Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1855-10-17
A.o.h,- altar from Rev. A. b. Longstreet-.-
no the Methodist KnoW-Nothing PREACHERS

sneaking of your protested love OF the person. uiu
onnos;tion to the religion of the Catholic. NOW II
90 hapuens that all YOUR opposition is to the person,
and none of it to the religion OF the CaLhoirc- Ao
whole aim is to deprive him OF office no" eau
keeping him out Of office affect his relig'on! II
onnosition in any one, dangerous and unFfoVokeoi
in YOU (preachers) ignobe and angenerous. tou
know that your allics of the world care nothing
about religion that their hostility IS directed exclu
svey against the members OF that ChurGh n Ia
many of them are intemperste, thoughtiess mas
erect, desperate. That encouraged by your couhte-
nance, and infamcd by your speeches, they VIII re-
gard Catholics as the enemies of the country; as
hypocres and knaTesi and they Will treat Unei ac-
eordingly. They will assail their persons, de&roy
their property, desecrate their Churches, ana roo
them of their civil privileges generally. Inns has
been done, to some extent, already; anu II VIII
grow worse with every accession to your strength.
The Catholics cannot bear this long. They Will be-
come desperate arm in selfdefence, and oil who
love Justice and hate oppression, will join them
These will be denounced by your clan, as traitors to
their country and its religion and slaves, OF the
Pope. They will become enraged at such nnputa-
t;ons only for espousing the cause of the innocent
and hurl back the charges Hot blood Will soon
produce blows and blows, merciless civil war rms
is to be the end of your love for Catholics, and nat
red of their religion, if history be worth anything
Arc these things only possible? What are then
all the offices of the world compared to such
Consequences Have you not had signs terrlnc al
ready, that they not only possible, but almost
certain if YOU keep up your organization! Come
out of il then. if YOU would be wise, and run no
risks You cannot surely be So weak as to suppose
YOU can crush Romanism by Know Nothing agen-
cies but you have almost ruined Methodlsm AREA
DIV. You hated by thousands who once respec-
ted you and whether they be good or bad, pro-
test against your working these agencies against
them. Your duty calls you to other and better
work. Hear the venerated Wesley upon this head
Preaching on text Mark IN, 6Si9 eve saw one cast
ing out devils in thy name, ard We forbade, because
he followeth not us. And Jesus said forbid them
not) Mr. Wesley proceeds upon the principle that
all sin is the work Of the devil in the hearts OF men,
and that all who are instrumental in changing and
purifying the heart be said to cast out devils,
and should not be forbidden in their work He
SAYS, suppose then a have no intercourse with
u.s. suppose he be not of our party, suppose he Sc
parates from Church, yea, and widely differs
from us, both in judgment. practice affection; yet
if even this man casting out devils, Jesus
SAITH forbid him not What if were to see a Pa
pst, Arian, Socenan, casting out devils! 1t L
did, could not forbid even him, without convlctIng
myself Of bigory. Yea, lift could be supposed that
should see jew, Deist or Turk doing the
same, were to forbid him directly, should be no
better than bigot still There are many ways
of doing this Ion indirectly forbid him, if you
either wholly deny, deSpse and make little ac-
counts of the work which God has wrought by his
hands, When you discourage him in his work by
raising objections against it, or frightening him with
consequences which very possibly will never be. =
. When YOU show an unkindness towards him, either
in language or behavior. And much more when
you speak Of him to others either in an unkind or
manner. When You endeavor to rep
resent him to any in an odious or dcspcabe light
Think not that the bigotry of another Is any ex-
cusc for you II Wesley alive, what would
he think # your midnight plots, and open TRADES
against Papists? Oh, read his Letter to Roman
Catholic, vol. p. 1913 and ask yourselves as you
read it, did Wesley expect his followers to
treat Catholics as l am treating them? How meek
and Heavenly the spirit! How tender the language
how touching in sentiment? After enumerating
certain articles of the Protestant faith and vindcat
ing them from the work of God, he concludes in
this language much abridged and diluted by the
abridgement:
Are we not thus far agreed? Let US thank God
for this and receive it fresh token OF his love-
But if God still loveth u.s. ought to love one an
other. ooh brethren, let not fall out by the way.
I hope to see YOU in heaven In the name then,
and in the strength of God, let resolve, First not
to hurt one another to do nothing unkind or un-
friendly to each other: nothing which we would not
have done to ourselves.
LET us resolve secondly, God being helper,
to speak nothing harsh or unkind of each other
The way to avoid this is TO say all the good we
can, both of and to anothcT-to Use only the
language of love- to speak with all soness and ten
derness."
Let u.s. thirdly, resolve to harbor unkind
thought, unfriendiy temper towards each other
Let US, fourthly, endeavor to help each other on
in whatever agreed leads to the Kingdom
So far as can let always rejoice to strengthen
each others hands in God | could quote much
more from Mr.. Wesley's works to the effect
But letter of his has been going the rounds Of
the newspapers, which the Know Nothngs obvious
ly think gives the sanction of that good man 10 their
Not Mr.. Wesley was not the man
to write inconsistency, as their version OF this
letter makes him write. That letter was written to
show that Protcstants would not be safe from OPP
preston under Catholic government. No doubt of
it in the world. Nor would Catholics be safe under
Methodist government, as your plots against them
now most clearly demonstrate The truth is, no re-
gious sect is to be trusted with the rens of govern
ment. And if were to take the stump against you,
would say to the honest yeomanry of the country,
good people, if you think that your liberties will
be any safer in the hands of Methodists than Cath
olics you vastly mistaken And, in proof of
this assertion, would point to the outrages of the
Methodist majority in S44, which split our Church.
/ would add in humiliation, but in candor, you
have ten thousand times more to fear at this time,
from Methodists than Catholics; simply because the
first actually in the field for Office, while the last
are net because the first in open upon the
last and because the first by reason of their num-
bers the pets of the strongest political combina-
ton that ever was formed in this country-secret
and oathbound at that. And if you will take old
mans advice, when Churches get to quarrelng, and
politicians call you to do justice between them,
would advise you to deal with them all, the In
dian magistrate did with the parties to prosecution
before him, for fighting. He ordered the combatants
10 receive fifteen ashes each, for breach of order;
md the prosecutor to receive thirty, because if it
hadn't been for him, the would not have been
bothered with the case This is the way l would
talk to the people, in honely phrase, but sterling
ruth.
History furnishes no case strong to my pur-
pose, that which produced the letter just mention
3D. In the reign of William Ill, of England, a