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Ad Clerum; Advices to a Young Preacher

Ad Clerum; Advices to a Young Preacher

by Advice to Young Preachers
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1870. Excerpt: ... XX. EPILOGUE. There can be no doubt that tne ministerial market, if the expression may be allowed, is overcrowded. Serious inconvenience arises from this fact. The applications which ministers make to one another for introductions to vacant pulpits are not only excessively numerous but often most embarrassing. There is, of course, a disposition to be kind to worthy men, and not seldom this disposition sets aside the discrimination which ought to be exercised in relation to the merits of the applicant and the special necessities of the position to which he wishes to be introduced. The difficulty is much increased by the fact that the applicants are men of excellent character, of good attainments, and of unquestionable orthodoxy: the one thing which is wanting is pulpit efficiency. In many cases the defect in this particular is most obvious. I know men whose moral reputation is above suspicion, whose scholarship is sound, and whose doctrine is unexceptionable, men who have college certificates and even university honours, who find it extremely difficult to obtain a livelihood in the ministry. How so? Simply because they can do nearly everything except preach. In conversation they have no difficulty in maintaining their ground; in point of information they are decidedly above the average; in manners they are fit for the best society; yet as preachers of the gospel they are utterly incompetent. In looking at such cases we must come back to our old doctrine, viz., ministers cannot be made. Let colleges exist for purposes of scholarship, let theology even be taught to all who wish to study that greatest of the sciences, let a special effort be made by the establishment of evening classes for teaching scholars to read the Scriptures in the original languages, --d..
Paperback, 158 pages

Published February 1st 2012 by General Books

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