Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1858-04-17
LOCAL NEWS


anb OF thursday last IN oalem street Church, on
our annual Fast. an excellent sermon, founded
on the Confession of Zaccheus when he met
Christ. duke 10, 9Th and 9Th verses.)
His object was to show that wickedness stands
abashed in the presence of goodness. Christ was
known as pre-eminently good man in every
sense. The moment Zaccheus stood before him,
face to face, he felt condemned, confessed, and
promised reform.
After illustrating the power of Christ's charac
Ter over wickedness, and then showing that his
church was to take his place in the world to
live out, always, his religion, he raised the in
quiry, Why, of late years, has wickedness, in
this nation, so boldly confronted christianity
The answer was, that the church had failed to
represent and enforce the virtues of the gospel.
The voice OF the church had not been unit
in its utlerances against iniquity. Large sections
of the church, together with many leading minis
tiers, north and SOUTH had taken sides with wrong,
injustice, and oppression.
Wickedness had been bold the church timd
Zaccheus had met no Christ whose sense of right
and whose virtues he feared. In fact, the tables
were turned, and Zaccheus had made the church
tremble or rather, Zaccheus himself had come
into the church, and determined to use it to fur
ther his own extortions:
Some portions of the church had resisted, bit
larger portions, led by Rabbs and few theolo-
gical professors, had passively yielded, openly
struck hands with inlqnty
Bishops of the church could not decide to per
form the marriage ceremony among 3OO,OOO.00O
people. In all heathcndom there no such hea
thenism as this-takinR from.the bible Gods first
and most sacred institution. What power
slurch have against wickedness by thus commit
ting suicide?
The position of the Tract Society was introdu-
ced.
The declaration of independence embodied
christianity. touching mans social and civil rea
tons All were created equal In the late words of
an ex attorney general that declaration stool the
highest as productive of genius and patriotism;
not word too many or too few; not sentence
pitched Aots too high OF too low. What
tie ptibe bubble to play upon the phrase" all
created equal"
Suppose Psychologist should declare all men
are created alike? Would there be such an idiot
a. to mistake the meaning, that flesh, bones,
lungs, heart, were Of the same substancei
Or. if theologian, speaking heologically,
should say all men alike, would any one think
he referred to any but moral qualities /: So when
a statesman makes the declaration, "all men are
equal" to Congress of statesmen, at a new era
of nation ciU1 history, would any one but a
paltroon or pedant ever ask if all were born
with the same talents or features
1t shame for man thus to destroy the
force of one Of the greatest political maxims, to
question which, twenty years ago,would have been
civil death.
The like degeneracy was marked by the motto
ITO the yctors belong the spols )" the sophistry
of the sentiment, "Our country, right or wrong :"
down to the decision of the Supreme Court, so
derogatory to God as to be blasphemous, 'that
the colored man has no rights which the white
man is bound to respect"
Within short time the Constitution has been
perverted from freedom to slavery piracy OPEN
ly declared bribery so rank and deep, and
reaching so high that committees appointed to
expose it have to work hard to keep it concealed;
elections carried, not by voters, but by stufing
the box with votes the administration openly
the side of oppression and, as Col. Benton,
in his speech at St. Louis and with his dying
breath, declared, subverting every principle upon
which the republic was founded and. by the
side Of all this wckedness, the voice of the pull
pit, the religious press, and two million church
members, have been but the chirp of the cricket BY
the side of the trumpet voice of doom Nay
wickedness has relied upon certain men in the
church for its strongest ally.
These are few points bearing upon the civil
aspect Of the nation brought out in the DISCOURSE
The speaker claimed it was in the power of the
pulpit and the church to check and reform this
wickedness. A iUing Christianity would have
prevented it.
He closed with the conviction that God was
now doing work to bring back the conscience
of this nation. We should stand and not fall.
Christianity must become living and ever pres
ent power in the church. or niquity would tri-
umph The world read few religious books
The church must be the living epistle, and illus
trate Christ in every duty Of life.