Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1910-07-14
Joy of
the Christian
Ministry
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RfsS ~ ~ istry confess right at the
hNSKyTe& beginning that 1t pre-
sents some problems to-
day which the fathers hardly knew
and for which the church itself 10 part
ly to blame, and which is partly a
product of the times, says q writer in
the Christian Work and Endeavor.
The church and not the ministry can
remedy It. These problems will fright
en- some men, and rightly. They are
now no doubt keeping young men from
the ministry Reference is here made,
of course, to the almost impossible de-
mands the modern town church makes
upon one man. 1t expects him to be
a good preacher, a good financier, a
good executive and organizer, a good
pastor, worker with children and
young people, while he must attract
the thoughtful men by his serious
thought
Preaching Must Be Of High Quality.
Now, except in the very exceptional
man, these qualities are rarely united,
and even more infrequently are the
tastes for the other things present
where that for one is strong. Preach
ing In this day of low-priced books and
universal reviews must be of high
quality to hold people and instruct
them. It requires the almost indi-
vidual attention of the preacher. Even
large pastoral tasks may hinder, al
though pastoral work is closely akin
to preaching, as it deals with human
souls. Not so with executive work
A college of four hundred men has a
president as executive head and finan-
cier; a teacher for every branch, who
does nothing but teach his subject; a
chaplain to give all his thought to re-
ligious instruction; physical director
for the gymnasium. Then, below the
college is the preparatory school,
where there is again an entirely new
set Of officers and teachers, especially
adapted to children. 1t is impossible
to think Of Professor George P. Fisher
greatly interesting a crowd of chill
dren, or even boys in the high school;
but how great a teacher he was to the
eager student of senior year! Now
the church gives six hundred men,
women and children to one man, and
since the church, in sense, calls for
as much variety of function as a col
lege, expects one man to be everything
to all kinds and ages of people, the
wonder is that so many men succeed
in being universal in their functions
as they do. But it gets harder every
year. There are very few men who
can be both acceptable preachers and
at the same time excellent admins
traitors and Young Mems Christian as
ISOLATION secretaries and physical d.
rectors and heads of great parish
houses. There is no doubt this ex-
treme diversity Of function is frighten-
ing many men, for most men have
tastes and prefer to follow them. They
feel they can do one thing we'll and
prefer to do 1t. But this condition
win pass. The church will have to
make a readjustment in this regard.
Meantime. let no young man be too
much afraid Of it, for the joys and op-
portunities more than compensate for
it.
Joys That Are Lasting.
These joys are very great and are
all remunerative. For they are not
joys which flood the soul with happi-
ness and then pass, but they leave
solid contribution of character and
power. First Of all, the minister lives
in the companionship of the greatest
souls and minds and thoughts of the
ages. Every morning he spends with
the great books of the world. His
ministry leads him into every field Of
thought. The lawyer may keep to
his law books, the physician to his
medical books, the teacher of mathe-
mates to his mathematical books, but
for the preacher there is no one sub
ject narrower than human life itself
There is no one class of books for
him. His work will call him to read
continually all the great poetry of the
world. He must know the great fiction
for its Interpretation of life's prob
lens. He must know history and
biography.
The optimlst remembers how Doctor
Hills recently gave a superb and re-
ligiously valuable course of sermons
on 1.-The Religious Message of the
Great Poets; how Doctor Jefferson
has recently preached a great course
of sermons on THE History and Ma
ture of the Christian Church; how
another preacher has preached a
course on Christian Apologetics,"
showing the divinity Of Christianity
by what 1t has done in social redemp-
ton; the men, the art, the poetry. the
literature 1t has produced. Think of
the joy of these three preachers In
! preparing these sermons. What a
, great, varied, rich world they spent
their mornings in. And then, above
all, the minister spends several hours
a week in that greatest book of all,
I that library of the souls aspirations
/ and Gods thoughts toward men,
: which, year by year, when read broad
iy and naturally, becomes world of
/ Joy unspeakable-the Bible. The wrI-