Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1860-08-04
To ELDER GEO. ". GRIFFIN, OF LEBANON.

My DEAR But MISGUIDED BR, THEIR You
have seen in the tennessee Baptst, aud also III
the DAILY PATRIOT, the letter from member
OF the Baptist Church at Knoxville, making
serious charges against you, which are enter
tanned and endorsed by Brother GRAVES, the
editor of the Baptist. You have also seen In
the PATRIOT a communication signed ~"
In giving place to that communication, one
of the secular editors of the PATRIOT announ-
ced my absence from the city, and stated that
[ would probably have something to say III
reply on my return. In this he was mis-
taken. l have nothing to say in reply 10 the
courteous remarks OF j." But have few
words to say to you, my dear Brother, and
trust they will sink deep into yonr thought
less heart, aud bringing forth fruit meet Tor
repentance, render you wiser and better
man.
AS you are aware, aud as the world at
large is aware, l am a member of all the
churches l can find, and an applicant TO be-
come member OF several have never been
able to find. Such being the case, feel that
| may speak my mind freely without giving
Offense. -.~--- -...--.
The Knoxville correspondent of the Bop
fist files against you an ugly looking indict-
ment, with TWO distinct counts, both OF which,
weep TO say, are of the most revolving char
acter. You are charged by the correspondent
Of the Baptist, and indirectly by the editor of
that paper, fIst, with having suffered your
self to be Diet, cted in the very act of occupy
ing the pulpit with the Rev. Mr.. CARNEs, a
Campo lIitish minister; and. second, with
having permitted that minister to commune
with you and your church, or that you sui
fered him to be present, and probably
handed him the elements"
The least of the crimes with which you are
charged, my errinS Brother, is more than
enough to damn an entire apostolic success
siou. and L b pc, for the purity Of The Baptist
Church. and your temporal and eternal wei
fare, that you will be able to rise MONEY
enough among your friends in Lebanon and
elsewhere (and you may put me down for
five dullars) to employ some able-bodied
Iaundress to clear your skirts of this most
blighting charge.
They are mistaken who believe that CHRIST
died for all denominalions-tha he is the
common Savior of one and all-and that, in
the words of the poet.
AT one tremendous draught of love.
He drank damnation dry
He ed but for two or three deuomina-
tons. You knoto that yours is one of them.
Every minister of every other denomi-
nation knows also that has is one of them.
But you do nOt know that any other particular
denomination is; nor does any other minister
know more. Therefore, you should rigidly
exclude the ministers of al other denomina-
tions from your pulpit aud communion-table,
lest. in your blindness, you admit one who,
Through most deVout aud earnest christian,
as he understands the art or Christiauity.) is
not among the redeemed, and thereby bring
shame ana reproach upon the cause in which
YOU are engaged You may incline to be-
Iieve that this course is calculated to give the
sinner not very favorable idea of Christi
auity in the abstract, and to force upon his
mind The conviction that one can be a better
man out of the Church than in it; bat that
is none of your business. If the way we
manage our affairs is stumhling-block to
sinners-h they are determined to go TO the
devil simply because we regard ncbody as a
Christian except those who subscribe to our
confession OF faith and believe in all things
precisely as we do-why. let them go and
be hanged to them. Oar pulpit is our own,
and SO is our communicable; and We have
a perfect right TO exclude whom we please
from either, let the unhallowed wretches be-
yond the pale Of the Church think and say