The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-07-24
CLOSED DOORS.

When will people learn wisdom by ex-
perience? Charges have been preferred
against Bowen and Tilton in connection
with the Plymouth church scandal, as they
should have been long ago. The people
are anxious to know whether Henry Ward
Beecher is the man they have always con-
sdered him to be, or whether he is the
scoundrel and hypocrite that the rumors
and stories, emanating from Bowen, Wood
hiHmll . '"B ee SaTsrii is public man and the
property of the public, and they have the
right to know what he is. They desire the
question of his character and habits settled.
and settled forever. 1t will not do to leave
any door open for suspicion, innuendo and
doubt. 1t is, also, due to the cause of
Christianity that it should beknown wheth-
er or not his downfall is to be a handle for
its enemies to make an attack thereon.
Such attacks, to be. sure, fall harmless to
the ground, when considered by an intelli-
gent person, because black sheep will al
ways creep in, and by their very hypocrisy
testify to the truth and solid foundation of
the system. But it were better that Chris
tan churches should be ever ready and
prompt to unmask hypocritcs, and thus
show their determination to keep the church
of Christ pure and unspotted from the
world. 1t is the seeming determination of
members of churches to protect and defend
their co-members, at any and all hazards,
that produces in certain minds doubt of
the sincerity of their professions, and lets
in wave of infidelity and disbelief that
threatens to engulph society, wash away
the foundation of religion and undermine
our faith in God and our practical belief in
the precepts OF the Bible
Notwithstanding this danger and the re-
proach that may be brought upon the cause
of Christ, it is understood, that the officers
of Plymouth church have concluded to
conduct their investigations with closed
doors. The day for star chamber investi-
cations has passed. Secret conclaves may
investigate, but the results of their inqui-
ries, as promulgated by them, have no
weight with the community. No one
knows, or can tell, what facts were actually
disclosed, what are made known, or what
are conveniently kept back from public
knowledge. The human mind is prone to
suspicion and doubt, and no occasion for
the exercise thereof should be left. We
want not only an investigation and an i'm
partial report, but we want, also, the facts
and evidence upon which their conclusions
are based, or pretended to be based. We
do not propose to base our opinions upon
any report of committee, but prefer
rather to draw our own conclusions from
the actual facts as disclosed by the testi-
mony. There is no danger that the public
will draw hasty conclusions from the evil
dence, as it is given day by day, and If they
do, they will cheerfully and readily alter
their opinions upon review of the whole
case 1t were far better, too, that hasty
judgments should be formed than that sus-
picion and doubt should always hang, like
a cloud, around the case The experience
in the Credit Mobiler investigation was
enough to show the futility of these secret
conclaves. They cannot be kept entirely
secret, but certain facts, distorted by SEN
sation mongers and colored by enmity, will
leak out, or be disclosed by the participants,
which serve to injure, rather than benefit,
the cause of truth. Whitcwash will not
do, the people demand and will have the
facts. Let the innocent be protected and
the gully be exposed let justice be done
if the heavens fall.