VARLEY THE "EVANGELIST."

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 265, 31 January 1879, Page 3

VARLEY THE "EVANGELIST."

A Wellington correspondent of the Manawatu difim.es thus describes the above individual:—

"Varley, the Evangelist, as be is called, is not a / Crow', proper, but only a daw with the white feathers plucked out. He follows the habit of the member for Cheviot, in the management 1 of his aspirates-—a habit, exasperating to his hearers. He is not a,'whale'at, praying, like , some other Evangelists I have heard, but he makes up for his lack of vigour by frequent allusions to his Lord and God. In delivery he is unctuous, and in his manner oleaginous. A quiet, subtle, yet palpable odour scintillates from his person, which says, ' Stand aside, for I am holier than thou.' A man above the middle height of manhood ; in good condition ; an ugly customer to have to meet in the dark, had he taken to garotting for a, living instead of ' preaching the Gospel.' His hands and ears are large, betraying his descent. A massive head, the lower portion of which tells its own tale of sensuality—either expressed or hidden. He is not a Nazarene, for he shaves and cultivates a mutton-chop whisker. A man well-bred ; well tended ; and on good terms with himself. In prayer he calls himself' Thy servant/ and states that 'he is crucified with Christ.'. Seeing him standing before, :his large audience addressing the "Deity in tones of intimatei familiarity, iri all the vigor of lusty manhood, arrayed in black broadcloth, with a pink or carnation in his coat button-phole,! wondered if that were the kind of 'crucifixion , of which Paul wrote and meant j or whether he came.under the category of those who creep into houses,' and set silly women by the'ears. There is rid man within or without the , pale of Christendom that is more susceptible to human emotion than your correspondent—that is more easily moved to tears bj' the recital of r a daring deed, or some act of trivial heroism • that can more readily give' praise for self denial or charity. There is no man living that has a profounder adoration—ay, let the word adoration stand as it is written—for the life and labors of the man the Catholic Church canonised as St. Paul, in his hardship, his h'niigerings and thirst, and nakedness and poverty, and stripes and imprisonment, than I have ; and when I heard this well-fed, well-clad, . smirking, unctuous Latter-Day Saint tell. ■'• His, Master. , —as' he termed the Fount of Life and Light-—that he was crucified as Paul,was, crucified daily arid hourly, I felt'my spirit within me moved to a loathing unutterable ; and even now, when writing, the recollection brings tears to mine eyes to think that the man who wrote,in his? Epistle to the Romans what Coleridge has called the ablest exposition of Christianity the world has ever seen, should suffer the degradation of such a similitude. What man or woman is there to whom the power of thought, is given, but can see the difference ? The one ' worked with his own hands for a pittance/ lest he should be; chargeable to any, and then lackedr tb/cragh giving -a^ayni what c had earned., by his daily-and nightly toil. Tte other,toils not, nor spins; he is arrayed in fine liiieri and fares sumptuously every day. r His eyes - stand out with fatness; the very tones of his voice give evidence of repletion. His lines have fallen into pleasent places; and for himself he will doubtless acquire a goodly heritage. I aril writing in no spirit of bitterness or anger. I am forced to write as I do when I compare this Varley with the ' pale Nazarene.' I .could worship the man of sorrows from Galilee for his unsullied manhood alone,

I'butjvould sooner follow for a livelihood i the avocation of Pandarus, than blaspheme all that in t!(> annals of Judaism, by prcessing- nnx-lf a servant of one whose ehoo-i«it<-ln't I was uiiiworthy to loose, unless I I vod as 1: lived, thought as he thought. >nd did :;- he did,"