Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1871-05-17

| the common schools but IL Is, that post
| tic religious Instruction, such as that
| Church dpproues and requires, d not given
IN those schools. Listen to Father Finne-
| gan:
| at is argued we can teach our children
their peculiar form of religion on Sunday.
| We are not satisfied with this arrange
ment. We believe that certain things are
necessary for the SOULS salvation. These
] things are very numerous and require con-
slant and careful incubation, and no school
| can DC satisfactory, ercept tUherc the teach
ing of these things 90 hand in hand tCih
secular educdtion.n The italics are mine.
Among several very irrelevant and UNI
| profitable utterances of the gentleman on
1.-THE Other Side" is his question, as
| the (Roman) Catholic Church in this re-
spect more intolerant than the Protestant"
| Now if he means, as his words seem TO
import, whether leach sect of the Protest
ant Church is not Just rs intolerant as the
| Roman Catholic Church, in holding that
| the true religion is to be found in his (?)
| own church and not in the Roman Catho-
| lie % i reply, that while Protestant de-
| nominations hold that the true Christian
| religion is preserved and maintained by
them in its purity and integrity, and that
| that religion is overlaid in the Roman
Catholic Church with more than few
| superstitions, errors and idolatories, they
| do not deny that it may be found 10y an
earnest seeker after truth, in the member
| ship of that church, and even through the
| crust of those superstitions, errors and
| dolatries snd that such q person may,
| through living faith in Jesus Christ, be
now in a state of salvation and eventually
be admitted to His Kingdom in the world
to come. On the other hand, the Roman
Catholic Church is exclusive and intoler-
ant to that degree, that its authorities pro-
nounce all Protestants to be heretics and
n iof, off ina ant off Ia fa n
God, religiously in a state of wrath and
condemnation, and, unless they will sub
NIT to its authority and accept its dogmas
as true, to be subject to everlasting pun
ishment. This bigotry and intolerance,
as any one may easily see, are the legiti-
mate and fruitful parents of it's persecution
of Protestants. / might, with reason, be
surprised at the attempt of ''The Other
Siden to implicate Protestants equally with
the Roman Catholic Church in the work
of religious persecution, seeing that he
processes to be reader of history, and
that all history proves that while the robe
of Professionalism has upon it few
spots of religious persecution, the garments
of Roman Catholicism are dark with many
stains of the blood of christian martyrs
whom ii has slain for their love of and adj
herence to the truth of the Gospel. But
it is not worth while. 1t deserves notices,
however, in this conneXion, that although
the annals of Professionalism are not alto
gether free from reproach in this particu-
lar. the instances of religious persecution
which may be laid at its door occurred
soon after the Reformation, when it had
! Just escaped from the thraldom of the
! Church of Rome, and had not yet wholly
| thrown off the influence of the spirit of
bigotry and Intolerance which reigned in
| that church. For some time after the
Reformation was an accomplished fact,
the people of Protestant lands were like
the blind man of Jerusalem after the Lord
first touched his eyes. Like him, they
saw imperfectly. AS a second touch of the
hand of the Lord restored his sight entire
ly, so, too, they learned by and by, in the
| wholesome light of the truth of the free
Gospel they followed, better principles OF
conduct towards those who differed from
them than their fathers had been taught
at Rome. But the Roman Catholic Church
has never abandoned the bigoted princi-
Piles which it held before the Reformation
The dogmas upon which it's system il
based beget Intolerance by an easy and
natural process but, instead Of renounc'
ing any Of its high assumptions, it seem:
only to grow more pretentious, las witness
the dogma recently promulgated from
Rome Of the infallibiiity of the Pope anC
to put forth renewed efforts against the eX
ercise of just freedom of thought. .
"The Other Side" has q remarkable OBJ
|
charity. But, perhaps, he is theological
neophyte. Because Rusticus has sale
: the ecclesiastical system of the Roman
Church is oppressive, corrupt and destruc
, tive, he cries out with melting pathos, 80
for the rarity of christian charity under tn
, sum- He evidently thinks that tru
t charity demands that we should not onl.
t love Roman Catholics and seek TO do then
, good, which it certainly does, but that w
5 shall think we'll of the ecclesiastical sys
r tenn under which they unfortunately live
S that we must not call error by its RICH
name. If it were not that he argues il
4 behalf of church opposed to the free Gil
: culation of the Sacred Scriptures, woul
j commend 10 him the private reading an,
v study of the words of ST. Paul, Chart
: rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth j
1 the TRUTH
j 1.-THE Other Side' attributes TO Rust
: cusn the indulgence Of "fears' of "futur
f political combination between the Romis
L Church and the Democratic patty" I'll
: suggestion comes from 1.-The Other Side.
y "Rusticusn has not mentioned in his art
y Gle either of the great political parties
! the country. Evidently "The Other Side
If has logged in what he is pleased TO call h
Is "imaginationsn that he "can detect" sue
e "fears,n in order to afford him an oppo
e tunity of making a very remarkable stat
n ment concerning the Methodist Episcop
h Church, or what he terms the "Norther
IF Methodists.n He says that "the CONVEX
ton of that Church was the first body
/, nominate General Grant for the PresidenC
n in 1868" and "that the ministers of Il
d same church, on the eve of the late ele
otIf from al M mi on