ran Jst
mm
FIFTY-FOURTH YEAR.
ORGAN OF THE NORTH CAROLINA CONFERENCE. .
NUMBER 26
RALEIGH, N. C, THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 1908.
FORTY YEARS IN THE ITINERANCY.
Jiy Rev, James Mudge, 1). D in Pittsburg Christian
Advocate.
I ant attempting a very difficult and hazardous
thing to crowd two thousand weeks of experi
ence into as many words; to give the impressions
of a lifetime in a few lines. Is it worth while?
Perhaps not. But let the reader judge.
This at least I may say to start with some
rather unusual and decidedly favorable events at
tended the opening of my ministerial career. I
felt the call from boyhood. And I came into the
ministry, as is quite common, through the local
door. That is, just in the middle of my college
course, while at home on a vacation, I was ten
dered a license, the document being made out in
a tent on the camp-ground at Yarmouth, Mass.,
August, 1863. Then, nearly five years having
elapsed, I was induced to join the New England
Conference on trial, April, 1868, before complet
ing my first year in the School of Theology at
Boston, becoming an ordained deacon in the same
connection. And two years later, just before
graduating from the School, I was ordained an
elder, and entered as having completed the Con
ference course of study. The examining com
mittees reported me as having at that time pass
ed satisfactorily in the second, third and fourth
years' books. Good Bishop Scott objected to the
irregularity of the proceeding, but finally said
that if the Conference was satisfied, he would not
refuse to put me through; which was accordingly
done with great unanimity. So I found myself in
full orders and a full graduate both of the Con
ference course and the Seminary course at the
very threshold of my first full appointment. It
was certainly convenient, and a trifle unique.
Also out of the ordinary was it that my first
two stations were in connection with educational
institutions. The church to which I ministered
while in the school joined the grounds of Har
vard College at Cambridge, and the one to which
1 was sent on graduating was at Wilbraham, the
site of our oldest Conference Academy, where a
new stone church of handsome proportions was
just being completed. In my second year of min
istry my salary was just double what it was the
first, and in my third it was double what it was
the second. At the close of my three years' term
at Wilbraham arrangements were completed,
without my seeking it, for my transfer to one of
the largest and strongest churches in Boston, and
the ball seemed in many ways to be at my feet.
Then all worldly prospects wont to the wind. A
summons came from the India Missions there
was then but one Conference in that Empire
asking me to come out and give myself to edi
torial work in connection with the press at Luck
now. The appeal was signed by Doctors Parker
i'Hd Thoburn. The latter was so urgent that the
too Jong neglected press should have this succor
that he surrendered his own salary for my use.
I'nder such circumstances what loyal heart could
hesitate? I had been deeply interested in mis
sions from earliest boyhood, in my two churches
T had pushed the collections to an unprecedented
height, my willingness to go if the duty was made
Plain had long avowed, and now the call seemed
'loar. I Was transferred to India at once, and my
American career as a preacher was prematurely
dosed.
To be sure, I returned after ten years the re
call being as clear as the summons and have
Pont twenty-five years more in the pastorate at
''ome. But the absence was fatal so far as taking
"P my old position was concerned. The churches
( id not. welcome one whose years were now forty,
whose heart was across the sea, and on whom a
"mide under fiercely blazing suns had left very
evident marks of age; who, in fact, had dropped
t of the procession, and been forgotten. But
' never regretted having been "obedient to the
neavenly vision," and I took up thankfully what
Wils left of a broken life.
My ministerial career, then, in the ordinary
sense of the word may fairly be regarded, per
haps, as confined to the twenty-five years since
my return from India. I have had churches in
seven town and cities Boston, Lowell, Natick,
Clinton, Webster, Pepperell, Whitinsville among
hard-working people, for the most part, laboring
in factories, mills and shops. What of the retro-
spect, now that it is all over and I am retiring for
a little interval before the great change comes
and One higher than a Bishop gives me my place?
Three words may serve to gather up the chief
conclusions. The first is Friendship. Though my
churches have not been large, I have met in them
some very large and noble souls. Their love has
come to be a main joy of life. Their gratitude
for benefit received has been very sweet and preci
ous. They have greatly prized the help I have
been able to afford them, and they have express
ed in many ways their strong attachment to me.
Who can set a value on love? Truly it is the
greatest thing in the world. The faithful pastor
gets it. It is one of his chief assets. Little
money may come, but that which money can not
buy pours in, and he is rich indeed. Let the
young man looking toward the ministry take this
into account. No other calling yields so much
at this point. The fellowship of hearts will be
his; the "communion of saints" will mean a great
deal to him as the years go by; he will find him
self bound by very tender cords to larger and lar
ger numbers of the best people on earth.
Another word of delightful sound is Fruit. The
retrospect of the years embraces a goodly quant
ity of that, as indeed the friendship received im
plies. Souls won for the Master in all the church
es, lives lifted to loftier levels, Christian char
acter built up, right ideals held steadily, attrac
tively before the youth, children impressed with
the love of Jesus and turned into straight paths,
wrinkled brows smoothed out as the true joy of
living has been learned, the secret of happiness
imparted, comfort in time of sorrow bestowed,
counsel in hours of perplexity given, temporal aid
at times afforded. "Much fruit" it is the "Fath
er's good pleasure" that His faithful ones bear;
and though in comparison with the possibilities
or with what others have borne the result may
seem meager, yet there is satisfaction of a very
solid sort in the thought that multitudes of hu
man beings destined to immortality have been
considerably helped in making that immortality
glorious.
The third word is Fatigue. It would not be
fair to look on the sunny side only, or to paint all
in colors of the rose. While the modern Metho
dist minister is not summoned to endure the
hardships of those who pioneered the cause a
hundred years ago, nor of those who fight on the
frontiers at the present time with their enormous
journeyings, their widely scattered flocks, their
exceeding scanty compensation, nevertheless there
are not a few elements of bitterness mingled in
the cup. There is some reason why so many faint
and fall out by the way. Narrow-minded, close
fisted, small-souled members, selfish, quarrel
some, conceited, obstinate, gossiping, worldly, bent
on making a disturbance, disposed to rule or ruin,
fault-finding, touchy, unreasonable, spiteful, cross
grained, ill-tempered, ambitious, never satisfied,
always ready for a change, and not above using
underhanded means to procure it these are found
in all the churches, and while in large churches
they may often be ignored, in the smaller ones
their opportunity for mischief is great. They are
a sore and heavy burden to the pastor; they are
clogs on the wheels of progress; they make re
vivals impossible. The wear and tear of the itin
eracy is still a very positive factor to be reckoned
with. It uses great numbers of earnest spirits.
The small support compels an unseemly and un
worthy economy; family feelings are lacerated;
children suffer, and are alienated from the
church; wives are worn out. Injustice is experi
enced in the turning: of the Conference wheel.
Often the churches are heartless, the authorities
are helpless, iron enters into the soul. No little
heroism is called for, and furnished, to build up
these widening walls of Zion. But, thank Cod,
they go up!
Although I have experienced, as the last para
graph may indicate, some of the trials of the itin
erancy, I do not regret having entered the work.
The joys have more than counter-balanced the
sorrows. I have done some little good with my
pen, for which work the small pastorates have af
forded abundant opportunity. So there has been
compensation here. There is compensation al
ways. God mingles the dark and the light as we
need them. He never makes a mistake in His ar
rangements. I have found it good to take every
thing from His hand, and "rejoice evermore." I
was glad to buckle on the armor of the gospel
warrior; I am glad as the evening shadows fall to
lay it off. The long day's work is nearly done.
The crown is near.
THH DAY OF DREAMS.
This is the day for visions, the day of the fearless
few,
When the hope once weak first dared to speak,
when the mighty dream came true!
"A child in the darkness wailing!" the kings
laughed loud and long;
But the child was a man in an hour, and the cry
was a battle-song.
And the dreamers woke to sing it wherever a
dreamer led,
Till the kings had ceased their laughter, and the
dreamers' hands were red;
Till there grew a thing of wonder where once was
a thing for scorn,
And, sired by the high Ideal, the marvelous Ileal
was born.
Nor yet is the great dream ended; forever and
ever new
There is work for the present dreamers, there are
deeds for the arm to do;
And the fathers' sons are ready, and busy with
watch and ward,
Till the last rose-dawn shall flower and the Mas
ter sheathe the sword.
From the green Virginia valleys to the Klondike's
silent snows,
In the pluse-beats of the people the vision grows
and grows;
And the sweat-stained toilers, seeing, know well
they are not in vain,
From the golden-shored Pacific to the rock
ribbed coast of Maine.
In the shriek of the locomotive, in the mine with
the death-dews wet,
In the million mills, on the fruitful hills, we are
toiling and dreaming yet;
No muscle strains without it, no labor low or
mean;
We are waiting the last night-whistle, we are
keeping the Vision clean.
And now, as of old, we labor, the many that once
were few,
At the task of the deep-eyed dreamers, that the
mighty dream come true,
When real and ideal are welded forever and ever,
and then,
In the last rose-dawn's full flower, the Master
shall pay his men.
Reginald Wright Kauffman, in Saturday Eve
ning Post.
The Bible is on the side of the oppressed and
suffering and poor; if the church is on the side
of privilege and property and power, then the
church and the Bible are on different sides. Rev.
H. T. Smart.