Columbia democrat and star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1867, 1866-08-08

/ pose OF pfOpagatlng p0ntlcal doctrines unuef
any circumstances, or with any excuse, Is III
my judgment not only without authority, but
It is the highest crime that can be committed
against the government of God or man.
Perhaps | ought not to make this broad as
sertion without giving some additional rea-
sons for it
In the first place it is grossly dishonest /
employ you as minister, pey your salary,
and build you church becatise J. have con-
fdence in your theological doctrines. But
you NAV be at the same time wholly unfit for
my political leader Now, you are guilty of
base fraud upon me, if, instead of preach
ing religion, you take advantage of the posi-
ton have given you to ventilate your crude
and ignorant notions on State affairs. / have
asked for bread and you give me stone in
stead of the fish bargaihed for, you put
into my hand a serpent that stings and poi
sons me.
1t destroys the unity of the church. There
is no room for rational dispute about the
great truths of Christianity; but men will
never agree upon political subjects, for hui
man government is at best but compromise
of selih interests and conflicting passions.
When you mix the two together you break
the church into fragments, and instead Of
Zone Lord, one faith and one baptism,
substitute the proverbial bitterness OF the
odiaDt heologicune for the charity which
thinketh no evil.
No one will deny that Union of Church
and State is always the cause of bad govern
ment, perverted religion and corrupt morals.
| do not mean merely that legal union which
exists In European countries Phat is bad
enough; but you have less common sense
than l give you credit for, if you do not see
that this adulterous connexion assumes Its
most polluting form when the church is vol
unfairly prostituted by her own ministers to
political party in popular government.
The evil influence of such connexions upon
Church and State is easily accounted for.
Both of them in combination will do what
either would recoil from if standing alone.
A politician backed by the promise of the
clergy to sustain him can safely defy honesty
and trample upon law, for do what he may,
he is assured of clerical support here and
of heaven hereafter. The clergy, on the
other hand, and those who are under their
influence, easily acquire the habit of praising
unfortunately whatever is done by their
public men. Acting and reacting on one
another, they go down together in the direc-
ton of the pit that Is bottomless; and both
are found to have "a strange alacrity at sink
ing"
No man can serve two masters faithfully
A minister who admires and follows such
men as those who have lately ruled and ruin
cd this country must necessarily despise the
character of Christ. If he glori6es the cru
city, rapacity and falsehood of his party
leaders, he is compelled by an inhexible law
of human nature to ''deny the Lord who
bought him.
The experience of fifteen centuries proves
that political preachees are the great curse
Of the world. More than half the bloody
wars which at different periods have desola-
ted Christendom, were produced by their
direct instigation; and wherever they have
thrust themselves into contest commenced
by others, they always envenomed the strife
and made it more cruel, savage and uncom-
promising. The religious wars, so-called,
had nothing religious about them except
that they were hissed up by the clergy.
Look back and see if this be not true
The Arlan controversy (the first great
schisml was followed by wars in which mil
lions of lives were lost. Do you suppose the
real quarrci was for the insertion or omission
of tfttG4,te in that part of the creed which de-
scr,i1es the procession of the Holy Ghost
Did a h0moOuSidn slaughter his brother
because he was hoDloiousidn? No, it
was not the difference of diphthong, but
the plunder of an empire that they fought
for. 1t was the politics of the church, not
her religion, that infurlated the parties and
converted men into demons.
The Thirty Years ar in Germany is often
supposed to have been fair stand up fight
between the two leading forms of Christian
ity. 1t was not so. The religious difference
was false pretense of the political preach
ers for the promotion of their own schemes.
There was not sane man on all that conti-
nent who would have felt himself impelled
by motives merely religious, to murder his
neighbor for believing or disbelieving in
transubstantiation. If proof of this were
wanting, it might be found In the fact, that
long before the war ended, the sectarian
cries were abandoned, and Catholics, as well
as Protestants, were fighting on both sides.
1t is utterly impossible to believe that the
clergy of England and Scotland, if they had
not been politicians, would have thought of
waging bloody wars to settle questions of
election and reprobation, fate, ,fore-knowledge
tree-will, and other points OF metaphysical
theology. Nor would they, apar 4 fiom their
politics, have encouraged aud committed the
other horrid crimes OF which they were gull
ty in the name Of religion
Can you think that the Irish were inva-
ded, conquered, oppressed, murdered and
robbed for centuries, merely because the En-
gIish loved and believed in the Protestant
religion? / suppose you know that those
brutal atrocities were carried ON for the pur-
pose of giving to political preachers in En-
gland possession of the churches, cathedrals,
glebe lands and tythes which belonged to the
Irish Catholics. The hesoldierwas also reward
ed organisations and plunder The echurch
and the State hunted in couples, and Ireland
was the prey which they ran down together.
under the sole domination of political preach
ers. Their treacherous wars upon the Indi-
ans forpurposeswholly mercenary; their en-
shaving of white persons, as well as red ones,
and selling them abroad, or swapping them
for blackamoors;" their whipping, impris-
oning and killing Quakers and Baptists, fG
their conscientious opinions; and their base
treatment of such men as Roger Williams