The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 1888. THE WAYS OF THE WORLD.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1752, 19 June 1888, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 1888. THE WAYS OF THE WORLD.

Polemical discussions are becoming fashionable. An' itinerant preacher, travelling under the cognomen of Aldridge, recently in Timarufilled the air with/scriptural proofs of the nonexistence of a hell. His theory of eternal punishment is that it means complete annihilation. .He holds that souls who die in sin are killed, blotted, out of existence, and that the souls of the just are saved. He says that what is meant by hell in the'Scriptures is the grave ; and from the fact that the grave and hell are synonymous' terms,,the conclusion is, drawn that the punishment which will bejriflicted on erring souls is death. Several passages'! of the Scriptures are probably capable of a construction; which renders this theory plausible,- The, word hell appears 31 times in the Old,, and 28 times in the New Testament. The, equivalent in the Old Testament of the Hebrews is " Sheol," and in the New Testament it is set down as " Hades" 11 times and!' Gehenna "13 times. These words are. all i translated into English as" hell," which is a word in all probability derived from Scandinavian mythology. The,' Scandinavian goddess of death was called Hel, and her realms were regarded as i a place of torment. It is supposed that it is from this that the 'w6rd has been g >t, and that id translating the Bible it was employed as the only comprehensive equivalent of,- the Oriental names given to the,place of punishment. i: But there is nothing in all this to prove the non-existence of hell, while there is evidence' of its existence even if the names by which it is known are synonymous with the gravei What about the chaff that Tvill.be burned, with "unquenchable fire "; ", Depart ,;from Me ye cursed into everlasting fir©";; and "These shall go into everlasting punishment" (Matthew iii.> 12; xxv., 41; 46). Then see Mark ix., 42, 43,44,,45; Luke iii., 17, ,From these texts,'.and many others, it will be seen that the existence oia place of eternal torment is not dependent on the interpretation or 1 translation of- the termk Sheol,' Hades, or Gehenna. But Mr Aldridge quoted a lot of fine Scripture in favor of,his theory, and to his own satisfaction completely annihilated hell. He nas, since gone to Diinedin, where polemics, are getting, rather sultry ]ust now over a pamphlet, entitled the ir Beign of Grace," published by the Eev. i)r Salmond.

The theory set down by Dr Salmond, according to the report furnished by the Presbytery of Qtago, is, summarised as follows:—From reason, Providence, the state of mind produced in us by the Gospel, and partly from Scripture, the author has undertaken to prove that there will be an opportunity afforded all men after ;death to repent,, believe, and be' saved." In this I>r Salmond has knocked the bcttom out of the bottomless pit.', His evident .desire -is ,to break up the establishment presided over by Lucifer,- andenlarge purgatory, so as to render it capable of meeting the increased demand on its space. This is not sufficient for Mr Aldridge, who has come out with a pamphlet of his own; neither do the ; Presbyterians of Otago find it palatable. A Mr A. 0. Begg, who is a leading light amongst them, has .become extremely 1 active in'the matter, and Jaasj gotie''to the extent; of accusing the minister of his church of sympathy -with r the doctrine, because the minister 'refused to lead in the onslaught on it, and a very lively ssene occurred between them at the meeting of the Presbytery, and the minister got the worst of it. In my opinion the Presbyterians of O'tago'' are ill-advised in taking any notice of it, ■The pamphlet is very, stupidly written. It is a dreary, heavy, drowsy essay, that must always remain unintelligible to the general run of readers, while its contents might'easily have been condensed in to a quarter the space.- A popular educator it can never become, for it is very hard to understand, and if it had been written by a lesser light than a Doctor of! Divinity its destiny would be the tomb of the Oapulets. It has added nothing to the reputation 'of the doctor, although he says he has been .thinking over it for the last 30 years. The fact that it took him 30 years to think this out gives me hope that he will not produce many other pamphlets in his life time. With charming simplicity he states that as a student in college he became convinced that this doctrine was true; yet he became a Presbyterian minister, and continued to rise itep by step in that Church, till a$ )#$ h? became a Professor of

theology in the University of Otago. During all this time he kept the matter concealed in his own bosom, and it was not until he reached the giddy heights of a professor of philosophy that he unburdened .himsolf of his greats load.; In this ,Dr Salmond shows be possesses the virtue of being able U hold his tongue if he is paid for it. |Right. loyally he preached, arid as a professor taught the doctrine ] of the Presbyterian Church while in its pay7but the moment he~became' independent of; that religion he has turned round and given it a kick. This does not seem right somehow, but he did worse ; he added insult to injury by alleging that most of the ministers of that Church did not believe in all they subscribed to. Its was 'Bad leriou'gH for 'the doctor to have admittted[that he himself, had subscribed to what he did riot believe witho'ut going to the extent of saying 1 that others did it. In this respect ! possibly, the Presbyterians of ptago | were»justified in noticing the matter. It is possibly this which induced them to : notice' ! it,'- but' it cannot be doubted— let them say ' what ; they may,'"they must do more harm than | good. Speculative theology is in un- | satisfactory [thing to discuss, and is | very much calculated 1 men's min'ds, arid drive them to atheism.

; The Incumbent of St; John's, Roslyn, is another to whom religion is a vexatious' subject at present. He, y however,- lacks the discretion which characterised the conduct of Dr. Salmond. <He believes in certain 'forms, and he insists on sticking' to; them regardless of consequences; He., is a High 1 ' Church : man, and a "Ritualist, arid' he insists on adhering to his principles rigidly..' This has riot,, met the approval of'his vestry,, seven,of whom resigned,;and frequently letters condemnatory of his actions have ap : peared in the papers. When last ,week*s cable brought news of the Bishop of Lincoln being accused of Ritualism, a letter appeared in the Otago Daily Times, pointing 'out that the Incumbent of St, John's had. a short time previously read in his church one of,-the Bishop* of Lipcoln's sermons, to show, of course, that there was full and sufficient reason for making a similar charge against him. In .'reply, the Incumbent 'published the sermon, and,showed that lie only read an extract from the Bishop of Lincoln's sermon, and that it was principally his own. The sermon was really exquisite,"and: so free from,.sectarianism that it might have been preached by a Christian minister in any Christian' Church in the world, aud how the congregation of St. John's could object to ,it is a mystery; to me. I like!the. Incumbent .of, St. John's; I.like.him.for the beaiitjif ul sentiments contained in his sermon; I like him for the manly way in which he insists on | worshipping the Redeemer in the way in which he believes, and I like him, above all, for an action of which I 1 suspect,him'guilty. There was published in the Otago Daily Times, as an advertisement, a,whole pamphlet written by an English clergy mam- It took up column upon column of the paper, arid it was put in day after day until it' was finished!' It : must have cost a mirit of money) and I suspect thaUt was paid.fprbyithejlncumbent of St. John's. I consequently have a kindly feeling «for him on account of his being such a liberal advertiser, and only wish that clergymen iri this part of the wOrld would go in for advertising theirfaith with equal liberality..

And nowfor the moral. Mr Aldridge proved from Scripture that jhe was right, and he was : most intolerant of those* who differed from "him. Dr Salmond, hag given , Scriptural! proofs of : his theory, while .the Presbyterians deplore that the Scripture , should C be put to such a use. The High !Ohurchman'sproofs fromScriptureweremost irresistibly logical in favOr of?his theory, yet bis vestry resigned—ari'd so on with -the thousand and-i one' Christian sects' in the world. ;

..,,., .;...-.,,• ■:,,. "In religion l ~ Wbatdamned evtoj; but some sobarjbrow ~.,. Will bless it, and approve it with atext." Yet,-though this is the awful, experience of ages, such is the stupidity of men that, they will still splijt straws and wrangle over ,wsich are,, beyond human comprehension., ,As Cojton says, ; they ," will wrangle for religion,; write,for ; it, fight for it, . die for it—anything, but live for; it. Iu my opinion a' great many of them:try to live by it instead of for it. I If they would live for their religion they would "love their neighbor as themselves," regardless of;his they would be charitable and kind to the' poor—and they would.be many things they are not. The essence icjf Ohristianity is love; its excresence bigotry, hatred, and : illwili. I am ■ sorry to say the excresence very .often overshadows the essence, and it is this which is undermining it, and sapping its very foundation., Religion is not like science. It cannot, be. argued out to a demonstration: its groundwork is Faith. No one ever did or ever-will ! understand the mysteries of religion, and if they will be religious they must' believe in them, Beligion being in itself incomprehensible, what is the use of arguiug about the best mode of giving expression to your feelings towards God? All fly to the Bible, but the very fact that no two; of them agree as to its interpretation shows that religion is an interminable mystery, and seems to indicate that the Bible is but a part of the whole incomprehensible plan. It seems; ridi-

culous, therefore, that, seeing all this, there should be so much hatred and illwill engendered on account of what no one can understand. Tet such is the case. No'w'and again arise men who break through sectarian barriers, and who embrace all humanity in'their sympathies, and devote their fortunes and their energies to the amelioration of' human suffering, regardless of creed or color. Such are the Christians in whom I believe. The man that loves his neighbor as himself, ariS tries to do all in his power to better his condition, takes the first step towards heaven, no matter what altar he may kneel at, arid if there were more substantial sympathy with the poor in the world there would be more true Christian feeling in it. If 'half the amount of energy and money that is, and has been, expended on! pro- | moting -sectarianism had been devoted to >works of charity, thousands | souls have been starved ottfc of- them, j and thousands whom want hasidriveri to crime, would have been succoured, and many other evils would have been averted; But it is useless to waste time over this subject. As it has been so will it remain, notwithstanding all that can be said.

From the depressing subjects discussed above I, find a relief-in starting on a hunt for Jonathan Roberts. I admire Jonathan, but; the police do not, although ■: there is no man 'in the wprld they.would more gladly give a shake-down to. Some of the, stories in reference te the hunt after him are: really amusing. , A couple of days ago'a young woman whp, lives qn the Ban gitata, Island' was crossing i some paddocks on ner ;way home, when she heard a man'calling'to' her 'to stand? The young woman , naturally got frightened arid ran, and on finding shewas 'pursued she took the fences magnificently. To her utter astonish • merit she found that she was pursued by, more than one, arid: that here and there a bearded- face looked over' the fence at Borne distance) away. Her terror increased, and her excited imagination peopled' the surrounding, fences with living, moving, bearded warriors, all of whom were evidently bent on hunting her; 1 Her courage did riot fail her ; she saw, she had considerably ■ first pursuer, arid if"she : could go a little further she would be at- home. To her utter dismay she saw that she had fallen a { victim to a flank : move-' ment of the enemy. As she' approached a fence to clear it she saw that one of'these terrible giants.had taken uv a menacing attitude!on th» other side of it, arid retreat being cut off there 1 was nothing fur it but to yield* to fate. She was greatly "> relieved: - ; > by finding that the giant spoke good stout Saxon, but her astonishment was great when he . called on Jonathan, Roberts to surrender .in the Queen's name. Then the giant, came up closer, and did not look at all like the monster -she thought he was, and the closer he came up. the smaller r he got, till he dwindled down to thef size and shape of a,. : : smart-looking policemanjust the sort, that stand well with thei fair sex. She asked him ;what he wanted, | replied ," Jonathan : Roberts.'' She Replied that her name, was.——- t!7T> and this being borne out by. her/dafdenly appearance, the policeman apologised and looked ■'sheepish," and so: did a couple of other policemen who were there. It would be useless toj try tq picture tiieir disappointed looks; it Would be bard to find men more : disgusted with themselves as they| walked away, arid in an effort to forget their discomfiture they were 1 seen shortly afterwards ( wjth, their hands iclasped sympathetically! in, each' other's grasp, 'aid V,'..''.',', ', , ~,. ""f ~,; ."Nolonger wo follow a shade---,lfb longer, a dream we pursue j The 50 quid's not to be made—j ! ',; 0 Jonathan '"/Roberts, adieu!" • ' < : - Cori:o'Lanuß, 'KiG.M.G.