AN HONEST DECLARATION.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3651, 28 March 1883, Page 4

AN HONEST DECLARATION.

The editor of the New Zealand Presbyterian, who is generally understood to_be Professor Sahnond, makes the_ followiug honest declaration in this month's issue of that journal: —"That there arc rapidly increasing multitudes who cannot endure our sermons ; that the sermon has lost its power to interest and impress over a wide area of the population ; that our services are not such as allure the masses, or constrain them to return or abide ; that the services of a minister are being viewed as of all tilings the most easily dispensed with ;_ that very many persons are unaware of suffering any loss or harm from giving up the Sabbath "and the sanctuary, and are less ashamed to own it; and that it is^ being widely asked, what is the use of Church association and what good will it do us? It was always thus to some extent —the new thing is only in the rapidity with which all this is spreading ; and the question is, what is the cause '? It is one of the hardest of all questions to answer. Probably there is no one cause, and we are face to face with the product of a thousand co-operating causes. There is something profoundly wrong somewhere—and possibly, were a prophet sent to tell us what it is,"we should all arise and stone him." It requires no prophet to tell the cause of this mighty change. The great fact is, the age is outgrowing the popular creeds. The childish tales and mental monstrosities, with which the priest charmed and more frequently terrified the credulous and unreflecting masses during the past, are vanishing before the searching light of positive knowledge. People are beginning to think for themselves, to ask questions to which they demand rational answers. They will no longer believe, at the bidding of any one, that one is three, and that three arc'ono. They shake their heads when you tell them of a God-man— a man being'partly eternal and partly selfcreated in time. They marvel and doubt when yon relate to them how this same being suffered death to appease an angry father, and that that father was himself. They smile when you talk about the devil, and" wonder why God did not put him to death instead of his innocent son, and thus remove the tempter out of the way. In vain you tell them that these are great mysteries ; they only laugh and reply that they are no mysteries, but so much nonsense and unmeaning jargon. In fact thewhole fabric is fast becoming a matter for ridicule —fast tottering to its fall, and none save the priests or "the superstitious will weep over its ruins.—-Echo.