The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-04-02
THE MINISTERIAL DEAD LINE.

l
 THE MINISTERIAL DEAD LINE.
 There comes time when a man car
 of 1t. He cannot stay in it because, al
 the age of forty-five or fifty, he was
 reached the ministerial dead line
 Churches prefer youthful preachers They like the young face, the erect fig ure, the spirited delivery, and the viva
 cious thought of the boy. Anather par.
 adoX! They ought to prefer the learn ing, the experience, the insight, the rip
 ened character, an dthe chastened spir- duality of a man past middle life, for only he can best minister to their real
 needs. Yet we are confronted With Ian
 Maclaren's pathetiac query, Shall the
 old ministers be shot?" And whatever
 answer we make to that query 1t re-
 mains mournfully true that the old minister is either removed by methods
 more or less heartless, or deceived into
 imagining that another parish will af- ford him an opportunity for continued
 usefulness Let him resign and seek
 that other parish, and he learns his mis-
 take. mere stripling succeeds to his
 pulpit, while he himself remains unem-
 ployed.
 But it must not be imagined that this
 unemployed clergyman has left the
 ministry. The ministry cannot be left,
 It sticks to a man, whether he will or
 not He is regarded as a monarch who | has ignomniously abdicated his throne, as a monk who has profanely discard ed his cowl, as a soldier who has dis | Loyalty repudiated his military title. | He cannot become a layman. He can | not enter any other calling save that to which he has given his life, because | the clerical routine as unfitted him for | successful endeavor in other directions Sometime we shall evolve system of 1 eleemosynary support for, our profess sionally disabled spiritual advisers.
 What name, then, shall we give to the ministerial calling? I insist that it is mere butterfly existence. man has not served his apprenticeship in it until he has reached thirty or thirty five, and is clerical life is snuffed out at forty-flve or fifty. This is well known Would it not be natural to suppose that so disheartening condi- ton would serve as q very effective de- terent for youthful aspirants towards very pick of our army, engaged in the war, were so terrified that they were ab- solutely routed during one nights march by nothing more tangible than false rumor
 The troops were marching along in good order, cheerily chatting as if they were on the way to manoeuvre on AL dershot Plains, when rumor ran down the lines that the enemy was at hand. The next moment the line of orderly sol diers was changed into an elongated mob of armed men throwing away arms, baggage and all they carried, run ming away in every direction, blind ter TOT in their hearts, their faces blanched and their ears deaf to the thundered commands of their officers.
 For the moment they knew but one sentiment, one emotion; sudden, pas sionate, blind terror, and they fled without thinking whether they were running into the arms of that thing they dreaded oisnot It was q terror that was madness, and only it's mad ness redeems it from dshonor. If any thing were necessary to demonstrate the unnaturalness of the panic it would be done by the grand fact that the moment 1t became known that the enemy was really at hand the men instantly fell in and showed the utmost eagerness to at tack. The rumor when false set the men flying like N horde of nervous wo- men; the rumor5 being true, unquestion- ably, made the women men of steel again.
 Such war panics' are mysteries; even the most experienced military off, cer cannot satisfactorily explain them. There is something so unnaturally- most uncannily-unreason about them. which eliminates any dishonor; and 1t is particularly remarkable that war panics' have mostly occurred among regiments whose fearlessness and prowess have made the hearts of their countrymen heave with pride
 During the Zulu war two or three such panics occurred among our troops, though, of course, on a smaller scale and of a more moderate character. Now and then during that war small camps were suddenly thrown into disorderly terror, and almost put to bolting, by a sentry mistaking some bush for Zulu spy, or the foremost of an attacking horde, and firing upon it.
 On one occasion a sentinel guarding a camp, espicd some dark object creep ing about among some bushes little way off and fired at it. The next in- stnnt the camp was In disorder; men were sei2rS their arms and rushing for ward to pour hot fire in tie direction | pointed out by the sentry despite the | fact that the fire was unreturned, and | after few minutes firing into the ] darkness, at nothing in particular, a few men vcntured out and discovered { that the whole cause of the alarm was a poor, velvet-eyed COW, which had | strayed, and strayed into the jaws of | death, too.-London Tid-Bits.