The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-07-09 00:00:00

~ MACNAUGHT ON INSPIRATION."

" THE LIVERPOOL HERALD" SOUNDS A RETREAT
FOR THE REV. J. B. LOWE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN TIMES.

Sir,—Yon will probably have noticed in the _Herald of
Saturday, the sth instant, an article with the Leading,
" Infidelity in the Church of England !! ! "
This article is quite worthy of notice in the following
considerations :-
1. Mr. Macnaught is implicitly designated a " confirmed
infidel." With reference to this assertion, I beg to ask the
editor of the Liverpool herald which article of the Three
Creeds, or which of the Thirty-nine Articles, or what part of
the Ordination Vows, has been called in question by Mr.
Macnaught ?
2. Dr. Donaldsou's remarkable work, The .Thok of
Jashar, is quoted under the designation of A Critical
Treatise on the Old Testament ; and, after repeating a
letter of Dr. Donaldson's, and three lengthy quotations
from his " Book of Jashar," the Herald's editor proceeds
to urge the bishops to answer several questions. These
questions are vague and silly enough ; but their reader is,
apparently, intended to gather from them that the bis'
of Chester ought to proceed against Mr. Macnaught. u
doubt the editor of the Herald has recently learnt something
of the law ; and as the public are being requested to pay
for the said editor's experience, I venture to ask him under
what statute, or in accordance with what preoedent, he
would advise the bishops to proceed against Dr. Donaldson
or Mr. Macnaught ?

3. But, sir, the most astounding feature in the Herald'.
article is the manner in which he, a professing friend of the
clergy, and especially of the extreme anti-Romanists like Mr.
J. B. Lowe, recalls the incumbent of St. Jude's from his com •
bat with his own refutations of Mcsonaught on Inspiration.
For the last seven weeks Mr. J. B. Lowe has been toiling
at long and elaborate letters to the Courier, in which he
sets up what he regards as Mr. Maenaught's arguments, and
then he has the satisfaction of supposing that he entirely
"refutes" those arguments.

To be sure, most people are heartily tired of Mr. Lowe's
two or three weekly columns. It is true, all thoughtful
persons have, from the first, perceived that Mr. Lowe was
not up to the mark, and that he had undertaken a task
which was too much for him. It is true, Mr. Lowe seems
unwilling (or unable) to answer a few simple qaestions
which have been frequently put to him by " Verax," and on
his satisfactory reply to which depends the public estimation
of his scholarship and his honesty as a reviewer. It is true,
Mr. Lowe has seriously damaged his own reputation—has
drawn prompt and wide attention to Mr. Macnaught's new
book, and has proportionately injured the cause of fanaticism,
which is dear to the Herald's heart—which is the high-road
to unbelief. Bat what, then, sir ? Should not Mr. Lowe's
unfortunate failure, and his unhappy exposure of himself
and his cause, commend him to the sympathies and assist-
ance of such an amiable lady as our local " Mrs. Gamp ?"
Instead of this, however, the editor of the Liverpool
Herald, in a spirit of the most self-complacent nonchalance,
produces a few lines as a quotation from a recent sermon of
the bishop-designate, Chas. Baring. These few lines of asser-
tion and declamation, without a word of proof or argument, the
Liverpool friend of " Mrs. Harris" " contends is an ample ex •
planation of the question a', issue ;" and with reference to the
puzzled and unfortunate Mr. Lowe, all the comfort he gets
from the Herald is, that his letters are styled " a verbose
controversy," with which "the columns of the Liverpool
press have been teeming for some time." [By the way, the
editor of the Herald declares that he " means to repeat his
" questions" on this subject, " and to call for an answer,"
so we suppose that another " column of the Liverpool
press" will, now that " we are heartily sick of the e-biect,
and certain the public is tired of i ," begin to odd its
valuable contributions to the effort to put down reason by
authority, " Parturit hem I prey° nascetur riiiculus
mus."] But, in the meanwhile, sir, observe the compli
meats and the consolation proffered to a fallen alley by
the manager of the new Herald's office. " Mr. Lowe's
letters," the courteous Herald proclaims, " must be futile in
the extreme." " Mr. Lowe's powers are unequal to the
task." "We do hope Mr. Lowe will desist from a wordy
warfare, when he can throw us new I;ght upon the subject ;
and cease to fill three or four (?) columns of the Courier,
and some little space in the Radical and
.T\TJaruzart
TIMES, with verbosity that is neither instructing nor
interesting." After this, for the
Herald to mention Mr.
Lowe's "persevering zeal and pure-mindedness," is simply
to add insult to injury.—Allow me, sir, to subsci.be myself,z
as one whose motto is " SAVE MS FROM MY FRIENDS.