ON THE DECREASE IN THE MINISTRY IT BY CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY T is alleged on all sides that, proportioned to the membership and the growth of the church, there is a growing decrease in the number of clergy in service. This condition, if the allegation be correct, discloses a vital weakness. How shall men believe on the Son of God without hearing about Him? and, How shall they hear about Him without a preacher? are queries as old as St. Paul. The need of ministers of the Gospel, I love that old-fashioned term,—is as great now as in the Apostle's time. Any diminution in the supply, if such there be, indicates a most serious condition; and every man who has the spread of the Gospel at heart and the development of Christ's kingdom among men upon his soul must needs feel grave concern when he thinks upon the problem. Whether there be a proportionate decrease in the number of the clergy or not, it is evident that such is the demand from every quarter for clergymen that there are by no means enough men to meet it. The work has outgrown the supply of workers and we are confronted everywhere by opportunities which cannot be seized for lack of men. In my own church (Protestant Episcopal) in 1889 we had 3895 clergymen on the rolls, which in 1908 had increased to 5424, or 39 per cent. In the same twenty-year period the communicants increased from 459,003 to 874,496, or an increase of 90 per cent. The number of candidates for orders in the last ten years has shown an actual decrease. In 1898 there were 571; in 1908, 438,-a loss of 23 per cent. In the last five years the number has been practically stationary, fluctuating between 464 and 436. In the three years from 1904 to 1907 the increase in the total number of clergy has amounted to only 158." To go further back than the twenty-year period, I quote the following from a recent and very startling paper by Dr. Samuel Hart, of Middletown, Connecticut: In forty-eight years the number of our communicants has increased by 453 per cent., the number of clergymen by 158 per cent., and the number of our candidates for Holy Orders by These statistics are taken from the Living Church almanacs for the years mentioned. 61 per cent. In the last twenty-four years the increase of communicants has been 136 per cent., 142 per cent., or at about one-eleventh_the of clergymen 51 per cent., and of candidates rate of the increase of communicants. We have now, as has been noted, 469 candidates for Orders, one being furnished by (or for) every 1859 communicants. If there were one for every 908 communicants, as in 1883, we should have now 960; if one for every 480 communicants, as in 1859, we should have 1816. FACTS FROM VARIOUS DENOMINATIONS In the decade from 1898 to 1908 in the Southern Presbyterian Church there was a churches, a 24 per cent. increase in member12 per cent. increase in the number of ship, but only a 12 per cent. increase in the number of clergymen at work. The ordinations in 1898 were seventy, in 1908 but forty-two, a decrease of 40 per cent. In the Baptist Church during the same period there ber of churches, 20 per cent. in the number was an increase of 10 per cent. in the numof members, and 14 per cent. in the number of ordinations. In the Congregational Church there was a 5 per cent. increase in the number of ministers in that time, as against a 36 per cent. increase in members.. În Congregational theological seminaries in 1881 there was one senior to every 4000 church members, or one to every 2000 church families. In 1908 there was one senior to every 8000 church members, or one to every 6000 families. The Presbyterian Church reports in ten years an increase of 32 per cent. in membership, 30 per cent. in the number of churches, with a 25 per cent. increase in the number of ministers. In 1898 there were 290 ordinations, in 1908 but 182, a decrease of 42 per cent. All these statistics have been furnished me by officials of the various churches referred to. They are presumably more correct than the United States Census (Bulletin No. 103), which compares figures for 1890 and 1906. The bulletin is confessedly incomplete and probably more incomplete for the earlier than for the later date, so that the statements made by the various secretaries are more to be depended upon than the following table which I have compiled from the bulletin in question: PERCENTAGE OF INCREASE FROM 1890 To 1906. Baptist churches.. Value men. 70.7 Congregational churches..36.6 22.3 45.9 MEN PREPARING FOR THE MINISTRY 19.2 ton, and Columbia were planning to enter the ministry. STAGNATION MEANS DEATH Whatever be the value of these statistics, 335 it is undeniably true that every church needs more ministers and is constantly seeking to increase the supply to meet the demand. There is not a church paper in the land which does not present evidence of this fact in its columns, and it is pertinent to the discussion to remember that even the keeping pace by the number of ministers with the in crease in the communicants and in church buildings is not sufficient. The growth of the churches must largely exceed that of the population, and the growth in the ministry must exceed the growth of the churches, for I hold it to be a truism that more ministers make more churches and more churches make more members. Merely to keep pace or even to increase slightly is practically to stand still, and to stand still is eventually to die, so there is little comfort to be taken even from the most favorable of these statistics or from the most favorable construction of them. According to the report of the United States Commissioner of Education in 1888 there were 6989 theological students in the United States of all varieties, including Roman Catholic. In 1898 the number had increased to 8261, in 1905 it had decreased to 7580, a loss of 8 per cent. in the seven years, although there was a net gain of 8 per cent. for seventeen years. Every church in the list shows a decrease of from 37 per cent. down, except the small body of Reformed churches, which shows an increase of 15 per cent., and the so-called "minor denominations and nonsectarians," which show an increase of 115 per cent. During the seventeen-year period there was a gain of 277 per cent. in law students, 93 per cent. in medical students, and 153 per cent. in dental students. In the correspondence which has been brought about by the preparation of this paper a number of documents, pamphlets, letters, and other essays dealing with probable causes have been sent me. Several of the leading popular magazines of the country have recently discussed the problem. These all have been carefully considered. DISTANCED BY OTHER PROFESSIONS The Rev. Joseph Wilson Cochran, D.D., secretary of the Board of Education of the Presbyterian Church, has cited reports of the United States Bureau of Education to show that in the number of candidates for the professions, theology has been distanced by law, medicine, and dentistry. Thus in 1870 there were 166 physicians to the million of population in this country; in 1906, 291. In 1879 there were forty-two law students to the million of population; thirty-six years later there were 180. Dentistry had six students to the million in 1870; in 1906, eighty. Theology, on the other hand, had eighty-four students in 1870 to the million of population, and in 1906 but ninety. The same authority states that the great Eastern colleges and universities have become negligible factors in supplying theological students. In 1904 less than 21⁄2 per cent. of the graduates of Yale, Harvard, Prince A DIMINISHED SUPPLY Considering, therefore, that the popular impression is now statistically demonstrated, inquiry into the causes of the decline and decrease is not only in order but necessary, for it is obvious that no remedy can be applied and no cure perfected without a knowledge 'of the cause. Even psycotherapy requires expert diagnosis. It is certain that this decrease can be ascribed to no one cause, but that it is due to a variety of causes of different values. In the first place, the source of supply has radically decreased. I give it as my deliberate judgment, having made some study and investigation of the matter and speaking not at random, that in the class in which the larger part of the membership of the church is to be found there is a shocking and alarming decrease in the number of children springing therefrom. In other words, race suicide begins in the so-called better classes, the more highly educated, the wealthier, the more cultivated classes. I admit this with shame and sorrow. The average to which we point with pride when considering vital statistics, deaths and births, is maintained by the poorer and humbler folk, God bless them! The ministry of the church, as I believe, comes from the class which produces the fewest children. Even the ministry itself partakes of the the economic wastefulness involved in the tendency, for the families of the married presence in an average community of, say, clergy are very much smaller than they were. eight or ten thousand people of thirty or For instance, in a convocation in which I forty means to an end which should be formerly lived there were sixteen clergymen; achieved much more satisfactorily by a comtwelve of them were married, two were celi- bination and concentration of these various bates, and two were bachelors. The twelve and more or less antagonistic forces into a clergymen were fathers of but twenty-six few entirely co-operating. The young man children. Of the twenty-six probably half who might think of the ministry and who is were girls. Two had none, two had one, serious enough for his reflections to be of three had two, three had three, one had four, any value, sees everywhere instance after inand one, the writer, had six. The average stance of weak, struggling, sometimes quarwas little more than two to a clergyman. reling, churches, none of them big enough to In a parish of which I was once rector take up the time of a full-grown man, and the number of childless families who rented none of them making the impression on the pews was greatly in excess of the number community that a full-grown man with such who had children, and yet some of these machinery back of him as the churches affamilies had been church families, so-called, ford ought to make. And the spectacle disfor generations, and had been represented in courages him, gives him pause! the ministry repeatedly. In the Sunday-school of that parish there were about 350 children, as against nearly three times as many confirmed members. In the whole diocese, which was a typical American diocese of the first class, there were over 20,000 communicants as against 8000 children in the Sundayschools. It is sometimes said that the Episcopal Church has a larger proportion of education, culture, and wealth than any other church in the land. However this may be, the decreased number of children in this church of the rich and the cultured is an obvious fact. The Presbyterian and Congregational churches, in which social conditions probably approximate our own, have the same melancholy tale to tell. LACK OF UNITY IN CHURCH WORK But churches in which,-to their honor be it said, children abound are found making the same plea. In a recent number of The Universe, a Roman Catholic paper published in Cleveland, it is stated that owing to the demand for priests in every diocese in the land four vacancies for chaplaincies in the United States Army allotted to the Roman Catholic Church cannot be filled. The Methodist Church enters the same complaint, with regard to trained men. So that while the first point I have made I think is not without value, further causes must be sought elsewhere. I have stated the first reason as the decrease in the source of supply; the second is surely in the diversity of appeals. American Christianity has become so divided and subdivided that there is forced upon the minds of the thoughtful people an appreciation of CONFUSION OF DOCTRINAL STANDARDS For the third point I should say that there was a great lack of integral unity. Even in his own church the candidate for the ministry not only finds all sorts and conditions of men, which is right, and all sorts and conditions of opinions and interpretations of facts, which, with reserve, we may call right also; but he finds all sorts of opinions and ideas as to what are the facts which, without reserve, we may characterize as wrong. There is a feeling of unrest, a feeling of the inadequacy of doctrinal standards, a feeling of incertitude, a feeling that after all the thing which is vehemently insisted upon to-day may be indifferently witnessed to-morrow, disregarded the day after, denied the next week, and laughed out of court at the end of the month. The loosening of the grasp upon dogmatics, the tendency to minimize credal requirements, the carelessness with which interpretation that denies and explanation that destroys are received, the weakness of the church in bringing to account violators of her laws and wanderers from her standards, the treachery that is permitted within her ranks, which is even encouraged by certain elements; the indifference to their solemn obligations of many high in the church, the juggling with which they seek to avoid the natural consequences of and inferences from their words, the casuistry, not to say chicanery, with which they palter with statements which have meant one simple thing since they were enunciated, all terribly unsettle the minds of men. To-day the candidate approaches the matter with Pilate's exclamation on his lips: "What is truth!" and in the multitude of counselors, contrary to the ers of wood and drawers of water, receive, Scriptural statement, he finds no wisdom. if not more, quite as much as the ministry, Have the churches standards of belief or and with no corresponding demand upon have they not? If they have, what are they? them for expenditure. Deciding upon them, have they any power of maintaining them? The church desires to coerce no man's opinion, of course, but cannot the church define its belief in no uncertain terms and require all its ministry to conform thereto or seek more congenial organizations? It is said that a fair basis of comparison for the minister is the average income of those to whom he ministers. I do not think this is a fair basis, for the minister has demands upon him which those to whom he ministers know nothing of and are not compelled to meet as a rule, but if it were a fair basis, his stipend would still fall far below the amount required. NO PROVISION FOR OLD AGE On the other hand, the minister is often required to surrender a certain part of his intellectual freedom to prejudice and ignorance. Let the minister take a decided stand on matters which are now well-nigh univer- That being the case, it follows that the sally settled by scientific investigators, but second consideration is inevitable. If he does which have not yet overcome the inheritance not receive salary enough to keep his wife in of centuries, and he is set down as heretical, comfort and to educate his children modestly dangerous. His mental independence is he cannot lay up anything for old age. A hampered by the opinion of some business hard and fast age line is being drawn for all man who has never had a chance to study the clergy below episcopal rank. Youth the subject upon which he holds such dogmatic views, or the conclusion of some otherwise worthy matron who learned all about it from her grandmother. Ministers who have decided opinions feel that they cannot express them or they will get into trouble with the unthinking portion of the congregation, which is always in the majority. INADEQUATE SUPPORT To the lack of supply, to the disunion of the forces, to the uncertainty of belief, to the intellectual slavery of knowledge in bond to ignorance, may be added personal considerations which in one form or another are financial. These may be approached under two heads, the total inadequacy of the support which the would-be minister can hope to secure for himself and those dependent upon him during the greater part of his ministry and the consequent entire inability to make provision for his old age. Closely co-ordinated with these is the well recognized lack of material independence that comes from such financial exiguity, and added to these is the clerical blacklist. Volumes could be written on any one of these subjects. must be served and congregations must be served by youth. A group of gray-bearded laymen who are charged with the administration of local affairs would not for a moment think of calling a man whose years approached their average. They take a callow youngster in preference, and then break his heart because he has not the wisdom and the tact that their long experience have given them. Of course, there are exceptions. There are old men who are still leaders of great churches and who are great powers in the church; but I am speaking of the average, and what I say cannot be gainsaid. After a man has passed a certain period, which differs in different people, his compensation begins to decrease rapidly. The fact that it may never have been adequate may not make any difference. It decreases just the same, and he approaches old age in about the most pitiable condition in which any professional man can find himself. He has given the best years of his life to the service of his fellowmen for an entirely inadequate support. He has done it cheerfully and uncomplainingly. He has not only eaten. the bitter bread of dependence, which is bad Take, for instance, the inadequacy of cleri- enough, but he has compelled his wife and cal stipends, which appear to average between his children, if he has either,-—and in my $600 and $900 in different churches. In judgment he should have both, to do the most cases they were fixed fifty years ago, same thing, which is worse. And now when and in cases where they are fixed to-day the he is old he has to be supported by the meager standards elsewhere, which are those of the provision of an entirely inadequate general past, obtain. Any skilled laborer receives fund, requests for contributions to which are more pay than the average clergyman, and looked upon by the ordinary layman as a most unskilled laborers, save the mere hew- nuisance. THE ECCLESIASTICAL BLACKLIST or in In ecclesiastical life the workings of the blacklist, unofficial, intangible, indefinable though it be, are unchecked and unhindered. Let the clergyman make a mistake, not necessarily in morals but in manners methods; let him fail in a particular work, be the causes what they may, no matter how much of the result is due to his own ineptitude or how much is due to the ignorance or the malice of others, he has to take the brunt of it and bear the burden of it, go cut before the world with it back of him. Man after man have I seen and known No, father, I see you and mother wretchedly poor. I see you denied all the things which go to make life worth living. You can't buy books; you can't travel; you can't enjoy yourselves in any way that involves the expenditure of money; you can't give mother clothes such as the women she goes with wear. The house we live in is miserably inconvenient and badly furnished. I am denied the pleasures and opportunities that other boys of my age and my position enjoy. I see you come home humiliated, insulted, broken, and helpless. Your profession doesn't attract me at all." Such things in one way or another have whose career has been blasted, ruined, be- been said to many of us, and that these words cause of something which at most was a very come from those who know us best and have venial fault, by no means irreparable. It is the best evidence for judging conditions is the saddest phase of clerical life. Not only the saddest part of it. I almost dare say the question of his bread and butter depends that ignorance of conditions is responsible for upon his securing the approval of the village the fact that we have as many candidates as tyrant and sometimes of the urban ecclesi- we do. Of course, some one will say that astical despot, but his work, the work to it all comes down to this: Is the spirit of which he has given himself, is spoiled, his self-sacrifice still abroad in the land? I whole training is wasted, his future is impaired, because he has not pleased somebody who happens to be the person naturally consulted by other people, lay or cleric, when he is being inquired about and considered for another field. The average man does not look forward with relish to a position with such possibilities. The usual every-day hero and martyr is not only born but he must be bred to the sacrificial point. Again there is the persistent influence of puritanical views which would fain conform the conduct of the clergy to rules and regulations which have long since become obsolete for the rest of the world. Lingering and archaic opinions as to the proprieties force the minister into positions apart from the people whom he serves. The minister may not go to the play, for instance, even when it is a play which would benefit him physically, mentally, and spiritually. The rest of the congregation will go, but he must remain away and set a good example, to whom and for what, pray? The position is utterly irrational and senseless, but opinion on the matter is well nigh universal. It is a cumulation of these things which has caused the steady decline in the number of candidates for the ministry, and which accounts for the terrible situation. It is all summed up by the remark of a son of a clerical friend of mine who replied to the urgings of his father that he should elect the ministry as his vocation: answer that it is. There was perhaps never so much of it. For any good cause, still as of old, multitudes of men will die cheerfully. Nor has the call to serve God lost its old appeal to humanity. There is more Christian service now being rendered by lay men and women than ever before in the history of the world. Perhaps that is another reason why the ministry does not appeal as it once did. Men can serve their fellowmen in brotherhoods, societies, and other organizations without incurring all the awful penalties now visited upon the Christian ministry. I know there are compensations in the ministry of which the layman cannot know; whatever be the condition of his ministry, however great be his success or failure, the minister knows what these compensations are, but we clergymen must not make the mistake of looking at the inside from the inside, but look at it from the outside as the laymen do. The candidates for the ministry do not know these things, and while it is true we tell them of them, yet words seem to weigh but little in the face of grim, tremendous, tragic facts. If these considerations be worthy of discussion, if what I have said be true, I trust that others will find it possible to suggest things that may be done to right them. In conclusion it is only fair to my own individual work and my own people to say that I personally am not suffering from any of the causes mentioned above. |