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Show H Must Be Born for the Work A"R CONCLAVE of ministers in the east has decided that the theological studies for stu-P stu-P dents should he changed, that too much M learning is not needed for a minister of the gos- m I pel, that the chlefest requisites are a knowledge fl of the bible and the gifts of a fluent speaker I' and a desire to save souls. It is strange that this has not been sooner though of. But the deep knowledge will not hurt. The trouble is to get the onen adapted to the calling, an-1 the reason that a good many ministers minis-ters fail to realize their ideals Is because they have missed their calling. There are perhaps fifty, perhaps one hundred blacksmiths in this city. We think it could be easily established among home-men that not ten of them are expert horse-shoers; that is the rule of the world. There b are merchants and miners and lawyers and doc- 1 tors who are never successes. It is so with M clergymen. John the Baptist was not educated, B but he was a great success as a preacher. B We believe all the disciples chosen by the m Messiah were illiterate men. Many a learned m man can never comprehend the Christian religion M or the plan of its salvation. The old colored wo- m man croning over the cook stove, all at once m commences to sing a hymn and it is clear that H she is in full accord with all salvation's mys- H t teries. The schools do not need changing, though HH their discipline may need some changes. What is Hil first needed is to find out if the student is adapt- HO cd to such a calling. Hii It would be good to have him serve for a pre- HI liminary month or two as a nurse in a hospital to HI see whether he can get close to his suffering HB fellow man or not. Then make him read aloud or HI better decla'm every day to judge whether he H9 has that magnetism which can stir his fellow Hflj men. One man enters a sick room and fright- HH ens the patient, another enters and in ten min- 11 utes the patient feels better than he has all day and knows that the room will be darker when the visitor goes away. The first could never be a successful clergyman, the second, if he lias the other requisites, could. And all young men contemplating entering a minister's life should first make sure that both his head and heart are attuned for the work. |