The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1857-08-20
One True God and IdoIatry.

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The laws Of nature having subjected man.
kind to state Of dependence on something
out of, and beyond themselves, gave them the
first conception of experimenting power
This sense Of dependency, which results
from experience, which every day cannot fail
to produce, has uniformly established the
knowledge Of our dependence to every indi-
vidual Of the species who are rational, which
necessarily involves, or contains in it the idea
of ruling power, or that there is God.
The earth which we inhabit, and from which
We are beautifully fed and clothed, the sun
whose frey mass darts its brilliant rcys of
light to our terraqueous ball, and whose re-
gion OF inexhaustable fire supplies ii with heat.
which causes vegetation and gilds the various
srasons of the year with ten thousand charms,
the numberless planets in their motions, and
the starry heavens in their magnitudes, surprise
our senses and confound our reason in their
magnificent lessons OF instruction concerning
the creator and governor of the universe. But
in as much as God does not, nor cannot, come
within the notice of our bodily sensations, we
are, therefore, obliged to dedu:e differences
from his providence and our own rational ma
lures, in order to form our conceptions of the
divine character which through inattention,
want of learning, or through the natural imbe-
cility Of mankind, or through the artifce of
designing men, or all together, they have been
greatly divided and subiivided in their notions
of God. Some worship four footed beasts
and creeping things, some ascribe divine hon.
ors to the sun, moon, or stars while others
worship dumb, senseless and unintelligent
idols, which derived their existence, as Gods,
partly from mechanics who gave them their
figure, proportion, and beauty; and partly from
their Priests, who gave them their attributes.
There are other sorts Of idols which have no
existence, but in the mere Imagination of the
human mind; aid these are vastly the most nu-
merous, and universally dispersed over the
or d. Tie wises. Q" m1n kind are not VIII oily
exempt from them, in as much as every wrong
conception Of God is Gas far as the error takes
place in the mind) idolatrous; all unjust rep
reservations or ideas of God, are so many de-
fractions from his divine character.
But to return to images, the first instance OF
images being used among Christians is that re-
corded by Tertulian, of certain cups or chal-
ices, On which were represented the parable
OF the good shepherd, carrying the lost sheep
on his shoulder. The use Of images In church.
es, as ornaments, was FIRST introduced By some
Christians in Spain, in the beginning OF the
fourth century; but the practice was condemn
ed az dangerous innovation, in council he ID
at Eleberies in A. d. 3O5. The custom of
admitting pictures OF saints, and martyrs, into
chuIhces, was rare in the end Of the fourth cen
tury; but became common in the fifth, Blu: thew
were only considered as ornaments, and even
in this view they met with opIo sitiono. Tward
the close Of the fifth century, images which
were introduced by way of ornament and then
used as an aid to devotion, began to be actual
ly worshipped. However, it was the prevail
ing doctrine in the sixth and beginning of the
seventh centuries, that images were to be used
only as helps to devotion. and not as objects
Of worship. The worship of them was con-
demAed in the strongest terms by Gregory
the great. From this time to the beginning
OF the eighth century there is no account of
image worship; but after that time they were
commonly worshpped by the monks AID pop
ulace. The Jews actually condemn all inn
ages. The Mahometans have an equal aver
sion to them, which led them to destroy m os
OF the beautiful monuments of antiquity. The
first instance of Professionals favorlng images
was when the Lutherans condemned the CAL
vinists for breaking the images ia the church
es Of the Catholics, looking on it as kind of
sacrilege; and yet they condemn the Roman
lists as idolaters.
| The first use of images by Professionals that
we have any authenticated account of, was BY
the Methodists, at their Sabbath School cele-
bration in Cuba, on the last anniversary of
American Independence. The image used
was very clumsy and roorly executed spec.
linen OF portraiture, some two feet in length
and designed as an image Of our Saviour.
Though it looked more like baboon in priest
" garb. We shuddered to see that great and
glorious parsonage, thus represented by a
church in which we were born and reared.
aud in which we have had legal membership
for some twelve or fourtee years; we are con-
scious that images were not used by the i'm
mortal Wesley, ror the primitive Methodists
But this is fast age OF tie world, both relig-
iously and politically. and we may class those
Methodists who used, or carried, the image in
procession and held it up as spectacle, at
the head Of the table, with modern or pro-
gressive Democrats, who virtually declare
that the "Fathers Of our Republic, did not
understand the Declaration Of American In.
dependence" nor the Constitution of the
United States.
Brethren, did you use the image as an orna-
ment, or as an aid to devotion, or did you
actually worship il? Read the second COM
mandment. SILVER rHIMRIE.
O. Bloomington iii. suffered severely from
another c"nfagration on Saturday week. The
sufferers were William Nc Ksson s., 900, I'm.
insured; P. c. Haughey, stock Of goods, do;
X. o. Warmer, brick block aud goods, and
two frame buildings $500, part insurance;
Judge Davis two brick building SO, 900 partly