Excerpt from The Biblical World, Vol. 47
Are ministers ashamed of the ministry? Sometimes it would seem as though they were. We are often told that a minister's influence depends on himself as a "manly man," that the authority of his calling is past, that a good mixer is more needed than a prophet.
There is some truth in these statements, but more error. The ministry as a calling is still respected. When an ordinary man mounts the pulpit, his position is out of the ordinary. A little man in the pulpit often has great influence. Men who have no particular respect for his mental ability, his financial standing, his good looks, or his knowledge of literature, take him seriously because he is a minister. Go into any town or any city, and you will find that men often respect the ministry more than they respect the ministers.
Of course there are men in the ministry who are little more than social chaplains co-operatively sustained. They are bits of social rococo plastered on a community by a salary. But even these poor souls get significance because they are in the ministry. Without it they might have been physical instead of spiritual valets, manicuring men's finger nails instead of their morals.
The more a minister magnifies his calling the more effect he will have in a community. Seriousness of purpose, a contagious faith in God, a saving sense of humor, a sensible wife, and a reckless devotion to duty are vastly more important than an ability to swap stories or make flippant after-dinner speeches.
It would be a mistake to turn a country minister into an agricultural expert. A minister's spiritual success will only incidentally be dependent on his knowledge of how to raise hogs.
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