The Penn's Grove record., 1915-08-06
HEED CALL TO REST
Vacation From the Arduous Duty
of the Pulpit Is an Imper-
alive Need.

Upon the advent of the clergymen's
to their attention the disuse into
which nature themes for pulpit en-
ployment have fallen during the past
few years. A decade ago the minister
went upon his vacation prompted by
that hunger and thirst after the sweet
and quiet meditations of nature places
that has always been the source Of
truest idealizing in pulpit deliver
ances. Today the field of social reform
and the kinds of service that find ex.
preston in organized form and by in
sistent appeals, have quite supplanted
the green pastures and the still wa
tiers. The Sons Of Boanerges have
taken the place of the shepherd singer
of Israel. The interpreter Of the lilies,
the divine advocate of beauty in ma
ture forms has been set aside by the
wielder of the whip Of small cords.
The woman sweeping her house for
the piece of silver has usurped the
place in the pulpit Of seeker after the
lost sheep. Matching metal against
metal, the pulpit sounds at times like
a boiler factory by reason of the tap
ping of the hammers of denunciation
upon the bessemerized m~aterialism Of
the day. One feels like taking up the
longing of the psalmist for a lodge in
some vast wilderness. When will the
men who regard themselves as having
a mission to manifest their superficial
ingenuity in dealing with the passing
fashions of the times give place to the
men Of lesser public. mold but of
vaster ~sympathies and basic intelli-
gence, who would lead the wearied
hosts of the daily battle for bread out
into the mount of refreshment where
the Master is declaring that men shall
not live by bread alone, but by every
word that ~proceedeth out of the mouth
of God. When will they turn again
to the construction of the Scriptures
and extol such provision as that which
points to the young lions lacking and
suffering hunger in contrast with the
provident care of God, which gives as
surance that they that trust him shall
not lack any good thing. When win
they lead their focks in the shepherd
ed ways Of meditation upon the things
Of nature, pointing to the cattle upon
the thousand hills to declare unto the
poor in this worlds goods that these
are all possessions of their heavenly
father?
Majestic Nature.
How wonderfully placid is nature!
How marvelously serene its represen-
tations, how b%eneficent its changing
moods; what contrast and light and
uplift come from meditation upon
this age-old book that has been the
source of all true devotion; Of all wor-
thy idealization, of all responses to the
true things Of melody, of all creative
faculty for art depletion, of all the true
science of gracious and good living.
Nature echoes the voice Of its Maker,
who says he will keep in perfect peace
all whose minds are stayed upon him
Where will the ministers go upon
their vacations? Some will go where
The newer laws of social regeneration
are being declared in assemblies for
study and for instruction. Others will
go where the masses of men TEEN in
the thronged places Of recreation re-
sort, in order to see how their fellows
deport themselves and to observe the
glaring contrasts in human condi.
lions; yet others will go to work amid
the slums of congested cities; others
again will enter the Libraries and pur-
sue ONE favorite line of study, from
which they hope to produce yet an
other of the panacea books of the writ
ing of which there is no end and the
reading of which brings WEAKNESS to
the flesh.
Getting Back to Real Things.
Happy the true scholar, the real
idealist, the wide-visioned pastor, the
man who looks beyond the murk OF
the day and who sees the clear shin
ing of God in the smiling beauty Of an
orchid. Blessed that clergyman who
learns new litanies from the brook and
new offices from the ~interlaced and
waving branches of the trees; thrice
blessed is that leader of a we'll
instructed congregation who claims
nature unsullied as his companion and
who seeks in vacation absorption, gar
nished with a few suitable books. and
perhaps a rod and line, the communion
with nature that alone can bring clari-
fcation of view, enrichment of nature
and serenity in all times of pressure
from the little things of living. Let
the clergymen get back to nature and
let them bring nature back into the
DulDit