The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1875-10-27

purity and spirituality. lie can even
so manage that his exalted religious
Office, instead OF making his fall more
disastrous, shall rather stand rs a
defence between him and his accusers
The very blackness Of his guilt can be
appealed to, to deceive people into think
ing his crime impossible. He plunees into
iniquity, and coming forth from its slime
winds anout him his saccrdotal robes, and
Haunting the purity Of the garments with
which men have endued him, defics them
to find the depravity which he has used
their reverence or their crcdulity to cover
up.
But neither ministers nor laymen can
safely dare to follow Mr.. BEEcuER's ex-
ample. Few men are situated as he was
| and is, and not one in u hundred thousand
has his enrontery and power of assuming
| "A false character Mr.. BEEC1IER Is pre-
eminently an actor. He has pliable con-
| science, perverted moral sense, "a dovasta-
ted spiritual constitution. The distinctions
between right and wrong, which are more
or less clearly marked for the great mass
Of men, he has so fused and confused in
the fires Of his animal nature. that they no
| '''@'a NTNieb ANi nun w y btlltNt ut IL Ill
that worst state attainable by the lowest
OF the fallen angels, "a state wherein the
filth OF sin smells with only gratifying
odors TO the nostrils rendered incapable OF
enjoying divine atmosphere by familiar
ity with the noxious vapors of hell. But
few men who give way to awless passion
have reached so low a limit. Most of them
cannot proclaim their innocence ~ If they
really believed In Il themselves, nor are
they able to make the mere fact OF their
crime proof that they have committed no
crime at all. To do this requires long
training in iniquity and duplicity such rs
few, whether ministers or laymen, can have
gone through. Few also can equal Mr..
BEEcHER ms an actor able to depict the en-
thusiasm of goodness. We therefore warn
everybody against deludlng themselves in
to thinking that because HENRY WARD
BEEcHER enjoys temporary immunity
from punishment, and has hoodwinked
his unwary partisans, there is like chance
for Others to escape from the just human
consequences of their wickednoss The
fact that he finds refuge by reason of the
mists which he throws around his Of
Tending, Is no reason for surprising that
the next adulterer, clerical or lay, can
either conceal his offence or evade the
indignation with which society seeks to
punish II. Moreover, Mr.. BEEcHER il
not yet out of the woods. All this Growing
of his followers and apologists Is merely
premature. Long before this, ninety
men IN ~ hundred in his desperate straits
would have been caught and plllored;
and even he still remains in dangerous
proximity to detection and thorough ex-
posure.
Yet Mr.. BEEcHER's tricky defence, with
its pile aid from religion, has TO an
alarming extent encouraged sexual crimes
and wrought palpable damage TO the safe
guards of morality. He has taught women
casuistry by which they may defend the
outworks of impurity, and behind which
they may fight off conscience and stlte
shame. We hear OF women arguing that
even The Is guilty, the sin must be k pt hid
den and unexplored, because religion would
suffer by reason of its exposure; that
man so powerful for good deserves the
conformation of his offence against the
marriage relation; aud, practically, that
exalted spiritual natures may he allowed to
wallow III the mire of sexual Sun. The
logical result of this reasoning Is that a man
or woman only needs 10 ger reputation
for piety and exceptional spirituality, TO
enjoy exemption from the penalties which
regularly follow vice. Mrs. TILroN, under
Mr.. BEEcHER's tuition, undoubtedly de-
luded herself into thinking that she was sin
less; as again, under his influence she per
suaded herself that lying was just0able to
save religion from the damage of the ex-
posure Of her paramount, even If the lie
went 70 accuse her husband of perjury
Tho utter wreck of this woman is IA SER
mon against the ruin which follows a per-
verted moral sense.
The only way TO defeat the evil influence
of Mr. BEECnER's case is to tear off all
the casuistry, characterization, religious
cant and histrionic glitter with which 1t is
clothed and decorated, and show II
as it is II religion, instead of
Furnishing vice committed within the
walls of the temple shall hide IL
under the altar, then 10 will need TO
grant indulgence for vice pursued outside
OF the sacred enclosure. But religion will
not suffer itself TO be used as n shield for
the sin II denounces. II will yet drive out
the unclean priest; and let no one be de-
luded into initiating BEEcHER's wicked
ness by the seeming immunity from pun
ishment which his devilish audacity and
ingenuity have for the moment, attained.