Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1891-05-21
WEST RANDOLPH VT. MAY 2I. 1891.

E and look at the ministry as people gen
orally do, as a profession. In the frs
, place there are now more occupation
into which educated young men can en-
ter than formerly. There is loude
call for them in the business of life. A
young man, with broad culture, keer
and possessed OF business qualification
can find position in journalism or il
the management of railroad or tele'
graph or mining interests, on good sal
ary with prospects of promotion. In
the sight of most young men who have
fortune TO make inducements in this
direction outweigh those in the direc-
ton OF the ministry. Young men like
to enter the business competitions OF
life. to crowd against one another in
the business centers of life, and amass
wealth if possible. Whether success
attend their efforts or not there is pleas
ure in the struggle. Most well-regu-
lated young men like to do business in
accordance with business methods. In
the ministry there is too little business
method practiced. In the second place
with few exceptions, there is not much
inducement for educated young men to
enter the ministry. Average congre-
cations have but little use for educated
ministers. Thousands of sermons fall
fat every Sunday for the simple reason
that the minister is educated so far a.
bove the great majority of his congre-
CATION that they feel no interest in his
utterances. A few need strong meat
and he tries to feed them all alike, when
in fact bob veal is better suited to the
great majority. 1t is not encouraging
for young man to spend ten or twelve
of the best years of his life in preparing
for the ministry, only to find himself
distanced in popularity and apparent
success by some young man across the
street who is scarcely six months out
of the alphabet, and whose grammar
and diction are a terror to a cultivated
ear. We do not need educated minis
ters half so much as we need educated
congregations. An educated laity can
bring in an educated ministry much
more easily than the reverse can be ac-
complished. So long as sermons made
up of anecdotes and jokes strung to-
gether upon slender wire OF senti-
ment are more acceptable to the people
generally than thorough discussions of
moral and theological truth young men
will not rush into the ministry to dis
play their learning. They will get an
other kind and use it somewhere else.
In the third place, there are certain
fashions prevailing among the churches
that, when fully understood, tend to
check the zeal of young men who look
towards the ministry. In other pro-
tessions and callings there is promotion
to anticipate, the prospect of gaining
In the ministry the call
is for young men. A large proportion
of those who enter the ministry find
their largest and best parishes first, ,and
as time advances and they gain more
wisdom and experience, they are grad
ually lowered down and finally slipped
out of the ministry altogether. II they
nave not friends powerful enough to Sc
cure for them professorships or clerical
work in connection with benevolent So
,ieties, they degenerate into life insur-
ance aud book agents aud hand organ
grinders, or it may be farmers, always
With the outlines of the poor-house ris-
no in the distance. A young man is !
seldom ready to enter the ministry full /
y equipped under thirty years of age.
if he loses his grip on parish any
ime after he is forty he must figure q
,retty sharp to get hold of another |
lis experience, ability, learning count
or but little against the years. AT
he very time when in other callings
men are doing their best work in the
there is a tendency to put them i
side. There is nothing church dis
ikes more than to have minister die
n its hands. The mortality in the ac- Y
i've ministry is very low. There is a t
ceiling on the part of many in the min 8 8
strv that hay must be made while the '
un shines. In this condition of things |
here is not much encouragement for a )
oung man to enter the ministry with S