Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1845-10-24

however much they may sometimes lack tho
power to work evil. III mans reputation ia
to be sacrificed in order to protect the char
acter Of the church, that reputation is immo-
latedSby the priests, and they gloat over
its destruction with as much delight as anv
officer of the Inquisition eyer felt in the tor
lures of his victim. Ii excommunication il
needed in ordor Ia preserve their union in
wickedness, they hand oyer the member Of
their flock to the buffctings Of Satan, and con.
sign MIN 10 everlasting torments, and then
praise themselves for doing the pious act
If a member Of their craft leaves because of
their corruption, and reveals the iniquities
they practice, they pursue him with mort
than Masonic hatred, and seek the total de.
s%truction of his influence,
Their power is departing from them. As
| revival preachers they have ceased to lead
and mould the public mind as they once did.
Their terrible picture of endless torments, of
the unquenchable fire in which the agonized
spirits of the guilty forever abide, has. lost its
tllGCl, blt pcOplG IL lOt OG IChiNGus NdHD
meetings have become a tame and unpro6ta,
BILE concern, involving an expenditure of Sec
tartan zeal and religious eXhortation which
is but poorly repaid by a slim return of con-
verted sinners. Protracted meetings, though
protsaoted to an unreasonable length, catch
comparatively few in their meshes. Bible
| s0ointi,g E,1 tb,f ,b,o ,-orlI H., -.
aid the church in circulating the Bible, SO
long as the church recommends it as the
hangman's guide, and builds with it a bull
waTk for the protection Of slavery ind of war.
The fact IS, many Of the people have lost con-
fdenco in the religious teachers of this land.
aud have no faith in the principles they in
%cnlaato. The clergy are beginning 70
feel that if their occupation is not yet gone,
that it is less honorable than it used to be,
and is not quite so dirine in the popular est.
nation. People are learning to speak of
them as men, and not as something above
men, and above the fr%aiIties to which human.
ity is subject. The divine right of priests il
going where We have long since sent the di-
vine right of kings; and the common sense
OF the people will soon lead them to reject
that other relic Of bicotry aud superstition.
not the exploded doctrine that the king can
do no wrong, but the too much believed one
that the priest can do no wrong. Findinr it.
selfsEofn Of its strength, and feeling that its
nONVnr IS on tho ,voro MI. ....c
out other devices, has invented new rames
by which to win mems souls and bring them
in subsection to its despotic power.
Finding the people slow to be driven into
their sectarian folds. learning by experience
that the foul character Of their religion was
turning many away from thsis teaching, they
stTovc to seek out something with which to
teriify those whom they desired to drive into
their tolls, or to retain in their power, and
therefore called up tho bugbear Infdehfv,
with which to frighten the people into sub
%jeet.or. fhey endedyor to place its stigma
upon the Teformatofy movements of the day,
They braBd all as inideis who do not labor
IN obedience to church d~ietation and for the
promotion OF s~ectarian power. The Rev.
Elisha Bates, formerly an Orthodox Quaker
preacher, but now a Methodist Episcopal
priest is a fair representation of the lvinp
priesthood of this land. Himself a practical
lnfdel of the worst kind, a contemner Of
Gods law, and with lying lips teaching the
most abomlnable doctrines to the community,
he has the impotence to charge us with the
things OF which he himself is guilty. He
asserts that William Lloyd Garrison, and
those who stand with him. are teaching ..the
doctrines Of the French Revolution which
drenched Europe with blood and filled her
with crime;" A more foul-mouthed Islander
than this never fell from the lips of man, and
Che ungodly priest at the time he uttered it
was a member Of a sect which endorses the
Nhnstlan character, and receives into church
fellowship, men who are guilty of crimes
which the most sanguinary of the French
revoiutonists would have had too much ma,,-
hood to perpetrate deliberately in the name of
religion as khe Methodist Episcopal Church
has done. However inconsistent and tyran-
meal, biood-thirsty and infamous were Rob-
espiesFe, Marat, Danton and their fellow la
baFers in ~iniquity, they were not so degrad-
ed, so lost to all sense of justice, so destitute
OF every feeling of humanity as to claim a
~ ThI m tain thA emil af tho ,,al. l-- -