The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-10-02
The Organs OF Cant and FanatIcism
against True Religion and Common
Sense.

claims to be Christian par excellence and tn,
organ Of Christians of superior sanctity bu
whose language seems better suited to the re
gion of the Five Points or Tammany Hall thar
to moral or religious atmosphere. II is call
ed the Christian Itelligencer, much on the sam,
principle as the Latin word hlcus, shad,
grove, or dark place, is derived by contraries
from luz, light, or htceo, to shine. The Inteui
gences is called Christian, from Christ, because
I is the opposite to him in its doctrines, it
pharisaic spirit and its sectarian intolerance
1t is one Of that class of religious journals
which have no religion, or charity, or truth
about them, and which are in the habit of de
nouncing the HERALD as "in6del" because its
views do not square with their fanatioal OF
hypocritical notions, which are like the reli
gion of the Pharisee of old with his broad ply
iactery, or of the Monk with his cowl, or of the
Roundhead with his hair cropped. 1t is put or
and off with their Sunday clothes and some
times troubles their consciences very much
when they are afraid of dying.
When the devil was sick the devil saint would be-
When the devil was well the devil 4 saint was he
| Religion is continually on the tongues
of these Mawworms, but never in their
| lives. If their hearts were dissected re.
| ligion is the last thing that would be
| found there. Judging them by their works
| as we Judge the tree by its fruit, we find
| them to be an ungodly crew, who make reli-
gious profession a cloak for every kind of ras-
! cality. They lie, and SANDER, and cheat, and
seduce their neighbors' wives and daughters,
and yet claim that they only are religious or
Christian, because they put on long face on
! Sunday, and make a toll and trouble of day
intended by the Creator to be pleasant to the
sons of men.
| The HERALD has done a thousand times more
for religion than the whole of the miserable
| weekly sheets called religious 1t has reported
the religious anniversaries for twenty years,
and thus given stimulus to the various socie-
ties, by which they have been enabled to col
could otherwise have obtained for the purpose
of spreading the civilization Of Christianity over
the face of the earth. And now poor weekly
journal, protesting to represent some of these
sects, sacrilegiously and blasphemously AFRO
| gates the attributes of the Almighty, puts on
| his habiliments, and sits in judgment on our
religion, and calls the HERALD Satanic" just
as bis prototypes of old charged Christ
with being in league with Beelzebub, "the
prince of devils" Because we agree about
the observance of Sunday with the great
majority of Christians in all ages, and because
our religion is practical, broad and charitable,
and not narrow-minded, sectarian and illberal,
| brand il with the nameof infdelity. These men
| resemble not Christ, who set an example offor-
bearance and humility, but the devil, who was
driven out of heaven for his spiritual pride,
and because he attempted to exalt himself
above his peers. II their power were only
equal to their arrogance, they would cruelty
true Christians as the Scribes and Pharisees did
Christ or hang or burn them as their predeces-
! sors, the Puritans, did in Massachusetts, where
| Episcopalians, Presbyterians Baptists and
| Catholics suffered in turn, and four Quakers,
who protested against the Sabbath superstition,
were hanged, and their remains now repose in
Boston Common, martyrs to the cause of civil
and religious liberty. 1t is not to be wondered
! that the same fanaticism filled the prisons with
| supposed witches, and that many were executed
in the vicinity Of Boston for the crime of witch
| craft
The following extract from the laws of the
| old Bay State will show what manner of men
| those Puritans were:-
Whoever shall profane the lords day by doing
cessary work. by unnecessary travelling, by sports and
recreatons he they who transgress shall forfeit
forty shllngs be publicly whipped; but if it shall ap
to have been done contumaciousy such person
persons shall be put to DEATH otherwise severely
| punished at the discretion Of the Court
No one shall on the Sabbath day walk in his
garden, or elsewhere, except reverenty to and from
meeting.
! None shall travel cook vicuals, make beds, sweep
| house. cut hair, or shave on the Sabbath day.
No woman shall kiss her child on the Sabbath fast
If any man shall kiss his wife, or wife her husband on
the Lords day. the party in fault shall be punished at the
discretion of the magistrates
The same superstition still cleaves to the
Puritanical Pharisees Of the present day, though
they have not the power to enforce it by pains
and penalties. AS an example of it we may
refer to the fact that the Sabbath Committee at
tributed the great New York fire of 1885, and
the commercial revulsion Of 1887, to the aboli-
ton of some Sunday ordinances by the Com
mon Council in 1884. As anothsg instance of
this fanaticism we may state that at the time OF
the clerical opposition to the Sunday cars in
the neighboring "City Of Churches a year OF
two ago, DR.. Storrs declared at Brooklyn City
Hall that the Norwalk tragedy, in which some
seventy persons were killed and all the en-
barassments Of the New Haven Railroad
Company arising out Of the Schuyler frauds
were Divine judgments for the running of q
Sunday train some time before by the same com
pany and the same engineer. Similar judgments
were predicted in the event Of Sunday cars be
ing permitted to run in Brooklyn. Yet neither
in that city nor in New York has any Divine
Judgment visited the people since the auspi