Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1851-03-28

Hundreds Of them are engaged every day in
vending. drinking, killing their neighbOrs;
death after death steals to our ears the wi
yes and children left homeless and pennies,
Cah and some of these very men who are
engaged in butchering human beings are
members Of the church, ministers, elders,
class-leaders, deacons, &c. What is the
church about! Make no effort to reclaim
them. no effort to dry up the tears ofthe neg
lected weeping wife, no effort to clothe and
educate the ragged and neglected children,
no effort to save the lives and souls of hun
dreds and thousands of fathers, brothers, and
children from a drunkard's grave, and q
drunkard's hell Verify this would be
strange in this age Of light, philanthropy,
and christian charity. VIII Senex advise
to a course ike this We are persuaded
that he would hesitate long, and still de-
muir.
1t is as clear as the light that shines in
the heavens, that the church has not the
power to 60 beyond her prescribed bounda-
ry her mission being ITO cry aloud and
spare not"-even if men turn a deaf ear
her power is at an end-she cannot compel
or coerce-her Divine Master has given her
no such ~pOwer-having appointed Magis-
trates and rulers as a terror to evil doors.
Alas it would seem, that many Of our mag
~istrates are anything else but q terror to
evil doors, or even a praise to them that do
well. Some Of them are the very men who
talk longest and loudest against temperance
societies. True, there are honorable excep-
tons, to this truthful charge, and we say,
let the country honor such as are magistrates
indeed.
But we hear from an old man-Senex-
an alarm sounding in the ears Of christians
fathers and mothers-with great elOquence
c the alarm sounds forth from the columns Of
{ the wide spread G-REENsBoRoUeH PATRIOT
issuing forth from the patriotic Town Of
J Greensboro Guilford County, State Of N.
' Carolina, famous in revolutionary history
; in the leading off, in the present temper
; ance reformation in N. C.-the church Is
in dangerll the family is in danger u One
is threatenened with error-the other with
! corruption and Observation-Disclosures
v vice Of gambling? No. From the vice Of
intemperance :? No. From Incidence, lying,
swearing? No-but from the Division Of
+ the Sons of Temperance Pause reader,
d and take your breath-and then give
. Senex all the credit his sagacity deserves
for his wonderful discovery. The Sons
about to rob the pulpit and family Of their
% strength and influence u "M:rabile die
tn !" Sed i~ncredulous.
Old age is honorable, and is to be rever,
, enced when found in the way Of righteous.
ness-but sometimes men get SO old, that
their eyesight fails them-and more-tbey
l. sometimes sink down into an insensible do.
tage. This is the most charitable view thai
: can be taken Of Senex in that blunder d
which he is certainly guilty. requiring the
I; Pulpit to step beyond the boundary pre-
scribed by him who ordained it, and making
- it responsible for crimes that legitimately be,
:. long to another jurisdiction. Surely he ha.
not reflected sOberly.
al Admit however, that the Pulpit claims
er tho work of stopping the making. vending
De and drinking, as a beverage, alcoholic Il
r. quors, and becomes responsible for this, boil
3. within, and out of its sphere. Why stoI
ed there? Why not take another step. anc
nd claim the work Of putting down other vice.
mt -murder-duelling-theft as we have sale
I'll before. There are awful evils pouring from
the public press. Coming Immediately II
rn- contact with the pulpit. Can the pulp
muzzle the press and stop the damning trasI
no. and volumes of modern in6delity which ar
ed flooding our country, and like the croakin,
frogs of Egypt, crawling into our kitchens
lar our nurseries, our parlors. our CHAMBERS
m alb, our every lOhere? Make the pulpit re
nv sponsible for all this If Senex will, thel
let him not force others to do it. Aeeol
noe ding to the doctrine of Senex, there wouI
ian be no need of a civil law at all-no need {
courts of justice. Let the church erect a
ubt Inquisition at once and relieve our eountr
to of the cost and labor of jury trials and court
yer | say to Senex his argument proves To
nly much, and he is running himself where /
will stay unwillingly.
avs Far be it from ne to charge Senex, I
ent any of his coadjutors, with an intimate rel
the ton, or sympathy with that class Of prete
10 ted nobility. who say, the church is to 20
LIST ern all-kings, government, courts DE. an
hen that no improvement can be made in Il
Ives arts and sciences, even to the manufactu
[oly of gas light, without infringing on the d
,ese minion Of the church. But l do confess ID
vol the high church party and Senex both sec
- to stand in the SAINT category, the one Ia
nose ing passed on to the extreme of error, VIII
,dy. the other has turned his face thitherVard..
% of But let Senex know that the Sons, (Wi
use whom | wish he was acquainted Of TIE
oky. perance, have built no strange altar On I
len west side of Jordan, (See Joshua xxi cha
the ter against the church, or tho tabernacle
ond the family.-but only an altar, 50 10 EHto