PYRRHONISM AND MAHOMETANISM.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 3931, 21 June 1877, Page 2

PYRRHONISM AND MAHOMETANISM.

Sir, — I have only one word more to say to "Enquirer," and then I have done with him. Lot me advise him to be more careful in future what charges he makes against clergymen and congregations ; and when he wants to vent his spleen against a public man, let him be more open and courageous, and boldly sign his name. My strictures upon him were severe, not, however, because he wrote anonymously, but because he endeavored anonymously to lower me, by stating what was untrue, and for this he ought to have apologised. It is, too, disingenuous in him to put a construction on my language, which was never intended. I did not say I would horsewhip him. I said I should be so disposed. 1 know better than to weaken a great cause by acting contrarily to law. 1 expressed myself in language which I intended should convey the idea that I regarded " Enquirer" in the light of a recalcitrant schoolboy, as one whose conduct deserves a horsewhipping. As the spirit of the lightning lies in the dewdrop, so a power of righteous anger often slumbers in the noblest breasts, like a fire of God,

compassion. He who wept at the grave j

of tiazarus also knotted a scourge of small cords, overturned the tables' of the money changers, and trdiincied out those who had made the house df His father a den df thieves. He wlltise love, wduld have datlie'i'ed the children df Jerusalem together as a hen gathereth . her chickens under her wings, yet scathed and laid bare the seared consciences of Priest and Pharisee, and dropped the molten lead of his scorn and indignation upon the souls of the formalist and hypocrite. He who out of His great love for all mankind never shrank from touching the white sores of the leper, and who suffered the penitent to weep her hot tears upon His feet, and wipe them with the hairs of her head, yet faced unflinchingly the fury of an excited synagogue, and sent back a contemptuous message to a reckless and blood-stained king. " Enquirer " in his letter of this morning asks, " If Mr Irvine" did riot Use the word 'Pyrrhonism,' what makes him father it now and defend its appropriateness !" Sir, I have often used the word ! " Pyrrhonism," but I did not use it, as I "Enquirer " said I did, in my sermon at Waipawa. And as for fathering it, it is not my child at all. Ido not profess to be the author of the word any more than Jew would father it in his "Letters to Voltaire," or then Leland in his " Advantage and Necessity of Revelation," or than Robert Montgomery in his " God and Man " would father it, though he uses the term as I have used it in almost every page. What " Enquirer " terms the "matter" of the argument has no connection with it ; it is merely incidental. The question was not, whether two and a half were sever«al, but whether the term "Pyrrhonism" has been used ,by Christian writers, for scepticism and infidelity. , I find that your correspondent is very fond of using the fallacy of ignoratio clench i. Having attempted in vain to maintain his position, he shifts his ground, as covertly as possible, to another, instead of honestly giving up the point. This fallacy is apparent in the last sentence of his letter this morning. .He concludes by saying that Pyrrho lived several centuries before St. A\igustine invented the dogmatic subtleties enumerated. What dogmatic subtleties] Surely "Enquirer" does not mean to toll us that St. Augustine was the inventor of the doctrines and truths of Christianity enumerated by me in a former letter ! There is one work, however, amongst others, of which St. Augustine was the author, and I would recommend its perusal to every Pyrrhonist in this place. I mean his "De Civitate Dei," which he Avrote to confute the accusations of the populace against Christianity. And now for one word in reply to " De Insula's" letter upon Mahomet. In "De Insula" Mahomet has a much stronger and insinuating advocate than the Pyrrhonist has in " Enquirer." I can detect, too, the gentleman in "De Insula." Evidently, though he has " resided amongst the Mahometans," he has also mixed with gentlemen, and he knows how professional and public men should treat one another. Nor do I think he would be guilty of a wilful fabrication. I take, "however, very serious exception to many statements in his letter. He says that Mahomet did not attempt to supersede the religion of Christ. In answer to this I open the Koran, chap. ix. (Sale's translation), and read, " The Christians say, Christ is the son of God. May God resist them '] how they are infatuated !" ' ' They are infidels who say God is Christ" (chap, v.) "As for the infidels, let them perish, because they have rejected with abhorrence that which God hath revealed" (chap, xvii.) " Strike off their heads, and strike off all the ends of their fingers" (chap, viii.) "Ye Christian dogs, you know your option, the Koran, the tribute, or the sword" (Gibbon, vol. ix., p. 337.) Truly a most infallible method this to convert the Christians to Mahometanism, and, as a way of convincing sceptics and unbelievers, at once summary and decisive- ! We are told that Mahomet's famous formula was, ' ' There is no god b\it God." And yet in the worship offered to God, the prophet also claims participation. A believer in God, who is not also a believer in Mahomet, is, according to the Koran, an infidel, doomed to everlasting ptinishment. Your correspondent writes, " Christians frequently urge against Mahomet that his creed has been propagated at the edge of the sword, and occasionally Mahometans have been guilty of this crime ; but I ask all honest Christians if we have a right to blame Mahomet for this V Now, as, I trust, an honest Christian, I will answer this question. War is the life and soul of Mahometanism. Mahomet makes God declare — " They who have been slain in battle, verily, I will expiate their evil deeds from them, and I will surely bring them into gardens watered by rivers" (chap. iii). "Go forth to battle, O true believers, both light and heavy, for the advancement of God's religion" (chap. ix). "It hath not been granted unto any prophet that he should possess captives until he had made a great slaughter of infidels. O, Prophet, stir \ip the faithful to war : if twenty persevere with constancy, they shall overcome two hundred of those who believe not" (chap. viii). ' ' O true believers ! wage war against such of the infidels as are near you" (chap. ix). Mr Sale observes : — " A most convincing proof that Mahometanism was no other than a human invention is that it owed its progress and establishment entirely to the sword ; and it is one of the strongest demonstrations of the divine original of Christianity that it prevailed against all the force and powers of the world by the mere dint of its own truth, after having stood the assaults of all manner of persecution, as well as other oppositions, for three hundred years together." (Prel. Disc. Sec. II.) Your correspondent does not believe that Mfthomet was vicious. If revenge, and lust, and lying, and murder are not marks of vice I do not know what are. Revenge stands prominent in the Koran. I have lots of instances before me. And in the 68th chapter he says, ' ' God hath allowed you" (meaning himself) "the dissolution of your oaths." On one occasion- he beheaded nearly seven hundred prisoners with circumstances of the most barbarous cruelty ; and this atrocious act was. not committed during the heat of battle, but on his return to Medina, after a sufficient time had intervened to cool his animosity. (Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, note to page 190.) " De Insula" does not believe that Mahomotanism makes converts by pandering to the lusts of mankind. Did he not enjoin Polygamy, a practice most subversive of all that is good in politics and morals ] Polygamy utterly destroys the social affections. It has brutalised the female sex in every country where it prevails, and when woman is degraded she soon lessons the dignity of man. Did he not pander to the lusts of mankind in his description of Paradise ? I shall conclude by giving Mahomet's ideal of perfect happiness in Heaven as we have it in the 55th chapter (Sale's Translation) : — " For him who dreadeth the tribunal of the Lord, are prepared two gardens (which therefore of your Lord's benefits will ye ungratefully deny ?) planted with shady trees. Which therefore of your Lord's beneffts will ye ungratefully deny 1 In each of them, shall be two fountains flowing. Which therefore of your Lord's benefits will ye ungratefully deny? In each of them shall there be of every fruit, two kinds. Which therefore of your ■ Lord's benefits will ye ungratefully deny ? They shall repose on couches, the linings whereof shall be of thick silk, interwoven with gold, and the fruit of the two gardens shall be near at hand to gather. Which therefore of your Lord's benefits will ye ungratefully deny '? Therein shall receive them beauteous damsels, refraining their eyes from beholding any besides their spouses. Which therefore of your Lord's benefits will ye ungratefully deny] Having complexions like rubies

and pearla. Which therefore of your Lord's benefits Will ye ungratefully deny 1 ? And besides, there shall be twd other gardens* Which, therefore, df ydur Load's benefits will ye ungratefully ddny? Of a dark green. Which, therefdr'e; of your Lord's benefits will ye ungratefully deriy. In each of them shall be two fountains pouring forth plenty of water. Which, therefore, of your Lord's benefits will ye ungratefully deny ? In each of them shall be fruits, and palm trees, and pomegrantes. Which therefore, of your Lord's benefits will ye ungratefully deny ? Therein shall be agreeable and beauteous damsels. Which, therefore, of your Lord's benefits will ye ungratefully deny? Having fine black eyes, and kept in pavilions from public view. Which, therefore, of your Lord's benefits will ye ungratefully deny] Therein shall they delight themselves lying on green cushions and beautiful carpets. Which, therefore^ df your Lord's benefits ttill ye ungratefully deny] Blessed be the' nanie of the Ltird !" Mahomet makes Gabriel swear, By the Afternoon, that all this was true. — J am. &c, G. M. D'Arcy Irvine, M.A., Head Master of the Napier Grammar School. Napier, June 19, 1877. [This closes the correspondence on this subject.— Ed. H.B.H.]