James H. McLaren: preacher, author, lecturer

              Figure
Dr. James H. McLaren
Preacher . Author . Lecturer



Management
MUTUAL LYCEUM BUREAU
55 Auditorium Building, Chicago




REV. JAMES H. McLAREN, Ph. D.
Introductory


T
HE subject of our sketch was born in Bay Fortune, P. E. Island.  He is of Scottish ancestry, with 
just enough of Irish to make it interesting.
  To struggle for a livlihood[siclivelihood] is the common lot of nearly all who are born in that northern clime, and with such a struggle our friend is thoroughly acquainted.  The death of his noted brother, Rev. C. D. McLaren, missionary to Siam, influenced him to go from the workshop to the school, through which, by industry and perseverance, he worked his way, Haverhill, Bangor, Brown, Andover and Yale being his Alma Maters.  Strong, fearless and resolute on the one hand, he possesses the gentleness and simplicity of a child on the other.  Always optimistic and hopeful he never loses faith in the ultimate triumph of the right.  
To make the world a better place to live in ere one leaves it
 is the very keynote of his preaching and the passion of his life.  Perhaps his growing power as a preacher is best explained in his deep sympathy for the suffering world.  As a writer and lecturer Dr. McLaren has already gained recognition by many of the foremost writers and thinkers of his day.  His Christmas story, 
Calvin Paxton's Patmos,
 his printed poems and hymns are spoken of as 
Gems.
  His book, 
Put Up Thy Sword,
 is said to have called forth some of the finest reviews of any book of recent years.  In 
The Living Church,
 and other leading journals, this book was reviewed in parallel columns with President Roosevelt's 
Strenuous Life,
 and the young were admonished to read both books together.  
The Chicago Evening Post,
 in its grand review, declares that, 
It would be well for America if every candid citizen were compelled to read it,
 and the 
Post
 recommends it most highly, not only for its strength of argument and beauty of style, but also as 
a work of literary art.
  Reviews and comments from noted persons, journals and magazines on both sides of the ocean are too numerous to quote and are all of the highest order.




Popular Lectures



The Ministry of Mirth


The Crownless Queen


Tennyson and His Times


Apparent and Real


Put Up Thy Sword





Commencement Addresses



The Highest Education Does It Pay?





For Chautauquas



In addition to his Popular Lectures, Dr. McLaren is prepared to give a series of Morning Bible Lectures for Chautauqua Assemblies.  These are the result of considerable study and have already been given repeatedly with success.  They are as follows:





Subjects For Morning Lectures



Abraham
—(Father of Pilgrims)


Moses
—(Builder of Nations)


Elijah
—(Strenuous Reformer)


Saul
—(Brilliant Failure)


David
—(Sweetest of Kings)


Solomon
—(Wisest of Fools)


Isaiah
—(Spiritual Splendor)


Daniel
—(God's Teller of Fortunes)


Paul
—(The Heroism of Christianity)






PREACHER AUTHOR LECTURER
Personal and Press Comment


Geo. E. Young, Pastor Herscher (Ill.) Presbyterian Church
—
It is with the greatest of pleasure that I write to you about the lecture 
Philosophy of Humor,
 which you delivered in the Presbyterian Church of this place Feb. 27th.  It would be very mildly expressed to say that our people were highly pleased with it.  It was the greatest combination of intellectual food and pleasing entertainment that I ever listened to.  The audience was delighted from start to finish.  The stories and jokes were not 
old chestnuts;
 but new and fresh and entirely within the rules of culture and refinement.  The audience thinks of you as a skillful orator with an attractive style.  The people of Herscher give you a rousing recommendation as an ideal lecturer.  You will certainly be invited here again, and the attendance will be more than twice that of your appreciative audience of Feb. 27th.



C. J. English, Superintendent Colfax (Ia) Epworth Assembly
—
It pleases me to offer a commendable word for the work of Rev. Dr. J. H. McLaren.  I have heard his two lectures, 
The Law of War,
 and 
The Philosophy of Humor,
 and greatly appreciated them both.  In the former he has a message worthy to be given, and he gives it with force and eloquence.  The latter is pure, eloquent and humorous, and he offers it poetic and touching eloquence.



Clinton Official Program


—Dr. McLaren has surely won a large place in the mind and heart of thinking men.  A leading Chautauqua manager says:  
He is one of the greatest thinkers in America.



Kennebec Journal


—An able and a noble man.



Samuel Phelps Leland, Ph. D., LL.D., Scientific and Literary Lecturer
—
Dr. J. H. McLaren, I learn, is to enter the lecture field.  I am glad to know it.  He will take with him a rare talent, and a mind rich with learning, and an eloquence that is inspiring.  A man who can for years fill the pulpit that Owen Lovejoy made famous has elements of greatness in him; indeed, he is great.  He is a clear thinker, a logical reasoner, a broad-minded, up-to-date man.  He will enrich the platform and take his place among the best.  It is a pleasure to say something that may help him to a place that he will honor.



D. F. Fox, D. D., Pastor California Avenue Congregational Church, Chicago
—
Rev. Dr. McLaren has secured for himself a very high place in the esteem of the Congregational Church.  As author, preacher and lecturer, his influence is ever widening.  To meet him is an inspiration.  To hear him a rare privilege.  I commend him most cordially.  His work has the right ring.




Colorado Springs News


—It is needless to say that the audience was delighted; not only by the thoughts so eloquently presented, but also by the charming personality of the man.



Clinton, Ill.
—
The Chautauqua Assembly paper at Clinton, Ill., where Dr. McLaren lectured and preached this last season, sums up his work as follows:  
His thoughts were new to many of his hearers, and he presented his case so clearly that he captured his audience.  They were satisfied that wars were an abomination and wholly unnecessary.
  The next day Dr. McLaren preached the sermon.  The paper says:  
Dr. McLaren was eloquent in words and gesture and his address was scholarly and his illustrations perfect.



James H. Shaw, Superintendent Clinton (Ill.) Chautauqua
—
Rev. James H. McLaren, Ph. D., has one of the timeliest lectures in 
Put Up Thy Sword,
 to be found on the Chautauqua platform.  It is peculiarly adapted to that institution, as it is educational as well as entertaining, and provokes discussion pro and con.  His services at the Clinton Chautauqua were such as to create much favorable comment.  He is certainly a coming man, if he has not already arrived.





REV. JAMES H. McLAREN, Ph. D.

Personal and Press Comment


D. A. Evans, Secretary University Educational Society, Chicago
—
In the course given by the above association in Woodlawn, two year ago, several one hundred dollar men—Dr. Driver, Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Judge Wade, etc.—lectured.  Dr. McLaren's lecture on 
Wit and Humor
 was the most popular and the most profitable of the course.  Since then he has been recalled twice and each time had a crowded house.  We have made more money on this lecture than on any other ever given under our auspices.



Various Opinions


—Although young in years Dr. McLaren has won such distinction as will commend him to any audience.  In his commencement addresses he is especially successful and he was called back to Rowe college for the third time.  Of his course of lectures delivered to Wheaton college Pres.  Blanchard says:  
They were among the best and most instructive lectures we have had.  Truly the lecturer left a blessing among us which will not soon be forgotten.
  Scores of similar testimonies are before us.  Dr. McLaren always lectures each year in his own home course and the secretary of the Y. M. C. A. course says:  
It was one of the very best in the course; filled to the brim with sparkling wit and rich humor.  It was thoughtful, eloquent and highly entertaining, in every way worthy of this popular divine.
  A leading church in Pawtucket, R. I. engaged Dr. McLaren to deliver his lecture, 
The Ministry of Mirth.
  The same church had him return two weeks later and repeat the same lecture when nearly twice as much money was made as on the first occasion.  And these are but a few of scores of similar cases.  He is a thinker whose words and writings have met the highest approval from leading minds on both sides of the sea.  In his masterly review of the book on a study of war before the Chicago Minister's Meeting Dr. Strong commended it highly for:  
Its strength of argument, its beauty of style, its candor, its research and its spirit.
  The following testimony of Dr. Krebs is a sample of many similar ones before us:  
Brainy, bright, logical; loving … plain, powerful … a sane, sound and sensible plea for God and goodness versus gore and gunpowder.  I shall ask all my friends to read it, believe it and live it.
  Supt. Judson writes the Bureau as follows:  Hesperia, Mich., Nov. 21st, 1906.  
Dr. McLaren was at this place last evening and delivered his lecture 'The Ministry of Mirth.'  It was simply excellent.  So many compliments have reached my ears to-day that I feel compelled to write you and to thank you for sending us so excellent an attraction for our lecture course.



Colorado Springs, Colo.
—
A leading college professor who heard Dr. McLaren lecture on 
The Philosophy of Humor,
 at Colorado Springs, declared that he had never heard a lecturer who could both interest and entertain his audience the whole way through as successfully as could he.



Urbana, Ill.
—
Dr. McLaren opened the seventeenth season of the Twin City Chautauqua.  Opening session large as any ever held, the rain notwithstanding.  The daily papers gave extended reports of this famous lecture on 
The Philosophy of Humor.
  The Daily Courier said:  
The stories were excellent and greatly enjoyed.  … When the speaker turned to giving examples of the wit and humor of different nations, he fairly convulsed his audience.
  The day following, Dr. McLaren delivered his great lecture on 
The Law of War.
  The audience was large and one of the most appreciative that has ever assembled at Urbana.  The words of high approval by leading people who listened, the lengthy and highly complimentary review and comments by the press, were such (judging from the extracts and reports before us) as ought to cause the speaker to feel that he has scored a triumph.  Dr. Darwin McIlrath, of Chicago, who heard both of Dr. McLaren's lectures on this occasion, sent him the following letter:  
Myself of the medical profession, I do not find it consistent or profitable to commend one prescription for all diseases from which mankind suffers, but if there be a formula which will benefit all mankind by improving the Spirit and Mind, which wield such a power over matter, you have certainly compounded the same in your delightful 'Philosophy of Humor.'  In making this statement, I do not wish to detract merit deserved by your magnetic personality, or the powerful voice which assists in the successful delivery of the prescription, but I do wish to thank you for your interesting lectures, 'The Philosophy of Humor' and 'The Law of War.'



HERALD PRINT SHOP IOWA