CHRISTIANITY.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3064, 5 March 1892, Page 2

CHRISTIANITY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—The necessity of prelimination in a discussion of this character is superseded by its vast importance and manifold claims upon the thoughtfulneiss of everyone who professes to believe in Christianity. I Km, therefore, perfectly in accord with " Gleaner's " assertion, Unit *s the Pi-ess being the ereater educator of the people, there can be no questions on this subject so insignificant that cannot or should not be dealt with in its columns. B*fnre, however, I can reply to " Gleaner's " letter, I beg to give a refutation t'> the statement contained in a previous letter "f a correspondent, whose signature is a " Man in the Wilderness." The sign manual is a m»st appropriate one, when he ventures to claim tor the opponents of Christianity the poetical works of Scotland's greatest poet. lam a great lover of poetry, and the poems of Robert Burns is one of my special favourite works. I therefore enter a most emphatic protest against such an absurd statement. What warrant a " Man in the Wilderness ttay have for asserting that Bobbie Burns was an infidel writer passes my comprehension. His works certainly do not give one the impression that Christianity was a delusion and a enare. In almost all his principal poems we find mention of the Creator and His works always in a respectful and reverential strain. Take, for instance, the first stanza of " Man was Made to Mourn " :— " Upon the sixteen hundred year Of God and fifty-three, Frae Christ was born who bought us dear, As writings testifie; On January the sixteenth day, As I did lie al ne, With many a sigh ind sob did say, Ah! Man was made to moan." Here we have the statement from his own works, giving a sufficient and conclusive relutation to the assertion of our opponents. That particular poem was composed by Burns for the purpose of bringing forwcrd the mortifying picture of human life in search of work. His poems are simply satires on the hypocrisy and superstition of the clergy of Scotland as well as the tyrannical power of the nobles. In not a single instance do we find him denying Christianity er repudiating the truths of the Scriptures. When nien strive to tear to pieces the unerring truths of Christianity as propounded in the New Testament, we must by all means strive to meet their arguments fairly, or else like the barbarian hosts under Attila, king of the Huns, " They'll know no interest but their own, They'll shake the State, they'll shake the They'll shake the world, and God alone Will be safe in His omnipotence. These few lines are my own composing, and written to show what would result fro.n infidelity should it ever obtain the ascendancy over Christianity.—l am, etc., Junius Hibkrnicus.