THE PARSON'S GREATEST NEED.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3143, 13 November 1922, Page 7

THE PARSON'S GREATEST NEED.

(By One of Them.) The obvious thing to say is that the person's greatest need is a larger stipend, for. strange as it may seem, even parsons do not live on an exclusive diet of fresh air. and Elijah's ravens appear to be extinct. But the obvious thing is not vl necessity the most true, and most of us would confess that our greatest need is ability to preach. Preaching is not nearly as easy as it looks,' that is, if you are going to interest people enough to keep them awake and keep them thinking about your sermon instead of yesterday s football or to-morrow's markets. Most the people before me on Sunday morning are tired, mentally and physically, and my sermon has to be interesting and entertaining enough to make it easy for tired brains to welcome it. Vet people will not come to church simply to bo entertained. We are teachers, men called to educate. Ordinary teaching is difficult enough, but what teacher faces a class of hundreds of scholars of all ages, from six to 60. and all grades, from dustmen to lawyers, and tries to teach them the same lesson at the same time? But if I educate, and do nothing more, my failure is serious enough. The real thing we see from the pulpit is a company of men and women who are finding it hard to live decent, hon"est lives—lives with which they can be at all satisfied. What every person knows is that unless we can give men something that will help them to face Monday morning with a little better heart and a little greater hope and a bit more pluck, we have failed. Unless men get that they will not come to church. We have to compete with the magazine, the Sunday concert; and the motor ride into the country, and a man will not put these on one side and come to church unless he gets something worth coming for. All the parson has to rely on is preaching ability, lie must be able to preach, persuasivolv and convincingly. Other things will help. If be 1* what the Americans call "a good mixer." a man amongst men; il be can hold his own at the wicket and the billiard table: if he is the helper of everv i»ood civic cause, men will respect him.' but they will not fill bis pews on Sundays unless he knows how to preach.