Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1859-04-23
aConpound for sins they are inc lined 10,
Bv dampina those they have no mind to-

There are men, for instance, who attach
a peculiar merit to the entertainment of q
certain set of theological opnions-who
entertain those opinions very decidedly, and
maintain them wonderfully well, while they
make dissent an absolute sin, and regard
dissenters with pity aud contempt There
are men who Judge their neighhors with
great uncharitableness; who drive hard bar
gains who gamble in stocks who are
selfrighteous and censorious who fail in
tenderness towards Gods poor who never
pay what they ought to pay for the sup
port of the religious institutions to which
they are attached. yet who wonld consider
a social dance in their own parlor terrible
sin, and a game of whist high crime that
should call down the judgments Of Heaven.
There are men who stalk abont the gloomy,
and stiff, and severe--self-righteous emho-
dments of the mischievous heresy that the
religion of peace and good will to all man-
knd-the religion Of love and hope and
joy-the religion that bathes the universal
human soul in the light of parental love,
and opens to mankind the gates Of immor-
tality--is a religion of terror-men guilty
Of misrepresenting Christ to the world, and
doing incalcuIable damage to his cause, yet
who find it in them TO rebuke the careless
laughter that bubbles mp from a maiden's
heart that God has filled with life and
gladress
Thi, falacious estimate of the respective
qualities aud magnitude of sins, has not
only blinded the reason and bnfooled the
- H. ,,oull l,,,t : e,,.ilaA
its language Ivy parallel processes of ex-
ageration and emasrulati0n. Little words
that legitimately repl esent little things
have become monstrous words, representing
monstrous things. Great sins have plea
SAINT words attached to them which serve
as masks by which they find their way into
good society without suspicion. Individual
notionS---no bigber than mans hand. at
iirst-have spread themselves into over
shadowing ecclesiastical dogmas Phrases
have been invested by the schools with ille-
gitimate meanings and deceptive san City.
The age is an age Of words, and is ruled by
words rather than things and there is
hardly one of them that has not shrink
from its original garments, or outgrown
them. Men are saved by words and damn
ed by words Religion rides the nominal
and casuStry the technical and the un-
fortunate wight who does not get out of
the way will he crushed by words, or run
through hy fatal phrase.
The religious newspapers Of the day ore
| full of quarrclS about wordS-quarrels in
sttuted in the name of the Prince Of Peace
and carried on for the benefit Of the Prince
Of DarknesS-quarrels over nOn-esSentiaI
matters Of opinon-quarrels growing ont
Of rivalres of sects-quarrelS fed by the
fires Of human passion-quarrelS maintained
by the pride Of opinion and by the ambi-
ton for intellectual mastery quarrelS whose
only tendency is to disgust the world with
the religion in whose behalf they are pro-
fessedly instituted, and to fret aud wound
and divide the followers Of Jesus Christ.
/ Yet these same religions papers will deplore
| the personal collision of two drunken con-
gresSmen in the streets of Washington as a
sad commentary on the degeneracy of the
| age, ard moralize soemnly over dog light
They can lash each other with little mercy
they can call each other names, abuse
each others motives, misconslrue each 9th
erS language, Grimm te aud recrimiuate
but faint quite away with seeing u cart
horse over,whipped or race-horse over
tasked. They have daily to do with the
devil and pretend to be frightened at a
mouse.
| What is true of the controversial reli-
gious newspapers, is true, l fear, of great
many Christian men aud women. They
have pet sinS-pOodle snS-with silky white
hair-sns held in by social collar aud d
religious rbbon--that bark at good honest
dogs, or imaginary dogs, although their lit
tie eyes are red with the devil that is IL
them. As sectarians, they are given tC
SANDER. They speak diSparaginglyof those
who differ with them in belief. They judge
uncharitably those who engage in practices
which only their particular dictionary makes
diaboical They blacken multitude o
good deeds by dipping them into bad mo
tiveS Of their own sleeping. Now. if
were called upon to decide which in my
opinion, is the least sinful in itself. and thu
least demoralizing in its tendency-the ira
ducing of one of Christ's disciples by anoth
er of Christ's disciples, or engaging in o.
witnessing a horse-race-I should turn ny
back on the traducer aud shake hands will
the jockey.
/ know men not religious, who bea
about an exceedingly sensitive idea of hon
or that scorns all litIleness and meannes
and trickery-chivalrou men = reliabl
men--men really of pure lives and homes
and honorable impulses-yet men so warpe
in their reason aud their moral nature tha
they will follow their party leaders throug
all the treacheries, pejuries aud innomina
BILE rascalties that party leaders driven t
desperate straits can invent wAo stan
squarely up 10 the endorsement of deceit
injustice, robbery and murder who pau
per aud patronze the most brutal aud daI
geruus eemeuts Of society, aud who Civ
money to be used for party purposes tina
they have no reasonable doubt will be d
rIcted to the corruption of the ballot box
know women of delicate instincts an
really modest natures who turn the col
shoulder TO q fallen sister-passlng her wit
| A phuddarino canea Of t,nlut tiOn---upt AZ h