Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1888-02-25
LITTLE ACTS FOR GREAT PRETEN.
Tl0NS.

Ia all the goodness and greatness
that we are taught of God, With
what pity aud pain must He not look
down upon the religious luminosity oi
some OF His chosen servants. Be
hold the spectacle of church that
claims millions IN its communion
claims to be the mother OF poor,
weak, suffering human nature,-
claims to have shaped the worlds
course in all ages,-in this day OF
peace aud good will to all, refusing
christian burial to poor old man
III New York, who followed his fallen
pastor perhaps more in sympathy
than in theory, tor the years of their
friendship may have been many and
deep and warm. This mocking
christian resentment was not SO
much for the loss of dead soul as
for the intimidation aud subjugation
of living minds to q false and tyran-
meal ecclesiastical jurisdiction aud
wealth-and ease loving church sup
port. Bitter religious animosity is
as old as christianity itself; but in
this enlightened day one might hope
for less old.time rlgor unto death
aud perdition. The father of En-.
gllsh ecclesiastical history tells us
that in his day the food and drink
that had been blessed by one con.
tending party was thrown away by
the other as if it had been offered TO
idols, and "every cup or other uten
sill touched by Wiliri.iian had to be
washed aud purified before it could
be used by these pretenders to or.
thodoxy,"-the thum berlaud
kings and Nesterfield bishops. I'm
prlsonment, confiscation, torture,
Dissertation after death, were pIacti
Ued by one rival religious opposition
against the other. Then they lived
in rapine, hatred, revenge, aud died
saints. But eau we not see the just
punishment Of God in the casting of
their bones together on the same
dunghill, by despollers raised up by
their own greed for wealth, power
and false spiritual dictati0n. There
are many long centuries between
Theodoret and Wllfried and Nc
Glynn and Corrigan, but the spirit
OF luminosity is the same-stllr car
ried on in the name of God and His
saints, still maintained iu defense oil
the faith. The one prayer of all
good christians should be, that as we
are all children of the same
Father, destined for the same end,
the time may soon be here when we
will be permitted to live together in
the bonds of charity that Christ
died for, in the unity of love from
which proceeded the Holy Spirit Il
and if We can not live together on
these heaven ordained terms, let Us
at least allow everyone to live and
think according to the dictates OF
his conscience, in conformity with
the laws of common brotherhood
and the principles of christian civil
lization. 1t would be consolation
to know that the Bede Of the second
thousand century could come to
sIander and nobler conclusions than
the Bede of the first thousand years.
of the christian era. As yet the
conclusions of one thousand years
ago are the only conclusions of
today" that the instincts Of
despotism exist always and every
where in the human heart, and that
unless vigorously restrained and
curbed by laws and institutions.
they break out even IN the best,
choosing the same forms, laying the
same snares, producing the same
baseness, inspiring the same viOlen.
ces, perversities and treacheries."