American Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1855-1860, 1855-06-21

set--a twilight might be protracted for a
few ages, in which few might grope theil
way to heaven-but each age would have
come wrapped in deeper; and yet deep
er gloom, until impenetrable darkness had
fallen on the world. Even the degree Of
knowledge which has obtained in the pa.
pal world, it owes 10 the Reformation.
And what has been the effect of pope.
ry upon the happiness of. oar race? This
is question divide bearing yet ! can dc
little more than glance at it, Has it ever
laid out its energies for the promotion ol
human happiness? If SO, when and where?
Has it not, on the other hand, set itself in
opposition to everything calculated TO pro-
mote it? Does general intelligence pro-
mote it?-Your church has always oppos.
ed it. Does the free circulation of the
Word Of God promote il?-You have op-
posed this, also. Does the incubation Of
pure religion promote it?-You have
poisoned, or closed up all its fountains.
Does advancing civilization promote it?--
Your efforts are untiring to reverse its
wheels and to roll us back to the darkness
of the dark ages, whose very light was
darkness. But what can say more? for
the time would fail me to tellof your mon
asterics and nunneries-of the wars which
popery has excited-of its crusades-of
its bitter jealousies it has sown between
states-of the oceans of blood it has shed
TO obtain its objects-of the Inquisitions it
has erected 10 torture the unbelieving-
and of the way and manner in which it
has caused those of whom the world was
not worthy, to have trial of cruel mockings
and scourgings; yea moreover of bonds
and imprisonment: how it caused them to
be stoned, to be sawn asunder, to be slain
with the sword; to wander about the des-
erts and in mountains, in dens and caves
of the earth. 0! Sir, the pathway ofpope-
ry through the world is marked by The
blood and bones of its victims. 1t has
gone into the earth feeling that Joshua
commission on entering Canaan was in
its pocket; and that all who questioned its
authority were Hitttes and Amories
And almost without figure of speech il
can be said, that the nations which it
found as the garden Of the Lord, it CONVEX
ted into a,howling wilderness. I'know
not that human happiness has ever had
a more determined foe than popery.
What is the influence of popery as TO
the exercise of Christian charity? By
charity l mean not alms-giving, nor yet
the love Of God which the Spirit inspires
in the soul, but that grace which induces
Love 10 tl,oco who d;4for froD, nc. and 10
cast mantle over their defects. The Bible
teaches us to do good to all as we find op-
portunity-to love our enemiss-to treat
with kindness those who despitefully per-
secute us. How does your church obey
these injunctions of Christ the Lord? Let
your inqusitions-your auto da fe's-your
Bartholomew day-your Irish massacre
your yearly anathemas against heretics
your consigning to perdition all beyond
the pale of your church, answer. All
non -papists you place beyond the pale of
mercy-you refuse their bodies Christian
burial, if such your burial can be called
you convert into the bitterest enemies
of the man that becomes Bible Christian,
those of his own household-you make
the poor Irish servant to feel that his mas
ter, and her mistress are the enemies of
God, however pious, whose reading of the
Bible, and whose prayers to heaven can
not be heard without committing great
{ sin-you enact a ceremonial law, and pro-
claim that all who submit not to it are
speckled with the plague spots. And,
hence, your priests, wherever located i'll
Protestant communities, instead of going
about, as men, to promote the general well
fare, move about as spectres, as if afraid
ofthe light of day; here abstracting a
child from a Sunday school; there burn
ing Bible; here poisoning the mind OF
a servant against his master, and there
that ola maid against her mistress and
seeking to place all save his own unlettred
followers, like the lepers of Samaria, with
out the city of God. Does this look like
the spirit of Christ?
What is the influence ofpopery on true
religion? 10 this point / have already
spoken. have told you, sir, how it has
corrupted our Rule of Faith, and the
sacraments, and the doctrins of the Bible.
This is but the Me0y Oh the matter;-O,
how can speak of its practical effects?
The religion of Christ it has converted in
to a system of idolatry in which God and
witches the Bible, and traditions, can
mons, decretals-the worship of God and
of saiuts--the meditation Of Christ and of
Mary--prayer and scourging-pious deeds,
penances and professions, are all of like
authority, and like efficacy!
The mind of the poor papist it fills, not
with light and love, but with darkness and
fear. 1t closes to him the way to heaven
through the blood of Christ, and opens 1t
through the fires of purgatory. Leaving
him in doubt as to where he will succeed
best, he now prays for pardon to God
now to the Virgin now to Peter or Paul
now before some old picture almost oblit-
Grated by age--believing alike the truths OF
scripture, and the absurdities of your sys-
tenn, and knowing little Of either.
1t impresses the poor papist with the
idea that religion consists, not in love to
God and man, but in external submission
to rites and formsS Hence, the Spaniard
will go to confession with his dagger uu-