Phillips Brooks on Ministry and Writing

 Apart from its incidental advantage, to his style and manner, I think it is good, for a minister to do some work besides clerical work, and to write something besides sermons. But he must do it as a minister. And the proof of how large is his vocation, is that he can do it and yet be a minister in it all. He can write books, and yet not be a literary man but a minister. He can help the government, and yet not be a politician but a minister. There are bad ways, but there are also good ways in which a clergyman can carry his clerical character with him wherever he goes. It may be to your discredit, or to your credit, that strangers say of you, "I should know he was a minister." For the best minister is simply the fullest man. 

Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, 83.

This is from the pastor who wrote the Christmas carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem."

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