Thomas E. Peck on easy admission to the ministry

[Reformed Covenanter]

... We cannot pass from this subject without expressing our gratification with the remarks made by Dr. [Robert Lewis] Dabney, of Virginia, upon the low standard of qualifications for the ministry practically established by too many of our presbyteries, or, in other words, upon the easy admission of candidates to the privileges of the ministry. He showed that the effect of slight and merely nominal examinations was to degrade the whole office in the eyes of that very class of young men whom we should be most anxious to get into it.

What anybody can get is not worth anybody’s striving for. The wider we open the door, the fewer men of generous minds will come in. In our anxiety to increase the number of ministers, we should beware of degrading the office in such a manner as to discourage any but ordinary men from seeking it. ...

For more, see Thomas E. Peck on easy admission to the ministry.

 

[Ed Walsh]

... We cannot pass from this subject without expressing our gratification with the remarks made by Dr. [Robert Lewis] Dabney, of Virginia, upon the low standard of qualifications for the ministry practically established by too many of our presbyteries, or, in other words, upon the easy admission of candidates to the privileges of the ministry. He showed that the effect of slight and merely nominal examinations was to degrade the whole office in the eyes of that very class of young men whom we should be most anxious to get into it.

I'll bet it was still harder in RL's day than ours to be ordained to the ministry of the Word.