CURRENT TOPICS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 494, 4 January 1879, Page 3

CURRENT TOPICS.

ftbia column w open to any one who. in the bourse nf his reading or otherwis.% has picket! up infor:mal!oa which mav be -rcsmnled isa of general or tooU interest, and who can express nny comments thert-pn within the compass of _a reasonable paragraph. The name of the writer is re- ■" quired, although not for publication,] The Rev. R. Ir. Stanford does not come out with a very clean sheet from his celebraten case with the liquidators of the ' Otago Daily Times' Company, even although judgment has so far been given in his favor. There is ho doubt that he got the £llOO, and had a legal right to it, bat whether he has equal right to it in equity is very questionable. On reading the evidence through—noting Mr. Stanford's great anxiety to sell at a heavy figure, and the odd coincidence that the rev. gentleman's literary compensation amounted to exactly £25 on each share that he held in the Company, one can hardly help believing that the £llO9 was the price of his blood, and that the phrase —"literary compensation" was used with reference to the affair in the same relation that the expression " agricultural implement" bears to that of " spade." How would the rev. gentleman or his rev. successor like to have been Elijah when he was fed by the ravens, I wonder. I fancy that that would be rather too precarious an existence for either. It would stretch their faith to such an extent, I am afraid, that they would never recover. " Have no care for the morrow " is obso-

lete. That kind of thing might have done in times gone by, but we're past that ■ now. Religion is very good in its way, *ay such as these; but place the /'almighty dollar " in one hand and religion in the other, and say resign one of these, which i 3 it to be ? and, I'm very much -afraid that, while they would deeply regret such should be the case, their duty to their wives and families would compel them to throw up the latter. The, power that so many men possess of advising, exhorting, and entreating others to do ex r actly the opposite to what they do themselves is the wonder of the age. —D.G-. I NOTICE that the law, by which the manly art of self-defence may not be indulged in in the British Dominions without the persuading powers of the fists are rendered nugatory by gloving, has been ingeniously evaded in Melbourne. Two light weights had an encounter there V in * De na M kept by the English ptize- %" fighter, "Jem Mace,"' with their fists >jgloved, but so lightly that, for all practical pmrposes, they might have stood up with•ouct gloves at all. rounds "were? indulged in, and the combatants then adjouyrned till another day, having knocked each otther about considerably. " -Advance Australia!" —Q.

reading the letters from America published ia the 'Daily TimesV written' •by Mr.'\-Jacob Terry, »n impression of the state of America is left on one's mind whicajis shortly and fully expressed by the famous quotation, "there's something rotten in tbe state of Denmark." And then one asks, " can nothing good come oat of Nazareth ?" and on the return of reason one cannot bnfc be struck with the belief that, although in this cor-' respondent's letter there is nothing spoken about but evil, there must be a very great deal of good in America, too. There's a silver lining to every cloud, someone says, and although Mr. Terry nothing before us but the dark side we cannot believe but that there is an opposite. The British feeling of dislike of laudation of good -works seems to be intensified on the American; and to such an extent in Mr. Terry that he will not even admit that anything but evil exists; and in fact one would almost believe that he would rather discourage food works than otherwise. Americans ave, in endeavoring to stop foulmo as in other things, passed -the point at which British people imag : ne the line should be drawn.- There-can be no doubt that we Britishers have, in all things we do, struck the happy medium. .In politics we are exactly democratic -enough (the Americans go a little further than we do. and they point the moral to the whole world!); we know exactly where to pause at speculation; a Britisher" Jtnows to a hair's breath how far to push ;in business that we may have the comforts of life and be prosperous, and yet not be miserly, or become what Mr. Terry says the late A. T. Stewart was, ""a dry goods devil-fish," a very "fine distinction ; and in religion we are patterns, too, knowing precisely how far to allow

our professions to interfere with our pockets;—in fact, we know all about it. V Any person who goes further than we do \is justly considered very objectionable, ought not to be at large. There can doubt that "we are the people !" Some go so far as to say the remark would "be truer if it read, instead of " the "a peculiar people!"—Q.

I OBSEicrB in the Current Topic column of last issue-.reference made to some imSortant point irvasermon of the Rev. J. E'Cosh Smith, therefore emboldened to make a few remarks —respectful ones I trust —upon something which fell from the Rev. J. Hobbs :n the. course of a sermon delivered "the other; Sunday. ; As nearly as I remembti, tile, rev. gentleman said that, while could believe what they chose, forihis part he was quite satisfied that when the Prince of Wales recovered from the dangerous attack of typhoid with which he was visittd L some x years ago it was in direct answer to the united prayers of the English people. I need scarcely say that Mr. Hobbs spoke then, as he always does, with sincerity and from strong conviction; but the thought which passed through my mind as I heard him was simply this : I wonder if the rev. gentlemen knows that the

Prince's father, the good Prince Consort, was also prostrated with typhoid, that an earnest prayer arose from all England for his recovery, and that he died. Now, I have no desire to go* in to a theological argument, and I am quite satisfied.myself reverently to believe that it pleased God to take the one and leave us the other;

* im6 when the statement is made ythafc the son recovered as an answer to prayer are we not logically entitled to say that the prayers,pfferfd up on behalf of the fathcr> -were "rejecfed? , And, when'we furthe<7 reflffct that the fathj r was a man of piety

and tlie-cau3id" thinking niind be.€omes«s good deal staggered, and does not * exactly see its way clear. I quite believe that the facEs are planand simple en--ough. It is the crude interpretation of ■ men that puts us all wrong. It seems to me that we should not play fast and loose with such things, and I cannot but believe that thoughtless (although evidently sincere) statements such as that to which

I have alluded have a tendancy decidedly mischievous. Yet I trust that ia saying this I am not disrespectful to Mr Hobhs; far beyond that, I am certain that I am not irreverent.—C.

"When first your Current Topics appeared.l, among others, noticed the innovation, and looked forward to many bright and interesting subjects being discussed among its columns. I now find, much to my disappointment, tliat it is fast degenerating (and I use the word advisedly) into a common vehicle for discussing matters of religion. Every issue of your paper for many weeks past, has contained one Topic, and sometimes two or three, upon this evidently favorite theme. Now, in my humble opinion, suchV subjects (discussed in the evidently unbelieving tone of many of them) can lead to no good; and, among the young and those whose minds are not firmly fixed, may do irreparable mischief. Being a member of the Church of England myself, I cannot but view with regret the remarks made upon the Synod, Mr. Fitchett, &c, which have lately appeared among your Topics.—B. [We are obliged to our correspondent for the friendly criticism made, but the view taken is one with which we can hardly agree. Our column is open to a free expression of opinion on all subjects which may be properly discussed, and we do not think we have so far allowed any of our correspondents to transgress the bounds of good taste, or to become either irreverent or offensive. Our opinion is that no subject, "religious or otherwise, can be injured by fair and temperate discussion.—Ed.]

I thought the remark made by'your correspondent last week, in which he spoke of Mr Fitchett as a " turncoat," was very ridiculous. Mr. Fitchett finds that, owing to the mere discipline and rules of the Wesleyan body his usefulness is impaired ; bat, wishing at the same time to pursue his calling as a minister of religion > he naturally accepts an offer-from a church body whose rules are not of so objectionable a kind. The paragraph of your correspondent only shows how apt people are to confound the real vital principle with its environment. He evidently thinks that Mr. Fitchett, in going over to the English Church, is turning his back on his religion, as if both sects were not simply branches of the Protestant Church. Nor does he appear to know that the same thing has been, going on for generations among men of the purest life, and who have given the. brightest of examples to their fellow men. There seems to me to be a good deal of sectarian narrowness in your correspondent's paragraph.—A;