Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1864-02-04
A New Church.


LANCASTER, Ohio, Jan. %, 1864.
But few persons in our age are permitted
to witness the organization Of new ecclesi-
astical body. Fortunately or unfortunately,
l have been made an eye witness of this
new thing under the sun, Tor rather of the
preliminares for it, and with your permis-
sion will announce to the Church at large
that new branch is about appearing.
A few weeks since call was made over
the signatures of Edison B. Olds and Virgil
Il. Shaw, for convention of ''all lovers OF
freedom" to take into consideration the
propriety of establishing new Church
where Democrats who wanted the Union
as it was, and the Constitution as it is,"
could be members. Subsequently, another
call to the same effect appeared which was
signed by twelve persons, out Of respect,
probably, to the twelve Apostles In obedi-
ence to these calls, Convention assembled
in this city on Thursday, the lth Of this
month. Their meeting was not held in an
upper room, nor yet in any of the numerous
temples of worship which the city affords,
but in the county Court House, and at the
ringing of the Court House bell. There
wSe, perhaps, fifty persons present when
your correspondent arrived, but this number
was swellcd before adjournment to perhaps
one hundred and twenty-five or thirty.
had expected, as o matter of course,
that the organization of Church would be
attended by prayer and other solemnities,
but though at least one minister was pres
ent as spectator at the beginning Of the
exercises, and five or six were in the house
before their close, not prayer was offered
nor hymn sung. The difficulty, / sup
pose was, that there was no one Of theil
own persuasion present, and they, could no
tolerate prayer from o political preacher
AT length the convention was organized BY
calling Mr.. Thos. Reese. of Rushvile, t
the chair, Il shall mention names as pro
ceed for they ought certainly to prove his
toric), upon which Dr.. Olds arose, to stat,
the object of the meeting. This he did al
some length in written document, the sub
stance of which was as follows: That tn,
. ministry and Churches had proved recrean
to their sacred trust. That the ministry
"had ceased to preach Christ and him cruel
fed and had been preaching the nigger
and him glorified," to use the Doctors owl
expression in one Of his speeches. Tha
: the Church had become very uncharitable
] and had engaged in the support of crue
/ and unjustifabe war. lie also went into
b lengthy exposition Of certain portions O
= Scripture, dwelling with special emphasi
!. upon our Savior's denunciations Of tn
Scribes and Pharisees. These Scribes an
Pharisees, by an easy construction, he mad
: the ministers of the present day-the jew
were the Republican party, and tho tithe
and offerings wero greenbacks As tn
Doctor may be prevailed upon to publis
. his commentary for.the use of the Nc,
. Church, shall not attempt to give an
q more Of his learned exegesis. .i b ~.
\ After severely rebuking the ministry, an
: churches. and Government, he conolude
that the time had arrived when a Churc
D should be organized which would ignore pol
= tics, and when pure and peaeeable gosp,
should alone be promulgated, ,rrC
y Having thus stated the object Of the NEE
o ing, Virgil Il. Shaw arose and asked pei
q mission to read letter to the Conventio
. from Rev. Mr.. Given, minister whom III
Ohio Methodist Conference lately relieve
of the duties Of circuit. This letter RI
gretted inability to be present, and offere
, much encouragement to the brethren. MI
n Shaw then followed the letter by "few n
v marks" He spoke Of the prospects Of tn
: church said that the great obstacle in th
= way was not in finding material for Church
VI as but in finding ministers to supply them
ID Mr. Given, so far as could learn, was thei
OF only available man. He also spoke flatte
n. ingly OF the prospects Of new paper, th
!. organ Of their Church enterprise, which
IT to be published by Mr.. Given in Columbu.
~ Ohio, on purely ti-politioal principles. :
Of Having finished his remarks the Charms,
:. Mr.. Reese. asked the attention Of the 90,
y vention, He stated that he had been
r humble member OF the (Presbyter;s,
ut Church for number of years, and Mad !
NJ ways tried to do what was about right. n,
!. = that he was unwilling any longer to pay !
~ ward the support Of Church and then
D. insulted and abused from the pulpit bsoau
rsI Of his political priAciples y. ',H''lat '63 :