Let him hold himself firmly aloof both from nonsense and from enervating praise.  Let him dream of great themes, and work for great things!  Let him rely on more quiet friends who watch loyally, hope, encourage, inspire.  By and by the scales drop from his eyes; he sees himself, not as one who has already achieved, but as one to whom the radiant gates of life are opening, so that he, too, can one day speak to human souls as the masters have done!  He discovers that out of the heart’s depths is great work born!  This is a memorable day, both for this man and for his church.  From that hour he has vision and power.

Another error in ministerial education and outlook is that too often ministers forget that they compete with other men:  they are not an isolated class of humanity.  Competition underlies the energy and efficiency of the world’s work.  When men do not consciously compete with others, they inevitably drop behind.  What a minister was intended for, was to stand head and shoulders above other men.  God seems to have planned the universe in such a way that everywhere the spiritual shall be supreme.  He was meant to be a towering leader.  Who, in other realms, has excelled Moses, Joshua, Elijah, David, Paul?

But if we consider the responsibilities which are now being laid upon different classes of people, and carried by them, I think that we must acknowledge that the statesman is looming up as the most influential and upbuilding man to-day.  He is the one who is adjusting the new world-powers and the new world-relations, over-seeing the development of our country, and planning for its laws and commerce.  Close to him comes the physician, who is laying his hand on world-plagues, and is studying the conditions and the forms of disease, with a view to striking disease at its root.  The hand of the doctor is laid upon consumption, malaria, yellow fever, diphtheria, typhoid fever, and bubonic plague, and the advance in medical research is marvellous.

The lawyer and the capitalist are together adjusting the industrial relations of the country.  We have trusts, syndicates, and corporation-problems handled with a firm intellectual grasp and a wide outlook over human affairs.

The reading of the world is in the hands of editors of enterprise and sagacity.  They daily bring wars, statecraft, business plans, political situations, trade openings, scientific discoveries, forms of church-work and philanthropy, accidents, murders, and marriages, to our breakfast-table.  The press of to-day has a tremendous scope.  When some of the magazines come to hand, one feels that he is in touch with the affairs of the universe and has reading of a cosmic order.

The day-laborer is discovering that to ingenuity, talent, and manliness, the whole world swings open.  Carnegie’s Thirty Partners, most of whom have come from the working-ranks, demonstrate that a man can rise from the pick, the spade, the foreman’s duties, to the control of great industrial interests.