The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-03-21
Truth Stronger Than Men.

We have noticed for many years that the
religious enthusiasm of the community is
somewhat intermittent in character. 1t does
not flow on with the steadiness and certainty
| of great river in which there are no breaks,
but after the manner of river in which, at
one point, there is an eddy, where all the
sticks and straws gather as in stagnant pool
and at another a rapid, where the boiling wa
tiers rush with loud noise, and at still an
other fall, where the waves dash themselves
into foam with fervor and recklessness that
is appalling. Sometimes the Church enjoys
what is in the ecclesiastical idiom called ''re-
vival." when excitement prevails and mighty
and stirring appeals are made to receptive and
willing crowds, and sometimes 1t passes
through what may be not inapuy termed a
period OF Information, when it seems to be
blocked in by ice, and when its only refresh
ment is the memory of its past victories.
While looking over the general signs of the
Istimes We have been constantly struck with
this periodicity of religious zeal and indiffer-
ence, and have remar ked that these conditions
are accompanied by certain premonitory
symptoms, which are as sure as the indications
| of the barometer concerning the weather.
| Though particularly interested in those poht-
! ical and social movements which mark
change of base on the part of the people, and
point to the direction in which and the means
| by which progress is being made, we cannot
be wholly unmindful of certain pronounced
pecularities in the religious life of the city
and nation. Hence we have noticed that for
some reason or other the Church has been in
state of torpor for nearly year. The elo-
! quence of the pulpit has not been less fervent,
perhaps but the Indifference of the people
has been impregnable. This has been a mat
ter OF universal complaint among clergymen.
At their various gatherings they have unwil-
lingly confessed the widespread lethargy, and
sought its cause. 1t is admitted that the
sermon, which in ordinary times would have
stirred the pews to their depths, has fallen
like snowhakes on wintry ocean. Men seemed
to have put the shutters up and gone off for q
holiday.
For some reason or other, which, perhaps,
the social economist may explain, tight times
bring men to their knees. This is one of the
every financial panic is followed by revival
which sweeps over the country like prairie
fire. 1t may possibly be true that when men
have nothing else to do they think of religion,
| and that when the stock market is firm and
money is easy and plenty they lose sight Of
their spiritual interests. Perhaps it is q little
| hypercritical TO assert that men are generally
more willing to pray to the Lord when they
cannot prey on each other, but it is, to
say the least, somewhat suspicious and
not wholly a coincidence, that bad
times fill mp the broken religious ranks.
| Our recent panic, however, was so far in
sympathy with the Brooklyn trial that it stock
an exception to the ruling of history. In
deed, for great many reasons We have been
| led to think that this scandal, which has filled
the nations ears with the dust OF filthy
procession of dramatic effects has had come
thing to do with the general stagnation.
For weeks the daily food of every house
hold this side of the Pacific coast has
consisted of five or six columns of fine print,
containing details of which the large majority
OF readers should be entirely ignorant This
trial has educated the boys and girls of this
generation in matters which spread uni
versal blush of shame on the cheek of the
American people. 1t has prematurely de.
veloped youth and disguised old age. 1t has
filled the Post Office with tons of obscene
literature, and dug wide channels for a per-
feet freshet of slang. Ten thousand sermons
cannot rub out the foul impression already
made. So far-reaching is this pestiferous in
fuence and so demoralizing is it that it Is
the topic of conversation everywhere-in the
Office, on the street and in the drawing
room; and men and women find themselves
engaged in an animated controversy upon the
subject who year ago would have colored to
the roots of their hair if it had been mad
vertently alluded to. The moral tone of the
people has been let down by it, and as new
and more nauseating facts are evolved out of
each days cross-examination we begin to
wonder if we are not, afto: all, trying to sound
the depths of bottomless bog.
One is struck with surprise that such a
motley group Of human curiosites could have
been drawn around any single point of interest
There are no ordinary mortals among them.
The common North American type of human
ty seems to be absent, and in its stead one
finds anomalous and abnormal developne nts
each perfect and priceless curiosity in him
self, and the eloquent advocate of some new
theory of social life, which would, to say the
least, make radical changes in our present
structure. Such gathering of over-cerebrated
men and women, each with special variety
Of 'inwardness,' and the happy possessor of
all the faults and weaknesses which belong to
genius, has never been brought together since
the green earth started on its career. There
is evidently a vast quantity of psychic force