The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1874-05-05

politics, namely, to govern men withou
their consent. II did not succeed Il
either. N fre
THE 1IBERTY VERSUS coRRcIos IN ne,
LEGION.
Liberty Is best either for the State o.
the Church. Religion should be spon.
taneous; II Is the free offering OF free souls
and II does not do 10 say, "Belieye this o.
DO damned" For one man secularly L
soy to another, "You be damned" is bat
enough; but take o man, put o big robt
on him with black cap, give him q stat
with q twlrl on the top Of Il, and then lei
him say, "Belleve In transubstantiation
Or be damned" / don't think "bt
damned" under such circumstances IL any
better than before; In fact, an official "bt
damned" is great deal worse than o per
sonal one. Laughter You can't force
people TO be religious any more than you
can force grass to grow. Let an armed
force come up to my farm at Peekskill.
There 10 some grass very backward about
coming up--let o fire company come and
see y they can squirt Il up [laughter], on
9 military company and sec II they can
force 1t up, or q company Of magistrates
with search warrants, and see II they can
bring 1t up. There Is no man can take q
crowbar and say TO the tree grow" II
won't grow. Another reason, Mr.. Beecher
said, why Christianity had not progressed
faster, was that men had employed malign
elements to spread religion rather than
spiritual ones. II was impossible to de-
Velop love by hatred or peace by furious
argument The fruits OF the spirit could
not DO produced by quarreling. The
gates OF hell had opened into this world
through ecclesiastical judicatories, and
the greatest cruelties have been practiced
by Christian sects, and the world has been
presented with hideous, bloody.monthed
God, that makes men only drown them.
ExcEssEs COMMITTED IN TIE NAME OF
RELIGION.
The church dominion In tho world had
been simply monstIous; there had been
no excuses more abominable than those
committed under church discipline; the
Church had been under the dominion Of
devils. Another cause for the slow pro.
gress OF Christianity was that the Church
had aimed at knowledge rather than char
lily. "Love builds, but knowledge bloats."
Mr.. Beecher here alluded to the divisions
In the various sects as they existed to-day,
and all these divisions were about exter.
nails not one Of them touched In any
manner the essential fruits Of the spirit.
Abiding to his own position among the
CongregationSlists, Mr.. Beecher said It
was said 10 him, "Ii you are so impressed
with these liberal ideas why don't you go
out from the Congregationalists2" II
stay here" said MIR. Beecher, "because
there are men that say that Congrega.
tional ministers shall not stand in the pull.
pit and say certain things, and I say that
they shall" Great applause He then
alluded TO tho persisted theolOgies Of the
past and OF the present day as another
reason why Christianity had made such
slow progress. Men had made an image
Of q detestable devil and called it God
The God that he Mr.. Beechel) worshiped
was a God Of love and sweetness and
gentleness and patience and long.suffer.
Ing, who so loved the world that he sent
his only son to die Tor 1t.