The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-03-29

the ministry has grown by only com pnraffveiy few hundreds. The bright CT. stronger and higher-bred young men of the eeuntry arc turning toI other cailinEs because of the insistent demands sure to bs made upon them Leonard. of the Episcopal Diocese of Cleveland, recently declared he had ia- mediate use for . doxen clergy and could not get them. Rev. Dr. 1rady. | speaking at Trinity Church, in cievs- land. said that the life today O: an average minister fs often q tragedy and the end martyrdom; not the martyrdom of old. but that due to meanPess and petty treatment at the hands 3f those who should be his chief support whom he has given his life to the work. He showed that the average minister re- ceiyes less pay than the comon iabortr. while his toll and sacrifice is many times greater.
 The Bishop of London only recently went over to Russia. did pastoral work there that others had always intrusted to lesser dignataries of the Eptscopal Church. came in . hurry through Ger. many. where he dtd more church work, and thence rushed along 10 Lon | don. where he arrived just In time to keep an engagement of long standing. l 1t being counterpart of the great I naeetinu that he addressed in Wall | Street when he visited this cnuntry. l He puts the responsibility for better work up to the men of the ehu.ch. He calls upon them to do some of the l work he Is himself doing --ths giving | of every child . chance ia life. He mentioned at the meeting tha. only that morning ha had knelt in prayer with | one of the richest women in England. l who was to undergo the next day an
 operation for her life. andthat only the
 same morning he had buried one of his | most faithful parish priests--a man | who had given his ali to the church. 1 keeping each year only just enough to l provide board and lodging for hlpsstf. | the rest going to swell the Bishops i fund. With the close of the great meet | ing he was to take up other activities I There were the DOT to feed and good
 milk and pure water to secure for che people in the slums of East London. l His efforts are only these of every I member ef the ministry who tries to carry out the present-day Christian idea. The church is not the pastors
 only work. There ts the case of Rev. Temple. in Philadelphia. who iabors in-
 cessantiy not only for the Church, but for it's varied interests. among them I Temple University. Many of his week days are passed in lecturing to secure funds for the work of the church. ans the university. Frequently he leaves the train. to enter the pulpit fifteen that he has worked cut while travel 4 Ing. or. more often. had come to him
 as an inspiration as he faced his great congregation.
 l Fifteen or twenty years ago it
 might have been said that the domi- 'l nAnt ambition of most men in the pull pit was to obtain fame in preaching, but now preachers are Genefaiiy more lanxfous to be known for their deeds
 than for their words. There are ex- captions but they only emphasize the desire of the majority. One man seeks to found . great Institutional church. He slaves for ft Another puts all his ksphre time Into settismeht work. Still
 another turns to educational work. The
 fields are many. the opportunities large. Men in the ministry are peeu- iiariy ntted to labor in any or all of them. They must devote some time to ltheir own parishes and parishioners. They break down. Othars take their | places. If they ars rnen of breadth,
 they probably follow in tho footsteps of their predecessors, ana the church loses more capable workers. with none
 coming to the front to take their places.
 Shorter sermons were advocated re- gently as one means of giving relief to the overworked preacher. To this
 the Archbishop of Canterbury replied
 that the ten-minuts discourse was
 harder to prapare than one that re- liver. we hear clergy rejoicing" he
 says 'in the fact that the brevity of sermons now enables a man to say what he has to say in ten minutes. Re- joice by all means if 1t is really e i pithy, pointed, brief bit of message and teacing which you have been able to comprise in that time, but it re- quIres three times as much preparation for thoughtful men to prepare one ten minute sermon as would be needed for one lasting twenty or thirty minutes"
 More and more the city pastor finds himself in a position akin to that of the parent. Tn the home, the child now receives little or no religious teaching. The mother of today in the lower class is less able to teach than she was ten years ago. She lacks training herself. She cannot give what she does not pos- sess The ordinary unthoughtful the- ory that the minister exists to supply parental deficiencies, among other odd jobs. is founded on measureless ignor- 1 ance, The city pastor Is now so over 1 weiEhted with extraneous calls on his | time In the shape of meetings on ev- cry subject and clubs for every con- | celvabIe class of person, to say noth- | ing of visiting impossibly populated
 areas, that for him to undertake the l religious education of the children of l all ages in his parish, with their va- rying domestic and scholastic engage l Snents. is a suggestion nothing short l of the grotesque. But this is simply
 another problem that the hard-work- | ing minister must consider and ind
 lsone ways to meet.
 @The churches are driven to all kinds I of extra attractions to win the peo- pie" declares Rev. R. J. Campbell I the famous London Free Church l preacher. He believes that the key 1 note of the churches today 10 the broth
 erhood of man. He works incessantiy | spreading this doctrine. The religion | of Jesus was in It's inception and es- sence a social gospel" he says. Where
 do you think you would find St. John | the Baptist were he alive today7 You would And him addressing a labor de- | monstration or heading a popular
 movement for social emancipation. It | is our business to realize the Kingdom l of God on earth and to preach universal brotherhood which will sweep away l A nal