Litchfield enquirer., 1866-09-06
Ina Pnlpit during tho War;.


 q ke thofongh reconoiled ,dtha war, and to s8rp bort s policy which contieled it; though tsafers yith se&rce1y ! mufmsr an admins tration, now it's own, to be headed by Seward and Stanton {; though it claims to have adopt ed the platform and to be carrying out the .prfncYplss Of The Unfsn Convention which nominated: MT ,Lipcoln in 1864; still it's press cdSSot Hettaia iron ocpasio4al attacks which are hard to reconcile with these new profes- sions.- Particularly inconsistent are the as- saults, which we have lately noticed in the correspondence of the Sentinel and in other Democratic papers upon patriotic ministers for their earnest support ofthe war. Wheth- CT Christian can support an unjust war of agression, and throw the responsibility upon his government is a grave. question The Democratic party has, we believe, always maintained the af6rmativey bitterly reyiling the "hsgRsrisN' edoc,rins as thed worst of po- litical heresies. Whether also Christian can rigbtfully join revolution against ty- ranhicaf =gcvernment,i was question greatly discussed in England, two centurie. since, the Anglican Church taking strong >ground=in the negatiye, allho ugh since l776 it can hard ly be considered az open question in America :: The late war. however, presents neither of these cases If the support of that war wal then all civil government is un- christian, and the jury who try, the judge who sentences, and the officer, .-pho hangs a murderer, are all murderers alike. It was Bmsfely an sdforoing the flaws, propsrtioning the force used tothe resistsncei offered, and differing in degree not in kind, from the ordi- nary execution of legal process. Tue action of the various denominations of Christians also differed in degree, not in kind The course pursued by the Episcopal House of Bishops and by Archbishop Hughes of the Catholic Church sufficiently shows the posi- tion taken by the two denominations oftenest set down as hostile to the war; and no one can have forgotten that in, all the churches of this village, Congregational, Episcopal and Methodist,) were heard sermons urging the necessity of supporting the government in it's emergency. .s.-...
 Taking for granted, therefore, that the sup port of our government was christian duty, it certainly does seem to us that it was one, which, under the circumstances, could not have been too often or too earnestly enforced from the pulpit; and that considering the sac rifces involved, and the arduous nature of the services required, it was by far the must i'm portant practical question which had been brought before our people since the war of the Revolution. The real cause of this irritation we suspect, is, that the great influence yielded by patriotic ministers laundering in support of g righteous cause, has earned them the ha- tired of 2 party coyertly opposed to it, and which though silencedyis evidently far, from convinced. Will the gentlemen, North and South, who demand ih such Imperative tones that We should forgive them their opposition to the government, ever forgive. us our sup port ofit?,
 Whether the world will ever so nearly ap- proximate to christian perfection as to no on ger admit of war and of civil government is 8 1 question for fhe future not! for the present and we are sorry to differ from the correspon- dent of the Sentinel in holding that laws are, as yet, necessary, and that it is still tn e duty of a christian to assist in enforcing them. It is certainly, however; a great proof of christian progress, that during the past fifty years, the severity of our laws has, be en So constantly and rapidly tamtl Q, ated: An instruction suppressed, nolonger draws after it asickening train of executions, confscatious and trans portatious; debtor no longer suffers a pun ishment more severe than that of a criminal and our system of general education, our abol- ition of slavery, and our steady approach to universal suffrage, all show that the doctrines of christianity are being reduced to practice, and that the world is adva ncing to perfection, with a rapidity which seem anything but ress- surfing to the Conservative mind. ] l