American Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1855-1860, 1855-06-28


anatbemas ofpopes, prelates and priests.
God has given you his word; let no man
lilch it from you. God has given you
mind, to think for yourselves; let no man
usurp the power ofihinking for YOU God
invites you to himself, 10 receive at his own
hand pardon and forgivness. O.! submit
not to go and pay for these, and on your
knees, to apriest. Go to the Bible for
your religion. Receive nothing as reli-
giOus truth, which is not there taught; and
your mental, social, and moral regenera-
ton is commenced.
But you meet this appeal with the OBJ
lection, that am deserter from your
church; and that / am not, therefore, to
be heard. Ifyour priests take any notice
at all Of these letters, know well the
changes they will ring upon this idea. But
was not Peter a deserter from the Jewish
church; and must he not be heard on that
account? Must man who renounces er-
ror never be heard by those who continue
in il? And what think you Of the prose
cution by your church of those who re-
nounce its authority? To say the least Of
it, it is in bad company. The Jews put
Christ to death for deserving the faith of
Moses. The Mahometans put to death
any man of their number who rejects the
Koran for Christ. The Hindoos expel
from their society all who reject thei. re-
hgion for ours. And popery has shed, in
rivers, the blood Of those who could not
but reject It's follies and absurdities. In
this happy land, the bull of a pope is as
harmless as lamb-and the thunders Of the
Vatican have no lightning that INJURIES
Priests may prejudice you against these
letters, but they are the interested party
their craft is in danger. And all ask of
you is, TO give my reasons the candid con-
sideration which you owe to yourself, and
which their Importance requires.
But you may ask, What! do you wish
me TO give up my religion? Is not mine
the Oldest religion? Here. well know, is
the invncble argument with many of you;
but has it any weight? Are the Oldest
things always the best? If so, then the
Jews were right in resisting Christianity;
and the pagans are right in clinging TO
their false systems-and you do wrong in
ever exchanging an old garment or an old
house for new one. But is popery the
Oldest religion? 0. no; Christianity is
older Popery and Mahomelahism arose
at the same time, and centuries after the
establishment Of Christianity. They are
alike corruptions of the religion Of Je-
sus, though the phrophet has apostatized
farther than the pope They both appea! TO
the senses, and are both idolatrous. If
the pope has his holy water. the prophet
has his holy well. If the one has bis holy
bones. and coats, and relics, the other has
his holy pieces of tapastry from The temple
of Mecca. They have alike their pilgrim
ages--iheir senseless repetition of prayers
-thoir Lents--their penanccs. and their
external symbols which alike adorn the
church and the mosque. And if the pa
pist can object to Christianity, saving, is
not mine The Oldest religion? then can tie
Mahometan do the same.
But yours is not the Oldest religion. l
could here give you the time, did the lin
its of a letter permit, when the distinguish
ing doctrines of your church were intro
duced. The celibacy of the clergy came
nto the church in the Fourth Century;
purgatory appeared in the Seventh, and
was affirmed in the Twelfth; auricular con-
fessions, and the worship of the Host, in
the Thirteenth; and so on TO the end ofthe
chapter. And instead of wishing you to
give upthe oldestreligion we wish you only
to give up popery for Christianity;-to give
up the new, and to return to the old. All
that have done myself, and all that de-
sire you to do is, to lay aside every thing
that pope, bishops, ,and priests have added to
the religion of'Jesus, and to embrace that
religion just as it is taught in the Bible.
Convinced that you have been deceived
by those to whom you have been looking
for guidance-that priests have sought
your money more than your salvation
that instead Of bread they hare given you
stones, and for eggs, serpents--that they
have sought to brutalize, instead Of en-
tightening you--to enslave instead Of eie
waiting you to the liberty with which Christ
makes his people free; do any of you in
quire as to the course best for you to pur-
sue? If you will take the advice of one
that has gone before you in the way, il is
cheerfuly given. Think not of giving
up all religion because of the deceptions Of
popery. This was one of my mistakes.
Take the Bible for your guide;-Athat will
not deceive you. 1t teaches you that you
are sinner:this you should believe and
feel. 1t teaches you that Christ died for
sinners; and that his blood cleanses from
all sin; and that to escape the wrath and
curse of God due to you for sin, the great
and the only prerequisites are repentance
toward Gods and faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Give.up your missal for the BIZ
BILE confess your sins not to your priests
hut to Cookbook for par Ion and meetness
for heaven, not to priestly abolutions, and
eating waters, and extreme unctions, but
to the righteousness of Jesus Christ, re-
coiyed BY faith; and in spite Of popes. prel-
ates, and priests. life, eternal life isyours.
Wishing and praying for you all, that
delverance from popish thraldom in which
Irejoice. and that gospel hope of future
blessedness which is nv stay and comfort
in,this vale of tears, tEg A'Ht.# isf
| am, with great respect, yours.
KIRWAN