5.  We need a release of pressure on the abler men.  Many a minister to-day is a sort of community lackey.  What other men are frankly too busy to do, he is supposed to be cheerfully ready to do.  The list of odd jobs which fall to his lot would be ridiculous, were not their influence upon his life and work so retrogressive and so sad.  He lives to serve others, but this vow of service is greatly imposed upon.  If he is to lead in intellectual and spiritual matters, he must be given fewer errands to run, the financial burden of his church must be taken absolutely from his shoulders, he must have a suitable salary, and his time must be at least as carefully guarded as that of the average man.  Some calls he is bound to obey, at whatever cost of time or strength,—­illness, certain public duties, and real spiritual needs,—­but his life must not be at the mercy of cranks, or of idle persons’ whims.

6.  We need a reorganization of preaching traditions.  It is a tradition that a minister must, in general, preach two set sermons every week, give one informal week-day lecture, and be prepared to deliver, at any moment, funeral addresses, anniversary speeches, “remarks,” or to perform other utterly impossible intellectual feats.  Anyone who writes, or who speaks in public, knows that the preparation of a half-hour address which is worth anything requires a great deal of time.  It cannot ordinarily be “tossed off,” and help men’s souls.  Only an occasional inspiration, the result of a lifetime of thought and experience, is born in this sudden way.  Usually excellence is the result of long and careful labor.  The way to help this would seem to be a constant interchange of preachers, not only in one denomination, but among the various denominations, so that a really fine sermon would be heard by many people, and fewer sermons would require to be written.  This is easily done in a large city or its vicinity.  What congregations need most is not altogether formal sermons, but thoughtful, helpful talks containing a fresh, uplifting, and spiritual outlook over life, with a practical bearing on the occasions and duties of life.  The work of both Frederick Robertson and Horace Bushnell has this direct and vital tone.

Ministers must study more.  If they are freed from many tasks now put upon them, it is not unreasonable to ask that this time be put on more careful thinking.  Too many a minister of to-day is, intellectually, something of a flibbertigibbet.  His sermons do not take hold, because they have not the roots to take hold with.  How many ministers possess, for instance, a scholarly knowledge of human nature or of the deeper aspects of redemption?  Yet these things he ought to know.  There is a large amount of intensely interesting, though spiritually undigested, material for a minister in a book like William James’s Varieties of Religious Experience.