THE VALUE OF OATHS.

Evening Star, Issue 4069, 11 March 1876, Page 3

THE VALUE OF OATHS.

To the Editor.

Sib, -In a local in your paper of the 2nd it is said, “that in the cou se of his sermon on the previous Sunday Bishop Moran a ! lnded to a paragraph in a late morning pape-, in which .it was stat d that a Roman Catholic man had said in a Police Court that he did not consider bis oath binding since he had been sworn on a Protestant Bible. His Lordship said this circumstance, which be hoped was not true, had made him feel ashamed, because of the gro'-s ignorance of rile man iu question ” In Britain the miter knew a man who said his .o th was not binding as be. when making in, held his hand ovr his breast. This man was a Protestant, a - rue believ; rof all the do>,m;>.s o'- his sect, as peopery a denominationallst as any b oih-r, whether of a Mahometan, Pagap, Christi n, or other creed. All denom nar ona’ists think fcbev comprehend tie special dogmas, traditions, and laws of their faith, and believe >hem as truths emanating from God. Doubt is a crime. Duubcere must acce t the explanation, the opioions, the commands of their spiri ual teacher as God’s deputy on earth ; and his commands are that this their belief and form of worship is the true faith, the practice thereof th«*way to heaven; that they shall root up md destroy every emblem and record of all other forms of worship that is or may arise-all being the machinations of Satan. If their Baders and followers will tun from their ways, receive them; if not, destroy them root and branch.

Right or wrong, these behests, less < r more, ’1 denomination avisos profesi to accept as w^c hout ever testing either assertion by . • Veils of frets. Amon; the lesser evils _ such beliefs and education are ftoT Catholic man and the P.osuen as the _„(• „„„ „„ .i. testant exhb.ted jfi reference to th. u ca hj *i 0 , ~'e ancient records of For the greater evils Bv, ~ p China, India, and of other" u.. T "' f tions by the Jews -of the Jevrtf~, the ‘ e * Christ—of Christians, the division* . . ® tiem on account of new dogmas ' interests, then- persecutions of each Oilier, t'*consequent rie of the Musselman Empire, their exterminating wars, the like wa*s by C rLtians, their establishment of the infernal Inquiritl n, of the horrors i.f S’. Bartholomew and other massacres, the hanging, quaib ring, and burning of heretic witches, and the destruction of arts and sciences, and all records anent, be., &c. All these were committed on a grand scale by denominational gov raments in the service ii God, so they said and say. In His service they dsSrived His ct eatures of their birthright—freeom of thought. To-day they would do so if they had the power. Their dogma runs counter to the commands of Christ, and as a maker of course to their own interests. I may return to the subj ct and show that denomination«li?m is agreeable to Disorder and a curse to the abuser.—l am, &c., Sympathy, Dunedin, March 9.