p. 77 | Men and Things by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 20, 1872

Men and Things.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

GOOD ADVICE FOR MINISTERS.

While ministers are always giving good advice to others, it is well to receive a little in return now and then. Who needs it more than they, with all their cares, dangers, and responsibilities? The Liberal Christian cautions ministers thus:

“In the country, we can conceive of no man more useful in a ministerial way than the familiar, frequent guest of all the homes in a moderate-sized parish; who runs in and out, is on hand in every domestic emergency, watches each individual, and makes a study of his character and perils, knows each child and is interested in his future. But even here it is necessary not to mistake popularity for usefulness. The minister must not be contented with being an ordinary friend. He is a religious friend, and he must not let his office sink into that of a gossiping neighbor. Moreover, ministers who spend most of their time in running about the parish oftentimes sink into intellectual imbeciles. They love this easy work better than study, reading, the careful preparation of sermons, the considerate oversight of village interests and public improvements. A pastor must be a student to keep a really useful hold on his people; he must read, know, think more than they can, and feed them from an ever-growing mind and an ever-deepening piety.”

How easy it is for a minister to unconsciously grow into the lazy, chit-chat, good-natured friend above described. But when he gets there, he had better go at some honest employment, for he is only a public nuisance. He must have something new and fresh every time he calls, every time he prays, and every sermon he preaches. To do this, he must read, study, think, and meditate. Brethren, have we become negligent in these things? Let us rouse up anew and go out with that freshness which God gives to all who work for him.

EVILS OF CHURCH FESTIVALS.

A bishop thus laments and fears them:

CHURCH KITCHENS.—The present popular sociality which fits up kitchens and supper-rooms in church buildings, while it may be in harmony with the debased machinery of “charity” throughout, serves to degrade communion into companionship, the mystical and sacramental into gregarious frivolity. There is some ground for anxiety lest censurable indulgences may not exist in the sociables, as they are called, and lest, under the admitted need of church use, and religious control for the social element, we may be fostering in it forms which permit the world to overmaster the church, and alloy the purity of her teaching and discipleship.—Bishop Whitehouse.

HOW TO CONQUER AN EVIL HABIT.

Does some one see this who has been cursed with an evil habit which he has never been able to overcome? Well, if you are not yet entirely discouraged, take the following advice and try again:

“Infinite toil would not enable you to sweep away a mist; but, by ascending a little, you may often look over it altogether. So it is with our moral improvements: we wrestle fiercely with a vicious habit, which would have no hold upon us if we ascended into a higher moral atmosphere. As I have heard suggested, it is by adding to our good purposes, and nourishing the affections which are rightly placed, that we shall best be able to combat the bad ones. By adopting such a course, you will not have yielded to your enemy, but will have gone, in all humility, to form new alliances. You will then resist an evil habit with the strength which you have gained in carrying out a good one. You will find, too, that when you set your heart upon the things that are worthy of it, the small selfish ends which used to be so dear to it, will appear almost disgusting. You will wonder that they could have had such hold upon you.”

DOES THE SUN SET AT THE NORTH POLE?

Yes, certainly, just as plainly as here. And it rises just the same, and that too when it can be seen all the day round. A man there can tell by the position of the sun and by its appearance when it is sunrise, noon, sunset, &c., just the same as we can here. The following interesting item is from the Chicago Evening Journal:

“The following graphic passage is from the description of a scene witnessed by Mr. Campbell and his party in the north of Norway, from a cliff one thousand feet above the sea: ‘The ocean stretched away in silent vastness at our feet; the sound of the waves scarcely reached our airy lookout; away in the north the huge old sun swung low along the horizon, like the slow beat of the pendulum in the tall clock of our grandfather’s parlor corner. We all stood silent, looking at our watches. When both hands came together at twelve, midnight, the full round orb hung triumphantly above the wave—a bridge of gold running due north spanned the water between us and him. There he shone in silent majesty which knew no setting. We involuntarily took off our hats; and no word was said. Combine, if you can, the most brilliant sunrise and sunset you ever saw, and its beauties will pale before the gorgeous coloring which now lit up the ocean, heavens, and mountain. In half an hour the sun had swung up perceptibly on his beat, the colors changed to those of morning, a fresh breeze rippled over the flood, one songster after another piped up in the grove behind us—we had slid into another day.’”

CHEERING TO THE SORROWFUL.

Here are sweet words of cheer to sad, sorrowing, and suffering souls. Can we believe them and apply them to our own cases?

FAITH.—Every tear that is shed, every groan that is heaved, every loss that is sustained, every moment of suffering that is endured, every disappointment that is borne by the Christian with patience and resignation, will not only be followed by ineffable felicity, but will prepare the soul for its enjoyment, and add something to its weight and luster. To believe this, to live in hope of it, and by this hope to be sustained under present circumstances, is the work of faith.—J. A. James.

D. M. Canright.