religion in
Wales at a bazaar in aid of the funds of a Calvinistic Methodist chapel at Carnarvon on Wednesday. Combating the notion that the Celtic nationalities were fickle, while admitting that they had a volatility which lent them part of their attractiveness, Mr. Lloyd George declared that the Welsh character had been steadied, ordered, and organised by two great events,---the translation of the Bible into the language of the people by the Church of England, and the foundation and formation of the great Free Churches in Wales. But while Nonconformity had disciplined and lent a sterner purpose to the Welsh character, there were people who seemed to think that religion had served its purpose in bridling savagery, and was of no further use now that men were free and prosperous. But human nature in its essence was the same in every age. and every dispensa- tion, and religion provided for the fundamental needs of human life. Only when the wise men who in their self- sufficiency shunned the churches could devise some more effective agency to guide men and women through the dangerous paths of life and strengthen their hearts to bear its inevitable sorrows, as the religion of Christ had done in the experience of countless myriads who put their trust in
Him, could they, the simple people pf the hills, give up the building of chapels and churches. Mr. Lloyd George's speeches to Welsh audiencei have as a. rule more heat than light. On this occasion he remained on a high level of serious eloquence, and said nothing that he is likely to repent or revise.
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