Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1878-06-30
JUNE 80. 1873
SUNDAY READING.

not steal, If it does not keep us from the per
patration of larcenies, constrains its own out
ward observance But it is said by worldly
tongues that congregations of worshippers
have ere now been edited by sermons that
we're stolen, out and out, by the preachers de-
Gvering them. This is next of kin to the act
of robbing a church or plundering "a contribu-
lion box-dry picking as the latter enterprise
would be like to be. And it is said of editors
that they sometimes pilfer their articles from
contemporaneous columns and put them upon
thoir readers as their own. So be it confessed
That this scribe, contemplating his regular
saturday task, the writing of something un-
derthe standing head of Sunday Reading
and feeling the seasons laziness superadded
not brilliant faculties employed of routine la
bors, did, with something of larcenous hope
fulness, take up a certain religious paper,
thinking to purloin from its abundant columns
something that might serve to exc out this oc-
casionally wearisome stent. Indeed, under
the old and severe interpretations, we are
afraid that we had already committed petty
larceny in the heart of us. But we were led
into temptation for naught. tho perhaps not
in vain. We failed to find anything worth
stealing, but we did discover a subject matter
of comment, and that is, That the generic
"religious" paper affords about severe a
monotony of dull, dry and depressing htera-
ture as the somberest of minds can find COM
fort in. These so-called religious prints, ne
Oeesarily narrow of sphere, drift into prosy
bigctries and repetitions of old pulpitsering
plAtitudes that are excessively uninteresting.
Moreover they drift into cant, which is the
dry rot of human utterance; and they never
tire of q phraseology which is very inelegant
and distasteful to refined sensibilities.. When
Old Lyman Beecher was caught playing his
fiddle in his study he defended himself by de-
claring that the Devil is not entitled to all the
good music and all the pleasant pastimes of
tAis world. But "orthodox" papers never
CEASE to hammer away, in partisan and in
tolerant spirit, at the same old tunes, world
without end. So, we, wording that we are,
and all unregenerate, look in vain to the re-
lisious press for such food as for which we are
al hungered. We came away from the peru
BAL Of those sectarian prints with our yearn
in;s Ill unsatis6ed. Too much, indeed are |
tho religions of the sects self surrounded by a
Chinese wall. In building out their enemies
they build themselves in Thus are their |
scope and service made narrow and circum- |
scfihcd. The Church can no more sustain it
sell within itself than life and breath can flour
ish and be strong relying upon their own in
herent qualities and never becoming fresheneI |
or reinforced. Religious teachings given to
men hy men are subject to the fallibilities of
imperfect humanity. The mind progresses or
rotroerades. Orthodoxy is presented now in
the same unhandsome and unattractlva garb
win which it was dressed fifty years ago. If
it thus gives expression to its purpose Of ten
actr. it's grim desire to stick to It's dogmas
and fortify its partizanship, it is at least con-
sistent But religious faith, to be true to it
SELF. cannot be thus narrow while protesting
to lend its share of the light of an enlightened
age. A religious creed which finds voice
through a Nineteenth Century newspaper is
lax, u:ler the ban of Inconsistency if it sim
l,y ard stubbornly keeps itself within its old
grooves. A true faith can bear the broadcst
and most searching light. 1t is the badest
hypo,r,cy to connect religion with modern
Typography and then insist upon itself re- {
manning within the somber crypt Of Calvinism.
The common theory of all religions is that
ono mans soul is quite as worthy of salvation
as another's. In the scheme of Redemption {
we have a republic of all souls, irrespective of
trace, color or previous condition" If or
thodox salvation be the desirable, or, rather,
the indispensable thing that it is said to be, I
religious teachers do not do justice to their /
professions if they fail to employ every availa-
bic moans to bring the erring to the true faith.
And tho tatooed savage is not a representa-
tive of the only class who need to be turned n
from the pathways of damnation. There may h
lot he one religion for the ignorant and an q
other Cor the enlightened; but there certainly n
ought to be as many ways of presenting the p,
Word there are different tastes to be at
,racted and satisfied. A monotone of dis
;ourse grown wearisome to sensitive ears, .
'ecomes less than useful, and il even delete
ious ia such communities as have right to ia
lemand of their ministers that they shall not r
reach dotcn to them. Much that ia good in vi