MR SIDEY AND "A.B."

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3083, 14 May 1881, Page 2

MR SIDEY AND "A.8."

[To THE EDITOE OP THB DAILY TeLEGBAPH.] Sic,—Some extraordinary hallucinations in the letter ot " A.8." in yesterday's Telegraph require notice before this correspondence closes. He says, "Mr Sidey draws his ideas chiefly from the Old Testament; I draw mine for the most part from what Christ preached. There is little chance of reconciling these opposing ideas." There is not a sentiment in this quotation which is not entirely gratuitous. Ido not draw my ideas chiefly from the Old Testament, Dor is there any essential distinction in the great spiritual principles of the Old and New Testament; nor does "A.8." so far as these letters show, draw his views from what Christ preached. So ' far is there from being any opposition between the doctrines of Christ and those of the Old Testament that they perfectly agree when fairly looked at, and always support each other. Some naturalistic teachers in theology have tried to sever the one from the other, mainly with the view of undermining the latter, but they have made very small success in their destructive work. To " A.B.s " foolish picture of the revolting God " for whom is claimed the authorship of every revolting act of cruelty

. . is not and cannot be the God spoken of by the writers of the New Testament," I have nothing to say, except to remind *' A.8." that it is the product of his refined brain, and that one of the very examplifications which he quotes to show that superintending efficiency only belonged to the God of the Old Testament happened in New Testament times—the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. To the pitiable profanity which can say, " Mr Sidey may ridicule my theology, as he doubtless pities the snivelling sentimentality that overcame the Apostle John when he wrote his first General Epistle," aDd especially these passages in it—" and we have known and believed the love that God hath to as.

God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him," —I have no answer, except to remind "A. B." that the same John wrote in the same Epistle, "If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth isnot in us." " Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." " Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them." And the same writer says in his Revelations that men will call on the "mountains and rocks to hide them from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the day of his wrath is come." Mr Sidey does not think that the passage " God is love," nor any of the others quoted, •' exhibit false theology;"nor does he regard them as " repugnant to the teachings of Calvin," or Augustine, or Luther, or Wesley, "and therefore contrary to the views entertained by the Church of Scotland." The truth that " God is love" most perfectly accords with the grand embodiments of evangelical faith, and is one foundation on which it rests. But it accords very poorly with the theology of the man who scoffs at sin, who mocks the sacrificial work of Christ, who the one day admits the overruling providence of God and who the next scouts it, and who exalts Father Chance to preside over all action in secondary causes'.—l am, &c, David Sidey. May 14, 1881.