The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-12-11

AS ministers, we represent portion
of the workers in the Lords great vine
yard of the world. We believe in our
work, or we would not have given so
much time, at so great an expense,
(even mourning the burden of debt)
that we might be better prepared for
the work. To us it is great work, or
we would not give our lives and all our
energies to its service That it is i'm
portant we confess, when we come here
to discuss ways and means for the bet
ter accomplishment of that work. That
the field is large we have no doubt who
are trying to preach, do parish work,
and build churches, and help the State
work, and are OVERRIDING be cause the
work is pressing and there are few
workmen.
One of the FIRST questions for US, then,
is, where and how to get more work
men? How shall we recruit our army
for the enlarging battle that is before
us? How fill the ranks as the veterans
fall by our sides
I. We must show that our cause is
a worthy One,-one to command the
respect and admiration of the young.
If there is anything young man loves
it is an ideal. The companion he Sc
lects for life is his ideal woman of all
the world. The profession he weds
must embody his ideal. He will not
choose as a life-work that which does
not command his respect; which will
not employ his best gifts, or yield sue
cess to his best efforts. How easy to
show him that the ministry is among
the noblest of all callings that a young
man can find use and the best use for
every talent he may possess. If he has
a love for learning-the ministry gives
more time for study than any other
profession. The lawyer often lanents
that he has not the time to study the
latest literature of the day, or keep
pace with the thought of the best think
ers. He must keep close to bis client
and in the wrangle of the courts, to
keep his business. The doctor, mer-
chant, business man, all say, no matter
what their love of learning may have
been when they left college, cit is an
everlasting grind, this daily digging,
and 1 cannot seek these rich fields of
thought, and the fountains of learning
to which would climb, and from which
1 would drink"
But the minister finds time to study.
1t is a part of his work. AS he is
constant teacher, he must be a constant
learner. He may stand always by the
pierian spring. If he is brainy man,
no other calling can give him such OPP
portunity to become the best thinker,
the soundest reasoner, the most charm
ing writer, the sweetest poet, the best
scientist, or the master orator. For
are not all these the very weapons of
his warfare? The more he masters lit
erature, art, astronomy, geology, math-
ematics, the greater teacher does he
become, and the better can he serve his
fellow men. His field is the world,
and if he can draw upon the world for
his resources, what limit can you set to
his work? And isn't it grand, that the
gospel which is good news to all the
world, says to its ministers, "In my
service, all things are yours and ye are
Christ's, and Christ is God's?"
If the ministry was ever narrow in
its scope, combining men to dogma, or
doctrine, or priestly service, it is to-
day the largest and freest field in which
man can work. Wherever he can serve
fellow-man, there he may go. Wher-
ever he can plant great truth, or SOW
the tender seeds of love, there is his
field; and whatever will serve the truth
of God or the good of man, is his to use
in this noble calling. But in Identifying
this calling, we must not put it beyond
the reach of the average young man
who is trying to choose among the
many, the one in which he can do most
and be most. We must not throw
around it a halo, or mystery, or
sacredness, that will awe him from its
presence. -Four young men who were
with me in college, have confessed to
me since that they had serious thought
of entering the ministry. But they
thought it was beyond their reach.
They were not good enough for its sa-
cred calling. But in their secular"
callings they have honored their work,
and have held sacred trusts and have
lived clean, consecrated lives in love to
God and man. What more can the
minister dop Does not the gospel
make all callings sacred? Are we not
all ''laborers together with God ?" The
ministry will not suffer if we place it
beside the other professions, and bring
it close to the young where they can
see it with their everyday eyes and feel
it with their best impulses. Let boy
judge it as he does the other fields of
toll, by his reason, his candor, his fitness
for it, and its fitness for him and if
there is enough in him to make brave,