Gospel Herald, 1860-01-28

              GOSPEL HERALD.
Devoted to Christianity, Morality, tlie Interests of Sabhiath Soliools, Social Improvement, Temperance, Education, and Oeneral News.
VOL. 16.
"BEHOIiD,   I   BRING   YOTI   GOOD   TIDINGS   OF   GREAT   JOT.   .   .   .   ON   EARTH   PEACE,   GOOD   WILL   TOWARD   MEN.
DAYTON, 0, SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 1860
NO. 37.
SELECT^OETftV.
The Destruction of Sennacheril).
Tlic Assyrian came down like the -wolf on. the
fold, And his cohorts-were gleaming in  purple and
gold And the sheen of their spears  -was  like  stars
0 a the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Gali¬ lee.        , •: Like the leaves of the forest when Summer    is
green, That host with thiir banners at sunset were seen; Like the leaves of the forest when Antumn hath
blown, That host on the   morrow lay withered and
strowh.
For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he pass¬ ed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed heavy ahd chill, ¦
Andtheir hearts but once heaved, and for ever stood still,
A.ni there lay the steed  -with his   nostril  all
wide. But through it there i-oUed not the breath of his
pride: And the foam of his gasping lay white on  the
turf, -       ^
And cold as thespray of the rock-beating surf.
And there lay the rider distorted and pale, With the dew on his brow, aud the rust on his
mail; i
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone The lances uulifted, the trumpet unblown.  .
Andthe widows of Asher.are loud in their wail And t;he idols aro broke in the temple of Baal; . Andtie might of the Gentile, unsmote by  the
sword, ''
Hath  melted like snow in  the glance  of - the
Lordl
WriUenforthe Ijtospel Berald.
Liberal Christianity,
BY H. SIMONTON. NO.   2.
[continued.]
I hope that you will permit mo to' - say,, and 1 will say it in all, kindness and the best of good . feeling for any who may, feel disposed to differ with me, thatit would, in my opinion,'take at least one good cart load of our mhd- ern selfish, sectarian, heresy hunting vdin- isters, to make a half of .a mart, when compared with many of thoso ^ whole- souled sons of thunder—nnd then they would only do to hold the lamp while those mighty men of God would read the text. Themost of those men, in^ those days, were national men. Their watch-word was the'' union of the church, now, hence forth, and' forever. May their evangelical christian spirit breathe afresh,the resurrection fire of ¦Dmne trtithinto the hearts of sectioilial selfish.sectarian men all over our lahd ..and nations. ,, -   '
, W"hat we want at this tiine, is a little more of the soul-stiring power and energy of Divine"trutH in dur nearts and. actions, and then yfe wonld not he so much concerned about whethi' er other people believe jiist aS'-iv-edd m all things or tiot; and should others call us Unitarians, because .we do hot %^.^}' *S t>ei our duty to believe th^ Ennity,.! see no demand for going into tUeoiogical aijd mtjtaphysical spasms, ana tax our mental conception. One ^nmg IS certain, we never have, as a aenqmination, .beea Trinitarians, and i Hopo never will', without better evi¬ dence of Its Biblical -triith. ' At times
I am almost led to think that that being called tho Devil is having a pretty good time in the world with sfiime people, who mako high preten¬ sions to soundness of christiaii faith and set themselves upas the judges of the Evangelical character of the faith of other men. I do not mean to say, that the old enemy has the entire con¬ trol of them, but from the spirit and manner in which many talk and write, I think it just suits the cunning old imp of hell. He is never better pleased than when men begin to con¬ tend, and dispute, and divide, on points of doctrine, and call each othor by hard, unchristian names. When thoy come to that point at which they make opinion the test of union in spiritual feeling, the enemy is content—-his work is being done to suit his mind. The old adversary is tho notorious god¬ father and foster-mother of Sectarian¬ ism, iii all its forms; itis the corner¬ stone in his slaughter-house of spirit¬ ual death, by which he intends to de¬ molish the Church of Christ. It is one' graxtd aim with the enemy to arouse and continue in the heart ofthe church a bitter spirit of contention about 'religious sentiment, and lead men to divide on matters of opinion and'overy breach he'tan maiko in the Ohurch universal, or in any bno of the branches claiming to be Chri,stian, thebettei-he is ple'ase'd. ', In'union there is strength. The greater the,amount Of division and sectional fe'eling there isiri the' Chutch, the less able will she be tb'do good battle against ¦ the united powers 'of darkness. ' The inore firmly the people of God are united in'th6 bond of chris- cian atfeetion, and the less they con tetidih a bitter spirit afedut triatters of opihioDj' the st'i;onger -w-ill -they be to build lip the Church, and save men from the pollutions and polluting char acter of sin. I fear that there are many in the'world who thinli more of opin- icjn than they do of,'good christian character; for in' many Cases men are lo-^ed and cared for because of their oneness of opinioh, while other men, who differ with' them in opinion; are meti of good sound christian character, but their opihibns are'not with the in¬ dividual or popular voice; hence their goodness of heart and life is not taken into consideration in placing a value upon iihem. Opinion and unity of doc¬ trine and religious sentiment is every-' thing with naanyin this country, while a holy life, formed by a uniform obe¬ dience to the teachings of Divine truth is nothing except it comes from our dpinions of the truth. Divine trUth will expand the heart, while Sectarian¬ ism will eoiitract it into ia very small space. We want more of the expand- ,ing power among us. I dodesire that the sober second reflection^ of the brother-hood all over the nation -will Jbjring them back within the did land 'mark—the good old way of christian .'character the test, of christian fellow- 'sliip,';and not the opinions "of men about disputed points of doctrine'and sentiment, in either Church or State. ^
Other men may differ with me in opinion. Well, they have this .right, hy ndiure, grace and the ever to bead-' mirM constitution ofthe United States; but as'for me, I hold to the oldbasis of  the year   of  pur ,Lord Eighteen
Hundred—christian character the test of brotherhood^iVortA, South, Fast and West. Here our fathers stood for many, many years, and glory crowned the union. '
, Then there was but one great heart that moved the denomination, and that heart as large as the world ; but now we have in one sense an East, a West, a North an'd a SOuth ; at least, there are, those who desire by their actions to have it so.
,   WriUen for tlie Gospel Herald.
Inferior Churches! Preaching for Noth- ing!!!
BY O. J. WAIT.
For what is it wherein ye wore inferior to other churches, except it be that I, myself was not burdensome to you? Forgive hie thia wrong." —2d;, Cor. 12:13.. i .
One of the fundamental principles of all religions, is to make provisions for those whom the people call to servethem. This is not made as an act of benevolence, but of even hand¬ ed justice. The gospe! is not an ex¬ ception. Christ recognizes the princi¬ pal. He directs his apostles not to take' their own purse, nor to carry scrip, or bag to put a lunch in: be¬ cause the laborer is worthy ofhis hire. The apostle teaches the same thing.— Atid it is the duty of gospel teachers to preach the same doctrines now. ¦ 'Pol? certain causes, Paul did not see fit to extiot of the Corinthian church, what he took of other churches. It was hie privilege, a right to have made Mm&elf burdensome, but he waived it.- Hetaxed other churche8---robbed them ^^to -favor this church. He preaches for nothing io themll! On reviewing this, he s^ys, he done tho church a "wrong," and made it "inferior to other churches."' His'mind is so serious¬ ly exercised over this wrong as to ask their forgiveness. : , . i'.
If it was "wrong" for the apostle to preach for nothing, or to preach in such a way as to not be' burdensome, whut mufet be the morality of preach- ifig for nothing now? Andif the apos¬ tle saw occasion for asking forgiveness ofthe church for thus sinking it, ought not those,'who now preach to'churches without becoming burdensome—or re¬ quiring compensation—ask pardon of said churches for training them up in dost fi,stedness f And if the -minister, through falBO delicacy, or ignorance of his duty, neglects to preach the whole truth, the church should come togeth¬ er and vehemently protest against be¬ ing made "inferior" to other churches; should demand that their minister take his pay like a man ' and provide for hisown household, and- allow the church to wipe this burning inferiori¬ ty from its brow.
'' Eeader, are you one of the ministers that preach for nothing?- Ought you not to follow the example of tJie great apostle, and confess and ask forgive¬ ness? If a member ofa church that is thus made "inferior;" ought you not to do your'best to wipe this shame from your profession of brotherly kindness?
Ifa church, owo your minister, are J'OU- not as responsible to him as he would be to you, if he had bought your horse?
Oh that inferiority arising from neg¬ lect, to meet the obligations due, were wiped away from every religious organ¬ ization.
Wriltenfor pie Qotpel Hct-aid,
"Denominational Principles."
Bbo. Ellis: — My last iarticle was rather a  defflnition  of primary prin¬ ciples,  as held by us in opposition to   : Papal assumption   and Protestant in¬ consistency, as the reader will see by efference to page 2d of the 17th num-   . ber of the -HeraZd—that the Scriptures   : are our rule of faith and practice, and christian  character  our only bond of   '¦ uiiion.   And  here be it  understood, that the Scriptures'only become a suf-   ' ficient rule of faith and practice to the   [ man or woman that acts in harmony   } with its Divine precepts.    Otherwise   •' it becomes no rule  at  all, and a bad   '; life Under this sacred profession is a   j flat cohtradiction, by the  person that leads it, that the Scriptures are a suffi-   ; cient rulo of faith and practice to him.   ':, This, however, does not disprove the  i perfection of the'rule, but  only the  '- disloyalty  of  the . subject;  therefore,  i there must be arefined eorrespoiidenee   • between  the mind governed, aiid the   ' naturo of the law that governs, or else  ' there is no real agreement and gov()rn-   : liient there.    All governments, wheth¬ er political or religious, when revered  , anti loved by their subjects, will ira-  '; press their very nature and elem-ents upon  the governed,as neeossarily as ; the  sun impresses   its warm  nature ; upon the earth when it shines.   Hence : governments thathave beon formed by  : heroes and warriors who have written their names in blood, have been des-  [ potic, and the dearest rights tmd in-   • terests of, man are the last things se¬ cured by such  governments.    Ahd it is.unjust to suppose thatcomniunities, oppressed   by   despotic governments, will not turn opptossor when' oppor-  ¦ tunity offers.   This hasheen the mourn¬ ful experience in the vicissitudes of all pations that have \yritten  their laws and constitiitionB in blood and oppres- -, sion., "And this reckless spirit in. tho ., case'of individuals has been rendered 80 famous   in poetry  and  song  and history, that our worst  passions have been. warmed   into  active   life;  and through -the spirit of war the world : has  been  turned  up-side down,   and ' this beautiful earth, that ought to be , the abode of a common brotherhood, • of peace on   earth  and  good will  to man, is turned into a great battle-field of sferifel    How has all this been con- sumated?    We answer, bad  laws, and bad institutions making bad men, have, accomplished the  work.    No wonder that man sighs for a millennium. Prom these remarks it will be observant to the most superficial that bad govern¬ ment will make a bad people, and a good   government will make a good people.    Well, now, if tho Scriptures, alone is the best government in  the world, the Christians ought to be the best people in the world ; for they take it as their only government.    Lotus, now examine a littlo into the nature; ofthis Divine government;   and let' it be un dorstood h»r c th a t e-very science and government hasfandamental prin¬ ciples that give general tone and char-, acter to that  science or government.
Por instance, the sun is ¦ the funda¬ mental principle of astrpnomy, so far^ as our system is concerned, "The sun, - in' our system is the great masculine^ power that warms, enlightens and gov¬ erns all other bodies, and produces the