The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1910-08-12
THE PREACHERS BATTLE
Continued from page ~

adventure on the mighty manliness OF
preaching. Men who could play and
pray and hit, and hit hard II need
be; men who wore no collar to desis-
nate their craft, but went where they
went with the throng-such can be
sky pilots anywhere.
"The unaffrighted and the unaf-
frightable man, that is the figure OF
the preacher cast in bronze. How
would a sculptor frame preacher II
he set him to that holy task? Were l
sculptor | would frame masculine
figure mete to wrestle Hercules to the
ground, and he should level-eyed look
straight forward as to see the face of
man and God, and have an uplifted
mighty arm, on which should be
caught the sword-stroke meant for
group which should huddle sheltered
at his side, shielded by his arm from
the crashing sword. The preacher Is
thus an arm to keep the helpless and
unhelped from wrath of men.
II would have every candidate for
the ministry play football 1t would
teach him impact and to see with
quick eye the need, and with spirit
and body agility to cope with the
need. The great, black, angry line
of sin, what shall preacher do with
that? The only logical as we'll as
Scriptural reply is Rush against it.
Those who wait win suave dellbera-
ton to measure with careful eye the
forces massed against them will truly
never be browbeaten by surly defeat.
but they will as certainly never leap
with the wild call of victory in throat
and limb. Better to be beaten having
tried than to be cowed and never to
have tried at ALL 'Grandly begin! is
the tremendous word of Lowell. And
only such grandly begin as have
nerve. Not the nerve of the brag-
CART, not the nerve of senseless swag-
ger, not the nerve of senseless at
tack, but the swift eye and the swift
brain and the whirlwind attack
And with God to the rest as the
great Browning has it.
"To be wholesome the preacher
must be brawny. The aenemic of
spirit cannot do the deed. They would
better not try. The world has passed
definitely and forever out of the do
main of the priest into the domain
of the man. Who does not see that
has little gift for seeing. The nice
man is past tense preacher-figure.
Men want the strong man. 1t Is not,
to be sure, here intimate that the
body is the preachers chief asset.
Slightness of figure hindered neither
Wesley nor Napoleon. Not every man
can have a six-foot figure like Wash
ington, nor a six-foot-four figure like
Abraham lincoln. But the might of
man does not lie in his body. It
lies in his soul, though it must be
conceded that brawny body which
shall not subtract from the man when
he is first met is worth the having.
Was it happening that when Jesus
sought disciples who should indoc-
trinate this world He beckoned to the
swarthy fisher folk and others of
country soil, mostly country men, and
when he found city man of singular
and angular might, He smote him
with the cross and beckoned the
bruised and fallen city man to come
and show how he could measure
strength with country men?
Preachers, be strong. Roll your
sleeves up to the shoulder. Make
men know brother man has come
when you have invaded any place.
A man is come, howbeit, Christ
man "