CORRESPONDENCE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 251, 19 September 1884, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

Mr Bonn In Reply.

(TO THE EDITOR OP THB STANDARD.) Sir,— Would you oblige by permitting me to reply to the epistle covering the «ijrnature of E. H. Hag- . gen, •• Mr ' Burnt V rirulent altaek\*n those outside the Church " I can't ac present apprehend how these quotations of well-attested historical records can constitute the narrator, accriinonious or malignant ? I don't think that our hands will submit to any self-constituted authority, hot even an " outside Ch arch man's " orders, \ ( Hands off," I am satisfied the utterance was timely. When Holland was m danger from the encroachments of the sea, the alarm bells of the city were rung ; there was an active n|6ve to the li post of danger," at that particular point was the «- post of duty." In further confirmation of danger and darutfge, we read the writer* nmjili sneer, "A Minister of the Gospel of the * meek and gentle ' Jesus," Read the incomparable preacher's denunciatory discourses, Malt. 23rd chapter, what unmasking of character, whaV . withering woes,— how the yesterday*! ' of the past, and the opened torobs^oi the long ago, existed, and gave «f» their dead ? "No uncertain sound," "No prophesying smooth things*," and withal •• No virulance." For »uch uncompromising truths, antagonism would have put to death himself and his folio were..- - ' " Cook has slandered Paine." Few^ men would hazard their literary repu., tation, by pitching their scholarship/ against Cook, the famous Bostonlecturer, well and wide read, worldrenowned, as a writer analytical, a$ » reasoner acute, clear, and cogtnt, as a critic forceful and demolishing; Hig ornate style and vast knowledge resources enhances him to the distinguished position as a thought-leader, of the age. His excellent .moral; constitutes him incapable of slander. But then he is m the. Church! To lesson the writer's. « pain "let us leave the pulpifc, and on to the platform, ? and mix. with ' the schoolmen, the otlueationai forces, the preceptors of authors, aud editors,^, and give them a hearing. \, | " Fearful of being captured bjr ._ British cruisers, he (Paine) remained m France till August, 1802, when he embarked for America, and reached • Baltimore the following -<- October^-- " He hud lost his first wife the year following his marriage, and after throe yeats and a half wan separated front a second by mutual consent. :He then obtained a female companion m the person of a Madame Bonneville, the wife of a French bookseller. His subsequent life* was by no nfeans happy, bis attacks upon religion exceedingly narrowed his friends, aud 'circle of acquaintance; and his ; habitual intemperance tended to. the injury of his health, and'the ultimata production of a complication of disorde a to which he fell a victim, Junex Bth, 1809. Being refused interment m the ground of the Society of Friends, which favour he hatT rjlv. quested before his death, ha/was"^ buried on hw own farm."i--(Eucyclo- * {■a? lia.) Not " propagated by Priests of. the Church," hence the above iaX reliable authority. F f rom the seats of learning, as w«ll as from the iplato forms and pulpits of Britain and America, erudition and ripe scholarship are greatly to blame for suoU teachings if Paine did not m death ,k cry out for the aid of Him whom he blasphemed m life,? nearly 1 - all Christendom is against "Mr Breven, of New York," his "feeling* of pain " must l»e very great ».r ':.;.-; ."F- ul| y admit that the tree is known by its fmit." Christianity as a cause, England's national peace, morality, commercial ,-. prosperity, liberty, security of .property,- wi^h its practical existence m world wide charities, and good will .toward all natjons as an effect The physical law never varies, gravatarion draw* unalterably -to - a common/ f^Sftrl^ Christianity as a cause, with equal certainty, must produce "|>&ace," "goodwill," and attendant^ vii-tuas; as_, an effect apply this inevitable and - changeless law to France. The correspondent puts us to. "gather grapes, ofthorns, and figs of thisttest" v T&e ■*- good tree "Christian tree" bearing evil fruit, — m: bis illogical sequerioe ( attempts to prove that Christianity was the parent of the French Rivolu* tiou. "Righteousness exalteth a natiou, and sin m a reproach to any people." I don't think it is an e.rr<fr/*-* to accept the rendering, Thtt{hathe.isnj was the corrupt ti^e, ' that borci tbj^ ; iked Reign of Terror, the c6rj?^ptfri|(t.^ the French Revolution As to thp f!li|tle bqqk" qf lapsed/ |elig|oniHt^l atn qqt at *«$ tfHs.ton«--ishgd," it is a cqmfo.rt to hqar ; tljatJjL. ._ is a " little " one. I don't think we need guess twice as to who executed the scavengers m scraping them into a small heap," Crimes of Tteacheis," the locality of this virus, is. the^itytt|r sting with, to transmit " feelingVof •*• pain." " , If I understand the drift of E. H. Haggen, it is part io silence the' pulpit, confining its anuouneenaeirts^i to Pharoah, Herod, Nero* and such, like killers of men's bodies, not to name the poisoners, and destroyers bt* , men's souls. — I am, <&0,, ! : . ..'. B.S. B^fo^^i