Untitled article

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · March 17, 1892

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 7, No. 11

The following from the Pittsburg Dispatch is a telling commentary on the value and propriety of Government chaplains:—

“Mr. Milburn, the blind chaplain of the House, has made quite a reputation for the originality of his prayers. Few clergymen are more confidential and intimate in the language with which they hold what is here called an executive session with the Deity; and few are more liberal with advice to man, and claiming to have their inspiration direct from Heaven. Mr. Milburn has often incensed members by his criticism of the conduct of the House and even of individual members, in the guise of a prayer; and many of them have seriously canvassed the propriety of abolishing what is, at best, in both House and Senate, a hypocritical, hollow, and contemptible show of piety. There is no greater burlesque of religion, and the solemnity which should attend its public practice, than these prayers and their surroundings.

“I have often listened to the very eloquent prayer of the Senate Chaplain when there were but two or three senators present, and once when only one bowed his head in mock reverence to the performance. I use the adjective advisedly, for the senator is well known to be an agnostic.

“In the House, though, of course, the number present at prayer is larger, the burlesque is even more evident. The sum and purpose of the employment of a chaplain is to have the fact go to the religious element of the country to show how pious and reverent the congressmen are, in that they can not proceed to business without a prayer. Of course, the religious element is not expected to discover that both senators and representatives carefully remain away from prayers, unless it is more convenient to be present. But if they must have prayers for the effect upon the religious element they don’t want to be scolded by the chaplain. He is not employed for that. He is not paid to give congressmen any moral or other advice whatever, but merely to play the part of a pious lay figure in the show windows of the capitol, to suggest the splendid character of the goods within, the Simon Pure religious stuff, and no shoddy or fustian. They can stand a little scolding as a sort of novelty, a bit of prayerful comedy, but that sort of thing every morning, following upon the liberal congressional breakfast, becomes irritating and conducive to dyspepsia. Therefore, Mr. Milburn has been quietly informed that if he does not want to start a movement for the abolition of his office it would be well for him to confine himself simply to an invocation of divine Providence to give as much of his favor as is fair and deserving to the American House of Representatives, and there let the matter rest.

“On the other hand, Hon. Joseph J. Little, of the Twelfth New York district, elected to fill out the unexpired term of Hon. Roswell P. Flower, comes in with a joint resolution providing that the prayers of the chaplains shall be printed in the Record as a part of the congressional proceedings. This is an innovation that will hardly obtain while Chaplain Milburn continues his moral lectures to the House in his voluminous prayers.”