Correspondence. THE TAY BRIDGE DISASTER AND MODERN SADDUCEEISM. (To the Editor of the "Intellectual Repository.”) SIR,-In your issue for February there appeared a sermon by the Rev. Mr. Potts of Glasgow on the above subject; and, to say the least, I was very much surprised by the tone of it. And, unwilling as I am to provoke controversy, and reluctant as I am to trespass on your valuable space, I cannot allow the paper to pass without a few remarks. Various have been the opinions entertained respecting the disaster; and, amongst others, we have, on the one hand, over-rigid Sabbatarians and self-righteous people ascribing it to the judgment of an angry and vindictive (?) God on Sunday railway travelling; whilst, on the other hand, we have here a New Church minister who, although of course not accepting the judgment theory, is yet found preaching and writing on the subject with a remarkably apparent-I would fain hope only apparent―lack of sympathy with human suffering and bereavement. I have no wish to attempt to justify Sunday railway travelling in toto, knowing, as I do, that we have far too much of it, especially in Lancashire; but are there not circumstances under which a Sunday railway journey is justifiable? However, I leave the question for your readers to answer, and pass on to Mr. Potts' remarks on the accident. It is all very well, nay, it is even desirable, that our "modern Sadducees" should be reminded of the immortality of the soul; that this life is not to be compared in duration, etc., with the future; that "here we have no continuing city, but seek [or ought to seek] one to come;" and that it pleases the Lord to take us hence at His own good time, and in His own mysterious way. But can they not be reminded of these things whilst, at the same time, all due sympathy is felt and expressed for the fatherless and widows: even though it be by this so-called "howl of universal lamentation," and "these unmanly weepings and wailings"? Are we not told that "Jesus wept" for the two almost broken-hearted sisters Martha and Mary when they had lost their fond and loving brother-their only earthly stay and support-and when Jesus Himself had lost one of His dearest earthly friends? Surely Jesus was not "unmanly" on that occasion-He the Lord of life and glory-the gracious Being who was, and is, "too wise to err, too good to be unkind"! And who shall gauge or tell the mental suffering that this Tay Bridge accident has caused, even in families where the bereaved have had good ground to hope that it has brought eternal gain to the departed brother, or father, or son? Thanks be to God for human sympathy, that sweetener of our bitter woes on this side heaven! And is it not gratifying to know that this sympathy has been expressed throughout the length and breadth of our land, not merely by words, but by donations of money amounting to several thousands of pounds? Surely such charity-such sympathy-"is twice blest"! But what avails pounds, shillings, or pence to fill up the gaps made by this awful calamity in many a family? For, after all, is it not awful in its suddenness, or in the very suddenness with which so many families and individuals have been bereaved? And, again, is it not awful on account of the probability that many-or shall I say some, at all events?—of those thus ushered into eternity would not be ready for the change; by which I mean would not have so lived in this world as to be happy throughout eternity? Mr. Potts seems to assume that all were ready; and that "they are now all rejoicing in the light of the spiritual world." If they are, well; but if not, then I say it is awful indeed, and says loudly to the world, "Be ye also ready," etc. For it is true, as our own poet says, that "All that live must die, Passing through nature to eternity," although it is also true, as Longfellow so beautifully puts it when speaking of the spiritual part of man-and on his lines we New Church people especially prefer to dwell —viz.: "There is no death! what seems so is transition; This life of mortal breath Is but a suburb of the life Elysian, Whose portal we call death." Finally, let us be careful not to suppress, or ridicule, even unintentionally, but rather encourage, all due sympathy, in case of misfortune or accident; and, on the other hand, let us ever remember that it is only by holy living that we are fitted for a joyful transition to the spiritual world, be that transition sudden or otherwise; for, after all, "We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives H. To use our fancy to our own misery is to abuse it, and to sin. realm of the possible was given to man to hope, not to fear. CHARLES KINGSLEY. The On p. 161 of Lord Brougham's Autobiography.-At Stockholm in 1799, about October, speaking of men of letters, he names Sparman (who went with Cook the voyager), whom he met at the Academy of Sciences. He says, "He is a worthy creature, and I believe skilful enough in his profession, but his scientific knowledge seems confined altogether to natural history. He is a Swedenborgian." Miscellaneous. THE NEW PHILOSOPHY. a quarter, could not be allowed to pass unquestioned. Among others a writer One of the prominent features of in the Guardian discusses the subject modern philosophy is the pressing of in two essays on the "New Philosophy." modern methods of inquiry into the The reply to the charge against the three province of religious faith and moral articles we have cited is " brief, and practice. The prevalent practice of rather suggestive than conclusive. It certain religious teachers to extol is eminently apologetic, and would proreligious life at the expense of religious bably not be accepted by the evangelical faith is now being rebuked by the school. It is an attempt to soften the teaching of the scientists. "The rigour of strictly orthodox theology, and Ethics of Belief" is presented on a in some of its features approaches the scientific basis; but rejecting the inner teaching of the New Church. We give wisdom of Divine Revelation, it adds the principal sentences in this brief little to the highest wants of humanity. reply :The responsibility of man for his opinions as well as for his practices is firmly maintained. It is regarded as immoral to hold opinions upon insufficient evidence, but the ground of evidence is so narrowed as to exclude the highest and most influential truths. The province of faith by the scientist is limited to "the beliefs about right and wrong which guide our actions in dealing with men in society, and the beliefs about physical nature which guide our actions in dealing with animate and inanimate bodies." The "Ethics of Belief" is naturally introductory to the "Ethics of Religion." And here an eminent scientist, the late Professor Clifford, boldly brands religion itself with immorality. It is unquestionable that much that is presented in professedly Christian history must be condemned as immoral. But so far as conduct becomes immoral it ceases to be Christian. The spirit of Christianity is "to love our neighbour as ourselves," and "love worketh no ill to the neighbour." But it is not in this general form the accusation is now presented. It is extended to the doctrines of Christianity, the three following being particularly indicated and condemned: "(1) The punishment of all mankind for the sin of Adam; (2) the vicarious suffering of Christ; (3) the doctrine of eternal punishment. A religion which can embrace these three is, it is stated, ipso facto convicted of utter immorality, and is held up to the scorn and reprobation of mankind." A charge of this kind, and from such "As to the first, then, I am not aware that it is anywhere stated that all mankind, or indeed any portion of them, are punished' for the sin of Adam. It is stated that they are all involved in the consequences of his transgression, and inherit a nature deteriorated by his fall. And this statement is in strict accordance with the law which we find by experience to hold in actual life. The consequences of a man's actions do extend for good or evil to the remotest generations, and the subsequent race is deteriorated or improved by the conduct of the progenitor, fortes creantur fortibus ac bonis. The children of a man of honour inherit his honourable disposition; those of a sot and a drunkard the miserable tendencies of their father. These inherited tendencies are further strengthened by example and fortified by education, and all this by way of natural process, and independently of punishment or reward. A tendency to evil and to error has, unhappily, been recognised as universal in human nature; the doctrine of original sin does but refer it to a source consistent, at the least, with the actual and recognised laws of descent. "The second assertion is that any religion is essentially immoral which allows the innocent to suffer for the guilty. "The doctrine of the atonement for the sins of mankind in the death and sufferings of our blessed Lord is doubtless one of the deep mysteries of our faith. It is quite conceivable that some statements of that doctrine, in their distor tion or exaggeration, may, in some parti culars, justly offend the moral sense of THEOLOGICAL TEACHING IN THE COL LEGES OF THE FREE CHURCH IN mankind. Such statements have generally been made either by the enemies of revelation or by those among its disciples whose enthusiasm has been in Great alarm is felt by not a few of excess of their judgment. But revela- the ministers and laity of the Free tion is responsible neither for the repre- Church at the progress of opinions sentations of its enemies nor for the among the professors in the colleges, well-meant exaggerations of its friends; which are said to depart from the creeds nor can it be justly charged with the of the Church and the traditions of their excesses, whether in opinion or in elders. The case of Professor Robertson action, which have from time to time Smith still lingers before the Presbytery, been perpetrated in its name. But in and a special meeting of the Presbytery reply to the objection above quoted it of Edinburgh was held on the 11th of may be stated, first, that the redemp- February to consider an overture by Dr. tion of man by Christ is effected, not Moody Stuart on the theological trainby the mere substitution of one sufferer ing of candidates for the ministry. for another, but by the identification of overture, which recited that "there are that one with that other; of the abso- special reasons why the Free Church lutely pure and holy One with the should exercise a vigilant and wise guilty and lost; and that by His own superintendence of the theological educafreewill offering of Himself thus to be tion of students for the ministry," went identified with, and thus to take upon on to propose "that the General AsHimself their suffering and shame. 66 ... Thirdly, it is not as a mere excuse that I plead the extreme difficulty of the whole subject of 'eschatology.' It is one which evidently transcends the powers not of 'human verification' only, but of human thought or language. The very terms eternal and everlasting are but imperfect attempts to express realities of which we have no adequate conception. Nor is it easy to say exactly how far the doctrine of eternal punishment enters into the substance of the Christian revelation. Certainly one may find in so great and so ancient an authority as Athanasius statements consistent with other views. But I do protest in limine against the use in invidiam of such terms as eternal torture, etc. Still of eternal suffering I admit that to my own mind Scripture does seem to speak not indistinctly. I can only add that unless we are to suppose God's grace to be finally irresistible, I cannot see how it should be otherwise. The very nature of sin uncontrolled is to produce suffering, and that without limit, in ever-increasing ratio. Left to themselves and isolated in one community the wicked can be only as a knot of wreathed snakes or scorpions stinging and lashing them selves and each other into agony. The subject is indeed terrible, too terrible for contemplation; but it does not therefore follow that it is either immoral or untrue." The sembly take the whole matter into grave An Principal Rainy, in moving that the MISSIONARY OPERATIONS. overture be not transmitted, said "he into which the English Presbyterian knew no man who was satisfied with Church fell when it became Unitarian, the state of things which rendered and when ministers had to pay 13s. 9d. possible a meeting of Presbytery such a day to people to go to church in as they were holding that day. But he order that they might draw their endowthought those who were impressed with inents." The end of the debate was the gravity of the issue would feel that the rejection of the proposed overture, this was a matter in which individual thirty-six voting for and twenty-six impulse was singularly reprehensible against it. It is abundantly clear, and out of place. He did not object to therefore, that those who contend for inspection, but he objected to send up things as they were are in a minority; an overture which mixed up the idea of and although there is much in the having an investigation of that sort teaching of the progressive party which with one into allegations of heresy does not commend itself to our judgagainst certain professors. It seemed ment as members of the New Church, to him that the step they proposed to we cannot but regard increased liberty take would increase the impression that of thought in the public teachers as one something generally was wrong in the of the means whereby the Lord will lead colleges. He defended generally the the Church to clearer knowledge of conduct of the professors; and, referring the truth and a higher life of goodness. to the modifying tendencies which were at work all around them, he remarked that it would be in vain for them to expect to hold the minds of men unless they made it plain that they were facing all these questions, not merely with the desire to fence their old views, but with the desire of finding out what new lessons Christ might be teaching them in His Providence even by the ministry of men like Goldwin Smith and others." Professor Macgregor, in supporting the amendment, said "the real danger was not what the panic-stricken people were thinking about. If they were not to allow men to think beyond what was dictated to them that was a more formidable danger. He met Dr. Moody Stuart the other day, who said, 'Oh, what's to become of our poor Church ?' He replied, 'You good people are sitting on the safety-valve.' Dr. Stuart said, 'Do you fear an explosion?' and he, the professor, replied, "There is a worse thing than an explosion, and that would be making hypocrites of your young ministers. seems, MANCHESTER AND SALFORD MIS SIONARY SOCIETY.-The Committee of the services of ministers from a distance order on the succeeding Tuesday and The lecturers are Rev. T. Child, of Thursday evenings until concluded. No discussion on a subject of this Bath; Rev. R. Storry, Heywood; Rev. kind would be complete without a J. Presland, London; Rev. P. Ramage, speech from Dr. Begg. And on this Kearsley; Rev. R. R. Rodgers, Birming ham; and Revs. C. H. Wilkins and W. occasion, if not particularly instructive, he Westall, of Manchester and Salford. from the laughter and applause" which greeted his utterances, The lectures are announced by large to have been singularly amusing. "In posters, cards, and advertisements in Scotland," he said, 'the process of the daily papers. The following are brief outlines of the second lectures of emptying the churches had already begun, for men would not have German rubbish for sound Gospel truth. In Scotland they would soon reach the stage they were in in Germany, or that 66 Mr. Child and Mr. Presland :— Having first spoken of the persons in whom he was most interested in these lectures, viz. outsiders and young people |