CORRESPONDENCE.

Colonist, Volume XXXIV, Issue 7033, 9 June 1891, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Colonist. Sib, — With your permission I desire to answer a few of the statements contained in the' •' Address to the People" given in the Theatre on Sunday night, May 31. 1. The rev gentleman says; "In all ages men have heen haunted with the idea of God, and formed notions about God which have proved unsatisfactory and false, which has caused many to give up the attempt." Yes I as man advances in morals, so does his God ; * every step gained in knowledge brings with it a more elevated conception of God ; consequently the Christian is an advance on the Jew, the Deist an advance on the Christian, and the Agnostic on the Deist. 2. "It is an imperishable necessity of our very nature to know God. We must know God, but we cannot know God unless He reveals Himself to us." This He has done in the most perfect manner, His commands are written in the universal language of nature, which all can understand, and need no interpreter. 3. "If God is to reveal Himself to man, it must be by coming down to the human sphere ; and human terms must be used, and human words employed." It appears to me rather presumptuous of the rev gentleman to assert that God must reveal Himself in such and such a manner. Canst thou, my worthy friend, "by searching find out God ? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ?" to know what He must do. No .Agnostic would thus presume ! so Agnosticism will remain a " permanent verdict." 4. "If God in His love for His human oreatures, shall cause to come from the eternal unsearchable abyssmal depths of Godhead a manifestation of Himself, a perfect representation of Deity, ie., His other self, how shall he introduce this manifestation of Himself to the attention of men " ? Here the gentleman appears to be somewhat foggy ! I must oonfess I cannot understand him, but he endeavors to clear away the fog thus : — " And would we know to what extent testimony to the character of God is needed," " look at the Gods of the vast majority of the human race since Adam fell," "think of Typhon, Baal, Aahtoreth, Molook, and suob like." 5. " Vindictive, passionate, unjust, whose attributes are hate and last." " Eliminate from Christianity ita conception of God as contoured by the doctrine of the incarnation, and what kind of a God have we left." I answer without the Blight 63 1 hesitation the God of the Bible, who must reveal Himself in oertain prescribed forms, according to the rev. gentleman's dootrinea, and if £ am to judge o! His attributes from His holy word, I find little to recommend Him in preferenoe to the above named Gods. 6. " There have bean those vho desecrated heaven by carrying their lasts and their passions into it. Barbarians, who thought it would be a place of universal wassail, where the meat would never give out, and the wine would flow for ever. The houris, and the very sensuous enjoyments cf Mahommedans have been pictured in the heavens. The Indian makes heaven his victorious huntingground, and there the thinga tbat have been the noblest inspirations aud ambitions on earth are to have a fall fruition." I must inform the gentleman that the term " heaven" did not in ancient times, signify a spiritual world, but the aerial regions, and where the Barbarians thought the sun, moon, stirs, and gods reside!, and in this sense it is used in the New Testament. Christ speaks of the 11 birds of heaven," translated '-the fowls of the air." Again, in reference to the weather, he speaks of discerning the face of heaven, now rendered sky. He speaks of the clouds of heaven. James says the heavens 'gave rain, &c. The ancient Hebrews entertained the same notion of a material heaven, but now we are more civilised, and heaven has become a place of everlasting happiness, in which the inhabitants are constantly Binging praises to their King, although its exaot locality has never been ascertained. 7. "Why should yon want to diaenahant yourselves of this belief in a continued and glorified existence after death " ? Because I can find no evidence that euch ia the oase, beyond what designing and crafty men say, and as their moral standard is rather below the average of mankind, I decline to believe them, knowing that they have no greater knowledge on tbose matters than myself, or that any man can obtain. 8. " Has it ever done you any harm ? Has it ever taken away from you one pleasure ? ' Yes ! ! In my youth I was taught to regard Christianity as too sacred for criticism, and the thought of the sad fate of almost all who dared to do so inspired me with fear. Sir, the threats of hell, and the promises of heaven cause man to believe that he is much more immoral and more helpless than' he really is. Free him from the trammels of book-revelations, let him study nature alone, and man will make rapid strides towards his own salvation; he will'their'cfisoovesr that' his degree of enjoyment is in. proportion to ' his moral and intellectual .progress. Yours, &c, '; F. W. FiOWEBDAT.