THE REV. AIR JAMIESON'S ADDRESSES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12991, 4 June 1904, Page 14

THE REV. AIR JAMIESON'S ADDRESSES.

'TO THE EDITOK. Sir,—ln your report..of-.Mr J.; C. Jamief.on's address delivered , in Knox Church on Sunday last he is reported ai having represented (he position taken up by young men on-the question of religion to be as follows : "When asked''to cliooso between religion and football or between roligipn and Dar.wirr, they said,' "We won't choose; we'll have, both. Wo' 1! have our athletic-, wo'll read our novels and our poetry, and at the same timo we'll study onv Bibles.' " Such utterantes coming from silch a quarter cannot, I boliove, fail • to provo painful reading for all who havo the glory of Christ and spiritual well-being of. young men and womon at heart. No Christian can reflect on the character of Inuch of tho preaching both in tho' Old Country and in tho colonies without feeling, that this is preeminently a day in which Christ is , being wounded iii tho house of His friends. Some oE tho recant utterances of tho Rev. J. H. Campbell, of the City Temple, London, cannot he regarded as other than a mollified form of Pantheism, contrary alike to tho teaching of. Scripture and tho dictates of sound common Eonso; and a good deal /of the teaching lately emanating from colonial pulpit's, if not exactly similar in character, has been equally unscriptural. 1 believe I am expressing the feelings of most of your Christian readers say that it is greatly to be regretted that ono in Mr Jamieson's position'should throw tho weight which attaches-to his scholarship, character, and office in. the direction indicated in his address of last Sunday! Such teaching can, in my judgment, only tend to accentuate the speed of many young, men and'women, on tho downward road who are. already going v too fast. Far bo it from ane to say, or oven think, that Mr Jamieson has the remotest idea of. doing any such thing. I think it will bo admitted, however, by most thoughtful and observant people that football and novel-reading hjvvo afready far too strong a hold on tho m'iuds of a vast number of young men, and young women also. I can, with so'mo knowledge of'the-football field ancl its surrounding's, confidently say that it is not-the placo to which I could recommend a young man to go in- ordev to get his morals .improved or his manners refined. As to novel-reading, my experience is that the moro young people read that class of thing the less they care J .o read the Word of God. ■• I db not wish to.be misunderstood. I am not now contending that no Christian over reads a novel or goes to see p.. match played: far from it. At tho same, time it is my honest conviction that no _ Christian, .young or old, ever had his appetite for tho Word of God sharpened by such means. Those who will try a combination of theso tlvreo will find to their sorrow that the Biblo will usually occupy a very.'bad third place. "No man can serve two [much Jos; three] masters" applies hero. As. to orthodoxy and Darwin, though I may know a little more about tho Bible than I do about Darwin, 1 know enough about both to warrant, mo.'in faying, that men must ohooso between/ Darwin and tlw Bible; they canhp*hold both.- "If tho Lord bo God, follow Him;' and if Baal, then follow him" applies now as iii the day 3of Elijah. It is well known, that Darwin, has declared for- natural selection pure- and simple, and leaves no room, as !ono scientist lias said, for such a being as fiod in (he prows?. Ho said that to admit design would destroy his theory. If thereis no design in Nature, there is no design in man. Where does this land us but in atheism? Christ tay-s, ''.In tho beginning God made'them, inalo and female." Paul says. "Aflain was first formed., then Eve." To t'hcfo two assertions Darwin practically says "No." It is difficult to .=co how a man can bo a true Christian and a Darwinian at tho. same time—unto, indeed, wo regard thoso people as good Christians who hold neither Christ nor His teaching.—t ■ am, etc., ' • LUX.