Litchfield enquirer., 1879-08-14
Only Men

greatest eloquence, and the most liberal anG
 enlightened theoretical views, are semetimes
 found in connection with very doubtful pri
 vate character. Much has been said by Protes
 tants about the evil influence of celibacy and
 of the confessional on the morals of the Cath
 olic clergy. Most disinterested observers
 undoubtedly hold that VOWS of chastity are oi evil moral effect, and there are many instan- ces of gross abuse of the confidence of the con
 fessional. Nevertheless there are safeguards thrown around the confessional which make the perversion of that Catholic practice to i'm moral uses much less easy than is commonly supposed Then, too. Catholic discipline of clerical immortality is stern and efectual.
 Whatever may be ther attitude towards the public, the clergy of that church keep sharp eye on each other, and there are no such ab- surdities in their practice as councils which merely give advice that no one is bound to follow. .-
 The greater liberty of Professionalism gives much freer scope for individual wrong doing as we'll as we'll as for individual right doing. The Protestant minister is under special temp tation from the peculiar relation he maintains with the women of his chuch. Though the confessional is byword and reproach among most Protestants, the practice of the Protestant woman approaches much nearer to 1t than she imagines. It is considered entirely proper that she should make confidant of her pastor in matters where she would trust no one else. Especially is this the case with the believing wives of unbelieving husbands" into which class are to be reckoned about one half of the married women who are church members Meeting with no religious sympathy from their husbands, they very naturally fly to their min- isters in difficulties that are often purely do- mestic. ...... ....
 In most cases. no doubt, advice is cautiously and wisely given but the relation is none the less abnormal. Most of the wives who fly to their pastors for advice regarding their domes- tic concerns are women who hold the theory of subjection on principle. They obey their husbands in all matters temporal, and their pastors in all matters spiritual The almost superstitious confidence women are apt to re- pose in such spiritual advisers, the tendency of relation so intimately confidential, and the complacenoy with which Professionalism views such condolences between pastor and parishioner. all offer terrible temptation to men of certain temperament. In many cases it is temptation they can never success fully meet. How often do we hear of minis- ters having the same kind of difficulty in suc- cessive parishes. They fall into relations with those they spiritually advise which give rise to scandal. Then they emigrate to new parishes to repeat the same experience. Who is there who does not know several such, in the list of his clerical acquaintance They fall before this temptation as regularly as the toper falls before his special temptation of strong drink.
 The whole difficulty arises from the unnat- ural relation of dependence in which woman is placed by the theory of the parental relation of priest to people. The natural guardian of mortality is woman herself. Any relation which places her in condition of peculiar confidence in or dependence on man-exce pt it be the natural relations of the family-tends most surely to immortality. Such relation is abnormal and dangerous because it weakens the defensive power of virtue on the side which can alone be trusted to maintain it. There is no such guardian of woman's virtue as woman herself. The so-called protection of man is in the main sham and delusion, and the soundest frame of society is that which relies on woman's independence to support her virtue.
 While we believe in the purity of the Prot estant clergy as body we see no reason to believe in any special, inherent virtue in the gentlemen of that profession. Some of them undoubtedly fall, under the peculiar tempta- tion to which they are subjected. Parson-wor- ship is dangerous to the idol as we'll as to the idoater. The more the clergyman is supposed to be raised above human frailty by the posse ssion of extraordinary talent, the more dangerous his condition becomes. The gift of eloquence is so often accompanied by great development of the human capacities and pas- sions that the popular preacher is probably of all men the most open to the very temptations before which he SO often falls. When falen however, the world has as little charity for him as for fallen woman; justly too for the teach erof morality who is not himself pure is simply teacher of immortality. The vices of our great orators out of the pulpit Mirabeau, Fox, Webster, Mcrton-seem to detract little from their general fame but the moral teach CTS who have fallen into vice, and worse still into hypocrisy, are dethroned idols as power- less as the images of wood and stone before whom our ancestors bowed down in awe and adoration. Let us pity while we cannot re- gret their fall! -....
 During the past ten years the population along the line of the Union Pacific railroad