The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1877-10-13

SHAKsPERE.
The week which has just passed will be
memorable for some time to come for reve-
lations of wickedness and deprivity, which,
unfortunately for the reputation of our
people, are getting altogether too common.
1t would be a matter of congratulation if
crime and sin of the most shocking and
detestable character were confined eXclu
sively to the socalled criminal classes; but
in the illustrations of the present week
three of the criminals were clergymen, and
all of the others were acknowledged pillars
of the church. 1t is no use for us to at
tempt to dodge the question; the Christian
church, at the present time, is burdened
and disgraced by boards of pious frauds and
cheats who, under the cover of outward
specification and piety, conceal unbridled
lives of rottenness and corruption, which
breed pestilence and moral death among
the rising generation, and bring into con-
tempt the church and every holy thing, till
the cant of the d-time play wright again
becomes the language of the multitude,
and even the children are heard shouting
in their play, "Away, you're viler than
PRIEST
| look over a page Of prominent city
paper, and in the first column find that the
Rev. Darling R. Philip of the First Baptist
Church, Hackensack, N. j., is a swindler,
rogue, and cheat, and the circum-
stances of the investigation 60 to show
that forgery may possibly be added to the
list of his otfenses. Confronted with his
accusers, from whose congregation he had
fled, in Virginia, he maintained a brazen
independence to the last, and was ready to
offer an eloquent prayer for his prosecutors,
if he had not been prevented by one of the
good old deacons, who knew he was cheat
and swindler Looking down the column
| see that Edward Higgings, a bookkeeper,
member of the Mount Vernon NJ. f.
Church, superintendent of the Sunday
school, and great gun in the temple of
honor, turns out to be forger and thief.
This man was implicitly trusted by his en-
ployers and the churchmen gave their sons
and their daughters to his teaching and
spiritual guidance, and yet there are hun
dredS of felons in Auburn and Sing Sing
wearing the striped suits of the convict
dragging out their weary lives behind
prison walls who, when the recording angel
shall balance their accounts shall leave the
page against their names white as the spot
less snow when that of this detestable
hypocrit shall be as black as his own heart
Looking up the page | see that E. A.
is an applicant for the office of vestryman
in the Episcopal church of South Norwalk
1t is just and fitting that the Episcopal
church of South Norwalk should have
vestryman, whose province it is, l believe,
to look after the funds and the spiritual
welfare of the church, and occasionally to
serve as sort of advisory counsel on dis
puted points of faith OF Mr.. Wooward's
ability to look out for the church funds we
have abundant evidence from the manner
in which he has taken care of lis own, for
while Carney and Ingersoll have served
terms in state prison, while Tweed has
been stripped of some millions by rapa-
cious lawyers, and Sweeney has disgorged
some hundreds of thousands this pious
vestryman has succeeded in compromising
with a very small portion of his ill-gotten
gains, and now in the outrageous shades
of the lovely woods around his palace at
Norwalk, he can mediate on the exposition
of the Thirty Nine Articles, and literally
obey the Scriptural mandate of not letting
his left hand know what his right hand
doeth. BY all means elect him a vestry
man, and if the church is in funds he will
undoubtedly take care of them.
In the same paper l find that the Rev.