p. 279 | HONORARY TITLES

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 23, 1881

HONORARY TITLES.

THE editor of the Philadelphia Presbyterian, in giving an account of the trouble they had at their Assembly meeting in Madison, Wis., in undertaking to deal with the question of using such flattering titles as D. D., narrates the following:—

“There is no more delicate and agreeable method of conveying ‘the praise of men’ than by the bestowment of flattering titles. We were once in a printing office where a parcel of proofs, or something of the kind, were being made up to be sent to a minister.

“‘Shall I put on D. D.?’ said the clerk. No one seemed to know, and the writer remarked, ‘I think he is not a D. D.;’ but the shrewd manager said,

“‘Put it on; it never gives offense.’

“There are doubtless men who wear such titles without thinking much of them. But there are others who do think of them, and covet them, and disgrace themselves to gain them. That New York Sunday-school teacher may have worn her jewelry without great personal harm, but the poor little girl who saw it, and was brought into the police court for stealing something of the same kind to imitate her teacher, could tell better how the system works.

“We would not insinuate that all who wear these honorary titles are Pharisaic in their character, but we would affectionately ask them to read our Saviour’s words concerning those who, in other days, were called Rabbi or D. D.; and his commandment to his own disciples in view of the evil which he rebuked.”