OLD PETER PIPER.

Tuapeka Times, Volume I, Issue 11, 25 April 1868, Page 3

OLD PETER PIPER.

(To the Editor of the Tuapaka Times.) Sib,—l quite expected on looking over your admirable paper of last Saturday, to hare seen a more full report of our meeting at Wetheraiones; I can forgive any omission of my name, and the part I took in the affair. I want no flattery either for song, sentiment, or labor, aa I havo got beyond the blushing period of life ; but I did expect that the lad} who produced such an admirable prologue was entitled to something more than the roera mention of the circumstance, and that no more notice is taken of the producer than the lady who merely read what the other had composed, not that I would in the least detract from that lady's excellent reading. However, I am not disposed to throw an applo of discord, considering that every thing upon the whole wont off with eclat. The miners are busy, and would do much better but for the scarcity and dearth of water, and how tho vendors of milk can make it pay, using 60 much water in their claim as they do I cannot conceive j it must be a severe tax upon them. I should like t° know Mr. Editor, whether you think the Government shouldn't give water free to the milk vendors, when we consider it absolutely necessary to reducs the strength of milk. I should hko to see it in another form. lam sure we should all confess tint " That is tho cheese," but here comes " Saudy." "Good morning, Peter." " Good morning, Sandy, I am glad to see you, I felt anxious as regards your mission when I last saw you." "Ah weel," aays Sandy, I got on but middling, it ia a horrid business collecting for Churches, if it was for horse racing, I could 'go in and win,' but oh! I fear we are all going the downward road, Peter, I should not have called to-day, only to congratulate you upon the great success which has attended your effort in behalf of the school, and I should like to see that you were making an effort to get up a Church. I am very glad, Sandy, that you have broached this subject, as it gives me an opporiuuity to give you a little " bit of my mind" on this very important matter, and as you are known Sandy to be well posted up in Church religion and Church government, I will just ask you one thing, how can you and the Christian public ever dream of a Church at Wetherstones, when it is well known that there are scarcely a dozen of one " faith and order." Of what sect or denomination would you have the Church built for? Oh! the "True Blue." Well you know the old saying Sandy, that a "Good horse is never a bad color." Ah, there is nothing says Sandy like the " True Blue," it will stand in any clime, and hold her own against all comers ; she has been assailed from all quarters, and by all sects and parties ; she has been written down as being " dry," " prosy," " cold," " The least humane of all religions," and too " Scotch " for tho age, but see her, she is a tower ef strength, and for beauty and excellence cannot be excelled. " I own Sandy you make a good case, and I certainly expected as much from such a distinguished pillar of the Church as you are." " You are almost complimentary, Peter." " No, Sandy, it's only tho trrth I'm about telling ye but allow me just to whisper in your ear, that although we are one in the matter of education, we are in Church matters as wide apart as the poles assunder, and however united we are as to the color of the cement, we are altogether at variance as regards the ' complexion ' of the Church, and I see a great deal of wisdom in tha variety, were* we all of the • True Blue ' as you are pleased to term it, or any other color or form, we should very soon fall away and have not even the form left, and as it is, we atir up one another by a healthy emulation, which, though running in different channels, yet converges to one grand end, and when one denomination will not work a particular spot another will, and so the great work is carried on despite the differences of opinion there may fee as to the particular manner of doing it." " Well, Peter, lam for the • True Blue,' I believe that will be the religion of the world when that happy time comes that we shall be all one." " That will not be in our day Sandy, and from appearances we are a long way from that desired consummation. The Church has a great work to do, but she must begin at home— 'the seat of learning, the excellency of beauty,' as you would term it, must be purged and sanctified, the gold must be separated from the dross, God's Ministers must not touch the unclean thing, then «he peopie will be glad. When the Great Author of our religion sent out His disciples, He commanded them to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, and there was no stipulation for a certain amount to be paid them, no difiiculty in collecting the ' sustentation fund,' for there was nothing of the kind, their idea was this— that they were 'called' by the Spirit of the Lord to preach the Gospel, and woo, says the great Apostle of the gentiles, if we preach not, and not a word in all the Gospel of the least exaction, they went out at the command of their master, and they confided implicitly ■ on Hia care for their temporal necessities, but if they (tho Apostles) have any successors, how different is their ideas of ways and means, that although they profess to be called of God to preach the Gospel, they must have I a certain amount, and bo little faith have they even in their own members, that they must have a guarantee for the amount before they I will break the bread of life to a starving world. I should like to see Ministers do as gentlemen in other professions do, take up their stations in God's vineyard, resting their claim for their hire from the 'Lord of the Vineyard.' I should be sorry to see them go short, and I feel confident, that if Ministers adopted this plan, money would flow into the treasury of tho Lord until the people would be told to withhold their offerings." " Well, Peter, says Sandy, you are crotchet t-y, I have heard it, and now I'll affirm it." No doubt I am thought lam thought peculiar, and perhaps I stand alone in the district upon this question, but I am confident that we shall have to turn a corner in regard to Church matters before we get on to the " King's highway" of usefulness. We cannot expect to see all the good resulting from our labors, while we import so muoh of the world into the Church.— From your's respectfully, i Old Peteb Pipbh. Wetberstone's Braes, April 21st, 1868. (Ta be Continued)