“A Very Pleasant Charge.”
By Roswell F. Cottrell
In recent travels it has been my lot to fall in company with several ministers, going to take their stations in new places. My attention was attracted to one of them by a remark he was making to a lady in the car, namely, “I think I have a very pleasant charge.” Imagine a rosy-cheeked, round-headed man in the prime of life, who has every appearance of being one who relishes good victuals, going to a new place to labor for the salvation of perishing souls, expressing his satisfaction at having a very pleasant charge. If one realizes the present state of the world and church, and feels the responsibility of a minister of Jesus Christ; if he feels the solemn charge of Paul to Timothy resting upon him, to “preach the word,” and in so doing reprove the popular sins of the church, as well as the unpopular sins of others, he will not congratulate himself very much with the anticipation of having a very pleasant charge. THE LESS AGITATED THE BETTER.
Another young-looking minister, with a cigar in his mouth, at the railroad station, on my mentioning the present movement for a religious amendment of the Constitution, so as to place the enforcement of Sunday observance on the basis of constitutional law, and alluding to the increasing interest in the question of the particular day to be observed in obedience to the fourth commandment, replied that he thought that the less agitation there was in regard to the particular day, the better.189 It is natural enough for conscious error to shrink from investigation; but truth demands investigation; the more agitation the better—the more it is scoured by friction, the brighter it shines.