The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-05-15
The Relations of Clergymen to Women.

III. - IL. hOlau IN ECrlDner.
Recent events have given rise to a fresh discus
sion of the relations of clergyHen to women
some of which has been wise and some widely
otherwise. 1t is supposed by many that the pastor
Is a man peculiarly subjected to temptations to
unchaste 80 conversation" with the female men,
bers of his flock. 1t is undoubtedly and delight
fully true that a popular preacher is the object OF
genuine affection and admiration to the women
who sit under his ministry. 4 true woman re-
spects brains and a commanding masculine ma
ture; but If there Is any one thing which she
naturally chooses to hide from her pastor it is her
own temptations (if she has any, to illicit gratif-
cations. She naturally desires to appear well to
him upon his Own ground of Christian purity.
10 expose herself to his contempt or condemna-
ton would be forbidden by all her pretensions,
professions and natural instincts. a bad woman
might undertake to atone for, and to cover up,
her outside peccadillOes b. the most friendly and
considerate treatment of her pastor; but she
would not naturally take him for her victim. 1t
Is precisely with this man that she wishes to ap-
pear at her best. Any man with the slightest
knowledge of human nature can see that her selfish
as well as her Christian interests are against any
exhibitions of immodest and unchaste desires in
the presence of her spiritual teacher.
There are only two classes of women with which
a minister Is liable to have what, in the language
Of the world, would be called dangerous init
macies.' The first consists of disconnected wives
-discontented through any cause connected with
their husbands or themselves. 4 woman finds
herself married to a brute. She suffers long in
silence; her heart is broken or weary, and she
wants counsel, and is dying for sympathy. She
tells her story to the one man who is-to her
guide, teacher, inspirer and friend. He gives her
the best counsel of which he is capable, comforts
her if be can, sympathizes with her, treats her
with kindness and consideration. That a woman
should, IN many instances, look upon such a man
as little less than a god, and come to regard him
as almost her only solace amid the daily accumu-
Iating trials Of her life, is as natural as it is for
water to run down hill. That she should respect
him more than she can a brutal husband-that
half an hour of his society should be worth more
to her heart and her selfrespect than the misera-
bic years of her bondage to a cruel master-is al
most entirely natural. He cannot help it, nor
can be find temptation in it unless he chooses to
do so. Women, under these circumstances, do
60 to their Pastors either to tempt or to be
There is another class of women who are thrown.
or who throw themselves, into what NAV be called
IN intimate ASSOCIATION with the clergy. 1t is a
that have nothing else to do so pleasant as to
Dc petting some nice man, to whose presence and
Iociety circumstances give them admission. They
ire a very harmless set-gushing maiden ladies',
.ged and discreet widows with nice houses, senti-
mental married women, who. with no brains to
end, are fond of borrowing them for the orna-
of all social occasions. A popular
minister receives a great deal of worship from this