New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-05-23
TIE NEW CHURCH AND THE PRIESTHOOD.

TIE NEW CHURCH AND THE PRIESTHOOD.
The man who would shape new sect hac
set no easy task for himself. as our Reforming
friends in the Episcopal body proved during
this week. TO an outside observer nothing
could appear more rational than for man or
q body of men, when they found that certain
religious formulas which had been bequcathed
to them no longer expressed their real faith.
to 90 quietly and soberly to work to make
formulas which did ; and of all employments
in life it is the one in which they should have
been left alone and unmolested as to a bust
ness which concerned only God and them
selves. We have been amazed to note the
yirulence, the ill-temper, and the utter lack OF
decent courtesy with which the proceedings OF
this Council were followed by outsiders. Why
is it that Christians are SO slow IN learning
the rights of the individual soulf They do
not kick and maltreat their neighbours body
because it goes through the world wearing
trowsers or jacket different from their OwnI
yet on this matter of religion, in which OF all
| others surely man is sincere and on oath be-
fore his Maker they feel justified in ordering
his soul to perdition because it adopts another
habit of belief or thought from that which
they very probably inherited or were driven
into by circumstances.
However, though slowly, we are learning this
hard lesson and since an increased respect and
Difference for the opinions Of each other have
begun to develop themselves in Protestant sects.
they have strengthened UNNECESSARILY in hight
| of moral attainment and influence on the out
side world. Nobody has put this question
more tersely than Aaron Burr. My neighboR
" may have fortune or not" said he, but
| he always has his own opinion, and he has
fright to have it," In no way has this growing
sense of individual freedom become more ap-
parent tLan in the different position held by
clergymen now and fifty years ago. Bishop
Littleiohn in the Convention of Long Island
this week suggested rs an important question
for discussion the reasons for the decline OF
the influence of the Christian priesthood
during the present day; and offered as the
chief explanation the laxity of the Church in
admitting inferior men to her ministry. We
suspect that the reason lies deeper than
this Until the generation just before
our own, the Protestant clergy-EpscOpalia
rector, Presbyterian minister, Methodist or
Baptist preacher-held a certain power, q
| spiritual prominence over their tiocks. akin
| in kind though not in degree to that of
| Catholic priest. There was glamour, GER
| tain holy atmosphere about them which set
them apart, especially in the eyes of the young,
| from other men. Clergymen, we fear, have
been the last to see how entirely that glamour
has now disappeared. Men and even women
| who 20 to church protest against being judged
or even appealed to as from underlined nights
of sanctity by man altogether like them
they put him on trial, and try him more
sharply than they would any of his flock.
| We are not defending this change of feeling
| as healthful we simply say that it exists, and
that the pastor who, ignorant of its existence.
attempts to talk down to his flock as from
his old emnence of regard, Will find his words
UNDECIDED, and find reason to deplore, with
Bishop Littlejohn, the lessened influence OK
the Christian priesthood.
What is to be done 7 Are the Christian
clergy, then, no longer to be the same ele-
ment In our social life of potent appreci-
able weight Half-scientiic skeptics are In
clined to tell us no, and to insist that their
part in the worlds history of progress is al
most written to the end. The force and
effect of Christianity are to be found now'
they say" in the general spirit diifused
through the Church, and outside of 1t. Bue
the priest, per Sc, is step behind as
helper of humanity; no longer pioneer
To be the same pioneer or leader again, hs
must at least recognize his own changed po-
stion, and command followers, not by any
Fictitious authority, imposed by hands or
otherwise. but simply as stronger, more
efficient, more Christike man in the world
| a. Al 10 ,In
most potent influence on the world those
uhn otapd chandler In shonl1er IN onr level