The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-04-06
RELIGIOUs

York "RrouId Table" in one of its recent
numbers, animadverted with much pungency,
and, as we conceive, with equal justice, on the
low tone maintained by most of the so called
ltrehgicus newspapers" in our country, wheth-
err regard be had to their moral or intellectual
force. In its opinion, "the little religious
writing in them" has come to be "perfunctory,
aimless, and inane," while their writing upon
political and social topics, if more animated
than the former, is not superior, in general,
to that of the secular newspapers belonging to
the second or a still lower class.
There are, of course, some exceptions to
this general NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. which will
present themselves to every reader of the re-
ligious press-but that, in the main, it is a
just portraiture of much that passes for sfre-
ligious journalism" in the United States will
be admitted by all. Nor is it difficult TO dis
Germ or state the causes of this marked deter
~ioIatien.
Foremost among the causes we must assign
the large, and, in many cases, the paramount
place given in these papers to purely secular
discussi ons. And this substitution of "pro-
fame" for "sacred" themes has naturally car
ried with it into the sphere of such discussions
the passions and tendencies which are "of the
earth, earthly" There was a time when the
odsum helogicuna was q proverb, but if relig-
ious controversy then partook too largely of
acrlmOnJ, IL 10 OhIy just " Sdy lnae sHAS soiJ
acrimony marked the presence of strong rehg-
ious convictions, asserting themselves With
vehemenee because the men who cherished
them were earnest in the belief of their truth
and Importance. If the comparative absence
of theological asperities in the so-called Gre
igious press of the present day were accom-
panied by a softened tone of discussion on
other topics of vivid interest, we might hope
that this mitigation of the controversial spirit
was symtomatic of a general Improvement In
the ethics of debate. But, unfortunately for
this censolirg deduction, we find that many
Of the papers, which are as vapid as dish-wat-
er in their theological disquisitions, arc as ac-
rid as vitriel in their political disputations.-
They make it plain that on subjects where
they feel keenly, and in which they have
something more that a languid interest, they
are as ready as ever to fight with trenchant
weapons instead of brandishing the foils which
they are content to WELD in the j~oustand tour
ney of theological digladiatien.
The t~heologians of a former period fed their
minds on imperial themes in the world Of pi-
GUS meditation or abstract speculation. The
power of the present world was overshadowed
by the powers of the world to come. The
line of demarcation between the secular and
the sacred was distinctly marked and recog
nized. Religious fellowship was then deter
mined by community of religious faith, and
was not made to depend on community of Gre
dence in regard to matters of social reform or
political agitation. The church was not called
to supplement- its recognized creed with annu-
al "deliverances" on the predominant topics
of the hour in the political hastings, or on
the rostrum of social reform. It was natural
that, with the invasion of secular or semi-se-
cular themes Of discussion in the religious con
~venticle aud in III religious press, there should
| bouo oonoa NTH fhouo a 1ifioio1uc cpfrif of a0n.
troversy bearing fruit after its kind. Hence
the injurious personality and political invec-
tive which disfgure SO many of our nominally
religious sheets. Tame and spiritless in their
treatment of themes which by their majestic
grandeur no less than their infinite mcmen:
deserves to fill the mind and fire the soul, they
reserv their best zeal for the petty strifes en-
gendered by the n~oxious spirit of party in the
dusty arena of political life. Instead of heed
ing the Injunction which bids us put away
'fall bitterness and wrath and anger and clam
or and evil speaking" what journals are more
ready than some of the so-called religious
sheets to indulge in terms of reproach and
calumny against men who, equally virtuous in
the walks of private life and equally sincere
in the opinions they hold, differ from the con-
ductors of {. Csc sheets only in their censcien-
tious views CT public policy?
1t will readily occur TO the Thoughtful read
er that it is not affirmed by the drift of these
remarks that there are no occasions when re-
ligious Journals not only may properly but
when they are in duty bound to discuss the
religious and moral aspects of secular ques-
tions. 1t is not affirmed that questions which
are purely secular may not legitimately occu-
Ply a subordinate place in their columns
But it is precisely because they have this lib
erty that care should be taken lest it be made
an occasion of offonoa aud Loaf in oiviDo nm
due development to the spirit and temper of
secularity they should seem to forfeit the dis
%tinctive character under color of which they
solicit public patronage. We could cite the
name of professedly religious journals which,
if we may judge from the quality or quantity
of their contents, aretspueh more solicitous
about the success of certain political policies
than the cdifcation of the saints, and the con-
ductors of which are evidently much more at
home in the jargon of Ashdod than in the
speech of Zion.