3 Sermon Illustrations on Character in Ministry

A minister's character is the lock of his strength; and, if once this is sacrificed, he is, like Samson shorn of his hair, a poor, feeble, faltering creature, the pity of his friends, and the derision of his enemies. I. A. James.

The salaries of the clergy of the United States do not average five hundred dollars a year, and yet, as a class, they are the best educated, the most influential, the most active, refined, and elevated of the nation. With less culture, with less character, with less mental power, there are men, all over the land, who earn from one to five thousand dollars a year. But look at the results. Taking them as they come, the biographies of a hundred clergymen who have families show, that, of their sons, one hundred and ten became ministers; and, of the remainder of the sons, by far the larger number rose to eminence as professional men, merchants, and scholars. As to the daughters, their names are merged into others; but there is a significant fact, which we do not remember to have seen noticed in that connection, that not only here, but in England, where titles are so highly prized, and the possession of "gentle blood" is a passport to high places, it is very often referred to as a matter of note, as indicating safety and respectability. "His mother was a daughter of a clergyman." We will venture the opinion, that three-fourths of the great men of this nation are not over two degrees removed from clergymen's families, or from families strictly religious. When it can be said of a man or woman, that their father or grandfather was a clergyman, there is a feeling within us of a certain elevation of character, a kind of guaranty of respectability of blood, of purity, and integrity. Dr. Hoven.