Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1858-06-23


look at these two facts. l--=. s.--
First, the Protestant churches OF
America have one great corporation
the Tract Society-wherein many sects
work together. The aim is theologi-
cal-to enforce ecclesiastical doctrines;
it is not religion to promote love to God,
and the keeping of his natural laws writ
in the very constitution Of man. So
the Tract Society protests against none
of the great evils l have named. 1t at
tacks no popular wickedness; it would
save men from the fancled wrath OF
God by faith in Christ, not by virtue
and wisdom save them from actual TO-
norance, superstition, covetousness,
drunkenness, dishonesty. 1t would
save men in their sins hereafter, not
from their sins to-day and here 1t has
little to say against war, political OPP
preston, the antagonism offs ocietv, the
degradation of man. Even the Bible
Society, in which all sects unite, dares
not give the Bible to a single slave,
though the American Anti-Slavery So
ciety offer them Five Thousand dollars
if they will spend it thus. Spite of its
profession, spite Of its good intention,
the church is baptized in worldliness,
processing the ecclesiastical theology as
magical means of salvation from the fil-
ture consequences Of a life Of wicked
ness below.
That is the first thing. Next, many
Christian ministers think they can tease
God to do what they want done; that
they can get Him to convert men, and
if the prayers Of the churches center
on one man, he presently "caves in. -
Now at a Revival meeting, who is pray
ed for, prayed at, prayed against
The ecclesiastical archers do not draw
their bow at a venture it is with good
aim. What Saint Sebastian is there
who is stuck full of the arrows of Cal
whistle imprecation? Is it the sly,
corrupt politician? the 'democrats" who
hate democracy, but under it's cover,
seek to ruin the people? No: he is
orthodox in profession, through atheis-
tic i'll his public practice and private
creed. Is it the able lawyer, who pros
titutes his grand talents to bring the
most miserable cu1prit safe from the
justice of the law? No; Sunday after
Sunday he sits in an orthodox meeting
house, and requires no conversion. Is
it the capitalist who rents his shops for
drunkeries ard gambling dens, his
houses for brothnls? No: he is sound
Ill the ialCn. Is 1t the merchant VINO
trades in Coolies? No; he is a church
member, painted with the proper stripe.
Is it the Doctor of Divinity who de-
fends slavery as a Divine institution ?
Not at all he believes i'll the damna-
ton Of Unitarians, Universalists and
babies not wet with baptism he needs
no repentance. Is it the trader, whose
word is good for nothing, who will al
ways take you in? No; he is out in
the street pimping for the prayer meet
ings of his sect. Is it the man who
sends rum and g5FnpowU1er' 10 70 The tie ne
groes of Africa, and fills his ships with
slaves for Cuba, half OF them cast
shrieking to the hungry waves before
it touches land ? Oh no; he contrib
utes to the Tract Society. Do men
pray for the President of the United
States, that in his grand position, with
his magnificent opportunities, he may
secure to all men the ''inalienable right
to life, liberty, and the pursuit Of hap
piness :-may take the Golden Rule
of this blessed New Testament and
make that meet-wand for the Ameri-
can Government? They ask no such
thing. Do they pray that our Supreme
Court may ''do Justly, and love mercy,
and walk humbly with its God % They
pray for no such men: and those they
do pray for, they ask only that they
may believe the creed, and ''come to
Christi To Jesus of Nazareth. 1t
does not mean to come to him who said
religion was love to God and love to
man! 1t means only, come to the Cat
echism and the = meeting house!
/ do not know how many men, and
women too, have labored with me to
convert me. Not one ever asked me
to increase in Religion, in either part of
tin piety or Morality, to be more tenn
perate, industrious, truth telling-ouito
the opposite of that; more generous,
just, charitable, philanthropic, forgiv-
ing to my enemies. Not one ever ask
ed me to be better minister, scholar,
neishbor, friend, cousin, uncle, broth
er, husband. None ever prayed me to
love God better, or to keep His com
mandments more, or "come to Christ
their Christ 1t was the Catechism,
which tormentcd me in my infancy,
which sobbed over many night and
wept myself to sleep, and at last made
way with the abominable thing, trod it
under my feet forever, before I had
seen my seventh birth day.
These things show that the church
wants beliefin the theology of unreason
not a life OF natural piety and morality:
and because the ministers work for this,
and with such tools to this end, and ii
is that so many of them pass their lives
"In dropping buckets into empty wells,
And growing old in drawing nothing up
These things being so, Ecclesiastical
Revivals do no considerable good
they make superstitious church mem
bers, not religious men and women
L