THE PARSON WE WANT.

Kumara Times, Issue 861, 4 July 1879, Page 4

THE PARSON WE WANT.

[from the week.] In the midst of dissension on all sides, nsrrow-mindedness and aggressiveness on the part of the Evangelical party, and disregard of law and bigotry on the part of the Ritualists, there has been growing up for some time, and there is yearly increasing, a Btrong desire for a different kind of parson. It is not easy to describe his theological opinions, and it is difficult, and perhaps it is a good sign that it is difficult, to give him a party name, so for the want of a better we shall cail him " the parson we want." He certainly is not a Ritualist. We all know the Ritualist; he is, like the conies, a feeble folk, and in his worst type seems to care nothing for law or his bishop, and to hanker after Rome, or a sham martyrdom inflicted by Lord Penzance. Further, he thinks a good deal of his clerical appearance, and is given to wearing a piece cf haberdashery known as the Roman collar, which causes the Irish crossing-Bweepers near the Oratory at Brompton and the Pro-Cathedral at Kensington to touch their caps to him—a fact which causes him the liveliest gratification. He delights in the musical masses set to a burlesque of the English Communion service, and in vestments of gorgeous hue. We once had a friend, a curate, or as he liked to be called, an assistant priest, at a well known church at Brighton, and were taken by him to see the vestments, all of which he proceeded to try on for our edification, walking away with his head over one shoulder, exactly in the way in which the young lady with the good figure shows off a mantle in the show-room. It was a warning to us never to go behind the scenes again. Still less is our model parson an Evangelical, that is, an Evangelican of the objectionable type of which there are two species, the first the clammy and seedy being who is not in many degrees removed from the Shepherd in "Pickwick." This is a very unpleasant person. He has moist large hands, and roars in the pulpit like a very Bull of Bashan, and Fire and Brimstone play a large part iu his discourses, tie is pig-headed, and is fond of comparing himself to St. Paul, like Sir Samuel Baker'B missionary. The second type is the "dapper." This gentleman wears rather neat clothes, lavender kid gloves, parts his hair in the middle, and has long and ambrosial whiskers. He cries a good deal in the pnlpit, is usually not a public school or University man, and his general demeanour is such as to impart to every well constituted mind an intense deßire to Bmother him. He is further, a great favourite with the female sex ; and here we wish to correct an error under which many people seem to labornamely, that it is the High Church parson who is, par excellence, the croquet or lawntennis playing curate and ladies' man The Ritualist, if he does silly things has' to render him justice, too much to do to be much of a ladies' man. When a man has some b!x services on Sundays, beginning at five o'clock in the morning on week-day*, with an occasional midnight service and some mysterious ceremonies like compline and tierce thrown iD, he has not much time to devote to lawn tennis and flirtation. Now our dapper Evangelical does not bother himself with more than two services on Sunday, and as a rule, disregards Saints' Days as savouring of the Scarlet Lady, and, instead o°f services at five o'clock in the morning he favors prayer meetings in the drawingrooms of his parishoners at five o'clock in the afternoon, with occasional pauses for refreshment. At these he is in his element, and when the more serious business is over he is the life of the party Here any young lady admirer is sure to meet him. .

An< ?, ?? w let us come to " the parson we want. He is, as we have said difficult to describe, but we most of us know him, and if we don tso much the worse for us He is pre-eminently a gentleman, and is almost always a University and Public School man, but is not the sort of man who has been a saint all his life. Very often in his youth he has sown some wild oats, and if he has bitterly repented it he is none the worse fitted to deal with men and women as they are. He looks after his schools, and takes perhaps more pride in them than in anything his pari B h owes to ninij and it owes him much as a rule —s&mtary reforms, cottage hospitals, provident societies, working men's clubs and coffee palaces. He knows what is right, and he does it fearlessly. He is to be found more often in iarge towns than in easy-going country parishes, and is especially fond of a living of about Ll5O a year in the East end of London His theological convictions are settled and are the result of mature deliberation Sometimes beginning as Low Churchman, he lakes all that is good from the High Chuichman ; in ether cases, beginning as a High Churchman, he borrows from his Low Church brother. But in all cases he is a loyal son of the Church of England and we are glad to know that she has many such. -