The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-08-18 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN TIMES.

Dear Sir,—Will you do me the favour of inserting in
your paper a few lines with reference to several letters which
have lately appeared before the public ?
I was pleased to see in your columns of last Saturday week,
a letter from some Mr. W., who wishes to see peace once
more established between Mr. Macnaught on the one side,
and Mr. Lowe and the Irish party on the other; and in his
attempt at reconciliation, he has endeavoured to reconcile
the views of men who are as diametrically opposed to each
other as common sense and absurdity can be. Now, no one
more deeply regrets the fracas which has taken place among
the Liverpool clergy;than I do, and I shall be pleased when
the storm of opposition has blown over. So far, then, I
look on Mr. W.'s letter as a step in the right direction.
But, feeling convinced that truth will ultimately prevail,
and wishing, moreover, that justice be done to my injured
and much slandered friend, Mr. Macnaught, I would sly
that, had Mr. W., when speaking of passing through the
alembic of the mind, said that the Rev. J. B. Lowe appears
to have passed through the alembic of reason, and to have

come out again a minus quantity, the statement would have
met with a responsive echo in the breasts of all liberal-
minded and thoughtful men of the day. Or if, when illus.
his definition of objective and subjective truth by an
instance taken from the astronomical world, he had said
that the earth, during one of her rapid approaches towards
Perihelion, appears to have left Mr. Lowe behind her, and

trating

then sportively to have made a few revolutions before cal-
ling fur him again, here, too, he would have been in sym-
pathy with thoughtful men ; for I must say, that Mr. Lowe
appears to me to be hardly up to the mark of the nineteenth
century. Or if, again, in the instance which Mr. Vir. has
borrowed from the science of optics, he had said that pur
hero, like a true "son of the green isle," seems to have been
looking at one part of Newton's spectrum only, and there-
fore to have seen but his own native colour instead of the
seven combined—here, too, he would have been happier in
his illustration ; for Mr. L. appears to me to be so com-
pletely surrounded by green, that I cannot see him in any
other light. However, I hear that he (Mr. L.) has
lately been residing in Wales ; I hope, therefore, that the
healthy breezes of that district have had a beneficial effect
upon him, and since he appeared to have left behind him
the wholesome effect of exercising his reason (shall I say
common sense and Christian charity also??) I hope be found
them again on his return to Liverpool. I am sorry to be
thus severe upon nay friend, Mr. Lowe, but the truth must
I have been differentiating him by the rules of
reason and common sense, and find that he turns out a
minimum ; or, in case he never read the higher branches of
mathematics, and is, therefore, unacquainted with their
terms; or, as " Verax " would say, if he be as ignorant of
mathematics as he appears to be of classics, I will cloths my
meaning in plainer language, and say that he has miserably
failed in his attempts at popularity, and has become, instead,
the centre of attraction for the drifting of weak minds.
Before dismissing our friend I would offer a little advice,
which is—the next time he wishes to ride another hobby, to
be more careful in his choice, and also to remember the
words of Locke, that " those who are for laying aside the use
of reason in matters pertaining to revelation, resemble one
who should put out his eyes in order to make use of a tele-
scope." Again, in the columns of the Courier for last Wed-
nesday week, appeared a letter from one of St. Chrysostom's
congregation, to the effect that, during the last twelve months.
he had been made most uncomfortable by Mr. Macnaught's
preaching; and then, from his own feelings, he draws the
illogical conclusion that doubtless many others are similarly
circumstanced. Now, I would ask your readers to consider,
for one moment, the fact—that within a very short distance
from St. Chrysostom's church are no less than four others,
at any one of which our friend could doubtless have obtained
a sitting ; and then I would ask them their opinion of the
man who, for twelve months, could sit and listen to what be
considered erroneous teaching, when he had every opportu-
nity of attending a place where, perhaps, he would have
heard doctrines set forth more in sympathy with his own
views, or, I should rather say, where he would have heard
sermons more adapted to his own comprehension. But
perhaps my friend will plead the force of attachment,
and say that past events attach him to the place; this
is a very reasonable excuse, and one which I could
....any hay,. %Omitted, had St. ahrygniatont's bpen
an old parish church, in which his forefathers had
worshipped before him—td which he had bo-n carried
for baptism in the days of his infancy—from which he had
led forth his bride in the time of manhood - and beneath
whose walls he hoped to rest when the journey of life was,
at an end. But, since that church has recently been built,
I think he can plead no such excuse; and since, also, be
has expressed an opinion, that many of the attendants at
that place feel very uncomfortable, perhaps I, too, may be
allowed to exeress mine, which is—that I think he is a
Judas, and, therefore, to 'St. Jude's he shoull go.

come out.