The Port Gibson reveille. [volume] (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1890-current, 1890-07-18

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These confessions, says the Post, show
a situation of desert places, wasting ganC
decaying spiritual interest, abandoned
fields, declining piety; and all for wan
of "laborers in the vineyard"
The Post continues four quotation
being an abridgment):
We have before now adyerted to some
causes which keep young men out oftht
ministry at the present day. Perhap:
the first cause is that which lies ON tho
surface of the matter. As our not al
ways frivolous contemporary Life sale
Of the Presbyterian trouble:
What the assembly wants is men OF good abil
| ity who win work for six or eight hundred dol
lars year among unintereatng people,
Now, we all know that the first thing Pres
byterian theological student does Ia 70 get mar.
ried He does not regard himself as thorough.
~ equipped for the Lords work until he has
helpmate. Presently he has six children t.
clotle and educate and is still living on 800 a
year.
This Is not the sort OF life that is attractive te
aspiring young men Self-abnegation- lie
spent ia the service Of others-has and will al.
ways have, powerful attractions for generous
spirits; but sordid poverty and dependence
great obligations and very limited ability 10
discharge them-those are not conditions that
can be expected to attract even the best OF men
Therefore, If the general assembly is not able
TO raise the pay OF its poorer clergy 10 such a
figure as will make them comfortable the inev-
liable alternative would seem TO be to reduce
their expenses. BY all odds the simplest way Of
doing that Is to ordain only celibates An I'M
married man can deny himself till his bones
come through, and live on nothing in particu-
lar year, and board around and preach, and
put in his time bettering his fellows, and il he
has the root OF the matter in him he will love
the work. But TO deny your wife good clothes
and to neglect your family, aud see your child
rem grow up half-fed perhaps, half-educated
more likely is bill OF beans OF an entirely diff
ferent blossom.
The causes that lie deeper than the
question of mere living are familiar al
so. Some concern matters Of belief,and,
as must be expected in time Of fuU
and change like the present day, men
are kept out of the ministry because
confessions are too rigid, and sometimes,
no doubt, because they are not definite
enough. Indeed, we believe this trouble
may be moro serious and far-reaching
than commonly is imagined, and not on
ly on one side, as we have intimated-
j. e., that the standards are too fixed in
a time Of fluctuating thought-but also,
perhaps, too uncertain and threatening
with change, not TO repel narrow but
determined minds. 1t seems likely
that the present moment, what with all
these considerations, and the decay in
the dignity Of the minister's place in
the social organism. and the lessened
security Of his hold on any particular
place. is precisely the moment when it
should be expected that the clerical
vocation should call least insistently
upon the youth Of the time.
This situation would seem to indicate
a need for more, and more effective, So
cieties for the Increase of the Ministry.
But there is another side of the ques-
ton which presents a real problem.
There are. at least in most Of the chief
religious bodies, as many idle ministers
as there are vacant pulpits there are
somewhere about twelve hundred of
each, tor instance, among the Congre-
gationalists. Among the Presbyterians,
with more than 1000 vacant churches J
out Of about $500 ministers who have
been aided by their educational board,
at least 8 per cent are engaged in virtu-
ally secular work, and not less than 10
per cent arc entirely idle, which num-
Der does not include about hundred
and fifty reported as "honorably re-
tired" The Ohsrchman newspaper
calls attention to the fact that the Epis-
copal churches in New York are scarce
ly more than half-manned," throwing
upon the incumbents and their associ-
ates an amount of work which is simp-
ly superhuman," and producing a "se-
rious state of affairs"
What is to be made out of all this BY
a serious and earnest inquirer? But
certainly the first impression is that
there must be something wrong about
the principle of Increase Societies.
One feels a certain sympathy with the
answer Of the bishop Of Rhode Island,
when asked, few years ago, to make
an address at the annual meeting of the
Society for the Increase of the Minis
try" of his own church. Bishop Clark
saying: Il do not like educa-
tion societies. would prefer a society
for the decrease of the ministry" The
bishop afterwards qualified this remark,
and in measure withdrewit, yet speak
ing only alphabetically, and saying up
on examination Of the society's meth
ods: 'The guards which you have
thrown around the sacred Office must
keep out more than it puts in. II must
protect the church from incompetent,
and send mainly efficient laborers into
the Lords vineyard Such men are
needed. We cannot have too many of
them"
At any rate there seems little doubt
that we have two things concurrent
extensive machinery for the artifcialin-
crease Of the ministry, and low aver
age product. That thc other elements
in the case are many. and that some
OF them which are of great conse-
quence arise from the condition OF
thought in our times and are vital, not
having the least relation to methods.
we may be we'll persuaded. But af-
ter allowing for everything else that
seems related 10 the matter. enough