Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1846-11-27

and approved OF It's sentiments, ne coulu NOT
endure the persecution its reception subjected
him to.
But from tho Greed, power, the greatest
opposition is met with by the reformcr. OF
its power FOR evil, tho Rev. Charles Bcecher,
son Of Lyman Bcecher, D. D., thus speaks
in a sermon preached oy him at Fort Wayne,
Indiana, on the occasion Of the dedication Of
the Second Presbyterian Church ofihat place.
"There is nothing imaginary in the state
ment that the Creed-Power is now beginning
TO prohibit the Bible, as really as Rome did,
though in a subtler way. During the whole
course of seven years study, the Protestant
candidate for the ministry sees before him
an unauthorized statement, spiked down and
storeotyped, of what he MUST find in the BIZ
bic or be martyred. And does any one, &C
quainted with human nature, need be told
that he studies under a tremendous pressure
of motivel Is that freedom Of opinion 2 the
liberty wherewith Christ maketh free =
Rome would have given that. Every one Of
her clergy might have studied the Bible to
find there the Pontiical creed, on pain Of
death. Was that liberty
Hence | say, that liberty Of opinion in our
1 ntDlO1iCdi summaries Is Il llttf IDItIl. 10
say nothing Of the thumb-screw of criticism,
by which every original mind is tortured in
to negative propriety, the whole boosted lib-
eriy Of the student consists in a choice of
chains-a choice Of handcuns-whethcr he
will wear the Presbyterian handcufr, or the
Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal or other Evan
gclical haudcuif. Hence it has secretly come
to pass that the ministry themselves dare not
study their Bibles. Large portions thereof
are seldom touched. 1t lies useless lumber;
or if they do study and search, they dare not
show the people what they find there. There
is something criminal in saying anything new.
1t is shocking to utter words that have not
the mould of age upon them.
Through the ministry, the same spirit has
been conducted to the people. The same
penalties hang over them. The denomina-
lions are 50 nearly balanced, the strife for
power is so keen between them, that every
fdncied departure from the creed, is seized to
make political capital, as really as many po-
l%itical campaign. Houses must be built
must be raised. This requires wealth.
Wealth requires numbers and patronage
This creates a servile dread Of novelty, for
everything that another party can get hold
of, strikes at the gold. Therefore, the peo-
pie watch their minister, and the minister is
afraid Of his people. For if he studies indie
pendently, if he goes outside of the book, if
he slips the handculf, the people trcmble-it
will not pleaso--the opposition will seize it
shall be unpopular-we shall not sue
coed
Oh, wofnl day. Oh, unhappy church of
Christ! Fast rushing round and round the
fatal circle Of absorbing ruin Thou sayest,
| am rich, and increased in goods, and have
need Of nothing; and hro1ccst not that thou
art poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked!
Thus are the ministry of the Evangelical,
Protestant denominations, not only formed all
the way up, under n Tremendous pressure of
merely human fear, hut they live, and move,
and breathe, in q state of things radically cor
rupt, and appealing every hour to every baser
element of their nature, to hush up the truth,
and bow the knee to the power OF apostacy.
Dimly does every one now and then see
that things are going wrong. With signs
does every true heart confess that rottenness
is somewhere; but all it is hopeless Of re-
form. We all pass on, and the tide rolls
down tonight.
The time has come when men, having Itch
ing ears, and forms of godliness without the
power, are heaping to themselves teachers,
when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but are turned aside unto fables. And the
whole has come about stealthily, nobody
knows how, among good men, out Of good
motives.
Was not this the way things went with
Rome! Are we not living her life over
again! AND what do we see Just ahead -
Another General Council A Worlds Con-
%vention Evangelical and Universal Creed
And what then is to be done? know not
what others may say hut if ever | shrink
frnUn loplaripr tI,t Tho Dial, IT., ,ylo1, u;
Bile, and nothing but the Bible, is the perfect
and thorough furniture of the Christian min
lister, and the Christian church. then may
my right hand forget her cunning, and my
tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth"
Hence it is true that he who would benefit
the world by reforming the morals of Socic,
ty, and correcting its abuses, will meet with
the fercest opposition, as all ungodly Priests
will dispute every inch of progress.
That the re(ormer may entertain errors o
opinion, must be admitted. And until infal.
libility is attainable by erring man, with the
seeker after the true and the right, this viii
be the case. Some he may entertain in com.
mon with others as we'll as errors which 9th
ers do not subscribe to but still some of hi
views, opposed by the leading influences, re
garded as visionary by others, and regarde,
(because they are taught to believe SOY as ia
natical by the mass, if perseveringly advo
Gated, will be adopted by the next generation
as great practical truths. This has been tn
history of human progress, and it is necessa
ry TO such progress that some should take al
advance position, and endure persecution
with a martyr spirit.
The patient submission to wrong, Will
one is fearlessly indicating what he believe
to be truth, and an endurance of the wron.
done him, rather than give up its advocacy
forces the multitude at length, ether inlluen
ces to the contrary Notwithstanding, to tn,
conclusion that such an one is not only sin
cere, but faithful to his convictions. Thu
he Uains an influence over the conSciapcas r