THE LION AND THE LAMB.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 240, 5 November 1878, Page 2

THE LION AND THE LAMB.

To the Editor of the Akaroa Mail. " Which naming no names, no offence could be took." **

Sairey Gamp,

No, of course not, why should we name names ; there are lots of abuses going on in this world and which call for severe reprimand, but laying bare the individual sore is seldom attended with much good.

I was about to remark, when you so rudely interrupted me with this old saw that one of the prominent duties of a Church is not to seek its own but others' good, and I was about to instance a case not far from home in which an evidence has been afforded to us of—of—well, let me ,* say it—abominable greediness and something worse, which is a sad, sad example

for us its "umble" followers!.

In the earliest days of Canterbury's existence, I remember there was a great «• deal said about the example she was to

set to the world as a Christian settlement —a settlement founded upon the truest, principles of Church of England propriety —principles deduced from the practice of the early days of the Church, and self denial and love were to be conspicuous in the government of the brotherhood. Sure enough, we started fairly, we paid freely for the land tee. acquired, and of this price we gave one-third for Church purposes. Wo were to have schools and col legos ; we

were to have churches ami parsonages ; we

were to have free immigration and hos-

pitals—the latter under ilio direct control"! of the clergy, the work of the hospital being so essentially brotherly and sisterly, matronly and fatherly, that the Church alone was its proper superintendents. We gave to this Church one-third of the proceeds of the sale of the land for these pur-

poses, and, to foster and relieve the needs of those who first settled in the wilderness of this Canterbury Province.

"Now, now, I say, what.are you growling at; haven't you a very respectable Church, and very creditable ministers preach very fairly effective sermons to you every week ? What more do you want'?"

Certainly, but that's not my point ; the church fabric is decent enough, and the sermons are passable ; but it's not the ser-* mon nor yet the fabric which constitutes the Church. The founders of this settlement knew that well enough, but their followers have forgotten it. But to prevent your impatient interruption, let me ask j'ou, since I know you assent to my position that the maintenance of the hospital and the control of immigrant was " part of the Church's duty, what you think of a case of this kind :—We built a church, .we provided a very pleasing reserve of about 5 acres for a parsonage Its . grounds, and we built the personage* too,

nearly as fine, perhaps finer—as most of these buildings are—than the church itself. The rest of the reserve remained unoccupied, unused, until the necessities of our settlement called for a hospital and provision to be made also for our immigrants, and so the State did what the Church ought to have done—erected a very neat, comfortable cottage hospital for the relief of "the sick and ihe lame " of all denominations on a small corner of this Church land, and adjacent to it a barrack for the poor houseless immigrant who required shelter from the cold, pending his engagement. How dared the lamb disturb the stream at which the lion was alone privileged to drink? If the stream flowed from the lion to the lamb, what then ? Nothing "would satisfy the monster but the blood of the poor innocent. The lamb, believing that heading the sick, relief to the poor and needy, feeding the hungry, were all parts of these holy functions of our Christian brotherhood, did for the lion what the lion could not or would do for himself. The Jamb took this small plot for the lion's work, and the ruthless lion has, in retribution for the lamb's wrong doing-, actually taken from the pastures of the'lamb not less than 101 acres !! in compensation. (See report of the meeting of Synod.) Credat Judccusl Honor, all honor to the simple minded lion of our time. Yours, &c, A LAMBKIN.