Year: 1875

and crafty the curiosity OF each separately as
to what he did with what remained OF the
S125,O00 after the purchase OF the bah. ana
he can tell them, too, all about the Dun.
After that he can have q photograph OF him.
self and the bull as they appeared crossing
the line inserted in the Agricultural Reports,
with an essay by the Commissioner OF Agri-
culture on the Disappearance and Reappear-
ance Of King, the Adjournment Oh Congress-
and the Pedigree of the Bull.


STATE OF THE CLERICAL PRoFESSiON


There is IN epidemic of scandal about cler-
cymcn, in the main, we believe, unjust. ungen-
erous, and cruel. We do not remember a time
when Gospel ministers seemed to be in such
general trouble of all kinds, or so much IN
need Of unslumbering circum sDectiOn. a re-
action will unquestionably follow, but until it
shall come, every pastor should consider hlm-
self personally responsible TOR tne g9og repu-
talon of the profession, and should t&He heed
lest by incautious words or deeds he BRING
additional oblcquy upon his sacred calling, the
dignity Of which is not, in these lrreverent
days, easily maintained. We are not merely
begging reverend gentlemen not to be guilty
Of bSamy, not 10 be in any way unIalthtul to
their marriage VOWS, not to commit forgery or
any other crime. not to beat and starve their
children, for very few OF them, we know, Will
fall intO.such extremes of guilt; but there are
valious little ways in which they may fail TO
magnify their Office, either by slips Of speech,
or BIZ slight imprudence Of conduct, or by an
overweening desire for temporal success, or by
falling, unwittingly perhaps, into dcspotic
habit of guiding their flocks Meanwhile, we
do not hesitate to say that, IN our opinion,
their difficult ard delicate position entities
them to the sympathy Of the public press
rather than to its jlbes and jokes and sneers;
and even these we should think more tOlerable
than its coarse, beplastering praises and first
rate, saccharinc notices. Some time ego,
ia Clergyman of the popular" sort,
having been twice in delicate trouble
at the East, removed to Western State and
turned counselor and attorney-at-law, with an
occasional induleence in politics. When we
next heard of him he was preaching again.
Next we are told that he has been loudly
called $4,000 per annum) by California
church. The newspapers there herald his ad,
vent with coarse familiarity meant possibly
to bo gracious, but which no preacher ought
to encounter without sensitive shrinking and
acute disgust. We are told that this person
sis the equal as an orator" of one preacher;
rs q pulpit humorist" of another; and with
ont the sl ghteSS doubt, "will prove pulpit
'"star of the first magnitude, drawing over
Glowing houses" If he had been BoanerSes
of tragediln, or tenor singer OF uncquaied
softness and sweetness and compass, or negro
minstrel, all song and shirt-cOllar, or perfect
master OF the pcrilous trapeze, or o swift
handed "thaumaturgist," what could this civil
newspaper have said more or lcss7 Think of
it! He is to go to California bearing the awful
messages of religion he is to engage there in
tho sublime duties of the Church; he is to be
an evangelist and cxhorter, the guide of the
blind, the encOurager Of the despairAg, the
confirmer of the doubling, AID the comforter
of the dying; all we are informed that his
"inducemcnt is 5000 year." that he viii
"prove pulpit star Of the first magnitude" :"
and that he will draw Overilowing houses"
If this journal be jesting, the jest is but
soIry one; if it be serious, it Is a sOrrier mat
ter still. Il is all one whether the reverend
gentleman is thus praised or insulted; the
reverence" IN either case is sadly to seek.


We have before us a considerable collection
of paragraphs cut from the newspapers, in
which clergymen are spoken OF in the same
cavalier style. We are free to say that we
consider this, even from secular point Of
view, as in exceedingly bad taste. No doubt
the time has gone by i'll which the priestly
Office was treated with q popular veneMtion
well nigh superstitous; nor should we care to
bring that time back again if we could. But
we cannot be unmindful of the fact that the
pulpit is still of immense importance to the
peace, happiness, and progress of society. Even
where it does not convert it cuitlvates; it i'm
parts a thoughtful and comparatively elevated
tone to the popular mind it is always, in speech,
mt least, and in doctrine, the champion OF good
moials aad whatever may have been the
sins of the few, the mass Of religious minis
ters are, beyond controversy, pure, true.
honest well-mcaning, and well-educated, in-
tent upon doing good work, and actually
doing it, by guiding the young, by confirming
the yirtuous. and by retaining tho crring.
We do not think that men occupying sucn a
position of difficulty and responsibility should
be lightly criticised. disrespectfully spoken
of, carelessly judged, or generally con-
demned as body. because here and
there one of them faiters or fails. If we ght
venture to point out the moral Of clerical mis-
fortunes which have become too common, we
should say that they are full of warning to
those who undertake the duties of the pulpit
recklessly, in q spirit merely mercenary aud
economical. A Bachelor of Arts who becomes