01- The Divine Call

01 THE DIVINE CALL Text: ’ ’ Come ye after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19b.

I see before me serious minded Christian young people, looking out upon life, undetermined as to what shall be your life work.

Leading out from where you stand are many paths going in many directions, all inviting and holding out to you the promise of success.

Hesitant and undecided you stand, waiting some finger-pointing to direct you into the way that you ought to take. You are not deterred by a fear of the future, for although you are undecided as to which one of the many paths of service open to you is your path, yet you do know in whom you have believed, and are persuaded that he is able to keep that which you have committed unto him against that day. Neither are you tempted to turn aside into the bypath of pleasure, nor to be lured away by the siren song of ease. The path you seek is a path of service. But of these there are many. “Which shall you take?

I am glad to recognize the divine call to a business career, or to the profession of teaching, or of medicine, or to any other vocation of life where service can be rendered to humanity, and the work of the Kingdom promoted. I rejoice in the many avenues of service distinctly religious which our young people may enter, more today than ever before in the history of the world. But I wish to devote this series of addresses to the specific task of presenting the distinct claims of the Christian ministry.

It is a calling which has a worthy history in the lives and deeds of those who have made it a holy calling. First in its ranks are numbered the disciples of Jesus who received by personal contact with the Master their inspiration and their instruction, and who set out to convert the world by the foolishness of preaching. In harmony with their commission they began at Jerusalem, with the purpose of spreading out through Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the world. -Philip followed, preaching the Word, and the consecrated deacon became the soul-winning evangelist. Paul got a vision of the conquering Christ and proclaimed the good news of salvation among the Gentiles, even at the capital of the world. Time would fail me to speak of all who readily come to mind. Chrisostum, Augustine, Savonarola, Francis of Assisi, Peter the Hermit, John Wycliff e, John Huss, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, The Stennetts. The Wesleys, Whitefield, Bushnell, and Beecher and Brooks. These preachers of the Gospel, with many others who were just as faithful if less conspicuous in their service, have had more to do with the progress of the race than have emperors and popes, or kings of finance. But we are confronted with the persistent, and sometimes impertinent suggestion that the minister is not held in as high regard today as in times past, and that he is not the man of influence that he used to be. It is a fact, which I have no desire to blink, that men of today show no special regard for the cloth. It takes more than a long-tailed coat, a serious countenance, and sanctimonious contortions to appeal to hard headed men of this scientific and desperately efficient age. But this fact itself appeals to young men of red blood and Christian integrity. The premium has been removed from the externals and the accidentals behind which men of mediocre minds and unworthy motives may hide, and has been placed upon fitness. The ministry calls today for young men of consecration, but for young men who have talents and faculties to consecrate.

It calls for men of holy purposes, but for men with powers trained to serve those higher purposes. Every occupation today contributes its share to the human scrapheap of the down-and outs who have failed in the acid test of experience. I want to say here, not as a deterrent but as a challenge, that no calling requires greater ability, more careful preparation, or a more constant recognition of its high demands, than the Gospel ministry. Our conception of the call to the ministry has been perverted by honest but deluded men who believe they have had the experience.

Booker T. Washington tells us that as a young man he lived in mortal dread of a ’ ’ call. ’ ’ He was familiar with the experience as he had observed its workings upon older men of his race. They were suddenly and violently smitten down, and with groanings easily and amply uttered they gave evidence of the agony of the “call.” Ever since Constantine had his vision of a cross in the sky, men, self-deceived or deceiving, have imposed upon the world an unworthy conception of this sacred experience.

Tinctured and tainted as our minds have been by such unnatural representations, we have read into the call of prophets and apostles of old a magic which they did not possess. I would not for one moment seem to remove the trace of the divine hand in leading men to become prophets of God. The Divine is there in every genuine call, a conscious and blessed presence. But if I am not mistaken, a careful study of the call of holy men of old will reveal the fact that God takes account of those faculties with which he has already endowed men feeling of course, but also reason and will. These are faculties that will be needed in the pursuit of the calling, and it is fair to assume that they will not be ignored or violated in this initial experience. “We have thought of the prophets of God as men living apart from the world, suspended somehow between heaven and earth, too good to tread our common soil. The fact is these men lived not only in active relation to the most stirring events of their times, but they lived in the most eventful periods of Israel’s history. In every instance it was a political crisis that gave them birth. In this significant fact we have a suggestion as to the nature of a call to the ministry; an indication both as to its occasion and its character. It is a passion and purpose to lead in a spiritual service where the need is greatest. The first requisite for the ministry is a clean life. I would not say that he who has gone low in sin and has drunk of its bitterness may not be used of God to warn men against the pitfalls from which he has been rescued.

I appreciate the enthusiasm with which many, thus delivered, proclaim the way of salvation and point out the dangers along life’s road.

More precision to their finger and more power to their voice! But the great prophets of God both in ancient and in modern times have not come from that class. They have been men whose* early years were pre-empted by the Holy Spirit, and whose natural powers have been brought to the altar of God not only unimpaired by dissipation, but developed and trained.

“Witness a Moses, a Samuel and an Amos. The list could be extended to include the great majority of prophets and preachers who have profoundly stirred men and rendered permanent service to the world. Natural ability, strength of character, and inner integrity should be included in the offering of every young man who would devote his life to the Gospel ministry. No one will be able to bring a perfect life, but honesty with God, with men, and with oneself is a prime prerequisite. His development should be like that of the Master himself, who increased in stature, in wisdom, and in favor with God and man. The church must look for its ministers for the immediate future among its own young men and boys of today. Whatever weakness or failure there may be in the church, it is from the number of those who regularly attend her public services, and who believe in her life and mission, that the ranks of the ministry must be filled.

It was in the temple that the young man Isaiah got his vision of the glory of God which filled the whole earth, and responded to the call whose urgency he felt, “Here am I, send me.” It was in the temple, that the adolescent Samuel heard a similar call, and answered the divine voice, “Speak, for thy servant heareth.”

It was in the temple that the boy Jesus felt the pulling impulse of his own unparalleled mission, which brought the response to his mother’s question: “Know ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?”

Jesus who as the Son of God came to reveal the Father, as the Son of Man became the perfect representative of the race, and should be reverently studied in this connection. Following his baptism and just before entering upon his public ministry Jesus was permitted a vision of all the nations of the earth and the glory of them. The little country of Palestine gave an opportunity for such a vision not found anywhere else in all the world at that time, although modern learning has made it possible anywhere today; Crowded up against the shores of the Mediterranean by the desert, Palestine formed a bridge between two continents, Asia and Africa; the connecting link between two primeval homes of the race; the valley of the Euphrates and of the Nile; and between two ancient civilizations, Assyria and Egypt. It was the highroad of commerce and the military road of conquest. The home of Jesus was in the more backward province of Galilee, but by climbing the hill back of his village home he could see the great caravans passing. And he made frequent visits to the more cosmopolitan city of Jerusalem. The social conditions of his time, the political situation, and the very geography itself, contributed to the preparation of Jesus for his public ministry. In the silence of the desert, but not without the presence of the tempter, he worked out his program for the Kingdom.

It was not to be by the glory of a military conquest, or by material power, that the world must be won, but by the preaching of the word in the power of the Spirit. He gathered about him a few choice souls, called from the common labors of life, gave them his message, and sent them out to preach. The Kingdom has not yet come in its fullness, and the “Word must still be preached.

Never were the opportunities of the ministry greater than they are today. The young man who fails to give this question consideration thereby shows his inability to comprehend the power and possibilities of the only organization benevolent in its purposes, and.at the same time world-wide in its aim. Other organizations are time servers, or they serve only for time. They may be of great benefit to society, just as many things that are temporary are nevertheless essential. But the one organization which comprehends the whole human race in its efforts to uplift and save and bless is the Church of Jesus Christ. The supreme opportunity which the church offers to young men of parts today, I say it advisedly, is her need of ministers. We live in a fast and changing age; in a world enlarged but unified by the scientific and historical method of study and investigation applied to every field of knowledge and endeavor. Nothing has escaped the analyzing scrutiny of the independent thinkers who are not willing to accept the label of a past age in determining a thing’s value for our generation. We have worked ourselves through, the most distressing period in the process of religious reconstruction.

Much rubbish had to be cleared away. The materials are now in our hands for constructive work. Never was the need greater for wise leaders, nor the future of the church more promising if these leaders can be found. In speaking of the results of modern Christian scholarship in rediscovering our Holy Bible, and in discussing the relation of the more intelligent to the traditional viewpoint, a pastor once made this statement to me: “I can see better pasture on the other side of the river, but I dare not undertake to lead my flock across for fear they drown in the stream.” A graphic way of presenting a pathetic situation.

Here is the tragedy of the dilemma; not only the shepherd of the sheep but members of his flock see this better pasture, and unless safely led they will attempt to cross alone, and floundering in water too deep for them, many will perish. It is not a question of holding them on this side to nibble the dry grass of tradition, or taking them across for a little better pasture. In many cases it is a question of life or death. The church needs for its mighty modern task the strength which will come as a result of the better pasturage.

We need ministers of scholarship. The call is for young men of college training, and with the student attitude and vision. The need is for a man who can comprehend the significance of the great movements of Ms day, and who can relate himself and the church to them in a strong and helpful way. We need men who can face the withering blight of criticism; who can overcome the deadening influence of conservatism; who can check the threatening menace of radicalism; who can counteract the fatal power of materialism; who can withstand the chilling blasts -of rationalism; who can face and fight any ism-devil, or devil of whatever kind, that dares to lift its horny head against the progress of the spiritual kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. The church must be inspired and organized to meet the impact of worldliness and to wage an aggressive campaign for righteousness. Men must be saved. The world must be won. Jesus is passing by, and he calls to young men today as he did to those young men in that far-off day by Galilee.

“Come ye after me, and I will make you fishers of men.