THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, MAY 1, 1891.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8555, 1 May 1891, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, MAY 1, 1891.

It is the custom when a Wesleyan clergyman goes to a new circuit for his congregation to give him a " welcome soiree," at which he tells them somewhat of the plan on which he mean's to carry on his work. This was the occasion of the gathering in Pittstreet church on Wednesday evening, when the Rev. Joseph Berry took his place as ministerof the congregation, and spoke respecting the plan lie means to adopt as a clergyman. Usually the proceedings at such a meeting are not of a nature to call for any remark from a secular newspaper. But on Wednesday night Mr. Berry took a somewhat different position from what is ordinarily occupied ; and on this account, and also because he is regarded as one of the leading clergymen of the connexion, we may depart a little from our custom, and make some remarks upon the ministerial programme which he •has laid before his people. We do so the more readily, also, because Mr. Berry's programme is .not so exclusively professional as we usually find such a manifesto. No one interested in the well-being of the community can forget that the pulpit was once a great moral force, and that it may once more become so.

Mr. Berry begins by a reference to the fact that he wanted to go to Melbourne, but was prevented by his brethren of the Conference. In this, whatever their motives Were, they were clearly wrong. When a man desires to go to any particular place to work, he should be allowed to go. It in always harmful to thwart a man's will. We can conceive an interposition if a clergyman who was doing good work wished to retire to conventual seclusion. But Mr. Berry was desirous of going to a place where his opportunities of influence would be greater than they can ever be anywhere in New Zealand. However, lie assures his flock that he takes up the work which has been assigned to him in no sulky and half-hearted way. He will no doubt try to forget that he has been thwarted in what might have been for him a great advancement. But all the same the Conference were wrong in keeping him in New Zealand against his will. This is quite a denominational matter, and we refer to it merely because Mr. Berry makes prominent mention of it. Mr. Berry then proceeds to tell the people his plan of action. It is his intention, he says, to put first and foremost his pulpit work, and for this we highly commend him. Some ministers fritter away their time paying useless visits and attending quite trifling and unimportant meetings, so that they have not leisure to prepare any thine (although they may be quite capable) which it is worth anybody's while to go and hear. Mr. Berry, referring to the kind of influence he will exert to get people to come to church, says :—" There were two ways of getting a horse into a stable; one was to drive him in, the other was to put oats in the bin." Mr. Berry's method is, he sasjß, to put oats in the bin. Very good. The simile is apt enough, but not quite perfect. It is not. left to a minister now to drive a horse into church. The horse simply won't go, and the clergyman cannot use the whip, and has no means whatever of driving him. In old times a clergyman could drive people into church by force of law, and later he had a potent weapon in threats of eternal torment for disobedience. The first instrument has been abolished lopg ago, and the second is going, if not gone. The only plan that remains is to put oats in the bin. But then if the Minister has no oats to put in the bin ? If all he has to put there is dry, musty, stale chaff with no grain in it, and so having no nourishment or taste ? The horse soon gets to find that he is merely cheated by the contents of the bin, and prefers to take his chance of what grass he can get to nibble outside, where at all events he lias the advantage of liberty and fresh air. Many clergymen do not know oats from chaff. They do not keep the former article in stocks They take no pains to get it, and they serve up Sunday after Sunday innutritious food. However, in this case, Mr, Berry tells how he* means to proceed so that he may be able to give the spiritual and mental food required, and his methods are the right ones, and ought to be successful. He demands time for reading and reflection, so that he may keep himself abreast of the age, and may be able really to instruct his people, and to help them in the difficulties they actually feel. Perhaps the most vast and momentous of all the many ctf'anges

of recent years, has been th« entire new aspect which religion- assumes k many, important, points and doctrines from received beliefs in science, and from the new discoveries affecting j,L text and the reading of Scripture. It is lamentable to hear a preacher speak ing to his people like a Rip' Van Winkle—as if he had been asleep f or forty years.

, But a minister must take care not to move too fast. He has a grand sphere which he can occupy almost alone. He can "open the Scriptures" to his people show them the manifold aspects of true religion, and teach them to do every, thing with a lofty motive. Mr. Berry seems to thirst to plunge into the topic* of the day, but there is a danger in this. When a minister takes a side in the pulpit on a political or social subject, he ought to be quite sure that Christianity can only take one side. Three instances are specially given by Mr. Berry of subjects which clergymen ought* to-deal with strongly. These are Sabbat! observance Bible in schools, and the temperance question. Our experience is, that when a minister deals with any one of these subjects, he goes more or less wrong he goes further than he is warranted in going by the teaching of Christ. Mr. Berry seems to think that the great sin of the church in recent years is, that it has not taken up and directed what he calls " the temperance movement," by which we presume he means the prohibition movement. We should not object to a minister in the pulpit urging his ~- people to become total abstainers, but the prohibition movement, as we know it, means enforcing abstinence by the law. Herein is the distinction. The pulpit ought to use only moral agencies. We have heard clergymen give discourses which were simply imflammable unchristian electioneering addresses, urging that a, coercion law should be brought into force. Mr. Berry says that on all such public questions he will speak out, " neither would he be silent to court the favour of any man." But he ought to take care to keep well within the limit; for he must remember that he is not put into the pulpit to utter politics. If he does, he deserts his function as a religious teacher. He at once belittles his sacred calling, and outsiders will not think that he has put oats in the bin.

We would, however, urge upon all members of Churches not to restrict their pastors too much. Give them some liberty of speech. It conduces to general health all round. Let the clergyman air his personal peculiarities now and then in the pulpit. Argue the thing out • with him on the first convenient occasion., but do not go nagging and worrying at him. Remember that, in the Protestant Church, at all events, he is not supposed to be infallible. Of late years in England we have had many of the pulpits become centres of light and leading. Perhaps we are on the eve of something of the same kind in the colonies.