The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-11-14
Big Task for the Ministry

When the church turns philanthropist
and spends its time plying men and
relieving their distress Of body and
mind. it has misconeeived its mission
So President Wilson Of Princeton told
the graduates of Hartford theological
Seminary recently. To his mind there
IS a higher function for the preacher
We are, he says, sin the presence OF
the absolute necessity Of spirltua
coordination Of the masses Of knoWl
edge which We have piled up and which
we have partially explained, and the
wbole world waits for that vast task
Of intellectual meditation to De per
formed. - The man, he asserts, who
fshall mediate between our spirits
and our knowledge who 'tshall show
onr souls the tracks Of life, " who
s.shaII be our guide 10 tell US how
we shall thread this intricate plan OF
the universe and connect ourselves
with the purpose for which 1t IS
made is the minister. DR.. Wilson,
whose address is printed in the Hart
ford Seminary Record, tells story,
which he says typifes the modern IN
tellectual situation:
81 heard very pathetic story told
the other day about a poor woman, a
simple unedueated woman, in one OF our
cities, who had by some accident got
hold Of one of Darwin s books don t
know whether it was the Origin OF
Species or not--and who had found,
even to her unlettered mind, great
revelation in the book, revelation OF
the processes of physical life and Of the
plan of physical existence. She told a
friend that it had taken out of her-in
her expression the kick there was
in her. She said: Il don't find any
thing in the preaching that | hear. 1t
listens good, but it is so soft. It doesn t
seem to give anything to ehaw on. 1t
doesn' It enable me to understand what
happends to me every day any better
than I understood it before. 1t doesn t
even put bread in my mouth or In my
children s mouths. But l read that
book and I saw something doing. l
saw that there was something going ON
of which l was a little part, and it
has taken all the kick out of me-
''I believe that her experience is
typical of the modern intellectual sit
nation. We are infinitely restless be-
cause we are not aware of the plan.
Just as soon as we are aware of the
plan and see that there is something
doing, something definite, something
TO which we are related. even if by
mere memorable necessity, we at least
know it is futile to kick that it is
inevitable that the processes of the
gods should be ground out, and that,
therefore, the whole operation of life
is something to which we may properly
relate ourselves if we choose, but must
relate ourselves in some fashion wheth
er we will or not. How arid, how
naked, now unsatisfying a thing, mere
" to know that it is an memorable pro-
cess to which we must submit! How
necessary fer our salvation that our
dislocated souls should be relocated in
the plan! And who shall relocate
them, who shall save us by enabling us
to find ourselves, if not the minister
of the gospel4o
The world offers this leadership, this
intellectual mediation, to the minister,
says DIR. Wilson. ''It is his if he be
man enough to attempt it, man enough
in his knowledge, man enough in the
audacity and confidence of his spirit,
man enough in the connection he has
made with the eternal and everlasting
forces which he knows to reside in the
human spirit" He goes On to combat
what is perhaps the most popular pre-
possession of the church's mind
81 believe that we have enormously
conceived the field of the Christian
church in our age. If my observation
does not mislead me, the Christian
church nowadays is tempted to think of
itself as chiefly philanthropie institu-
ton, chiefly an institution which shall