The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-05-13
Religious MlisteIIamp.
A Plea for the PlOdder.

Brilliancy, not faithfulness, in men is
most certain to obtain popular homage.
The smart man wins more applause
than the genuine man. How often,
nevertheless, il has been found by bit
ter experience that the steady-going,
handwriting, persistent man is the
more truly successful-the man who ac-
composites most in. this busy world of
ours and makes the best friend, the
best citizen, the best pastor. A large
city church was presided over by man
of more than usual pulpit power, of
considerable ability and attractiveness,
but lacking in tact, perseverance and
patience. For a year or more the
flashes of his genius lit up the horizon
of his parish and then they-and he
went out. The audiences he had drawn
were by no means small, but the net
results were. When he had gone and
the church was once more looking with
wide-extended vision for his successor,
one of the members Remarked: Well,
give us plodder; what we want is not
plodder.n The member had come pretty
near the desired mark. What our
churches need, or at least a great many
VI tilClh uCtu, 10 llOl Oul1
who will "draw," but pastors whose
work will draw likewise. Not the man
whose mental eccentricities or "per-
sonal magnetism" catches the multi
tude, but the man who wins by the
power of him who has promised to draw
all men unto himself. They need men
who will organize as well as crate, who
will wait as well as work, who will plod
as well as preach. All this, to be sure,
is trite enough, but the lesson needs at
times to be reread. Every pastorless
church feels the especial Importance
of this field and the peculiar" diff
culties it presents at just this " crisis"
and woe betide the man who is not
" first-class =" if he desires there to
preach the gospel. Every churchless
pastor must needs quote his record to
bear him witness what he can do tow
ards assuring, as the shop-keepers say,
"quick returns and small profits" As
matter of fact, every field is peculiar,
and seldom is seen the minister who
has not some special point of personal
excellence. With the expectations of
''quick returns very naturally small
profits " are secured, while the prophet
soon leaves the field now to him es-
pecially peculiar, and seeks other "pas-
lures new" Short pastorates and short
results are the direct outcome of such
short-sighted measures. In the West
we have so long been pounding it into
the heads of the East that we neither
craved nor desired any of their minis
terial froth thrown upon the shores of
the denomination, that some of our
churches would rather be pastorless
than not possessed of pastor of power.
Now, while we do not want minis
tiers with regulations spotted or of IN
.ferior ability, to follow that proverbial
Course of Empire we do need. and
need very much indeed, cody, genuine
plain plodders. Emphasis should occa-
sionally be given to the fact that there
are very, very few ministers of tower
ing ability and commanding power in
our own or in any other denomination
Daniel Webster's celebrated aphorism
that there was plenty of room at the
top, is as true to-day as when it was
spoken, and as applicable to the min
istry as to the bar. Mankind is moi
made up of polished, educated men ant
women, but of very ordinary stuff
Progress in civilization, in all that up
lifts and benefits humanity, has beer
made, not by sudden, phenomenal out
bursts of personal genius and ability
but by the steady, onward, upward
work and zeal of average, everyday
conscientious toilers. The renaiSsanc,
did not occur when single genius wa
born; it was the natural sequence O
the advances-slowly but surely mad,
in all the arts. We sometimes forge
that it covered not day, nor a yea
alone, but centuries. We all-minis
tiers, mechanics and workers in ever,
calling in life-must remember that mos
of us are called upon to wrestle, no
to reign" Our loved denomination
has reached its present state of eff
cheney and power not alone, nor yer
greatly, by means of the few pulpi
stars of flashing magnitude, but by tn
continued years of patient, sometime
unappreciated, work of the unknown
plodders. Let us, then, put not all 0
our trust in princes, but take to hear
what Carlyle says: Genuine wor
alone, what thou workest faithfully
that is eternal" Hard work, with Go
on our side, will conquer every diff
culty.-Chicdgo Standard.