Passing Notes.

Freethought Review, Volume II, Issue 13, 1 October 1884, Page 4

Passing Notes.

A paragraph is going the round of the dailies to the effect that " General" Booth has issued an order that every day, at 12.30 sharp, the soldiers of the Army shall make the sign of the letter " S," to signify that they are saved.

The New South Wales Episcopalian clergymen lately held a meeting to discuss the religious education question. The Primate, in opening the meeting, said that " he respected the conscientious opposition of the Secularists, although he deeply grieved over it." The difficulty with the clergy seems to be that they cannot get funds enough. They require and only get ■£"4oo to Resolutions were passed urging the necessity of religious education, and also requesting pecuniary aid. The interest taken by the parents may be guaged by the financial support accorded, while it is evident, from the fact of their raising funds, that the clergy are not willing to perform the task without payment.

Mrs. Besant, in the 'National Reformer, says:— " A Sir William Fox writes to the 'New Zealand Times,' charging me with advocating free love, and for evidence relies on my having published the Knowlton pamphlet. As Sir W. Fox quotes from the indictment' and from the judgments, I am afraid that he is wilfully dishonest, for he omits from the charge of the Lord Chief Justice and from the verdict of the jury the express declarations which gave the lie to the allegation he makes. The Knowlton pamphlet did not advocate free love, and I have never advocated free love. Sir W. Fox is maliciously untruthful." The 'National Reformer' adds :— " We have to thank the Editor of the Freethought Review for its earnest reply to the coarse attack by Sir Wm. Fox."

In a speech made at Northampton after the recent verdict in the case of the Queen v. Bradlaugh, Mr. Bradlaugh said : —■" It has been said, and is said now —whatever your views might have been, at any rate you damaged your position by the letter you wrote on May 20th, when you said if you took the oath you would be using words that were ' idle and meaningless,' and that in using those phrases you insulted the House, and all people who held different views ; and you are yourself to blame, and must accept the punishment. Now, it is curious that the very words of asservation which I said I regarded as ' idle and meaningless,' Lord Coleridge, in his charge to the jury, said : ' I agree with Mr. Bradlaugh that these words are not a portion of the oath.' "

In reviewing Dr. Noah Porter's " Christianity," Mr. Bradlaugh answers the author's assertion that Christianity " gives life to human society. It refines its manners ; it perfects its civilisation ; it renders its laws more just and their administration more perfect ; it fosters and popularises education," "Had," asks Mr. Bradlaugh, " it done this in France up to 1780 ? The church was rich, the people poor ; the nobles luxurious, the masses ignorant, starving, and helpless ; the administration of justice was a mockery. Had it done it in England up to 1728, when court favourites of easy

virtue nominated bishops, and men were hanged at Newgate by the dozen for trivial offences ? Had it done it in the United States in iB6O, when the Northern and Southern Christians butchered one another by thousands ? Or in Europe in 1870, when French and Prussian Christians sowed the fields with corpses and telegraphed praises to the Lord? Had Christianity fostered and popularised education amongst the English agricultural laborers in 1865 ?"

The Sydney Telegraph,' in reviewing the Stout-Vogel ministry, had the following remarks on Mr Stout:— " Mr. Stout, the nominal Premier, is unquestionably the strongest among the younger politicians of New Zealand. He is a very subtle debater, a lawyer of high standing, an honorable opponent, a lover of all forms of culture, and —a very pronounced 'freethinker.' As a'freethinker' Mr. Stout has never 'stood behind a tree.' He is more than frank, he is aggressive. He openly fights with his side. Never before has a man who is avowedly hostile to the Churches held the office of Premier of one of these colonies. The relations between him and the people will therefore be watched with much interest. One thing, however, is certain: Mr. Stout is a man who would feel that he debased himself if he allowed his personal views in regard to religion to influence his public conduct."

At a debate on " Religion in Schools " lately held in the Technical College at the School of Arts, Sydney, some interesting speeches were made. The first speaker (Mr. Rose) maintained that the State could not teach a form of belief which would be satisfactory to all parties. He maintained that the principles of morality had been settled for ages, whereas the principles of religious belief had been a subject of contention for centuries, and the various sects had not yet been able to agree with respect to such principles. The Freethinkers, the Jews, the Unitarians, &c, had as good a claim to have their views represented in the school curriculum as have the Church of England or the Roman Catholics. Under the old Denominational system there was more immorality than at present. He contended that there was a third party growing up who claimed to be represented, and who objected to have any form of religious belief taught to their children. Amongst the other arguments used against the state teaching religion were the following : " Men had differed on matters of religion throughout all time, and probably would do so to the end of time; and hence no religious doctrines ought to be taught in our schools, because such doctrines generated feelings of bitterness and rancour." "By allowing any clergyman or any persons delegated by clergymen to interrupt the business of State schools, the advantages of such schools would be contracted."

The Bishop of Melbourne has lately expressed his views on drinking, to an interviewer from a Sydney paper. Dr. Moorhouse said: " I see that Mr. Booth considers the act in itself a wicked one, and compares it with the sin of theft or murder. Ido not believe that the act itself is a sin. If it was so every one who sells a glass of liquor would be incarcerated in prison, and the drinker would be treated as a receiver of stolen goods. I would either go much farther or not so far. 1 greatly admire those teetotalers who take the pledge without any need for doing so, but merely for the sake of example. I think that they are acting on the loftiest of Christian principles. I took the pledge when I was a young man, and I was for some years a teetotaler. It was to me no sacrifice ; but my work was very exhausting, and. I was told by one of the ablest physicians that I must either drink a glass of wine at dinner or greatly diminish my labours. I felt it right to take wine rather than cripple myself in my work. If I may buy a glass of wine, another may sell it, and yet not be committing a sin ; for if it be sinful for a man to sell drink, it must likewise be sinful for me to buy it. The business of a wine merchant or a publican, when properly conducted, is not in itself sinful. I think it a very dangerous one. Liquor may be useful to some and deadly to very many. It has produced more misery and moral ruin than almost any of the evil agencies of civilisation. On that account it is necessary to keep the trade under supervision."

The Old Testament revision is now complete, but is not to be published till Easter next, as Convocation have to approve of it first.

A short time ago there were no fewer than six theatres and public halls devoted to Freethought gatherings on Sunday evenings in Sydney.

Petitions against the proposed Blasphemy laws have been presented to the General Assembly from the Auckland Rationalistic Society by the Hon. Mr. Stout, and from the Wanganui Freethought Association by Mr. Levestam.

The Liberal says that now that small-pox has broken out in Sydney there will be a shriek for more vaccination, and it adds, " more filth instead of more cleanliness." As vaccination is compulsory in Victoria and optional in New South Wales, the contrasted statistics ought to tell a tale if vaccination affords the protection claimed for it.

At the "welcome" tea meeting to the Baptist minister in Wanganui lately, one of the speakers dwelt very forcibly on the fact that the Freethinkers in Wanganui were more than ordinarily aggressive, and that they stuck well together in their efforts against Christianity. The continual allusions made to Freethinkers from pulpits and religious platforms show that the Christians recognise the fact that they cannot now overlook the opposition of Freethinkers.

In a late number of the < Liberator,' Mr. J. Symes offers £lO to any person who can tell the number of a bank note, the bank it is issued from, the value of the note, the title of the book in which the note is placed, and the numbers of the pages between which it is placed. The challenge remains open till Christmas. If it is possible to tell the number of a bank note under one set of conditions, why should it not be possible to give all the above particulars, though the conditions be different ?

Freethinkers, not only in New Zealand, but all over the world, will watch anxiously the progress of Sir George Grey's " Affirmation in Lieu of Oaths Bill." It will be remembered that last year this measure passed the Lower House, but the Lords, in their wisdom, threw it out, and it remains to be seen whether they will do so again this year. That it is time that the oath was done away with no one can doubt who has experienced the formal and meaningless manner in which it is generally administered.

The Otago Chinese mission does not appear to be a very successful business, judging by a report in last month's ' Presbyterian.' On one Sunday " only one man came to hear the Gospel this afternoon." Another paragraph says that when asked why they did not "-0 to church they reply, "Ah Don no good— not belong any church." One Chinaman who had been baptised in Victoria is said to " have little or no grasp of the reality of Christianity." Chinamen are not the only persons who have to plead guilty in this respect. The results of the waste of time expended by "missionaries in trying to convert the " heathen Chinee " are seemingly nil, and possibly the effect of reading such reports may lead Christians who give to foreign missionaries to enquire whether the results are ever really satisfactory.

At the recent sittings of the District Court in Wanganui an indictment for perjury was laid against one who had given false testimony. The document was full of the ordinary legal technicalities, but most prominent were the phrases which set forth that the accused " had not the fear of God before his eyes," and that he had committed this crime « to the great displeasure of Almighty God." It was proved to the satisfaction of the jury that perjury had been committed, but if the clauses mentioned are of any use, it should have been proved that he was guilty in these respects. If they are not of any real use, why should they not at once be dispensed with ? The oath is the source of the trouble it affirmations only were demanded, the penalties for "bearing false witness " could remain as now, and the above meaningless forms would be for ever done away with in our courts of justice.

Under the heading of « The only Firm Foundation," the Dunedin Tablet has the folio wing: "As we have been accused of making an attempt to injure the welfare of the Colony in making the education question the most important of all, and that to which every other should give way it is incumbent on us to show that we act in good faith believing that on the education question the welfare of the colony hangs. We shall therefore now quote the decisions of two men of great eminence as to the necessity of the Christianity which it is undoubtedly and with open acknowledgement sought to destroy by means of secularism. The first of the men we speak of is the Emperor Napoleon, who said, m reference to the atheistic advocacy of the astronomer, Lalande ■—« My first duty is to hinder the morality of my people from being poisoned, for atheism is the destroyer of all morality, if not individuals at least among nations " With atheism ruling among them, therefore, the nation who will in future inhabit New Zealand will bean immoral nation, and no people can be great or prosperous without morality. The second of the men we allude to is the great Lacordaire, who thus accounted for his conversion from Freethought to Christianty:—« I have reached Catholic belief through social'belief ; and nothing appears to me better demonstrated than this argument:—Society is necessary, therefore the Christian religion is divine ; for it is the means of bringing society to its true perfection, adapting itself to man, with all his weaknesses, and to the social order in all its conditions." We claim, therefore, and on high authority that in making the education question the first of all we are endeavouring to establish, on the only sure and unfailing foundation, national morality and the social order— without whose establishment all other measures, whatever may be their wisdom or necessity would be vain and worthless." J '

_ In the < N.Z. Presbyterian ' for September is a leading article on the Dunedin Young Men's Christian Association, which places very strongly before its readers the reasons for the decline of that institution for that it is declining the report of the Association itself acknowledges. The < Presbyterian ' states four reasons for this :_i. "It has not been true to its designation. It is neither of young men nor for youn-men-it is composed of young men, fathers, and grandfathers, and has 111 no special sense either banded young men or helped young men." 2. " It has taken upon itself functions which do not belong to it It made itself, for example, a tribunal for the trial of heresy, and excommunicated a member, or more than one, and in a very summary way, because he believed he could hold Christianity along with evolution." 3. It has allowed itself to be too deeply tinged with the spirit of an exclusive pietism." 4. « The Associa tion has never made clear to itself for what purpose it exists. The article concludes by giving advice to the members of the Association to re-organise if they desire success, but it also adds-" It is open to question whether these societies are successful except in lame centres of population, where materials are abundant tor all institutions, whatever may be their idiosyncrasies. The failure of such institutions has been a noticeable fact all through the colony, as instanced in the case under consideration, and at New Plymouth where the fittings have had to be sold, and in the moribund association in Wanganui. The first reason gl VM b 1 I Presb y "an ' reminds us of a speaker at a I.M.C.A. tea meeting, who said he did not know why it was called a " Young Men's " Association, unless it were that as the members were either very younomen or very old men, it was considered the average age might be put down as being young. Not knowing for what purpose such societies may exist, we can quite believe that they would delight to have a heresy hunt and no one more heretical could they have found than one who tried to hold evolution and Christianity together The < Presbyterian ' tells us that « no church would have done this." Probably not now, but it is not so long ago that they would have done something similar and, even now, the clergy as a whole do not hold with evolution. But the question really is can , man be a Christian and an Evolutionist at the same time? If so, whereabouts in his creed does he place

the six days creation, the fall, &c. ? The third and fourth reasons call for no special remarks at our hands when the orthodox ' Presbyterian' makes them.

The farce of ordering children committed to Industrial Schools to be brought up in some particular religion was made manifest at Christchurch recently. Two children were committed to the Burnham Industrial School, and the R.M. enquired as to their religion. It was said that they had been in the habit of attending the Salvation Army, but as this seel: was not represented in the institution, His Worship declined to make an order that they should be brought up in accordance with the teachings of that body. " Finally," says the ' Press,' "it was discovered that at some time the children had attended a Presbyterian Church, and the order was made accordingly."