OCCUPATIONAL TYPES 2Q7
shown itself in the professional dress of the minister. The distinctive garb so often worn by him not only indicates this conception of himself, but also strengthens it. He would be more than human if the regular wearing of a distinctive dress did not subtilely react upon his consciousness. It is a visible advertisement; and however little observers may in their hearts respect the symbolical significance of the pecu liar pattern of his clothes, it naturally, almost inevitably, affects their attitude toward him; nor does it affect their attitude toward him more than it does his attitude toward himself. It is an outward sign of the old, old spirit of priestcraft. And unfortunately the spirit of priestcraft is not yet dead. In some quarters it lingers in visible strength, and in others where it is weakening there is a distinct re action, with an effort to revive it. The truth is that this conception of the ministry is so inveterate, so deeply im bedded in the religious traditions of the world, and is so much in accord with certain persistent trends of human nature that the people are quite as responsible for its con tinued survival as the ministers themselves. But all human experience demonstrates beyond reasonable question that when ministers of religion yield to this tendency and in their thought of themselves become detached from their fellow men, the inevitable result is that their official duties become perfunctory, their genuine spirituality decays and religion dry-rots.
But notwithstanding this reactionary tendency, we must recognize that the general trend of modern life is in the opposite direction. In fact, the minister of habitual gravity, of solemn aloofness, is fast becoming a thing of the past, lingering yet in some backward communities, but rapidly disappearing in the more advanced. Modern life is not only more gladsome and optimistic but more rational and demo cratic. Religious sentiments and ideals are undergoing a parallel transformation. The ministerial type is also chang ing. The minister we have been describing was much more common in the olden time. Now he finds himself strangely
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