Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-12-21
CLERGYMEN TELL KEYNOTE
OF SUCCESS IN MINISTRY
Rev. PercvaI H. Barker in Sermon Series Successful
Americans, Reads Letters from Rev. Or. w. j. Dawson
Rev. Dr. James l. Vance an Rev. Or. Russell II. Conwe.

| In the third OF a course OF sermons
on the general topic, How Some Sue
cessful Americans Got Their Start"
Rev. Percival H. Barker, pastor of
Christ Reformed Church. last night
read letters from three eminent cler-
gymen. Mr.. Barker spoke on the i'm
portanee of the ministry, its grave re-
sponsibilities and the necessary quail
ifications. He said;
There is no power in the world
greater as a factor in civilization than
the human presence, whore that pres
enoe is really representative OF what
is best and strongest in humanity. A
/ living man, on his feet, erect, up
right, face uncovered, eyes looking
into your eyes, arms free for gesture
and a voice obedient to the mysterious
soul within--a soul burdened but
vitalized and stimulated with an i'm
portant message of life and death.
Personality is the greatest thing in
the world.
The three men to whom Mr.. Bar
lIer had written and whose replies he
had received were Rev. DR.. William
]. Dawson, pastor Of the First Pres
byterian Church of this city: Rev. DR..
James l. Vance, pastor First Preeby
terrain Church of Nashville, Tenn, for
merly pastor North Reformed Church
here, and Rev. DR.. Russell H. Conwell,
pastor of the Baptist Temple, Phila-
delphia.
DR.. Dawson wrote as follows:
MY intellectual life has been 30
closely bound up with my religion that
it is difficult for me to distinguish
them as separate entities. So far as
the first goes. I owe my first strong
impulse toward literature to an old
gentleman, who, when ! was very
young, gave me Burns's poems and
some other books and counselled me
to read the best literature. | might
have done this in any case, but to this
gift of books when l was a boy un-
doubtedly owe my first direct impulse
toward love of literature. At sixteen
published my first volume Of verse,
and since then l have written and
published about thirty books.
Sense Of Religion.
'Out of this early sense OF litera-
ture as an expression of the soul
grew my sense of religion as the
chief expression of the soul and Of
the Christian ministry as the noblest
form which that expression could
take. My father was q preacher. and ;
was brought UP among preachers. |
1 saw the power that they were able |
to use in the moulding of human
lives, and by the force OF the spoken |
word. It was, therefore. by a nat
ural development that l began to |
preach at sixteen. / began to preach |
under the humblest conditions in little |
village chapels. I usually walked |
about thirty miles a week ministering |
to these tiny congregations. learned |
to appreciate the dignity of charac-
ter which religion gave to these |
humble folk. for the most part peas
ants and farm laborers. I was close |
on thirty when l became a minister
of a city congregation. From that |
time onward my life has been spent |
crowds, but I have always
been debtor to the discipline of these
early years passed among simple
people.
Looking back. should say that
no man ought to enter the ministry
who can by any means keep out of it.
Unless he has call of the soul so
irresistible that he dare not refuse
it, he will not be happy in 1t. If he
has the call, woe is unto him if he |
preach not the gospel.
THE ability to do q thing is the |
call to do it. If young man has the |
ability to preach, that is his call.
But beyond ability there must be |
something else, and something rarer '