Arkansas true Democrat., 1857-09-22
From the Chicnnn T;,,A.

rom the Cnlcago Times.
 The New York Tribune, which has seduced more clergymen from the cause of religion and made more political mourtebanks than any other agency In the Unon has at last become horror stricken at the rapid decline of clerical morality. ltweeps over the fall of the saintly men who have been led away from the grateful labor In the vineyard of divine master. to Joln ID the fanatlcal exercises of a worldly de- magegue. Having corrupted them in their ex. ciuslve serVlce to the cause of their Maker in heaven, that paper with heartess. cruel malig- nlty taunts them with derelections which rarc
 y happen to men who closely adhere to the duties Of thelr ministerial office. That paper Tn Its issue of the 18th of September. tbus points out the lnlqultes of the political clergy. ana proposes remedy as insulting as it is gross ly suggestive of total depravity in the whole clerical profession:
 Among the bankruptcies of our day. the moral lnsoIvences of clergymen seem almost as frequent and quite as deplorable as any other Making due allowance for the rapid growth of our country and the more perfect collection and diffusion of intelligence, it is still evident that the number of clerical culprits Is greater than ever before. And while the great body of the clergy are undoubtedly, now, as ever, pure and 1 good men, the exposure of one reprobate at- tracts more public attention than the unfater. | Ing upnghtness of score of his sacredota brethren. We all hear of the minister whose sln has been exposed; we hardly think of the hundreds who provoke and dread no exposure Thus the fall of clergyman becomes d wide spread calamity unsettllng our faith in the ex- istence of virtue and leading too many of the thoughtless to regard religion as but cloak for hypocrisy and sensuality.
 | irlyo oolb,i plorable state of thingsis to be found in a more clrcumspect department on the part of the good men who fill the clerical office. "Let not your good be evil spoken of' is sound precept- above all let it not be cloak for the false and the vile. Every clergyman should imperative. 1 ly refuse to visit confer with any of his fe- male parishioners, except in the presence of another, or of others. It Is not enough that torty-nine times in fifty no wrong is either con- templated or enacted at private interviews; the fact that wrong is sometimes done-that cor rupt and bad men abuse the license accorded to clergymen ln their private conference with wo- men should be conclusive. If every clergy man now ordained were absolutely mpeach- 1 able, It would still be wrong in them to do what would tempt hypocrtes to enter the min lStry on purpose to enjoy special opportunities | for gratifying ther lu>ts. The natural ascen. | dency of clergymen over the minds of most women, the confidence generally reposed in the ministerial ottice-n short, all that gives to the intercourse of clergymen with their female par lohioners freedom and familiarity which, iG the case ot others, would cause scandal-impera- lively requires that clergymen should prescribe l to themselves and insist on caution and re- serve in this intercourse which must render sin Impossible, and scandal incredible"
 | Just think of placing the Rev. John E. Roy, and the Rev. A. L. Brooks-those most excel. lent gentlemen who preached the faith of the wooIy horse last summer-under the care of some committee, to see that neither of these | reverend gentlemen are allowed to speak alone with lady! The New York Tribune thinks such a course is the only salvation of the cer- | gy; unless something of that kind be adopted the cersy-the very bulwark of the republi- can party-wlll sink into hopeless moral lusol- veucy.