GENERAL GORDON’S RELIGIOUS IDEAS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1471, 23 February 1885, Page 2

GENERAL GORDON’S RELIGIOUS IDEAS.

(New Zealand herald ) It is a wholesome sign of the times when we find the life and character of a murdered soldier selected by preachers for the theme of their pulpit discourses. At several churches on Sunday last reference was made to the death of General Gordon, and the characteristics which distinguished that great and good man, the incidents in his career which exemplified his ntter abnegation of self, his marked disinteredness, his devotion to duty, and his high ideal of the Christian life were dwelt upon as lessons which mankind would do well to lay to heart. But the religious convictions of Gordon,

the faith that was in him and which so completely dominated his life, tha theological ideas which he had formed from an earnest study of Sacred Writ, and deep communing with his own spirit were either untouched or very lightly glanced at. Yet no estimate of his character can be complete, no adequate conception of the motives which influenced his actions can be possible without a knowledge of the religious opinions which he hold, and by whose light be shaped his acts, and moulded his career He was not an ordinary Christian following mechanically the conventional paths which creeds have taught us lead to Heaven. Indeed with creeds and formularies he had no active sympathy. They did not approach to hii own high standard of Christian duty. He hated all sham and hpyocrisy, and he found much in creeds and in the lives of professing Christians which his soul siokeaed at, He himself strore to live up to the life of Him who was born in a manger, and who died on the cross. But he saw no resemblance to Him in the “ Christian Pharisees ” who flood the world. “ A hard cruel set ”he aaid, “ they are from high to low. Do you know any single one of Christ’s pretended successors, clergymen or Dissenters, who is like him 1 Pure religion and undefiled, to vidt the poor and afflicted, and to keep unspotted from the world. Tell me one you know, who professes to teaoh you, who does this. lam sick of your burnt offerings and your prayer meetings ; my soul hateth them ; they at r a trouble to me, lam weary of them.” Gordon was Bk believer in the pre-existence of the soul and the doctrine of predestination. “- T think,” he wrote in January, 1876, “ that this life is only one of a series of lives which our incarnated part has lived. I have little doubt of our having pre-existed, and that also in the time of our pra-exlst-ence we were actively employed,” All things, according to Gordon, are preordained. He believed that everything that happens to a man, of good or evil, was settled by a Higher Power “one million million years ago.” And in this doctrine he obtained great comfort, “He who believes,” he ssid, “that all things are ordained to happen and must happen, has already died, and is free from the annoyance of this life.” That evil should be permitted by Infinity Wisdom once observed, “ a tough morsel to believe ; but it is true.” Therefore there was no use fretting over accomplished facts. They were ordained to happen, and no human power could have averted them. Hh belief in Divine guidance was implicit, a’>d he was firmly convinced that to those who truly believed, and who sincerely endeavored to act up to the Christian life, signs were vouchsafed now as of old. Sometimes he arrived at those signs in an extraordinary way. When in great difficulty he settled the matter by the spinning of a penny in the air More often, however, he experienced a deep impression as to the course he should pursue in any difficulty, and interpreting the sensation as a direct indication of the Divine will, he straightway followed it. Thus he regarded himself as a mere instrument in the work of the world. “I do nothing,” he writes, “ 1 am a chisel which outs the wood. The Carpenter directs it. If I lose my edge He must sharpen me. If He puts me aside and takes another, it is His own good will. None are indispensable to Him. He will do his work with a straw equally well.” His views on religious questions were framed in a broad and catholic spirit. He made no denominational distinctions. All men were his brothers. Replying to a correspondent who spoke of Mahommedanism as being imperrilled, he said:—“Not so. I find the Musselman quite as good a Christian as many a Christian, and I do not believe he is in any peril. All of us are more or less pagans I like the Musselman; he is not ashamed of his Gid ; his life is a fairly pure one; certainly he gives himself a good margin in the wife line ; but, at any rate, ha never poaches on others. Can om 1 Christian people say the same ?” In spite, however, of Gordon’s intensely religious character, in spite of the fact that he regarded life as a burden, and was absolutely free from all fear of death, he was neither a misanthrope nor a puritan. He was all cheerfulness. “ Why,” he once asked, “ate people like hearses, and look like pictures of misery. It muat be from discontent with the government of God ; for all things are directed by Him. If by being doleful in appearance it did good, I would say be very doleful ; but it does not do any good.” So strongly, indeed, did he follow this out, that on one ocoadon he maintained that a cheerful man of the world was more acceptable in God’s sight ; thon a gloomy Christian ” As may be supposed, he had a fierce acorn of all conventional religion—the religion which is

on y put on on Sunday. “ Act up to your religion,” ho said, “and then you will enjoy it. The Christianity of the masses is a vapid tasteless thing, and is of no use to anyone. The people of England care more for their dinners than they do for anything else.” “ there would be no one,” he writes again, “ so unwelcome to come and reside in this world as Our Saviour, while the world is in the state it now is. He would be dead against all our pursuits,and be altogether outre." Nothing roused his indignation so much as the doctrine of eternal damnation. He himself never felt the least trouble about his own salvation, not because of his worthiness, but of the infinite goodness of God. In 1878 he wrote to a friend:—“ Imagine to yourself what pleasure would it be to Sim to burn us or to torture us? Can we believe any human being capable of creating us for such a purpose ? Would it show His power ? Why, He is omni-

potent ! Would it show His justice ? He is righteous—no one will deny it. We credit God with attributes which are

utterly hateful to the meanest of men. 1 quite wonder at the long time it has taken us to see that the general doctrine of the Ohuroh is so erroneous. Think over what I say. Is not the preaching of everyplace of worship you have ever entered this ? “If you do well, you will be saved; if you do ill, you will be damned.” Where ia the gospel or good news of this ? When one thinks of the real agony one has gone through in consequence of false teaching it makes human nature angry with the teachers who have aided to the bitterness of life.” Of the future state he says “ The future world must bq. much more amusing, more enticing, and more to be desired than this world, putting aside its absence of sorrow and sin. The future world has somehow been painted to our minds as a place of continuous praise, and though we may not say it, yet one cannot help feeling that if thus it would be monotonous. It cannot be thus; it must be a life of activity, for happiness is dependent upon activity. ” He knows now. For him the Great Mystery has been solved.