The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1880-03-25

THE FAILURE OF THE SOUTHERN PULPIT.
Under this title. a nasty fellow named
REV. David Swing has written for the
North Anericnn Rer5e,r a leng diatrihe OF
falsehood, filth, and all Observation-Disclosures,
~6enOuncirg the whole southern clergy, OF
all creeds and classes, a unworthy and IN
clean. We quote a specimen paragraph.
Hence the Southern pulpit, in its long
neglect TO preach the elevation OF man here,
to proclaim the worth and the rights OF the
African race; in its long cowardice shown
towards dueling: in Its silence over street
encounters between white men, and over
the sickening asSssslnatlOns OF Door negroes
by day and by night, In Its utter want OF
even middle age chivalry over the brutal
massacre of the Chisolm family; in it. neg
lect to urge upon young men the unavolda
BILE duties of industry and mental and more
culture in all this whole catalogue of neg
lect ii has revealed not only its inability to
preach the religion of Jesus, but any other
system Of morals or piety which can be
found even in pagan annals. Whenever
that voice which claims to speak the will of
God in the cotton States has touched at .
earthly affairs, it has exhausted its logic
and passion upon apologies for slavery and
indeed the last printed form of piety it sent
over the world was an argument tending 10
show the bondage Of the negro to the supe
rior white race was a relationship natural
and valuable, and that it must be for ever
esteened and preserved. Since the practi-
cal defeat it sustained in that direction the
Southern pulpit has let alone all mundane
affairs, and has confined itself with great
fidelity to metaphysical disquisitions on the
nature of Christ, upon the mode of baptism,
the necessity of faith, the futility Of human
good works, the sovereignty Of God, and
the Importance of making some formal and
immediate arrangement touching the next
form Of existence. Under which devotion
to abstraction even the duelist has sunk to
the lower condition of an assassin, and
what was called once a statesman is content
NOW to appear at night only and in tho
masked and sepulchral dress of . Ku-klux."
This be it remembered is from a carefully
prepared article, in the leading eclectic
magazine of the country ! The Southern
Pulpit needs no defense: it is highest honor
to incur the assaults of such fellows as
as Swing. But we shall remark as a matter
of private opinion hat If to differ from the
methods and manners and morals of the
Northern Pulpit 1.-THE Political Pulpit of
which Swing is an exponent be failure, :
then thank God for his withheld favor
fit be failure to have refrained from
dabbling in putrid cess pools. like the
'.Reverend' political preachers aforesaid,
from Kearney kallock ia California to the
''throat-cutters' of Maine; if it be failure
to have no ''Beecher Beastllness, no Tall
mage Trials nor like scandals that have
disgraced the American name if 1t be
failure to lack at this day the spectacle
of more than one dozen '''preachers,' dixie
Rev Hayden, Rev" Vosberg, and
others on trial for murder; fit be fail
ure'' to have no Rev" Cowley's in the
penitentiary for The crime of starving anc
numbering helpless infants, no Rev Ben
netts in jail for bigamy, adultery, and de
~sertion if it be failure" to lack the 'isms.
from Mormonism, Free-Loveism, Free
Thinkingism and finally if it be failure
to lack that frequency of crime and lewdnes'
that gave point to the picture in the North
ern Pictorials exhibiting a Preacher en-
enveloped in a wire cage, like a %ravenln'
wolf, to keep him from assaulting men
wives and dau ghters, if these lacks com
!, prise lack of SUI cess, thank God tn
! Southern Pulpit failed and died before be
coming like It's accusers, a rottennessand
stencil in the n%ostrils Of pure people the glob
around!