The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-03-15
THE CLERICAL PIPE.
From the v. Y. Tribune.

We thought that there were troubles
enough In the Protestant Episcopal, or, as we
wish to be civil, we will say the Catholic
(not Roman or Romish) Church. already
but here is a fresh one. Somebody of the
straighter sort writes to ''ritualistic"
newspaper in this city to inquire whether it
is just the thing for clergymen to smoke
pipes in Lent. 1t does not seem to have
occurred to this casuist to ask whether it is
just the thing for clergymen to smoke pipes
at all. When a controversy upon that point
does arise, there will be a good deal to say
on both sides of the question. James the
First, to whom we owe our present ver-
sion of the Scriptures, and who was in
his time the head of the visible ''Church"
of England, was of opinion that tobacco was
of the devil, and printed his ''Counterbast"
to prove it.; while, on the other hand, macy
pious clergymen have been great smokers,
and there is even particular kind of imple
ment of fumigation known in England as
''the Churchwarden's Pipe" Sir Isaac New
ton, ''childlike sage, sagaciouss sreader of the
works of God, and of his word sagacious, was
a great smoker. So was Robert Hall-but he
was Dissenter. 1t may be- therefore, con-
sidered as settled that there is no inherent
ungodliness in smoking cigars, cigarettes, or
pipes, whether the same be of clay, or briar-
wood, or meerschaums, or hookahs. The
question is, whether it be a sin to smoke in
Lent, and whether clergymen by that indul-
gence set a bad example to their parishioners.
Upon the WHOLE after careful consideration,
in which he got no help from the Fathers,
because pipes were not invented in their day,
we have come to the conclusion that inasmuch
as the purpose of Lent is to mortify the car
nal man by hunger and moreover considering
that tobacco sensibly tempers the importuni-
ties of appetite, therefore, if its use defeats
the moral force of fasting, that use should be
instantly abandoned. W. should have the
same opinion in regard 70 brandy water
and bitters, only it happens that these are
appetizers, and might be recommended to in
crease the rigors of abstinence. But Just in
proportion to the degree in which taking
tobacco i'll Lent diminisbes the consumers
''peckishness, just in that proportion may
smoking (and also chewing) be considered a
violation of the discipline of the Church "
We cannot give better opinion than that.
Nor can anybody else.
1t is because we heartily wish the differ
ences of the Protestant Episcopal Cor "Catho-
lic) Church we'll adjusted; it is because we
are weary of controversy about minor matters
of mere ceremonial, that we deplore the in
PRODUCTION of a new element of debate. We
believe that the Episcopal" Church, espe-
cially with the greater attention which it is
recently paying to good works, might be
most useful and benefcent organization; and
it is not, therefore, with much satisfaction
that we open from week to week the news
papers calling themselves, or called by others,
"Episcopaliap," only to find endless dis
putes about rubrics, and genuaexions,
and triune immersions, and vestments,
de omnibus rebus, until we have actu
ally got down to tobacco pipes If
these things go on, there must be schism,
and that at no distant day. 1t would have
come already here if the present Bishop of
New York had not been one of the wisest as
we'll as one of the best of men; for if the
''Church' here had been under hot-tem-
pered and litigious prelate, there must have
been rupture. BY kindly forbearance, by
tact which never fails him, by the force of
his fine personal character, by humoring no.
tions when they seemed to be harmless, the
Bishop has thus far prevented an explosion
and kept his flock well together He has had
a hard time of it in the past, nor is he likely
to have an easy time of it in the future;
but he has shown himself at heart peace
maker, and as such worthy to be Christian
bishop,