CLERICAL BAZAARS.
[To TEC EDITOR OF TEL "SPECTATOR.".,
SIR,—In connection with this subject (Spectator, August 15th) there is a consideration which, I venture to think, may well have the serious attention of your readers. It is whether the parishes in which clerical bazaars are used as means for obtaining funds for religious and charitable purposes are not for the most part those in which the clergy do not systematically and earnestly teach their people the duty of 'Christian giving, the duty of worshipping God with their worldly substance, and where, consequently, the people do not recognise that duty as they should; where the precept '` Thou shalt not appear before the Lord thy God empty," is all but, or quite, a dead letter. I write from a suburban parish which has an old parish church and a moderate endow- ment in the shape of tithe rent charges and a vicarage house .and glebe. The inhabitants now are mainly villa people (town shopkeepers and others), many of whom are folk of large, albeit in some cases unwarranted, pretensions,—people who attend church pretty regularly and "make a fair show in the flesh." The church holds about six hundred people, and the weekly -Sunday collections average something like £5; about enough to pay the ordinary church expenses. For special objects there are sometimes special collections ; but so far as I know and I have resided in the parish many years) there does not .exist any idea of helping poor outside places. When money is wanted for any special parochial purpose a usual course is to have a bazaar, which serves to excite the people for a time and to bring aid from outside quarters. The result may be satisfactory financially, but the moral consequences cannot reasonably he approved; for although a temporary end may be served, the people who have been excited and amused for its attainment are kept satisfied with themselves and their -own habits. And where there is confirmed self-satisfaction, of -course the need of amendment is not thought of, however
great that need may be.—I am, Sir, &c., E. R.
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