The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-08-16

the fact 'tnat nOtWltnStanQ-
ing the large increase in
the church membership Of
our denomination and in the number Of
churches and theological se1ninaries
there is sad decrease in the number
of young men preparing for the min
istry." This is true of all or nearly
all churches. The harvest is ripe and
the reapers are not on hand In suf-
ficient numbers to garner it is its plant.
This is an old dirge; as old as Chris
tianity itself, as we see by the para
phrase of the Biblical verse we have
own day or our own country. The
hierarchy of the state-endowed Church
of England are no less troubled by the
paucity Of aspirants to the altar or
the pulpit. 1t is not that there are
fewer young men whose vocation leads
them to become preachers than in the
past, but that the demand for them
owing to the increase in population has
become more widespread and insistent.
If we look around Scranton, we shall
find that places where there was no
church, or even the sign of a house
twenty years ago, has today become
densely populated, requiring the SER
vices Of one or more preachers to meet
the spiritual necessities of large
residential suburb. And so it is in
other cities, villages and rural COM
munities. The insufficiency of the sup
ply Of clergymen to the demands cam
not, however, be attributed to a single
circumstance or course. We should
reasonably expect that with an increase
of population the ratio of young men
prepared to enter the service of the
church would ordinarily keep pace.
Other professions are so crowded that
there is tendency to asphyxiation in
the struggle \for a bare existence.
Those who regard the phenomenon
PLANTATION. The ministry, they say, does
not offer the social and pecuniary in
ducements which are open to the stren-
uous aspirant in secular affairs. There
Is small liberation for individualistic
development within the sanctuary. The
golden gates stand ajar for the pious,
the self-sacrifcing clergyman; but
while here below if he asplres to lead
he is denounced as being ambitious,
worldly, uncomfortable, IL he is uncon-
ventional he Is put down as a crank;
If he aspires to be a reformer he is
looked upon as busybody; If his
preaching is original, he is rallied at
ha ic
oletic, he Is held up as a dullard. 1t
requires no ordinary self-abnegation to
become a clergyman in these days, we
are assured, and justly. The preacher
is no longer accepted as a prophet. He
has to take up his cross in very lit
eral sense and bear its burden with
complaisancy. These are the objective
characteristics of the clerical state; the
subjective can only be realized in that
city Of the dreadful night the con-
science.
The Baptist Teacher thinks that the
lack of asprants to the ministry can
be traced to the new theology" which
is undermining the faith of eligible
young men, or at any rate deterring
them from aspiring TO preach Chris
tianity as recorded in the Bible. when
it's revealed truths are assailed by
modern scholarship as myths, fabulous
tradition, perverted history. and scien-
tifc absurdities. There may be some-
thing in all this; but we do not think
that 1t snfiices as an ultimate explana-
tion. The foundations of Christian
faith are not disturbed. much less
shaken by the "new theology" There
has not been century in the nineteen
hundred which have passed away since
Christianity was founded In which the
fundamental dogmas and doctrines
upon which It is based have not been
assailed for their intrinsic improbable
ity and unhistorical character. There
We're higher criticism and destructive
critics even, in the apostolic ages. II
st. Thomas did not originate it he can
hardly be absolved from having antici-
pated Its methods. The new theology"
is very feeble and happily an i'm
palpable variation of an "old theology
which through its exposition saturated