Cheraw gazette. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1835-1838, 1836-09-20

ry TO press the application OF the test IN
question.
WHY ARE SO MANY OF THE CLERGY FEE
BILE IN HEALTH!
Il was not so in the past century. We
haveyet lingering among us some of the
hoary headed veterans who have been the
standard bearers Of the Redeemer for fifty
long years. The advancing age will see
no such venerable men. 1t will take up
the lamcntation Of David, There is no
more any prophet" What occasions this
change! Has the labor Of preaching
Christ cructied become essentially more
destructive TO the physical powers of man !!
Certainly not. The glory of a prosperous
age is the ruin olthe clergy. The dirision
of labor which contributes SO richly to the
advacement of the trading community
shuts out the learned professions, and es-
pecially the clerical professions from the
means of preserving health. In the last
century the clergy of New England occu-
pied and cultivated the glebe lands belong
ing to many parishes, or where such pro-
perty did not pertain to the spheres Of labor
thev owned or hired farms and were robust
and practical farmers -" tempora tu1naa-
tur, ctnos mutansur cum iZhs." 1t would
be difficult to find in what is called the
more improved part of New England, a
parish where the minister occupies, and
cutivates the glebe land. In many places
it has been sold and the money invested in
stocks where it is still retained the proper
ty is rented, and the income paid to the
minister. If clergyman should vulgarly
prefer to devote part of his time to the care
of the glebe, his pretensions to fitness for
his office would be at once settled :-sutfi-
cient proof would be afforded either that
his tastes were too grovelling, and his mind
too low to leave him enough Of intellectual
qualification for his Office, or that his spir-
ituality has so declined that he has lost all
his relish for his Masters work, and was
the rather anxious to procure the meat
which perished. And the feelings Of the
clergy themselves have assumed bias
correspondent with these popular views.
They feel very generally, that such avoca-
lions as the cultivation OF a portion OF the
land, are really Inconsistent with the due
discharge Of their spiritual offices, if not
decidedly prejudicial to their clerical char
acter. They have learned to believe that
their work should be confined to their own
studies, the visiting of their people, and the
attendance of occasional meetings :-every
thing extraneous 10 these is consistent.
Whether this is the effect or the cause
of the public sentiment on this subject, we
do no: pretend to decide. One thing is GER
tain, the sentiments of both clergy and lal-
ty are entirely accordant. The practice
which has grown out Of these views, is the
immediate occasion Of the i'll health which
is SO prevalent in the clerical profession.
"For this cause many are weak and slckly
among YOU; and many sleep" At the
same time, that all healthful bodily exercise
has been discarded as unclerical, intellectu-
al and spiritual labors have been multiplied.
The confinement of the study has been
rendered much more rigid and constant,
and weary, paralyzed minds have become
content to labor two hours to accomplish
what their more healthful predecessors could
have effected in one. Tnis is all wrong
at war with the laws which God has framed
for the government and best good with the
physical man;-t is morally wrong-at
war with the best interests and more vigo-
rous progress of the cause in which the
ministers of Christ are engaged. The
spread of the gospel is a work which de-
nands, not enfeebled, enervate and dying
men, but strong and active labors; those
who can ''endure hardness as good soldiers
"Sana mems IN corpore sano," is in no pro-
fession, more imperatively required. we
would not have it inferred from our remarks
that every minister should put his hand TO
the plough; but that the laws Of God winch
pertain to physical being should be allowed
to exercise some control over his habits of
life. Ministers must be willing and people
must submit to it, to devote a reasonable
portion of their time to plsasurable bodily
exercise. The EXCISE which they can OBJ.
tain in their parochial labors is only better
than one. They must unbend, and forget
their professions. They must be allowed
! con,a rnnose fI- affections and :heir iI.e!.GCtS