WOMEN IN THE PULPIT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5076, 30 June 1877, Page 3

WOMEN IN THE PULPIT.

(From the New York Times).

The dismissal of Rev. Miss Phcobe Hanaford by her congregation is a matter of general notoriety. In her case the experiment of a female pastor has proved a failure. So far as can be learned, the only charge brought against Miss Hanaford was the charge that she was not a man. This she attempted neither to palliate nor deny, and she was therefore deprived of her pastorate in order that her place might be filled by a man. Those enthusiastic reformers who advocate the admission of women to the ministry have uuiformly looked at only one side of the matter. They insist that inasmuch as a woman can write and deliver a sermon at least as well as a majority of male ministers, there can be no valid argument against a female ministry. They fail, however, to perceive the inevitable effect which female pastors must have upon their congregations. If the order of nature is reversed in the pulpit it will also be reversed in the congregation. Nature will maintain the just balance of the sexes in ecclesiastical affairs, and she will not permit a pretty woman to be substituted for an ascetic clergyman without striving to produce corresponding changes among the flock. When tho experiment was first tried in a rural New England town some twenty years ago, it was clamorously asserted that it had brilliantly succeeded. In a short time, however, acute observers noticed that the young men of tho congregation were undergoing a curious change. They became abnormally regular in their attendance at meeting, and although they showed a stern determination to occupy the front seats, they also manifested a winning modesty of manner previously unknown in the history of their sex. They would Bit with upturned eyes gazing at their pastor and drinking in her eloquence with every token of earnest admiration, Sometimes thsy would be affected

to tears, and would hide their eyes with perfumed handkerchiefs. In casual conversation they always mentioned the minister as " our dear pastor," and constantly quoted her as authority upon all questions of morals and manners. A little later and the price of worsted began to rise. The cause of this was soon known. Every one of the thirty-four young men were engaged in working slippers for their pastor. As this was a duty to which they were unaccustomed, they naturally spoiled an immense quantity of worsted, and mislaid or broke innumerable needles. Before the pastor had been six months in the pulpit she had received thirty-four pairs of slippers, ninetenths of which were embroidered with a cross, while the remainder bore, in letters of white floss • silk, the legend, " Bless my pastor." After the slippers, should have come, in regular ecclesiastical order, the usual smoking caps ; but it was obvious that the latter would have been grossly inappropriate gifts to a female pastor. . Much ingenuity was displayed in providing substitutes. One young man knit out of scarlet worsted a " cloud" for the pastoral head, and another braided with his own hands a magnificent " switch" of back hair, the material for which he purchased from a professional hair-dresser. The majority of the young men, however, expressed their pious devotion in embroidered handkerchiefs and lace collars, although it is rumored that an ill-advised widower, who was perhaps the nio3t outspoken of the pastor's admirers, sent her a—that is to say, a garment made by his own hands out of the befit quality of steel, and modelled upon one formerly the property of his deceased wife. It is further asserted that his present was promptly returned to him, and that he therefore left town in a depressed state of mind, carrying his blighted hopes with him.

As a pastor did not wear a gown or surplice, the young men, after they had overwhelmed her with slippers and handkerchiefs, were at a loss what to do next. They finally hit upon the happy thought of making a magnificent overskirt of red cashmere, embroidered with blue, and ornamented with alternate yellow silk dogs and green silk horse-shoes in the angle of each scallop. One of the young men surreptitiously helped himself to a pattern from his sister's wardrobe, and produced it, under a strict vow of secrecy, to his admiring associates at their next Dorcas tea-party. Great difficulty was experienced in cutting out the garment, but by carefully ripping the pattern apart, and making a fac Bimile of each piece, the new overskirt was made ready for sewing. The unconquerable tendency of some of the young men to sew exclusively with white cotton led to frequent disputes and delays ; but at last the garment was accurately sewed together with black silk. Determined to improve upon tho original pattern, they put half a dozen pockets in the skirt, and attached a buckle and strap to the waist band, together with six metal suspender buttons. Then the garment, nicely perfumed and neatly folded, was sent to the parsonage, with a note written in a fine Italian hand, and breathing the earnest affection of thirty-four pious and innocent hearts. What was the surprise of those young men to learn on the following Sunday that the pastor would no longer conduct the Bible-clas3 of which they were the sole members. They called upon her to beg a few moments' conversation upon the true meaning of Ezekiel's wheels, but were told that the pastor was busy, and that she begged to refer them to Deacon Smith. They felt that something was wrong, but they could not'imagine what the matter really was. In the course of the next fortnight, however, tho pastor, suddenly brought home a husband from some distant town, who, being of an excitable and withal worldly nature, soon allowed it to become known that he felt perfect confidence in his ability to thrash the irreverent rascals who had insulted his wife by sending her a preposterous red p—tt—t. After that, the young men lost all interest in religious things, and returned with great unanimity to their wallowing at the billiard - table, and it was generally felt that the experiment of a female pastor had not succeeded. But the fault was not in the pastor's sermon, nor iu any lack of piety or discretion on her part, The failure of the experiment was the natural result of the attempt to reverse the proper sex of the pulpit. As soon as the female minister usurped manly functions, the young men of her flock developed feminine tendencies. Such will, doubtless, be the inevitable consequence of the presence of women in the pulpit, and it is suprising that no reformer can perceive what a powerful argument against a female ministry this state of things constitutes.