Correspondence.

Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 5, 1 February 1884, Page 12

Correspondence.

SERMONS. TO THE EDITOR OF THE FREETHOUGUT REVIEW. Sin, —I have heard many sermons, but the following are so unique in their way that I will give you the mere outline, and then let your readers judge for themselves. 'The first was by a Darbyitc, taken from the text, “ If I, your lord and master, wash your feet, so ought ye to wash one anothers.” One would expect that a lesson on humility was the burden of this text ; but in place of that, this minister occupied fully half an hour in proving, or trying to prove, that the feet must he the dirtiest part of the body, and this is the reason why Christ so peremptorily commands his disciples to wash their neighbor’s feet. The second sermon was given in a Church of England place of worship in this city. The subject was a charity sermon, and the text was, “ Make for yourselves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” From this the rev. gentleman endeavored to press on his hearers the necessity of giving alms or charity, for “we arc to make friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness, and if we fail in obtaining one place of rest in the world to come, they may at least receive us into their everlasting habitations.” The authors of these two sermons are dead and gone, and by withholding their names we render some respect to the old adage, “ Do mortals nil nisi honum ” ; but the author of the following is still alive, and Rector of St. Matthew’s Church in this city, - and he can, if he likes, defend himself if I have misunderstood him. About two years ago he was delivering a course of lectures on “ Heaven, Hell, the Judgment, &c,” and in reference to this last he remarked, “ We are not to imagine that the old orthodox opinion

was right as regards our immediate departure to Hell or Heaven at the time of death.” He instanced the preaching of Christ to the spirits in prison (as told by St. Peter), and reminded his audience that Christ must have expected to do good by preaching to these bad spirits who had been in prison for four thousand years, since Noah’s time. He further reminded his hearers that “we ought to be most careful what we should do or say, as the spirits of our dear friends, instead of being in Hell or Heaven, were actually near us, around vs, watching and listening to our actions and words.” By this last sermon we are led to expect that we have freethinkers doing our work nobly at their post, without our paying them for it. Yours, &c., Auckland. Observer.