The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1882-07-04
Jesse James Not a Christian.


1t is a pleasure To manv of us acting
christians, or assistant church members 10
learn. "a We do from a religious exchange,
that Brother Jesse James was no: a member
of tie Baptist church of Missouri during
his later years of usefulness, but that he
had Withdrawn from the church when he
found that his labors i'm the vineyard were
not consistent with his bushwhacking For
a time after he became a robber and high
wayman he continued la indemnity himself
with the church. but after each murder bis
conscience seemed To smite him more and
more, he became Irregular i'm his attend
ance upon the place OF worship, and finally
he asked for a Withdrawal card. and after
that when the brethren and sisterin were at
their devotions, at the PRAYER meeting or
the church sociables, he was off holding
up some belated night hawk, or going
through a bank OF a railroad train. Dc
casionally he would appear at the church
and ask the PRAYERS of the congregation
that he might hold out faithful TO the end,
and he would chip i'm five dollar note TO
the collection plate and ride off across the
country and kill enough travellers fer a
mess. This information as TO Brother
James, takes great load of the minds of
the truly good. who have been unable to
see how he cou.d reconcile his distribution
of bullets into the vitals of the ungodly,
with his following OF the ways of pleasant
ness and the paths of peace. When they
told us, about the time OF the funeral of
Brother James, that he was member
of the church i'm good standing, we
didn't see how il could be, when he
was loaded down with the proceeds of
his robberies, had three stolen horses, and
a reward was offered for him for murder.
The people who wrote that he was menu
Der in good standing, did not seem to know
the difference between church and anv
other society. A man NAV be I'm good
standing i'm some societies if he keeps his
dues paid up, but in a church he NAV line
the contribution box with thousand dollar
bills, and buy the oysters for sociable,
and put up the swings for Sunday school
picnic, and wash dishes after the com
munion. and 60 home with the older Sis
tiers from PRAYER meeting, and make him.
self useful, but if he have not the love of
the great Ruler i'm his heart, he is q nine
spot sure, and is not i'm good standing i'm
the church. That is, i'm our orthodox
churches. Take the Mormon church, now,
and IL Is different.
Brother James could belong to the Nor
mon church and rob and steal and murder
and as long as he whacked up ten per
cent. to Zion, he would be chief among
ten thousand and the one altogether lovely
unless ne forgot to get married lot of
times. There is nothing that knocks the
religion out of Mormon church member
so bad as to cling to one wife. That is
crime that is as much worse than highway
robbery as star-routeism is worse than
picking of piece of Goldfish in a corner
grocery. We are glad Brother James had
withdrawn as an active member of the
church, and the only regret We now have
is that the minister who conducted his
funeral should have exalted him to the
skies, and vet may be that was what he was
hired for