^0'^'^^^^^^ APR 1 9. 1915 A . BV 4010 •H42 1912 Hendrix, Eugene Russell, 1847-1927. Skilled labor for the Master SKILLED LABOR FOR THE MASTER. / BY EUGENE R. HENDRIX, D.D., LL.D., One of the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church. South. INTRODUCTION BY BISHOP C. B. GALLOWAY, D.D., LL.D. FOURTH THOUSAND. Nashville, Tenn. Dallas, Tex.; Richmond, Va. Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South. Smith & Lamar, Publishing Agents, 191^ Copyright, igoo, BY £. R. Hkndrix. DEDICATION. Jbitnte Smrrttt Henrlrbc, MY BELOVED WIFE, AND THB STMPATHETIC HELPER AND COUNSELOR OF ITINERANT MINISTRY, iii CONTENTS. PAOK Foreword vii Introduction xi I After Graduation, What ? 3 II The Obligations of Professional Life 19 III A Preacher's Bookshelves 31 IV Gristle Turned to Bone 49 V The Unmaking of a Preacher 63 VI Dead Reckoning 79 VII The Sacrifice of the Will 95 VIII The Anointed Preacher 111 IX The Ministry of Intercession 127 X The Sacrament of Suffering 143 CONTENTS. XI PAGfi Fainting Fits 151 XII The Guest of God 167 XIII • ' Letting the Light Shine " 183 XIV My Parish is the World 193 XV A Pastor's Perplexity 209 XVI The Pastor's Personal Staff 225 XVII Skilled Labor for Christ 243 XVIII Our Methodist Liturgy 253 XIX The Church of the Future 269 XX Isaiah as a City Preacher 287 vi FOREWORD. It has always been God's thought to have the best for the service of the sanctuary. For the altar there must be the firstlings of the flock, without spot or blemish ; while those who served the altar, whether priest or Levite, must be with- out physical or moral imperfection. Defective vision or hearing, maimed limbs or members, served to exclude from the service of the Lord whether in the tabernacle or temple. In requir- ing the best, Jehovah saved his people from a low estimate of what constituted worship. Da- vid showed himself to have rightly apprehended the thought and purpose of God when he said, I will not offer unto the Lord that which cost me nothing. A high estimate of religious things led to proper self-respect among the chosen people of the Lord. It showed as low a state of morals when our Lord needed to use the scourge to pu- rify the temple as when the lame of the flock were offered in sacrifice. It was only when people gave the best of their sons for priests that they gave the best of their flocks for offerings. The honor of the temple has never survived FOREWORD the honor of the priest. Religion lost its hold in France when the unfit ministered at the altars of the Church. The people no longer looked to a weak pulpit for instruction or inspiration. In the absence of men capable of preaching Christ, saints were worshiped rather than the Saviour ; so that the very churches bore the names of saints, and none bore the name of Christ. Re- ligion was no longer a thing of the intellect or heart, but simply of the sentiments. Protestant- ism does well to take heed to the danger which attends a weak pulpit. Christ, the great Teach- er, has never lost his hold upon the thought of the world save as his ambassadors have failed to grasp and interpret his teaching. The greatest Thinker in the universe, the very author of let- ters, who comes to guide us into all truth, makes Christ and his teaching his constant theme. To every one seeking rightly to divide the word of truth, and thus become a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, the example and help of this Master Workman, the Holy Spirit, are promised and given. This volume is not written to combat preju- dice against an educated ministry such as Augus- tine needed to meet in his day, when neglect of FOREWORD training was resulting in the deterioration of the Church. It is rather designed to stimulate and save from arrested development any whose ideals are less than the highest. It was the great and devout Olin who said, "Not to study is only less wicked in a preacher than not to pray." It was a wise maxim which Bengel gave to the preacher : "Ap- ply your whole self to your subject and your whole subject to yourself." No true preacher fails to measure the benefit which his preaching may be to others by the good which he himself gets from it. It is because reflection on the themes of these pa- pers has been helpful to the writer, as during the past decade he has written down his thoughts- some on board ship and others in the quiet of his library— that, after their appearance in different papers and reviews (the consent of the different publishers being given), he has yielded to urgent and numerous requests for their publication in more permanent form. While I have hoped for good which might come to all Christian workers who should become readers of this book, I have had chiefly in mind the seven hundred and twen- ty-five ministers whom I have ordained and the more than five thousand whose appointments I have announced (with less than one per cent. ix FOREWORD of ccmplaints), during the seventy sessions of Annual Conferences in our own land and in the great mission fields which I have been permitted to attend. A bishop is "a pastor of pastors," whose duty to his flock is that he go in and out before them and find pasture. But none can bring another nearer to the great Shepherd of souls than he himself is. No one who has ever been a pastor can look back on those delightful days without gratitude to a gracious Lord who counted him faithful, put- ting him into this ministry, and, at the same time, without humiliation that he was not more worthy of that confidence and had not made fuller proof of his ministry. Conscious of how far short my own ministry and work for Christ have fallen of the ideal which I have sought to present in these papers, I venture to send forth this volume on its intended mission of counsel and help. For the excellent Index the reader is indebted to the "skilled labor" of Mr. John L. Kirby, the able and accurate assistant to the Book Editor. NoRLEDGE Place, Kansas City, Mo., March 14, 1900. INTRODUCTION. BY BISHOP CHARLES B. GALLOWAY. This is a timely and thought-provoking book, written with a holy purpose, and sure of a wide and beneficent mission. It was born in the heart of an earnest and able minister, and of his divine concern for the larger usefulness and deep- er consecration of his brethren and fellow-labor- ers. The title is suggestive, and every page in- structive. These are not the thoughts of idle half hours, but the seasoned products of much labor and earnest prayer. One cannot escape the impression that some fervent paragraphs were penned when the devout author was sitting very close to the feet of his Lord. Emphasis is rightly put upon honesty in the ministry — honesty in dealing with the great veri- ties of the gospel and the spiritual needs of the people. The times demand, not surface views and superficial exhortation, but profound study and able exposition. The Church needs, not popular pulpiteers who please sinners by denoun- cing the saints, but Spirit-filled prophets, anoint- INTRODUCTION ed of God, and burdened for souls. We want a "ministry of axes" ; but the ax laid at the root of the tree must be wielded by a skilled as well as a strong arm. Trained service is most efficient, and nowhere is skill more needed than in the service of our Lord. Those summoned to places of toil and trust in Christ's kingdom should have mental and spiritual training as well as religious fervor and fire. A mere desire to serve is not sufficient qualification for service. Passion for the sea does not make a great sailor. Eagerness to de- fend the flag of one's country does not make a hero or a capable leader of armies. So a zeal for the Lord's house does not constitute one an efficient worker. This impulse, fired by divine love, must not be lacking. This desire should become a passion ; this eagerness a sanctified im- patience ; this zeal all-consuming ; but should be guided by a trained eye and practiced hand. A few years ago one of the great Atlantic liners was driven against the rocks on the Irish coast. Fortunately every soul on board escaped safely to land, but the majestic ship, which had outridden many storms, after awhile yielded to the beating of the billows and went to pieces, xii INTRODUCTION The commander of the vessel was tried before a proper tribunal and suspended from further serv- ice on the sea. So vast are the interests involved that no one can be intrusted with command who betrays the slightest negligence or incapacity. And yet in this larger commerce between two worlds — in this more perilous voyage over the sea of life — anybody is thought competent to guide, any untrained hand can hold the wheel, any unpracticed eye can take the daily reckon- ings. Who can tell how many vessels have gone down beneath the waves, not because there were no lights along the shore, but because there was ignorance and negligence in command.'' Mr. Wesley, the accomplished Oxford scholar and great leader in a providential movement — who knew the value of special training — made his Annual Conferences, as far as possible, sup- ply the lack of theological and Bible schools. Earnest, prayerful conversations were held on three prominent, practical topics : «* What to teach. How to teach. What to dor The Oxford Methodists studied the Greek Tes- tament as a qualification for Christian work, xiii INTRODUCTION Out from their room, in Lincoln College, they went to the jails and market places to teach sin- ners the way to their Saviour. In this valuable volume earnest pastors will find helpful suggestions in their parish perplexities, and all preachers a fresh inspiration to a more careful and prayerful pulpif preparation. May it contribute to that great revival of evangelical fervor and power for which so many have ear- nestly prayed. Ours has been a revival minis- try ; hence the marvelous growth of Methodism. What we were in the beginning, and through the years of a history scarcely less than a perpetual miracle, we should be now and for all time. This we need to prevent lapsing into what Ruskin so severely characterizes as a "dramatic Christianity of the organ and the aisle, of dawn service and twilight revival — a gas-lighted and gas-inspired Christianity." Our divine solicitude for the salvation of oth- ers is the measure of our religion. The high desire that others may be blest Savors of heaven. The love which prompted the Lord's coming constrains our going. Under its impulse we pro- claim the truth he revealed — we propagate what INTRODUCTION he disclosed — we continue what he began. To the end that this timely and able book from the pen of my beloved friend and honored colleague may kindle a holier zeal in all our ministry and improve their skill in vhe service of our common Lord, I hope it may have a wide circulation and a devout reading. And I would ask each reader to remember that " he serves Jesus best who serves the neediest of men in their greatest need." Jackson, Miss. AFTER GRADUATION, WHAT? 1 Life is probation, and the earth no goal But starting point for man; compel him strive, Which means in man as good as reach the goal. — Brownittg, 'Tis life, whereof our nerves are scant, Oh, life, not death, for which we pant. More life, and fuller, that I want. -—Tennyson^ AFTER GRADUATION, WHAT? The Conference graduate has for at least four years been working according to a plan. A course of study for each of those four years had to be pursued, and an examination of greater or less thoroughness had, in order to pass the successive steps that lead first to Conference membership and deacon's orders, and, finally, to the office and work of an eld- er in the Church of God. Up to that time he has been instructed that it appertaineth to the office of deacon to assist the elder in divine service, and the very limitations of his office relieved him of some grave responsibilities. But as he is ordained an elder, after complet- ing his required studies, he is exhorted to have in remembrance into how high a dignity and to what weighty an office he is called, as a messenger, a watchman, and a steward of the Lord, to teach and premonish, to feed and provide for the Lord's family, to seek for Christ's sheep who are dispersed abroad, and 3 SKILLED LABOR FOR THE MASTER for his children who are in the midst of this evil world, that they may be saved through Christ forever. The responsibility of the engineer who is for the first time put in charge of a locomotive, or of the physician who is called to his first case, is small com- pared with his who has the cure of souls. While the exigencies of the work often call men prematurely to such responsibility, and habits are formed before a high ideal is fixed in the mind of the young preacher, the original conception and practice of the Church was that during the undergraduate period the elder, in receiving the assistance of the younger preacher, should aid him with his counsel in his studies and work, and thus prepare him for the solemn hour when he should have a charge of his own. Elisha must be *' a son of a prophet" before he can take Elijah's place as a prophet of the Lord. Much wholesome advice is given the un- dergraduate, aside from the regular studies which are mapped out for him. But the graduate is left without any suggestion as to AFTER GRADUATION, V/HAT ? his best studies, while in the very hour of his ordination he is exhorted to draw all his cares and studies toward his holy work, that he may wax riper and stronger in his ministry. He solemnly promises to be diligent in studies which may help to the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, yet often his bookshelves remain barren of all save his text-books for the Con- ference course, and sometimes of those. The books of reference recommended to the un- dergraduate are almost as important as the required studies, and would do much to quicken the mind and heart. To take up these would be of great service in increasing the strength of the young preacher. Many of them require more than reading, and to master some would make a thinker. Mr. Gladstone in early life found such an intel- lectual stimulus in studying Butler's ** Analo- gy " that he renewed that study from time to time during his entire public life; and when he retired at last from the cares of leadership it was to resume the study of Butler's great work, and to give the world of letters the re- sult of these lifetime studies. The classics 5 SKILLED LABOR FOR THE MASTER among these recommended or required books will put the iron into any man's blood. One accustomed to such food will crave the most nourishing diet for brain and heart. Doubtless the strength of many of the fathers was due to the books which they had mastered. Fit they were, though few. They knew Watson, and they were able to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God's word by the help of that great thinker. What Blackstone is to the lawyer, that Watson is to the preacher. While neither is faultless, and each needs to be supplemented by the study of later writers, yet the reading of such a work as Watson's ''Institutes" introduces the student to one who *' reasons like Paley, and descants like Hall." One may well return again and again to a work which has called forth the unstinted praise of some of the greatest intellects of Edinburgh and of Princeton. Robert Hall himself said of Watson: ''He soars into re- gions of thought where no genius but his own can penetrate." The thoughts of such a consecrated genius on the great themes of 6 AFTER GRADUATION, WHAT? redemption are almost a theological training to him who masters them. The Conference graduate who is wise will lose no time in thoroughly reviewing his whole course of undergraduate studies. Whatever the leniency of the examining com- mittees in pronouncing his an approved ex- amination, he himself best knows his de- ficiency in given studies. Letters seeking advice often state that the writer, while pass- ing his examinations, feels poorly equipped for the work of the ministry. Is the course of study inadequate? No, it has not been mastered. The text-books have been read, but not digested. The memory has been taxed, but the intellect has not been duly em- ployed. The reasoning powers have not suf- ficiently analyzed the subjects to be really strengthened. The memory, after a little, no longer holds that for which the mind cannot give a reason. The great themes which have been treated in the text-books seldom, if ever, are treated in the pulpit. The mind is still unfamiliar with them, and is not drawn to them. Perplexed hearers seeking light on SKILLED LABOR FOR THE MASTER the resurrection, the atonement, the divinity of Christ, the personality of the Holy Spirit, the inspiration of the Scriptures, can get no help from men who have never thought deep- ly on these great themes, but who have sim- ply crammed for an examination, and have been at best able only to tell what some one author has said about them. Schiller, in his ** Maid of Orleans,'' said: " Only France could conquer the French." When the army was no longer supported by the people, the nation was doomed to defeat. Only Methodists can destroy Methodism. It will be our own fault if we do not have a stronger ministry, either through our remiss- ness in admitting unprepared men into it or in failing to employ rigid self-discipline to overcome the wrong done when one awakes to that fact. A minister in the long run draws his own element. If he be sensation- al, his crowd will be the superficial and the thoughtless, who will come not for **the three heads," but for ''the nine tales" of (what, because I cannot call his sermon, I must call) his performance. The thoughtful in the com- 8 AFTER GRADUATION, WHAT f munity'will tire of a pulpit that does not feed them. Professional men, men of affairs, crave something for the brain as well as the heart, and look forward to the Sabbath when they shall be made stronger by thoughts which can be meditated upon for an entire week. Be- cause of the energy and searching character of the preaching of the Rev. Thomas Shepard, and his skill in detecting errors, the location of Harvard College was determined to be at Cambridge. The pulpit which can bring a great college into existence, and mold its thought for years, becomes the mightiest force in any community. Thoughtful laymen are asking why stronger men do not fill our pul- pits now, and they are casting anxious eyes upon those who have been permitted to pass the examining committees in the different churches. The following from the Interior may ap- peal to the self-respect of any who deem that they are in their place in the ministry through the laxity of their examiners and vv^ithout the mastery of the required course of study. It is to such laxity in part that are traceable 9 SKILLED LABOR FOR THE MASTER ^* the losses of Presbyterianism," as well as of Methodism, which are now engaging the anxious thought of our best minds in both Churches : It is true that the ministerial brethren in Presbytery are tenderly reluctant to exclude a candidate under ex- amination for the gospel ministry. The elders defer largely to the opinions of the ministers, but close obser- vation would show that if they were taking the lead they would often vote against candidates where the ministers would vote for them. Three elders, lately returning from Presbytery, were discussing the examinations of certain candidates just held, and all agreed that they ought not to have been received. One said of the can- didates: "Grown men ought to be ashamed to ask ad- mission under the conscious knowledge that their exam- inations had discovered their lack of preparation, and that if received at all it would be by throwing themselves upon the sympathy of Presbytery." This elder was a schoolmaster, and quickly discovered the weak spot both in the candidates and in the ministers. Yet the minis- ters do continually admit weak men because of their sympathies. . . . The result is, that having granted as a favor what they ought to have been compelled to acknowledge as a divine right, the brethren treat such newcomers with condescension and pass them over in the whole make-up and transaction of presbyterial busi- ness. These inferior men are helped by the Home Mis- sion Committee to some feeble country charge, and they lO AFTER GRADUATION, WHAT? drift from one such to another, leaving something of wreckage at each place as they go. There being a super- abundance of such material, all the better equipped men naturally and necessarily watch out for the stronger churches of towns and cities. The rural churches are thus getting more and more into the hands of incompe- tent ministers, of whom it has more than once been urged in Presbytery that " we must have such men, who will be willing to supply our poor and country charges." . . . Times have changed indeed, but the people are still in the country, and our great Presbyterian Church ought to insist that not a single man shall enter our min- istry who is not qualified, so far as schooling goes, to stand without shame beside any other minister in the land. It is not true that scholarly and high-bred young men from our seminaries will not take up work with poor rural churches. They will; and they will make them centers of culture and godliness, though they be financially weak. But if the Presbytery continue to gather in culls from all denominations, and receive in- competents through sympathy, or the mistaken notion that we must have inferior men for poor fields, instead of demanding the best for every church, we shall ere long see our noble past trailed in the dust. . . . Let us commit the Word unto those who are able to teach oth- ers also. But despite the low standard of examina- tion for admission to the bar, there are great lawyers; and although the country is full of SKILLED LABOR FOR THE MASTER physicians who have always been ill prepared for their work, yet many eminent men have adorned the medical profession. In either case it has usually been due to a fresh start. Men have mastered what they had simply read before. In some instances they have been wise enough to take extra courses of lectures, which have marked an epoch in their lives. I saw at Fort Monroe some years ago a school of instruction in ballistics, where many army officers, after years of service, had come to pursue new studies in mathe- matics and gunnery. Such postgraduate work has made the British navy, and enabled our own navy to astonish the world by the proficiency of our seamen and navigators, the men on the bridge and behind the guns. The men who were not content with having sim- ply passed the early examinations which se- cured them a commission or a diploma are those who have paid the debt which, as Lord Bacon says, every man owes to his own profession. Character is nowhere more apparent than in a man's course when he is left to himself 12 AFTER GRADUATION, WHAT? and can choose his own tasks and determine his own hours and methods of work. Indo- lence and lying, which are said to be the be- setting sins of humanity, are also the tempta- tions, if no more, of the man of God. These are Satan's agencies for the unmaking of a preacher. The fact that in our Methodism every preacher has a charge, and every church a pastor, is not without its temptations to the Conference graduate who is now sure of work so long as he remains an itinerant. In the Northern Presbyterian Church one in every eight of the churches is without a pas- tor, and one in every eight of the ministers is without a church. In the Congregational Church the conditions are even more serious, for one in every six churches is without a pastor, and one in every three Congregational preachers is without a charge. Weak men cannot build up strong churches, and many a preacher finds that while he is employed as a supply the people hesitate about making him their pastor in the hope of doing better. But for our economy many a Conference gradu- ate would still be looking for a call, and many 13 SKILLED LABOR FOR THE MASTER a church would be inviting candidates. In the meantime, as in some other denomina- tions, individual churches would become so weak that after remaining long without serv- ices they would be tempted to mortgage their church property to meet the scanty claim of a preacher. Paul's deep solicitude for the character of the men who were to compose the ministry appears in the repeated phrase, *' apt to teach," which he deemed a necessary quali- fication of a preacher. To Timothy he writes among the last words which he ever wrote: **Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." The perils of each period of the world's his- tory require strong men in the pulpit. After specifying some of the evils of his time, Paul says to Timothy: *' If thou put the brethren in mind of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished [or, as it is well put by Bishop Ellicott's Commentary, AFTER GRADUATION, WHAT? ever training thyself] in the words of the faith, and of the good doctrine which thou hast followed." This self-training which an apostle urges upon the preacher becomes the supreme duty of the Conference graduate, whatever his ed- ucational opportunities. Unless one is first apt to learn, he will not be apt to teach. The messenger of God must be first sure of his message. Unless he is strong in the certain- ty of his message as being the very mind of God, concluded and proved from the Holy Scriptures, he cannot long respect himself. The learning in the sermon must first be in the man, no less than its fire and pathos. Unless the fuel of thought be in the heart, we cannot expect the tongue of fire. IS THE OBLIGATIONS OF PROFES- SIONAL LIFE. 'Tis not what man Does which exalts him, but What man Would do. — Browning-, To start thee on thy outrunning race, Christ shows the splendor of his face; What shall that face of splendor be When at the goal he welcomes thee? — Rosseiti. II THE OBLIGATIONS OF PROFESSIONAL LIFE. A NOTABLE feature of our times is the large increase in the number of persons seeking to devote themselves to profes- sional life. Nearly one million of our pop- ulation were enrolled by the last census- tak- ers as engaged in professional service, and of these about a third were women. In fact, the largest number reported as engaged in any one profession was 342,811, who were teachers, and of these 245,230 were women. Physicians and surgeons come next, and number over 100,000, nearly 5,000 being women. Lawyers, who number nearly 90,- 000, barely exceed those enrolled as clergy- men, including the 1,235 women in the latter profession as against the 208 enrolled as lawyers. Government officials come next, an army of nearly 80,000, including nearly 5,000 women, and under the civil service SKILLED LABOR FOR THE MASTER rules doubtless dignifying their new profes-> sion. Engineers (civil, mechanical, electric- al, and mining) soon follow, more than 40,- 000 strong, with over a hundred women among the number. As musicians and teachers of music more than 60,000 are en- rolled, the women outnumbering the men; and of the more than 20,000 artists and teachers of art nearly half are women. There is not a single profession in which women do not appear by the hundred, save only in that of architects, where they reach only a few more than a score. As dentists, journalists, designers, and inventors, authors, actors, and even as theatrical managers and showmen, women are numerous, while 735 appear as professors in colleges. Thus far the government hasVecognized only some sixteen forms of professional service; but it seems probable that some that are now known as occupations may a few years hence be designated as professions. Formerly the ministry, law, and medicine were known spe- cifically as the professions; but as the appli- cations of science and learning are extended 20 OBLIGATIONS OF PROFESSIONAL LIFE to Other departments of affairs, other voca- tions also receive the name. A profession is the calling or occupation which one professes to understand and to follow. It is a vocation in which a professed knowledge of some de- partment of science or learning is used by its practical application to affairs of others, either in advising, or teaching them, or in serving their welfare or interests in the prac- tice of an art founded upon it. The word im- plies professed attainments in special knowl- edge as distinguished from mere skill; a practical dealing with affairs as distinguished from mere study or investigation ; and an ap- plication of such knowledge to uses for oth- ers as a vocation as distinguished from its pursuit for one's own purposes. The whole idea of a profession is based upon the claim of special preparation for a specific work in the interests of others. The statutes in many if not all states, therefore, authorize arrest in civil action for misconduct in profession- al employment. A professional man is thus not only a servant of the public, but one who in bidding for patronage professes spe- SKILLED LABOR FOR THE MASTER cial equipment of a scientific or literary char- acter for that service. While a professional man is in some im- portant sense a specialist, he owes it to his clients or patrons to be more. A man needs to be a lawyer rather than an advocate, a theologian rather than a preacher, a doctor rather than a practitioner. It is the full man that makes the great professional man. This makes possible the light from above which the successful man is able to focus where it is most needed. Out of his general knowl- edge the lawyer is able to know how to spe- cialize in a given case in order to b-ecome the great advocate, and the theologian to be- come a convincing and successful preacher. Division of labor narrows life and makes it mechanical, if one will not look beyond his specialty. The debt which Lord Bacon said that every man owed to his profession is to enrich it not only with greater skill but larger knowledge as well. The professions, now estranged from each other, and like rivers making their own channels to the sea, have a common starting point in science and knowl- OBLIGATIONS OF PROFESSIONAL LIFE edge which feed them all, as the eternal snows feed the water courses, whether they seek the Atlantic or the Gulf. Rufus Choate once wrote to Charles Sumner: '' Out of Edmund Burke can be cut 50 Mackintoshes, 175 Macaulays, 40 Jeffreys, 250 Sir Robert Peels, and leave him greater than Fox and Pitt together." It is very essential to keep in mind the dif- ference between a business and a profession. In a business a man may avow that his aim is to acquire wealth, and so be influenced by regard for selfish interests, even while seeking patronage on the score of superior judgment in selecting his goods. He calls his wares ''goods" in recognition of the fact that he must furnish things that are good while thus seeking a fortune. But by the terms of a profession a man becomes a serv- ant of others, and while the motive to ac- quire wealth may not be lacking, its avowal, or even presence as a supreme consideration, would be fatal to professional service. The noblest profession may be degraded by a low motive, while the humblest may be ennobled SKILLED LABOR FOR THE MASTER by a lofty one. In short, without the con- stant presence of a worthy motive, which ever seeks the best fruits in the fields of science and learning to be shared by his clients, the professional man becomes a drudge and his work irksome. He lacks sym- pathy with his own profession and all other professions, because he is no longer re- freshed from the heights which belong in common to all the professions. A scant stream can never become a millrace. It is the abundant life of the bounding brook, that has been fed from the eternal snows, which turns the mighty wheels of industry and makes the great rivers of commerce. The man who tires of his profession is apt to be a stranger to that abundant life. All professional life has its origin in human needs. The original three professions may almost be said to have had their origin in human infirmities which endangered the soul, the life, the property of men, and thus re- quired the help of the minister, the physi- cian, and the lawyer. While these stood pledged to bring the best knowledge and 24 OBLIGATIONS OF PROFESSIONAL LIFE skill to minister to humanity in its needs, in that very effort they have contributed to the length as well as the security and happi- ness of human life. The doctor must know- more than to heal disease ; by proper sanita- tion he must show how it is to be prevented. The lawyer not only recovers stolen proper- ty, but prepares deeds and wills so accurate- ly that no advantage can be taken of his client. The minister is more than the preach- er of righteousness; he is the teacher, the expounder of truth and of exceeding great and precious promises, the comforter and counselor. The professions minister not only to the wants of humanity, but through art and architecture, through music and lit- erature, they minister to taste as well. In each of them the idea of ministering or serv- ice is paramount. The professions exist for the betterment of the race. The spirit of self-sacrifice must be present to make the professional man the servant of humanity. Like the Great Teacher and the Good Phy- sician, his motto will be, *'Not to be min- istered unto, but to minister." 25 SKILLED LABOR FOR THE MASTER One of the four golden pillars upon which the account of our Lord's life rests is fur- nished by " the beloved physician." - It was his fullness of preparation for his profession in that day which makes his narrative so at- tractive, as his trained powers of observa- tion and of statement contribute to make Luke's Gospel what Renan calls **the most beautiful book in the world." Moreover, Luke's love of humanity makes him the sym- pathetic disciple and the faithful historian. We are prepared to see the good physician become the fellow-traveler and fellow-worker with the apostle who had been brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, and to read from his pen how '*the doctor of the law, had in rep- utation among all the people," pleaded for just treatment toward the apostles who had been cast into prison. It is in ministering to humanity in its most sacred hours that the preacher, the physician, and the lawyer are found together in the chamber where the good man meets his fate, which is privi- leged beyond the common walks of life. Each brings not only his best skill, but his 26 OBLIGATIONS OF PROFESSIONAL LIFE best knowledge of his profession, that wheth- er the ministry be to the body or to the soul, it may be worthy of perfect confidence. While these still represent the learned pro- fessions and have learned to make the name honorable, they are now joined by many others who have helped to create new profes- sions because capable of ministering to hu- manity in its intellectual, physical, and spirit- ual needs. Noblesse oblige belongs to professional life in our day as really as to the nobility of the past. Not only rank, but profession, im- poses obligation. Profession gives rank. Men capable of high ideals have changed the newspaper from a mere gatherer of news into a mighty agency in molding public opin- ion. Journalism is a profession to those who make it such, but to others it is a trade. It is one of the hopeful features of our day to see the evolution of a trade into a profession, as well as to witness the denial of profession- al privileges to those who are unmindful of professional obligations. While the Christian ministry is more than 27 SKILLED LABOR FOR THE MASTER a profession in that '* no one taketh on him this office save he that was called of God as was Aaron," yet viewed from below it is still a profession, whatever else it may be; and men do rinrht in holdins^ a minister to all that he professes to know and to teach, as well as to be, as one who believes himself called of God to the holy ministry. The ob- ligations of professional life are upon him. 28 A PREACHER'S BOOKSHELVES. Where'er a noble deed is wrought, Where'er is spoken a noble thought, Our hearts in glad surprise To higher levels rise. The tidal wave of deeper souls Int-o our inmost being rolls. And lifts us unawares Out of all meaner cares. — Lotigfellow, I am the owner of the sphere, Of the seven stars and the solar year, Of Caesar's hand, and Plato's brain, Of Lord Christ's heart, and Shakespeare's strain. —Emerson. m A PREACHER'S BOOKSHELVES. A MAN no more builds himself into his house than he does into his bookshelves. Personal peculiarities show themselves in brick or stone or wood, if the man can build as he wishes, and the plan or decorations or materials some- how tell the character of the man who has thus built himself into the structure. The arrangements tell of an orderly mind or of one indifferent to system. If such is the case in a home where the wishes of many need to be consulted, more true is it of the library for personal use that it reflects the mental peculi- arities of its owner, who is usually its founder as well. Often a mere glance at its ** Homi- letical Commentaries," its *' Books of Skele- tons," its " Sermon Helps," its *' Pulpit Illus- trations," which constitute the major part of its stores, shows that the preacher has been building a library and a ministerial outfit un- der a mistaken notion as to how to meet his 31 SKILLED LABOR FOR THE MASTER real needs. Such a library is more of a **museum of crutches " than a table spread with nourishing food for the brain and heart as well as the hands and feet. A nourished brain and a glowing heart are the best '* pul- pit helps." These canned goods on a preach- er's bookshelves can never put much iron in the blood or gray matter in the brain. Better is the farmer who now and then kills a beef, or who raises his own mutton, than one whose food comes in the form of tinned goods, how- ever attractive the labels or celebrated the brands. The ruddy cheek and the clear eye tell of good digestion and of strong limbs made stronger, which the dyspeptic may never hope for who lives on the culls from the packing houses intended for the indolent dwellers in the tropics. Happy is that preacher who has either es- caped such folly or who can see his mistake, and hastens to get rid of this waste on his bookshelves. Such books are as bad as stim- ulants which excite but never nourish, and leave the patient unstrengthened and needing a larger draught the next time. But the mor- A PREACHER S BOOKSHELVES al question involved is more serious than the question of intellectual poverty. Such scrap work as comes from the use of these books is not sermon-making, and the use of the fin- ished product of somebody else's brain, with- out giving full credit, undermines the char- acter of the preacher who does it, and dis- counts his pulpit. Better a bonfire for the heat which will be produced by all such helps being cast into the flames than any real help which may come from them to the preacher or his people. To analyze for oneself some great sermon of another, to separate its exegesis from its argument, to verify its positions from the Holy Scriptures, to distinguish the limits of its application, to note its figures of speech and the character of its illustrations, is an in- tellectual exercise of a high order, and may be to a preacher what an analytical study of a great masterpiece is to an artist in helping to make him a painter. One such sermon as that preached before Oxford University by Canon Mozley on **The Reversal of Human Judgment" may be read aloud alone or in 3 33 SKILLED LABOR FOR THE MASTER company with a fellow-preacher or in one's family; and while its searching truths may prove a spiritual tonic for a twelvemonth, the careful study of its argument may mark an intellectual epoch in one's ministry. So of Dr. Chalmers's sermon on *'The Expulsive Power of a New Affection," or of John Wes- ley's on *'The Great Assize," or of Robert Hall's on *' Without God in the World," or of Richard Watson's on '* Man Magnified by the Divine Regard." Lord Chatham said that a large part of his early discipline consisted in translating the masterpieces of certain orators and histori- ans, and that this clothing of the thoughts of another in a dress which was at once ** close and easy" not only gave him so ample a vo- cabulary, but was the best means of acquir- ing a forcible and expressive style. He knew how to use words as an artist does colors, by mixing them with his brains. He paid a trib- ute to the pulpit that he never paid to the masters of style among the Greeks and Ro- mans by reading and rereading the sermons of Dr. Isaac Barrow so that he knew many 34 A PREACHER S BOOKSHELVES of them by heart. Holding in memory and in his mental structure the fruits of such studies, he attributed largely to Barrow his copious and choice diction. He even took time twice to go through the best dictionary published before Johnson's, and examined each word, that he might the better under- stand its import and construction, and thus bring the whole range of our language under his control. To see how others used lan- guage, and especially such a master of speech as Barrow, made his studies of the great ora- tions or sermons of others an intellectual de- light. If a statesman should be so helped by studying sermons, how much additional ben- efit may a preacher get from the masters of assemblies who have left us some of their great arguments and impassioned appeals. Such a work as Goodrich's " British Elo- quence," giving the best speeches of the most eminent orators, is more valuable than all "Illustrative Readings" or ready-made il- lustrations for the pulpit. Even better would be Fish's *' Masterpieces of Pulpit Elo- quence," going back to the days of Chrys- 35 SKILLED LABOR FOR THE MASTER ostom, or Fish's ** Pulpit Eloquence of the Nineteenth Century." Such studies would prevent one's taking as his model any one preacher like Bascom or Munsey and copy- ing his faults rather than his merits of style. Often next to their great masterpieces the lives of these strong sons of God in the pulpit and of the Christian heroes in the mission fields are found most helpful in stimulating the preacher in his study and work. Dr. Jo- seph Parker, of London, said recently that when he became despondent or weak he took down the volumes that treat of the heroic la- bors of the early Methodist itinerants and missionaries, and that soon the despondent mood passed away. Every Church has its calendar of saints, with whose lives and work we may do well to become familiar. I placed in the hands of one of our best preachers Parkman's ** Jesuits in North America," and he told me that he could not sleep the night he finished it, so moved was he by the heroes of the Catholic faith who counted not their lives dear unto them in their work among the Indians who delighted to torture them. 36 A preacher's bookshelves Not less helpful is Uhlhorn's ** Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism," or the life of such a moral hero as Jonathan Edwards or Thomas Chalmers or John Witherspoon, one of the signers of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, and whose inspiring words and example secured other signatures to that his- toric document that so nearly failed of its passage. Among missionaries one cannot af- ford to miss the life of David Livingstone, or of Alexander Mackay, whom Stanley pro- nounced as ''next to Livingstone, the great missionary of our day"; and, above all, of the life of John Paton, which has quickened the missionary pulse of more preachers than any other work of the present generation, as the lives of Henry Martyn and of Adoniram Judson did the pulse of the last generation. Such great sermons and so heroic and self- sacrificing lives help to show a preacher both what to do and what to be. Such books are not dry skeletons, but living, speaking, suf- fering, conquering men who dwell in one's librar}^, and, on our invitation, preach again to us and recite the triumphs of the cross, 37 SKILLED LABOR FOR THE MASTER whether in the wilds of America or of Africa, whether amoncr the mobs of Great Britain or of the South Sea Islands. Such a book as the ** Life of Arnold of Rugby " shames the cowardice out of a preacher, and Frederick Robertson has taught a personal loyalty to Christ that has made a man heroic amid the commonplaces and attritions of life. One may forget that he followeth not after us when he sees such a lofty spirit casting out devils in Christ's name. Whatever else a preacher has on his book- shelves, he needs to get the best in four great departments of theology, such as bibhcal or exegetical theology, which will help to inter- pret and understand the Holy Scriptures; systematic or dogmatic theology, in which department are the orderly and systematic statements of doctrines with the reasons or arguments sustaining them ; historical theol- ogy, or the history of the Church of Christ from and including the apostles of our Lord; and practical theology, which treats of the preparation and delivery of sermons, the du- ties of the pastorate, and the proper devel- 38 A PREACHER S BOOKSHELVES opment of the man himself as a leader and shepherd of the flock of Christ. Such a foundation, well laid in carefully selected works, makes sure the basis of a growing power as a student and preacher of the Word. Without these as a basis, a preacher's libra- ry would be like a physician's library lack- ing in works on anatomy, physiology, hy- giene, antiseptics, chemistry. The parallel lines of reading given above help to secure both a thorough and symmetrical culture as a preacher, and they should be constantly pursued. No year should pass without some work is done in each line, if one is seeking to be thoroughly furnished unto every good word and work as a minister of Christ. Many a monograph is being written on some one doc- trine, or period of Church history, on some one book of the Bible, or some best method of Christian work, which will find its place under one of these four heads — biblical, dog- matic, historical, practical — on the most im- portant of a preacher's bookshelves. Next in importance as helping to illumine the condition of mankind, both with and 39 SKILLED LABOR FOR THE MASTER without Christianity, is a shelf of carefully selected works bearing on general history, such as Fisher's, as well as special histories like Gibbon's '* Decline and Fall of the Ro- man Empire" (in many respects the best history of the Church as well). Macaulay, Mommsen's Rome, or Curtius's Greece, Motley and Prescott, and especially Park- man, in his " Old France in the New World " and his other historical works bearing on early American history, are invaluable. The great essayists, like Macaulay, Car- lyle, Emerson, are still valuable; and some, like Bacon and John Foster, specially helpful to a preacher. In philosophy Hamilton, Lotze, McCosh, and Bowne will prepare the way for others as they may be needed. In poetry it is desirable that the preach- er should have the best, like Dante, Mil- ton, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Browning. Ward's "English Poets" in four volumes is specially commended as giving a critical estimate of each poet with some of his best selections. Of the great 40 poets named it is desirable to have all their works, but for the others Ward's will suffice until one's taste is formed. A capital way of studying poetry, or any literature of a given period, is to connect it with some great religious leader and study the two as contemporaries, as John Wyclif and Chaucer, or John Knox and Latimer with Luther and Calvin and the times of Henry VIIL Take Milton and Cromwell, or Wesley and Edmund Burke and Bishop Joseph Butler, and the study of the contemporary history will define the conditions of thought and life and so help to interpret the age. To know that in Shakespeare's time there were comparatively few able to read will help to explain the great hold of the drama then as a means of popular instruction, and also the popularity of the ballad. Whitefield's youth- ful studies of Shakespeare gave him great power in seeking to interpret truth to the masses who were accustomed to receive their instruction through the eye or the ear and from the stage. Some men would be great- ly helped by Scott's Waverley Novels in their 41 SKILLED LABOR FOR THE MASTER appeal to the imagination, as they clothe given historical events in very flesh and blood. Such a work as Canon Farrar's **From Darkness to Dawn ' ' is most valuable in giv- ing a vivid and accurate study of the times of Nero, as Edersheim's '*Life and Times of Jesus" does of the Jewish people and their customs and habits of thought when our Lord dwelt among them. The English language is specially rich in the literature of the pulpit which has done so much in creating a standard of correct style since the days of the judicious Hooker. The Bampton Lectures belong to this class, as well as Liddon's and MacLaren's Sermons and the works of Bruce, Fairbairn, and George Adam Smith, to say nothing of those great Englishmen like Lightfoot, Westcott, Ellicott, whose sermons and essays and ad- dresses add luster, if possible, to the names of these great interpreters and commentators. Stanley's Lectures on the Jewish Church and on the Eastern Church have marked with a white stone the day in which the student be- gan to read them. 43 A preacher's bookshelves As to commentaries, no one writer is suffi- ciently strong to treat with equal ability all of the books of the Bible ; so that commentaries on the whole Bible by any one writer are found to be less desirable than commenta- ries on given books by scholars who have specialized on them. This is the attractive feature of Bishop ElHcott's '* Commentary on the Bible," in which that great biblical scholar consents to supervise the work of a number of the best scholars, suggesting changes now and then as editor of the whole, but permitting the selected commentator on each book to give his final and independent view after full consideration of the points raised. As a result, the '* Expositor" pro- nounces this high estimate on the work: **No commentary designed for English readers comes anywhere near it, whether for spiritual insight and suggestiveness, or exact scholar- ship, or wide erudition, or resolute handling of difficulties, or that fearless freedom of in- terpretation which springs from an absolute confidence in the sanctity and power of truth." This great work in eight volumes is 43 SKILLED LABOR FOR THE MASTER sold to ministers for ten dollars and fifty cents, its original cost being forty-eight dollars. While based on the Authorized Version, the able scholars are abreast of all the questions raised by the different manuscripts. Although Dr. Schaff was the American editor of Lange's Commentary, he once pronounced it "a conti- nent of mud — with a gold mine underneath." Many a day has been lost by the student in looking for that gold mine which he has never found, and Lange is now no longer sought. Better far is a single commentary like Broadus on Matthew, in showing a preacher how to study and interpret the word of God, than twenty such books as Lange's. Whedon, too, called to his help a number of good scholars in preparing his commentary; and although it still remains incomplete, it will be found most helpful. Stanley's "Sinai and Palestine" and Thompson's '* Land and Book " are valuable, while George Adam Smith's "Historical Ge- ography of the Holy Land" is a masterpiece. Hastings's "Dictionary of the Bible," now being published by Scribner in this country 44 A preacher's bookshelves and Clark in Edinburgh, will keep the fore- most place among a preacher's books for many years to come. In suggesting books I have sought to com- mend only those which personal experience has proved to be valuable ; and it will be observed that the selection has been made mostly with reference to those preachers who have completed the Conference course of study, and without reference to classical scholars. Those familiar with Greek would find such a work as Meyer's *' Commen- tary of the New Testament" most help- ful, and even more so some volumes of the *' International Critical Commentary," like Sanday on Romans, the same who prepared the Commentary on Romans in Ellicott's Commentary, already mentioned. The dif- ferent commentaries on the Epistles by the great exegetes like Ellicott, Lightfoot, and Westcott, with their scholarly essays on im- portant questions, are a most valuable addi- tion to the library, but knowledge of New Testament Greek is essential to use them to best advantage. 45 SKILLED LABOR FOR THE MASTER If the mention of so many books of spe- cial value embarrasses any Conference grad- uate who reads this paper, I would say it is not necessary to get them all at once. If any one can get only ten new volumes this year, I would suggest to those who already have the books of the course of study and the books of reference that a wise investment would be to secure the following: Bruce^s *