The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1866-11-24

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f never agree upon political subjects, for hu
, man government is at best but q compromise
; of selfish interests and conflicting passions
!, When you mix the two together you break
f the church into fragments, and instead o
"onc Lord, one faith and one baptism, yol
create a thousand warning sccts, and substl
tute the proverbial bitterness Of the odiun
, theoiogicun N for the "charity which thinketi
no evil
No one will deny that union Of Churcl
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. That is bat
enough but you have less common sense
thai give you credit for, if You do not SCI
that this adulterous connection assumes 1t:
most poli,ting form when the church is vol
unfairly pros.ituted by her own ministers to g
political party in a popular government.
} The evil influence of such connection:
upon Church ard State is easily accounted
!, for. Both of them in combination will dc
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 hers
aud of heaven hereafter. The clergy, on the
other hand, and those who are under their
nfueucs, easily acquire the habit OF praising
Unfortunately whatever is done by their
public meH. Acting and reaching on one
another they go down together in the direc-
ton of tie pit that Is bOt,0mless; and both
are found to have "a strange alacrlty at
sinking"
! No man can serve two masters faithfully !;
for he must hate one il he loves the other.
A minister, who admire. and follows such
men as those who have lately ruled and ruin
ed this country, must necessarily despise the
| character OF Christ. If he slorihes the cruel
| ty. rapacity and flsehood ofhs party leaders,
/ te is compelled BY an inhexible law of
human nature 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 desola>
| ted Cbristendom, were produced by their
direct instigaton: and wherever they have
thrust themselves into n contest commenced
by others, they always envenomed the strlt.
and made it more cruel, savage aid uncom-
promising. The religions wars, So called,
had nothing religious abou. them except tha,
they were Kissed up by the clergy. Look
back and see if this is not true.
The Arian controversy (the first great
schsm) was followed by wars in which mill
lions of lives were lost Do you suppose
the real quarrel was for the insertion or
omission of hhoque in that par. of the creed
which descr. bes the PROCESSION of the Holy
Ghost? Did homoiousian? No, 1t was
not the difference OF u dipthong, but the
plumber OF an empire that they fought for /,
was the politics OF th. church, not her relc
ior, tina, nturiated tho parties aud converted
men into demons.
The Thirty Years War in Germany is
often supposed to have been fair stand up
fight between the two leading forms of Chris
tiahity. 1t was not so. The religions dif>
ference was a false pre,ence of the political
preachers for the promotion of their own
h-mcs. There was not a sane man on all
that continent who would have felt himself
inpelled 10y motives merely religious TO nlur,
der his ncighbor for believing or disbeievng
in iransubstariiation. Ii proof Of this were
wanting, it might be found in the fact that
long before lhe war ended the sscairian .
cries were abandoned, and Cntholics as well
as Pro,estanis we:e fizhtirg oh both sile..
Ii is utterly Impossible to believe that the
clergy Of i.ngaud and Scotland, If they had
not been politicians. would have ihDug't of
waSing bloody war, to settle questions o!
Gle ticn and reproLa,ion, fate. acknowledge, /,
Ttt VIII. anu OtlCE ttlia's VI 'HthH p' ,tN al /!
theology. Nor would they, apart iroc their /
politics, have encouraged and committed the /
other crimes of which the were guilty in the |
name of religion.
Can you think that tEc Irish were Invaded |
and conquered, and oppressed and murdered !
and robbed for centuries, merely because the !
English loved and believed in the Protestant |
rei -non? ] suppose you know that those |
brutal atrocities were carried on for thetpur |
pose of giving 20 politics! preachers IN Eng |
land possession of the churches, cathedrAlS. /
glebe lands and tyihrs which belonged TO |
the Irish Catholics. The soldier also
rewarded by ronfscaiioIs and piundrr The
Church and the State hunted in couples, and |
Ireland was the prey which they ran down
together.
Coming to our own country. you find Mas
sachusetts and Connecticut. in colonial times,
under the sole domination of political preach
ers. Their treacherous wars upon thc In
dians for purposes wholly merceunry their /
enslavitrg of white persons rs well as red
ones, and selling them abroad, or swapping
them for blackamoors = their whipping, i'm
prisoning nnc killing Quakcrs and Bapiist-.
for their conscientious opinions; and their
base treatment OF such men as Roger Wil-
liams u ID his friends, will mark their gov>
ernment through all times as one of the
cruelest and meauest that ever existed.
Political preachers have not behaved any
better since the revolution than before. About |
the commencement OF the present century
they wcte busy in their vile VOCATION all over
New England, and continued it for many
years. ! he wlful aud deliberate slanGers
habitually uttered from the pul pit against
jefferson, Madison and the friends who sup.
ported them, were disgrace 10 human
nature. The immediate effect of this was
the Yankee plot To secede from the Union,
followed by corrupt combinations with for.
eign enemy to bctray the liberties of the
country. Its remOter consequences are seen
in the shameless raPacity and bitter maligni'
ty which even al this moment, bowling
for the property and blood of an unarmed
and defenceleSs people.
You a.d | both remember the political
preaching which ushered IN an; supported
the reign cftl Know Nothing, Bloofy Tubs
and Plxg UgiIes; when Maria Monk wa. a
Saint and Joe Parker. was Mayor of Pitts.
burg when pu PITS resouided every Sunday
with the most injurious falsehoods ngainkt
when the public mind was debauch-
ed by the inculcation of hypocrisy and de-
ception when ministers met their political
allies in sworn secrecy to plot against the
ights of theic fellow citizens. You cannot
forget what came of this-rio., murder,
church burning, lawless violence all over the
land, and the subugation of several great
states To the political RI, lie of party destitute
alike of principle and capacity
could easily prove that those clergical
politicians, who have tied their churches 70
the tail of the abolition party, are criminal
on grander scale than any of their prede-
ressors. But forbear, partly because
have no time, and partly because it may, for
aught know, be sore subject with you.
would not excite your wrath, but rather
provoke you to good works"
Apart from the general subject, there are {
.wo or three special ideas expressed in your t