DR TALMAGE’S DISCOVERY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVIII, Issue 11463, 29 December 1897, Page 6

DR TALMAGE’S DISCOVERY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Permit some remarks on your subleader of last Thursday. Dr Talmage, whom you quote, has been on the* “sacred boards” for many a long year, and;is widely known as lecturer, orator, .jmeaxjdier. Lo! in his ripe, very ripe age, he has lighted on the discovery -of what is known as the “Golden Rule.” We need a gold j basis for everything to-day. Moreover, he' is emphatic—Dr Talmage is nothing if not I emphatic—as to the efficacy of “on&drop”of his text, “ Whatsoever ye woulA that--' men should do unto yon, even so do. unto . them/’ after the manner of certain medi- ’ ciuas. But this “drop of text” -must'be “properly administered,” Ah I thera is the" point. And on this point Dr’ Talmagathrows not one ray of light. How isitjto ,- be taken ? Is. it after the manner of- some heathen folk who swallow their sacred writings literally pill-wise ? Gr that clod- ’ hopper who took his doctor’s direction “take this” literally, and bolted it. forth--with? Or else is it to he taken in, the dilution of the weekly sermon, or in globule thickly coated with Talmagian the deric ? For mercy’s sake; tell us, that we' may set ’ the delightful task of smoothing out the ; rigid brow of the capitalist, orthe clenched , fists of labour. Doctors need to be careful 3 as to their directions, I have heard of a' patient who had leisure to recover ■whilst * his wife ransacked the - whole village in ' vain for a “recumbent.position” in which the doctor wrote that the dose -was to -bo taken. . ' . ’

Now, as to this said text. It has been’ pretty well-known to the world for some thousands of years. Physicians of Egypt ' and Persia prescribed it regularly. Ithas 1 ? been administered constantly—in dilution —for nigh two thousand years of Chris- 1 tianity, and yet the “ diabolic ” law of supply and, demand has ruled out the' law of love from trade-and commerce—if not from society; at large. How in. the world this learned and eloquent doctor has kept it corked up in his medicine chest so long heaven only knows. May be—mercy, ye leather-lunged because ithas been regarded as a text, so that it-has/ become as repulsive to us as the brimstone x and treacle, or salts and senna, or.St Gregory’s powder of our youth. ■ j But you must not takeatext in “ drops you’ll be choked if yon do. You must; swallow it, .eyes closed, epiglottis-extended, with never-a taste or a smell. In drops ! 1 Then literal inspiration • evaporates;, faith l spreads her wings, and reason comes along if even to do the measuring. This text is really a very general' direction to reasonable 'm»n,aaid no panaceac dose. - Reasonably interpreted it means, I take it, not looking solely on our own things, but also on the things of others. A very healthy. and useful precept,' too. Do it into’ “ drops ” and you undo it. Make it a rigid rule of life and who can fit it?- A man’s footpace is a useful guide, and many a sixfoot man can tread out with accuracy a furlong-or a mile, but set us alLbig and little to this thirty-six inch pace, and we’ll be treading on each other’s heels at every turn. ’ . >

Never a man born who has tried literally to do to others as he would have others do to him without putting his foot in it. Once when a neighbour was away, acting in perfect faith on this good old rule, I carefully cut off some branches from his walnut trees which overhung my garden' and poisoned a fine strain of double stocks. He could zmt see it when he came home, but threatened prosecution. I tried ,to show that it was just the action I should have liked him to perform. He only said, “What the devil has that got to do with me P” I love men to be frank with me, but when I grow frank with them, and speak out my mind, I get cursed for my llapu,-, den Ce. Experientia docci. I have found' that the problem is. How to do to others wbat they wish you to do, and yet not get squeezed, sucked, dried, emptied i out. of.; house and home. : Vide Tolstoi’s later utterances. Some of us are lambs, may be, by comparison with others, who are lions. And so far we have not lighted on any plan by which the lion and the lamb can lie down, together comfortably, with the lamb outside the lion. You see that, not being the ether fellow, you cannot tell how he will, take your standard of behaviour, especially if you : happen to do a little thinking on your own account, let alone fads.. Now, I should like to prescribe for Dr Talmage and such as agree with him. We both desire the same happy consummation. Admitting the antiquity and inspiration of texts, I find it well sometimes to boil up a few together, and partake, of the decoction. Here is one that I should; like to mingle with his: “The law was.our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.”.' Our' hope is not in individual sentiment, biit in: juster law and more righteous order. “Capital” may be cruel, cunning, tyrannical; the capitalist, I find, to-day, oftener" kind than not. “ Labour ” would bp just as cruel and tyrannical if it got the upper hand; more so, just now, when, alas, i labour and ignorance .often;go one. We' live in days of adult suffrage and represen-: tion, and parliaments. , During tl*e last, fifty years the capitalist has grown merci-. ful beyond telling—and by law, ■ So' will labour.

Law is simply the registered indication of social or national conscience. “What I would” is a very shaky rule at best; often, a very shady one. The welfare of the whole as acknowledged by the whole; or by majority of the whole—majority rule f being recognised—provides healthy, stable' measures. , You may trust it. It is not yet the best, far from it still, yet how much - better than the past, ‘ Every session of every Parliament in the world .marks higher reach in law and order. God pity’ the country that has, none.,(ouJe TbihtdSS again). Parliaments may he'poor things' still. Carlyle’s withering . sarcasm still strikes home —witness our last New Zealan d session—yet both capitalists and labourers have changed their skins. The capitalist must, for manhood's sake, distinguish between " business ” and brotherhood. The labourer is free to learn, to vote,, .to combine. Oh, the promise of it! The coming. Christ in it! Fancy Love coming along, guided and chaperoned by Law! Take that last session of our Parliament, with all its obstruction, and hectoring, and lying and “ jaw.” Why, of those- forty-eight,- or go. Bills that were passed,into law some will bring more joy, and gladness and. content than all the texts of ail the-Bibles.- of all the-world.

No! no! I am-wrong. It was for this that they were writ; only the Bible of.the Race is not complete. Prophets and evangelists all did their work, and did it well. We enter into their labodrs/'and ring our own new changes on “ the largerC-krifefe that is to bo.”—l am, Ac., VOX ET PRJ3TEEEI'NIHIL.