What the world and the spirit of the times have done to the reading habits
of the public in general, they have also done to the minister. In the case
of the public, they have sought to substitute the motion picture, the
tabloid newspaper, and the confession magazine for the bookshelf. In the
case of the minister, they seek to take the hours once devoted to the
enrichment of the mind and dedicate them to the puttering things so fondly
called practical duties—organizations, promotion, community activities.
Where the world leaves off, the church begins, for it is not wholly free
from infection with the virus of materialism. Often the very disciples of
Jesus get the idea that it is more important to make a stir in the world
of today than to build life for the eternities.
We hear frequent complaints that there is a dearth of commanding
preaching. The wonder is not that there are so few challenging voices in
the pulpit, but that there are as many as there are when so many forces
are joined in a giant conspiracy to throttle the spirit of prophecy. There
is not enough encouragement to men to be great preachers. Yet wherever
there is a voice that speaks with authority and not as the Scribes, there
are people to hear it, though it be in the slums of a city or the depths
of a forest. There will be plenty of such voices when the world and the
church allow men to get back to the reflective life, and when ministers
themselves once more determine to spend much time with the truth of God.
Why did the world’s crowning religion come out of a poor, barren little
country, when there were Egypt, and Babylonia, and Greece? It was because
Israel was poor enough and secluded enough to walk with God. The shepherd
and the vinedresser caught the “still small voice” that was lost in the
rush and roar about the merchant in the marketplace. Egypt was too busy
with her civilization. Babylonia was too busy with her pleasure. Greece
was too busy with her culture. The spirit of prophecy is found where are
the conditions under which men can dream dreams and see visions. Great
preaching will never come out of a maze of material interests. Shall we so
soon forget that the first great task of Jesus was to win the victory over
the tempting power of material things and that one of His last triumphant
statements was that He had overcome the world?
They used to say that the ideal plan for a minister is to divide his day
equally between the cultivation of his mind and the work of his parish.
If one would follow such a plan faithfully through a long pastorate he
would have two things—a well-furnished mind and a well-developed church.
However, it does not matter so much which plan one chooses. It matters
most that he does have a plan that provides a suitable place for reading
and study.
It is not the present purpose to exalt the importance of reading beyond
its due. Other interests are important, but this happens to be a call back
to books, back to the delight of kings’ treasuries and queens’ gardens,
back to the refreshing that comes from truth’s ever-flowing well, back to
the replenishing of those powers upon which a minister must rely when
every other key to success lies broken and useless.
A certain college professor used to advise his students to get and use
three books, even if they could have no others. He said it did not matter
how cheaply made they were, if they were only genuine and complete. He
told them to get an unabridged dictionary, and study it for words; to get
a copy of the complete works of Shakespeare, and study it for usage; and
to get a copy of the King James Bible, and study it for style. These,
together with a standard encyclopaedia and perhaps a good Bible
dictionary, form the necessary foundation for any ministerial library.
No minister needs to be convinced of the wonders and beauties of the
English Bible. All understand its value, but some find it difficult to
invest the time and effort necessary to that unusual understanding of its
message which the ministry must have. It is not difficult to show the
public the charm of this wonderful book, but the one who reveals that
charm must first have seen it himself.
Next to the Bible comes a vast and growing field of professional material
dealing with the work of the ministry. This the minister must take into
account. If the physician, the lawyer, the teacher, the business man, or
the farmer can continue to be a success only by keeping abreast of the
newest thought and discovery in his field, certainly the minister is in no
position to claim exemption from the rule.
Occasionally we hear a minister boast that he knows nothing about
Theology. Some even seem to regard such a claim as a qualification for the
most serious and important work on earth. For a minister to make such a
boast is exactly as intelligent as it would be for a lawyer to advertise
that he is handling cases involving property and human rights without
knowing the principles of his work, or for a physician to say that he is
taking into his hands the life and happiness of human beings without a
knowledge of drugs or surgery. If a minister really knows nothing about
Theology, it is wisest to conceal the fact, if possible, until he learns
something about it. A community soon spots a man who does not know
his business.
A minister must find some way to gain a wide general information and
culture. The person who said that he must know everything was not far
wrong. This is true not only because he is preaching to an increasingly
well-informed people, but also because he must interpret God to all of
these people in the terms with which they are familiar. Each of his
hearers lives and works in a limited field and can get on with a knowledge
of that field alone, but the field with which the minister needs to be
familiar is unlimited because it touches all the others.
No minister can afford to neglect good fiction. It often tells more truth
than fact does. Upton Sinclair’s _The Jungle_ did. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s
_Uncle Tom’s Cabin_ did. The parables of Jesus did. Aside from its
entertainment value, fiction cultivates the imagination, and without that,
no man can be a powerful public speaker. If one will speak in pictures,
the people will hear and understand. One of the reasons why the common
people heard Jesus gladly was the fact that His words always appealed
to the imagination.
A minister needs all kinds of books, including those which make one laugh.
Let us not be victims of the idea that holiness excludes the sunshine.
The man who loses the song and laughter out of his life is unfit for the
ministry until he gets them back. Clean and genuine humor should be on the
minister’s bookshelf and in his heart.
A minister should read some of the things he dislikes and with which he
disagrees. There is little growth in reading or hearing only what one
already knows or believes. One owes it to truth also to know the other
side. Even if he is certain that the other side is wrong, he should know
its claims and how to meet them. The physician must study diseases before
he can apply remedies. Many ministers have made too few clinical
observations of the error and sin that are ruining the world.
It is sometimes said that this kind of thing means too much religion of
the head and too little of the heart. You cannot separate these two
things. They are parts of the same. Physics tells us that radiant heat
and light are one and the same. All heat makes light. All light gives
off heat. Whatever illuminates warms. Whatever warms illuminates.
On the evening of the first Easter, two disciples were on their way to
their simple home when a stranger drew near. He took the road with them
and talked to them about the meaning of the Scriptures. Entering the
house with them, He ate, and departed. Then they knew it had been the
risen Lord. They said: “Did not our hearts burn within us while He
talked to us in the way?”
The burning heart always goes with the understanding head. One cannot face
the fair page of truth, see what God has wrought, and contemplate the
goodness and love of the divine heart, with a soul unswept by the tides of
spiritual feeling. Perhaps more tarrying at the feet of the Great Teacher
of all truth would renew the testimony of the two disciples of Emmaus.
It must be so, for religion does not belong alone to heart or head. It
belongs to the whole life. We may find God in the oratory where the soul
rises heavenward upon the wings of prayer. We may find Him in the temple
where arch and pillar cast dim shades about us, and the altar lends us
sanctuary from the world. We may find Him in the hour of unusual spiritual
fervor and in the great emotional experience of a lifetime. We may find
Him in the hot, white field of service to the troubled, the burdened, and
the broken among men. We may find Him in the careful statement of a creed,
the formal beauty of a liturgy, or the simple prayer of a moment of
contrition. We may also find Him in the field of thought and knowledge
where we behold Him and His kingdom of unsearchable riches through the
magic gateway of the covers of a book.