Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1866-11-14


Sunday schools Of a .setU Style
The Beechers are natural growtht
of Puritanism-fair samples of that
intolerance of belief, which finally
loses itself in impracticabieness and
unehristian ideas Of rank infdelity
They have ceased to possess Christi
religion, and are full of Bcechcr rel
gion, altogether a different compound
a thing as changeable as the bues of .
chameleon, or an Abohtionist's notion
of what constitutes loyalty
Ward Beecher's church has been fol
years little better than Sunday ware
house for the incuIcation AMI dissent
nation of the 5ii.s:ckest sort Of Blacli
Republicanism. Throngs lave beer
in weekly attendance 70 AZ, pd apc
laugh on Sundays as they would bard
ly DO on week days, He has growr
popular-has proved Q "paying card
for the trustees, who invested money
in building the charch in which he
holds forth-has received great sala
ries-purchased lands, and is one Of q
few of the clerical lights whose names
figure in the income lists He affects
oddity, and takes real delight in start
ling old fashioned christians with new
notions of liberality toward worldly
pleasures-advocates billiards, occa
sionally punches" a few himself, anc
drives as fast horse as any jockey il
Brooklyn.
This Yankee christian has a sister
not to "fortune and fame unknown
she has written books-books in which
the "colored cusses" whose ancestra
stock once worshiped fetishes in Afri
ca, figure as heroes and heroines, anC
wherein men, OF Southern birth anC
white faces aie "no better than they
should be" viewed from the imagina
tive Beecher's standpoint. The nam'
of the female, since She ceased to be
Beecher, is Harriet b. Stowe. Shi
had some peculiar notions, religiously
which she has given to the world late
| ly. Writing of Sunday schools, sh'
says:
"If the different churches Of a city would erect
building where there should be q billiard tabl,
one or two nine-pin alleys, reading room, garde
/ and grounds for ball-payng or innocent loung
| ing, they would do more to Keep their young pee
| pie from the ways Of sin, than a Sunday school.
How do some Of our good Lacross
admirers OF, and believers in, tn
Beecher stock like .Eese recommends
tions Which of the religious dc
nominations in our city will take th'
necessary steps for the erection ofsucl
a building as Uncle Toms Harriet re
commend as a suitable auxiliary estab
lishment for a well conducted Sunda,
schoolg
Under the progressive ideas of Pu
ritaDism we may expect 70 hear som
of our modern divines announce iron
the pulpit, after fervent prayer, tina
at the close of the services, himself
and the Superintendent of Sunda,
school, will play the deaeons four
handed game of billiards, of five hun
dred points, for a new Bible; or hea
one minister challenge another to rol
him a string of ten pins for new con
tribution boxl 1t will be a startlin,
novelty for a little time, perhaps, 4
see a champion bat suspended owe
the pulpit OF the religious shop, boast
ing the best nine at base ball, anon
those who 60 to Zion by the Beeche
route.
If this system of keeping "yQun
people from the ways of sin" is t
comeinto general use-if billiard room
and nine.pin alleys are suitable ad
juncts for the Sunday school, it eel
tainly seems to us that a first elias
saloon should also be thought Of A
ter billiard and nine pins, "drnks a
around" would be the thing, and a
ford a means for intoxicating fine MOI
al sentiments, religious toasts, an
pious maxims. New converts shoul
{ pay for the celestial cock tails, ""evaI
gelical juleps," or "augelic Tom an
Jerry" Whenever a minister recci'
ed "raise of wages he should "stan
the whisky'-and appropriations f
benevolent purposes could be decide
by rubbers at "peaknuckle," or "se'
en- up" Is there any thing more in
proper or out of character in thes
. suggestions, than in the ideas advoc;
ted by Mrs. Stowe
The fiendish character of the rel
gious precepts- inculcated by Ne
England fanatics has driven frol
Sunday schools and churches hun
dreds and thousands, and it is by sue
artifices as those suggested above
. that the blood-thirsty bigots seek {
, fill up their ranks aud kindle me-
interest in their pernicious system
! borrowing OF their father, the devi
some OF his chief attractions. 1t
not at all out of character for Ne
England, but will seem to those n,
, living in the "brain of the Republic
(as the egotists term their marrow
minded section,) a little out of chara
ter to yoke the temples of the Livir
God with billiard rooms and nine-p pi
alleys. What will be the next frea
of Beecher christianity !-LderoS
Democrat.
ALL ABOUT NAILs.-The followir