CHRISTIAN REPLY TO MODERATION.

Auckland Star, Volume XVI, Issue 3840, 4 December 1882, Page 4

CHRISTIAN REPLY TO MODERATION.

(To the Editor.)

Sib, —Your correspondent " Moderation " in your issue of; last orening is scarcely correct when he states that the Rev.' Spurgeon is the representative of bat a small section of Protestants who disapprove of the supposed action of Bishop Cowie re the presentation of a bouquet to Bishop Luck. I say supposed, because it has been stated that it was not the act of Bishop Cowie at all, but the Bomisk servants of his household, who sent tho flowers over which so much gush was exhibited by the representatives of their church. I feel satisfied that not only in connection with all the dissenting churches, but also in the Church of Eogland itself, there arc hundreds who approve of Mr Spurgeon's action in tbis matter, and who have spoken as strongly as Mr Spurgeon upon this subject. And, further, when your correspondent speaks of Mr Spurgeou's status being obtained through his father's known ability, he is evidently speaking of that of which he knows but very little, for those able to judge, who|bave had the pleasure of listening to the public addresses of the young preacher, recognise in him ability of no mean order, and predict for him in the not distant future a position very little, if anything, inferior to that held by the great preacher himself. The narrow-mindedness of which your correspondent complains is a myth. Spurgeon (in common with others) objects to identification with a Church which has at all times proved herself the enemy of freedom, and will do so here, when she feels she can do so successfully, as the following quotation will prove :-A Bible published in York in 1818, with the sanction of the then Koman Catholic Primate of Ireland, and of an Irish Archbishop and two Bishops', makes, in a note on Matthew, 13th chapter, 29th and 30th verses, this significant comment: " The good must tolerate the evil when it is so strong that it cannot be redressed without danger and disturbance of tho whole Church; otherwise when ill men, be they heretics or other malefactors, may be punished or suppressed without disturbance and hazard to the. good, they may, and ought, by public authority, either spiritual or temporal, to be chastised or execnted." Seeing, Mr Editor, that the Uhurch professes to be changeless in its teaching, I think there is a need on tho part of every true Protestant to be on the alert, or else we shall awake one day to the fact that by our apathy we have lost our liberty,—l am, &c, FAITHFUL, '