Morning journal and courier., 1883-06-06

THE DECREASE OF MINISTER'S.
The graduates of Harvard, Yale and Prince
ton who enter the ministry are said to have
fallen off from SO to per cent. in century.
In all the Protestant denominations, with
perhaps the exception of the Methodists, the
supply of young ministers seems to be run
ming behind the demand. In the great uni
versities it has been q noticeable fact for
many years that the graduates of the most
promise as a rule prefer other callings, and
it hae q sSss Wss saasae fha have
not sufficient ability to succeed in their pro-
fesaion. Many of them seem to have chosen
it not from sense OF duty that they feel
they must obey, or from the impulse of a
great enthusiasm, in other words, not be-
cause they are 'tcalled, but because they
have turned to it as last resort They feel
instinctively that they are not likely to win
in that arduous struggle for success which in
other professions sends the weakest to the
wall. They seem to think that the ministry
is a calling which requires but little ability
and not much effort, and that in it they are
sure of living and of being respectable.
Stronger men who are ready to measure
themselves with other men are, apparently,
for the same reason, reluctant to enter the
ministry, and prefer to take their chances in
the strife for material success. There seems
to be feeling that the ministry no longer
demands the best talent or furnishes the field
for its exercise, and that in it
man of real strength cannot
be all that he is capable Of
No ha1i 40 he mis- Ok
be waste of time to attempt to show that
in the sacred calling there is, or should be-
the greatest of all opportunities for the larg
est endowments both of head and heart. But
whether the feeling we have spoken of is
mistake or not it is evidently the practical
belief of the young men of force of our day.
There is of course some deep seated and
wide spread cause for this belief. The de-
crease in candidates for the ministry is said
to be quite as large in Europe as in America
The cause Whatever it is, seems to be almost
co-extensive with Christianity itself. It can
scarcely be due to the fact that religion has
less hold on men than formerly. Religion
can never cease to interest. Its questions
are and always will be, the greatest of all
questions. Indeed, these questions never in
terested men more than now; they were
never more Rnxiously or more thoroughly
discussed than at the present time. The
tendency of modern science
has awakened q new and deeper interest in
the great primary truths of religion. We think
they take most superficial view of the feel
ings which govern the masses who fancy
their sympathies are on the side of material
ism.
But while there is the deepest interest in
the great question of religion, there is a cor
loss of interest in those seeterian
aud denominational questions which claimed
Sd much attention two generations ago. There
is no loss of interest in religion, but there is
a great loss of interest in creeds. half
century ago in New England the intelligent
layman prided himself on being theologian
and was fond of discussing the subtleties of
The iayman of to-day is not
whit less religious, but he does not discuss
or care about the doctrine of free will and fore
ordination and the other subtleties of divinity.
There is a feeling that theology is not pro-
The congregation nowadays if not
in actual advance of the minister is very
often in advance of what he ventures to
preach. While science and politics and
everything else are striding forward theology
seems to lag behind In the matter of pub-
lie amusements, in the Sunday question, and
indeed in the practical questions of religion
generally, the laity are marching in advance
of the clergy. The ministers still seem to
feel themselves bound by those matters of
creed in which the mass of modern Christians
have lost their interest.
1t is mistake to suppose that the pres
ent dearth of ministers is due TO any indif-
ference to religion on the part of young men.
Youth was never more ksenly alive to the
great questions of religion than now, or ever
more anxious to discuss them or hear them
discussed The sale of the works which dis
cuss these questions has never been so great
as at the present time. It would be absurd
to suppose that the proportion of young
men is less in this generation in whose
mental constitution religious thought
and feeling predominate- Young
men whose natural tendencies would
lead them to the pulpit do not enter il be-
cause they feel that they cannot be independ-
emit. They cannot be progressive They
will not be permitted to express their
honest thought. To tie them to q creed
they think win force them to sacrifice their
and in many iustances their