The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1854-03-14
= rRICAL INTERrERENCE.

CLERICAL INTERFEREACE.
qbs clergy of New York. New Haven
p..,ou and other Northern towns, seem 70
- come forward in a body to protest
...;n.. the Nebraska bill. We think II mig"
r. probable that not more than one IN 'hou
va &C them has the slightest knowledge Oh
Lot he Is protesting against Nebraska De
VIE" - n.;,har Of the three great divisions
..as.r,a The f,esh, or the devil-and conse
ouently the clergy have nothing 70 10 win
!, when their Divine Master was on ear.h'
VI. ref,sed to take any side in politics. de-
n,.r;no that His Kingdom was not OF TINS
.,or,d In the midst Of a country, subjected
70 /. Roman tyrant, and surrounded on al
hands by slave institutions, he enloineo MS
disciples to render unto Caesar the things ths'
are C@sars; and never uttered sohtary re-
proof of any slavery but that OF the so'i ~
its cruel spiritual despot. .o sc
II would seem as if the Divine founder Oh
our faith. in the clear repeated and emphatic
terms in which he abjured for himself ana
his church all temporal power, clearly fore
savv that this was the great danger to which
the purity and infuence ofthe churchwould be
exposed. And the history of Christianity
proves that, in point of fact, this has been the
prolific source of all its woes. The love OF
worldly power has been the Anti Christ which
has taken possession of the affairs of Chris
tisnity and brought shame and scandal upon
its most holy places. Nothing could be more
pure, more refreshing more heavenly than
the precepts of Christ as we find them in the
Gospels. And, SO long as the Church follow
ed in His footsteps, and abjured all alliance,
either direct or indirect, with the State, she
was everywhere honored and everywhere
triumphant. She was more powerful with
the martyrs crown upon her head than with
the diadem of worldly empire, and her pill
grim feet, dropping blood at every step, COM
manded far deeper homage and respect than
when they rested upon the footstool OF a
throne. The moment the kings and the queens
Of the earth plucked that lily of innocence,
the Church of Christ, from its lowly place on
the bosom of the earth, and wore it amid the
Jewels and stars on their own breasts, it began
to fade and die. No matter what the Church
or the sect no matter how excellent its doc
trines and sound its practice while standing
on its own foundations, the instant it begins
to dabble in the miry pool of political af
fairs, its garments become defled and its cha
racter degraded. Indeed, in every case in
which the Church, whether Roman, Greek or
Protestant, has allied itself with temporal
power, its whole nature seems to have be-
come changed; the humility of the Gospel
has given place to pride; its charity to intol-
erance; its love to enmity, its forgiveness to
revenge This it is which has set all Christ
endom by the ears, and made theological hate
a proverb among mankind, compromising
in two words all that is most malignant, un-
scrupulous and implacable in human nature.
We had hoped that in this country an eff
fectual and permanent bar had been put to
theunion of Church and State. The various
Churches in the United States have hitherto
presented noble examples of the purifying
and strengthening influence of the entire Sc
paration of ecclesiastical and political organi-
zatiens. But it seems that even here the old
leaven, the lust of temporal power, is again
ut work. The Northern clergy, embracing
not merely the monomaniacs, the Parkers,
Beechers, &C., but, we regret to say, the in
telIgent and conservative class, have been
drawn into the vortex of this anti-slavery
agitation, and are giving the weight of their
clerical influence in opposition to the Ne
braska bill OF course, while they are made
to think that they are leading and guiding
public opinion, they are but the dupes of crafty
men of the world, who, while using them for
their own purposes, have not the slightest
respect for their character or vocation. They
have unwittingly allowed themselves to be
made ministers Of discord, disunion, blood
shed and civil war. Nothing but, evil and
degradation can come to either Church or
State from this mischievous clerical agitation
of political subjects. They have enough and
more than enough to do, to purify the morals
of their own focks without endeavoring to
regulate Political affairs.
GOING FOR HIMSELF.
The only pure, unadulterated and undenia-
BILE truth announced by the white coated
Dhilosopher of the Now Work T,.sh,,,a 20