Winter

Southland Times, Issue 19381, 3 September 1904, Page 3 (Supplement)

Winter

To thc Editor. Sir,— ln your last Saturday's supplement a sermon on Winter appears, preached two years ago. at Forest Hill by tho Rev. Ueorgo McDonald. The ale mentioned in Burns' " Cottar's Saturday Night" which Jennie's mother gave to the young callant who called to take Jennie home to her place of service again was a year and a day old,, and had grow" "bitter by being kept, Mr McDonald refused the request of his congregation to publish the sermon at the time of -preaching it. Hte preferred to keep it for a while, like Jennie s mother with her ale, until a tune worthy of bringing it out should arrive. "Sermons preached in churches are regarded as immune from criticism in newspapers, but when sermons are published in newspapers they are then fair subjects for criticism. They practically challenge all who hold unorthodox views. Acting on thi 9 premise, I will offer some critical remarks on Mr McDonald s sermon. "God," said the preacher, " made winter for His own glory and for the highest good of us His creatures."- Now astronomy tells us that there is summer and winter on other' planets belonging to our system where there is ho certainty of the presence of living creatures, and seeing, that the' same law prevails on planets where it •■ is extremely unlikely

that organic lifo exists, winter can have no disciplinary significance for man as claimed by the preacher. Further, there i9 perpetual winter in „ the frigid zones, with limited winter t i in the temperate zones, and no winter at all in the torrid zones. This i further shows that winter exists as a law without regard to creature life. If, as the preacher claims, win- ' tor is intended to teach men various L lessons, it sihould have been equally ' distributed over the earth. And the 1 same remark disposes of the theory of the necessity for winter lo the s earth for productive purposes, seeing that the tropical regions are the ■ most prolific portions of the earth. t The disciplinary theory must also be >j.',iven up, seeing that there is Rich an excess of this disciplinary agent r iii parts of the earth where man can- t not exist, and a total want of it in - parts of the earth where man is in . super-abundance. When the question of man's existence upon the earth is considered in view of all facts, revealed by scje?ice in these latter days, it, is diHicult for reason to come to any other conclusion than that man's presence on the earth is a mere circumstance, i'ncidental. and not as the theologian represents, the primal cause for which all natural phenomena exist. This assumption that man is the elTect of a cause which in its operation is general, and that as such he is as subject to those laws of which he is. an effect as anything else provided by the same cause, is shown by everything connected with life. Man's body is of the earth earthy, and subject to the thousand evils which environ organic life of every kind, causing pain and premattire death indiscriminately. These evils arc regarded by the theologians as special provinces of a corrective sort intended for our good. The preacher spoke of these evils as " the winters of our lives, bringing sorrow, evil, losses', disappoint ments and the broaking-up of our ideals. Vet in the blackest of theso sorrows the voice of hope, of a joy and gladness yet to be ours, may be heard." The winters of our lives are for our highest good, said Mr McDonald. Xow, it is there where theologians a ltd the rationalists differ. Tho ono regards evil as having a divino mission, to be borne with patience and even with thankfulness. Tho other regards evil as evil, to be fought in i very possible way to riA the world of it. If disease i.s a blessing in disguise sent from (lod. it is wrong to ■'ll in a doctor to cure it. The palient should be left in the hands of <Y)d ; but preachers fly to the doctor" as readily us others when sickness overtakes them. Formerly the priest was called lo drive out disease fam tlu> body as a 'demoniacal possession. Science in our day has shown how to drive some of these demons out with a dose of salts, and a sharp eye i.s kept on nil harbours of diseasebreeding filth, and the priest is restricted to his office as a curer oi souls, leaving the doctor to cure a diseased body. In practice, priests are as sane as other people. Touching " tho winters of our lives," the , theologian never practises what he preaches. Preachers saying that the winter or evils of our lives are for our highest gooU, are guilty of flat blasphemy against human progress All human effort should be directed to erradicato evil. But how can we ' bo expected to do that when it is ' taught from the pulpit that evil is *- for our highest good ? The winter or evil is to recover us from the lassitude of a prolonged summer of en- ' joyment, which is curable without ' winter. The antidote is moderation ' in everything proper. Those who . practice this law escape very much ( evil which others fall into, and if the \ law was practiced universally the i winters of evil would become a neg- , ligible quantity. All moral evil, ( that which results from human ac- , tion, is curable by moderation, and , therefore the conditions of human lifq , are largely of human making. If thc best use wus urado of everything within human control the winter spoken of in the serniati could never " shatter our ideals, break up our | plans and schemes, bring usi down to ' the lowest deptha— that out of this the spring and summer may return to ' our lives." Nothing of this could ' ever happen in our lives if the law of '■ moderation governed them. Then ' seeing that the winters of the sermon. ! aro chiefly the creations of human de- ' pravity, the reduction of those win- i ters must be sought through human effort. This, of course, is flat bias- ( phciuy against orthodoxy. And cry- i ing to Jove for help and preaching 1 sermons interspersed with yards of i poetry to make us feel content while i the snows of winter, created by our own misdeeds, are falling upon us. Ambition is probably the greatest cause of evil in the world, yet am- , bitiou is generally regarded as a comanendable principle in man. Ambition is always the cause of war. Ambition grinds human creatures into powder to gain distinction. Ambition created the inferno now raging ' in the Far East.- — I am, etc., ' T„ BUXTON. ! 129th' Aug.