Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1851-03-29
From Western Pennsylvania.


DEAR FRIEND JOHNSON am now at home
have a worry severe cold, which renders me,
for the present, unable to labor much. / am
veyy sick of the canting hypocrisy of the Church,
in this part of our work, and more particularly
of the raving and lying Of the clergy. New
or was truth more Divine spoken than
that by the Poet speaking Of the American
Church, he says "Their priests one mighty
brotherhood Of thieves"
The popular clergy of Western Pa. have al
most entirely adopted the "wholly refrain"
principle, and you might attend upon their
ministrations for month after month, and not
learn from any thing which they would say,
that there is slave in the Universe. How dis
gusting it is to hear priest haranguc an audi
cnce for two hours on the Sunday, and not ad
vance one practical idea not one which could
be made of practical utility to man in time or in
eternity. A thread of theology, spun 6ae or
course to suit the skill or taste of the employers
is all you can reasonably expect of one Of those
priests above mentioned. The people arc in
structcd in reference to the splondor of Hsav-
en- in the future, the awlulncss of future hell,
Unto which comeoutcrs will be thrown,) how
much evil tho Devil is doing in tho world, how
that God kills human beings in various ways
by lightning-by falling trees upon thcm-by
throwing others into rivers, &C., and drowning
them. So that, by the time God gets his share,
and the Devil his, there is nothing left for the
people, and they get clear and the preacher
has nothing left to do, only TO eXhort his brcth-
rem to go on 'bo faithful 'well soon meet,
Ctrue presume) and such like. Now who are
his brethren? Ten TO one, some of them arc
the greatest liars in the community in which
| they live; others arc the moancst oxtortioncrs,
others tho commonest drunkards, others the
most valiant in ight-and all of them as pro-
slavery as hell itself; yet he exhorts them to
go on Here we have before us the strong
arm of the oppressor; the popular clergy, and
their 'eOyse than deluded supporters; until their
influence over the people is destroyed, the slave
must groan in his hoH In the foregoing l have
only spoken Of the popular priests; we have in
this part another class Of priests-i. c. unpopular
priests. This class are laboring with bccon-
ing energy to arise in popular favor; they have
profcssed sympathy for the slave, for Temper
ance, for Peace, Sc, and for this they have been
reproached. Now in order to retrieve their loss
they have but ono thing to do, and that is, to
unite with the old popular Brotherhoods in
cursing comeouters this they do with ven
geance. One thousand times as much effort is
now made by this class to misrcprcsent and Will
fy comooutcrs, as to promote reform-they
arc exceeding mad" against 'heretics,' and
"persecute them even unto strange cities."-
Those who do not pursue this course will feel
themselves to be exceptions l have given the
almost universal rule Now what can reform
er do under these circumstances If the false
priest cannot meet his argument, no will tell a
lie to destroy his reputation. What can he do !
Well, this he can do; he can SOW the seed Of
truth, and wait the genial showers of thought,
of religion upon the part of the people, and it
will produce, 'somc thirty, some sixty, and
some an hundred fold;' may it be SO.
had public discussion in Butler Co., on
the 7th of this mouth. 1t was in the vicinity
of the Church who sent her agents to throw
eggs upon the meeting, of which wrote in my
last. "Is slavcholding q sinF was the ques-
ton for discussion. Mr.. Staughton appeared
on the negative. lie would not defend Ameri-
can Slavery, neither would he defend involnta-
ry servitudo Of any kind Bible servitudc was
his plea. 1t was failure, but il must result in
good; the Church was not defended in her
manstealing business. 1 should say for Mr. S.
that he was courteous, and gcntlemanly
throughout the discussion; and my opinion is,
that he did not wish to debate tho question
at all, neither do l think he ever will again.
think the lille priests about this place are
getting, if possible, still more and more devlish,
and the more devilish their actions are, the more
elongated their faces arc seen to be. We have
it in view to organize an Anti-Slavery Sewing
Circle here soon. Yours, Sc.
JOHN F. SELBY.
MnLpRooK, March 18th, 1851