Smyrna times. [volume] (Smyrna, Del.) 1854-1987, 1862-08-07
Effects of the Rebellion upon Religion.

1t is not surprising that the simoom Of
rebellion, which is now sweeping over the
slavehOlding States of this Union, leaving
Sahara in its track, and blightipg every
thing 1t thOuches with n curse more terrible
than was ever pronounced from the summit
OF Mount Ebel upon the rebelous Israel
ties, should lay its hand with peculiar ma
Lightly upon all that is Christian, either in
tact or form. Itsinception found those who
stood high in the Church ready to doff their
ministerial robes, and become the prOt;lnc
and perfideous champions of treasons, and,
under their leadership deluded thousands
professors of rrligion) have turned their
backs upon the Cross, and are now wallOw
ing Ill the miro Of such crimes as only in
carnate ticnds could pcrpctrate. Their pre-
tended pnblc prayers to Heaven, announced
tor no other purpose, doubtless, than to gain
the favor of pious, lucre-loving England,
have been, like the shouts of Baal's priests
belonging tn .Tezebel's court ,o,asaare1rol, and
the whole tenor of secession seems rapidly
tending to the utter extinction, not only of
all that lis Chrlstian-hkc, but all that is hui
man i'll its devotces. The black god of
slavery, long grounded in the ritalS of their
section, is now like the deadly Cpas, throw
ing out its branches, darkening the .fv. and
hiding from their view everything that is
worth seeking on earth or possessing in
Heaven. 10 uproot this mighty fungus
upon the body polite, and scatter its ashes
To the winds, would seem to be one of Gods
Sfeat purpose in permitting the present con-
test The lOng-tolcratcd, nurSed, and even
ld0llZed fabric which now threatens to over
whcm the public in ruins, must give way
before the rising Sun OF Righteousness.
The establishment of a Government at this
stage of the Christian era; and that in land
evidently intended by Providence as ga
refuge and home for the oppressed" having
slavery for its foundation and crOwning-
stone, would involve turning back of the
wheels of the Almightv's universal law of
progress, and Il return to chaos. 1t cannot
be. The uprising Of the loyal thousands in
the North ut this moment, large proper
ton OF whom enter the field from convic-
tons that they are performing an act of re-
lglous duty to God in fighting for their
Government, becomes, therefore, such q
SpectacIcs of moral grandeur as the world
has never seen, and its triumphant success
is as certain as that the storms Of Winter
precede the genial Spring.
The following, from one of our army
chaplans, at New Orleans, is a fair speci-
men Of the accounts that are constantly re-
ceived of the decay and death into which re-
ligOn and all its interests and appliances are
rapidly tending throughout the seeded
States:
9 Yesterday visited the office of the New
Orleans Adrocate and Southern Methodist
Book Depository, situated on Camp street,
few squares south of Canal street, and
found the whole establishment closed, and
as desOlate in appearance rs though a pesti-
lence had passed over it. a business man
in the next door, and a member of their
Church, told me the AOrOcate suspended for
want of paper, and the Depository for want
purchasers and that all the business men of
the establishment, from the highest to the
lowest, were in Beauregards army at Shiloh,
in some official capacity, the last he heard
of them. So that in New Orleans, no less
than in Nashville, the Methodist Episcopal
Church South has left its moral, intellectual
and religious operations to languish and die.
Their churches are most Of them, without
pastors or preachers, except what the local
ministry supply, and prayer and class meet
lngS are generally suspended"