LIBEL.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 206, 19 September 1874, Page 2

LIBEL.

A cockney writer, who has probably never been in Scotland in his life, has just given to the world his estimate of Scotch Presbyterianism. He has published a book entitled “The Physiology of the Sects,” in which he attempts to prove the assertion that to the careful observer “ each face reveals a history which he can read and narrate.” He proceeds to show that the characteristics of each sect may he discerned from the countenances of those who belong to them. The faces of the Scotch people must be dreadful to look upon, to judge from his description of their religion. He says : — “ In spite of the progress of science, the spread of civilisation, and the extension of education, the characteristics of Presbyterianism have changed less than those of any existing sect. In all essential points they are to-day the same as they were in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Their practices may have been modified a little in degree, but they are precisely the same in kind. They are as narrow, as intolerant, as bigoted, as spiritually proud as ever. The old hatred of music, poetry, and the fine arts, still exists ; the whole rigid observance of the Sabbath still marks Presbyterian Scotland; and the recent ease of Mr. Knight shows that the old spirit of intolerance has not been exorcised by the growing liberality of the age. In religious matters the modern Scotch are as austere, as implacable, as zealous, as fanatical, and as intolerant as ever. With them still, the ‘ toleration of all religions is not far from blasphemy ■’ and they have yet to learn the first principles of religious liberty. To keep a congregation trembling with terror, and groaning in horror at the awful pictures of the bottomless pit, and of the infinite tortures reserved for sinners, is still a great gift, and is valued accordingly. The Scotch worshipper, more than even the English Wesleyan, delights in having his feelings harrowed, his imagination inflamed, his passions aroused, and his sense of terror played upon He finds an inexplicable pleasure in listening to the description of his own utter unworthincss, his natural depravity, his inexpressible viciousness, and in being told an infinite number of times that he possesses a heart which cannot even imagine any thing good. The blacker the picture, the better he likes it. The more luridly the hell is painted to which he is worthy to be consigned, the deeper his gratification. To be told that the ‘ damned swim in a lake of fire burning with brimstone ’ affords him an exquisite delight, for he feels that such a fiery bath is not for him, but for those wretched souls not collected into the true Kirk. It is marvellous with what a nameless pleasure men regard and talk about the. future damnation of their fellows ; and in this questionable enjoyment the Scotch have more than their share, for they hold that the tortures of the wicked are the delight and the glory of God.” — Ayr Advertiser.