Health and Habits
Any people have the very foolish impression that the life of a minister is a very easy one. But the pastor of a large parish, who devotes himself conscientiously to his work, needs a strong mind in a strong body. Every student for the ministry should use abundant physical exercise during his preparatory training, so that when he enters upon his labors he may be able to “endure hardness as a good soldier,” and not be a candidate for the hospital. It is rarely a wise thing to have a first settlement in a great city. A small parish in the rural regions is the best place in which to begin. There the young man will
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have undisturbed opportunity for studying God’s Word, and human nature, too; he will have the bracing influence of country air, and of long walks or rides to visit his flock. Almost all the greatest ministers of both Britain and America have served their apprenticeship in humble parishes, while those who rush precipitately into ambitious settlements commonly break down. The clock that is not content to strike one will never strike twelve.
Bodily health, my young brother, is more easily kept than regained; and Dr. Prevention is the best physician that you can employ. I am not very strong physically, but I have taken good care of a good constitution, so that, during an active ministry of forty-seven years, I have never spent an entire Sabbath in bed. On three or four occasions I have suffered from ailments that kept me from church, but did not put me on my back.
The best parts of me have always been my lungs and my legs; they are really the most important parts, for the one does the preaching, and the other does the pastoral visiting. As to the voice, I have avoided too many warm wrappings about the throat, have applied plenty of cold water and friction, and have never been addicted to troches and other like trumpery. Nor is it a good practice to drink cold water very often while speaking.
Take a total-abstinence pledge, at the very start, to refrain from all sorts of” alcoholic stimulants and all sorts of indigestible food. A minister sometimes calls in as an ally what proves to be a deadly enemy. Long years ago, the eloquent Dr. K fell into sad inebriation
from having used port-wine to enable him, as he honestly said, “to preach with more power.” He repented in dust and ashes, and spent the closing years of his godly life as an entire abstainer. One of the most zealous ministers of this city probably shortened his life by a lamentable slavery to strong coffee and tobacco. Both coffee and tea are harmless luxuries to most of us when used in moderation. Famous old Dr. Emmons, who died at ninety-five, used to drink his coffee “one half milk, and the other half sugar “; but when I saw the British prime minister, Lord Beaconsfield, trembling like an aspen leaf, I was not surprised that his wife said, “My husband likes his coffee as black as ink and as hot as Tophet.” God’s prohibitory law against the use of exciting stimulants appears in that they are all armed with a whip of scorpions.
My chief panacea has always been sound, healthful sleep. This is the great secret of Mr. Gladstone’s longevity and marvelous power at the age of eighty-three. He once told me that he managed to lock all his cares, and parliamentary debates, and perplexities of public office, outside of his bedchamber door. The men who live the longest, and do the most effective work, are commonly good sleepers. If they cannot secure enough sleep at night, they make it up by a short nap in the middle of the day. When a man who has so much strain on his brain and his nervous sensibilities as a pastor has, goes to his pillow, he should school himself to the habit of dismissing all thoughts about outside matters. If this costs him some difficulty, he should pray for divine help to do it. As for anodynes to quiet down the nervous excitements of preaching, or of revival meetings, I have found nothing so wholesome as a good bowl of bread and milk. Dr. Lyman Beecher used to accomplish the same result by shoveling a pile of gravel to and fro in his cellar, and sometimes by dancing to the music of his own violin.
Too many ministers toil at their sernions until ten or eleven o’clock, and then retire, with throbbing nerves, to their sleepless beds. This is suicide. The man that invented “midnight oil” deserves a purgatory of everlasting nightmare. My own rule is never to touch a sermon by lamplight. One hour in the morning is worth two or three at night. Get into your study every morning — except Monday — as early as you can, and then to your books and your pen. If your mind is dull and inactive, do not attempt to force it into the preparation of a sermon that will probably put your congregation to sleep. Throw down your pen; take up a book, or try a short nap or a short walk. But when your mind is especially clear and alert, then bolt your study-door against all intruders, and make the very most of such precious golden hours. More than once I have had a whole sermon burst on me at a single sitting, and I did not stay my pen until every nimble thought was captured and securely fastened to paper. “Redeeming the time” literally signifies “buying up opportunities “; and when these favored moments for coining thought are vouchsafed to you, let no thief break in and steal the mintage.
Do not be surprised that I exhort you so earnestly to the care of your bodily health and to the formation of good mental habits. They are both of vital importance for your usefulness. Your health affects the spirtual health of your flock. If you are sleepless during the week, you will become enervated and irritable, and will put your congregation to sleep by your dull sermons. If you do not digest your food, you will be very likely to torment them with indigestible preachments. As soon as your study becomes so excessive as to fag you out, then shut up your books, or drop your pen, and be off at something else. It is the work
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that we attempt when we are tired that hurts us; yes, and hurts those that are obliged to listen to us.
Sometimes you will be tempted to repeat a former discourse, from lack of time to prepare a new one. If you do this, see to it that the discourse is improved on its second delivery. Cut out its weak points; strengthen it with fresh thought; and, if it was originally delivered on a stormy Sabbath, it will be well to give it a larger audience under better auspices. Do not be afraid to repeat a thoroughly good thing. Many folks have short memories. A poor, lean, juiceless sermon ought never to be preached once; but a rich, nutritious discourse, which God has already blessed, may be made still more forcible on a second or third delivery. Dr. Edward Dorr Griffin delivered his great sermon on “The Worth of the Sonl” ninety times; he never wearied of it, nor did those who had heard it more than once. Fewer sermons and richer ones should be the aim of those that really edify Christ’s people and win souls to the Saviour. There is an increasing fashion of advertising the topics of discourse in the newspapers. It is a bad fashion, and none of the great preachers, such as Guthrie, McLaren, Liddon, Newman Hall and Spurgeon, have practiced it abroad; and very few of our best preachers practice it in our country. There are more objections to this custom than I have time and space to specify. The best topic is that which will save the most souls; the best advertisement is the love of your people and the blessing of God upon your ministry.