The morning news., 1899-11-19
THE MODERN pARsoN.
GAS He Has Become Less Secular He
Has Become More Professional"

Has Become More ProfessionaI."
From the New York Tribune
The great difference between the. AngIi-
can country parson of a hundred years
ago and to-day is well brought out in an
article in Macmillan's Magazine. Every
body, of course, knows that the charac-
ter status and atmosphere OF the cleri-
cal profession have been radically modi-
fled during the last fifty years and il is
generally taken for granted in all discuss
sions of the subject that the change has
been one for the better. In the opinion Of
this writer, however, such an assumption
is open 10 question Great emphasis Is
laid on the fox hunting, six bottle parson
OF the eighteenth century, as though no
were the prevailing type Of his day But
IN point OF fact, the typical eighteenth
century country parson neither was nor
was expected 70 be In any way different
from the smaller class Of country gentle
men among whom he lived and who were
his principal associates. Their habits were
his habits, their pursuits were his pifr-
suits, their virtues were his virtues, and
their faults were his faults Ii entered
into ,the head of nobody to complain 81
this" He spent the morning overseeing
the work on his glebe, and in the after
noon made the rounds of his parish re-
buking here or dropping a word Of en-
couragement there welcomed by every
body altogether a wholesome and chcerv
personality, with no retrospective relig-
iosity, but with plenty Of good common
sense and healthy Anglo-Saxon ideals of
morality. Such q man might be said to
represent average humanity in a surpiice.
Tbere was no wall OF professional caste
between him and his people
Very different is the English countrv
parson Of to-day. The movement of mol
ern life has taken away from che clergy
many of the claims 10 special considera-
ton that they once enjoyed, and the ten
dency has been to make much OF their
spiritual powers and prerogatives as an
onset 10 THIS AS the English country
parson has become less secular he has be-
come more professional. He has becom,
acuteiy and sometimes morbidly conscious
OF the tremendous spiritual authority
which he believes himself commissioned
10 exercise The world to him Is not a.
pleasant place to live in and to make bet
ter in robust. CHEEKY way but a sink Of
inquity, in which he stands almost a1one
against the powers of evil. His life ia
fun Of cares and anxieties unknown 10
those who flourished IN the days Of old
Hsi schools and his services the aggrievei
parishioner and the aggressive Dissenter.
are ever on his mind and gnaw al his very
vitals. lie runs up and down his parish,
from cottage TO cottage IN a perpetual en-
deayor to counteract the Vaccinations of
his enernieB The calm repose the an
cient peace, Incidence. If it must be so.
which brooded over The English parsonage
a hundred years ago is gone, never to re-
turn, in its old shape at an events"
This evolution OF the clerical profession
was inevitable, and II would be Idle 10 ig-
more or deny the Improvements that have
resulted from II. But no believer IN the
religion which jesus taught. and no stu
dent of apostolic Christianity, can approve
Of the tendancy to make the ministry a
sacrosanet caste apart form the rest of the
world. Such conception is a denial Of
Christian democracy. II erects a wall be-
tween the minister and the average man,
and II inevitably makes the ministry itself
less lovabe and less human and more in
clined to take morbid, gloomy or fan
tastic view Of life. We do not believe that
such a conception of the ministry win ul-
tmately prevail in this country whatever
may happen in England. Looking broad
ly at American Christianity, the tendency
seems to be 70 ignore or remove all the
artificial barriers between the clergy and
the people that have grown out of the
theological conception Of the ministry as
sacred caste, living a life on a plane far
above that Of average humanity. There
are, indeed, clergymen who hold this view
Of their calling, and some OF them are
men o. apostolic zeal But they are more
and more losing their power 70 influence
and hold the world.