The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1874-08-14
"GATH. ON BEECHER.
(hurch HaiberalEsA on s1S0cEal''
and Revelation

Church Liberalism ON s1SoeEal'
| and Revelation
| Gath" the well known CORES
pendent of the Chicago Tribune
writes blistering commentary OF
the Beecher business from Sarato
ga, under date of July Goth:
And yet there has long been 1
silent sensuality of this form il
Mr.. Beecher's gospel; his Prodi
gal Son did not repent, but ha6
the good time; his Dives was 9
very good parishoner; he baptized
with lavender, and read the burial
service ont of . pastoral. Things
had got to be so volatile in his
faith that whatever was Beeche,
was the whole solemn mystery OF
our religion; and, IN our idoliza-
ton of the man for his many noble
but too frequent iberalizations,
we played the holiday in church,
and lost the principles OF piety and
TCSbIaluIs new COAAA4ShNAASAS "
were being given to us every Sab
bath; new Yeneering was put on
the grand old Observation-Disclosures.
"Love. one another was said with
too much JUNCTION; faith had lost
the bones which gave it recogni-
ton, and was pulpy as q banana
or clam.
Sometimes it did really seem APP
parent that Plymouth chapel and
its pastor were slowly working in
the line of :
SOCIAL REVOLUTION
on this earth, too vast to let them
dare explain what it was The
feet of the Divine Martyr were
washed too often with the box of
precious ointment, rs if the laying
on of hands was to be advisable all
The idea has leaped to my
mind, knowing the amount of Soc
ialism abroad in literature and soei-
ETY., that Henry Ward Beecher WAS
moving his mind toward that point
reached by st. Simon and Stephen
Pearl Andrews, of q vast phalan
stery and carouse, without proper
ty. or poverty, or family soyer-
eighty. For he had weakened out
his creed to be MARBLE and 4 10
tus-eating. The warrior part of
life and duty were nearly eliminat-
ed. The true estate of man was
cut down to boudoir, and pastors
were writing love-novels. What
nation eyer ran down to waste and
as soon as ours
The whole period between Johnny
cake and lace-lambrequins has been
spauned by living men-Beecher
them.
THE oFFENsE WHICH MR.. BEECHER
ADMITS
of oace advising Mrs. Tilton, for
her souls sake, to fly from her
was crime against the
marital institutions of society.
Wives are for the salvation of
their husbands, not wholly of their
own, and to the last, should plead
with them. Who but a wife can
save an erring man? How can she
save her own soul by quitting her
duty? Where can she rise to
mercy so straight as from the spot
where she died at her post? In
that sublimation of q wife's own
soul to the selfishness of saving it
at the sacrifice of her husband is a
doctrine, pernicious to
churches which teach it,-a cleri-
cal impertinence which the church
of Rome does not take, and it will
more men against the
Christian ministry than Mr.. Beech
er ever preached to in all his life.
Here is a gushing woman, nine
teen years married, seeking for an
idle life, discovered midway be-
tween Charles Reade's novels and
Henry Ward Beecher's discourses.
OF all men in the world, her ortho-
dox Christian pastor advises her
to leave roof-tree bed, and duty,
for a grievance which she cannot
define to the law. The law would
deliver her back to her husband,
and some husbands would deliver
Henry Ward Beecher from him
self. A pastor like that is an en-
envy of home, q traitor in the
camp. Marriage. is not visiting,
it is a contract TO stay, to which
the clergyman gives second sol
emnization. That home where
the idea ever turks that it may be
abandoned by one or the other by
and by, is o blasted home where
she union was never holy. GAS
long as you both shall live" say
all the other preachers.
The advice of Mr.. Beecher was,
in that case
\ FKEE-LOVE ACT
moro nearly than any of Tilton's
antics amogst the free-lovers; for
thousands of families in this coun-
try remain undivided to the end of
their days where the man has at
some time crossed the line. After
the death-bed marriage of Richard
son and Mrs. Mcfarland, which
Mr.. Beecher performed, Gen. Gar
field said to me: "There was q
matter there fatal to the institu-
ton Of marriage. II a man can
say to a wife: Get q divorce and
l will marry you,' matrimony will
be mere pastime."
The troubles of the Tilton house
hold have been much made of, but
they were never heard of until this
outburst. There appears to have
been
NO OTHER INTERPRETERS
but the pastor. Tilton is a sue.
cessful man in his profession,
handsome to the eye, raised in the
Beecher style, yet no more loose
in coming and going than the
pastor of Plymouth chapel, who is
VIGOROUSLY careless of his money,
so that he has to be helped along
after enjoying his remarkable per
quisites as preacher and editor
Careless with another's money
may be careless with dearer parts
of his. Myhomet cared nothing
for the one, but he thankfully &C
cepted the wife of his friend as i
tribute to his piety. May it no
occur to some people that a pas
k1r &c a uao% Ckr;afiaD oburoh n, q