The Empire County argus., 1855-06-23

"CHR1sTIAN WARFARE" The following brief
paragraph is taking the round Of the press, and is
not altogether unworthy of public attention:
= 1t is said that certain Jesuits in order to rem
der their system acceptable to the Indians, whom
they wished to convert, represented Christ as q
great warrior who had taken an incredible number
of scalps.n
Jesuit in ordinary acceptation is but the syno-
nym for cunning, fraud, ambiguity, and every form
OF crime beneath the sun. Fortunately, it is no
part of our duty to vindica,e esutism, or we sho
despair at the beginning But. really if the above
paragraph is to be understood as reproach, it
srikts us that something less than the ingenuity OF
jesuit would suffice for its defense If Christ is
not "A great warrior who has taken an incredible
number of scalps," Jesuitism, Catholicism, Protest
antlsm, and pretty much every other ism that
we ever heard of, is responsible for the use of his
name In taking scalps on its own account and just
about as many rs it could lay hands upon, accord
ing to the exigency of its position and the amount
OF physical power with which it was armed.
From very early period of Christianity up to
the present time we can scarcely find an era in
which some portion Of the Christian Church has
not been engaged in taking scalps, or its equiva-
lent. in the name Of the Redeemer Shall we re-
vert to the pages of history for evidence of the
fact! Why it abounds every where. Europe has
blazed with the fury of war for centuries at the
instance Of religion The borders of Asia the
Holy Land, as it is termed, are full of the wild To-
nance of the crusades. The very cross has blend
ed its name with the ages of chivary, in which
strife and bloodshed, and a war of extermination
directed against the Saracen, gave hecatombs of
victims to the unappeasable passions Of men, and
all in the name of Christ. And yet the crusades
were stupendous failure. The spirit Of the meek
and lowly refused to sanctify with success the zeal
otry of fanaticism.
And at this day. is not the Christ Of human pas
sion great warrior and the very deity of carnage
Look at the war in the East. There is Russia
with her Greek fire of holiness in the name of
Christ rallyng her myrads for the maintenance Of
politco-religious system, which she would fain
extend over the whole world, unscrupulous as ever
as to the means by which it should be done. There
is Eng gand-with her national church and her bel
lgerent Professionalism willy to keep that in
the foreground as a principle of the war, side by
side with her Catholic ally, but always unprino-
pied with regard to means, so that the commercial
end her P1otestantism subserves shall be duly ac
complshed And France, too with her intensified
Catholicism, the cross rampant before Sebastopo,
thunders with his big guns, and affects in the name
of Christ the sole right to demolish the heresy of
the Greek or any other Church, by virtue Of her
infallbilty yet is by no means unwilling that
Protestant England should thunder, too, by her
side And in harmonious concert with Protestant
ism and Catholicism, the crescent of the Turk, the
emblem of Mahometan paganism, waves before the
citadel of tho Greek hercsy, and aids the general
cause. And so Christianity vindcates its char
acter in the middle of the nineteenth century, and
Christ is great warrior, and still continues to
take an incredible number of scalps."
Aye and nearer home, the name of Christ, and
the religion Of men thrust upon our attention
every where the clements of political strife, and
riot and bloodshed and broken scalps are the
trophies of humber achievements in the name of
the Redeemer.
But none of these things are of Christ or bear
the fruits of Christianity. That is another thing
and humble its position may be- it is is infinitely
superior to those which override it. And ultimate
ly, it will rise superior to them all. Not by the
number of its enemies scalps' not by the pro-
scrptive zeal of its professed friends, not by the
passions and prejudices of men of any sect, or
class and least of ALL by the selfish intolerance Of
the politician-but by the STILL small voice of His
Spirit, who assures us that God is Loye."-Bahi-
more Sun.