Year: 1874




Plymouth church committee at the great pub
icity given to the Brooklyn scandal We en-
tirely disagree with him that the effect of this
publicity is demoralizing. This remarkable
case is free from the prurent details which too
generally accompany divorce suits and trials
Tor seduction, and We can recollect no case SO
fully reported which had less tendency to
present sexual impurity in seductive light.
The impressive pictures Of torturing wretched-
ness and ruin brought upon the alleged par
tcipants in this alleged violation Of conjugal
VOWS, the dread of exposure and Shame, the
skulking artifices of concealment which have
made four years long agony of remorse,
suspense and cowardly subterfuges to avoid
concealment, the blaze of public indignation
ready to flash out as consuming fire against
the chief actor if the evidence should prove
him guilty, cannot but operate as whole
some lesson and fearful warning to peo-
pie whose passions would prompt them to
thus destructive sin. The public press in the
discharge of its daily duties is under the ne
cessity of publishing much revolving matter
at which virtue recols and stands aghast; but
such information is a necessary protection to
the unwary The confidence games, mock auc
tons, panel thefts, fraudulent advertisements,
gambling house decoys and other disgusting
records which the press cannot ignore serve to
put inexperienced people on their guard and
save them from dangers and pitfalls into which
they might stumble without these warnings.
1t untaithtul pastors seduce the female men,
bers of their Aocks the publication of the facts
is necessary means of calling the attention
OF unsuspecting heads of families to social
perils against which they may take proper and
timely precautions Minds which gloat over
such disclosures are already corrupt and past
the possibility of moral injury The virtuotis
are inspired with horror and alarm, and those
who stand on the doubtful confines between
virtue and vice have opened before them the
dreadful abyss of ruin and shame into which
sexual irregularities plunge their victims.


This shocking Beecher scandal will call
attention to some grave dangers to which a
coniding community have been too insensi-
BILE. We cannot doubt that majority of
clergymen Of all denominations are pure,
pious, faithful, od-fearing men, who could





little can it be doubted that there is sprink-
ling OF libertines in that sacred profession,
and there is no other profession which affords
so many opportunities to men of lewd inclina-
tons. Under the pretence of pastoral visits
they can visit the female members of their |
congregations at all hours of the day, when
fathers, husbands and brothers are necessarily |
t1n,c
tessions engaged during business hours,
and make their social calls in the evening,
when the male members of the family are at
home. The freedom enjoyed by clergymen
in this respect is not often abused; but the
door il opens for sexual intrigues by the black
sheep OF the profession ought to be securely
shut, both guard to the reputation of sin
cerely pious men and more especially as
preventive to scandals whose publication
brings distrust upon the whole profession.
| Affairs like this of Beecher and so MANY
Others, whose exposure shocks and disgusts
the public, should be rendered impossible by a
code OF pastoral intercourse which would pro-
tect alike the reputation of clergymen and the
virtue of weak, gushing women, whose ill
regulated emotional susceptibilties make
them the easy prey Of clerical seducers
Among the Protestant denominations it
should be an easy matter to establish such
code OF pastoral intercourse Protestant
clergymen are permitted to marry, and nearly
all of them avail themselves of the privilege.
When they call at the houses Of their parish
toners at hours when husbands and fathers
are necessarily absent there would be perfect
safety and protection to all parties if they
made it an inyariable rule to be accompanied
by their wives. There would be an eminent |
fitness in this rule, aside from its precaution-
ary advantages. Virtuous clergymen would |
be freed from the coldness and constrant
which sense OF propriety imposes on them
when making their visits alone, and their
wives are filter and more sympathetic advisers
than any man can be in the religions and do |
mestic trials Of their sex. II Mr.. Beecher had
never called on Mrs Tilton in the absence of
her husband without being accompanied |
by Mrs. Beecher lie would have es-
capped this crushing weight of remorse and |
misery, and the public would have been
spared the painful shock and looseninc of
confidence which cause so many hearts to
bleed. II this rule were adopted as the Ell
quette of the profession as respects married
clergymen, the unmarried would be con-
strained to near approach to it by either
making their calls when the male members
OF the family were at home or taking with
them some favorte Sunday school scholar or
other person of their own sex in their pastoral
visits.


The Catholic Church is protected against
this danger by its more efficient ecclesiastical
discipline. Ii A1r. Beecher had been mem
Der OF that communion he could not have
successfully fought off an investigation tor the