The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-02-28

cepted. The writer some two months
since, meeting one of the most prominent
officers OF that church, suggested pleas
antly that one of our bishops could FUR
nish them q preacher: and also spoke OIL
q church in the South, for the vacant
pulpit Of which there had been nearly
fifty applicants. The response OF the OF
ficer was: I'VE have had more than
twenty applications for ours. TWO
months have elapsed and still the can
dida,es come, and the solution OF the
problem does not seem TO be near. An
other church, not far removed, in a
town where the writer was a pastor
twenty years ago. will serve as an lllus-
tration. Ii is socially, financially, and
intellectually one OF the strongest of its
denomination in the South. In the
twenty years 1T has had a pastor only
about half the time. and in securing the
resignation of the last, alterations have
obtained between lifelong friends which a
generation will not overcome, while the
selection of another pastor is an utter i'm
possibility. A minister of the. same faith
told me yesterday of one of their churches
in this State. which had forty applicants
for its vacant pulpit. and finally@enSaSed
one who had been highly recommended,
but the officers We're compelled soon 10
inform him that they had made a mis-
take, and that he must rellTe.
The writer has been a pastor for thr-
ty-seven years; has served but eight
charges, and two Of these twice. lie
has never been in but one Conference; has
never spoken to a bishop about his APP
pontment but once, and then that he be
not sent to the most prominent station
in the Conference, to which the bishop
paid no attention; has never asked a ia
vor of presiding elder, though they
have uniformly been his friends: mas
never, to his knowledge, remained In an
appointment when change was desired.
or his return was not officially requested.
And yet IN three out Of the first seven OF
his pastorates the pastor Of every other
church was changed while he remained.
In ONLY :. single instance has he left in
any town more than one pastor who was
in service there when he went. There
has not been an hour in the thirty-seven
years when he did not know exactly
where his work was, and he has not
known "a church in ithe Conference which
has been a month without a pastor
We recognize that generalization from
specific cases is not always safe. we
admit also that our system is not per-
feet; nothing human is. Indeed. we
have long believed that provision should
be made for better support and longer
pastorates. in cities specially, when do
sired. But what other system is equal TO
II? Not TO emphasize the greater indie
pendence of pastor and people, the more
constant service secured by ministers
and churches, the minimum Of friction
when changes are necessary, the larger
provision for destitute points, and the
better distribution Of talents, there is
one cher excellence not So frequently rec
ocrized. we refer to Ian Maclaren s
question: 'tShould the old clergyman be
shot2" With us the preacher who has not
been asleep from forty to sixty has found
no dead line. Indeed, ii wide awake, ne
pushes it off another decade. and the
ability 10 do SO is largely in the system.
A Methodist Church might not go to the
extreme recently reached by another.
when it passed a resolution Ito call no
man over forty: but if the term OF ser
vice was to be indefinite, 1t would hest
tate to call a man at sixty however
efficient at the time. Now it cheerfuily
receives him for what he is. knowing the
pastorate can be terminated any year.
and proba bly, gets the very best four
years work of his life. AS to surren-
der1ng my rghtNt choose my field I
am not troubled. A Methodist bishop
may make mistakes, but with a hundred
preachers and their families on his hands.
and no ambition to CRAFTY, for the
Church has given him all she can. to be
tyrant would have to be a fiend.-Chris-
fian dyoc3te