The Daily Missoulian., 1910-01-24
MINISTER DISCUSSES
HIS CALLING
REV. w. II. BAGBY breaches
ELoQUENTLY ON PREACH
ER'S LIFE.

w II.
Bagby of the Christian church deliv-
cred a sermon which was as interest
ing and as pertinent as any which
has been spoken from a local pulpit
in long while. Mr. Bagby took as
his subject The Ministry as a Cali
ing" He reviewed the circumstances
surrounding the life of the much
abused preacher from start to finish
He showed how inadeauateIy the pas
tor is paid by his flock: how he is
often incapacitated by the +'persecu-
ton OF his people and how seldom he
receives the consideration due his
cloth. Mr.. Bagby took as his text
Matthew. 4:1see He spoke in part as
follows:
The occasion of this sermon Is the
great and growing shortage in the
supply of competent ministers of the
gospel. Its purpose is to point out
! some OF the causes To which this
shortage is to be attributed. in the
/ hope that they will be removed, and
to magnify the calling of the ministry
in the hope that some Young man
he induced to make it his life work
Causes OF Shortage.
The things which deter young men
from entering the ministry are not the
essential concomentants OF the calling,
but the abnormal things for which the
church is responsible. But for two
hindcring causes. responsibility for the
existence of which lies at the door of
the church. hundreds of young men
would enter the ministry where there
are scores who do so as Ii Is. They
are hindrances that the church is un-
der greater obligation to remove than
the young man is to overcome. They
are hindcances that few churches
have any right to ask any young man
to leave out of the question when try
ing to reach decision as to whether
or not he will enter the ministry. The
most outstanding among the causes
that keep young men out of the min
istry. and for the existence of which
the church Is responsible are two in
number.
Poverty.
The poverty of the preacher has
/ long been a proverb. IL Is to the ever
lasting shame of the church that this
is true. The assumption that it is
constitutional is wholly gratuitous
The poverty of Jesus was a virtue be
cause il was voluntary If He had
known want that his disciples could
have supplied. that want would have
been their shame. If Jesus was poor
ii was because He needed only what
he could use from day to day. His
poverty was an object lesson rather
than nj II
that crippled his usefulness This
cannot be truthfully said of many of
His ministers. If il could have been
said of Him it would have been to the
shame of his followers That il can
be said Of his ministers is certainly
not to the credit of the churches that
are not poor. but only penurious
Times have changed since A. d. 30.
and conditions have changed with
them. A minister's equipment now is
education. information and consecra-
ton. when Christ calls a man To the
ministry now He at the same time
makes requisition upon the church
for all that he viii need to make
him an effective minister. The rela-
tion of the chureh's help to the preach
er's success is indicated by Paul when
he asks. How can they preach ex-
cept they be sent?" For the church
to provide the preacher with the
means to keep himself effective in his
calling is simply good business. No
man can do effective work while !
struggling with the poorhouse tomnr-
row. God does not ask nor expect
MIN to try to do so when thare is "A
church able TO relieve him of these i
things that handicap him When the |
church gets her eyes open to her obli- !
CATION TO the minister and comes to |
his financial support as God expects |
her to, one great cause of the short /
age. in question win be removed. II |
the present shortage shall have the /
effect To open her eyes to this respon- |
sibiiity. il will not have happened in |
vain. Not less than hair the preach |
ing needed to solve the problem pre- |
sented by this shortage. viii have tn !
he directed at the church.
Persecution. I
His lines have fallen in pleasant or |
provincial places indeed who has |
never heard of the unpleasant things !
that come into the life of the average
minister of the gospel. This side of !
his experience is as nroyerblai as his /
poverty. But II is not the prosecutions !
that come from without that cause the !
young man who contemplates entering
the ministry TO halt. but those that .
come from within. II is that most |