The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-02-21

outside of the pending legal proceedings, is a
legitimate subject of public comment Leav-
ing the question of his guilt or innocence to
be decided by the proper tribunal his remark
able bearing during the tendency of the case
challenges attention, as perhaps the most ex-
traordinary moral and psychological phenom-
enon ever presented in our American life.
Mr. Beecher's peerless abilities as a pulpit
orator have never shone forth with greater
splendor than during the last few months,
when weight of care and anxiety sufficient
to crush an ordinary man has rested as bur-
den upon his mind. Mr.. Beecher might have
excused himself, on grounds which the public
and his own congregation would have &C
cepted as valid. from preaching during this
trying period of over-burdening solicitude.
His defence against the terrible charge on
which he is arraigned might be deemed
sufficient to occupy his thoughts and exhaust
his energies, and it is marvel, almost
miracle of intellectual elasticity that besides
attending every day on the exhausting pro-
ceedings of the Court, he has appeared each
Friday evening at Plymouth prayer meetings
and preached in his pulpit every Sunday with
even more than his wonted brilliancy. This
bright effulgence of intellectual display under
circumstances so depressing must be regarded
as great exhibition of genius 1t cannot
be disputed that Mr. Beecher is one of
the most wonderful men that ever at
tracted the gaze and observation of an excited
public.
But the extreme indulgence which literary
admirers are disposed to accord to the aberra-
lions of genius cannot blind the moral per-
ceptions of the sober part of the community.
The sanctity of moral obligations cannot be
set aside in favor of brilliant men. 1t is
too true that moral obliquity is
easily pardoned when seductive
blaze of faculties eclipses great faults; but
this extenuating tendency has more commonly
been shown toward men who made no preten-
sions to superior moral purity. The icen-
tiousness of great poets, like Byron and
Goethe, is palliated by the admirers OF their
genius because their love Of pleasure was
never attempted to be concealed under mask
of holiness. Clergymen are judged by diff
ferent rule from that which is applied to men
of fashion and pleasure, whose amours, when
detected, do not convict them of hypocrisy,
nor drive them to denials inconsistent with
their character as men of truth and honor,
taking honor in its customary social sense.
clergyman is judged by sricter rules, and
he has no right to ask nor reason to expect
the indulgent judgment which inconsderate
literary people pass upon the moral cond uct
of their favorites.
Presuming Mr.. Beecher to be innocent, as
we are bound to do until he is proved guilty,
we must be permitted to say that his recent
pulpit displays are Us indecorous as his ex-
traordinary letters to Moulton and others
were unwise. While this scandalous trial is
pending it would have become him to sub
ordinate personal considerations to the honor
OF the Church. No judicious man can believe
that the cause of religion is promoted by the
preaching of q man who stands in the
equivocal position of Mr.. Beecher Every man,
woman and intelligent child who listens to
him in Plymouth church spends the time
devoted to public worship in comparing the
well known accusations with the bearing and
appearance OF the preacher; and people thus
occupied with the problem Of his guilt must
have their minds more or less turned away
from the proper duties Of the place. If the
pulpit of Plymouth church were occupied by
clergyman who had no sort Of connection
with the scandal the congregation would, in
deed, lose the thronging multitudes who
go to observe man who has become the fore
most object of public curiosity, but the regu-
lar worshippers would not have their devo-
tons disturbed by speculations on the guilt
or innocence of the pastor. The appropriate
duties of the place would he conducted with
less distraction and in more devotional
spirit if the congregation were not revolving
so exciting problem in their minds.
In order to place this subject in a con-
vincing hight let US suppose that Mr.. Beecher,
instead of being the long settled pastor of
Plymouth church, were q candidate for the
ministry, of indisputable theological acquire
ments, applying to a responsible ecclesiastical
body for license. With the present grave
charges pending against him we may safely
assume that no ecclesiastical body of any
Christian denomination would permit him to
go into pulpit They would say with Wig
orous unanimity that his innocence must be
established before any church could be
edited by his ministrations. The grounds
on which such judgment and
decision would rest are quite obvious. The
honor of the Church, public respect for reli-
gion and decent regard for morals would
alike forbid the entrance into q Christian
pulpit Of man whose purity was impugned.
however brilliant his talents The dullest and
prosiest sermonizer who ever wearied the
patience OF a congregation, if his piety and
purity were beyond reproach, would be justly
deemed more useful Christian teacher than
an eloquent but suspected man. The grounds