THE TARARUA DISASTER.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3079, 10 May 1881, Page 2

THE TARARUA DISASTER.

|/To the Editor of the Daily Temouaph.] Sib,—To a mind not wholly eaten up with religious intolerance and egotism the sermon of the Rev. Mr Sidey upon the sad disaster to the Tararua must bring «t feeling of disgust that, in this nineteenth century, pulpits can be made the standpoints for propounding such doctrines. The reverend gentleman attributes the ruin and grief that have been brought to many a sorrowing family as the deliberate work ot an offended Deity, offended by the smoke of profane steamers ascending to his throne on the Christian Sabbath. What a picture of God! He cannot tolerate such grasping avarice as displayed by these unholy directors, so, to appease His offended Majesty and teach the directors and the public generally that their pro-, ceedmgs are wicked in his eyes, innocecit babes, delicate women, and even servants

Of his own, must be offered up in one great holocaust. What a consolation for the survivors and the desolated ones must be their religion under such circumstances ! With what feelings of love _- and reverence must they turn to their God for comfort and consolation in their fneavy affliction. But I would ask if the Sunday trading of these steamers is so distasteful to God as to call forth such fearful punishment? Do we run no danger even here in Napier from the Sabbath smoke ascending from baked meats prepared, Sabbath after Sabbath, to minister to the carnal enjoyments of a hundred Christian families. Perhaps the odour of the meat acts as a disinfectant. If this disaster is, as the reverend gentleman would have us believe, a punishment for Sabbath breaking then indeed must God seek out the small sinners and let the big escape. Why does not some terrible disaster overwhelm the French nation, with their Sabbath races and their Sabbath theatres. If the causes of these sad disasters, such as the Royal Charter, the London, and the Tararua, are to be looked for in the direction Mr Sidey points out, and this is Christianity ! I will have none of it. It is this doctrine that is driving thinking men to atheism, spiritism, and deism—a doctrine foreign to the teachings of Our Blessed Lord himself, but in keeping with tbe Puritans f . of Cromwell, and the ravings of John Knox, and would suit the ideas of an Ashaotee king, but not the more humane ideas of justice and right of the present day.—l am, &c, Olivet. May 10, 1881.