THE REV. J. W. INGLIS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 905, 11 March 1879, Page 2

THE REV. J. W. INGLIS.

To those who have travelled much in these colonies the characteristics, whether virtues or vices, of society become speedily transparent. In larger communities, as in the older states of Europe, it is not so easy to get behind the scenes ; the sheets of tin are not so invisible, nor the men beating them. The philosopher or moralist must dive deeper into the vast fabric of modern society in the Old World tp. get beneath the outer incrustation if he desires either to instruct or amuse his audience. American society was soon sounded to its depths by that grand master of the art Charles Dickens. How mercilessly, and yet, withal, how lovingly, he rebujees their vices, ridicules their eccentricities and extravagances; and how admirable all such teaching! Anthony Trollope is another high priest in the realm of fiction, but how intensely real and just his censure of our besetting sin in these colonies —the disposition to blow. And, indeed, " blow" may be regarded as the outer line of circumvallation behind which young Australia, aye, and young New Zealand, entrench themselves. Wo earnestly wish it were something else—modesty, for instance, venertion —any word the antithesis of blow. Clothe ourselves as elaborately as we may, however, unless we have over all the " Girdle of Charity," Telemachus ! it is all in vain. Godlike charity ! " It is twice blessed. "It blesseth him that

' gives and him that take 3." " 'Tis mightiest of the mightiest, and becomes a throned monarch better than his crown." Now, our revered visitor, for many years a distinguished minister, we believe, in Victoria, has been travelling about for some time amongst us. A grievous accident which occurred some years ago limits his powers of locomotion, and, much to his own sorrow we are sure—for we are very conscious of his kindly sympathy for the sons of toil—he cannot mingle so freely as he would much beneath the surface of society. Mr. Inglis sympathises with the poor. Hear him read " A man's a man for a' that," and never doubt it more. He must, we take for granted, therefore, judge of society—we mean society in New Zealand—very much from surface indications, and these, we know, are not always reliable, much less infallible guides. He must judge of it from pulpits or platforms, railway carriages, steamboats, or coaches, where society is generally on its best behaviour, or where society is not at all. We have heard this distinguished lecturer, and we should like to know exactly what he thinks of us. His lectures—how discriminating and how just. What noble sympathy for all that is good and true and real. What lofty scorn for all that is small, or base, or contemptible ! He draws life-like ink pictures from books : surely he can do so equally well from nature. We are sure he is a true artist ; and since Gilfillan has joined the majority we doubt if he has any rival in this particular study. With a splendid imagination, yet judgment, he is in no danger of going off in explosive fireworks, for a just balance is ever preserved by his sound sense and his never-failing good taste. His imagination is like a kaleidoscope. With what a charm he invests all his subjects ; how he lingers on muchloved themes, each fresh evolution disclosing more brilliant and glowing combinations, till he reaches the climax in those splendid perorations, which, like the thundors of the Mount, are awfully grand for men to listen to. It is thus he exhausts the language of patriotism, of national honor, of public virtue and morality, and ever on the apex of such noble pyramids as he has reared in our memories he has written indelibly "Righteousness exalteth a nation." Well, we should like to know what one so discriminating and so gifted thinks of us ? When he has piped to us, have we not danced—aye, or wept or laughed ? But apart from the triumphs of his own transcendent eloquence, what has he found us ? Has he got behind the blow to something better ? What fresh discoveries has he made ? Any other national vices 1 In our ordinary garments and at our ordinary work or play, how has such a competent and kindly judge regarded us 1 IWe should like to know. Perhaps we shall. On the walls of his beloved Ballarat —the word always lingers like music on his lips—will perhaps before very long be seen in large type, in delightful rivalry, with such counter attractions as "Hoskins' Farewell," or "Uncle Tom's Cabin," or " Dr. Farrar holding a bleeding head on his hand," or, more meet associates, "Charles Clark" or "Henry Varley," " A lecture on New Zealand and her people, by the Rev. J, W. Inglis." He has not seen the Hot Lakes and boiling springs of the North Island, and what a pity 1 When we think of all his wealth of language, and unrivalled '.

powers of description, what an opportunity lost 1 What a national calamity ? Nature has here robed herself in the most gorgeous and elaborate attire ; how beautiful indeed are her garments, and how beneficent a provision of the Almighty for afflicted humanity. Ho who succeeds most in attracting attention to such marvellous and gratuitous gifts of nature, a locality which will yet become the sanatorium of the world, will be a public benefactor. Well, what will he say of us ? In the language of Scotia's immortal bard:— 0, wad some power the giftie gic us To see ourselves as ithers see us, It wad fra' mony a blunder free us, Young men who "blow" would not like it, nor would fashionable swearing appear more inviting or more laudable. Ino, nor any of the special characteristics of the genus Fast among our youth, Such a kindly trj-rri.-ithetie witness would proably find something to applaud, and how grateful it would be to, the youth and manhood of the Colon} 1 '? " If," says Bacon (tho F/ither of English literature), ' ( - time alters things for the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them for the better, what shall be the end ?" He may deplore, as every Christian philosopher must, " faith wrxing cold " as one of the signs of the times. But in the genuine, spontaneous, hearty plaudits of liis audience he would distinguish the responsive echoes of his own lofty morality, his glowing patriotism, his public virtue and national honor. It is thus, like the sound of waterspouts, i : - deep echoes unto deep," and there is. ever a healthy, manly, genuine ring about such echoes, like footprints on the sand, cheering the hearts and nerving the courage of many a forlorn and and shipwrecked brother. A highly estimable class of religious busybodies will regard this as small praise. To them there is tnii "one thing needful." Till words of such solemn and sacred significance aro shorn of all their beauty and nearly all their power, Mr. Inglis will fall immeasurably below the standard of such religious transcendentalists, for they are conspicuous by. their absence from his lectures ; and, even in the pulpit, so far as we had opportunities of observing, while declaring faithfully the whole counsel of God, he is less absorbed with the; mys,terjes of religion than with the practical exposition of it in tho lives of his hearers. It is not so much " I believe " as I do, so much a ofoad as a life, so much a ritual as a worship anywhere and anyhow, so that men and women will bow the knee.

We beg pardon for such an unguarded digression, for we are concerned just now with his lectures rather than his sermons. And such lectures ! They are put before us on the unpretentious ground of " lecture entertainments ;" but they are much more. We claim for Mr. Ingles that he is a popular educator, a national teacher, a political power. Such a course of lectures will do more to cultivate domestic, social, and national virtues than any conceivable quantity of surreptitious religious teaching in our public schools. As if the latter could not hold its own without such adventitious aid, or, as if the process of elevation was to place it upon stilts. The Pulpit, the Platform, the Press; such themes as awakened the poet's lofties.t strains—" The Cottar's Saturday Night," the Sunday School, " Wisdom, and Counsel," (of which, says Lord, Bacon, are they so impotent that a stolen half-hour with such miserable makeshifts as a conscience clause should be a sine qua non). But again we digress, and again we apologise. Not only, however, does Mr, Ingiis awaken the deepest sympathies of our nature, and instruct an.d chasten us by such plaintive ditties as the " Land o 1 the Leal," ' { Auld Robin Gray," or '' Mary in Heaven,"- and anon stir up the en, thusiasm of his brave countrymen with such patriotic songs as " Scots wha hae wi Wallace bled," or excite our risibility with the intense drollery of his anecdotes, but there remain yet to be noticed his fine, sympathetic, manly voice, his faultless elocution, the latter ao j important both on the platform and in the pulpit, Mr, Inglis, too, comes of a fine rusti.ca.ted Scottish type. He is a Scotchman every inch, Scotch to the backbone. He seems as one of a past age risen from the dead, or as one just born out of due time; and, in all time coming, he will float in our memory, in most friendly and appropriate companionship, with the memories he has awakened of the illustrious dead of a past age—for "there were giants

those u;iys " —with Scott and Burns, and Ramsay and Cunningham, and Guthrie and Chalmers; with the noble army of martyrs ; with the grand old Scottish worthies; and with a memorable and illustrious period, which will "Be known perchance when Scotland is no more, And tell the tale of what she was before."