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If a man seeketh the office of a bishop, he desir-
eth a good work.-1 Tim. 3:1.

CHAPTER IV

THE CANDIDATE FOR THE MINISTRY

It is evident, even to the casual observer, that many men and women have not chosen wisely the occupations or professions in which they are engaged. What may be termed misfits are found in every occupation,-lawyers who ought to be farmers, merchants who should be artisans, artisans who should be captains of industry, teachers who ought to be anything other than what they are trying to be, men and women in every trade and profession who seem to be poorly fitted for efficient service in the occupation in which they are engaged.

The ministry is no exception to this statement, for it has its misfits, men who are palpably unfitted to do their best in the work they are striving to do.

Many times these men are choice souls with holy desire to serve God; but some physical defect, some deficiency in education or culture, some

tendency to mental aberration or astigmatism, handicaps them in the race for success.

These seemingly unfit men are not always wholly at fault in their choice of the ministry. Sometimes others are blameworthy-an overzealous mother, an unwise pastor, or unthinking friends have crowded them into the selection of the ministry as their life-work.

Sometimes these men are conscious of their limitations, but conditions are such that they cannot enter some other calling or they have not quite the courage to acknowledge their mistake and begin over again the work of life.

The struggles of such men are ofttimes pathetic as they strive to be faithful to tasks that are distasteful.

It is true that God has used some strange agents for the glory of his kingdom, servants whose adaptability for their work the world would have seriously questioned. We would not dare to interfere with the calling of men by the Holy Spirit, but it is not fair to our young people, nor to the church, to fail in frankness in

advising with young men who are considering the ministry as a profession.

The work of the ministry is too serious, and the demands upon the modern minister are too exacting for any young man to enter the work without facing squarely its exactions, limitations and requisites to success.

One of the fundamental questions for the candidate is the question of personal health. The young man should ask himself, "Am I physically adapted to the exacting duties of the ministry?"

We have often been reminded that "The body is not the measure of the soul," and yet as Dr. Behrends tells us, "Preaching is always an athletic contest, a close grappling and serious wrestle, and whether the result shall be conquest, or defeat, or a drawn battle, will depend upon the perfect command the preacher has of his thoughts and himself."

Under the Jewish dispensation, the priest who served in the temple was supposed to be without blemish, physically. The New Testament does not insist upon that canon of perfection for the

Christian minister, and many noble and fruitful workers have been handicapped in some way. Robert Hall, the supreme master of pulpit style and eloquence; George Matheson, the blind poet whose pathetic hymns have voiced the yearnings of many hearts; Horace Bushnell, the prophet of a new era in theology in New England; the Apostle Paul himself, these, and scores of others like them, have wrought nobly and "worked righteousness" notwithstanding their physical disabilities.

But to-day the anemic, the frail framed ascetic, the man of weak, nervous vitality finds himself under an avalanche of demands that physical strength will not permit him to meet.

The minister is no longer the "quiet student of past days"; he is a man of affairs, with a multitude of interests demanding his time and tapping his reservoirs of nervous energy. The modern minister must keep fit physically or he cannot meet the conditions of this strenuous age. Possibly the ideal of the present time is not the best, and its requirements may not be of the highest, but we face facts not theories, and are

considering conditions as they must be met in this twentieth century.

It would seem not to be necessary to suggest that men with serious imperfections in the organs of speech, or conspicuous and unsightly blemishes in physical appearance, should weigh carefully such handicaps; but unfortunately, friends are not always frank, and ofttimes we do not "see ourselves as others see us." More than one man suffering from serious physical defects has spent years in preparation for the ministry only to awaken to the bitter consciousness that some one was not frank and friendly and christian in advising him.

The second canon that should be observed concerns the intellectual power; the minister should not be, mentally, either indolent or erratic.

The drudgery of the study is irksome to many men, especially to men of brilliant parts who have a gift for language. As the result, words take the place of ideas, and nicely turned phrases the place of golden nuggets of truth. It was jokingly said of one brilliant man that "he was

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