Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1877-05-09

The Clergy ofScotland .

In the North Country, at the present
day, the free churches are full on the
coldest Sunday, while the worthy parish
minister has to take his shivering pre-
centor and congregation into his cozy
parlor, and even there they will not oc-
cupy all the chairs. There is no doubt
that the seceders-wbo at first. as is
the manner of reformers, displayed
rather leveling and ruthless tendencies
frightened away many of the better
sort from Presbyterianism altogether,
and widened the distance between the
gentry and the mass of the people. The
numerous class of servant girls, and
with them, of course farm-lahorers,
went over to the new body en- n,asse,
taken with the novelty of the thing !;
and their moderate" or old-Kirk en-
ployers had the satisfaction of knowing
that their menials-who we're allowed
to consider the question at issue he
one which affected their eternal desti-
nies-believed in their hearts that they
were on the road to perdition, and were
proper objects for their commiseration
and prayers. The people were disin-
tegrated thousands Joined the new
Church hundreds of the gentry, dis
gusted with the melee, joined the Epis-
copacy;a a feeling of religious caste
strongly developed itself. divinity stu
dents, who regarded good congrega-
ton as more desirable than even a good
living, became disheartened and were
lost to the ministry the schools were
affected - and, in short, the whole
country was revolutionized. And only
three years ago the conservative Church
of Scotland, too, abolished patronage,
and the whole texture of the student
communities was, therefore changed.
Now, we presume that no man to-day
(unless, indeed, he were seeking office)
would defend church patronage. But,
as even the Corsair had Zone virtue
linked to his thousand crimes" the
system of patronage had one redeem
ing feature. Through it, boorish cubs
were licked into shape, and vulgarly
bred lads acquired the manners of a
gentleman, for most of those who had
the ministry in view could obtain the
favor of patron in no other way than
by becoming tutors in gentlemen's
and noblemen's families after the COM
pletior of their course. In this capac-
ity-entering the houses OF landed gen
tlemen, associating there with people
of cultivated hsbits-they, however
humble their origin, acquired those
courtesies and graces of manner and
bearing which were more the charac-
teristics of the Jolly Scottish clergy
men of thirty years ago than they are
of their successors II would be quite
mistake to suppose that the pulpit
has kept pace with the advance of the
people in other respects. There are
notable exceptions, but the Scottish
parish minister of to-day is only a
preacher-not the second gentleman in
the country, and the local fountain
head of literary and antiquarian lore.
The manly traits and strong, universal
sympathies which so prominently dis
tinguished the late Norman Mcleod
are by no means so common in the
Scotch Church as they were even
twenty years ago, whatever its minis
ters may have gained in evangelical
breadth and activity. The gentry have
now stepped across the Tweed, or sent
their sons and daughters across-which
of them does not boast dingy house
within bugle-call of St James's? The
average Scottish clergyman salary
has not advanced with the increased
cost of living, and is not equal to that
of French cook in one of the Edin-
burgh hotels the insdequscy of the
means of creditably supporting them
selves and their uniformly large fami
lies, of which most ministers have to
complain, is draining away talent from
the pulpit and the young men who
nowadays aspire to the ministry go
through the course in the shortest pos
sible time-six years-and pass their
vacations in mission-work, or in their
fathers workshops or barns. Family
tutorships are all but extinct in Scot
land the NUMEROUS subdivisions OF
society which have become so clearly
defined during the last thirty years de-
mand permanent and special teachers,
who may go to college if they choose,
but who must, though they were Per-
sons in scholarship, and Arnolds in
natural capacity for imparting instruc
tion, tread for the specified time the
floors of an exacting but red-tspe nor
NAL school. Students there are, in
deed, who omit session and go to re-
cruit their finances by teaching, but it
is to England-to one or other of the
cheap boarding-schoolsw whose name is
legion in that country.-Appieton's
journal.