The Saint Paul globe., 1897-04-25

| ne mas no right to deny, ana never
will deny, that the first duty of man is
! to man, regardless of even a just re-
ward. We should hold it an un-
happy day for the profession and an
unhappy day for humanity when re-
fusal to respond to the appeal for med
ical aid should fail to evoke surprise
and Indignation.
ARE FEWER MINISTER'S WANTED:
That is very strange note sounded
| by one who signs himself Clergy
man." in a communication to the New
York Evening Post, under the start
| ling caption: "Wanted-A Society for
the Decrease Of the Ministry" He
sends his cry to the Post, he says, be-
| cause he is sure it would not find ad-
mission into any religious journal, and
| because he deems the situation so ur-
gent that publicity must be given it in
| some way. While there has been a
| general discussion and complaint of the
increasing difficulties of placing minis
! ters, he has heard Of no frank discus
sion of the real, underlying cause, or Of
any suggestion of a remedy. The
whole trouble is in an overproduction
Of ministers, and the only remedy is in
| diminishing the supply, in the opinion
of this protestant. Opposed to his prop
osition he naturally expects to find the
various institutions of theological
training because their business is to
produce not to restrict, and they may
| be expected, as a matter of self and
selfish interest, to resist decrease Of
their business.
He asserts it to be a fact that ''there
never was a time when bright, clean,
self-respecting, talented and absolute
! ly fearless young man undertook a
| greater personal risk in committing
himself to the restless sea Of ministe-
rial supply and demand" There exists
among ministers an "all-pervasive
restlessness and discomfort" an ell
| concealed disgust with present church.
| ly conditions" an "ominous forebod-
| ing for the future" and a "deep, un-
derlying anxiety for prospective bread
and butter" Out of this there comes
an unseemly and disgusting scramble
for place" by those who have been dis
placed for any cause, the chief one Of
which is the fastidiousness of congre-
cations and the increasing desire for a
change of ministers.
The pressure for place falls heaviest
on the minister who has seen several
years of service, owing to the eager
ness of the newly fedged graduate to
spread his wings, aided by his willing
ness to work for little pay and the de-
sire where it is not the necessity of the
! congregations to secure pastors at the
| least cost. This creates a demand for
| the f1edglings and oversupply of those
in middle life, and it is these on whom
the situation bears hardest The best
| years of life are spent, the burden Of
a family incurred, the period attained
when ripened faculties enable the best
| work to be done, only to find an occu-
patton gone to some younger and
| cheaper man, the period past when a,
| new vocation can be easily taken on,
| and he, who set forth with such bright
| hopes and high aspiration, returns to
| port in middle life, sadly battered and
| torn" He quotes one who says that
| congregations are unwilling to call a.
minister who is up in years because
| they dislike to freeze him out in his
/
getting rid of him."
A few years ago the abandoned
churches Of New England were a theme
of discussion quite as extensive as was
! later the discussion of her abandoned
farms. That churches are diminishing,
If not in number of buildings, then In
members, while the supply of ministers
| increases; that men are taking less and
less interest, leaving women to form
the larger part of any congregation in
any church; that with this comes a
decrease in financial resources. are
some of the conditions that bring about
the need Of the society Clergyman"
calls for With these conditions there
/
ton to fault-finding with the minis
ter. a consideration of style, a taste
for the confections rather than the
solid meats Of religious instruction and
a prominence to material instead of
spiritual considefatiohs, that indicate
a radical change growing in the reIa-
tions of people tb church. 1t suggests
the question whether churches have
kept pace with the development Of
thought; whether they are not too in
sistent in retaining and insisting on
beliefs that the world has outgrown.
and whether the full ear has not be-
| come lost sight Of in generation for the
| husk. Meantime, it remains a serious
truth which Clergyman" bluntly tells,
| that, whether the motive be merely the
| provision of the means of livelihood,
or the higher aspiration to promote