The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1907-10-09
PREACHER AND PEOPLE.

PREACHER AND PEOPLE.
Comment ON the Life and Work of
the Minister.
One of the fashions Of the time is
to abuse, criticise, censure or BELT
tie the clergy, the church and reig-
ion generally, says Editor A. B. Will
llams in the Richmond News-Leader.
The favorite method of persons eag-
er for a reputation for daring,
anxious to win attention cheaply, har-
boring the idea that to be shocking
or shameless is to be progressive, is
to undertake to deal familiarly and
lightly with sacred things. 1t is an
old folly. The Roman satirists point
ed out as one of the signs Of decay
the disposition of the upper classes
to mock the gods which then repre-
sented all there was of religion.
A man whose conversation and
thoughts are utterly vapiG, who, out
side Of his own special line of busl-
ness or amusement, has no ideas of
anv kind will criticise freely the fail
ure of clergyman to preach two
startling, eloquent, conservative con-
soling. elevating. and, at the same
time, Good old Gospel" sermon
twice every Sunday in the year. The
young woman VINO probably never
has read or learned anything of the
slightest dignity or meaning in her
whole life glibiy f1utters out her ex-
pressions Of disappointment that the
pastor is inadequate to her intellect
ual requirements---heaven save the
mark!
So it goes through the whole con-
gregation. The wits and dullards,
the financial boss and the starveling
in the back pews, the slow and pom
derous heavyweight Of the outfit,
on whose words his auditors are sup
posed to hang, and the whippersnap-
per, to whom nobody has the time to
listen, except some male or female
of his own kind. unite in criticism.
They think it is smart and bright and
fashionable and an evidence of wis
dom and of residence in the upper
circles of thought and society.
Yet the average congregation is
controlled and regulated, after all,
by the honest, earnest, loyal, hum
bic Goc-serving people It is nota-
bic. very frequently. that those who
do the hardest work and give most
literally have the least to say, and
the least fault to find. 1t is an unhap-
py familiar fact that the niggards,
who wish to excuse themselves for
pinching their contributions and the
slothful, VINO try to justify themse.-
yes in their sloth, are most eager to
revolt against the pulpit If the aver
age preacher did not believe what he
breaches and teaches and was not
honest in his love for his Creator and
his fellow man he would not be
working seven days in the week for
less morey than stalwart laboser
can earn with a pickaxe.
The clean-living, clean-thinking,
honest people who really control this
republic and make it's sentiment and
it's purposes know their preachers
and believe in them, love them and
know that the public holds hundreds
of martyrs and saints where it shell
tiers one coward. weakling or time
server. There are bad preachers of
course; men who are false to their
God, their churches, themselves and
every trust. There are fancy preach
ers and sensationalists, greedy Of i'd
vertising and applause, crazed by no
toriety and foolish adulation Also
there are some honest men who find
themselves occasionally troubled with
conscientious scruples on points Of
belief or Of doctrine, who must swal-
low hard over some details for the
sake Of the beauty and value of the
whole.
Sometimes it happens that these
find themselves compelled to retire
or to change their denominations.
Even these incidents, however, are
rare compared with the great body
of faithful men who live out their
lives of sacrifice and devotion. Moth
ing is more beautiful than the SER
vice Of a fine old man who from his
youth has consecrated his life to
preaching the glad news of the gos-
pei, to try to make mankind better
and happier, to giving comfort, up
lifting help and benediction to his
people, generation after genera ion.
Everywhere in civilized countries are
instances Of this kind. The preacher
ministers to infancy and childhood,
to youth and maiden, he marries and
buries, sorrows and rejoices through |
long years, and goes to his rest at
last, unknown beyond the boundar-
les of his own modest jurisdiction,
but with a record of duty perfectly
done and life gladly surrendered for
others.