Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-11-05
Ministerial Troubles.
ROBERT coLLYRR's OPINION.

suppose many neD 10 my prOlesslon
are tempted to ask, now and then, whether
it is really matter Of any particular mo-
ment whether they preach or not. and then
to conclude that, on the whole, silence, as
MIR. Carlyle says, Is golden and speech only
sllvern, with such words as they can say
and such impressions as they appear to
make when they do their best. l have
talked with good many preachers in my
day who have told me they were not sure
they had made the best use which could
be made of their life in entering the pull
pit, and might be glad to get out of 1t if
they had any idea how they could make a
living at something else at their time of
life. But they have got into rut, and,
like the man who makes the head of a
pin until he is thirty-fve or forty, they
have no aptitude for making anything but
sermons. This is what many say l have
talked with, while notice in those | have
watched, that ten at least 20 out of the
pulpit into other professions and callings
and take their chance to succeed or fail.
where one who has succeede in the other
professions aud calllngs gives up what he
is dong and enters the pulpit. If the
preacher, by some piece of good fortune,
gains an independence, the chances are
that something will happen then to stop
his preaching. And it would not be hard
to recount more reasons for this dislike to
their work, and dlsmay at the result of it,
than you would have time or patience to
hear, or could possibly hear to any profit.
Some reasons, of course, are very mean and
poor, and ought not to be considered for a
momen', while others again are very good,
and few entirely conclusive.
1t, like some other callings, preaching is
only profession, and not that divine tor
ment of the soul which made Isaiah con-
tent to be sawn asunder rather than not
say the Word that was in him,-whlch
made Paul prefer the Roman ak across
his neck to sllence,-which nerved Hugo,
Bishop of Lincoln, to shake Richard of
the Lon Heart as he sat on his throne,
which gave Lenox mighty mastery over
the royal adulteress AMI murderer which
drove Wesley out to eat black berries and
sleep on bare boards, and oaken boards,
probably, at that, and made Starr King,
the king who did command back the tide
OF dlstoyalty and treason which was rising
and dashing about his feet, over there on
the Pacific coast,-I am ready to say that
where this reason for preaching is totally
dead, or was never really alive, all others
must fail with the great majority of men,
exactly as all efforts fail to keep a tr-e
alive which has no roots. The root of the
matter is not in him, as the old Puritans
used to say, and so 1t is no matter about
the leaves and the blossoms,-they are
sure to turn the dust IN the risen sun of
the preachers life, and leave dry stick.
But these meD who preach not so much
because they possess gift, as because
they are possessed by a spirit which will
not let them rest, must always be the ex
cepton rather than the rule in the minis
try. The difference between such men
and those | have In mind is this: The life
OF the one man becomes burden to him
through his silence, and the life of the
other through his speech this man has to
say something, that man has something to
say. The breath OF heaven blows this
mans thoughts into clear, white Gre; but
there is no such breath for the other; so
be must blow it himself, and his eff rts too
often end ln smoke and tears. Chalmers
would set down when he felt the DIVINE
athltus, and write one of his grand sermons
at single writing. rush with it while the
INK was wet to a pul pit and enchaln thou
I sands. John Foster would walk the aisle
IN the old Cathedral until the flags we're
worn hollow with his feet, as you may see
them to this day, and then 90 and preach
to score of rustlcs in little shop. with
his head up among tae hanging candles.
But within these wide extremes there
always is, and always has been, great
body of men who can do a good stroke of
work as preachers if we will only give
them chance who begin with a strong
preference for this calling above every
other, and mean to give their life to it,
and yet, before it is half done, these
troubles strike them so very often they
spend the rest of it in sort of semi
pair.-Chlcago Tribune