In such cases of reversion there is a return to the
unmediated relation of subservience, as the dominant fact of the
devout attitude. The emphasis is thereby throw on an austere and
discomforting vicarious leisure, to the neglect of conspicuous
consumption as a means of grace.
A doubt will present itself as to the full legitimacy of this
characterization of the sacerdotal scheme of life, on the ground
that a considerable proportion of the modern priesthood departs
from the scheme in many details. The scheme does not hold good
for the clergy of those denominations which have in some measure
diverged from the old established schedule of beliefs or
observances. These take thought, at least ostensibly or
permissively, for the temporal welfare of the laity, as well as
for their own. Their manner of life, not only in the privacy of
their own household, but often even before the public, does not
differ in an extreme degree from that of secular-minded persons,
either in its ostensible austerity or in the archaism of its
apparatus. This is truest for those denominations that have
wandered the farthest. To this objection it is to be said that we
have here to do not with a discrepancy in the theory of
sacerdotal life, but with an imperfect conformity to the scheme
on the part of this body of clergy.
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