OCTH^ 1916 L*'V/siofi Setttoft QUIET HINTS TO GROWING PREACHERS IN MY STUDY BOOKS BY DR. JEFFERSON Quiet Talks with Earnest People. Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers. The Minister as Prophet. The Minister as Shepherd. Doctrine and Deed. Things Fltndamental. The Character of Jesus. The New Crusade. My Father's Business. Building of the Church. Why We may Believe in Life After Death. Talks on High Themes. Christmas Builders. The Cause of the War. QUIET HINTS ^-^iiiiwijv TO GROWING PREACHERS IN MY STUDY BY y^ CHARLES EDWARD JEFFERSON Pastor of the Broadway Tabernacle Church in New York NEW YORK THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1901, By Thomas Y. Crowell & Company. Sixth Thousand. TO HIS g0tmser Brettren in t!)e Pmfetrs FOR WHOM HE CRAVES A BLESSED LIFE AND A GLORIOUS WORK, THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS PAGE I. Wherefore All This i II. A Mirror for Ministers .... 9 III. The Man of Macedonia 17 IV. Which Door ? 25 V. Starts Good and Bad 33 VI. The Foremost of the Demons . . 41 VII. Cowardice 49 VIII. Impatience 57 IX. Clerical Hamlets ^ X. Despondency 75 XL The Value of a Target .... 84 XII. Building the Tower 92 XIII. Selfishness 100 XIV. Dishonesty 109 XV. Autocracy 118 XVI. Vanity 126 XVII. Discontent 134 vii viii Contents, PAOB XVIII. Pettiness 142 XIX. Foolishness 150 XX. Meanness 158 XXI. Mannerisms 166 XXII. "Thy Speech Bewrayeth Thee". 174 XXIII. Books and Reading 183 XXIV. Near to Men Near to God . . . 191 XXV. Eagles, Race-horses and Plodders 199 XXVI. Unconscious Decay 207 QUIET HINTS TO GROWING PREACHERS IN MY STUDY. I. Wherefore All This, Please let me shut the door. We are here alone, Brethren, and we want no eavesdroppers. Human ears are sensitive ; and if we do not speak in quiet tones, I fear the laity may come flying as doves to our windows. It is characteristic of human nature to be interested in what is intended for somebody else. A short time ago I invited into my study a company of laymen that we might have a confidential chat concerning certain matters relating especially to the people in the pews, but before the evening was far advanced my invited guests were crowded completely 2 Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers. into a corner by the throng of ministers who came rushing in. I had spoken only briefly when a minister began suggesting things which laymen ought to hear, and when at last my talk was finished the most robust *' Amen " which reached my ears came from the approving throat of a clergyman. I fear therefore that should our present meeting be noised abroad it would be necessary to adjourn from the study to the church auditorium and possi- bly to the public square : for nothing so stirs the curiosity of laymen as the things which ministers discuss in secret. I have long wished, Brethren, to talk over with you certain things which are so delicate in their nature one hesitates to mention them, but which are of so great importance to us clergymen and to the church universal, that silence concerning them cannot be commended. What I shall say is not said as criticism but rather as suggestion and admonition. Some of Wherefore AH This. 3 you have written to me, others of you have come to see me from time to time concerning perplexities in your work, and there are other things no doubt on your mind which you have not yet had oppor- tunity to mention. In order that we might have a good confidential talk to- gether about these things of moment to us all, I have opened wide my study door and asked you to come in. You are all, I see, younger men than I am, and therefore I can speak with greater plainness and fuller freedom. But however frank and bold my utterance, Brethren, not one syllable shall be spoken to hurt, but every syllable to help. I am not a sour-eyed censor of ministerial morality, nor do I wish to swell the chorus of that hoarse- voiced company just now shouting the ministers' dispraise. I have no sympathy with the men who persist in the affirma- tion that most ministers preach what they do not believe, nor do I accept the dictum 4 Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers, laid down with gravity by sneering judges that if preachers could only preach a little all the churches would be filled. The stormy lamentations of those who would make the Seminaries hopelessly antiquated institutions and most recent graduates anointed numskulls, are in my judgment sound and fury signifying nothing. But a man with open eyes cannot fail to see that in the ecclesiastical world, as in every other, there are stumblings and failings and fallings, and if his heart be sym- pathetic he cannot but wish to help his brethren avoid the pitfalls into which some have fallen and safeguard them from forms of conduct which weaken and offend. Ministers as a body are I think the best men living on the earth. I could fill a dozen evenings with praises of the pulpit saints whom I have known. In purity of motive ministers as a class surpass the lawyers, in breadth of sympathy the physi- cians, in fidelity to principle the editors, in Wherefore All This. 5 self-sacrifice the merchants, in moral cour- age the soldiers, in loftiness of ideals the teachers, in purity of life the highest classes in our best society. This is not said boastfully but gratefully as a fact not to be disputed. But ministers to be as good as other classes of men must be better than they. No other set of men make such assumptions or bind themselves to such high ideals. A lawyer when ad- mitted to the bar does not promise to obey the ten commandments. A physician on receiving his diploma does not agree to practice the Sermon on the Mount. Being an editor involves no assumption of fidelity to gospel principles, and merchants do not enter business announcing to the world their purpose to give their life a ransom for others. If therefore both in spirit and conduct ministers as a body were not superior to every other class of men they would be a disgrace to their profession and a scandal to the world. While all men, no 6 Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers. matter what their calHng, are under the eternal law of God, and therefore morally bound to keep the ten commandments and to live in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount, yet as clergymen are the only men who voluntarily confess these obligations and give their life to the work of making them real to other men, it follows that more may rightfully be expected of them than from any other tribe of workers in our modern Israel. Much is rightfully expected and much also is received. To be sure there is a scapegrace here and there, and of not a few clerical workmen there is abundant reason to be ashamed, but in a world like this, universal piety and wisdom among the professed servants of religion is as im- possible to-day as it was when Jesus chose his dozen men one of whom was Judas. Taking the clerical body as a whole it is made up of honest, capable, faithful men. But a man may be all this and still fail. Wherefore All This. 7 There are infirmities of temper and infeli- cities of conduct which, while hardly fall- ing into the category of sins, are none the less so disastrous in their effects on spirit- ual life as to be worthy of a place among those evils from which one should pray to be delivered. Ministers with rare excep- tions are neither rogues nor hypocrites, but being human they are capable of all sorts of distorted action, and the very nature of their work exposes them to a multitude of dangers from which other men are on the whole exempt. Many a man in the ministry fails, not because he is bad, but because he has a genius for blunder- ing. Men with ability sufficient to carry them to distinction fail to rise because of foibles and oddities which they seem unable to shake off. " O if he would only quit that ! " How frequently that doleful exclamation has fallen from the lips of the despairing saints. Even slight defects in clergymen are momentous be- 8 Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers. cause they live always in a light as search- ing and intense as that which beats upon a throne. What other man in the com- munity makes such constant self-disclo- sures as the minister ? His eyes, lips, teeth, facial expression, voice, mind, heart, moods, all these are subjected to public scrutiny. Whatever is crooked or un- christian in him is certain to come out. The Scripture says the saints shall judge the world. It is their special province and delight to judge those who minister to them in spiritual things. Since this is so, there is reason, Brethren, why we, of all men, should walk circumspectly, redeeming the time. A Mirror for Ministers, II. A Mirror for Ministers, Probably no other man in the town is subjected to such a constant stream of criticism as the minister, and possibly no other man profits so Uttle by criticism as he. This is not because of the rhinoceros quaUty of the ministerial skin, but because the criticism does not reach him. Those who make the fiercest onslaughts on him get in their best work when he is not in sight. Even the glib-tongued experts become silent on his approach. Other men are censured to their face. The tough meat sold by the butcher brings an immediate and audible response. The merchant who sells unsatisfactory goods must take the condemnation which is sure TO Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers. to come. If the editor offends in word or deed, the next mail brings him condemn- ing letters. The mechanic who scamps his work is promptly overhauled. The servant who shirks his duties is repri- manded or dismissed. But who is bold enough to face a clergyman, and tell him of his sins } "There's such divinity doth hedge a king, That treason can but peep to what it would." And there is such divinity doth hedge a preacher that dissatisfaction dares but whisper what it feels. Outside the hedge disapprobation makes wry faces and de- traction does its deadly work while within the hedge the minister lives on in ignor- ance of his critics' strictures, untouched by what the parish thinks and says. Disgruntled men sputter at the Sunday dinner-table in the presence of their chil- dren, and women in divers places drop acidulated observations, but, alas, the man who ought to be helped by this dis- A Mirror for Ministers. 1 1 criminating wisdom is left to flounder in the morass into which he has fallen, and dies at last in his sins. If, perchance, someone ventures to call the minister's attention to any one of his shortcomings, it is seldom done in such a way as to bring the needed help. A caustic cavil or poisoned fling is tucked into an envelope and sent to him un- signed, and the good man who has been told to pay no attention to anonymous letters, tosses it promptly into the waste- basket unread. An anonymous letter has little healing in its wings. But there are occasional mortals bold enough to meet the preacher face to face. There are in almost every congregation two or three keen-eyed individuals who are determined at all hazards to be "faithful." But these persons are gen- erally as disagreeable as they are faithful, and in their work of pulling motes their awkwardness is so exasperating as to 1 2 duiet Hints to Growinz Preachers. ^> lead the unhappy minister to consider them not ministering angels but new incarnations of that spirit of evil against which the Christian warrior must learn to stand. The ordinary self-appointed critic of ministerial character and con- duct undoubtedly has a place in God's plan of creation, but what it is has not yet been definitely ascertained. But if the anonymous bloodhounds and the professional fault-finders are useless in the work of redemption, how is a minister to be saved } Shall some sweet, sane saint call the Pastor aside and tell him gently of his sins t Possibly yes, but it is a hazardous undertaking, as many a saint has long ago discovered. A minister, like other mortals, is human and whenever pricked he bleeds. Even the best men when censured writhe and tingle and sometimes smart for many days. The smarting may generate even in a pious heart a feeling of resentment or at A Mirror for Ministers. 13 least of suspiciousness, so that forever afterward the relations between the Pastor and his critic are not what they were. Any minister who has ever talked plainly to a parishioner concerning his short- comings knows that always afterward that talk has loomed up between them like a Chinese wall, giving each of them a sense of separation which could not be obliterated. The relations between a Pastor and his people are so delicate that like the finest porcelain they cannot be broken and ever be the same again. They may be mended but there is always a consciousness of the existence of the crack. Laymen who have ventured to give their Pastor from time to time quiet hints know how delicate and critical such business is. As a rule they do not pur- sue it far, finding relief henceforth in an interior protest against that which they do not like, and endeavoring to remember the apostolic injunction, "we then that are 14 Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers, strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves." If the improprieties and delinquencies are too numerous and flagrant to render protracted endurance a virtue the church committee sometimes acts as a tribunal before which the offending Pastor is sum- moned, but this usually marks the begin- ning of the end. It brands the minister in the eyes of the congregation as a cul- prit, and when once a minister's reputation for good sense or fine taste is tarnished he has already entered upon that downward road which leads to the dissolution of the pastoral relation. It is for this reason that church committees are loath to cen- sure their minister unless driven to it by repeated indiscretions and blunderings which cry aloud for redress. What then is a church to do } Breth- ren, it is a serious question. Many of us clergymen do not realize how serious it is. A congregation is at the mercy of a man, A Mirror for Ministers. 15 who although a minister, may have poor judgment, bad taste, a coarse nature, a blunted conscience, and a fatal gift for saying and doing the wrong thing. He may have pulpit manners which are abomi- nable and mannerisms which are constant subtractions from his power. He may have constitutional ailments and tempera- mental deformities which might be reduced or cured by a course of patient treatment, but of whose existence he himself is appar- ently unconscious. He may be guilty of conduct which though not positively sinful is unbecoming in a man of God. Because of spiritual obtuseness he may persist in courses of action which are so flagrantly unchristian as to cause the unbelieving to blaspheme. He may become the slave of any one of a thousand hateful habits, and so difficult is it to rescue him from these tyrants, one sometimes wishes that all the ministers of Christendom could be gath- ered at stated intervals into spiritual hos- 1 6 Qtiiet Hints to Growing Preachers. pitals especially provided for the purpose in order that every man might be critically dis- sected by men not afraid to lay their finger upon every blemish and excrescence, and able to burn afresh upon every heart the loftiest ideals of ministerial character and service. " A Mirror for Magistrates " is the suggestive title of a book long famous in English literature : why should there not be "A Mirror for Ministers" ? Thf Man of Macedonia, 1/ III. The Man of Macedonia, A STUDENT on emerging from the Semi- nary sometimes experiences a chilling sur- prise. The world does not seem glad that another laborer is now ready to enter the vineyard. It bustles unconcernedly along its hurried way without the slightest mani- festation of interest in the youth who longs to do it service. It cares apparently nothing for his Hebrew or his Greek or even for his stores of information concern- ing the latest speculations of the greatest German scholars. And even for his earnest spirit which yearns to render Christ -like ministry it shows an indifference at once inexplicable and crushing. What makes this indifference well nigh intolerable is 1 8 Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers. that it is the indifference of the Christian world. The Pagan world cannot be ex- pected to take an interest in a herald of the Nazarene, but surely the Christian world will reach forth a loving hand and lift him into a place of usefulness and power. Not so. The churches are en- grossed each in its own affairs, and have no time to create a sphere in which this Christian orator can exercise his gifts. Most of the churches are already supplied with leaders, and those whose pulpit is without an occupant are either feeble and fainting enterprises struggling for exist- ence in forlorn and obscure places, or they are churches of historic dignity to whose leadership a man fresh from school cannot aspire. What shall the young man do } He cannot dig and to beg he is ashamed. There does not seem to be anything to do but to begin and live the gospel. To do this is always well, and a man ought to be- gin to do it before he is intrusted with a The Man of Macedonia. 19 church. The division of labor has been carried far and will no doubt be carried farther, but it will never be so extended as to enable one set of Christians to preach the gospel while the other set is left to practice it. If a man expects to move men by his preaching h6 must first do a deal of living, and the sooner he begins to live the better. Where can a man find larger opportunity for the exercise of that faith and hope and love, of that patience, persistency and courage of which he in- tends through all the years to speak than just in that dark and troubled period which for many men immediately follows the completion of the Seminary course t If a man is to hold up Abraham as an example worthy of imitation why should he shrink from going out not knowing whither he goes } And if he proposes to spend his life in teaching men to believe that the just must walk by faith, why should he not do a little of that sort of walking him- 20 Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers. self ? If he believes in the principle an- nounced by Jesus that every one who asks receives why does he not proceed to put that principle to the test. A man who intends to preach the Gospel ought to learn early that God is no respecter of persons, and that a student of theology is not allowed to enter the Kingdom by a road specially constructed for his own tender feet. Anything like favoritism or coddling is abhorrent to the spirit of the Christian religion. Christ thrusts a cross into a man's face and holds it there. Accursed is every policy which attempts to hide it or take it away. Men who prepare for the ministry ought to have no advantages given them which are denied to their fellows. They should work for their education as hard as do the men who prepare for journalism or medicine or law. Every indulgence and plum in- tended to make the way into the ministry more attractive than that which leads into The Man of Macedonia. 21 the other professions ought to be feared and discarded. If this reduces recruits for the ministry so much the better for the churches. What can organized Chris- tianity accomplish unless its leaders are stalwart and tough? Men are not going to endure hardness as good soldiers of Christ when once installed as pastors of churches unless they have been trained to do this from their youth. No one who is not willing to work like a slave through as many years as may be neces- sary to fit him for his work is worthy to stand before the world as an ordained expounder of the message of the Son of God. After a man has secured his schooling then let him make himself a place in which to work. If all the doors are shut let him open one. If he cannot do this he is not needed. No man can open men's hearts for the Gospel who is too weak to open a door for himself into the 22 Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers. ministry. It is not a diploma which proves a man's right to be a preacher, but a spiritual temper and a moral stamina like unto those of the Apostles. Occa- sionally one catches a whimpering tone in the talk of young men looking for a church. In their judgment they are badly used. The churches do not appreciate the sacrifices these men have made. If some church does not speedily repent and give a call then these ill-used prophets will shake off the dust of their feet against them and will not preach at all ! All such whining proceeds from a heart which is not right. The young physician in making a place for himself in a world already overcrowded expects a long-drawn struggle, and he is seldom disappointed. In many cases years of poverty and pri- vation He between him and the shining goal on which his hungry eyes are set. The average lawyer fights a long and tremendous battle — so do the journalist The Man of Macedonia. 23 and professor, the architect and artist, the merchant and musician. Every man is left to make for himself his own place in the world, and why should a minister be favored above his brethren? While in the Seminary he heard the world calling for him, and in his dreams a noble church stood up, glorious and implor- ing, and would not let him rest. But now when he is ready the church has melted into air, and in his disappointment he is ready to believe that all things are as vain and empty as the baseless fabric of a dream. Let him remember that his vision was similar to that of the Apostle Paul. The man of Macedonia who would not let Paul sleep for his constant cry, " Come over and help us," was nowhere to be seen when Paul reached the shores of Europe. Paul could not find him at Neapolis nor even at Philippi. Outside the Philippian gate a few women listened to the first Christian sermon preached in Europe, but 24 Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers. the " man of Macedonia " was conspicu- ous for his absence. Europe was preoccu- pied with her business and pleasures, and it was only by the boldest and most perse- vering exertions that the apostle succeeded in opening a door in any European city. Europe needed the Gospel — she did not want it. The world to-day needs young men equipped to preach the Gospel, but it does not want them. Like Saul of Tarsus they must fight their way into public recog- nition assisted by some good Barnabas or Silas who is always present to lend a help- ing hand, and instead of railing at a world which is slow to crown them they must build for themselves the thrones from which they are to judge the tribes of Israel. Which Doorf 25 IV. Which Boor? It is well for a man not to be too heav- ily weighted with theories at the beginning of his career. Otherwise he may become so entangled as to be crippled for life. Man proposes but God disposes, and the manner of his disposition is often marvel- ous in our eyes. Precious time may be squandered in a fruitless endeavor to bring the Almighty into conformity to human expectations. It is natural for a minister to have his preferences, but he should not insist on these when it becomes evident that Heaven prefers something else. He should not draw a circle round a limited area of land and say, "Up to the circumfer- ence of that circle shall my activity be felt 26 Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers. but no further." A man who says that needs to reread his New Testament. The men who crowd into favored localities already overstocked with ministers and stand all the years idle, bitterly complaining because no church has hired them, eking out a precarious livelihood by snapping up occasional opportunities to preach in pul- pits temporarily vacant, are not men to be trusted with the guidance and training of Christians. Ministers of the Gospel should be made of more heroic stuff. Old men out of whom the years have taken the lunge and the fire may be forgiven for such conduct ; but for a young man to hover round a particular city like a moth round a candle, forgetful that he is or- dained to be a light in a place that is dark, is an exhibition of selfishness which ought to doom him in the estimation of the Christian public. A man ought to preach not where he wants to preach but where he can preach. Which Door? 27 Nor is it wise to say, " I will begin with a small church and none other," or "I will start in the country and later on come to the city." The theory held by many that every minister should begin in a small church in the country is the creation of the closet and not to be universally ac- cepted. Let a minister begin where he can. Some men are more mature at twenty than others at forty. Why insist on a narrow field if the Lord of the vine- yard points out a wide one .? And why insist on staying in the country if circum- stances mould themselves into a trumpet through which a voice is heard saying, " Arise, go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do .'* " Ministers as well as laymen ought to surrender them- selves to the guidance of the Spirit, and in the fire of the Spirit all opinions and theories will be as chaff. A young man ought to go through the widest door which swings on its hinges before his face. But 28 Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers. to sit down before a narrow open door re- fusing to enter it because of a hope that a wider door will some day be opened is the act of a man whose life is guided not by the Holy Spirit but by his own unholy ambitions. But suppose a field is hard, shall a young man take it ? Why not ? All fields when known at first hand are hard. The easy fields of which we sometimes read exist only in the imagination. Each heart knows its own bitterness and each parish has its own snags. The minister whose life seems to be one grand, sweet song is found to be a heavily-laden burden-bearer when one comes close enough to hear his heart-beats. There is not that difference in parishes which the unthinking observer imagines. Conspicuous advantages have their manifold subtractions, and striking losses have their surprising compensations. No one man can have everything, even in the ministry. If a man is deprived of privi- Which Door? 29 leges in the country so does a man pay dearly for living in the city. If a small church has its difficulties and distresses, a large church is not free from complications and perplexing problems. If a man is afraid of fields which are hard never let him think of becoming a minister. A field reputedly hard ought to have pecu- liar fascination for a man who has grit. If a dozen men have failed in it the charm ought to be all the greater. Woe to the minister who is looking for an easy job ! There is more hope for a fool than for him. And as for the church being small, that is nothing against it. It is 'the glory of a small church that it can grow. To see a church grow is one of the deepest joys a minister can know. What greater privi- lege could a young man ask than that of taking a little church and by a process of nurture carried on through patient years causing that church through the blessing of God to develop until it becomes the 30 Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers. crown of the community, the center of wide regions whose people look to it for impulse and guidance ? What a glowing, gladdening task compared with that of a man who takes a large church whose limit of growth has been already reached, and for which the years contain no brighter prospect than that of successfully resisting the processes of disintegration and decay ! It is not becoming in young men fresh from school to be over particular about either geography or finance. A man can- not tell how much he is worth in the pul- pit by computing the amount of money he has expended on his education. Nor ought he with a flourish dictate to churches the lowest terms at which his services can be secured. A man with a wife and ten children may be excused for making sun- dry inquiries concerning the salary, but a young man unencumbered should seek first of all a chance to work, and finding this, all necessary things will be added Which Door? 31 unto him. The men who put salary first and church second are usually the men whose salary never increases. A man who will not preach at all unless some church puts into his palm the precise sum which he thinks his preaching worth ought to be left to die with all his sermons in him. Young men with the ribbon on their diploma still unfaded ought not to go into the market shouting — "So many sermons for so many dollars ! " The supreme question is, " Where can I work ? Where will the followers of Christ give me a chance to work? Where can I make my life count for most in the extension of the kingdom .? " The man who goes into the world with these queries burning in his heart will not long be without a con- gregation, nor will he lack shelter and rai- ment and food. If however the time of waiting is longer than he anticipated let him not be despair- ful. If one door after another is slammed 32 Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers. in his face, let him keep on knocking. If one field after another fades from his eyes, let him keep on seeking. If these dis- appointments move him he was never fore- ordained for the ministry. Men who are worthy of the Christian pulpit will get into it though they climb to it over obstacles high as the Alps, and over Himalayas of disappointment. It may be necessary for a time to earn one's bread by secular employment ; but if the man has been chosen by the Lord, he will sometime, somehow, somewhere overcome the last opposing circumstance and enter into the joy of ministerial service. A Scotchman who knocked in vain while a young man at the door of twenty-three churches and filled ten years with patient waiting, be- came at last one of the most distinguished and influential preachers of his generation. Starts Good and Bad. 33 V. Starts Good and Bad, "All's well that ends well," but in order that one may end well there should be a good beginning. A bad start in a pastorate is disastrous. The blunders of the first few weeks may throw a shadow over many years. When the minister goes into his new parish he ought to give him- self at once to his supreme task, feeding the sheep. Whatever else a minister may be, he is first of all a shepherd. To feed the people entrusted to his keeping is his first and most urgent duty. If he attends first of all to this and keeps on attending to it blessed is he. But if he begins, as many a man has begun, by endeavoring to show the sheep 34 Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers. what a wonderful man he is, he will wreck the peace of many days. If, for instance, he spends his first Sunday in the discus- sion of some such useless theme as, " The relation of the Pastor to the Church," the hungry sheep in spite of all their looking up will go away unfed. Not even a goat can find nutriment in any such juiceless discussion. A minister is a servant and it ill becomes a servant to come into the presence of those he serves with an analysis of abstract relationships on his lips. When we hire a servant to feed us we want him to put the dishes on the table : what he thinks of our relations to him and of him to us will come out in the way in which he does his work. If he postpones the dinner in order to enlighten us concerning our mutual obligations we are in no mood to appreciate his ideas or to accept his conclusions. A servant who calls attention to himself rather than to the dinner is a servant who does not Starts Good and Bad. 35 understand his business. The minister who on the first Sunday magnifies himself by telling his hearers what he has a right to expect of them and what they may properly demand of him, is guilty of an indiscretion for which he may be forgiven, but which a man of tact will not commit. Do what he may, the minister on his opening Sundays is sufficiently in the public eye, and it is the part of wisdom for him to obliterate himself so far as possible in the humble work of feeding the sheep. To keep the eyes of a con- gregation steadfastly fixed on Christ is wisdom always, but it is never quite so important as on those first searching Sundays when eyes as yet untrained to love are prone to find and magnify defects. " A mother does not read to her newborn baby an essay on the obligations of ma- ternity—she feeds it:" so spoke one of the greatest of modern preachers to a company of students years ago, his con- 36 Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers, tention being that a preacher who goes before a new congregation with a discus- sion of mutual obligations is as foolish as a woman would be who should postpone the feeding of her baby for a disser- tation on the relations of parent and child. Nor should the new minister convert his earliest sermons into programs of parochial work. We are living in a driving age, but it is possible for a clergyman to drive too fast. A minister of the Gospel is not a sheep-driver, but a sheep-feeder. The for- mer inevitably gets himself into trouble, especially if he manifests his driving pro- pensities the first week. For a stranger to come into a parish and proceed forthwith to tell his hearers what he expects them to do borders closely on the impertinent. Why not first of all feed the sheep .? To feed sheep does not smack of presumption nor does it stir up opposition. Sheep like to be fed. They never resist. When re- Starts Good and Bad. 37 peatedly fed by the same shepherd they will follow him whithersoever he leads them. He can shear them again and again, and weave their wool into all sorts of lovely patterns for the glory of God, but when the new minister attempts to shear a a flock of strange sheep the first day be- fore noon he usually precipitates a furious scrimmage which is likely to leave the shepherd discomfited and out of breath. Many a man has complained bitterly of the foolishness and stubbornness of his sheep, who would have had no trouble had he only placed the feeding before the shearing. No sentence more momentous for clergy- men lies between the lids of the Bible than the little sentence which too many of the successors of the Apostles have in every age overlooked. '' Feed my sheep." Nor should there be undue haste in knocking to pieces the contrivances which the former minister created. These things should be allowed to stand, if not for- 38 Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers. ever, at least till day after to-morrow. Other men have labored and the new minister should enter into their labors, not stamp upon them. To begin afresh as though all who have gone before him were drones or dunces is not commendable. Every minister must do his work in his own way, and it is natural that a man should feel himself capable of making sundry improve- ments over the methods of his predecessor, but this predecessor was probably not so great a blunderbuss as he appears to the man who comes after him. No matter with what wisdom and fidelity a man may labor he leaves a parish in an unsatisfactory condition. Everything is incomplete, much is perverted and wrong, there is more or less friction, appalling inefficiency, and on all sides a wide chasm yawns between the actual and ideal. A new man on com- ing into such a field — especially if he be without experience — is apt to feel that things would not be as they are had Starts Good and Bad. 39 his predecessor done his work with greater abiUty and wisdom. Upon this departed man as upon a scapegoat are saddled all the sins of the parish, and the new Pastor, eager to prove himself superior to all who have gone before him, proceeds to break to pieces the parochial machinery, and to create a new set of agencies which will usher in the golden age. Poor man, later on he will discover under a juniper tree that he is no better than his fathers. Do not be in a hurry, brethren, to revo- lutionize the constitution and by-laws of your parish before your parish learns to trust your judgment and comes to occupy your view-point. You may be able to intro- duce an improvement here and there as the years come and go, but please wait until after dinner before you start. There is a conservative instinct implanted by the Almighty in the human heart for the pur- pose of safe-guarding the world from the folly of fussy reformers, and against this 40 Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers. instinct as against a Damascus blade a minister hurls himself if feverishly ambi- tious to make all things new. Instead of splitting former societies and methods into kindling wood why not be content to feed the sheep ? Feeding sheep involves no perils, whereas kindling-wood may lead to a conflagration. The Foremost of the Demons, 41 VI. The Foremost of the Demons, To all the sons of Adam there comes the temptation to be lazy, and therefore let the minister beware. It is not true, as some men think, that all clergymen are lazy, but it is true that they like other men are tempted, and alas, too many of them succumb. Intellectual indolence is far more common than is generally sup- posed. Mental activity, except in rare cases, is not congenital, but an achieve- ment. The average man is prone to follow the line of least resistance, and unless the angels of his better nature repeatedly bring him back, he will wander far away from close and continuous mental toil. 42 Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers. Many a minister is indolent without realizing how indolent he is. It is pos- sible to entertain demons as well as angels unawares. Not infrequently a man will fuss and bustle over miscella- neous matters, giving the parish the im- pression of tremendous diligence, while all the time his intellect is a dawdler at its work. A man intellectually lazy will do anything rather than whip his mind to mental exercise. He will scamper over the parish and astonish the county by the number of his parochial visits. He will multiply organizations and manipu- late them with a dexterity quite amazing. He will engage in all sorts of schemes and enterprizes to maintain the inter- est of the people, rather than buckle down to hard, exacting, redeeming men- tal labor. There are many Bible sen- tences appropriate for mottoes to be hung on the wall of the minister's study, but not one them has in it a greater The Foremost of the Demons. 43 wealth of needed warning than the Hebrew proverb — •' Go to the ant, thou sluggard, Consider her ways and be wise." It was the conviction of the Hebrew sages that idleness is ruinous, and that if a man prefers ease to labor his poverty will come as a robber and his want as an armed man. The robber has already overtaken many a clergyman and the armed man is on the track of many another. What other man has such urgent reasons for being diligent as a minister ? If he is indolent his sin will find him out, and so will everybody else. Other men can more easily conceal their mental sloth for most of them do their work as it were in a comer. But the minister is a public character and when he speaks whatever rust is on his mind is seen. A scraggy, scrambling prayer, a raveled, jfaded style, a juiceless, pithless sermon, 44 Qt^^iet Hints to Groiving Preachers. what are these but weeds in the garden of a man who has folded his mental hands ? No man can long be interesting in the pulpit who does not think. No man can think wisely who does not study. Constant mental application is the price a minister must pay for power. When men cross the deadline under seventy it is ordinarily because they have ceased to develop new cells in the gray matter of their brain. They may have been students once but their early studies cannot save them. A parish soon dis- covers when the minister is trusting to his diploma and has put his mind to bed. The necessity for unceasing labor lies in the nature of the minister's work. He is a public teacher always teaching. If he spoke less frequently his words would carry greater weight. He does not get credit for the ability and worth which he actually possesses, for nothing The Foremost of the Demons. 45 so dulls the sense of appreciation as familiarity. Any man of intelligence en- dowed with a gift of expression can preach one sermon. Many men can preach seven. A few men can preach seven times seven. But seventy times seven is the work of every preacher. It is this incessant creation of new sermons which constitutes the crowning test. How to keep the reservoir full — that is the tor- menting problem. Nothing short of Herculean labor will solve it. Much of the charm of public speech lies in the freshness of the speaker's accents, in the novelty of his cadences, in the newness of his view-point, in the surprises of his rhetoric, in the unexpected disclosures of his personality as revealed in his maner- isms. But to a minister all these charms are denied. His voice, rhetoric, concep- tions, figures, oddities, soon become a tale that is told, and he has nothing to rely on but the earnestness of his spirit 46 Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers. and the energy of his thought. Laymen forget this when they compare clergymen with interesting speakers whom they hear but once. They hear a man speak at a banquet or on the rostrum, and go home saying, ^