HARASSED ENOUGH | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 25, 1881

“HARASSED ENOUGH.”

Of all the words of condemnation of minister Cowley, and of the church which whitewashes his iniquitous character, the best we have seen are the following from the Examiner and Chronicle :—

“The committee appointed by Bishop Potter to consider the case of ‘Shepherd’ Cowley has concluded its labors and rendered its report to him. A reporter called to learn the result, and says that the bishop replied, ‘I think that the Rev. Mr. Cowley has, perhaps, been harassed enough,’ and added that it is not likely that the culprit will be brought to trial in an ecclesiastical court. The investigation was made merely as a matter of form, because there is a canon providing for investigation in such cases.

“‘Harassed enough,’ poor fellow! How badly Cowley has been treated. It is true that he ill-treated and nearly caused the death by starvation of the children in his charge, but society made a mistake in holding him responsible for these things. The law was cruel to send him to the penitentiary and brand him as a criminal. The erring man should have been sent on his way in peace, instead of being harassed in this unfeeling way. When one looks at the thing in this light he is a much· abused man. And now to talk of ‘unfrocking’ him is really too bad. Of course Bishop Potter cannot think of ‘harassing’ him any further.

“But when one drops sarcasm and looks at this case seriously, it is an index to an alarming state of lax morality in that part of the community which professes to stand for the highest type of moral character. If the Christian pulpit has any function, if Christian people have any mission in the world, it is to bring men into obedience to both letter and spirit of the law of God. To find the ministry of an influential Christian body indifferent to the fact that one of their number is a justly convicted felon, and to hear a bishop uttering the commonplaces of a maudlin travesty of morality, means a great deal. But it means even more when one finds how large a part of the community secretly cherishes this kind of sentiment. Where their own feelings or interests are in no wise concerned, there are many who are ready to say, Poor fellow, let him go. The interests of society are nothing, the majesty of the law that has been violated is nothing, the repute of the Christian ministry is nothing to these sentimentalists. Let justice be not done though the heavens fall, is their motto.

“After all, we only get back to the point whence we started. ‘The pity of it, O, the pity of it,’ that Christian ministers, instead of standing like a rock against this lax morality, are found encouraging it by precept and example. If the salt of the earth have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? If those who have professed to give their lives to become preachers of righteousness are found preaching unrighteousness, what hope is there for a sinful world?”