The weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1858-1860, 1860-01-07
For the Hawk Eye.
What 10 Ecelesiasticism
BURLINGTON, Dec. 80. so.

What 10 Ecelesiasticism
BURLINGTON, Dec. 80. 80.
To c. c. C2ou,naa, O1anua
DEAR SR:-At length am in possession Of
the decretal pro dec ct ecclesia bearing date Aug
26th, 1859, and your counterblast of 9TH Nov.
following, the first consigning US to that low and
horrid region which need not more particularly
name to ears SO polite as yours. Dear fellow
sufferer in the realms of darkness, though con-
signed to place more than ten thousand fathoms
below the point you are graciously permitted to
hold, may mot de Prctmd;s, yea, de profp,d;s-
sinaas, and lift.up my cry to you? Could you but
pass it on to Theodore Parker, who stands yet
far above you in virtue of his armorial bearings
as minister Of the Twenty Eighth Congrcga-
tional Soc. in Boston," my cry, borne on
his potential voice, might reach the upper air.
But oh the effectual fervent prayers Of Park
Street have been heard and the physical man
Theodore is disabled and gone to Europe, while
the theological eus welters with US in the deepest
HI. Yet far above us both, az is fitting, both
| on account of his Mackness and because he has
not, like my humble self, INDUCED in such s'yiiu-
peration against the church and ministry and our
holy religion itself"
"Oh me! Whatever title suit me,
Aud Satan, hornie, nick or clootie."
What am like? oh Rev. hierophant
20 wad some power the giftie gle me
To see myself as ithers see me-"
Ny baptism of sprouts and my new name leave
me yet stranger to myself
Whence and what am execrable imp? While
Deril2 ? say YOU. Worse than Black Der1 That
is likely enough
Alba ligustra cadunt, vaccna nigra legunter,
| sang the Mantuan Shepherd, as much as to say in
English: black huckleberries are gathered, dog
can religion has not yet taught that in matters
merely human, black is any better than white,
but since it is so let us have hope, hope for the
race of Ham,
But the question recurs with distressing weight
and urgency, What is it to be de,I?
'Devil, the evil one,"-Pocks Dictionary
am an evil one no doubt, but there are many
such. Let us call in more elaborate lexicograpl-
ers. What say Gessenius and Parlhurst Of Ma
hash, that old serpent, the devilns Aug,ry,
fore knowledge? That's the radical meaning is
it! That's not so very bad. But what SAYS
primeval history about this ancient parsonage,
who, when on certain day the sons Of God
came to present themselves before the Lord
Satan came also among them" Call him Sa-
tan, Ophis, Draco Ahriman, or what you will, it
hat A.; e
of introducing Sin, our great shame and woe
What did he get for it? "On thy belly shalt
thou go and dust shall thou eat" Such was his
doom. Prof Agassiz our most learned crepelolo-
gist, describes no such Ophiolan. That crawl
ing then was metaphorical, so was that drt-eat-
ing. In performances of this kind allow me in
all humility to suggest that the American party
press and the American pulpit are and ever have
been unsurpassed. You and /, dear unchurched
Cloutman, cannot compete in that way for the
another fight ON our bellies, with Tammany on
our back, when shall we be prepared to stand
erect ~ Feelingly asks the editor Of the New
York Tribune, in a recent issue and long suffer-
ing public weekly responds, When? Oh Tribune,
where? Some concessions, augustinian and
other have from time to time been made from the
high places of the sanctuary which hope it is no
sacrilege for us to quote in these murky regions.
One we heard, or at least heard Of, some nine
years ago, when it was intimated in the highest
locality that the pulpit that would tolerate Daniel
Webster's fugitive slave law in the land was re-
creant to its solemn trust. Another more pointed
confession was made long before that by an emf
nent ecclesiast. Said A. Barnes of Philadel
pha, outside of the American church is no power
that could uphold American slavery one hour
Could you and and Theodore Parker boast
or do anything like that! If we conld, with
the aid of all other like minded devils, wouldn't
we have done it Or failing to do it, would not
all the Reverend clergy have cried shame upon us.
Here the popular pulpit and press send Capt.
Brown to the lunatic asylum of the other world
or into this, our hot home, while the song above
ground SO generally is
Il hurrah for the old coon,
Cries the Reverend Bethune,
Tn theological retriever
Against my brother Cheever,
And I'll save the Union"
Of five hundred pulpits in the city of New York,
We know, on the authority of that eminently
pous and truthful sheet, the N. T. Observer,
only two uttered any word of sympathy or ap-
probation Of John Brown-not one let him into
heaven as did our Burlington st. Peter, not under
the gaberdine of the penitent thief he has long