The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1846-08-27
J. H0LC0MB, Editor Il Publisher

situations of learning, up-sprang as if by SUI
pernatural agency. They made God the OBJ
ject of their worship, nor prided themselve;
on their prosperity. Their eyes were even
turned imploringly to heaven. Still they
were prosperous. They dealt in religion on
the principle of wholesale. They had learn
ed that Union was strength" But alas for
the church and the world, spirits found their
birth within its pale, who taught that, not in
union but in division there was more strength
Not only was the church Of the wilderness q
sufferer, but the church of the Old World
was rent asunder by division, and whereas
religion, once wholesale matter, soon be-
gan to be dealt in retail. And all along I'M
til the present, has the church been at war
with herself We are speaking now of the
universal church. Instead of expanding her
wealth for the spread of the gospel, she has
laid it out in costly edlGccs, ard gaudy trap
pings, wherein, they say, to worship Cod
Their differences of opinion, forbid union in
action, and instead of one commodious house
of worship to each village or hamlet, we may
count four, five or six, and a rivalship dis
played in each. Aside from convenience &
comfort, money enough has been expended
on the very trivial appendages, (steeples) to
place the Bible in almost every habitation of
the globe. But what are some of the points
in controversy in the church? Feuds and
divisions are rife, as to who are the elect,
whether the Bible recognizes the baptism of
infants, whether sprinkling, pouring, INNER
sion, or both, is baptism; and whether the adj
mission of any person, under any circumstan-
ces unless baptized, to the sacrament, is right;
whether Episcopacy is the best mode ofchurch
government, and hundred other things of
aslittle consequence to mans salvation, are
constantly creating dscord and divisions a.
mong those who profess to be the Lords Zion,
and to be laboring in one common cause, and
striving for one common heaven. And well
might the cheeks of Zion De mantled with
bushes, as she turns to the Volume of inspi-
ration, and there, upon these same points of
division, reads Jehovah's silence The church
lives and acts as though religion consisted of
the observance of ccremonious rites and Gus
toms, more than in that 81 love that worketh
no i'll to its neighbour" or the fulflmcnt the
command, Love the Lord thy God with al
thy heart, ind, might and strength, ard thy
neighbor as thysef," or that bcnevolence that
takes to its embrace the whole universe of
Gods rational subjects, Of whatever condi-
ton, name or nation. The church has been
and now is, the scorn and contempt Of the
philosophic world land justly too, for her gross
inconsistency and glazing hypocrisy. For,
represented as a light of the world, and en-
gagged in warfare with the Prince of dark
ness, endeavoring to take the sceptre from
him, and give the kingdoms of the world IN
to the hands of its rightful Sovereign Jesus,
she at the same time, is nourishing on her
breast the very elements that put back the
year of jubilee to earth's sin-bound sons
The church may load vessel with Bibles
and Missionaries, and send them to heath
en- land They plant the standard of the
Cross, and invite the natives to it. As they
gather around the men of God, and listen to
them as they read from holy writ, L" For God
so loved the world that he gave his only be-
gotten Son, that whatsoever believeth on him
might not perish but have everlasting life"
they will enquire, do your people believe
or to the words are we not all brethren ?"
are you all brothers at home have you no
slaves there ? do your people never fight
Or, supposing heather man, from some dis
tant land comes to Christendom, and on the
Sabbath attends church, where man who
says he is an ambassador of Jesus, holds forth
on some favorite doctrine in his creed. In
another church on the same day, he hears
from another of Gods Amounted upon the
same subject but in very different light
And so he goes from one church to another,
until he has heard from five or six different
protested ministers of the new covenant, all
upon one subject and no two agree! What
opinion think you, he would form of the re-
ligon of the Christian? And this is no fam
cy sketch, It's true. The language of the in
fdcl world to the Ministers and Church is,
"agree among yourselves"
We believe the church to be, as it now ex-
lists, the greatest hindering cause to the
worlds redemption. Not to say how it af-
fects civil governments, causing animosities,
hostllities, &c, &C., we enquire, where has
fled the spirit of the Pilgrim Fathers =? has
the church no love of right and justice, no
fear of God? The language of the Prophet
to her is, " Arise and shake thyself from the
A. Al