The daily Argus., 1874-08-25
The 9ai1g Arsas.
Mr., Beecher in the Hands Of Sharpers.
From the New York Natinn-

| From the New York Nation.
We will not say all that might be said of
the tendency which this affair has clearly
revealed in Mr.. Beecher to prefer the So
ciety OF his interiors to that of his EQUALS,
for 1t is fault into which all clergynen
are more or less liable to fall. A very
successful minister becomes inevitably an
object of homage to a large body of
women and OF uneducated men; and it is a
homage so sweet even to the strongest
heads that nothing but great vigor of
character prevents man from gradually
avoiding all circles in which he is not like.
y to receive it, and in which his savings
are likely to meet with irreverent hand
ling. And yet no position is more full of
moral and intellectual danger than that of
king OF ones company" Nothing is
more necessary tor moral and mental
health and discipline than the society of
ones equals, and anybody who finds that
he shrinks from 1t may be sure that he
carries with him the seeds of decline, and
he may be thankful some fine day he do
not find that he has, like Mr.. Beecher
passed into the hands of crowd of reG
gious sharpers ready to trade on his fame
and get distraction out of his agony.
This tendency has been aggravated in
Mr.: Beecher's case by peculiar views of
social obligation, to which we haye had oc.
casion to make some reference once or
twice before. He has long held a theory.
and has, we believe, honestly tried to live
up to it, that it is mans duty, as he ex-
presses it, TO look at the world as God |
looks at it, or, in other words, to govern
himself, in his dealings with his fellows, by |
lnferences of his own as to the manner in |
which God would act under similar cir
AS God is wholly love
and no respecter of persons, attempts to
initiate Him results in deliberate and sys-
suppression OF all discrimination
.ouching character and conduct, and the
OF purely emotional theology
made up, not of opinions, but of sghs and
ears and aspirations and unlimited good
nature. As God loves and forgives the
nner why should not we? In his sight
here is after all little or no difference be-
ween Bishop Potter and Bill Tweed why
hould we, His creatures, try to make any?
As Christ associated freely with publicaDs
nd sinners, why should VIC attempt to in
|icate the existence of moral superiority
n the part of one man over another ?
AoiSpNSit oiuoS Jul itHSlbuS lllc CUIlSlStS
argely of expression that is, the com
by one to another of what he t
r she feels about death and Judgment t
nd in fact the church exists for the pro
action of this expression, ought we not to t
axe each person account of his moral ,
and not look too nicely into the
onduct of his life We do not think we q
xaggeratc when we say that Mr.. Beecher
as tried this system fully and faithtullyin !
'rooklyn, and we do not fear to add that f
he events of the last three months were i
ct necessary to satisfy people of its fail
re. 1t makes state OF society in which II
he self-respect of the honest, the manly '
nd pure minded is lowered or destroyed,
nd in which that of the foul, the unscru-
ulous, the shallow and tricky, is raised
nd strengthened and in which the good
nd bad and indifferent, by pooling their
laracter, as the railroad men say, produce
mass OF corruption, indecency and vul-
irity which has to be periodically washed
way by some such tempest as we are now
itnessing.