The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-02-20

ERriOus Obstacles that are Draw.
backs 20 Pkeaehers--.A Reformation
Needed I'm the way OF intellectual
Liberty.
From the Springfield (HaSs.) Republican.
We find in many of the denomina-
tional newspapers appeals TO Christians
to come together on the last day of this
month to pray for the conversion of
students in the schools and colleges,
and the most prominent argument for
this special prayer is the lack of cler-
gymsn. Very few students, it is said,
select the Christian ministry for pro-
Iesslon. They prefer law, medicine,
L1Tade, almost anything, to theology.
rms Is true OF students generally, but
II Is also true of those who now profess
70 oe christians, so that it is not at all
certain mat the conversion of the bal
Ancs Will secure much larger number
of clergymen in the future, Praying
Is oy no means the only thing to be
done by the churches in order TO sacure
the training up of morePreachers. In
deed, with too many churches, prayar
for this object is little short of mockery.
We could name a considerable number
within thousand miles" to whose
members we should like to suggest, if
We were on familiar terms with them
Before the day comes to pray for a
fresh supply of ministers, pay those
whom the Lord has already sent to
gather his harvest. If your present
pastors were not devoted TO their work
as matter of duty, the poor pittRnce
they receive from you would not hold
them in their places a single day.
They could earn a more comfortable
support in hundred other useful and
honorable occupations, and it is mean
and contemplate in you to take Advan-
tage of their conscientious attachment
70 their work, as you do, and keep them
n NNaEaW If Al.
1--we abstemiously, go shabbily dressed,
deny themselves all pleasures and lux
uries, and, worst of all, are compelled
10 get along without the mental food,
IN new books and magazines, which
would enable them TO Keep abreast of
the reading world, and make them
fresh and interesting in their dis
courses. You compel them to make
bricks without straw; worse than
the Egyptian task-masters, in tact,
you scarcely allow them the where
withal TO "moisten their clay" Raise
your minister's salary at least in pro-
portion to the extent of the increased
expenses of living; make up in part for
the deprivations you have inflicted in
the last half dozen years, by a liberal
donation, and then you will be able to
pray, without offending the secular and
sacred prophecies, for a new supply of
ministers. You have no right TO ex-
/
any such apostolic self-deni9l in this
age as shall draw them to the ministry,
with the certainty that it will be a life
OF poverty and discomfort. You have
no right to demand of them what YOU
Will not voluntarily endure yourselves.
This is the way We would preach it 10
certain Christian churches we know of,
and they will all understand that we
mean them.
There is another obstacle that repels
from theology many who would excel
and be eminently useful in it. This is
the love of intellectual liberty. With
growth in ideas there is naturally in
creased satisfaction in individual free
dom OF thought and opinion. The
student sees fields of knowledge OPEN
ing all around him, and he desires to
explore them freely. He does not like
10 be fettered by any systems construct
ed by his predecessors. He is ready to
accept them as teachers and helps, but
not as masters. But he sees that he
cannot even enter upon the course of a
student and teacher of religion, without
binding himself down TO some fixed
and unyieldtng system. He must not
only accept what all Christians hold to
be vital truth, but he must limit him
self by the little peculiarities of some
one of many equally Christian sects,
and with the certainty that if he should
ever see cause to modify his belief, he
VIII De discarded by his sect and cast
out as evil. To what extent
these trammels are essential to
the existence of the denominations
We do not say. But that they are, and
are felt to be, hindrances to freedom of
thought of and TO intellectual and spir-
itual growth, is fact that cannot be
disputed. Every student feels them.
more or less, at some period of his ca!
reer, and we know that some-we be-
Heve many-of the most able and con-
scientious of Christian students are de-
TERED from choosing the ministy as a
profession because they feel that it
would require sacrifice of their free
dom and their spiritual veracity; that
in tact it would involve degree of du-
Plicity and selEsuppression to which
they are not willing to subject them
selves. There is no other way to re-
move this obstacle than to relax the
rigor of sectarian bonds, and allow a
larger liberty of opinion and speech to
the pulpit as well as to the pews. This,
too, Is reform to be achieved by talk
ana action rather than prayer.
Let us pray for more ministers and
better ones, but let US give them larger
liberty and larger pay If we expect to
nave our prayers answered.