Editor's Table [pp. 470-480]

474 THE LADIES' REPOSITORY. [Nov.,
By all the obvious rules of ju dging the old
ministers who are yet sound in body and
in mind ought to be the best. Are their exHeriences good for nothing? their long years
of study and thought-their practiced skill
ill preaching, in explaining, defending, and
enforcing the doctrines of the Bible, in counseling the ignorant, in comforting the feebleminded, in warning the unruly-are all these
of no value whatever? In law and medicine and statesmanship age, with all its analogous advantages, is at a premium. Is it
only in the ministry of religion that men deteriorate with their opportunities to acquire
wvisdom and aptness and strength?
And yet the Churches do not want the
older men, but the younger. One sometimes hears this spoken of as if it were purely
a fault and a folly of the Churches. The
quinquagenlarianls and the sexagenarians who
are not wanted are commiserated as persons unreasonably and unjustly dealt with,
being made sinners for their years, and the
Churches are sharply lectured as notional
and fastidious. But is there not something
to be said in their justification? For some
reason or other the older men in the ministry are not so popular as the younger. What
is the cause?
In those denominations in which the pastoral office, in the theory of it, is conceived
of as permanent, and long pastorates are regarded as desirable, a very obvious reason
presents itself at once why a Church, in settling a minister, should prefer one with a
long life before him rather than behind him.
The old man who is at present able-bodied,
and of a sound mind, is nevertheless drawing
near to his limit of life, and can not last
long. He may be entirely acceptable now,
but his short future is a sufficient objection
against him. No Church desires to distract
itself with the choice and settlement of a
minister oftener than is necessary. In our
Methodist theory of the pastor's office this
difficulty is obviated, and we have less excuse than our brethren for the sentiment in
favor of young men, which, nevertheless, is
quite as strong with us as with others,
only by reason of our system not so mischievous.
It is obvious that the unpopularity of old
men is not to be explained by the consideration, barely, of their age. It is a fact that some
old men, if only still able to work, are sought
after, and earnestly desired in the pastoral
office. There are not a few suchl, who for
acceptableness with the Churches are not
behind their younger brethren. It is the
same elsewhere. There are sexagenarian
pastors whose congregations would be vastly
amused at the suggestion that they might
be better served by young men. There are
sixty-year old men among the Presbyterians, the Baptists, the Congregationalists,
the Episcopalians, who, if they were now,
by any chance, without charges, would be
sought for, and eagerly solicited again to
put on the harness.
It is not the mere fact of age that makes
some men unpopular and undesirable as
ministers, but something else which, indeed,
is so common with old ministers, that it has
occasioned a prejudice against their class,
and begotten almost every-where among the
people a settled feeling that young ministers
are better.
Will our older brethren permit us to say
some plain and hard things, in a spirit of
love and kindness, and with a deep sense of
all that might be urged in extenuation, yet
affirming that all the possible mitigations do
not amount to an adequate excuse?'
In the first place, some of the old ministers have left off their early habits of neatness in dress, and of attention to their persons, and to appearances generally. This may
be thought a small matter, but so also is the
little leak that wears away the foundations
of a dam, or the little expenditures that eat
up the estate. Foppery is indeed contemptible, whether in the young or the old, and especially in a minister. But a minister should
be gentlemanly in all his hlabits, comely and
neat in his attire, and halbitually observant,
at all points, of whatever evinces good
breeding. The Churches are more particular in this matter than some may suspect.
Whether in town or country a minister should
be properly and nieatly clad, and gentlemanly
in all his personal habits.
Again, some old ministers have yielded
very much to that physical sluggishness
which comes naturally with advancing years.
They have lost, in a great measure, the
fervor which formerly distinguished their
preaching, and took hold of the sympathies
and hearts of their hearers. It is not correct
474
THE LIADIES' REPOSITOR Y.
[Nov.,