Year: 1874

The Relations Of Clergymen to Women.


Recent events have given rise to fresh
discussion of the relations of clergymen to
women, some of which have been wise and
some widely otherwise. 1t is supposed by
many that the pastor is man peculiarly sub.
Jected to temptations to unchaste "conversa-
tion" with the female members of his flock
1t is undoubtedly and delightfully."- true that a
popular preacher is the object of genuine af
lection and admiration to the women who sit
under his ministry. A true woman respects
brains and commanding masculine nature
but if there is any one thing which she natur-
ally chooses to hide from her pastor it is her
own temptations-if she has any-to illicit
qualifications. She naturally desires to ap.
pear well to him upon his own ground Ol
Christian purity. To expose herself to bis
contempt or condemnation would be forbid
den by all her pretensions, professions. and
natural instincts. A bad woman might un-
dertake to atone for, or to cover up, her out
side peccadillos by the most friendly and con-
siderate treatment of her pastor, but she
would not naturally take him for her victim.
1t is precisely with this man that she wishes
to appear at her best. Any man with tie
slightest knowledge of human nature can see
that her selfish as well as her Christian inter-
ests are against any exhibitions of immodest
and unchaste desires in the presence of her
spiritual teacher.


There are only two classes of women with
whom minister is liable to have what, in
the language of the world, would be called
dangerous intimacies." The first consists
of discontented dwives-discontented through
any cause connected with their husbands or
themselves. A woman finds herself married
to brute. She suffers long in silence; her
heart is broken or weary, and she wants
counsel, and is dying for sympathy. She tells
her story to the one man who is-to her
guide, teacher, inspirer, and friend. He
gives her the best counsel of which he is ca
pable, comforts her if he can, sympathizes
with her, treats her with kindness and con.
sideratiOn. That a woman sLoald, in many
instances, look upon such a man as little less
than God, and come to regard him as al
most her only solace amid the daily accumu


lating trials Of her life, is as natural as it is
for water to run down hill. That she should
respect him more than she can respect bru-
tai husband-that half-an-hour of his society
should be worth more to her heart and her
self-respect than the miserable years of her


bondage to cruel master-is also entirely


natural. He cannot help it, nor can he find


temptation in it, unless he chooses to do so.
Women, under these circumstances, do not


60 to their pastors either to tempt or to be


tempted.


There is another class of women who are


thrown, or throw themselves, into what may


be called an intimate association with the


clergy. LII a class that have nothing else to


do 80 pleasant as TO be petting some nice


man, to whose presence and society circum-


stances give them admission. They are a


very harmless set-gushing maiden ladies,


aged and discreet widows with nice houses,


sentimental married women who, with no


brains to lend, are fond of borrowing thera


for the ornamentation of all possible social


occasions. A popular minister receives a


great deal of worship from this class, at which


when it is not too irksome, we have no doubt


he quietly laughs. The good old female par


ishoner who declared that her pastors cup of


tea would be "none too good If it were all


molasses," was fair type of these sentimen-


tai creatures, to whom every minister pos


sessing the grace of courtesy is fair game. To


suppose that pastor, sufficiently putty


headed to be pleased withthis sort of worship,


or sufficiently manly to be bored by it, is in a


field of temptation to unchastity, is simply


absurd. One is too feminine for such tempta-


tion, and the other altogether too masculine.


When these two classes are set aside, what


have we left? Virtuous and contented moth


ers OF virtuous daughters daughters whom


he baptizes in their infancy, trains in his Sun


day-School, marries when they are married,


and buries with sympathetic tears when they


die. In such families as these his presence


is benediction; and to suppose that he is


tempted here, is to suppose him brute and


to deny the facts of human nature. We veri-


ly believe there is no class in the community


so little tempted as the clergy, and there Ger


tainly is no class surrounded on every side


with such dissuasives from unchaste conduct.


To clergyman, influence and good name


are inestimable treasures. To stand before


confiding audiences, Sunday after Sunday,


and preach that which he knows condemns


himself in the eyes of single member of his


flock, must be crucifxtion from whose tor


lures the bravest man would shrink. There


are bad men in the pulpit without doubt.


There Is now and then woman who would


not shrink from an intrigue with sach, bat


women do not choose ministA-s for lovers,


nor do ministers, as class, md themselves


subjected to great tepptations by them. If


ministers are temp0ed by the circumstances


of their office, sney may be sure that they are
moved by sneir own lust and enticed, and


that tlelr office may very proftably spare


theif services.


As class, the Christian minister of the
country are the purest men we have. We
believe they average better than the Apostles
did at the first. Jesus, in his little company
Of twelve, found one that was devil. The
world has improved until, we believe, there
is not more than one devil in a hundred.
In any scandal connected with the name of
a clergyman and female member of his
flock, the probabilities are all and always in
favor of his innocence. The man of the
world who keeps his mistress, the sensualist
who does not believe in the purity of any
man, the great community of scamps and
scalawags, are always ready to believe any
thing rejecting upon clergyman's chastity.
1t only remains for clergymen themselves to
be careful to avoid the appearance of evil
Nothing can be more sure and terrible tAan
their punishment when guilty of PROSECUTING
their office, and nothing is so yasuable to
them as an unsullied name 10 preserve
this, no painstaking can be to- fa:guing, no
self-denial too expensive, po wedding out of
all untoward associations too exacting.-Dr.
J. G.. Holland, IN Scri1ner's Jor N00em6er.