Editorial March 4, 1905 Issue

The Christian Ministry

Archibald McLellan

Much has been said within the past few years about the marked decrease in the number of students in attendance at the theological schools, and many reasons have been assigned for the evidence reluctance on the part of young men to enter upon the Christian ministry as their life-work. President Patton has recently spoken on the subject, and the reason which he advances is worthy of serious consideration. The Providence Journal reports his address as follows:—

"In an address before Drew Theological Seminary Club, Rev. Dr. F. L. Patton, President of Princeton Theological Seminary, has declared that much of the preaching of the present day is a mixture of sociology and sentimentality, and that instead of Christianizing society, the tendency is to socialize Christianity. He also laid part of the responsibility of the diminishing number of candidates for the ministry on professors of philosophy in colleges.

"The difficulty with most men, said Dr. Patton, is this inability to tell where they stand, if they do stand. If they knew where the east was they could probably locate the other points of the compass. One is asked so often why more students in the universities do not come forward to enter the ministry. With their attitude unsettled on philosophical questions they do not see their way clear to enter the ministry. A tremendous amount of responsibility just now rests on the men who hold the chairs of philosophy in the colleges of this land. If their pupils are allowed to take hold of purely materialistic doctorines and cling to them they cannot become ministers of Jesus Christ unless they be hypocrites."

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