The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-11-13

tries are materialistic. While engaged
in clearing forests, opening mines, build
ing railways, organizing business inter-
ests. men have not the time, nor the
disposition for moral, spiritual, or even
for intellectual development. Money
making is not conducive to soul-mak-
ing. To embrace the earth necessi-
tates turning ones back to the glory Of
the stars. Men have been, and are yet,
counting the earth and its treasures,
and heavenly interests are suffering
comparative neglect.
A materialistic spirit rules the minds
of the masses and human energies are
applied to the tangible things of this
inventive, industrial, mercantile, for
tune-seeking age. Treasures laid up In
heaven are at discount treasures laid
UP in a national bank or railway cor
poration are at a premium.
So the professions or occupations that
have to do with material affairs, and
offer prospects of worldly fortune, are
eagerly sought and crowded to over
flowing; while the professions that
deal with the finer things of moral and
spiritual culture are passed by. How
many are the applicants for clerkships
in mercantile establishments How
few the applicants for place in the
illogical schools How many the can
didates for political place and salary
How few are ambitious to be an am
bassador of God to the courts of sin,
with salary doubtful! If new mine
is discovered the people rush from all
parts of the world to have hand in it's
treasures. If a new Bible, or new
faith, or a new philosophy be brought
to light, how few the minds that seek
its treasures.
Perhaps men are justified in the
choices they make. Bread and pota-
toes may be a more immediate want
than the bread of heaven. Perhaps
more clerks than preachers are needed.
First the earthly and then the heavenly
is the apostolic order of things. We
are not complaining that it is all wrong.
We are only setting forth the condi-
lions which the Christian church finds
and must contend with in modern life.
But while we recognize that it is in
the nature of things that material in
terests should take precedence of spir-
itual interests, in point of time at least,
yet we believe that many are making a
mistake in neglecting the claims of the
intellectual, moral and spiritual man.
Young men are swept by the material
istic spirit of the times past the theolog-
ical schools, past the church doors, past
the broad fields of religious, reformatory
and humanitarian labor, and are i'm
PEELED to seek place for themselves in
the marts of trade, or among the me-
chanical industries, or in the professions
correlated with them. The result is
those places are over-crowded. Com
petition, sharp, bitter, constant, be-
comes a necessity. Rivalry is pushed
almost to frenzy. Life becomes strug-
gle, and the law of the survival of the
fittest, operates without mercy to crush
the weak in the triumphant progress of
the strong. In large cities more than
ninety per cent of the men in mercan-
tile life fail sooner or later. 1t may be
they are not all honest failures; then
so much less desirable is mercantile
life. What proportion of failures could
be written against other occupations, it
is difficult to judge. But if we under
stand by the word, failing" that a
man is unable to get an honest living,
unable to pay all his debts in full, I'M
able to live decently and squarely with
the world, then it is evident there are
a good many unsafe occupations. And
judged thus, the ministry is one of the
most successful professions. While
there are varying degrees of success
among its numbers, yet there are very
few failures, using the word in the
above sense. There are few clergymen
who cannot meet their financial obliga-
tions, few who are obliged to compro-
mise with their creditors, few who do
not live decently and honestly before
the world. Yet the ministry is almost
the only profession which is not over
crowded; which, on the contrary is
conspicuously in need of more men.
What we have said of educated young
men passing by the church for other
fields of labor, is true of nearly, if not
all Protestant sects. Some sects, as
the Methodist, are better supplied than
others, but without stopping to discuss
the condition of others, we would say,
it is particularly true of our own church.
Our church needs more ministers. 1t
has work for them to do at once, and
untold possibilities of labor that might
be developed, were there men ready to
take charge of it.
According to our last Register, there
are 93s Universalist parishes, and sos
ministers, thus leaving 2S5 parishes
unsupplied. True, many parishes are
dormant, if not dead and others are
very sick, nigh unto death and others