The Leavenworth weekly times., 1875-03-18
State Of the Clerical Profession.

There is an epidemic OF scandal about
clergymen, in the main, we believe, unjust,
ungenerous, and cruel. We do not remem-
Der time when Gospel ministers seemed to
be in such general trouble of all kinds or
so much in need of unslumbering circum-
spection. \ reaction will unquestionably
follow. but until it shall come, every pastor
should consider himself personally respon-
sible for the good reputation of the profes-
sion, and should take heed, lest by incau-
tious words or deeds he bring additional
obloquy upon his sacred calling, the dig
nifty of which is not in these irreverent days
easily maintained. We are not merely
begging reverend gentlemen not to be guilty
of bigamy, not to be in any way unfaithful
to their marriage VOWS, not TO commit for
gerry or any other crime, not TO beat and
starve their children, for very few of them,
we know, will fall into such extremes of
guilt; but there are various little ways in
which they may fail to magnify their office
either by slips Of speech, or by slight i'm
prudence Of conduct, or by an oyerweening
desire for temporary success, or by
falling. unwittingly perhaps, into despotic
habit of guiding their fiocks. Meanwhile,
we do not hesitate to say that, in Our opin-
ion, their difficult and delicate position en-
titles them to the sympathy of the public
pres rather than TO its jibes and jokes and
sneen; and even these we should think
more tolerable than its coarse, beplastering
praises and first-rate, saccharine notices.
Some time ago, clergyman OF the "popu-
lar" sort, having been twice in delicate
trouble at the East, removed to Western
State and turned counselor and attorney-at-
law, with an occasional indulgence in poll
tics When We next heard of him he was
preaching again. Next We are told that he
has been loudly called $4,000 per annum)
by California church. The newspapers
there herald his advent with a coarse IA
miliarity meant possibly to be gracious, but
which no preacher ought to encounter with
out sensitive shrinking and acute disgust.
We are told that this person '.is the equal
as orator" Of one preacher; is pulpit
humorist" of another; and, without the
slightest doubt, will prove pulpit star of
the first magnitude, drawing overfiowing
houses" If he had been BOanerges OF a ira
gedian, or a tenor singer of unequaled soft
ness and sweetness and compass, or a negro
minstrel; all song and shirt-collar, or per-
feet master of the perilOus trapeze, or a
swift handed 'thaumaturgist, what could
this civil newspaper have said more or less?
Think of it! He is to go to California
bearing the awful messages of religion; he
is to engage there in the sublime duties of
the church he is to be an evangelist and
exhorter, the guide of the blind, the en-
courager of the despairing, the confrmer of
the doubling, and the comforter of the dy-
ing; and We are informed that his "induce-
ment is 5000 a year; !" that he "wiil
'prove pulpit star of the first magnitude !"
and that he will ''draw ovcrtowing houses"
Ii this journal be jesting, the jest is but a
sorry one; if it be serious, it is a sorrier
matter still. 1t is all one whether the rev.
erend gentleman is thus praised or insulted
the reverence" in either case is sadly to
seek.-Neu York Tribune.