THE PARNELL HALL.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3044, 29 April 1867, Page 6

THE PARNELL HALL.

- To the Editor of the Daily Southern Cross, Sib, — In your paper of the 10th instant there appeared a long and full report; of the proceedings of a tea meeting at the Parnell Hall, of which the Rev. Mr. Edger was chairman. I presume therefore the subject matter discussed on the occasion is one open to public remark in the Cross. This rev. reformer, Mr. Edger, after having sustained a serious calamity in the country, cranes to town with a vie. w to turn an honest penny, and at the same time to turn the Christian community of Auckland upside down if fye could. He seeks to make us suppose that "be does not believe in money." His services in the cause of religious reform are most disinterested. He looks with sorrow and compassion on all existing religious denominations as victims of error and prejudice, or worse. He takes an appointment as m inager to a religious farm at the Three Kings, and manages to collect at the Hall a sum in Sabbath offerings «ueh as shows a good deal of liberality in his followers, or we might say his dupes. Of all charlatans, a religious one is the worst, and I cannot help regarding the Rev.- Mr. Edger in that light. He may intend to benefit others as well as himself, as almost every religious innovator does, no matter how extravagant and erroneous his views may be. Like the almost endless raoe of religious impostors who at various times have afflicted th» Christian community in disferent countries, Mr. Edger appears to have a number of respectable supporters and followers. They have itching ears, and are fond of noveltiet. Both they and their leader in this instance, who is trading upon their honest religious feelings and simplicity, are doing a great injury to the cause of Christianity, and indirectly aiming a severe blow at the cause of public morals. However harmless or beneficial they may suppose is the system which they are seeking to establish and support, Mr. Edger's dupes might upon a little reflection see — what every sober minded and rational Christian sees — that, apart from some vague and misty generalities, his system is wild and impracticable in an extreme degree. In spite of his pretensions to humility and liberality,' his words show that he is devoured with spiritual prjde and self -"sufficiency, and if he get his own' Tfay'he, will infect his followers ' with a like spirit. v He would found what he" calls an ,'f open 1 church:" he would have a Christian without' a creed; have tins church the resort of sceptics and doubters, as he sayij This association of embryo infidgls or free, "thinker*;, the Rev. Mr. Edger, regardless of the melancholy experience of the past on the continent of Europe, would seek to set up in Auckland, with the aid and cooperation of respectable and sincere Christian men, who are led away by his plausible vague generalities. Was ever anything more deplorable? Can anything more forcibly show to what a low state Christian principle and feeling must have fallen with not a few in Auckland at this time ? That some iSitizena-of Auckland should have had the misfortune to yield to temptation a'nd,- under the impulse? o{ avarice, commit frauds, ?is bad enough ; bat that so' many of them should aid and abet a religion! innovator of Mr. Edger's type in an insidious crusade against Christianity it worse still. They would throw off all legitimate authority -in matters of religious belief and practice, and reduce the household of faith to a wild babel of conflicting opinions. Every man would be left to believe, and at last to do, what he fancied to be right in his own eyes. A pretty state of things, religious animoriL we should then haVe ! Mr. Editor, if fisfo that I think you failed in your duty as the guardian of public virtue and sopial order wftin you "permitted sq insidious an attack on both to be made by the Rev, Mr. Edger without any reproof from the editorial chair. Happily for society, Mr. Edger's influence is likely to be small, or rather to vanish after the novelty of his extravagant views has lost its attractions. In the meantime he may unsettle the principles of many, and fleece not a few of their money before .His religious bubble bursts. r P ' S '~I ?*?* Mli &°™ body had the honour '4o license the Key. Mr. Edger as a preacher? Did tney give him a commission to preach his new system— his crusade against all religious denominations now in •xistence,> their own included— or has ho received hb vocation to do so by a special inspirat'ibnf Are we to regard him as a man of God specially ieo% to us to put down all existing religious creeds, amd establish "an open church" where Christianity without any creed if to be taught bj him and hi» ducipta? ' .