ECCLESIASTICAL "HUMBUGGERY."

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 27 February 1880, Page 2

ECCLESIASTICAL "HUMBUGGERY."

(From the New Zealand Sun ) The sccalted " Pastor " Chiniquy (jays the Rangiora Standard) is not even clever, as most travelling mountebanks of that hideous class generally are. Fe has very soon shown the cloven hoof, and been properly bowled out. Blunder No. 1 :— ln one of his wretched lectures he spoke strongly against any help being given to the Irish Relief Furd on the ground that 'it was not the Irish people who wasted the money but the priests.' The poor fool ! Why, the committee at Home who are appealing to us colonists to relieve the terrible distress in Ireland includes no less than a do^en or more of Protestants, to wit-r-Mr Maurice Brooks, M.P. ; Sir Arthur Guinness, W.P. ; the Earl of Meath 5 Viscount Powerseourfc } the Provost of Trinity Oo'lege, Dublin ; the Protestant Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland, and — wonderful to say it from a Chiniquy point of view — the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church { So much for humbug No. 1. Now to blunder No. 3.— ln one of his maniacal ravings, ' Pastor ' Chiniquy told the following • tale ' — * Shortly after my conversion I was nearly ruined, all my things had been sold by the sheriff, my library and ray furniture. I lay down on the bare floor to sleep with only a bag for a pillow, and expecting in the morning that the sheriff would come for me for a note of £25, which I could not pay, as a man who owed me money could not pay me. Mrs Cain-qny was weeping, but I told her it was wrong, as

I ! •>■] laid the matter before the Lord, and that He wonld make it all right. I suid it and I believed it, but my faith was weak. But in the morning, about two hours before the sheriff came, I went to the post-office and found a letter / v om New Zealand. I was suvrised, and hardly lenep iohe/>e New Zealand was : but on opening the letter I found £25. It was only last week that I shook the hand of the gentleman who had sent it. I thank you all kindly for your cordial reception, and if our worthy friend will read the 103 rd Psalm it will express what I feel. The Reyerend Mr Evans then read the 103 rd Psalm, after which three cheers, were given for the Queen, and -three for Mr Ivans.'- Now would the Rev, W. Evans be ' very much astonished to bear ' that in a Queensland newspaper we find that the very self same • leetle yarn,' told in exactly the same words, appears in one of the many utterances of ' Pastor ' Chiniquy, with this single • remarkable ' exception, that instead of the words italicised by us above the following appear :— ' and a letter from Queensland, I was surprised and hardly knew were Queensland was. The trick is s poor one, and surely so stale as to open the eyes of a few deluded ones whose dollars Ohiniquv is coveting while setting honest men by the ears. Rogues and mountebanks should be clever to prosper. They should tbimble*rig neatly. Chiniquy of course played the wrong card when he inveighed against any assistance being given to the distressed liish. Of course, when on his way southwards, he will correct the blunder, and take the • damned sharp curve.' Forked tongues, especially if unctuously lubricated, can always find reasons to explain these changes of front.