when “personalities” were deemed vulgar, and lies dishonourable,--and therefore we perhaps ought not to feel very greatly surprised when the name and possible attributes of the Almighty Creator Himself are dragged through the purlieus of “up-to-date” journalism,--but surely there is something very deplorable and disgraceful in the fact that any one professing to be a follower of the Christian Faith should have replied to what can only be termed, considering the quarter from whence it came, an ironical demand, “Do We Believe?” The best and wisest answer would have been complete silence on the part of the public. No more effectual “snubbing” to the non-Christian faction could have been given. But unfortunately there are a certain class of persons whose prime passion is to see themselves in print, and to this end they will commit any folly and write any letter to the newspapers, even if it be only to state that primroses were seen somewhat early in bloom in their back yards. And such, chiefly, were the kind of men and women who poured themselves into the channels of the “Do We Believe?” discussion, like water running down the streets into gutters and mains,--never seeming to realize that to the thinking and intellectual world, their foolish letters, addressed to such a public quarter, merely proved their utter loss of respect for themselves, not only as professing Christians and subjects of a Christian Empire, but as men and women. No real follower of a Faith--any Faith--would be so lost to every sense of decency as to discuss it in a daily newspaper. As for the clergy who took part in the boresome palaver, one can only marvel at them and ask why they did not “veto” the whole thing at once? A penny paper is not the Hall of Pontius Pilate. As ministers of Christ they might have protested against a modern-vulgar “mock” trial of their Master. It was in their power to do so, and such a protest would have redounded to their honour. At any rate, they might themselves have abstained from joining in the foolish and unnecessary gabble. For gabble it was, and gabble it is. No useful cause has been served thereby and no advantage gained. The Sons of Israel have asked a question,--and some of the unwise among professing Christians, being caught in the Israelitish trap, have answered it. The manner in which both question was put and answer given, was unworthy of a country where the Christian Faith is the guiding light of the realm. Matters of religion are of course open to discussion in the treatise or book intended for quiet library reading, or even in the better-class magazines, but to hawk sacred subjects of personal sentiment and national creed about in the daily wear of newspaper columns which equally include murders, divorces, bigamies, stocks and shares, and the general _débris_ cast off as flotsam and jetsam in the turgid waves of Mankind’s ever-recurring mischief against itself, was to the last degree reprehensible and regrettable.