THE LYCEUM: PROFESSOR SALMOND'S DEFENCE.

Evening Star, Issue 5994, 29 May 1882, Page 4

THE LYCEUM: PROFESSOR SALMOND'S DEFENCE.

TO THE EDITOB. Sir, —Contrary to expectation, Professor Salmond says he did not inadvertently conBent to lecture in the Lyceum last night. He also says, in justification of himself, that he believes no special sanctity attaches to places-. That this is his belief others have no right to question ; but they have a right to criticise the outcome of that belief. Unless I mistake, Paul believed that an idol was nothing, and yet he had regard to his brethren, who were not so unprejudiced as himself. Professor Salmond confounds the buildings with their associations and surroundings. It cannot be denied that the vilest place on earth might in certain cases be the fittest place on earth to preach the gospel in ; but in ordinary cases it would be simply intolerable were such places chosen for that purpose. It is a travesty of common sense to suppose that the reverence for the place where worshippers meet which is so inwoven into the Ola Testament depended merely on the worship of the then time; and as to the New, Christ himself says: "It is written 'My Father's house shall be called a house of prayer,' but ye have made it a den of thieves." And what is otherwise to be made of many of our best Ijymns ? The Professor's view is absurd in every view of the case. The Lyceum was built for the purpose of uprooting our most cherished notions, and anything done which directly or indirectly has the effect of encouraging its promoters in (from a Christian point of view) their unhallowed work is wrong, and Professor Salmond would have acted more in keeping with the heading of his lecture had he avoided the course which he has just followed. The Presbyterian Church has a right to expect caution, if great sense cannot be had from all its office-bearers.—l am, etc., One Outraged. Dunedin, May 27.