CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 242, 23 October 1879, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the "Evenixq Mail." Sir,— Do you or any of your readers think the following clipping is in any way applicable to New Zealand at the present moment : — " A facetious American journalist puts, and answers, the following queries : — " Who owns the United States ? The People. Who owns the people ? The Politicians. Who owns the Politicians ? The D . Yours, &c, Bio Bio D.

To the Editor of the ' Evening Mail.' Sir— A correspondent in your issue of today, who styles himself " Anti-Grey," endeavors by insinuation to discover what Mr Levestam has exercised his ingenuity to ascertain, namely, who " Excelsior " of the Colonist is. If " Anti-Grey " will induce Mr Levestam to dispute the authority upon which I convicted him in my letter of the 21st, it will be his best means of discovering who I am. In the meantime, Sir, I enclose my name (non for publication) so that you may see I am not identical with either of the defeated candidates. — I am, &c, October 22, 1879. Excelsior.

To the Editor of the " Evening Mail.' Sir— ln your issue of Wednesday a writer under the caption of " Christian," complains that I claimed the Christians were the only religionists ia the world who denied the existence of intermediate states or spheres between mortal life and the assumed finalities of Heaven and Hell; this writer adds that " there are nearly three hundred millions of Christians who now hold belief in a temporary and purgatorial state after this life," &c , &c. Now, Sir, as I stated in my last night's address, I have myself carefully studied some hundreds of the various opposing, aud in many instances, utterly irreconcilable creeds underlying the sectarian beliefs of Christendom, and with the single exception of the Roman Catholics, who constitute but a small percentage of the Christ/am of Great Britain aud her Colonies, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, America, India, or Russia, I still reaffirm ail Christian sects teach the doctrine of finality beyond the grave, without the slightest approximation to the idea of a mid-region or probationary states. Of course it will be understood that in speaking of Christian sects I mean those who are included under the generic term of Protestants. As I find no lack of critics everywhere who lie in wait open-mouthed to find matter of offence in my utterances, I generally conform to a popular, though perhaps, strictly speaking, an erroneous mode of classifying the opposing beliefs of Christendom, and that is, by naming the Roman Citholics as such, whenever they are alluded to, and summing up the conflicting lines of Christian sectarianism, under the term of Protestants, or Christian sects. If I failed in these respects to make myself understood, I am happy to be reminded of my lack of perspicuity, aud equally happy to rectify it. Permit me to add, Mr Editor, that there is a much more serious problem to be solved in your correspondent's statement than could arise from any possible omission of the word sects ia connection with that of Christian, and it is this-, when "Christian" affirms there are nearly three hundred millions of Christians who believe in purgatorial or probationary states beyond the grave, he is of course speaking of Roman Catholics, the only branch of Christian believers who do cherish that opinion. What are we to make of such an assertion then, when the eminent French statistician Mons. de Ladebat, about the close of the eighteenth century, computes the number of Christiaus at not more thau two hundred millions! Sixty years later, that is in 1555, Mrs L M. Child, on page 348, 3rd volume of her admirable aud authoritative work entitled •' The progress of religious ideas," saya:— "The entire number of Chris-

(tans oj ail denomination is competed' at about two hundred and fifty millions!" I am quite aware that the Roman Catholic Church, in connection with other ideas repudiated by Christian »ect%, still maintains faith in the "miraculous," but it seems to me it would require some miracle more potent than any which the mathematics of the Vatican could furnish to show how a vast majority out of two hundred and fifty millions of persons who deny the existence of any probation or possibility of progress hereafter can represent nearly three hundred millions of persona affirming that doctrine. Awaiting more light on this miracle of miracled, \ am, &c, Emma HardinGe BsjitftEN October 22, 1879.