The herald. (Smyrna, Del.) 1870-1871, 1871-05-20
For the Herald.
Stray Thoughts BuKgeSted by she
Cent? eversy ON "An Independent
Church." fn the late Issues of the
ssMeraId."

CMWF~ms AA sAAc A~so asms~@@ VA sn~
'sMeraId."
aye hypocritesi Well did Esaias pro-
phesy ofyoui
''This people dweileth with me with
their mouth, and honoreth me with
their hps-but their heart is far from
me.
"But in vain do they worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commando
ments of men,"
st. MlttheiO, ~: 7-8-9.
The events of the past year, up to the
present time, have alone been sufficient
to prove the need for an independent
church--a church of Christ, independent
of sectarian prejudice. Not one inde-
pendent of order, system end respect for
Coos temple, las many of the modern
ones are) for "order was Heavon's first
law" Chaos camc or existed; then order
at Gods command.
As striking marks of disorder and dis
obsdlence to His law, will select few
of the many glaring instances, occurring
amidst AMI around US. Beginning with
that notable one, ION this side Of the At
lantic> the refusal of christian inter.
ment to the remains of an honorable
moral member of one Of the most in
strIctive professions, of olden times, and
still so, here it is allowed to be con.
Quoted according to original intention
untrammelled by ,scctarian clerical in
fiuencs, which, forbidding moral mem
bers of churches 10 enjoy themselves ra
tionally, throws the theatres into the
power of the rowdies and their followers
who infest large cities, leaving manag
0rs the choice of bankruptcy, or of pan
dering to the passions and depravet
tastes of the worst portion of the com
munity, contrary to their own wishes
and good feelings.
Theatres were the schools of literature
and art combined, in those olden times
when the powerful Greek tragedy o
Agamemnon, by Aschylus, with tia
terrible display of evil passions, an'
their effects, shown in the fate of Oreste
pursued by the Furies, his ineviiabl
doom thrilled with horror the breasts o
the vast multitudes- assembled -ip-th
: great. .amphitheatie end more forcibl
than ever, our own Shakespeare, in hi
Macbeth. pointed out las another an
more modern poet has vividly descrit
: ed) the effect of those fierce passions:
"The mind that broods DER guilty woe
Is like the Scorpion girt by fire;
III circle narrowing as it g!ows,
The flames around their captive close,
Till inly searched by thousand throes
And maddening in her ire,
One sad and sole relief she knows,
The sting she nourished for her foes"
While among the Latens, Terence, II
his Heautontimorominos describing til
tortures of the Self-Tormentor-and II
other plays laying bare to public gaz
the follies and the foibles of the men @
that age, assisted in the great endeavo
made by Plato, of whom Emerson says
"Plato contains the future as he cam
out of the past,"-sayss'If the studen
wishes to see justice done to the man o
the world, the pitiless exposure of ped
ants, end the supremacy of truth ant
! the religious sentiment, he will be con
tented also"
Passing on to later times, let us selsc
one among the many of those benefac
tors of mankind, Goethe. the poet. in
structor of his race, and the stage man
ager, of when one of our most abl'
modern writers, Thackeray, observed
!we cannot udge of the morals of sucl
man, ne is above our judment." Ye
this friend of mankind should, accord
ing 10 orthodoxy, have had The rites o
Christian sepulture denied to his re
mains, because, forsooth, bs was {
player. They were undsniably nobl,
lessons in morality, which were taugh
in those grand amphitheatres of older
time, and no modern sectarian bigo
dare assert that those great master
minds of antiquity were not of Gods
own making, for his own wise end, fit
ting n en- and nations for peaceful hap
py sphere of existence, and preparing
the way for Him, the greatest of all, the
God in man, and the man in God, ouI
own Saviour.
Hear what He says Of this:
"Woe unto ys Scribes, Pharisees, and
hypocr;tes For ys shut up the kingdom
of Heaven against men. For ye neither
go IN yourselves, neither sufferiye those
that are entering to go in.'
There is need of many Little church.
ss round the corner" and they are ris-
ing and multiplying fast; for this gross
outrage against Christianity and hu-
manity has raised such storm of in
digna. ion throughout the length and
breadth of this noble land, that each
reading and reflecting Christian is build
ing up an independent one in his own
bosom, independent OF the Devil of sec:
tartan prejudice.
Christ ascended to the mountain top
f, and wrestled with the Devil.
There have been numerous success
sions of Devils from that time through
all changes of Empires. up to the days
of 'bloody Mary, of England" and
thence to the present era, many n Devil
of biuotrv and infolaranca aud