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The Pew to the Pulpit

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THE PEW TO THE PULPIT.

Suggestions to the ministry from a layman's
point of view. By Hon. David J. Brev.'er.
CHRIST REFLECTED IN CREATION.
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The Pew to the Pulpit

Suggestions to the Ministry from
the Viewpoint of a Layman

v/

BY

David J. Brewer, LL.D.

Associate Justice of the Supreme
Court of the United States

New York Chicagro Toronto

Fleming H. Revell Company

MDCCCXCVII

Copyright, 1897,

BY

Fleming H. Revell Company

The substance of this monograph was originally
given as an address to the students in the Divinity
Department of Yale University, New Haven, Conn.,
on April 2d, 1897. It is now published in response
to numerous requests.

THE PEW TO THE PULPIT

" Time at last sets all things even."
For fifty years I have sat in the pew
a target for the pulpit. Unnumbered
arrows have been shot at me from
the ministerial bow, feathered with
logic and rhetoric, sharpened with
appeal and exhortation, and some*
times poisoned with denunciation
and abuse. All the ill I have ever
done, all I have ever attempted to
do, or even thought of doing, and all

The Pew to the Pulpit

that any man believed I had done
or even thought I might be tempted
to do, has been held up before a
sometimes admiring and sometimes
amused audience, even as the results
of a washerwoman's toil are spread
out on the afternoon clothesline. Is
it any wonder that as I have heard
the anathema "woe unto you law-
3^ers " rolled as a sweet morsel under
the tongue, I have felt like shouting,
whoa unto you ministers. And this
I have had to receive, sitting in si-
lence and without the luxury of talk-
ing back. Now all is reversed. I
have the pulpit before me. I am to
talk and you must listen. I can fire
away at you and you have no escape.
Would it be strange if the words of
Shylock came to my mind, *' If I can

Suggestions to the Ministry

catch him once upon the hip, I will
feed fat the ancient grudge I bear
him.** Would it not be sweet re-
venge if I could gather in this single
hour all the shafts that have been
launched at me, and hurl them back
at your devoted heads? You may
say that personally you never did
any of these things ; but you teach
the doctrine and justice of vicarious
suffering and should not object to
furnish an illustration.

We hear much to-day about the
decay of the pulpit. And if you
were to heed some of the would-be
scientific critics you might be led to
believe that it was an institution fit
only for semi-civilized times, and now
slowly passing out of existence in

obedience to the scientific law of the
9

The Pew to the Pulpit

survival of the fittest. We also
sometimes hear a wail coming from
the ministry itself, as if Christ and
His religion were losing their hold
on earth because the pulpit was not
in all things accepted as leader and
guide. Analyzing the thought thus
suggested it finds expression in these
propositions: First, the time was
when the pulpit was the great place
of attraction for young men of brains
and power, and the intellectual force
was found in its service. To-day
other professions and other work are
more attractive to men of brains and
power, and the pulpit is recruited
only from the ranks of the second or
third class. Secondly, in those days
the minister was the recognized
leader, and the pulpit was the power

10

Suggestions to the Ministry

in the land. Now the sceptre has
passed to the lawyer, the editor, and
the business man, while the pulpit
has become one of the inferior social
forces ; and thirdly, and as it were a
corollary from these, that while then
society rested and depended upon
the pulpit, now the world finds that
it is getting along very well without
often consulting it, and ere long will
dispense with it altogether.

That there is some foundation for
these assertions all must admit. Ob-
viously, the pulpit is not to-day so
comprehensive and controlling in its
relations to human society as it once
was. It is no longer the central
dominating force and figure. In this

direction may I quote the recent
11

The Pew to the Pulpit

words of Rev. Dr. Heury M. Field,
in the '' Evangelist."

*'In the early days of New England
the minister was the great man of
the town. As the messenger of God,
he was invested with a spiritual au-
thority, that was far more respected
then than now. If he did not as-
sume, like the Catholic priest, to hold
the keys of the kindgom of heaven,
the doors of which he could open
and shut, yet the most reckless trans-
gressor had a secret foreboding of
the future if he disregarded his sol-
emn admonitions. Even in the com-
mon intercourse of life, he was not
like other men, to be spoken of, or
to be spoken to, lightly or unad-
visedly, but with a reverence ap-
proaching to awe. And such he re-
12

Suggestions to the Ministry

mained for two hundred years. Even
so late as the beginning of this cen-
tury, Dr. Stephen West, who was the
minister of Stockbridge, Mass., for
sixty years, though small in stature,
had a presence that frightened all the
boys in the town. When he came
down from the hilltop on which he
lived, his diminutive figure set off
by his three-cornered hat, his short
clothes, and his gold-headed cane,
they drew up by the sidewalk and
uncovered their little heads, and so
remained till he disappeared slowly
down the street.

But all this is only a beautiful
memory. That generation has long
since passed away and another gen-
eration has come upon the stage, in
which the conditions of ministerial

13

The Pew to the Pulpit

life, as of all other life, have changed,
and the picturesque old figure has
disappeared and left no successor.

From that time — the first quarter
of the century — the minister has lost
in large degree the prestige that
comes from his office ; there is no
longer a halo around his head; he
has had to come down from his ped-
estal, and stand on the common earth,
like other men — to be judged, like
them, by what he is and what he
does in the world."

It is useless to ignore the facts thus
graphically portrayed. Neither lam-
entation nor complaint can change
what is, or disturb its significance.
It is true, looking at the pulpit in
its relations to present life and con-
trasting its position to-day with tliat

14

Suggestions to the Ministry

which existed a century and a half
ago in New England at least, there is
a decadence of power and control. It
is no longer the one great ruler. But
I desire most earnestly to insist that
this change in what may be called its
purely human relations does not in-
dicate that its value to the world is
waning, or that its end is coming.
The changed conditions of human
life — marvelous as they have been in
the last century and in few respects
more significant than in the diJBfer-
ent relations of the ministry to the
great body of the people — do not
involve any disparagement of the
ministry, no intimation that it is to
become in the future only a memory,
nor that it has outlived its useful-
ness. The change of its place in the

The Pew to the Pulpit

world's life is not prophetic of death,
but is eloquent of all the glories of a
higher usefulness.

Within the compass of a single
lecture all the elements conducing to
and producing this change cannot be
noticed. I must content myself with
two or three, wliich are potent and
far-reaching. One is that the range
of human thought and study is vaster,
and the spread of knowledge among
the masses greater. In the early New
England days the extent of human
knowledge, as of human pursuits,
was restricted. Collegiate or any
equivalent education was limited to
a few, and he who possessed it as-
sumed to be wise in all the depart-
ments of knowledge. The minister,
the lawyer, and the doctor were the

IG

Suggestions to the Ministry

learned men. They created, as it
were, a trinity of intellectual forces,
the dominant factor being the minis-
ter. Indeed, the lawyer was looked
upon as almost an intruder ; as one
tolerated because he might know
something, but to he avoided because
presumably a bad man and the espe-
cial object of the Master's denuncia-
tions. By an act of the General
Court of Massachusetts, in 1663,
"usual and common attorneys" were
excluded from seats in the legisla-
ture. As said by Washburn, in his
Judicial History of Massachusetts,
**it was many years after the settle-
ment of the colony before anything
like a distinct class of attorneys-at-
law was known, and it is doubtful if
there were any regularly educated at-

2 17

The Pew to the Pulpit

torneys who practiced in the courts of
the colony during its existence." And
as for the doctor, his voice was heard,
and his presence demanded, only
when accident or disease invaded the
home or threatened the end of life.
He was, therefore, as it may be said,
simply an occasional influence. The
minister was the one constant uni-
versal and acknowledged presence
and power. No suspicions attached
to his integrity, no question arose
as to his constant usefulness, no one
doubted his learning. And so in an
age and community where newspa-
pers were unknown, books were rare,
and the highest reach of ordinary
knowledge was the three R's, as they
have been so often called, reading,
writing and arithmetic, it is not

18

Suggestions to the Ministry

strange that the one subject to no
suspicion, always present, confessedly
learned and supposed to bear some
kind of divine authority, should be
the dominant force in the life of the
community. While the form of gov-
ernment was democratic, in spirit and
fact it was theocratic. The clergy
were the real rulers of New England.

Now all this has been changed.
The range of human inquiry has be-
come vast, and no man can walk all
its various ways with any hope of
attaining proficiency therein during
the limits of a single lifetime.

The pulpit no longer monopolizes

or is even supreme in the fields of

knowledge. One may be a good

chemist or geologist or astronomer

and neither read Hebrew nor be post-
19

The Pew to the Pulpit

ed in the shorter catechism. Indeed,
other things being equal, the more
complete the devotion to one narrow
subject the greater the knowledge in
respect thereto. One who gives up
an entire lifetime to the study of the
characteristics and habits of a single
bug not unreasonably feels that he
knows more about that bug than the
profoundest student of the Bible and
theology. And as there are many
bugs, as well as almost limitless ob-
jects of study, it inevitably results
that the specialist in each is the
learned man therein, and while the
pulpit may be wise in matters of re-
ligion and theology it no longer
reigns supreme over all the depart-
ments of human investigation and

knowledge.

20

Suggestions to the Ministry

The change in the business life of
the nation is equally pronounced.
No toiler in the great workshop of
human life completes any article.
Labor is universally segregated and
divided. Each does his separate
work as one of many steps necessary
to the completion of the perfected
thing, and knows little or nothing of
that done by others either before or
after him. Not only in the mere mat-
ter of manual labor is that segrega-
tion of toil evidenced. In the higher
reaches of professional life it is be-
coming equally true that in order to
attain success there must be a sepa-
ration, and, what may be called, a
narrowness of pursuit. No man in
any of our great centres of business
attains eminence as a lawyer, or a

21

The Pew to the Pulpit

doctor, but rather as a specialist in
one or other of these professions.
He is a corporation lawyer, an insur-
ance lawyer, a real estate lawyer,
or a criminal lawyer. He must be a
specialist in diseases of the eye, or of
the ear, or of the lungs. So vast
is the reach of human acquisitions,
so intricate and complex are busi-
ness transactions and relations that
no one can hope for success unless
he gives himself unreservedly to one
especial branch of professional life.
The old saying, "jack at all trades
and good at none " is to-daj^ carried
forward to the proposition that Jack
in all the departments of a single
trade is a failure in each. In other
words, the great law of labor and
business and professional life to-day

22

Suggestions to the Ministry

is specialit3^ The specialist is the
successful man. And this law of spe-
cialization affects the ministry. No
longer can the minister pose as one
possessed of all information and en-
titled to control outside the limits of
his special work. The moment he
steps into the domain of education,
and says, *' I know what is best therein,
I can decree the limits beyond which
science may not go, and no man must
be permitted to teach unless he has
passed through the gateway of the
divinity school " ; the moment he
enters the arena of business life and
says, *' I understand all about bonds
and stocks and railroads, and I have
a right to determine what is right
and what is not " ; the moment he
presents himself in the city hall, or

23

The Pew to the Pulpit

where the legislature of a state is
convened, or beneath the great dome
of the Capitol where Congress meets
to determine the welfare of the na-
tion, and assumes to say that "be-
cause I am a minister I have a right
to prescribe the terms, the limits and
the character of legislation, city,
state, or national," that moment the
common sense of the community says
to him most emphatically, ** go back
to your pulpit and leave matters of
education and busin'ess and legisla-
tion to those who are trained there-
for." Never in the history of the
world was there greater significance
than to-day in the words of the Apos-
tle Paul : " For I determined not to
know anything among 3'ou, save
Jesus Christ, and him crucified.'*
24

Suggestions to the Ministry

And if in the future the ministry is
to remain a welcome and acknowl-
edged power it can do so only as it
stays in the pulpit. The moment it
goes outside of that it jostles with
everybody and has no right to com-
plain if everybody gives it a kick.

The other matter I desire to pre-
sent is the growing intensity of the
democratic thought. And I use the
word " democratic '' in no partisan
sense. No man can read the history
of the last hundred years without
recognizing that it is becoming more
and more emphatic in the judgment
of all that the one sacred thing is the
individual ; that birth, wealth, place,
profession, achievements, intellectual
accomplishments, are all subordinate
to the great fact of manhood, and

25

The Pew to the Pulpit

that no authority, no control, no
dominance over society or state
rightfully attaches to any of the ac-
cidents or incidents of life. As
Edna Dean Proctor, in her ode to
the Prince of Wales, well said ;

Clearer-eyed the world is learning throngh
each upward struggling year,

He is prince whose life is noblest, be he
peasant, be he peer.

Lo it crowns a Garibaldi, born a fisher by the
sea,

And it scorns a king of Naples though of

Bourbon blood is he.

* * * * *

Let the English heir believe it; read the

lesson of the time ;
Know the sceptre is but a symbol and the

man alone sublime.

There is no divine right of kings.
There is no apostolic succession.
There is no inherited greatness. To-
day more than ever, and in the future
more than to-day it is and will be

26

Suggestions to the Ministry

true that no place, position, ofiSce,
inheritance, or any other mere inci-
dent of life will be recognized as
worthy of notice among the controll-
ing forces. The growing feeling is
well illustrated by the story told of
one who, registering his name at a
hotel, rather pompously said to the
clerk, *' I am lieutenant governor " to
which the clerk affably replied,
" never mind, sir ; I don't suppose
you could help it, and no one about
the hotel will treat you with any dis-
respect on account of it." Burns
prophesied the future when he wrote,

" The rank is but the guineas stamp ;
Tiie man's the gowd for a' that."

And this fact will affect the clergy
as all others. You cannot expect by
simply saying " I am a minister " to

27

The Pew to the Pulpit

have the people either bow down,
give way, or let you have a place.
The place you will have in society,
the power you will exercise, the in-
fluence you will exert, will depend
less and less upon the office you hold,
the title you bear, and more and
more upon what you are and what
you do. Individuals among your
number will rise to a commanding
position and become mighty and up-
lifting forces in the community and
in the nation, but your profession
(considered simply as a profession)
will mean little more than any other
to the great mass of struggling, push-
ing, urgent humanity. The world
will always recognize the wisdom of
the wise man, the integrity of the
honest man, the purity of the pure

28

Suggestions to the Ministry

man as well as the helpfulness and
comfort of him who really brings the
sweet messages of peace and a higher
life ; but the strong man of mature
years who has himself had the bene-
fits of a collegiate education, or had
his wits sharpened in the actual
struggles of business life, to whom
books of history and of science are
no strangers, who has toiled and
struggled until he has won a place in
the community, only smiles to him-
self when some youth fresh from the
divinity school, with little experience
of the deep things of life, and seeking
to direct the manner of other's lives,
raises his arms and shouts "thus
saith the Lord." Obviously, as he
thinks, this is carrying too far the
declaration of scripture, " out of the

29

The Pew to the Pulpit

mouth of babes and sucklings." The
blowing of ram's horns may have
been potent to throw down the walls
of Jericho, but the days of miracles
are past, and the walls we to-day
build around our lives rest on foun-
dations too firm to be disturbed by
the blast of any horn in the hand of
priest or levite. Your impress upon
life may and ought to be great and
powerful, but it will be an impress
coming not from your profession but
from your personal earnestness, de-
votion and ability. In short, and to
sum it up in a word, the democratic
tendencies of the day are taking all
authority away from rank and birth,
from class and profession, and vesting
it in the individual brain and life.
Nor is this tendency to be regarded

30

Suggestions to the Ministry

as a mere explosion coming up from
the slums, from the pauper and the
tramp. It does not mean the level-
ing down of the higher to the lower
but the lifting up of the lower to
the higher. It means that the great
masses are entering the sacred and far-
reaching precincts of human knowl-
edge. It means that every man is
learning to think for himself, and
that he hears no commanding voice
save that which comes from a clearer
brain and a purer life. Do not think
either that this tendency belittles the
profession, or degrades in any manner
your work in life. It rather comes
as a most earnest appeal for your
individual preparation for highest
service, and bids ever}^ one entering
upon the sacred work of preaching

The Pew to the Pulpit

the gospel to enter it with a heart
aglow with the enthusiasm of hu-
manity and with that intensity of
earnestness and devotion which com-
pels attention.

May I be pardoned if, beyond these
general observations, I add some sug-
gestions of a more direct and per-
sonal nature. And first in reference
to business relations. Be independ-
ent, and avoid so far as is possible
anything that looks like dependency.
Do not pose as even a quasi object
of charity, or permit yourselves to
pass as the expecting recipients of
gratuities. While I do not charge
this as a habit of the clergy I do
mean to say that it is frequent enough
not only to give point to tlie jibes of
the vicious, but also largely to de-
33

Suggestions to the Ministry

tract from the standing of the pulpit.
The common talk is, I give so much
to the church to support the minister,
as though it were a mere gratuity.
Half fare tickets are offered by com-
mon carriers and not only accepted
but sometimes asked as a fitting
charity to the clergy. A donation
party is not only accepted but often
welcomed and sometimes suggested
as an equivalent or compensation for
unpaid dues. A discount to the
clergy is the advertisement of many
business men, truthfully stated,
though often with a view of securing
the patronage of the congregation
rather than with any idea of benefi-
cence to the minister. These illus-
trate a common thought, which is
seldom spurned, often tolerated, and

3 33

The Pew to the Pulpit

occasionally encouraged by the pro-
fession, that the ministry constitute
a dependent class, ignorant of the
things of this world, and therefore to
be cared for and helped by the busi-
ness part of the community. There
is a humorous side to this picture
which is often drawn and which if I
had time I would like to amuse you
with, but I shall not wander in this
attractive field. My purpose is served
when I call attention to the facts as
above stated. They mean this, and
nothing more ; that there is a dispo-
sition on the part of many to regard
the clergy as not equal laborers in
the great field of the world, fairly
earning all that is promised for their
services, and entitled to receive as

any other laborers a just quid pro
\ 34

Suggestions to the Ministry

quo, but as at best a semi-dependent
class, to be carried along through
life as other objects of charity. How
different the language commonly
used in reference to business transac-
tions with the ministers from those
with other parties. In the one in-
stance it is, I gave so much to the
minister, or to the church for the
minister. In all other instances it
is, I paid the school teacher, I paid
the doctor, I paid the lawyer, I paid
the butcher, as though the one earned
nothing, while the others did. Now
I think one thing which would ele-
vate the position of the minister is
the constant assertion, I am no ob-
ject of charity ; I take nothing as a
gift. I am paid that which I earn

and receive no more than the just
35

The Pew to the Pulpit

value of my services and that which
I have an equal right with every
other laborer to receive. I give the
quo and I demand the quid. In
other words, I would have every
minister say to any church seeking
his services, if I come to you I come
as a laborer, to be paid, and to be
paid the full sum you promise, and
at the time you name, and if you do
not care for my services on those
terms you can get along without
them. I know you may reply that
you are not working for earthly re-
wards, that you are looking for your
compensation at the hands of the
Master and in the life to come. I
am not giving this advice solely for
your sake, but as much or more for
those to whom you minister. It is

36

Suggestions to the Ministry

human nature to look down upon
him who is in any sense regarded as
the object and recipient of charity,
and to respect him who demands and
receives just pay for valued service.
If you would have your life a power
in the community, you must insist
upon being regarded as an equal
laborer with all others and possessed
of an equal right to full and prompt
compensation. Whatever of charity
your life may express should be
charity by and not to you.

Another matter, do not trust the
Lord too much. This advice may
savor of the earth, but nevertheless
it is a wisdom born of experience. I
do not question the fact that the God
we worship is the Lord of the earth
as well as of the heavens, and that

37

The Pew to the Pulpit

His promises to His followers are
abundant. At the same time He has
placed you and me in a world subject
to inexorable laws, and to the lessons
of those laws we must listen. It
may seem harsh and hard, and yet I
must say that those beautiful words
commencing " behold the lilies of the
field ; they toil not, neither do they
spin " have misled many a preacher.
They have suggested to him, and
been a suggestion influencing his
life, that somehow or other he is ex-
empt from the control of the ordi-
nary laws of business and that be-
cause he is as he fancies the special
servant of the Most High he may
disregard those laws and still escape
the consequences of such disregard.

While he may not formulate in his
38

Suggestions to the Ministry

own mind the process of reasoning,
his argument practically is this ; that
while confessedly the age of miracles
has passed, that of special provi-
dences still exists and it is a good
equivalent. While the Almighty
may not send ravens to bring me
food when I am hungry; while He
may not strike the dead rock to open
living streams of water when I am
thirsty, yet, as He cares for the lilies
so He cares for me, and that as I am
engaged specially in His work I may
trust Him to provide all that my life
or the life of my family may, accord-
ing to my judgment, require. But
the truth is special providences sel-
dom come to him who seeks to trade
in them. They never can be de-
pended upon for the payment of

39

The Pew to the Pulpit

debts. You are not authorized to
write the Lord's name as endorser
on any note 3^ou give to the man
from whom you have purchased your
library, or piano, or horse and buggy.
If you want to give full play to the
matter of special providences trust
the Lord to bring the thing you need
and never trust Him to furnish the
money to pay for that which you
think you need and therefore have
bought. Trust Him to provide the
piano you think your daughters' mu-
sical education requires, rather than
trust Him to provide the money to
pay for it after you have bought it.
He may think that your delay in
putting your trust in Him presents a
case which He may well leave out-
side the reach of special providences.

40

Suggestions to the Ministry

It does not add to the power of your
preaching or the influence which you
as a man exercise in the community
to have the grocer or the butcher
saying that your bills are harder to
collect than those of the saloon
keeper or the woman who keeps a
house of entertainment not for man
and beast but for beasts of men.
And even the patient members of
your own congregation, who most of
them are apt to have something of
earth in their make-up, often get wea-
ried— unreasonably though it may
seem — of waiting for the payment of
their bills. I do not mean to inti-
mate by these words of advice that
all preachers act in this way, or even
that it is a common habit. Still

there is enough of it to make it
41

The Pew to the Pulpit

worthy of notice. At the same time
it is fair to say that the fault is not
wholly with the minister. If the
congregation does not act in accord-
ance with the strict laws of business
in dealing with him ; if it fails to
make its payments regularly and
promptly ; it exposes him to the bur-
den of just such trials as these. I
know whereof I am talking. I have
had experience. For something like
thirty years my intimate friend,
George Eddy, and I carried largely
the burdens of the First Congrega-
tional Church of Leavenworth, and
I know how difficult it was to make
the members of that congregation
realize their duty in these matters,
and how hard it was to make collec-
tions with anything like reasonable

42

Suggestions to the Ministry

promptness. And yet you will par-
don me for saying that part of this
comes from your own failure to in-
sist upon business conduct in the
dealings of the congregation with
you, and partly from the mistake to
which I have just referred, of re-
garding yourselves as quasi objects
of charity. For the moment you
put yourselves in that attitude, and
look for gifts instead of payment,
you not only seem to forget that
time is not of the essence of a gift,
but also are naturally led to discount
the expected benefactions of the fu-
ture.

Another advice is, do not write
your sermons; talk to the people.
Do not give a lecture, but preach. I
know this is not always easy. With

43

The Pew to the Pulpit

some it is almost an impossibility.
If you want to write anything give
it to the papers, and so reach a larger
congregation, but when you stand in
the pulpit leave your manuscript at
home and talk to us. Learn wisdom
in this respect from the court room,
and imitate the lawyer. Indeed, I
am frank to say it would do most of
you good to practice law a few years
before going into the pulpit. A
lawyer stands before a jury ; he has
no speech in manuscript. He writes
no learned or eloquent discourse, but
throws the whole force of his being
into a present effort to reach the
twelve men before him by argument
and appeal. He makes many gram-
matical blunders, often repeats him-
self, says many unnecessary things,

44

Suggestions to the Ministry

but he has in view the single specific
object of reaching the twelve men
who are listening to liim, and making
them believe and feel as he does.
And the very fact that he is un-
hampered by any manuscript gives
more force and power to the words
he utters.

Of course, we have this advantage :
our audience cannot leave us. The
jurors have to sit and listen and if we
can only prevent the gruff old judge
on the bench from interfering we
may talk by the hour, while any one
in your congregation as soon as he is
tired gets up and leaves. You have,
therefore, to use more moderation
than we. You have to put a bridle
on your tongue, for the great danger
of extemporaneous speech is its

45

The Pew to the Pulpit

length. Our grandfathers used to
listen while the preacher turned the
hour glass two or three times, but
you would far better put on the
table before you a half-hour glass,
and the moment the last sand drops,
stop — even if in the midst of a sen-
tence. If you make this a rule the
congregation will always know the
limit to which your talk will run,
and will therefore seldom if ever
care to leave. More than that, the
rule of always stopping at a certain
time will get you in the Way of con-
densing your words and strengthen-
ing your talk, and still you will re-
tain the benefit of that appeal, that
power, which comes from speaking
and seldom if ever goes with the

reading of written words.
46

Suggestions to the Ministry

Again, give us not too much the-
ology, and yet certainly some. We
like it occasionally ; we need it too.
We like to have the good old doc-
trines of the church placed before us
in all their fullness with clearness and
with power. We like to have the
historic story of the church's achieve-
ments pictured in all its splendor. It
is a great mistake to suppose that
theology is out of date ; that we care
not what our fathers believed, nor
what is the creed of the church to-
day. As a man thinketh so is he,
and that which he believes controls
his actions. And yet waste no
time on unimportant matters. Only
those questions, belief in which con-
trols one's actions are worthy of con-
sideration in the pulpit. We laugh,
47

The Pew to the Pulpit

and properly, at many of the subjects
upon which theologic discussions
were had during the middle ages, and
yet of how much more importance
are some that we hear discussed to-
day ! No one cares how many angels
can dance on the point of a cambric
needle, or whether Joseph's coat of
many colors was a piece of patchwork
like the crazy quilts of to-day. And
we are not much more interested in
the question whether the whale swal-
lowed Jonah or Jonah the whale.
Matters of that kind have no touch
upon human life, but there are ques-
tions which in the very nature of
things are of profoundest present and
practical importance ; questions, be-
lief in which must more or less
control our action and direct the
4a

Suggestions to the Ministry-
tendencies of life. You may call
them questions of theology or not
but they are certainly matters which
affect our lives. Common sense in
such things is perhaps, after all, the
supremest test. It may be safely
affirmed that a minister should never
spend time talking about anything,
belief one way or the other in which
will change no man's life and conduct.
Some times we hear things dis-
cussed in the pulpit that, to say the
least, no sensible man cares aught
about. I remember some years since
going to a town where I was to de-
liver a lecture and spending the
evening after the lecture in conver-
sation with the good minister of the
Congregational Church. He was very
much interested in a sermon which

4 49

The Pew to the Pulpit

he had recently preached, and told
me the substance of it. He said that
he had endeavored to show how the
Almighty was going to get the better
of Satan, and that for this He must
postpone the end of the world until
there were more saints in heaven
than sinners in hell. He seemed to
think that the Almighty had ad-
vanced no further in mathematics
than the mere processes of addition
and subtraction and that quantity and
not quality was the great thought in
His mind. I suggested that, from
present appearances, such a result
must put off the Last Day for a long
while, and he had replied that he had
considered that matter and shown
that the day was not so distant as at
first might appear. I asked him how

50

Suggestions to the IMinistry

he was to make up the majority
on the Lord's side. He said he would
first count all tliose who had a delib-
erate and intelligent faith in the
Saviour — a great number of course,
and likely to grow more rapidly in
the days to come — then he would
count all those who died in infancy,
before the mind had attained any
capacity to judge between right and
wrong; and he seemed to believe
that it was a great blessing to die in
childhood. And as I listened I
thought that in some cases it was so.
And then, for the third class, he said
there were the idiots, imbeciles and
lunatics. I felt sure that he was go-
ing to count me in somewhere or
other. But the idea of serving up
to intelligent people such talk as

51

The Pew to the Pulpit

that! Is it not a travesty on sacred
things, and do you wonder that the
people listening to it do not recog-
nize the speaker as a leader and
guide. You may always be sure
that your talk is a failure when your
congregation goes away, feeling that
it does not care whether that which
you say is true or not ; when it is ab-
solutely indifferent to the question
which you are discussing, and indif-
erent because the question itself is
of an entirely unpractical nature.
Such a sermon is a great deal worse
than a doctor's bread pills, because
the pills if they do no good do no
harm, whereas the sermon, by virtue
of the fact that it wastes time and
taxes patience, does immense harm.

But enough of criticism. Any-
52

Suggestions to the Ministry

body can find fault. The fool can
ask questions which a wise man can-
not answer, and so long as we hold
all our treasures in earthly vessels, so
long as we have the weaknesses
of the human and are exposed to
the temptations of flesh so long must
all the instrumentalities of life have
their limitations and imperfections.
Hence if any man sets out to find
fault, becomes a professional critic
and engages in the business of point-
ing out the foibles and mistakes of
others he can spend all his time.
But there is a better way. The
builder is of more value than the
iconoclast ; the helper than the
critic, and I want to occupy a few
moments in suggesting why it is
that the pulpit still opens the most

53

The Pew to the Pulpit

inviting door to the best and strong-
est, the most eager and ambitious of
our youth. We may have ceased to
look at the pulpit but we still look at
the man in the pulpit. You cannot
awe us by claiming to be in the line
of apostolic succession, but you may
direct and influence us by your lives
of purity and devotion and your
messages of comfort and peace. The
place does not make the individual
but the individual may take great
advantage of the place. Opportunity
is said to be the golden word of suc-
cess; and the pulpit is the oppor-
tunity. The power of the profession
as such may wane, but with the
waning of the power of the pro-
fession waxes the power of the in-
dividual in the profession. The

54

Suggestions to the Ministrj^

pulpit is the fulcrum of opportunity,
resting upon which the lever of in-
dividual brain and heart may still
move the world.

Yours is the unselfish profession —
not that there are no selfish men in it
or no unselfish men out of it. It is
undoubtedly true that many enter
into business or professional life
other than yours with the high
thought of making their lives help-
ful and a blessing to the world, and
also undoubtedly true that society
comes after a while to recognize
their unselfish purposes, and gives
them high credit therefor. But not-
withstanding this the fact remains
that he who enters upon any of the
ordinary avocations or professions of
life is supposed to do so with the

55

The Pew to the Pulpit

thought of self and self interests and
he must overcome that presumption
before the full power of his life as a
beatitude can be realized. While, on
the other hand, he who enters your
profession is presumed to do so with
no thought of self but with the
supreme idea of helpfulness to
others. There are no presumptions
to be overcome before your real
value is recognized. The presump-
tions are in your favor rather than
against you. So that in the struggle
to make one's life a power in the
world you start with the vantage
ground of the presumed unselfish-
ness of your efforts.

This involves no contradiction. It
does not imply that with the thought
of personal glory you enter upon a

56

Suggestions to the Ministry

profession presumed to be unselfish
in its purposes, and so take ad-
vantage of this presumption to se-
cure an advantage which those enter-
ing other professions do not have. It
does not assume that the thought of
every man's life is personal prom-
inence and personal recognition. It
does assume, and I think it may
rightfully assume, that every young
man starts in life with high am-
bitions ; that he has the purpose to
make the most of his life ; that such
ambitions and purpose are not mat-
ters of discredit but of commenda-
tion ; that he not only may but ought
to seek such work and place in life
as will enable him to use to the best
advantage all the powers with which
the Almighty has endowed him. The

57

The Pew to the Pulpit

aim of the highest and purest am-
bition is usefuhiess. The lower am-
bitions stop with wealth, fanie, ease ;
and a great multitude are content
with the mere pursuit of sensual
pleasures. Now across most pro-
fessions the highest word written is
fame. Across many avocations the
highest is wealth, but over the
portal of your profession is written
usefulness. He who would minister
least to himself and most to others,
who would make his work of the
largest and widest influence, speak-
ing most for the higher things of
life, can find no better field for the
realization of this ambition than the
pulpit. So if one has an aptitude
for the work of the ministry and is
moved by the high impulses and am-

58

Suggestions to the Ministry

bitions of youth he may well enter
your profession with the assurance
that in entering upon its work and
life he enters with a presumption in
his favor which will give him vantage
ground for reaching the highest use-
fulness and therefore the highest
success. This may seem like an
appeal to one's ambition. I concede
it; yet why not. Ambition may
have been the sin by which the
angels fell, but all the same it is the
virtue by which humanity mounts to
a higher life. The aspiration and
ambition of the individual is that
which promises higher and better
things for the future of the race.
And to discredit ambition is to dis-
parage and condemn advancement.
It is not the fact but the character of

59

The Pew to the Pulpit

one's ambition which determines
whether it is a matter of commenda-
tion or condemnation, and while a
selfish ambition may deserve all the
condemnation which is so often be-
stowed, an unselfish and high ambi-
tion is one of the noblest of human
virtues and worthy of the highest
commendation.

So, when I say that the pulpit
opens before every aspiring and eager
youth the best opportunity for mak-
ing his life a great success, I am not
appealing to the lower but the higher
elements of his nature, and am simply
saying to him that there, better than
anywhere else, he can make his life
an incarnate beatitude.

Again, you are called to preach a
comforting gospel. You bear the

60

Suggestions to the Ministry

message of the Master, " come unto
me all ye that labor and are heavy-
laden and I will give you rest." You
voice the words of Him who said,
"the spirit of the Lord is upon me
because He hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor, He
hath set me to heal the broken-
hearted, to preach deliverance to the
captives and recovering of sight to
the blind, to set at liberty them that
are bruised." In this you come bear-
ing to all of us a comforting message.
The struggle of life is hard and is
becoming more so as the density of
population increases. Out of such
density comes more and more the
maddening rush and pressure of the
daily struggle, not merely for place
and wealth but as often for mere
61

The Pew to the Pulpit

subsistence. So, blessed is he who
comes into this anxious, agonizing,
struggling, multitude with messages
of comfort and of peace. The angel
of comfort is the sweet angel. All
long for her presence; all need her
blessing. The humblest home and
the richest mansion welcome her en-
trance. She is the sweet evangel,
whose presence brings peace, whose
departure all mourn, and whose ab-
sence makes life one long sad failure.
It is a great mistake to suppose that
only the lonesome and weary toiler in
the humbler ways of life cares for
her presence. She is welcome there
— thrice welcome. The poet of Kan-
sas pictures her blessings when, in
his Song of the Washerwoman, he
tells this story :

62

Suggestions to the Ministry

In a "very bumble cot,

In a rather quiet spot,

In tbe suds and in the soap,
Worked a woman full of hope ;

Working, singing, all alone,

In a sort of undertone,

*' Witb a Saviour for a friend.
He will keep me to the end."

Sometimes happening along,
I bad heard the semi-song,
And I often used to smile,
More in sympathy than guile;
But I never said a word
In regard to what I heard,
As she sang about her friend
Who would keep her to the end.

Not in sorrow nor in glee
Working all day long was she,
As her children, three or four,
Played around her on the floor ;
But in monotones the song
She was humming all day long,
"With the Saviour for a friend,
He will keep me to the end."

It's a song I do not sing.
For I scarce believe a thing
63

The Pew to the Pulpit

Of the stories that are told
Of the miracles of old ;

But I know that her belief

Is the anodyue of grief,

And will always be a friend
That will keep her to the end.

Just a trifle lonesome she,
Just as poor as poor could be,
But her spirits always rose,
Like the bubbles in the clothes,
And though widowed and alone,
Cheered her with the monotone,
Of a Saviour and a friend
Who would keep her to the end.

I have seen her rub and scrub,
On the washboard in the tub,
While the baby, sopped in suds,
Eolled and tumbled in the duds ;
Or was paddliug in the pools,
With old scissors stuck in spools ;
She still humming of her friend
Who would keep her to the end.

Human hopes and human creeds

Have their root in human needs ;

64

Suggestions to the Ministry

Aud I would not wish to strip
From that washerwoman's lip
Any song that she can sing,
Any hope that song can bring ;
For the woman has a friend
Who will keep her to the end*.

But the blessing of her presence
is found not alone in the cottage but
equally in the palace. The great
longing of the human soul is for
comfort and peace. Neither riches,
nor power, nor position, of them-
selves bring these. The broken-
hearted are in one place as well as in
another. The sorrows of life come
to the higher as to the lower. There
are weary hearts up yonder as well
as down here. Sweet lives go out
from the one as from the other. In the
. one as in the other the heart mourns

for the touch of a vanished hand and
5 G5

The Pew to the Pulpit

the sound of a voice that is still.
The great agony of life has no loca-
tion in place, and the great yearning
for comfort and peace is not divided
by the lines of wealth and power.
It is the one hard thing coming to
all, whose mysteries no man has yet
fathomed, whose burdens all feel, and
for comfort thereunder all intensely
yearn. Into this longing and suf-
fering and agony of life you come
as the messengers of the only com-
fort, the only solace yet known to
man. You are the escort of the
sweet angel of comfort. You go
with her into every saddened home,
and introduce her to every sorrow-
ing heart. Do I err when I say that
to the aspiring, eager, enthusiastic,
young man no door opens so rich in

66

Suggestions to the Ministry

promise as the one which opens be-
fore him the blessed privilege of
bearing the sweet message of com-
fort and consolation to the sorrowing
ones of earth. It is a comforting
gospel that you preach and bear.

Again, you preach an uplifting
gospel. It is not accident that places
Christian nations in the forefront of
the world. Something more than
race, climate and environment have
caused the differences between the
dwellers by the Congo and those by
the Connecticut. The scale up from
barbarism to civilization is along the
lines of religion. The purer the re-
ligion the higher the civilization, and
it is beyond peradventure that the
highest civilization is found hand in
hand with the purest Christianity.

67

The Pew to the Pulpit

Contrast New England with Africa,
or for that matter with any non-
Christian race or nation, and ask
yourselves if there be any nobler
work than to advance and strengthen
that which is potent to create such
wondrous difference. If you say that
this suggests missionary work, and
something foreign to the thought of
most entering the ministry, look
within the limits of our own land and
contrast the homes and lives therein
and tell me where is found the most
of health, prosperity, peace and pur-
ity. And when you find such homes
and look for that which is the obvious
cause of their superiority, can you
doubt the nobility of a life spent in
speeding that cause.

While this is a general truth which

C8

Suggestions to the Ministry

few would question, there are also
special reasons why the appeal to-day
in behalf of this highest and best
service is more than ever strong and
emphatic. Notwithstanding all the
magnificence of our civilization it
must be confessed that we face the
growing danger of the dominance of
the material over the spiritual. The
marvelous inventions and discoveries,
the wonderful reach of science, the
unexampled business development
and the luxuriousness born of all
these elements, are pulling multi-
tudes away from the spiritual and
invisible to the material and the seen.
And there is danger that the very in-
tensity of our living — the magnificent
surroundings of man}^, may overthrow
and crowd out all those rich and

69

The Pew to the Pulpit

tender experiences of life which are
born of spiritual things. It is not
altogether a phantasm — a dream un-
worthy of notice — that the very lux-
uriousness of our civilization may be-
come its tomb, and that ours may re-
peat the story of prior races and
civilizations in having both a begin-
ning and an ending, a growth and a
decay, a birth and a death. I am
not frightened ; I am not timid. I
have abounding confidence in the re-
served power of the spiritual life of
the nation, but at the same time I
believe that the emergency calls for
the consecrated service of the best
and strongest of our young men.
They should understand that no
higher service is before them, no
70

Suggestions to the Ministry

larger possibility of usefulness, no
grander work in life.

To this end, and, as I have said, in
adaptation to the changed conditions
of human society it is all important
that there should be a singleness of
thought and work. You must be-
come most emphatically specialists,
knowing, with the great apostle, only
Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Not
that you need to forget that you are
men and citizens, or ignore the com-
mon duties of life resting upon you
as such, not that you are to shut
yourselves up in your study and be
seen only on one day and heard only
in one place, but you cannot be half
preacher and half politician ; you
cannot spend half of the time trad-
ing horses and the balance of the time
71

The Pew to the Pulpit

preaching the gospel. "This one
thing I do " must be the motto of
your lives, and in your fidelity to
that will come the great success.

And what a glory in that success?
Whatever may be the truth as to the
nature, relations and purposes of
Christ, no one doubts that His life
stands as the mightiest and most up-
lifting force that has entered into
human history. The cross upon
which that life went out is its ac-
cepted symbol. From the hour when
beneath the darkness brooding over
Calvary " the earth did quake ; and
the rocks rent," that cross has ex-
pressed the great appeal from that
Unseen yet Infinite Power which
makes for righteousness to the indi-
vidual and the race to " come up

72

Suggestions to the Ministry

higher." Under the mystic power
of its touch the face of the world
has changed. Constantiue saw it
flaming in the heavens, and Imperial
Rome became Christian Rome.
Peter tlie Hermit lifted it up, and all
Europe followed Richard cour de
Lion to the walls of Jerusalem.
Columbus fastened it to the prow of
his vessel, and it led the way across
unknown waters to an unknown
continent. Every voyager to the new
world came bearing the cross. To-
day the King of Greece lifts it on the
plains of Thessaly before the Moslem
Crescent, and all Europe trembles at
the inspiration. Tlie individual has
felt its touch. Before it, as the su-
preme expression of self-sacrifice,
Belfishness has lost its power, passion

73

The Pew to the Pulpit

has softened and hate has faded
away ; love has blossomed as the
fragrant flower of the soul, purity
has become possible, all human re-
lations have grown more sweet and
tender, and the home has become a
heaven upon earth.

Learning and wealth are in its
service. Nicodemus no longer waits
till nightfall before he seeks the lowly
Nazarene. Dives does not forget the
hungry and suffering Lazarus, and
the Good Samaritan has come to stay.
The weary traveler along the ways
of life, as he sees it standing by the
wayside, like Paul at Appii-forum
thanks God, and takes courage. Up-
lifted on church and cathedral, at the
top of spire and steeple, it summons

all to a nobler and higher life, and

74

Suggestions to the Ministry

above the entrance to God's acre it
evermore stands prophet and prophesy
of the resurrection and life eternal.
Let the great song of your life,
therefore, be :

*' In the cross of Christ I glory,

Towering o'er the wrecks of time ;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head suhlime.

''When the woes of life o'ertake me,
Hopes deceive, and fears annoy,
Never shall the cross forsake me :
Lo ! it glows with peace and joy.

"When the sun of bliss is beaming
Light and love upon my way,
From the cross the radiance streaming,
Adds new lustre to the day.

"Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure,
By the cross are sanctified ;
Peace is there, that knows no measure,
Joye that through all time abide.
75

The Pew to the Pulpit

" In the cross of Christ I glory,

Towering o'er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sablime."

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and of the Believer. i6mo, boards 30

The First Thing in the World? or, the Primacy of

Faith. i6mo. Popular Vellum Series 20

Cheap Edition, net, loc.; per doz net, 1.00

The Coronation HymnaL 400 Hymns, with Music.
By Rev. Drs. A. J. Gordon and A. T. Pierson. ^to,
half-cloth, red edges, net, 60c.; cloth, red edges, net, .75
Two editions : An edition for general use, and a Baf>«

tist edition. Send for specimen pages.