THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 38, 19 April 1930, Page 5

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY

DANCERS TO BE GUARDED AGAINST. .*iv* s WORDS OF WARNING. At Thursday’s induction service at the Methodi|st Church, the address /to the minister was delivered by the Rev. E. S. Emmet, of Hawera. He £aid he was a little diffident in giving advice to a brother minister but the universities were very fond df. refresher courses, and the Briish Army insisted on them for its cjfflcers. Such courses might be regarded as reminders, and on a minister taking a new charge there height bo necessity for some reminders. One of the dangers was taking thingis as a matter of course. There was also a danger of the Minister being moulded by conditions, instead, of the minister moulding condltipns in the spirit of the Master. ‘The minister who waited for ideal conditions would never do anythings. He must take the circumstances and bend them to the Ma|ster’s, spirit and to the Master’s purpose. The minister must always he a little ahead of his people, but never so far ahead a|s to be out of sight of them. He must be a witness and a commander, but, more than these, a leader. He must have the endowment of the spirit.

j V WALKING ALONE. >i At times he might walk alone, hazing a trail, but that trail would be the Master’s. He might be a road-maker for others. If he had to pajsg on and leave others to use his trail, he should remember that Master did, (likewise. At, times the roadmaker was looked upon as a failure. His road petered out into a trail, but that trail, meant the possibility of a road. There was a danger of the mihister getting into a mechancial rotulhe. To follow the rules might —satTs'fy the congregation aid s perhap[s the minister himself, hut the speaker would not mind a minister blundering along as regards Connexional law, so long as he was imbued with the correct spirit of his office. At the present day the chief need of people wag not knowledge—in that respect people ■were on a much higher plan© than they were twenty or thirty years ago. The chief need to-day was the will and grace to do. Every day the minister was called upon to solve t©e problems of the elderly and to satisfy the enquiry of the young. Without grace in th e minister, the halting goulf- would still, be faint after his ministration. Therefore th© conclusion was reached that the minister of the Gospel must he a Cathodic minister —not a Roman Catholic, not a© Anglo-Catholic—he must walk’ in, the Catholicity of Christ. >

THE CHAfTKS. The minister must follow in the steps of St. Paul, who dared to be all things to all men. But the minister must guard against cranks, who ; if the minister claimed to bo broad-minded and big-hearted, would, at the first possible opportunity, claim him as a Spiritualist, ‘ v a Britsih-Israelite or a Christian Scientist. Other cranks would try to convince him that religion was just so, and so, and could be measured up like a pound of tea. If that were Iso the ministery would not be worth all the trouble devoted to it. The minister would find it hard to please all his congregation. If he was seen too much in public with. [ his wife it would be objected that he was keeping his wife from looking after the parsonage and discharging her dutiejs on th e guilds. Too often the minister’s wife was regarded as an unpaid curate. The minister must always work for , others. He should let others see his work. He 'should let others forget his person, but be led by him to glorify the 1 Father. He should strive to make others see the light, so that they might be led to service. Sometimes, though the confession was one he should not make, the minister became depressed, and he wondered if, after all, the Kingdom was really coming, was hone in the words of George Meredith: “Plod on and keep the passion fresh. It was in the rower of everyone to plod along, thou eh they might not run far, and to keep the passion fresh.