BISHOP COWIE ON GUY FAWKES' DAY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1398, 4 November 1886, Page 2

BISHOP COWIE ON GUY FAWKES' DAY.

The following la the letter of Bishop Oowio to the Secretary of the Orange Grand Lodge, Auckland, referred to in to-day’a leading article : Bishop’s Court, Auckland, October 26th, 1886 Dear Sir,—l hive received yonr letter of October 25'h, informing ms of a re* solution of the Grand Orange Lodge of New Zealand, and asking me to “ preach a thanksgiving service in memory of the deliverance from the Gunpowder Plot." I would gladly comply with this request if I did not think that more harm than good won'd be the resnlt of such a sermon. The principle! of the Grand Orange Lodge are, I believe, reverence, for Holy, Scripture and loyalty to the British Crown- These are principles of Christian politics which the whole of New Zealand must cordially approve, bat we may honestly differ in opinion as to the m >st effectual means of inculcating them. The deliverance of November 6, 1605, should not be forgotten, but I do not think ’hat it ought to be commemorated in a manner tnat is offensive to any of our fellows-cltizena. 1 have no reason to suppose that the Homan Catholics of Auckland approve of the plot of Guido Fawkes and his fellow conspirators any more thin you and I do, and to act or apeait as if the contrary were the case must be irritating to them, and is calculated to stir np and keep alive feelings of injury ai d resentment. Happily there is n ■ mure fear of the Bible, in the valgac tongue, being closed to the people of New Zealand by the authority of the Pope of Home than there is of New Zealand being invaded by another Spanish Armada, and I am not aware that the loyalty of the Homan Catholics of Auckland to Queen Y'ct ri« is at *ll} inferior to that of oor other"fellow-colonists. Under these ciroum tancei. I Bel that Christian charity demands that British subjects in thess islands should discontinue public eommemooration of the Gunowder Plot, freedom of conscience and general liberty of the subject being as secure in New Zealand as anywhere else iu the world. Ldve to our brethren, fear of God and honoring the King are linked together in the New Testament. Let us do our best to preserve their combination in our daily lives as in other ways ; so also by discountenancing commemorations that are likely to causa heartburning and a desire for retaliation among any section of the community.— -I am, etc., W. G. AacklandJßLshop."