The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1866-08-31

under any circumstances, or with any ex
cuse, is in my Judgment not only withou
authority, but it is the highest crime tina
can be committed against the government
of God or man. Perhaps / ought not tx
make this broad assertion without giving
some additional reason for it.
In tho first place it is grossly dishonest
employ you as minister, pay your sala
ny, and build you church because have
confidence in your theological doctrines
But you may be at the same time wholly
unfit for my political leader. Now, you
are guilty of base fraud upon me, if,
instead of preaching religion, you take
advantage Of the position 1 have given you
to ventilate your crude and ignorant no.
tons on State affairs. I have asked FIR
bread and you give me stone instead
of the fish bargained for, you put into
my hand serpent that stings and poisons
me.
1t destroys the unity of the church. -
There is no room for rational dispute
about the great truths of Christianity ;
but few men will ever agree upon politi-
cal subjects, for human government is at
best but a compromise of selfish interests
and conflicting passions. When you mix
the two together, you break the church
into fragments, and instead of "One Lord,
one faith, and one BAPTISM" you create
thousand warning scots, and substitute
the progerbial bitterness of the odtuns Meo-
log,cuns for the "charity which thiuketh
no evil.'
No one will deny that union of Church
and State is always the cause of bad gov
ernment, perverted religion and corrupt
morals. do not moan merely that legal
union which exists in European countries
That is bad enough but you have less
common sense than 1 give you credit for,
if you do not see, that this adulterous
connection assumes its most polluting form
when the church is Voluntarily prostitu.
ted by her own ministers to political
party in popular government.
The evil influence Of such connexions
upon the Church and State is easily &C.
counted for. Both of them in combina.
ton will do what either would rscoil 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, no is as
sured of clerical sussort here and heaven
hereafter. The clergy, on tho other hand,
and those who are under their influence,
easily acquire the habit of praising indis.
criminately whatever is done by their
public mon. Acting and ro-acting on one
another, they go down together in the d.
Eection Of the pit that is bottomless and
both are found to have "strauge alacrity
at sinking"
No man can serve two masters faithful.
ly; for he must hate one if he loves the
other. A minister who admires and fol-
lows such men as those who have lately
ruled aud ruined this country must ne
cessarily despise the character of Christ.
If he glori6es the cruelty, rapscity and
falsehood of his party leaders, he is COM
PEELED by on inaeSible law of human ma
ture to "deny the Lord who bought
him"
The experience of fifteen centuries
proves that political preachers are the
great curse of the world. More than
half the bloody wars which at different
periods have desolated Christendom, were
produced by their direct instigation and
wherever they have thrust themselves in
to contest commenced by others, they
always envenomed the strife and made it
more cruel, savage and uucompromising
The religious wars, so-called, had nothing
religious about them, except that they
were Kissed up by the clergy. Look back
and see if this is not true
The Arian controversy (the first great
schism) was followed by wars in which
millions of lives were lost Do you sup
pose the real quarrel was for the insertion
Or omission of Jtttoque in that part of the
creed which describes the procession of the
Holy Ghost Did homiousian slaugh.
ter his brother because he was a hons0iou-
sian? No, it was not the difference of
dipthoug, but the plumber of an empire
that they fought for. 1t was the politics
of the church. not her religion, that infu.
rated the parties and converted men into
demons.
The Thirty Years War in Germany is
often supposed to have been fair stand
up fight between tho two leading forms Of
Christianity. 1t was not so. The reli-
gious difference was a false pretence of
the political preachers for the promotion
Of their own schemes. There was not
sane man on all that continent who would
have felt himself impelled by motives
merely religious, to murder his neighbor
for believing or disbelioviug in transub-
standardization, Ifproof of this were want
ing, it might be found in the fact, that
long before the war ended, the sectarian
cries were abandoned, and Catholics, as
we'll 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 Reproduction, fate,