[3]“I have not spoken of myself, but of the Father which sent me; He gave me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak. “And I know that His commandment is life everlasting--whatsoever I speak, therefore, even as the Father taught me, so I speak.” So He speaks--but do we listen? And if we listen,--and believe,--why do we not obey? FOOTNOTES: [2] “Effects of the Factory System.”--Allen Clarke. [3] John xii. 49. UNCHRISTIAN CLERICS It is generally supposed that an ordained minister of the Gospel is a Christian. Whatever the faults, negligences and shortcomings of other people in other conditions of life, it is tacitly expected that the professing disciples of Christ, the priests, teachers and exponents of holy and spiritual things, should be more or less holy and spiritual in themselves. They are at any rate accredited with honest effort to practise, as well as to preach, the divine ethics of their Divine Master. Their position in the social community is one which, through old-time tradition, historical sentiment, and inborn national piety, is bound to command a certain respect from the laity. Any public disgrace befalling a clergyman is always accompanied by a strong public sense of shame, disappointment and regret. And when we meet (as most unhappily we often do), with men in “holy orders” who,--instead of furnishing the noble and pure examples of life and character which we have a distinct right to look for in them,--degrade themselves and their high profession by conduct unworthy of the lowest untutored barbarian, we are moved by amazement as well as sorrow to think that such wolves in sheep’s clothing should dare to masquerade as the sacredly ordained helpers and instructors of the struggling human soul. During the past few years there have been many examples of men belonging to the hierarchy of the Church, who have wantonly and knowingly outraged every canon of honour and virtue, and their sins appear all the blacker because of the whiteness of the faith they profess to serve. A criminal is twice a criminal when he adds hypocrisy to his crime. The clergyman of a parish, who has all doors thrown open to him,--who invites and receives the trust of his parishioners,--who is set among them to guide, help and comfort them in the devious and difficult ways of life, is a thousand times more to blame than any other man in a less responsible position, when he knowingly and deliberately consents to sin. Unless he is able to govern his own passions, and eschew every base, mean and petty motive of action, he is not fit to influence his fellow men, nor should he presume to instruct them in matters which he makes it evident he does not himself understand.