MR WHUTCHISON FINDS COMFORT.

Evening Star, Issue 11675, 6 February 1902, Page 5

MR WHUTCHISON FINDS COMFORT.

TO TO EDIT( .rxSirrlt appears that the delusion regarding t\ South African War which settled on th mind of the late editor of the ' Outlook'-* delusion which you sternly censured which the Dunedin Presbytery etronj condemned (but which, curiously enotty, has' not been recorded in its minutesjand for which the Publications Committ< promptly apologised—has not been confisd to that misguided individual alone. ThiiWlg of this fact, one begins to wonder if nsed it was m delusion, or, rather, posfflbl] as was suggested by the Rev. Mr. Sutlrland, a device of the wicked one to the ndoing of A& victim. At all events, frora London newspaper now before me I fil that this delusion or "techna diabol? has overtaken the editors of other relious periodicals as well as the erstwhv editor of the 'Outlook. J And they, toe have been pwlled up with a round tuj and set on the stool of repentance. luoe ' Record' of the United Free Church the is the following editorial pallinode : "] our October number we commented oiihe manifesto of the Swiss Evangelical A'ance about the war in a way which, we merstand, has given offence to a number oimr readers. We were moved to write aswe did by our earnest desire to see this utappy conflict brought to an end, and an aest put upon the lamentable daily sacri6of valuable lives. It seemed to us ti* these results were likely to be reached pre quickly by an appeal to the Boers tm by an appeal to the British people. Ir view of the situation, however, has jt met, as we hoped it would have done, ith . universal acceptance; and as we ankly admit that an organ of the church not justified in taking up, on a question i this kind, an attitude which any of its tembers regard as controversial, we have o express our regret that the paragraphs bjected to were inserted." Mild soul! What subject worth discusion will this editor light upon which memoers of his church or of any church Trill not regard as controversial. But here if another case:—The 'Sword and Trowel' is a periodical started by the late Mr Spnrgeon, and carried on and managed by his widow, as a labor of love. This is what she has got to say on this war subject: "Mrs Spurgeon greatly regrets that,in last month's magazine the reviewer of two of the books on the list took occasion to express very strongly his private opinion concerning the conduct of the present war. Unfortunately, the paragraphs in question ■were not seen by her before going to press, and, as they have called forth much comment, Mrs Spurgeon takes this opportunity of stating that such extreme views are not shared by her, though she deeply sorrows for the war, and cries constantly to God fc> put an end to the deadly and unequal , strife. ,, I The closing sentence of this paragraph f is about the neatest and the nicest I have ( come across for some time.—l am, etc., I William Hutchison. I February 5.