THE SHEPHERD AND HIS SHEEP.

Evening Star, Issue 3136, 8 March 1873, Page 2

THE SHEPHERD AND HIS SHEEP.

To the Editor,

Sir, —Amid the multiplicity of conflicting sentiments current in public circles at the present time, I am inclined to think that “ Logic’s” letter in your issue of this morning is (ho embodiment of sound sense and sound just'ce, in reference to the spiritual tussle going on between the laity and the Church. Jf the deacon is worthy of dismissal, more signally deserving of the same treatment is the pastor himself; for if ona sheep ln\s gone astray, the shepherd has not only left t||e fold himself, nominally, although not virtually, but be is seemingly bent upon leading the wholb flock outside its ancient precincts—that is, if it be true that a belief in Spiritualism is what the Presbytery term it—blasphemy.” The respe ;ted parson distinctly states that he believes in the spirit hands and spirit faces. The Rev. Mr Will goes into the subject with a will, I have just read in a London periodical of a gentleman of the cloth in America a great enemy of the new faith who had lain some hours in bed one night, meditating a fresh onslaught on the heresy next day, and that same night a spirit caught him when asleep, whisked on his clothes, and carried him off body-bulk four miles, and laid him down in a cabbage garden. Will Mr Will read this extraordinary sign, which was given to convince a brother clergyman, and be chary against pronouncing judgment rashly? An important point is involved here It is a question of correct reasoning. If Mr Will sits upon the bench as judge, does he frame judgment after haying heard and seriously weighed the evidence of the witnesses ? or does he do so without knowing or caving what the witnesses say, all in virtue of some inherent innate sharpness of his own ? It must be known to Mr Will that his great patron saint, John Calvin, was very far from being a perfect man, or free from error ; for you know he was a bit of an astronomer as well as a theologian, and he thought, good, decent soul, that he might perhaps shine all the better some day among the stars in the firmament for studying the stars here. He thought he had made a great discovery—that ho had discovered a pew planet; but, alas! he was straining his eyes through the wrong old of the telescope without knowing it and the planet he looked at was —his night cap ! —I am, &c., Snooks. Dunedin, March 7.