A WORD FOR THE REV. LINDSAY MACKIE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 315, 2 May 1879, Page 16

A WORD FOR THE REV. LINDSAY MACKIE.

1 do Lope that Dr. Moran, the Tablet, and members of ibc Press generally will bo merciful to the above named rev. gentleman, otherwise they may drive him to do something rash. He is my fellowcountryman, and Ido not like to sec him chastised too much. It is true he he has committed a grievous fault against Roman Catholics, but it has been committed "under extenuating circumstances." It must be remembered that be is a Scotch Presbyterian ; that he has sucked in with his mother's milk a belief that Papists, ore and all of them, Jesuits more especially, arc nothing else but Sons of Belial perfect " deevils incarnate ;" ready to tell any amonnt of lies, or shed any amount of blood, or commit any number of assassinations for Holy Church. We all know the force of early impressions— how they domineer over men's minds, blind their undci standing, and too often blunt their conscience and moral sense. The recent establishment of a college for higher education in the Scotch Preserve of Otago, and its being under the conduct of the terrible "Jesuits" must also luivc stirred his Presbyterian bile, and roused his anger. '•Irabrevis furor cst." Anger being a temporary madness, may account for some of Mr Mackic's recent eccentricities as a controvertist against "Papists."' If that Jesuit College prove a success it will likely upset him altogether, and his fiicnds must then look to him in case of accident. Bo merciful then, ye critics, ye theologian.", and spare my countryman. He has now beni punished quite enough by you. It is possible Ins own conscience has punched him still more. Do not give him reason to exclaim, '• My punishment is more than lean bear." besides it is plain that the '-dominie' under whom he studied in bonnie Scotland has not drilled him so well in the use of tbe "ablative absolute" as his .snrens-tic critics, Ibc editors of the Otago Witness and Ihuniiuj Star, have bjen drilled. The dominie, therefore, more than the pupil in this case, deserves the " tawse." I only hope that he is fully aware now of the heinous nature of the offence he has committed, and that he is truly p 'intent, and will be more careful in future how he middles with Jesuits or Catholic theologians of any kind. He must now sec that it is a dangerous thing to assail them, and that he who does so must look well to Ms weapons and his armour ere he enter the lists to contend with them. While seeking to ruin the moral character of the Catholic priests, and through them the moral character of the Catholic Church and the entire body of Catholics everywhere, he has positively don i them a great service. He has provoke 1 Dr. Moran into the field, it must now clearly appear to every intelligent and fair-mindc I man, be his creed what it may, who has read the Tablet of late, that the horrid accusations which the Itcv. Mr. Mackic has so confident !v brought against the character of the Catholics, and which arc so widely credite I and so frequently repeated in public ami in private. are as false as I was going to say as false as bell : but that is not a pretty word, and souu now don't believe in hc!l at all : I will therefore .say as- fulvj as false cm bo. I will not say be has made them mal : eioti>ly, knowing them to be falsj : but I will say be has made them rashly and in criminal ignorance. Being a scholar and professed tcachei of Christian truth, it was his duty to make himself acquainted, and fully acquainted, with the tenets of the Catholic Church, as set forth and explained by her authorised teachers, and not as given in a ni'iiil.itcl iorm an-1 misrepresente 1 by her avowed enemies. The ltmnau Catholic is the mo a t ancient Christian Church in existence Even at this d.iy her adherents form the great bulk of ChrUtuins. They are constantly increasin *. She lias given to the world in every age, aivl is still giving to the world I eminent scholars, divines, philo-ophcis, and statesmen. IShe has sent forth, and is still sending rorth. m.my men and women in every condition, of life remarkable above nil other men and women fur their ! Christian \ntues ; men nnd women some oE whom have literally for- I saken all that the world holds «1 ;ir in order that th-y may devote ' themselves entnely to the seiviee of Gud and his poor, "it is, a .shame I and a disgrace, therefore, to Mr. Mackic or any other man bavin" j any pretensions to be considered a man of letters, if he be ignorant of the real tenets of the Catholic Church. Yet how many Piotcstant clergymen and others are in that position? They know literally little or nothing of them, except whnt they gather casually from such writers as those in the Southern Crux* and Christian llcconi. How little reliance is to be placed on the amnacy, the truth, the fairness or candour of such writers, the readers of the Taulet need not now be told. A word to Mr. Maekie and I conclude. Know you not, Kir, that 'good name in man and woman is the immediate jewel of their fioul, and that every other possession in comparison with that is the veiicatirash; no better than the mire beneath our feet. Vet, you have laboured, in ignorance let us hope, though ccrtaiuly not in excusable ignorance, to job Catholics of their sood name. If the principles which you have so faltcly, and to recklessly, and so persistently imputed to them were really held by them, as they are not, ltoman Catholics would be unwoitby of the res- pec t and confidence of eveiy other class m the community. All men might justly regard them with suspicion and aversion, not to tay horror. They would deserve I toTjcdiivcu out from the society of Chilian or civilized men to herd with the worst of savages. Even the worst of savages might, if they only knew yonrdc&ciipiicn of their piinciples. avoid their company, fckc then, Si r , what a dreadful ciinic you have committed against us. or. at least, done your best to peipctratc. Your conduct is all the moie culpable, seeing you pufef-s to be a teacher of the religion of Jesus Chtist, which inculcates chaiity as the chief of Christian ah tues. You have deeply scandalised His religion in the -eyes of men. lou Lave shown no charity to us. You have put the ■worst possible construction on the words of our teachers. You have .cast suspicions when you can cast nothing worse on cur character We have recently seen a great ciime committed in the City of Glasgow by men who, like you, professed a burning zeal for the Presby.teiian religion, aud, of course, a corresponding aversion or horror at the Catholic Church, her people, and her teaching. We are told by some of their indignant victims that these men have for years past been going about the streets clothed ostentatiously in the gaib of a Pharisaic sanctity, at the very time when they were engaged secretly in a fiendish, cold-blooded scheme of unparallcllcd villainy, which

has brought ruin and despair, and even death, into many and many a once comfortable and happy home. Yet your offence is, in a moral point of view, even greater than theirs ; inasmuch as the good name of which you have sought to rob us all, is far more valuable than any amount of money, or moneys worth, can possibly be. Ido not impute your offence, nor that of the Glasgow bank directors, to your religion, directly. The Presbyterian religion, no less than the Catholic religion, denounces wilful falsehood or fraud. But the Reformation, as it has been falsely called, has scared, Las hardened, the conscience of Scotchmen. Speaking of the Scottish " lleformers," an able historian remarks, " The mind is perfectly amazed at the sight of such deep and complicated injustice, treachery, hypocrisy, sedition, and forger}', as form the character of the men who subverted the Catholic Church in Scotland.' 1 Some of the peculiar views of tbesc men are evidently yet ingrained in the nature of not a few of their modern admirers nnd followers even in New Zealand. Till the falsity called Scotch " lief ormat ion" be undone, we cannot hope to sec Scotchmen do justice to others or tlictr selves in any relation of life. Happily it is now in process of being undone. John Wood. Auckland, A\ ril 16.