WRITING ON THE WALL

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23588, 16 March 1942, Page 2

WRITING ON THE WALL

Sir,—“ Rusty Pen” partially or wholly worships Jehovah. The result of Jehovian philosophy “Slay and spare not” is and will be successive crops of slayers and the slain ad infinitum. The foregoing cannot be reconciled with Christianity, theologically or ethically. The Christian God is Truth and the Christian philosopljy ought to be: serve and spare not that all men may enjoy a better environment hereafter.—Yours, etc., H. J. BUTTLE. Darfield, March 13, 1942. Sir,—Your correspondent, R. J. Scarlett, in his condemnation of using God for what can be got from Him, reminds me of a paragraph that appeared in the “Freethinker.” “What honest man would be saved by the loss of another? It were noble for a friend to die for me; it were base for me to accept the sacrifice. He who hopes for heaven through the sufferings of an, innocent substitute, is not worth saving and scarcely worth damning. Self-respect-ing men and women prefer to bear their own responsibilities.”—Yours, etc., ANOTHER RATIONALIST. March 12, 1942. Sir,—For a thinking man, R. J. Scarlett has misread my letter rather badly. Let him read the Book of Jonah and compare us with the people of Nineveh, who renented and were saved from destruction. He says we should love God for His own sake. What does he mean? My children love me for what they get from me, in the first place— not just food and clothes, .but understanding and patience and sympathy. and a host of other benefits. So with God. I like to drink that. He lives with us and that I can go to Him with everything, big and little, good and bad, as one would to a father. Right through, I was writing in a national sense and not a personal one, out of pity for others.—Yours, etc., RUSTY PEN. March 12. 1942.