The weekly mountain Democrat. [volume] (Placerville, El Dorado County, Calif.) 1861-1862, 1862-07-19
ALAYa SERMON

upon il below. We commend It to the
attention of Divines, genefafy:'
The fact is, from some cause or other
there seems to be great falling of among |
our people in attending church services
as comparing the rumber Of our popnla-
ton with the seatings in our churches,
the preponderance of the former over the
latter is very marked Some of the cler-
gy are trying to solve the question, but
have not found the MISUNDERSTANDING
Ecening Gazette.
at is not remarkable that the clergy is
not competent TO solve this question /; q
man is not able to see anything which is
on the top Of his own head. The fact is
hepnnJ al controversy, and melancholy J
fact it is, too. Not only in this city but !
S>t1Ss<zs2aGs e&Ss Stute--and we fear,
throughout most of New EnglSnd-the
interest in religion. and in the observance
! qG. psysiAn,,iS, 3scIning. The attendance
upon church services is comparatively
meager. Practical, if not theoretical, in
fidelity is spread like a dry rot through
out tue land. The number of men who
are living virtually without God is on the
increase. The heather virtues Of pride,
sef,csteem, selfreliance, active courage,
are rising in estimation, and the Christian
virtues Of meekness, gentlcness, patience,
long-suifering, are declining. Among
young persons especially, of both sexes,
there is a marked want Of vital and prac-
tcal Christianity, and n prevailing lack
Of interest in its ministrations and obser-
vances. The general characteristic Of
young persons is impatience of discipline,
resistance to authority, fierce assertion
,r.yrs,,p,e1 rights.. JIo4xart obedience il.
an outrage :. to yield obedience is weak
ness. Restraint of all kinds is resented as
wrong; an unchecked liberty pow
cr to do anything and everything that the
natural and unregenerate heart prompts
without let or hindrance-.is valued as
the highest good Of man. ISL
And what is the cause Of this unhappy
state Of thiHgsP What has led TO all this
free thinking. and TO this lawless conduct,
which is the legitimate child of free think
ing? No one can explain it all but GER
tainly the clergy themselves are, in part.
to blame for il. In the tenth chapter OF
Leviticus we read that Nadab and Abihu
offered strange fire before the Lord IN
these words, the narrative Of transac-
tion, there is also symbolical sense, and
the expression Of a vital and enduring
truth. The clergy Of New England have
been Offering strange fire before the Lord;
and the inevitable retribution has follow
ed. And this strange fire. is the vulgar
fire of secular pol!tIcs-the fire Of world
by pasSion-which wastes and consumes
the heart on which it feeds. In such
heart the Christian graccs can no more
take root than roses and lilies will flour
iSh in the Stag and refuse Of furnace.
Politics are usurping the place Of religion
to deplorable extent in the pulpit Of
New England Sermons are degenclating
into stump speeches. The clergy are ta-
king a more and more active part in pOlit-
ical movements. You will hardly find a
political convention in which one or more
Of the most active and noisy members are
not cIergymen. If you enter New Eng
land church on any Sunday in the year,
the chances are at least even thatyou will
hear q political harrangur, which part Of
the audience will be moved to applaud,
and part to hiss.
And the political opinions which are
cnunciatcd from the pulpit, are generally
accompanied with a most offensive dog
malism and posiliveness. This is natural
enough. The clergyman is regarded with
peculiar Difference, as a man removed
from secular struggles and secular stains,
and set apart to break the bread of life
to the PEOPLE. lie is rarely contradicted
he is treated by men as men treat women;
he is never subjected 10 an intellectual
rough and tumble an atmosphere Of res
+ pect surrounds him. which protects him
AS cotton protects diamonds. Upon sa
cred and religious topics he has right
TO speak with authority; not only to
soothe, and heal, and bless, but warn, and
rebuke, and admoniSh; he is false to his
trust, il he4lo not. Butthe habit of mind
once generated is easily transferred to
secular themes. The priests authorative
tone is easily assumed when he speaks on
topics on which he and his parishioners
stand on the same plane of observation,
and where there vision is quite as likely
to be as good as his. How common it is
to see young chick, just hatched from a
divinity school, running about with the
| shell yet on his head, who will undertake
to decide any question of administration
his gloves! The mistake is in supposing
that, in regard to the problems, you can
come to satisfactory solution by some
short cut of inspiration, by the intuitivc
moral sense whereas the contrary is no.
toriously the fact. There is often n ludi-
crous disproportion between the tone and
manner with which dogmas are uttered
from the pulpit, and the substantial value
of the opinions themselves. 10 hear and
see the preacher one would suppose he
was enunciatinG the oracles of God, while
what he is really uttering is some shallow,
sentimental or miSchievouS nonsense.
such as might have been picked up at
some infants school, u miincr's Shop or
a lunatic asylum.
What we have been saying has partc-
uiar reference to the subject of slavery,
on which this country has been growing
stark mad for the last few years. The
clergymen of New England are all, or
nearly all, anti-slavery in sentiment and
feeling. We don't object to this it needs
no ghost from the grave to tell US that
slavery is great social and economical
eEil and that every patriot and every
christian should be glad to see it removed.
But most New England cergymen are
also republicans, and here the trouble be-
gins. Kepublicanism involves two very
distinct elements ; first, that slavery is
an evil, wherein we are all agreed; and,
second, that the republican method of
dealing with slavery is the true one,
wherein we are not all agreed by any
means. But the republican clergymen
can not, or will not, see the distinction.
In this view, the man who Is not repub-
lican is not opposed to slavery-is pro-
slavery, in short. And this narrowness
and intolerance comes from the fact-that
he mistakes emotion for insight-moral
instincts for intellectual perceptions--a
mistake under which the universal New
England mind is now suffering. 7Ir