Correspondence.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3081, 12 May 1881, Page 2

Correspondence.

THE REV. DAVID SIDEY'S REPLY.

[To the Editob of the Daily Telegbaph.] Sib,-—So your correspondent "A. B." declines to show how God is love, and nothing but love; in the light of calamity no . doubt be finds discretion the better part of valor. Permit me now to follow up a little his statements in his first letter. With an air of triumph, for which there was very small occasion, he quoted a part of Christ's saying, in connection with the fall of the Tower of Siloam, in proof that sin could have nothing to do with calamity, or the wreck of the Tararua. Let me now quote the remaining part of that sentence, to show what Christ's object was in connection with it. " I tell you nay: but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." It was the common infirmity of the men of his day to pronounce men exceeding sinners on whom calamity came, and to leave unheeded all present duty. From this error the Lord would withdraw them, and bring them to the perception that the lessons of calamity were meant for the living: —" Except ye repent, ye shall in the same manner perish." And perish they did. They would neither be warned by calamity nor by mercy, but went on their inpenitent course, until the Romans came down upon them as God's instrument in chastisement, and brought about such horrors tbrough the seige that delicate mothers actually sold and ate their own children. Here is the distinctive warning of coming penalty on continued impenitence, from which Christ would have saved them by leading them to see that God's voice in calamities was to the living. Is it, or ia it not, consistent with the spirit of Christ for those whom he has set apart to oarry on the inculcation of his word to say to men generally, and even to " A.8.," as the voice of this calamity, chat it is a solemn call to them *tv repentance on the pain of coming calamity? Christian teachers have always held that it ia their duty as his servants to enforce this lesson, and that they are supported by very sufficient reason in the doing so. In his letter of yesterday " A.8." resorts to the very old device of trying to draw away the attention of your readers from the matter in hand by the raising of a prejudice about my assumed wisdom, and proceeds to say "my belief does not extend the terra 'overruling' to personal interference, and I do not attribute to the direct interposition of the Almighty the wreck of the Tararua." God's overruling does not extend to persons nor to things, then either directly or indirectly, for it is the indirect application of the power that is in question. Then what does God overrule ? Does he exeroise any control or none in the affairs of men ? or does be sit in the lone distance, like old Jove, and look with sovereign contempt on them all. Do the Scriptures assertions that he guides Arcturus in his oourpe and makes the sun to rise, and the grass to grow; that he caueeth his wind to blow and the waters to flow; that fire and hail, snow and vapour, and stormy wind fulfil his word; that the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich ; that he bringeth low and lifteth up ; that while a man's heart deviseth his way the Lord directeth his steps, best comfort with reason and observation, or " A.B.'a" statement of his belief that God's overruling neither extends to persons nor things ? If " A.B. " prefers to rest on such a subterfuge that is no reason why other men should do the same. Let them be awed by the majesty of God, even when they cannot altogether understand the reason of his ways. I pass now to your other correspondent "Olivet," who says, after giving his own picture, which is revolting enough, if the consequences flowing from the statement, that God's overruling extends to everything, " I will have none of it. It is this doctrine that is driving thinking men to atheism, spiritism and deism." " Olivet" must think it an enormous loss to heaven that he will not enter its company. May it not be an equal loss to himself and to other men, evea now, that his will is set so resolutely against the clear teachings of Christ that even a sparrow does not fall to the ground without His knowledge F Would he be a better or a worse man by the adoption of the Christian faith P It is the misfortune of some men, as the great Italian poet puts it, that they can only go to heaven through hell. Might it not be worth " Olivet's " while to reflect whether he is ever likely to get through with his will so determined. It has become the habit of late with some of the wiiters in the Telegraph to descant on the way in which the large body of thinking men are becoming deists and atheists, because the teachers in Christian churches will insist on repeating the old world views of it. Is it not very sad that the churches with their teachers, who of course have no brains, decline to bear this new apostle in Napier and hail his help P Why do they not turn and preach deism and atheism, and so fill their pews with willing hearers ? The wonder is that if the number of the deists and the atheists be so great as " Olivet" says they are, that they do not erect their own churches with all their ministrations, and co set the Christian church one grand example of their wisdom, generosity, and love. Might not " Olivet" aspire to be Chief Priest in such a flourishing concern P—l am. &c, Davii> Sidet. Nspier, May 12,1881.