In a speech delivered at New York on "Forefathers' Day," the REV. HENRY
BEECHER, discoursing of the "Pilgrim Fathers," said:--
"That they had their faults we all know. They brought with them
some of the prejudices of Europe, and had not freed themselves
from notions of persecution. They believed, above all things, in
the existence and power of the evil one. The devil was
everywhere in their thoughts. In our modern times we have gone
free from that superstition. We of New York know there is no
such being."
In the early days of New England anyone who owned to being an Adiabolist
would have been deemed an Atheist. But then there was no Tammany or Erie
Ring. Plunder and fraud, picking and stealing, are courses from which
some natures can only be restrained by the piety which firmly believes
in the personality, cornute and caudal, of MILTON'S hero. "We of New
York know there is no such being." Do we? We think we do, but may have
flattered ourselves.
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Printed by Joseph Smith of No. 24, Holford Square, in the Parish of St.
James, Clerkenwell, in the County of Middlesex, at the Printing Offices
of Messrs. Bradbury, Evans, & Co., Lombard Street, in the Precinct of
Whitefriars, in the City of London, and Published by him at No. 85,
Fleet Street, in the Parish of St. Bride, City of London.--SATURDAY,
January 20, 1872.