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$Cjre €0% €T\A, Eitep&Py$ Cjre €0% €t\a, Eitep&py. Published every other Week during the Collegiate THE MINISTRY. Year by the Students of COLBY UNIVERSITY. The opportunities which the Christian ministry offers to a conscientious, Christian ' EDITORIAL BOARD. man are of two kinds ; to secure his own Chief. welfare and to serve his fellbwmen. Of the C. H. Whitman, 97. first sort are those for his material arid so- Assistant Chief. cial life and those for his intellectual and Miss Edith B. Hanson, '97. spiritual life. To the first of these no man should give much thought. He who can, Department Staff. lacks something of the ChristianV spirit. T. R. Pierce, '98, Bill Board . M/ss E. S, Nklson, '97, Personals and Bill Board But if any. man is fostering . his spiritual A. H. Page, '98, . Y, M. C. A pride with the thought that lie is sacrific- Miss Lenora Bessey, '98, Alumna and Y. W. C. A, ing material and social comforts , by enter- I. F. Ingraham, '98, Exchanges N. K. Fuller, '98, Alumni ing the ministry, he may be reminded that J. L. Dyer, '98, Personals , probably no profession offers its members Business Manager, so high ah average of material and social W. A. Harthorne, ' 97. , advantages as the ministry. Jhdeed so Treasurer. great are the temptations in this profession ' C. L. Snow, '97. to practise the arts of oratory for the sake of fame, to seek for relatively high salaries, Terms.—$1,50 Per year. ' Single copies 12 cents. fine housing, special favors from, the "de- Tub Echo will be sent to nil subscribers, until its discontinuance is ordered, and arrears paid. , . vout and admiring, pleasant vacations with Exchanges and all communications relating to the Literary De- partment of the paper should be addressed to Tits Colby Echo. extensive travel, the credit of leadership,in Remittances ly mall and all communications should be ad- ' dressed to the Managing Editor, Waterville, Me. secular affairs and the general approbation .. Any subscriber not receiving The Echo' regularly -will notify »»i ¦ ¦ ¦ given to clergymen in theso day s when out- e Managing Edlfor. • ' ; . spoken criticism of thorn is regarded as, an almost intolerable persecution thatj4; Printid at T/u Mail Offiet , Watirvilh, Main *. , young man who desires to preserve his moral in- tegrity unimpaired should ask himself very seriously whether ho is enough of a Chris- tian to surmount them. If it bo said that the ministry has peculiar trials sufficient to humble and tame the spirit of a man of In whatever study or practice he is doing real worth, while its high and holy motives the best for his own intellectual and spirit- more than overbalance such temptations, ual growth, he is doing his best for his this is true ; so that a truly noble man will ministry. Whether he is reading Plato or disregard them altogether, except to watch his daily paper, Moses or Ian Maclaren, against them, and enter the profession with writing sermons or articles for the maga- a brave heart. * zines, studying physics or mathematics, Turning to the opportunities in the min- theology or political economy, according istry for self-culture, it will easily be be- to the homely phrase, "everything is grist lieved that no profession offers greater. that comes to his mill." Or, in the second Fichte has a course of lectures on the "Vo- place, if , recognizing with the Westminster cation of the scholar" in which he shows catechism that "th e chief end of man is to that it is first of all "the absolute vocation glorify God and enjoy him forever," he of man." We may apply the same truth to sets himself to develop to the highest the vocation of the minister. He is called his power to know God in His universe first of all to be, as nearly as is possible, a and minister to the greatest welfare of his perfect man. This for man as a rational fellowmen, ho will be doing the best possi- being, says Fichte, "is twofold, the harmo- ble for himself as well as for his ministry. ny of the will with the idea of an Eternal Certainly then no profession affords greater Will or moral goodness ; and the harmon y opportunities than the ministry for the har- of external things with our will, or happi- monious development of the whole man, ness." To this should be added his further and that, too, for eternity as well as for statement : "Not that which produces hap- time. piness is good , but, that only which is But if it is true, as Fichte says, that good produces happiness." No higher "man does not exist to the end that some- ideal can be conceived for human solf- thing else may be, but absolutely because culturo. It is the Christian ideal, enunci- he himself is to be," this is only true be- ated in the Sermon on the Mount and cause God in His infinite love has so con- summed up in our Lord's precept : "Be ye stituted man that to be himself he must be therefore perfect even as your Father in Godlike in love for other being according heaven is perfect !" If then, this must be to its Divinely constituted worth. No man the absolute vocation of every true man is called to the Christian ministry who whatever his profession, the ministry will does not see and feel this sublime truth. f urnish him, I will not say greater oppor- But it is the will of our Creator that every tunities for this highest self-culture than man, whatever his special vocation in lift , any other profession, but as great as any, should be seized and possessed by this Di- and some that are peculiarly valuable. In vine idea of rational existence. Because the limited space of this paper I can only this is true young men may well remember call attention to two general aspects of the that no profession affords greater oppor- case. In the first place, there is no disci- tunities for realizing this ideal of existence pline nor material that can contribute to than the Christian ministry ; none perhaps self culture that does not also contribute as great. In none can a man give himself directly to tho practical work of a minister. more completely to the work of his pro* fession. For his own material wants he is furnishes a man the largest and best op- permitted to build absolutely upon the portunities for being and doing for himself word of Jesus Christ : "Seek ye first the and for others that which is of the greatest kingdom of God and His righteousness and conceivable value, for time and for eternity. all these things shall be added unto you." Life should be for every man a Christian He may therefore give himself wholly to ministry. Whatsoever a man's profession his ministry. He is not confused by the this should be his absolute vocation ; and question "What is truth ?" Christ himself for attaining this high ideal the minister's has answered Pilate's question. The whole calling affords very great if not the great- world today sees and confesses it. Love est opportunities. regulated by Divine wisdom is truth. It George Boardman Gow, '52. is his truth which he is to teach and practise and by which he is to serve his fellow- EXPERIENCE, AET. 20 YEARS. men. He is not perplexed to know wheth- No close-shorn velvet turf , no costly er he shall seek the present or the future urn or chiselled marble, no rare plant welfare of his fellowmen. The two are drawing a rich life from man's mortality, is identical. In securing the former he en- here, yet this, too, is God's Acre—uncared sures the latter. Thus with undivided en- for and unkempt, indeed , for the tide of orgies he may devote himself to the work- Death has been flowing in another direction ing out in his profession of a few simple for more than half a century, and church- ideas of life. Of life, I say, which is the yards, like nations, have their rise and fall. greatest thing in the universe ; ideas that A bank wall is the dividing line between are few and simple, but the most profound , this plot of ground and the road where the most beautiful and productive of true little children go sauntering to school, din- happiness known to man. His ministry ner pail in hand, and loaded teams pass on has the opportunity also of the greatest their way to market. Near this wall, just spechicnoss. He deals with particular high enough to be abreast you as you ride persons. They give him their confidence . along, is a thin headstone of dark slate They open to him that which is deepest in with greyish-yellow fringe growing on it. their souls, their inner spiritual life. His The name is a long one, so very long that opportunities to minister to their spiritual the ingenious sculptor carved it, not needs are such as children give only to the straight across, but with the first word most sympathetic of mothers and in rare slanted up, the second slanted down so as instances patients to their physicians. He to form a point—Experience Blaokington. labors too with perfect certainty that his Died 1815. Aet. 20 years. efforts will not be in vain. If he cannot Experience, who was she ? A wild rose in every case free altogether from present peeping from the tangled grasses calls up ovil those whom he serves , he knows that the picture of a shy, sweet maiden in a his words of holy wisdom, taught him by gown of linsey wool, with a white kerchief God Himself, will be effective for God's at her throat.

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