Straws: The National Liberal League and the Religious Reform Association
By S. B. Whitney
A short time ago a gentleman spoke in the hall where we were lecturing, in the interests of the National Liberal League, setting forth its principles and aims. He alluded to the convention recently held in the city of Rochester, and stated some of the reasons for the formation of the league. He said the proportions and importance being assumed by the Religious Reform Association are such as to awaken alarm in reflecting minds for the safety of the distinctive features and characteristics of our free government, and prompt and energetic measures must be resorted to, to avert the danger. He was introduced by an officer of the Liberal League of Tompkins Co., N. Y., who was quite active in the gratuitous distribution of tracts and documents published in the interest of the movement. It was shown that local leagues are being rapidly formed, and the movement is becoming quite general, leading men of all classes declaring themselves strongly in its favor; and it is evident that the public mind is being aroused, and individuals are taking sides in the controversy, according to their inclinations or convictions, as the case may be. It is, however, evident that the Liberal League will only serve to precipitate the pending crisis; for the extreme secular views advocated, the well-known spiritualistic, skeptical, and even atheistical tendencies of many of those actively engaged in the movement, will have the effect to excite the disgust and indignation of those who take the religious side of the controversy, and will inspire them with greater zeal and energy in their operations, and furnish them with a plausible pretext, and a powerful appeal to the religious prejudices of the the masses against those who are advocating the present truth, and urging the claims of God’s law, in opposition to the enforcement of man-made institutions by legal enactment. S. B. WHITNEY.