It is perfectly fit the laity should criticize
the clergy. The minister,--who is he but one of the people, set apart
to particular functions, open to a judgment on the manner of their
discharge, from which no sacred mission or supposed apostolic
succession can exempt, the Apostles having been subject to it
themselves? Under their robes and ordinances, in high-raised desks,
priest and bishop are but men, after all. Ministers should be grateful
for all the folk's frankness. Only let the criticism be considerate
and fair; and in order to its becoming so, let us ascertain the
perfect model of their calling. Did not their Master give it, when he
said, "The field is the world"? If so, then to everything in the world
must the pulpit apply the moral law. What department of it shall be
excused? _Politics_,--because it embraces rival schools in the same
worshipping body, and no disinterested justice in alluding to its
principles can be expected from a preacher, or because whoever
disagrees with his opinions must be silent, there being on Sunday and
in the sanctuary no decency allowed of debate or reply, and therefore
whatever concerns the civil welfare and salvation of the community is
out of the watchman's beat now, though God so expressly bade him warn
the city of old? _Commerce_,--because a minister understands nothing
of the elements and necessities of business, and must blunder in
pointing to banks and shops or any transactions of the street, though
an old preacher, called Solomon, in his Proverbs refers so sharply to
the buyer and the seller? _Pleasure_,--because the servant of the Lord
cannot be supposed to sympathize with, but only to denounce, amusement
which poor tired humanity employs for its recreation, though Miriam's
smiting of her timbrel, which still rings from the borders of the
raging Red Sea, and David's dancing in a linen ephod with all his
might before the Lord, when the ark on a new cart came into the
city, were a sort of refreshment of triumphant sport? _The social
circle_,--because of course he cannot go to parties or comprehend the
play of feeling in which the natural affections run to and fro,
and should rather be at home reading his Bible, turning over his
Concordance, and writing his sermon, letting senate and dance, market
and exchange, opera and theatre, fights and negotiations go to the
winds, so he only comes duly with his _exegesis_ Sunday morning to his
place? In short, is the minister's concern and call of God only, with
certain imposing formalities and prearranged dogmas, to greet in their
Sunday-clothes his friends who have laid aside their pursuits and
delights with the gay garments or working-dress of the week, never
reminding them of what, during the six days, they have heard or where
they have been? "No!" let him say; "if this is to be a minister, no
minister can I be!" For what is left of the field the Lord sends the
minister into? It is cut up and fenced off into countless divisions,
to every one of which some earthly-agent or interest brings a
title-deed.
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