Are the Church and the World Uniting?
By JOS. CLARKE
I CLIP from our county paper the following local items from the issue of Feb. 9, 1871:— The donation at the American House, last evening, for the benefit of Rev. ——— was a success. An oyster supper was given the eve of January 16, at ——— Hall for the benefit of the Congregational church of this place. The tables were loaded with the choicest delicacies of the season; the music was charming, and all— “Went merry as a marriage bell.” The proceeds amounted to about twenty dollars. The Presbyterian Mite Society which met at the residence of ——— on last Thursday evening, was one of the finest of the season. Notwithstanding the extreme coldness of the evening, the attendance was quite large, and a general, grand good time was the result. Rev. ——— was visited by the good people of this village and vicinity on the 21st ult., with nice donations amounting to nearly forty dollars. A large party of persons numbering nearly one hundred residents of this place and the region round about, made a ‘raid’ on Rev. ——— on the eve of January 26. After having their own way until the ‘wee sma’ hours they placed upwards of one hundred dollars in the hands of father ———, and departed. Can it be that people gifted with common sense, are so blinded by the god of this world as to suppose that money raised by an appeal to the pleasure-loving public, offering the carnal delights, or an inducement to pay money to the treasury of God, that such money so drawn from the lover of pleasure can be acceptable to God? Verily, then, why did Christian and Faithful have so stormy a time, when passing through Vanity Fair? Why could not Christ and the apostles have compromised a little with the proud Jewish Sanhedrim and the Roman power? Alas for our times!