A REGRETTABLE CONTROVERSY.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 290, 2 September 1915, Page 4

A REGRETTABLE CONTROVERSY.

In justice to the writers of two letters received for publication in connection with a matter that pertains to religion, we may say that this Jour nit. finds it exceedingly difficult to permit controversial religious questions to be discussed in its columns, which acre ad by almost every shade of thought, without unfairness to some resulting; but as -the two letters arc from members of what are known as dissenting churches, having boys at the front, and who have apparently had their peace of mind disturbed by five harmful controversy on the subject of the hereafter of men killed in battle, that has reached a disgusting stage in some localities, we shall not

be breaking our rule if wc merely reprint what a leading minister has said on the subject, more especially as it breaks no new ground or impugns any definitely understood form of doctrln*. Referring to the Bible, this minister said what seems to convey what onr respected correspondents wish to know. It is as follows:-—“We are taught with great emphasis that the day of God will be a day of the reversal of human judgment, when the first shall bo last and the last first. We are forbidden to judge each other. We * have no right to pronounce hopeless judgments on any. We are assured by Christ’s pitiful lips that, many who

make no profession of Him, who are unconscious of Him as the object of faith shall, because of their works, hear Him say, “Come ye blessed cf My Father. ’ ’ We are also assured that the soul of a man may find the eternal mercy at the very gates of death, nr did the thief on the cross. Xo man can say what passes between the outgoing soul and Christ. We can, all of us, wait, confident that the judgment of God will be full of pity and mercy and righteousness. In all this we fine a width and a depth in which it is easy to work and in which it is inspiring to work, and in which also, it is hard to despair.”