The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1910-11-24
The Call
to Preach
By REV. HENRY A. ALKIRE
Pastor Of First Methodist Church
Whitehall, III.

Ecc%lesiastes is the first user of the
term preacher. God always spoke Of
his messenger" But Paul, our au-
thor, repeatedly uses the word
preacher" Preaching is not a pro-
fession unless We make it that. It
Is purely and simply a calling. If a
calling, there must be a caller. Who
is the caller, and what constitutes
the call?
Some say the chruch calls men to
preach. But men have founded
churches. And men have been ev-
communicated from churches because
they answered their call to preach.
So John Wesley, Martin Luther. And
S. H. Hadley had hard work to get a
church to ordain him. Some Great
Power seemed to set apart these men
before the church had taken any no
tice of them. In evangelistical Pro
testantism we call that power d.
vine.
How can we determine God has
called a man to preach? by their
fruits We shall know them" Gods
Word will not return unto him void.
How can a man know that God has
called him? In theological lore we
say the man has a conviction. What
produces the conviction? 1 did not
know of anything that will send this
conviction deeper into a saved soul
than to look around upon the fields
uhifo 1,pto tho horvocf and hahO16 the
fewness OF the reapers. Seeing the
need is feeling the burden. Once in
sympathy with Gods cause, we will
want to make others see their need of
God, and that will lead us to go forth
to remove the obstacles in the sin
ner's way. And I am sure that it Is
only God that opens our eyes to all
this.
Going out to spend our lives break.
ing down barriers in other peoples
lives implies conservation. So the
preacher is surrendered to the one
work.
The church declares that the min
lister is called to let other things
alone. Her messengers must practi-
cally bring themselves to three
great things: One book-the Bible;
prayer; service means the field-the
world.
For a century we Methodists insist
ed that a man could jump from pillow
to pulpit if God called him. And we
insisted that our preachers should &C
where they were sent and be sem
into new fields every year. And $5(
for the preacher with $25 for the wife
} was considered ample remuneration
for fording swollen streams, fighting
I wild beasts and frontier ruffians anG
| riding a circuit covering scores O.
miles, with a dozen sermons a weel
, thrown in.
What a metamorpnos1s! And wha
produced it? First, the pew became
educated. That demanded an edu
Gated pulpit.
Then the country became thickl.
!, settled and the people demanded {
settled ministry. The pillar to pos
idea had little permanency. The PEG
" pie themselves have created the pres
OAJ SOAuAI1OASs 4AC OA4u4O 0SAOOA
wonderfully developed, and the doctol
and the lawyer smelled of the col
lege. The church demanded that it
ministers should be equipped for lead
ership. So today the preacher mus
not only smell Of the college, but tn
divinity schools and postgraduate de
grees.
All this equipment costs money
and the church has had to open he
Golfers generously to hold tn
young man who has had more ambl
ton than conservation.
Formerly, the pulpit had no compe
tition but Satan. Today it must com
pete with the press, lecture and Chau
tauqua platform, and political stump
This is the age of the specialist, bu
the preacher must be a generalist
True, he must know about everything
in religion, but something about near
ly everything else.
If the preacher is "a citizen unin
terested, he is a sentinel asleep
He must hold his hand on the helm O
reform.
He must keep his finger on thu
pulse of Industrial conditions. HI
must be a patriot and keep his hear
%throbbing warm for his own land. HI
must keep his ear close to the politi
cal rail, and be ready to back the
heroes of a growing government. He
must make his pulpit a throne for ad
vanced education and culture. He
q must be the center of the moral anc
social life of his field.
Well, you say. WHAT has that tt
do with the call to preach? answer
: in the greatest day of the worlds
: growth, everything. The preacher tina,
fails in any of these points is doomed
to sooner or later fail utterly.
What, then, is his real and specific
duty?
He must keep his heart young thai
he may var the young not to loite,
along the path to strong manhood and
womanhood. He must know how t.
. cheer the aged who are so near the
., other world that thew hovo Loot ~