MR SMITH'S SERMON.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume 24, Issue 1227, 3 June 1893, Page 3

MR SMITH'S SERMON.

TO THE EDITOR. Sra, —An apologetic' correspondent,..' who cloaks his personality under • the signature " Anti-cloak " writes to your issu& of May 27 on.the above subject. lam really sorry that he has not the moral courage to let us know who he is that is making those vile insinuations contained in the letter,' so that one might know whether he was honestly unable to discriminate between the administration of wholesome truths for the benefit of his fellows and the use of those truths to pander to a class. For as we know human nature, it is not always the poor who are most guilty of the sin of covetousness ; and, judging by the tone of Mr Smith's sermon, the wealthy squatters in this district were entirely outside the pale of those at whom his charges were directed. Burns says .Some folk tak' religion in their inooth, An' speak o' mercy, ffrace, and truth— For what ? To pie their malice scouth On some puir wight, ~ And hunt him doon, o'er right and. ruth Tae ruin straight.

Let us try to - aualyaa v ". AHtircloak'a " letter. First, he says he does not think Mr Smith's sermon a slur on settlers in Maniototo, and then he says that however much myself and others dislike to hear it,- sheep and cattle stealing has become common in this district since settlement has advanced. I do most painfully dislike to hear this, and I am glad that there are others • ivhose consciences are still sufficiently alive to dislike it also. Does " Anti-cloak" gloat over it? Is there not a villainous insinuation that the settlers are the thieves in the statement that sheep and cattle stealing are common in the district since settlement advanced. Let us charitably hope that rascality is not the parent of the insinuation, but that it is purely due to stupidity on "Anti-cloak's" part. Further portions of his letter favour the latter hypothesis. He remarks that Mr Smith's discourse on the text " Thou shalt not stea|" embodied "a wholeis6rne'''doctriil6i So might we say regarding the text. " Thou shalt not bear false witness., against thy neighbour." He then, out of the abundance of his charity, makes a comparison between me and the Pharisees of old', who were grieved to the heart because the- Saviour denounced. their wickedness with similar truths. Does " Anti-cloak " not v see that he is assuming that I am defending thieves because lam one of them. He further adds that there was nothing' in Mr .Smith's-, sermon to annoy an honest man. I .hold that there is nothing more annoying to an honest man than to hear false accusations levelled against his fellow-men. If " Anti-cloak " fails to see the dark and rascally insinuations which permeate his own letter I must excuse his not being able to see anything wrong or offensive in Mr Smith's sermon, and I must, moreover, excuse him for not being able to see that I did not take exception to the axiomatic injunction, "Thou shalt notsteal," but, first, that I pointed out how uncharitable it was for a clergyman not to give an accused man, who hud been acquitted, the benefit of the doubt in a practical, not a verbal, manner—viz., by avoiding the delivery and publication of a discourse of' the-kind at a time when;common courtesy might . have suggested jthe avoidance of any, remarks likely. to ..hurt, jthe ( feelings of anyone just acquitted of'a "gravfc charge. Second,'.-that if that man's caafi had nothihg'to ii 6: with the sermon, the discourse was a libel on.the settlers of Maniototo, which, yiew, of the matter " Anti-cloak's" letter aggravates. I ask would it be fair td apply " Anticloak's " rule to Mr Smith, and say he was qualified to deliver a sermon upon the text, " Be sure your sins will find you out," as was done the other day by one, who shall be nameless ? Certainly not 1 It would Le adding cruelty to uncharitableness; yet such was the public feeling engendered by Mr Smith's sermon. It is useless to discuss morality with people who set up a moral standard- entirely devoid of chaiity. It appears to me that teachers of such have all the elements of their own destruction within themselves. Nothing bettfer can be expected than a lowering of the moral tone of all who come withi.i such influences. I'leave this matter to the settlers of Central Otago to carry those grave charges upon, their shoulders,as best they can. My regard for charity and fairplay must be my excuse for troubling you at all on this matter.—l am, &c., John LAW. Gimmerburn, May 29.