The New York herald., 1871-03-13
rho Pre.s, ii. Pulpit and tho stage.

An0 pIooos tno puAPAs ouu sAo 0so6O oAv s0O
three great coordinate agencies in elevating
and giving tsne to medern society. The pull
pit and the stage are as old as history itself;
the press is comparatively young; but it has
grown with such amazing rapidity and,
withal, has attained such magnificent proper
tions, that it leads the others in influence and
power. The history Of the press, as we know
it to-day, is q very brief one and dates back
not more than thirty years; but It may be
said to have had a prehistoric existence
almost coequal with the Reformation. As
stimulator of thought, an educator of the
masses, conservator of peace and order,
terror to tyrants, and the defender of the
faith" and liberties of mankind it stands alone
and unparalleled. Where the pulpit or the
stage can reach ten the press can reach Q
thousand, and does 80 more effectively than
either. The press has suffered martyrdom In
defence of truth and justice, liberty and right,
and in these latter days, when prosecutions
against the the pulpit have ceased. The stage
has always been free, or comparatively free.
from persecution. 1t has been petted bv
kings and people, too much perhaps, for its
own good. But, though it has sometimes run
into extravagances, it has maintained pretty
fair equipoise all along its history. The ten
dency toward vulgar extravagances in this
age is certainly very slight, and in this
country, where the stage has no endowment
from king or government, the people, it's
patrons, can always apply the corrective to
any excesses that may be introduced. II was
not without some surprise, therefore, that we
read the remarks made by DR.. John Hall
before his congregation on recent Sabbath
in regard to the relative positions of the pull
pit, the press and the stage as educators and
powers for good in any community. He
almost questioned the sanity of the man who
should intimate that the stage was an
educator which might be compared
with the pulpit. But if such
comparison was to be made something
which is common to both must, in his opinion,
be eliminated" That something" the
Doctor went on to tell his hearers, is ''the
numerous persons who submit themselves ON
Sabbath to the pulpit and during the week to
the education Of the play; because it is
impossible to say how much good in them is
the property Of the pulpit and how much the
property of the play" But here the compari-
son breaks down at the threshold; for there
is probably no community in the civilized
world to-day one part of which has been
wholly educated by the stage and the other
wholly by the pulpit. And, indeed, we can
hardly conceive Of such community dwelling
at all upon this EARTH But while the Doctor
tacitly admitted that there might be some
good taught by the play, he went on to charge
''that the representatives of the stage were to
be found among the swindlers and black
guards of the community" We might assert
the same thing with equal force of the repre-
sentatives Of the pulpit. We have in our
minds eye at least dozen ministers who
have been guilty of gross immoralities and
crimes in this city or neighborhood within q
brief period, but most of the scandals have
been hushed up and their authors quietly pro-
vided for elsewhere The position of minis
ter is such that his faults and follies affect
others than himself, and it is very rarely that
church is willing to acknowledge its own
of its criminal pastor. Not 80, however, with
the actor. He is amenable directly to the
manager of the theatre for his shortcomings,
and indirectly to the public-hs constituents.
He, because Of his profession, labors under
the imputation Of being sblackguard" from
the start, no matter how pure and good he
may be. And hence, while not breath Of
suspicion could be raised against the late Mr..
Hollands personal or moral character, he was
denied Christian burial by "a representative
of the pulpit whose narrow mind could not
admit that any good thing could come out Of
Nazareth. And we fear DR.. Hall would
refuse the same service under similar circum-
stances. His broad denunciation Of the stage
seems to indicate that he, too, Is governed
more or less by prejudice in this matter.
But the Doctor. as it seems to us, went
altogether out of his way to strike at the press
and the stage as he did. He was preaching
in behalf of superannuated preachers, and he
must needs show the vast superiority of the
pulpit over its associate agencies. And so he
weighs each, one after the other; and the
pulpit far outweighs the others, in his estima-
ton. But was not the subject in hand ono
that commended itself to every Christian heart
present, without instituting any such compari-
son9 If it was not, then we have not such
strong faith in the Doctors piety or his
preaching as we have had. 1t is, perhaps,
well for the Church and this community that,
as the Doctor says, ''he could only remember
one case in which there had been scandal in
the life Of Protestant clergyman in New
York during the past four years." but to add
as an apology that bis sanity was properly
questioned rather weakens the case. We have
not known a murderer placed on trial in this
citv during the mat four uoara 1xhoaa aan{ix