The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1874-08-07

| estate Oh llldll WIZ cut uOWIl a DOu-
doir, and pastors Were writing love nov
| els What lation ever ran down TO
waste and Voluptuousness as soon as
ours? The whole period between John
| ny-cake and laced lambrequins has been
spanned by living men-B eeher
amongst them.
| THE OFFENsE WHICH BEECHER ADMITS
of once advising Mrs. Tilton, for her
souls sake, to fly from her husband, was
| a 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 wife can save an err
| ing 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 postl In
| that sublimation of a wife's own soul
to the seIfishness OF saving it at the sac
rifice of her husband is damnable doe
trine. pernicious to churches which
teach it-a clerical impertinence which
the Church of Rome does not take, and
it will prejudice more men against the
Christian ministry than Mr.. Beecher ev-
er preached to in all his life Here a. a
gushing woman, nineteen years married,
seeking for an ideal life, discovered
midway between Charles Reads novels
and Henry Ward Beecher's discourses-
OF all men in the world, her orthodox
Christian pastor advises her to leave
root-tree, bed, and duty, for grievance
which she cannot define to the law. The |
law would deliver her back to her hus-
band and some husbands would deliver |
Henry Ward Beecher from himself. y |
pastor like that is an enemy OF home, a |
traitor in the camp. Marriage Is not n
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 a blasted |
home where the union was never holy.
AS long as We both shall live" say all
other preachers.
The advice of Mr.. Beecher was III
that case,
A FREE-LOVE ACT
more nearly than any of Tilton's antics
amongst the free-lovers; for thousands
of families in this country remain undl-
viIed to the end of their days where the
man has at some time crossed the line.
After the death-bed marriage of Rich-
ardson and Mrs. Mcfarland, which Mr..
Beecher performed, Gen. Garfield SAID
to me: There was a matter there IA
tai to the institution of marriage. Ii
man can say to a wife: Get Il divorce
and will marry you, matrimony VIII
be mere pastime."
The troubles of the Tilton household
have been much made of, but they were
never heard of until this OutburSt.
There appears to have been
NO OTHER INTERVIEWER
but the pastor. TiIton is successful
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
notoriousy careless of his money, 50
that he has to be helped along after en-
joying his remarkable perquisites as
preacher and editor Careless with an
others money may be careless with dear
er parts of his property. Mahomet cared
nothing for the one, but he thankfully ac-
cepted the wife of friend as a tribute 10
his piety MAY it not occur TO some
people that n pastor of a vast Christian
church may get money too freely, too
much and too VariOusly, to be the type |
of Bishop as described by Paul! Meth
cd is the ladder on which good intentions |
get to Heaven Who scatters method is
working with sieve. Nor is genius the |
true tvpe of an eccIesiastic. The pastoral |
work is the great function of the Church.
That Mr.. Beecher has abandoned, eX-
cept when he advises few of his par
ishoners on delicate points. Plymouth |
Chapel is the most Bohemian bower in
the Lords Vineyard. Spurgeon is |
mathematician beside Beecher. Hya-
cinthe is scarcely more erratic. II the |
best of the life we get is to be our re-
ligious life in America, this taking of |
a church by man of genius, without |
a synod, a conference, code, or any OBJ
legation whatever, ought TO be discoun- |
tenanced. The churches of the country |
are the conservative power i'll it; a pas
tor ought to be subject to discipline i'll |
some way, if only to preserve himself |
from vain-glory.
THE PARTNERSHIP.
between Bowen, Beecher, and Tilton, |
has always been, to say the least, mild |
scandal. There is Oliver johnson, the |
latitudinarian, to edit it; Tilton, the at
titudinarian, TO adorn it; Beecher, the |
platitudinarian, to advertise 1t; and |
Bowen, the ratitudinarian, to peddle 1t
around. Mr.. Colfax used to smile into
it by the BREWER column. 1t was, alto
gether, a travesty on Il religious order
the word of God and IL note OF hand; a
counterfeit detector and sermon. Such
papers have sprung up on all sides Next
to soliciting life insurance policies IS the
publishing of semi-denominational Or
gans. The world, the saints, and now
the flesh and the devil, cooperate. Out
| of that coalition has come improvidence,
rupture, recrimination, and now shame.
Bowen has not been heard from, and
why!
Theodore Tilton ought no more TO
| have been Beecher's companion than
Joe Howard, whom he got out OF Fort
Lafayette. Those two ought TO have "a
set-to, with Beecher for referee, and
| Howard has begun it.
THE HUSBANDS AND FATHERS
| of this country are making this great
! scandal personal matter They are
terrible in their strength, moving tOEetll-
er Oh the laws of time and the country,
| for the protection of their wives and the
honor of their homes. No race, no State,
can quibble with pastors on this subject,
and have security for society. TheChurch
is the bride of the Lord, not Il paramour.
The growth of individuality has made the
marriage obligation less "A ring nova
days than glove, and the country Is ful
of grass-widows, snares to Others and un-
happy to themselves. The man who
whispers TO anOther's wife that he loves
her is a parasite who both poisons and
stings.
IF 4 CLERICAL PARASITE
do this. there is at least one more fagot
in reserve for him. And il i serious
suspicion against Mr. Beecher that Mrs.
Tilton does not love her husband as she
does the priest. The husband whose bed
she has shared since she came virgin 10 1t,
the father of her race, Is less TO Mrs. Ill
ton than glib and interIoping preach
81. far her senior. \ faithful pastor should
fly from such power over a household
The wife's compliments witness against
him.
FINS
IL there be no guilt in this chain OF CO.
incidences, let there never again be sus-
picion. First. Beecher is silent on the
Woodruff charges. Next, Tilton chal-
lenges him Oh the platform of his church,
and he declines the conflict He quits
his Congregational body rather than
speak. He writes the language OF the
tormented TO and fro, and here and
there. He signs covenants. He picks
his committee at last, and hires his law
vens Then the woman is drawn from
the distracted household TO save the
man she should not be saving 1t looks
to me like a lie of anguish, with soIne
Scrinture phrases TO make its hypocrisy
deceive Heaven. 1t remains to be seen
] ii af