The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-08-02
The Laborers in a New Vineyard.

AS our readers will have observed, Messrs.
United States. These gentlemen have been
laboring in England to convert the people OF
that great Empire, and have met with tremen-
dous success i'll the way of congregations and
criticisms in Parliament and articles in the
newspapers. AS to the number of souls they
have saved it would be irreverent for us to
inquire Certainly they have made greater
sensation in England than any of our Ameri-
can citizens who have hourished in that coun-
try for a long time. They will be received on
their return with the highest ecclesiastical
honors. Even those who do not belong to
the Church over which Moody and Sankey
preside, and who would not be amenable to
their rhetoric, cannot help feeling proud that
it was left for American evangelists to rouse
the dormant religious spirit of England.
We observe that an invitation has been
extended to these clergymen by some of our
citizens in Washington to visit the national
capital as ''revivalists," and hold series Of
meetings. 1t is proposed to build suitable
hall, and as Messrs Moody and Sankey will
not arrive until late in the summer operations
Will scarcely begin before fall.
We need not say that we entirely approve
of this invitation to our proselyting fellow
countrymen. We know of no city where the
labors of Christian missionaries would be
more useful than in Washington. Let this
''revival" movement begin with the opening
of Congress. 1t is a new Congress, largely in
tba dam ocro rio ;ntaraot copnnocad of hopast
ingenious and fresh statesmen, who will visit
Washington probably for the first time, sub
ject to all the temptations of that attractive
city. They come from their homes repre-
senting the 'tidal wave" of last year,
anxious to save the nation and bring
it back TO democratic purity. They
will be confronted with Indian rings and
Treasury rings, with Sam Wards dinners and
the gamblers faro bank, with the over
whelming hospitality of Shepherd and the
Apcian feasts of Robson. 1t does not re-
quire violent stretch of the imagination to
see what will be the fate of couple of hum
dred innocent congressman, fresh from the
rural districts tumbled into gaudy capital,
away from home fresides and social restraint
and religious teaching, and left at the mercy
of the twenty odd rings whose members swarm
around the Capitol.
If Moody and Sankey can be induced to
visit Washington they may have saving in
fuence upon these members. The hosts OF
the devil and the soldiers of the Church will
have a fair stand-up open fight, without
quarter and without interference On one
side the gamblers faro bank, Sam Ward
and his dinners, Bill King and his cat
tie, Delano and his Indian Ring, Boss Shep-
herd and his real estate combinations, the
President and the various members of his
large, interesting and growing family. On
the other side Moody and Sankey, the cham
pions of truth and virtue. If these evangel-
lists can save the next Congress from the in
fuences which threaten it they will entitle
themselves not alone to the thanks of all
Christian men who delight in seeing sinners
led from the error of their ways, but of all
honest citizens, without distinction of creed,
who look with hope upon the first DEM
ocratic Congress that has assembled for many
years, and not without fear upon the potent
influences which the devil is arranging for its
downfall