Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-12-21 00:00:00

NO. Ili

TO WIZ EDITOR OF TT:4I NORTHERN Tim Es.
Sir,—Will you kir„,i-ly inort, tha following from
A CLFIZSYNIAN or trim CFIIIRCH OF ENGL tND.
Robert.—G,oa teoraing, Thomas, I'm very glad to 83a
you.

Ribert, how are yen progressing in
your theological studies ?
R. —l'm sure I can scarcely say : the more I give way
to free inquiry, the more do I find things that startle, if
not actually alarm ante ; still I am encouraged to go on, for
I think nothing bat goad can come of a fair theological
incoiry.
T.—You are quite right ; suppression of free inquiry is
a great evil, and proceeds from a mawkish sensibility, from
cewardice, and from a mistaken veneration for the opinions
of others : our grand aim should aleitays be to find out
what is truth, regardless of consequences; if, after inquiry,
wa arrive at that which, in any subj ct, consistently bears
the impress of truth, why, then, that conclusion so arrived
at, ought to be accepted, even though it by no means
chimes in with what we bad been previously taught to
regard as the genuine truth. Bit what have you there in
your hand?
R.—lt is a letter from G., cat out of the NORTHERN
rI3IES, for Dscember 12.
T.-0:1, I have the letter, but I've la3ea unable to dis-
cover one word an the subject in qusstion, viz., the
b lity of Scripture. Now, the original question between
Mr. M. and Mr. G. was Scriptural Infal ibility, but Mr.
G. seams to have forgotten the subject altogether, and it
would appear that he has only made a handle of the origi-
nal question in order to have the oaportunity of question-
ing Mr. M.'s orthodoxy, and of giving publicity.to all of
his unfounded suspicions of a brother clergyman.
R.—There are some strong expressions in this letter of
G.'s, such as I should not like to have hurled against
myself. Mr. C. Road?, I find, has been sending a savoury
morsel to " the Critic,'t at which "the Critic" says,
" These be hard word?, mi masters;'' but, I shou'd say,
these of Mr. G's be harder. I cannot defend such an
aJaitrtry abuse of language.
7'.—No, nor any one else possessing a spark of charity.
What says St. Paul? "Walk worthy of the vacation
wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and trsekness,
with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love." " L.t
all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil
speaking, be put away from you, erith all malice, and be
ye kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one
another, even as God for Christ's sake bath forgiven you."
Such is the teaching of Paul. But Mr. G., in recklessly
defending the doctrine of infallibility, seems to have fur-
gotten all this, and d'sregards not only the %unposed infalli-
bility, but sets at non ;ht this chief characteristic of a true
Christian.

R. Thse texts which you have read seem to be jast to
the point ; and it woild se ?na to me th it a man reclaims
no imaginary assistance from an iaeonsisteat belief in
infalibility to receive them as true, and to act upon then;
and it does :eon that a man's charity, his Christian love and
farb9arance, are by no means favourably affected by his
belief, whether real or imaginary, in S;ript.iral

T.—T am riglat glal to hear you say so ; you 'nave made
another step in the right direction. It it my firm belief
th it a man's being a true Christian requires not that he
should have the heavy and intolerable yoke of infallibili'y
hung about his neck. It is an anchor, as Mr. G. cats it ;
it is one that wi l drag you to the bottom of the seas of
inconsistency and c‘intr7.d:elisn, insteid of allowing you to
ride in safety on the oeean of a reasonable and consistent
faith. But I firmly believe more than this. I believe there
is not one person in this large town who, having read or
thouzlit at all on the subject, would stare his existence on

the freedom of the Btble from error and contradiction.
And if there is no one who would so act, why should they
be so determined in upholding the theory ? If it be true
that there is net an error in the Bible, I would stake my
life, my salvation, on it; but if I dire not stake my life on
it, I then discover some apprehension Al to the truth of it.
This reflec‘ion, I think, ought to mike us modest and care-
ful in defending a more than questionable theory,
R.—Well, but what about this letter of Mr. G's ? It
certainly has nothing to do with the question at issue, but
there will be no harm in us having a little private coa-
verFation on it.

T,—My opinion of this letter is, that it is one mass of
unfoended charge?, and cruel misrepresentations, apart
Irma the numerous personolitiee, from his imputing to Mr.
M. want of " candour, openness, and honesty," (the very
quali•ies,lby the way, which have gained Mr. kt. so much
opnesition,) and from his calling Mr. M. a biaspherner and
infidel, which, of coarse, a-o implied in the expression " his
blasphemous end iufd l are-r," since these epithets can
only belong to a blasphemous i file]. I say, apart from
these, and numerous other expressions eas ugly, there
is a tissue of false reasoning pervading the whole. For
instance ; there is a massage in it quoted from Socinua, and
from that passage, Mr. G. attempts to prove that Hr. M.
has denied the divinity or the divine nature of Chri,t.
Then) is something new in this, forsooth ; had Mr. C.
quoted ;he pass?..e . or one like it, from M's writings, his
- ee
quotations would have been more to the point ; but to
charge Mr. Al. with any particular doctrine, because it is
found in the work of anethsr man, seems rather a singular
mode of reasoning. And again, because Mr. M. urea the
wont " oneness," which i 3 ruech more expressive of being
one with than is "sameness," Mr. G. says he may possi;ly
and probably mean similarity, and, ergo, we may, " with
great proktbility, say that Mr. M. is nut in opinion a
clergyman of the Church of England !'' If Mr. G. ar-
rives at all his conclusion; after such is mode of ratinei-
nation as this, I would not give much fur their stabili.y.
R.—lt seems to me a ve.y unfair way of carrying on a
coetroversy, when one has recourse to all sorts of injurious
personalities instead of sound argument. Trtola appeare to
me the grand obj-ct of all controversy. Bat I only wonder
that Mr. G. should argue at all with a man whom he
accuses of impie y and dishonesty. If a man have argu-
men's to prove his side of the qu stion, let him prroluce
them, instead of wasting time on personal questions, which,
whether true or false, can never affect the question of
infallibility.
.T.--.rhat is rightly put. And I think, too, that a man
may wind up a letter much more gracefully than by iatrc-
decieg some text of Scripture which he thinks will fit the
cos.; of his opponent; much more ought an upholder of
criptural infallibility to abstain from tampering with
Scripture and perverting it to suit his own purples. Mr.
G. closes one of his letters with the corrupted text, '' P:o-
-freeing themselves to be wise they become fools ;" se thet
by the altering of ore word, Mr. G has changed the entire
meaning of what he would call an infallibly inspired text ;
and he hes done this not without some purpose—to make
it applicable to some particular case ; and stupid must he
be who cannot sea the intended applicability. I, for one,
most strongly protest against this perversion of Scripture,
and more still when it is perverted for the purpose of
singing the feelings of a fellow Chri§;ian. A loving
Christen would prefer, as his rule of action towards lire
brethren, "be kindly affectioned one to another with
bro'berly love." But I must be off, In the meantime I
should advise you to read Dr. Rowland Williams's review
of Blshop Oflivant'e charge, published by Deigiatou,
Cambridge. Good night.
R. —I will do as you say. Good night. Au revoir

The Prince of Oade, who intendel to remain some time
in Brighton, was sudd6nly called to town on Monday, from
the R ,yal Albion Hotel, by the illn6ss of his mother, of
which he waq apprised b; a telegraphic message
Brighton Ga:&te.

REDUCTI, N IN THE PRICE (F BREAD.—On Thursday a
further reduction was made by most of the metropolitan
bakers in the price of bread. " Best wheaten" brea,3,
ac it is termed, is now selling in the poorer localities
at 53d and 6d the 41b loaf for ready money, weighed
on delivery ; household bread is niw selling at 11 and
Fl bel w this price. Tho high priced baker., wko gene-
rally sell a superior article and give credit, are selling at
64-d ar;cl 7d the 41b loaf. The corn-chandlers are selling
flour at from is 10d to 2s 6d per stone of 14'b.
THE NORTH WALES HERRING FISHERY.—This fishery,
for the season, has been extremely productive on the coast
of North Wales. In the Menia Straits there have been
large takings during the past week. In the weirs below
Penrhyn, it has been no uncommon circumstance to take
80,000, and even 100,000, after a tide ; and the fishermen
have netted 30,000 and 40,000 in a night. We have been
assured that after Friday morning's tide there were
upwards of 300,000 in one of the weirs of Penrhyn,
100,000 of Which were secured.—North Vales Chronicle,

EX &MI NATION OF SHIPM MITERS.