MR GAMMELL'S LECTURE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10263, 22 January 1895, Page 6

MR GAMMELL'S LECTURE.

TO THE EDITOXi.

Sib, —As yon have given a report of the aßore, you will, I hope, give me space for 'a few remarks. Firs!;, I dou'fc think it is rational for a person to bold up to ridicule the belief of hia hearers and then refnse to answer a question which would havo shown how contradictory some of his statements were. Then, is it rational to compile a Rationalist hymn book from Christian hymns, carefully cutting out the name of Christ, and then coolly ask Christians to afc&nd up and sing with him these antiChristisn mutilations. Now as to Mr Gammell'a statemcntd. As you report, he eaid that tha best preachers were perpetually leaving the church and becoming Rationalists. Thiii is a gross exaggeration. He only mentioned one (Dr Robertson Saaith), and if I am not mistaken he and some others did not leave till they were put out, being quite willing to take the pay of tho church and at the same time undermine th« faith tutyswore to support. Mr Gammell denned a Rationalist as oue who denied all miracles, say* ing that miracles were another name for magic. Then he affirmed that Jesus, Paul, and tha old Prophets were H*tion»lists. How, if Jesus waa one, why not Hia followers who believed in Him ? This is a fair sample of Mr GammeU'a logic He stated that Mohammedanism was infinitely batter than the Christianity it destroyed. He must read hiatory with the green spectacles of prejudice to talk such nonsense. With the horrors of Turkish outrages in Armenia, and their fearful cruelties in Morocco and Egypt now before us, it is simply astound" ing for any enlightened scholar to affirm such & thing. Paul, Mr GamKsell said, wrote a good deal ot sophistry, bnb did the lecturer attempt to prove it ? Wot one instance wag given. Then, he found out that Sfc. John's Gospel was written in Alexandria because he found tho Greek word " logos," and this term was found in Philo's writings, an Alexandrians. Won« derful logic this!

Ali scientists, ho said, are united upon scientific teaching. Thin, I assert, is simply not true, and I am prepared to prove my assertion, but space forbids. In short, Mr Gammell ia a deist of the Tom Payne school, who claims for himself and those who think with him that they are the people with whom wisdom will Ike and die; while Christians are irrational fools for believing in a rational Christ, who nat only believed in miracles bat wrought them, and now ia the greatest miracle in history; that ..tons taught that He was the Son of God, and that He gave His Life for the life of the world, are grand historical facts, which I with millions believe, because we cannot disprove them even if we were willing ; and still we think that we are more rational tUau Mr Gammell and his deistical school.—l sm, &c,, Dunedin, January 21. J. Neil»