CHAPTER XIV.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 2003, 9 May 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHAPTER XIV.

" I may state," said tho old gentleman, " that from my earliest years I studied religion, and have in my timo passed from every phase of belief into unbelief. When I was fifteen I experienced what is oalled a conversion, and remained a religious enthusiaHt for Homo yearß. I was ray self so earnost, po anxious to lhe up to tho raodols wo havo in the New Testaraont that when I camo to know tho religious world thoroughly, the utter hollowneßß of professing Christians and their unlovely characters, it acted so as to disgust me, with tho result that I threw the whole thing away and became an Atheist. Experience—perhaps I was exceptionally unlucky in gettingjamong a set of hypocrites — led me to look upon so-called religious men as the meanest, the most narrow-mindod, and the most unloveable of mankind. On the othor hand, I found the class called worldly persons generous, broad-minded, tolerant and companionable. I grew to think that if Heaven were peopled with what aro called religious peoplo, and tho other place with the irreligious, I should certainly prefer the other place. As I progressed in thought and read more deeply, a world of doubt oame into my houl. I refused to subscribe to eternal punishment forming a part of tho system of a just and merciful Deity, and to everlasting condemnation for crimes committed in a finite stato of men whoso brain formation rendered it impossible for them to bo other than what they wcro. I grow more and moro to doubt the truth of any religion as I ptudied the histories of religions and investigated the traiißmisHion of mental characteristics, oven torroiH ami superstitions. And on Hub point 1 may remark that many times I havo believed I had memories of a prc-existeuco, but now I believe the&o were inherited memories.

But I will not weary you with a theological dipquisition ; you are too young to be interested in that. I will merely state that at last, since I came to this island, I arrived at a kind of faith, of a uniquo character. I believe in a Deity, or First Caufe, or Great Power, but what it is I know not. This I believe : that it has laid down, or is the cause of nature's laws, which are immutable. I believe in morals, not beoause any act is necessarily what is known an sinful, but that morals aro absolufo necessities in a community. I recognise two orders of laws on morals ; tho natural and the eocial. The natural are such as nature has laid down, and which can never bo trangressed with impunity, for sho never forgives ; the social are those that the experienco of man has shown to be absolutely necessary to enable man to live together in an orderly manner, i will illuntrato the two species of laws by stating that temperance is a law of nature; respect for others' properly a sooial law. Th.it, gentlemen, is my creed— l should say my privato creed. I must confess that in many matters I simply say • I know nothing. 1 I believe I will know nothing until after death ; perhaps not then, if there is no further stage of existenoe." " Then you are what wo now call an Agnostic," said Harry. I take it that is the faith of many," replied the island philosopher. "Wo do not deny anything ; all that is advanced may be true ; but for our part we say wo cannot tell. But before I go further I must confess I have 'never rid mysolf of my old faith. It still olings to mo, for I have inherited it, and when I am dying, I may like tho savages to turn to it again. And let it be clearly understood that I think the New Testament the best book in the world, and the moral teaching and example of Christ the bent tho earth has seen. To me it is a daily delight, though I refuse to believe what I may call the Gothio or mother belief that have been founded upon it. "So much for my own belief. When I oame to learn the languago of the natives, one of my first investigations was into their faith or religion. I had very earnestly studied tho history of religion, and I was anxious to peo whether a faith that must have grown up in this island without any disturbing influences confirmed my opinion that roligion is the creature of associations and uurroundings. Nor wan I disappointed ; indeed, I found the natives' religion a peculiarly beautiful one, though of courso mixed, as in all savage religions, with much that was base and sensual. I detcoted in their belief a common foundation with all aboriginal or simple belief : that is to say, religion in its first stage. Their religion bogan with a worship of the unknown, which to them became gods ; followed and intermixed with tho deification of great ancestors, who also became in time symbols of the special qualities for which they were distinguished ; in fact, in them lost their personality as timo went on. I found that they had two great Deities, ono evil, the other good ; in fact, these gods were Darkness and Light. The two must have been at first worshipped, in the dread the one created and the gratitude the other called forth, without personification ; but eventually they became associated with, or symbolised by, two mighty chiefs, one of whom was evidently a perfect fiend, tho other a mild and virtuous ruler. These were.their great Rods, to whom they offered the principal homage, but each bad bis attendant lesser deities. The system, when simple, must have greatly resembled the Zoroastrian, for Light and Darkness were despised, and I was at first inclined to think the people had drifted from Asia, until I refleoted the faith was natural to all simple states of society, to all beginnings ef mankind. Light was called Azaroha, Darkness Karatara. Tha moon, tho stars, the dawn, lovo, valor, and other good qualities were subordinate deities to Azaroha ; clouds, tempests, thunder, lightning, diseases, death, the attendants of the awful Karatara. As a matter of fact thh terrible god was their principal object of worship, as the benignant deities seemed never to require propitiation. In seasons of terrible necessity human sacrifices woro oifered to Karatara, whose temple, an ingeniously carved edifice, was situated on an island closo to the gult through whioh the waters of the lake make their exit. The viotim was selected by lot and flung into the frightful abyss, to be swallowed up and disgorged a corpse out in the Pacific Next to the two groat Deities, Love was the most worshipped, and its temple I had better not describe. (To be continued.)