| The Glory of the Common Life |
Chapter 13 |
Page 4 |
This picture is not overdrawn, although perhaps not many pastors in the rush and hurry of these strenuous days get into such close and tender relations with their people. This, however, is the ideal relation, and in many parishes, both in city and country, ministers do indeed become all this and more to their flocks. Old and young love them. The people welcome them to their homes. In times of joy they come, and their presence is not a restraint to gladness, but an inspiration. In times of sorrow they come, and their presence, their sympathy, their love, and their prayers bring Christ himself near, and even seem to bring heaven down into the sad home, with its benedictions of joy. When the baby is born, when birthdays are marked, when the girl becomes engaged, when the wedding is celebrated, when the boy is graduated, or takes an honour, when the silver and the golden anniversaries of the old people are observed, when sickness comes and all walk softly in the house, when death comes, and crape is on the door, and the funeral service is held, the pastor is there – the friend, the sharer of joy, the giver of loving greetings and congratulations, the sympathizer, the comforter – in his own lesser human way, just what Jesus was in the homes of the people in Galilee and Judea, the true minister is to his people in all the experiences of their lives.
We are thinking of the attractions of the ministry, that in it which should draw young men into it, should lead them to choose it as a calling in which to find the deepest joy and the widest opportunities for service and helpfulness. Is it not something worth while, something worthy of the noble life, to come into such relations with people?
Page 4