The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-06-05
PECULIAR PREACHERS.


History and observation teach that IA
naticism, whether in or out of church, is
not good thing to be guided by. We are
not certain that religious bigotry is not as
great an enemy to Christianity as open in
fidelity. The former certainly does not
have beneficial influence upon some con-
sentative minds which are well disposed
towards religion. Any of US can name IN
stances of fairly good men being kept out
or driven out OF church by the bigotry, the
intolerance of ministers who would
make religion most harsh and cruel
thing, depriving it of all suggestion Of
pleasure and consolation in this world, and
insisting it shall be oppressive and severely
punative. There are a good many reason
able beings in this world in this age who
think they can smile and still be Christians;
who cannot find nything in the. Christian
religion as they interpret it which forbids
them the innocent and lawful pleasures of
life and who are unable to reconcile them
selves to the belief that heaven can be
reached only by an excessively thorny path
When told that goodness and Christianity
must be accompanied by long faces, the
persecution of the flesh and the denial of
what Con has put upon the earth appar-
emily for mans use and enjoyment, these
reasonable beings become SO unreasonable
that not few of them prefer to remain
out Of church to being assailed by fanatics
inside.
On the other hand it is possible that re-
ligion may be made too generous;
that In their eagerness to satisfy
the cravings of naturally
wicked and preverse generations
for freedom from the usual restraints
which Christianity puts upon mankind,
ministers of the gospel may concede so
much that religion itself will suffer from
vulgarizstion and the loss of the influence
which makes it power for good in this
world whatever may be the effect as to the
hereafter.
The other Sunday DR.. RAINsFoRD, rector
Of St. Georges church, New York,
preached a sermon In which he came very
near to the advocacy of liquor saloons
as restraining and moral agents. He
said ''iJ is no sin to drink; it is no
sin to keep saloon,'' and also that if he
could close every saloon In the city by lift
ing his finger he would not lift it. He
would not have saloons conducted by bad
men, but by good ones, and the drinking
places should be orderly and respectable,
SO that those who wanted to drink could
90 to these places without feeling that
they would be disgraced. The reverend
gentleman's idea is that if 'tmoral and
decent drinking houses" were estab-
llshed, they would come in compe-
tition with the dives, and the better
elements of society (the church-going ele-
ments, probably would be kept out of the
low and disorderly houses. He even went
so far as to say that in his opinion the
church itself might with propriety estab-
fish and conduct these moral and decent
drinking houses.n
And DR.. PARKHURsT, the sensational pull
piteer who was so shocked by the reputed
lmmoralities of New York that to satisfy
himself of the wickedness that was prac-
ticed he visited some of the houses of gilt
Frame and played leap-frog with the in
mates, is inclined to approve DR.. RAINS
FoRD's reformatory. In an interview on the
subject PARKHURsT said:
There should be some place to which the
workirgman can 60 just as the rich man to his
club. But it must be remembered that drinking
at club is only a feature, an accident as it
were. If we could have something like the
German beer garden should be in favor of it.
1t could be kind OF social meeting place Light
wines and pure beer could be sold and there
could be music and some forms OF entertain
ment. The plan works well there and do not
see why it would not here. There should be
something elevating and attractive about the
place. Drinking should be an accident, one OF
the Accomplishments. so 10 speak do not
doubt but that would be something of the plan
of Doctor RAINsFORD should he work out in de-
tau the idea he has suggested.
The other day miserable woman,
fallen creature who kept one Of The houses
visited by DR.. PARKHURsT in his Summing
tour, was sentenced to prison for year on
the testimony of the pious man, who was
so terribly shocked by the wickedness he
saw at her home. 1t is for DR.. PARKHURsr
to reconcile the Inconsistent attitudes
which he has assumed in these two cases.
TIE HERALD is not an authority on re-
ligion and will not assume to say how
churches should be managed or what min
listers should do or say; but we cannot help
thinking that it would be better if couple
prominent New York pulpits were occu-
pied by other than the preachers who now
fill them.