St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-11-18

so much scandal because of the indiscre-
lions of preachers. 1t is unfortunate for
the church and it is unfortunate for the
world. These preacher scandals are be-
coming entirely too frequent for the safety
of the moral conditions of our social life,
and it is time that inquiries were being
made as to the causes OF their frequent
occurrence So far as inveStiga
tions have been made they have
been found to originate almost entirely
in the liberties which are INDUCED between
the pastors and their female parishioners.
AS a rule the women are the workers in the
church, and owing to this fact the pastor in
the discharge of his legitimate duties is
brought into constant communication with
the female portion Of his flock. Woman
is naturally of more religious turn than
man. She is more emotional and conse-
Quently more susceptible to the holier
things of genuine spiritual life. Women
are also more Jealous in good works than
men. And thus it is the pastor is COM
PEELED to be brought into frequent commu-
nication with his female members. 1t
is because of these facts that pastors
should be all the more guarded,
that their conduct should not be miscon-
strued In the majority of cases where pas
tors have been discovered occupying equiv
ocal relations with their female members
they allege that there was nothing I'M
proper between them. In many cases TINS
statement is doubtless true, still 1T does
not relieve the church of the scandal OF the
community of the shock which is given to
its moral status by the indiscretiOns of the
shepherd. 1t is the duty of CHRIsT'S min
listers to initiate the example of the Master
and take the repenting Magdalenes
by the hand and lift them up
to a higher life, strengthening them
with his blessing and comforting
them with assurances of forgiveness
But then he ought to do it, as the Master
did, in the presence of the multitude and
not in darkened rooms under locks and bars
There is no one to whom the afflicted Chris
tan woman will go for advice and COM
fort more readily than to her pastor. Nor is
there any one to whom she has more right
to apply. Nor is there any danger OF COM
promising herself or of involving her church
in scandal by doing so if her pastor is a
gentleman. There is the trouble with the
ministerial profession. Too many men
get into it who lack those delicate and
refined sensibilities which characterize
the true gentleman. The church it
self is to blame in this particular.
In its eagerness to get laborers into
the vineyard it too often neglects to eX-
anime into and test the character of the ap-
plcants before admitting them. And then
again it often occurs that in order to avoid
the modification of a public scandal
the church authorities seek to cover up the
delinquencies of offending clergymen with
the hope that the exposure will never be
made. They act upon the false assumption
that so long as the world is none the wiser
the church is none the worse for it. This
is not Christianity. 1t is not what CHRIST
taught and practiced. When JESUS
CHRIST found money-lenders carrying on a
not immoral though profane business in the
temple, He went in before all the people,
both Jews and Gentiles, and drove them out
with whips. Now when His Fathers house is
made den of pollution, it is not reasonable
to suppose that if He were upon earth. He
would seek to keep the fact a secret from
all the world. Instead of hiding it away
among the musty records of a church ses-
sion, would He not do as he did nearly
1900 years ago, proceed at once
to the work of public purif-
cation? Instead of trying to shield the Gull
prits the church ought to be the first to ex-
pose and punish. If the ministry is to bear
the name of CHRIST it must walk as he
walked. But the world has slipped far
away from the teachings of His beautiful
life, and we are sometimes impelled to
acknowledge that nowhere more conspicu-
ously than in what is known as the Chris
tan communion has this divergence taken
place. 1t is not amazing that earnest souls,
looking upon such scenes and turning away
from them with indignation and disgust,
yield to temptation, cut loose from the
churches, and in their anger and dismay
assail Christianity itself as the stem on
which have grown the apples of Sodom.
ON Srr ToATrT