New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-03-10
m THE CHURCH PORCH.
pr1Ia1oUs CHANCES AND GLIMpsEs

recreation and healthfni diversion VI tnVukne An
this Is so well known that It is quite unnecessary to
enlarge of t here. What started out TO say was.
that the clergy especially ought TO have some hobby
which win break on the monotony OF their intel
lectual life The hobby need not indeed be mere
useless fad In fact It may be some great moral or
social question: running parallel with the more speca
message of the preacher Such Is the question OF
Divorce Reform, which the Rev. Samuel W. DiKe mas
made his hobby for number Of years. UT it may
be tho study Of Greek, which has been ID. HOWARD
crosbys hobby for the last thirty years On It may
no some such hobby as that of the Rev. Dr. Van
Dyke OF this city, which consists In collecting hrst
editions Of Tennyson's works. Or 10 may % tha'
most fascinating of all hobbes-the study OF nature
with the microscope These and hundreds OF similar
hobbies that might be named VIII not onv furnish
TO the busy clergyman the recreation anu mehtal
stimulus which he needs, but may often enaoie MN
to increase materially the store Of human knowledge
1t used to be sheer in England that no man could
be a bishop unless he had edited Greek play. But
would far rather see clergyman devote some OF MS
leisure hours to Greek plays than waste them ID
vacant ideness. However, American clergy men can
dnd so many delightful and practical hobbies IN line
with their special work that there is no need OF ther
adopting ono Of remote interest or utility.
The crank is a man with hobby run mad. In the
pursuit Of his favOrite theme he has lost sight OF
perspective and tho Of proportion, ana SO 90
comes ABSURD In common Win all other Cani"S9' tn'
ministry has its full share Of cranls. The clerical
crank is often pathetic, sometimes nuisance out
always picturesque. Whether he Is awry on some
favorie doctrine or some moral social question: no
soon becomes mournfu example of good intentions
gone TO seed. The vagaries Of clerical cranRs would
furnish subject for interesting book, IL written
by a. man Of sympathetic insight. Some time ago
came Q good clergyman who had developed
Into a crank on the subject of pork He had become
With fba of DOrk as an
article Of food the cause of nearly all the vice and
crime in civilized life. His advocacy Of this theory
had become TO him the only gospel worth preaching
He hustled into my study one day to give me num-
Der OF tracts and circulars tho subject, which no
had prepared for distribution. Ono OF the tracts
remember was entitled The Relation Of Pork TO the
Worm that Dleth Not.s "The good cause is advanc'
Ing" he said in CHEEKY tones. The people are
coming to realize that pork is greater curse than
rum. have organized a Society for the Suppression
OF Pork as a Diet. Here is one Of our medals WHICH
hope you will wear. On one side 1t has the moSto
Death In tho Hog and the other the Initials OF
the society, IS. S. p. d. We expect 10 form anu
pork societies IN every church in the country Ana
three converted DOrkeaters are about to make ecE
ure tour through the land In order to show to the
people the horrors Of hog meat The hand OF inc
Lord is in this thing and not even Chicago SHAH pre-
vail against US" have never heard either OF MIN
his society since. and presume he either died OF
became insane. He was ono Of the most picturesque
clerical cranks ever met.
Speaking Of hobbies, recall young man who was
In college with me and who supported himself entirety
by raising poultry. Ho lived In the outskirts VI tho
town. while the other boys were killing their spare
time in less useless, II not pernielous ways
was puttering around his ben-yard. We used TO
mako good deal Of fun Of him becane OF bis hoooy'
but he took 1t all in good part and VEN on enlargns
his business. Pretty soon we began to hear that nc
was taking valuable money prizes for his poultry 10
various poultry shows and that his annual income
from the sale of eggs and fowl was much more than
sufficient to meet all his expenses. When he LETT
college he had enough money put away to support
him while in the seminary and make one or two
profitable investments besides Ho took high rank
In the ministry and although he always continued TO
love poultry, / heard that this hobby In the
slightest degree nterfered with his usenlness And
by the way, what selsrespecting studont would NOT
prefer to work his way through college by raising
poultry rather than by acting as . walter IN the
summer hottest 1t is not only moro honorable, out
moro lucrative.
II is a noticeable and suggestive fact that DR.
shedds able and clear-out statement OF Cavinistic
theology does not entirely please those who ara stu
supposed to hold to tho theological system OF the
great Gcnevan Doctor. The venerable DR.. K. W.
Patterson, In "The Interior says DR.. Shedds
theology seems 10 US not well adapted TO convert men
Cav IniSm, or 10 arrest inc pTOBEcSs Vi
And Presbyterian minister said 70 me the other day
While the Presbyterian Church to-day accepts the
dogmatic system Of Calvin, in general way IL docs
not accent Il in every tot and little and stu less docs
t accept all the differences and deductions that nave
been made from Calvins premises by CaVlmStic
theologians. And look forward 10 the tme' though
It may not be in my day. when the Church wiz
.ormally renounce It's allegiance 70 eAuo"o ~
vinisn.'
rhat fg cka lin
Mnot J. SAVAGE In Tho North American Review for
March when no says: ave are presented with the
strange spectacle Of hundreds perhaps thousands Oh
ministers IN all the different churches, wno-h
private at eastwin frankly confess that they snare
the belief Of all intelligent men In the antiquity
and the slow and gradual development of the race
from tho lowest beginnngs. They believe In no
Genesis story OF either Eden or Fall Ana yet they
10 on preaching and administering the saeraments As
II nothing had happened" But orthodox CHRISTIANS
will say that such radical Unitarian as Mr. savage Is
not competent TO speak such matter because his
wish is father to his thought
was talking the other day with an od-fashioned'
Low-ChLrch Episcopal clergyman, one OF the few now
aliye-and find that be naturally takes very gloomy
Wow of the present. ecclesiastical tendencies Of his
church at IS RAPIDLY drifting back to medlaevalism,
be exclaimed our clergy banker after ecclesiastical
titles and dgnltles hitherto unknown In our church.
and our people have learned to love msteraliEed'
sensuous worship. radically opposed to Gospel SIM
pcIty The detection of the Reformed Eplscopalians
a few years ago was wholly tho result Of this re-
dictionary tendency. But instead of learning anything
from that incident the sacerdoaliss In the church
| have become more arrogant than ever. Men high IN
the councils OF the church openly soon al the work
NJ the Reformation, and declare that before many
years the church will rcpudiate 1t. Here and there
man llke Bishop Huntington arises 70 protest against
| some particular development Of ecclesastcism, but
their protests are UNDECIDED II is no longer possible y,
| Protestantism For II is drifting out Of sympathy
| with everything that Professionalism holds dear"
Strangely enough, met High Church Episcopal
clergyman the same day. who oewailed the latitu,
the Catholic party In the church, he said is more
apparent than real so iar as ritual Is concerned,
been due more TO the growing love OF aesthetieism
than 10 anY lnterest IN the dogmas enshrlned In the