34 REV. F. D. HUNTINGTON'S 



the healthfulness of his motives ; but of active life,— of 

 that bustling, pushing, fighting, cheating, crowding, never- 

 sleeping collection of human animals which men call " the 

 world," and which has no taste or leisure for the subtleties 

 of the closet and the library, — he is evidently not so well 

 informed as are some other persons that could be pointed 

 out, and whose experience in contact with that "world" 

 has been far more extended than his own. 



I regret that I cannot but think that Mr. Huntington; in 

 this sermon, displayed a lack of courage, as well as of 

 world-knowledge. He lashed what he deemed the publicans 

 and sinners, but where were his burning words against the 

 scribes and pharisees ? It was safe to touch (and that not 

 gently, either), by direct implication, at least, the sins 

 of Barnum and Burnham; but it "was not profitable" 

 to allude to the sins of certain respectable personages who 

 either then surrounded the eloquent speaker, or, at any 

 rate, who dwelt within his reach ! Had the reverend gen- 

 tleman, after applying the scourge to the immoral author 

 and the noted showman, by way of ofifjet have "reasoned 

 of righteousness, temperance, and the judgment to come," 

 until the Felixes of State, and Kilby, and Milk, and Wash- 

 ington streets should 'have trembled before him, and have 

 dreamed of some more " convenient season " for hearing him, 

 I could not so well have complained of his injustice and 

 uncharitableness. 



In illustrating his " lie of self-interest," where was his 

 lash for the banks, whose lies are found on the faces of 

 their notes — those "promises" which are so often violated? 

 Where were the anathemas which might have been so right- 



