Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1859-10-08

against ~ lDere is no such thing as beinn
Gods martyr and the DEVILS servant at the
same time. we know those to-day, and
have known many others, who profess 70
have great deal of respect, or reverence.
for religion. have no doubt that much of
| this respect is honest-that il is not all n
hypocritical pretense. They love to have
their families attend church. They never
interfere with the religious instruction of
their children. They are willing to nav
their share toward the support of the in
stitutions Of religion. They attend church
themselves, perhaps, and shun all profanity
and debauchery, but they fail to show their
respect for religion by embracing it. receiv-
ing it as the ruling element of their life, and
declaring themselves to be its adherents and
possessors. / suppose that such men imar-
inc that, on the whole, they are on the side
of religion-that their influence, in the main.
is in its favor. They declare with their lips
and their intellects that religion is a good
thing, while with their hearts and lives thew
declare that it is not worth personally Sc
curing and possessing. How much is such
favor as this worth? How valuable is that
testimony which the heart and life belle !?
Ah no There is no middle ground here.
1t is either everything or nothing.
Christianity asks for no mans patronage.
and seeks for no mans favor. 1t is some
thing given, for 70 man to accept or reject,
as he may see fit. 1t is something bestow
ed for man to incorporate into his own
life, if he will. 1t is an infinite favor from
an infinite benefactor, and does not 90 a.
round seeking the endorsement of those
who do not care enough about it to receive
it. To all those who decline to make it's
personal acquaintance, it says: "take me
or leave me. No service that you can rem
der me, by words and patronzing deeds,
can counter-balance the contempt which you
manifest by refusing to me a dwelling place
in your heart. ask for no friends, and
| can possibly have none, who are not willing
to take me into their life, and acknowledge
me to the world. | reign supreme or
reign not at all. If you fail to accept me,
you reject me; and are, to all intents and
purposes, my enemy. If | can do nothing
for you personally, then you can do moth
ing for me. If you gather not with me,
you scatter abroad"
There is another class for whom Chris
tianity has no more tavors than for this-a
class which holds relation to Christianity
no more honorable than this. l refer to
those who profess to be Christians, but who
accommodate themselveS-their thoughts.
habits, pleasures and pursuts-to whatev-
er society may envelop them. They are
exceedingly piouS at prayer meeting, and
uncommonly sharp in business; devotedly
attendant on the public religions services
of the Sabbath, and very forgetful of their
religious obligations during the week; per-
fectly at home in respectable carousal,
not particularly conscientious in their poll
tics, careless in the use of their neighbours
names, indulgent often in a kind of mon
grel profanity--a cross between slang and
swearing--ihat would be wicked if it dar-
ed to be, and meanly powerless always be-
before the SCOTS and bold iniquites of the
infdel and the Scoundrel Riding the horse
OF selfshness with Christian profession in
one pocket of their saddebags and world
ly life in the other, sailing the sea Of life
with religious papers and black-Aag, pro-
fessedly bound to Jerusalem, yet taking
the well known Babylon road, these men
occupy, in fact. no neutral ground. They
are not for Christianity, but against it.
There is still another class-and in the
history of Christianity it was never larger
than at the present time-which openly af.
fects kind Of neutrality in its relations to
Christianity. This class holds the Bible as,
on the whole, an excellent book, and Jesus
Christ as, without doubt, the best man that
ever lived. There is much in Christianity
that they admire, but much that has been
superseded. They have kind of religious
philosophy that embraces all there is that
is good in Christianity, and discards all that
is not up to the wants of the present age
particularly all with which it does not
harmonic. With such men, reason stands
above revelation, to approve or condemn
it, point by point. Some of these men go
so far as to call themselves Christians, while
Others adopt, with more consistency, other
names. Now, Christianity is what it pre-
tends to be, or nothing complete and
authoritative system of religion, or an i'm
position. 1t is something above all religions
and all PHILOSOPHERS, in that it is divine, or
like all other religions and philosophers, in
that it is incomplete incompetent human.
l am utterly at loss TO know how any man
can call himself Cnristian-much more at
a loss to know why he should desire to be
called one-who denies the supreme author
ity of Christianity as the one true complete
religion revealed by God to men. declare
that there is no middle ground here for
philosophical eclectics to occupy The de-
nal of part of Christianity is the denial
of the whole as a complete true religion
What manhood, humanity & Christianity
conspire so evidently to demand, must be
in the line of q sound policy. No man can
prosper in wealth, reputation and happiness
who strives to win them against the force
of such demands as these, so that selfinter-
est, inteligently consulted, demands that
man shall pronounce himself on the side Of
the good, the pure and the true. All the
men who have won q name that will worth
lily live, who have attracted to themselves
the admiration and love of the world, whose
words and lives have become powers, felt
and acknowledged, upon the heart aud
life of mankind, whose influence has mingled
10 the tide of good that gathers volume
from age to age to whelm at last the black
continents of wrong have been positive
men-Self committed, self declared-men
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