Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-13
APPEALS TO CLERGY.
Bishop Paret Says There Should Be
More Men for Ministry.

BALTIMORE, Nd, June 13.-Bishop Paret
has issued a pastoral letter to the clergy
and members of the Protestant Episcopal
Church in Maryland, in which he speaks OF
the lack of men taking orders in the church.
and in which he gently asks If some of the
fault does not lie with the clergy. The let
ter. which is to be read in the churches,
follows, in part:
Dear Brethren-I ask your thought, your
prayers and your help in trying to meet
need of the church which Is very sorely felt
at this present time. We are praying, and
have long been praying, that the Lord OF
the harvest would send forth laborers into
his harvest But our prayers seem to bring
no answer. For many years the number OF
men seeking and entering Christs service
in the sacred ministry has been growing
less; not In Maryland only. but everywhere.
Brethren Of the clergy, is it possible that
some part OF the fault may be with you?
Four times in a year there are the stated
times Of ordination, and in connection with
them the Ember days and their special
prayers in relation to those to be ordained.
Every one Of those Sundays would be
grand opportunity for speaking to the peo-
call for ministers. If we emphasize these
Ember days and make their observance
real, might we not expect some result? Dear
brethren, I entreat you, speak warmly ana
often to your people about this Give 1t fair
place in your preaching. Why can it not be
made a custom that at each Ember time
one of The sunday sermons SnOulQ De con-
corning the ministry. it's nature, its divine
Institution, the need of 1t, the work, and an
appeal to parents and to young men? 1t is a
matter to which, in the training of his first
apostles the Lord himself gave large part
of his three years of Ia Dor, to which he gave
his personal interest in the selection OF men,
and about which he spake and taught much.
But Is there not another fault? How
many of you. brethren of the clergy, are
watching and studying your boys and
young men for this purpose? Are the boys
in your Sunday school ever warmly re-
minded that Christ is calling some of them
to this grandest # all ways for using life
for him? l think of one parish where for
many years it has been the pastoral usage
to go personally to young men, inviting and
persuading them to this holy calling. and
that fidelity has been blessed with good re-
suits.
l must appeal also to Christian fathers and
mothers Your influence in determining the
course of the lives of your sons Is very great
The calls of the world are very tempting;
it's business and its various PROFESSIONS. its
ney-making methods. Will you add your
influence to those calls? Or have you faith
to suggest something better? You cannot
compel. We do not ask 1t. Christ does not
ask that But do not hold your sons back
from that higher calling. Help them to
choose it, and pray that they may do SO:
Besides the clergy and the parents, the
duties in this respect. Every Iairly strong
parish ought always to have at least one
candidate for holy orders, but out of our
more than 100 there are not more than five
that do SO. And more than this, every really
strong parish-strong enough to be self-sup-
porting-ought to be making generous pro-
vision for the expenses of the work of the
illogical education Theological Summaries.
learned professors, the personal expenses Of
the students all call for money.