SCOTCH! HOTCH! POTCH!

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 26, 10 September 1920, Page 10

SCOTCH! HOTCH! POTCH!

Dear John, — I much regret that you ahould be chagrined at my disinclination to take you seriou.sly, as doubtless you ara a sceker af ter iruth, such as most of ua are. You are, apparently, annoyed just because the other fellow can't see things from youi' standpoint. If you choose to swallow, without analysis, ail that McCaba writes, and accept as authoritative and final, such R.P.A. champions as C. T. Gorham and Hypatia Broadlaugh Bonner, your opinions on Christianity and slavery are easily accounted for. "The Croper" is only concerned with the facts of history, which do not wholly agree with the interpretations of these people, hence his remarks on McCabe. Your position is obviously that of a supporter of McCabe, who sees in Christianity a cnrse- -not a blessing. Such is his aniinug that he wishes to asci'ibo the abolition of the slave traffic to a materialistic philosophy. I shall not wagte words on this point, nor shall I quote from several works I havo at hand, less their authors be accused of bias. Before me are two encyeiopedias — let them speak. Encyclopedia Brittanica : — "The rise of Christianity in the Roman world still further improved the condition of the slave. The sentiments ii created were not only favourable to tiw humane treatment of the class in the present, but were the germs out of which its entire liberation was iestined at a later pericd, in part, to amo.'" Dealing with England the same work says "It may be truly said that from the latter part of the 17th century, when the nature of the slave trade began to be understood by the public, ail Ea at was hest in England was adverse to it. Ainong those who denounced it, besides sorre whose names are now little known, but are recorded with the honour they deserve i irf tiro pages of Clarkson's were -baxter, 1 Sir Richard Steele, Southron, Pope, Thomson, Shenstone, Dyer, Savage, Cowper, Thomas Day, Sterne, Warburton, Hutchinflon, Beatty, Wesley, Geo. Wbitfteid, Gilbert Whitfield, Adam Smith, Millar, Robertson, Dr Johnston, Paley, Gregory, Bishop Porteous, Dean Tuckey. .... The first persons in England who took united practical action against the slave trade were the Quakers." .... In America the Quakers had taken actiors on the subject still eavlier than those iw England. Now, my dear John, perhaps you and Mr McCabe know more afcout the abolition question that the Encyclopedia Brittanica people, but really without giving offence, I bog leave to say, I prefer their opinion — no harm done, I hope? By the way, John, did you glance over the names of the Engiish stalwarts. Strange, they were nearly ail devout men and lovers of the, to-day, unpopular Bible. EverymanV Encyclopedia : — "Slavery appears to have been from the eariiest age the natural and normal condition of a iarge proportion of mankind in almost every country, until times comparatively racent, when it has been gradually abolished by all Christian Sfcates in Europe." Significent words these. Ncnv) John, I am quite willing to concede that Stoic philosophy was a factor in the early Roman agitation, but, a very, very sinall one comparcd to Christianity, 3 wonld respectfully point out that the tenn I used was "the Spirit of the Bible rouadly and wholly condemns slavery." This is substantially true, ahd accounts for such men as Clarkson, Wilberforce, Paley, the Wesleys, Whitfields and the rest. 1 search in vain for distinguished

advocates in this, or any other great hu: manitarian movement who are not more or less influenced by Christian teaching. When Atheism and Agnostieism concern themselves with the widow and the orphan, and the liberation of the oppressed, I'll take off my hat to them; as yet, I have not had oecasion to do so. You want Scripture — then just turn up "The Digger" three weeks back and read my final to "A." If that is not sufficient hare is what the great Wilberforce preface-d his letter to the Freeholders of Yorkshire with. "Wliere there is neither Jew nor Greek, eircumcision, or uncircurncision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meeknes3, long suffering. And hatli made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the aarth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation." So much for the "Spirit" of the Bible. You say, John, — "If you want to convince give chapter and verse to show where the Bible condemns slavery." Here you are, John, commit it to memory — "Now we know that the law is good, if a man uses it in the way ifc should be used, and rememhers that law is not

enacted to control the righteous man, but for the lawless and rebellious, the irr.el i gious and sinful, the godless and profane — for those who strike their fathers and their mbthers, for murderers, fornicators, aodomites, slave deaiers, liars, and false witnesses ; and for whatever else is opposed to wholesome teaching, and is not in accordance with the Good News 1. — Tim. othy 8 to 11 p.p. 513, Weymouth's New Testament in modern speecb. You can probably understand this, John — the authorised is obviously beyond you.— Yours, ever, "THE GROPER." The "Groper" apologises for the length to which the slavery discussion has gone; but iu the interest of truth it has been necessary to make reply to a scribe, who has read anti-Christian literature to the extent that he appears to be blind to the most beautiful appeal under heaven — and j this in face of the fact that most of the j really sterling characters of the last nine- 1 teen centuries have been moulded from the gold of the Bilble. That there have been mere professors in all ages signifies but little. That some of the Popes and prelates of Roma and possibly other divines (so called) of the Middle Ages reached hell-level do'es not detracb from the ideal. Human nature is inherently perverse, hence poets, preachers and teachers have found it necessary to rebuk© all classes including parsons and churchgoers. Thus wrote Christian Thomas Campbeli : — "And say, supernal Powers! who deeply scan Heaven' s dark decrees, unfathomed. yet by man, ~~ When shall the world call down, to cleanse ber shame, Thy embryo spirit, yet without a name, That friend of nature, whose avenging hands, Shall burst the Lybian's adamantine bands ? Who, sterniy marking on his native soil, The blood, the tears, the anguish, and the toil,

Shall b;d each righ.teoug lieart exult. to see, Peace to the slave, and vengeance on the free. Yet, yet, degraded men! the erpected day That breaks your bitfcer cup ts far away ; Trade, wealth, and fashion, ask you still to bleed, And holy men give Scripture for the deed ; Scoui'ged and JAoasod, no Briton stoops to save A wretcb, a coward ; yes, because. a slave. "les, to thy tongue shall eeraph word be given, And pow,er on earfch to piead, the causo of heaven ; The proud, the cold untroubled heart of stone, That never o!i sorrow but its own, Unlocks a generous store at Thy command, Like Horeb's rocks beneath the propliet's hand, The living lumber of his kindred earth, Charmed into sou 1 receives a seeond birth Feels Thy dread pow,er another heart alford, Whose passiosi touched ' harmoriious strings accord. True as the circling spheres to Nature' s plan ; And man, the brother, lives the friend of man. The hypocritical tinae-serving parsons herem referred to by the poet, are the only kind, such men as John Lee. Why worrv about these any more than the spurious sovereign? — Thero's plenty of gold in the world yet.