MR GULLIVER'S RETROSPECT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 120, 22 May 1890, Page 5

MR GULLIVER'S RETROSPECT.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—By the s.a. Manapouri, which sailed for Sydney on Tuesday, the 20th, the Rev.. E. H. Gulliver, M.A., was a passenger, and . after his departure was known to W. ~ Hooper, D.D., that pugnacious individual calmly sat down and penned the epistle \ bearing his signature which appeared .n. your issue of yesterday. It is a common thing for a certain class of religious teachera .-.7 to seize upon any opportunity for "improving the occasion," as they unctuously term it, a death in a family *? being a much-relished occasion. Oh, how they revel in speaking of " the dear departed !" Oh, how they delight to harrow the already lacerated feelings of the rela- 4 bives; that they are "improving the oc« : casion "is sufficient excuse for them. And so W. Hooper, D.D., " improves the occasion"' of the departure of the Rev. E." H. Gulliver* M.A. He gives utterance to a suspicion, he has long had that Mr Gulliver had received " a strangely narrow theological x education." It is a pity thafW. Hooper,; ::■ D.D , bottled up his suspicion until Mr Gulliver's back was turned, for " backwounding -calumny " savoui's of- meannesa and cowardice. It is true Mr Gulliver, ia? _ nob a D.D. ; he bears a prouder title, M.A,,. . and one of broader significance. In the closing paragraph W. Hooper*, r D.D., Bays: " The moral which, as itseeraa . • to me, is the one chiefly deducible from'bho, loss (only for a time let us hope) of so excel* . lent and gifted a man is," etc., etc. Now is; "' not this rank humbug or worse? He pre- . .', tends to mourn the loss of " the excellent! .'■ and gifted man. ■' The following anecdote ; will serve to illustrate the position: The." 7 devil paid a nocturnal visit to one : | : ; of the "early fathers," and after a* V protracted and unpleasant ..•: Old Nick departed and slammed; the door. The "early father," feeling; much relieved, piously ejaculated, glad you're gone," nor did he desire thati; J his visitor should ever return. Whatsayap: 1 Samuel Butler ? . \7( | "Why didst thou choose the cursed sin , j Hypocrisy to set up in ? _ J Because itis the thriving'st calling-. ' . J The only saint's bell that rings all in, ® •'- j In which all churches are concerned, '.':.s And is the easiest to be learned." v —lam, etc., J. O'Meagheß, -^ ". . ~___ . '"■"".. ■■■