ICONOCLAST.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2991, 26 January 1881, Page 4

ICONOCLAST.

Professor Newman, in his prefaco to tho second edition of his "History of tho Hebrew Monarchy," says : "In opposing and exposing notions which other people hold sacred, it is perfectly impossible to please thci-u as to tho mode. They always persuade themselves that it is tho modo which thoy "dislike, hut it is really the substance of tho thing. Speak in plain, simple, true words, ancl it is called coarse, rude, unfeeling, irreverent; speak by gentle allusion, or say only half of what you might say, and it is called a sarcasm or a sneer, and is probably derided also as tamo and weak. Deal -with the argument gravely and strongly, and you are thought overbearing and hard ; treat it lightly (if it seems to be light in itself), and you are called flippant, contemptuous, superficial. I very much regret, this universal tendency of idolators to defend themselves by arbitarary querulousness; for they hereby tend to produce totaljwant of sympathy with their weakness. There 13 such an offence as unfeeling flippancy, which sees only evil, and is blind to good. I desire to avoid it. I would not wilfully give needless pain in refuting error, any more than would a hurnano surgeon in cutting off a limb. But the work of refuting error is strictly necessary if truth is to be advanced. The negative side of every question is as essential to truth as the shadows in a picture ; and whatever outcry people make against "negative • teaching," it is certain that the apostles and prophets, whom they admire, were emphatically idol-breakers in their own day, and often very harsh ones. I cannot submit to treat as sacred I discern to be a hurtful superstition ; nor do I choose to reason elaborately against it, if it rests on no reason at all, or utterly absurd ones. If anybody is wounded by plain and true statements, lam sorry for his pain, but I cannot help it. Let him learn to love Truth, as such, better than his own opinions ; and his soreness will rapidly disappear."