The May anniversaries in New York.
--Next week the anniversaries of the various "religious" societies of
New England and the
North generally are to take place in New York.
The
Herald makes the announcement the occasion for a long sermon, and gives a wistful look back at other days, and says:
‘
The very men who by their teachings should have attached the dissensions, smoothed away the jealousies, and calmed the angry feelings that had begun to disturb our tranquility and contentment as a people, were the main instruments of our troubles.
By their intemperate haranguers from the pulpit and the platform they lathed the divisions excited by a few political demagogues into a storm before which all the restraints imposed by good cent and moderation were swept away, and excited a rebellion which has let loose all the worst passions of men and drenched the country with the blood of its best citizens.
What will the reverend gentlemen, who come to hold forth as shining lights and as claimants on our pockets at the approaching anniversary, have to say to all this?
Can they, in the presence of the sanguinary events and the horrors of which the revolted States are the theater, ray their hands on their hearts and that they, and the body to which they belong, have conscientiously discharged the duties of their scored functions ? While they have been expending their care upon the heathen abroad, have they bestowed a thought on the heathen at them ? Have they even tried to fulfill their mission as peacemakers ? Let the atrocities of this most unnatural of wars; let the active participation of clergymen in the struggle — whether as instigators or actual combatants, for they are both — answer these questions.
The response will, we fear, be anything but favorable to the efforts of those who come to levy their annual tax of a million and a half upon us at the next May anniversaries.
’
