A REPLY TO "GULLIVER"

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 81, 31 December 1918, Page 6

A REPLY TO "GULLIVER"

Sir,—lt would appear that "Gulliver and "Jonathan Swift" have come to blows on the subject of building a cathedral, and that tho former makes a very unworthy attempt to lay low the prototype of the latter; but wero it not for the fact that this veritable glory of the Lilliputians has now si rayed into lirobdingnag, the land of the giants,. I nin quite sensible, that the frantic waving of his arms would be attended by an uncomfortable amount of wind, "it is recorded of Mahomet," says the famous English Juvenal, "that .upon a visit he was going to pay in Paradise, he had all offer of several vehicles to conduct him upwards, as fiery chariots, winged horses, and celestial sedans, but he lefused theiu all, and would be borne to Heaven upon nothing but. his ass. Now the inclination of -Mahomet, as singular as it seems, has since been taken up by a great num. ber of devout Christians, and doubtless with very good, reason.'" Let your correspondent then beware lest his ass should behave as did Stevenson's donkey in crossing tho Cervennes. Sorrow, according ,'to the Greek dramatists, was a crucible through, which all souls have to pass before, emerging in a spirit of good and beauty. In the last four vears the manhood of our nation have "seen sweeping down before it barbarism and the hordes of Attila, and heard behind it tho unmusical screams of sectarian strife, the precursor and. progenitor of the bloodiest wars of history, and, having come forth purified 'by its.baptism of fire, does it earo aught that the wolves of a- thousand creeds tear at earh other's throats over the bodv of a fallen Christ? For the Jew and' Gentile, Catholic and Anglican, Methodist and Wesleyan. in their greatest moments of suffering, there has been the one guiding destiny, the God of truth and purity, not of prayer and incantation, and there has arisen from this »iVantic bonfire of sacrifice the spirit of unitarianism infused with a realisation of humanity. Hence it is that I think the action of the Anglicans in seeking to provide a war memorial for the Anglicans, although actuated by good motives, is, nevertheless, against tho spirit of true worship. In the "argument against aholishin? Christianity" (which your correepondent urges us to road), Swift points out that the abolition cf Christianity would mean the furtherance of Popery; but the statement is one m which he converse holds equally true, tor the abolition of Popery and all other adverse religions, which, in trying to drive God into our heads, merely dispel Him from our hearts, is absolutely necessary before we can reach an appreciation ot true Christianity. Nothing would be more capable of binding together the interests, social, religious, and economic, of the people of New Zealand than a natonal cathedral that stands not as a chinch for those who wish for the supremacy of one particular creed, but w an everlasting tribute. to the honour of all those who have died. ~ Therefore, in such a cathedral it would be of little concern that the benefactors were not religions men, for civilisation s rapidly reaching that stage when he idea that associates money mrec ly i itll God-the idea; that is to say, of P ace a coin in the box and the soul, leaps to ItaveV'-has become slightly incongruJus The times in which it. was the exclusive privilege of the squire to gci o sleep during the sermon, or'c-f his fomily to read lidding in the seclusion of their latticed pew, have now been replaced by hose in which the wealthy, over-dressed, and over-tearing patrons of the church an ftTchurchVmrs arrive conspicu, ouslv late and leave conspicuously early. Subcription lists for expensive, alteraions provide excellent amusement in the matter of reading, but one is inclined to ek for some proverb that lies between "Conscience doth make cowards of us all" and "A fool and his money are soon parted."-I am, etc., December 30, 1918.