Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-03-31
wORCEST TER:
MIR. CHoATrs coNC1o AD CLERUM.

iecture Stsiteslheil, pOlltCldIs, law yerS anu ot
er worldly -minded persons, who may be in
danger of wreck of conscience but he does
not hesitate to lecture the clergy, and appears
to find special delight in doing so. We have
before us two or three reports of a discourse OF
this kind, which he delivered in the Essex
Street Church. Boston, on the evening of the
2Sth inst, to collection ofclergymen and 9TH
er religious persons. The congregation of
which Rev Nehemiah Adams, d. D., is pas
tor, worship in that church. They have just
celebrated their pastors ecclesiastical silver
wedding. As Mr.. Choatc is a member of this
congregation, it was very natural and proper
for him to be prominent among the speakers
and it would have been quite unnatural if he
had failed, on this occasion, to give something
more than his usual display of oratorical fire.
works. Quite large number of clergymen
were present and he improved the opportunity
to describe for their edification, the extent and
limitations of a minister's knowledge, faculty
and duty. His discourse was mainly devoted
to the reasons for his satisfaction with Rev. Dr.
Adams and his ministry, but most attention
was given to the following:
"And that is, permit me to say, that we have
every one of us assuredly felt as we came here
from Sunday to Sunday, and took our seats in
our pew, that we should hear nothing in the
world but religion preached from that pulpit
and no manner of politics, State or national
directly or indirectly. And | may be permit
ted to say for myself, that l have uniformly
found it to be true, and / have uniformly recon-
ciied-if | needed to reconcile-my own at
tendance upon this church, by the considera-
ton of that truth-e-I have uniformly found it
to be true that l hurt nothing, was assailed by
nothing, was secularized by nothing, was de-
Tended or attacked by nothing which l had
done, nothing for which had voted or acted
in the political world without. All of us spent
the week before, and all of us were obliged to
spend the week afterwards, more or less in
that same heated, heaving political world !;
there we acted, there we had to debate, there
we lost our temper but l thank my pastor
that am able to say, in the presence of so
many, and such respectable clerical friends as
these, as those see about me- that never in
an Introductory prayer, never in hymn, oc-
casionally, or in the ordinary course of public
worship selected, never by any illustration in
any sermon, by any train of association, right
or wrong, carried back into the world, that
had left"
And from this point he proceeded to deliver
the concio dd clerum, which extended to consid-
cradle length, and was very oracular and
Choate-like. He informed the clergymen pres
ent, that they could not preach against slavery
without being suspected of cowardice; for it
would be presumed that the preacher was
afraid of some rich anti-slavery man in his
congregation, or that the security Of his salary
required such preaching. He told them, also,
that they were profoundly ignorant of politics,
(meaning, of course, the slavery question, and
therefore, should leave all such matters to
statesmen. He said, they might have learned
from the Bible and from Nature, certain gen.
eral principles in regard to human equality
yet they were nowise qualified to understand
how these GLORIOUS generalites" (they were
"glittering" on former occasion) are modified
by civil government ;-"how far, for example,
the acquisition of a territory-a new fact-by
the common blood and treasure, makes it
proper to lay it open to all, or shut it up against
some docs he 1.-THE clergyman know aught
of this ?" In word, every minister of the
gospel may be a firm pillar of orthodoxy in his
way, and very reverend person withal; but
he is also "a bit of goose" know nothing !;
he has never been out in the daylight of the
world he has no faculty for understanding
human affairs, and therefore must listen sub
missively to statesmen, leading politicians, dis
tinguished lawyers, and other wise fellows,
who know everything, and claim superiority
ovar both law and rnspnl oSpacio Ilv IN no1tioo
by which is meant the slavery question.
Mr.. Choate's arrogance is very amusing 1t
would be impossible to find many clergymen
whose knowledge of men and things is not far
more extensive and accurate than his. He is
an eloquent and eminent criminal lawyer; but
he has lived chiefly in the eden" of his profess
sion, quite as far away from the usual facilities
for acquiring general knowledge of men and
human affairs, as the most retired clergyman,
even the Rev. Abraham Plymley himself
Whence comes his superior illumination
Wherein is he qualified to be an oracle! Out
of his profession he has never shown faculty
for eminence. His attempt at politics and
craftsmanship, in the United States Senate
was remarkable failure, and he has never
since been willing to repeat it.
The old Puritans were accustomed to "preach
politics )" and, when the times required it,
their ninistratons could train up and put in
motion such men as Oliver Cromwell and his
Eonsides. They were not made of "syllabuh
and whipped cream !" they did not take opin.
ions and accept limitation from leading lawyers
and statesmen; they shrunk from no question
and could use words as ''hard as cannon balls,
when the occasion required it. The Puritan
ministry of New England were accustomed t.
"preach politics" They preached the Revo
luton; and to them, more than to any othe
class of men, must its origin and final success
be attributed. If Mr.. Choate could go bacl
to the days of '76, assemble the Boston clergy
and discourse to them as he discoursed in tn,
Essex street Church, the other night, he woult
have reception which would give him con
siderable establishment. We are notquite surf
that he would escape a compulsory visit to thu
Liberty Tree Those men were too strong
stern, and sincere, to undergo transformation
into lamb-like nonentities. They were no
faultless but they were men of lordly stature
with high aims, and grandly in earnest. Thu
tories said they were fanatics and incendiaries
But what says history
Mr.. Choate's account of Rev. DIR. Adams
pulpit ministrations, reminds us of passage
in one Of Millions prose articles in defence o
Puritanism, in which he satirizes "prelatica
religion This religion, according to Milton