Smyrna times., 1875-12-15

A Foolish BLUNDER-There is an old
slying that it takes great men to make
great mistakes. We do not know that
Bishop Haven, of the Methodist Church, is
great man, in any sense, but he holds a
responsible position and ought 10 be greater
than he is: perhaps. But great or not, he
made great blunder last week. In de
livering an address before Boston Preach
ers' Meeting, he used the following absurd
language:
herewith, in the name of the Amcri.
can people and true Christianity, nominate
Ulysses ). Grant, our present worthy Presi-
dent and defender to a third term in the
Office of President of the United States.
1t must have required vast amount of
assurance for him, or any other man, on
his own individual authority, to select a
candidate for President of the United
States, and it must have been at a tremen-
dious sacrifice of selfrespect for him, a pre-
late, to do such a thing at purely religious
gathering.
The absurdity of Bishop Haven in this
matter is not against himself so much, but
against the Church that has hcnored him.
Of course such procedure on his part has
called forth sharp criticism from the secular
press, and particularly the Democratic or
gans, but this criticism is more against the
denomination than against the blunderinc
Bishop. Very many of the newspapers |
seem to think that the Bishop spoke for |
his Church, or that his speaking committed |
the whole Methodist denomination to the |
support Of President Grant fora third term. |
Hence quite a number of the criticisms we |
nave seem anlmadyert in the harshest
terms upon the Methodist Church for be-
coming mere political organization. For
instance: the Norwich Republican wants to
know if the third-term spook to present
itself in religious vestments. The Cincip-
natl Commercial Dem says it is insolent
ecclesiastical intermedling, and will have
to be rebuked. The Albany E,rprcss (Repl
thinks the Church and its Bishop might be
engaged in better business than nominal.
ing President Grant for third term. The
Troy Times wants to know who asked this
very respectable gathering of Methodist
clergymen to nominate Gen. Grant or anv.
body else for President Of the United
States and 50 on. They all seemed to think
that the Church is responsible.
The denominational papers, however, all
dissent from Bishop Haven's course. The
methodist puts the matter in this light;
We feel bound to say that Metbodists
als utterly opposed to mixing Church and
Poil'lcs' 70 turning ecclesiastical gatherings
mo. caucuses, and that we believe every '
Li! munster ln attendance at Boston holds this
tdi ta ditl,seetaiian creed. But if Cardinal Nc q
- had dedicated the Boston cathe-
~ nraI tie same week, and had uttered Bishop /
rlatehs rl en- > words, asking his priests to pray
Tor the election of Gen. Sherman Gos !
measure OF safety" we do not doubt that
every Methodist newspaper and puInit in
Lhe land would have famed with indigno- Il
non. For this reason we regret the intro. y
luctlon OF the topic into the Boston meet 3
hg. we have met no Methodist who is \
lot gfieyed and sorry, and we have talked 81
ai'n ~ |, some OF the warmest personal friends r.
y :, the PRESIDENT II must be apDorent
y nat an lndIscretion 50 damaging TO the ii
mel Magistrate could not have been V
hority. '''"io" "u- I
The Michigan Chriaian Adrocqte is not lose b
mphatic. 1t begs to say that-what a a
ectional gathering may resolve under the
ransient impulse of an appeal from Bishop Y
iaven does not commit the Metbod;st X
'hurch in America