New Orleans Republican., 1875-11-07
NEW ORLEANS REPUBIlUAN SUNDAY, NOVEMBER l. 1875

Keet, who means to urge bis claim to '.rever.
end" before 9 secular court. Ii is not the
friends Of the Church who chiefly hope he
will fail: The ease belongs to that spirit of
non-conformist snObbery which bends low
to the Church, -aping its fashionableness
and coveting its hOnOrs, simply because IL is
established. 1t is the baser spirit of the 60.
tablishment itself, and its success would
but secure for that Church to acquire o
little less unpopularity by enabling it to
turn it's enforced 5roadness into an evidence
of catholicity.
The Wesleyans in their various divisions
have this week been holding their annual
assemblies, and exhibit tokens of worldly
prosperity; but one would be glad to see
fewer of such tokene, with more signs that
they are gaining that fervor and freedom
which animated the life and preaching of
their great founder. At any rate, society
that still has such a man as Morley Pun
shon might well be Indifferent whether he
be called reverend or not. There are, how.
ever, indications that the Methodists are
sore about the non-recognltion of their min
listers under that title. They would do we'll
to recall the phenomena OF the days of their
first love;" the example, for instance, of
John Wesley himself, who did not use the
title, and is rightly described on bis tomb as
'the patron and friend of lay preachers" :"
Still more they should recall some Of the
warnings of their earliest preachers; as
this, which once fell from DR.. James Ham
ilton-dOctor of medicine, not of di.
vinity. which, in those days, was
healthy enough without doctors: "Let
the Journalist and the pharisee, the
church bigot and sectary, contend for ways
OF thinking, gestures in worship. and modes
OF church government; but may We never
forget that ye are sent for nobler end;
that your commission is the same as st.
Paul's, not to baptize, but to preach the
gospel. Although l am neither prophet
nor the son OF a prophet, yet forgive me-
when express my fears that, if ever the
Methodists leave their several churches, if
ever ye set up as separate people by ex-
ternal distinctions and creeds, if We substi-
tute silken gown and sash for rough gar.
ments and leather girdle, and call zone
another Rabbi! Rabbi! then the glory will
depart from you, and God will raise up
another people," In these words one may
see the invisible footprint of John Wesley,
and, i it be not discovered and reversed"
1t will some day be recognizable only on the
tomb OF one ct the snblimest movements
which ever recorded it's chapter in the reli-
gious history Of England.
Leaving the Wesleyan side of the new
agitation, we may see in the clerical side
another indication of the tendency of oar
dear old esta ablishment to become q museum
rians say that only after the great schools
Of Judea, which gave tle term "Rabbi" sig
niicance, had decayed, did that title be-
come coveted designation. The learned
also assure us that it was the importance of
bridging the Tiber in early times that gave
respectability to the "pontifex," or bridge
builder; and that it was only after the
Tiber was fully bridged, and the title had
lost it's significance, that it became grand
enough to be assumed by the Pope, along
with all other high titles, and give him the
affix of Pontitf, or "Pontifex Maximus"-
bridge ge-builderin-ch Tue English church
has long monOp0lized the title of "clergy-
man"-literally, "a wrter'-because once
upon time only priests possessed clerks
accomplishment. And now the clergy add 10
their monopoly the title reverend" which
even in Shakespeare's time was applied to
the most potent, grave and reverend
seigniors," the Council OF Venice. The Dean
of Arches must have less sense of humOr If
in his unofficial moments he does not see
that he has made the term reverend"
what the savans call survival" But,
for that matter, the Dean of Arches is him.
self a survival--as well as his wig. His
court survives for little time the Court of
Chancery, which that clever Israelite, Sir
George Jessel, has just dismissed into the
fossil stratum; but he (the dean) is already
dealing with such ancient phantOms as the
devil and the clerical titles, and his court
can not continue long after such phantoms
are laid. Etylnologically reverend" means
a man to be teared but the title is much
more likely in the future to excite contempt
than fear. Its significance, at any rate, is
as far past as venerable" applied to supe-
rior archdeacOns, who are rarely physilogi.
cal enough to be scandalized by the alleged
relations of venerable" to Venus.
Perhaps have been too fast in saying
that our ''reverends" are no longer feared.
Whatever may be the case as regards their
sacred performances, certainly they are still
rather formidable as country magistrates.
Their decisions are "survivals' of the Dog.
berry order; but, having the army of Eng
land to back them until reversed, they are
hot without their terrors. Since the Rev.
E. Jones sentenced little Sarah Chandler to
fourteen days in prison and four years in
the reformatOry afterward for picking one
geranium blossom (the child is free. but
Jones is still msgistrste), people having
children of flower loving dispositions feel
rather uneasy. A gentleman of my &C.
quaintaDce, whose son is passing his vaca-
tien in Hampshire, was made frantic, Q few
days ago, ON receiving q letter stating that
the lad had been sentenced to prison for
year by clerical magistrate for gathering,
honeysuckles ct Christ Church, and he had
called for solicitor before discovering that
it was hoax. 1t never occurred to him or
his neighbOrs that there was any improb-
ability in the story. The general feeling
now is that Q clerical msgistrate is equal to
anything whatever in his peculiar line.
This week the Rev. G. r. Grey, of Alcester,
has sentenced q boy of eight years to one
months imprisonment, to be followed by
i've years in retormatorX, for putting tiny
put the pebbles there to hear them Ego
smudgew but plainly had not the least idea
that there was any danger in the act. This
clergyman. however, is not such an "evil
liver" as to disbelieve in the devil; he
saw the boy as one ''instigated thereto"
by an evil possession. The worst of
these cases is that it takes about
week before these reverend fools can be cor
responded with and their folly undone, and
tortures. And yet (if l may be forgiven the
iteration) to deal radically with the evil in
wolves so much that no political leader
dares attempt it. 1t would be like the
chemists attempt, in Hawthorne's story, to
draw the birtbmark from his wife's cheek
Under bis potent applications the brthmark
finally disappeared. but the wife lay dead.
When this country once undertakes to deal
with the clerical magistrate the ''lords spir-
the root Of all will be found bound up with
the very hear t-life of the whole state-church
system.
Under these circumstances the English
radicals are naturally we'll pleased when
their morning paper unfolds . new clerical
scandal. The imprisonment of little girls
for picking geraniums, and little boys for
putting pebbles where they '.go smudge,"
lore-with Rev. Joneses and Crews for
ogres, little Ssrahs for beautiful victims,
and home secretaries for pOOd fairias, hnt