I Was Made a Minister- An Autobiography (Paperback)

I Was Made a Minister- An Autobiography Book Description

I WAS MADE A MINISTER AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY EDWIN HOLT r HUGHES A Bishop of The Methodist Church A B I N G D O N COKESBURY New York Nashville WAS MADE A MINISTER. CDPYltlGHT, MCMXUII oks STONE Afl. rfghta Jn this book are reserved. No part rf the fexfrfray be reproduced in any fora without written per ftfiljon of the publUheri, except brief quotations used In connectkm with renew in magazines or newspapera, WAR EDITION Complete text. Reduced size in compliance with orders of the War Production Board for conserving paper and other materials. or XJF, rtnrTED, Dr IOOKD it TBB VUt AT XASHYILUt, TIK UKITEO ITATII a AMKUOA THE AUTHOR Aged 7-2 To MY TWO GRANDMOTHERS ABIGAIL BENNETT HOLT PHOEBE JONES HUGHES CONTENTS Chapter INTRODUCTION .......... 1 L FAMILY ............ 11 II. SCHOOLING ........... 25 III. PASTORATES ........... 45 IV. EDUCATION ........... 84 V. EPISCOPACY ........... 106 VL PERSONALITIES .......... 132 VII. CONTROVERSIES ......... 153 VIII. BISHOPS ............ 183 IX. BROTHER ......... . . 201 X. COMMISSIONS .......... 217 XL FRATERNALISM ......... 229 XII. WIFE ............ 248 XIII, UNIFICATION . ., ........ 263 XIV. CONSUMMATION ......... 289 XV. REFLECTIONS .......... 303 INDEX . . . . ..... ... 319 vii INTRODUCTION T J. HJ . HE TITLE OF THIS VOLUME, I WAS MADE A MINISTER, IS taken from Paul. The Church has given it a place in one of its rituals of ordination. I have therefore read it many times, and have heard it more times as the Epistle was given in the ordaining hour. From the beginning of my episcopal work the five words charmed and thrilled me. They seemed to be written in larger type. Though not printed in italics, they insisted on a peculiar emphasis. They were apart of a longer sentence, yet my tendency was to halt after the word minister, as if there were a period there, or even a space that marked a paragraph. I had to be on guard lest the listeners in the service should think that my voice had failed, or that I had dropped into a forgetful abstraction. In more intense moments I imag ined that I saw the Great Apostle looking up from his manuscript, and that I could hear him say, I was made a minister 4 The words took me captive because they touched the deeper places of my nature. If the proprieties had per mitted, I could have said, I am now doing my part in making a minister Then I would have added, I was made one myself All my life bore in that ministerial direction. I had the experiences of a parsonage in child hood so that I might bear them forward into other years. Forced changes from one college to another meant that I was being carried onward to a clerical career. This was 1 I WAS MADE A MINISTER not all of my own choosing. There were a few years in which the thought of the ministry was almost a torture Yet the actual decades have given me a commentary on the way in which hate can change to love. While I do not sympathize with the overdone counsel, Do not enter the ministry if you can help it, I still declare that I have had no religious experience more definite than my call to preach. I put this statement into no Calvinistic form. God does not cancel free agency in a summons to the ministry any more than he cancels it in the summons to salvation. Though not irresistible, my ministerial life has never ceased to be a calling. I may add the further statement that I have been only the minister that I was made. All my life has run in thatsacred groove. Nothing else has tempted me. Meager starts towards magazine writing, with generous fees, fright ened me, lest I should be diverted. I have had no desire to follow the example of clerical acquaintances who have allowed literature to crowd out sermonizing. I have avoided luring sidetracks as if they would lead me away from the City of Life. Such lectures as I have delivered had homiletical origins. If I have not always followed John Wesleys advice about being a man of one book I have certainly been a man of one work...

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