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Candidates for the Ministry

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jul 23, 1908

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 85, No. 30.

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Candidates for the Ministry

In all the great religious bodies of this country there has come to be an actual dearth of candidates for the ministry. Concerning this lack the editor of the Christian Advocate (Methodist) says:—
Much is said and written concerning the decreasing number of candidates for the ministry, and many theories have been advanced to account for the situation, which as yet has not become so serious a problem in the Methodist Episcopal Church as in others. Among us, however, it is increasingly felt, and there is reason to expect more serious trouble.
This condition is one that has become alarming in some of the denominations, and the editor of the Advocate admits the unpromising outlook among the Methodists; but he makes no statement as to the cause of this well-nigh universal dearth. It lies, without question, at the very door of the clerical body, and is due to the fact that Biblical criticism from the pulpit has taken the place very largely of real gospel sermons that stir the souls of men. The popular preaching of the day is unable to produce strong conviction, and press men into gospel service. More sermons are preached in this country on “civic righteousness” than on salvation through the righteousness of Christ. Reforming the state has come to be a more popular slogan than reformation in the individual soul, and before the young man with noble impulses the glory of political position and public service in the temporalities is made to outshine the glory of the kingdom of Christ. Through this failure of the minister to apprehend the true business of the minister, and through the doubts engendered in the minds of the laity by criticism of the Book of God by him who was set to expound its teachings, the sacred calling of the ministry is belittled, the gospel misrepresented, and the world’s allurements are winning many young men who might have been a power for God. “Woe is me if I preach not the gospel of Christ,” said Paul. Men who feel as Paul did will preach Christ.