The hydraulic press., 1859-03-26
Clerical influence.

22l churches, or houses of worship, pre-
sided over by 292 regular clergymen, or
priests; the number of lay preachers we
have no means of ascertaining. These
292 clergymen do not probably deliver
less than two sermons each, every week;
which would give an aggregate of 3D.
$50 religious discourses per annum.
These are listened to by much larger
number of persons than constitutes the
total church membership,-indeed, there
are few of our white adult population
which we estimate at nearly $50, O,O0O-
who do not occasionally hear "the word'
expounded This statement would ap-
pear still more reasonable if it could be
known how many lay preachers, local or
itinerant,-whom we may term the guer-
rilla force of the Church, are laboring
throughout the State.
With such extensive and frequent ac-
cess to the public ear, and uttering by
authority what few have the wickedness
or courage to dispute, the clergy ought
to WELD an amount of power second to
no influence in the land and protesting,
as they do, to teach the noblest doc
trines and declare the sublimest truths
which man can ever know, their unceas-
ing preachments should effect results of
obvious magnitude These results, did
they exist, would be manifest in an i'm
proved condition of society, in a larger
proportion of virtue, in the predomi-
nance of generous traits and liberal
opinions, and in more widely practised
philanthropy. The populous centers of
the country, where religious influences
are brought to bear upon the people
with most directness and potency, would
not exhibit the painful anomaly of
nourishing the most vice, and crime and
destitutiou
AS, unfortunately, we do not witness
the benefcent results alluded to, or only
see them as exceptional blessings, which
are as often spontaneous as derived from
any special cause or particular effort, we
naturally wonder what has thwarted the
pulpit, making its ministration end in
comparative failure, with no fruits but a
few statistics as to number of buildings,
members, and preachers. We are led
to ask why all this machinery, thus con-
stantly brought to bear on the public
mind, has done so little towards increas-
ing the amount of practical religion in
community? Ignorance and incompe-
tency on the part of large number of
those who occupy the sacred desk might
be given as one answer to the question
were there not better which involves
a radical reason. The clergy are too
much wrapt up in the idea of futurity
in the inculcation of abstract doctrines
which have no influence on the present.
AS body they have too little sympa-
thy with the world around them,-do
not keep pace with the intellectual pro-
gress of those whom they assume to in
struct and save. The everyday wants
of the soul are not ministered to by
them, and very seldom do they tread
those avenues of influence which are
discovered by obediently following the
instincts of our common human nature.
To spirits hungering for that food which
will strengthen for the trials of this
world, they dispense the dry husks of
dogmas which refer to the world to come,
and weary all ears with the echo of
) sounds that rang so loudly through the
aisles of past centuries, startling men in
to wonder, terror and slavish belief
They assume to have reached the utmost
certainty of knowledge concerning the
hereafter, aim only to inspire faith in
this assumption, and seek to elevate the
masses by impalpable distractions.
} 1t is to be deplored that the clergy
will not seize the noble influence their
position enables them to grasp. Unless
the institutional Church popularizes it.
self, it will have no future; and unless
its ministers come down from their pull
pit isolation to mingle with the crowd as
men, instead of holding aloof as saints,