THE COMET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14345, 15 April 1910, Page 3

THE COMET.

Sir,—l think lam right in saying than wherever the Herald is read, especially by old settlers, your readers look for the most reliable information regarding matters of groat importance. In your issue of Monday last we are told that the comet, which is receding from the sun, will be some 14million miles from our globe on May 19; also, at this critical time, the comet may either bo attracted to the sunfrom which it will then be some 65 million miles—or else swing round, and continue on its course through space. Now, sir, according to Professor Thomas, to hit the sun would disrupt ' r and unless the comet, by an act of divine power, and, therefore, contrary to scientific ideas, swings round, the reasonable inference is that the comet will hit our globe. Which of the two will then suffer disruption? • QUERY. " CHURCH . LOSSES IN GERMANY." Sir,—-Your issue of last Saturday contained a suggestive account of Churcli losses in Germany. vlt was an indictment of Pro- . testatum. The Church of Rom© is bv no 1 means free from troubles through '•modernism, against' which the Roman Pontiff has iound it necessary to inveigh most emphatically, and to cause a sytem of espionage which evidences the fear of the Roman Catholic Church. In fact, sir. ; the whole Church, throughout the world is passing •through a crisis from which it will emerge wounded and torn, but > triumphant. 1c must do so; it cannot fail to do itthe very gates of hell, cannot prevail against it. I! we did not bSieve that, we could not bear to think of what is taking place in Germany. Your citations from another jour- \ nal were well within the mark. . Things are many times worse than you pictured them- J History shows it. ; M, Long ago the Edinburgh , Review, which jM everybody knows is not a Roman Catholics publication, said: " The land which was the cradle of : the Reformation has become* the grave of the reformed faith. . J : . £ All comparatively recent works on Germany, as well as personal observation, tell the same tale. Denial of every tenet of the Protestant faith among the thinking classes, and indifferenoe in the masses, are the posi-. tive and negative agencies beneath which the Church of Luther and Melanchthon haa succumbed. In . contiguous parishes 'of Catholic and 1 Protestant populations, one invariable distinction has long been paten# to all eyes; the path to the Catholic Church is brodden bare, that to the Protestant Church is rank with grasses and weeds to the. very door."' 1 ' ' '.*■ f . ■ Professor George H. Schoddle says : "Thek storm centre of the "theological unrest ,o£V our day and generation is the land of 1 Luther." . •••. .* > ■ . '■ And what does tlje latest history of . mod-, em Germany say? This: "There are but two great religions in Germany. • Thar' Roman Catholics, who form one-third of th» population, are religious and pious, but the f . religiousness is not due to the influence .o£ the State schools, but to that of the Church, - as may be seen from the fact that the Pro- ' testants of Germany, who form two-thirds oZ; the population, are not at all; religious. Protestantism is the • State , religion of * Prussia, but all the endeavours of " the Government to make the people religious have >' , been in vain. Church-going is not even s - • social obligation in the Protestant parts of Germany, where churches are few." Mi .. The above is sober history, from the pens • of Protestant writers. So is this: " About 180,000 illegitimate births in Germany,- whilst there are 60,000 illegitimate in Great ,Britain, and the fact that there are every year 12,000 suicides in Germany, as. compared with 3000 suicides in Great Britain, which seem conclusively to prove that the German, schools have ill-succeeded in fulfilling their aim and object." , Bewaro ;of misdirected education.' ■ "j, l Let us in New Zealand-beware of something else. The signal of danger is hoisted. Sabbath desecration prevails and increases ! * in spite of almost weekly accidents in . oonsoquence of it. Blackstone said: " A corruption of morals usually follows a profanation of the Sabbath;" and Adam Smith said: "The Sabbath, as a political institu- • tion, is of inestimable value, independently of its claim to divine authority." The Sabbath day is an opportunity for rest of bodjand mind, and for refreshing- the spirit. 1 The .Sabbath, like death, is a great leveller. The poorest , man can rest as well as tho richest, and* poorest can go. to church and say the same prayers, sing tho same hymns.'read the same Scriptures, and partake of the same loaf and the same chalice as prince or peer. Will workingmen bo such j fools as to throw the Sabbath rest a.way, and y}' at last have to work seven days for six days' P In despising God and sacrificing the SabIn despising God and sacrificing the Sabbath day of rest and worship for mere selfish indulgence, men will reap a destiny of pain, . r ( sorrow, and anguish. History proves it; ~ > holy writ prophecies it-; : Egypt, Sodom, Babylon, and Israel illustrate it. Beware 1 F. G. Ewixgton. : ' ' i ' - ' v>