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A rebel preacher.--Mr. William Keen, a highly respectable citizen of Cumberland County, Ky., is an honored member of the Methodist Church. The Rev. T. J. Moore, of Franklin, Simpson County, a well-known Methodist preacher, was a chaplain in Morgan's band.
It is difficult to understand what Morgan's band wanted of a chaplain, but very easy to understand that, if they did want one, Moore was exactly their man.
Thus Keen and Moore belong to the same church.
Morgan's band, upon the occasion of their late advent into Kentucky, took possession of Keen's house, south of Cumberland River.
Before retiring at night, Keen, courteously and in a Christian-like manner, asked Moore to pray.
Moore consented, and offered up a fervent prayer, Keen occasionally responding “Amen.”
Near the close of the prayer, the rebel parson prayed for the success of the rebel cause, and, in a loud voice, asked God that, if necessary to the success of the rebellion, he would “strike dead every man, woman, and child in the United States.”
Keen, unable to stand so much, exclaimed in a voice to which God and all his angels might listen, “No, Lord, don't do that — the prayer is unchristian;” and he repeated the exclamation several times.
It created an excitement among the rebel officers present; but, to their honor be it said, they rebuked, not Keen, but their own chaplain.
This, as we have said, was on the south bank of Cumberland River.
At a house on the north side, Moore said to a gentleman in the presence of his family, that he wished the last Union man was in hell, and added that he himself had a right to take a portion of the property of every Union man in the land.
That pseudo-reverend scoundrel is now at Camp Chase.
He has full possession of a nook or corner of that Federal establishment, and we guess it is the last Federal property that he is likely ever to “hold, occupy, and possess.”
Probably the best men in the world are preachers — and the worst.
Van Nostrand. New York, New York. 1862.
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