THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 1320, 17 March 1877, Page 10

THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. TO THE EDITOR.

TO THE EDITOK, Sir,— ln your report or Mr Briglit'a Lecture on. " Inf alibility and Inspiration," he says, " It is only when Christianity becomes free of priestcraft; when men cease to be trained to it as a trade ; thatifcs true mission can begin, its mission of brotherly love, social liberation, and universal harmony." That is to say, when meu cease to be instructed in the doctrines of Christianity they will understand them better ; when these doctrines cease to be inculcated, then only will they influence the actions of meu. When we cease to worship the God of Heaven and the Author of Christianity as a duty, then will the mission of Christ be fulfilled. It is astounding that such folly should be uttered by thinking men. Has Christianity then lasted nearly 1900 years, and never been understood until now? Have there not been in that period many of Mr Bright' s stamp to gather mankind into this fold of universal harmony/ and why have they not succeeded better ? Is there nothing in human nature itself which, hinders this consummation so devoutly to be wished? Does he think a change from priestcraft to Brightcraft all that is needed to regenerate the world ? He goes on to say. " So long as ther« is uttered a slander, neighbour of neighbour ; so long as there is a death struggle between accumulated wealth and labour; so long as there is wholesale international murder and slaughter; so long the Spirit of Christ, G}od?s best messenger to

humanity, has failed to operate for good." ~ He" might have added, " So long as human nature is human nature, so long w 111 these things be in spite of pviestcraf fc or Brightcraft, or of those highsounding bat meaningless phases, 'brotherly love, universal harmony,' and the like," for in the sense in which they are used by Mr Bright they are indeed meaningless. To the mass of his disciples, he says, " Christianity is as, yet a ceremonial, churchgoing, prayer-muttering, public, pharisaical thing." Does he forget that Christ himself would not ,be true if it were otherwise ? Has he not told us " that wide ia the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who enfier by it. But narrow is the gate, and strait is the way which leadeth to life, and few there are who find it." But in what way will the abolition of priestcraft advance the mission of brotherly love, Ac. ? If Mr Bright can show practically how this will advance the mission of Christianity, why does he not do so at once, and give the world an opportunity of freeing itself from the bondage of priestcraft and ignorance in which it is now held ? Why should we any longer live in a constant state of antagonism with ourselves and one another, while Mr Bright (who is brimming over with brotherly love, and takes care to be paid for preaching it) holds the secret which will free from this miserable state of things ? He goes on, " Ifc (Christianity) does not prevent a -man from speakhg ill of his fellow man, or what is as bad, thinking ill of him. It does not make a man as scrupulous about violating his conscience as about being detected. It does not teach him to obey the law of his spirit, and to fear no other thing so greatly as breaking that law." What is the law of his spirit ? Was it the law •of his spirit which Sullivan obeyed when engaged in the Maungatupu murders ? Was it the law of his spirit which prompted Lynch to pray to God to give him strength to murder Corrigan ? Is it this law of the spirit, the fear of breaking, which has caused the Turks to commit the Bulgarian atrocities ? But why does Christianity not prevent a man froai speaking ill of his neighbour ; from robbing him, from murdering ? Is it because ifc expressly forbids these things, and denounces the most severe punishment against the doers of them. Or will Mr Bright inform us how priestcraft operates to prevent Christianity from effecting, in human, nature, that change, which a strict observance of it 3 precepts would, evii dently bring about? Fear of trespassing - further on your space forces me to conclude, I am, &c.,Blacks, Feb. sth, 1877. ' C S