The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1859-06-03
'THE DISPATCH.
.......JUNK 3. lss!
rerpAY MOANING.
.East aad wsss."

aiscourse with this title, deHVefe" >" Wv
First Congregational Church, Cincanna.'
nv NJ D. Conway, Minister of the Chureh.
We don't call Mr.. Conway Reverend, De-
..nsa \. don,t call himseIfs 50, and without
attending any personal disrespees, peru
cal AZ the sermoa satisfies US that the title
oyI reverend would be much more APP
propria,e appellation. Mr.. Conway, we
believe, is virginian, and, when Wiz
sinian does take up any CROCHET 10 relt-
rion, philosophy or morals, he always
out.herods Bered; he beats the Puritans
with their own weapons; he can Owe
deeper into the inf1nal regions without
scorchIng his wings, ard soar higher into
heaven without becoming any wiser or
better for it, than the most enserprising
Yankee on the face of the habitabIe globe.
Consequently, we are not surprised to
snss Mr.. Conway in this sermon, not only
denying Christ, not only laughing at his
miracles, the pscof Of which. however, was
satisfactory TO such rai.tss as Bacon, twho
once said, "a little philosophy makes
man an inidel; great deal, Christian, y
Newton, Shakespeare, Marshall, Bensy,
Webster, Clay, and almost every hrst-rate
intellect that has ever fourished in the old
world ana the new-not only CHASING
Christianity Wits Buddhism, Brahrninism,
and Platonism, bat declaring that DR..
Chanting, the big gun Of Unitarianism in
the United States OF America, was behind
the age; for, quoth our Irreverend friend,
after letting fly battery Of Armstrong
guns at both the primitive fathers and the
leaders of the reformation, "Dr. Charming
believed so and so; but what did DR.. Cham
ming know of the spiritual and moral
needs which each new day must awaken IN
a country where nothing stands still, and
genii of power and knowledge are ever
rising out of old caskets?" 'four minis
ter" exclaims Mr. Conway, lis not be-
lever in what the Churches call Christian
ity." We beg to omit what follows; it is
rather too irreverent for us publicans and
sinners to repeat, even in the columns of a
secular newspaper.
Mr.. Conway, though having no faith in
Christianity, compliments the author OF the
epistle to the Romans by taking bis text
from the 18th chap. and 18th verse, OF that
epistle 1.-THE night is far spent, the day is
1T hand let US therefore cast off the works
of darkness, and let US put on the armor OF
light" He then proceeds to show that the |
sun of civilization rose in the East and
ever Journeys Westward, and is, we sup
nose, at present shining directly over Gin
cinnati, where the largest opera house in
the United States has been lately built, and
the business of pork packing is better I'M
derstood than in any other part of the |
world. Indeed We have the word of Dir. |
Conway for it:
The Zenith of the Human Day is just above Us; |
jts fell nooptide 10 be here The book OF dreams is
cosus fast the bats and of super sti.
tions and errors; are hiding 10 their appropriate
caves and cellars; the night 10 far spent Some do,
indeed, close their eyes little, and draw their
curtains, trying to persuade themselves that they |
are sti to dream on the sweet old dreams; but the
dio of the stirring world will dispel the iliu
sion; the Day IL at hapdl Tue mission 1.-THE West
il to work, aud 1t can only add to what the East
b a done. deeds which shall match the maguih.
cence Of ito dreams We are to write Arabian tales
and Hebrew visions In granite and marble; are
to set the music of the spheres which Plato heard
to bars OF Railroad iron, Our Canaan shall be the
rich valleys Of the West, whittier the armies I |
Civilization are pressing. Now, ask You, as lir-
ing men, with this Day pouring it's foods Of livir 4
tasks upon ~, whether We shall retain the world |
old night clothes; whether the Legitimate methods
and ideas for our work those which the ancient
darkness called about it. We do not doubt that |
the old legends which We are called on to substi-
tute for ali that 10 vital In Christianity, the old
cresds about the Trinity and Vicarious Atonemept,
the miracles, etc. all appropriate insti,
in their slime; they legitimsted by the Orien.
tai fancy, in the worlds night twilight but our
lot il not appointed 10 Asia Minor, nor ia our lot
TO bask 10 the sun like dervisbes Our work IL to
live true lives and make pure homes in Cincinnati
md hall make Amerifn a froa md b~pn I'D
Why should We get our creeds and ideas rom
persisted ages and men, and make no step beyond
Jerusalem and Alexandria! Why should We have
our work 10 one age, our worship ia anotherf In
any other department. adherance to old methods 10
seen At once to be simply prepostsrous. Our
brethren who have left as, who believe that the
Church should be based on the idea Of Redeemer,
IN idea of the dark ages. which supposed that, as
captives in war were either to be slain or redeems
ed by Q ransom paid-so Jesus paid down In 90
much blood ransom for captive man Ian idea
which must moro and more lose its meaning az
wars and the customs of ancient wars cease)-mep
who believe this, would not think il wise to re.
store the old acqueducts of Rome place of their
Reservoirs, nor writing on parchment instead OF
the cylinder press. What folly! To think OF
taking us back centuries taking Us ont of our time
and power We have gained In two thousand
yearsi Athanasius wrote one creed and Calvin
wrote another, and the Unitarian servetns wrote
another; but what did Athanasius, or Calvin, or
ssrvetus know Of America and it's destiny.
We have read little farther in order to
find out what Mr.. Conway is driving at !;
what he proposes to substitute for the ex-
isting system. 1t is generally agreed that
religion of some kind is necessary to pre-
serve society from actual putrefaction. We
are aware too, that the theology of the
West, which Mr.. Conway considers the
great centre Of Civilization and Humanity,
has al many colors ss Josephs coat and,
does not at all remind US, in its unity and
consistency, of the seamless garment of
Christ. The inventive genius and religious
extravagance of New England, transferred
TO the rich soil of the Ohio and Mississippi
Valley, evokes prodigies in theology as well
as in mechanics. Everything overshadows
the native land-pumkins, potatoes, col
leees, railroads and religion. Mormonism,
a weakly plant in Western New York, was
no sooner transplanted to the Vest than it
fourished in rank exuberance Spiritual
ism grows faster and stands thicker Cd its
luxuriant intellectual bottoms than the
thriving maize of its fertile valleys; Abo-
litiohism runs up TO fever heat; Free Love
can only be restrained in the Central re-
gion of Civilization and Humanity by
q straight jacket and shaved head
What new system, then, does Mr.. Conway
propose to build on the ruins of Christiani-
ty?- for even the glorifed inhabitants of
the great Western Reservoir of Civilization
and humanity, must have, as we have seen,
some system. Unless the annexed para
graph gives an answer, We know not where
TO find it:
In your presence would lay this day the cor.
nsr stone Of Working Church. Soon these walls
which your fathers reared to God, may know MS
no more; - they pass let them symbolire the psss
ing away from our hearts Of any partial and I'M.
eplixhtened views which may lurk within us. let
ne answer the cry Of the Past. "rhere 10 nothing
new under the sun" with tho voice of the Present
"Behoid create all things newt" 10 that Church
at that cannot be- harnsssed to the Chariot of our
Progress must be dragged behind II, as . slinA
Hector. We will have no doctrine thst has not to-