THE WEEK, THE WORLD AND WELLINGTON.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9188, 10 September 1908, Page 6

THE WEEK, THE WORLD AND WELLINGTON.

(By Frank Morton.)

Patriotism in thk Wairarapa.— Notes ok the Hekesy Hunt.—Footnotes and Epitaphs. Last week the House of Representatives got rid of the Estimates and I put the Second Ballot Bill through its Commmittee stage; so that the week was not devoid of accomplishment. During the past day or two, some members have been a -- ay on a week-end picnic, in the Wairarapa, and in the course of their enjoyment have inspected the site kindly offered to the Government for a new eaoital by Mr Kemotun, of Greytown. This element of farce perpetually brought into the discussion of any project for

a change in the locality of the seat of Government effectually prevents any serious consideration of the subject. It would puy any man to buy a tract of country at great expense, if he were sure that the Government would accept the gift of a part of the area and establish a new capital there. We are all patriots, but some of us are shrewd. There is not the slightest probability of the seat of Government being moved, so that some of the shrewdness of the Wairarapa inevitably goes to waste. Pity 'tis. Glancing over prominent topics just now, one cannot altogether overlook the heresy hunt. I regret this, because I am the simplest »..>... . in the matter ot theoi v « however, are apparently simnle The Rev. J. Gibson Smith, an esteemed Presbyterian clergyman of Wellington, recently published in England a book called "The Christ of the Cross." The honesty of the writer is not impugned, his reverence there is no mistaking. Mr Gibson Smith is a man of great personal charm and strong probity, and much of his character has got into his book. But he has an idea that his fellowChristians, ot some of his fellowChristians, are mistaken in their conception of the truth with regard to one great doctrine of the Church. He has formed, earnestly and prayerfully as he says, and as one can well believe, his own idea of the true meaning and intention of the Atonement. He holds that in that regard the ideas of some other Christians are in effect superstitious and dishonouring to God. He does not for a moment deny either the necessity or the efficiency of the Atonement, but he differs from the view that it was expiatory; he will not regard his God as a gaoler to be appeased or a creditor hungrily clamouring for his pound of flesh. He may be right, he may be wrong. I don't know; and I am not convinced that I bhould be any happier or more useful in 1908 if I did know. Let us return to the facts. Mr Gibson Smith's book was cordially received in England. There, apparently, its heresy was not detected; because, it may be, in England even the clergy are being brought under the influence of modern thought. But in New Zealand it is quite otherwise. There has been a notable ebullition of wrath, a strange upstirring of the clerical Presbyterian conscience. Several gentlemen whose names I had not previously heard of have manifested an honest desire to serve their God by crying dowu their brother. And so the matter stands. So is the rigidity of Presbyterianism once again gloriously asserted. The thing may be entirely right. I do not know. Mr Gibson Smith may be entirely in the wrong, and his tormentors entirely in the right. But the fact is again made clear; the fact that on entering the Christian ministry, a man is assumed and expected to forfeit and lay down all right of private judgment, and only to accept the guidance of God when that guidance is approved or endorsed by the clergy. Once upon a time, the clergy persecuted men who were led to believe that the world is round. And all this sort of thing seems very strange to a frank outsider who remembers how what we know as Christian doctrine has been modified and manufactured, trimmed and re-shaped, since the days of of Nazareth. The expiatory theory, which Mr Gibson Smith is now condemned for harbouring, was no part of primitive Christian doctrine. Personally, I never question any .nan's full right to his opinions; and I hate the idea of restricting the liberty of any man's religious opinions. The Presbyterian Church may or may not be able to lose men of Mr Gibson Smith's character and calibre; that is not my affair. I have known excellent men of all religions, and of none; 1 merely plead for liberty. And in general, I am much of the mind of bluff Dean Swift: "I as little fear that God will damn a man that has Charity as I hope any Priest can save one who has not." It is not easy to trust your cleric very far when he once gets away from the high places of Christian charity. History furnishes abundant justification for that fact, anyhow. No creature on earth is so bitter and intolerant as a Chrisitan minister whenever he forgets to be a Christian. Whenever he is in the mood to discuss vexed points of doctrine, he leaves those high places. Some-! times he merely succeeds in making a brother wretched, and sometimes (in days gone oy) his zeal started lira in Smithfield. What are called holy wars have ever been the cruellest and fiercest. There never were harsher persecutors than tl o archbishops. Archbishop Laud was one of the worst, and it is pleasing tj remember that he died at the hands of the common headsman. Here is an epitaph for Laud that you will scarcely have seen be-fo-e : Heer lyes within ye compass of this earth A man of boundiess pride, of meanest birth; England's last Primate, whose unequal! fate Made him the prince's love, the people's hate. A Protestant in shew, yet joyned by art An English headpiece to a Roman heart; A seeming patriote, yet this wonder bredd, Hew was the Churehe's, his a traitour's head, Which being taken of, hee thus did dye, The Jchurche's, prince's, people'o enemy. And where he is to-day I don't like to remember now the weather is

Petting warmer. Dissension breeds bigotry, and bigotry b reeds crueHy and bate. Hate breeds avarice from the vile body of superstition. Let nie, while we are in the mood of I epitaph, recall a very quaint thing of the kind that was once written by an impenitent thief. The story is too good to be untrue: — A certain Priest that had much gold Would lay it in a chest Within the chancel, and thereon Did write 'hie Deus est.' A merry lad whose greedy mind Did seeke for such a prey, Neglecting much the reverend stile That on ye caskete lay, Tooke out ye gold, and blotting out The parson's name the con, Wrote 'Resurrexit, non est hie. Thy God is risen and gone.'