The San Antonio light. (San Antonio, Tex.) 1883-1886, 1883-11-10

This was enough. Mcrrick believed he
would be saved his spiritual adviser believed
that he would be saved and II Christianity be
true, he was saved. The fatal Friday came,
dfnop tbo scesroid no mao a snaecb md i'm tbai
speech he said that he was prepared 10 die,
that his sins were all forgiven, that ~ was but
a step from the scaffOld to glory aud all he
regretted was that his wife had been sent into
eternity unprepared, and that he should not
Think Of n! THAT tendlsh butcher going IN
70 heaven. that murdered woman down IN hell.
Yet so IL was. She was lost-an honest. virtu-
Gus life, years Of patient toll aud suffering and
unrequited love. counted for naught against
her want of faith. and she must perish; while
this inhuman monster, his hands dripping with
the life-bloOd OF his victim, was saved hcCause
"his faith had made him whole" When that
cruel blow was struck, aud death came to this
poor woman, heavens portals were closed 70
her. But when the trap-door was sprung be-
meath her murderer, there was n great hustle
In heaven then faithful servant WIS about
to enter into the Joy of his Lord. fancy |
hear Jesus saying To the old man with the ca
pacious bosom. abraham, have that idiot
that dirty vngrant, Lazarus, and that thief |
sent up,uestlea little closer together and make
room for Merrick."
TIE CHURCH rs HISTORY.
The church has filed the world with ARTIFICIAL
vices and with artificial virtues The noblest
deeds she places In the catalogue Of crime: the
most degrading acts are passports 70 her
heaven. So long rs her teachings are followed,
so long viii moral anarchy prevail. When
reason IL dethroued and a mans mind becomes
confused and corrupted by the reception of
irrational religious doRmas. his sense OF moral
duty must, az natural consequence. become
deprived. When your grocer Ia prepared to
accept the doctrine of the Trinlty-tO believe
that three are one and one Is three--ho is GER
tainly prepared to believe that Is ounces are a
pound. When your mllkman becomes Bap-
list and believes that a sinner plunged In water
makes good saint, he "a ready TO believe that
pound OF chalk Immersed IN water will make
a can OF good milk. When your butcher par
takes of the Eucharist and believes that bite
Of stale bread Is n piece of God, you must not
"a
beef tullow Tor prime lard. when men believe
IN special proyidences and the efficacy of
prayer, aud mistake human charity for divine
mercy. IL Is not strange that society should be
cursed with tramps and preachers.
That the claims made In behalf Of Christianity
as mOrHzing force are false IL clearly shown
by the effect of 10 teachings upon those who
have received it. History records that in almost
every instance IL acceptance by nation or
community has been followed by a dissolution
of morals.
The primitive Christians have been repre-
sented as models Of virtue. That sense of
their weakness and the prosecutions to which
they were exposed would have tendency to
counterfeit In some degree, tho demoralizlng
Influence Of their religious dpgmas is fair TO
suppose. Butwere they free from vice. Let
their great evangelist answer. Writing TO one
OF his churches. Paul says:
at is reported commonly that there Is forni-
catien among you, and such fornicatiOn rs Is
not so much as named among tho Gentlles."
Il Cor. V. ",
"Ye do wrong aud defraud, and that your
brethren" Ibid vi. 81.
before the unbeliever" Ibid yiO.
What was the character OF the Christians of
the third century Let the ecclesiastical his
torlan answer says Moshoim:
Many were sunk ia luxury and voluptuous-
ness, pulled up with vanity, arrogance and
ambition; possessed With spirit of contention
and discord, and addicted to many other vices"
(Eccl. Hist. y. ~.
Come down a little further. Christianity has
become the State religion of the Roman Em-
piro. Paganism has been almost entirely Grad
icated within her borders. But what is tho
moral condition of her peopleY Let Salvian,
Christian clergyman of tho nth century, say
The very church OF God, which ought IN all
things to please God, what does 10 but provoke
him to anger2 with the exception OF very
Few who flee from vice, what Is almost every
Christian congregation but sink of vices
For you will find in the church scarcely one
who Is not either a drunkard, or glutton, or
an adulterer, ora robber, or a man slayer,
and, what Is worse than all, almost all these
without limit" Malls Memorials Of Early
What OF the middle centuries? Let Halam
speak;
ginning OF the eighth century but England was
at that time more respectable and did not fall
into complete degradation until the middle OF
the ninth, There could be nothing more de-
ceedng centuries" mid. Age, p. 400.
. The Byzantine Empire arises, and exists for a
thousand years. In this Empire the power OF
Christianity Is supreme. Never in any other
nation has ecclesiastical authority exercised
such absolute control MS here. If what the
church anrms be true, then what a virtuous
people must this be2 Here vice must be un-
known. But what is the real character or this
model Christian Government Let the his
torian of European morals tell. Says Leoky:
The universal verdict of history Is, that II
constitutes, with scarcely an exception, the
most thoroughly base and despicable form that
civilization has yet assumed"
The history of the Empire is monOtonous
story OF the intrigues of priests, cunuohs and
women, of poisonings, of cOnspTacies, of uni
form ingratitude, of perpetual fratrcides."
Hist Nor, vol; IT, p. 49,
Then comes the Protestant reformation, but
with IL comes no reformation Of Christian NOR
ais The Roman Catholic aud Eastern churches
have wrought the degradation OF the rest OF
Europe, but IL remains for the Protestant
church to complete the decentralization OF Ger
testihes:
Under the Papacy we were bad. but under
the Gospel we are seven-yea, more than seven
times worse"
The Churc hof England IL established, but what
does II do for the morals of her people; Let
one OF Englands great historians answer. says
Macaulay;
at is an unquestionable and mos instruc-
tive fact, that the years during which the po-
litical powers of the Anglican hierarchy were
in the zenith, were precisely the years during
which national virtue was ut the lowest point"
Hist Eng, vol I. p .lil)
=. Thus this Shiny serpent Of superstition drags
its sluggish length down through the centuries,
leaving naught but pollution in its trail.
At the present time vice Is most prevalent in
those nations most loyal to the cburch-in
Russia and Ireland, In Spain and Italy, in Mex
leo and Abyssinia, Protestant Germany was
notorious for its ignorance and immortality.
Compulsory education was adopted, and what
is the result2 lnhdel Germany presenting the
highest standard of morals in Europe TO day.
The most thoroughly religious city in England
is the cathedral city of Canterbury. In this
ecclesiastical capital, religion has given birth
to twins-gnoranoea and licentiousness. or the
various Christian denominations of the United
States, the strongest numerically, the lowest
Intellectually, and the most devout religlously,
are the Roman Catholic and tho Methodist
These denominations comprise one-flfth of our
population, and furnish one-third of all our
criminals. The most ignorant, the most i'm
moral, and at the same time the most religious
race IN this country, is the colored race. Its
most distinguished representative however il
Freethnker. And while a hundred colored
clergymen are now languishng in prison for
theft and adultery, Frederick Douglas has
never been charged with either, OF the four
men whose deaths excited the widest comment
here last year, Longfellow and Emerson were
unbelievers; Guiteau and Jesse James were
Christians. The former were guided by the
laws of natural morality; the latter were the
legitimate fruits of "Christlan morality"
The most debased criminal pleads mot gull
ty,' but attempts to fasten his crime upon the
innocent. The church, covered with crime,
her Robes stained with the blood OF murdered
huha nd ttrAfn har s,fY ..,gsI. Al.