Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 March 1860 — POLITICAL PREACHING. [ARTICLE]

POLITICAL PREACHING.

VVe published last week a series of extracts under the head of “theSouthon Methodism,” showing the manner, in which our Southern brethren treat the Northern branch of that Church, because it dares to be antislavery. We did not publish these for the purpose of appealing to the sectarian spirit that may be incidental to this, in common with all branches of the Christian Church; and in fact to all organizations; for the purpose of making votes thereby, for our candidates, ia October and November; for we would not, it we could, make our votes in this way. Wo selected these articles to show how bad must be the cause of Democracy (!) when it resorts to such means for

its support. No less surely is a “man known by the company he keeps,” than is a principle by the means which its adherents may deem necessary to adopt for its support and promulgation. We presume that notone of our readers would associate with, or trust their goods and effects in the hands of men known to habitually associate with robbers* thicyes and murderers; and yet.wcjouht not that many of them—professors of Christianity* too- are acting with, and lending their whole power and influence to a party, the principles of which can only be planted on the grave of Christianity. They admit, by these acts, and a hundred others to which we could refer, that the doctrines of Christ, as taught

and understood atr the North, are antagonistic to the cardinal principles of latter-dav Democracy; and that to effect such a triumph as they desire; a triumph that would be lasting, and would not be barren in its results; a triumph that would engrave their principles upon the tablets of the nation’s j future history, thy must subvert Christianity as it is believed by nine-tenths of the Christian world, and set up instcad-a system which will announce to the world the new revelation that, There is no God but the “nigger,”

and Christ is his prophet. It is to this that the party has been drifting ever since the petition of the New England clergy was hooted out of Congress by the Democratic members, in the spring of ’SO; it is to this end that a lowl goes up from every Democratic leader ftom Maine to Texas, whenever a minister echoes the principles of Christ in preaching against human slavery; and the rank and file—good Christian men—take up the cry and send it on, down and down into the lowest sink-hole where the dirtiest Democrat dares to go in the darkest night. Each extremity of the party line is laboring for the same end, though with different objects. The “tag end” of the party—the wing that has its headquarters at Five-Points—seek to

subvert Christianity because its ministers feel it incumbent qjppu them ( u preach against stealing the goods of their fellows and appropriating them to their own use; and the Southern slaveholders who own and “run” the party, seek to subvert it because an application of the same principles would prevent them from stealing the bodies of their fellows and appropriating them to their own use; while the mass of the party echo the cry of “down with political preachers;” not because they have any sinister motive, but because they take the cue from their leaders without thinking of the effect.

A few years ago the preachers that would not have denounced slavery, polygamy and intemperance, would have thought un- i worthy to fill the pulpitp and yet, now he i dare not open his lips to denounce these, or any other vice to which the leaders cf the party ire adicted, without being denounced as a “political preacher,” and in danger of loosing half his congregation. What has produced this change? Is slavery any less a sin than when Wesley, Whitfield, Otterbein, and other noble spirits received the approval of the civilized world for denouncing it in such merited terms? Is intemperanceany less a vice than when Father Alathew was looked upon as a Saint for devoting his life to the cause? Is polygamy any less a crime than when it was a penitentiary offence throughout.,the Union for a man to have more than one wife! Are any of these questions any Che less inoral ones; because they have become political ones! Is it any the less the duty, and within the province of a minister to preach against an evil, because a political party may see fit to adopt these evils for its test principles! We ask these questions and we hope that every reader will answer them within his own heart. Slavery, polygamy and intemperance have been denounced by the clergy ever since our Government had an existence; they have been denounced as great political, moral and social evils, and every Christian throughout the land, has a thousand times murmured a heartfelt Amen. But a change comes over

the spirit of our dreams; a great party rises up that advocates the universality of slavery; the right of every man “to regulate his domestic. institutions in his own way,” and have ns many wives as he pleases; the right of every man to get drunk, and make his fellow drunk, and immediately is the mouth'of every preacher in the land sealed on these great moral questions, because they have now become political ones. The wbolo Christian world is deprived r of the right to speak upon a moral question, because, fursooth, it has became a political- moral one! And this spnit is increasing; is gaining strength; denunciations have almost ceased, j and “mobs” are coming into vogue for the I suppression of the freedom of speech in the

pulpit. Witness the appeal that we published last week to the mobocratic spirit of Kentucky, in referenee to the-State Conference. i» T o'r is this spirit of opposition to Christianity confined to *ny one Chufichibut vents itself alike against all Churches that are anti-slavery. The following letter, addressed to the editor of the Dayton Religious Telescope —the organ of the United Brethren—needs no explanation. Its simple statements speak more forcibly than could half a ■column of remarks:

“Adair Co,, Ky., March 20. f lirothcr L. : I am yet on my work, doing afbout the best I can; but the times are still growing more gloomy. Oh! how tny heart is pained within ine, while I am writing this letter, for a perishing world. Brother, let me say to the many readers of our Religious Telescope, that our work in Kentucky, as a | church is crushed, because we are not protected by the lawes of this Slate. A great many of our lending members are preparing to move West. Our lives are threatened. It is said that there was a mob of men followed me the other night to an appointment, to whip me, but they did not effect their purpose. On Sunday some of our friends went to meeting armed with deadly weapons. This we are sorry to see. Lord help us to do our duty! I would now say that the Rev. John M. Blair and three of his sons and their families, among whom is the missionary, about to leave this State; likewise, Rev. Thomas Hopper ifod family. With tears in my eyes, I close this letter. Pray for us. Yfou will hear from me soon.” ‘ “Richard Armstrong.”

Will our many readers indorse this opposition to everything that is moral! Will they indorse the party that is using its whole power to overturn the freedom of speech in the-pulpit! Will you vote to sustain a party, the principles of which are such that Christianity must be subverted, and the mouths of ministers closed in order to sustain it! Will you vote to sustain a party whose moral turpitude is such that they will not permit their principles to be discussed evin in the pulpit; that, too, when those principlesjaffert morals as much as politics! We pause for your answer in October and November.