The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-06-19

IA press of other matter has delayed the pub.
| LEGATION OF the subjOined artice.--Ed, JOurnall
| To the Editor OF the Indianapolis Journal
| Having read the Journal for two years,
and on the whole, having enjoyed its de-
tense of sound morality, l was surprised by
an editorial in last Saturdays issue on 1.-The
Education of Preachers" Please grant me
space for few thoughts. You can afford to
take the scourge as we'll as the reins of opin-
ion.
You misrepresented President Eliot. In
| trying to make one broad, fat-hooted sentence
cover the whole ground you made him tell
| an untruth. A hundred years ago few ex-
cept students for the ministry entered col
lege, but to-day every class of men have their
college men. III the same percentage of the
graduates of to-day entered the ministry, the
profession would be overcrowded. Figures
taken from one-half of the facts in the case are
always diluted with sophistry.
"Inferiority of beneficiaries." Is not
every college student and graduate of State
institutions beneficiary? Are not nearly
all college professors teaching in chairs en-
dowed by the State or benevolent men? Did
not Dr. Eliot himself get the benefit of these?
Inferior? Some of these benefciaries are
holding the highest positions in Boston, New
York, Brooklyn and elsewhere.
Lost its influence and degenerated in
character" Are not elergymen hard work
ers? Are they not benevolent as a rule Civ
ing all they have for charity? Are they not
virtuous, truthful and sincerely laboring for
the good of their fellow-men? If such men
lose their influence it is because the age is
evil not because it is educated. Is it not
true that the better the people are educated
the more they respect the clergy not in a
servile spirit, but nobly, as peers? You seem
to think that it is necessary that a man
should be inferior before he recognizes good
ness and wisdom. Cannot wisdom on the
level with wisdom see each other? In many
families, in case of sickness, in the very
province of the physician, the pastors word
would be taken against the best Of physi-
clans, if he should presume to dictate. AS
to be ''degnerated in character" let their
| bearing on society, their attitude in all re-
forms and the fruit of their labors witness,
1.-THE clerical profession has not kept up"
| with laymen, who are educated" by means
of books and the daily press. Agassiz,
speaking of fish as food for the brain, told a
boy that he (the boy ought to eat about two
whales before he would get any benefit from
it. Now, Mr.. Editor, can you figure how
many tons of the Journal a nan ought to
| read before he can gather sufficient mental
tissue to formulate a decent conception Of
ordinary things? Can YOU tell me, what
class of men read the daily papers more than
the clergy? Is it not fact that clergymen
as a class, buy three times as many books
outside of their profession, as any other
class? New York booksellers will tell you
that the works of Darwin, Spencer, Huxley
and books of that character, would have a
very meager sale if it had not been for cler-
gymen. Your statements would blush if
you should turn their faces toward facts
Inquiry and doubt" You say the peo-
| Pile have the spirit of inquiry and doubt
Every theological student, while in the SEM
mary. heard ten objections to his teachings
for every one that he will ever hear after
coming out. The twaddle, the sophistry,
| false deductions, and the imaginary
facts of spurious science have all
been brought before him. The clergy
have gone ahead of the multitude
and return and report that what the skeptics
see before them is nothing but intellectual
mirage. AS rule the clergyman has more
confidence the more intelligent his congrega-
ton. He does not wish to select twelve of
the most ignorant in the community and
| try to work upon their passions by phono-
| technics. His choice is the intellect that can
weigh reason and balance authorities.
The "higher standard of intellectual sin
cerity" among scientists. If you can say
that Heckel Tyndall, Moleschott, Spencer
and even such men as Draper, have ignored"
the personal factor and ''desire," then
| you have not read them. Or your own de-
sire is father to your judgment. There is a
vast distinction between accumulated knowl-
edge and the development of individual
character. A school boy of to-day may
know more about the solar system than
Coperncus did, but that does not prove the