stified to speak over his own signature, but he wrote an article and
read it to members of the Langdon family and to Dr. and Mrs. Taylor,
their intimate friends, who were spending an evening in the Langdon
home. It was universally approved, and the next morning appeared in the
Elmira Advertiser, over the signature of "S'cat." It created a stir, of
course.

The article follows:

MR. BEECHER AND THE CLERGY

"The Ministerial Union of Elmira, N. Y., at a recent meeting passed
resolutions disapproving the teachings of Rev. T. K. Beecher, declining
to co-operate with him in his Sunday evening services at the Opera
House, and requesting him to withdraw from their Monday morning meeting.
This has resulted in his withdrawal, and thus the pastors are relieved
from further responsibility as to his action."--N. Y. Evangelist.

Poor Beecher! All this time he could do whatever he pleased that was
wrong, and then be perfectly serene and comfortable over it, because the
Ministerial Union of Elmira was responsible to God for it. He could
lie if he wanted to, and those ministers had to answer for it; he could
promote discord in the church of Christ, and those parties had to
make it right with the Deity as best they could; he could teach false
doctrines to empty opera houses, and those sorrowing lambs of the
Ministerial Union had to get out their sackcloth and ashes and stand
responsible for it. He had such a comfortable thing of it! But he went
too far. In an evil hour he slaughtered the simple geese that laid the
golden egg of responsibility for him, and now they will uncover their
customary complacency, and lift up their customary cackle in his behalf
no more. And so, at last, he finds himself in the novel position of
being responsible to God for his acts, instead of to the Ministerial
Union of Elmira. To say that this is appalling is to state it with a
degree of mildness which amounts to insipidity.

We cannot justly estimate this calamity, without first reviewing certain
facts that conspired to bring it about. Mr. Beecher was and is in
the habit of preaching to a full congregation in the Independent
Congregational Church, in this city. The meeting-house was not large
enough to accommodate all the people who desired admittance. Mr. Beecher
regularly attended the meetings of the Ministerial Union of Elmira every
Monday morning, and they received him into their fellowship, and never
objected to the doctrines which he taught in hi