"PILLING" A PERTH PARSON.

NZ Truth, Issue 94, 6 April 1907, Page 8

"PILLING" A PERTH PARSON.

LYING LUCUBRATIONS ABOUT LIBIDINOUS LUTHER.

Exposed, Expounded and Explained.

(By JOHN NORTON.)

During his present stay, m Perth, Western Australia, Mr. John Norton has been paying visits to the Perth Churches, Chapels, and Conventicles and publishing a series of articles on what he has heard and' seen. The following is the fourth article of this series, the preceding one being upon the Anglican Cathedral, and a sermon delivered therein by Dean Latham, m the course of which the Very Reverend gentleman -dealt very severely with numerous social evils, foremost amongst which he classed Scandalous Journalism. By way of a change after the clerical constigation received at the Cathedral last Sunday week, I went m the evening to St., Andrews' Church, the Scotchbyterian Kirk of Perth, located almost alongside the Cathedral, to hear the Meenister, the Rev. A C. S. James, say 'something/ about that prq|-tag|onis't of Protestantism, the German renegade monk, Martin Luther. The Rev. James, of the trinity of Christian names, may be a Scot, but; doesn't look or speak like a Scot, which is perhaps due to his being, as I believe he is, a native of Sydney, whence he came to Perth at a "strong call" from St. Andrew's kirkers, after having made the matter of accepting the call to a better '" place,: with a- - bigger salary, "A matter of prayer," and "duly laid it before the Lord," as is the case with all -classes'' of Nonconformist Consciences, m like circumstances. They generally seek divine guidance m prayer, after they have decided to accept the "call," together with attendant increased emoluments. Halleluiah ! I wonder if these fellows have ever read "Holy Willies Prayer." and having read it, remembering, it, laugh up the- sleeves of their holy go,wns ? ■ • * ' * . By the way, again, what are the Reverend James's front names ? We never knew, though Aye heard much about him, of a mild sort, as minister of the Chalmer's Memorial Church, the Scotchbyterian Kirk of Surry Hills' Sydney. I presume this triplet, of initials has a good ring about it, m order to bring its pious owner into nominal harmony with his own sacred character 1 as the shepherd of a .Scotchbyterian flock. Do these initials stand for Andrew Colin Scott ? Or for Archibald Campbell Scott. If they stand for either,, his parents must have been very patriotic, pious and prescient people to thus make a canny Scotchbyterian Kirk. How could a bid ior his future promotion m the Scotch Shepherd, with such a string of Scottish cognomens, fail to receive a " Divine call" to one of the fastest Scotchbyterian sinecures ? He could not possibly fail to receive and grab the "call," as the Rev. A. C. S. James's case conclusively proves. The Scotch instinct for getting gear; and the good things of this world, and. holding fast to them, as to the faith, would seem not to be wanting m the James family of Sydney. Andrew Colin Scott, or Archibald Campbell Scott James, has a brother barracking " for boodle at the bar —not the booze bar, but the law nar— in Sydney, as vigorously and successfully as his Bibles-banging brother m Perth. He is what is known m the profession as "a coming man," and at present is the leader of the Junior Bar, with bright prospects of Pelf and Promotion before him. »■ » • _ The two "Jims'— a cant name for a current coin of the realmmight ■■ viery easily be mistaken for twins, so strong and striking is the resemblance between them. The same dark, sallow, not to say billious, yet, withal, healthy complexion, high forehead, strong jaw, prominent chin, bright eyes, and gleaming teetli, and even the same smile and sound of voice, make up one of the most remarkable family personal resemblances we have ever seen. And what is the difference between the two "Jims" m professional aptitude and aspiration ? The lawyer of the doggerel ditty as truthfully as facetiously sings : If you will only give me five guineas a day, lii swear a hole through a brick wall. And what's the parson's pious profession as regards pelf ? Has it not been prettily put by Burns m the last lines of "Holy Willies Prayers?" Yes, verily, it bath, as the Scripture of the sweetest and sagest of Scotch singea's showeth : But, Lord, remember me and mine, Wi' mercies temp'ra! and divine, That I for gear and grace may shine, ■""■ Excelled by nane, i_ And all the glory shall be Thine, Amen ! Amen ! And here we leave the twa "Jims," m the hope that neither of them will come to the disgraceful end of "Holy Willie," who, while drunk, tumbled into a ditch, and was smothered "like a fiddler's mangy bitch!"— fit end of such a holy humbug and howling hypocrite. » * » But we must come to the Reverend Andrew 'Colin Scott, or Archibald Campbell Scott, James's lecture on Luther, . which was .read to a very large, well-dressed, and smugly sanctimonious-looking audience, not one and a-half per cent, of whom, it is safe to say, were Scotch or even of Scotch extraction. The mugs of most of them— men and'w'omeh— were almost markedly Milesian, ! which is somewhat of a physiogno- ! mical phenomenon for a Scotch (Kirk. There is little or nothing of i praise or blame to be said of 1 Meenirter James's lucubrations a!bout Luther. It was the same old ! story, such as Protestant Sunday- ! school children read of m their little ! Protestant Piety Primers, ar as told lin the tracts and leaflets distributed <tq dossers m the park o' Sundays, ■by godly grocers who sand their sug--lar and give Mhort weight six days

a week, and then serve the Lord on what is. called the Seventh Day, but which is really the First Day, of the week, as reparation for their swindling duriag the rest of the week. * • * ' James has a good presence and a good voice, but he did not seem t n be on to a good wicket last Sunday evening. He appeared to labor under tbe impression that hia gammon and "quiver" did not go down too well with the saints, ahd that what he had- to tell them about Luther they could have told ! him* and a deal more that was i much more true. James, moreover, [was handicapped by his manuscript. For even a Methody man, with a 'large-, and _ intelligent audience like that which faced James before the [rostrum, is not entitled to expert tp stir the hearts of his hearers by reading his homilies or long dissertations about Luther, or anybody or anything else. Reading is not- preaching, m an oratorical sense, and unless^ the reader, be a cultured scholar, and a precisian m tho choice of words, and an elocutionist m uttering them, his lectures won't pass for soul-stirring sermons, or produce any lastingly go 0 d effect on the minds of his hearers. Now, we can-npt^-for reasons we do not care to put Jnlo" print— regard James as bej ing either cultured, scholarly, or m ! any sense an adept m the choice and | use of words— which is a mystery mastered o.ily by one m a million. Therefore, we should recommend James to give up reading his lectures, and to got back to the good old Scotchbyterian style of exhortation— straight-out speaking as the spirit (not the -whisky) moveth. « . * » James, as a collator and colligator of the tags and the fags of the farcial fables that have made of Luther something of a superstitious myth among Protestants, is not a success. He told a deal about Luther that everybody who heard him knew to te true, and a deal more which they did not know was untrue. Instead of trying to make Luther appear a sort of Inspired Saint, he would have done better to tell his hearers that he was a half-m<ad monk suffering from epilepsy, and prompted m his "mission" by mercenary motives This great and good man, Martin Luther, who wanted to reform the Church and the World, wanted badly reforming himself A man who could cooly declare that he had seen, heard and smelt the Devil m his cell, and scared Auld Nickie Ben away by shying an inkpot at him, or any othor, pot— even a pot-de-chambre, to put it politely— was capable of seeing and saying anything, and doing [anything, as. indeed, Luther was, 'To begin with, he was one of the j myriads of monkish loafers, who infected Christendom m his day. He ! was the truculent tool of his Order, the Augustines, m his squabble with Tetzel, the Dominican, over the sale of. indulgences. The Augustines did not condemn, or even complain, at the sale of Indulgences, but resented the- fact 'that the profitable business had. been entrusted to their monkish rivals, the Dominicans. This is why they put up Martin Luther, p. bold, blasphemous blatherskite of their Order, to denounce Tetzel, and the traffic, out of the profits of which the Dominicans has "diddled 'em." * • * Then again, St. James of St. Andrews's of St. George's Terrace, and Chalmers Church, Surry Hills, Sydney, did not tell his hearers that Martin Luther was largely a political tool of those German Princes who regarded the Pope as poaching on their pecuniary preserves, m pinching the siller of their subjects by the sale „of Indulgences : they thought that this money should have gone into their pockets and not into St. Peter's. Hence the hubbub they helped Luther, the Mercenary Monk, to kick up! Hence their armed protection of him against the perfidy of the Pope, who would, but for this, have succeeded m persuading the Emperor Charles V. to break his oath by disregarding the terms of the safe conduct granted to Luther to and . from the Diet of Worms, and burnt him at the stake, as the Council of- Constance, of a hundred years before, had persuaded the Emperor Sigismund to do m the case of John Huss, the Protestant-patriot martyr of Bohemia, a better and greater man than Luther ever was, or even knew how to be. John Huss was a sage and a saint ; Martin Luther was a savage , sectary and a blasphemous brute. "Jim," • moreover, said nothing gbout Martin's morality. Mr Luther was not only a Teat; wine-foibber and. beer-boozer, but, like John Wesley, and some of the Scotch saints of whom history makes mention, he suffered terribly from St. Paul's "thorn m- the flesh," and was a perfect devil of a Don Juan after the "gals." Luther broke his solemn vows as a monk, m order to marry a nun, the notorious Catherine Bora, who had broken her vows and who 'bore him numerous babies, born m and out of wedlock. Luther only ceased living m concubinage with her, and suddenly married her, m order to cause to cease the clamor raised by his Catholic enemies over this salacious scandal. • • • Boanerges "Jim" seemed to forget that the lascivious, libidinous Luther's low standard of morality was common to most of the Reformers, whom Protestant prasmatists have recognised as Protestant, saints. Luther himself confesses concerning his connection with and marriage of his Chaste Catherine and Blessed Bora : I married of a suddeu, not only that I might not hear the clamors which I knew would be raised agains 1 ; me, but to stop the mouths of those who reproached me with Catherine Bora, ! He calls this nasty mm-wifc of his : 1 "My Rib Kate !"'and so far forgets I himself as to say publicly, to Count

Seckendorf, one of his Doodling backers, that he liked his wife "because she religiously observed the conjugal fidelity that she owed him." Fancy this fierce, feculent, fornicating fellow publicly-praising his wife's conjugal fidelity, as though that were a rare virtue among Reformers and their spouses ! Perhaps the libidinous Luther, who had broken his own > celibate conventual vows, and had married a woman who had broken hers had some reason for crowing over the conjugal fidelity of a renegade nun married to a renegade monk. What a chaste combination for the cultivation of conjugal fidelity '. • • _• Erasmus; to whom Meenister "Jim" made misleading reference in' the course of his lecture, made mock at the moral matrimonials of these immoral monks and nuns ; and we have it on ; Reformation record— which St. James of St. Andrew's, of St. George's Terrace, does not seem to have read—that: When his friend Oecolampadius (another Reforming renegade monk) married, Erasmus humorously remarked : "He hatb taken to bimself a wife, a pretty girl. He wants, I suppose, to mortify the flesh." Some call Lutherism a tragedy: I call it a comedy, where distress commonly ends m a wedding. As we shall see, the co-called--Refor-mation caused a perfect cataclysm of crapulous concubinage, and its promoters, while breeding bastards like rabbits, took no more thought of promoting morality by matrimony than a boar pig does of piety when he begets litters of porkers. The Reformation record above cited has this to say about Luther's marriage, and shows what Erasmus. had to say about it: There was at first a report that Catherine Bora was brought to bed soon after her marriage with Luther ; but Erasmus, who had wrote that news to one of his friends, acknowledged the falsity of it a little after. Take his own humorous account of this matter, m one of his letters, dated 13th of March, 1526 : " Luther's marriage is certain; the report that his wife being so speedily brought to bed is false. But I hear she is now with child. If the common story be true, that Anti-Christ shall be born of a monk and a nun, as" some protended, how many thousands of Anti-Christs are there m "the world already? I was m hopes that a wifo would have made Luther a little tamer; but he, contrary to all expectations, has pubhshed, indeed, a most elaborate, but as virulent a book against me as ever he wrote. -What will become of the pacific Erasmus, to be obliged to descend upon the stage', at the time when gladiators are usually dismissed from the service, and not only to fight, but fight with beasts 1" Such was Erasmus's description of the monl^ Luther and his nuptials with a nun, together with the .conception of his character, which may be summed up. m two words : "Virulent- Bealstf!" That Erasmus was not far out. m his estimate of Luther's char aeter is ' shown* by the awful fruits Of blasphemy/brutality, bestiality, and! religious and social anarchy which his so-called .Reformation caused society to reap m blood and tears, slaughter and shame, even m Luther's' own life-time. The logical, outcome of Lutherism was Anabaptism, with all its pornic'promiscuity and concupiscent communism, detestable debauchery and diabolical delusions similar to those of Eddy-ism and Dowieism of the present day, only infinitely more detestable and damnable. John of Munster, Knipperd'oiling, Stunner,; Storch, Matthias and Bocholdt. and a whole host of other savage sectaries, ' were the direct descendants ,of Luther, m the Religious Reformation line and their frenzies, frauds, and. fornications, together with the brutal and bloody civil wars which they excited and sustained, were directly the outcome of Luther's anarchical . go-as-you-please-to-glory Mission, meanwhile doing as you lil^-e on earth. Luther, who was responsible for this outbreak of religious repudiation and oifvil strife, had to call on his princely patron and protector, Frederick, the Elector Palatine, _ to put down by the sword his Own anarchical followers, the Anabaptists. Frederick, the great Protestant Champion and the protector of Luther, joined forces, with the Catholic princes to -put. down Luther's most apt pupils by • the sword, with the result that m the course of a few months, over 1.0,000 of these miserably-misguided 1 Reformed Radicals, were, slaughtered by the combined forces of Luther's Catholic and Protestant friends. What a horrible anti-climax to the Glorious Reformation ! *' m ■ ' ' m But St. "Jim," of St Andrew's, on St. George's Terraoe, while telling a lot of tarradiddles about Luther, said nothing about all these melancholy and murderous aspects of Luther and his Reformation. Neither did the said St. "Jim" have a word to say about the warring sects into which the Reformers split up during Luther's lifetime : such as the Lutherans proper—a sort of stubborn Scotchbyterian or Presbyterian "true blue" or rigid Lutherans; the Moderate Lutherans, who compounded with, the Catholics on certain points of doctrine ; the Luthero-Zuinglians, the Sohewenkfeldians, and the score or so of other sects and denominations. All these—or most of these things concerning Luther —ought to be told m a lecture purporting to be about Luther, if such lecture is not to be the worst of lies—only half the truth. . "Truth" will, on some future occasion, give St. "Jim" of Saint Andrew's, on St. George's Terrace, a little more truth about Luther and his Glorious Reformation. But for the present this muoh must suffice. Perth, W.A., Thursday, March 14th, 1907*.