BAAL WORSHIP.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9337, 30 January 1892, Page 3

BAAL WORSHIP.

TO THE EDITOR. Sin,—After reading Mr Donald Reid's lrtter

in the Otago Daily Times, I had the curiosity to refer to the pages of the " Encyclopedia Britannica" to ascertain who Baal was, and find that he was sometimes worshipped as Jehovah, sometimes as the sun god, and sometimes as the devil. As the sun god he is worshipped as a symbol of the Eternal One by the modern and ancient Parsee, and the ancient Peruvians (who were Socialists) worshipped the same deity through the same symbol. In Christ's time the devil (a squatter no doubt —"the social pest" of that time, too) " took Christ up to a high mountain " (a sheep station) "and showed Him all the earth and the glory of it," when he (the squatter, no doubt), said, "All these things will I give unto Thee if Thou fall down and worship me" (the devil—or Baal, now more usually styled Mammon). It would therefore seem that Baal worship, in the sense in which Mr D. Reid must wish it to be understood, is this devil, squatter, or Mammon worship—a very pantheistic sort of worship—the act or action of matter—earth, gold, and silver especially. Mr D. Reid remarks, "Prodigious!"—commenting upon the "they should be allowed to have a bit of freehold as long as they made good use of it" passage of Mr M'Kenzia's speech. As much as to say that this was a gross interference with the rights of private property—which the owner has a rijjht to do with as he likes. I hold that "the earth is the Lord's," and no man's to do as he individually thinks lit with. I hold, too, that wheu the Highlanders were evicted from the Sutherland estates—the land which had belonged to them and their forefathers—they 'ought not to have passivjly submitted, but ought to have hung up the duke as an example to Baal or Mammon worshippers. And even if the freehold principle is to be conceded, is there no limit as to the amount of land one individual ought to be permitted to possess? Mr D. Keid and thise of his kidney arc the true Baal worshippers. According to astronomers the earth was ejected from the sun, and the Baal worshipper has never ceased to add '' Held to field "—a bit of the sun to a bit of the sun—which, if we are to believe an ancient book, hath God's wrath, curse, and everlasting damnation annexed to I he doing thereof. In the days when England was designated "Merrie England," as Mr D. Reid may see from a perusal of the first chapter of Froude's " History of England," no man was allowed to own "more than 2000 sheep," or farm more than 500 acres of land, which is at the rate of fo :r sheep to the acre. England then was truly conservative, until the iands were gifted to Hie aristocracy, when Baal or Mammon worship was allowed to dominate the realm, with the consequence that to-day one-third of the populace there are starving, as Carlyle with prophetic vision foresaw ("Past and Present"), and as is now very evident. I for one am no particular admirer of Sir M'Kenzie nor would for one moment seek to justify his and the Government's treatment of men who are equitably entitled to pensions. But this is a matter apart from Baal worship; and as Baal worship may also mean the worship of Jehovah, so I believe that there is a time coming when "every man shall know the Lord"; knowing, too, that the earth is his—that is, the human races as a whole—and not to be held as a monopoly by Mammon worshippers, to be used as they would like. And if no limit should be placed upon tins acreage one man ought to be allowed to hold and to do with as he likes—to depopulate and convert into a deer forest if he likes—then the rerlurtio ail uhsnrfhim of the argument is that it should ultimately belong to the State or to nobody at all, and I suspect that this will at no distant date be everywhere the case.— l am, &c, .January 29

Smitiiius,

A GtUAHAN-tke of Puhitv.—"The name of Oadlmry on any packet of Cocoa is a guarantee of purity."—Medical Annual.

— The centenary of the panorama occurs in 1892. A young Edinboro painter named Barker was thrown into prison by his creditors. From the way in which tb«- light from a hole in the ceiling struck the walls he evolved the idea of the panorama.

Take the puut's udvin;, ami bill dull rare besone. and send your -rev hairs witli it !>y nsiiv MioS A. AllenV ;\Vnrld\- Ihtir Ki:stnn.-i\ which never fails.