MR. HOWARD ELLIOTT REPLIES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 19 March 1928, Page 9

MR. HOWARD ELLIOTT REPLIES.

(To th Editor). Sir, —I have received a copy of your issue of the 14th iust., in which •Aletheia” -expresses himself at length. Through the courtesy of your columns, may 1 offer a brief reply- First, let me state that I have not seen the former letter, to which “Alethiia” refers, as having been written by himself, “briefly contradicting two erroneous istatements made' in defence of an ill-advised lecture” by myself. Probably his contradictions" weie as perverse a,s tne statements of his second letter.. Having just received tho weekly edition of the "London Times’’ and read the precis of the report of the Marines Conversations published in London on January 19, “Alethia’s” historical knowledge is suddenly increased and he burns to shed further light upon the darkened intelligence of your readers.. The report, inter alia, stated that “to tho Roman See the .English ohurche's owe their Christianity through Gregory, who, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (A.l>. 565) ‘sent us ba.pt* ism.’ ” It is important to remember that tho compilers of that report, as shown bv the report itself, are ardent Romanisers within the Church of England and prominent Anglo-Catholics. These men are obsessed with what is called “apostolic succession,” or, as “Alettheia” describes it, “continuity,” i.e. an unbroken succession from the first disciples or apostle® through the Roman or some other organisation, called by itself the Church. They therefore reject as being Christian any form of Christianity other than that so received. Oil tho other hand: all Protestants accept as Christian that religion which is based and ordered upon the teachings of Holy Writ and reject all other forms, including Roman and Anglo-Catholicism. The Malines Report compilers therefore ignore the absolute evidence that Christianity was introduced into and established amongst the people of Britain long before ever Gregory sent Augustine to mission the British. “Though, through long hostilities and heathen zeal,’’ to quote Mosheim, the early Christians in Britain had been exhausted, they had not become extinct. In Wales and England they continued unsubdued, and were never placed under the yoke. Cp. Mosheim, Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 1. pp 437/9- It would overtax your editorial generosity to quote other authorities in proof of the historical error of the compilers of the Malines Report-, and it is a foolish thing to contend seriously with a correspondent who depends for Ibis his- ■ torical knowledge on newspaper reports. The extended contention of your correspondent concerning the "connection of the Authorised and Revised Translations into the English of the Bible and thp Rhemish or Douay version, is pointless. The first translators of the Bible into English did their work before this Douay version existed The basis for the authorised translation was the Bishops’ Bible, and although in common with a vast number of other translation®, the Rhemish was consulted, it had but small place. “We are not ‘tied to systems used in France and Germany.’ ” No one with a scrap of intelligence would have suggested that, a® your correspondent does. Neither are we tied to systems pagan and papal, but we arp tied to the Word _of God when it is a cmetsion of authority in religion and of Christian truth. Tt will doubtless improve the mind of “Alethein” if when next I lecture in Hawern. b? will make ar> effort to attend.—T am, etc.. HOWARD ET.LTDTT. Wellington, March 16, 1928.