One of his problems is to keep the spirit of reverence in his life. Human nature tends to handle ever more familiarly the things with which it has to do. Nadab and Abihu would have been afraid to offer strange fire if they had not allowed themselves to become too familiar with the things of the sanctuary. God, the church, and human hearts are all things our relationship to which should hush our souls. Another of his problems, and one of his chief ones, is to keep the stamp of reality upon himself and his ministry. Holy tones, unnatural attire, and affected mannerisms are all banes to the ministry. They have cost many a man his usefulness, and limited that of many others. The church would gain immeasurably if today every one of her army of ministers would undertake in a simple human way to represent normal manhood at its best. Certainly that is what Jesus did. Another of his problems is that of his social contacts. If he does not appear in public he is branded as a recluse. If he appears too much he becomes known as a loafer. He must find the golden mean. To know how much to appear, how to appear, when to appear, and the secret of mingling and dealing with people of all kinds without compromising one’s self with any is a fine art, and happy is the one who masters it. Still another of his problems is how to keep growing. Too many ministers become unacceptable in middle life, not because they have aged, but because they have ceased to grow. The most pitiful thing about these men is that none of them seems to know quite what is wrong. Such a time need not come. It does not come to those who read, and think, and keep interested in and sympathetic toward the life of a growing world. The Ambassador (1929) A minister is an ambassador of the Kingdom of God to the kingdom of this world’s life. If he will remember that, and act accordingly, it will both save him from many mistakes and help him to many successes. An ambassador has just one business. It is to represent, without wavering, change, or compromise, the interests of his country at a foreign court. If he allows himself to become more loyal to the people to whom he goes than to the Ruler who sends him, he is worse than a poor ambassador; he is a traitor. The pitiful message of the story of The Golden Calf is that a spiritual leader forgot that his business was to serve God, and surrendered to the idea that it was to please the public. The ambassador must remember that he is at a foreign court. That means that he cannot engage indiscriminately in what others do, that he must not become too deeply rooted in the alien life. He must keep his affections and loyalties fixed where they belong. At the same time, since he is among strangers, and since he is his own country incarnated in flesh and blood before them, he must be courteous and seek to make his every word and act worthy of their respect.