Then--as if satisfied with
what she found in his face, she said calmly: "To me he is the most
useless creature in all the world. He is a man set apart from all those
who live lives of service, who do the work of the world. And then that
he should be distinguished from these world-workers, these servers, by
this noblest of all titles--_a minister_, is the bitterest irony that
the mind of the race ever conceived."
Her companion's face was white now as he answered quickly, "But surely a
minister of the gospel is doing God's will and is therefore serving God."
She answered as quickly, "Man serves God only by serving men. There can
be no ministry but the ministry of man to man."
"But the minister is a man."
"The world cannot accept him as such, because his individuality is lost
in the church to which he belongs. Other institutions employ a man's
time, the church employs his life; he has no existence outside his
profession. There is no outside the church for him. The world cannot
know him as a man, for he is all preacher."
"But the church employs him to minister to the world?"
"I cannot see that it does so at all. On the contrary a church employs a
pastor to serve itself. To the churches Christianity has become a
question of fidelity to a church and creed and not to the spirit of
Christ. The minister's standing and success in his calling, the amount
of his salary, even, depends upon his devotion to the particular views
of the church that calls him and his ability to please those who pay him
for pleasing them.
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