The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-07-03

ton where every fair-mnded man who looks at
these matters in any other atmosphere than one
which Is beclouded as this is-one who looks at
these things from point where these conflicting
and surging tides OF prejudice and passion and
remembered wrong, or anticipated evil are not
met IN mighty cOnHict-yOu have put these men
in position where the heart of every man, and
/ am sure of every woman lin such circum-
stances as these), viii go forth in sympathy
Now, Moderator, say that these brethren are
Just as much entitled to be heard as any men,
Der on this floor is entitled to be heard, and if
distinctions are to be made, they are more
entitled to be heard before you finally dispose Of
this case then any man is 20 be heard either for
or against them. 1t may be question of life
and death with them and their Presbyteries.
Sir, by this vote you have for time disiranchsed
one OF the largest Presbyteries of the Church.
! see by the minutes that Presbytery has thirty
three churches. You put them out of the house
and entirely ignore them. We have right to
avail ourselves of the accumulated wisdom and
experience and Christian fidelity of every Com
missioner appointed to this body, in passing
upon every one of the questions which are or
may be acted upon. Sir, questions may come
up here which the presence or absence of these
four men might decide questions of funda-
mental Importance concerning the policy of the
Church; respecting the Theological Seminaries
OF the Church; and respecting the future inte
rests OF our blessed country. And so, therefore,
you wrong not only them, but you wrong us all.
You wrong our Presbyteries and Churches by
excluding them from their seats.
But, sir, In conclusion, no man can look upon
Vnls sCSHe WlJnOuJ leeD0g tnaJ our Church is
reaching a crisis. The Church is in deep waters
and there are two policies that meet us There
is fork in the road, brethren, and you must
take one path or the other, and, under God, the
whole future of our Church is bound I'D in the
path which you take. On the one hand tn ere is
the path of severity, and stern, unrelenting JUS
lice, and of holding every man accountable for
every rash word he has uttered, and for every
rash sentiment he has written and for every
disloyal-l refer to the Church for every dis
loyal paragraph he has put forth in sermon OF
newspaper; you are TO hold everyman accountable
for what has gone forth from him in the season
of conflict and excitement which has swept like
a hurricane over our land-whIch has filled it
with graves and mourners; and you are to
arralgn every such man at your bar; you are TO
visit upon bin the full penalty of your iurispru.
dence tor every such oifense. But il you do it,
sir, your Church is divided. The Episcopal
Church is gathering up its scattered fragments
to unite them once more in blessed fraternity,
The Methodist Church, North and South, are
clasplDg their hands together over these lines of
blood, and saying one to another we will not
see 1t. Let us be brethren. Sir, il remains for
this Assembly to decide what shall be the policy
OF our Church, not only for years to come-for
few years to come-but peradventure for a
very long period to come.