Show OUR CHICAGO LETTER JUNIUS agapi HIS CAUSTIC COMMENTS ON CHICAGO DIVINES CHICAGO oct 25 1886 deseret news I 1 james payne in his essay on the literary calling says one would think that in writing about literary men and matters there would be no difficulty in finding a title for ones essay or that any embarrassment which might arise would be from excess of ft material the distinguished liters litera beur would find himself in a parallel quandary if he strayed into politics or religion reli siou excess of material is not alone an embarrassment at present to the political and religious student stud enta but buc it is isa positive obstruction it is a lono long 1 l way from HF y GEORGE TO PRESIDENT CLEVELAND and yet they are likely to be brought face to face at no BO distant day it itis is a still ioner longer way between presbyterian join am and romanism Romant Boma nm sm and were lb ry near confront confronting ipg cacti other in ary purgatory here taid so 1 at with half calfi a dozen doen political parties fin in the field excess of material Js is th i chief embarrassment to a writer arid and iu the same manner mai aner with calvin in purgatory and john knox kno about to emerge from J with episcopal s ashamed of its protestantism and afflicted with dry rot and decay who can deny that there them IS not an excess of material in religion rell ion lor ibi the e stu student dOnt f air the midst of all this political and ioui anarchy one abne can discern a kade lit e of something that forebodes foreboder fore bodes hopefulness for the future of civilization among the halt bait a dozen general conventions vent ions ious of different churches recently held and yet being held in chicago ChIcag 6 the better and more educated minds manifest a disposition to 0 establish some kind of a bond of 04 common unity betwixt the various sects of Protestant christianity this will be no easy matter to perform owing to the alarming extent to which narrowness bigotry and mulish obstinacy preval prevail among average churchmen there here is i not so much said about utah as there was three years ago it was hoped j then to make utah a kind of scapegoat for fanatical deligio political hacks all kinds of disaster and ea calamity lamity were predicted for the republic unless utah was immediately bound hand band and toot loot and the then absolutely decapitated all the old chet chestnuts nuts about priestly tyranny church and state freedom of woman were hawked about in pamphlet and newspaper until the very metal in the types at laust last began boget ashamed of itself this year matters are a little changed ed and though there is still a little said sa about utah yet there is much more said about home tue tile condition of society here can be best learned from the mouths of the divines themselves if the statements made at atthe the gatherings held here recently are truthful it is difficult to see bow the socialists can make matters any worse than they are of course the assertion of the average preacher must betoken betaken be taken with a large quantity of salt and the fate of a decent doe do should not be left on the word or oata oath of a ranting parson let these most foul and vampires speak for themselves dr de dd costa says vice tonight to night is undermining society it is destroying all moral restraints and considerations it is blotting out moral ideas and pro producing dwing by the thousand these social monsters who openly avow their belief anthee in the dagger and dynamite it is a disgraceful fact that poor girls have to work stitching bibles and prayer books at wages which render it impossible for them to lead a virtuous life this is not art an exaggerated statement the people themselves see it and a kind cf blind effort Is now made to meet the case came the white cross society is established but there are so many preachers in it that the cure will soon be as bad as the disease bishop maclaren says my friends SOCIETY IS 80 ROTTEN KOTTEN that one oae man is ashamed to speak of it to another ano theryl thib the gentleman had reference to a vice worse than that which brought destruction to the cities of old bishop whipple says the robberies and wrongs and viota violated ted treaties of nations and races are as ais nothing to the dreadful chalice of degradation our social impurity presses to the lips of these poor women these are only aly a few of many such testimonies to the social condition of eastern society being iven given by persons within the bosom your of our society and supposed to be directors and teachers they would hardly bear such witness against their own inefficiency and ineffectuality in religious matters unless part is true anyhow the prayer book at aad d prostitution are no neav new things in our alleged and bogus ChriStia christianity Lity out of chaos order yet may come to jews romanists Romanis ts and apiscopa lians the word is suggestive of mirth festivity and jubilation to the congregational anarchist of chicago this word has been metamorphosed from its hilarious abstraction into a grim incarnation of dry harsh dys optic eppic puritanism in the shape of a ex B 1 from brooklyn this gentleman spoke to an audience in union park congregational church recently and told the sachems of the sect many solid truths he told them that DRY ROT BOT had SET IN among them that they had bad discarded apostles prophets bishops and evangelists ge lists though god had expressly ordered all bisese these As a result of ef the noncompliance compliance non boa with divine will ale I 1 succinctly states the position of the sect in tim following words the denomination had in this country churches pastors members and last year accessions to membership the conversions showed a large increase over previous years and yet they were only five per cent on n a basis of the membership or an average of five souls saved by each church strange to say the largest churches over which presumably the ablest pastor officiated made the poorest showing in 57 churches in massachi sett each having a membership of more than W aso ne the conversions last year were only 3 per cent of the mem membership ber in churches there was not a single converston convers son and in 91 only 1 in new york ohio and illinois the conversions were 4 per r cent the souls uv had been done Z c chiefly lefly anthe on the frontier it was a notable fact that as a church grew large and wealthy it ceased to be efficient as a soul saver since it took twenty ministers twelve months to save a single soul one might well say that in the congregational church soul saving had bad become a lost art the net gain ot of conversions 0 over er deaths had been only 2 per cent the congregational gregat ional church was first in the field in this couil country try and seemingly enjoyed enjoyed f d superior adva advantages n ta yet et three other denominations the presbyterians rians baptists and methodists had left it so far behind that it seemed now bue buta handful even the epis copa lians were rapidly forging ahead of them unless the congregationalists c hanged changed their policy not their polity they IOU would id soon be known as the hermit sect what a pentecostal flavour the discourse is emitted when emphasis was laid on the fact that it took 20 ministers one year TO SAVE ONE SOUL he said they would be soon known as the 66 hermit sect he ought to have said the heretic sect or the erotic sect or the hairy sect to appreciate the grim humor of dr pentecoste Pente costs criticism the discourse of dr noble must be perused dr noble followed dr pentecost and said that 12 mission schools had been established during the last four years and that 7 was collected in chicago last year vear for evangelistic work in utah and idaho this dr noble is AN AMUSING CREATURE his name does not come as many may suppose from the latin but from noble the vulgar name in ang england for a fish known to izaak waltons as armed bullhead bogges pluck and lyrie liar poacher and are well applicable to this fishy divine many an old maiden he plucked and poached and po longed aged for that chicago raised last year to evan gelPke utah besides pentecost and noble there are other names dairies worthy ot etymological attention there Is secretary of the council and dr goodwin good win and many other doctors the only feature about congregationalism worthy of note is its doctors and the nomenclature of its par parsons cob is of disputed origin it may be an abbreviation lot of an Irish mans hato hat minus the crown plus a pipe I 1 p in front or it may mean it a short iegel egge punch bellied 1 horse used for gen general al saddle work it may be also a kind in of fish there are pentecost noble and cobb the three allied rascals who ft ho rob P poor or wended bended members of churches to send out to utah biblical crutches these curious people finished their work in council as the report tile the council adopted a resolution lecog z loyal loil and intelligent ti minority bog rity resident in utah but prote ting against admission the of that eliat territory Terri aci aloi fory asa us ii state JUNIUS |