New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-05-21

must be confessed that in all things the
ministers Of our country are not, in ex-
ample and precept, such as they ought to
be- If it were so, there would not be so
much lying, cheating, stealing ard other
great sins as are now constantly reported
throughout our country. If we go to a
lecture, or take up magazine article in
which the superiority of the age we
live in is insisted on, it will be found
as one of the salient points in
which the comparison utterly fails is
that of common honesty, and that is care
fully avoided. The orator or mitre shows
how much more comfort we have in our
houses how the facilities and comfort of
travel are increased; how much more
kind we are to prisoners, captives and
paupers; how much less severity, there
is IN the management of children. But
he fails to tell the audience that the
people are more truthful and Just and
scrupulous in their dealings, less prone
to tell a good profitable lie, or sand the
sugar, or put bits of lead to the bottom of
the scales, and such like vices. In fact.
fraud is generally acknowledged to be the
vice of our time par excellence
We cheat in buying and selling, in the
administration of justice, in the election
of public officers, in the passage of laws
in the transportation of passengers, in
the insuring of lives, III the administra-
ton of trusts. 1t is asserted that the
propagation of pet ideas is urged by lies,
and the same course is adopted for the
promotion of our pet charities Under all
these circumstances what can be expected
but that the poison of vice must extend
further and wider, unless its progress is
stayed? Who then, is to begin and carry
on the work? The press, in many nota-
BILE instances, is doing its duty, but its
efforts are mostly turned in another direc-
ton.
To what class of men can the work of
reform be entrusted, and ,cho ought to be
so earnest IN II, in season and out of sea-
son, as the ministers of the Christian re-
ligion? They are not open to the sus-
picion of pursuing their profession as a
venture. Never since the
world began were the questions of morals
so perplexing as they are now; never was
the rule of conduct, even to the eve of a |
man, hidden under such a
load of circumstance, distinction, allow |
ance and custom. One who sets ND as a |
teacher of morals in our day must be a
skillful casuist and no man can be a |
sklllful casuist whose knowledge of affairs |
IS not very eXtensiye-that is, for the
'killful application of moral rules. to
given states of fact, familiarity with
affairs as they traaspire and pass in piano.
annie display before him.
Professor Seeley, to whom reference is
already made, thoughtful and religious
nan, and an influential religious paper,
he Christian JRion-one English, the
'ther American-both call on the clergy
or the incubation, from the pulpit, of
PRACTICAL morality for the discussion of
honesty and its principles, the trials.
of the times, and its specific
PRACTICAL difficulties, or the duty of the
eople in ''the government, dress, man
lers and morals of their children"
When We look around us on every side.
the daily and hourly perplexities, trials
nd temptations which surround and are
lterwoven in the life of all classes of
professional and social life, who
IN understand them or administer relief,
abuke or admonition better than such as
re thrown constantly into it by associa-
on and practical experience? Can a !
mister do this, or be a teacher of morals [
oug day unless he himself has had the t
Vantage of varied and long experience q
life and its trials? Who are the great q
Id powerful, as well as distinguished, !
vines of the present time but just such a
en-? The people Of our time want no l
ng theological discussion about creeds, t
'ctrlneS, ecclesiastical history, literature, t
blical exegisis, moral or mental philoso- f
~ or homiletics; they want men who S
n wrestle with them in the strife, con- \
cts and temptations of life, and combat Fl
ccessfully with the moral differences of +
society Of extraordinary completely and "
which is fast drifting from the
oorings of an old faith, uncertain or I'M
ncerned by a new one. D
Amid all these social, political and o
ysical changes, which are con- Il
lntly going on in the march of human n
ogress, the education of the clergy D
ould be, to ''seize the moment as it flies" d
d with the picture daguerreotyped as it II
Sses, in its beauty or deformity, present p
to the hearts and sympathies of the peo- tt
:. What can our theological seminaries h.
ow in their curriculum of the sufferings, 81
rows, trials, temptations and buffetings ca
poor, toiling humanity, other than is lie
d them by others? The Great Exem- D
r knew, and felt it in his day, when he in
d, The foxes have holes, the birds of de
air have nests, but the Son of Man pf
h not where to lay his head" ii,
here is a wisdom which rarely comes but OF
b years, and often with sorrow and dis