The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-05-02
THE PREsBrrER1Ax CHURCH.
ministers with Churches. and Churches with.
ont Pastors.

ont Pastors.
To THE EDITOR OF TUE SUN Sir. Tho paper
by Clergyman" in the Post OF April II on tho
subject Of ministers. and on which you ommont
In THE sun OF last Sunday. is far within the
truth.
To SEQ tho quality as we'll Us tho extent OF the
evils spoken OF, / submit tho following almost
incredible statement by those two woll.known
ministers in the Presbyterian Church. the Rev.
Drs. Hcrrick johnson and s. J. Mcpherson OF
Chicago, in their report on this matter to tho
General Assembly. This report, being accented
and adopted, becomes n solemn dcliverancc OF
tho General Assembly OF tho Presbyterian
Church
"In this matter 1.-THE adjustment OF ministers
and churchesl we arc now wholly without order.
and whatever law we may have is a doad letter.
= : The Church that glorics in its polity rs
both efficient and Scriptur,l Is obliged to confess
that thus far 1t has proven itself either unwilling
or incompetent TO remove the rcproachful fact.
II our polity ia right we have not worked II. II
II is not right. II 10 time we made II right.
This utter lack OF system in tho adjustment OF
ministers and churches leads to another hu,nil.
iation. On the one side, our churches nrc opcn to
all sorts Of ecclesiastical providers who veX md
fret, IL they do not destroy, tho little flock. Our
churches, too, in their strait OF finding suitable
men, and not knowing where to turn
for authorized and intelligent counsel, have
been led to the devices OF the shop and
to advertise for q preacher, hawking through the
religious press the peculiar wares b. which they
would attract candidates to their pulpits. And
as II. on the side of the churches. this were not
humiliation enough. VI have on the side OF the
ministers n compelled experience that is to our
rebukc and shame. A minister finding himself
for any reason without n charge and wishing n
fold Of labor hnR no One in nil mir broad gou-
munion competcntly informed as to the open
ings and officially authorized to put the now un.
employed minister in connection with them.
Tho churchless minister must buttonhole
friends, must resort to correspondence. must APP
ply TO vacant churches. must solicit hearings
and begin a process Of candidating, and some
times. in sheer and desperate strait for a living.
submit himself to notifications and personal
humiliations that to sensitive souls are ~torturcs
worse than the stake. Out OF this evil has
grown another. Recognizing tho discourage
ment and difficulty OF securing a charge
when without charge, tho feeling hns
moro or less come TO prevail that a minister
must keep his field by hook or crook until he find
another. Hence the spectacle of a minister hold
ing on TO a charge Of which he is in possession
after his usefulness is ended and almost every.
body in the parish is wishing for the termination
Of the pastorate. II needs only the slightest
consideration to see that here is a great folly
and a great wrong, . . . that hundreds of
churches without preaching and hundreds OF
ministers without charges is a condition OF things
that ought to be intolerable. 1t involves great
waste of values. 1t subjects a sacred profession
to humiliating experiences. II exposes parishes
to drought and barrenness. 1t is indefensiblca at
the bar of even any common business judgment
and from no possible point of view can be sane
toned by nm intelligent Christian conscience"
In support of the above terrible indictment I
submit also part Of a letter lately received by
me from a minister in the West-a man OF sufi.
cient standing TO be the stated clerk +" OF his
Prcsbytcry, and late Moderator of the Synod OF
his State. He says: An experience Of more
than twenty years in the Presbyterian minis
try has confirmed he in the belief that the most
glarinE injustice is perpetratcd upon our minis
tiers and their families by our present system OF
unstable pastoratcs. For the most trivial rca-
sons ministers are turned adrift, with no pros
pectivc field or home. So universal has this sys-
TEN of compulsory eviction become in all this
region OF the West that q three years contin.
uanCc in a field is considered a phcnomenally
long pastoratc. Many of our best and most godly
ministers are forced by this high.handed and
outrageous procedure to become clerical tramps.
begging for n morsel of bread and a temporary
Judgment with some church for n few uncertain
months and this in the Presbyterian Church.
with its polity OF the so-callcd settled min
%istry."
There is one point connected with this painful
matter which should be clearly seen. 10 wit.
that the people are not to blame, for most surely
n congregation has the right 10 be dissatisfied
with an unaco cptablc minister. That the root
of the evil is in the systematic polity-of the
Presbyterian and congregational churches is
manifest from the fact that the Methodist
Church has none OF this trouble. its system OF
term service" with provision for home and
field. being the safcty-valvc which prevents the
usual Presbyterian and Congregational cNplo-
sion. y PREsBYTERIAN MINISTER.