Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/311

 OCCUPATIONAL TYPES

ministers as a class have some show of justification. Does not the average minister, in the effort to respond to the nu merous calls made upon him, learn something about a great many aspects of life, without acquiring a very thorough knowledge of any one of them ; dip into a great many sub jects, without penetrating to the depths of any of them? Thus he comes to be a man of very varied but not very accurate information, a pleasant companion, an interesting &quot; conversationalist,&quot; an excellent &quot; entertainer &quot; in the social circle, but unable to speak with authority upon any theme.

2. The narrowing tendencies of his occupation. Not withstanding the breadth of his specialty there are certain causes at work in his occupation that tend to cast him in a narrow mould.

(i) There is a tendency to the habit of dogmatism. The preacher is appointed to deliver a message which he believes to be from God. Hence there must be a note of positive- ness, of certainty, of authority in his deliverances. He must often be dogmatic in utterance. From this arises a need for caution, lest he should fall into a habit of dogmatic ut terance that is quite unjustifiable.

In the first place, he should remember that he is delivering his understanding of the divine message. He is an inter preter, and it is his interpretation which he is preaching. God s message, when one can be absolutely sure about it, should be proclaimed with the emphasis of finality. But the minister should never forget that his understanding of the divine will is always subject to error, and is never absolute. The divine will is always right and is not open to debate ; but how easily he may be mistaken as to what that will is, and especially as to its application to particular situations ! However much he may insist upon the infallibility of the Bible, that is a quite different matter from his interpreta tion of the Bible ; and the latter he certainly has no right to proclaim as the final and unquestionable truth. How easily and unconsciously some preachers err here! He should never forget that every human mind has its bias, which in-

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