Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-03-08
The Plymouth Church.
Editor Chicago Journal:

Jew nanuS, organs, dimensions, senses, al
| fections, passions? fed with the same food,
hurt with the same weapons, subject to The
same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same Winter
| end Summer as a Christian is?-Shakspeare.
1t was my lot to be a member of the
late Advisory Council OF the Plymouth
Church of Brooklyn. Ihave attained
certain convictions concerning the
condition aud affairs of that church
which | would like to lay before the
Christian public, more particularly be-
fore the members of the Congregation
al churches who are among Jour read
ing constituency 10 1.-The world, the
flesh and the DEVIL | have no re-
marks to make. But to auy one who
has reason to suspect himself Of being
a Christian, | have few thoughts to
communicate.
am one Of those who believe that
now, they who will may see their way
out of the togs of the Beecher scandal
The way out of almost any difficulty is
to go bacS over the road by which you
went into it.
think the first wrong step taken
by the Christian public was the as
sumption that plymouth Church was
not fit tribunal to pass jud ment up.
on the matters involved in the scandal.
The Congregational polity posits as its
first principle the suficiency Of the
local church 10 manage its own affairs
and be the final judge of the moral
status of its own membe Certainly
the reason ought to be very grave
which should induce a Congregations
oast to violate this first principle Of
this ecclesiastical system.
Now the Plymouth Church has had
but one Judgment through all this
storm of scandal. And he who seeks
to erect another tribunal to revise
that judgment should have other rea.
son than the fact that his own conclu-
sion does not coincide with that of the
church. He should be able to show
some radical fault in Ply mouth Church
itself, which units it to pass upon it's
own affairs.
want, in this article, to concen-
trate attention upon this single point
the trust,corthiness OF Plymouth
Church.
The membership of Plymouth
Church is not far from the aggregate
of the membership of all the Congre-
gational churches of the city of Chi
cago. Suppose ali the Congregation
aiists of Chicago, massed together, to
be agreed upon matter of fact touch
Ing their own affairs with dozen or
SO exceptions), would not they think
1t an astonishment before high heaven
if their own brethren elsewhere we're
to regard their conclusion with dis
| dam?
The jud ement of such body of
protesting Christians should have our
confidence, unless it appears that they
are Intellectually incapable of weigh
ing evidence, or that they are morally
corrupt.
1t cannot be claimed that the mem
bers Of Plymouth Church are of so
low grade Intellectually that their con-
clos'ons are entitled to no respect.
The bership Of that chnrch is
made up of the same elements which
constitutes the membership of Congre-
gatlonal churches of Chicago. All
trades and professions are represented
in it. There are merchants, phvSi,
clans and lawyers Of national reputa-
ton
1t is charged in Christian quarters
that Plymouth Church has become
corrupt. Now, if we knew nothing
personally about the moral conditi1n
of the members of Plymouth Church,
there are certain probabilities on
which we could confidently rely for
correct guidance. It is supposabIe
that the membership Of all the Con
gresatlonal churches of Chicago could
become 80 corrupt that they would
not care anything about the moral
character Of their pastor? Is it con
ceivable shat all the fathers and moth
ers, the husbands and wives of the
Congregational churches OF Chicago
could fall to such depths that they
would willingly receive into their
homes, in the intimacy Of the pastoral
relation, man whom thev believed to
be an aduIterer?
Now let us look that supposition in
the face till we realize its meanino
and then let us ask ourselves WHY +
will not 6t down over Brooklyn as
we'll as over Chicago.
Again, if individual Christians will
run over the list of that church 7
think they vii! be convinced by hnouu
.facts, as we'll as by the probabilities
OF the case, that the church is nor the
mass of eorruptions supposed by the
current whisperings and backbi,ines
Not less melancholy than the Or
igina scandal is the readiness with
which people who claim to be Chris
t;ans give ear to, circulate, and even
DuhliSh the tattla of tho cto.