The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1881-12-08
IN. Y. Tribune.1
What is Wrong 2

what Is wrong
There is not sincere servant o
God in New York pulpit who look
ing down on his congregation, ha
not again and again asked himsel
why it is so largely composed Of wo
men. Where are the men? It is al
very well to talk about the "devou
sex" But men have souls and ;
future on the other side of death a
we'll as their wives, and, if the truth
were known, think of them quite a
much. It was the religious faith ot
men which carried on the Crusades
shook Europe for centuries with war
and peopled this continent. The
modern New orker is not more Of a
trifer or a beast than his puritan OF
Huguenot ancestor; his faith is Sc
cretly as real and imminent a matter
to him. Why then does he not go to
church? If it were a fact that the
men who do go embodied all the vir-
tue and morality of the community
and the absentees were all goddess and
wicked. tbe question would be an
swezed by the fact. Many clergymen
dc 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 fear of
hearing it. But the truth is, as we
all know, that there is large class of
men "a class unfortunately rapidly
growing larger) who seldom enter a
church, yet who are neither profigate,
profane nor doubters; they both fear
God and serve Him, humbly, sincerely
and effectively. Let each of our read
ers count how many of these men he
can find in his own circle Of acquaint-
ances to estimate how large it is.
Christianity has a broader base now
than any sectarian limit. Yet the
men Of this class would be first
to admit that a public profession of
faith in Christ is right and useful
act, both for themselves and the world.
Why do they not make it? They aid
all humane, charitable, just causes.
Why do they not work with some Or
ganized Christian body, and under the
leadership of some acknowledged
Christian priest? There are many rea-
sons why. We shall suggest only one
or two; it may be worth while for both
the absentees and the pastors 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 century ago,
originate and control all humanitarian
and Christian work. There are char
table and educational enterprises of
vast proportions, prison reforms, work
for the cause of temperance, of emf
grafton, Of the elevation Of the poor,
all Of which are conducted wholly
outside of any denominational limit,
and which seem to many intelligent
good people as necessary to the we'll
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 Ewithin the pales OF a
church, in fighting heretics or waging
polemical discussion, go now into
these things. Again, the clergymen
in those earlier days was usually the
acknowledged intellectual and moral
superior of the members Of his flock
Not only the Romanist priest, but the
Presbyterian preacher of our early
settlements, was the 'sense-carrier'
for his parish; the educated, live,
strong, practical man, whose advice
and authority 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 acquaint-
ance, and whose keen intelligence 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 announce their inten-
ton to do so are shut off from the
ordinary training given to other men
Instead of being 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 sec
tartan opponents on the meaning Of &
word. In the seminaries to which
they pass from college the main OBJ
ject is to fence them in from all cen
tact with the world Of temptation anC
vice which they are to combat. Polem
les and ecclesiastical history are The
fields in which they are taught tc
work. The young pastor, when al
last he has a charge, is as a rule sci
apart from all the ordinary expert
ences of life, the rending passions, the
mastering temptations which every,
day wrench the souls of other men
His mild theology, his carefully writ
ten sermons, drawn mostly from the
knowledge of human nature given
him by books, fall on the ear of the
middle aged worn men in the pewS
very much as do the voices of the boy
choristers overhead piping sweetly o1
the day of judgment.
Besides these reasons there can bt