Worcester Daily Press

LOVE AND RELIGION.—LOVE will take care of itself. That may be safely left to the hearts and instincts of men and women. It is religion that suffers. This inflated theological nonsense, ridiculous in itself, and made both sad and absurd by the occasion of its publication, will do more harm to religion than can be counteracted by the preaching of an army of Beechers. True, that which it reveals is not religion, but a feverishness of the mind which finds vent in religious phraseology. And the question forces itself upon us, whether much of the preaching now most eagerly sought by city congregations is not of a kind to engender the state of mind indicated by this remarkable correspondence? We fear that it is so, and that there is heard from the pulpit, and from ministers in private, too little of simple good counsel as to every-day life and the faithful discharge of every-day duties. It would be comforting to hear ministers, as the counsellors and friends of their people, tell husbands and fathers, wives and mothers, and children their duties in simple language, enforcing their instruction with plain reasoning and forcible illustration. This is the true function of the minister; but for this it would seem that not a few of us are becoming too elegant, too intellectual, and, above all, too "emotional." The consequence is, if not Tilton-Beecher scandals, at least Tilton-Beecher letters.—New York Times.