New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-04-10

Willy OF his 1OIlOWcTS Tulneu tnc
CLERG YMEN AND THEIR CONGREGATI0Na
An effort was made in the Methodist Confer
ences in Pennsylvania last week to effect q
change in the systom OF itinerancy several
large and influential congregations protesting
that they would not be compelled to part with
pastors who had grown near and dear to them
in wears of faithful service. They referred tn
instances within the limits OF the Conference
where clergymen i'm other Christian sects had
remained in charge of the same congregation
for thirty, forty, and even fifty years, and
urped that no charm of novelty, no advantages
of learning or elOquence could equal IN weight
of influence tie trust repOsed by his rocx In
q man who had held them in his arms - chill
dren. had married them, offered their little
ones 10 Gods service, and buried their dead.
There is so much doubt thrown nowadays
Oh the relation Of pastor and people, 1t Ii 40
much the fashion among indifferent and even
thoughtless takers to jest and jccr at the
"cloth and its recent short cOmings, that we aro
the more pleased at this hearty outspohen scs-
timony from our Methodist brethren OF tho
reverence and affection in which they hold
their postors. The fact is that the mass of men
their opinions by the newspapers, and the
newspapers are too apt to pronounce Judgment
on whole class from any two or three IN
dividuals in it who have achieved an undesir-
able notoriety in their columns. Because GER
tain number OF divorce cases appear III PRINT, they
imagine that tho sacred institution OF marriage
is lettering everywhere to ruin, and because
scandal has, justly or unjrstly, held up tho
names of two or three prominent c.ergymen
TO public censure, every man in the profes-
sion has been subjected, in a degree, TO sus-
picion and ridcule. To seriously defend that
profession would be simply to utter platiillieS
but. after all, it would be better that just now
such platitudes should BIO uttered, especially
bv secular Journals 1t is high time that tho
men who are to lead us, if we are led at all.
to purcr and stronger conditions of humanity.
should be reinstated in the position OF leaders
ia public esteem, to lose it individually here
after at their own peril. Tho effect
of the lives and teaching OF these
men can justly be estimated not in
the half-dOzen monster congregations OF TINS or
other cities, but from the influence OF the in-
Vulnerable parishes, chapels, meeting-houses
over the country from sea to sea. 1t is tho
character, tho habits of life, tho domestic re-
lations, the propelling motiv es of the great un-
known, unnterviewed mass of the people, who
utter themselves only in domestic life and at
the polls, which ought to DO taken into ac-
count when we pronounce Judgment on tho
men who from week to week, by constant ex-
ample and precept, have instructed them fox
two centuries how to talk, think, and live.
We shall be satisfied with the result of
fair verdict. The American people have vices
which grow ont of too great anxiety for money
or place, but there is, we honestly believe, no
people on earth more faithful to their idea of
Right, or more persistent in carrying their
faitl, into practice at all cost-as witness tho
civil war; there is no people chaster, more in
teIhgent or sincere in their religious beliefs,
more helpful to each other, or more faithful
and tender as husbands, wives, or parents. 1t
Is to be remembered too, that outside of the
great towns the clergyman is usually the leader
necessarily in every intellectual or religious
work. To great majority of Americans the
weekly newspaper and weekly sermon fur
nish the sole intellectual stimulant. There arc
few men among us who cannot trace the best
motives and profOundest religious faith OF our
lives to the influence in childhood of our mother
and some old gray-headed man of God, Eps-
cOpalian, Presbyterian, or Baptst-what mat
tiers his badge now? 1t would require tho
guilt, proved and damning, of many leaders in
the Church to throw discredit on tho work OF
these unknown, patient, faithful hosts, who arc
now giving their lives to their Masters service,
or who, their labor done, have passed over and
entered in to their reward.