The Van Buren press., 1874-09-15
PASTORAL CALLS.
A Methodist Clergyman on the Danger Of
Clerical Visits
Emotional Parishioners and Female Rakes
(Chicago Inter -0cean.l

As0AA "
[Chicago Inter Ocean.
The saddening and scanoalous imputa
tons which have deluged the land for
weeks past, involving as they do one Of
Gods ministers who has held high posi-
ton and was deemed by al! worthy OF the
most exalted respect, not to say rever-
ence, have turned attention to the rela
lion which
PROTESTANT MINISTER'S
maintain to the women who are members
of their congregations. The pastoral re.
lation is freighted with immense posi-
bilities for good. The educated man
who brings his best though sud deepest
Christian virtue into tha~ office to help
men aud women in their etiort to obtain
a Christian character may and does exert
| an influence for good whose results are
of incalculable value to society But
there is form of ministerial labor inces-
sanity insisted upon by church boards
and official overseers of Christian socie
ties. which, in the light of constantly re.
curing SANDERS aud occasional actual
lapses from virtue, seems to be Of doubt.
ful utility if not a real injury both to the
church and its ministry i allude to
PASTORAL VISITATION,
the requirement that the minister uninvit-
ed shall visit every family regularly as a
part of his official duty involves these
facts /. He must spend large part Of
his time in making these visits. 2. He
must necessarily often visit at hours
when he will lind none present but the
female members Of the family. 3. He
visits as a particular and intimate friend
A To him the ordinary barriers of mere
formal politeness are laid aside, and he
is met with cordial and confident intima
cy. Now all this is right in itself con-
sidered, and not necessarily prolific Of
evil. Yet ministers are men. They are
for the
MOST PART GOOD MEN,
and discharge this duty with conscience
void of olfcnse toward God and man,
THOUSAND discharge this duty conscien-
tiously without falling into sin, yet we
hazard nothing in saying that not ten in
the thousand but are
TERRIBLY TENTED
at times. and that by good, conscientious,
pure minded Christian women. who treat
their pastor AS though hccould not thrill
with natural desire and were already
beyond the possibility ofsin. The min
ister, by the very necessity Of his posi-
tion and calling, cultivates the faculty of
loving in the fullest possible extent, and
his relation to his church is one of the
deepest sympathy and tenderness. II is
ever difficult for those who have received
u soul apt for love to hold that precious
gift within
CHAsTE LIMITS.
Such a soul will find it necessary to
struggle with supreme energy, and will
sometimes be tempted to regret the gift
Of such power OF love, or to wish for
more liberty in its use From chaste af
tections, tender sympathy and genuine
admiration, it is but step to that weak.
ness which is ruin Ministers rarely con-
sort with abandoned women; they do
not intend evidently a mere qualification
Of an unreasoning lust they fall through
real, though
A WICKED LOVE.
Too often we are shocked with the re
cital of the fact that some lady, eminent
both in the church and in society for
sweet and pure character, and for her at
tractiveness to all intellectual persons,
has become the victim of an Illicit amour
with her pastor, and in nearly every case
the facts show that close friendship dc
vcloped under opportunity forced upon
the minister by sense of DUTY into ten
derness, and then these frequent oppor-
tunities lea to those
NAMLLEss LITTLE ACTIONS
that are so innocent and yet so danger.
Gus, the pressure of the hand. the eye
that suddenly melts as it meets the al
miring gaze, the eyes so gentle and thrill
ing, These all tell that the loving ten
derness of these two hearts has passed
from the realm of the spiritual into that
realm where soul and sense commingle
their baleful but bewithing lures. Even
at this point, if the
MINISTER Is STRONG on THE WOMEN WISE,
the intercourse is broken off without
criminality, and there is deep and sincere
regret aud repentance on the part of the
pastor and a loss of respect on the part
of the woman both for herself and ier
minister Now insist that there is no
end to be accomplished by pastoral visi-
tation of sufficient Importance to put any
man in such dangerous social relations as
have described The pastor should
PREACH THE GOSPEL,
and to do this he needs nearly all the
time-all Of it indced-iD which he can
do mental work. His thought he can
communicate in his sermons; the prayer
and conference meetings are proper
places for the influence Of the minister to
reach the members Of his church in aid
of their individual religious life. The
church sociable affords Sufficient oppor-
tunity TO cultivate social relations. and It
there is work for the pastor to do in the
family let him be invited. IL the occa
sion be important enough to demand his
presence, the
HUSBAND AND WIFE,
the parents and children should all meet
the pastor, and thus protect his rcpu'a-
ton and their own. A long experience
in church matters has convinced us that
the demand for personal pastoral vista
a. n, p,nefIv from fpplinu that In