The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-05-03
Opening OF the Anniversary Epoch

The anniversary celebrations OF the various
religious, benevolent and reform associations
will be commenced on Saturday neXt with the
meeting of the American Baptist Free Mission
Society which is the early bird that nopes to
have the first bite at the Wall street worm.
These anniversaries have o thrcefold value.
They are very useful TO certain spinsters and old
ladies, who are much edited by the pious exhor-
tations Of brethren who have jourpeyea to Pagan
lands and performed the Lords work with more
or less success generally less While listening
to the eventful history of brother who has mar
rOwly escaped being served up as a borne Jouche
for some New Zealand dinner party, or had a
sharp tussle with an Indian Thug Or aBedouin of
the desert the very spectacles of the poor Old
souls become moist with the animation that
hcaves their gentle hearts Ii is the Moor and
Desdemona over again, especially when the bro
ther is a little off color.
Again, the anniversary affords fine opening
for pulpit eloquence. The sensation preacher,
like the sensation novelist, saves his grand effects
for extraordinary occasions and then makes the
best of them. A good anniversary audience is
the best that clergymen of this class can obtain,
and it is likewise valuable to smoking theolog-
ans who have not been bonorcd with call to
save the provincial soul, but who are living, like
young doctors and lawyers, on hope and credit.
The grand object of all, however, for the
managers, is the aggregation Of cash. The seccre-
taries' reports are looked for with the great
est anxiety, and the testameniary devises of
some wealthy brother deceased are hailed with
! great acclaim. In Catholic countries, when
rich sinner dies he leaves q certain sum to pay
for prayers for the reposc OF his soul and he al
ways gets his moneys worth for money paid.
By strange inconsistency, however, the dying
Protestant Dives bequeathes his money for the
saving of somebody's soul at the other end of the
earth. Logically, the Roman church would
seem to have the right OF the matter. the Angli.
can the wrong. The Roman church has regu-
lar tarif,-so many prayers at SO much each but
the Anglican takes all the money it eau get,
gives no receipt, makes no account.
This year the anniversary managers have no
cause to complain. The total receipts OF all the
societies. from all sources, will overrun two mil
lions of dollars and may go up to two and q
half millions. How many beathens viii be Goa
verted with this money, how many backsliders
brought back to grace, we cannot say. IL is
easy, however, to estimate the number Of poor
and pio,ls relatives of the managers it will pro-
vide with those material articles. roast beef and
bread and butter which even religious ascetics
find necessary to the proper deyelopement
of the faith. The items of salaries, print
ing good books and distributing the same,
stationery, postages office rent and attend
ance, with mysterious contingent" and
"inciacntal'' entries, make up in many cases The
better pert Of the money expended. or course
the reply to this is that the Bible expressly says
that ''the laborer is worthy Of his hire aud
that those who work in the Lords vineyard
should be paid as well as those who strive for
Satan. But this is opposed 70 the command of
our Saviour to the Apostles and quite contrary
TO the practice of the early missionaries. We do
not read that when Paul journeycd from Damas-
Gus to the Holy City, thence to Cesarea, and
then to Tarsus, and in Gentle lands TO Cyprus
and Athens and Rome, that there was any col
lection taken up to pay his expenses, or that an
niversary operations were commenced by the
brethren, who, when the Greeks went abort to
slay him, brought him down TO Ccsarea. The
labors Of well fed and securely housed priests
viii not certainly be so effective as those who
struggled against want and persecution. This is
proven by the facts. We have lately read the
accounts Of the operations Of society which in