Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1872-08-29
From Petersburg.
For the Fayetteville Observer.

LII. GUttOt OEAR CIh-t LII SJ1O
country there are not less than
twelve or fifteen mutual benefit
societies, all of which are no doubt
we'll sustained, and the great OBJ
ject of which is the creation of
a brotherhood and the realization
of that mutual sympathy and
feeling of membership one of an
other which those brotherhoods
are calculated to produce. At
the same time, it cannot have es.
capped your notice that these in.
situations have very much in
creased within the last few years
throughout the country, SO that
there is no village or hamlet,
however small, in which they do
not exist. 1t is one of the
marked features of the times in
which we live-a popularity of
the age. What does it mean p
What does it pcrtend +? To some
individuals it is altogether an E.
vii omen, and portentous of MOTH
ing but woe. They point to the
days of Danton, Robespierre and
Murat, and to those secret com.
binations of men which produced
in no small degree, the horrors of
the French Revolution, and they
imagine that they behold in the
present condition of society the
marshalling of those forces which
are designed in the providence Of
God, for the overthrow of this
Republic, and for the production
of deeper and darker and more
desolating horrors than any which
have ever before come upon the
world. But can this be so? God
forbid! All such forebodings, it
seems to me, are offsprings of a
morbid Imagination. For the
world, in many respects, has un.
dergone almost total and entire
Transformation since the French
Revolution, and the mutual bene-
fit societies to which / have re-
ferred, have no more resemblance
in their principlesandobjects to the
various subjects of that day which
existed in France, than daylight
has to darkness. The one were a
combination of conspirators a.
gainst the government, the others,
in general, have no reference to
the government, whatsoever, un-
less it be to preserve and protect
it; and are designed for the mu-
tual benefit and improvement of
the members. In TACT, as
these societies exist among us,and
with the exception of those which
are political, look upon them
as founded upon one of the deep
est and most universal wants of
humanity-the want Of sympa-
thy, cooperation and mutual love
and support; they are expressive
of this great want of humanity !;
and have no doubt that they are
designed, in Gods providence, to
act upon the church, and ultimate.
ly to unfold her character as en-
phatically "the Brotherhood" and
the only Brotherhood, which the
Almighty has established for the
restoration of all mankind 10 one
body to the unity of hope, faith
and love.
What is the fact in reference to
the church /? The fact is this.
that the great body Of those who
profess and call themselves chris
tians have in a measure lost the
idea Of the Church as a brother
hood and a bond of union. They
look upon the church as an asso-
citation for preaching and lectur.
ing on Sundays and holy days, and
not as a practical working and
every day system of doing good,
as we'll to the bodies as the souls
of men.
ITO be concluded merit aceek.
SERENUs.
P, S. Mr.. ]. II. Woodbridge,
the blind soldier, lectured here
last Saturday night to a large
and attentive congregation-his
subject The Air We Breathe
He did we'll in his discourse, and
every body praised his lecture, etc.
E~ Moot;poo hold IN Nash,