Year: 1876

The biggest contract of the year has been
executed by Moody and Sankey, who propose
to expel the devil from New York. They
drove him out of London and set all Eng
land singing "Hold the Fort" and 'Only an
armor bearer" pious, godly and homely dit
ties, aud now they have turned the beer
jerkers and dancing girls and menagerie out
of the Hippolrome to fill it with sinners to
| be transformed into saints. The process
has been begun, and the fortunes OF the two
remarkable men, the Whitfield and Wesley
and Luther of our time, will reap, we would
fam hope, rich harvest of souls. In view
OF the terrible disgrace and horrible shame
that has befallen Christianity in Brooklyn,
that makes Christendum bow it's face in
shame, we must all confess that there is
seemingly the Intervention of a special
providence in sending the wonderful evan
gelists, at this peculiar juncture, into the
splendid abode of iniquity in which the
press has become the only conservator OF
public and private morals. The church, we
are sorry to say, has lost caste. Onderdonks
and Beechers and Kallochs, and vices of
riches and fashion, have made the advent Of
the simple, unpretending followers of Christ
into Gotham an event to be watched with Il
degree of interest somewhat akin to that
with which we still contemplate the entrance
of Christ into Jerusalem. The Her.
all greets the evangelists kindly and
tells them frankly that if they mean to
overthrow the devil in New York they must
strike from the shoulder. Wherever hi,
influence is felt it must be assailed. The
time has come to tear up root and branch
and burn as in a stubble fire all remnants of
sin and hypocrisy. If these evangelists
mean to give merely a minstrel show, elo-
quent talk, sweet singing and no more,
the Hippodrome might as we'll be thrown
open to Barnum's elephants and Gilmore's
iGdlers and beer carriers for all the real
Christian good that will result. The good
men who surround Moody and Sankey and
hold up their hands hope for better things.
We may find much to criticise-superficial
ity, frvolity, belittling of sacred things.
We might even plead for the old faith and
the old creeds, the precepts of many cen
turies. We might wish for the solemn and
accustomed ways, and fear that this new
flame, which burns so fiercely, will burn
into ashes and smoke. But in Moody and
Sankey we see earnest men trying In their
own way to do good. Around them are
diviues and laymeu who are worthy of all
honor, and whose example we can only
view with respect. Our hope is that Moody
and Sankey may have strength and oppor-
tunity for abundant good, and that their
work will not be for day but for all time.
If the two eyangelists triumph in Gotham
and awaken there the spirit that animated
the Christian church in its palmiest days of
power and purity and glory, benefcent
effects must be felt everywhere in America,
and in this centennial year there may be
a religious awakening and reproduction of
original public and private morals that
shaped the conduct of people and govern
ments in by-gone years. The whole coun-
try will therefore watch with keen inter
est the fortunes of the great revivalists now
holding their levees in Barnum's Hippo
drome.