Minister, 7

In Peoria, Ill., Rev. Dr. Beryl Gilbert Drake, an evangelist trained under Aimee Semple McPherson, runs Trinity Tabernacle, speaks over the radio, publishes a weekly paper for his devoted flock. As head of Trinity Tabernacle Corp. he is entitled under an Illinois charter to ordain ministers. One night last week 1.500 people packed Trinity Tabernacle to behold Evangelist Drake perform his 15th ordination. While the candidate knelt before him the evangelist spoke routine words of blessing. Then Dr. Drake lifted the newly created minister to a chair behind the pulpit and a middle-aged woman who had been hovering in the background gave the new divine's nose a quick wipe. Chubby little Rev. Charles Jaynes Jr., aged 7, burst into a treble hymn, Something Got a Hold of Me, launched into a brisk sermon on "Hell, or God's Penitentiary."

Last year the parents of Charles Jaynes Jr., ministers both, took him on tour as "the world's youngest evangelist" (TIME, May 4, 1936). Though the elder Jayneses were both ill last week in California, they were proudly claiming him as ''the world's youngest minister." In a year Charles Jaynes Jr. has become heavier (weight 69 lb.), has substituted a brushed-back bob for the Dutch bangs of his pre-ministerial days. Under the tutelage of his middle-aged nurse and nose-wiper, Neva Duff, he has learned to read from the Bible, study third-grade subjects. But he still sermonizes by rote, had to be coached by Nurse Duff in his ordination sermon. Cocky, pounding fist on fist to emphasize his points, he shrilled: "I want to assure you there is a Hell, and it's a place, not just a state." When his audience oh-ed and ahed too patronizingly, Rev. Charles Jaynes Jr. exclaimed: "Don't talk or laugh when I'm speaking. That annoys me, and I don't like to be annoyed when I'm preaching."

After his ordination, Minister Jaynes proudly showed off his certificate while Evangelist Drake, as if defensively, said: "This lad's only seven years in age, but 70 in experience." Piped Rev. Charles Jaynes Jr.: "I want to be a preacher, a drummer, and I also want to drive all kinds of fire trucks, and the chief's car, and to be a policeman, a chief engineer, that's all I want to be--oh, yes, and I want to be a ballplayer too."

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