The New York herald., 1876-03-05
RELIGION. Pres. ropIcs.

The Plymouth Advisory Council receives
attention from the Independent, which is not,
of course, at oil pleased with the results of its
investigation nor with the commission pro-
vided for by that body in case new or, as the
Independent calls it, undeveloped evidence, is
forthcoming within the sixty days specified.
The great distress Of the editor is that the
Council did not provide for secret commits
sion, and that it insisted on the charges and
specifications being presented, with the
proofs thereof, to insure any notice being
taken of them. The Council was "easily
captured by gush" and ''has done no honor
to Congregationalism, says the Independent
The Evangelist has q better opinion of the
Council, which it thinks was on the whole
able and fair and contained some of the best
known and most honored names in the Con-
gregational denomination. The questions Of
Congregational order and polity that have
been decided, the Evangelist thinks, are of
very little importance compared with the
graver questions which interest the whole
Christian public-namely, Docs the Congre-
gational system allow of full and fair trial
Mr.. Beecher already had such an eccleslasti-
cal trial? The Evangelist thinks the Andover
proposition should have been accepted, and,
while it seems to have n lingering doubt of
Mr.. Beecher's innocence of the principal
charge uttered against him, it hopes that his
innocence may yet be made clear to all. The
Baptist Weekly has seldom seen more noble
body of Christian men in council than the
late Advisory Council, and their decision
will not fail to command the confidence of
all fair-minded men, 1t admires Mr..
Beecher's boldness in challenging the closest
scrutiny into his life and actions, and agrees
with the Interior in declaring that, if it was
the courage of innocence. it was most sub
lime. The Weekly confidently anticipates
a day of righteous retribution and of COM
plete vindication for the Plymouth pastor
The only other topic noticed with any
great degree of unanimity by the religious
press is education, either secular or religious.
The Christian Union tells us that the New
Testament method of teaching religious
truth is by the social element. "We," says
the editor, ''do not dare to say 4 love you
to anybody, except here and there one in
some corner, but Paul threw out love by the
handsful" The Union gives illustrations
of this promiscuous loving of the
great apostle, and says the greatest
hindrance to the richness and power of
religious life at the present day is the want
of the social element The Freemap's Jour
nal pleads for the replacement of the pa
gan classics in our higher educational in
stitutions by Christian classics, and cites
proofs that the Catholic Church has thus
pleaded for a long time but evidently in
vain. This is in the line of the Christian
education which it demands in the public
schools. The Christian I,tclligencer quotes
from a letter of Thomas jefferson to George
Ticknor, recently published, to show that
he had much better appreciation of the
value and importance of education than
Bishop McQuaid has, and he urged the State
to provide free education, from the element
ary to the classical, for all its citizens. The
Hebre,c Leader thinks religion is n means of
culture, and in proof thereof cites the case of
the Hebrew nation, which existed for ages,
in contrast with the Roman Empire, which,
for lack Of religious culture, was easily
blotted out by its barlarous neighbors.