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  THE MINISTER (1915)
  by W.W. Staley
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Staley's comprehensive yet concise addresses on Christian ministry combining
theological depth with pastoral practice, guiding ministers in the
responsibilities and spiritual demands of their calling.

  Chapters: 7

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    1. 000 - StaleyWW - The Minister
    2. A 00 - Introduction
    3. A 01 - The Minister In His Study
    4. A 02 - The Minister In His Personal Life
    5. A 03 -The Minister In His Pulpit
    6. A 04 - The Minister In His Parish
    7. A 05 -The Minister In His Community

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  CHAPTER 1: 000 - STALEYWW - THE MINISTER
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THE MINISTER Series of Five Addresses By KEY. W. W. STALEY, D. D., LL. D.

Pastor of Suffolk, Virginia, Christian Church, Since 1882 Delivered at " The
Seaside Chautauqua and School of Methods,"

Virginia Beach, Virginia, July 21, 22, 23, 24, 25:1914 with introduction: by
Rev. A. W. Ughtbourne, D. D., Pastor of the People’s Church,

Dover, Delaware Published for the Author by THE CHRISTIAN PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION

DAYTON, OHIO

1915

COPYRIGHT, 1915 BY W. W. STALEY

665749

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION CHAPTER ONE THE MINISTER IN HIS STUDY CHAPTER TWO THE MINISTER IN
HIS PERSONAL LIFE CHAPTER THREE THE MINISTER IN HIS PULPIT CHAPTER FOUR THE
MINISTER IN HIS PARISH CHAPTER FIVE THE MINISTER IN HIS COMMUNITY


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  CHAPTER 2: A 00 - INTRODUCTION
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INTRODUCTION

THESIS addresses on the Christian Ministry are unique in their combination of
comprehensiveness and condensation. They are replete, witn suggestion, adequate
in conception, and, forthright and epigrammatic in expression. After reading
these addresses many far more pretentious volumes will suffer by comparison. It
has been my good fortune to hear this subject discussed by those who were
themselves models of the preacher’s sublime art. It was my privilege to hear
these addresses, and in my humble opinion they are, in some very important
respects, superior to any previous deliverances on this great theme.

I desire particularly to commend the style here employed. There is no rhetorical
splurge or garish display. Too much color is as suspicious in composition as in
complexion. Here is strength rather than sheen; force rather than flare. There
are no trick phrases, no artful alliterations, no startling antitheses, and no
attempt to cover deficiencies in thought and argument with the gloss of verbal
veneer.

Brevity, clarity, simplicity, are here combined with the deepest reflections and
the most striking and appropriate forms of expression and illustration. In
scholarship, mental poise, intuitive perception, terse and luminous phraseology,
the author is one of the best-equipped men to conduct such a series of didactic
addresses for the benefit of young preachers. The author has exalted his theme.
The preacher is here presented in his call, his preparation, his mission, his
message, his methods of study and work, his personal Christian experience, and
his private and public life. One is surprised to find so much included, and so
little omitted, in a volume of this size. May God speed it upon its carer of
usefulness and make it a blessing and inspiration to those for whom it is
intended.

A. W. LIGHTBOURNE.

Dover, Delaware.


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  CHAPTER 3: A 01 - THE MINISTER IN HIS STUDY
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CHAPTER ONE IN HIS STUDY THE MINISTER IN HIS STUDY

IT WILL stand upon my watch, and set me I upon the tower, and will watch to see
what he will, say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. “ (Hab
2:1.) Habakkuk wanted to know God’s message for men through him; and that is the
high privilege and plain duty of all ministers. His Study is the “ watchtower j”
the “Holy of Holies” where Shekinah glory illumines his soul with visions and
messages; Paul exhorts ministers to “study to show themselves approved unto God;
workmen that need not be ashamed.” This suggests “a study; “ and, this study is
the mint where his gold is coined. Here he broods over kingdom questions, weighs
soul-interests, meditates upon eternal destinies, and prepares for assaults upon
the citadels of wrong. The minister’s study is larger than the room that
contains his books and in which he communes with God in prayer. His study
includes all subjects, all worlds, all peoples, all ages, and all of God’s plans
for redemption. His horizon is larger than that line where earth and sky seem to
meet and mark the limits of the world.

There is no line of truth that may not run into his fountain of knowledge. If he
confines himself within the walls of his study, he will be narrow and
contracted; yet he should have such a study; and it should be the hotbed of his
garden, the arsenal of his warfare, the pilothouse from which he looks over the
sea of ’humanity and steers the ship of Zion. In his study books should be
examined, great minds consulted, information gathered, problems solved, and
inspiration received for the duties of his calling. Riehlieu says “that all
great things are done in silence.” Pilgrim’s Progress was born in Bedford jail;
and some of Paul’s great epistles were written in a Roman prison. But the
minister should not use the forms in which he finds truth stored in books
outside of the Bible. He should reduce all reading in the mill of his own mind
to such fineness that it is meal and not corn. He should break up the
crystallized thought of others as workmen break up granite and mix with sand and
cement to manufacture concrete. They make a new substance out of old material,
and the minister can do the same. He can use books, sermons, comments,
magazines, and the Bible; but he dare not copy them. He must make concrete all
his own. He may create new archways that will sustain the tonnage of a nation’s
thought. He can rightly divide the word of truth. The study is not a place for
rest or ease; but a place of prayer, research, testing, decision, creation. Like
the camp of the Romans the work here is twice as heavy as on the field.

Here all the past, all the future, and all the live questions of the present,
converge in the minister’s mind like sun-rays in the sunglass.

Here his mind and heart mature in the silence and deep reflections of his soul.
Here is the place of growth. All growth is under hidden conditions. The,
germination of seed, the development of rootlets, real, contact, with soil and
air, the: forces, that enter into life, and burst out into flower and fruit, all
work in silence and in darkness. Here self and God are discovered in their
holiest relations, and character is crystallized in the quiet of the study.
Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed, as he paced his palace floor, “Is not this great
Babylon that 7 have built?”

“But the kingdom departed from him.” The woman who was healed said “within
herself” within the secret chambers of her own soul “If I may but touch His
garments I shall be healed.” The explosion in Vera Cruz was the result of the
quiet loading of the shell in the factory. The Panama Canal was worked out by
the engineer, and an act of Congress, before the thousands of tons of earth were
removed and two oceans met and kissed each other at the cost of nearly four
hundred millions.

What sort of a man must the minister be in his study? Sincerity and self
^surrender to God should characterize the minister in, his study. His Tieart
miist be engaged as well as Ms head.

He must hot only seek after human wisdom, but spiritual inspiration. He is not
working out science, he is seeking a message from God. The mineral wealth of the
world was fashioned in the quiet recesses of the mountains or underneath the
rocks of the plains long before the mines were opened or the iron was wrought
into use. The Bessemer process fashions the steel rails that glisten across a
continent and bear the tonnage of an empire. The chick comes forth after those
brooding weeks of the mother, the most trying and exhausting of her life. It is
brooding over the thoughts in the library, in the study, that brings forth new
ideas to move mankind to Jesus Christ and a new life. Ideas are not born in the
crowd. Great thoughts are born in solitude. Jesus retired from the multitude to
prepare Himself for great service and ministers can do no less. He spent most of
that time in prayer. Napoleon spent whole nights in histent mapping out his
plans for battles and campaigns. Napoleon did not depend on the inspiration of
the occasion to win battles. He worked out his plans in histent. The minister
ought to study the map of his own work, of his own country, of Bible lands, and
of the whole world. This will give him a vision of missions and fire his heart
with a zeal according to knowledge. The field is the world and the minister
ought to know the field. Geography is close to the Bible. It is “The Land and
the Book.” The study is the place of prayer. There is no harder work than
prayer; it is easier to read than to pray; but prayer is of more importance than
reading. Jesus spent whole nights in prayer. Prayer was the only exercise that
drew from Him drops of blood. Prayer engages the whole being and it is the only
effort that does.

Study puts us in touch with all that is material and human; prayer puts us in
touch with the spiritual and divine. Paul and Silas prayed at midnight, in the
Philippian jail, and the Roman prison trembled and the doors opened; and the
jailer trembled and opened his heart to let the Savior in. Thought touched the
mine under the last ledge of rock in the Panama Canal, by an electric wire from
Washington, and opened the isthmus between two great seas; but it was the power
of God that turned the Nile into blood and opened the Red Sea to set a nation at
liberty. Moses got out of trouble every time by resorting to prayer. It was not
his eloquence but his faith that made him the emancipator of millions. The world
is slow to learn that knowing the truth sets men free.

Daniel’s habit of prayer was a power greater than the king’s decree, and the
lion’s den could do him no harm. It was that quiet prayer chamber in Jerusalem
that witnessed the noise and tongues of fire and, later, the conversion of three
thousand souls. The scales never fell from Saul’s eyes till he prayed; the
prayer chamber is the dark room where the image of Jesus Christ is developed in
the soul. It is in this chamber where the care of the church weighs heavily upon
his whole being, where the factious spirit among members clamors for is
solution; where poverty cries from rags, huts, and domestic broils; where pride
and ambition look in upon him with vulgar eyes; where shame threatens his
church; arid lynx-eyed jealousies and complaints fret his being so that he
cannot study. Then his only resource is prayer. He must have a new sense of
God’s help; that “His grace is sufficient.” There is no book on church methods
that can tell him how to deal with these grave problems. He must get divine help
not only for himself, but for those lives that fret his own. It was fasting and
prayer that saved Esther, and the Jews in the hundred and twenty-seven provinces
in the empire of Ahasuerus; it was prayer that held out the golden scepter and
granted the queen’s request. The study is the altar where the minister offers
his sacrifices, makes his vows, communes with God, and renews his strength. The
spirit said to Ezekiel, “Go, shut thyself up within thy house * * * * but when I
speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them. Thus saith
the Lord. ’’Eze 3:24-27.

There are times when the minister must retire, and keep silence, till God
unlooses his tongue and puts words into his mouth and power in the words. His
study is his waiting place for orders and a message.

He stands between the living and the dead. His library is peopled from the past
Abraham, Moses, Elias, Paul, Luther, Elizabeth, Mary, Florence Nightingale,
Victoria a multitude which no man can number, who ’have come up through great
tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb. Moses and Elias appeared with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration; a
mighty host surrounds me in my library. Peter, James, and John did not see as
much nor hear as much as the minister in his library. Jesus is here, too, in the
Bible and by the Spirit. There are more people in my library than in my church.

They speak to me, they kindle the fires of my imagination, they quicken my
faith, humble my pride, rebuke my wrong-doing and wrong thinking, warn me
against sin, and point my soul to the living Christ. I find tombs with angles,
deserts with fountains, gardens with Saviors, prisons with praises, and crosses
with crowns. Above the roar of the tempest,’ the flap of the split sails, the
creak of the breaking timbers, and the cry of endangered men, I hear Jesus say:
“Peace, be still.” I hear Nebuchadnezzar say: “I see four men loose, walking in
the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like
unto the Son of God. ’ ’ I hear Paul in the midst of darkness and the raging
sea, say, “There stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am and whom I
serve, saying, Fear not.” The past is a mighty host, their thought, faith, love,
and lives still speaking to our own. The library is a transfiguration scene,
crowning lofty summits, silently and sweetly speaking to the minister so as to
inspire him with renewed strength and satisfaction that arms him for the good
fight of faith. Beyond this teeming past are the living millions moving to and
fro, loving and hating, helping and hindering, neglecting age, crushing
childhood, desecrating the Sabbath, greedily preying upon their fellows,
preparing for war and killing the flower of the age. The study should be the
tower from which the minister looks out upon this age of living humanity, with
all of its progress, religious movements, charity institutions, educational
forces, its pleasure-loving and pleasure-seeking peoples, that he may come forth
with a message of rebuke for sin, of hope for the despondent, and life for the
lost. The minister should seek to interpret the present age in the light of the
gospel and past civilizations. From his study as a tower, he should get his
vision of mankind and God and then go forth to preach salvation to a sinning
world. His sermon should be a message from God, supported by His word, fired by
His Spirit, and delivered in the spirit of love. Lectures and tirades may have
their place on the platform, but they should not come from the minister’s study
in place of a message from God. His study is the mint for purer gold.


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  CHAPTER 4: A 02 - THE MINISTER IN HIS PERSONAL LIFE
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CHAPTER TWO IN HIS PERSONAL LIFE THE MINISTER IN HIS PERSONAL LIFE THE Minister
is a distinct personality from the personality of the MAN. Jesus was a man; but
He was more than a man; he was the Son of God. He said and did much as a Son
that He could not have done as a man. As God manifest in the flesh He said: “I
am the light of the world.” As a man He said: “I am a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief.” Two distinct personalities were in Jesus Christ. Two
distinct personalities are in the minister. He is a Man and a Minister. Jesus
was man last. He descended from the highest to the lowest; the minister ascends
from the lowest to the highest. Minister is higher than man, though man is only
a “little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor.” The minister is
more than a man, and, therefore, he should be more in his personal life than a
man. His ministerial personality should represent his high calling. The chief
thing in the gospel dispensation is the personality of Jesus. “I am the truth.”

’ ’ Come unto me. “ “He that believeth on me. ““This is my son.” The cross
stands for the “crucified one.” The old dispensation was legal, ceremonial,
sacrificial, and symbolical; but, in the fulness of time, God sent forth His
Son. The personal element in the gospel is the vital force in salvation. No
matter what the theological concept of this personality may be, the spirit of
Christianity would disappear, if this personal Savior were left out of the
equation of salvation. This same personal element is involved in salvation.
“Son, daughter, give me thy heart,” L e, thyself.

Jesus distinctly says, “As the Father hath sent me, so have / sent t/ot*.” That
must include a personal ministry. Pulpit ministration is only one function of
the minister. His personal life is the largest thing in his ministry. His
personal character, habits, influence, attaininents, constitute the largest
value in his ministry. In gunnery the rule is, that the gun should be a hundred
times the weight of the projectile. In preaching the minister should he a
hundred times weightier than his message.

Jesus was always larger than His message or His miracle. What He did was never
as large as what He was. No wonder Jesus spent thirty years in preparation and
only three years in His public ministry. The most important thing in a minister
is to prepare himself. We are all conscious that our ministerial weakness is in
ourselves and not in the gospel. ’ ’ The word of God is quick and powerful, and
sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart.” Yet we know that we are slow and weak and do not reach
the hearts of men. Our sermons are often better than ourselves. The need of the
age is not good sermons, but good ministers. We are wise enough but not harmless
enough. We have not fully appreciated the importance of ourselves in the
ministry. The personal value appears most plainly in the personal fall of a
minister. A brilliant ministry may collapse in the personal indiscretion of the
minister. The majesty and glory of the ministry of Jesus was in His spotless
personality. They attacked His teaching but found no fault in His personal life.
The least attention is given to personal training, though most important of all.
Literary and theological training are stressed in school and before committees,
while personal life is left to the result of forces that work without direction.
The minister’s normal habits are the indexes to his real character as expressed
in his outward life. Whatever others may do ’he is not at liberty to indulge in
games that waste time and contain no element of recreation.

Keeping busy in good service satisfies the public mind and his own conscience.
His habits should express his interest in people and in the gospel. “On the job”
is a modern phrase that expresses what the public demands. No one objects to
recreation and the minister might well take one day out of seven as his day of
rest. Saturday or Monday seem to be the natural days from which to make his
selection.

He must cultivate the habit of sincerity among the people. There is no room for
specials; he must indulge in no hard feelings; his normal attitude must be that
of impartiality. His disposition must not be churlish. He must not be grouchy.
While he should be pleasant, he must not drop below the dignity of his high
calling in Christ Jesus.

Dress is more important in personal life than people imagine. Dress indicates
stages in human progress. Trace British progress from the time when naked
savages lined the shores of the British Isles till the present time and it will
appear that dress is no mean part of that empire’s greatness. Even in our own
day savagry appears in our dress without the virtue that goes with savage stages
of society. The tendency downward always appears in the fashion plates and the
styles that force policemen to arrest women on the streets. The minister and
even his family must set a standard of modest dress that common judgment
approves. The minister himself must strike a medium ground in dress as well as
other personal habits; he must not dress in too clerical a fashion, and he must
not put ’himself in the class with the dude, the sport, or society man.
Simplicity, neatness, comfort, should characterize his dress. Gay colors, latest
cuts, jaunty style, are out of place. Spotless linen is always in taste and a
personal asset for the minister. Moreover the minister must not be led into the
danger of “gay clothing.” Jas 2:3. His dress and his manner will go together and
both should be inconspicuous.

Business enters into the minister’s life as well as all others. Here is a field
of danger and opportunity. His life should be exemplary in this field as well as
others. Business with the minister should come to him, in the necessities of
domestic life, and church enterprises.

He should not court business nor seek wealth; but in all his business duties he
should be honest and fair in his dealings. It is a mistake for ministers to
think they must keep pace with the styles and luxuries of the age. If possible,
debt must be avoided. It is the peril of all men, but especially of the
minister. Men will overlook almost everything sooner than an unpaid bill. His
example here will mean much to the community. There is no better place for the
minister to “deny himself and take up his cross” than here. He needs clothes, he
needs books, he needs furniture, he needs food for his family. He is tempted to
get them. Anybody will trust him till he quits paying. Remember Jesus “made
Himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant and was made
in the likeness of men. ’ ’ Php 2:7. It was this self-denial that made Jesus;
though He “had not where to lay His head.” The combination of personal poverty,
decency, honesty, and manhood, is the most valuable asset in the minister’s
life. Nowhere has a rich and stylish minister been of great value. “They left
all and followed Him” is the greatest comment on the early apostles. We are not
doing it now; but we ought to do it. The world never needed it more than at the
present. Crowns bejewelled above the British crown in the tower of London await
the families of ministers who live with him in the plain and simple life that
helps the poor to be honest as well as pious. Extravagance is one of the dangers
to religion of this age, and the minister’s personal life counts for more than
pastoral visit or sermon in this danger field. Extravagance in expenditures
leads to extravagance in every line of life.

Those who overspend will overspeak overlive and overpromise. No minister can
preach with the incubus of debt upon him, nor with his family leading in the
fashions of the day; downright honesty crowns learning, piety, and personal
character. The minister cannot excel in business, or luxury, or even learning;
his only field is to excel in personal life; and here is the field of largest
opportunity to represent Jesus Christ. The minister is no less a social being
than other men and his associations and affiliations will enter into his value
among men. Jesus attended places of worship, funerals, marriage feasts, dinners,
and suppers in private homes, and entered into the social life of His day, with
all the ardor and sincerity of His nature. Ministers may follow His example in
all the relations that represent the real life of their age; but their
ministerial value is reduced when they seek popularity through doubtful
associations in social entertainments, political contests, or sporting games.
Paul entered the theater, but not as a spectator; “when the city was filled with
confusion, they caught Paul’s companions, Gaius and Aristarchus, and rushed them
into the theater. “When Paul would have entered in unto the people, the
disciples suffered him not. ’ ’ Acts 19:29; Acts 19:30. The minister need not
spend all ’his strength in war on dancing, card-playing, and theater-going from
his pulpit; but his social life must be a rebuke to all wrong-doing and an
example for all sane living. No rule can be fixed for his social relations
except he must not subject “himself to adverse criticism by the pious nor be
used as an excuse by the godless. Jesus identified himself with no sects, held
Himself aloof from no class, lived worthy of the imitation of all and taught
purity of speech, purity of thought, and love unfeigned. The minister may
exercise his political rights as a citizen, but should avoid partizan
controversies and associations, lest he divide the flock. His patriotism should
never obscure his Christianity and his political views should not destroy his
spiritual influence over men. His personal rights and ministerial duties do not
conflict; but in all social relations his ministerial obligations are the
largest of all.

Paul was a great scholar, and a great Roman, but he was greatest as a minister.
““What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.” Php 3:8.
Political, educational, and reformatory opportunities should have no attraction
for the real minister of Christ.

There may be ministers called to these fields; let every minister weigh that
question well. Paul exhorts Timothy not to participate in “other men’s sins” in
the selection of ministers. He would thereby adopt the sins he overlooked.

Then Paul exhorts him, “Keep thyself pure.” The personal life of the minister is
the real asset in his ministry. The winebibber cannot teach temperance, the
fornicator virtue, the debtor honesty, the spendthrift economy, nor the
despondent man hope. The gospel runs through the minister as the city water
through the earth and its purity will be determined by the minister’s life. Amos
came from the vineyard; Elisha from the plow; Peter from the fishing smack;
Matthew from the receipt of custom; and Paul from the office of a persecutor;
but they all represented personalities of great strength and loyalty to Jesus
Christ. The schools cannot make ministers; they can only educate them. We think
of armies, navies, and forts as our national defenses; but the real strength of
the nation is in the shops, stores, fields, schools, churches, and homes of the
interior where the arts of peace move on in regular activities, and souls fill
temples with quiet praises. It is not the outward utterances from pulpit and
platform that represent the real power of the ministry; but away back in the
domain of ’his inner thought and affection, where character is crystallized and
life is fashioned, that the minister becomes mighty in influence over men. The
wealth of the world is not in the rumbling volcano sending forth smoke and fire;
but in the quiet mountains where God fashioned the coal, the iron, the lead, and
the gold. The volcano attracts the reporter, the mine the investor. Ministers
need not court popularity nor the applause o multitudes; let them, rather,
furnish thought, example, devotion, and character worthy of approbation and
imitation. Men who have undertaken to give us the ministry of Christ have called
their writings “The Life of Christ.” All biography follows this example. It is
“The Life of Cromwell,” “The Life of George Washington,” “The Life of Luther,”
“The Life” should be the largest, the best thing of the minister.


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  CHAPTER 5: A 03 -THE MINISTER IN HIS PULPIT
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CHAPTER THREE IN HIS PULPIT THE MINISTER IN HIS PULPIT The minister’s study and
personal life I enter into his pulpit ministrations as ^ seed and cultivation
enter into the harvest. The pulpit is not the place where sermons are made, but
the place of their delivery. The minister in his pulpit is more than preacher,
though that is his chief function. In his pulpit he is the leader of devotion,
the director of worship, the representative of all the activities of the
congregation. The prayers, the reading of the Scripture, the music, the
attention and reverence of the people, all enter into the ministrations of the
pulpit. The minister in his pulpit is the conductor of all forces that pray,
sing, preach, offer gifts, and worship.

Old Testament preachers had messages from God to the people. Jonah was
instructed to “preach unto Nineveh the preaching that / bid thee.” Jon 3:2. The
prophets were preachers of righteousness to the people. John the Baptist
preached after long retirement and great preparation. Jesus Himself spent most
of His life in preparation for His brief ministry. Pulpit is used once in the
Bible. “Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the
purpose; and Ezra opened the book. ’ ’ Neh 8:4; Neh 8:5. John and Jesus spoke
often in the open and Jesus used Peter’s boat for a pulpit. The pulpit now
stands for the whole ministry of the Kingdom. The minister, in his pulpit,
stands at the center of his ministry. What he utters there determines his value
in the kingdom. Here the public hears him, weighs him, and renders its verdict.
The minister should be himself in his pulpit.

He is neither an actor nor an elocutionist. He should not try to ape other
ministers in thought, manner, or style. His own individuality is the only usable
quantity for the Holy Spirit.

Unless God utters a message through Him that could not be uttered by any other;
he is self deceived or a deceiver. His personality is nowhere more conspicuous
or more potent than in his pulpit. You may not be able to define the strength of
his ministry. You cannot tell whether it is in the man or the message. It is
really in both; and the one would be powerless without the other. The name of
Paul is powerful. He was a distinct personality touching not only his own time,
but all times. The printing press cannot eliminate the minister, gigantic as the
printing press is. “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them
that believed.” 1Co 1:21. Paul says: “My preaching was not with enticing words
but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.”

1Co 2:4. Preaching differs from all other human utterances in the source of the
message and the character of the minister. Scientific or historic truth may be
found and delivered without reference to the character of the author. An orator
may portray great historic characters or events and be an atheist; but a sermon
must be uttered by clean lips. It is this high quality of character that makes
the pulpit stand for all that is purest, highest, and holiest. Job asked, “Who
can bring an unclean thing out of an unclean?” “Not one.” Isaiah speaks of
himself as a man of unclean lips, dwelling among a people of unclean lips. Then
he speaks of a seraphim bringing a live coal from the altar and laying it upon
his mouth saying: “This hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away
and thy sin is purged.” Then Isaiah was prepared to say: ’ ’ Send me. ’ ’ The
pulpit is not so much a place as a ministry. In coining money the metal must be
of a certain fineness, a standard required by government.

It must have the stamp of the nation that coins it. “Whose image and
superscription is this?” The mint is the coining and stamping agency of
government. The minister is called of God and ordained by the Spirit. In his
pulpit he is himself called and ordained to this high office of preaching. No
human society can make ministers. Counterfeiters never use pure metal, and
man-made ministers are spurious because man is not clothed with authority to
call men into the ministry. Amos says: “As I followed the flock, the Lord said
unto me, Go prophesy unto my people.” Isaiah was associated with kings and
courts and God called him through a vision in the temple and said, “Go and tell
this people.” Saul’s conversion and call to the ministry seem to have been
almost simultaneous. Remaining with the disciples a few days in Damascus,
“straightway he preached Christ in the synagogue. ’ ’ All his previous history
pointed in an opposite direction. The minister is, therefore, a unique
personality, differing essentially from all others in his call, his
qualifications, his work, and his influence. In all ages men have respected
their priests, followed their teachings, imitated their example, and feared
their rebukes and warnings. This is conspicuous in all pagan religions
Confucianism, Mohammedanism, and Mormonism illustrate this. Roman Catholicism
confirms this claim. Protestantism is less so because of the democratic ideas
that dominate it; though the Protestant pulpit largely fashions the moral and
social ideals and activities of the age.

Hardly any institution can stand against the combined pulpit of Protestantism.
Louisiana lottery disappeared under pulpit protest, and the saloon is doomed if
the pulpit continues its “cry against” all wrong-doing. Jonah’s method is not
antiquated it is the most modern pulpit utterance because it is God’s method.
The pulpit must “cry against” all wrong-doing. It would be a shame on the nation
and a disgrace to the pulpit to make war on flies and mosquitoes and leave the
saloon and the brothel. The minister in his pulpit can “cry against” all evils
in terms of scripture and by authority of the Holy Ghost. He may say a “sinful
nation,” a “people laden with iniquity,” or “thou art the man. ’ ’ The pulpit is
no place for trivial speech, personal complaints, petty lectures on small
questions; but the place for exposition of God’s word, the treatment of great
moral themes, the appeal to the “highest in human hearts, the comfort of those
in trouble, and the invitation to all to come to Jesus for pardon and life. The
pulpit is the place of authority; here the minister can say: “Thus saith the
Lord,” as the judge on the bench can say: ’ ’ This is the law. ’ ’ It is this
association of the minister and the pulpit that adds the weight of divine
authority to his message. “What the judge says in the store does not have the
weight of what he utters on “the bench” in the courtroom. The minister should
have “his pulpit” the pulpit that is open to him and for which he is
responsible. His place is not in commerce, politics, the market-place. His
ministry should not be subordinate to some other avocation; all other avocations
should be subordinate to his pulpit. Paul was a tent-maker; but preaching was
his business. His pulpit was not in one house, one place, or even one nation.
His whole life from his conversion was pulpit ministration. Prisons became
temples, wrecks became pulpits, scourges anointing for wider fields of
usefulness. His learning put him before kings and philosophers, and his courage
enabled him to speak to the mob from the stairway in the castle in Jerusalem.
His religious convictions and utterances opened the way for his great messages.
If beaten and dragged out of the city and cast upon the garbage heap on the
dumping hill, he would come back by the grace of God arid go on his way
preaching the gospel.

Paul calls this ministry a “high calling of God in Christ Jesus;” Php 3:14, or,
“heavenly calling. “ It is difficult to conceive of one called into the ministry
and not called into a pulpit.

Jonah was called and sent to Nineveh; Amos was sent to his nation; Nathan was
sent to David; Moses was sent to Egypt; Peter was sent to Caesarea; Paul was
sent to many cities and countries. It would seem a contradiction for the United
States to call men into the navy and never assign them, when prepared, to a
ship. It seems reasonable that men called of God to preach will be called of God
to a field. Is it not possible for ministers to defeat God’s plans and their own
welfare by choosing a field or waiting for a ’ ’ good opening. ’ ’ Is not the
smallest field large enough for the largest minister? Cornelius and Peter were
both under the direction of the same Spirit. Do not churches decide what sort of
a minister will suit them without asking God to direct them in their choice? The
pulpit is commercialized, socialized, and educated away from God. Minister and
people are making contracts, and trying to run the church on “business
principles.” “What do they mean by ’’business principles?” Do they mean
surrender to the will of God, or do they mean that which will satisfy their own
notions and carry out their own ideas? The pulpit is nothing unless it represent
God. The minister in ’his pulpit should never court popularity nor fear
criticism. These are the Schylla and Charybdis between which ministers must pass
after escaping other Sirens of the world. Popularity is a giant monster that
greedily devours the worldly-minded. How often have we heard of the ’ ’ popular
minister. Can that be said of any of the prophets or apostles? Was not their
ministry a keen knife in the sores of men and of nations? Is it not said that
“the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church?” Is not popularity the dream of
vanity? To court popularity is to court a phantom and to lose out in the end.
Sincerity endures longer than popularity. All popular fashions and popular men
are short-lived.

Criticism is the other rock of danger. Some ministers resent it; others are
overwhelmed by it. The best way is to profit by it. It may enlighten the wise
minister, show him his weakness, reveal his opportunity. It may be the result of
green-eyed envy, ignorance, selfishness, or ambition. No matter what the source
of criticism, it may be treated in such a good spirit, answered in such a
faithful life, contradicted by such useful service as to really develop the
stronger powers of t’he minister. “Jesus was oppressed, and He was afflicted;
yet He opened not His mouth.”

Pilate said to Jesus: “Hearest thou not how many things they witness against
thee?” “He answered him to never a word. ’ ’ Jesus did not eo.urt the best nor
fear the worst. His pulpit had a cross in it, but He never left His pulpit. A
crossless pulpit leads to a crownless life. “God forbid that I should glory save
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul did not glory simply in the fact
that Jesus suffered on the cross; but that he had Ms cross; for he said: “I am
crucified with Christ.” Gal 6:14; Gal 2:20. He gloried that he was counted
worthy to suffer in His name. The minister must have his cross in his pulpit and
if cruel criticism nails him to it, he may glory in it; but he should not
challenge criticism any more than he should court popularity. His ministry
should strive to do the will of God without reference to flattery or complaint.
Sincerity and impartiality will add much to the pulpit. The minister’s pulpit
should speak the word Paul’s advice: “Preach the word, be urgent in season, out
of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.”

2Ti 4:2. “ All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that
the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

2Ti 3:16; 2Ti 3:17. Modern preaching is often lacking in the WORD. Fads and
fancies, reforms; and social service, charities and endowments, political
problems and scientific questions, the topics of the day, furnish themes for
pulpit treatment. These may all be used to illustrate the Word, but not to
substitute for the Word. The Word is the only thing “that is quick and powerful,
and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of
soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart. ’ ’ Heb 4:12. Other topics pierce the head,
the word the heart; never mind that the “time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts will heap to themselves
teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the
truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure
afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. ’ ’
2Ti 3:3-5. The pulpit needs the genuine minister in this age. Any man can run
with the crowd, drift with the current, respond to the tendency of the age. It
takes an Amos or an Isaiah to rebuke the sin of the age. No intellectual sword
can conquer the evils of the age; only the sword of the Spirit can cut to the
vitals and win men to God. The pulpit is not a show window to be changed with
every new fashion that invades society; it is a lighthouse sending forth rays of
light the same in every age. No matter what weather or what ships pass the light
is the same; this is the one institution that must send out rays of spiritual
light. The lighthouse tower stands on a firm foundation, surrounded by shifting
sands or changing waters, and sends out its light over calm or raging seas; so
the pulpit is not changed by the evanescent movements among men; but holds up
the word of God to light up the pathway of safety for voyagers over life’s sea
amid storms and darkness.


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  CHAPTER 6: A 04 - THE MINISTER IN HIS PARISH
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CHAPTER FOUR IN HIS PARISH THE MINISTER IN HIS PARISH THE minister is more than
a preacher. His work is not Sunday service; it is all week labor. It is no small
task to perform the duties of a minister. Jesus came into contact with large
groups, small groups, families, and individuals. Jesus was a minister.

There are some preachers who are not ministers. Men who teach, or edit, or
manage institutions, or fill diplomatic places. Some of them are great preachers
great occasion preachers. But this address is dealing with ministers, not
preachers only. A good minister is larger than a great preacher, because he
deals with more phases and needs of humanity. The great ministers of the world
have been great teachers and great burden-bearers. Jesus was the great example.
He said Himself: “I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” Paul’s
description of his experience in 2Co 11:23, ’ ’ Of the Jews five times received
I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned,
thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep: in
journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine
own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in
the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in
weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides
those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all
the churches.” The modern minister is not exposed to the same kind of perils as
Paul; but as large a variety; and the care of his parish is an everpresent
weight that tries his strength of body, mind, and heart. Opposition to the
gospel is less than in the past, but indifference is almost as perilous to the
kingdom.

Pride, vanity, self-indulgence, and luxury, stand in the way of spiritual
progress. In fact, ministers themselves are in danger of loss of spiritual
vitality by reason of the ease by which they are surrounded. If any worker needs
robustness, a little hardship, it is the minister.

Parishioners often think more about the minister’s dress than his sermons; more
about his manners than his character; more about his living than his life.

Ministers ought to identify themselves with their congregations so as to enter
into all their experiences. Jesus “emptied Himself” and took upon Him the form
of a servant.” But this is not the modern idea; it is that the minister must be
a “good mixer.” Jesus was no mixer. Light does not mix with darkness.

Right does not mix with wrong. The doctor does not mix with diseased ones. Jesus
came close to all sorts of sinners; but He maintained His matchless purity. His
sympathy was so genuine, His love was so great, His life was so helpful, that
the common people heard him gladly. The minister should come close to men, but
not mix with men in the sense of a “hail fellow well met.” There is a dignity
and a gentleness, a loftiness and a humility that goes with every true ministry.
The minister should not be so high as to make the lowest stand in awe of him;
nor so low as to make the highest feel no moral fear of him. The best should
love him and the worst should respect him; and all should feel at home in his
presence.

You have seen the cart going about the city gathering up the waste and
unsanitary heaps piled up on streets and back alleys. There is much accumulation
of trouble, doubt, and misunderstanding in every congregation. Heaps of gossip,
piles of imagination, pools of bad feeling, thoughts and hates that poison the
social atmosphere and sicken church members. The minister is a “carter” going
among his people to gather up this waste and this deleterious matter. Sometimes
he need say but very little. His value is in “his ability to listen
sympathetically, to load up his mental cart with what overloaded lives will tell
him. Men cannot carry their own burdens alone; that is the reason Jesus “carries
our sorrows.” Many people have troubles they dare not tell their neighbors; it
would make matters worse like throwing bones, cans, feathers, and egg shells
into the neighbor’s yard; but it is safe to tell it to the minister; and the
minister should be so near his parish that all will feel like telling their
inner life to him. When he leaves the house he “carts away” their troubles. If
he dumps it out in the neighborhood it only makes matters worse; his
dumping-ground should be beyond the pale of his parish. There is no better and
no larger work than this for the minister to perform. Many a troubled life has
been relieved of burdens and sorrows, in this way, by the minister who did
nothing but listen.

Broken-hearted mothers with drunken husbands, wayward sons, disgraced daughters,
have found the friendly and sympathetic minister a source of sweet comfort as
they have poured into his ears woes enough to crush life out of them. Pastoral
calls in elegant parlors, teas and dinners in mansions, where intelligence and
hospitality feast the minister, are not the only places where the minister’s
life counts in his parish; though these furnish him an opportunity to extend
help to hearts that carry burdens sometimes larger than their fortunes. But his
ears may be open to other than tales of woe and current topics. Many men in the
church, and out of the church, have A’iews and experiences which they love to
tell to the minister. They have brooded over some passage of scripture, some
personal vision, some business or domestic experience, until it burns in their
being. The minister is the one to whom they love to tell their story. It may
help the man to be more religious and the minister to preach more effectively.
His teaching is broadened and deepened, his power over men is increased because
they have led him into new fields and new opportunities. No experience has much
force till it is told to others. Witnessing for Jesus Christ strengthens the
believer. “Go home to thy friends and tell what great things Jesus has done for
thee.” Even telling objections may lead to acceptance. Causes win in debate by
allowing the opposition to speak. It will make an angry man friendly to allow
him to abuse you in his own angry way. He talks of his anger. The mouth speaks
out of the abundance of the heart; and hot words are like pus from a wound let
them out and get relief. Do not undervalue ear service; it is not like “lip
service” an abomination. Jesus always permitted the afflicted, the troubled
ones, to tell Him their story. He even permitted the men to tell on the woman;
but they went out ashamed of themselves and He said to her, ’ ’ Go and sin no
more;” and the presumption is that she did not. The minister in his parish
should be benevolent, not only helping the destitute, but in bearing with
peculiar people. Some good people are eccentric and almost every parish has this
class. They are always suggesting what the minister and the church ought to do.
They have some pet plan that no one could work.

They hold strange views of certain passages of scripture. They tell you why the
church fails.

They know certain bad things that they cannot tell. They have been ignored or
mistreated by a leading member. They contribute nothing but words. They come
just before preaching with new tales of calamity. They stuff you with stuff. Now
the minister must use benevolence in judgment, discretion in treatment, and love
within. This quality in the minister has to be cultivated. He must be all things
to all men. Not do as all men do, but be adequate to all men, adjustable to all
men. The hardest task for the minister is in his parish. The complaints and
pessimism, the excuses and indifference, the immorality and stinginess, the
domestic infelicities and dishonesty, continually fret his righteous soul; but
he must endure all for the gospel’s sake, and not his own. In order to meet
these conditions in patience, sweet spirit, and hope, he will need much prayer,
much spiritual help.

He must have no pets, no partial feelings, no special friends. His parish should
be his ministerial family; and he should love and treat all alike. Their sorrows
become his sorrows, their joys his joys, their adversities and prosperities his
own. His real life should be a model for their life; he should not walk on
stilts nor wear any mask. Partiality is as bad as neglect. His life teaches as
well as his sermons; and is understood better. He is no dictator, making rules
for life; but a guide pointing the way along which each one must walk in his own
way and on his own feet. He is nobody’s conscience and everybody’s light. His
spirit is more than his acts. The parish watches nothing so close as the
minister; quotes no other so often; and chooses no other as exemplar for their
children and themselves so naturally.

They watch his life and follow that more than his words. One of the most
striking things in the ministry of Jesus was, “Follow me.” Any minister who can
say that has reached the highest place in his ministry. It is easy to say, “Do
this;” it is harder to say, “Follow me;” but that is the ideal minister in his
parish. The minister should not only touch the life of his parish but the
property of his parish. He need not tease and urge individuals to give for
things he deems of most importance; but he might lay great and worthy objects
before them in such fashion as to increase their sense of stewardship and their
obligation to worthy causes in need. This may be done by his own example, his
pulpit ministrations, and his personal intercourse with his people. “What the
minister does counts above what he says. He can do nothing that will interest
and enlist liberal donations from all, but he can do enough to secure ample
support for causes and institutions dependent upon the church. He should avoid
requests that provoke denial, for that will lessen his power over wealth. It is
easy to blame the rich and pity the poor. The principle of giving is the lesson
to impress, and the manner of giving left to the individual who gives. Do not
provoke the unjust criticism that the preacher is “always after money.” Sensible
men know that money is essential to the maintenance and extension of the gospel
and the cultivation of a sensitive conscience and a worshipful soul will bear
fruit in due time.

Human distinctions often bar the way of real ministerial help. The rich
embarrass the minister by their surroundings and the poor excite a morbid
sympathy; both alike need spiritual sympathy and help; and that is the very
thing the minister can give. Jesus set a good example when He went to the house
of rich Zacchaeus. That man had no friends; and it is too often true of the
rich; but Jesus went as a minister and his heart surrendered and salvation came
to his house. Put the ministerial visit to the rich in place of the social call.
Their hearts long for genuine spiritual interest. Do not think the poor want
bread; they want the bread of life; they want soul-touch, human touch, a
friendly interest in their life. Nobody can give this so well as the minister.
The poor should never be embarrassed in the presence of the minister, and the
minister should never be embarrassed in the presence of the rich. Human fear and
human taste have marred many a minister’s usefulness. He is not dealing with
conditions and environments alone; but with souls; and “all souls are mine”
saith the Lord.

It is this soul-power and this soul-touch that carries influence in the parish
for good. Many can resist argument who dare not resist life.

Many reject appeals who surrender to love. The minister’s love wins where his
learning fails. The heart is the center of being, while mind is only a function
of life.


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  CHAPTER 7: A 05 -THE MINISTER IN HIS COMMUNITY
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CHAPTER FIVE IN HIS COMMUNITY THE MINISTER IN HIS COMMUNITY THE minister’s
sphere is larger than his own parish. “The field is the world,” and he is
related to the whole field. It would be as illogical as it is unscriptural for a
minister to care for his own parish and leave the regions beyond to the
missionaries in foreign lands. But this address deals chiefly with those near-by
relations that involve the minister’s visible life. His relation to other
ministers is one of equality. No matter what education and what forms of
ordination induct them into church relations the highest position is that to
which ministers are called and ordained by the Holy Ghost. Any superiority
claimed by one class of ministers, above another class of ministers, is of human
origin and unsupported by Scripture or historic facts. The highest call and the
highest ordination is by the Spirit of God.

Paul was never ordained by the church; in fact, the church refused to accept him
at first. This principle of equality should be recognized by all ministers. The
question of a closed pulpit might be justified by church polity, but not by the
word of God. Jesus went into Jewish synagogues though the synagogue was not
orthodox in the gospel sense. It is not a question of intellectual orthodoxy,
but of spiritual life.

Other ministers should be accorded genuine recognition in our hearts and in our
churches. The one should be as open as the other. The presumption is that this
subject includes ministers of one’s own denomination as well as other
denominations. It includes all ministers of Jesus Christ. The minister’s
relation to them should be fraternal, frank, co-operative. Congregations follow
ministers more than either knows. Unbrotherly ministers estrange congregations
and weaken Christianity. It is not the divisions of Protestantism so much that
weaken its force as the ignorance and unbrotherliness of ministers; and that
sometimes inside the pale of the same denomination. Petty jealousies, unholy
ambitions, political scheming, and hostile attitudes have defiled the ministry
and reduced church efficiency. Fraternal relations must not be feigned, but
frank, growing out of heartfelt genuine brotherly love. This feeling may be
cultivated like any other Christian grace; and no minister should wait for
others to make the advance. If snubbed, do not recognize it. Persist in
brotherly advances and win out in your own soul, if you do not with other
ministers. Jesus did not agree with all men, nor was He well received by all;
but He was genuinely fraternal and affectionate towards all men. Ministers
should be known, as t’he early Christians were known, by their love for one
another. Co-operation is a law of nature, a law in modern business, and should
be a law among ministers. The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in
America has undertaken the Herculean task of cultivating this principle, not
only among ministers, but among denominations; and wonderful results are flowing
from this movement. In every community, ministers should co-operate in all
common interests of the kingdom; such as temperance, Sabbath observance, social
virtue, charity. Some things are too large for one minister, yet easy for all.
In some communities ministers are less cordial than business men or society
women; but it should be remembered, always that ministers are responsible for
the unbrotherly feeling, unrighteous treatment, and unchristian spirit among
churches and people.

Negative wrong often counteracts positive good.

Individual churches lose as well as whole communities by ministerial aloofness
or antagonism. The gospel lived is more potent than the gospel preached. This is
seen in the life of Jesus who came to fulfil the law. His personal life was more
than the ten commandments or the Sermon on the Mount.

Ministerial association is essential to these conditions. It is not time wasted
for ministers to meet and exchange views and cultivate personal attachments.
They will learn from one another and inspire one another. It will harmonize
their pulpit ministrations and justify their association.

Churches watch ministers in their relation to other churches than their own.
Proselytism is one inexcusable fault in ministers. Were it right to win members
from one church to another, it would add nothing to the Kingdom.

It is ecclesiastical gambling, one gains, another loses; nothing is added.
Besides this, it disgusts intelligence not to say piety. The minister who enters
another’s flock and wins members is a thief and a robber. If members change, for
reasons of their own, it is their matter and no blame attaches to the minister.

It is the minister’s business to look after the lost and all know there are many
of them. His work is to save sinners; membership is secondary. This remark is
made because it is one of the hard lessons to learn and harder to practice. In
revival results it is difficult for the minister to be willing for converts to
go to another church, but let him grow in that direction. The difficulty is not
in winning members, but in holding and developing them.

Consideration for other churches, in planning for one’s own, should enter into
the equation of relation to them. It would be discourteous to hold some great
social or musical affair in the midst of a revival in another church, in the
same community. As far as possible all plans outside of regular services should
include other churches. Churches should be neighborly institutions. Even social
courtesy would call off a dance next to a home darkened by a death.

Churches are really in a position to set standards of social courtesy and to do
it in such genuine fashion as to teach great lessons by great kindnesses.
Ministers should keep in touch with other churches and set an example worthy of
imitation. The minister can do much good by visits 1 to services in other
churches. Congregations appreciate it more than ministers imagine.

While modern opinion feels that ministers are not held in the same respect as in
former days, yet that view is not sustained by facts any more t’han that
religion is declining, because people do not shout in meeting. Intelligence
reduces noise and distance. Ministers are closer to the people now, but not less
regarded, if their lives represent real ministerial worth and fraternity. A
visit to a funeral, a special service, a marriage, any meeting is almost a
personal visit to the individual members. The church is ignorant of herself and
this multiplies the spiritual reasons for such visits and intercourse. The
minister is more than an individual and must do most of his service in a public
capacity.

Exchange of pulpits, where church polity does not bar the way, has value in this
matter of enlightenment and fortification. Business associations look to the
common good and churches need this for progress. Any man or institution that
lives within itself becomes casehardened. Even crabs throw off their shells to
grow larger; and the chick comes out of the shell to grow in the barnyard. We
might introduee interchurch lines as well as interurban lines. The ocean flows
toward the rivers and the rivers toward the tides; a stagnant sea would mean a
dead sea; and a stagnant river would mean a river of death; flowing together
they enrich the valleys and give health to continents. “When a minister turns a
good current into another church that church meets it with a purifying tide and
good feeling. Never extend ministerial courtesy for popularity: do it because it
is Christian. The minister is related to the community as well as to churches.
The community is the largest body near by him. There is nothing so keen-eyed and
so heartless as the public. It never nails its victims to the cross with tack
hammers. It wields a sledge hammer with the arm of a Hercules and drives great
spikes through its victim. But the gentleness of giant strength is the tenderest
of all. There is no water so gentle and so graceful in its movements as the thin
wavelets of the mighty ocean as they smoothe the tiny grains of sand on the
white strand. A baby may paddle in the gentle waters. The sun would consume the
world as your stove the paper you throw into it; yet his beams touch the tiniest
flower with a gentleness that dries up the dewdrop in its bright face and fills
its life with sweetness. The big fireman lifts the babe from the burning house
with hands that might grace an angel; though with those same strong arms he
seizes the resisting burglar and leads him to prison. That huge thing we call
“the public” passes judgment on ministers and judges Christianity by them. The
public reads papers, men, current events. The public does not read the Bible.
Ministers, Sunday-school teachers, invalids, and decrepits read the Bible. The
public reads the “living epistles read and known by all men.” The ministers are
the pages read most thoroughly and most often. Here is the minister’s largest
opportunity. He is the latest edition of Christianity. He circulates in society.
They discuss him around the fireside, in the political meeting, in the saloon.
He is not simply a clergyman, he is a man of God. The minister cannot preach to
the community from his pulpit. Many people never enter church. He cannot visit
every home, the task is beyond any one person. How shall he reach the community?
By a life that contains all the essential elements of Christian manhood. Is he
lazy? The community knows it. Does the ledger show him in debt? Every body knows
it. Is he socially indiscreet? It is the community gossip’s feast. Does he
neglect the poor and ignorant? The air is full of it. No matter what he is, or
what he is not; he is known and many estimate the gospel and the church by him.
Here is a field large enough for all his power of influence. He need not know
more about any one thing than anybody else, but he should know about more things
than any other person in the community. His life must interpret his teaching,
and his experience must touch God and humanity, not a few people.

Jesus saved but one man in Gadara, but He touched the whole community. The
minister may visit the sick, bury the dead, and help the destitute outside of
his parish, with the same sympathy and willingness as he ministers to those in
his own congregation.

Respond to all calls of real need and do it in the name of Jesus Christ, and not
in the interest of your own church. The minister does not have to own property,
do business, hold office, or belong to lodges to fill his true relation to the
community. He is called to the task of living before the community all the
virtues and graces that can cleanse the heart, purify politics, make honest
business, expel evils from society, and cultivate a sensitive conscience. He
deals with individuals; but his largest work is for the community. A negative
view of his relation to the community will more clearly express his value.
Eliminate the minister entirely from the community; let him fail in honesty,
virtue, industry, or humility, and see what remains. He is a moral force, a
spiritual personality, a divinely chosen teacher, a living example in the
community. Every working man ought to do better work, every ’home ought to be
happier, every business house ought to be more honest, every neighbor ought to
be more neighborly, every life ought to be 1 purer, because the minister lives
and moves and preaches in the community. His value is not in what he has, what
he does, or what he says, but in what he is. A live horse has a value all his
own. A dead horse does a damage all his own. The minister need not get rich
himself, but the community ought to be richer because he is in it.


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Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/staley-w-w-the-minister-1915/
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