The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-04-07
The Dessruetisn Of the Southern PeO
pie,and she ehurcb.

pIesana she Chnreb.
The northern churches are already dis.
cussing the question of religion in the
South. The Methodist Church North,
through its organ. the New York ddro-
cate, has given us its platform for the
management of this subject 1t says:
Three principles should he determi-
nately settled in our policy OF recon
struction, and every representative of
our cause in the South should be re-
quired to conform to them. First, the
unity of the nation: second, the unity OF
the Church; third, tue avoidance, us fa'
as possible. of all controversy on these
subjects. To the first We are pledged by
one of our articles of religion; loyalty to
the Republic is essential to loyalty to the
Methodist Episcopal Church. We must
have no compromise with all avowed
| traitor; lie must not be admitted to our
| church rights We need not stop to con-
| tend with him; we had better not. per-
haps. If left to the salutary, quiet IN
| fuence of time, after the rebellion Is
crushed, he will probably become right
and loyal. But one, thing. should be
! clearly understood if he does not
| avail himself of the amnesty act, We DO
not want him. The flag of the republic
| and the flag of Methodism must go for
| ward over the revOlted territory side by
side.
SECONDLY, we should insist Oh the uni
ty of MethOdisnI. its ecclesiastical as
well as moral unity. Slavery, the only
| ground of the division of the Church,
Being removed, why should we remain
divided The Methodism of the South
needs the help of Northern Methodism
The former is nearly, if not qnite disor-
ganized So far as we can ascertain,
most of its cOnferencesare virtually bro
ken up, it's circuit system is generally
abandoned, its appointments without
preachers to great textent, and its local
societies i'm utter confusion. Its Book
Concern is overthrOwn; its Missionary
Society, Sunday School Union, and most
of it's other church enterprises without
power, if not without form. All has
been submerged in the general wreck OF
| the South. The reorganization OF South
ern Methsdism should, therefore, be the
reconstruction of the Methodist Episco-
pal Church in the South. Bnt precisely
here will be the delicacy of our task
We should therefore, thirdly, go to
Southern Methodists in the spirit of our
old Methodistic brotherhood-cordial,
fraternal. bountiful; proposing to replace
their defunct Book Concern by agencies
of our own publishing house; to reincor-
porate their missionary operations with
onr own; to reOrganize conferences III
connection with our General Conference;
to tender them, in fact, all the rights,
| immunities, and comforts which we en-
ioy ourselves under the shelter OF the old
Methodist Episcopal Church"
Christians who do not look upon the
teachings of our blessed Lord as mere
Philosophy, which opens heaven to nom
| inal believers, but as solemn reality,
which demands an absolute conversion,
| in heart, principles and practice, can not,
am sure, read such deliveranccs, by the
church. or any part of 1t, without pain
and sorrow of heart He who regards
| of this world, and as part OF the State,
| DuI Il HcdNtUlN VI oo'
and established to secure to man an i'm
| mortal blessedness, nut look upon all
such utterances with deep distrust and
much tear and trembling. Allow me,
therefore, Mr.. Editor, tocall the attention
| of your readers especially to the words
unity of the nation''-"unity of the
church. aud mo controversy: and in
this connection not to overlook the pass
age, the flag of the Republic and the
faq of Methodism must go forward side
by side "
| Where are we driftingl or rather, have
we not already drifted into dreadful
abvss! We have highIauthorty for de-
clairing, that when the foundations are
destroyed" good men can do nothing
Have we not here an open ayowal OF the
unity of Church and State. That they
are one aud must be one and that no de
bate OF controversy III this connection
shall be tolerated when OF where. III
the worlds wide history, has more inll
and bloody absOlutism been avoWedt
| Church and State must be united, and
the propriety or wisdom OF the union shall
not be even questioned. The c0nstitu-
tion Of the United States declares that
the freedom of speech and of the press
shall not be impaired. But Mr.. -
and Congress sent this constitutional
guarantee and defence OF liberty and the
right of conscience to the tombs long
AGO But this is not all We have here
IN uublushing ayowal on the part of the
| Christian Church in the United States,
OF of lar ge part of it, of the Mahome-
don Dogma, that religion must be taken
in one haad and the sword in the other.
"Methodism and the Union flag Sword
must travel side by side
I have given above the printed declara-
tion of the organ of this Church. 1 sub
NIT il to the candor of all fair minds,
whether my interences are not just and
fair; and, if am not mistaken. the
Presbyterian Newspaper (Old Sehool),
may rightly be considered as endorsing g
this deIiverance of its Methodist brother
Ii any Church has, at any time, made
any declarations which are more perse-
cutting and absolute than these, in theH
| necessary and certain tendencies, il has
escaped our observation. 1t gives us no
pleasure to make these remarks, but the
reverse. and we make them more from