The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1874-09-17

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 affections, tender
sympathy and genuine admiration it is but a
step to that weakness which is ruin. Ministers
rarely consort with abandoned women they do
not intend evidently mere qualification of an
unreasoning lust; they fall through real,
though a wicked love. Too often we are
shocked with the recital of the fact that some
lady, eminent both in the church and in soci-
ETY. for sweet and pure character, and for her
attractiveness to all intellectual persons, has
become the victim an illicit amour with her
pastor, and in nearly every case the facts show
that close friendship developed under oppor-
tunity forced upon the minister by sense OF
duty into tenderness, and then these frequent
opportunities led to those nameless little ac-
tions that are so innocent and yet so dangerous
the pressure of the hand, the eye that sud
denly melts as it meets the admirlng gaze, the
tones so gentle and thrilling. These all tell
that the loving tenderness OF these Two hearts
has passed from the realm of the spiritual into
M that realm where soul and sense commingle
their baleful but bewitching lures. Even at
this point if the minister is strong or the wo-
man wise. the intercourse is broken off without
criminality, and there is deep and sincere re-
gret and repentance on the part of the pastor and
a loss of respect on the part of the woman, both
| for herself and her minister. Now I insist that
there is no end to be accomplished by pastoral
visitation 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
| indeed-in which he can do mental work His
thoughts 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 in
dividual religious life. The church sociable
affords sufficient opportunity to cultivate social
relations, and if there is work for the pastor to
do in the family let him be invited. If the oc-
casion be important enough to demand his
presence, the husband and wife, the parents
and children, should all meet the pastor, and
thus protect his reputation and their own. A
| long experience in church matters has con-
vinced us that the demand for personal pastoral
visitation comes mostly from feeling that, IN
| it's absence, the pastor treats the people with
disrespect and not from any sense OF real re-
| ligious need of this form of ministerial labor
Since this subject has attracted my attention, ]
have made inquiry of twenty members Of
Christian churches, and while all answered at
once and without hesitation, that it was the
duty of the minister to make pastoral visits
and if he failed they censured him, every one
admitted that for themselves they could not say
they had derived any spiritual benefit from
such visitation, but had greatly enjoyed the
friendship and genial cordiality of the visiting
pastors. I have talked with many ministers
any they nearly all say that this work, if me-
thodically and regularly attended to, absorbs
their whole time, and that they believe that 8
thorough and radical change at this point
would be benefit to the church and relief tc
it's pastors The Bible does not in terms lay
this work upon the minister, and we feel GER
tain that 80 in every 100 ministers who have
yielded to sensuality have first yielded to temp
tations which come upon them while making
pastoral visits