DECLINE OF CLERICAL INFLUENCE.

Evening Star, Issue 3445, 7 March 1874, Page 2

DECLINE OF CLERICAL INFLUENCE.

- To the Editor. . Sir, —I read in your paper, on the evening of Monday.lasb, mi article on the above subject, and tam bound'to say that the close reasoning and masterly treatment which have almqat alway distinguished your articles oh., ecclesiastical matters is, to my mind, allbiit wautiug.in that,published ou Monday everts* The decUne f .;of rather the extinction of clerical influence is now, ■ I beffeyie, .anadmitted fact s The pa.lpit|j the press,the : thwje, that; bewail, ;,snd thosq Lthai glory—all alike attest'it to be so. "Like the 1 great Hebrew leader of old, they are unableito hold up their hinds any longer,, and the. cry has gone abroad that Amalek'ls prevail:inßi ,Iq.the article referred to it js declared: ;that the decline of this influ euceis- unimportant, as many of the,.documents ‘ and, creeds on whioh o it based, hayelbeen ; to,be. “untrustworthy.VXhajb the ! people have begun to Ipb&'at'the premises' ?and finding the premises upsound; they have i naturally rejected .the cbhciusionst.denved* itherefrom j and. tluyt in piace.of following' ; the. standard of .Luther,'. Knox, and Calvin, I they are now uuderthe banner, of Tyndall,' ; Prpctor, and .Hpxley. ; r .,lt is also asserted, that this is a matter of little moment j- that ; the work yf the.clergy, is to visit; sick : and dying, comfort the sorrowful, guide, the, : inexperienced, and conduct public worship •' are “(dying this . work well Bir, I am one of thoW who look at premises, , a,l d lam ,utterly at a loss.to enneeive how ! anyone setting out with the assumption, that the'influence,of-the pjergy, is. all but nil, yet : arrives at the conclusion that they are dis-. charging those duties efficiently. lam unable to see how a man, sick and dying, can feel calm or any way benefited by utterances : which in the meridian strength, of big Intel lecc, and in accordance with his prof ounces t convictions, he lias rejected as utterly “ untrustworthy.” ; how a clergyman can bp a “ guide ”to the inexper enced when the first • principles of his system of. instruction have 11 foqud to be, based bn. “ unsound pre ' mises” ;or how he can conduct public wi rship ’’ aright that, is. with benefit to i the public—when the intellect of the people :is moulded after- Tyndall and Huxley, andthat of the preacher after Calvin and Knox.‘ There is no communion between. light and darkness—up sympathy between the hine- : teenth and the sixteenth centuries j and perhaps it is.well there should ,be none.. But I cannot look'bn the, matter as unimportant. The old crutch of the dogmatic theology” which has supported humanity so long, Is giving way, ~ and man again, sucking the. frojt of the tree of scientific knowledge. Let us hope the faff, if fall there be, will be Jess ( disastrous than on a former occasion * Bub in order that it may not be . so. (and I say it in the spirit of all friendship) the clergy will have to act very differently to what : they are now doing." It w little use Stand r mg on the steps of the, church .door,- mopping back the ocean of free t bought b i which 1 humanity hia now launched. Better embank with the rest of. the human family, and be the guiding and - controlling ’ power, in a movement which they cannot possibly ' prevent.—l am, ftd, W. M. B. York place, March 4,