BISHOP NEVILL ON THE BOER WAR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11643, 29 January 1900, Page 3

BISHOP NEVILL ON THE BOER WAR.

TO 'i'HK KDITOK. Sn:,—My peaceful hermitage has been disturbed by Bishop Nevill's bellicose sermon. One .would like to ask the good Bishop one or two questions: Is the. present war a war of extermination? If not, how .does Dr Nevill propose to rule the Butch in the Orange' Free State and in the Transvaal? These people are, if I -understand the causuistry of the 'discourse on Gideon, the Medianites, and Kruger and Steyn, like Oreb and Zeeb, are to be slain, all because they would not accept our culture, our laws of progress, our form of religion. The country is to be made a desert, and-we are to'call it peace, the sword is to be put aside for the Sermon on the Mount. I would point out to the Bishop that his oration is declamatory. He is a learned man, but I think his logic weak. Indeed, as Jowett, the master of Bnlliol used to say, preachers soon come to a stone wall if you apply to them the Socratio method. \> c only see what we desire to see. A partisan refuses to look at the whole. What we want at this juncture is not oratory and highsounding phrases. Vhoeian told the Athenians they were going. "The people when they are drunk will murder you," said Demosthenes. "Me, when they are drunk; you when you are sober," replied the primer of the great orator's periods. I turn from I this discourse, founded on an incident which took place in a' dark period of the world's history, to the Archbishop of Capetown's recent pastoral. What a fine spirit it breathes How like his master the pilot of the Galilean Lake. He pleads for toleration. On both sides are good and true men. Both parties have a good deal to say for themselves. He longs for pe.->.ce, and hopes no harsh words will be said against their Dutch fellow-colonists. Such a spirit reminds one ot Archbishop Leighton. If our chief pastor in Dunedin had spoken in this strain, if he had reminded us that if our cause be uniust, all the artillery, of Woolwich will not- make " just; that m the moral world, as in tho natural, no force is ever lost; in spite of bonfires and' flaming speeches, it will triumph over wrong. Si he had asked God that a gracious solemnity might be diffused through our people on- account of our brave young men who have been slain/in battle, and that the Almighty would lead us all in the paths of righteousness, to unity, and fraternal peace, I would have rejoiced that w» had one teacher in our midst, at any rate, who believes that peace hath her victories as well as war.—-I am, etc.,