Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1874-07-23
BEECHKR's FALL.


possible to read this narrative of treach
cry and seduction from the pen of tn,
man most deeply wronged without /,
feeling Of sore regret that Of all men il
the Union the villain should prove to b,
the Rev. Henry Ward Beecber. HI
has stood 50 high as citizen, has born,
so great reputation as q preacher o
the gospel, and deservedly wears 81
many hOnors as q scholar; he has beer
so useful, has so stamped himself on his
age and time, and been so justly re
garded as every way pre-eminent; he wa:
so far beyond his contemporaries of the
pulpit as athinker, broad, liberal, and
earnest republican, a typical American,
and one whom all delighted TO honor,
that his fall by the most debasing prac-
tices upon his dearest friends cannot but
be viewed as a public calamity. Every
man who reads the touching and sad re-
cital of Tilton will ask, "Who next?''
For g quarter Of q century the great
criminal for we assume there is moth
ing now to rest a doubt OF his criminal
lty upon has filled the public eye, and
been accepted as the foremost and first
of our public teachers, remarkable for
the ability with which he treated every
question submitted to him; for his en-
ployment Of pure, vigorous English, and
the energy with which he espoused
every cause that be deemed in the least
worthy CT the people. He was "a man
that, take him for all in all, we shall not
look upon his like again. 1t seemed,
indeed, that every god had set his seal
upon him, so versatile and ready was
his ever-present genius in addressing it.
self to the comprehensive treatment OF
every question Of his time. He was
happy in all that he did, and was the
idol Of a congregation that prided itself,
and Justly, upon its ability to follow
him in all his flights Of fancy, to COM
prehend his logic, and penetrate and
sustain all his designs. He was looked
upon as little less than the Christ, and,
as in the case Of the woman he so base
ly abused, was trusted as implicitly. He
was the heunmitered pope of the christian
church Of America. And this is the
man who has fallen so low that
none may do him reverence. /
This is the man who deliberately exer- /
cised his Office, used his powers Of persua- !
sion and the authority OF the christian |
ministry to muddy the stream ofpeaceful,
trustful, confding love, and blast and |
blight the prospects OF innocent children |
without any power to ward his indecent |
assaults upon the citadel of wifely, moth 1
erly honor. Houston, in Baltimore; /
Ksloch, in Boston; Glendenny, in Jer-
sey City; and now, greatest of all, Beech
er, Of Brooklyn. What fall is here,
and how great the shock-almost, as it /
were, rending the temple ITSELF We for
get the unfortunate culprit, and have 4
sympathy only for the church and cause
of which he has so long been an exem-
plan. The sin his sister laid upon the
grave Of the dead Byron could not be
more disastrous in its effects than this
Of her once illustrious but now infamous
brother. Swift himself, with his cow
srdly treatment Of Vanessa and Stella,
were paragon beside him; and we can
find only one parallel, in the fall of He
loise, by her cool, deliberate and we'll
planned seduction by AbelArd. Every
body is familiar with that story. Abe
lard, like Beeeher, was physically hand
some and well-propOrtioned, and like
him was a great rhetorician and orator
the foremost Of the twelfth century in
Fance-and like BeecheT, in NsN York,
he was first Of all the pulpit speakers IN
Paris. Heused his priestly Office, too, like
Beecher, to gain the love Of the woman
whose beauty, like that of Mrs. Tilton,
was a snare. Abelard became the teach
er OF Heloise, who, like Mrs, Tilton, had
also gifts OF intellect, and was regarded
by all who knew her as pure SIS women
are and remain until seduced
by unprincipled men Of unconquersble
passions. Abelard himself, in one Of his
letters, tells that he and Heloise, his
trustful pupil, sat with books before {
them, but that there was more love
than study. and so from one step to !
the other, until Heloise testified her de- /
vOtion and entire surrender Of herself to
her seducer by giving birth to son,
who was heir 10 the beauty Of his
parents, and who immured in a mOnas-
terry, finally, after a long life, passed
away without making 50 much as
sign. Bsecher, Tilton says, was the
spiritual teacher Of his wife, and that he
used not merely the Establishments Of
the man Of the world, but the insidiOus
and all persuasive power Of christian
love TO blind mis- victim to his purpose
and ruin her forever. And the parallel
goes still farther: Beecher, Is AbelRrd
did, coward-like hides himself behind
.he petticOats OF the woman companion
Of his guilt, that he may not suffer in
bis sacred Office, or fall to the profound
depths Of the pit be himself has dug.
But for Mrs. Tilton there is no nunnery (
10 which she may HE and hide from the
shame other destruction Of her home, and
let US hope there is no monastery
where Beecher, like Abelard, may carry
his crime secure from the condemnation 8
Df the world he has deceived. Like s
satan he has rebelled, and like him be !
must leave the heaven he has hitherto I
nsde his home, and mourn in vain in {
a the hell be has earned And we trust p
biz fall will not be without warning. q
There may be many Beechers. Who Il
Knows Let Us hope not. Christianity o
las at the hands Of thousands Of good C
nen done a noble work for humanity. |
them, let US continue our 3
rust and confidence in the profession =
3eecher has disgraced, but let US also re- Il
member that the priest is but a man, a
md that investiture with holy Office, y
however solemn, and self-discipline how 4
yer severe, cannot wholly kill the Adam "
which has so often been exerted for de- 4
lasing purposes ever since the first man 4
anne into the world. Let the priest go =
n and out Of your dwellings with bene-
LECTION aud blessing; let him 20 about y
ioing good, but at the same time assist S
lin by the careful removal of all temp !
stiou nv thought, word OF look, and :