THE AUCKLAND 'DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS' ON THE OTAGO PRESBYTERIANS ; OR "UNCO GUID."

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 45, 7 March 1874, Page 13

THE AUCKLAND 'D AILY SOUTHERN CROSS' ON THE OTAGO PRESBYTERIANS ;OR "UNCO GUID."

xbxs journal takes your Presbyterian friends somewhat severely to «' a B«,V-i°f i?r6B.i ?r68 .T ing *° P^ecate a "Kirk minister" for alleged Spiritualism ' or what Catholics would «all "dealing* with the ■JiTa a T° t?™™ o**0 ** as unjustifiable their attempts to interfere with Sunday travelling by rail. In the course of his remarks he says same rather queer thmgs, looked at from a Protestant orthodox point ot view. He would lead one to infer that his Christianity recognised no mysteries, but was a system of pure Rationalism, or a sort of JJwemasons religion. He seems indignant at the very notion of any ecclesiastical authority interfering to secure purity of doctrine, or the due observance of the Sunday. Of the admission by the Ota^o Presbytery that " vital religion " among the Otag* members of the Kirk is at a very low figure, the • Cross * makes the most. But really it was very candid in «he Presbytery to tell the Colony that, however little it redounded to the credit of their people. I think Bishor Croke said something not unlike this lately aboat his flock. Their taith generally was strorg; but their practice in many cases very weak. Many of them had but little of what the Otago Presbytery call "vital religion. This is a common failing with the classes of Christians in these days. Protestants and Catholics mutually encourage each other m religious indifference and loose morals. Thanks to the treedom of the " information," and to Martin Luther, of blessed memory. The matter of Sunday travelling and Sunday trading is a dimcult subject. Under certain circumstances, and to a limited extent, they may be permissible, but surely there ought to be some restrictions or limit imposed by law. The Christian Sunday the Presbvterjans, with some other classes, would wish to see observed with all the Mosaic rigor of the Jewish Sabbath. This, of course, is out of the question. Yet surely there is some just medium between that and tlie unlimited desecration of the day by working, travelling, and trading, lor if it be innocent to travel it must be innocent to work buy and sell— m a quiet way-on Sunday. Works of necessity and mercy are allowable on Sunday, and if to run the railway trains on that day be a work of necessity or mercy no one would object. But is it a work either of necessity or mercy in reality ? Is it? The Presbytery tell us in effect that their people pay but little regard to the sanctity of the Sunday even now, and that they will, it is feared pay still less— in other words, none at all— if they have every Sunday an opportunity of taking a railway excursion— riding, perhaps, too often on a " spree'"— or other objectionable enjoyment. We cannot blame the Presbytery altogether for their fears. The' 'Cross' says— " Then why don't the ministers make their ' sermons ' more attractive and edifying so as to make the people prefer them to a railway trip ?" Very good from a nationalist point of view this reasoning.