Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-09-29
DAVID SWING AND MOODY.

L
number of thoughtful and reverent
minds view the course of Prof. Swing
concerning those emotional charl-
tans, Moody and Sankey. In a re-
cent number Of his paper, the Hill
ance, he says:
It is feared that after all their long
prayers and long sermons on behalf
Of the conversion of the world, there
is quite a number of Chicago evan
CYCLISTS who are opposed to any
Moody and Sankey movement on
the part of all the churches. We
wonld not intimate that this oppo-
sition to Mr.. Moody is serious in
quantity On the contrary, we
know that the awakening will come
along just as summer comes and au-
tumn comes, without waiting to.
confer with this and that dignifed
gentleman; but while we fear no
utter failure of the good work, we
could love to see all the orthodox
brethren confess the Lord which a
sinner finds under lay preaching is
the same Lord that Bunyan and all
the good saints have always been
rejoicing over.
Proceeding at greater length, the
Prof. styles those Chicago clergy
men who opposed the proposition to
invite those brawlers in Religions
name to that city, 'sholy-water men,
and he ironically recommends that
these opposers ''get a bottIeeof holy
water from Bishop Foley and con-
secrate these laymen before they
begin their work; which consecra-
ton will harmonic all parties and
make heaven little more secure to
those who shall be affected by the
coming discourses." We are strong
.ly convinced that an injustice is here
done to many Chicago clergymen
who oppose the 'Srevivalists. .
Doubtless the city contains few
ancient specimens of the petrifed
theology, who sincerely believe in
the myth Of a miraculous and in
Simultaneous "conversion; a sudden
transcendant and radical sschange .
in the entire nature of an individual,
wrought, nobody knows how or
why or wherefore. 1t is a grief to
many to hear Prof. Swing avow
himself of this number, even though
he attempts to palliate it by ridicul-
ing those of his brethren who de-
clare that it can be brought about
only through the Lords g regularly
ordained servants" The sympathy
of the reasonable must certainly ex-
tend to these antique dignitaries
rather than to Prof. Swing in this
matter; if this indefnable, non un-
derstandable conversion is accept
ed as a necessity to salvation, by all
means, for decency's sake, let it be
wrought up by the regularly or
dained /" rather than amid the bad
breath and perspiration of a Moody
ish powwow.
But candor suggests that among
these opposing clergymen, there
must be many who oppose
not from any musty theological
discrimination between the efficacy
of clerical and lay fervor in behalf of
sinners, but from reasonable and
refined sense of what constitutes a
true conversion. How can any
clergyman who has advanced be-
yond the gregarious instinct, advise
his people to seek the inspiration of
a surplus animalism in crowds to
vivify and exalt the highest Of the
spiritual nature? The eyes may fill
and the heart may throb under the
influence Of contagious emotion, but
such tears touch not the hidden life
and the pulsing blood is rendered no
purer by faster flow. Nay, as the
vitiated oxygen in the steaming
halls sends the throng home with
poisoned life currents, fitted for low
er aims and darker deeds than when
it gathered, so the unwholesorne at
n1osphere, called religious, but desti-
tute of the first vital germ ofreligion,
contaminates the moral sense and rem
ders it less capable Of receiving pure
truth. These emotional carniyais
cultivate bigotry, are the foes of di-
vine reason and the patrons of stag
nant Ignorance.