The independent press. (Abbeville C.H., S.C.) 1853-1860, 1856-07-11
Iron TIE INDErENDENr rREss.1

uSSCtIPt uipco, WIN i''' i'uoauCSu my
name in your columns, in his last article,
has quoted the Old Testament extensively
but not as extensively on the subject of the
Mosaic rules on Dctatus rs lie might have
done. Those rules were particularly suited
to those unruly Jews Of those days. Excess,
however, has ever been condemned, at all
times, and by all people. We now con-
tend simply for the moderate usc Of Gods
blessings bestowed upon man but we re-
pudiate the excessive use Of anything, UNI
der any form. Moreover, we all eat pork,
though it be positively forbidden by the
Mosaic law. The reason is simple: VIC are
Christians and not Jcws, and we live under
the new dispensation or covenant, and that
places us under Christ's especial law in spite
of the caviling of this writer. To expect
mo to follow him in his eccentric course,
would be as rational, rs to expect that l
should follow the eccentric movements of a
wandering comet or of a moth, ito fall from
the sublime to the ridiculous) which being
attracted by the light Of 4 candle, incossant-
ly futters around its flame until it commits
selfdestructon.
In Psalms, (sO) we read "Thou hast
brought vine out of Egypt; thou hast
cast out the heathcn and planted it. The
hills were covered with the shadow of it,
and the branches thereof acre like the good
ly ccdars.-Thc boar out of the wood doth
waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth
devour it."
Tho spirit, the meaning, Of this passage
was embodied by me in my first article, in
the .Hanncr, if not the identical language
of the Bible. Strange to say. both this
learned aoriter, on biblical quotations, and
the Tenapera,ee Standard, seemed in their
Innocence, not to dream of the original
source of my comparison; and this crudite
soriter published, for the edifcation of the
world, many foolish paragraphs about the
"soild boar" as a similitudc Of my own Gre
alton, and mere freak of my own imag-
ination. To Which, l say could I silently
look on, while the wild boar rooted up the
vineyard of the Lord?
Whilst was wondering at this gross ig-
ignorance and presumption Of the writer, it
was again and again insinuated TO me that
this ''aneless acriter was clergyman, and
that must be mistaken. I positively re-
jected again this suggestion and crude
charge of ignorance against any Rev. gen
tleman. Hc certainly would have been ac-
quainted, said l, with the history of the Re-
formation, and then he would have known
that even Cardinal Cello Calcagnini said,
alluding to the famous scholar Erasmus
hesitation to take part with the Roman
Church. "That he looked scdately on whilst
the wild boar (alluding to Martin Luthcr)
rooted up the vineyard of the Lord"
simply put this display of ignorance to
the account of some one, with paltry mo-
tives, with petty .vanities, with short-sightcd
Ignorance, with little mind. and small pas
sions, and that from such one, with so pit
lful elements Of character, nothing great
could be expected. This accounts for the
writer's mock irony, and would be wit, for
his flippancy and trifling style about quo
tatlon from the Bible, and about 4 subject
OF such vital Importance. No one vener-
ates more than myself the moral truths of
the4Bible, and has moro respect for those
that preach the gosgel from Meir pulpits.
therefore discard and dismiss anv such
charge against any clergyman, and leave
their vague copjectures to those who love
to speculate on all such matters my own
taste leads me to the positive, and to the
'ndlsputable facts of this subject.
10 be sure, I have seen clcrgymen at
temperance lectures, and who countenanced,
by their presence, the ridicule that was cast
upon religious people, which was only cal
culated to produce laugh, at the expense
OF religion, in the impious. They ought to
have denounced boldly any such proceed
ing, g a proclamation, under the cloak of
supporting great and useful REFORM. If
this writer knows me, he must know, that I
hold in contempt any subserfuge, or disguise,
or to resort to any trickeries unbecoming "A
sacred subject. Truth and utility arc nv
only aim. I advocate the temperance
cause, but the temperance cause Of vine
yerda, not because I am to hs,beneftted BY
itsslrtk hncausa T alovo - o.. IL. .:..,