Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878] MONDAY, MAY 9, 1892. COFFEY AND GRUBB.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4109, 9 May 1892, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878]

MONDAY, MAY 9, 1892. COFFEY AND GRUBB.

Being the extended this of the Wairarapa Daimt, with wnion; it is IDENTICAL.

The names are pleasantly suggestive of a close and harmonious relation; but, unfortunately, in the case which has lately been exciting the interest of eVery religious guirfntmo and furnishing occupation for the brains of many Wellington witlings, we are shown how much too hot Coffey;can be and how entirely Grubb may dis*. agree with Coffey. We are riot; be it understood, a" religious" paper j that is to say we are not the organ of any particular" doxy," or the.advocate of any patent method of making people good, But we conceive ourselves to be at liberty to express opinions on church matters when they have achieved a prominence which seems to challenge the judgment of the public ' ■

|t was once satirically said by a great Roman Catholic controversialist that every Englishman is a theologian. Beneath the amusing exaggeration

necessary to satire, there is a pungent truth in this. Tue average Englishman does believe himself to ta profoundly versed in theological knowledge, and quito capable of settling off-hand the grave questions which have rent Christendom asunder for centuries, for nini, a complete body jf theology can be' stated in a sen .ence and proved in a page. "The .-est is all but leather or prunello," Se never tires of telling you what lubbisb is shot every week from the nany-mbuibed pulpit;, in fapt, the ■eaeon why he never goes to church if iecau.se he is so much better informer.' ban the parson, However, be sendi he children pr the sprvat)ts-fit repre entatives, frequently, ofhimself. Butiwlule we agree with this char cterisation of the Englishman's at itude towards theology and religioi 'ili)' -bid'

the newspaper squabble which h been proceeding in Wellington enabli us to go a step further; for we se now that everyone of us is able to la down the law about church govern merit, to the completest satisfaction c -himself. The Ohuroh of Englani has no laok of advisers in Mb ecolesi astical province. Herjfuhotions, am how to fulfill them; her internal ad; ministration, its •defects and theii pauses: these topics have been fluentiy hup.dlftdby anonymous.'writers whose rivalled by their ignorance. Does it ooout to those tvhp write or to. those who read these dogmatic prpsjngs in the Wellington journals, tjiat the yalue of criticism dopends wholly, upon the competence of tho critic? We sbouhUie glad to give these various writers credit for- sincerity i and therefore we will assume (in the absence of evidence to the contrary) that they are all honestly. desirpuß of putting their fingers on supposed blots in the Churoh of England. We jyjH assume that they all honestly inAgine opinions to be mteieStjng,' even jmn.Ort.anjt, to tba Jftshop .and hisclprgy, % wijlassumejlnjj but we (jp. so jn prjjer that we may beg these'lipnest gentlemen tp under- ! stand that they ore mistaken, WM they write does, not: interest persons who have any acquaintance with the subject—and for the sufficient reason that what they write is beside the mark. When men set themselves to discuss the way in which a corpora* tjop administers its affairs, the prejgeuwpn pf"a /standard of purely abstrnot right ft'nd wrong is rj.di.cufous. The only point to bo bmmM k whether the aotual rules whioh govern the corporation are or are not infringed, Now, the Anglican Cthirch is a closecorporation, having flfiry defin*

tie :riiles of its own j.and- we do not think, that the. Wellington oritios realise this. Whether; the authorities of that chutoh in. Wellington ought, absiraotedly, : to have held out their hands to Mr Grubb, is a lioa whose Eolation is neithor here nor there. As a matter of fact, Mr Grubb, seping that he ia himself a olergyman of the An s hcati Ohuroh, is necessarily bound by and preauin* ably acquainted with all its laws and traditional observances. He Mows the enormous powers granted by immemorial prescription to the Bishop of a diocese; and he knows -none better probably—that he has nooause of complaint ill the Bishop sees fit to treat him frigidly. It will be observed that we are careful i not to enter into the merits of the squabble. It is nothing' to us, in our journalistic capacity, to aßk why the Bishop of Wellington should refuse Mr Grubb a welcome; but it is something to us, as advooates of fair play, to say clearly • that the Bishop was well within the rights accorded to him in virtue of' his office, when .he elected to dispense with the advantage of Mr Grubb's ministrations in this diocese. Just one word about Mr Cofley, the

hard-working and impulsive incumbent of St Mark's. This gentleman may or may not have been jodicior in his speech from the pulpit, but it is unquestionable that in what he did say he is supported by the Anglican formularies. Charges of ".bigotry" and the like are impotent to hurt a man who, in all his public utterances, follows the teaching of his olraroli. Of oourse invertebrate religion may be.a vastly superior thing—we are quite open to conviction on. the point—biit when the exponents' ol a highly organised religious system are severely criticised in the seoulav newspapers, p/opriety and common sense alike demand that the critics shall inform themeelvea accurately concerning the real position of the persons on whom they seek to pass an adverse judgment., '