SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 3072, 22 March 1879, Page 2

SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE.

[per favour of the herald.] To the Rev. H. H. Brown. Sir, — I have given your proposal to discuss the above subject ray careful consideration, and have concluded that no good would be" done by going into it. If I began to argue at all as to the scriptures I should require not only to discuss them as in relation to scittnee, but as in relation to reason and common ■ sense, and also to show that they contain contradictions and inconsistencies. Reverend Sir, it is not with persons like yourself, who write iv that strain of moderation which characterises the gentleman, and who seecn actuated by good and kind feelings that I dispute, it is the men -who call those who differ from them Infidels, Apostates, Blasphemers, &c, that I take up !my humble pen against — I contend for liberty of conscience only. That there are many good and virtuous men in the church no one for a moment denies, and many good doctrines in the bible, and the wish of a large section of society, shall I say, the enquiring and thinking section, is not that our teachers of religion should bo decreased in numbers, or their influence lessened — there is ample work for them around us, our young people require exhortations from them as to what is right aod proper, and to have their characters formed upon the basis of integrity and industry — but we hesitate to send them or to go freely ourselves to places of worship where extreme views are pressed home upon them, and along with morality is administered the beathenish bigotry of the middle ages. — I am, &c, ' Excelsior.