Daily Los Angeles herald., 1878-01-15
Fisppancy fn and Out OF the
Pulpit.

Pulpit.
Henry Ward Beecher certainly
does In the pulpit more downright
hard swearing than any man in the
broad United States. This gentle
man occupies the pulpit Of what is
supposed to be one of the straight
est sects of all the Puritan denom-
nations. He uses the Almighty
and the Saviour as q sort OF jack
In Box, and handles them, from
what is commonly regarded as the
sacred desk, with the most disgust
ing levity. In proportion as scandals
throng fast upon, and come home
to, this pseudo Reverend gentleman
and his family, his sacerdotal
+" bounce" il we may employ the
word in such . connection, increas-
es. He is a sort of "Gams Chick
enn Of Ministers of the Word, and
seems to pant for = hostile collision
with anything which represents
the old fashioned ideas of reverence
and the supernatural. He has
lately taken to swearing by God
and Christ that there is no such
hell o. tbe orthodox Christians
have accepted for sixty generations,
and If he can really satisfy himself
that such place does not exist he
must find his interior comfort
greatly magnified. Ever since
this gentleman became prominent
as prescriber of "Sharp's rifles"
as political panacea, his utteran-
css have been characterized by a
glib irrsvsrence not attained by
any master of slang we know Of.
He is credited with having said,
of an unusually warm day, that 1t
was odd hot" There may be
some occult sanctimonious signifi-
canoe in suoh remark, proceeding
from a clergyman, but, If there is,
we have failed to discover it. The
glib aplomb OF his remarks in the
Beecher-Tilton correspondence is
familiar to every one. Such ex-
pres sions as tho ragged. ledge"
Of despair, nest.hiding," etc..
etc., show his familiarity
with strong and vigorous
Saxon idiom, at once practical and
figurative. One of his illusions, in
q letter to Mr.. Tilton, can only be
understood by those whose curiosi-
ty has led them to read Bocaccio's
"Decameron." Unfortunately, the
able lawyers who represented TIL
ton, either failed to have read, or
they forgot, that passage. Its
elucidation, while Beecher
was on the stand, would have
thrown world of salacious
light on the controversy. His love
of expressions from "the we'll OF
English undefiled" is even shown
in his remark about his sister Har-
riet Beecher Stoves infamous and
prurient book on Lord Byron. Being
asked what he thought of the book,
he evaded the question by remark
ing that his sister was ia id
b-ch.n This observation is only
pArallelsd by famous one record
cd by Fielding in his life of the il
lu,trious Jonathan Wild, when
that gentleman's wife visited him
in prison.
OF course, Beecher would like to
abolish hell. He would prefer to
regard that thaumaturgic place as
. veritable myth. To adopt the
language of Bstsey Prig, as applied
to Sairey Camp and her Mrs.
"Arris," Beecher stands on the
ground that "thsre amt no SIGH
place." But if there is hell-ah
we'll, the Reverend Henry Ward
will not suffer from psucity of
oaloric for some odd thousands of
years to come. He will rate as
perfect expert in all aspects Of
birthstone, and he would be prepared
to Guido Salamandsr in enduring,
with equanimity, all possible up
ward ranges OF the mercury attain
able on earth, were he permitted to
revisit "ths glimpses Of the MOON"