The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1864-11-02
ARCH WITH THE FLAG UNION
Insincere Christianity.

The atlantic Monthly publishes long
and powerfully written article, entitled
"Concerning Disagreeable People," from
which We extract the following truthful re-
marks about some who pretend to be better
than their neighbors:
ut must be admitted, with great regret,
that people who make a considerable pro-
fession Of religion have succeeded in max
ing themselves more thoroughly disagree
able than almost any other human beings
have ever made themselves. You will find
people, who claim not merely to be pious
and Christian people, but to be very much
more pious and Christian than others, who
are extremely uncharitable, unamiable, re-
pulsive, stupid, and narrow. minded, and
intensely opinionated and selfsatisfied.-
We know, from very high authority, that
q Christian ought to be an epistle in COM
mendation of the blessed faith he holds
But it is beyond question that many people
who profess to be Christians are like grim
Gorgon's heads, warning people off from
having anything to do with Christianity.
Why should middle aged Clergyman walk
about the streets with a sullcn and malig-
nant scowl always on his face, which at the
best would be a very ugly one? Why
should another walk with his nose in the
air, and his eyes rolled up till they seem
likely to roll out And why should third
BE- always dabbled over with clammy per.
spiration, and prolong all his vowels to
twice the usual length? 1t is, indeed, a
most wocul thing, that people who evince a
spirit in every respect the direct contrary
of that Of our Blessed Redecmer, should
fancy that they are Christians Of singular
attainments; and it is more woful still, that
many young people should be scared away
into ir,eligion or unbeief by the wretched
delusion, that these creatures, wickedly
caricaturing Christianity, are fairly repre-
sen,ing it. l have beheld more deliberate
malice, more lying and cheating, more back
biting and slandering, denser stupidity, and
greater sclfsufficiency, among bad.hearted
and wrong headed relgionis,s, than among
any order Of human beings. have known
more malignity and slander conveyed in
:hc form of a prayer than should have con-
signed any ordinary libe1ler to ihe pillory.
| have known person who made evening
prayer means of infuriating and stabbing
the servants, under the pretext Of confess
ing their sins. Thou knowest, Lord, how
my servants have been occupied this day :
with these words did the blasphemous
mockery Of pray err begin one Sunday even.
ing in ! house could easily indicate; and
then the man, under the pretext Of address,
ing the Almighty, raked up all the misdo.
iCgs Of the servants (they being present,
of course,) in a fashion which, if he had
ven.ured on it at any other time, would
probably have led some of them to assault
him. Il went to Edinburgh said High
land elder, 'and was there Sabbath. 1t
was an awfu' sight! There, on the Sabbath
Day, you would see people walking along the
street, smiling as If they scere perfectly hap
Py" This was the graUamen OF the poor
Ilrghlander's charge. To think OF people
being or looking happy on the Lords day
And, indeed, 20 think of Christian man
ever ven,uring to be happy at all And it
is worth remarking, that you will fnd
m,ny persons who are very charitable to
bhckguardS, but who have no charity for
thu weakness of really good people. They
vii hunt out the act Of thoughtess liberal
iiy done by the scapegrace who broke his
mdhcr's heart and squandered his poor
sisters little portions, they will make much
of that liberal act--Such an act as tossing
to some poor Magdaen purse filed with
na.ev which was probably not his own;
and they will insist that there is hope for
the blackguard yet. But these persons
viii tightly shut their eyes against great
many substantially good deeds done by a
,nan who thinks Prelacy the abomna.on
of desoation, OF who thinks that stained
glass and an organ are sinful. grant you
that there is certain fairness in trying the
blGkguard and the religionist by different
standards. Where the pretension is b g.
er, the test may justly be more seveIe.--
But say it is unfair to puzzle out with
diligence the one or tive good things in the
character Of a reckless scamp, and to refuse
moderate attention to the many good points
about weak. narrow minded. and unchar.
table good person. ask for charity in
the estimating Of all human characters
even in estimating the character Of the man
who would show no charity to another.
concss freely that in the last named cast
the exercise Of charity is extremely diff
cuk."