The Westerly echo, & Pawcatuck advertiser. [volume] (Westerly, R.I.) 1854-1858, 1855-09-06
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Westerly, Septe ber O, 1855.
"keligiOn aud Business"

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In the Echo of last week, friend "S."
takes some exceptions to our article of
few weeks since under the above head.
He seems to think US wide of the mark
when We say eve trow there is hardly
one in dozen clergymen that would
know the difference between a saw-horse
aud horse-rake, to say nothing of be-
ing able to put either of them to prac-
tical use ;" and then states, as a tri-
umphant rcfutation of our belief for
we only gave it as our opinion that such
was the case, and that could not be un-
derstood as literal fact, but simply as
a hyperbolic form of expressing u strong
proposition that " five out Of the six
ministers in this village gaze up some
other trade OF profession for the min
istry," &c. Well, that's admitting at
least one half of our proposition, even
taking " this village rs a fair criterion
from which to judge. Now, if our
friend IS will for one moment con-
slider that the clcrgymen of this vii
lage," as class, are an exception, in
this respect, to the ministers Of New
England generally, We think he will ad
NIT that We were not very far out Of the
way after all and we did not intend, by
any means, to confnc our remarks to
New England even. He admits, in
substance, our belief to be fact for
he says they have " gircn up some other
trade or profession for the ministry. -
We suppose if they have given it up it
amounts to about the same thing as if
they had never had it. We don't read
that the Apostle to the Gentiles ever
"gave up" his trade on the contrary,
when he came to Corinth-having his
trade with him" and found q certain
Jew and his wife, and because they
were of the same craft, he abode with
them and wrought" but still found am
pie time to "reason in the synagogue
every Sabbath, and persuade the Jews
and Greeks"
j So that we do not see, after all, but
that friend s." and ourself agree as to
the substance of our statement; the
only difficulty, as it strikes us, is that
he seems disposed to be somewhat con-
.tracted in bis views, by confning our
remarks to "this village )" and a little
Ihypocritical, in keeping US to the literal
construction of our phrase. We said,
in substance, that the ministers had no
tEade, and he says they haze gicen up
! their trade !; distinction without very
material difference. We should like to
know why it is that we never see min
ster cutting little wood or hoeing in
the garden little without gloves, if it
is not for the purpose of protecting his
hand from the sun, and to keep them
white and soft, because hard hands are
an index of physical labor, and the idea
has become general that such labor is
degrading. We admit that some of
them do work, but as general thing a
great deal of pi,ins is taken to prevent
the effects of it being seen on the per-
son in the shape of u swarthy brow or a
hard hand.
As we said before, we would not be
understood as advocating the doctrine
that tie minister should devote the
energies of his mind to secular affairs,
and to money getting; but we do think
that if clergymen, as general thing,
would feel themselves at liberty to per-
form a little physical labor occasionally,
AMI laymen would feel it their duty to
do little more mental labor, it would
be much more judicious division Of
labor, and a vast deal better for all par
ties concerned. E
pSS- We understand that a couple of
bows from Mysti G Bridge. CT. went ono