The Cleveland leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1865-1865, 1865-08-28
DEMOCRACY vs.. CHRISTIANITY.
ADsmOcratio Paper on MethOdiam
The.Northern Church ApOstaOized
The Bible Defaced With Blood
EuIOgy on the Southern Church

ANAOeJ OA
The New York Daily Nei0s, the most in
AuentiAl State Rights Democratic paper in
the United States, in its issue of August
18th, makes a most blssphemous attack
upon the Church of Christ in general and
upon Northern Methodists in particular.
How can any one entertaining the smallest
degree Of respect for the religion of Christ
act with 8 political organization that sus-
tsins as the editor of its leading journal 3
man SO debssed as to give utterance to
such grossly infdel sentiments as are con-
tanned in the article published below. The
editor of the NeiCs, be it remembered, Is Ben
Wood, who made g fortune out of swindling
lottery schemes and was elected to 8 seat
in Congress by the denizens Of the F1Ve
Points n kindred cess-Pools OF New
York, under the guidance of the Democrat
ic party. He is the most out-spoken Of
his class, and is the only one of the party
at the North who has dared to make the
! admission that secession would have been
successfully accomplished had the De-
mocracy of the North, with united ranks,
kept their pledges made to their State
Rights allies in the South.
He is the same Ben Wood who received
8 bribe of twenty-five thousand dollars
from George N. Ssnders-one of the sbet-
tors of the assassination of President Lin
coln-for advocating the cause of the re-
beIlion; and is q brother of Fernando
Wood, an acknowledged leader of the
party. Verify, hath Gthe Devil turned
preacher" and like a devil doth hepreach.
What sacred thing is exempt iromthe bias
phemOus touch of such men 2 Southern
Democrats carried on q wicked war for
four years for the purpose of destroying
the best government in the world and
now the leading organ of their Northern
allies sssails that religion in which are cen.
tered the best hopes of mankind.
From theN Y. News, Aug. 25.l
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH
Were it not that, of late, wonders have
become SO common that common things
are wonders, we would profess some sur
prise at the extraordinary spostscY of the
Church of Christ in q nation Boosting I'M
parslleled attainments in piety and en-
iightenment. The minister of the gospel
is no longer the ambassador of the Prince
of Peace. His furious grimaces and knocks
and terrible splutterings of imprecstion,
sll reveal him an emisssry of strife, Of
death, of anarchy. He has trampled love
under foot, he has thrown away the olive,
he grasps 8 sword and vslisntly waving it
far from the battle field, shouts fer "blood "
As far as his preaching is concerned,
"fsith in God" is an obsolete doctrine, and
faith in the negro is the keystone Of his
religious arch, the doctrine by which his
church stands or falls. The old ides, that
that church and state should be kept apart
for the benefit of both, has vanished with
the republicsnism of the Government, and
those who once quoted with emphasis
"Whst will il profit q man if he gam the
whole world and lose his own soul?" now
set forth by their example, "Whst will it
profit g man if he gain q thousand souls
and lose his own darling hobby"
Take the Methodist Church In our midst
as IN illustration of this corruption OF
Christianity. That church is pr~eeminent-
Iy responsible fur the recent wal with its
ruin and d~esolAtion. Its hands are i'm
brued with blood, its banner is despatched
with blood, its very Bible is defsced with
blood, its gospel hiss been an ansthema OF
blood, its hosannahs ave been thRnksgiv-
iugs fOr DiUUd aud thut not the zapOtifying
blood of Christ but the blood of Northern
and Southern men slain in frstricidal con
hict. Even vet it thirsts for blood. The
military are satisfied; the politicians are
satisfied; but the Church pants for ven
gesnce, unrelenting vengeance. 1t pro
nounces whatever tends to free the slave
and enslave his master, good, proper, glo-
rious: whstever tends to hinder the same,
bad, outrageous objectionable. One might
iustjy infer from the ceaseless declans-
tions of its clergy about the negro, thst he
poor WoollY-haadAd fellow-had boen de-
cIsred by q new d~ispensation theif minis
tering angel, to guard them from sin on
earth, and introduce them to sternal. man
sions in Heaven. But the Stran geet of all
things is these men have the impudence
to discuss the terms upon which they
would allow the Southern Methodist
Church TO unite with them. A Church
they once drove from their embrace as q
Ieper, whose every subsequent Cffsr of
amity they spurned, against whom they
aimed their deadliest blows during the
war, stealing her houses Of worship, i'm
prisoning her ministers and Strengthening
her sons. The Southern Church is weak
and wounded, but too devoted to her Mss
ter to dishonor herself and Him by such
an alliance. She has a reforming work to
do. It is to check fansticism, indicate the
divinity of religion, save the souls of men
A serpent in wisdom, q dove in harmless.
ness, in no respect a hyens, it is for her
to preach Christ crucified in opposition to
the negro deitied. Letting parties alone
and exhibiting the spirit of peace, she may
yet be the means of preserving American
Christisncy from total spostacy.
We understand that at the approaching
General Conference, the Methodist Episco-
pal Church, South, removing all sectional
features from its discipline, declaring its
loyalty to the Government, will take the
field in every State OF the Union, IS q dis
tinct organization, frowning upon every
effort TO make its ministers the pimps of q
party, resolved to be true TO its Bridegroom
and guilty Of 10 sdulterous intimacy with
Hammon. r
"Time-H OnOred Principles"
That great Democratic manipulation