The weekly pioneer and Democrat., 1865-09-29
The Great importance Of Ecclesi.
astical Recommendation. -

The New York Times )aments the lack
of disposition on the part Of Christian de-
nominations at the North for q junction
with their brethren at the South, and con-
demns the prerequisite which they de-
mand, viz. "that the members of the
Southern churches properly acknowledge
and repudiate their [politicall errors"
This prerequisite to reunion differs
essentially from that prescribed by the
national government. The President has
simply required an oath of submission to
emancipation and of future obedience to
the constitution. he asks neither repen-
lance nor any professions of it. he con-
Germs himself about future conduct alone.
The Northern churches, on the other
hand, feel that they must not only insure
good conduct for the future, but obtain
purgation for the past. The Times srpues
that the crime of secession is not ope of
those misdeeds which prove a perseu to
be an unchristian and bad man
Some distinction must be made betvsen .
political and moral offence. The one NAV
come from an error of the head simply; the
other must proceed, If its author is sane. from
badness of heart. The one may be committed
conscientiously the other cannot A rebel
may mean to do right; q thief or murderer
cannot. A Christian minister of the North
would not dare to withhold spiritual consola.
ton from dying Southerner, simply fer fail.
ing to express repentance for supporting the
confederacy; and yet he would give no such
consolation to an unrepentant thief or mur.
derer. The assumption that every man of the
six millions who have participated in this re.
bellion acted against his convictions OF duty,
and voluntarily committed what he knew to be
a crime, is monstrous. 1t would prove moral
depravity in the Southern people beyond any.
thing known to human history-a dpravity
as religious associations with them. Were it
true, it would be an eternal disgrace to restore
them to American citizenship. Nobody be.
heves it. The great body of the Southern peo-
pie who sustained the confederacy dn so on
honest, though, as we say, mistaken convic-
tons of duty. It is because we have this be-
lief that they are freely welcomed bask to the
Union. What is there in religious principle
that disallows similar recognition, and cor
quires the churches to be more implacable and
relentless towards crime against the Govern.
ment than is the government itself? Cannot
Christian charity yield as much as political
justice? =. "i
We make no indication of the way in which
the Northern and Southern churches might be
brought again into connection and co-opera-
ton. That is not our province.
But we are confident that with the right spi-
rit, some way can be found, and that both the
interests of the Republic and the honor of
American Christianity itself, urge that it
should be found. The great necessity of the
time is the extinction of all sectional resent
ments; the advent of universal harmony and
good will the co.working of all good men,
North and South, in retrieving the losses of
the war and meeting all the new duties toward
the emancipated race. True patriotism sure
ly cannot stand in the way of this. Can true
religion?