I do not reverence ministers of the gospel simply because they hold
that office, any more than I esteem a man as a gentleman simply because
he has the manners and dress of one. The bare fact that at some period
in his life, oftenest the period of youth, when the mind teems with
odd fancies and ambitions, a man has concluded that he is called to
the ministry, has successfully gotten through theology and been
ordained, forms too uncertain a foundation on which to base reverence,
which is one of the most solemn emotions of the mind. But I do respect
and reverence the credentials of an earnest, God-fearing and
self-sacrificing life which are found with these men, and I am obliged
in excusing this weakness, to say that in a long and varied experience
with them, these traits have been characteristic of those I have met.
But it is not my lack of reverence that I intended to write about, it
is the contradictory way in which those who are under their charge
view this matter. The practical, effective and active irreverence of
professing Christians astonishes as much as it puzzles me. They believe,
or assume to believe, in the sacredness of the ministry and in the
reverence due ministers as such; how do they show it? It seems to me
that the architectural custom of elevating the pulpit above the heads
of the people arose out of the congregational custom of shooting at
the preacher. You may tell me what you please about the world's people,
but it is the well-directed volley from the communicants' pews,
generally fired from ambush, that does the business for the preacher's
influence. Did you ever think of the marked absurdity in the contrast?
The subject of calling a preacher is prefaced by prayer; the Almighty
is invoked to send a man of His choice; the man is installed with
impressive ceremony and much prayer; he is introduced by other ministers
at the installation with allusions to him as the under shepherd to
whom is to be rendered obedience and reverence. The new man then goes
heartily to work for God, and the congregation goes heartily to work
on him. They criticise his style, peck at every imperfection,
intellectual and social, and soon put him in a state of siege. If the
Almighty, who it was at first claimed sent him, delivers him, he is
in luck; but the usual end is that the congregation itself effects his
deliverance by giving him the same warm experience that the terrapin
undergoes when it is desired to see him walk. After a persistent
ham-stringing of the ministerial horse, the congregation are astonished
that he cannot pull his load. I am a business man, and in many years
have had many men in my employment, but nothing would have more
astonished me at any time in my business life than to be told that I
was systematically impairing and obstructing the usefulness of the men
that I was paying to work for me and from whose labor I expected some
profit. It is the most inexplicable inconsistency to me in
congregations, which generally include a large percentage of business
men. I have used the word systematically, because it seems to me that
it is a system which pervades to a greater or less extent all
congregations of all denominations, and is confined exclusively to no
one. Nor is it the worst element in a congregation that is guilty of
it; I am sorry to say that it is prevalent among even the best members.
Even that excellent woman, Mrs. Boyzy, whose mind is often tortured
by the apprehension that absence from church service will seriously
affect my future prospers, often regales me after church with keen
criticism of the sermon and the weak points of our preacher. And yet
that estimable woman, on hearing our eldest daughter indulge last
Sunday in a similar strain, warned her against the wickedness of her
irreverence. I beg you to understand that I am not taking the part of
pastors against congregations any more than I would take the part of
our little girl against her pious mother, but what I write is merely
to blaze the way, as it were, to a settlement of the question: Whether
a pastor is a shepherd set over a congregation by the Almighty, or
whether he is a man whom an angry God has delivered into their hands
that he may suffer for his sins.
* * * * *
Have I said anywhere in this paper that Spring has come? Well, I say
it now. It is a sad, gloomy time to man, however woman may look at it.
It is now that the family man sees looming ahead the Easter bonnet
trimmed with deadly $ marks, and the Spring outfits embroidered with
the same costly material. Why is this? Now, I have known X., my next
door neighbor, for eleven years, and in that time I have never known
him to have an Easter hat or an Easter coat or an Easter pair of pants.
I saw him at the Opera lately and his wife had on a seal skin sacque,
and plain X. himself had on no gloves. Why should X. be compelled to
carry through life a bird of paradise, while he appears in the sombre
and often shiny costume of the more humble crow? And now that I have
asked that audacious question, let me ask another: Why is it that as
soon as the frost of age touches a man he commences to tone down his
dress, and as soon as it touches a woman she commences to tone hers
up with all the hot house appliances to imitate the spring time of
life. I don't ask this in a snarly spirit; but as a psychological
riddle. Why is it that in November, with all her brown foliage and
scarlet leaves and wind reddened sky, cannot be content with being
handsome and natural, but should resort to the buds and flowers and
bird-like airs of beautiful June to make her pretty. Ah, there are no
flowers, no feathers, no ribbons, no latest fashions that can hold
their own against Youth. Before it the milliner, the tailor and the
mantua-maker are helpless to render effective assistance to Age. Ah,
Youth, careless, painless, peerless, I drink to you--and put a drop
of peppermint in it. Tom, I was up a little late with the boys last
evening.