And yet, on the other hand, when the conviction of fitness or mission
exists, what calling is there which offers to-day more opportunities
for usefulness than the ministry? The growing tendency of the Church is
toward wider issues and a broader scope. Clergymen are now encouraged
and expected to aid in the solution of problems of living no less than
those of dying, and to lead in the discussion of matters regarding
which they could not have ventured to express opinions fifty years
ago without exposing themselves to the charge of being meddlesome or
unclerical. The whole field of practical charity, economics, hygiene,
and the relations of human beings to each other on this earth, are
fast becoming the legitimate domain of the Church, and the general
interest in this new phase of usefulness is serving to convince many of
the clergy themselves that the existence of so many creeds, differing
but slightly and unimportantly from one another, is a waste of vital
force and machinery. In this age of trusts, a trust of all religious
denominations for the common good of humanity would be a monopoly which
could pay large dividends without fear of hostile legislation.
In this matter of the choice of a vocation, the case of the ambitious,
promising young man is the one which commends itself most to our
sympathies; and next to it stands that of the general utility man--the
youth who has no definite tastes or talents, and who selects his life
occupation from considerations other than a consciousness of fitness or
of natural inclination. There are here, as elsewhere, born merchants,
lawyers, doctors, clergymen, architects, engineers, inventors, and
poets, who promptly follow their natural bents without suggestion and
in the teeth of difficulties. But the promising young man in search of
a brilliant career, and the general utility man, are perhaps the best
exponents of a nation’s temper and inclination.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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