The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-16
THE MINISTERIAL MARKET.

A writer in the New York Post who signs
himself Clergyman" asserts that the sup
ply of ministers exceeds the demand, and
urges that something be done to keep young
men from entering the profession while it
is so overcrowded. 1t is true, he acknowl-
edges, that young seminary graduates can
obtain charges, but this is only because
they are unmarried, as a rule, and can
afford to be content with small salaries.
Where a young man gets a church., how
ever, a man with a family is crowded out,
and every vacant church, no matter how
obscure, is besieged by applicants for the
pastorship. He concludes that the celibacy
of the clergy, unless there be Independent
means of support, and the capacity to meet
cheerfully great personal hardship, are two
prime qualifications of ministerial candida
ture in the present distressing state of the
ministerial market. This plea is it's own
commentary on the motives of the men who
enter the ministry, if what the writer says
as to the feeling on the subject is true.
There is no doubt that the ministerial pro-
fession has in it many members who are
unable to earn good incomes for themselves,
to say nothing of their families, but this is
true also of other professions. There are
more doctors than the sick people of the
community need, and there are more than
enough lawyers to transact all legal bust
ness. 1t is the part of worldly wisdom to
discourage young men from entering these
callings and to advise them to engage in
manual labor or commercial pursuits where
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living. AS to the ministry the situation is
different. The same worldly wisdom would
dictate the same advice, but, whether well
founded or not, there is a lingering belief
that the young man who deliberately
chooses the religious calling is minated by
other than worldly ambitions and m%ercenary
motives. He is supposed to be moved by
a holy zeal, TO have set himself apart to a
life of labor, and, if necessary, of sacrifice,
and to be ready to preach the gospel to ev-
cry creature at whatever cost to himself.
He is worthy of his hire, it is true, but if
the unregenerate among whom he labors
reward him but scantily in a material way,
he is supposed to be sustained by the spir-
itual grace that enables him to surmount
lAC I'm 1iAAANolNy dlAA " OiAbAAANAO III NAAO
crusade against unrighteousness. 1t is not
claimed by the writer mentioned, or by any
of the religious papers which occasionally
discuss this problem that there are more
workers than the vineyard justifes; on the
contrary, when it comes to a consideration
of the general field it is admitted that the
laborers are too few. The complaint, when
reduced to it's simplest form, is that the
ministry does not pay in a money sense;
that there are too many preachers for the
churches, though not too many for the
sinners. Such complaints are worth consid-
ering only by the young men who enter the
profession for self-aggrandizement, with
the hope Of obtaining fame for pulpit ora
terry and ministerial prizes in the way of
calls to wealthy and influential churches.
Such men have no place in the pulpit. The
much lamented increase of the nonchurch-
going classes may be due in part to the fact
that too many of them are there already.
For no~nchurchgoers are not necessarily ir-
religious; they are only weary of shams
and husks. Even the few who are confess
sedly unbelievers honor earnestness and
sincerity even in those of opposite opinions,
while fiery zeal that knows no hating and
is not cooled by privation draws all men.
If Clergyman and his ~kind-they cannot
be many-were possessed of the spirit that
moves the Salvation Army recruits to kneel
in the mud and pray and to toll in the slums
with no hope of earthly reward, then, per-
haps, the condition of the ministerial mar
ket would improve. The empty churches
would be filled and there would be employ
ment for all ministers.