The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1875-07-02

Dr. M'UOsh on the Lesson OF the
IIrOOkIyn Scandal.

President McCosh's sermon to the
graduating class at Princeton was upon
tbe royal'law OF love. 1t was a strong
exposition Of orthodox theology, as con-
tra.led with the lax and sentimental ten
dencies OF the day; and was obviously
intended as severe review OF the relaxa'
tons Of the Beecher trial. Law without
love, he said, is channel without
stream; love without law may be stream
bursting forth and spreading destruction
There has arisen stern doctrine whIch
has no tenderness, whose gaze is as un'
moved and unluoyabIe as that OF the
Egyptian sphinx looking out from its
desert Of sand. But this defect belongs
rather to the seventeenth than the nine
,eenth century. ave are now" con.
hpucd DIR. McCosh, "more in danger of u
sentimental and simpering faith, acting
lhr part Of Delilah, protesting love to u
man who boasts that he Is strong only in
tbe end to show how weak he is, and to
con.ign him to blindness and darkness.
The eyil tendencies OF laxity Of doctrine
were emphasized, and "that teaching in
nnr day antaVnnistic to the Princeton the.
oloy,6c called''Broad church in England
and '6the religion OF humanity" In this
country, was strongly reprchended, as
ending in the decay OF religion and the
lowering OF morality, 1t is q profound
saving, quoted the preacher, OF one OF the
brothers Hare, "To form correct judg.
ment concerning the tendency Ol any
Joetripe, We should rather look at the
forms Il bears in tho disciples than In
the teacher, for he only made II; they are
made by it, We may now see the
kind Of characters that are made in this
school Of love and humanity. There was
first turning away from the old doc
trine, and this has been followed by u
turning away from the old morality. l
beg that It may be understood that have
no reference to any one individual, and
that enter on no doubtful or disputed
points, ! proceed on what IL visible to
all, on what indeed has been forced Of
fcnsively on the attention Of all. The
feeling Of many Of us Is, "0h my soul,
come not thou into their secret; unto their
assembly, mine honor, be not thou unit.
ed.n Notwithstanding all the efforts to
suppress the Secret" awful disclosures
have been made. We see how the milk
Of human kindness, when not restrained
by law, Is apt to be soured into hatred;
how humanity sinks into sellishness-tOr
see how perilous il Is to begin to tamper
with the most sncred Of earthly relations.
It looks as ii the generation now spring
Ing up needed to know what sort OF MS
sembly or society has been formed among
ny, and what the practical consequences
OF the sentiment passing current In the
circle. The young need to know what
kind Of men are seeking to guide opinion
in the public press, even the sO'called re-
ligious press. Men who keep no Sabbath,
but work on II US on other days; who go
to no place Of Worship who are supposed
to be capable Of teaching others while
they have abandoned the religion which
ia the basis Of ethics, and ridiCulC the
holy doctrine which they know condemns
them. The watchmCn who are set on thy
walls, o Jerusalem, need to proclaim as
loudly as when seven thunders utter their
voice, that love is 10 be guided by law;
that love cannot excuse lying, whether to
shelter the persons themselves or others;
that in contradictory statements there
must be lying, and that in contradictory
oaLhs there must be perjury Of the deep
eat dyo-oiEensive in the highest degree
to God, and to be denounced with terrible
reprobation by man.