“A great clown has appeared in the pulpit arena, and he shows every Sunday at a great and fashionable church. True, the audience does not laugh aloud. They do it in their sleeves; nor do any swallow the medicines prescribed by this theological quack. The listening folk wait till they get out. They then sneak around the corner and devour the forbidden fruit. Churches are fast adopting the methods of the circus, and we may soon look for the deacons to hire space on bill boards, and there, in all the colors of the rainbow, we will see pictures of hell, heaven and many other strong features of the regulation religious bill of fare. Suppose Ouida Angelo wants to carve a pretty woman’s leg. Don’t we know that such things exist, even though sometimes the shape is not real? Shame upon you, Dr. Nugent! Have you not a large enough task to look after the morals of your own flock, that you must forsooth hold up to public ridicule, the greatest genius which New York has seen for a century?” [_New York Journal._] “Ouida Angelo should now die happy. She has been outrageously criticised by the scribblers of a subsidized press until they have absolutely won for her a niche in the temple of fame, and now, to cap the climax, she has at length antagonized the church. A noted preacher has set all tongues wagging, and blood-tingling murders, shipwrecks, are forgotten in a universal discussion over a piece of marble statuary. The learned doctor says the artist is sensational, and yet he proceeds to undignify the church by bettering her instruction. He says she is vulgar, yet he vulgarizes a noble theme by becoming offensively personal. No one can quarrel with his right to say what he pleases about a work which has become public property. But he has no more right to discuss what he pleases to term her private life, than he has to attack the character of the richest member of his congregation. Who authorizes him to set himself up as a judge and executioner of the character of his fellows? Among people of all classes there is a growing disrespect for the mere ecclesiastic, and such sermons are aiding to bring the church into public contempt. This is gravely to be regretted, especially in this instance, as Dr. Nugent was rapidly forging to the front as a liberal and intelligent public speaker, and this ill-considered effort will undoubtedly tend to lessen his great influence as a public speaker.”