THE s^'^aI. RIGHT SORT OF MEN FOR THE MINISTRY McDowell BV 4010 .M336 1909 1 x^.od ^¥^ s."^ ^^ \\^ SlfMiogrrir/ ^ PRINCETON, N. J. ^% \ Bv 4010 .Msae 1909 McDowell, William Fraser, 1858-1937. The right sort of men for t- ho TO 1 n 1 s±jr^ V ' JUL 29 1909 *- THE %,g^:#^ RIGHT SORT OF MEN FOR THE MINISTRY BY y WILLIAM FRASER McDOWELL BISHOP OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH NEW YORK Student Young Men's Christian Association 124 East Twenty-eighth Street 1909 Copyright, 1909, by The International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations The Claims and Opportunities of the Christian Ministry A SERIES OF PAMPHLETS EDITED BY JOHN R. MOTT THE RIGHT SORT OF MEN FOR THE MINISTRY By WILLIAM FRASER McDOWELL series of pamphlets on the Claims and Opportunities of the Christian Ministry The Claims of the Ministry on Strong Men By George Angier Gordon The Right Sort of Men for the Ministry By William Eraser McDowell The Modern Interpretation of the Call TO THE Ministry By Edward Increase Bosworth The Preparation of the Modern Minister By Walter William Moore The Minister and His People By Phillips Brooks The Minister and the Community By Woodrow Wilson The Call of the Country Church By Arthur Stephen Hoyt The Weak Church and the Strong Man By Edward Increase Bosworth The Minister as Preacher By Charles Edward Jefferson Letter from President Roosevelt On the Call of the Nation for Able Men to Lead the Forces of Christianity THE RIGHT SORT OF MEN FOR THE MINISTRY The kind of men required for the ministry of to- day is determined by several capital considerations. What a strong man should do with his one life should always be decided on the basis of such considerations. The ministry must appeal to men at their best; their choices must be made at the highest and deepest levels of principle and life. Otherwise, manhood does not get its chance and the ministry misses that manhood which it must have. The ministry does not and can not make its appeal on the basis of its need. It can not demand strong men just because it has none; but must base its claim on fundamental and commanding principles. The best men must come in with their heads up and remain with a royal high-heart edness. I. The kind of men now demanded in the minis- try is determined by the character of the Person and institution whose ministers the men are to be. Small S employers can take small employees. Little insti- tutions can get along with little men. Empires must have emperors. Kingdoms must have kings. Kings are "men who can." The imperial state has the right to the services of her strong sons. The emperor, the king, the president has the right to call to the service of the commonwealth her able men. And the ablest men are honored by such call. Eng- land had a war in South Africa which many Eng- lishmen and many others regarded as a very bad war. In the midst of it Lord Salisbury, the Prime Minister, said to Lord Roberts, England's chief sol- dier: "We have discovered that this war depends on the generals." And England sent Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener, her greatest generals, to the front. England honored them in so doing. Our own na- tional history is full of such instances. Our current history is illuminated by such cases. Now the Church at its best is the chief institution in the world today. Even at its worst, it is the chief institution in the world. The world's fate for good or ill is more dependent upon the Church of Jesus Christ than upon any government or all gov- ernments. The imperial Church has a right to the 6 services of imperial people. The great institution naturally calls for the great personality. The Church ranks any government or institution in the strength and sovereignty of its call, but when one considers that it is Jesus Christ's Church a new situation is created. ''Ministers of Jesus Christ" is a royal term. Presidents, kings, and emperors are not to be compared with Him, of course, but the analogy holds clear through. He has the supreme right, because of what He is, to the ablest men that can be found. The character of Jesus Christ deter- mines the claims of the ministry on the strongest men. It claims them, not because men now in the ministry are weak, but because it is His ministry and He is sovereign over life. John Hay could give up every other occupation, however alluring, because McKinley and Roosevelt and the Republic needed him. He counted himself honored that he was thus wanted. Phillips Brooks could give up everything else, however attractive, because the universal Church and Jesus Christ its Head needed him in the minis- try. It sets one's blood flowing fast to think of the ministry in this light. It is the ministry of Jesus Christ, the Master. What He is determines the 7 kind of men it must have. The light in which we decide is the light of His face. In that light the min- istry is set on high, far above all ordinary occupa- tions. There is no argument with Him. He possesses what Matthew Arnold called invincible supremacy. Whatever He says must be done. In the presence of others men stand; when He enters they must kneel. Charles Lamb was right about that. Those per- sonal incidents there in the gospels are thrilling to this day. The personal element is so large in them. Here sits a man collecting taxes, not a very choice, but probably profitable business. The very noblest Person in any world comes past this man at his desk and says in substance: "Matthew, do you want a chance to be a different man, to go with me, to help me do the best thing ever done? If you do, come along with me." Or there are those fishing men, the salt of the earth from Peter to Fishin' Jim- my. Into their lives comes this same best Person saying: **Do you really want to do a big man's work in the world or on the sea? You are catching fish for a few pence a day. Come with me and catch men and the wages will be life eternal." There is 8 no emphasis on profession. The whole emphasis is personal. The rich ruler missed his chance. Still the supreme and sovereign Christ is looking into the faces of men, strong men drawn to busi- ness, and making this personal appeal. Still He is asking them to come with Him to help Him do His work. He is always facing a crisis and needing strong men to help Him. How will they get into the new Gospel that is forever being written? 2. The character of the men demanded for the ministry is determined by the service which they are asked to render. The ministry proposes a larger service to humanity than ever before. We speak sometimes of a decline in the relative importance of the clergyman in the community. This is mis- leading. As society grows stronger and life richer the place of a true minister becomes absolutely much more important. His place is much stronger be- cause he is not so solitary. The strong man is made stronger by the multiplication of strong men about him. Jesus Christ does not and could not ask strong men to give their lives to small service. Large men can not be asked to link their lives to small affairs. 9 Wholesale men are perverted if they are kept for- ever in retail business. Statesmen have no right to be crowded into petty politics. Merchant princes must not be limited to clerkships. Imperial person- alities must be given imperial tasks. Now the ministry has not always seemed a commanding thing. But when we apply to it the great terms that link it with the best conceptions and illustrations of the ministry at its best; and when we bring this conception of the ministry face to face with the present tasks of the ministry, no true man can feel it to be an inferior thing, too small for him. He will the rather humble himself in the presence of what must be done, and cry out, *'Who is sufficient for these things?" What are these great terms? We still use the three words, prophetic, apostolic, and Christlike, to in- dicate our supreme conception of what a minister ought to be. Not every man in the ministry is a prophetic man, or an apostolic man, or a Christ- like man; and young men are tempted to interpret the ministry by lesser types and to misjudge it be- cause of the small men in it. Then some day a liv- ing man appears to whom these three great terms lo may all be truly applied, and the hearts of youth leap up because the ministry is reincarnated again in their presence. And youth cries out in joy that the thing has come again. Then all the small dis- cussions about the smaller matters of the ministry are hushed, for there it is in a prophetic, apostolic, Christlike man living before men and doing his work. Mr. Bryce declared that the character of George Washington determined the powers lodged in the presidency by the makers of our constitution. They interpreted the office in the terms of the man who sat there before them. For them he was the presidency. When my contemporaries were defin- ing the ministry for themselves in the days of their youth, Phillips Brooks was doing that for them. It was not the question when we saw him whether the ministry was big enough for the strongest man. It was the question whether the strongest man could come anywhere near worthiness to stand in a pro- fession which he was glorifying. A highly gifted young man, a graduate of a great American university, remarked one day that his mind was clear on one point, namely, that the no- blest callings are those which pursue the study of II men and life. Said he: "Some devote themselves to insects, others to fishes, others still to rocks and fossils, and yet others to planets and stars, but none of these appeal to me as do those callings which have to do with human life, human character, and human society." The human note is the tremendous thing in our whole modern conception of the ministry. Never was the ministry so human. It is getting into its Master's footsteps. The ministry is not a place in which to earn a liv- ing, but an opportunity for doing a work. Henry van Dyke dedicates one of his books to the late Dean Murray, whom he called "a, teacher of literature and life, a preacher of righteousness and love, a servant of humanity and Christ." But one who is such a teacher and such a preacher and such a servant must himself be a man of literature and life, a man of righteousness and love, a man of humanity, a Christ- like man. And the task of the ministry is the task of becoming a personality possessing truth, a per- sonality having a transforming knowledge of things divine and human and a transfiguring acquaintance with Jesus Christ as the conditions precedent to the fulfillment of his task. 12 The ministry was once individualistic in its object. It sought the redemption of the individual man. And all this was good; it never was anything but good; it never can be anything but good. The per- sonal Christ and the individual man must still be brought together so that Christ will possess the man and the man will possess the Christ. But the sig- nificance of the individual has not been lost but mul- tiplied by the discovery of his tremendous social sig- nificance and worth. The value of a human soul, upon which our fathers laid great stress, is multi- plied by our discovery of the individual's place in the Kingdom. We have not made men less, but made them more, by the new social emphasis. We have pressed our ministry full of a meaning, that in certain ages was undreamed of, by the swelling, ex- panding, social movement of our times. To re- deem an individual from sin is a task that well might occupy an angel's hands. To set a redeemed in- dividual at the task of redeeming society also, is immeasurably larger. Add to all this that in our day Christ's plans for world conquest are for the first time clearly seen, and the character of the min- istry gets an added dignity. One harks back to old 13 days and feels that if he had had a chance in those older days he would have leaped at it. If he had heard the Master say as to Matthew, ''Follow me," one is sure that he would have insisted upon a chance to join Matthew in the Master's service. The best of us feel that if we had had the opportunity ofifered to the rich young ruler we would have cried out to the Master, ''If he will not go, take me, and give me that chance that he is shirking." He feels that if he could have taken St. Paul's place, nothing could have kept him out of it; or Augustine's or Savon- arola's or Luther's or Wesley's or any one of those great historic opportunities upon which we dwell. But it is a very poor view of inspiration that lim- its it to the inspiration of far-off men in far-off times, and a very poor view of the Kingdom that does not see that the Kingdom is always a bigger and a better thing, and that it is always offering bigger and better chances. Washington's chance did not equal Lincoln's, Lincoln's did not equal Roosevelt's. The opportunity of St. Paul did not surpass the op- portunity of a hundred modern men whose names leap to my lips. His missionary journeys round the Mediterranean were of immense, and have proved 14 of world significance; but there are men in India, in China, in Africa, in America today from whom Jesus Christ expects a larger service than he ex- pected from any of the preaching St. Paul did. Every day of my life in my prayers I speak the names of men who seem to me to stand in such re- lation to the Kingdom of God as has never been surpassed by any men in any century. We have come to a new and better conception of Christ. We have come to a new and better con- ception of humanity. The times are big with the opportunities to interpret Christ to the individual, to society, and to the world. And the Kingdom is not likely to fail because it gets into it men who are too large for these opportunities. It will fail, if it fails at all, because the men are too small for the enterprise. A church with a weak ministry can never touch strong men with power; can never Christianize so- ciety; can never maintain life at its highest or keep truth and education on the throne; can never cre- ate and preserve philanthropy in power and warmth. The service of man will run low and become feeble when feeble men control the ministry. The mission- 15 ary movement is attracting able men and well it may, but the strength of that movement is in the pulpit of the Church at home more than anywhere else. The service of humanity for the love of Christ, this is the appeal. The service is noble and the motive compelling. The thing is big enough to do and the motive for doing it big enough to warrant either master or men giving life to it. John Hay can not give his best years to secure the open door in China simply in order that American merchants can sell a little more merchandise. The motive is too small for that burden. Our best men can not give themselves to the Philippines just to get back the money we paid for the islands. The motive will not bear the burden. The motive of the statesman must be shot through with liberty and uplift and justice for all men. The motive for the ministry is not large enough if it be either a commercial or a denominational or a selfish motive. The ministry must be shot through with sacrifice and service. Its symbol must be the cross. This opens a career sur- passing any other in life, as the interests of mankind surpass all other concerns. i6 3. The kind of men required for the ministry is determined also by the times in which one is to have his ministry. The Master always remains the same. The Gospel in its essence does not change. The Gospel is large because universal and eternal. Christ is worth serving because He is the sovereign figure of every age. The Gospel is vital because it is al- ways timely and everywhere potent. Ages are not alike, nor are they simple. No one term characterizes any period. Every quality is ever present, not always in the same proportion or bal- ance. Many terms have been applied to our times. The age has been called the age of doubt, of inquiry, of science, of faith, of missions, of commerce, and of expansion. These are a few of the terms. They are all true and no one of them true as an exclusive description. The age has been pronounced self-ab- sorbed, self-centered, and self-sufficient. A recent writer declares that our time is characterized by "triviality, uncertainty and complacency." "This is the junction of the capitalist and socialist ages." Probably all this is true. It is certainly true that it is a great age and shows no sign of growing less within the generation. It is a fine time for the right 17 kind of man to live in. It is a royal time for a phy- sician. All the ages of medicine and surgery have led to this. It is a thrilling time for a teacher. No period from Socrates to Arnold has equalled it. The new science alone would make a teacher's opportu- nity notable. It is a commanding time for mer- chants if they are big enough; ability has not had such a chance since men began to trade. It is a su- perb day for the inventor. He works some new miracles every month. The ministry of this day is surrounded by giants. No other age since men be- gan to preach has offered such a challenge or such a chance to a royal pulpit. Who wants to be a king among pigmies? Who wants to be a leader of weak- lings? Who wants to bring an eternal Gospel to a petty period full of petty men? Modern life is going to be rich, to be instructed, to be skillful. If this great life fails at all, it will be in character. Every age will surely have its gospel. Ours has tried several— the gospel of science, the gospel of wealth, and even the gospel of pleasure. It cares for none of them. Now when the age reacts who will lead it into truth ? Who will preach the eternally living Christ to the men of today, in modern speech, i8 for imperative needs? Who will get such a hearing in modern Babel as to change Babel to Pentecost? Who can make room for himself and get a hearing in our modern crowd? Who can lead among so many leaders? Who can recall men to the glories and values of things invisible in the face of modern wealth and comfort? Who can effectively preach to modern men and women of culture the truth that frees? Who can fill the modern social and political spirit with the mind of Christ? Who can face and conquer the monster evils of current life? Who can take this vast, complex modern age and unify its qualities, not destroy them but fulfill them in Christ? Who can help Him to bring all these tremendous qualities into subjugation and captivity and thus to true power in Himself? He waits for such men that they may help Him in the finest struggle His Kingdom has ever seen. Age of Constantine, Age of Charlemagne, Age of Crusader, Age of Reformer — no one of them equals this for the ministry of Christ. The great Person, Christ; the great service, for humanity; the great age, for life! The hour of the strong man has come. 19 GAYLORa BROS. MAKERS SYRACUSE, - N.Y. »»*T. JAN. 21, It Date Due | M-.-2.^^^i — ^ f) Princeton Theological Semmary-Speer Libr; 1 1012 01032 7593