The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-30
sPTRxT OF TIE PRuss.
Editorial Opinions Of the Leading Journals
upon Current Topics Compiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.

A SAMPLE OF PRIESTLY INTOLE-
RANCE.
From the N Y. Times.
There is a clergy man in this city who, when
lately asked to read the burial service over
dead man, declined on account of the pro-
fession which the deceased had followed in
his lifetime. Most people may have sup
posed that this kind of intolerance perhaps
the most revolving and indecent that the
human mind can cunceive-was a thing of the
past. But human bigotry and stupidity
never become obsolete; they are only held In
check 10y public opinion. There are Jesults
who would gladly revive all the horrors of
the Inquisition, and would have a better
relish for their dinners if they could send
few unbeievers to the stake for the good of
their souls. We do not hear of 30 many
cases of priestly intolerance as formerly, not
because the appetite for intolerance has died
out, but because people are a little more
afraid of public exposure than they used to
be. But, as we have said, New York can
boast of one clergyman who does not fear
to provoke the indignation and contempt
of his fellow men. A certain friend of
dead man went to him the other day and
asked him to perform the last offices of the
Church over the body. The minister declined
because of the calling the deceased had pur-
sued.
The name of this minister is Rev. William
T. Sabine, and the dead man over whom he
refused to read the funeral service was the
late George Holland, the actor. The de-
ceased had borne through life an excellent
characterize had, among other things, earned
his living honestly, had brought up his chill
dren honorably, had tried as we'll as he could
to do credit to the calling which he followed.
None of us can do much more than that no
matter what we may call ourselves-snd not
all of US do so much. But Mr.. Holland had
committed an objectionable sin, in the eyes
of Rev. William L. Sabine-he had earned
his living by trying to please the public on
the stage. For this otfense, in the eyes of
Christian minister, he was fit only to be
buried like dog, and his surviving relatives
were to be denied those last consultations
of religion which we are accustomed to
think even murderers, standing at the foot
of the gallows, have a right to ask. We
may think what we please of any mans pro-
fession during his life-but to follow him
with resentment after death on account of it,
to pronounce decree that he is fit only for
the bottomless pit, and that no word of a
Redeemers s love or of the resurrection should
be pronounced over his grave-there is some-
thing 80 horrible in all this that we can
scarcely believe it has really occurred in our
own day and our own city. 1t is like the in
solent profanity of priest of the Middle
Ages Who is it that has a right to pronounce
JuuSmeuI Oh ulb DTOtuer SOUR h6V. Mr.
Sabine comes forward in answer to that ques.
tion and tells us that he is the man. He can
judge by mans occupation whether he is
entitled to Christian burial or not He stands
wrapped in cloak of bigotry, which he
mistakes for the mantle of infallibility, and
presumes to anticipate the unerring
judgment to be pronounced at that
bar before which he, as we'll as the
wicked actor" must one day be arraigned.
Mr. Sabine is an anachronism. He should
have lived in the DAYS when no harm was
thought of using the rack and the thumb
screw as stimulants to mems religious faith
AS it is his lot to live in the nineteenth GEN.
tury, he ought either to accommodate him
self to its tone of thought, or at least retire
from a church upon which he brings dis
credit The son of the late Mr.. Holland
might we'll have addressed him in the words
of Ldertes, slightly modifed-written by a
man who was an actor, and lies buried within
a Christian church, a fact which Mr.. Sabine
has doubtless often reflected upon with q
shudder-
81 tell thee, chursh priest,
minst'ring angel shall my father be,
When thou liest bowling"