The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER, 19, 1889. WORSHIPPING SATAN.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1945, 19 September 1889, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER, 19, 1889. WORSHIPPING SATAN.

To insult the Pope and the religion of which he is the head, a fearful and awful demonstration was recently held in Rome. The occasion was the unveiling of a statue erected to the memory of Bruno—an apostate monk of the 16th century who decried religion altogether and upheld vice. But what Bruno was, and whether he deserved or did not deserve a statue, has nothing to do with the matter to which we desire to refer. If the statue of Bruno had been unveiled in the usually decorous and orderly manner, the world would have heard very little about it. Instead of this, however, the crowd gave .way to the greatest licentiousness and profanity, whilst in the procession a banner bearing a picture of the Devil occupied the place of honor. His Satanic Majesty was bowed to and worshipped, and hymns were sung in his honor, whilst the name of the Deity was reviled, and religion of any kind was treated with the utmost scorn. This it appears to us went too far. "We respect and esteem the honest and manly Freethinker who speaks out what he thinks but respects the feelings of others. Such an anti-religious display as was made in Italy, however, is outrageously indecent and repulsive, and it has had

the effect of awakening sympathy for His Holiness the Pope in quarters where he bas not been wont to receive much consideration. The Protestant as well as the Catholic Press ot Europe has been unanimous in denouncing this outrageous conduct, and we believe it will result in good instead of harm to religion. Ho Christian sect, no matter how 1 opposed to the Papacy, can uphold such tactics as were resorted to in Italy, and it is probable the effect of it will be to open the eyes of Christians to the necessity of a united action against the flowing tide of irreligion and profanity. The display in Rome showed that certain societies are working with the view of destroying religion altogether. It is said that at about the close of every century in the past there has been a social upheaval of some bind or another in Europe. The last century closed with the Prench Revolution, when great efforts were put forth to destroy religion, and it is probable the close of the present century will see a similar effort made, judging by the demonstration above referred to. The efforts put forth by Frenchmen failed, and so will all future efforts, for religion cannot be driven out of the hearts of men until human nature undergoes a change. Humanity has been so organised that it cannot help worshipping. The uncultured savage who never heard of Q-od finds himself impelled by natural instincts to worship something. No people have ever been discovered who did not in some form or another give evidence of the existence of this instinct amongst them, and if religion were completely suppressed to-morrow it would rise up again next day. This renders it obvious that men were made to worship. Priggish, conceited individuals, in order to flaunt their own superiority, may effect a complete disregard for religion, but the general run of humanity must always have some form of worship. Vain, therefore, is the work of those who aim at the destruction of religion! They cannot do it, and, if we mistake not, they are injuring the cause they have in hand by the attempt. This irreligious movement is the work of Continental anarchists, who aim at the destruction of not only religion but social order. Their object is to better the condition of the down-trodden and the poor. With that object we sympathise, but we cannot see that the destruction of religion is necessary to its attainment. On the contrary, it is plain that by showing such antipathy to religion they must excite the opposition of all religious people. Those who believe in God are certainly still in the majority, and it would be better for them to conciliate instead of provoking such an opposition. It is nothing short of madness for people who want to improve the world to excite into hostility its prejudices, whether right or wrong. The better policy would be to conciliate them; but this evidently is a doctrine not believed in by the anarchists of Europe. They believe that the first step towards the goal of their ambition is to win men away from the influences of religion, after which they can mould their minds as they like and lead them to anything. The worship of the Devil was, of course, intended to ridicule religion, so as to turn people against it, but, if we mistake not, it will have the contrary effect.

CORRUPTION TO THE END. Until last week Mr Mitehelson’s hands were clean, so far as the public knew. All his colleagues were more or less tainted by exposures during the past session, but throughout Mr Mitchelson passed through the fire unsinged. He was, however, detected in the act of trying to run a little job through last week; The Lyttelton Times says“ The Atkinson Government is distinguishing itself in the last days of the session. JN ot content, apparently, with having beaten the record of all preceding sessions for utter barrenness and fatuity, it has descended to personate, through Mr Mitchelson, the character of * The Artful Dodger,’ and by clumsy trickery to try to obtain power to construct twenty-two miles or so of the Helenville Railway under the guise of a Bill for the construction of two unimportant railway sidings. Fortunately the attempt to trick the House was so transparent that as soon as it was discovered it was ignominiously defeated. The proposal to construct this length of the Helensville line is the one that obviously would not bear the light of day, otherwise the ‘dodge’ attempted would have been unnecessary. Introduced by the Minister for Public Works, after he had made his Statement and furnished the House with what ought to have been a full, complete, and final list of works to be carried out during the coming year, it has a most suspicious character. But coming from Mr Mitchelson, a member, for the Auckland district, already mixed up with some more than doubtful railway jobs in that part of the colony, it is worse than suspicious. The Atkinson Ministry is, indeed, well nigh played out. With Mr Fisher dismissed, Mr Fergus and Mr Hislop under the Ward-Christie cloud, and now Mr Mitchelson convicted of barefaced, dishonest trickery, there is nothing left but the One Man with the big boots. The colony will hardly be satisfied with such a residuum.”