Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1881-12-24
What IA Wrong.
From the Nav York Tribune.

LOOKING GOWN on Ills congregation
has not again and again asked him
self why it is so largely composed of
women. Where are the men ? 1t is
all very well to talk of the "devout
sex" But men have souls and a
future on the other side of death as
well as their wives, and, il the truth
were known, think of them quite as
much. 1t was the religious faith Of
men which carried on the Crusades,
shook Europe for centuries with
war, and peOpled this continent.
The supreme motive in human life
is as dominant now as then. The
modern New Yorker is not more of
a trifler or a beast than his Puritan
or Huguenot ancestor; his faith is
secretly as real and imminent a mat
ter to him. Why then does he not
go to church ? If it were a fact that
the men who do go embodied all the
virtue and morality of the commu-
nifty, and the absentees were all god
less and wicked, the question would
be answered by the fact. Many cler-
gymen do answer it in this way; and
assure us that the man who stays
away from church does it either out
of vicious Indifference to the truth
or the fear of hearing it. But the
truth is, as we all know, that there
is a large class of men Ia class un-
fortunately growing larger who sell
dom enter a church, yet who are
neither profligate, profane nor doubt
ers; they both fear God and serve
him, humbly, sincerely and effec-
lively. Let each of our readers count
how many Of these men he can find
in his own circle of acquaintance to
estimate how large it is. Christian
ity has a broader base now than any
sectarian limit. Yet the men of this
class would be the first to admit that
a public profession of faith in Christ
is a right and useful act, both for
themselves and the world. Why do
they not make it .? They aid all hui
name, charitable, just causes. Why
do they not work with some organ
lied Christian body, and under the
leadership of some acknowledged
Christian priest ? There are many
reasons why. We shall suggest only
n or two; it may be worth while
for both the absentees and the pas
tors whose ministrations they slight
to consider whether these reasons
are sufficient and why they exist.
In the first place, sectarian
churches do not now, as they did a
a century ago, originate and contol
all humanitarian and Christian
work. There are charitable and ed
vocational enterprises of vast proper
tions, prison reforms, work for the
u Of temperance, of immigra-
ton, of the elevation of the poor, all
Of which are conducted wholly out
side of any UNCONVENTIONAL limit,
and which seem to many intelligent
good people as necessary to the well.
being of humanity as the conversion
of the heather or the Jews. Their
money, time and activity, which,
two generations ago, would probably
have been spent within the pales of
a church, in fighting heretics or
waging polemical discussion, go now
into these things. Again, the cler-
gyman in those earlier days was
usually the acknowledged intellec-
tual and moral superior of the mem
bers of his flock. Not only the Ro-
manist priest, but the Presbyterian
preacher of our early settlements,
was the "sense-carrier" for his par
ish; the educated, live, strong, prac-
tical man, whose advice and author
ity were weighty because they were
based on higher knowledge and
broader experience than those of his
people. How is it now? Here and
there we find a clergyman whose
high faith and sincerity command
the respect of the men of his &C
quaintance, and whose keen intelli-
gence and comprehension, both of
books and of life, overweight theirs.
Depend upon it, that mans pews are
not filled alone by women. But the
great mass Of young men who enter
the ministry, as soon as they an
nounce their intention to do so are
shut off from the ordinary training
given to other men. Instead Of be-
ing taught science, from which the
enemies of Christianity now draw
many of their weapons, they are
drilled in dead literatures in order
that they may argue with sectarian
opponents on the meaning of a word.
In the seminaries to which they pass
from college the main object is to
fence them in from all contact with
the world OF temptation and vice
which they are to combat. Polemics
and ecclesiastical history are the
fields in which they are taught to
work. The young pastor, when at
last he has a charge, is as a rule set
apart from all the ordinary expe-
riences of life, the rending passions,
the mastering temptations which
every day wrench the souls of other
men. His mild theology, his care
fully written sermons, drawn mostly
from the knowledge Of human ma
ture given him by books, fall on the
ear of the m~iddle-aged worn men in