Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1866-02-16

ini1ries OF war, and I'LL them Will eFel YoulnS
necessary to worship-except the presence OF
the Lord. Our parsonages, from Wnlcn SOL
diers, led on by Methodist Preachers, are e1-
trnding our wives and our little ones, would be
made sure to us. Missionary money, ostensl-
h]v appropriated for the chrlstianlzatlon OF che
Soutu, would be the gracious reward OF Go
conversion, and prostratlon before a Northern
Bishop, would be accepted as 1uIl compenss-
ton for imputed hostility to the nation. For
in the long absence and uncertain return OF
charity. it is loyalty to a Methodist Church,
that covers a multitude Of sins. BY union
viii 80 Northern Church, we save every ching
but our honor-by going to the South we save
nothing else.
A band of ministers, who for four years have
dwelt in the very vortex OF a great war, nave
come together for the frsttime. They brlnga
common contribution Of sorrowfuI memories and
alarming facts. All are poor; many, so destitute
that they have DO means to reach their appoint
ed fields Of labor, except on foot. In oJher
denominations old kindness has survived the
shock of war. However violent have been the
~nolitical attitudes of their ecclesiastical bodies,
charity did not die; and from that greatest OF
the virtues, their suffering brethren IN the
South are receiving cheerful and important aid.
W. foo. look across the blood stained border,
10 a denomination, the largest, the wealthlest,
the most liberal in gifts. Then Golfers are
filed with millions. They are consciously and
actively a great political power, to whose de-
mands,. it is p~erilous for authority to demur.
Of all other people we had most to expect from
those who bear a common Lam teach a COM
mon creed, and have formerly constituted, with
us, one Christian family. In the sympathles OF
natural kindred it has become an adage, that
'blood is thicker than water" And from
men Of the world we expect that the ties OF
love shall, in the time Of trouble, prove strong
er than tie strife Of opinion. That the chill
dren Of God would exhibit at least equal char
ity, we might reasonably have expected. But
there was no charity for US, who followed not
them. On the contrary QUIZ former brethren
are our bitter and Implying enemies. They
indeed offer us their pottage but for it they
will have our birthrigh t Their love or hate,
their benifcence Or hostility, are determined by
our reception or rejection Of their ecclesiastical
supremacy.
This demand for our subsection is not based
upon any spiritual consideration. They are
content that we shall remain here, and preach
as we now preach, and live as we now live, and
guide as we now guide. 1t is not a conversion
of mind or heart that they require, but a ces'
sion Of territory. 1t is not asa part or Cnr1sts
Kingdom that they approach us; but as the
M. &. Church in the United States. Because
we will not determine our relations simply up
on consideration Of their desires, they have ar
raved Menaso7ves and, as far as possible, the
government and nation against us, for a war
ayoWed]y Of determination. They take our
churches by force, and install their ministerial
agents by files of soldiers. They imperiously
order our families from their homes, and bring
strangers to occupy them. They extrude con-
gregations, and force them to comtortless
rooms, and to the woods and fields. Money
cot from we'll meaning piety by fervid rheto-
rio and well administered taxation, ostenslbly
to send the gospel to our people, is used to
drive them away from the gospel, and to gain
onIy a barren conquest Of buildings, st the ex-
pense Of q demoralized ministry and an igno-
minious name. Only, Of all ministers in the
South, we find ourselves without sympathy
from our ecclesiastical kindred.
On the other hand, the Church South has
no material benefit to give us. They are,
as we are, very poor! A partnership with
them is a communion Of distress, a fellowship
of suffering. Now we ask men to explain our
conduct, upon any other principle than those
whose inspiration come, from the things
that are invisible and external. The reply OF
course will be, that political sympathies deter
mined us. But the accusation is false. The
NJ. E. Church, South, is in this respect, a no
BILE monument Of Christian consistency
Neither her General Conference, or her annual
Conferences, nor her Bishops have presumed
in the name of God to cheer on resistance to
the Federal Union. Not one word of that
church has committed her as a party toa mere
" secular strife. It was her aim to hold up
the Gross in the midst Of the war OF human
pessions-to keep a living coal on the altar
Of God amidst the very floods Of revolutiona-