Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1866-02-02
[BY REQUEST.
Politics In the Methodist Episcopal
Church

From the Baltimore Methodist Protestant1
To let our readers know to what length the
Church may 60 when it departs from its legi-
innate sphere Of pure evangelism and rs a
caution TO our own people to stand firm against
all efforts to secularize the Church, and as a
confirmation of the wisdom of our Church in
refusing to engage in any controversy upon
mooted questions of State policy, we give the
following article from the New York Christian
AdUocdte and Journal the official organ Of the
Methodist Episcopal Church:
+" CoYSEcrcuT Bull RuN' -" 1t is as we
feared. Romanism, rum, and a recreant re-
publicanism have cast this State back into
sinful CASTE from which her legislature sought
to deliver her. By large majority she re-
fused a week ago last Monday, to adopt an
amendment 10 her constitution making intelli-
gence, not color, the basis of the franchise.
- Connecticut ought to have been "A fame
Of FIRE for the last sixty days. The hest speak
ers in the land ought TO have lifted the people
by their fervor aad their breadth Of soul
Sumner and Wilson, Wade and Kelly, Beecher
and Til;on, Hatfield aud Andrew Douglas
and Phillips, with hundreds OF lesser lights,
should have blazed through all the State. The
ministers should have made their pupits ring
with the great duty Of giving the Declaration
its desired completion in their State and of
starting the nation on the new road which
God calls il to walk in. Such a zeal would
have abashed the enemies of this true de-
mocracy.
e'This goddess prejudice [against negro
equality deserves divine punishment. We
may be thankful ifit does not bring yet heavier
walls of His wrath upon us. 1t may breed
another war and yet greater anarchy; so
jealous and angry is the God of heaven with
those who falsify their professions and treat
His children with dersion. How can this fate
be now averled? BY instant faithfulness in
the Church. She must cast this beam from her
eve if she would call upon the State to do
like service. She must abolish this satanic
prejudice from her heart and her life. She
must cease to loathe and to dissociate men on
account of the color She must give her
brethren Of the despised hue her cordial fellow
ship in her churches, Der schools, her count
ing-rooms, must they move freely and unno-
ticed.
g To this work she must grid herself The
defeat OF truth is no reason for despair or dis
enlargement. Sod is with her; she shall not
be removed God shall help her, and that
right early The beginning of all her victories
is defeat Bunker Hill and Bull Run teach us
that lesson; Christs crucifiAion is its infinite
illustration. And |, If be lifted up, will
draw all men unto me.' The negro is to-day
crucifed in Connecticut, in Washington in
all the land. He shall draw all men unto him.
The lovers Of man and of God in that State
will sec that this is no longer an ideal, but
the most living reality of to-day. They are
n large body of earnest Christian men. Let
them not rest till they are a majority and this
stain is wiped from their State. Let them cast
away the unmanly fear of reproach and all the
epithets into which those taunts consummate
themselves-even that which most people yet
hesitate 10 face" Amalgamaton.n And as
Mr.. Garrison, thirty years ago, when word
equally abominable WAS hurled at him,
shouted back, I" ] am an aboitonist; glorv
in the name n so will they say if that word
is the Embodiment Of the unity and brother
hood of man, - am an amalgamationist
glory in the name p IN that sense ofthe word
God was the first amalgamationist, MS he was
the first abolitionist, as he declares q | am
the Lord thy God. that brought thee out of
the house of bondage - so he declares
that he made of one blood all nations
of men. Five States in New England are true
TO this principle to-day Massachusetts admits
men of this origin to her conventions aud
she will soon TO her halls of
legislation and TO her chief pulpits. and all
the land. after due chastisements, shall follow
her footsteps TO this height of true democracy
and true Christianity