REV. ARTHUR MURSELL ON THE HERETIC.

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 145, 30 August 1876, Page 3

REV. ARTHUR MURSELL ON THE HERETIC.

The Rev. Arthur Mursell, the well-known and popular Manchester preacher and lecturer, and who was chairman on the occasion of a theological debate between the Rev. Brewin Grant and Mr Charles Bradlaugh, which took place in London lately, in urging on the audience the need for earnestness, spoke as follows of Mr Bradlaugh at a lecture recently delivered in Manchester :—■ “ I am indebted to one whom the world calls an atheist, and who accepts tho designation, but whom in social intimacy, I would rather call my friend than thousands of the Christians whom I know ; a man who, while casting doubt on him 1 call my master, has shown more of his spirit in the practical intercourse of life, as far as I know it, than many a champion of orthodoxy ; a man of honest, though religiously benighted creed, and eloquent tongue ; to such a man I am indebted for a stimulous to fervour in the cause of what I deem the vital truth which prompts me to attempt to press it home with emphasis upon you now. In public debate upon the principles of Christianity, which heopposed, he closed a speech, smarting under what he deemed the too flippant satire of his antagonist, in words something like these : ‘ If I believed in a God, which I do not ; if I believed in a hell to be escaped, which Ido not; if I believed in a heaven to be Avon, which I do n®t, do you imagine I could alloAV myself to rack my brains in coining the paltry jests of a buffon, and tickling the groundlings ears with quips and quirks ? No ! I would exhaust the logic of my brain and the passion of my heart in seeking to convince and to persuade mankind, that they might shun the one and gain the other, and try to seal a testimony. Avhich should be worthy of my conscience and my cieed.’ I felt condemned at my oavji apathy, as the eloquent sceptic lifted before me the standard of fidelity.”