The Christian Spirit.

In the face of the armies and navies of Europe this Spirit is non-existent; the motto being for each nation to be stronger than the other, which the clergy always encourage, as they flourish upon the misery and wrangling of mankind. They especially urge it on, as I have always said, against such a nation as France, which has thrown down the Cross. The whole power of Rome is being utilised now to quietly urge on Germany to crush France for daring to overthrow the Cross. And as Germany has no fleet in the Mediterranean, Austria and Italy are being quietly encouraged also to build Dreadnoughts. A century ago France was dictating law to Europe. To-day the nations are being quietly arrayed against her for daring to page 22 throw down the Cross. What the Clerics really mean by "the true Christian Spirit" is the forgiveness and mercy of God. They have never done any good as missionaries, except when they taught Deism, and, of course, in that way they did good. In 1872 I saw in Fiji Anglican, Roman, and Wesleyan Churches set up in Levuka, and the poor natives did not know which to believe. Such a state of things was and still is a disgrace to our Humanity. Why did we so mislead these poor people? In 1874, discussing this matter with Bishop Selwyn, that cleric (as good a minister of God and man as we have ever had, but unfortunately for himself trained in mistaken Trinitarianism)—told me that, to overcome this difficulty in New Zealand, he had agreed with the Wesleyan Missionaries for the Natives to draw an imaginary line, dividing their pahs in half, and for each half to worship on its own side of the pah. Could anything have been more harmful ? Was it not a crime to teach these people the Cross at all, as it has done them no good; for morally they are now a ruined race. Surely it would have sufficed to teach God to them ! I have the greatest sympathy for those good men who carried the Bible to the dark places of the earth. Unfortunately they carried with it the New Testament canker worm; which directly negatived all their splendid efforts. The duty of mankind is to bury the New Testament, and try to forget the whole of its errors and evil doings. After years of mission effort, it is shocking to know how the Tongan chiefs treat their young girls. Trinitarianism does not inculcate real virtue at all : Christ's own birth from a virgin, being as I say contra virtutem. Confucius really taught virtue in every line of his writings; but the Confucian cult, like all other cults, has had its day and the good of it must be absorbed in a better cult.