Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-05-13
Hard on Young Prenobers.

A NAAASA III Nv ANNN AOAh LtNNYCttoNT Oh
the necessity for greater devotion to the
work in the younger ministry" blames the
young ministers for not pushing forward to
the frontier, even in the absence of what
might be esteemed a favorable opening, and
beginning to preach, if need be, in a forbid
den field. He says: "0ur young ministers
seem 10 be impressed with three leading
ideas, viz: TO get all the salary they can;
to marry as soon as they can; and to preach
as little as they can - and he wants to know
why a young minister must needs look for a
field where he can obtain a good support for
himself and a wife; and " what right has a
young minister to contract marriage when
he has no visible means of support, any more
than young mechanics, physicians, or law
yers7"
To which, in behalf of the young minis
tiers, we answer first: The right given by
the command OF God to increase and multi
ply and replenish the earth, from which
young ministers are not exempt, and which
ministers have fulfilled with proverbial
faithtulness.
Second. The specific instructions of Christ
to his disciples on this point: "Take no
thought saying what shall we eat, or what
shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be
clothed " take therefore no thought for
the morrow" "Consider the lilies of the
field, how they grow; they toll not, neither
do they spin" Wherefore if God so clothe
the grass of the field which to-day is, and
to. morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not
much more clothe you, Oh We of little faith2"
Seek first the Kingdom Of God, aud his
righteousness and all these things shall be
added unto you"
Saint Paul expressed himself very plainly
on this point. Having no better assurance
of support than young ministers now have
who push forward to the frontier, he asserted
his right to lead about a sister or O wife
the same as Others" and it is a matter of
history that during a part of his ministry,
Paul was accompanied by a female convert
and %co-laborer, named Thecla, a lady of emf
nent piety and purity of life, who is now
venerated by the early Church as a Saint,
and who perhaps was the cause of his assert
ing this right so vehemently, taking this
background in order to silence all cavil. He
also laid down rules by which ministers
could decide the propriety of marrying,
which are not exactly suitable for quoting
in a daily paper, but which do not aver al
lude to the question of support.
1t would be a singular Providence which
provided marriage for ministers in the pop.
ulous parts of the country, and restricted
them to celibacy on the frontier where the
earth needs replenishing. Besides, why
should young ministers and society on the
frontier be deprived of that moral protection
which Protestant societies have always ad-
vocated as necessary to be secured by the
marriage of the clergy, and on account of
which they have denounced the rule of cler-
ical celibacyl
The marriage of the clergy is a prolific
subject, but we trust we lave said enough to
show the un~scriptural nature of the propO.
sition in the Evangelist. Young ministers
enter on a laborious life. Besides, their pro-
fession cuts them off from most of the
amusements and pleasures which are free to
others, therefore they need the more the
~solaces, comforts, pleasures, excitements and
counter irritants of matrimony. This is
why they have a right to contract marriage,
more than young mechanics, physicians and
lawye rs, without visible means of support.
Furthermore, ministers do not depend on a
visible but IN invisible means of support.
Young ministers have also their destiny to
fulfil. 1t is very easy for a hard, material
well TODD Deacon to say that ministers
should live single until they can excite the
pecunious ~lacteals of a congregation to the
point of supporting a wife but in the mean
time some young woman is wronged by
wasting her life in celibacy. Society is 30
bound together that one can not violate the
laws of life without affecting others. We
say to the young ministers, go mas the
pious DR.. Watts expresses it-"now in the
heat of youthful blood" He that careth for
the sparrows, and heareth the young ravens
when they cry, will provide for the minis
tiers and "aIl their little chickens and their
DAM