The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-04-28
BEGINNING AGAIN.

| STORY OF Jnelr RIdnuIdJneTS 1nuldn.-
Elizabeth Olmis in N. Y. Ledger.
BEGINNING AGAIN.
This is the season of the year when
changes are most frequent in church pas
torates. In one of the leading Christian
| denominations of this country-the
Methodist Episcopal-practically all
such changes are made during the month
of April, in connection with the regular
annual conferences. One chief part of
the business done at these conferences
is that of assigning pastors to the church
es which they are to serve for the en-
suing twelve months. Though every
Methodist clergyman within the bounds
OF the Conference territory and actively
engaged in the duties of the pastoral
office is thus assigned to his field of la
Dor once year, yet in very many cases
he is sent back TO the pulpit in which he
! has been preaching during the previous
| year. In some instances such reaSsign
ments are made againiand again in un-
| broken succession until the limit is
reached. At present that limit is five
wears of continuous service. The period
| allowed by the laws of the church has
been gradually extended. Within living
memory it was but two years. NOtwith-
standing the concession that has of late
been made to the growing desire for
greater permanence, it is invariably the
case that very considerable proportion
of Methodist churches receive new pas
tors and an equal proportion of clergy
men new Charges" during the closing
hours of each annual Conference.
There is no other denomination hav-
| ing any large membership in the Eastern
and Middle States whose policy in this
respect is similar to that of the MethO-
dists. In the West and Southwest there
is a sect known as the United Brethren
large and influential il those regions
that follows substantially the same plan
| But all religious bodies in all sections of
the country are subject to frequent pas
toral changes. 1t is sign of the times,
as to the significance of which there is
much debate and over which loud lamen-
tations are heard, that the tendency in
| this direction has been rapidly increaS-
ing for long time past. Though no
| rule exists outside of denominations
having the Methodist system, or one like
that, fixing special season for outgoing
and incoming .pastOrates, yet 1t Is OBJ
serYaOle that everywhere the spring is
faVorIte time for these events. Just why
it might be difficult to decide. Perhaps
one reason is that nature seems to sug-
gest, BY her transformations under the
influence of the vernal so(Stlce, that hu-
man affairs of every sort may properly
undergo at this season whatever great
Mutations are appointed to. take place.
Some such reason may help to explain
the time honUEed custom of moving
ON May day in New York, and on or
about the LIST of April in most parts OF
New England. There are obvious rea-
SONS why the 1st of January, which is the
usual date for closing and opening many
| business arrangements, would not be
suitable time for ministerial changes.
Take heed that your flight be not III
winter is text from the. New Tesla
ment that is often cited, half IN earnest,
half in decorous jest, by ecclesiastical
councils called to pass upon the question
of severng pastoral relations.
When the late Rev. Henry Ward
Beecher was featuring before the diVini-
ty students at Yale College several years
ago one of the embryo clergymen asked
him to account for the modern phenom-
enon of short pastorates. The witty
and distinguished preacher instantly
answered: 1.-THE divine mercy on the
/ CluICuGS. IlO hhNO ShiTA = W
Ehis statement, with the result of making
it more complete, though less epigram
matte, by saying that it was the divine
mercy on both the churches and the
preachers. Even so the answer would
have contained but partial truth. His
own experience could have been urged
in disproof of his own maxim, for he
came to Plymoth Church in Brooklyn
while yet a youth and left it only when
an old man, he was called hence by the
death summons.
There are certainly two sides to the
question whether or not short paStorates
are better for all concerned than long
ones. They are doubtless better fol
some pastors aud for some churches and
under some circumstances. The i'm
mense multitude of clergymen who are
now entering upon new fields OF labor
will, at any rate, act wisely if they look
on the hopeful side of their allotment
and, whether or not they think it best
for them and their work to make the
change, resolve that; the change having
occurred, they will make the best of IT.
The bright side is full of cheering pros
poets. A new field brings new oppOrtu
mites. 1t gives chance to leave behind
and east off mistakes; to apply. the wis
dom garuered from experiences; to lie
the dead past bury its dead, and to "act
in the living present, heart within and
God oerhead." Perhaps no better ad
vice can be given to those clergymer
who are now beginning again IN fresh
spiritual pastures than to give to Long
fellows psalm OF Life place in theil
affections only second to the Psalms o.
David
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