The Daily Telegraph. THURSDAY, MAY 19, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3087, 19 May 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. THURSDAY, MAY 19, 1881.

The Revd. David Sidey's sermon on the Tararua disaster bas been so thoroughly well advertised that it is not surprising that it has attracted attention in many parts of the colony. In none of our contemporaries, however, have we found one word in support of Mr Sidey's views concerning the over-ruling attributes of the Deity. This circumstance may be due to the absence on the part of the writers of a true conception of the Almighty in his relation to tbe government of the world. Mr Sidey may be right, or those who hold an opposite opinion may be right; in either case it could not be satisfactorily proved, although both sides may be, and i o doubt are, thoroughly satisfied with their individual ideas on the subject. Public opinion, however, is strongly opposed to Mr Sidey's views, and it is on questions of this "kind that the growing breach between the pulpit and the people is discernible. When it is endeavored to be shown by ministers of religion that the Almighty, in his mercy and long-suffering, is the direct author of indiscriminate slaughter, the people, even though they may not raise their voices in protect, go away with the feeling that the God preached is not the God they worship. Pew sermons that have been delivered of late have tended to create this feeling to such a degree as that of the Revd. Mr Sidey's. Theologically Mr Sidey is no doubt thoroughly sound, md his opponents may be illogical and unscriptural, but this matters nothing to the great masses of the people whose judgment on religious subjects is founded on sentiment. The Wanganui Herald speaks of Mr Sidey's conception of the Almighty as " blasphemous " which shows how wide a divergence there must be between the God of theologists and the God of the people. Our Wanganui contemporary says, if there be such a Deity as Mr Sidey pictures. " he is more malicious and bopei lessly wicked than the blackest representations of the evil one, and cannot be an object of worship to any moral being. It is such teachings as these that are puzzling and confounding all enquiring minds in the present age. "V\ hat is to be made of Bucta doctrines ? They are not Cbristian most certainly. The master never taught anything of tbe kind, and we cannot conceive how anyone ascribing the attribute of benevolence to a divine being could for a moment entertain such a conception. Mr Sidey, we believe, is doing the work, more effectually than they could do it directly of themselves, of the Freethinkers. His deity, made as repulsive as it is possible to make him, is rejected, and those who cannot or will not draw a line between what Mr David Sidey pictures as a " moral governor," and a merciful Providence, rush to the conclusion that religion is an imposture and a sham. And thus we see how effectual may tbe Sidey propaganda become to convert the world from Christianity."