Clerical Loafing | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 29, 1871

“Clerical Loafing.”

THERE is much comment upon the way in which pastors take their vacations. The contrast with the Romish priesthood is marked. The latter are confessedly the hardest worked class in the church, and yet their flocks are never left without particular and ample supervision. Who ever heard of an afflicted Catholic family scouring a city for a priest to minister to its wants? Yet every summer Protestant families are troubled to find one of their faith to officiate. Some pastors purposely put themselves beyond the reach of telegraphic communication, to avoid a summons during their vacations. No one would deny the faithful shepherd due rest, but there are defects in the present system which must be remedied, else the profession will suffer in matter of confidence. A Christian lawyer remarked the other day to a minister, that “a crying evil of the church now is clerical loafing—I go to the springs or the sea-shore, and often feel ashamed of your profession. If they gain in physical strength, I feel sure they lose in spiritual.” The complaint of pastors at the various places of resort is, that recreating ministers too often fail in using their opportunities for usefulness.—Sel.