The National Hotel at Geneva has become the official home of the League, and is dedicated as "The Palace of the Nations." The building stands upon a low terrace overlooking the lake, commanding a magnificent view of Mont Blanc and a beautiful prospect of the length of the lake. The building, which stands back from the Quai de Leman, about half a mile along the lakeside from the Pont de Mont Blanc, is shaped in ground plan rather like two capital "E's" back to back, and surmounted by a low central tower, which will later carry a wireless installation. There are five stories above the ground floor. The superficial area covered by the building is approximately twenty thousand square feet. The entrance is by wide stone stairways both back and front, the main entrance being from the Rue des Paquis. Published Monthly by Funk & Wagnalls Company, 354-360 Fourth Avenue, New York. (Adam W. Wagnalls, Pres.; Wilfred J. Funk, Vice-Pres.; Robert J. Cuddihy, Treas.; William Neisel, Sec.) VOL. LXXXI JANUARY, 1921 No. 1 January First WHILE there is always peril in trying to live in the past instead of the present, it is well for us to remember that we are indissolubly linked with it. Over three thousand years ago, while the ruler of a strong people was engaged in a mighty task, an anxious moment crept over his mind. It was this-had he truly found favor in God's sight? The answer came swift, sure, and in a very personal and definite way. "My presence shall go with thee And I will give thee rest" (Ex. 33:14). Awareness of this companionship and appreciation of this fellowship is one's greatest asset for the new year and all the years that are to follow. What more heartening, enriching, well-wishing expression could come to you than is to be found in these twelve understandable words? Old as the hills, yes, but fresh as May dew. Dr. J. H. Jowett has a fine note on this text. "Where is my road going to lead? Will it be green lane or stony steep? Will it be clear and legible as a turnpike, or faint and doubtful like an uncertain track across the moor? I do not know. But our text entwines the gracious offer of a great companion for the unknown and changing road. It promises the destruction of loneliness but not the dispersal of the mist. "My Father God, thy presence makes everywhere a royal road. Thy companionship always leads to the Holy City. Every day's journey is a day's march nearer home. Help me to trust and not be afraid. For Christ's sake. Amen.” THE ATTRACTIONS OF THE MINISTRY THERE are deterrents tending to dissuade young men from entering the ministry which a fair presentation of this subject should not leave wholly unmentioned. These are such considerations as the meager support given to the ministry, the disinclination of churches to call as pastors ministers that are approaching old age or even mature years, the many other lines of Christian work that are now calling for educated young men, and the attractions of business. But there are disadvantages connected with every calling, and if a young man is hunting an easy berth where he will have no discouragements, large pay, and little to do, he is not likely to find what he wants in any field. As for meager pay, the ministry is not a money-making business but falls into the class of altruistic services, such as teaching and philanthropic work, in which money is not the main object. Ministers' salaries, along with those of teachers, are distressingly low, but they are being increased, and there are also great compensations at this point, so that young men entering the ministry freely face and accept the sacrifice it involves. Other men, especially those in literary and teaching pursuits, do the same thing. William James, in a letter to his mother on his 24th birthday, wrote: "I feel very much the importance of making soon a final choice of my business in life. I stand at the place where the road forks. One branch leads to material comfort, the flesh-pots, but it seems a kind of selling of one's soul. The other to mental dignity and independence, combined, however, with physical penury. It seems as if one could not afford to give up that for any bribe, however great." Robert Louis Stevenson uttered a similar sentiment, and the young man who accepts the sacrifices of the ministry is in good company. The ministry has many attractions of which only some of the more important are here set down. I. The ministry is a true and good and useful work. This point must be put first, for if the ministry is not based on truth and right and useful service, it is an economic waste and a moral offense in the sight of both God and man. Some opponents of Christianity and critics of the ministry do make this very charge against it. The work of the priest, however, is as old as any other human occupation; and is even older than agriculture. It is based on one of the deepest and most permanent of human needs that is constitutional in human nature and as universal as the human race. It was long ago found out that man can not live by bread alone however abundant and rich it may be, and he has needs and cravings that reach out after the spiritual and divine as the flower feels after the sun. Only God can satisfy man, and therefore he must have God as the child must have a father. The Christian minister is serving this religious need of the soul and of the world in the most rational and sufficient and efficient way that has yet been discovered among men. He is not, then, a parasite in human society, but is as truly a producer as any physical toiler. He is producing the greatest wealth and finest worth in the world, and he can look any other worker, physical or mental, in the face unashamed. II. The ministry has the attraction of being a great work. All worthy work is useful and to be respected, but work differs in rank and dignity. Now a man tends to expand or contract to the size of the field he works in. A great work tends to make him great, and a small work tends to make him small. A man who would spend his life in carving heads on cherry seeds would presently have a cherry-seed head. But when one climbs a mountain, the mountain puts its greatness under him and imparts to him some of its own mystic majesty. A great work has the effect of lifting us out of our own little lives up to a mountain top where we have a farflung horizon around us and a vast dome over us and where we are caught up and absorbed in a great vision and a grand inspiration. The ministry overtops all other callings in its great ideas and ideals which are concerned with man and God in their mutual relations and in the redemption of the whole world. whole world. No other worker is really engaged in such a cosmic work that envelops this world and runs into the next. "Big business" is small business compared with this, and even international affairs and the League of Nations fall into comparative insignificance in its presence. The minister can not engage in and appreciate this work and be a pettyminded man, for his work will save him from that and tend to make him great, |