New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-05-21

tween the exception and the rule, or Of sepa-
rating truth and it's advocate, and these find
an argument against Christianity itself, for
instance, in every case of clerical incontinency.
Now. admitting the increased responsibility
which this tendency imposes upon the
professional ministers OF religion, it should
never be forgotten that truth is abso-
lutely independent of the iniirmities OF
its advocates. Christianity If it had been
what men have tried to make it, the mere
stalking-ho Of ambition, the convenient APP
paratus of politics, the ally of cruelty, SELFISH
ness, avarice and lust, would long ago have
| gone to the limbo of things lost on earth, ana
of which earth is fortunately rid. But no re-
ligiOn can be subjected to such narrow estl-
mate. Even the naked savage's faith In his
fetish, is heaven high above such grovelng
mputations. Even in the lowest or the cruel
est form of idOlatry, there is hidden germ OF
the everlasting truth and, if this be 80, no
infrmity of Judgment, no weakness of profess
siona conduct, can affect faith which has
one stronghold in the human intellect, another
in the human heart and which is sustained
by a spccial revelation making it independent
of our thinking, "a it is independent OF our
feeling.
Whatever infallibility may be claimed for truth
itself, we are not aware that any has ever been
, asserted for its human teachers. We do not
deny the value of good moral character In q
preacher of religion, but we see no necessary
connection between such character and the
truth which he prOclaims. God has not lett
us at the mercy of those who are as frall as
ourselves nor are We to be made better In q
mysterious way, and, as it were, vigorously,
through the goodness of another. The pain
which the preacher pointed out to us remains
though he may wander away from 1t, nor have
the functions of the sacred Office been pro-
famed though it should appear that they have
been exercised by an unclean servant. There
are those indeed, who seem to think other
wise, for though it is an exccrable absurdity
to consider one clergyman as the type
and representative of the whole class we find
the humor Of the hour tending little to dis
respectful allusion, not merely to the passionate,
for that would be of less importance, but to
the institution of the Church, and the general
sincerity of those who sustain it. We think
it of evil import when caricature and satire
and buresque take this direction. We arc not
averse to comedy; farce has its value; there
is time to laugh, and there is much in this
world which deserves to be laughed at; but
any jest aimed at a body which is not in the
aggregate ridiculous or rcprehensible is likely
TO be a cruel one to some of its constituent
members. We think that this is time for
remembering how much good churches have
done, and what excellent men upon the whole
cergymen have been. There is not
reader who does us the honor to fol-
low us in this discussion who has not
found nine clergymen known to him out of
ten to be honest, faithful, laborious, and God
fearing men; and it is curious and, as we
think creditable that so often the clerical
heart is superior to the clerical judgment and
prudence, frequently even to the clerical in
tellect. AS whole, the clergy are under
paid and over-crticised; they live always in
the congregational eye, and are always sub
ject to congregational ~fault-iinding; the au-
thority of their office in this republic is
limited by the democratical spirit; and reyer-
end, as they are styled, the reverence is often
sadly to seek, however highly they may merit
it. The awe which they once inspired is no
more than tradition. The power over the
laity which they once exercised is gone.
The studiOus life which once marked the par
sonage, has been broken up by great variety
of practical duties. The flock has become more
eager for intellectual qualification than for
spiritual culture. The preachers who are at
tractve, entertaining, rhetorical, or pleasing,
monOpolizc all those easy and profitable cures
which do not fall to remarkable ability. Piety,
DEVOTION and conscientious fidelity are still
valued, but not so highly by q great deal as
they should be; and even the popular, we'll
paid, and thoroughly admired preacher will
admit that his lot ia far from being an easy
one. There is martyrdom of success; and
there may be q sense of failure within, when
all without seems triumphant.
OF that which is eternal of our responsibility,
probation, duty, thousand scandals and a
thousand scandalOus trials can abate not one
jot. Human want and weakness and struggle
and failure were before all these fOlies and
mistakes and falsehOods, and will remain hereN
after they are forgotten. If all this sad and
sickening detail has not made us charitable
then must our hearts be harder than hard and
our souls narrower than narrow. When time
has dissipated this fctid and poisoned atmOs-
phcre which we have been so long breathing
Heaven grant that it may have left no per-
manent poison lurking in the vta!s of society.