The Things Which Remain / An Address To Young Ministers

This little book contains the larger part of an address I have delivered at several Annual Conferences on the occasion of the admission of probationary ministers into full membership. At the suggestion of some who have heard it when delivered and whose assurance that it would be useful in print I am bound to respect, I have consented to its publication.
Matter not directly relating to the theme, but of sufficient importance to accompany it in addressing an Annual Conference, is here omitted, that all possible space might be given to the discussion of the question, How much Christian doctrine will still remain, though much of the most radical criticism be accepted?
It will be understood that concessions made for the sake of the argument by no means represent my own views of that which must be ultimately yielded to the critical spirit.
Already some opinions which threatened the authority of Gospels and Epistles, and which have had wide acceptance, have been modified or withdrawn. My aim in this address was not to scout criticism, from which much of the highest value to faith is to come, but to steady the wavering young minister; to sustain his preaching power by helping him to a definite message, and to encourage him to a slow and guarded acceptance of critical opinions destructive of the faith once delivered to the saints.
CHATTANOOGA, TENN., December, 1903.
The followers of Him who said I am the Truth can never afford to hold or propagate that which is false. No man can preach with power unless he strongly believes. Teaching force depends on Faith.
Doing and Knowing.
The Divine Call.
Conditions of the Call.
Thus far our ministry has had teaching power because it has been founded on and inspired by a Christian experience. Our Church has always emphasized that essential Christian statement, If ye do ye shall know. At every ordination we have demanded of every candidate a declaration of his persuasion that he was called according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ to the particular office to which he was then to be advanced. By this we do not mean a mediate call through the order of the Church or the judgment of the Bishop, but an immediate call by the Holy Spirit from Christ Himself. This call is antedated by that personal surrender to Jesus Christ; that blessed acceptance by Him of the self-surrendered; that witnessing Spirit as to sonship which brings the consciousness of pardon, renewal, and justification known as a religious experience.