The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-02-18
The MINISTER.
Rev. I. ]. Kommers' Inter
esting Paper Read Before
Gamma Sigma Society.
The CARE OF HIMSELF
How He Must Live to Best Dis
pose of Time and Help His
Flock--Among the Churches

Flock--Among the Churches
At a meeting of the Gamma Sigma So
ciety, which is composed of local clergy
men of this city, which was held last
Wednesday afternoon in the Hotel Wash
ington, the Rev. t. J. Kommers, of the
Lafayette Reformed Church, read the fol-
lowing paper on 'The Minister'S Care of
Himself" He said
sWhen this topic was suggested and
when it was adopted, the writer did NOT
reoollect that there was in DR.. John Wat
sons volume, The Cure of Souls a
chapter with this heading. Without much
preface he speaks of health as affecting
thought, and declares that unless a man
has at least the working average of
strength his opinions must be discounted.
He has an unkind reflection on what
Scotland has lost through Calvin being a
chronic invalid and Knox being a broken
man. Though he admits that it is pos
sible for a man to be so 'exasperatingly
healthy that he is unable to sympathize
with trouble.
DIR. Watson next urges the ministers
care of his time, and gives a picture of the
minister ) WOTklIiS AdySA tAC
manner of Dickens. He also touches up
on the question whether it is best to mar
nv or not to marry, and If married, what
care is demanded by the household. He
declares a minister m deny himself
pleasures and innocent fancies, lest he
should cast a stumbling block in the way
of the timid and scrupuious, and concludes
by warning against the sins of laziness,
unmanliness and professionalism.
but Gamma Sigma is not a theologi-
cal seminary. and II would i'll become the
writer to offer advice or dictate precept
Our consideration of this subject Is
rather in the nature of a meditation, a
refreshing of, the minds, and a collation.
of experiences.
1--WE are so busy in our ministry that we
have scarce time to remember what the
ministry means. When we were young
men we looked up with reverence TO the
minister who broke to US the word Oh
life. and who stood in the sacred desk as
the ambassador of God He occupied a
lofty place before us as he administered
the Holy Communion, and ushered us in
to the very Holy of Holes, and he was
as Gods angel of comfort when he held
the service over the dead.
-As we ourselves now stand in the holy
office. 1t behooves us to realize our po-
sition, lest from lack of respect for our
selves. others lose what respect they lave
for the ministry and its all important
work. Beecher struck q vicious blow at
the power of many a mans ministry when
he urged in his lectures on preaching
that the minister should not be a man
of God. He should be nothing less. Rather
the words of Bishop Huntington; 'Ine
ministry is of the Kingdom from on high;
it represents that new creation: it is the
VOICE. the enthusiastically, the visible
agent of the Lord from Heaven. a quick
en;ng spirit. Heaven is opened before and
above other men; it is behind as well as
before. and always peculiarly with the
men of the ministry: and it is their privi-
lege. incompatible and unspeakable, to
work directly for it's inspiration and by
its power
while caring for others, and endeavor-
ing to evoke in other men the highest
ideals, the ~profoundest appreciation of
life and its opportunities and the tre-
mendous issues thereof. there is a danger
that the minister may be compelled to
lament in the words OF Canticles: They
made me keeper of the vineyards, but
mine W vineyards have 1 not kept.
In the multitudes of duties. in the in
cessant labors of our Office. little time or
opportunity remains to take heed unto
ourselves, though that is Of great i'm
~portance. Who would not condemn, the
carpenter who excused himself from
sharpening his tools IN the ground that
he was too busy? And the minister who
holds himself as an instrument for the
service of his Lord must certainly take
such care of himself as shall render him
best fitted for the work he is to do.
Let me briefly refer TO the minister's
care of his health. Secretary Round, of
the Prison Association of New York. once
made the statement that some men abuse
their bodies, as they would abuse a mule.
Through sad experience many a minister
has to learn the folly of neglecting the
care of the body. Who has ever heard
of a minister being arrested for cruelty
to animals? But we have all heard of
ministers being disabled through cruelty
to their bodies. 1t may be through
thoughtlessness, but
Evil is wrought