The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-10-23
A LAYMAN'S CRITICISM.
BY GEORGE III. NICHOLS.

in every line of conduct, it is often prof
liable to see ourselves as others see US;
to see ourselves mirrored in other mems
eyes. Those eyes, no doubt, are in
many ways incapacitated to see us
rightly, through prejudice, or envy, or
Indifference, or because of some utterly
false medium through which the vision
is directed. But still our work and
character and standing are always on
trial in this world, and the average
judgment of our fellow men will be
found to be, in the long run, right, des-
pite the manifold obstacles through
which it finds utterance. We are open
to criticism, and we are open also to
Misrepresentation and abuse. l may
be allowed to say that, as layman, l
am by no means confident that 1 can
reflect the average judgment of my fell
low laymen as to the status of the
Christian ministry in our day, its scope,
its limitations, the peculiar trammels
which keep it back from the full exer-
else of its benefcent power. We lay
men, with considerable unanimity, feel
that there is a weight of custom "heavy
as frost" or some other weight, lying in
''cold obstruction on the energies of
the Christian pulpit" but the difficulty
of formulating the trouble, when driven
to the wall, leads us to suspect often
that we are but carping, that we are
hard taskmasters, reaping where we
have not sown. 1 mean, intruding our
criticisms upon class of men, whose
peculiar trials we do not know, and
from whom we are so widely separated
that there is no common ground upon
which fair judgment could be based.
This gap does, indeed, seem to be a
wide one. There is vast difference
between what is sacred and what is Sec
ular, a difference which exists in the
very nature of things, and which no
amount of learned sophistry will ever
abolish. And now here is an imposing
branch of public life, the pulpit, which
is occupied pre- eminently with relations
sacred, while all other professions and
occupations lying around it are secular.
It is useless to think of obliterating the
distinction or of demonstrating the COM
plete coalescence of the one province
with the other. Things spiritual may
be in all things secular it is specif-
cally the mission of the Christian
church to push on this work of spirit
ual infusion, until all branches of secu-
lar life are elevated and glorified by it.
But spiritual things do not thereby
give up their identity, and the distinc
ton between spiritual and secular is
indefeasable forever.
Now here is class of men, who are
occupied, in the main, with spiritual
things, and it is their business to main
tain the difference, sharp and distinct.
The minister who will not do this is not
fit for his Office. The minister who
tries to forget that his business is with
religion, and with everything else, only
with view to religious interfusion,
whose themes are secular, whose bear
ings and sympathies and conversation,
are wholly those of the man of the
world, who judges everything by secu-
lar and utilitarian standards, and so
breaches on the Sabbath day, has hope
lessly caricatured his office, and ought
to go on the stage. But, on the other
hand, we ought not to be blind to the
fact that this enduring distinction be-
tween things spiritual and things secu-
lar, has been perverted by traditional
misconceptions and long time ecclesias-
tical customs into an incubus upon the
pulpit, and the widespread eclipse of
it's power which we laymen think we
observe. In the development OF relig
ion there is a sacerdotal period, a period
when the ignorance and immaturity of
the devotees renders an imposing ritual
necessary and hierarchy of priests for
llS duIullloIldIlOlJ, anu a hCb- WOih VI
ecclesiastical institutions, to keep holy
things in due need of reverence among
masses with whom the higher motives
have not, as yet, come into sway. But
Christianity was itself the initial move
ment away from the ponderous ecclesi-
asticism of the past. When one comes
to look at it patiently, it is astonishing
how high the standard is, that the great
founder of our religion put before US
that standard, that is, of individualism,
and individual priesthood in the man.
agement of all our spiritual affairs.
According to Jesus, every man is to
be his own priest; and the emphasis
with which he turned on the ecclesias-
ticism of his times is simply astOnish-
ing But so slowly does humanity
move underneath the superintendent
weight of custom, and the relentless
tether of institutions, that this very
simple, unceremOnial, street ranging
religion of Jesus had scarcely moved
away from its rustic seats in Galilee,
when it was caught up into the embrace
of the Roman empire, and set forth in
all the gorgeous trappings of a ceremo-
NAL, the like of which the world had
no fTrifpoooaA Hba,, folIouo1