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AXD IXDIAMS’ ADVOCATE.
CHEROKEE NATION, PROPRIETOR. EDITED BY ELIJAH HICKS.
\OL. V.
1VEW ECHOTA, CHEROKEE AATIOIX, SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 1833.
VO. 30.
C HER OKEE PH(E \IX
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RELIGIOUS,
«
Extract from the works of Ike Rev.
John Wesley.
peak evil of no man—Titus iii, 2,
jthe great apostle; as plain a com*
id as, thou shall do no murder—-
!xod. II, 13. But who even among
istians regards this command ? Yea,
few are there, that so much as un
land it? What- is evil speaking?
not t^as sorno suppose) the same
lying or slandering. All a man
may be as true as the bible, and
the saying is evil speaking. For
speaking is neither more nor less,
speaking evil of any absent per-
reluting something evil which was
|v done or said, by one that is not
cot when it is not related. Sup-
1, having seen a man drunk, or
d him curse or swear, I tell this
nhe is absent; it is evil speaking,
ur language tills is termed linck-
i\or is there any material dif-
nce between this and what we usu-
stvle tale-bearing, if the tale be
icred in a soft and quiet manner,
haps with expressions of good will
ie person, und a hope, that things
not be quite so bad) then we call it
ipeving. But in whatever manner it
be done, the thing is the same;
same in substance,* if not incircum-
ce. Still it is evil speaking; still
command, speak evil of no man, is
ipled under foot, if wc relate to an-
irthe fault of a third person, when
snot present to answer for himself.
, And how extremely common is
sin, among all orders and degrees
mau! How do high and low, rich
poor, wise and foolish, learned and
earned, run into it continually! per-
wlio differ from each other in all
igs else, nevertheless agree in this,
irfow are there, that can testify be-
God, “I ain clear in this matter: I
e always set a watch before my
ith, and kept the door of my lips?
ithat, even among persons, who,
he general, have the fear of God be-
their eyos, and do really desire to
e a conscience void of offence, to-
d God and toward man.
. And the very commonness of this
makes it difficult to be avoided As
are encompassed with it on every
i, so if we are not deeply sensible
he danger, and continually gparcl-
l| t wc r,ie liable to bo carried away
the torrent. In this instance, al-
ittlio whole of mankind is, as it
re, in a conspiracy against us. And
iir example steals upon us, we know
ihoxv; so that wc insensibly slide in-
the imitation of it. Beside, it is re
manded from within, as well as
1 without. There is scarce any
eng in the mind of man, which may
I be occasionally gratified by it, and
wequently incline us to it. It grati-
1 our pride, to relate those faults of
iers, whereof we think ourselves not
be guilty. Anger, resentment, and
1 unkind tempers are indulged, by
taking against those with whom we
displeased. And in many cases,
reciting the sins of their neighbors,
»n indulge their own foolish and hurt-
1 desires.
4. Evil speaking is the more difficult
K avoided, because it attacks us in
•guise. Wo speak thus of a noble,
aierone, (it is well if we do not say )
■dy indignation against these vile croa
ks! We commit sin from mere ha
rt of sin. We serve the Devil out of
•re zeal for God! It is merely in or-
ir to punish the wicked, that we run
to this wickedness. So do tho pas-
:°ns all justify themselves, and palm
upon up; under the veil oj lioli-
5. But there is no way to avoid the
snare? Unquestionably there is.—
Our Lord has marked out a plain way
for his followers. None who warily
and steadily walk in this path, will ever
fall into evil speaking.
This rule is either an infallible pre
ventative, or a certain cure for it. In
the preceding verses our Lord had said,
‘Wo to the world because of its offenc
es.’ Unspeakable misery will arise in
the world, from this baleful fountain.
(Offences are, all things, whereby any
one is turned out of, or kindred in the
way of God) ‘for it must be, that of
fences come. Such is the nature of
things: such is the weakness, folly and
wickedness of mankind. ‘But wo to
that man,’ miserable is that man, ‘by
whom the offences cometh.’ Where
fore if thy hand, thy foot, thine eye,
cause thee to offend, if the most dear
enjoyment, the most beloved and use
ful person, turn thee out of, or hinder
thee in the way, ‘pluck it out, cut them
off, and cast them from thee.” But
how can we avoid giving offence to
some, and being offended at others?
Especially suppose they are quite in
the wrong and we see with our own
eyes? Our Lord here teaches us how:
TIo lays down a sure method of avoid
ing offences and evil speaking to
gether.
If thy brother shall sin against thee,
go and tell him of his fault, between
him and thee alone: if he will hear
thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
But if he will not hear thee, take with
thee one or two more, that by the
mouth of two or three witnesses every
word may be established.—And if he
will not hear them, tell it to the church;
but if he will not hear the church, let
G. O that all you who hear the re
proach of Christ, who are in derision
called Methodists, would set an exam
ple to the Christian world, so called, at
least, in this one instance! Pbt yea-
way evil speaking, tale bearing, whis
pering: let none of thorn proceed out
of your mouth. See that yob ‘speak
evil of no man:’ of the absent! nothing
but good. If ye must be distiiguished
whether ye will or no, let thin he the
distinguishing mark of a Nethodist,
‘he censures no man behind lis back:
by this fruit yc may know him” What
a blessed effect of this self-denial
should we quickly feel in our hearts?
How would our ‘peace flow as a river,’
when we thus ‘follow peace with all
men?’ How would the love of God a-
bound in our souls; while we thus con
firm our love for our brethren! and
what an effect would it have on all that
were united together in the name of
the Lord Jesus ? How would brother
ly love continually increase, when this
grand hindrance of it was removed ? All
the members of Christ’s mystical body
would then naturally care for each oth
er? ‘If one member suffered, all would
suffer with it; and every one would love
his brother ‘with a pure heart fervent
ly.’ Nor is this all’ but what an af
fect might this have, even on the wild
unthinking world? How soon would
they deserve in us, what they could not
find among all the thousands of their
brethren, and cry, (as Julian the apos
tate to his brethren courtiers) ‘‘see
! how these Christians love one another!”
! By this chiefly would God convince the
| world, and prepare them also for his
1 kingdom: as we may easily learn from
! these remarkable words in our Lord’s
solemn prayer. ‘I pray for them who
will believe in me, that they all may be
as thou father art in me and I
him be to thee as an heathen man and ; ___
a publ.can-Matt xvm, lo 16, 17.1 th ee—that the world may believe thou
bee that thou speak in a meek as well • •• — - J - ■
as a lowly spirit: for “the wrath of
man worketh not the righteousness of
God.” If he be overtaken in a fault,
he can no otherwiso be “restored than
in the spirit of weekness.” If he op
pose the truth yet he cannot be brought
to the knowledge thereof, but by gen
tleness. Still speak in a spirit of ten
der love, ‘‘which many waters cannot
quench.”
Love can bow down the stubborn neck,
Tho stono to flesh convert;
Soften, and inclt, and pierce, and break,
An adamantine heart.
Confirm then your love towards him,
and you will thereby heap coals of fire
upon his head.
Who will take God’s part against the
evil speakers? Art thou the man? By
tho grace of God wilt thou be one, who
are not carried away by the torrent?
Art thou fully determined, God being
thy helper, from this very hour, to set
a watch, a continual watch before thy
mouth, and keep the door of thy lips?
From this hour wilt thou walk by
this rule, speaking evil of no man? If
thou scost thy brother do evil, wilt thou
tell him of his fault between thee and
him alono! Afterward take one or two
witnesses, and then only, tell it to the
church ? If this be tho full purpose of
thy heart, then learn one lesson well.
Hear evil of no man: if there were no
hearers, there would be no speakers of
evil, und is not (according to the vul
gar proverb) the receiver as bad as the
thief? If then nny begin to speak evil
in thy hearing, check him immediately:
Refuse to hear the voice of the charm
er, charm he ever so sweetly: let him
use ever so soft a mannor, so mild an
accent, ever so many professions of
good will for him whom he is stabbing
in the dark, whom he smitheth under
the fifth rib, resolutely refuse to hear,
though the whisperer complain of being
burdened till he speak. Burdened
thou fool, dost thou ‘travail with thy
cursed secret as a woman travaileth
with child?’ Go then and be delivered
of thy burden, in the way the Lord hath
ordained. First ‘go tell thy brother of
his fault, between thee and him alone.’
Next ‘take with thee one or two’ coin
mon friend*, and tell him in their pres
ence. If neither of these steps take
effect, then, ‘tell it to the church.’ But
at the peril of thy soul, tell it to no one
else, either before or after. Unless in
that one exempt case whon it is abso
lutely needful to preserve the innocent
Why shouldst thou burden another as
well as thyself, by making him par
taker of thy. sin.
hast sent me!’ The Lord hasten the
time! The Lord enable us thus to
love one another, not only ‘in word and
in tongue, but in deed and in truth,’
even as Christ hath loved us—James
i, 2G St iii, 16, 17, 18.
MAHOMEDANISM.
At a late meeting in New York, the
Rev. Eli Smith, missionary to Western
Asia, made the following statements on
tho subject: He said he rose under a
deep impression of tho responsibility
which rested on him as a personal ob
server of the things he was about to
state. And therefore lie should state
nothing at random, nothing which he
had not well considered and weighed
every word and sentence. He would
gladly set before the audience a view
of all the regions and mingled people
which he had surveyed. But there
was not time. He should therefore
confine their attention to a single ob
ject, the present attitude of Mahome-
danism.
This power which has heretofore
raised so haughty a front against the
kingdom of Jesus Christ, 1ms long held
arge bodies of subjugated Christians
under its sway, and stood in high atti
tude of contempt for tho name of Chris
tianity. Until recently, it has never
maintained its persecuting laws. Even
in Egypt although toleration is now es
tablished, when I was there the laws
prohibited efforts to convert Moslems,
under tho heaviest penalties. It has
long been the boast of the semi-civil-
ized inhabitants of Mt. Lebanon, that
their regions was the only portion of
the Sultan’s dominions when there
could be no prosecution of Christians,
and where a Moslem could change his
religion without the penalty of death.
While I was at Alexandria, a Chris
tian in anger cursed Mahomet, and was
put to death. No Christian in Tur
key dares to curse the false prophet, if
he is ever so much excited. The Mis
sionaries do not wish to curse Mahom
et ; they only desire by plain arguments
and friendly exhibitions of truth, to
show his followers their delusion. 1
was told at Constantinople, that it would
endanger my life to charge Mahomet
with being an imposter.
A German Missionary in tho Russian
Army was found to have been trying to
persuade some Mahomedans in a town
where the army were, to renounce
their faith, and such an uproar was
made that he was compelled to desist.
In regard to efforts for the conver
sion of nominal Christians, the obsta
cles interposed by Mahomedan rulers
are rather mere arbitrary acts of op
pression than the operations of estab
lished law This law pays no regard to
the diversities of Christian sects, but
holds them all alike in abhorrence.—
The government, for prudential rea
sons, are ready to uphold the authority
of the ecclesiastical dignities of all the
sects. And so long as they remain
quiet, all is quiet. But when, by mis
sionary efforts, and the conversion of
some of their people, the wrath of ec
clesiastical authorities is roused, the
government interferes, and stops the
disturbance by removing the exciting
cause.—And in this they show no par-
liality for different sects. Mr. S. said
he had been m regions, where he had
known the Missionaries of Rome to.be
bastinadoed, and imprisoned and ban
ished. On precisely the same princi
ples our own Fisk and Parsons we*e
imprisoned at Jerusalem.
But of late there have been very au
spicious changes, not in their code of
laws, but in public opinion and public
feeling. These changes operates in
two respects; first, they tend to liber
alize the policy of the Turkish govern
ment, and secondly, to humble their
arogance.—Their arogance is humbled
also, in two ways. Their policy is es
sentially military, and they have pre
served the same system of Europe,
they have admitted that some good
things may he learned from Christians
They arc further humbled under a most
mortifying sense of their imbecility.
Their weakness is both incoherent and
relative, and now they feel it. Another
thing to be noticed is, that the Sultan
has severed his ecclesiastical from his
civil power. This has divested Ins au
thority of all that peculiar sacredness
which it used to bear in the eyes of all
good Moslems, so that the bigoted a-
mor.g them do not scruple to call him
an infidel. Ho can no longor make
that irresistible appeal to the fanaticism
of his followers which formerly render
ed his armies so desperate and so terri
ble. The unfurling of the sacred stan
dard on the mosque of St. Sophia, no
longer acts as a charm 911 their minds.
The relative weakness of Turkish
power was established at the battle of
Navarino, and afterwards when their
capital was at the mercy of the Russi
an army. There is a peculiarity in the
Turkish character, illustrated by this
humbling itself in adversity. The op
position to the spread of the gospel is
now far less firm than formerly, and we
find every where liberty allowed to ar
gue in favor of Christianity. In Egypt
there have been frequent discussions
between the English missionaries and
the Moslems. At Damascus, where a
few years ago there prevailed the most
deadly popular rage against the very
name of Europeans, now the door is
open for the circulation of the Scrip
tures.
Other similar facts wore mentioned.
But said Mr. S., wc must take care not
to build too high expectations on such
circumstances. To allow discussion is
one thing; to allow actual apostacy is
another. Let a Missionary publicly
baptize a Mahomedan, and we shall sec
whether the spirit of persecution is
dead or only asleep. Still we may
hope, that though the laws against a-
postacy remain, there will arise a pub
lic opinion that shall make the law a
dead letter.
For the conversion of Moslems, two
steps were needed. One lay beyond
the reach of religious mcaris, but Pro
vidence has done it, while we have
looked on, and seen how ‘‘The Lord
hath wrought wonderously.” Now it
is our turn to work. The way is open,
the barrier is broken down, the perse
cuting power is humbled. Now we
ought to have missionaries enough at
hand to pour in the light, and fill the
land with the knowlodge of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. Otherwise
all this work of preparation will come to
no results. The darkness of infidelity
will succeed the delusions of-the False
Prophet. There must be direct reli
gious effort to secure the advantage
now gained for free inquiry, and turn
it to the benefit of Christianity. The
agents of tho devil will not wait and do
nothing if we do so. Already are the
Moslems beginning to use the free use
of strong drinks to their other imita
tions of European manners and cus
toms. O, when will the time come
that Christians shall learn to anticipate
tho powers of darkness in occupying
the fields which tho Providence of God
lays open.
Mr. S. said, however, that Mahome
dan opposition to the spread of the Gos-
pel among nominal Christians has ceas
<“d. European and American citizen
ship is now respected, and secures the
personal safety of the Missionary.
He may go any where in Turkey,
where the laws reigns, and 110 Turkish
ruler will molest him.
Mr. S. alluded to the events of tho
six years he had resided in Turkey as
scenes of destiny, where there had been
a constant succession of changes deci
sive ^ of the fate of nations. Not a
Christian here could help looking at
them with amazement. He saw theni
from a nearer point and saw the deve-
lopement of unfulfilled prophecy. God
was at work.
Were you not disnpointed, said he,
when you saw the Russion army with
in a days march of Constantinople, and
the Turkish empire about to be anni
hilated at a blow, and yet Constantin-
ple was not taken? Why, the Russian
power over those countries would have
covered them over like the lav* con
gealed over pompeii. God just saved
Turkey where it is. He saw the des
truction of Moslenism w'as too high a
prize for Russian ambition. Perhaps
he has reserved this honor for Christian
enterprize to gain, by converting Mos
lems and nominal Christians to the faith
of Jesus. And it can be done.—C/m's
Han Index,
Extract from Hugh’s (Catholic) letter to Mr.
Ureckenridgo.
You seem to be frightened at the
condition of Protestant Germany—and
call upon me to show that the “free
and self-interpreting use of the Bible
has done all the evil.” It is not the
use of the Bible, but the use of Ike Prot
estant rule of faith, that has done all
this evil. It is the abuse of the Bible.
I have repeatedly protested against
the disingenuousness of your statements
in which 1 am constantly represented
as arguing against tho Bible—or the
11 use of the Bible.” The use of tho
Bible is in the Catholic church as f
contend, and the abuse of it in the
Protestant denominations. But I am
surprised that you should require proof
of a matter that is so plain and ob vious.
The Germans were told by Luther to
read the Scriptures and judge for them
selves. They have done so, and ceas»
ed to be Christians! Was it simply by
reading the Scriptures that this occur
red? No certainly. But because
reading the Scriptures according to the
Protestant ride of faith, they were o-
bliged to make their private reason
the standard and measure of their be
lief in the doctrines contained in the
Bible. As you require proof however
I will give it yon. Robison in his
“Proofs of a Conspiracy” tell us,
speaking of the Lutherans and Calvin
ists of Germany,—“The Scriptures,
the foundation of our faith, were exam
ined by clergymen of very different ca
pacities, dispositions, and views, till
by explaining, correcting, allegorising,
and otherwise twisting the bible,
men’s minds had hardly any thing to
rest on as a doctrine or revealed reli
gion. This encouraged others to go
farther, and say that revelation was a
solecism, as plainly perceived by the
irreconcilable differences among those
enlighteners of tho public, and that man
had nothing to trust to but the dictates
of natural religion.” (p. 64.) These
“enlighteners” ar0 following the Prot
estant rule of faith every where; and ev
ery where, the same causes necessarily
existing, will be succeeded by the same
effects as in Germany. Look at tho
congregations that have gone over to
Unitarianism in New England at the
beck of the “enlighteners.” And all
this by the use—not of the bibjp—but
of 1four rule of faith.
In the Catholic church notwithstand
ing all that Protestant say to the con
trary, we rend the Scriptures as the
inspired written word of God—we ex
ercise our judgment,—and arrive by
a rational process of investigation, at
the proofs of our doctrine. But we do
not, like the protestant readers, take
upon us to become “enligteners of the
public, by explaining, correcting, alle-
