The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-09-08
PASTORAL PERILs.
MINISTER'S And WOMEN.

discussion: Two OF our contemporaries, the
Herald and the Evening Post, are now en-
gagged in desperate wrestle with each other,
and with the intrinsic difficulties of a most
formidable socia, problem. The ques-
ton is to decide, in the first place, whether
women are most in danger from the
wickedness OF ministers, or ministers from
the wickedness of women; and having set
tied this point then to fix upon some sure
and practicable coutrivances in the way of a
moral police, which, by protecting women
against the insidicus advances OF min
listers. and ministers against the en-
ticing wiies of women, may put at rest
the anxieties and tighten the cares OF that
third sex of mera men, the virtue and happl-
ness of which have for some time past been
the helpless sport of the other two grand
divisions of humanity. The Evening Post,
with gallantry which does credit to the
venerable poet who presides over its col
umps. will not hear a word in disparage-
ment of the fam sex. This attitude OF the
Evening Post is the more admirable
in its editor that in the course OF his
profound and persistent study of the clas-
sizes. and earticularly of Homer, he must
have familisrized himself with the names of
not a few notable ladies, paragons IN the
way of grace and of beauty. with whom II
would hardly have been safe for suscep-
tible young divine to hold much spiritual
converse in secluded spots. Such was she,
for example, whom even the wise Ulysses
feared, chasing her with the
-ssSpoils of opportunity
And daughters OF the game"
If there was one Grecian Helen who discov-
cred the true cross and illuminated christ
endom with her piety, there was another
Grecan Helen who made a grander and
more
UNDERSTANDING SCANDAL
in her day than even the "snow-white"
"Elizabeth" of the Brooklyn Ilisd. And it
is a melancholy fact that Helen, the saint
and empress, had so little confidence either
N her own sex or in the clergy, or in both,
that to this day women are not permitted
to enter the crypt OF the very Basllica
which is consecrated to the memory of the
greatest religious achievement Of this Illus
trious Chistian lady! 1t must be admitted,
too, that from the days OfJoseph of Egypt
down to those of Joseph Andrews. history is
full of examples which may we'll inspire
Young and good-looking clergyman to re-
member with Troilus.
"That something may be done, that we will not !;
And some time we are devils to ourselves,
When we will tempt the frailty of our powers
Presuming on their changeful potency"
The Evening Post, however, is no doubt
wise as we'll as chivalric in maintaining that
the only real safeguard alike of women
and of ministers is their own self
respect. Thatlacking, neither locksmths, nor
etiduette. nor even that ingenious device
which so nearly procured for it's Italian in
yentor premature death in the Seine at the
hands of the exasperated young gallants of
the court of Francis 1. of France, could be
nationally expected to protect either the
most stalwart of clerical saints against
the weakest ct feminine sinners,
or the most stalwart of feminine saints
against the weakest OF clerical sinners. AS
for the days described by Macauly, in which
the chaplains of great houses in England
ad hx- a n "a
upper servants of lower grade, we can
hardly agree with the Evening Post in
thinking that contempt in those days
must have been an absolute bar
rier to familiarity. Our old Eng
lish literature lends small countenance to
this notion, and the more modern tale of
John Brown and of aristocratic England's
disgraceful ready belief in the tale of John
Brown must be remembered also against it,
But, as between the Posts doctrine ofwomea
and the Posts social discipline, and the doe
trine advanced and the discipline proposed by
the Herald, we cannot for moment hesitate.
The Herald's theory of the average female
Pensioners seems to be that she is kink of
Ieopardess, lying in wait for her prey, and
tina. her feet take hold upon the "ways Of
destruction" as naturally as upon the HARM
less domestic sewing machine. If the Her
aid is to be believed, sexagenarian rector,
crippled with lumbago, ought to think
twice before he ventures once into the COM
papy of the
LANKEsT AND HUNGRIEsT sPINsTER
of his flock unprotected by the companion
ship of his wife, or, failing her, of some ia
yorite Sunday school scholar" Such a
conception of the pitfalls of parish life in the
nineteenth century is truly appalling. 1t
takes one back to the patriotic days in
which st. Chrysostom kindly alluded to
women as "malum sumnum ct acutissimum
telum diaboli," the "evil of evils
and the sharpest tool OF the devil;" and st.
John, of Damascus, described her as an
"evil beast, a creeping worm, the daughter
of lying, the plague of ADAM" and st.
Chrysologus complimen.ed her as "the title
deed OF the grave, the doorway of hell
and the whole cause of human scitow;"
and st. Anthony, poor pestered pet of the
petticoats that he was, fled from her presence
into the desert, declaring that he "would
rather hear serpent hiss than woman
speak, and instructing his disciples that
where they saw "a women they should un-
derstand that they saw no human creature,
nor yet even a beast, but only and wholly
Demon" Even Gregory, the great, said
that it was impossible for a woman
to learn to do righi;" and the son
of Monica himself denied her capacity to
teach the truth. OF course if there is any
justice IN this lively picture of the moral
charms of womanhood it is not one Sunday
school scholar, nor one wife, but a whole
Vassar College and three or four orphan
asylums that will be needed to protect q
trembling parson when he ventures into
such dangerous company. If the reason
or the remedy exists, the remedy will
be found ridiculously inadequate. If it
does not, if woman alter all is a compare
lively rational creature, not utterly incapa-
bic OF good, and clergyman is spiritual
guide. consecrated to the work of comfort
ing people in their spiritual sorrows and
| helping them ont of sDiritual Darnle xities
would it be easy to devise any method more
ingenious and more effective for making him
utterly useless to the women of his parish
than the plan of sending bis wife about with
him to supervise
The SPIRITUAL Condolences
of her sister women? The SUNDAY school
| scholar might be less mischieyous in this