JT-38-BIGOTRY REPORTED.

BIGOTRY REPORTED.

A horrid thing pervades the land,
The priests and prophets in a band,
(Called by the name of preachers,)
Direct the superstitious mind,
What man shall do his God to find,
He must obey his teachers.

Those leaders, differing in their mode,
Each traveling in a different road,
Create a sad division;
Each one believes he must be right,
And vents at others all his spite,
Contemns them with derision.

Their proselytes around them wait,
To hear them preach, and pray, and prate,
And tell their growing numbers;
They love to hear their preachers tell,
The adverse sects will go to hell,
All laid in guilt and slumbers.

Each party has its special rules,
Borrowed from bishops, popes and schools,
And thinks them best of any;
And yet they change to suit the times,
And differ in the different climes,
To catch the passing penny.

They are directed to obey,
And never tread another way,
All others are deceivers ;
All those who do dissent from this,
Are not within the road to bliss,
Nor can be true believers.

Some thousands thus are dup’d and led,
By prejudice and priestcraft fed,
Who love to bold contention;
Their old confessions they defend,
For human rules do strong contend,
The ground of much dissention.

Is this religion? I God forbid,
The light within the cloud is bid,
My soul be not deceived
The Great Redeemer never told
The priests to separate his fold,
And this I’ve long believed.

I love religion--do declare,
That peace and love are ever there,
And universal kindness;
The Bible is my rule for this,
It points me to eternal bliss,
Dispels Sectarian blindness,

Let Christians now unite and say,
We’ll throw all human rules away,
And take God’s word to rule us;
King Jesus shall our leader be,
And in his name we will agree,
The priests no more shall fool us.