THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST A MR. BEECHER.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 298, 17 December 1874, Page 4

THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST A MR. BEECHER.

A (From the New Zealand Wesleyan.) A A Publicity bas already been given to A the fact that the Committee of Minisv .era appointed to investigate the fearful charges against Mr Beecher have declared him innocent. The committee submitted tbeir report to tbe A church on the 27th August. It was A signed by the whole of tbe committee, and tbeir "finding" was perfectly aoaoimous. It exonerated Mr Beecher : from all censure. Tbe church was densely paoked, probably over 3000 persons being present, and many were unable to obtain admittance. After tbe reading of tbe report, it was A adopted with a unanimous shout, and a scene of the greatest enthusiasm followed. Moulton was present during a speech by Mr Raymond, who was . called npon, and who spoke of Moulton as haviog tried to poison the minds of men against Mr Beecher, their " mutual friend." The followiog resolutions were unanimously adopted:— Resolved, "That the evidence before the examining committee not only does not afford any "foundation for putting the pastor of this cburcb, tbe Rev. H. Beecher, upon trial, but, on the contrary, establishes, to the perfect satis- . faction of this church, bis entire innocence and abosolute personal purity with respect to all charges now or hereafter made against him by Theodore Tilton." Resolved, "That our conEdence iv and love of our pastor, far from being diminished, are heightened and deepened by the unmerited sufferings -wtiich be has so long borne; and that we welcome him witb a sympathy more tender and a trust more unbounded than. we ever felt before, to his public labors amongst os, oor church, our families, our bomes, and oor hearts." At the close of the meeting a doxology ■ was sung, aod the people began to disperse. Moulton, who occupied a seat - at the reporters' table, was hustled considerably on the way out, and there were indications tbat, had he not been protected- by the police, violence would have been offered to him. Upon reaching the door be was hurried to a carriage, with a policeman on each side-step, was driven rapidly away, and the people dispersed. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. The following are some of the opin ions ezprened oo the case by the American religions newspapers. The New York Evangelist, the Presbyterian organ remarks : — " If he had said in (ke beginning what he says now, and given that * explicit, comprehensive, and solemn denial ' to the scandal when it first appeared wbich he bow makes, it would have dropped * as dead as a stone. The American people would have accepled his simple word agaimt all the slanderous tongues in the universe. But he kept silence so long that he allowed tbe vile story to get under such headway tbat it has been almost impossible to stop it." The Baptist Union, one of tbe most able exponents of Baptist opinion in the States, says: — "We have followed the revalations of the Brooklyn sorrow with care, aod reached a settled convictoo. Mr Beecher has been a victim ofthe foulest and meanest conspiracies of tke century , but comes out of it without reproach. Tbe conspirators have displayed extraordinary cunning and sagacity in plotting, shrewdness in -A managing, boldness and persistency of purpose, cold-blooded severity in execution, the blackest perfidy in statement, the rarest skill in perversion and misrepresentation, and startling powers to control those they desired to use in their base undertakings. Many have censured Mr Beecher for not uncovering the whole case before. We have thought . he was at fault in this respect, aud think so still. Yet there is a large compensation for this delay ; the character of his accusers coold not have been fully revealed witboot it. It was well tbat tbey should speak first, tbat they might hang themselves on the gallows of tbeir own erecting. It is pre-eminently satisfactory that thei? own words have proved them perfidious. Step by step the cruel work went on till the plot exploded. Mr Beecher's confiding, 'generous, sympathetic nature, and his overwhelming occupations facilitated their designs." The representative of the Methodist church — Zion's Herald— oi New York, io it* article, says: — " There is every reason now to hope and believe that nothing will occur to shake the apparently frank, full, manly statement and explanation which Mr Beecher bas made of the whole distressing affair. Most persons will bs chief of all surprised at tbe unhappy weakness be manifeated when he found himself leveled in the toils of this amazing scandal. So the prophet Elijah, after he had confronted Ahab, called down fire from heaven, and slain the priests of Baal, fell ioto a state of sudden despondency, ran for bis life, and wished to die. Other ministers, io terror of a charge against purity, where there is no collateral testimony for defence, have permitted themselves to be dogged by incarnate devils, and to be blackmailed to large amounts. Here was the fatal mistake. Such criminal suspicion cannot he covered. A Christian man's only hope of escape is an immediate and manly confronting of the accuser, with humble trust in a just God and an overruling Providence. One of the best 3ecular papers in New A York — the World — is of opinion tbat "Mr Beecher has now dispelled the

only shadow of distrust which may have crept over this good name among the fair-minded aud pure-minded men,