THE PRESBYTERY AND THE REV. S. J. NEILL.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XXVI, Issue 7648, 3 October 1893, Page 3

THE PRESBYTERY AND THE REV. S. J. NEILL.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—ln Nr Somorville's letter of Bth August he. say B,"Your lotter of the Ist inst. was handed.to >me at St Andrew's Church and reaiito the Presbytery J' mi yet he says:;now, ."'the' half published . wa3 not read by the Presbytery.' 1 Which are we to believe P and if that last letior - was read, surely the others. At any rate their purport' was known, unless the Committee wished. to keep the other a mombers of the Presbytery in the dark j until the game had been played; and I 0 know one member of the Prosliytery who, though living in Auckland, was not informed of my case until two months after it had, been started. No doubt this was part of the mangement! I still maintain that I have suffered cruelty from the un brotherly and unjust action of the Presbytery an action that would not bo allowed in any Oivil r Court. Behind my back a " brother" . maligus mo to the Presbytery, and instead of tolling him that ho should first have given mo notice in writing, as bylaw 1 required, the Presbytery condones tbnfc action, and to this hour soreens tho ( offender behind its own impersonality, t There-is a show made of keeping the c thing. BBoret, and yet some of those present soon make it an oj)e» sccfci in* „ deed. If the truth were truly told I ! £ should not mind, If I have said anything wrong lam not afraid to confess { it;bufc I'will not bo tied hand and foot, and lie told that, you must not speak or move lititil 1 we have blackened your character as much as wo can-all "in private" of course! and all for the Glory of God 1" The other half of tho correspondence thatMr Sommorville hungers after is in tho hands of the printer i Even if the perfectly adequate and satisfactory reason givon in my last lotter did not exist, viz., that I concluded with that ( part of tlie correspondence that came 1 before the Presbytery, unless the whole ] correspondence could" have been given at J once, it must have broken off somewhere, at tho end of ono of his letters or one of mine, and as each letter was iu reply to the one before, it is.evidenco of a very : weak case to have nothing bettor to say than that only half had been given. The letter of the Committee which was chiefly composed of references to sections and numbers of tho Confession of Faith, (fee., . I did not pretend to give in full. If Mr Sommorville thinks that the numbers of chapters, and of questions in the two catechisms is vory important or,interest- 1 ing reading I am snro nobody else does. : Let, him give the lotter k Mo and then it will - bo evident that I left out nothing essential. If not, I will givo it, and then it will bo seen if Mr Sommorville is right in saying that I gave a garbled portion. Mr Sommervillo unblnshingly states that the Committee had all the questions ready for mo if I went un, whereas only two were sent and Atonement/' I think this) is a great dcalviom than if they had compiled the questions afterwards. And this is tho opinion of ono of the authorities I consulted, who, having all the facts, and all tho correspondence beforo him, says; "It'is miite i o | eart to my mind, that they have boon . trying to trip you in supplyiug them > w |fch matter to jnstify their gratuitous allocations, a most unwarrantable proce--1 dure, and this withholding, onthoir part, ' of the questions which thoy said they had r originally written out to put to you, had <* yon mot them, is proof of this. You had i already said quite oiionch to satisfy in--1 ochhohs men. ... fhelaw ia that it • is only on what a man baa pM'dcd,aud i no ton what he has not said or writton i t,i )a (i a charge of unsound doetrino can i proceed." I feel confident that tho legal I and ecclesiastical authorities who have « advised mo are correct, and thoy say that 1 tho Presbytery acted illegally according ' to his own rules, and according to the s Presbyterian Churches in Scotland and s Ireland. If tho caso comes beforo tho 1 Supromo Court, I believe this judgment ■ will bo sustained. Mr • Somorvillo doos I no t S com to see that Sir 11. Moucriof, as o quoted, doos not,affect tho particular

point at issue. Mr Soraorvillo was.very confident iu regard to the caso brought bofore the Supremo Conrfc lately, so ho is in'this. I think it will bo soon presently that he is as much mistaken in my caso as in that—at least according to the docbion of the Judge nnd of most people outsido the Presbytery, and of Borne in it, indeod. Mr Somemlle mocks attho martyr's crown. There are some people whosohead it would not fit. It is a pity there is no crown or distinguishing badge for the persecutor! I cannot regard those who have started and carried on this caso and determined on my death from the first as anything else than my murtkrm —so far as the civil law will permit.-I am, etc, S. J. Neiu. Thames, 2nd October, 1898.