RESURGAM

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21805, 10 June 1936, Page 6

RESURGAM

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir,—l am glad I ruffled Mr Peter Trolove’s temper somewhat, for it will be a lesson to him not to threaten to scarify a correspondence as soon as it appears in print Peter Trolove

must know that I have a perfect right to my principles as he has to his, especially, as my thoughts were founded ori the clear determinations of reason and reflection, and not on a frail and precarious faith. He evidently missed his mark in the scarifying business, for it was I who did the scarifying and not him. The modern idea of immortality Is that which is known from Bible teachings only. Little do people know that the conception was known as a natural inclination thousands of years before the Bible came to the press, that is, before experience and independent of instruction. Nor must we be so weak as to suppose that Christianity is absorbing the whole human race. There are one thousand millions of people who have not embraced the Christian doctrines, and ten millions of Jews scattered throughout the world, who are daily expecting the advent of the true Messiah. Are we then so foolish as to believe that God, in His infinite wisdom and goodness, is going to cast these millions into hell because they will nol accept the Christian religion? It is s sin in itself to suppose such a horrid possibility. The inappropriate and barbaric literature of the Bazavad Gita is quite out of place, inasmuch as the desire it speaks of is one of uncontrollable and sanguinary ambition which once filled the breast of Napoleon Bonaparte. Thj idea I spoke ol is indeed characteristic of the loftiness of thought which it contains. The dry-as-dust philosophy can be explained by listening to what Bacor himself has to say about it. And f is without all controversy that learning doth make the minds of mer gentle, generous, and subject to government, whereas, ignorance makei them churlish and mutinous. Anc the evidence of time doth clear thij assertion, considering that the mos' rude and unlearned times have beer most subject to tumults, seditions, am changes. We should after such j statement conclude that learning anc education, which are a harmonious de velopment of mind and body, which i the offspring of this dry-as-dust philo sophy, must have a very refining anc elevating influence upon us. A Christianity does not reach beyond thi boundaries of nature, it cannot be d Divine origin. God can only dea with men in a natural way. Bacon opens his novum organun after the following manner; “Mai being the servant and interpreter o nature, can do and understand s« much and so much only as he has ob served in lact or in thought of th course of nature: beyond this hj neither knows anything nor can d< anything.” Here is a statement fron the greatest mind known in philosophj It is therefore wisdom for us to re main contentedly as we are, and no to strive after those things which li beyond the reach of human compre hension. I must conclude by sayin that a study into the works of natur will always be a pleasant undertaking but that a study of the Bible wil always be a task.—Yours, etc., W. MOSDELL. June 6. 1936. [This correspondence is now closed.Ed. ‘The Press.”]