OCR Text |
Show LACK OF AUTHORITY. Rev. Dr. Henry S. itchet of the Carnegie Foundation Foun-dation for the Advancement of Teaching, tells of the necessity of following in the footsteps of the Mother Church to prevent further disintegration in the ranks of Protestantism. Here is how he expresses ex-presses his thoughts: "The power of authority in the Protestant churches has passed away, and unless they do something," some-thing," he says, "to follow out the rule of the Catholic Cath-olic Church, under which clergymen are well trained celibate priests, drawing their support from the Church, they will be doomed to loss and disintegration." disinte-gration." Here are some of Dr. Pritchett's words : "Much has been said in recent years of the decay de-cay of churches, and the weakening of church ties, particularly among Protestants. Many explanations explana-tions have been given of this tendency. No doubt many factors have a share in the result which we see. Among these one of the most evident is the inefficiency of the ministry, due, in the main, to low standard of admission. In the Protestant churches, where the power of authority has largely passed by. the work of the church depends on the quality of the religious leadership of its preachers. The efficiency effi-ciency of this leadership is low. "The old Mother Church has pursued a more far-sighted policy in this matter than the majority of her daughters. She requires of all her priests a long and severe training. However one may criticise criti-cise the kind of education which they receive, or the large factor of loyalty to the ecclesiastical organization or-ganization which forms part of it, the wisdom of the requirements is unquestionable. To it is due in, very large measure the enormous moral power of the Roman Catholic Church throughout the world, particularly among the great masses of working people in the cities, where Protestantism has been so markedly ineffective, partly, at least, because of defects that an adequate modern education would go far toward remedying. "It is impossible to estimate how much the caus of religious progress is delayed by the effect that a great proportion of the men who assume, as representative repre-sentative of the Christian denominations, to take the place of religious leaders, are untrained in the fundamentals of theology, in the elements of learn- ing. in knowledge of mankind, in the interpretation I of life fromthe. religious ratbe-r-than from the denominational de-nominational standpoint. Meager as are the salaries sal-aries paid, they are in many cases equal to the service serv-ice rendered. In this situation the public is profoundly pro-foundly interested." . |