Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-10-05

Ahbl BAOlhhAbJ9 huu SldNtIJs
"For these sins" says the writer, "God is
now dealing with us as nation, and it be-
comes us to acknowledge and confess them
with deep humiliation Of soul-to acknowl-
edge that we deserve his righteous displeasure
and. .fatherly chaatisementon on account of them,
and to repent them and put them away so
far as it is in our power to do.'
Why these are national sins more than any
other wrong acts that men may commit, he
does not inform us; nor whether we are to
be relieved from our chastsements until
they are entirely eradicated. War does not
in general reduce the amount of profanity
nor of hard drinking in the land; nor of the
employment of the Sabbath for secular pur-
poses. The profane practices Of ''our army
in Flanders" have been continued and i'm
| proved upon ever since, wherever armies
were in existence; the appetite for strong
drinks among the soldiOry is pretty gener-
ally acknowledged; and the remark of
great American statesman that "there were
no Sabbath, in revolutionary times" has be-
come in some sort proverba.
We do not, like the good King Alphonso,
profess to be able to correct the DEGREES of
Divine Providence; but certainly it will, to
the secular understanding, seem obvious
that had the object been to reduce the sum
of drinking, swearing and Sunday labor or
recreation in the United States, some better
course than this might have been adopted.
There are great many people among US
who neither swear, drink, desecrate the Sab
bath nor have aught to do with slavery and
yet, so far as appears they are as much the
sufferers as any. Why is it, we may ask,
that the innocent are made to suffer with the
guiltyP The Notwithstanding to the ap-
proved form-is this: These are mysterious
dispensations, into which we are forbidden
to pry. The correctness Of the reply is ad-
mitted; but another question arises Who
knows that these are the sins for which we
are being chastised? The man who has no
right to dogmatize upon one point what
right has he to do so upon another2
There is the same reason to class larceny,
forgery, arson, disobedience to parents, OBJ
tanning money under false pretenses, adul-
terry, and fornication, assault and battery,
and cruelty to animals, among national sins,
as Sabbath-breaking, profanity and intem-
perance; and if the nation is to be made an
swerable as q criminal for the wrong acts OF
an individual in one instance, why not in the
case of every offense made punishable by the
combined statute and deealogue?
A reverend gentleman who preached in
Washington on the day of the Presidents
Fast, laid it down that the great national sir
for which we are being chastsed is the abo.
lition of capital punishments by several Of
the States. How he came to be advised o.
the fact does not appear but he was doubt.
less as we'll convinced of its truth as the
writer in the Free Nation is of the justice o.
his theory. And yet it would, perhaps, mo-
be difficult to find gentlemen as reverend as
himself, who would look upon the matter il
an entirely different light, and discover thu
sin in the continuance Of the death penalty
in some States, rather than its discontinu
ance in others. At any rate, the abolition o
capital punishment can hardly be put dowr
as a national sin, for, nationally, no such alb
olition has taken place. If it is any thing i
is State sin: for if political corporation
can sin, there is no reason why we SHOULD
not have State, and County, and Township
and School District sins, as well as nationa
ones nor is there, humanity speaking, an.
reason why School District, Township,
County, or State sin, should be charged i
the general bill, and the whole nation be pu
to grief on its account.
1t is certainly to be hoped-we say it wit
becoming reverence-that God understand
the Constitution of the United States bette
than some of our spiritual advisers, who Gel
tainly seem to know less of that than they d
even of theology; otherwise there will be
jumbling of CROSS entries in the chancery
the next world that all eternity will not fal
nish time enough to adjust.
Who shall decide upon these momentor
, points when learned doctors do SO disagree
And certainly these are things that shoul
not be left to conjecture. While we ougE
at our earliest leisure to repent of all ol
sins, it is evident that the national ones
bringing such wide. spread calamities to
: many innocent people-should be the fir
in order. AS true patriots, we must be col
tent to postpone our individual affairs uni
those of the nation are attended to; al
therefore the question, Where are we
begin 2 is of paramount Importance.
We treat these things lightly because it
the only way in which they deserve to
treated. Presumption and blasphemy ga
no sanctity because they are delivered in
holy tone, with an elongated physiognom
and in the name of God. When men assuu
to tell what God thinks or to point out t
motives upon which He dispenses His jud
ments, it is perfectly safe 10 take it
granted that they have prejudices to feed,
- passions to crafty. If man were actual
! gifted with the authority to speak infallib
upon such subjects, his mission would be
3 awful one; and he would tremble while
A delivered it. 1t is fools that thoughtess
q thrust themselves where angels fear to trea
4, Upon these subjects one man knows just
es much as another; and he who processes
". know more than his neighbor of the though
opinions or resolutions of the Almighty,
a. to that extent a charlatan--an impostor.
- --ls--------
- A CURIOUS circumstance connected VI
Az the construction of the great wall OF Chi
is narrated by Captain Parish, who acco
papied Lord Mccartney to China. 1t see
4H | 49, 4,uga fhnuoand uaaro aon 4