Passing Notes.

Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 10, 1 July 1884, Page 4

Passing Notes.

The « New York Sun ' thinks that the Society for the Prevention of Crime " had better go into some more creditable business than trying to get little girls arrested because they offer flowers for sale in the street on Sundays."

The Rev. W. B. Harvey, Anglican, of Wanganui, said in a recent sermon that he would not object to have expunged from the Rubric the damnatory clauses of the Athanasian Creed. Is it harshness or the falsehood to which he objects ? If true, why not retain the truth ? If false, why not abolish the Trinity ?

M. Hughes Krafft, a traveller lately returned from Japan, has given an interesting account of that country before a meeting of the Geographical Society of Paris. According to M. Krafft, the Japanese become more refined every day. They, however, still cling to their own religion, Buddhism, and both Protestant and Catholic missionaries have obtained but few results. The Japanese, in other respects, closely follow in the wake of Western civilisation.

The ' New York Herald's' Rome special says (24th March): After the rebuff of the Bavarian Prince and Princess by the Vatican, the following note was sent to all the papal Nuncios. "The Vatican can neither now nor henceforth consent to receive Catholic princes who have been welcomed as guests in a place which, though confiscated by the Italians, is still the property of the papacy. The coexistence of two governments in Rome is inadmissible. The Vatican declines to acknowledge any authority but one in Rome, and that is the authority of the head of the church, —Leo XIII."

We have received the first number of the ' Liberator,' published and edited by Mr. Joseph Symes, in Melbourne, and we heartily welcome our vigorous and able contemporary into the ranks of the Freethought Press. The tone is distinctly aggressive ; orthodoxy may expect to receive no mercy at the hands of our contemporary. The editor has proved himself so accomplished a controversialist on the platform in England, that we should expect the columns of the ' Liberator' to be studded with arguments pointed, popular, and effective. The ' Liberator ' is quite equal to expectation, and ought soon to obtain a wide circulation and influence.

The Bishop of Nelson in lecturing in Wanganui on a journey he had made to Palestine, referred to the Codex Sinaiticus, the celebrated MS of the Bible, discovered in 1859 by Tischendorf in the Convent on Mount Sinai, and supposed by him and others to have been written in the fourth century. The Bishop forgot, however, to tell his audience that a Greek Monk named Simonides confessed that the work was written by his hand at Mount Athos a few years previously. One successful forgery suggests others, and it is now difficult to say how much of the Bible has not been written to support theories or sectsthe result of priestly contrivance.

Referring to the death of Madame Lottie Wilmott, 4 The New Zealand Wesleyan ' says she was visited by the Rev. S. J. Garlick, whom " she assured that she had presented her prayers to God through Jesus Christ as His Son." She is also reported by the same paper to have said to her daughter,—" Have nothing to do with the Freethinkers, you see," continued the dying woman, " how they have treated me in the hour of need, and their friendship can do you no good when I am gone." We do not know whether there are Freethinkers at the Hutt, but if there are and they knew of the circumstances, it is more than probable that their well-known benevolence would not have been found wanting, without regard to the fact that Madame Wilmott was a Spiritualist and a Christian. The account of her death is signed " S. J. G.," and it bears the appearance of having been written for effect. The following paragraph from the ' New Zealand Herald ' places the Wesleyan Minister on his defence : —"Mr Samuel Coombes, clothier, of Queen Street, demurs to the accuracy of the statements in the ' New

Zealand Wesleyan' that the Freethinkers left Lotti Wilmott in her distress to her own devices, and rendered no aid. Speaking for himself as one who believes in Freethought, he made himself liable for a bill for medical attendance while she was in Auckland, paid her passage South, and forwarded to her subsequently sums of money at intervals, amounting to over £C). In all he considers his benevolence to Lotti cost him some

The Hindu Redeemer.—The descent of Vishnu in this character has not yet taken place. Nor is he to appear till the close of the fourth or Kali age, when the world has become wholly depraved. He is then to be revealed in the sky, seated on a white horse with a drawn sword blazing like a comet, for the final destruction of the wicked, for the redemption of the good, for the renovation of all creation, and the restoration of the age of purity (Satya-yuga). From the fact of the horse playing an important role in this incarnation it is sometimes called Asvavatara. Some of the lower classes of India comfort themselves in their present depressed condition by expecting Kalki to appear as their future deliverer and the restorer of their social position. Indeed it is a remarkable fact that a belief in a coming Redeemer seems to exist in all religions, not excepting Buddhism and Mahometanism.—Religious Thought and life in India, by M. Williams.