San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-01-15
CONTRIBUTED SCRAPS.
Written for the IIGHT.l

ing, Irrespective Of the sect, orr
denomination, which fostered an un-
accountable love Of rule and power,
or developed a phenomenal hank
ering for cranky schemes and wild
experiments.
History shows, that all religious
sects, when in possession OF tenn.
poral power, have prescribed and
prosecuted all religious opinions
that confiicted with such, as they
held.
There is no exception to this
rule. 1t is a rule without an ex-
ception. The uniformity of the
rule teaches; that no sect can be
safely trusted with power, and
this lesson should never be for
gotten by the friends of personal
liberty.
Tolerate all known sects and all
which may spring up in the future
but place muzzle on all and
compel them to move in their
proper orbits.
or all modes of government ever
tried, the sacredotal, or ecclesiastic,
Is the worst and the most tyrani-
cal, because 1t seeks to control the
conscience of men and eXalt the
sacredotal class, above all law.
All students of history know,
that the Catholics, Episcopalians,
Presbyterians, and Methodists
have turned prosecutors, when
they could control the power of
the state. The Ana Baptists of
Munster displayed the same
spirit.
A preacher in a pulpit Is an out
cast. None can challenge his
statements, expose his fallacies,
refute his arguments or point out
his mistakes.
The result is, that, as a class,
breaches seldom see but one side
of the question, and rarely acquire
common sense. They want auto
cratic rule and frequently aspire to
play the dictators to the com.
munity.
The pulpit is not an arena for
discussion, and it is only by the
conflict of mind with mind, in
debate, that common sense and
sound judgement are acquired.
There are many preachers gift
ed with as sound judgement and
as great powers of analysis, as can
be found anywhere. They are
also brimful of common, or every
day sense-the most useful and
safe of all human sense.
Persons, that have taught school
all their lives and come into con-
tact with immature and inferior
minds, fall insensibly into the
same mental defects and arbitrari-
ness observable in the majority of
preachers.
Men, who have held judicial
offices for many years, slide into
the same defects, or peculiarities.
They grow autocratic and conceive
they are always right.
Preachers are constantly smitten
with a favor for introducing some
sort of reform, and when they
turn crusaders, they generally end
by becoming full-blown fanatics,
instead OF preachers Of the gospel
of Christ.
Prohibition has spoiled hun
dreds of good Christians and
preachers. They shut their eyes
to human nature and common
sense, to fact and reason, and are
confident, that prohibitory law
will make men abstain from in
toxicating beverages, and recon-
cile them to tibet deprivation of
personal liberty.
Then they must compel every
one,-sinner. and saint, to observe
Sunday, with solemn sedatness
and long faces, and forwith, they
start another crusade with grand
flourish of trumpets.
Then comes crusade for the
suppression and humiliation Of
gambling houses, and prostitution,
and the preachers whoop up the
crusade with wonderful zeal.
That gamboling and prostitution
are evils, is beyond all dispute,
but so are bodily deformities,
malformations, blindness and in
durable diseases.
No human law can eradicate
bodily malformations, deformi-
ties, blindenss and incurable
diseases.
God has forbidden theft, perjury
and murder, and man has branded
and punished them, as crimes,
but these crimes still abound and
will do so while man endures.
Gambling and prostitution have
existed from the remotest ages
among all nations, in defiances Of
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