The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1879-06-20
CHURCH ZEAL.

CHURCH ZEAL.
AS an outsider, wishing every Chris
tian denomination well, we take the
privilege of trenctfng upon the terri
tory of the priest and tho pastor, to say
a word in behalf of religious federation
in its warfare with UNCONVENTIONAL
zeal. Somewhere, we are told that
there is no royal road to heaven. 1t is
equally true that no cept or sect of Chris
tians enjoys the exclusive right-of. way
to that blissful sphere. The promises
of the Savior are to him who believes,
regardless of what ceremonies he adopts
to manifest outwardly his devotion, or
of the UNCONVENTIONAL creed to which
he attaches himself. Who has consti-
tuted any Of us a judge to pass sentence
of condemnation upon those who dis
sent from our views? If so empowered,
may not those who dissent claim to hold
the same Divine authority? The re-
suit leads to strife, bitterness, and, If it
were possible, to the defeat of the pur-
poses of Christianity.
But it is mainly the social aspect of
our subject with which we are con-
cerned. A community is often rem
dered more inharmonious by intem-
perate displays of UNCONVENTIONAL fer
vor, than by any other cause. Bitter
feelings are engendered In this way, so
intense and unrelenting, that one, not
aware of their origin, would suppose
that they arose from uncompromising
personal rancor and were founded upon
the worst passions of our nature. One
neighbor after another is enlisted in
the contention about creeds and forms
brethren and sisters in one grand and
sublime faith, engage in the acrino-
nious dispute-and the grand total is a
community broken into irreconcilable
factions. Is this the aim OF Christian
ity? BY no means.
Our observation, from neutral stand
point; of denomfnational conflicts, often
leads us to admire, as the sublimest
idea enunciated in Holy Writ, that the
greatest of all virtues is Charity-not
that restricted quality which contents
itself with giving aims to the poor and
providing shelter and food for the sick;
but that noble, gotl-lil<e virtue which
most of all opens a mans heart to his
feitow-man and educates it to sympa-
thy, kindliness, forbearance, federation
and love. Men everywhere are falli-
BILE, and cannot help it. Shall fallible
man judge him who is his peer, and
condemn him to torment for asserting
that natural right of belief and action
which it is his duty to exercise? That
is not Charity-nor does it tally with
our conception of religion. If such a
man uses his talents as given him, and
has faith, let him alone. Prosclyting
from ono faith to another, by systematic
is something like in
ferfering with a neighbours laborers, or |
one teacher leading off the pupils of
another. 1t is one of the banes of the |
church militant on earth, and the fruit
full source of social disquietude beside.
But, aside from tho sound philoso-
ply, morally and socially, of religious
1t is essential to the perpe-
tuity of free institutions. Civil and re-
ligious liberty go hand-in-hand. a Re-
public ceases to be such, whenever it
recognizes any church as the church of
State. One Of President Madison's
ablest messages to Congress is upon this
subject.
AS guardians of social progress and
harmony, as we'll rs teachers of Chris
tianity, ministers should strive to allay
all UNCONVENTIONAL strife and to hasten
the reconciliation of all crceds to a per-
feet alliance against the common enc.
my. That is n narrow faith which
defines orthodox rs my dox, heterodox
as your dox. Paul said to one of his
churches that their zeal had DESTROYED
them. "Zeal without knowledge. F" Is
another expression used by him, There
can be, then, too great zeal, ifexerted
in the wrong direction. What Chris
tianity aud the State need what bene-
fits society-is honest differences of re-
ligfous sentiments, mutual forbearance,
and a rivalry only in tho work ofdoinr
good