CORRESPONDENCE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 188, 14 July 1925, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —While bearing in mind (he injunction of tlie Apostle Paul, "If it be possible as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men,” I cannot allow the decision of the committee appointed to deal with the dispute between Air Mandcr and Father Lynch on the question of the sale of indulgences to pass without entering my dissent. The modus operandi of the committee appears to be that, unless original documents can be produced, we have nothing trustworthy in history. These gentlemen have taken a line of argument which would overthrow the trustworthiness of the Bible.

No original documents of the Bible are in existence. They have all perished, but. the world’s libraries contain thousands of copies of'the originals which have been carefully examined and compared, and which go to prove the absolute trustworthiness of the Scrintures.

Further, these gentlemen might as well east doubt upon the martyrdom of Ridley and Latimer, who were burned at tho stake, or deny the massacre of St. Bartholomew;

To reject flic testimony of historians as they have done is tantamount to saying that these historians traded in falsehoods and forgeries. Now Ihe two chief qualifications of an historian are first, a man ol truth, and second, a possessor of knowledge, and we doubt not that the historians cited by Mr Maiulev possess these qualifications in a 'nigh degree. I would be the last man to persecute, or burn at the stake, any man for his religious convictions, hut do not let us accept the dangerous precedent established by the committee, otherwise history becomes a tissue of falsehoods and forgeries. In the name of thousands of Protestants who are loyal to facts, to the Bible and to the British throne, I here and now enter my dissent from the decision of the committee.—-I uni, etc., A. A, MURRAY, U Minister, U.E. Church Manse. 3 Princess street, Pjdmcrstion North. July 13, 1925. " '