Year: 1870

Once year they hold in Mr.. Doecher's
church, and In the full beam Of that high
priced parsons patronizlny smile, o sort OF
festival Of pride OF purse. For ono day the
parson and the people agree that they VIII lay
aside the Christian pretence and parade them
selves boldly, blatantly, with ostentatious dis-
regard to the decences of religious demeanor,
as worshippcrs Of Mammon. They indulge
themselves with an orgic. Ono is elevated IN
their midst who goes through the formula Oh
huckstcring sale varying what he has to say
with pitiful rlbaldry and blasphcmous dnlncss.
He is the priest meanwhile, and his ribaldry
is the doctrine Of tho hour. Around him
thore is full play Of vainglory, meanness, the
spite of rivalry, all the unchristian character
istics Of human nature, and all exactly
measured by . money standard What IS 1t
that Is bought and sold in this precious circle
Is 1t the rickety old furniture Of o bankrupt
hotel? Or q ship load Of rotten oranges just
in9 Or the cheating paper scraps of Wall
street2 Or any other OF the trumpery and
despised lumber of the world2 No! They
buy and sell the places in church. They vie
with one another in the eager manifestation OF
piety that pays and that will have the better
of its neighbor at any price.


Is it forbidden to sell the Gospel? Is 1t for
hidden to desecrato the temple and to worship
Mammon? Then is this spectacle indecent
and this sale wrong; otherwise, and if man
may 60 to heaven little faster or little
slower according to his standing in tho money
market, and if he may facilitate his progress
by the devices that give success in tho trans
actions that have upon them the soil of COM
mon life then is this sale an excellcnt inven-
ton Christ said "Bles3ed are the meek" and
''Blessed are the poor in spirit" and in these
words is the very essence of the revolution
by which Christianity overturned heathendom
and made the new world with a moral sense.
But these words are not in the Gospel, accord
ing to the anctioneer OF Plymouth church.
Standing though they do in the place of honor
among all the words of Christ, they are
tabooed as the delusion of an age that did moi
understand trade. In their plac, they say


''Blessed is the proud man who bids high, and


''Blessed is the heaviest purse, for it shall have
the best place" Suppose that one should at
tend this sale intent to act according to these
words of Christ that these men all pretend tc
revere, would he not excite the same wonder
that Christian and Hopeful did in Vanity Fair
when ''some said they were bedlams and some
they were Outlandish men?'


No matter. II the Plymouth system is no
admired by the world for its adherence to the
spirit of what Christ taught it is evidently ad
mired for something it likes better, and in the
success of drawing to itself the attention o
Fisk, of Erie, it can see the noble measure o
its influence on the age; for Fisk is specu-
lator. He has the kecnest nose of the kennc
for what pays. He will buy whatever he car
sell, and, of course, cares not whether it i


this Plymouth ''Gospel shop" or one moro
| opsra 6oa.De company. Beecher, therefore, il


to be congratulated, with all his saints, tina


speculation in the seats in his church has fallel
| into the hands Of 80 ripe master as the grea
gold muddler and operator in Eric and Grea
| Western-the magnificent master of many ant
| indiscriminate sensations.