The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-07-15

 the ministry, If our ministry, through weak sentimentallty or an lndolent charitableness, set the seal of ministe- rial office upon men of unworthy char acter or fail to warn the churches against those who, in character, have sunk down to the level fo simple tole- rable social responsibility, they are fail- ing in a just sense of their own obliga- tions.
 Not only Is it too easy to get into the ministry, but it is too hard to get out of it. The tendency has been to adopt such a low type of character as ade- quate for the minister that his with! drawal from his profession has seemed to carry with 1t some intimation of broad moral delinquency, or some va- que suspicion of social scandal. The re- suit is that men too often continue in the ministry when they have ceased to feel themselves adapted to the pro- fession. Such a course canot but blunt the fine edge of character. Sometimes there is resolute spirit who discern- ing that his place Is not in the ranks of the ministry, keeps his conscience untarnished, and turns with a cheerful
  fights his way to the esteem of his fel- lows. All honor to such a one. But is it not most ungentle kindliness which among ministerial brethren, ac- cepts such a low type of ministerial character that he who has chosen this profession has set before him the al- formative or remaining in it even when he feels himself unfitted in talents or temperament or conservation for the performance of it's sacred duties, or Of going out of it to face undeserved dis repute. I am convinced that it would produce a higher type of professional character if more tender solicitude were displayed in exalting the condi- tions of entering and remaining in the ministry, so that less opprobrium should be cast upon him who turns to | other honorable occupation.
 In accenting the importance of the ! divine call I would enter no plea for sacerdotalism or clericalism. l would advance no claim for the reception or transmission of peculiarly efficacious grace. I plead for something simpler l than these; but because simpler vastly more significant I mean merely that in the consciousness of the minister | there should be the peculiar sense that in a distinctive and unique way the ob- ligation Is laid upon him by God to de- vote himself to the profession of the ministry, and to make the proclama- | tion of the Gospel of Christ his sole and absorbing occupation.
 There must be those who are snme- how set apart to the peculiar work of ministration.
 l What every minister is set for is to bring about reformation. Not every one will be a Huss or a Wycliff. But l if the minister be not in some sense a reformer his life is flat failure. It may be the reformation of the life of a very contracted community, it may be the reformation of an individual life here and there, but to achieve this end is his goal.
 The two things that a minister most needs for the development of charac- | ter are thorough training and conse- cration. Not training or conservation, | as alternative qualifications but train- | ing and consecration now and forever. one and inseparable. The minister lacking either hobbies on one foot. There is an opinion pretty widely 1 current that the theological school is a l place where dogma is shot into young | mems heads with thirteen-inch gun. 1 The bigger the gun, the better. That 1 the student is fed on the dry husks of criticism. That under the weight of heavy intellectual duties the sensibility | to ordinary needs is crushed out. That l he is so absorbed with affairs apart from common life that the heart is dried within him and the enthusiasm frozen up. We who are here to-day, know better. But 1t is surprising from what quarters come the complaints of the heartlessness of theological schools ! and the need of attention to character rather than simply to intellect.
 he theological seminary as now con- ducted is not simply a brain gymna- sium. The mischief of our current ] clamor for an abbreviated, easy non- technical course of training for the ministry lies not simply in the fact that men may become ministers who do not konw some things that the min ister is supposed to know, or that the | present ministry is falling away from the honored traditions of an educated l Congregational clergy. There is much more serious peril in the introduction l into the ministry of men whose char ] actres have not been rounded and | hardened by the training in character that a thorough and protracted course of intellectual discipline secures.
 It would be a surprise to many who | advocates these easy-going methods, to learn the dread of all work not sugared | with the charm of obvious immediate l applicability, the impatience of delay | in spreading the yet scarcely bedowned wings, which is frequently displayed by those jealous spirits who would waste no time in saving the world
 This is phase of the discussion of ministerial training that has been too much neglected. It has been proclaim ed that the need of the ministry of to- day is piety, not prosody, is character | not criticism, is doing, not dogma. The question is not whether training can take the place of piety, character, and l practical efficiency. We are trying to win to the ministry young men of the highest character and of the finest cul- ture Shall we succeed in doing this 1 by proclaiming that character which | shuns toll and is impatient of disci- | pline, is of a type high enough for the ministry? That method can never suc- - ceed The ideality which makes young manhood strong and beautiful rejects
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