Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1849-10-13
From the Model Worker.
Clerical PrprOgative.

The last number of the Independent con-
talns an extract of a letter from a Yankee,
who moved South and became an Episcopal
performer, i'll reply to u letter from an old
townsman, kindly expressing some regret at
his new connections, and fear lest he might,
from the place of his residence, be tempted
IL compromise an anti-slayery character
The extract is a rich specimen:
"Now, as to your letter. 1t was a combi-
nation of arrogance, selfconceit, and dicta-
ton which | have never seen equaled in the
annals of correspondence. None but a mar
row-minded and bigoted Puritan could have
had the effrontery to have ponned such a
scroll. A tdymdn, and one, too, who can
make no pretensions to an enlarged mind or
education, presiIming to dictate to a minister,
and charge him how he shall preach the
Gospel. Who has suddenly transformed
you into an apostle, and commissioned you
TO take the oversight of Clrist's ministers P
Had any one of my fellow-presbyters
written as YOU have, | would have rebuked
him. Had a bishop even, of any other do
cese than the one in which | am labOring,
written in such a strain, | would have arraign-.
ed him. None but my own diocesan has
any right to instruct me how | shall preach
and not even he has found any occasion TO
warn me. | am a regular commissioned
minister of Christ; and if you wish to he
taught respecting any of your duties as a
Christian, ] am appointed to instruct you.-
But no layman has Christ ever appointed TO
teach his ministers, and sure i am that he
has not you. You have overstepped your
limits. You have gone beyond the lines
which circumscribed your responsibilities as
I a layman, and the ark OF God, my dear friend
though it were tottermg, you have no rlSh
to lay your hands upon-it is awful presump
ton. Recollect the punishment of Uzz'
4 and Ahio-and keep your hands off the ark
: You may advise laymen, but not teach then
S much less may you presume to dlctat
= pastoral letters to the Christian ministry.
$ Nov, my good friend, ! am not angry
!, [ ann not even indignant. Ifany feeling
y uppermost in me, it is to laugh at the III
d measured conceit and sclfesteem which you
letter exhibits, and which is often found i
: n~arrow-minded, selfwilled and bigoted Pr
y ritans. Much love to yourself and family
q and when you write again, write az becon
eth your station and attainments, and wi
answer you accordingly"
"Oh luds!" as Brougham says. The spir
it breathed reminds us of a reply said TO hav
i been made by a distinguished if not tall di
: vine, now resident IN Brooklyn. The ole
= man is a great Presbyterian, and a ID. d., (bC
the same more or less.) His two eldest boys
! joined the Episcopal sect, and took " orders
whatever they are. One of them said his
father had no more authority to preach than
: his walking-stick. The other contemplated
, matrimony and told his parent, that if he
were only competent to act as a priest, he
= would employ him to solemnize the opera
y ton. God forgive me for begetting Il fool ,
: exclaimed the insulted sire.
. Oh, if these arrogant sapheads were conf
|, ned to the Episcopal pew, the case would
: not be nearly as bad as it is. The large ma
. iority of those who would sucer at the preten
II sions of high-churchism," are guilty of the
. same thing in kind, For we nave all that il
ridiculous and abominable i'll EpiscOpacy
- when we find any other standard of station
" or reputation set up than CHARACTER. His
!. torical documents br sound character, taxi
- which you will. If legitimacy i'll the churcl
- and in the priests office is TO be settled b.
the former, let us understand it: then Ondel
~ donk's claims may he most valid of any, eN
d cept, perhaps, John Hughes! If Christia
% character is to furnish the credentials, let u
understand that. 1t is as supremacy absllr
Nv and misclicvous to predicate a demand tt
q confidence in having swallowed a certai
II class of dogmas, or having experienced a Pr
u culiar set of rumblings in the inards, as
~ predicate such claims on a descent, unlnte
W. ruptcd, from St. Peter, just before the coo
w crOwed thrice, down TO Benjamin, the fiji
:! died manipulation of all the twin roes, YOU
nv or old, he can get at.
What sort of a figure will these pretendC
,in to superiority on such grounds make, VIII
ioT that doctrine of the 25th of Mathew is pre-
zen ed home upon them, not exactly by the BIZ
III, OPP of their diocese, but by a Voice, a lii
en more loyal than even his?