The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-10-30
Country and City Pastorates.

MINISTERS in the rural districts, and
any number of pastors in our villages
and towns, have great yearning for
city pulpits. The notion prevails that
church in great metropolis, like
New York, or in city like Brooklyn,
or Philadelphia, or Boston, or Chicago,
or some other important center of pop
ulation, presents the most inviting field
for Christian labor and for the widest
ministerial influence. Under this i'm
preston, the feeling is cherished by
most of the young men in our theologi-
cal seminaries, and by scores of village
pastors that nothing is more to be de-
sired either for usefulness or happiness
than their advancement (?) to city
church. Seeing few of their class
mates and early associates in the min
istry holding these positions of superior
eminence, (?) while they are left to oc-
cupy humber fields, they are, at times,
tempted to envy them their success,
and they secretly sigh for similar pro-
motion.
We do not mean to intimate that
city pulpits offer no advantages to
preachers. A man adapted to the
wants of a great city, and able to exert
an influence on its crowded population,
holds very important position. But
not less important are the opportunities
of usefulness offered by comparatively
small and obscure fields of labor.
In the matter of congregations, we
could name scores in villages and towns,
with which, for size and intelligence,
those of most city churches will bear
no comparison. Very recently we were
supplying pulpit less than fifty miles
from New York, whose pastor had
gone to preach for a church in an East
ern city, and on that occasion we found
an assembly much larger than was
present on the same day at any Bap-
fist church in New York. Nor is this
an exceptional case. We could cite
many more of the same kind in proof
of the fact that "a wide field of
usefulness" and opportunities for
reaching the masses" are not advan-
tages confined to the crowded popula-
tions of cities. In such communities,
moreover, it will be found that pas
tors influence reaches beyond his own
people. He is recognized, as few city
pastors are, in circle that extends
beyond the limits of his own congrega-
ton, and his worth and work are APP
preciated by multitude that seldom or
never attend upon his ministry.
In this light, it is manifest that many
village pastors who are eQveting city
pulpits are greatly mistaken in their
notion of the superior advantages of a
settlement in a city; and, with more
correct and comprehensive views of the
situation, brethren anxious to occupy
metropolitan pulpits would discover it
to be much wiser for them to cultivate
contentment, and to take heed to the
apostles counsel, to "abide in the
same calling wherein they are called"
1t is not to be doubted, that, at the
present day, a certain order of pulpit
talent is required by our city churches,
and that the interests of the common
cause often demands that peculiar gifts
should be secured for positions to
which they are especially adapted.
When this is the case, there arises a
necessity for change in the pastoral
relation, involving no little self-denial
on the part of some of our rural church.
es, and the transfer of relations, under
such circumstances, seems to be die
tate of duty on the part of pastors who
are thus summoned to other spheres OF
service But in all other cases the USE
fulness and happiness of ministers who
are successfully serving churches in
more retired places will be found to be
greatly promoted by better apprecia-
ton of the fields of labor to which they
should recognize themselves as appoint
ed by the Great Head of the Church
BAPTIST Weekly