32 AUSTRALIAN PICTURES. 



hardy race of farmers whose lives are spent in clearing the jungle, are not 

 left unprovided for. Though everything is not done that could be desired, 

 it may be said with perfect truth that the Churches strive earnestly to keep 

 pace with the continual migration of the people towards the backwoods of 

 the country. 



It is a pleasant thing to attend a rural service on a typical Australian 

 day, when the sun is hot and the sky cloudless, and the whole landscape 

 steeped in peace and quiet. Driving along the road, we see the sheep 

 couched in the grass, or we pass a clearing where wheat and oats are 

 growing among the blackened stumps of fallen trees ; and nothing disturbs 

 the stillness of the scene save, perhaps, the lazy motion of a crow, or the 

 rush of a startled native bear, a sleepy, gentle, little animal, an enlarged 

 edition of the opossum. The church stands a little apart from the few 

 houses that form the infant township. It is generally built of wood, and 

 surrounded by tall gum-trees, which, however, afford a very scanty shade 

 from the burning heat. Here is gathered on the Sunday morning a collec- 

 tion of buggies and horses, for the people come long distances, and it is 

 necessary in Australia to drive or ride. The congregation stand in groups 

 before the door, chatting over the week's news, and waiting for the clergy- 

 man to arrive. The Day of Rest is the only day in the week in which 

 they have an opportunity of meeting, and many come early and loiter with 

 their neighbours till the service begins. They are all browned and tanned 

 by scorching suns, but they speak with the self-same accent that they learnt 

 at home. There are Scotchmen of whom, to judge by their speech and 

 appearance, it is hard to believe that they have not very recently left 

 their native glens, and Irishmen whose brogue is wholly uncorrupted by 

 change of climate. Most of them, however, have been settled for many 

 years on the land, retaining their old customs in the solitude of the bush, 

 and among the rest a due regard for the worship of God. The children 

 have caught, to some extent, the tone of their parents, and one could 

 almost imagine oneself in a remote parish of Britain. The service itself 

 heightens the illusion. The hymn-tunes are old and familiar, and sung 

 very slowly to the accompaniment of a harmonium. The exhortation of the 

 preacher is brief, telling the old and yet ever new story of the Saviour's 

 love, and it is listened to with evident attention. One hour suffices for the 

 whole worship, and the audience contentedly disperse, and turn their faces 

 towards their lonely homes. 



In the towns the organisation of the different Churches is effective. 

 Their agencies are at work in the poorer quarters of the large cities, where 

 the evils that exist in the Old World are showing themselves on a smaller 

 scale. They have stood out strenuously for the observance of the Lord's 

 Day, and with marked success. Sunday observance, if not so strict as it is 

 in Scotland, is more general than in England. There is no postal delivery. 



