Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1863-11-02
8EECHER IN SCOTLAND.
The London Times ON the Religion
of The Radicals.
From the London Times, October


The resolution announced by the Rev. Mr.
Ward Beecher of abstaining during hi residence
in England from addressing public meetings
handling controversial topics, has not been proof
against his zest his love of notoriety, or his de
sire of no longer keeping under buShel that
light Of which he believes himself the appointed
holder and dispenser "a man that is Chris
tian," according to Mr. Ward Beecber, ais in
blossom" ana Mr.. Beecher has been blossoming
so long that it is time he should bring forth fruit
fter his kind. He processes himself an imitator
of the Author of Christianity. "Wherever there
is want, or sorrow, or suffering, there is need"
and the only question with the Rev. Mr.. Ward
Beecher is, ''Can | supply it?" His religion is
love. Even temperance and abolitionism are not
enough for him; he requires something more
Love is his principle, and the power of saying
things that folks need and don't want is his
practice. Such is the amiable being who has
come among US. and, as there seems to be but
scanty supply OF love, sympathy, and such
Christian graces in America at this moment, we
rejoice greatly that this gifted man has conde-
scended to break his VOW of silence, and at
meeting of the Friends of Temperance, at the
Golden Hotel, Glasgow. has given US all the op
portunity of approaching the manner in which
what is passing in America can be reconciled with
the theory and practice of the Christian religion
Mr. Ward Beeoher driven to make an
admission which should be taken note of by
every nersOn who wishes to understand the
motives of the war Christians of America
We have been in the habit of supposng that
the party of which Mr. Beecher is the apostle
aud the ornament were actuated in their support
of war policy by sympathy for the negro race
that if their hands are stained with hood. the
motives of this bloodshed. though overstrained
and fanatica. were pure; and that no worldly
ambition, no national pride, no lust for dominion
mingled itself with the convictions which have
led them to call aloud for fresh sacrifices to re-
joice over the reekng slaughter OF every battle
field, and to adopt policy oil determination. Ac
cording to Mr.. Beecher. entirely mistaken
| The first object the restoration of the Union:
the abolition of slavery was an after thought
:" Rebels became potent, and their aims so
alarming that the President was obliged to have
recourse to the crushing of the rebellion by abol
ishing slavery, which stuck right into the heart
of the enemy" What, then was the war made
| forg elf there is any feeling ia our own country
as extensive as the atmosphere, deep as the
ocean, as immovable as the mountains il is this:
that cur nation shall not be cut in two; we will
rather give the last child have--the last penny
we possess. If there be one thing we count as
decree of God it is that the Union shall stand for
God and liberty. We love our
country; il is religion to do So" We now begin
10 have little more insight into Mr. Beechers
doctrines OF love and sympathy We understand
very clearly that the preservation OF the Union is
the end, and abolition only one Of the means; his
love is not for his fellow men: his sympathy is
not for human sorrow human suffering; the
spirit with which he believes himself to be filled.
and which he considers 10 be divine. ne Jigu6eS
bv the name of love of country. What he un
derstamds bv country" we know not; he cannot
mean the mere soil of the American Union, for
there is no danger that it will pass away. what
tear each other to pieces on its surface he cannot
mean the inhabitants Of America. for he would
infiict on them without hnching every injury that
human ingenuity can devise; would sacrifice the
| North by hundreds Of thousands on the battle
field for the sake of coniscating the whole prop
erty of the South. burning their cities. making
their homes desolate and their fields a desert. in
order that the survivors of the sword and the
prescription may beg their bread ir foreign lands
as monuments of the vengeance of their vciori
Gus brethren This he calls preserving the
Union for God and liberty; and we shall
believe him when he can persuade us
that the Great Being, who is forever in
his mouth and who he seems to think has dl
rectly inspired all the foles and crimes of the
American civil war, recognizes the lust OF do
minion as the para mount motive OF human con-
duct, and all things lawful that tend to crafty
| that passion, aud when he can show US that the
|
| free government in the North in order TO i'm
poverish. to expatriate or destroy five million
| men in the Scnth. In what page OF the Bible
was il ever written that the preventing one large
| community from dividing into two was a cause so
holy and sacred that for the sake of il every
mandment OF the Decalogue, every precept in
the Gospel. may be lawfully violated and set at
defiance? Ii is unhappily no new thing for men
10 extenuate the evil means which they use by
the goodness Of the ends which they seek. We
can listen with patience to a statesman who
seeks TO demonstrate that the unity ofthe Amer
lean republic Is an object Of such paramount i'm
portance that all sacrifice must be made TO at
tain it. We can listen to any one except min
lister OF religion who blasphemously tells US that
this purely secular end-the maintenance of the
American Union-is a religious end; that II sanc
titles the means in the sight Of God; that those
who offer up their children to this Moloch Of
merely human pride and ambition are to be
likened to Abraham offering up Isaac. and that
] the sorrows Of nation thus afflicted resemble