Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-12-01
AS USUAL.
BY J. l.. DUDLEY.

sun-fre. Zeal without knowledge
was long ago said not to be good.
When truth fires the intelligence
there is always a morning glow in
the soul. When the passions of
mans nature are stirred in the dark
he is the victim of wild delirum. A
panic is nothing but a fire in the
feelings. Fanaticism is zeal unreg-
ulated by reason. Superstition is
the child of ignorance and credulity.
Morbid 4nsibilities are the souls
pestilence. Legitimate emotion is
the harlotry Of the heart.
Nothing needs SO much light as
the religious instinct; nothing so dis
astrous when stimulated without
light. All the ghosts and goblins
and "chimeras Dire" have been gen.
Grated in this dark closet of our ma
ture. The Gehennas and Sheds of
the mind are born there. God him
self is but the Devil thereof, ere the
of truth scatter the
phantom forever. And Mercy d.
vine and fearful as she is. is suDpos-
eo to keep vigilant patrol upon
the sulphurous borders of Paradise.
The Moody and Sankey meetings
in Brooklyn are closed. The pres
tige of the leading actors in the
play-the multitudes-the centag1on
generated by the power of the gre
garious instinct-the harangues-
the spell of the singing-the inter-
cessory pleadings ofprayer, the sob
bing Iaments of confession over inn
aginary sins, the passionate appeals
and above all the mystic sorcery that
always works upon superstitious
credulity-these all having retired,
the work now falls back upon the
churches-who will have to be re-
sponsible for keeping mp the zeal,
without the accessories of multitudes
and machinery through which the
enthusiasm was manufactured. The
usual result is to be expected.
Leading New York papers con-
fess to disappointment in the results.
Not the Satanic press-not the
worldly, money making, sing
leading press, but from the religious
organs comes the confession. Mr..
Moody managed his own part we'll,
the ministers who worked with him,
the committees who assisted, and
the eager multitudes who hocked to
the meetings, all gained themselves
credit by their promptness and as
siduity.
"And yet the Brooklyn revival
has been. in certain features, sad
disappointment The ackncw-
ledgment is undisguised, that ssMr.
Moody failed to reach the class he
sought" What is the reason as
signed? Often failure is attributed,
in matters of this sort, to outsiders
the ungodly world-the hardened
sinners who "come to scof''- the
GOODNESS and indifference of saints
who do not come up to the work,
but ':stand afar off," to here and
there a minister who believes more
in God than in men-to the unfav-
orable season of the year, the pres
IRE of business, or some other OBJ
struction in the machinery over
which the Holy Ghost cannot get.
No such reason for the Moody fail
ure in Brooklyn is assigned. In
deed, the reason is SO esdiscredita-
BILE" in the estimation of the relig-
ious journal to which we are in
debted for the information, that it
hesitates to give it. And yet the
truth must be told.
cit was the dishonesty, the selfish
ness of excitement-seeking Christ
ians, that made these meetings a
failure" Not the sinners, but the
'.professed,'' not the cool, calm, or
Indifferent, but the excitement seek
ing Christians" these were in the
way; they caused the defeat. Mr..
Moody tried to open the door to
ssmere church goers," and to shut it