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Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 59, 2 June 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE BISHOPS AND DR. COLENSO. The Bishop of Natal has published the following reply to an addres presented to him on the part of all the Bishops : — *' My Lord Archbishop,—l have seriously considered the address Wliich lias been forwarded to me by your Grace, signed by a great number of the archbishops and bishops of the Church of England. In reply, I feel obliged to say that I am unable to comply with the suggestions therein conveyed to rue, that I should resign my episcopal charge. I trust that I yield to none of" your Lordships in a heartfelt reverence for the Holy Scriptures. But certainly I do not believe, as the words of the address seem to imply, that your Lordships d<v believe that 'all our hopes For eternity' rest on (he literal historical truth of such a narrative as the Scriptural account of the Noachian Deluge. But I must refer to my hooks for a statement of the reasons which justify to my own mind the course which I am taking. To resign my office would be to admit that my conduct has been legally or morally wrong, which I am very far from feeling. Rather, lam persuaded that my duty to God and the National Church, through Which I have received in the same manner as your Lordships, that Episcopal Commission which we have no power of abdicating, requires me to persevere in the task which 1 hrve undertaken—namely,to set liefore the English OhUreh the real facts of the case i« regard to the composition of the Pentateuch, in accordance w ith the most trustworthy results of recent criticism. I venture to add that the progress of tru« religion appears to me to be grievously impeded in this country by the contradictions which undeniably exist !>etween the traditional notion of the historical truth of all the narrative contained in the Pentateuch and the conclusions of science, as noVv brought within the comprehension, even of the youth of both sexes, by the general extension of education. And it is my firm conAiction that this subject deserves, more than at any other time, our most serious consideration, and, if possible, our united action, as bixhops of the National Church. I am, my Lord Archhishop, your Grace's very faithful and obedient servant, J. W. Natal.—London, March 5." Punch gives the following summary of the coirespondence :— <■ I. My Dear Colenso, With regret We hierarchs in conclave met Bcjj you, you most disturbing writer, To take off your colonial tnitro. This course we ptess upon you strongly Believe me, Yours most truly. Lambeth. LosGLBr. ii. My Dear Archbishop, To resign That Zulo diocese of mine, And own myself a heathen dark, Because I've doubts about Noah's Ark, And feel it right to teJl men so, Is " not" the course for Yours, Kensington. Colenso.