The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-04-09
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NOLufuS Gan pe mOTt ui3tTooJluR W tuC truly
Christian heart in this enlightened and, what
we are sometimes pleased to call 1t, highly
civilised and progressive age, when In every
department Of human life men are coming to
understand and appreciate each other more
fully than ever, than to see 80 many and such
striking evidences Of ssctarian bigotry as our
own country and the present day reveal. II
is passing strange that our Christian civiliza-
ton should find its hardest work in rounding
or the rough edges Of churches and scots,
creeds and catechisms, and that they should
be the last to yield to its benign and
softenlng influences. And yet it is not alto
gether strange. Tae Church is true to its his
toric record in this regard. 1t has always
been bigoted and narrow-miaded and exclu-
sive. We may 60 back to its organization
among the Jews and trace it all the way
through their history and thence along the
ages of Christianity to the present, and we
shall 1nd that 1t has been bigoted, prosecuting
and exclusive to the last degree. There was
no salvation for any one outside of the Jewish
Church when it had the asc sndancy and the
keeping of the holy oracles; 30 that nothing
could be more disayreeable to Jewish ear
than TO hear some of the truths which W ere
uttered by Jesus of Nazareth when He WAS on
where men had worshipped for ages were no
more sacred than any other place, and that
the time would come when the true wor-
shipper anywhere should worship the
Father in spirit and in truth; for God
is spirit, and must be so worshipped. The
lapse Of centuries has hardly blotted out from
the Jewish mind this idea of their exclusive
sacredness. 1t is, however, comlns to be I'M
derstoOd and taught by the chief men and most
learned among the Israelites all over our own
land, and they recognize goodness and truth
and virtue and uprightness in men who do not
subscribe to their creed nor worship at their
affairs.
In Christian times the same exclusiveness,
and monopoly of virtue aud goodness and
truth, is manifested in the Church's history, and
men have been driven into rocks and noun
tains and dens and caves of the Firth to escape
persecution, because they claimed the right to
worship God in their own way, and many Of
them yielded up their lives rather than their
opinions and this right of conscience. The
day of death for religious opinions has hap
PLY passed, and We had fondly hoped that the
day of persecution had gone with it into OBJ
livion. But it would seem that we were mis-
taken. 1t still lives deep seated in the heart
of the scots and denominations, and when each
cannot tear the Others throat they will quar-
rel among themselves. Here, Christian min
lister Is disciplined by his ecclesiastical superb
Ors because he dared to preach the Gospel
by invitation In church and to congrega-
ton not of his own denomination. There,
another minister is called to the bar Of public
and ecclesiastical opinion because he
believes that while water may be excellent to
cleanse the body it has no regenerating pro-
perties by which the soul may be purified
Yonder still another minister In Massach usetts
or Rhode Island has been excommunic ated
from further fellowship with his denomination
because he dared to recognize the image of
Christ in men and women who had not been
immersed as he had been, and he ate and
drank with them in commemoration of
the Lords death until He come The instances
Of this sectarian b'gotry in this country and
in this age are numerous, and it is shame to
our civilization, as well as to our common
Christianity, to be obliged to admit it. The
cases of Rev. Stephen H. Tying, Jr., Of our
own city, and OF Mr.. Cheney, of Chicago aud
Of the Baptist minister to whom we refer, are SO
patent and prominent examples of ministerial
persecution that the facts need no recital. II
is sad condition of things, indeed, that
minister of the Lord Jesus Christ must yield
obedience first to Church rubrics, and after
ward to the Saviour to whom his first and last
and perpetual and supreme allegiencc is due.
But this sectaran bigotry Is not confined ex-
clusively to Professionals We had an inkling
of it recently in the cutlery against Father
Farrell, pastor of st. Josephs Roman Catho-
lie church in this city, whose course respect
Ing the temporal power of the Holy Father
was condemned In such harsh terms.
Happily, however, for himself and
for the Church to which he belongs, his
motives seem to have been better understood
by his ecclesiastical superior than were those
of his Protestant brethren by theirs, and
the Church and the community here have been
saved from the scandal which the others have
Great ID.
Leaving the ministerial ranks, however, we
begin now to find the same spirit Of bigotry
and narrow-mindednsss reaching down to
the laity, and accommodating a man
from church fellowship who dared to
sing one Of the grandest old Christian
songs ever written, and In our opinion as
fully inspired as any that David ever wrote.
What must that ''sweet singer of Israeli think
as, from his throne in the heavenly land, he
beholds the squabblss of Christian Church
and denomination here over the relative mer-