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Title: The Pastor: His Qualifications and Duties

Author: H. Harvey

Release date: January 14, 2020 [eBook #61170]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by John Hagerson and Mrs. Faith Ball


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PASTOR: HIS QUALIFICATIONS AND DUTIES ***




Produced by John Hagerson and Mrs. Faith Ball




+Transcriber's Notes+

 - This book is written by a seminary professor to his students and
   others considering work in pastoral ministry.
 - Detailed information on the Transcriber's changes are listed after
   the text.



+THE PASTOR:+

+HIS QUALIFICATIONS AND DUTIES.+

BY
H. HARVEY, D.D.,
PROFESSOR IN HAMILTON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.


PHILADELPHIA:
AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY.
1701 CHESTNUT STREET.



----------------------------------------------------------------
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by the
AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Published February, 1904



To

The Memory of

+WILLIAM COLGATE,+

THE ENLIGHTENED AND MUNIFICENT FRIEND OF MINISTERIAL
EDUCATION, WHOSE COUNSEL AND SYMPATHY GUIDED
AND CHEERED THE WRITER'S EARLIER STUDIES,

THIS VOLUME IS
GRATEFULLY DEDICATED.



+PREFACE.+

The nature and duties of the pastoral office form a subject of great
practical moment. The thoughts suggested in this volume are largely
results of the writer's personal experience in the ministry and of his
observation of pastoral work in our churches. The literature of the
subject, however, has of late become specially rich and valuable, and
the hints which a careful study of this furnishes have also been freely
used. The experienced pastor, for whom some of these suggestions will
be needless, will remember that they were originally embodied in
lectures delivered to the classes in the Hamilton Theological Seminary,
and prepared for young men who, for the most part, were as yet
inexperienced in the pastoral care.

With the earnest prayer and hope that the work may receive the approval
of the Master and may contribute in some humble measure, to the higher
effectiveness of the Gospel ministry, it is now submitted to the
Christian public.

H. H.

THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, Hamilton, N. Y.,
Oct. 30, 1879.




+CONTENTS.+

+SECTION I.+

THE DIVINE CALL TO THE MINISTRY
Proofs of the necessity of a Divine call; Modes in which this call is
manifested: 1. The internal call; 2. The call of the church; 3. The
call of Providence.


+SECTION II.+

SETTLEMENT IN THE MINISTRY
1. Choice of a field; 2. Obligations assumed in becoming a pastor;
3. Ordination.


+SECTION III.+

PUBLIC WORSHIP
Objects to be sought: Unity of thought; Sustained interest; Religious
impression.
1. _Pulpit Decorum._ 2. _The Service of Song:_ Sympathy of pastor with
choir; Selection of hymns; Devotional singing. 3. _Reading of the
Scriptures:_ (1.) The selection; (2.) The reading; (3.) Comments.
4. _Public Prayer:_ (1.) The form; (2.) The matter; (3.) The order;
(4.) The manner. 5. _Preaching._ (1.) Sermons: Doctrinal; Experimental;
Practical. (2.) Exposition: Advantages; Methods.


+SECTION IV.+

SOCIAL DEVOTIONAL MEETINGS
1. Prayer-meetings; 2. The covenant-meeting; 3. The inquiry-meeting;
4. Meeting for examination of candidates for the church; 5. Meeting for
the officers of the church; 6. Church meetings for business.


+SECTION V.+

ADMINISTRATION OF ORDINANCES
Preparatory instruction; Administration--1. Of Baptism; 2. Of the
Lord's Supper.


+SECTION VI.+

THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL
Interest in Sunday-school essential to pastoral success; Methods of
pastoral work in the school.


+SECTION VII.+

PASTORAL VISITATION
The duty of visitation: 1. Its limits; 2. The method; 3. Its
advantages; 4. The visitation of the sick.


+SECTION VIII.+

REVIVALS OF RELIGION
Nature, sphere, and necessity of revivals; Methods of promoting them;
Evils to be avoided.


+SECTION IX.+

CULTIVATION OF SOCIAL LIFE IN THE CONGREGATION
Necessity of pastoral direction of social life; Suggestions as to
methods.


+SECTION X.+

THE PASTOR AS AN ORGANIZER
Importance of organizing power; Necessity of the study of the people;
Methods of organization; Development of intellectual gifts and stimulus
to higher education; Development of gifts for the ministry.


+SECTION XI.+

FUNERAL SERVICES
Necessity of simplicity and brevity; Eulogies of the dead to be
avoided; Subject-matter of funeral address; Services at the grave;
Attentions to the bereaved.


+SECTION XII.+

CULTIVATION OF THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT
Importance of the missionary spirit; Methods of promoting it:
1. Regular missionary contribution; 2. Stated missionary sermons;
3. The monthly concert.


+SECTION XIII.+

THE PULPIT AND THE PRESS
The press made to subserve the pulpit.--1. By a religious newspaper in
every family; 2. By the circulation of books and tracts; 3. By the
education of the judgment and sentiment of the people.


+SECTION XIV.+

RELATIONS TO OTHER DENOMINATIONS
1. Cultivation of friendly intercourse; 2. Mutual recognition of
sincerity of character and intention; 3. Occasional exchange of
pulpits; Union meetings.


+SECTION XV.+

CHANGE OF FIELD
1. Evils of change; 2. Inadequate causes of change; 3. Valid reasons
for change.


+SECTION XVI.+

MINISTERS NOT IN THE PASTORAL OFFICE
_First, Evangelists:_ 1. Foreign missionaries; 2. Home missionaries;
3. Revivalists.
_Second: Teachers._
_Third: Licentiates._


+SECTION XVII.+

PASTORAL STUDY
1. The Method; 2. The Subjects: (1.) General Culture; (2.) Biblical and
Theological Culture; (3.) Sermon Preparation.


+SECTION XVIII.+

PASTORAL RESPONSIBILITY
What it includes; Limitations of it.


+SECTION XIX.+

THE PASTOR'S OUTER LIFE
1. Business Relations; 2. Political Relations; 3. Social Character;
4. Personal Habits.


+SECTION XX.+

THE PASTOR'S INNER LIFE
Power with God the condition of power with men; The promise of the Holy
Spirit; Means of maintaining an inner life "endued with power from on
high:" 1. The habitual practice of secret prayer; 2. The habitual
self-application and self-appropriation of Divine truth; 3. Habitual
self-surrender and consecration to Christ and His work; 4. An habitual
looking above for the reward.



+THE PASTOR.+

       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *

+SECTION I.+

THE DIVINE CALL TO THE MINISTRY.

A special call from God is essential to the exercise of the Christian
ministry. Reason itself would suggest that He, as a sovereign, would
select His own officers and send His own ambassadors; and the Divine
call of the ancient prophets, the analogous office in the old
dispensation, creates a presumption of such a call in the Christian
ministry. None were permitted to intrude into the prophetic office. God
said: "The prophet which shall presume to speak a work in My name,
which I have not commanded him to speak, shall die" (Deut. xviii. 20);
"Behold, I am against the prophets that steal My words" (Jer.
xxiii. 30; see also Isa. vi.; Jer. i. 4-10). The proof of this is seen
in the following considerations: 1. Ministers, in the New Testament,
are always spoken of as designated by God. This is obviously true of
the apostles and of the seventy, but it is seen also in the case of the
ministry in general. The elders of Ephesus were set over the flock by
the Holy Ghost (Acts xx. 28). Archippus received his ministry "in the
Lord" (Col. iv. 17). Paul and Barnabas were separated to their work by
the Holy Ghost (Acts xiii. 2). 2. The ministry constitute a special
gift from Christ to the church; for "He gave some, Apostles; and some,
prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for
the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the
edifying of the body of Christ" (Eph. iv. 11, 12). The gifts for these
offices are bestowed by God, and the men are sent forth to their work
by God Himself, in answer to the prayers of His people. (See Rom.
xii. 6, 7; Luke x. 1, 2.) 3. The nature of the office, as implied in
the terms used to designate it, requires a personal Divine call. They
are called "ambassadors for Christ," speaking in His name; they are
"stewards of God," entrusted with the Gospel for men.

The ministry, then, is not chosen as a man chooses a profession,
consulting his inclination or interest. It is entered in obedience to a
special call from God, and the consciousness of this is essential to
personal qualification for the work. The emphasis which the Scriptures
place on the Divine vocation of the minister implies a distinction
between a call to the ministry and the ordinary choice of a profession.
This distinction, in one important element at least, may perhaps be
thus expressed: In the case of the minister the work is one to which
the conscience _obliges;_ he feels that he _ought_ to engage in it, and
that he cannot do otherwise without _guilt._ But in the case of one
choosing another profession it is a matter of aptitudes, tastes,
interest; he feels that it is _right_ and _wise_ thus to choose, but
there is no sense of imperative _obligation,_ so that it would be
morally _wrong_ to do otherwise. In the one, there is the sense of
positive obligation as expressed in its strongest form by Paul:
"Necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the
Gospel" (1 Cor. ix. 16); in the other, there is a sense of the
rightfulness of the choice made and a consciousness of the Divine
approbation in making it, but the contrary choice would not necessarily
be morally wrong.

As to the manifestation of this call, two opposite errors are to be
avoided. On the one hand, the call is conceived as consisting in a mere
preference for the work of the ministry, and the result is that men
influenced only by literary tastes or unhallowed ambition rush unbidden
into the sacred office. On the other, it is regarded as a supernatural
manifestation, like a voice from heaven, attended with intense mental
struggles; and, as the result, men who ought to enter the ministry are,
in the absence of such manifestations, deterred from entering it and
mistake their true mission in life. Evidently, this duty is to be
ascertained in the same manner as any other duty. The call, indeed, is
a Divine act, but so also is regeneration; yet in neither case is the
manifestation necessarily or ordinarily supernatural. The evidences of
it are found in a prayerful examination of one's own experience
compared with God's Word. Christian young men, therefore, should be
urged to ponder carefully the question whether God is not calling them
to the ministry. A pastor's utmost wisdom and discrimination should be
employed in inspiring and guiding young men to right thinking in regard
to their life-mission. Many a life-failure might thus be prevented, and
many a noble man whose life otherwise had been devoted to secular
pursuits would be saved for effective service in the pulpit. This call,
I conceive, is manifested in the heart of the individual, in the
convictions of the church, and in the providence of God.

I. THE INTERNAL CALL.--The elements of this are: 1. _A fixed and
earnest desire for the work._ "This is a true saying, if a man desire
the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work" (1 Tim. iii. 1). There
must be desire; for no man will succeed unless the work enlists the
whole enthusiasm of his being. This is more than a love of declamation,
a glow in the work of composition, or a taste for the studious,
literary life of a pastor: it is a quenchless enthusiasm for the work
as the proclamation of God's message and the means of saving men. It
springs from love to Christ and love to the work itself. Paul said:
"None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto
myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry
which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the
grace of God" (Acts xx. 24). 2. _An abiding impression of duty to
preach the Gospel._ The apostle Paul said: "Necessity is laid upon me;
yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the Gospel" (1 Cor. ix. 16). Not
always, indeed, will this inward impulsion to the work be so distinct
and imperative, but it will always be felt, and with greatest force as
the soul draws nearest to God and the true nature of the ministry is
most clearly perceived. Hence, in determining the question of vocation
much prayer is necessary, and the convictions which predominate in the
soul, when most consciously in God's presence, are to be most carefully
considered. 3. _A sense of personal weakness and unworthiness and a
heartfelt reliance on Divine power._ This, indeed, is not an infallible
test, for youth is naturally self-confident, and in the case of some
most useful ministers a reliance alone on the Divine Arm has come only
after long and bitter experience of self-failure. But a self-confident
spirit should certainly suggest the fear of self-deception, since it
can only spring from a false self-estimate and from wholly inadequate
views of the work. Paul said: "Such trust have we through Christ to
God-ward; not that we are sufficient of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament"
(2 Cor. iii. 4-6).

II. THE CALL OF THE CHURCH.--This is the expressed conviction of the
church, after sufficient acquaintance with the candidate, that he is
called to preach the Gospel--a conviction resulting from evidences of
his qualifications, such as the following: 1. _Sound conversion._ This
qualification is vital and central. A defect here is fatal--fatal to
the minister himself as almost certain to result in his living and
dying unconverted, and fatal to the people as placing their souls under
the guidance of a spiritually-blind, godless pastor. Few positions have
in them so many elements of danger as that of an unconverted pastor,
since, though officially laboring for the conversion of others, his
very office places him beyond the scope of all the ordinary means
employed by the churches to lead men to Christ and furnishes the
strongest incentives to yield to self-deception. No man should enter it
of whose conversion the church with which he is connected has doubt;
regard alike for the soul of the candidate and for the souls of men
demands that in respect to this primary qualification the case should
be absolutely clear so far as man may judge. 2. _A superior order of
piety._ He is to be "an example of the believers in word, in
conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity" (1 Tim.
iv. 12). He must needs be, in some respects, a model, and must
therefore be in advance of the people in experience and life. No
brilliancy of intellectual or literary or rhetorical qualification can
atone for the absence of a devotional spirit and a pure life in a
Christian pastor. 3. _Soundness in the faith._ He is both to "hold fast
the form of sound words" (2 Tim. i. 13) and to "speak the things which
become sound doctrine" (Tit. ii. 1). A man who is unsettled in his
convictions of religious truth, or who palters to the love of novelty
by a perpetual straining for that which is strange and startling in
doctrine has no rightful place in the pulpit, however popular his
address or large his following. The ultimate result of his work is
almost always disastrous to the cause of truth. 4. _Adequate mental
capacity and training, and scriptural knowledge._ He is to show himself
"approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly
dividing the word of truth" (2 Tim. ii. 15). As the chief work of a
minister is public instruction, it is plain he must possess the mental
force and knowledge requisite to make his ministry instructive. Moral
and spiritual qualifications cannot be made a substitute for
intellectual, for the preacher's work is to unfold and enforce truth in
the pulpit as well as to illustrate it in holy living. Piety,
therefore, essential as it is, if not accompanied with mental gifts and
discipline, is not evidence of a ministerial call. Some good men have
made a life-mistake by taking on them the responsibilities of public
instructors when deficient either in natural abilities or in the
discipline and knowledge which are essential to meet the continuous and
exhaustive draft of the pulpit. 5. _Aptness to teach._ God's Word is to
be committed only "to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others
also" (2 Tim. ii. 2)--men "apt to teach, patient, in meekness
instructing those that oppose themselves" (2 Tim. ii. 24, 25). Great
abilities and learning do not suffice; there must also be the special
gift of teaching, the power to gather and interest and hold the people.
The ablest sermon fails unless the people are awake and attentive. Paul
and Barnabas not only preached the Gospel, but they "_so_ spake that a
great multitude, both of the Jews and also of the Greeks, believed"
(Acts xiv. 1). 6. _Practical wisdom and executive ability._ Nowhere are
these qualities more important than in a pastor, whose good sense,
tact, judgment, power to organize and set at work all the moral forces
of his church, are in constant requisition. A large part of the
pastor's power depends on the possession of certain practical
qualities; in the absence of these, men of great mental abilities and
spiritual worth have failed in the pastorate. 7. _Finally, a good
report of them which are without._ A minister cannot escape opposition.
If faithful to Christ, he may experience, as thousands have
experienced, bitter persecution; but in purity and integrity of
personal character he is to "have a good report" (1 Tim. iii. 7),
"giving none offence, that the ministry be not blamed" (2 Cor. vi. 3),
but "commending" himself "to every man's conscience in the sight of
God" (2 Cor. iv. 2). Without this acknowledged purity of spirit and
life, his work as a minister is necessarily a failure, for otherwise he
cannot keep the consciences of men on his side.

Now, the call of the church is founded on evidence in the candidate of
these qualifications, either in their germ and promise where the
character is immature, or in their fully-developed form where age and
experience have matured the man. This conviction in the mind of the
church is ordinarily an essential evidence of a Divine call; for
plainly, since the individual himself is not the proper judge as to his
possession of these qualifications, the church is the natural medium of
the call, and its decision ought ordinarily to be accepted as final.

III. THE CALL OF PROVIDENCE.--Circumstances may absolutely forbid
entering the ministry, but it is obvious that all difficulties are not
to be interpreted adversely to a call, for such obstacles may be, and
often are, simply a discipline educative and preparatory to the highest
success in the sacred office. The strength and symmetry of character
which have afterward given eminence in the ministry have often been
acquired by means of the struggles encountered in the preparation to
enter it. But God has distinctly promised direction to those who ask
Him: "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord" (Ps.
xxxvii. 23); "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that
giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and _it shall be given
him_" (James i. 5). To the man of prayer, the call of Providence comes
in the events of his life, which, as interpreted by the Spirit's
guidance, are finger-boards at every turn, saying, "This is the way,
walk ye in it."

No man ought to enter the sacred work without this distinct
consciousness of a call from God. For, 1. _Without this he obtrudes
himself into the office of an ambassador without a commission, and
incurs the guilt of presumption._ God has not sent him and has given
him no message, and as he stands up to speak in God's name not one of
all the promises of God to His accredited servants belongs to him, but
he is exposed to all the threatenings against those who speak without
command. 2. _Without this also he cannot speak consciously, as an
"ambassador for Christ," "in Christ's stead"_ (2 Cor. v. 20), _and he
of necessity lacks the courage and boldness of him who is conscious of
bearing a Divine message._ True ministerial boldness in the pulpit
depends on this consciousness of being God's servant, bearing God's
message; in the absence of this he cannot speak with authority.
3. _Nothing but this consciousness of a Divine call is adequate to
inspire for the toils of the pastor's office and sustain in its
trials._ Disappointments and discouragements come, in which he must
fall back for support and comfort on the great primary fact that he is
God's servant, specially called to that office and that work; and if
this fail him, all the true sources of courage and strength are
wanting, and his condition is pitiable indeed. Therefore, as Luther
says: "Every minister of God's Word should be sure of his calling, that
before God and man he may with a bold conscience glory therein, that he
preached the Gospel as one that is sent; even as the ambassador of a
king glorieth and vaunteth in this, that he cometh not as a private
person, but as the king's ambassador."[1]


+FOOTNOTES:+
[1] Luther on _Galatians,_ p. 32.



+SECTION II.+

SETTLEMENT IN THE MINISTRY.

I. CHOICE OF A FIELD.

The choice of a field, especially of the first field, is a matter of
much moment, as it is sometimes decisive in its influence on subsequent
development and usefulness. A young man, however, should beware of
undue anxiety respecting it. A Divine call involves not only an
appointed work, but also an appointed field of work. The subject should
be made, therefore, a special matter of prayer, and the opportunities
Providence may open for making the acquaintance of churches should be
faithfully improved. The Lord will then direct by the leading alike of
His Spirit and the heart and of His providence in external events.
Several suggestions, however, may here be important:

1. _Carefully consider the question whether duty does not call to a
missionary field._ No one should evade a full, fair consideration of
this, for success and comfort in one's life-work depend, not on
obtaining what is termed an eligible settlement, but on occupying the
post God has assigned us. All parts of the world are now opening to the
Gospel, and in our own country vast populations are gathering from
other lands, sent hither to be evangelized. Evidently, many of the
young men now called to the ministry must be designed by the Master for
work among the destitute. Eminence among ministerial brethren is a
proper object of ambition, but it is a mistake to suppose that the
choice of a mission-field, either East or West, will prevent this. A
much larger proportion of our foreign missionaries rise to eminence in
their work than of ministers at home. The men who are recognized as
Christian leaders in the West are mostly men who went there to struggle
with the difficulties of a new country and a small salary. By roughing
it at the outset they developed manhood and power. Some of the ablest
and most eloquent men of this age developed in pulpit power at the
West. It is true in the ministry, as everywhere, that he who for
Christ's sake will lose his life shall save it. A sacrifice and a
struggle for Christ in earlier life give development and momentum to
all the elements of power in a man. There is here wide room for a
venturesome faith; and nothing is more certain than that many, by
seeking at once great things for themselves, dwarf their after-life.

2. _If different fields offer, that is ordinarily to be preferred which
affords the highest incentives to exertion and the widest room for
expansion._ Few things are more chilling to a young man than to find
his church hemmed in, with no possibilities of future growth. This is
often the fact in old and decaying communities overcrowded with
churches. Seek, therefore, not so much an old church or a large salary
as a center where population is gathering, so that the field will grow
with your growth. This was the Apostles' plan. They went where the
people were, and gave their lives to the work where the largest numbers
could be reached. Still, duty may call to a field where these elements
do not exist. In that case, do not fear. A man's gift, faithfully used,
will make room for him. In any field it will take time to grow so as to
fill it, and the experience will be valuable; and when one has grown to
the full measure of his field, and is still advancing in power, other
and wider fields will be sure to open before him.

3. _The call should ordinarily be unanimous, at least so far as to
ensure that no important influences are opposed to it._ On this account
sufficient time, if possible, should be spent with the church to study
carefully the elements of which it is composed and form an intelligent
judgment of its characteristics and tendencies. Many mistakes might be
avoided by care to secure a thorough acquaintance between the candidate
and the people before a call is accepted--mistakes which are sometimes
most unfortunate alike to the minister, in rendering his pastorate a
failure and embarrassing him in forming another relation; and to the
church, in hindering their union and weakening their effectiveness.

   TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: This next point includes the word
   "niggardly," which is a fine word, meaning "stingy," "grasping,"
   or "miserly," but, to those who are unfamiliar with the word or
   who are not paying strict attention, it can sound like a racial
   slur. When presenting this material, please strongly consider
   the substitution of a synonym.

4. _The salary should be adequate for a comfortable support, and should
be fairly proportioned to the pecuniary ability of the congregation._
The minister will be expected to live in a manner at least equal to the
average style of life among the people, and the salary should enable
him to do so. A "donation," as a part of the payment of ministerial
service, is to be avoided if possible. It is perhaps a necessity in
some localities from long-established custom; but it is essentially
unjust to the minister, because it calls that a gift which is really a
debt, and its effect is to foster in the people false ideas of
ministerial support. The New Testament declares that "the laborer is
worthy of his hire" (Luke x. 7), and it is injurious alike to the
self-respect of the pastor and to the respect of the people for his
office to make his support a matter of gratuity. It is better, in my
judgment, to accept a smaller salary, the payments of which are fixed
and regular, than to insist on a larger one, a part of which comes in
the uncertain form of a "donation." In the matter of salary, however, a
true pastor will always tenderly regard the circumstances of his
people; and in a congregation composed chiefly of the poor, or in times
of financial depression and disaster, he will be ready to suffer with
them, cheerfully accepting a smaller stipend and practicing a more
rigid economy. A selfish, niggardly, parsimonious spirit is nowhere
more offensive than in a Christian pastor.

5. _All business arrangements with a church should be made with
business definiteness._ It may not, indeed, be necessary or desirable
to insist upon a formal written contract, but it would save many a
painful misunderstanding if the chief features in the agreement were
always in writing. Properly, the call of the church should specifically
state the chief points agreed on; but, whether this is done or not, the
letter of acceptance should specify them distinctly. The points to be
thus specified are: the time at which the pastor will enter on his
work, the amount of salary and the times of payment, and the vacation
to be allowed. This should ordinarily not be less than four weeks and
should be understood as fully releasing the pastor during that time
from all responsibility for the pulpit and from all pastoral service.

6. _The minister, in all his relations with a church, should exhibit a
delicate sense of honor._ He may not encourage a call when there is no
serious probability of its acceptance. A church call and its
declination may gratify a man's vanity and give him a temporary
publicity, but such ministerial coquetry is destitute of Christian
honor, and in the end reacts disastrously on him who practices it. It
is no light thing thus to trifle with a church of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and to dishonor the ministerial office before the world.

II. OBLIGATIONS ASSUMED IN BECOMING A PASTOR.

In accepting a call to the pastorate of a church, the following things
are understood: 1. That the pastor accepts as scriptural the doctrine
and practice of that church, and places himself under obligation to
teach and defend them; for this is obviously a chief duty in the office
of a pastor. If his convictions do not permit him to uphold the
doctrine and practice of the church, he is untrue to himself and to it
in accepting the office. And if, while occupying the pastorate, his
views of doctrine and practice undergo a change, he is, indeed,
entitled to full freedom of personal conviction and action, but he is
under obligation to resign his office; for an essential condition on
which it was conferred on him has ceased to exist, and every
consideration of honor requires him to withdraw from it. It is
difficult to conceive a more dishonorable position than that of a
pastor who, after having accepted the sacred office of teacher and
defender of the doctrine and practice of the Gospel, as understood by
the church, and having subsequently undergone a change in his own
convictions, shall still retain that office only to subvert the
doctrines he had placed himself under solemn obligation to defend.
2. It is understood, also, that he accepts the care of the souls of
that congregation as a sacred trust from Christ, to devote himself
without reserve in labor and prayer for their salvation. The one great
work of his life, to which all the faculties of his being are to be
consecrated, is the salvation of those souls and the edification and
perfection of that church. If he accepts the office for its emoluments,
for the literary position it gives him, or the stepping-stone to some
other position; or if he shall, while pastor, allow himself to become
absorbed in other interests, so as to divert his chief energies from
this sacred trust in the care of these souls, he is false to the pledge
involved in assuming the pastorate, and is guilty of a dishonorable
act. 3. It is further understood that he will maintain his post amidst
the adversity as well as the prosperity of the church, as the shepherd
to whom Christ has entrusted the care of that flock. Our Lord makes
fidelity to the flock in danger the test of a good shepherd: "The good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is a hireling,
whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the
sheep and fleeth; and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep"
(John x. 11, 12). The trials which may meet a church, so far from
justifying the pastor in leaving it, may be only an additional evidence
of his duty to remain. He may not abandon, in a time of perplexity and
danger, the flock the Lord committed to him.

III. ORDINATION.

Church officers, according to New Testament usage, are chosen from
members of the church. No church, therefore, can properly call a
Council to ordain until the person to be ordained is a member of it.
Hence, the first step, after a contract of settlement, is the transfer
of membership.

When the Council is organized the candidate is expected to relate his
Christian experience and his call to the ministry, and to submit a
statement of his views of Christian doctrine, of church organization
and discipline, and of the ordinances. This statement may be either
written or unwritten. In any case, it should be clear, orderly, and
full. The manner of its presentation should be arranged between the
moderator and the candidate. It is usually found expedient to make the
statement complete, without interruption, and at its close submit to
such questions as the Council may have noted and may propose, the
moderator calling up each topic separately and in order, for that
purpose. The candidate should also be prepared to submit to the
Council, if called for, his license to preach, his certificate of
graduation from the seminary, and any other papers that may show his
standing and attainments. Those who officiate in the ordination are
usually nominated in part by the church and candidate and in part by
the Council, but all receive their formal appointment from the Council.
For the sermon and such parts of the service as require elaborate
preparation, a previous designation perhaps ought ordinarily to be made
by the church or the candidate, if the ordination immediately follows
the examination. In selecting persons to officiate it is evidently
appropriate, as well as desirable, that most of those chosen should be
pastors of churches in the vicinity, with whom the person to be
ordained will be most nearly connected in his work.

Ordination constitutes one of the chief epochs in a minister's life. It
should, therefore, be preceded and attended with much self-examination
and prayer, and to be marked as a point of new and higher consecration
to Christ and His church. The obligations then assumed in the care of
souls are the weightiest that can rest on man, and the vows then taken
are made not only to man, but also to God.



+SECTION III.+

PUBLIC WORSHIP.

The interest and value of worship, as conducted in most churches,
depend chiefly on the pastor. The service is almost wholly led by him.
It is, therefore, of the highest moment not only that the sermon be
thoroughly studied, but also that his spirit be prepared to lead and
elevate the souls of the people in acts of devotion; for instruction is
not the only object of the service: it is intended to inspire and lead
souls in true, spiritual worship, such as will be acceptable to God and
profitable to the people. Three things are here specially to be sought.

1. _Unity of thought._ Each occasion of worship should ordinarily have
one leading, pervading, governing thought which shall individualize
that occasion and distinguish it from others. By this it is not meant
that the subject should always be advertised in the hymns and
Scriptures and prayers that precede the sermon; this might be
unfortunate, as interfering with the purpose of general worship. But
all parts of the service should be consistent with the subject of the
discourse, and should flow naturally into it; if possible, nothing
should be allowed to enter which may divert from it. The assembly
should be dismissed filled with one subject and bearing away one great
thought. On this account it is usually better to exclude all other
subjects, both during and immediately following public worship, and
when a subject out of the usual order is to be presented, such as some
benevolent object, to give up the entire service to that and
concentrate attention on it.

2. _Sustained interest._ The interest should rise with the progress of
the service, and find its highest point at the close; otherwise, the
good impressions made in the earlier part are lost in the weariness and
apathy of the later. Failure in sustaining interest to the end may
result from several causes: (1.) Imperfect preparation, so that the
matter of the service is commonplace and uninteresting. In this age of
intense mental activity, a want of freshness, vigor, and variety of
thought is at once felt by the people, and the attention is lost.
(2.) Defective, monotonous delivery, which often destroys the force of
the best thought. For this the only remedy is persistent training,
taken, if possible, under a good elocutionist; and where such a defect
exists, to apply this remedy seems clearly the imperative duty of a man
whose success in his work depends on power in public speech.
(3.) Wearisome protraction of the exercises. Few sermons hold the
interest of a congregation beyond half an hour. The effect of the first
thirty minutes is in most cases destroyed by seeking to force attention
through another fifteen or twenty. (4.) Too great exhaustion of the
physical and nervous force of the preacher before the service in
preparing for it. The pastor should secure thorough rest of body and
mind before the Lord's Day services, so as to come to them fresh and
strong. It is better to leave the sermons unfinished than to fail of
this. Preserve at all hazards a high tone of physical vigor and a
healthful, elastic nervous organism; otherwise, the speaking will lack
force and magnetism, and the most able and elaborate sermon will fall
flat and powerless. Some of the most successful preachers avoid all
severe study on Saturday, making that a day of rest and recreation,
that they may come to their Lord's Day work with full nervous and
physical vigor.

3. _Religious impression._ This is the chief design of religious
worship, so far as it is intended to influence men; and however much an
assembly may be interested in a preacher, the thoughtful and judicious
always feel a painful lack if the service has not stirred their deeper
religious nature. The pulpit may be able, eloquent, intellectually
stimulating; but if it does not touch these inner springs of the soul,
it has fatally failed, and the great object of public worship has not
been secured.


I. PULPIT DECORUM.

The spirit and bearing of a pastor in the pulpit have a marked
influence on the tone of public worship. If he is devout and
reverential, as conscious of being in the house of God and of bearing a
message from God, his manner will inspire in the congregation a like
reverence for the sacredness of worship. The whole service will receive
tone from the spirit of its leader. Here I suggest: 1. A careless
manner in the pulpit is to be avoided, either in the posture or
movements of the body, or in handling the hymn-book and Bible when
preparing for service; as also is the opposite fault of a manner
studied and artificial, whose stiffness and formality repel sympathy
and give an icy chill to worship. Against both of these faults a
devout, reverential heart thoroughly pervaded by the spirit of worship
will be the best safeguard. 2. In the pulpit the pastor should be, and
should appear to be, absorbed in his work and his message; any act on
his part which creates a doubt of this destroys the value of the
service to the people, and is to be carefully avoided. Thus, if, before
the opening of the service or during its progress, he is listlessly
gazing around the congregation as if occupied in mentally commenting on
them, or is engaged in conversation with some brother-minister seated
with him, the impression is inevitable that the service does not absorb
him, and his power with the people is weakened alike in his devotional
exercises and in his preaching. 3. As far as possible, all arrangements
should be previously made, so as to avoid, during the service, any
necessity for consultations with officers of the church; and all
notices to be given should be required to be handed in to the pastor
before the services begin and should be reduced to the minimum in
number and length. For any diversion of the attention from the service
itself is ordinarily an evil.

In all this, however, it is evident that a devout, reverent spirit,
thoroughly entering into the true idea of worship, is of far higher
moment than any formal rules; for such a spirit will instinctively feel
the proprieties of the sacred time and place and will perpetually seek
to realize its own ideal of public service. Cowper has well said:[1]

   "Would I describe a preacher, such as Paul,
    Were he on earth, would hear, approve, and own,
    Paul should himself direct me. I would trace
    His master-strokes and draw from his design.
    I would express him simple, grave, sincere;
    In doctrine uncorrupt; in language plain,
    And plain in manner; decent, solemn, chaste,
    And natural in gesture; much impressed
    Himself, as conscious of his awful charge,
    And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds
    May feel it too; affectionate in look
    And tender in address, as well becomes
    A messenger of grace to guilty men."


II. THE SERVICE OF SONG.

This is one of the most difficult, as it is one of the most important,
parts of public worship. Much diversity exists in the method of
conducting it. Whether the singing should be congregational or
restricted to a choir; whether, in the former case, it should be led by
a choir or by a precentor; whether an instrument should be used or only
human voices,--all these questions have been differently answered. My
own observation is that the method adopted is of far less importance
than the spirit with which the method is pursued. An inferior method
carefully and enthusiastically pressed will give better results than
the best method poorly followed. In singing, as in preaching, the men
rather than the method determine its effectiveness, and in any church
suffering from defective singing I should seek rather to infuse
enthusiasm and the spirit of musical culture in the singers than to
change hastily any method to which they had become accustomed.

Here, then, I suggest: 1. The pastor should feel and should manifest a
hearty sympathy for the singers and an appreciation of their work; the
lack of this is a frequent cause of discouragement and disorganization
in choirs. He should consult with them in regard to the musical
interests of the congregation, should recognize their work as an
important service done to Christ and the church, should express, in
public and private, his appreciation of whatever is excellent in their
performances, and should use his pastoral influence to secure from the
congregation the necessary means for such books and instruments as may
be important to their success. A good choir, besides contributing the
results of long previous training, spend much time each week in
practice for the service of the Lord's Day, and no true pastor should
fail, or allow his congregation to fail, in an appropriate expression
of appreciation of the work thus done. Such a spirit in pastor and
people will seldom fail to secure a well-trained and enthusiastic choir
and will make the service of song a power and a blessing in public
worship. 2. In the selection of hymns special adaptation to the subject
of the sermon is important chiefly in the one which follows it; the
others, especially the first, while fittingly leading to the sermon,
should be adapted to the purposes of general worship. When the singing
is congregational, regard must be had to the tunes as well as to the
hymns; for in most congregations the range of tunes in which the people
can or will unite is comparatively narrow, and the best hymn will fail
with an impracticable tune. The pastor, therefore, should carefully
note the tunes which the congregation readily sing, and make his
selection within this range. A few months' observation, with careful
noting of results, will enable him to select wisely. 3. Singing in
public worship should be devotional. It is not a musical recreation nor
an artistic musical display, but an act of worship offered to the Most
High. The language of sacred song is often directly addressed to God in
praise, thanksgiving, and prayer; it is, therefore, of doubtful
propriety to call for singing, while a collection is taken up or
business is transacted, merely to occupy the time. Nor should the
preacher, during the singing, allow himself to be occupied in
conversation, or in the study of his sermon; rather he should, if
possible, himself participate devoutly with the congregation in this
act or worship, and thus by his example recognize the devotional nature
of the service.


III. READING OF THE SCRIPTURES.

The reading of the Bible should form a part of public worship, both
because it is the fitting recognition of Scripture as the Word of God
and the church thus presents itself as reverently seeking instruction
from Him, and because the omission of this would imply that the words
of man are of higher moment than the words of God. The Scriptures
should have a large and reverent use in the pulpit, as the fountain of
all instruction and the sole standard of faith and practice.

1. _The selection._ Here several suggestions may be made: (1.) The
passage should be adapted to the purposes of devotion. Thus, a
selection from Leviticus giving minute regulations in regard to
leprosy, or one made from the long genealogical lists of Chronicles,
however instructive to the student of the Mosaic system or Jewish
history, might not be the most helpful to devotion in a Christian
congregation. The primary end in any selection is instruction adapted
to inspire devotion. (2.) The passage should be, in its character and
tone, in harmony with the subject of the sermon, but it need not be the
passage from which the text is taken. If the text has an extended
connection--and an understanding of this is important to the force of
the sermon--then this may be selected, unless, as would rarely be the
case, it is unfitted to aid devotion. Often, however, a related passage
presenting and illustrating the subject of the text may be a wiser
selection, and sometimes a devotional passage having no special
reference to the text may be of more interest and value. (3.) Some read
a selection from both Testaments. In such case the passages selected
should harmonize in general teaching and tone. This method has the
advantage that, while it reverentially recognizes the Old Testament, it
often strikingly presents the harmony between the Old Testament and the
New, and thus shows the essential unity of the Bible as in all parts
the utterance of the one Spirit. (4.) The length of the passage
selected must depend, to some extent, on the subject of it, for it
should, at least in some measure, have completeness. The reading
service should always occupy such prominence as to show a true
reverence for God's Word. Any abridgment of it, such as might suggest
that the preacher thought his sermon of higher moment, would obviously
be unfortunate. The pastor himself, when he knows the ordinary limit
for the whole service, can best determine the amount of time to be
occupied by this part of it, and especially as he marks the extent of
the interest of the congregation in it, for no part of worship should
reach the point of weariness.

2. _The reading._ Effective reading of Scripture in the pulpit is a
comparatively rare attainment. Many able preachers fail in this--a
failure which probably arises from an undue concentration of interest
on the sermon, and consequent want of care in preparing for this
service. This, however, is undoubtedly a mistake. A correct expression
in reading is the best commentary on Scripture and is often the most
effective way of developing and enforcing truth. No minister should
allow himself to fail of power in this. The following remarks may here
be of value: (1.) The passage should be carefully studied, so that its
true meaning, not only in its general scope, but also in the connection
of its separate thoughts, be thoroughly understood. Without this the
emphasis will often be misplaced and the truth thus be obscured.
(2.) It should be so studied that its thought shall fully permeate the
mind of the reader and enlist his sympathy, for only thus will the
modulations and tones of his voice give a natural and clear expression
of the passage. Without this sympathy a practical elocutionist may
indeed develop the thought, but his emphasis and tones will of
necessity be artificial, and he must fail to make the thought a power
to touch the springs of emotion and conviction in the hearers.
(3.) True expression in emphasis and tone will often be attained simply
by attending to the above suggestions; but in some instances, false
habits in reading have become so fixed that only thorough elocutionary
drill can break them up. In this case the duty of the young minister is
plain: he should take all possible means to remove such an obstruction
to his pulpit power.

3. _Comments._ On the question whether the minster should make a
running commentary on the passage while reading, there are several
points to be considered: (1.) It is doubtful whether such an
interjecting of man's words among the words of God, though elucidating
possibly here and there an obscure point, does not on the whole mar the
impression of the passage as the Word of God, and whether the simple
reading of the Bible, with just emphasis and expression, is not more
instructive and impressive than a reading thus broken up into fragments
by interjected comments. I confess that this doubt grows on me with
added observation and experience, and my impression is that in most
cases the majesty and power of the Scriptures will be most distinctly
presented in a careful reading, without commingling the words of man
with the words of God. (2.) Besides, such comments require time, and
the practice thus tends to an undue protraction of public worship,
seriously interfering with the Sunday-school when, as in many places,
it immediately follows the service. (3.) Few men possess the gift for
such an exercise. Spurgeon, indeed, has it in an eminent degree, and
makes effective use of it. This is true, perhaps, of some others, but
most men fail; and if there is a failure, it is here a most serious
one. My advice, therefore, is that, unless a minister have special
aptitude for it, he should not attempt this form of exposition, but in
the public reading of the Scriptures make his best effort to develop
and impress God's thoughts in the simple, right reading of them.


IV. PUBLIC PRAYER.

Public prayer is the worship of the church presented audibly through
its representative or leader. The minister gives vocal expression to
the devotions of the assembly. But it is more than this. The public
prayer not only gives a voice to the devotions of the people: it
stimulates the thoughts and desires of the assembly, and gives
direction and form to them, so that their hearts are quickened and
borne heavenward by the prayer of the leader. It is here the pastor's
heart touches most directly the hearts of the people, and all the
spiritual forces of his nature are felt, inspiring, guiding, and
helping souls in their approach to God. Power here, therefore, depends,
not so much on the observance of any special rules, however judicious,
as on a soul habitually living in the Spirit, and thus profoundly
realizing spiritual verities and sympathizing with the experiences and
necessities of men. A few suggestions, however, may be of value, and we
consider--

1. THE FORM.--It should ordinarily be unwritten. Liturgical forms are
to be rejected for several reasons: they have no example in the
Scriptures; they did not come into use until the general corruption of
worship; they serve to repress and fetter a devotional spirit both in
the minister and the people; and they cannot be adapted to the varied,
special exigencies of the congregation. But prayer, though
extemporaneous in form, is not necessarily unpremeditated. The mind
should, if possible, be lifted into the sphere of devotion and filled
with the subjects of petition by previous reflection. Too often the
pastor is anxious only for the sermon, and leaves the prayer, both in
matter and form, to the moment of utterance; and an ordinary result is
the repetition of solemn commonplaces which fail to inspire and lead
the devotions of the congregation.

2. THE MATTER.--The best materials for prayer are derived from the
following sources: (1.) The devotional parts of Scripture, made
familiar by constant study. Bible thoughts in Bible imagery are best,
because so sacredly linked with the experiences of all Christian
hearts. These never grow old, and they afford endless variety and
freshness. The mind should be thoroughly imbued with their spirit and
stored with their forms of expression. (2.) Secret prayer, constantly
maintained, with a deep and rich personal experience. More than any
other exercise, public prayer is the outflow of the minister's inner
life. His holiest experiences, gathered on his knees in secret, here
find unpremeditated expression, and elevate and enrich and spiritualize
the acts of public devotion. (3.) A full, heartfelt sympathy with the
life of the people, in their temptations, their sorrows, their hopes,
and their dangers. Their pastor's life should touch the life of his
people on every side, and his heart beat in perpetual sympathy with
them. Only thus can he truly lead them in presenting their hearts'
desires before God. The mere recluse whose life is with books and not
with men, who deals with ideas and not with experiences, may utter an
elegant, and even an eloquent, prayer; but he has no power to inspire
and lead souls, in these acts of public devotion, to come with all
their needs to the Throne of Grace.

In respect to the matter of prayer, the following cautions are to be
observed: Avoid, (1.) Frequent references to self. The minister is the
medium of the devotions of the people; whatever, therefore, cannot
properly be uttered by the assembly should not, ordinarily, be uttered
by the pastor. Any intimations in the prayer respecting the pastor's
health or the pressure of his work, intended as an apology for a poor
sermon or as deprecating an unfavorable criticism of it, indicate an
unmanly weakness which is unworthy of the pulpit and is quickly felt by
the discerning. A petition asking Divine help for the pastor in his
work is indeed eminently fitting, for in this the assembly may
naturally unite; but when associated with an apologetic purpose,
looking only to the ear of the people, such a prayer savors of impiety.
(2.) Personalities. Cases of deep affliction do indeed occur, which
move the sympathy of a whole community, and in which the person or
family specially afflicted may properly be directly alluded to in
prayer; and this is true, also, of any cases in which special request
has been made for the prayers of God's people. But beyond these limits
it is seldom wise to pass. Compliment or criticism in public prayer is
especially to be avoided. The temptation to this is often great when
another has preached for you; but plainly the time and place alike make
it unbefitting thus to publish the pastor's estimate of a
brother-minister's character or sermon. (3.) All admonition or
scolding. This, though it is clothed in the language of prayer to God,
is, and will be felt to be, intended for the ear of man; and, as in the
preceding cases, it is an offensive form of hypocrisy. But in this
case, there is ordinarily the added element of moral cowardice; for the
man utters in prayer to God what he would fear, when looking his people
in the face, to speak directly to them. (4.) A didactic, doctrinal
method in prayer. This is improper alike in that it assumes the tone of
instructing God, and in that it is contrary to the nature of prayer.
For prayer is not a sermon; it is the outflowing of religious emotion
and desire toward God. It is, indeed a means of instruction, but it
teaches through the medium of the emotional rather than the logical
faculties. Prayer, therefore, should never take the logical form, but
should ever be an expression, not dominantly of the intellect, but of
the heart.

3. THE ORDER.--Order in the topics has many advantages. It concentrates
attention on one subject at a time, thus increasing the interest of
both minister and people. It aids the memory, thus avoiding the
omission of necessary subjects, and leaving the mind unconfused in
recalling them. An unarranged, confused prayer, in which the mind
utters at haphazard whatever may first enter it, must always fail of
the true ends of public worship. A natural and common order is this:
invocation, adoration, thanksgiving, confession, petition, and
intercession. Invocation recognizes dependence on the Divine Helper,
the Holy Spirit, and implores His presence and aid. In adoration the
character, perfections, and works of God are celebrated, usually
employing largely for this the language and imagery of the Scripture,
which in variety and beauty has here a wealth simply inexhaustible.
Thanksgiving naturally comprehends the whole range of providential
mercies which attend our earthly life, personal, local, and national,
and also all those spiritual blessings which spring from the Gospel in
the experiences and hopes of the personal life, and in the associations
and helps and prospects of the church of God. Confession presents alike
the individual soul, the church as a body, and the community in the
attitude of penitence, acknowledging its sins and failures and humbly
recognizing the rectitude of the Divine judgment. Petition is prayer
offered in behalf of our own needs, imploring for the individual soul
and for the church, not only providential favors, but also Divine
illumination, penitence for sin, faith in Christ, victory in
temptation, support in trial, growth in all the graces of Christian
character, and success in all the efforts of Christian labor.
Intercession relates more distinctly to those without us--the families
represented in the congregation, the Sunday-school and its work, the
afflicted, the unconverted, other Christian congregations in the
vicinity, the community with its varied interests, the nation and its
rulers, and the great missionary work in its various departments and
spheres of effort. Each of these topics furnishes within itself a wide
range of subjects for prayer, and the pastor whose soul is in living
sympathy with his people and his work, if he makes proper preparation,
may give to this part of worship an endless variety and make it an
exercise of immense power. No one order, however, should be invariable,
for it leads to sameness of thought and language, and thus has all the
disadvantages of a stereotyped form, with none of the advantages of a
liturgy. The order, with the selection of leading subjects in it,
should be a matter of careful premeditation, so that there may be
variety in the general plan of the prayer, while yet there is no
omission of necessary topics and no confusion. Within such a general
plan of prayer, mentally prearranged, there will still be the amplest
scope for those impromptu utterances which the heart or the occasion
may suggest.

4. THE MANNER.--This is not less important than in preaching, and
should be carefully considered, for the danger of false habits here is
even greater than in the sermon, because in prayer the mind is less
disposed to be self-critical. And here: (1.) As to the posture of the
body. The Scriptures sanction both standing and kneeling. It should be
an attitude of reverence. Ordinarily there should be no gesticulation.
The eyes should be closed, the countenance natural and serious. The
speaker should remember that all eyes before him are not closed, and
any distortion or mal-expression of his countenance, however innocent
on his part, is sure to be observed and provoke thought and comment.
(2.) The language should be simple, devout, and scriptural. All
rhetorical flourishes and attempts at eloquence; all terms of
endearment and familiarity with God; all accumulation of the Divine
names in one expression, or use of frequent interjections, as oh! ah!
etc.; and all vulgarisms and oddities of expression, are to be
carefully avoided; they destroy the spirit of worship. The vulgar and
thoughtless may applaud, but the judicious and prayerful will be
grieved; and all such characteristics in prayer weaken the moral power
of a minister and lessen his usefulness. Reverence, naturalness,
simplicity, are essential in public devotion. (3.) The tone of voice
should be the natural expression of supplication. The faults especially
to be avoided here are such as these: a boisterous tone, which, while
it adds no force to the petition, wearies both minister and hearer; an
arrogant, commanding tone, which is suggestive of irreverence; and a
whining, complaining tone. These false tones often originate in an
unnatural position of the head, which is thrown back, with face turned
upward; or forward, with face down, and the organs of the voice thus
injured. Throat disease among ministers is due very largely to the
unnatural use of the vocal organs in prayer. Great care should be
exercised that the position of the head and the tone of the voice be
perfectly natural.

It is obvious that in public prayer a spirit imbued with Divine
influences is higher than all rules; it instinctively recognizes the
true proprieties of prayer; and this, therefore, is chiefly to be
sought. Nor do I forget that the mental and spiritual idiosyncrasies of
the man must here, as in preaching, largely influence the manner, and
may sometimes justify in one what in another would be offensive. But
success in this service is so vital to the interest of public worship,
while failure is so frequent, that a pastor should exercise constant
self-scrutiny, often reviewing his prayers to detect their defects, and
often timing them so as to know their length. The young pastor,
especially, should select some judicious, confidential friend in his
congregation who will faithfully point out defects, and should thus, by
a rigid process of self-discipline, secure at the outset of his
ministry right habits of prayer. For then while body and mind are yet
plastic, the power of a false habit may be broken, and the man may be
molded anew; but a few years' persistence will fix the habit beyond
possible change, and ensure its weakening, perhaps fatal, power through
life.


V. PREACHING.

Christ is the one great theme of the pulpit; around this all other
themes gather as to their center and end. Paul said: "We preach Christ
crucified" (1 Cor. i. 23). He states the message of the ministry: "God
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of
reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God
did beseech you by us: we pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled
to God. For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. v. 19-21). All
true preaching, therefore, however wide the range of its topics, has a
real relation to Christ; and no topic is fit for the pulpit which does
not lead to Him. The themes of the preacher are essentially the same in
all ages, for the human heart, in its depravity and needs, does not
change with changing years; and God's remedy, the simple, primitive
Gospel, remains ever the same. The facts, the doctrines, the duties,
the promises, the threatenings, of the Bible are the subjects for the
pulpit; none are needed beyond those supplied in God's Word. The
effective preachers in all ages have adhered to the same great truths;
they have differed only in modes of illustrating and applying them. The
idiosyncrasies of the preacher and the circumstances of his times
necessarily modify the form of presentation, but the subject-matter of
the ministerial message is unchangeable.


SERMONS.

The Gospel furnishes an exhaustless supply of topics. Every minister
should, however, use great care to secure copiousness and variety of
matter and illustration. The best means are such as these: 1. The
constant, careful study of the Bible itself. Its words are the words of
God, living and powerful. "They are spirit, and they are life" (John
vi. 63); and the pastor who makes this Divine book his chief study has
a mind filled, not with the feeble, evanescent thoughts of man, but
with the quickening, eternal thoughts of God. The difference is
world-wide between a sermon filled with God's thoughts and delivered as
God's Word--a Divine message to men--and one which is a philosophical
discourse wrought out of the preacher's own mind, and resting its
authority on the mere force of human reasoning; and this difference is
not simply in the unspeakably greater power of the former to stir and
save the souls of the hearers, but also in the ever-increasing power of
the preacher in sermon preparation, arising from the absolute
inexhaustibleness of the materials for such a sermon. Some able and
laborious men early exhaust themselves and fail of richness and power
in the pulpit because their sermons are spun out of their own brain
rather than from God's Word. They draw from the finite instead of the
infinite fountain, and the waters necessarily fail. 2. A rich personal
religious experience. All hearts are essentially alike, and he will
best know other hearts who most truly knows his own. The power of a
pastor depends largely on his knowledge of the heart and its
experiences under the influences of the Gospel. This is more than a
knowledge of human nature as delineated in Shakespeare and works of
fiction, valuable as this is; it is a knowledge of the human soul under
the power of sin and of the Holy Spirit, as its experiences are
delineated in the Bible and in the religious life and are realized in
his own soul. 3. An intimate acquaintance with the religious state of
the individuals composing his own congregation in their special
tendencies, temptations, and experiences. Almost every religious
conversation will suggest new topics of living interest for sermons.
4. Habitual reading of the best religious authors, especially works on
theology, exegesis, and experimental religion. 5. A careful
preservation of texts, subjects, trains of thought, and illustrations,
by noting them down as they occur. These are continually presenting
themselves in the social meeting, in pastoral visits, in reading, and
in reflection. No man can afford to lose these. They should be
preserved to enrich and make effective the work of the pulpit, and so
preserved as to be readily utilized; for one may have large
accumulations of such materials, but if they are not grouped under
appropriate headings and made easily accessible, they may be
comparatively useless, because eluding the search at the moment of need.

The subjects of the sermon have been divided into the doctrinal, the
experimental, and the practical; but, in preaching, the end is usually
best attained by blending these, or rather by presenting each truth in
an experimental and practical manner. This division, however, is
correct, as made according to the dominant, leading idea of the sermon.

1. _Doctrinal sermons._ Much is said in regard to preaching Christ, and
not doctrine. But how is it possible to preach Christ apart from
doctrine? Christ is not an abstraction, but a living, personal Being.
If, then, we preach Him, we must preach His Divinity, His humanity, and
His mediatorship between God and man. If we preach what He has done, we
must declare His humiliation, His death, and the atonement He has
therein made for sin. If we preach Him as He is, we must proclaim His
enthronement in heaven, His intercession with the Father, and His
Headship of the church, with all the laws and ordinances He has
instituted for it. And if we preach Him as He shall be, we must affirm
the final triumph of His Gospel, His second coming, the resurrection
and the judgment, and the glory to which He will raise His people with
Himself. It is not possible to preach Christ apart from doctrine; for
His incarnation and vicarious death presuppose the Fall and depravity
and guilt of men, and the need of regeneration, justification, and
sanctification; and His resurrection and glorification equally involve
the resurrection and glorification of His church. All the doctrines of
Scripture thus center in Christ, and we preach Him only as we preach
them. Here, therefore, is the true power of the pulpit. Only as the
sermon lodges these great truths in the soul is it a living force for
the salvation of men. They constitute the sole foundation of genuine
experience and practical appeal. A merely hortatory ministry is of
necessity a failure, since it lays no basis for experience and
Christian life in the convictions of the people. In presenting the
doctrines the following cautions should be observed: (1.) Beware of
doctrinal one-sidedness. Every mind has its special theological
tendencies; there is thus danger of pushing a single truth, or a class
of truths, into too great relative prominence. A one-sided and, in its
whole impression, a false view of the Gospel may in this way be
presented. Seek rather to unfold a well-proportioned system of truth,
where every doctrine is not only true in itself, but also stands in its
just relations, alike of position and prominence, to all other truths.
For it is possible, while preaching nothing but the truth, to put a
truth in such false relations as to give it practically all the effect
of error. (2.) Avoid, ordinarily, the controversial form in presenting
subjects; its tendency is to put the mind of the hearer in an attitude
of antagonism. Indeed, a controversial sermon, however well reasoned,
will often suggest more doubts than it removes. Doubtless, controversy
is sometimes necessary, as in defense of some imperiled truth or
principle; but the controversial form, as an ordinary characteristic of
preaching, is most seriously to be deprecated. (3.) A dry, formal,
metaphysical method is also to be carefully avoided; it is entirely
unadapted to a popular assembly. The sermon is not a theological essay;
and the preacher, therefore, in dealing with hungry souls, should ever
remember, as John Newton suggests, the important distinction between
bones and meat.

2. _Experimental Sermons._ Here it is vitally important to make a clear
discrimination between the genuine and the spurious in religious
experience. The welfare and comfort of souls depend much on this, but
it is one of the most delicate and difficult parts of a pastor's work.
Experimental preaching is sometimes decried as tending to turn the
minds of the people inward upon their own hearts, rather than upward
upon Christ, and as thus creating a habit of morbid introspection and
weakening the power of Christian hope and Christian life. Undoubtedly,
there is a real danger of this where the preaching is predominantly of
this character; and a pastor, especially if his own spiritual tendency
is intensely subjective, must be on his guard lest he present this side
of truth in undue proportion, and thus hinder instead of helping the
souls of his charge. But no minister should fail to preach experimental
sermons; for nothing is more obvious than the large place experience
has in Scripture, and the urgency and frequency of its exhortations to
self-examination. Self-knowledge is of primary moment, and the pulpit
should be helpful to this. The presentation of objective truth, apart
from the subjective, tends to self-deception and ends in Antinomianism.
The Bible is wonderfully rich and full in its delineation of character;
and a careful study of these Divine pictures of life will greatly aid
in the work of skillful discrimination. The Psalms, the Prophets, the
Gospels, and the Epistles abound in statements defining true and false
experience, discriminating between "the works of the flesh" and "the
fruit of the Spirit." Such books also as Edwards on _The Affections,_
Fuller on _The Backslider,_ Doddridge's _Rise and Progress of Religion
in the Soul,_ and Hodge's _Way of Life_ are of value, often suggesting
important lines of discrimination. Added to these, the study of his own
heart and an intimate knowledge of the experience and character of his
people will prove eminently helpful to the minister in such sermons. On
this I suggest: (1.) The spiritual principles by which the true and
false experience may be distinguished should be made clear and
distinct. A common fault in such discourses is that they state and
insist on certain exercises as characteristic of Christian experience,
but do not show why they are so. The hearers are not put in possession
of the principle which makes such characteristics essential. Or there
is a denunciation of certain exercises as not Christian without
developing the principle which demonstrates their spuriousness.
(2.) Avoid any attempt to make all experiences fit into the same mold.
Religious experience has endless diversity in form, while yet in all
persons it has certain well-defined common characteristics. The
consciousness and acknowledgment of sin as the one hope of acceptance,
the trust of the soul in Christ, the submission of the will in a
complete self-surrender to God, then will appear with greater or less
distinctness in all regenerate souls. Thus also, in the experiences of
the Christian there is endless variety in form, in special doubts and
fears, special temptations, special tendencies to sin, special
manifestations of self-will, pride, self-righteousness, and
self-indulgence; and in like manner faith and love, hope and joy, and
every Christian exercise have various forms of manifestation in
different souls. Here, then, the point to be emphasized is that, in
discriminating between the true and the false in religious experience,
the thing of vital moment is the _nature_ of the exercise, and not the
form or manner of its manifestation. (3.) It seems hardly necessary to
add that frequent reference to self, as setting up one's own experience
as a standard, is not only in bad taste, but is also of bad tendency as
directing from the true standard found alone in God's Word.

3. _Practical Sermons._ The symmetry and beauty of Christian character,
and the consequent power of Christian life, much depend on the wisdom
and fidelity with which the pulpit presents the duties of religion. The
New Testament reveals a sublime system of Christian morals which,
clearly unfolded and properly pressed, will elevate and ennoble the
life of the church. Here the pulpit has one of its widest and noblest
fields of effort. The education of the Christian conscience is one of
its primary and most imperative functions; for an orthodox creed and a
regenerate heart may be very possible where, from lack of moral
instruction and culture, the life is sadly defective. The soul is
indeed regenerated, but the new life is not developed in the conscience
by the enlightening of the moral judgment and quickening of the moral
sensibilities. True ideals of Christian living have not been formed,
and the outward character, instead of being a magnet radiant with the
beauty of holiness and attracting men to Christ, is marred by moral
blemishes which reproach the Gospel and repel men from Christ. The
widespread demoralization of late in business life, manifest, too often
even among Christian men, in the absence of integrity and of fidelity
to trust, should at least suggest the question whether the pulpit has
adequately set forth and enforced the morality of the Gospel. I suggest
the following hints: (1.) In presenting a duty the grounds of its
obligation should be clearly unfolded, that the conscience, thus
enlightened, may be awakened to full power in pressing its discharge.
No permanent obedience will be secured until the conscience distinctly
perceives the ground of obligation or the moral principles on which the
duty rests; nor does the performance of the duty, apart from this clear
recognition of the moral grounds of it, serve to purify and elevate the
character. It is the enthronement of an ethical principle within the
conscience, and not the mere blind performance of an outward act, which
enlarges and ennobles the man. (2.) The motives urged should be
evangelical, not legal, drawn from the Christian's relations to Christ,
appealing not to fear only or chiefly, but to love. The moral
helplessness of a Christian soul, when acting under the impulsion only
of legal fear, is vividly portrayed by Paul in the seventh chapter of
Romans, where with graphic power he depicts his own fruitless strivings
for the good when impelled by the law, and the utter defeat and despair
to which he was reduced. Christ alone is the life, and only faith in
Him brings victory to any soul in the conflict with sin. His character
is the great ideal set before a Christian soul, and His love the
impulsive force in seeking to realize it: "The love of Christ
constraineth us" (2 Cor. v. 14). A true Christian life is the outflow
of grateful, adoring love to Him. Motives drawn from the soul's
relations to Him, therefore, alone move the Christian heart and have
permanent power to impel to God and holiness. (3.) Ministerial fidelity
doubtless requires a plain presentation of duties and a fearless
exposure of sin, but it is seldom wise to employ the style of
denunciation. A cheap reputation for boldness and fidelity is sometimes
thus obtained among the unthinking, but most men know that at this day
denunciation from the pulpit requires no moral courage and will be
likely to regard it as a sensational bid for popularity. True boldness
shows itself not so much in the manner as in the matter of the sermon.
It consists in exposing clearly and fearlessly popular forms of error
and wrong, and applying to them, in all plainness and sincerity, the
principles of the Gospel. Here, while real boldness in manner should
never be wanting, true persuasiveness in manner should always be
preserved, thus avoiding needless irritation.

In the selection of subjects, I suggest: (1.) The subject should be, as
far as possible, adapted to the existing state of the people. This
requires an intimate, vital relation between the life of the pastor and
the actual living of the people, for the isolated recluse will waste
much of his pulpit work on subjects which do not touch the real
experiences and life of his hearers. (2.) Every subject should be
selected with earnest prayer for Divine guidance. God alone knows what
are the real needs of those who will hear; and a theme thus chosen is
delivered with authority as a message from Him, for a sermon is a
growth with the preacher's soul, possessing vitality and power as the
product of the Holy Spirit; and when thus obtained from God by the
inworking of the Spirit, it becomes to the hearers a Divine message
such as should be borne by "ambassadors for Christ."


EXPOSITION.

This method of preaching has of late years gone into disuse, partly
because success in it is really difficult to attain, and partly
because, the Bible having ceased to be the chief reading of the
churches, the popular interest in exposition has decreased; but when
rightly followed it has advantages, both to minister and people, beyond
those of any other form of preaching.

ADVANTAGES TO THE PREACHER.--It promotes exegetical study and
acquaintance with the original Scriptures, the neglect of which is
fostered by an exclusively topical method. The process is an
ever-enriching one, constantly widening the range of biblical and
theological knowledge. It ensures against sameness. Instead of growing
stale, the preacher becomes more rich and varied in his range of
thought and illustration with every added year. It gives, moreover,
familiarity with the forms of Scripture thought and expression, and
thus adds simplicity and force in addressing the Christian heart. Above
all, it brings the preacher's soul into constant, living communion with
the spirit of the Bible, and the study becomes in this way a fountain
of religious life ever flowing into his heart, and out of it into the
hearts of the people.

ADVANTAGES TO THE CONGREGATION.--It is obvious that such a method of
preaching would serve to remove many of the popular doubts and
difficulties with the Bible which are at this day so greatly weakening
its hold on the masses. It would enable the preacher to put before the
people the results of modern historic, archæological, and geographical
investigation which have thrown so great light on the Bible and so
greatly confirm its truth. Such treatment of the Scriptures in the
pulpit would also lead to a discriminating use of them, as well as
familiarity with them, among the people It would necessarily develop
the principles of interpretation, and thus educate the people in right
methods of using the Bible, making it of far higher value to them. And,
more than all, it would accustom Christians to rest their faith, not on
the mere dogmas of the pulpit and the creed, but on the very words of
God, and would furnish a basis of religious confidence which can never
be shaken. The modern pulpit, from its neglect of the Bible, is
singularly narrow, exhibiting little of the vast wealth and variety of
Divine truth. It leaves by far the larger part of the Bible a sealed
book. Its types, its poetry, its prophecies, its parables, its
presentations, as in the Epistle to the Romans, of the truths of the
Gospel in their connection as one grand, comprehensive system of
salvation--how little of all this wealth of Scripture is presented in
the pulpit! The result is, and must necessarily be, the absence of
depth and fulness of Christian life in the church and the complaint of
a loss of power in the pulpit.

HINTS ON METHOD.--1. The pastor should select for exposition such parts
of Scripture as are susceptible of intelligent explanation to a
promiscuous congregation. The symbolic visions of Ezekiel and of
Revelation might awaken curiosity, but except under extraordinary
circumstances could hardly be profitable for such an exercise.
2. Divide the selected portion into sections, each sufficient for a
sermon, and as far as possible let each have a single general topic.
This secures unity in the discourse. For example, the first chapter of
the Sermon on the Mount might be divided thus:

I. Vs. 1-12. _The beatitudes:_ Happiness, its source not external, but
internal; not material, but spiritual.

II. Vs. 13-16. _Relation of the disciples to the world:_ Christians
God's medium of saving influence and spiritual knowledge among men.

III. Vs. 17-20. _Relation of Christ to the Old Testament:_ Christ not
the destroyer, but the fulfiller, of the ancient law.

IV. Vs. 21-48. _The law as interpreted by Christ:_ Sin, not in the
overt act only, but also in the secret thought.

1st example (vs. 21-26): The law of murder.

2d example (vs. 27-32): The law of adultery.

3d example (vs. 33-37): The law respecting oaths.

4th example (vs. 38-48): The law of retaliation.

The first three of the above divisions and the four examples under the
fourth would each furnish a fitting passage for a sermon with a single
and well-defined general theme. Much of Scripture is susceptible of
equally distinct division, so that the preacher will rarely fail of
unity in his discourse. 3. Develop the general theme by explaining the
several parts of the passage, so as to unfold the special phase of the
truth which the Holy Spirit there presents. Take, for example, Rom.
v. 1-11. Here, in the progress of the apostle's argument, the general
theme is: _The effects of justification by faith in the believer._
These effects are four: (1.) vs. 1, 2, the perfect adjustment of his
relation to God. (2.) vs. 3-5, the transmuting of earthly trial into
blessing. (3.) vs. 6-10, the absolute certainty of his eternal
salvation. (4.) v. 11, a delight in the Divine character as God is
revealed through Christ in the atonement. The several points made in
the passage itself thus constitute the inspired development and
illustration of the main theme and indicate the direction and method of
the exposition. 4. Having thus developed the theme by an analysis and
exposition of the passage, deduce the inferences as to doctrine and
duty, and make a practical application to the heart and conscience. The
inferential development is often very important, as affording manifold
and vital applications of truth to character, to Christian experience
and life, and to the various forms of error and sin. Nowhere is the
value of expository preaching more manifest than in the wide range and
the special power of its practical application. 5. Avoid in exposition
verbal criticism, parade of learning, allusion to commentators, or
reference to different views of the passage; it impairs the interest
and weakens the moral effect. The critical apparatus should be
carefully used in the study, but it has no place in the pulpit. It is
mere scaffolding, which should disappear when the structure is
finished. In the sermon the work of the study should appear, not in its
processes, but only in its results. The citing of conflicting opinions
on a passage will, as a general fact, only perplex the people. Ground
your interpretation on thorough and conscientious study, and then
present clearly and strongly the results. A doubting manner awakens
doubt; and the pulpit, therefore, while avoiding an offensive
dogmatism, should be positive in its presentations of God's Word. A
good expository sermon costs far more labor than any other, but it is
also of far higher value to preacher and hearer. Without thorough
preparation no one should undertake exposition; for, superficially
done, it is sure to fail. But success in this highest form of preaching
is an achievement worthy of the preacher's highest effort and is of
unspeakable importance. The mightiest pulpit power of Chrysostom and
Augustine, of Luther and Calvin, was in their expository sermons.
Chalmers and Andrew Fuller were powerful in exposition; and this form
of the sermon is still a chief characteristic of the British pulpit, as
illustrated in many of its most illustrious preachers. Dr. William M.
Taylor, of the Broadway Tabernacle, New York, gives one sermon each
Lord's Day to exposition, and makes it a blessing and power.


+FOOTNOTES:+
[1] _Task,_ b. ii.



+SECTION IV.+

SOCIAL DEVOTIONAL MEETINGS.

The practical success of a pastor greatly depends on the effectiveness
of the social meetings, yet much tact and constant attention are
required in conducting them. The impressions of the sermon here become
deeper and often reach definite results in conversion, while here also
the gifts and spiritual power of the church find development. The
pastor who devotes himself only to the pulpit, and makes this
department incidental, whatever he may become as a preacher, is likely
to prove a pastoral failure.


I. THE PRAYER-MEETINGS.

In reference to these I offer the following suggestions: 1. The pastor
himself should ordinarily conduct them if they are general meetings of
the church; no other can so fully understand the condition of those
present, or so wisely adapt the exercise to their needs. Besides, the
instruction and spirit of the prayer-meeting should be kept in harmony
with the teaching of the pulpit, so as to supplement it and develop its
results; one mind, therefore, should direct and inspire both. Where the
meeting is intended for a special class, as for the young people or for
the Sunday-school teachers, it may be proper, if there is a suitable
leader, for the pastor to be relieved and the care of it to be
entrusted to another.

Careful preparation of thought, but of especially of spirit should be
made for the meeting. No man should trust to the inspiration of the
occasion either for the thought which shall give the keynote to the
meeting or for the quickened spiritual life which, existing in the
leader, shall touch and quicken the life of the church. 2. Be punctual
in opening and closing at the appointed time; nothing so effectually
secures a prompt attendance, and the neglect of it will prevent many
from coming, especially females, because they cannot know how late may
be the hour of dismission. 3. Be brief in your own exercises, showing
yourself a pattern, and insist on brevity in others, whether in prayer,
remarks, or singing. Let your opening remarks be suggestive rather than
exhaustive, so that when you sit down the people, instead of feeling
that all has been said, will find the subject opening before them and
be inspired to carry out the thought into other phases and
applications. 4. Avoid uniformity and monotony. To secure natural
variety, give each meeting its own keynote, now of thanksgiving and
praise, now of confession and humiliation, now of Christian hope, and
again of some great truth or some practical duty. If it becomes
evident, as it sometimes will, that you have struck the wrong key and
thought and feeling are running in another channel, throw yourself
heartily into that and make the most of it. If a pause occurs, be ready
with a passage of Scripture, a hymn or remark, or call on individuals
either to pray or relate experience, or to state some interesting fact
you may know they possess. A pastor in vital relations with the people,
by his knowledge of the experiences and condition of the individuals
before him, will be able to give perpetual variety to the meetings by
evoking in various ways their experience and utilizing their power.
5. In regard to the presentation of special cases for prayer, my
judgment is that this should be encouraged; since, even apart from the
power of prayer with God in behalf of such cases and the answer of
blessing it brings, the special presentation itself serves to give
directness and fervency to supplication and adds freshness and power to
the exercise. It is possible, however, to have too much machinery in a
prayer-meeting, making its movement mechanical and destroying
spontaneity. Expression of interest in the subject of personal religion
by rising or other forms may be so often repeated as to be worse than
useless and become justly offensive. In calling, therefore, for an
expression, great care must be taken not to overdo, and not to do it at
all unless there is good reason to expect a response. A failure usually
chills the interest of a meeting. 6. Use all exertions to bring the
gifts of the church into full exercise; there is always a large amount
of latent power which it should be the special care of the pastor to
develop and make effective for Christ. This will not be done by
scolding and complaining, but rather by the diffusion of a spirit, an
atmosphere, in the meeting--an all-pervasive, homelike feeling--which
will banish embarrassment and draw them out. The timid and backward may
also be helped by an occasional question, the answering of which will
accustom them to their own voices and induce spontaneous expression.
Something also maybe done in private personal words of encouragement.
Above all, place distinctly before all minds the fact that in the
prayer-meeting the main thing, next to prayer, is the interchange of
Christian experience, and what is required, therefore, from each one
is, not a homily, an exposition, or an exhortation, but a simple
statement of what he has thought and felt amidst the experiences of
life; and, as every soul has its own peculiar life, it has an
experience of real value as helpful and comforting to other lives.
7. Make careful arrangements for good spirited singing, but usually not
more than two or three verses at a time. To secure this, if you do not
yourself sing, arrange with one or more good singers to lead whenever a
pause occurs. Indeed, if you are a singer, it is often best not to take
on yourself the responsibility of leading; the care is too much, and by
distracting and exhausting your force it may diminish your power in the
general guidance of the exercises. Do not fail to have good books, with
hymns and tunes, in sufficient number to give all opportunity to join
in the singing. 8. Great care should be taken, if the room is not full,
to have people sit together and near the leader. No meeting will
ordinarily be _social,_ in any proper sense, where a few people are
scattered in a large room. Attention should also be given to the
ventilation and temperature of the room; otherwise, the meeting may
fail from purely physical causes, in spite of the best efforts of
pastor and people. Right physical conditions are simply attempts to
conform to God's physical laws, and are absolutely essential to the
highest success in social religious meetings; no pastor, therefore,
should deem them unworthy of careful and persistent attention. Finally,
it should be remembered that it is a _social_ meeting. Divest it of all
formality, stiffness, or sameness. Make it cheerful, familiar,
homelike, as a gathering of God's children in their Father's family. If
this is done, old and young will be attracted to it, and will alike
feel free to share its services.


II. THE COVENANT MEETING.

This was originally called the covenant meeting because it was intended
for the solemn renewal by the members of their vow of consecration to
Christ and the church, and the church covenant was formally read in it
while the members stood to express their adhesion to it. Of late years,
however, the meeting is less fully attended than formerly, and the
reading of the covenant is often deferred to the opening services of
the Lord's Supper, that the church may be more largely represented in
the act. The entire omission of its reading, as is sometimes the case,
is unfortunate, since many thus enter the church without a full
understanding of the obligations thus assumed, and the church fails of
the important stimulus to duty which this solemn reading and renewal of
the covenant is adapted to furnish. The following hints may be of
value: 1. In a large church it is not possible, nor is it desirable,
that all the members should speak at one meeting: any attempt to secure
this will ordinarily result either in a wearisome protraction of the
service, or in so abbreviating the communication of each as to render
the exercise, as an interchange of experience, of very slight value.
Some ministers lay special emphasis on the number of speakers they have
succeeded in compressing into an hour; but it is evident that if each
has not had adequate time to make a true expression of his experience,
the usefulness of the exercise is seriously impaired, if not destroyed.
It is not the number, but the quality, which gives value to the
experiences related in a covenant meeting. As far as possible, however,
arrangements should be made that those not called on at one meeting may
be called on at the next, and on every occasion the meeting should be
thrown open before the close, so as to give any specially-burdened
heart opportunity for expression. 2. Encourage frankness and brevity.
If members indulge in stereotyped expressions and prosy speeches, break
up the habit by pointing out its evil. Many excellent Christians whose
experience, if really presented, would prove rich and valuable have no
correct idea of what should be spoken, and utter mere commonplaces when
they might speak words of gold. Suppose that, before calling on them to
speak, you address them somewhat in this way: "Brethren, we have met to
renew our covenant with God and with each other. We want, therefore, to
know your _heart-history_ since we last met at the Lord's Table--that
is, so far as it is proper to be known, for some of it belongs between
you and God alone and should not be spoken here. But you have had
experiences which will help and cheer us. Temptations have come to
you--something, it may be, separated you from the consciousness of
Christ's presence. We want to know how you got back to Him. You have
had special mercies in deliverance from disease or accident, in
prospered fortune, in friends raised up for you. Will you tell how
these mercies affected you? You have passed through trial in sickness,
in disappointments, in the death of loved ones, in losses and
sufferings. We would know how you felt under trials, and how God helped
you to bear them. You have had special seasons of communion with
Christ, and have received special answers to prayer; you have found
some passages of Scripture truth or promise specially opening to you;
you have some personal friend or friends for whom you are deeply
interested that God may save them. These are the things we want to
know--just what your heart has felt of late; and if in this family
gathering in our Father's house you will tell these, you will help us
and will bring all hearts into sympathy with you." Such suggestions,
occasionally made, will repress tendencies to stereotyped thought and
expression, and will educe those heart-experiences which give life and
power to the meeting. 3. When there are candidates for baptism,
encourage them to speak fully and freely, and secure, if possible, that
they shall be heard by all. After the experiences have fully come
before the church, the candidates should withdraw while their cases are
under consideration, that the investigation of each case may be
unembarrassed and full opportunity be had for inquiry or objection.
4. Matters of business and of discipline are, as a rule, to be avoided
at the covenant meeting. They usually divert attention from the special
object of the exercise, and often dissipate the spiritual impression.
5. Do not protract the service. An hour and a half is usually as long
as a profitable interest can be maintained. Too often the benefit of
the meeting is wholly lost by its tediousness. A prompt beginning and
an equally prompt ending are essential to sustained life in any
exercise.


III. THE INQUIRY MEETING.

The weekly inquiry meeting should constitute a part of the system of
pastoral work. It accustoms minister and people to seek and expect
immediate results from preaching and Christian labor; and the value of
this to both, as an ever-present inspiration, is incalculable. Under
every earnest ministry there are always thoughtful, anxious souls; but
it requires tact and wisdom to bring them out and come into close,
personal contact with them. Few ministers are aware of the extent of
this latent conviction among the unconverted under faithful preaching,
or realize the importance of systematic, effective means for developing
it. Here I suggest: 1. Let the meeting be held, if not on the Lord's
Day, as soon after it as practicable, that the impressions made by its
services may not have time to wear away. This is a point of great
moment. Some pastors hold a meeting for prayer and inquiry immediately
after the evening sermon, while the impressions are still vivid and
fresh. This has sometimes proved very effective, especially as serving
to develop the conviction and make known the persons under it, so that
the pastor and church may afterward devote special labor to them. At
such a meeting, however, little more could ordinarily be done, in
personal conversation, than a few earnest words and the noting of the
address of inquirers, with the view of following up the cases; and
this, therefore, would not supersede the necessity of a meeting where
more deliberate conversation could be had. 2. Christians should be
instructed and urged to bring thoughtful persons to the inquiry
meeting--the parent, his child; the Sunday-school teacher, his pupils;
the young convert, his friends--and to regard this as a part of regular
Christian work. In places where the inquiry meeting is a novelty, its
full, effective establishment may require time; but, once thoroughly
established, the inquiry room will seldom lack inquirers. 3. Various
methods of conducting the meeting are adopted. One method is to meet
all the inquirers in one room and converse with them in the presence of
each other, as in a Methodist class-meeting. To make this successful,
the pastor must have ready tact and large resources, or he will repeat
himself and the meeting fail from staleness. But it has this advantage:
inquirers in such a gathering are drawn into a disclosure of their
anxieties in the presence of others, and this committal of themselves
to the subject is sometimes of great value in fixing impressions and
leading to a decision. Another method is to meet them singly, or, if
specially related to each other, in groups, and let the conversation be
private. This, when practicable, is generally more satisfactory, as it
gives opportunity to probe the heart more fully, and to say much you
cannot so freely say before others. It is often of great value not only
to pray with an inquirer, but also to induce him to pray with you.
Sometimes, if you have set before him distinctly the way of salvation,
he will, in such a season of prayer immediately following, then and
there cast himself on Christ and make a full surrender to Him. Perhaps,
however, no one method will be adapted to all circumstances, and the
judgment of the pastor must be exercised in fixing on one suited to
himself and the special exigencies of his position. 4. The pastor
should be discriminating and faithful in dealing with inquirers, for
failure in this may result in a superficial experience and a false
hope. In such conversations he should never content himself with a
mere, vague exhortation to come to Christ; what the inquirer needs is
definite instruction as to what it is to come to Christ. Probe
thoroughly, so as to be sure that there is a genuine sense of sin, a
reliance alone on the righteousness of Christ, and an actual submission
of the will to God. The pastor should prepare himself, therefore, for
the exercise with fervent prayer, and gather, and have at ready command
a variety of Scripture passages adapted to different religious
conditions, and of simple, clear illustrations of the nature of
repentance and faith. 5. Let your conversation with an inquirer
ordinarily be confidential, so that he may not feel, when conversing
with you, that he is talking to the town; otherwise, you deter many
from coming, and even with those who come you may prevent what is
important to your success--a full disclosure of the heart. As a rule,
also, it is not wise to encourage an inquirer to seek conversation with
many different persons: the varied advice given confuses him and tends
to dissipate impressions. Finally, it is obvious that success in this
exercise will greatly depend on the tact, geniality, and
approachableness of the pastor himself. If he is cold, stiff, and
repellent in manner, it will be difficult for him to secure the
attendance and confidence of inquiring souls. There may be real and
deep religious anxieties, but they remain latent from lack of power in
the pastor to develop them.


IV. MEETING FOR EXAMINATION OF CANDIDATES FOR THE CHURCH.

No candidate should ordinarily come before the church without a
previous examination by the pastor; and notice, therefore, should be
given when and where he will meet persons desiring to unite with the
church.

_Hints._--1. The time should be sufficiently early to give ample
opportunity for making inquiries respecting an applicant, where the
circumstances and character of the individual are not known. In the
case of minors, consult the parents or guardians when practicable; it
is a courtesy due to them, whatever their religious character or
relations, and is often desirable in order to a full understanding of
the character of the candidate. 2. Let the examination be thorough and
faithful. The purity of the church, as well as the welfare of the
candidate, demands this. It is far easier to arrest an application at
this point than after it comes to the church. The absence of knowledge
even of the fundamental principles of the Christian religion, on the
part of many who are hurried into the church, is one of the alarming
features of our time. Certainly, Christian experience is not a matter
of mere blind emotion; and we have no ground for supposing its
existence apart from distinct convictions respecting God and Christ and
the foundation-truths of the Gospel. We are "born again by the Word of
God;" and there can be no "repentance toward God and faith toward our
Lord Jesus Christ" without some definite idea of sin, of repentance, of
faith, of God, and of Christ. It is never proper, therefore, to assume
the fact of a Christian experience where there is no definite Christian
knowledge. The duty in such cases is to instruct, not to baptize.
3. See that the candidate understands not only the general principles
of Christianity, but also the distinctive doctrines and usages of the
church and the specific obligations assumed in becoming a church
member, so that his profession may be made intelligently. For this
purpose, have your Articles of Faith and Covenant in printed form, and
place a copy in the hands of every candidate. This will often prevent
misunderstanding and subsequent difficulty; and the intelligence with
which the step is taken will add much to the value of the profession.
4. It is well, when practicable, and especially when any considerable
number are to be examined, to associate the officers of the church or
some experienced brethren with you in this preliminary examination,
that the responsibility may not all fall on you. For this, though
informal, is ordinarily the decisive examination; the church very
rarely rejects a candidate understood to be approved by the pastor. In
some churches, whenever a name is proposed, a committee is appointed to
hear the experience of the candidate and make necessary inquiries, and
the candidate comes before the church only after their favorable
report. This has the disadvantage of making public the name of an
applicant and thus embarrassing the rejection, should that be
desirable; but it has also the advantage of dividing the responsibility
of the examination and relieving the pastor. If a committee is
appointed, however, I think it should be a standing one, with the
pastor at its head, and the names of candidates should be presented to
it before being presented publicly to the church. 5. Beware of an
ambition for mere numbers: a small body of well-instructed, earnest
disciples is worth far more to the cause of Christ than a heterogeneous
multitude undistinguished in spirit and life from the world. Seek in
this, not newspaper publicity and laudation, but the approval of
Christ, building the temple of God, not with perishable material,
"wood, hay, and stubble," but with imperishable, "gold, silver,
precious stones," which shall endure when the "fire shall try every
man's work of what sort it is."


V. THE OFFICERS' MEETING.

The officers of the church are the cabinet of the pastor, and the
responsibilities and labors of the spiritual watch-care should be
shared with them. A wise use of these assistants will relieve him of
many a burden which otherwise he would needlessly bear and will secure
a much more general and effective supervision of the spiritual
interests of the church. For no pastor can accomplish all that needs to
be done; and if left to the church generally, very little effective
watch-care is exercised. Such consultation with the officers will often
save the pastor from mistakes, while the division of labor greatly
simplifies and relieves his work. It affords, also, a sphere of real
usefulness for the deacons, and serves to develop their gifts and
augment their religious power.

_Hints._--1. Have a regular meeting at convenient intervals--say once a
month or once in two months--and let each officer be invited and made
to share equally in the counsels and responsibility, thus avoiding
jealousies. Prepare thoroughly the business to be brought before them,
so that there may be no delay. 2. After the opening season of prayer,
read carefully the list of church members, and let each member needing
special care be definitely assigned to some one or more of the officers
to give at once the necessary attention. By this means any member
requiring a kindly suggestion or whose position is not understood may
be at once quietly reached; and, if in danger, may be saved before the
case has gone so far as to be beyond help. If this is faithfully done,
nearly all public discipline may be avoided and the tone of church-life
may be kept high and vigorous. 3. Let the general condition and welfare
of the church and plans for Christian labor and church extension be
here carefully considered; for here methods for advancing Christ's
cause through the church most naturally originate and may be most
wisely matured. Great care should be taken, however, that the meeting
does not lose its religious tone and degenerate into a mere clique for
church management. It may be made, by right guidance, a center of
religious interest and power in the congregation, while to the pastor
it secures the hearty confidence and co-operation of the trusted
counsellors and leaders of the church.


VI. CHURCH MEETINGS FOR BUSINESS.

These are properly classed among devotional meetings, because the
transaction of church business should always be done in a devotional
spirit and be connected with devotional exercises.

_Hints._--1. The pastor is, _ex officio,_ the presiding officer in all
meetings of the church, and should ordinarily preside. Ruling,
presiding, is a function distinctly assigned in the New Testament to
the pastoral office (1 Thess. v. 12; 1 Tim. iii. 4, 5; Heb.
xiii. 17)--a function which would seem clearly to include that of
presiding in the assemblies of the body. He should be familiar with the
established rules of order in deliberative bodies; but in applying them
he should not make a parade of parliamentary rules nor ordinarily put
them in the form of law. An easy, quiet, prompt manner in presiding
should be carefully cultivated: it makes great difference in the
effectiveness and despatch of business and the comfort of the church.
2. Unanimity is to be earnestly sought; but when it cannot be attained
it is usual to accept the decision of the majority. The reception of
members, however, should be unanimous--certainly so far as the question
relates to Christian character; otherwise, members would enter whom a
part of the church do not fellowship. Ordinarily, objections to an
applicant may be avoided by proper care in previous inquiries
respecting him; but if made, the case should be deferred, and a
committee appointed to receive and examine the objections. If the
objections are evidently made in a wrong spirit, the church should
overrule them, and the objectors, persisting, should be put under
discipline. It is evident that the careful pastor, foreseeing such a
result, would dissuade, if possible, the applicant from presenting
himself, and thus avoid discord in the church, unless this course would
inflict injury on the candidate and cover up wrong in the church.
3. Secure, if possible, a full attendance of members, and make the
meeting thoroughly religious in its tone and spirit. The contempt into
which church disciplinary action sometimes falls is often due to the
fact that few members are present, and the moral power, therefore, of
the church is not behind their action, and that the manner, if not the
spirit, of their proceedings befits rather the secular character of a
political gathering than the seriousness and dignity of a church of
Christ. Especially should the reception, the discipline, the exclusion
of a member, or the election of a deacon or a pastor be an act of
solemnity, and, as far as possible, be done by the whole body.



+SECTION V.+

ADMINISTRATION OF THE ORDINANCES.

The nature of the ordinances, as well as the obligation of them, should
be often and carefully explained to the people. This is the more
necessary, since in the popular mind superstitious ideas so largely
enter into the conception of them. In doing this, several different
methods have been adopted. Some have a preparatory lecture in the
course of the week preceding the administration: others preach on the
subject either on the previous Lord's Day or just before the ordinance;
and others depend mainly on addresses on the occasion. Whatever be the
method, instruction should be carefully given, that true views of the
ordinances may prevail. For want of this many church members never
derive much benefit from these sacred institutions, while some,
doubtless, are injured by them.

The principles respecting the ordinances which we, as distinguished
from other denominations, hold as biblical should not be ignored or
kept in the background. The restoration of these Divine symbols to
their primitive significance and form is a matter of the highest
moment, and the pastor who is silent neglects duty. So far as my
observation extends, the spiritual success which has attended the
Baptists has always been connected with their fidelity to the mission
God has given in respect to His truth concerning the church and the
ordinances. The most signal manifestations of the Spirit in our
churches, whether at home or abroad, have been made where the great
principles Christ has committed to us have been most faithfully
proclaimed. But in presenting these controverted subjects, statements
should always be made with care. Whatever the provocation, we should be
careful to maintain a Christian spirit and uniform courtesy; to be just
and candid to those who differ; and to avoid all imputation of evil
motives. Indeed, it is usually better to avoid the controversial form
in presenting the biblical view of the ordinances, especially at the
time of administration; but if controversy is necessary, let it rather
be presented in sermons on other occasions. A distinct course of
sermons on the ordinances, carefully prepared, is sometimes of great
value for the instruction of the church and the diffusion of right
views in the community.


I. ADMINISTRATION OF BAPTISM.

As the act is a symbol, the correctness of its form is essential to the
representation of the truth symbolized. The greatest care, therefore,
should be used to bring out distinctly the symbol and fix all thought
on that; any defect in the administration which mars the symbol is to
be deprecated. The vital spiritual fact of regeneration, or a death to
sin and the rising to a new life in Christ, is most vividly set forth
before men by the impressiveness of the symbol when properly rendered.

Here I suggest: 1. Care should be taken that all necessary arrangements
be made for the ordinance, in the preparation for the place for the
baptism, and the appointment of judicious committees to attend the
candidates. This should be done in ample season, so that there be no
haste or confusion at the administration. The pastor should be promptly
prepared for the service, using garments appropriate to baptizing, so
as to be undisturbed by the water. 2. In administering, be deliberate
in movement, leading the candidate slowly into the water with the
solemnity becoming so holy an ordinance. Special care should be taken
that the water be of such depth as to make immersion easy and
effective. Pronounce the formula reverently, then immerse, taking care
that the whole person is covered. Beyond the formula, it is often best
to say nothing during the administration; the ordinance itself is
speaking to the conscience and the heart in a voice more eloquent and
impressive than human speech. 3. Above all, as you pray for wisdom and
power in the right use of _words_ to set forth regeneration by the
sermon, so ask for wisdom and power in the use of the _symbol_ to set
forth that vital truth in the ordinance, and that Divine Helper whose
presence you feel in the pulpit will be equally present with you in the
baptismal act.


II. ADMINISTRATION OF THE LORD'S SUPPER.

In some churches it is customary to preach what is termed "an action
sermon," designed to bring vividly before the mind, just previous to
the Supper, the events connected with the sufferings and death of our
Lord; and it often proves a service of great power and value. With us
the ordinance is more commonly preceded by a simple address designed to
fix thought upon the great event symbolized. Whatever the method
adopted, all subjects should be excluded which may divert the mind from
the one great thought of the occasion. The Lord's Table, therefore, is
not the place to bring up items of business, or to reprove the church
for special derelictions in duty, or even to consider plans for church
work. The pastor is often tempted to use it for such purposes, because
then the members are more generally together and are alone. But I think
it is rarely done without loss, for in this sacred service the Lord
designed that the thoughts of every soul should center on Him.

The necessary acts in their order are these: 1. Take the bread, give
thanks, break, give to the disciples, pronouncing the words of
institution. 2. Take the cup, pouring the wine, give thanks, give to
the disciples, pronouncing the words of institution. The service is
usually closed with singing, but whether it was originally a part of
the Lord's Supper, or only one of the hymns prescribed in the Passover
service, we have no means of determining. The question is not
important, but a closing hymn is certainly appropriate, and it is
better to observe the custom. Observe the scriptural order of the acts
carefully, for any deviation will divert attention and is always
painful. In prayer avoid forms of expression that may convey false
ideas of the ordinances. Thus, we sometimes hear: "Bless so much of
this bread," or "so much of this wine," "as may be used," as if
blessing made a change in the elements, and the administrator feared
too much would be changed and the blessed elements might thus be
wasted. Such phrases, which have come down from the ages of
superstition, are adapted to foster among the people false ideas of the
ordinance. Do not talk much during the administration but leave silent
moments in which each heart may commune with itself and with Christ.
Too much talking is the common fault. When God is speaking through the
symbol, let man keep silence. This will be the more obvious if we
remember that the ordinance consists of two essential parts--the
presentation of the symbols of Christ's body and blood by the
administration, and the act of partaking as the symbol of an inward act
of faith on the part of the partaker. If the attention, therefore, is
held by remarks of the administrator, the value of the ordinance may be
lost to the participant from lack of opportunity for silent communion
between his soul and Christ. Above all, enter yourself as fully as
possible into the great idea of the ordinance, and use all means to fix
thought on that to the exclusion of all else. Rightly administered, the
Lord's Supper is one of the mightiest forces God has given to inspire
and purify the heart and elevate the life of the church.



+SECTION VI.+

THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL.

No pastor can be permanently successful if not in sympathy with the
young. He must be the pastor of the children, accessible and attractive
to youth, and must give a cordial recognition and a kindly word as he
meets them. As an aid in this, make a register of their names and a
careful study of their faces, so as readily to recognize them; and
carry with you cards with Scripture mottoes or other little souvenirs
of a pastor's love and interest to leave with them. The most successful
ministers of the present age are, as a rule, active Sunday-school
workers. Of several eminent pastors it was written some years ago: "The
venerable Dr. Tyng, as is well known, attributes his great success
largely to his long-continued and unwearied personal attention to his
Sunday-school. He is never absent from his home school. Rev. S. H.
Tyng, Jr., uniformly conducts the closing exercises of his home school,
and also the Friday-evening meetings of the teachers of all his four
schools, thus by indirection reaching the twelve hundred children who
in turn are taught by these teachers. Dr. Howard Crosby takes up the
lesson on Wednesday evening, and preaches regularly to the children on
Sunday afternoons. Dr. Richard Newton, who has an almost world-wide
reputation as a children's preacher, takes up the Sunday-school lesson
at his weekly service, attends his teachers' meeting, and preaches
regularly to the children of the parish. Dr. John Hall goes each Sunday
morning into his home school and believing in 'hand-shaking as a means
of grace,' takes each teacher and scholar cordially by the hand. He
lectures each Wednesday evening on the Sunday-school lesson to a
well-filled church, the audience having long since outgrown the
lecture-room. He conducts in person a monthly review in his home
school, questioning each class on the lessons of the preceding month.
He presides at the monthly or bi-monthly sociable of the teachers of
his four schools and conducts on Saturday afternoon a ladies' Bible
class which the lecture-room is too small comfortably to hold." These
are, indeed, rare men, but they show the wonderful power that pastors
may wield by sympathy with the young, and by wisely-directed Bible
study among them. Indeed, the preparation of a Sunday-school sermon, by
compelling simplicity of statement and aptness of illustration, is a
valuable discipline for the preparation of ordinary services.

_Hints._--1. In public address or prayer let your appreciation of the
Sunday-school as a sphere of church work and religious power be always
manifest. Make it prominent among the subjects of prayer both in the
pulpit and in the prayer-room. Exhort and instruct the church
respecting the necessity of securing for it cheerful, attractive rooms
and an ample apparatus in music, library, papers, maps, etc. The
interest and liberality of a congregation in this depend greatly on the
interest manifested in the pulpit. 2. Use careful effort to form the
adult members of the congregation into Bible classes, and thus connect
them personally with the school. This can be done to a much larger
extent than is supposed, and the results are of the highest value. It
enlarges the biblical knowledge and enriches the experience of the
adult part of the church. It brings to the school the moral support and
influence of this class. It is a means of holding the young as they
become men and women and preventing their abandonment of the school as
having become too old for it. And it secures a permanent, living
sympathy between the church and the school, thus avoiding that
isolation of the school which, in many instances, makes it practically
a separate interest outside of the church rather than within it. 3. The
pastor should let his presence and personal influence be constantly
felt in the school; but if he have two sermons on the Lord's Day, he
should neither superintend it nor, if possible to avoid, consent to
take a class in it. It will exhaust him often before the second sermon,
and in the end may destroy his nervous power. But he should be often
present in the school, talk to it occasionally, and make the personal
acquaintance of teachers and scholars, moving among them as a friend
and helper. 4. The pastor should, if possible, meet the teachers weekly
for instruction and counsel, carefully studying with them the lesson
for the Lord's Day. The teachers' meeting will afford opportunity for
the consideration, not of the lesson only, but also of all the
interests of the school. As a preparation for this he should make
himself familiar with the best methods of Sunday-school work, that he
may wisely inspire and direct improvement. Or if it be thought that the
helps for the study of the lesson given in papers accessible to the
teachers are sufficient, the pastor's instruction in the teachers'
meeting might take a wider range, embracing courses of lectures on the
Christian Evidences, the Introduction to the Books of the Bible, the
Scripture Doctrines, Sacred Geography, and kindred subjects. In this
case the sphere of the meeting might be enlarged, making it also a
normal class, in which the more advanced scholars, as well as the
teachers, might be prepared for the teacher's work. 5. Great care is to
be exercised respecting the books introduced into the library; for,
while much advance has been made in the style and adaptation of books
for the young, there are many which are not merely trashy but are
positively pernicious. The Sunday-school library is an instrument of
great power in forming the tastes, the opinions, and the habits of the
people, and it is of the utmost moment that the books be pure in
doctrine and healthful in moral and religious tone. 6. The
Sunday-school concert, in which the exercises are prepared chiefly by
the school itself, will be of great value if wisely conducted; but care
is needed to exclude exercises introduced for sensational effect which
may not befit the Lord's Day. Indeed, it is all-important that the
exercise should not be degraded into a mere exhibition, awakening on
the part of teachers and scholars only a desire to produce a popular
sensation and draw the crowd, and on the part of the people a desire to
be amused. The devotional spirit should always be dominant. But in
addition to such exercises, it will be profitable to preach a sermon
statedly--once a month, or at least once in three months--expressly to
the Sunday-school, adapting the whole service to the young. It brings
the pastor and school together publicly and directly and recognizes the
relation of the pastor to it as its chief instructor and guide. But in
the sermon, as in every Sunday-school address, he should be careful
that in attempting to be simple he does not become childish; the former
is necessary to success, the latter is a common and fatal mistake.

Finally, the hearty co-operation and sympathy, above suggested, of
pastor and people with the school will ordinarily avert all difficulty
on the question of the relation of the Sunday-school to the church; for
any school, whether home or mission, which finds itself thus enclosed
within the living sympathies of the church will instinctively recognize
its position as belonging to the church and under its watch-care and
guidance. Nor will the other evil, so widespread and unfortunate, of
the non-attendance of the school on public worship be likely to be
experienced; for the scholars, won by the pastor's personal interest in
them, will be attracted to him and to his ministrations in the pulpit.



+SECTION VII.

PASTORAL VISITATION.

The care of souls is the radical idea of the pastor's office. He is a
shepherd to whom a flock has been committed to guide, to feed, to
defend; and the Divine command enjoins: "Take heed to _all_ the flock,
over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers" (Acts xx. 28).
He is to be the personal religious guide, the confidential Christian
friend, of his charge. Our Lord, in His description of the Good
Shepherd, said: "The sheep hear His voice; and He calleth His own sheep
by name, and leadeth them out. And when He putteth forth His own sheep,
He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him; for they know His
voice" (John x. 3, 4). Each member of his flock is a soul entrusted to
his care by the Lord; and if true to his trust, he is one of those who
"watch for souls as they that must give account." Paul, when in
Ephesus, taught not only publicly, but "from house to house;" and in
his farewell charge to the elders of that city he said: "Watch, and
remember that, by the space of three years, I ceased not to warn every
man night and day with tears" (Acts xx. 31). Dr. Cuyler, one of the
busiest and most effective pastors in Brooklyn, says: "Young brethren,
aim from the start to be thorough pastors. During the week go to those
whom you expect to come to you on the Lord's Day. In the morning of
each day study books; in the afternoon study door-plates and _human
nature._ Your people will give you material for your best practical
sermons. After an effective Sunday work go around among your flock, as
Napoleon rode over the field after a battle--to see where the shot
struck and who were among the wounded."

Dr. Taylor, of the Broadway Tabernacle, New York, addressing
theological students, says: "You will make a great mistake if you
undervalue the visitation of your people. The pulpit is your throne, no
doubt; but then a throne is stable as it rests on the affections of the
people, and to get their affections you must visit them in their
dwellings. I used to look upon my visitation as a dreadful drudgery,
but it has now become my joy, so that whenever I am tempted to despond
I sally forth to visit my flock; and as I look back upon those early
years in which I had no such gladness, I am earnestly desirous to save
you from blundering as I did."

Dr. John Hall, of New York, speaking to a similar audience, said:
"Pains should be taken that nothing prevents your making pastoral
visits. It is very necessary for you to know the people in their homes,
and for the people to know you. The little children and the young
people should know you. The men should know you. It is only in this way
that you can get a distinct idea of the wants of your people, and so be
enabled to adapt your preaching to them. Do not begrudge the time thus
spent. In freely conversing with humble people you will get
side-lights, or particular testimony, that will make you a stronger man
and a better minister for many a day to come."

Bishop Simpson, alluding to the timidity often felt by young men in
regard to pastoral visitation, gives this bit of experience: "I had
much of this timidity when I entered the ministry. The palms of my
hands sometimes burned at the very thought of going out to visit. But I
felt I must go; the church bade me go; I had promised God I would go;
and as the soldier in the army walks forward timidly, yet determinedly,
into the thickest of the fight, so I went in my Master's name. If I
could, I took with me some experienced Christian friend. I spoke to the
people kindly; drew out of them their religious condition and
experience; found many a wandering one and tried to comfort many a
sorrowing heart. Such visits made me better, taught me to feel for the
people, and to break for them the bread of life with more fitness. In a
revival which followed, out of nearly three hundred who came to the
altar for prayer there were very few with whom I had not previously
conversed, and I knew how to enter into their sympathies and to point
them to the Lamb of God."

The late eminent President Francis Wayland, in closing an earnest plea
to pastors on this subject, said: "If, at last, it be said that all
this is beneath the dignity of our profession, and that we cannot
expect an educated man to spend his time in visiting mechanics in their
shops and in sitting down with women engaged in their domestic labor to
converse with them on the subject of religion, to this objection I have
no reply to offer. Let the objector present his case in its full force
to Him who, on His journey to Galilee, 'sat thus on the well' and held
a memorable conversation with a woman of Samaria."

Pastoral visitation, therefore--this personal care of souls--is an
essential part of the pastor's work; and no minister meets the
responsibilities of the sacred office who neglects direct individual
religious contact with his flock. For the performance of this duty,
however, it is obvious no rules of universal application can be given.
Men differ in their characteristics and modes of working, and each
pastor will ordinarily succeed best with his own method. Churches
differ in their circumstances and modes of life, and a method adapted
to one field may not be at all feasible in another. The main points
here to be kept in view are that the pastor in some way come into
personal religious relations with his flock, and that this be done by a
fixed plan. The suggestions made, therefore, will be of only a general
character, and will relate to the limits of this duty, the method of
performing it, and the advantages of its faithful discharge.


I. ITS LIMITS.

In the pastor's plan of work, how large a place should be given to
pastoral visitation?

The pulpit, without doubt, has the highest claim. The pastor is there
surrounded by his whole flock, and stands forth before the world as
God's ambassador, the accredited expositor and defender of the Gospel.
No private duty can rise to the dignity and responsibility of this
great public work, and no plea of pastoral exigencies or pastoral
usefulness can excuse an habitual neglect of thorough preparation for
the sacred desk. This is primary and essential.

But in the pastor's plan he should also aim to secure the visitation of
every family and, as far as possible, every person in his congregation.
In most churches this could be done at least as often as once a year;
in some, doubtless, more frequently than this. By employing system,
laying out the work carefully, and rigidly devoting fixed seasons for
its prosecution, a large congregation can be readily visited. Suppose
that, in addition to those made in cases of sickness and special
urgency, six visits in regular course are made every week, even this,
small as the number is, in half a year would reach more than a hundred
and fifty families--a number above the average of households in our
congregations. For this two or three afternoons each week would
ordinarily be ample, and the pastor, by thus placing himself in living
sympathy with the life of his people, would gain far more than that for
his study by the increased facility with which his sermons would be
prepared and their individual adaptation to the needs of the
congregation. Dr. John Hall says: "I think a minister in good health,
and doing his work easily and naturally, should visit some on at least
five days in the week. I have done that for months together. . . . A
few hours a day spent in visiting gives exercise, bodily, intellectual,
and moral. One studies better for it."

There are, indeed, positions in the ministry in which, from the extent
of the church and the pressure of outside duties, the pastor can do
little in this department beyond the visitation of the sick and cases
of special religious perplexity. But these instances are rare and
exceptional, and in such churches provision ought always to be made to
supply the lack of pastoral visitation either by an assistant to the
pastor, devoted to this work, or by delegating it to competent
committees charged with its accomplishment. When the Baptist Tabernacle
of New York, then worshipping in Mulberry street, numbered over a
thousand members, widely scattered over that large city, the late
venerated Deacon William Colgate organized a plan by which the
congregation was divided into convenient districts, each placed under
the care of a competent brother, and it long proved a most effective
organization for church watch-care and visitation.

There is here a further inquiry: Does the pastor's duty of visitation
extend beyond the limits of his own congregation? The answer to this
must depend on the number of his flock, his special aptitudes, and the
amount of his own strength. The Lord does not require impossibilities.
But whoever carefully considers that even in the rural districts of New
York more than one-half the population attend no evangelical church, I
think, will anxiously ask how this mass of neglecters of the Gospel
shall be reached; and the pastor who looks down Sunday after Sunday on
a half-filled church may well inquire whether it might not be crowded
if, instead of waiting for these careless souls to come to him, he
should go to them and carry the message of the Gospel, with the
urgencies of an earnest, prayerful heart, into the bosom of their
families. Or if this is not possible for him, ought he not to train and
organize Christian workers in his church to make this aggressive
movement on the mass of indifferentism around him? The inspiring and
organizing of such aggressive Christian labor as faithful visitation
from house to house are among the most important duties of the pastor,
and no form of Christian activity is more fruitful in blessed results,
both in the higher Christian development of the visitors and in the
awakening and conversion of those who are visited.


II. THE METHOD.

Here no single method can be suggested that will be adapted to all
positions in the ministry, but the following general views may be
considered.

The pastor's visits should be distinctly understood as designed for
religious conversation. There are other occasions for visits of mere
courtesy and personal friendship, but here his object is to place
himself in religious contact with his people--to learn their
experiences, to remove their perplexities, to comfort their sorrows, to
stimulate their religious activities--and thus, as one entrusted with
the care of souls, to help them heavenward. The minister who passes
from house to house conversing only on topics of mere secular interest
neglects the great business of his life, and in the eye of the Master
fails in the care of souls committed to his charge.

The visit should be religious, but it ought to be divested as far as
possible of stiffness, formality, sameness. A sour visage and a formal
style are not necessary to religious conversation. The pastor comes as
a Christian friend deeply, tenderly interested in the religious welfare
of the family, and while dealing with their souls in all fidelity, he
should use a natural, genial, winning manner such as to put them at
ease and invite their confidence. He is to study character, and to
employ his utmost tact and judgment in adapting his words to those
addressed. Some pastors have a few stereotyped questions and
exhortations which recur in every visit. A process so stiff and
unnatural lacks all moral power; it is soon felt to be mere formal
professionalism. No duty is more delicate or tasks more fully the
minister's resources than the successful management of a pastoral
visit, so as to leave a strong religious impression, and yet secure
from old and young a hearty welcome for its repetition.

In visitation the pastor should overlook none. Domestics and children,
as well as the heads of the family, should share his attention and be
made to feel that he cares for their souls. Nor should any family or
person be overlooked or passed by, but the visit should be strictly
impartial, made alike to the rich and the poor, the converted and the
unconverted. For this reason, it is better to have a regular course in
visitation. Then all know that there is no favoritism, and in their
turn, they will alike share the regards of their pastor.

Ordinarily, the visit should be short. Circumstances will necessarily
to some extent control this, but long visits almost inevitably lead to
the introduction of secular topics and weaken or destroy the religious
impression. Thoughtless persons will often importune the pastor for a
half-day visit, to be followed by a festal dinner or supper. But let
him beware of yielding to such importunities; it is fatal to his work
in the study, and fatal to the religious force of the visit. No earnest
minister will waste his time and powers in the gossip of such a visit.
As a rule, a brief visit--genial, but to the point--followed, when
practicable, by a brief prayer specifically bearing the individual
needs of the household before the Throne, is the most effective, and it
leaves time to visit the whole congregation without distracting from
thorough pulpit preparation.

A pastoral visit should be confidential. No minister has the right to
invite disclosures of the religious state of his people in the privacy
of their families, and then go forth to retail these conversations
through the community. It is the violation of a sacred trust. Many a
pastor has thus destroyed his influence and barred against himself
access to the confidence of his people. If he would be trusted as the
confidential adviser and friend of his charge, let him be true to the
trusts reposed in him in these visits.

Above all, the pastor must remember the injunction, "Instant in season,
out of season." He should make the most of opportunities. In the store,
the office, and the shop, on the farm, the roadside, and the
car--everywhere--he is to seek to lead men to Christ. Wisely, indeed,
he will observe the proprieties of time and place, but he should
neglect no real opportunity of conversing on vital personal religion.
The care of souls is his life-work, his solemn charge, and concern for
their salvation ought continually to reveal itself in his conversation.
Especially must he seize on opportunities to speak the earnest, kindly
word to the unconverted. Ordinarily, this is better done when alone
with them, as they are then more accessible, and the appeal comes with
greater power. The lack of this personal dealing with souls is one of
the saddest defects than can mar the life of a minister.


III. THE ADVANTAGES.

The personal religious growth of the pastor is greatly aided by this
direct contact with the souls of his charge. In a minister's life the
danger is that he may degenerate into mere professionalism. He may come
to study God's Word and its great truths, not with personal
application, but with respect only to the preparation of his sermons
and their application to the people. He may lose a vivid consciousness
of his personal relations to God and read and think and pray with
reference only to others. Many a pastor actually advancing in general
knowledge of the Bible and in professional power as to the composition
and delivery and mental richness of his sermons is, after all, only
retrograding in his inner personal life as a Christian.

But the direct contact with individual souls in pastoral visitation
brings religion before him less as a theory, more as a living, personal
reality. He deals here with religion in the concrete rather than the
abstract. He is the witness of its actual power to comfort in sorrow,
to strengthen in temptation, to guide in perplexity, to triumph in
danger, and his own soul thus enters into a more full realization of it
as a living fact. How often when seeking to guide another to Christ
does he himself find new access to Him, or when administering
consolation to a dejected, afflicted spirit do new courage and hope
spring up in his own heart! It develops within him broader, purer
sympathies and makes him a truer, nobler Christian.

Visitation also affords the best means of studying the people in their
actual life, their characters, opinions, temptations, afflictions and
sins. The successful preacher must be a student of men, especially a
student of his own congregation. Many a recluse pastor wastes the
greater part of his force because his preaching lacks adaptation and
practicalness. His sermon, it may be, is faultless in its rhetoric and
logic and learning and orthodoxy, but it fails to move the people,
because it does not come within the range of their experiences. It
removes none of their perplexities; it touches none of their special
sins; it discusses no questions vital in their life; it is not
Ithuriel's spear, to touch and expose the masked tempter charming and
deluding their ears. The preacher is not in sympathy with the actual
life of the congregation, and the sermon, however abstractly true and
beautiful, does not move and bless them. It is with the actual life the
minister has to deal; and the study of it in all its manifold phases,
as developed under the power of sin and grace, is essential to the
highest power in the pulpit. An old Divine used to say: "The preacher
has three books to study--the Bible, himself, and the people."

Nor should I omit to say here that pastoral visitation is a mentally
enriching process. In the study of life and experience, as a pastor
meets them in passing from house to house, he is ever gaining new
insight into character. In these conversations, new vistas of truth
open before him, and from these visits he comes back to his study with
new texts and subjects for sermons and new illustrations of experience
and doctrine.

These pastoral visits, moreover, establish personal religious relations
between the minister and the congregation, and thus greatly add to
their interest in his sermons. They alter the standpoint of the hearer
in reference to the preacher. The man with whom you have wisely and
tenderly conversed on vital, personal religion cannot turn a cold,
critical ear toward you on the Lord's Day; nor does he--what is equally
fatal to spiritual benefit--listen as a mere admirer of your pulpit
performances. He has a deeper feeling. He turns to you, not merely his
critical and intellectual, but his religious, nature, and the words you
speak, as the utterances of one sincerely seeking his eternal welfare,
come to him with a religious power. This is, without doubt, the secret
of many a successful pastorate, even where there has not been the aid
of brilliant pulpit eloquence. The pastor has established personal
religious relations with his hearers, and to them even his least
elaborate sermons are clothed with sacred power. Brilliant sermonizing
may secure popularity, but only this personal religious contact between
pastor and people secures confidence; and a pastor's real power in
producing spiritual, eternal results is dependent on the religious
confidence of the people in him.

These visits also enable him to meet many whom the pulpit could never
reach. In every community there are the aged, requiring the supports of
religion in their declining life; the sick and sorrowing, craving the
words of Christian consolation and hope; and the careless, needing the
kindly invitation and warning. The pastor is God's commissioned
messenger to such, and in these personal interviews he may adapt
instruction, encouragement, comfort, and admonition to each.

Finally, pastoral visitation is a chief means of blessing and cementing
the pastoral relation. Of late years pastorates have become of short
duration. Hardly is a minister settled and fairly at work before the
question of a change begins to be agitated. May not the decline of
pastoral visitation, so faithfully done by many of our fathers in the
ministry, be in part an explanation of this? The pastor's personal
religious life is not brought into contact with his people; as the
result, their religious confidence is not won, and his ministry is not
in sympathy with their needs. The only bond between them is the pulpit;
and when the novelty of his voice and manner and modes of thought has
passed away, they are tired of him and seek a change.

Besides, when the pastor is not faithful to the souls of his people in
private, they instinctively feel that he is not sincere--at least, not
thoroughly in earnest--in his public preaching. On the Lord's Day he
comes before them proclaiming the most solemn truths and pressing these
truths with the strongest urgency, but in the week, he meets them and
has no words of kindly invitation and warning. He solemnly warns the
impenitent from the pulpit of their imminent peril of everlasting
burnings but meets them in their homes or on the street, perhaps year
after year, without one word expressive of his interest for their
eternal welfare. Such inconsistency makes religious confidence
impossible, and there is no adequate bond to bind pastor and people
together.

But the relation of pastor and people, as God ordained it, is most
sacred and enduring. Charged with the care of souls, he is to move
among his flock as their spiritual guide and friend. The confessional,
terrible as its power for evil is, was after all in its origin only a
perversion of the pastoral institution, based on a real and universal
need--the longing of troubled souls for guidance, help in getting back
to God. This need the pastor must meet as the confidential counsellor
and helper of the individual members of his flock; and if true to this
sacred trust, his resources of power are ever increasing, and new bonds
of sympathy hold him more firmly year by year in the hearts of his
church.


IV. VISITATION OF THE SICK.

This is one of the most responsible and difficult duties of the pastor,
for it often devolves on him the spiritual guidance of souls on the
verge of eternity, when what is said must be said at once and words
fitly spoken are of supreme moment. I have, therefore, reserved this
subject for special suggestions.

1. The people should be instructed to notify the pastor when cases of
sickness occur, for he is often blamed for neglect in visiting the sick
when in fact he did not know of the sickness. He should make public
request, therefore, that notice be sent to him of such cases, with the
fullest assurance of readiness on his part to respond to such a call at
all hours and in all places. Of course, in cases of known sickness
among his own people, a pastor will not wait to be invited, but will
call as an understood part of his pastoral duty.

2. It is always prudent to visit the sick in a rested rather than
wearied state of body, and with a full rather than an empty stomach;
the liability to contract disease is thereby lessened. In contagious
diseases a medical adviser should be consulted as to the best means of
avoiding danger, and disinfectants should be carefully used after the
visit to avoid endangering others. Whether in such cases it is duty to
visit no rule can be given; the decision must be left to the
convictions of the pastor and the relations and circumstances of each.
The words of Van Oosterzee, in his _Practical Theology,_ deserve here,
however, careful consideration: "The negative answer, favored by the
theory and practice of some, finds an apparent justification in the
natural desire for self-preservation and in the teacher's relation to
his own family. In opposition to this, however, stands the
consideration that even the Christian is bound to lay down his life for
the brethren, how much more the shepherd of the sheep! and that, in
this sphere also, loss of life in the service of the Lord is the way to
the preservation of life. Without doubt, fulfilment of duty in this
case may cost a painful sacrifice. . . . Nevertheless, the Lord and his
congregation have unquestionably the right to demand that duty take
precedence of everything; as accordingly Luther, in 1527, during the
prevalence of the plague, remained with Pomeranus and two deacons at
Wittenberg, and in this way answers the question formally raised by him
in his tractate, 'Whether we may flee before death?' When, in 1574, the
question here put was expressly deliberated at the Synod of Dort, the
answer was given, 'that they should go, being called, and even
uncalled, inasmuch as they know that there will be need of them.' With
what right shall the physician of souls withdraw from a task from which
even the unbelieving medical man does not too greatly shrink? . . . The
risk incurred on that occasion finds its abundant compensation in the
gratitude of the flock, the approval of our own conscience, and the
ever-renewed experience that the Lord supports His servants in this
school of exercise also, and not seldom manifestly preserves them. Of
course, belief in His power and faithfulness can release no one from
the duty of taking those measures of precaution prescribed under such
circumstances by experience and science." The question is sometimes one
of the most difficult in a pastor's life, and without doubt there is
much danger that he may take counsel of timidity rather than of that
faith which becomes a servant of God.

3. Careful preparation should be made for such visits by previous study
and prayer. In this he is to seek a spiritual frame of mind, to select
and familiarize Scripture passages adapted to the different spiritual
conditions and needs of the sick, to elaborate fitting trains of
thought, and to acquire brief, simple, and apt illustrations of the way
of salvation, thus fitting himself for the different phases of
spiritual condition in the sick. I hardly need add that at the basis,
as underlying all preparation, there must be a sound judgment and a
heart in genuine sympathy with the afflicted, so that the pastor comes
into the sick-chamber as a wise and sympathizing friend and is felt as
such.

4. In manner it is important to be self-possessed and natural,
sympathetic and cheerful, putting the sick at ease and inspiring
confidence. The voice should be tender and subdued, but not falsely
keyed and whining. The visit, except in unusual circumstances, should
be brief. A neglect of these things will destroy the advantage of the
interview, and in some cases will exclude the pastor from the sick.

5. In regard to conversation with the sick, no fixed rules can be
given, since the cases present phases so varied; the good sense and
tact of the pastor will suggest the best method in each case. Plainly,
the matter of first moment is a clear, thorough, and accurate
understanding of the spiritual condition of the patient, for without
this the pastor's words may be misdirected, or may even be wholly
misleading. He may administer consolation where the heart is in
rebellion against God and needs rather kindly warning, or he may
encourage hope where the heart is self-deceived, and God has spoken
only condemnation. An interview alone, if it can be arranged, will
sometimes secure from the sick a more full disclosure of the heart, and
will enable the pastor to speak with greater directness and freedom. If
the sick person is a Christian, the question then becomes, Is he at
peace, submissively, restfully trusting all in God's hand? If not,
ascertain what is preventing this, and if possible, help the soul back
to God. If he is not a Christian, seek to know what prevents him from
becoming one, and lead him if possible to Christ. But use a careful
discrimination, distinguishing clearly between the true and false in
religious experience, and avoid mere loose exhortations to come to
Christ, which leave unexplained what Christ is, and what He has done,
and what it is to come to Him. In all cases, whether to saint or
sinner, Christ is to be presented in His fulness of grace and power as
the one Hope and the one Helper for the humble, penitent soul, and the
thought of the sick is to be lifted and turned to Him as a living,
present Savior and an almighty Friend.

6. Prayer, when practicable, should always be offered in the sick-room.
In severe illness it is sometimes advisable to do nothing more than
offer prayer, and in such a case, where the sufferer may be near
eternity, how fitting and weighty ought to be these words of petition!
How tender, earnest, direct, should be the prayer, bearing the case
with all its priceless interests into the presence of God! Vinet
strikingly says: "Expect much from prayer--I mean not only from its
power with God, but from its immediate effects on the sick. We may say
everything in prayer; under the form of prayer we may make everything
acceptable; with it we may make hearts the most firmly closed open
themselves to us. There is a true _charm_ in prayer; and this charm has
also its effect on us, whom it renders more confident, more gentle,
more patient, and whom it puts into affecting fellowship with the sick
man, whoever he may be, by making God present to us both."

These seasons of affliction furnish a pastor the surest access to the
homes and hearts of his flock; and rightly improved they greatly add,
not only to his pastoral usefulness, but also to his personal hold on
the affection and confidence of the families of his charge. Neglect of
the sick and sorrowing on the part of a pastor, or a heartless,
perfunctory manner in performing his duties to them, violates the most
sacred obligations, and is justly felt alike by the religious and the
irreligious as a reproach to him: it must in the end destroy the power
of his work in the pulpit. He should use great care, therefore, to keep
himself informed as to the sick and afflicted, to visit them promptly
and frequently, and to come to their homes, in the spirit of his
Master, with the tender, earnest sympathy of a Christian friend, and
with the rich resources for Christian help and consolation with which
he is entrusted by God as a minister of the Gospel.



+SECTION VIII.+

REVIVALS OF RELIGION.

The history of Christianity is a history of revivals by which the work
of redemption has been advanced among men; there is all reason to
suppose that it will be so to the end. Men dream of the Gospel
advancing with even, steady pace to its triumph, without the
vicissitudes of decline and revival but the thought finds ground
neither in the Bible nor in church history. The great revivals in the
past have been epochs in which the Christian world has risen to clearer
apprehensions of Divine truth and a higher elevation of Christian life.
They have constituted the Divine process by which the Gospel has burst
through the errors and sins of men and has found a more complete
development in the consciousness and life of the churches of Christ.

No careful student of church history will undervalue revivals of
religion. By it no means follows that a pastor is to seek success only,
or chiefly, in these special manifestations of spiritual power. For a
revival ordinarily supposes a previous declension, which it was the
design of the ministry to prevent; for they are given "for the
perfecting of the saints, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Eph.
iv. 12). Fidelity and wisdom in the pastor may keep the spiritual
forces in a church so inspired and organized that its life will not
decline, but develop and strengthen, and its condition consequently be
one of continual growth and progress. Such is the fact in Mr.
Spurgeon's church. As one mingles in its assemblies and observes its
manifold and thoroughly organized activities, the preaching and
devotion, the spirit and life, resemble what is seen in a powerful
revival of religion. The Holy Spirit is continually present, and there
is no cessation in the work of conversion. Toward this ideal a true
pastor will be always working; and where it is attained a revival will
mean, not a recovery from declension, but an acceleration in spiritual
advancement and a mightier display of the Spirit's power in the
conversion of men.

But in the ordinary manifestations of Christian life religious
declension is often a marked and painful fact, and the pastor should
seek the best methods for promoting a revival.

Here it is of primary moment to remember that a genuine revival is the
result of the presence of the Holy Spirit: without Him there may be
excitement, but there can be no spiritual movement. It is "not by
might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord" (Zech. iv. 6). A
deep sense of this is essential, and all thought and feeling should be
turned to the invocation of His presence; but the Spirit works through
human agencies and according to the laws of the human mind. The use of
appropriate means, therefore, is also essential.

Here I suggest: 1. Christian life in the people will seldom rise above
the spiritual level of the pastor; it is, therefore, of primary moment
that the minister's own soul be "in the Spirit"--humble, fervent, and
believing. Noise and zeal and declamation and management can be no
substitute for the Holy Spirit in the soul. 2. As a revival of life in
the church is ordinarily the condition of an awakening among the
unconverted, the preaching at first should be specially adapted to
search the experience and life of Christians, and lead to increase in
personal holiness and personal activity. The church is "the light of
the world" (Matt. v. 14), and the power of the Gospel on the world
depends on the clearness with which this light shines. 3. Seek to
promote faithful personal conversation on the part of Christians with
their unconverted kindred and friends. It is sometimes useful to
organize committees to visit religiously from house to house in the
congregation. It is obvious, however, that great care should be taken
both as to the _personnel_ of such committees and as to the method of
their work. 4. Meetings should be multiplied as the interest manifested
will justify. Continuous meetings concentrate attention on the subject
of religion, fix impressions which otherwise might be evanescent, and
lead to religious decision. The block may seem unaffected by a single
blow, but a succession of blows on the same point cleaves it. 5. The
mode of conducting special meetings must be determined by the existing
indications of the Spirit and providence of God. If gifts abound in the
church, it is often better not to have additional preaching, but to
continue social meetings, taking care to give variety, in their tone
and form. If preaching is necessary, the question whether an evangelist
is to be sought, or help obtained from neighboring pastors, or the
pastor himself should preach, must be determined by the circumstances.
All these methods have proved useful. If assistance is sought, care
should be used to secure a man of right spirit and practical wisdom.

The question may arise: Ought a series of meetings to be commenced when
there is no special religious interest apparent? I reply: It seems to
me that certainly equal reasons exist for the appointment of continuous
meetings to awaken interest in the subject of religion, as for the
appointment of such meetings to awaken interest in temperance,
politics, or science. The same mental law is invoked in all such
cases--viz., that _continuous_ attention to a subject causes the mind
to become interested and absorbed in it and rouses the will to act
respecting it. Now, as the Holy Spirit works in the soul, not contrary
to the constitution God has given to the mind, but in accordance with
it, the interest thus awakened by continuous attention to the religion
of Christ would seem to furnish the natural conditions for the Spirit's
work. And as the Gospel of Christ is the most important subject to
which the attention of men can be called, there would seem to be the
highest reason for the application of this mental law by appointing
continuous meetings in order to fix men's attention upon it.

In protracted meetings, however, there are sometimes serious evils,
which a pastor should carefully avoid. Of these I mention: 1. A mere
man-made excitement, in which the effort is rather to inflame the
religious feelings than to enlighten and strengthen religious
conviction. Such an appeal to the emotional, apart from the rational,
nature results ordinarily in a disastrous reaction in the direction of
indifferentism and skepticism. Many a field has been burnt over by
these _pseudo_-revivals, and they constitute the most difficult fields
for Christian labor, because religion has thereby been put under
contempt. 2. A protracted meeting entered on for secondary ends, as to
pay off a church debt or to strengthen the position of an unpopular
pastor. Where a revival is sought without dominant regard to the glory
of God and the salvation of souls, the effort is a failure. 3. A
tendency to dependence upon protracted meetings to the disparagement of
the ordinary means of grace. Great care is needed to guard against
this, as it is destructive to the tone and effectiveness of
church-life. The pastor, in prayer and sermon, should be careful to
keep prominent before the people, not the revival as the great hope of
Christian life and progress, but the right us of the usual, constant
means of grace. Some ministers habitually speak as if the work of God
in conversion and sanctification were restricted to seasons of
revivals, and the effect is pernicious. To avoid this false reliance on
special services, it is well not to appoint them at any stated
intervals, or to push them in any way into special prominence. 4. In
the reaction which occurs after the extreme nervous tension of a
protracted meeting, guard against relapse in the converts. In the life
of a plant the period of greatest peril is when it is transferred from
the hot-bed to the ground, for, missing the warmth and protection of
the bed, and exposed to the cold and storms of the open field, it will
inevitably droop and wither and die, unless carefully tended. The most
difficult and arduous work of a pastor is after a revival in the care
and instruction of converts, when the unusual stimulus to Christian
activity is withdrawn; and it is just here that the evils exist which
are commonly charged on revivals and evangelists, but which in reality
result from remissness in the pastor and church. The converts should be
introduced at once into the Sunday-school or Bible class, and should be
made personally acquainted, as far as possible, with the members of the
church. Where the number of converts is large, the pastor might
privately request some judicious experienced members to give them
special attention, quietly handing to each a list of those thus
specially commended to his or her friendly notice and care. A place and
a work for each of the converts should also be sought; this is very
important to their comfort and development.



+SECTION IX.+

CULTIVATION OF SOCIAL LIFE IN THE CHURCH.

The development of a true Christian life in the church depends much on
the social influences which, like an atmosphere, pervade and envelop
it. These, therefore, the pastor should seek to inspire and control. As
far as possible, the membership should find their society within the
church--not in a spirit of clannish exclusiveness, but on the principle
that the higher bond of spiritual affinity, which binds them as a
church to one another and to Christ, involves, as a natural
consequence, the lower bond of social affinity, so that the church is
the natural sphere of the soul's activities, social as well as
spiritual. To make the social life of the church strong, healthful,
enriching, such as render it a magnet to attract other souls, is of
primary moment in a pastor's work. I suggest two ways in which this may
be done.

1. Personal effort to promote mutual acquaintance in the congregation
by introducing strangers, and by securing for them those attentions
which will naturally draw them to the church as a home. See that they
meet a cordial welcome at the public meeting, and also socially by the
calling of members at their homes, and by extending to them social
courtesies and kindnesses. A watchful pastor may do much to secure this
by personal suggestion.

2. Social gatherings in the church, in which the people shall have
opportunity for acquaintance and for the exercise of the social
feelings. These differ in plan. (1.) They are sometimes purely social,
in which the object is conversation, music, and such forms of
recreation as may be innocent and healthful. The tact of the pastor
will here be required to give the right tone and spirit to the
gathering, to promote general acquaintance and sociability, and to
guard against doubtful forms of amusement. (2.) They sometimes add to
the social the literary element, and a part of the time is occupied
with readings, recitations, essays, poems, and the discussion of
subjects in history, biography, general literature, and science. These,
when carefully managed, are often of great value in advancing the
general culture and intelligence, and in calling out, especially in the
young, talents which would otherwise be undeveloped. The successful
working of such an organization of course presupposes broad
intelligence in the pastor and not a little careful thought and labor.
(3.) Sometimes the object is not only social and literary, but also
missionary, and the exercises consist in part of reports on missionary
work, home and foreign, correspondence with missionaries, and essays on
the lives of eminent missionary characters and topics relating to the
missionary enterprise. The organization might also engage in different
forms of actual mission work, such as mission Sunday-schools, religious
meetings at destitute points, and personal labor, young men among young
men, young women among young women, to bring them to church and
otherwise help them in entering and prosecuting a Christian life.

The social element is so mighty a force that no pastor can afford to
ignore it; nor should he imagine that it will take care of itself, for,
left unguided, it will almost certainly take a false direction and
destroy much of his work. His true position is as its inspiring leader,
thus linking its power to those forces which shall ensure his success.

_Hints._--1. The pastor, I think, should ordinarily hold no official
position in these organizations, but should stand related to them
simply as pastor, and as thus the general head of all church
organization; and he should be felt not so much (if at all) in the
assertion of his authority as in the way of quiet suggestion and
inspiration. 2. In all social life there will necessarily be different
social centers, caused by naturally differing social affinities, and it
is unwise to attempt to break this up. But care should be taken that
these social centers do not take on the exclusiveness of cliques with
party spirit and jealousies, and that the aristocratic element does not
develop itself to the discomfort or exclusion of the poorer classes.
These tendencies, always present, should be carefully held in check.
3. Every house of worship should have a church parlor, or some room
which can readily be converted into one. This should be furnished
attractively, and supplied with musical instruments, pictures, and
other means of culture. If a reading-room and library can also be
connected, it adds much value in the increase of intelligence among the
people. A church will readily furnish funds for this purpose if
properly instructed; for parents, aside from the advantage they
personally derive from such an arrangement, will feel the advantage to
their families of a church social life so strong and attractive as to
draw and hold the children to the associations of the church in
preference to the associations of the world.



+SECTION X.+

THE PASTOR AS AN ORGANIZER.

One chief function of a pastor is to develop and utilize the spiritual,
mental, and social forces of the church. There is in every congregation
much latent force, which needs to be developed, alike for the growth
and usefulness of those who possess it and for the results it might
secure for the church and the world. The minister is, in this respect,
a general to whom troops are entrusted; his work is to train and
organize and lead. The troops are to fight: he is to inspire and direct
the battle. Some hardworking pastors take on themselves burdens which
it were far better to lay on the people--better for the pastor, in
leaving him free for other work, and better for the members, in calling
out their gifts. Indeed, one of the strongest bonds which bind a church
together is the consciousness of being mutual workers, each having a
post of duty and a share of responsibility. No member should be left in
a purely receptive attitude--a mere attendant and listener--but each
should have a place and a work assigned him. That church attains the
truest and highest growth in which every member is a worker under the
stimulus of a consciousness of responsibility and of a useful sphere of
activity. Much of the imperfection of church-life is due either to the
fact that this latent force is undeveloped, or, if developed, is
misdirected. Here I suggest:

1. A pastor should carefully study his people with the view of
ascertaining and utilizing their special aptitudes and gifts. The
prayer-room, the Sunday-school, the teachers' meeting, and the pastoral
visit all afford constant opportunities for this. One may show aptitude
for teaching and may be entrusted with a Sunday-school class. Another
has the weight of character and the tact of leadership which fit him
for conducting a neighborhood prayer-meeting. Another has the solid
judgment and clear discernment of character which will make him useful
on a committee of discipline or finance. Another, though possibly not
marked in exhortation or prayer, may have social qualities such as
admirably qualify him for managing the details and arrangements of the
social gatherings of the congregation. A pastor who will constantly act
on the motto, _A place and a work for every member,_ and will press
this motto on those who conduct the different departments of work in
his church, will soon find himself at the head of an active, living,
and ordinarily happy people while yet he is not personally overburdened
with the details of church-work. In some instances of eminent pastoral
success, the chief secret has been in this power of developing and
utilizing the gifts of the church.

2. The organization of associations within the congregation for
different departments of work is another means of developing and
utilizing the spiritual forces in the church. I have spoken in another
place of literary and missionary organizations, but I may here add that
an association for Christian work composed of young men in a church,
and a similar one for young ladies, may often prove of great value--the
one to act among young men, to attract and hold them to the church; the
other for like service among young women. To such associations might be
entrusted also mission Sunday-schools and distinct spheres of
missionary effort. In a large congregation it is often desirable to
organize committees for the care of the sick and the poor, and the
visitation of strangers needing to be invited and welcomed to the
congregation, and of erring and sinning ones needing to be won back to
holiness and the church of God. In most places it is useful to have
committees for the general visitation of the field occupied by the
church, each committee being entrusted with a distinct district in it
and made responsible for its cultivation. In neighborhoods remote from
the church much good is often secured in local prayer-meetings placed
under the supervision of some judicious person. A thoughtful pastor,
thoroughly supervising his field, will find constant work, and manifold
forms of it, in which he can utilize either individuals or
organizations in his church; and in doing this there is a double
blessing--that which comes to the workers, in making them larger and
happier Christians, and that which comes to those for whom they labor.
Two things, however, are here to be observed: (1.) Organizations should
not be so multiplied as to conflict with the general meetings of the
church or with each other. Each should subordinate its arrangements to
those of the church, and each should have its own separate,
distinctly-marked sphere. (2.) They should be kept under the pastor's
supervision and subject to his guidance. It will be readily seen that
this supposes care and tact on the part of the minister.

3. It is important that in this development of the forces in a church
the pastor should mark those cases among the young in which special
promise of intellectual ability appears and should inspire and direct
them toward a higher education. Intellect is a gift of God: it is
criminal to leave it undeveloped. Be thoroughly alive to this fact and
impress it on the people. You will see young men and young women in
your congregation who might, with adequate intellectual culture, occupy
positions of power in life, and carrying into those positions a
Christian character as well as a cultivated intellect might exert a
wide and beneficent influence for Christ in the world. It seems to me
one of the highest duties of a pastor to foster in such minds a desire
and purpose for an education, and to facilitate in every possible way
the attainment of that end. He should perpetually stimulate the people
to a larger and higher intelligence, and never be satisfied unless
numbers of the youth of his church are in higher institutions of
learning. A failure to develop his people intellectually is a discredit
to any minister.

4. Another important end to be secured is the development of
ministerial gifts. The prayer-meeting, the Sunday-school, and the
general work of the church will commonly, but not always, make these
manifest. Sometimes a very diffident young man may possess them, but
only encouragement will develop them. A pastor should be on the watch
and should take occasion to call out the latent power. A few kindly
words of encouragement have often developed a man of ultimately wide
usefulness. Besides this class, there is much talent in the church that
could be utilized in lay-preaching, where men of good speaking and
spiritual knowledge, without relinquishing business pursuits, might be
employed at destitute points to proclaim the Gospel. A pastor's care is
needed in seeking out and setting at work these gifts for
lay-preaching, and thus multiplying the agencies for evangelization
around him.



+SECTION XI.+

FUNERAL SERVICES.

Funeral services bring the pastor into most tender and influential
relations to the families of his congregation, but they are also among
the most perplexing and difficult parts of his work. Warm sympathy must
here be combined with wise discretion, or he may destroy at the funeral
the effect of his most faithful teaching in the pulpit. Here I suggest:

1. Ordinarily, it is better to avoid a formal sermon at funerals. It
unnecessarily protracts the service, often to the serious discomfort of
the people, while it overtasks the minister both in the preparation
required and in the performance of the duty. In case of the death of
some person occupying public station or official position in the church
a sermon may be proper, but even then, it is usually better to deliver
it on the following Sunday in the church. Sometimes also, in districts
remote from the place of worship, where the people seldom hear
preaching, there may be an advantage in a full sermon. But commonly a
service at the house, brief, simple, tender, will secure the best
results. This usually consists of the reading of a selection of
Scriptures, an address, and a prayer. Singing is added, if desired by
the bereaved family and singers are available.

2. Eulogies of the dead should be very sparingly indulged and should in
no case be made a prominent feature. For much eulogy, even of
confessedly good qualities in the deceased, will almost always provoke
remembrance of any opposite qualities he may have had, and will thus
fail of its object. Besides, if eulogy forms a marked feature in a
minister's funeral addresses, the omission of it, when ministering at
the funeral of one whom he cannot conscientiously eulogize, will be
embarrassing to him, and will often give offense to the friends. An
analysis of the character of the deceased at such a time is a very
delicate and difficult task, and it should not be undertaken except in
those comparatively rare cases where the character has been so
conspicuous for its high qualities that the moral judgment of the
community instinctively recognizes it as a fitting model. Great care
should be exercised, also, in regard to expressing, in the address or
prayer, an opinion as to the spiritual character and destiny of the
deceased. A minister, in the fervid sympathy evoked by the occasion, is
sometimes betrayed into forms of expression such as only Omniscience
may rightfully use. It is, indeed, his right, at the interment of one
whose Christian character has been well attested, to assume that God's
promises have been fulfilled, and to speak gratefully and joyfully of
the blessedness of the pious dead; but in so doing he should speak
rather with the confidence of hope than with the assumption of an
absolute knowledge of the secrets of the heart.

3. The subject-matter of the address will often be suggested by the
special circumstances connected with the deceased or the occasion.
Apart from these, many general lines of thought will suggest themselves
to the thoughtful pastor. Of these the following may serve as hints:
The fulness of power in the Gospel to prepare for death, in its
renewing, justifying, and sanctifying grace; The blessedness of the
Christian beyond death, as admitted into the immediate presence of
Christ and into the purity and associations of that holy place where He
dwelleth; The glorious resurrection of the dead as the completing act
of redeeming power and the ultimate goal of the Christian course; The
certainty of the Christian's hope, as based on the promises of an
unchanging God, contrasted with the uncertainty of all earthly
expectations. Or special phases of truth and sources of consolation may
be presented in the informal development of some passage of Scripture.
Thus: The sympathy of Christ with the sorrowing, as seen at the grave
of Lazarus and on other occasions; The certainty that affliction is not
accidental but is ordered in the infinite love and wisdom of God; The
compassion and tenderness of God, as seen in that He doth not afflict
willingly; The high and blessed results He intends in affliction; The
brevity of earthly sorrow and the eternity of heavenly joy. Subjects
adapted to such occasions will continually suggest themselves to a
pastor who is in living, personal sympathy with his congregation; and
it is wise to note them down as they occur and carefully preserve them.
At the funeral of an unconverted person the selection of a subject is
sometimes difficult; for here the minister, while he must needs be a
"son of consolation" to the bereaved, is also under obligation to be
faithful to the Gospel and to the souls of men. He may not suggest,
even by implication, a hope respecting the deceased which neither his
sober judgment nor the truths he preaches allow him to feel; nor may he
pursue a line of remark adapted to weaken a conviction of the solemn
truth that a personal acceptance of Christ and a humble following of
Him in this life are absolutely essential to salvation; for in so doing
he would be inconsistent and untruthful. It is equally evident, also,
that in such a service, where he stands as a minister of consolation,
it is not his duty to aggravate the sorrow of the bereaved by specially
emphasizing the fearful doom of the unbeliever. Perhaps the general
course of thought for such occasions would be found in topics which
relate to the brevity and uncertainty of life; the way of salvation in
the Gospel; the rectitude and tenderness of God's providence; the
refuge for the afflicted in the sympathy and salvation of
Christ--topics which, while necessitating no allusion to the spiritual
character and state of the deceased, yet afford ample scope for
presenting the nature and urgencies of the Gospel and the true sources
of consolation for the bereaved. Whatever the topic, the spirit and
manner should be dictated and pervaded by a genuine sympathy for the
sorrowing, and a hearty appreciation of whatever was excellent in the
character and life of the deceased. Though not a Christian, he may have
been a valuable citizen, a just and generous man, a true and unselfish
friend, a good husband and father. If any personal remarks are made,
such characteristics may properly be recognized on such an occasion as
honoring his memory and rendering his death a loss to the world.

4. The service at the grave should ordinarily be brief, as the people
are standing, and the circumstances of the place render an extended
service undesirable. Some pastors use here some one of the printed
manuals of burial services, others read from Scripture, or repeat from
memory, a selection of passages relating to death, the grave, and the
resurrection, and others make a brief address. Whatever the method
adopted, the service should be carefully prepared, and should vary in
its form, in order to secure in this, as in all services, variety and
adaptation to the occasion. The service is closed by the apostolic
benediction, prefaced sometimes by a few words of prayer.

5. It is desirable to visit the family in which death has occurred
before the funeral services, both to express your sympathy in the
affliction and to learn any facts respecting the deceased and the
arrangements for the funeral that may be necessary for you to know. The
pastor should here have the character of an adviser and friend. In all
arrangements for the funeral it is better, in general, to conform to
the customs of the community; but so far as he may use influence in
regard to these, it should be in favor of inexpensive simplicity and
against ostentatious display. Costliness and display at funerals
constitute in many communities an evil of such serious proportions and
consequences that the ministry should decidedly set their face against
it; for, established as an inexorable custom, it often augments and
perpetuates the sorrow of a death in the family by creating debt and
pecuniary embarrassment which remain for years to come. It is also
important to visit the family soon after the funeral to administer
further consolation, and to follow up any good impressions which
affliction has made. This is often one of the pastor's best
opportunities, as the heart is then tender and susceptible to religious
influences. It is in these dark hours of adversity that the Gospel is
felt in its saving, consoling, helping power in the soul, and the
pastor here should work with Providence, carefully improving the
opportunity.



+SECTION XII.+

CULTIVATION OF THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT.

The importance of a deep, all-pervading missionary spirit in the church
can hardly be overrated. Its value is not to be estimated only in the
work done and the money raised for the spread of the Gospel, but also
in the enlarged and enriched life of the church itself, and the higher
and nobler type of Christian character it thus presents to the world. A
pastor who fails in this is failing at once to make his church a power
for Christ in the world, and to secure within it the fulness of life
which Christ intended it should possess.

To develop and foster a missionary spirit in the church requires, as a
first necessity, the presence of such a spirit in the pastor himself.
Without this no method, however excellent, will be likely to succeed;
but with it the spirit of missions will not appear merely on special
missionary occasions, but will pervade all his public utterances in the
pulpit and the prayer-room. It will diffuse itself as an atmosphere of
life through the whole congregation, and, inbreathed, it will impart
vitality and power to the whole body. But, added to this general
influence, a fixed method of labor for this is desirable, and in regard
to this I make the following suggestions:

1. A regular system of contribution for benevolent objects, taken
either by subscription paper or by public collection or in boxes
conveniently placed for receiving the funds. It is the custom of many
churches to divide the year into four or six periods, devoting two or
three months, as the case may be, to each of the benevolent objects;
and this has often proved successful. Whatever plan is adopted, it
should secure regularity of contribution, and should reach the whole
congregation, old and young, rich and poor; otherwise, only the few
will contribute, and the blessing connected with self-denying giving
will be lost by the mass of the people.

2. A missionary sermon at least as often as the recurrence of these
periods. In these sermons the great principles of benevolence should be
developed and enforced, and the leading facts in the different
departments of Christian work spread before the people. It is not
necessary or desirable to preach a "begging sermon" with sensational
incitements to give. In fact, our Lord's great principle, "It is more
blessed to give than to receive" (Acts xx. 35), suggests that giving
should be presented, not as a duty chiefly, but rather as an exalted
privilege whose reward is in itself. Properly prepared, "the missionary
sermon" may be made a most attractive feature in the pastor's public
work; and if steadily kept in view and materials carefully preserved
for it as they occur in his reading and reflection, the preparation
will not be difficult. A special note-book, preserving thoughts and
illustrations for missionary sermons, will rapidly fill up with a
pastor who reads with method and care.

3. The monthly missionary concert of prayer. This is of vital
importance, because here the missionary spirit of the church finds
devotional expression. The pastor makes a serious mistake who fails to
maintain this or allows it to be regarded as of minor moment. No
meeting is capable of being made more effective for his home work than
the monthly concert, properly conducted. In regard to this I offer the
following hints: (1.) It is not necessary to restrict the sphere of the
meeting to foreign missions, but there are important advantages in
allowing it to embrace all departments of evangelization, home and
foreign, through the different branches of work--in the pulpit, the
school, and the press. Thus one evening might be devoted to the
condition of the freedmen at the South and the work in progress among
them, educational and missionary; another to the work of home missions
on the frontiers of civilization at the West, developing the leading
facts respecting the vast immigration into those new regions, the needs
of Christian workers there, and the kind of work there to be performed;
and another to the Karens or Assamese or Chinese, or other division of
the foreign work. The meeting would thus be highly educative by the
whole range of its information, and would promote a broad intelligence
in the membership, while the breadth of the field would afford an
unfailing variety of vital subjects to interest and hold the people.
(2.) In opening, the pastor might present a brief survey of the whole
field, selecting only events of special interest and incidents adapted
to impress them. This might be followed by one or more papers or
statements, from selected members of the church or congregation, on the
special field chosen for the evening, or on some prominent laborer in
it, the time of the speaker or reader being carefully limited. This
would leave ample time for prayer, which is the main purpose of the
meeting, and for such spontaneous utterances as might be made by the
assembly.

The hints above suggested are necessarily imperfect and general, for
every church has its peculiarities, and the pastor must often adapt his
methods to theirs. But the object to be attained, the missionary
development of the church, is of the highest moment, and he should
study methods with the fixed purpose of reaching, in some way, that end.



+SECTION XIII.+

THE PULPIT AND THE PRESS.

In the olden time the Bible formed the chief reading of Christian
congregations, and the pulpit occupied the place of power in popular
instruction. This is now changed. The newspaper, the magazine, the
popular novel, the multitudinous products of the press, crowd the Bible
from its former place even in religious families, and the platform and
the press rival the pulpit as vital educative forces in guiding and
controlling popular thought. It is useless to declaim against this; it
is one of the great facts of providence connected with our age and
life; but the wise pastor will carefully consider what he can do to
control this inevitably potent force of the press, and make it a help
instead of a hindrance to his work; for with proper supervision this
vast power may be made a most beneficent auxiliary to the pulpit. Here
I suggest:

1. The pastor should aim to secure in every family a good religious
newspaper. This is a matter of primary moment, for such a paper is an
ever-present force, educating religious thought and feeling and
enriching and elevating practical life. Most pastors would be startled,
on making the inquiry, to find how few families in their congregation
take a religious paper, and how many are taking only trashy and often
morally poisonous publications, the habitual reading of which must
utterly neutralize the instruction and influence of the pulpit. The
magazine and newspaper are the habitual reading of the family circle;
and the pastor who fails to exercise watchful care in regard to the
character of this reading will often find it one of the most
destructive forces at work among his people.

2. The intelligent and thoughtful minister, in his public and private
work, will often call the attention of his people to good books, and
use his influence to introduce them. His people, pressed under secular
care and toil, are most of them not in a position to judge of the value
and tendency of the literature offered to them; and they rightfully
look to him, as an intelligent and studious man, to guide their
judgment in the selection of reading. The Sunday-school library also
should be carefully selected under his eye and secured a wide
circulation. In a large congregation it may sometimes be of advantage
to have a reading-room and a circulating library, placed under the care
of some association; and over this also the pastor's watchful
supervision will be required. He should also provide himself with
tracts--brief, simple, pungent, clearly setting forth sin, redemption,
repentance, faith, and Christian duties--such as may awaken the
careless, guide the inquirer, and press to duty the hesitant Christian.
These little winged evangels are most valuable auxiliaries in his
pastoral work and should be kept for judicious circulation in the
inquiry meeting, in pastoral visitation, and in seasons of revival. As
issued by our Publication Society, they are now of such wide variety
and high value, and of such slight cost, that no pastor should allow
himself to neglect a means so important to his success.[1]

3. The subject of reading and books should also be presented in the
pulpit that the great importance of care in this may be felt, and the
purity of the homes of the people be guarded against a pernicious
influence of a poisoned literature. Many a Christian parent has never
been aroused to the real peril in which he is placing his family by the
reading he thoughtlessly admits to the home circle.

4. A pastor should also seek to inspire and elevate the public
sentiment of the community where he is located in regard to schools,
lyceums, libraries, and public lectures, so as to secure pure and
Christian influences at these important fountains of public opinion and
character. As an educated man and a Christian minister, this duty
naturally devolves on him; and his influence, rightly and quietly used,
may often determine the question whether the schools shall be under
Christian or non-Christian instruction, or whether the lecture-course
shall be filled by men who revere God's Word or by those who hate and
traduce it. No minister ought to be indifferent to the public sentiment
around him; for it is the intellectual and moral atmosphere in which
his people live, and which must needs tend either to poison or to
purify their souls.


+FOOTNOTES:+
[1] It would be well were every church to see that the pastor is
    furnished with a sufficient supply of such publications. Some
    churches are accustomed to make regular provision for this
    object. They believe that the soldier should not be expected to
    purchase his own ammunition.--EDITOR.



+SECTION XIV.+

RELATIONS TO OTHER DENOMINATIONS.

The pastor's position and work bring him into contact with other
ministers and churches in the community, and his comfort and usefulness
will to some extent depend on the esteem and confidence with which he
is regarded by evangelical Christians outside of his own church. He
will find many of the noblest Christian men and women in churches
differing in name from his own, and he should seek to maintain with
them the most frank and cordial relations. This is especially important
as regards the pastors, since, when relations of mutual affection and
confidence exist, the ministry in any community can be eminently
helpful to each other, and by combining their counsels and influence
can often greatly advance the religious interests of the whole people.
I suggest, therefore:

1. Do not isolate yourself, standing aloof from the general Christian
community, but seek the acquaintance of all good men. Show a friendly,
cordial spirit and a readiness for all offices of kindness, alike in
the relations of social life and on those public occasions when all
Christians gather for united counsel and worship. In such a course you
will find the love and sympathy of the Christian community attracted to
you, greatly augmenting your comfort and influence, and giving added
power to your public work.

2. Such friendly relations among Christians of differing views involve
of necessity a full recognition of their common Christian character and
a hearty accord, each to the other, of sincerity and purity of motive
in their church position. This a just self-respect requires you to
insist on for yourself, and this, in the spirit of genuine charity, you
should freely accord to others; such a position is consistent with the
most full and free expression of your denominational sentiments and the
most earnest defense of them. It simply requires that amidst the
different opinions of Christian men there should be a charitable
judgment of each other's character, and a careful abstinence from
language that might reflect on the motives of those who differ. It is,
I think, the common fact that the genuine respect and confidence of any
Christian community are most fully secured by that pastor who, while
always decided and earnest in the expression and defense of his
denominational convictions, is also always careful, in the spirit of
true charity, to recognize the sincerity and integrity of those whose
convictions may be opposed.

3. An occasional exchange of pulpits by the evangelical ministers in
the community has many advantages. It is a public recognition of the
substantial unity of Protestant Christendom. It gives to the minister a
wider audience than if always limited to his own congregation, thus
enlarging his acquaintance and tending to secure for him the interest
and confidence of the whole people. It is sometimes a relief, enabling
him to make use of former pulpit preparations when specially pressed by
the exigencies of pastoral work. In such an exchange it is obvious that
courtesy and comity require that the minister should conform to the
usages of worship observed in the congregation where he is thus
officiating, and that the subject presented should belong to the Gospel
as held in common by evangelical Christians, and not to matters
controverted among them. In this, as in all relations with other
pastors and churches, the minister should observe with scrupulous
delicacy the requirements of courtesy and honor.

4. Union meetings are sometimes held by churches of different
denominations for the promotion of a revival of religion, during the
progress of which each church is expected to waive its distinctive
peculiarities and all unitedly press on men the claims of the common
Gospel. Such a union of effort has undoubtedly proved useful among
feeble churches and in neighborhood meetings remote from large centers
of population; for there, from the paucity of numbers and gifts, all
the Christian forces must needs be concentrated in order to maintain
the interest. In such meetings every consideration of honor requires
that the subjects presented should be restricted to those common truths
of the Gospel in which all are united; a departure from this is always
to be deplored. Among strong churches, however, where gifts abound, the
utility of such a union is more doubtful; indeed, it is questionable
whether there are not positive disadvantages. For, (1.) The members of
the participating churches in such a meeting are placed under unusual
circumstances which often serve to repress rather than develop their
activity, and thus the labor falls on only a few more prominently
gifted persons; whereas, a meeting in which the responsibility rested
on only one church would have drawn into active work the mass of its
members, and secured to it the blessing which such general activity
brings. (2.) According to the Baptist faith, the ordinances of the
Gospel vividly set forth Divine truth before men, and in the experience
of our churches their administration is commonly attended by the
convicting power of the Holy Spirit in the consciences of those who
witness them. But in a union meeting these cannot be administered, or
even alluded to, without impropriety, and this element of power is
lost. (3.) It is not unfrequent, at the close of such meetings, that
the efforts of such churches to secure members from the converts result
in friction and unkind feeling--an evil sometimes more than
counterbalancing the good done in the temporary union. While,
therefore, it is not denied that union meetings have sometimes been
useful, as a general thing they are not desirable. A church will
ordinarily develop more effectively its own gifts and its own spiritual
power by working alone and in accordance with its own principles and
methods. It allows its light to shine most fully and clearly only when
it steadily teaches and defends whatever of truth it has learned by the
teachings of the Word of God. At the same time, its relations to the
other churches in the community will, in the long run, be far less
likely to be embarrassed and embittered.



+SECTION XV.+

CHANGE OF FIELD.

Instability in the pastoral office is the common fact and every pastor,
sooner or later, meets the question, Shall I change my field? One cause
of this is to be found, doubtless, in the restless spirit of the age,
which is impatient with the old and ever clamoring for the new. This is
specially the case in our country and is one of the natural results of
rapid growth and a widely-diffused spirt of enterprise.


I. EVILS OF CHANGE.

The evils of a change of field are many and serious and only the most
imperative reasons will justify a pastor in making it. For, 1. It
involves a serious loss in the pastor's working capital, for the
confidence and love of a congregation, which a true minister acquires,
constitute a chief element in his power. These, however unlike mere
popularity, are only slowly acquired; but, once secured, they add
immensely to the value of his public and private work. But this
advantage is all relinquished on leaving the field, and must be again
slowly acquired at another post. A pastor's power also to benefit a
people by a wise adaptation of his work to their character and needs
must depend largely on his knowledge of them; but in making a change
this is lost, and can be regained only by similar study of a new
congregation. 2. Few ministers widen their range of original
investigation after their first pastorate. At the first post they are
compelled to push out into new lines of thought, but in a new field the
temptation to use old subjects, if not old sermons, often proves
irresistible, and their life-thinking is likely to move round in the
same narrow range. Pastoral change often thus checks intellectual and
theological growth. 3. This restless expectation of change also
discourages broad, comprehensive plans for the instruction and
development of the church, and tempts the minister to aim exclusively
at immediate results. Hence, his sermons are largely sentimental or
sensational, confined within a limited range of topics, and the
development of church-life is correspondingly dwarfed. 4. The marked
decline in public respect for the ministry is probably in part a result
of this feverish restlessness, which weakens confidence in them as men
of high, unselfish purpose, and compels a community to regard the
minister no longer as a permanent force in its life, but rather as a
transient sensation.


II. INADEQUATE CAUSES OF CHANGE.

Many causes operate to unsettle a pastor which ought not to produce
that result; indeed, some of them, if rightly interpreted, would have
served rather to strengthen than to dissolve the pastoral relation.
Thus, 1. Mental depression. A sedentary, studious life often induces
abnormal nervous conditions, and the hypochondriac misinterprets the
feelings of the people and underestimates the results of his ministry.
A change is in consequence resolved on, which subsequent developments
show to have been wholly unnecessary. 2. The loss of popularity. This
is often due to real defects in the character and work of the pastor,
and its true remedy is not a change of field, but a correction of his
faults. Imperfect preparation has, perhaps, made his sermons
commonplace and his pulpit a failure. Or he has failed to cultivate
executive, pastoral, and social power, and, as a result, the church is
not in effective working condition, and no bonds of personal sympathy
and affection bind pastor to people. Or there are imperfections in his
spirit and life, and these forbid confidence and respect on the part of
the congregation. In all such cases a loss of popularity does not
indicate so much a change of field as a change in the spirit, plan, and
work of the pastor, for these defects would in any field soon lead to
the same result. 3. Difficulties in the church. Such trials enter more
or less into every minister's lot, but they may be no indication of
duty to change. The trial may be sent as a discipline, designed to
develop, through faith and patience, a nobler character and higher
power in the pastor. Change in this case is only a cowardly running
away from duty, and consequent failure to gain an intended blessing.
Many a disruption of the pastoral tie, it may be feared, is thus only a
shrinking from trial and intended discipline and results only in loss
to pastor and people. 4. Ambitious seeking for distinguished position.
There is an unhallowed ambition which, unsatisfied with advancement
through natural growth, is ever restlessly seeking, by newspaper
notoriety, sensational sermons, and influential friends, to secure
prominent places in the ministry. A vacant pulpit in a conspicuous
church is usually beset by many such ambitious aspirants for place and
notoriety. It is hardly necessary to suggest that such a spirit is at
the farthest possible remove from the genuine spirit of the Christian
pastor; and in the end it reacts disastrously on the reputation of him
who indulges it, for self-seeking and pretense are sure, sooner or
later, to be exposed.


III. VALID REASONS FOR CHANGE.

A change of field is doubtless sometimes the duty of a pastor, and the
providence and Spirit of God, which guided him in forming the pastoral
relation, will make equally plain the obligation to dissolve it. Some
of the reasons which may require a change are the following: 1. Growth
in pulpit and pastoral power beyond the scope of the field. A young man
has settled, perhaps, in a circumscribed field. Fidelity in study and
labor has developed him, so that his capacity plainly fits him for a
wider sphere. If this is made evident by the judgment of his brethren
and the providence of God, he is required by duty, alike to his own
life-usefulness and to the cause of Christ, to enter the wider field
opened before him. 2. The necessities of health in himself or family.
The severity of the draft made in this age on the intellect and nerves
of the minister may sometimes compel change so as to obtain relief by
the more free use of previous pulpit preparations. This, though
unfortunate for the intellectual growth of the minister, is still to be
chosen rather than broken health. Or the climate may prove unfavorable,
and on this account a change be demanded. 3. Inadequate salary. The
pecuniary support may be insufficient for the growing needs of the
pastor, and a new post with larger salary may be opened to him. Here,
however, great care must be taken in scrutinizing motives, for a
wealthy church and a large salary have glittering attraction and appeal
strongly to mere selfishness. The need of a larger income must be real,
not fancied. 4. Permanent discomfort and embarrassment in his work. A
minister, even after the most conscientious discharge of his duties,
will sometimes find controlling influences in the church arrayed
against him, or his cherished plans of church work defeated by
counter-counsels; so that the pastor and permanent and influential
members of the church are in relations wholly incompatible with comfort
or efficiency. Now, if these relations cannot be altered, it would seem
clearly his duty to leave, and to enter a field where his relations
will be congenial and his labors unobstructed.

Finally, I suggest: A pastor must expect trials in any church, and
commonly, in a change of place, he will only find a change in the form
of trial. It is a serious question whether in most instances of change
a simple faith in God, a patient forbearance, and a persistence in
faithful work would not have avoided the necessity and added much to
the strength of the pastor in the higher development of all the forces
of his intellectual, moral, and spiritual nature, and in the
enlargement of his influence as a minister of Christ. Certainly, the
unrest so widely seen now in the ministry argues a great wrong
somewhere, either in pastors or in churches, and is serving to
deteriorate the character and weaken the influence of both.



+SECTION XVI.+

MINISTERS NOT IN THE PASTORAL OFFICE.

All ministers are not called to the pastorate; and it is sometimes the
duty of those who were once called to that position to leave it and
enter a different department of ministerial work. In the ministry which
the ascended Christ gives His church, besides pastors, there are
"evangelists" and "teachers"--terms designating important classes of
ministers permanently existing in the kingdom of God. A brief
characterization of these, and of the functions with which they are
charged, may properly be presented here.


FIRST, EVANGELISTS.

Of this class, Philip, Barnabas, Apollos, Timothy, and Titus are
examples in Scripture--men having no permanent, local charge, but
commissioned to preach and administer the ordinances of the Gospel
wherever the Spirit and providence of God might call. These men were
engaged, for the most part, in work analogous to that of our foreign
and home missionaries--preaching the Gospel where it was not already
preached, organizing churches, and supervising them in their incipiency
while yet feeble and struggling. It is probable, also, that at times
their work resembled that of those men called, in a narrower sense,
evangelists--men engaged in assisting pastors and churches in special
services for the promotion of revivals of religion. Possibly, Barnabas,
when sent by the church at Jerusalem to labor in the great awakening at
Antioch, may be conceived as acting in such a capacity, as also Timothy
when left in Ephesus by Paul to hold in check certain heretical
tendencies in that city (Acts xi. 22-24; 1 Tim. i. 3, 4). Evangelists,
therefore, may be considered under the following classifications:

I. FOREIGN MISSIONARIES.--In considering the question of duty to enter
the foreign field, the first inquiry necessarily relates to
qualification, since without this no mere desire or emotion in regard
to the work can have any weight. As among the more obvious requisites
for the missionary work the following may be mentioned: 1. _A sound
body._ Most of our mission-fields are in the East, in an enervating
climate, and under conditions such as severely test the vigor of the
physical constitution. No person already enfeebled by disease or
seriously predisposed to disease should venture into the foreign field,
as the probabilities would all be against his ability to labor there.
On this point, it is obvious, skilled medical advice should be sought.
2. _Common sense._ The practical administration of the affairs of the
mission, temporal as well as spiritual--its building, its finances, its
business contracts and relations, the whole management--usually falls
upon the missionary, and requires large practical tact and sagacity. In
a new field he has no reliable advisers and must depend on his own
judgment in deciding on all the temporal concerns of the mission. In
the older fields, while some of the business cares may be devolved on
native helpers, he must still move among the native churches as a
practical and influential adviser, guiding their affairs, settling
their difficulties, and correcting their mistakes. An unpractical,
visionary mind, however scholarly and brilliant, is obviously unfitted
for such a position. 3. _Facility in learning to speak in a foreign
tongue._ A foreign language, and most of all an Oriental language, is
difficult to acquire, especially so as to use it readily and fluently
in common speech. Some men of good abilities have here failed in the
foreign field, and, though useful perhaps in other departments, have
never been effective in preaching. There should be, at least, an
ordinary aptitude for language sufficient to ensure that with
persevering effort the man will be able to master and use the
vernacular of the people. 4. _Power as a preacher._ Preaching, among
the heathen as elsewhere, is the grand means of evangelization, and the
conditions of power in it are everywhere essentially the same. The
missionary must be "apt to teach," with a ready command of his
faculties for argument and illustration, and a mastery of the art of
putting things. In the conversational method of preaching in heathen
lands, he is often obliged to meet in popular argument acute and
profound reasoners, when his defeat before the people might prove a
serious check to the Gospel. 5. _Faith, energy, and perseverance._ At
these outposts of Christianity a timid, wavering spirit, faint-hearted
and irresolute, will be sure to fail. Courage, determination, energy,
alone will achieve permanent results. Carey and Judson waited years
with unfaltering confidence for the first convert, and without
substantially the same elements of character no man will succeed in
pioneer work.

In deciding on the qualifications of a young man, however, it is to be
remembered that he is as yet, in many respects, undeveloped, and
qualities now present only in the germ and tendency will often in the
actual work reveal themselves in marked power. Abroad, as at home,
circumstances and emergencies develop the man. No young man, therefore,
may hastily dismiss the question of a personal call to the foreign
field on the ground of disqualification. Rather, he should carefully
study his own character, and seek counsel of those best fitted to judge
his capabilities, that in deciding a question of such moment he may act
deliberately, with a full and impartial view of all the considerations,
and with a clear conscience, always recognizing the danger that
unconsciously to ourselves our selfishness is likely to magnify the
reasons adverse to a missionary life and underestimate the force of
those in favor of it.

The nature of the missionary work and the manner of its prosecution I
shall not here consider: these will be found very fully presented in
the work of the late lamented Rev. M. J. Knowlton, D.D., _The Foreign
Missionary,_ and in that of Rev. Dr. Rufus Anderson, entitled, _Foreign
Missions, their Relations and Claims._ The position of a missionary is
in some respects one of great delicacy, and requires on his part the
most careful circumspection. Here may be mentioned: 1. His relation to
the Missionary Board at home. Charged with the administration of the
funds entrusted to them by the churches, the Board must of necessity
exercise a certain measure of supervision and guidance in the conduct
of the foreign work. The exact line of demarcation between the
authority of the Board and the independence of the missionary in
directing movements is not always easy to discover, and without a
spirit of gentleness, forbearance, and concession the most serious
complications may arise. In the expenditures of the mission, also, the
keeping and rendering of an exact account are of the utmost moment, so
as to avoid even the suspicion of wastefulness or malappropriation. The
rule of Paul is here, as in all financial trusts, the only safe one:
"Being careful of this, that no one should blame us in this abundance
which is administered by us; for we provide for what is honorable, not
only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men" (2 Cor.
viii. 20, 21[1]). 2. His relations to the native pastors and churches
are also of great delicacy. In the older missions the work of the
missionary is largely that of general supervision of the native
churches. But in this the missionary may not exercise an arbitrary
power. He is not a bishop with authoritative episcopal power,
subjecting the pastors under control and ignoring the independence of
the churches. Rather, his power is moral, and his work is to train the
churches and pastors for the independent exercise of their respective
functions. He should, therefore, carefully guard against an arbitrary
spirit or any methods of procedure which could militate against the
just independence of pastors and churches. It is a distinguished proof
of the high character of the noble men who have gone out as
missionaries that, while in these and other respects their relations
are of such delicacy, difficulties between them and the home Board have
so rarely arisen, and the churches they have trained so fully exemplify
in their character, organization, and working the simplicity and
independence of the churches of the New Testament.

II. HOME MISSIONARIES.--Most of these are pastors of new or feeble
churches, and their position differs from that of ordinary pastors only
in the fact that their support is derived in part from some missionary
organization, and that they are under consequent obligation to render a
report of their work to the body which thus aids in sustaining them.
Some of them, however, are engaged in purely itinerant ministerial work
in the waste places of our cities, or in newly-settled or unevangelized
parts of our country, visiting from house to house, preaching as
Providence may give opportunity, organizing Sunday-schools, and forming
churches. Few positions demand more force of character, soundness of
judgment, intellectual ability, indomitable energy, and
self-sacrificing devotion. Among the men occupied in this work are some
of the noblest and most devoted servants of Christ. Their duties,
however, being in most respects the same as those of ordinary pastors,
do not need here a separate treatment.

III. REVIVALISTS.--In all ages gifts have been bestowed specially
adapted to the awakening and conversion of souls. These gifts may not,
and sometimes do not, fit the man for the pastoral office, but as
supplementing a pastor's gifts they are often of high value. The
revivalist may not always possess the learning and teaching power of
the settled pastor; he might perhaps fail in the qualities essential to
the continuous guiding, organizing, and governing of a church; but in
power to make vivid the truths and impressions already received by the
people, to develop hitherto latent conviction, and to press men to a
definite and avowed religious decision, he may be specially gifted.
Some pastors eminent in teaching and pastoral qualifications lack the
awakening power, and thus it is often true in the spiritual work that
"one soweth and another reapeth." In such cases the revivalist comes as
a reaper, with special gifts for ingathering, where the long and
patient toil of the sower and cultivator has preceded him and has
already prepared in the souls of the people the ripening spiritual
harvest.

1. The relation of the evangelist to the pastor, in special religious
services, is always one of great delicacy. The most frank understanding
and cordial co-operation between them is of the highest moment. Much
care, therefore, should be taken not to encroach on the prerogatives of
the pastoral office, or to lessen the estimation in which the pastor is
held by the people. There is sometimes danger of this. The sermons of
the evangelist, limited as they are in number and frequently repeated,
not only have the attraction of novelty to the people, but are often
spiced with a fulness of anecdote and delivered with a freedom and
force which the pastor's cannot possess, by reason of the different and
wider range of subjects which he must discuss and the far heavier and
more extended draft made on his resources. The less thoughtful hearers
will contrast what seems to them to be the comparative dullness of the
pastor with the freshness and spice of the evangelist, and the pastor
unjustly suffers. Among the converts also there is often a special
attraction to him who had been the immediate agent in their conversion,
while the long and patient toil of him who had probably prepared the
way for that final step is overlooked or disparaged. Plainly, it is the
duty of the evangelist to recognize and hold in check these tendencies,
and to strengthen in every possible way the pastor's position in the
convictions and affections of the people. He may thus render his work a
permanent blessing in the churches by making it the means of cementing
the relation of pastor and people.

2. A young pastor will naturally defer in the arrangements for the
meetings to the judgment and experience of the evangelist, but it is
doubtful whether, under any circumstances, an evangelist should seek
the control of them, or a pastor should concede it to him. Especially
should the pastor maintain the control of those meetings in which
candidates for admission to the church are examined; for here the
pastor, apart from the official duty Christ has laid on him in this
vital matter, has by his acquaintance with the people much better
qualifications for judging character, and is far less likely to mistake
than a stranger. Indeed, the temptation to seek the _éclat_ of a large
accession of converts may enter as an unconscious influence in the case
of both evangelist and pastor, leading to undue haste and neglect of
just discrimination in the admission of members, and resulting in great
ultimate injury to the church. No point, therefore, needs to be more
carefully guarded.

3. The object of the evangelist is the awakening of souls and the
revival of religion; his subjects, therefore, are properly adapted in
their nature and in the manner of their presentation to secure that
result. The range of topics is thus necessarily limited, and the manner
is naturally stimulating and exciting. From this comparative narrowness
in the range of his theme and of his biblical and theological
investigation, there is danger of one-sidedness in his views of truth.
Seeking as he does, also, immediate results, he is liable to fail in
perceiving and estimating at their just importance ultimate results in
the permanent life and power of the church. Measures have sometimes
been adopted in the midst of a religious excitement which the calm
after-thought of the people could not approve, and the result has been
a reaction in the public judgment, condemning the work and seriously
injuring the church.

4. Eccentricity in the evangelist, when it is natural as a part of his
individuality, may possibly be an element of power, at least as
awakening curiosity and calling the people to the house of God, but
when assumed and cultivated with a view to popular effect it is always
unfortunate. Sensational subjects, slang phrases, vulgarisms,
overcolored anecdotes, exaggerated statements, oddities of manner,
though for the moment exciting the attention, and possibly the
applause, of the audience, inevitably in the end react to the
disadvantage of the speaker and his cause; the sober after-thought of
even the irreligious will condemn them in one who is dealing with souls
in the great concerns of religion.

   "He that negotiates between God and man,
    As God's ambassador, the grand concerns
    Of judgment and of mercy should beware
    Of lightness in his speech. 'Tis pitiful
    To court a grin when you should woo a soul;
    To break a jest when pity would inspire
    Pathetic exhortation; and t' address
    The skittish fancy with pathetic tales
    When sent with God's commission to the heart."[2]

The evangelist, perhaps, is in special danger of seeking the temporary
advantage which eccentricity brings, because for the time it gathers
the multitude to his preaching; and, leaving soon, he fails to see the
disastrous reaction which afterward it is sure to bring.

5. Some of the most eminent evangelists have used substantially the
same subjects through their entire career, at each repetition of them
adding to their clearness and force of argument vividness of
illustration and effectiveness of appeal. Rev. Jacob Knapp, whose work
has perhaps been surpassed in extent and power by no preacher of the
present century, adopted this method. The writer was with him in three
series of meetings, the first near the opening of his remarkable
career, the last about thirty years after, near its close, and in each
of these that distinguished revivalist used, for the most part, the
same subjects. But the advance in all elements of power was immense,
especially in the last repetition of his course. Few persons in the
vast multitude which gathered daily for six successive weeks to listen
to this, which proved the closing series of his life, can ever forget
the compactness and force of his reasoning, the graphic power of his
illustration, and the wonderful effectiveness in his application of
truth to the conscience and the heart. He had gathered into that series
of seventy-five or one hundred sermons the richest results of his
life-thinking and experience and had made most of them marvels of
power. This concentration of the whole force of the man on a few
sermons gives the evangelist great advantage in the pulpit and would
seem to be the dictate of true wisdom.

6. In his personal religious life the evangelist, while possessing
great helps, has a possible danger on the side of spiritual pride.
Moving constantly in the midst of revivals, he is liable to forget that
for the most part he is simply reaping where other men have sown, and
that conversion is but the culminating point in a long series of
influences of which his was only the last; and in the grateful
affection of revived Christians and of converted souls, which sometimes
rises to spiritual adulation, he may fail in that genuine humility
which recognizes all spiritual effects as the work of the Holy Spirit,
and may unconsciously assume an air of spiritual superiority painfully
in contrast with his obvious weaknesses. Power with God is thus lost,
and with it, power with men.

There is no ministerial office of higher responsibility or greater
usefulness than that of the evangelist. It has been filled by some of
the noblest and ablest men in the church of God--men "full of the Holy
Ghost and of faith," whose names are fragrant in the memories of
multitudes as heralds of salvation. Ordinarily, only experienced men
should enter it; for it requires a purity and strength of character, a
soundness of judgment, and a largeness of faith and patience, of
practical wisdom and knowledge of men, such as extended experience only
will give.


SECOND, TEACHERS.

The word "teachers" is employed in the New Testament as the designation
of men in churches whose special work was public religious instruction.
It is so used 1 Cor. xii. 28--"God hath set some in the church, first
Apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers"--where the word,
while doubtless including evangelists and pastors, evidently extends to
all whose official work is Christian teaching. Probably, also, in Eph.
iv. 11--"He gave some, Apostles, some, prophets, some, evangelists, and
some, pastors and teachers"--the word has like breadth of meaning,
designating men not pastors who publicly taught the Word. There are
many endowed with teaching power whose gifts the churches, according to
New Testament example, utilize in positions other than the pastoral
office. They are called to various departments of work as secretaries
and agents of missionary and benevolent organizations, as instructors
in institutions of learning, as authors and editors engaged in creating
and diffusing a Christian literature, and as laborers in other
positions in which there is occasion for the exercise of ministerial
functions; and they are, therefore, often ordained to preach and
administer ordinances. On this class of ministers, we submit the
following remarks:

1. Teachers, like evangelists, have no official authority as governing
officers in the church. They are members with all the rights and duties
of membership and differ from others only as empowered to preach and to
administer ordinances. They are amenable, as others, to the discipline
of the church, except that those who have received ordination through
the action of a Council should not be divested of the ministerial
office except by another Council. They have no right to ignore the
ordinary obligations of church membership in pecuniary support,
attendance on meetings, and personal devotion to church-work, but
rather, from their conspicuous position, they are required to be in
these things examples and leaders in the church. 2. This class of
ministers in a church always stand in relations to the pastor of
peculiar delicacy. Though without official authority, their character
and gifts often give them great influence in the church and in society.
Much care, therefore, should be used to avoid any intrusion on the
prerogatives of the pastor. For example, in marriages and funerals
within the bounds of his own church it is ordinarily proper that the
pastor should officiate; only very unusual circumstances will justify a
minister in allowing himself to set aside the pastor in such services.
In the public and social worship of the church he should beware of
taking too prominent a place or of occupying too much time, or of
obtruding himself into the business and discipline of the church in
such manner as to embarrass the pastor. In all relations in the church
and in social life he should accord the pastor the just precedence
which belongs to his official position, and his influence should be
scrupulously used to encourage the pastor's work and strengthen the
pastor's hands. Resident ministers may thus become to the pastor a
source, not of discomfort and embarrassment, but of blessing and
strength. 3. In the absence of the pressure of obligation which a
pastoral charge brings, the minister is in danger of a secularized
spirit, which weakens in him the sense of spiritual realities and
impairs his power in the public ministration of the Gospel. To prevent
this, he should earnestly cultivate in his own soul the ministerial
spirit and should avoid all social or business entanglements which may
either militate against his own spiritual life or may weaken his
influence as a minister in the community. The secretary or agent whose
work calls him from home has need of special care lest, in the constant
changes incident to travel, he loses habits of personal private
devotion and of biblical and theological study. It is possible thus to
retrograde in spiritual character and power, even when pleading the
holiest of causes. Indeed, in such an itinerant life, the mind, thus in
constant contact with the churches and the ministry, may well be on its
guard lest it allow itself to be filled with the current ministerial
and church gossip, and yield to the temptation to pass from church to
church bearing this rather than "the fullness of the blessing of the
Gospel of Christ." Few positions afford such large opportunities to
carry blessing to pastors and churches as that of the secretary or
agent of our benevolent societies. In counselling the young or the
perplexed pastor, in healing divisions in churches and removing
misunderstandings between pastors and their people, in inspiring and
guiding the action of Associations and other public bodies, their
position gives them great power, and opens before them a wide field for
beneficent influence. Such men were Alfred Bennett, John Peck, and many
others in the past--men whose presence was felt as a benediction in the
churches, and whose words gave everywhere an impulse to the spiritual
life; and such also are many of those who now fill that responsible
office.


THIRD, LICENTIATES.

There are many persons whose gifts qualify them for usefulness in the
occasional or the stated preaching of the Word, but whose age or
attainments or needs do not make it expedient to ordain them. To such
it is usual to give a license, authorizing them to preach either within
the bounds of the church, or, more widely, wherever Providence may open
the door. This confers no authority to administer ordinances; the only
ministerial function it authorizes is that of preaching and conducting
public worship. Here I suggest: 1. It is evident that such a license
should be given only with wise discrimination. A man of unsound
judgment, of defective knowledge of the Scriptures, or of doubtful
moral and religious character should never be accredited as a preacher
of the Gospel, however strong may be his personal impressions of duty
or attractive his address in the eyes of the multitude. In the end he
will be likely to injure rather than aid the cause of religion. The
want of caution in hastily or thoughtlessly granting a license has
often resulted in introducing to the sacred office men whose career has
been calamitous to themselves and to the churches. 2. No man should,
ordinarily, venture to preach without a license or some form of
authorization from the church. Every Christian, it is true, is
required, in his sphere, to publish the Gospel; but this surely does
not empower him to assume the office of the public ministry. A call
from God in the soul of the man is, it may be admitted, the matter of
prime moment in a call to preach; but an inward impression of duty to
preach certainly gives no right to the ministerial function, unless it
be confirmed by the church, the Divinely-constituted judge of
qualification. To enter on the public work of the ministry self-moved
and self-appointed has no warrant in Scripture or in reason and is an
act of assumption and disorder which can only result in evil.
3. Churches and pastors, while using a wise discretion, should
carefully seek out and develop ministerial gifts. Much power doubtless
remains latent which with proper care might be developed and utilized
in ministerial work. Many a Christian life now left undeveloped, might
be greatly enlarged by being thus placed in its true sphere of
activity; and many a waste place within the bounds of our churches,
under the culture of a licentiate, might be made to glow with spiritual
life and beauty. It is surely one of the highest duties of a church to
recognize and make effective the gifts Christ has bestowed on it; and
among these none are of greater moment than the gift of ministerial
power.


+FOOTNOTES:+
[1] New version.

[2] Cowper _Task,_ book ii.



+SECTION XVII.+

PASTORAL STUDY.

Study is an oft-repeated injunction on the Christian ministry:
"Meditate upon these things: give thyself wholly to them, that thy
profiting may appear to all" (1 Tim. iv. 15); "Study to show thyself
approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly
dividing the word of truth" (2 Tim. ii. 15). The reasons for this are
obvious. Knowledge is everywhere power. The ministry, from their
position, are the natural leaders in religious thought. To command
respect, they must be men of mental grasp and activity, and must be in
advance of the thinking of those around them. Besides, no other
profession is so heavily tasked for brain exertion. The Senate, the
Bar, and the Platform only occasionally demand the highest efforts of
the intellect. But the pulpit requires weekly its elaborate sermons.
They must have freshness, originality, force, or the pastor loses his
hold on the people. And this exhaustive drain on his resources
continues steadily year after year. No man can meet such demands
without constant, earnest study. He must be ever growing. His mental
processes must be ceaselessly active, pushing into new realms of
investigation, gathering new materials for thought, increasing his
discipline, and making him a broader, richer, deeper man.

In the life of a pastor two extremes are to be avoided. On the one
hand, he is not to be a mere book-worm, secluded in his study, with no
practical, living contact and sympathy with life around him. Some
ministers of large literary culture have been comparatively useless
from want of living connection between their thinking and the real
needs of the busy actual world in which they lived. On the other hand,
a minister may not be a mere desultory man, a gossip from house to
house, occupied with newspapers and magazines, skimming the surface of
popular thinking in ephemeral books that may attract his fancy, but
neglecting the severer processes of self-culture essential to mental
growth. Instability in the pastoral office is often a result of this.
Freshness, originality in thought and expression, is lost, and the
people, weary of repetitions and empty platitudes, cease to respect and
love the pulpit. The grand object to be sought, then, is to combine the
student and the pastor--a mind growing in knowledge and power by
habitual work in the study and growing in executive ability and social
force by constant activity in the church and contact with the people.
To secure this there must be a system--a system wisely formed and
steadily pursued. What shall this system be? In answering this I
propose to pursue two lines of suggestion--the method of study and the
subjects of study.


FIRST, THE METHOD.

1. _Be a student everywhere._ The pastor's business is to deal with the
human mind and the actual experiences of men; he should, therefore, go
through the world with his eyes and ears open, thoroughly studying men
and life around him. In the street, in society, in the social meeting,
the mind is to be ceaselessly at work, observing character, studying
phases of experience and life, and gathering materials for mental work.
Many of the best trains of thought, most interesting views of
Scripture, and most effective illustrations will be suggested in
conversations and in the prayer-room. No man can afford to lose these;
for, springing as they do from direct contact with the people, such
trains of thought are most likely to meet the wants of the congregation
and deal with the questions most vital to them. The studious pastor who
preserves these texts and thoughts and illustrations as they occur will
be surprised to find how rapidly they accumulate, and how fresh and
rich they often render his thinking and instruction.

2. _Have a book always on hand._ Every life has its spare moments, and
much may be added in culture and knowledge by a right use of them. Most
of the current literature of the day, and much in standard biography,
history, science, poetry, and art can be read in this way, if the right
book is at hand. A half, or even a quarter, of an hour each day will
accomplish the reading of a large number of volumes in a year; and if
these are well selected, they will greatly add to the minister's
breadth and intelligence, while they will refresh rather than exhaust
his mind.

3. _Consecrate a specific part of each day to severe systematic work in
the privacy of the study._ The habit of general observation and
reading, before suggested, can be no adequate substitute for this. The
time thus appointed for hard study should be sacredly devoted, and no
ordinary occurrence be allowed to interrupt. The advantages of this are
obvious. (1.) A habit once fixed is an ever-increasing power. The mind
acts with greater rapidity and force when the habit of study at fixed,
regularly recurring periods is formed. Instead of spending hours in
vain attempts to fix attention and concentrate thought on the subject
in hand, the mind enters at once with full energy into work. The more
fixed and long continued the habit, the more easy, rapid, and powerful
the mental processes. This is one secret of the immense amount of
brain-work performed by some men: by fixed habits they instantly
concentrate mental force, and work at white heat. (2.) If these hours
are once fixed, and are fully understood by the people, they will
ordinarily be free from interruption. The congregation will conform to
the pastor's plan and will respect his fidelity in preparing for their
instruction on the Lord's Day. What part of the day should be selected
for the study cannot be determined by any rule; it must depend partly
on the minister's habits, and partly on the necessities of his
position. Ordinarily, the morning is best. The liability to
interruption is less, and it leaves the afternoons and evenings free
for visitation, meetings, and social life.

Let me add, nothing but a high ideal of the ministry and a fixed
purpose to realize it will enable a pastor to persist in such a course
of study. He must believe in it as a solemn duty he owes his God, his
people and himself, or he will fail. Indolence is often fostered by a
false dependence on genius or on the spur of the occasion to give
effectiveness and brilliancy to public utterances. Unthoughtful
hearers, also, will often praise the off-hand, unstudied sermons and
discourage elaborate preparation. Besides this, there are obstacles to
study in the pastor's work. He has cares connected with the sick, the
afflicted, the erring; executive work in the organization and
discipline of the church; and duties he owes society in the varied
relations of life. These are often pressing, and the danger is that
they crowd into the hours for study. Many a man circumscribes his own
intellectual growth and pulpit power, making himself permanently a
narrower and weaker man, by allowing these outside cares to destroy his
processes of mental discipline and growth. Here nothing will overcome
but a profound conviction that study--persistent, regular, life-long
study--is the solemn, first duty of every man who ventures to stand up
in the pulpit as an instructor of the people. Let other duties have
their place, but the first, the most imperative duty of him who teaches
others is to teach himself.


SECOND, THE SUBJECTS.

Let us suppose that the pastor has fixed his hours and made them sacred
to severe, thorough mental labor; what shall he study? I answer: Not
his sermons only. A grave mistake is often made here. The whole time is
devoted to sermon preparation, leaving no room for general culture,
biblical investigation, or theological studies. As the result, the mind
becomes empty and barren. It lacks material for thought. The man is
perpetually pouring out, but never pouring in, and the vessel becomes
empty. He faithfully grinds at the mill but puts nothing into the
hopper. Some conscientious, hardworking thinkers in this way fail as
preachers. They have no freshness. The mind runs perpetually in the
same grooves and moves always in the same narrow circle, whereas, if
they were reading, investigating, looking on subjects from new
standpoints and receiving the mental impulses which contact with other
thinkers gives, the mind would be ever growing, ever enriching itself,
and the sermons would be full of fresh and interesting views of truth.

Three objects are to be sought in the study: general culture, biblical
and theological investigation, and sermon preparation.


I. GENERAL CULTURE.

By this I mean studies adapted to the development of the whole man. The
pastor is not to be, in the narrow, technical sense, a mere theologian.
He should seek to be a man of broad culture, developing his nature on
every side and forming a full, symmetrical manhood. To accomplish this
his studies must take a wide range, and open to him all those great
realms of truth which science, philosophy, poetry, and history reveal.

1. _The sciences._ The pastor should not, indeed, turn aside from his
sacred work to become a devotee to science. But in this age of
scientific investigation, when the problems of science are so largely
occupying public thought and so vitally touching the profoundest
questions in religion, and the applications of science are so
marvelously transforming our whole civilization and life, surely, at
such a time, the man who stands up weekly to instruct the people,
assuming to lead public thought, ought not to be ignorant of the
results that science has reached, although he may not stop to pursue
the processes of scientific inquiry. Astronomy, geology, botany,
chemistry, each open a new world of truth, pouring light on the
interpretation of God's Word and abounding in richest illustrations of
the sacred themes of the pulpit. Standard works on these and related
sciences are within the reach of every pastor, and even one on each of
them, carefully read, would greatly enrich and enlarge his thinking.

2. _Philosophy, or the science of the mind._ The preacher undoubtedly
mistakes when he aspires to the character of a philosopher, and turns
aside from his direct and earnest work for souls to lose himself in
dialectics or the mazes of metaphysical speculation. But his work as a
minister is to deal with the human soul--to influence the mind by
reasoning, by persuasion, by the array of motives; and mind, therefore,
in its power and the methods of influencing it, may well constitute one
of his life-studies. It is here he comes in contact with the
master-spirits in the world of thought--minds which have controlled the
thinking of the ages--Plato and Aristotle, Descartes and Bacon,
Leibnitz and Locke. In the pressure of a pastor's life all these cannot
be read, but a few choice, standard works on mental science, such as
Hamilton, Mansel, McCosh, and Porter, may surely be read and carefully
digested.

3. _Æsthetic Culture._ God has not made us mere logical machines, but
beings of taste, imagination, sensibility, to be moved by objects of
beauty. Much of God's book is in poetry addressed to the imagination,
and the universe around us is crowded with endless forms of the
beautiful. Where a cold, impassive logic fails, truth often comes with
resistless power through the imagination and the sensibilities. The
cultivation of this side of our nature is essential to the development
of a full manhood and is important alike to pastoral and pulpit power.
For this, one of the best means is the careful reading of the greater
poets, the mighty creative minds whose works have stood the test of
ages. Among the last occupations of that magnificent man, the late Dr.
Wayland, was the re-reading of Shakespeare and Milton; and these
wonderful creations of genius afforded his ripened mind the richest
instruction and keenest enjoyment.

4. _History and general literature._ Historical study should, without
doubt, find no small place in this general culture. It enlarges the
whole range of thought, shedding light on God's vast plan of providence
and grace, and thus interpreting the Bible; while in all its wide
extent it is filled with illustrations adapted to enforce the truths of
the Gospel. Nor should the higher class of works in fiction be
excluded, for they often have great value, both for their delineations
of character and life and for the culture they give to the imagination.

Now, in respect to this general culture, the points I here emphasize
are, that it should be systematically and earnestly prosecuted, and
that on all the subjects studied only the standard, thoroughly-tested
authors should be read. Such a plan of reading, steadily pursued year
after year, will make an ever-growing mind, developing symmetrically on
every side into a noble, intellectual manhood. It only requires
conscientious earnestness and persistency. The time wasted by some
ministers in mental dissipation over newspapers and ephemeral
literature would suffice to put them into communion with those
master-minds of the ages, and secure the culture and wealth found in
these highest realms of thought.


II. BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL CULTURE.

The great work of a pastor is instruction in the truths of the Bible;
and wherever else he may fail, he must at least be a master in the
Gospel. Ignorance on some of the topics already mentioned, though
unfortunate, may still be tolerated, but in the man who ventures into
the pulpit as a public instructor in the Bible, a want of biblical
knowledge and the utterance of crude, undiscriminating statements of
truth can never be excused. No mere rhetorical power or seeming
earnestness can atone for a want of thorough mastery of the themes of
the pulpit. Biblical and theological investigation should, therefore,
have a large place in the pastor's plan of study.

1. _Here, first of all, and most important, is the direct study of the
Bible, bringing the mind into living contact with God's Word._ As
students in the Hebrew and Greek, let a part of each day be given to
careful, critical study of the Scriptures in the Divine originals as
they were indited by the Holy Spirit. No translation, however perfect,
can possibly give one the whole impression of the original. A little
careful work each day in reading the original Scriptures will soon make
the process easy and delightful, and its value is above all price. But,
whether in the inspired original or in a version, the Bible should be
carefully studied. It is God's own Word, the great instrument of His
power, "the sword of the Spirit." The Holy Spirit works only through
Divine truth, and that must ever be the mightiest pulpit which most
fully and clearly unfolds these living words of God. (1.) As accessory
to biblical interpretation, I suggest the study of the geography and
history of Bible lands. The power to localize the characters and events
of Scripture and place them in their historical surroundings is of the
highest importance. Thus, in reading the Pentateuch and earlier
historical books, how much more vividly are the events conceived if you
are familiar with the localities in Egypt, the desert, and Palestine;
or in reading Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel if you have clear ideas of the
place and history of Assyria and Babylon; or in the New Testament if
you have studied the condition and localities of the Roman Empire, then
dominant! For this such works as Smith's _Old and New Testament
History,_ Rawlinson's _Five Ancient Monarchies,_ and Milman's _History
of the Jews_ or Stanley's _Jewish Church,_ would furnish the historical
information, while a good biblical atlas, kept always open before you,
would give the needed maps. Full historical and topographical
discussions will be found in Smith's _Bible Dictionary,_ Robinson's
_Biblical Researches,_ or Thompson's _Land and the Book._ (2.) The
Bible, I also suggest, should be studied in its unity. The book of God,
from Genesis to Revelation, is one whole, from first to last unfolding,
by successive steps, one system of truth and method of redemption. It
is not a mere fortuitous collection of sacred writings, but one grand
revelation from God, each part related to every other and essential to
the whole. The types and prophecies and symbols of the earlier
Scriptures contain the germs of the later Gospel, and no man will
thoroughly understand the one Testament without a careful study of the
other. This interior, vital unity in the several parts of Scripture is
developed in such works as Fairbairn's _Typology_ and the _Philosophy
of the Plan of Salvation._ (3.) The books of the Bible should be
studied in their chronological and historical connection. Suppose one
is studying the prophecy of Isaiah: he will ascertain its meaning far
more clearly if he have carefully studied the period when Isaiah lived,
the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah as given in Kings and
Chronicles. Or suppose he is reading the Epistles of Paul: their
interpretation will be far more clear if he have studied the character
of Paul and the circumstances under which he wrote as they are
developed in the Acts and the Epistles, aided by such a work as
Conybeare and Howson's _Life and Epistles of St. Paul._ (4.) The Bible
should also be studied analytically. A cursory reading of the
Scriptures does not interpret them; they must be carefully analyzed if
one would penetrate into their full meaning. For example, one is
reading Romans; he begins, "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to
be an Apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God, which He had promised
before by His prophets in holy Scripture, concerning His Son, Jesus
Christ, our Lord; who was made of the seed of David according to the
flesh, but declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the
Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." Now analyze or
extract the propositions here contained. It is affirmed here of Paul,
1. That he is a servant (_doulos_) of Jesus Christ; 2. That he is a
Divinely-called Apostle; 3. That as an Apostle he is set apart unto the
Gospel of God. It is said of the Gospel, 1. That it was foreannounced
by the prophets in Holy Scripture; 2. That its subject-matter is
concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. It is declared of Christ, 1. That as
to His flesh, or human nature, He descended from David; 2. That as to
His spirit of holiness, or Divine nature, He was clearly shown to be
the Son of God by the fact of His resurrection. Now, the man who will
patiently, steadily work out such an analysis of God's Word as he
studies it will penetrate the heart of it, and its richness will
astonish him. The great thoughts of God will be laid open to his view
as they never can be to the careless, superficial reader; and if, with
such biblical work in the study, the pastor devotes a part of the
Lord's Day either to expository preaching or to a lecture in his Bible
school, this direct connection of the work of the study with that of
the pulpit will add interest and force to both.

2. _In the study of the Christian doctrines it is, first of all,
important to have a system._ This plan of work should be so arranged
that in a course of years, taking one subject at a time, the pastor may
make a thorough investigation of all the leading topics. As the basis
take such a work as Hodge's _Outline of Theology,_ or any good
compendium of theology, and, following the order of subjects, work in
each until its main points have been mastered. For illustration,
suppose the subject is the doctrine of inspiration. First work out
carefully the questions in your chosen text-book, and read some of the
best authors on the subject, as Lee, Woods, Gaussen, and Hodge. All the
points involved will thus be brought distinctly before the mind. Then
collect the leading passages of Scripture bearing on it and examine
each critically and patiently and note down your own impressions.
Follow this by writing a full and careful statement of your own view as
the result of the investigation. Or suppose the subject to be that
great central doctrine of the Gospel, the atonement. After working out
the questions as presented in your text-book and reading the best
authors accessible to you, so as to become master of the vital points,
then examine the priesthood and sacrifices of the Old Testament, the
predictions of the atonement in prophecy, and the passages bearing on
this doctrine in the New Testament. Having thus before you the elements
of a decision, write out fully your own view. Such a process of
theological investigation, steadily pressed year after year, and
connected as it would be with the reading of the great masters in
theology, could not fail to make the pastor a clear, strong religious
thinker and his pulpit a power in leading religious thought. Let me
also urge the study of the history of doctrines in connection with such
a course of theological investigation. Take such a work as Hagenbach's
or Shedd's _History of Doctrines,_ in which the course of theological
thinking on each of the great truths of the Bible is traced through the
ages, and the varying phases of the doctrine through successive
periods, and the forms in which it has been held by the world's
profoundest thinkers are presented. Such a study is wonderfully
stimulating to thought and affords a broader basis for the formation of
opinions. If also, in direct connection with this investigation of a
great truth, the pastor should preach on the leading points involved in
it, he would greatly add to the definiteness of his own views, while
the work of the study would thus come into the work of the pulpit,
enhancing the interest and power of the sermons.


III. SERMON PREPARATION.

_The preparation of sermons should doubtless fill the chief place in
these hours of private study._ This subject, however, belongs to the
department of homiletics, and will be found amply treated in works
specially devoted to it, such as Broadus on the _Preparation and
Delivery of Sermons,_ Shedd's _Homiletic and Pastoral Theology,_ and
the several courses of _Yale Lectures on Preaching._ I will, therefore,
on this topic only emphasize the importance of high ideals of
sermonizing and pulpit preparation.

The sermon is the embodied result of the pastor's culture and reading,
the public expression of his whole spiritual and intellectual manhood,
and he is bound to show himself "a workman who needeth not to be
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Tim. ii. 15). He
dishonors Christ and His Gospel if he habitually preaches without
thorough study.

The sermon is the message God sends by him to the people. It unfolds
high and holy themes, into which "angels desire to look," and on which
the profoundest minds of the ages have dwelt with wonder and awe. It
deals with the souls of men and the great interests of eternity.
Surely, the man who ventures to stand up and speak carelessly and
thoughtlessly on such themes and amidst such interests has failed to
grasp the primary idea of his great office as a Christian pastor.



+SECTION XVIII.+

PASTORAL RESPONSIBILITY.

The pastor, in a true and important sense, is entrusted with the care
of the souls of his congregation; he is, therefore, under obligation to
use his utmost power for their conversion and sanctification, "warning
every man and teaching every man," that he "may present every man
perfect in Christ Jesus" (Col. i. 28). Paul said to the Ephesian
elders: "Take heed to yourselves, and to all the flock over the which
the Holy Ghost has made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which
He has purchased with His own blood" (Acts xx. 28); and in exhorting
the people on their part to obey the ministry, he urges as a reason,
"for they watch for your souls as they that must give account" (Heb.
xiii. 17). This responsibility plainly includes: 1. _A personal life
such that it may constitute a fitting example._ The pastor is to be "an
example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in
spirit, in faith, in purity" (1 Tim iv. 12). Thus, Paul ever referred
to his own life, not as perfect, but as publicly exemplifying the
Christian character, saying to the Philippians (Phil. iv. 9): "Those
things which ye have both learned and received, and heard, and seen in
me, do; and the God of peace shall be with you;" and to the
Thessalonians (1 Thess. ii. 10), "Ye are witnesses, and God also, how
holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that
believe." A defective, irregular life in the pastor neutralizes the
ablest efforts in the pulpit and may become a pre-eminent means of the
ruin of souls. 2. _Wise and faithful dealing with the individual souls
of his charge._ Paul went "from house to house," from soul to soul: he
"ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears," and he
proposes this as an example of ministerial fidelity, requiring the
pastor to be "instant in season, out of season." Evidently, he did not
regard the work of the minister as done when performed only in the
study and the pulpit: it included personal dealing with souls.
3. _Earnest effort to become an able minister of the New Testament._
The most solemn urgencies press on the pastor the duty of seeking the
highest possible intellectual and pulpit power. The themes he unfolds
are the grandest that can engage the thought of man or angel. The end
to be secured--the salvation of souls--is the most momentous ever
committed to a finite being. God will not hold guiltless the indolent,
reckless minister who causes the Gospel to be despised and imperils the
souls of his people by a careless, unstudied presentation of the
message He has entrusted to him. 4. _The faithful declaration of the
whole counsel of God._ He is to show distinctly the threatenings as
well as the promises of the Gospel, and the danger as well as the hopes
set before the soul. No subject is to be avoided because unpopular or
distasteful. No personal considerations are to prevent the plain,
distinct enunciation of all the words of God. Jehovah says to the
watchman: "If thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that
wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at
thine hand" (Ezek. xxxiii. 8; iii. 17-21).

Pastoral responsibility, however, has its limitation. Christ does not
require of His servants impossible labor; but as they have received
their talents, so they are to use them, each "according to his several
ability." If faithful to his trust, the pastor is "unto God a sweet
savor of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish"
(2 Cor. ii. 15-17), and it is his right to feel he has "delivered his
soul" and is "pure from the blood of all men" (Acts xx. 26, 27). Such
was the ministry of Paul, a mere man, aided in this only by such Divine
help as is promised to every other servant of God. It is fidelity, not
success, which constitutes the limit of responsibility. Success belongs
to God. Paul plants, Apollos waters, but God gives the increase.
Jeremiah spoke with the earnestness and tenderness of lips inspired,
but he was unpopular, and, as men would measure, unsuccessful;
nevertheless, his name stands high among the ancient worthies, because
in that degenerate age he was faithful to his trust and work. Besides,
a minister's power is not measured by the immediate, outward result.
The powerful revival in which hundreds are gathered into the church
finds its occasion, indeed, in the peculiar gifts of some popular
preacher, but its real causes often lie hid in the quiet, patient toil
of other men differently gifted. Every man has his special adaptation
and work--one sows and another reaps--and only in the great harvest at
the end of the world will the actual results of each man's work appear.
Hence, Christ says to every servant of His: "Be thou _faithful_ unto
death, and I will give thee a crown of life" (Rev. ii. 10). Fidelity,
then, is the limit of responsibility; and the earnest pastor, who, with
heartfelt loyalty to Christ, has to the extent of his ability and
opportunity faithfully fulfilled his calling, may know assuredly that
he has the approval of the Master, and that awaiting him at the end is
the sure reward of the faithful.



+SECTION XIX.

THE OUTER LIFE OF A PASTOR.

The Scriptures require in the pastor a model life. He is to be "an
example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in
spirit, in faith, in purity" (1 Tim. iv. 12). As the leader of the
flock his outward life will be expected to evince a higher moral tone
and furnish a more marked exemplification of Christian principles than
that of the private Christian, because his office constitutes him an
example, and the prominence of his position renders defects in him
especially conspicuous and hurtful. Hence, Scripture is here explicit
and emphatic: "A bishop, then, must be blameless, the husband of one
wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to
teach: not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but
patient, not a brawler, not covetous; one that ruleth well his own
house, having his children in subjection with all gravity (for if a man
know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the
church of God?): not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall
into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good
report of them that are without, lest he fall into reproach and the
snare of the devil" (1 Tim. iii. 2-7).


I. BUSINESS RELATIONS.

1. _Make no debts:_ "Owe no man anything" (Rom. xiii. 8). In all
purchases for personal and family purposes the pastor should pay as he
buys. It cultivates a just economy and avoids debts, which often prove
a heavy burden on a minister's life and a most serious drawback to his
usefulness. No man is thoroughly independent in the pulpit who is
facing a number of unpaid creditors. Ordinarily, this avoidance of debt
is entirely feasible, and when understood to be a rule with the pastor
it has a beneficial influence in promoting promptness in the payment of
his salary. The people will respect such a course in their minister. At
the very outset of life, then, let him fix it as a principle never to
run in debt. A strict adherence to this will sometimes involve
inconvenience and self-denial, but these are more than compensated in
the exemption from the anxieties and humiliations of debt, in the sense
of independence, in the respect and confidence of the community, and,
above all, in the clear conscience which observance of this rule
secures. Only the most absolute necessity should ever set aside this
rule, for the neglect of this is too frequently a cause of failure in
the pastoral office.

2. _Use great care and all the proper forms in making business
engagements._ The pastor is tempted to neglect business forms on the
supposition that as a minister he ought to rely on the honor and
consideration of those with whom he deals, and as the result, even
where there is no dishonesty, there is often misunderstanding, out of
which grow heartburnings and disputes. All business transactions,
therefore, should be conducted in a business way, leaving no room for
misapprehensions, and then all engagements should be met with
promptness and honor. A pastor should be delicately sensitive to his
reputation in this, for any failure, though it be only an apparent one,
in fulfilling a business obligation is sure to provoke unfavorable
comment and militate against usefulness.

3. _Live within your income._ A pastor may not be reckless in regard to
the probable future needs of himself and of those dependent on him.
Such a course is justified neither by Scripture nor by Providence. "The
Lord ordained that they who preach the Gospel should live of the
Gospel" (1 Cor. ix. 14). A minister, therefore, should find a
life-support in his income from his work, and should so use his salary
that a part be laid aside for coming days of need. If the salary is
small, he should rigidly cut down expenses that some of it may be
reserved. Special exigencies in life, will, indeed, sometimes prevent
this, but ordinarily it is feasible, and in the case of the head of a
family it is plainly a most sacred duty. The neglect of care to make
provision for those dependent on us is not faith, but recklessness.

Here, however, a pastor must beware of covetousness. Instances
sometimes occur in which this just and necessary regard for future need
degenerates into a selfish greed for accumulation which narrows and
belittles the minister of Christ. He compromises his dignity and
independence by seeking in various ways gifts from his people, and thus
the man is sunk in the mendicant, or he degrades his office by
descending to petty meannesses, driving close bargains in business and
shirking his just share in the contributions for church-work and
benevolence. Nowhere is the love of money more offensive than in the
Christian minister.


II. POLITICAL RELATIONS.

1. A pastor should always himself exercise the elective franchise and
should encourage Christians to do so; in no other way can we have a
Christian government. On this continent the great experiment is in
progress of a government strictly by the people, and in the absence of
religion and virtue it must prove a failure. Christian men should not
neglect their duties as citizens; it imperils the life of the nation
and the welfare of the Christian cause. The pulpit, therefore, should
press on the church the duty of seeking the elevation of good men to
official station. 2. As a pastor the minister is bound to refuse all
party obligations and all partisan use of pastoral influence; for he is
pastor of the whole church, chosen and supported without reference to
political distinctions among the members. But as an individual he is
entitled to his political preferences and his just political influence;
with this the church has no right to interfere. At the same time, it is
wise for the pastor to avoid excited political discussions, especially
in public places, and quietly to exercise his political rights and
perform the duties of a citizen. 3. When public questions have a
strictly moral side, I think the pulpit should not be silent, but
should seek, as on moral questions in general, to give direction to
public sentiment in favor of honesty, truth, and virtue. Occasional
sermons, therefore, presenting the obligations of citizens and applying
the moral teachings of Christianity to questions on which Christian
citizens are called to act, are the duty of the pastor; but the time
and manner and spirit of such sermons require the exercise of the most
careful judgment.


III. SOCIAL CHARACTER AND RELATIONS.

Two extremes are here to be avoided--the one, in which the pastor lives
a recluse life, isolated from the life of the people and unfelt in
directing the currents of thought and feeling around him; the other, in
which he maintains a loose, familiar intercourse with all society,
lounging about in public places, a "hail-fellow-well-met" with
everybody. Avoiding these extremes, a pastor should never allow himself
to be a cipher in social life but should make himself a vital force
controlling and elevating it. The gravity of his character and work,
however, requires him to use special care in regard to deportment and
associations. He is, indeed, to be and to act out himself, but, while
true to his own nature as a man, he is so to control it as never to
forget his character and office as a minister of God. Here I offer the
following suggestions:

1. The minister should be, always and everywhere, the unaffected
Christian gentleman, showing all courtesy to all men. It is here some
fail, and either through a neglect of the courtesies and amenities of
social life render themselves repulsive, or by a stiff and artificial
manner of observing them, without geniality and warmth, make themselves
unapproachable. Men ordinarily and justly regard manners as an index of
character. Good manners, therefore, cannot be put on from without; they
spring from a sense of the relations we bear to others and a
disposition to act in accordance with them. A kindly, unselfish heart,
a quick, keen sympathy, a sensitive regard for others' rights and
feelings; a ready, generous appreciation for the excellences of others,
and a tender charity for their faults and foibles--in short, a
well-developed Christian manhood, with refined sensibilities, noble,
pure, upright, transparent, touching life on every side, and fitted to
bless whatever it touches,--this is the only real basis of correct
manners. The cultivation of such a character, therefore, is the prime
necessity, for in this will exist all the instincts of the true
gentleman from which the gentlemanly manner spontaneously results.

2. In the matter of dress. I do not know that any law of propriety
requires the minister to be distinguished either in the cut or the
color of his garments. Many, however, prefer some kind of ministerial
costume as a matter of convenience to indicate everywhere their
vocation, and this is, of course, a subject to be left wholly to
individual preference. The principle to be insisted on as important is
that the dress be not such as to arrest special attention, as
suggesting foppishness and fastidiousness on the one hand, or
carelessness and slovenliness on the other. The man, not the dress,
should arrest and hold attention.

3. In conversation he should be genial, courteous, affable, avoiding
that tone and manner of condescension which carries in it an implied
sense of superiority, and exhibiting that breadth of intelligence and
culture which will secure respect for his views in general society.
Slang phrases, vulgar anecdotes, boisterous discussions, idle gossip,
and scandal, it is hardly necessary to say, ill become a pastor, and
will in the end seriously militate against his usefulness. Coarseness,
indelicacy, and all that is suggestive of impurity should be
scrupulously avoided; such words, when uttered by a minister, live and
fester in the memory, and are destructive of all pastoral influence
afterward over those who hear them. "An obscene story, a lewd double
_entendre,_ a filthy joke, a questionable word or gesture, a sentence
that would make a pure woman blush in public or in private, in select
or in mixed company, is a burning shame and scandal to any minister of
the Gospel." Nor should his chief distinction in society be that of the
wit or mimic. Wit and humor, when natural, are often elements of real
power, as giving sparkle and flavor to speech, but in the pastor their
place is subordinate; when they appear as his chief characteristic,
they inevitably injure his influence. Attractive social qualities, such
as enable the pastor to exercise a leading and governing power in
society, are to be most earnestly sought; their effect on pastoral
usefulness can hardly be overstated.

The minister, when a guest, enjoying the temporary hospitality of a
family circle, should bring into it the blessing of a genial, sunshiny
spirit, showing always a thorough appreciation of kindness received and
avoiding all unnecessary trouble to the hosts. If other ministers are
present, beware of that ministerial clannishness which centers
conversation on topics adapted only to ministers or makes it consist of
ministerial criticism, gossip, and scandal adapted to lower the
estimation in which other ministers are held. In the freedom and
_abandon_ of ministerial society there is often much temptation to
this, but words thus thoughtlessly spoken sometimes do incalculable
injury, both by lowering the ministerial character in the eyes of the
household, and by inflicting an incurable wound on the reputation of
those made the subjects of gossip. The injunction of Scripture cannot
be too carefully heeded: "Let your speech be always with grace,
seasoned with salt" (Col. iv. 6); for thus the spirit you breathed and
the words you spake will remain a benediction with that household and
make your memory fragrant there for ever.

4. In his amusements and recreations a pastor should indulge only in
such as are not only in themselves innocent but are not commonly
offensive to the Christian conscience. The grand principle of
self-denial enunciated by Paul as the rule of his own life is here,
undoubtedly, the guiding principle of ministerial duty. He says: "Give
none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the
church of God: even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine
own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved" (1 Cor.
x. 32, 33). He relinquished self-gratification, even though innocent,
rather than put a cause of stumbling before others and hinder their
salvation. Recreation is doubtless a necessity--the bow always bent
loses its spring--but recreation should never be taken in a form which
may give offence to Christian souls, or which may set an example such
as, if followed by others, might work their injury. A pastor's
influence also may be impaired by undue absorption in any form of
recreation. There is no wrong, it may be, in using a good horse, in
playing a game of ball or croquet, in fishing or hunting, or many other
forms of recreation; but the pastor who is specially distinguished for
his interest in fast horses or for his sporting habits, or as a devotee
of amusements, violates most seriously the proprieties of his position,
and sinks in the estimation of all thoughtful people.

5. A minister's associations or special intimacies should not be with
bad or loose or irreligious men; the taint will necessarily tarnish and
injure his own reputation, even if it does not corrupt his character.
He is to be "a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate" (Tit.
i. 8). He should show all courtesy and kindness, indeed, to even the
worst men around him, but his special friendships should not be sought
there, nor his habitual associations. Some ministers have here made
wreck of their influence with the better classes in the community,
while their association with the loose and irreligious class, so far
from winning them to Christ, has only the more hardened them in
rejecting Him by lowering in their eyes the character of His servant.

6. The pastor's relations with the other sex should not only always be
pure in fact but should also be such as to avoid even the possibility
of misconstruction. No point needs to be more carefully guarded, for
even the suspicion or thought of wrong in this, however ill-grounded,
is commonly fatal to usefulness, and often follows him through the
remainder of life.


IV. PERSONAL HABITS.

The pastor is expected to be a model Christian gentleman, showing the
refinement, delicacy, and culture which the Gospel inculcates and
produces, and improper habits, therefore, in him are more prominent and
influential for evil than in other men. Now and then a minister
exhibits a foolish _bravado_ of public opinion by affecting brusque,
uncouth, eccentric manners and indulging in questionable habits under
the mistaken supposition that, in thus setting at defiance the common
sentiments of mankind in regard to the proprieties of ministerial life,
he is showing moral courage and manhood; nor are there wanting equally
foolish people who will applaud this contemptible exhibition of
personal vanity. But, apart from such exceptional cases, the
ministerial life is always beset by strong temptations to unbecoming
habits. Thus:

1. _Intemperance in eating._ The studious life, as ordinarily pursued,
often tends to dyspepsia and an unnatural craving for food. The bodily
and mental vigor is often thus destroyed, while the obvious absence of
self-restraint degrades the man in the eyes of others. The dullness of
the pulpit and the ill-health of ministers are not seldom traceable to
an overloaded stomach.

2. _The use of tobacco._ The highest medical authorities now agree that
this is one of the common causes of nervous prostration and early
mental decay. The late Prof. Moses Stuart says: "I do not place the use
of tobacco in the same scale with that of ardent spirits. It does not
make men maniacs or demons. But that it does undermine the health of
thousands; that it creates a nervous irritability, and thus operates on
the temper and moral character of men; that it often creates a thirst
for spirituous liquors; that it allures to clubs and grog-shops and
taverns, and thus helps to make idlers and spendthrifts; and finally,
that it is a very serious and needless expense,--are things which
cannot be denied by any observing and considerate person. And if all
this be true, how can the habitual use of tobacco as a mere luxury be
defended by any one who wishes well to his fellow-men or has a proper
regard to his own usefulness?" The duty of self-conquest in regard to
such a habit is evident especially in the minister, whose very office
adds emphasis to his personal example; and the principle involved is
strongly set forth by Paul when he says: "All things are lawful for me,
but _I will not be brought under the power of any_" (1 Cor. vi. 12). He
accounted it an unworthy and dangerous thing for a Christian to come
under bondage to any bodily appetite. But he adds: "Every man that
striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things: now they do it to
obtain a corruptible crown; but we, an incorruptible. I therefore so
run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest by any
means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away"
(1 Cor. ix. 25-27).

3. _The use of stimulants._ The pressure of intellectual work on the
pastor often requires of him the most important public efforts when
worn and depressed, and thus at times the temptation to stimulate is
very strong. The fact of bodily weakness pleads for a stimulant as a
medical necessity. Once indulged, stimulation readily passes into a
habit, and the importance of the occasion is made an effectual plea for
it as an alternative to failure. Now, in all such cases, the
consciousness of self-indulgence, as it weakens self-respect, must
needs also weaken the moral power of the minister. He feels himself
enslaved and cannot speak with authority. While consciously and
deliberately yielding to self-indulgence, how can he preach to others
the moral teachings of the Gospel? Such an indulgence, moreover, places
the man in fearful peril, for it creates the necessity of repetition,
and forms an appetite which in many instances has destroyed the man.
Some of the most brilliant men in the ministry have here made an utter
and terrible wreck of life.

Right habits are, therefore, of primary moment. A man can respect
himself and secure the respect of others only as he exercises habitual
self-control, holding passion and appetite in thorough subjection;
without this the pastor lacks that consciousness of independence and
that true manhood in which alone resides genuine moral power; and his
defects, made conspicuous and influential by his sacred office, may be
disastrous in their influence on those around him.



+SECTION XX.+

THE PASTOR'S INNER LIFE.

Ancient asceticism, in demanding for the ministry a hidden life of
communion with God, gave voice not only to one of the profoundest
intuitions of the Christian consciousness, but also to one of the
clearest teachings of Scripture. The men who deal with spiritual things
must themselves be spiritual. Our age, while rightly rejecting a
perverted asceticism, is tending to the opposite error. It is intensely
practical. "Action!" is its watchword. This practicalness often becomes
mere narrowness and shallowness. It overlooks the profounder laws of
the Christian life. Spiritual force comes from within, from the hidden
life of God in the soul. It depends, not on mere outward activities,
but on the Divine energies acting through the human faculties, God
working through the man, the Holy Ghost permeating, quickening all the
powers of the preacher, and speaking by his voice to the souls of the
people. The soul's secret power with God thus gives public power with
men, and the mightiest influences of the pulpit often flow from a
hidden spring in the solitude of the closet; for a sermon is not the
mere utterance of man: there is in it a power more than human. Its
vital force comes from the Holy Spirit. Jesus said: "It is not _ye_
that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you" (Matt.
x. 20). Its spiritual energy springs from something deeper than logic
and rhetoric. As Bushnell has well said: "Preaching is nothing else
than the bursting out of life which has first burst in or up from where
God is among the soul's foundations."

Such was the teaching of Christ. In His farewell words to His disciples
He promised "another Comforter"--one who should take His place among
them and abide with them for ever. As He had walked with them an
Instructor, Friend, Helper, so after His departure the Holy Spirit
should dwell among them, teaching, inspiring, guiding them, a true and
living Divine Presence ever with them and mighty to help. Blessed as
His own bodily presence had been, the presence of the Holy Spirit was
of still higher moment, for He declared that it was better for them
that He Himself depart and the Spirit come; for the Spirit, whose
office it is to take of Christ and show Him, should reveal the
Christ-presence within them in accordance with His promise: "He that
loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and _will
manifest Myself to him_" (John xiv. 21); "I will not leave you
comfortless; _I will come to you_" (John xiv. 18). Without this Divine
Helper He expressly forbade their entrance on the ministry, and as His
last charge before He ascended He said, "Tarry ye in the city of
Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high" (Luke xxiv. 49).

At the Pentecost the Holy Spirit descended, and how marvelous was His
power! Plain as had been the words Jesus spake, the apostles yet
utterly misconceived the most vital truths; but when the Spirit of
truth came, the Gospel, in its grandeur and power, stood clearly
revealed before them. The men who before had timidly cowered in the
presence of danger now rejoiced that they "were counted worthy to
suffer shame" for the name of the Lord Jesus (Acts v. 41). They whose
selfish ambition had aspired to be "greatest in the kingdom of heaven"
now forgot their mean rivalries, and were inspired with single-hearted
consecration to the Master; and the multitudes who before had despised
and rejected their words, now convicted "of sin, of righteousness, and
of judgment," bowed before this unseen, mighty Power, and cried out,
"Men and brethren, what must we do?" (Acts ii. 37).

Now, it is plain that the Holy Spirit, this special "power from on
high," was promised, not to the Apostles only, but to the ministry in
all ages. In the New Testament period He dwelt, a living, quickening
Divine presence, in all the servants of Christ, revealing truth,
inspiring faith, and making their words the power of God unto
salvation. They prayed in the Spirit; they spake in the Spirit; they
lived in the Spirit. The promise of Jesus was fulfilled: "Lo! I am with
you alway" (Matt. xxviii. 20); for the Christ-presence was continually
revealed in them--a revelation of Him, not, indeed, to the eye, but to
the soul, and unspeakably more blessed than had been His bodily
presence when on earth. Not the Apostle only, but every servant of God,
could say: "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. ii. 20);
and in the hour of peril, when all men forsook him, the Christian
confessor triumphantly affirmed: "Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with
me and strengthened me" (2 Tim. iv. 17). In every subsequent age the
indwelling Spirit of God has been the fountain of power in the
ministry; and the mightiest men in the pulpit, renouncing
self-sufficiency, have confessed, with Paul: "Our sufficiency is of
God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament" (2 Cor.
iii. 5, 6). Conscious of need, they have turned their souls upward to
God, and this Divine Helper has entered and filled them; and all the
faculties and culture of the man, intellectual, moral, and spiritual,
have been transfused, elevated, enlarged, by this invisible but mighty
Power. It has been truly said: "The virtue of an electric wire is not
in the wire, but in its connection with the voltaic battery. The power
of the minister is not in the polish of his style, the pictorialness of
his illustrations, the fervor of his manner, the order and arrangement
of his discourse, but in his living connection with God and his
capacity to act as a connecting-link between God and the human soul. It
is God in the soul which is the secret of true pulpit power."

How, then, shall the pastor maintain an inner life such that he shall
be "endued with power from on high" and God shall speak through him to
the souls of men? In answer this I suggest as a means of chief
importance:


I. THE HABITUAL PRACTICE OF SECRET PRAYER.--For prayer is the bond
which links the Divine power with the human. It is the channel through
which God pours His life into the soul. It is the uplifted hand of
man's weakness taking hold on God's strength. It calls down from heaven
the sacred fire, which alone may kindle the preacher's sacrifice. It
has the most vital relations to the character and work of a pastor.

1. _The relation of secret prayer to the spirit and purpose of the
ministry._

Special dangers beset the pastor. The most sacred services, from their
frequent recurrence, may come to be performed in a perfunctory spirit,
and his life may thus degenerate into mere professionalism.
Unconsciously he comes to meditate, read, and even pray with a view
only to others and its effect on others. The sense of his personal
relation to God is lost. As a public speaker a desire for popularity
may unduly influence his preaching, and conspicuous position tempt his
ambition, obscuring his vision of the great end of his ministry--the
honor of Christ and the salvation of souls. The very respect which his
office secures may foster spiritual pride and make him insensible to
his defection in heart from God. Few men are environed by such subtle
and powerful seductions to a false life as a Christian minister, and
against these only a vivid consciousness of his high calling is an
adequate safeguard. He is God's ambassador, receiving his commission
and his message, not from men, but from the Sovereign of heaven and
earth. The souls of his congregation are entrusted to him, and the
words he is charged to speak are the words of God's saving power. "In
them that are saved" he is "a savor of life unto life," but "in them
that perish" "a savor of death unto death" (2 Cor. ii. 15, 16). If
faithful to his trust, he "shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament" and "as the stars for ever and ever" (Dan. xii. 3); if
unfaithful, the blood of souls will be found on him in the day of God's
inquisition. Now, only a distinct realization of these responsibilities
as an ever-present, living force pervading his spirit will hold the
minister in his inmost life true to Christ and to his work.

It is here prayer has its mightiest reflex power. It gives a vital
sense of God and of spiritual realities. It lifts the life above the
control of lower motives to a loftier moral elevation, with a purer
atmosphere and a broader horizon. The whole man is elevated, ennobled,
transfused with Divine life, as he holds communion with God. When Moses
had been with God in the mount, his face shone with a glory such that
Israel could not steadfastly look on it. It was when Jesus was praying
that he was transfigured, "and His face did shine as the sun, and His
raiment was white as the light" (Matt. xvii. 2). God imprints His own
image on the soul that comes face to face with Him.

The inner life of a preacher always stands revealed in the pulpit; it
transfuses itself through his preaching. No mere declamation, no arts
of rhetoric, no dramatic simulation of emotion, can conceal the absence
of spiritual life. Moral earnestness can never be assumed; it is the
attribute only of a soul profoundly feeling the power and reality of
Divine truth. The man, therefore, who would speak God's Word with the
pungency and fervor of a Bunyan, a Baxter, a Flavel, or a Payson must,
like them, be constant and fervent in prayer. The springs of spiritual
life opened in the closet will pour forth never-failing streams of life
in the pulpit. Luther said: "Prayer, meditation, and temptation make a
minister." He himself is said to have spent three hours daily in
prayer, and those mighty words which thrilled the heart of Christendom
were the utterances of a soul thus glowing with the flames of devotion.

2. _The relation of secret prayer to the apprehension of spiritual
truth._

Spiritual truth is revealed only to the spiritual mind: "The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; . . . neither can he
know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. ii. 14).
Spiritual susceptibility is the essential condition of apprehending
spiritual truth. A soul instinct with Divine life, sensitive to Divine
impressions, in sympathy with Divine things--this, and this only, can
enter in to a realization of those great truths which constitute the
Gospel. Without this the very message the pastor is charged to preach
he himself will fail to apprehend. He may, indeed, see the Christian
doctrines through the eye of an impassive logic, but such a lifeless
intellectualism, even when abstractly correct, has no power. The
theology of the pulpit is a theology vitalized by prayer and glowing in
the heart as a great, living reality. The hearts of men are most surely
moved by living truths vividly realized in the speaker's soul. The love
of God in the incarnation and death of His Son, the guilt and danger of
the souls of men, the glories of the saved and the miseries of the
lost,--these are not matters of cold intellection. To him who lives in
the atmosphere of prayer they stand out as vivid realities. Such men,
like Paul, "believe, and therefore speak;" and in words of burning
fervor they utter these great truths and press them on the souls of
men. Payson, on his death-bed, said: "Prayer is the first thing, the
second thing, the third thing, necessary for a minister." Whitefield
spent hours of each day on his knees with God's Word open before him,
and it was from the audience-chamber of heaven he went forth to speak
those marvelous words of power which stirred the souls of the
multitude. These eternal truths thus passed in him beyond mere
intellections; they took possession of the whole man, and he could but
speak with tender pathos and holy boldness, as he saw light in God's
light, and the spiritual world was thus all ablaze with light around
him.

Jesus Himself, the Chief Pastor, lived a life of ceaseless prayer.
Pressed under the burden of souls, he waked while others slept.
Sometimes He spent the whole night in prayer; at others, "rising up a
great while before day," He sought communion with the Father.

   "Cold mountains and the midnight air
    Witnessed the fervor of His prayer."

And if He, the Sinless One, the God-man, must needs thus pray, if
prayer was essential even to His inner life and to His power in the
work assigned Him, how much great necessity must press on His weak,
sinful servants! If communion with God filled so large a place in the
life of the Chief Pastor, it surely should not have less place in the
life of the under-shepherds.


II. THE HABITUAL SELF-APPLICATION AND SELF-APPROPRIATION OF DIVINE
TRUTH.--The habit of viewing truth objectively in its relation to other
truths or to other souls, rather than subjectively in its relation to
one's own soul, is one of the greatest dangers of the minister, because
his work tends directly to keep uppermost in his thinking the needs of
others. He may thus come to conceive vividly and to present strongly
the most affecting and stupendous truths of the Gospel without the
least thought of their relation to himself and their bearing on his own
life and destiny. Nor is he in this necessarily insincere. He has an
actual and strong conception of the truth and of its pregnancy with
weal or woe to others, and in pressing it he is true to his present
conviction; but his conception of it is purely in its relation to
others, and secures no application to his own spiritual wants. Now,
God's only way, so far as we know, of saving and sanctifying an
intelligent soul is through the truth; and this not truth conceived in
the intellect as a mere object of thought, but truth conceived in the
heart, entering into the center of a man's being, and acting as a
life-force in his deepest moral convictions and affections. "Born again
by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever" (1 Pet. i. 23),
"Sanctify them through Thy truth, Thy Word is truth" (John xvii. 17),
are passages which indicate an unvarying law of the Gospel. All
spiritual life comes from the Holy Spirit, acting through Divine truth
received into the soul. To this law God has not made the minister an
exception. The measure of religious life in him, as in every man, is
determined by the extent of this believing appropriation of Divine
truth and its consequent living power in him. He may be, therefore, a
learned theologian, holding in his intellectual vision a wide range of
truth, while yet, from failure in heart appropriation of it, he is a
dwarf in vital spiritual development, because Christian life grows not
from mere knowledge, but from truth believingly appropriated.

The pastor, therefore, should cultivate the habit of applying and
appropriating to his own soul the truths he preaches. He should
habitually look at them in their relation to himself and take them into
his own life by a distinct act of faith, which believingly, joyfully,
appropriates them as belonging to him. Every truth thus received will
become in him an added element of life, deepening and enlarging his
religious consciousness and imparting a richer and more blessed
experience. Then, from this fountain of life within, thus ever enlarged
and enriched, he will present in the pulpit, not a dead system of
doctrines, but a living Gospel which shall come with fulness of life to
the people.


III. AN HABITUAL SELF-SURRENDER AND CONSECRATION TO CHRIST AND HIS
WORK.--Selfishness, in its more insidious forms, endangers the life of
a pastor. Outwardly, by office, he is consecrated to the service of
Christ, and for this very reason he is less likely to detect, deep down
at the springs of his living, the presence and power of a self-love, in
the form of pride, envy, self-will, self-indulgence, and ambition,
which may be, after all, the controlling force in his inner life. The
danger is here the greater because, its growth having been unperceived,
the man is unconscious of its control, and because, with all "the
deceitfulness of sin," it lurks stealthily, but all the more
potentially, within the sacred forms and associations of a consecrated
office. Hence the necessity of frequent and rigid self-examination. A
man must interrogate himself, and with careful introspection seek to
detect the real forces that control his life. There should be pauses in
his career when he will stand alone in the presence-chamber of the
Omniscient One, and cry, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me,
and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and
lead me in the way everlasting" (Ps. cxxxix. 23, 24). The best lives
have found great value in such special seasons privately set apart for
fasting, prayer, and self-examination, as the navigator, in the perils
of his voyage, stops to take observation of the sun and stars and make
certain what is his position and whither the winds and currents are
bearing him. Then, with vision thus clarified, and in full view of his
real position, he should make a distinct renewal of self-dedication to
God, giving up himself, with all he is and has, unreservedly to Him.

Without this self-renunciation and self-devotion to Christ, as an
habitual fact, the inner life will be without spiritual power. Jesus,
in His promise of the Holy Spirit and of the Christ-presence, makes
this the one, essential condition: "If ye love Me, keep My
commandments, and I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another
Comforter" (John xiv. 15, 16). A true consecration of self to Christ,
therefore, assures the presence of the Holy Spirit as the revealer of
Christ within the soul. This was the habitual attitude of the apostle
Paul. He says: "The life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the
faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Gal.
ii. 20). Self was nothing, Christ everything; for when confronted with
peril of death, he said: "None of these things move me, neither count I
my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy,
and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify
the Gospel of the grace of God" (Acts xx. 24). Thus self-dedicated, he
received the promise: The Spirit wrought in him mightily, filling him
with Divine life and power. So utter was his self-abnegation, and so
all-absorbing his love of souls, that, like Moses of old (Ex.
xxxii. 32), he "could wish," were it right and would it secure their
salvation, to be himself "accursed from Christ" for them (Rom. ix. 3).
With like self-devotion to souls, Rutherford, the eminent Scotch
minister, while assuring his flock that they "were the objects of his
tears, care, fear, and daily prayers," said "My witness is above, that
your heaven would be two heavens to me, and the salvation of you all as
two salvations to me." A ministry thus self-forgetting is of necessity
a ministry of power; for God Himself works in it, as all history has
shown.


IV. AN HABITUAL LOOKING ABOVE FOR THE REWARD.--"Godliness" has "promise
of the life that now is" (1 Tim. iv. 8); and nowhere, perhaps, is that
promise more fully realized than in the pastorate in the present age.
In social relations, in opportunities for culture, in friendships
formed, in means of influence, in popular estimation, and even in
temporal support, few positions in life have higher advantages or more
agreeable surroundings. But, with all this, life, even in a faithful
ministry, is, on its earthly side, rarely other than a disappointment;
and the pastor who seeks reward in human applause or in any form of
earthly hope, not only thereby excludes the Holy Spirit from his life
but is also sure to find unrest and failure as the ultimate result. The
rewards of the faithful pastor are from God and are of special
magnitude and blessedness.

The rewards come, in part, in the present life. A faithful minister
finds them alike in a clear conscience and a sense of the approval of
God, and in his work itself and the blessed results following it. With
all its care and toil, the ministry, to the man who knows his call of
God to the work and devotes himself to it without reserve, is the
happiest work on earth. "Sorrowful" he is, "yet always rejoicing."
Henry Martyn said: "I do not wish for any heaven on earth besides that
of preaching the precious Gospel of Jesus Christ to immortal souls. I
wish for no service but the service of God in laboring for souls on
earth and to do His will in heaven." Dr. Doddridge: "I esteem the
ministry the most desirable employment on earth, and find that delight
in it, and those advantages from it, which I think hardly any other
employment on earth could give me." Rutherford: "There is nothing out
of heaven, next to Christ, dearer to me than my ministry." Brown: "Now,
after forty years' preaching of Christ, I think I would rather beg my
bread all the laboring-days of the week for an opportunity of
publishing the Gospel on the Lord's Day than without such privilege to
enjoy the richest possessions on earth." Such is the testimony of godly
ministers in all ages, even in periods of bitter persecution. The
conscious presence of Christ; the blessed privilege of declaring to
guilty men God's rich and free mercy; the delight in the work of saving
souls and of ministering comfort and strength and hope to the
sorrowing, the weak, and the despairing; the joy of communion with
saints,--all these enter into the minister's experience, and give to
his work even on earth an unspeakably rich reward.

But the highest reward of the ministry is reserved in heaven. There
they will "shine as the brightness of the firmament" "and as the stars
for ever and ever" (Dan. xii. 3). "He that reapeth receiveth wages, and
gathereth fruit unto life eternal" (John iv. 36). Every soul won to
Christ here will there be an occasion of eternal joy. Paul said: "What
is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even _ye_ in the
presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?" (1 Thess. ii. 19).
Glorious beyond our thought is the reward set before every faithful
Christian: he shall receive a "crown of righteousness" (2 Tim. iv. 8),
a "crown of life" (James i. 12), "an eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor.
iv. 17) and shall "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of God" (Matt.
xiii. 43); and all this intensified shall be the reward of the true
pastor, according as he is faithful to his high calling from God.

Let the pastor, then, seek most of all to be faithful to Christ and His
work. Let it be to him "a very small thing" that he "be judged" "of
man's judgment" (1 Cor. iv. 4) and let him ever cherish as of chief
moment a clear conscience, finding his highest comfort in the sweet
assurance of God's approval. Be it his to have "respect unto the
recompense of the reward," and so endure "as seeing him who is
invisible" (Heb. xi. 26, 27). Thus, will his life approximate that
grandest of merely human lives--the life of him who declared, "As we
were allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel, even so we
speak, not as pleasing men, but God which trieth our hearts" (1 Thess.
ii. 4), and at the close of which it was said, "I have fought a good
fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the
righteous Judge, shall give me at that day" (2 Tim. iv. 7, 8).

When of old, at the Sea of Galilee, the Lord reinstated Peter after his
fall, He thrice with solemn emphasis proposed the question, "Simon, son
of Jonas, LOVEST thou ME?" He thus taught for all the ages that
personal love to Him is the primal condition for the sacred office.
Without this as the central, fontal principle in the soul the pastor's
life will fail of spiritual power, but with this as its impulsive force
he will be like the faithful minister seen by Bunyan's pilgrim: he "had
eyes lifted up to heaven, the best of books in his hand, the law of
truth was written upon his lips, the world was behind his back; he
stood as if he pleaded with men, and a crown of gold did hang over his
head."



+Transcriber's Notes.+

 - Note about paragraph identification: The first new paragraph on a
   page is "paragraph one." If a paragraph continues from the prior
   page, it is "paragraph zero."
 - Page 5, preface, second paragraph, apply Reverential
   Capitalization (RC) to "Gospel."
 - Page 7, TOC, Section i., apply RC to "Divine."
 - The break between pages 7 and 8 is in a unit that style indicates
   should not be broken: "5.|Preaching." The whole unit was moved to
   the earlier page.
 - Page 8, TOC, section iii., point 5 (2.), change the semi-colon
   after "Exposition" to a colon.
 - Page 11, TOC, Section xx., point 2, apply RC to "Divine"; point 3,
   apply RC to "His."
 - Page 13, Section i., paragraph one, apply RC to "He," "His"
   (twice), "Divine," "My" (twice), and "Apostles."
 - Page 14, paragraph zero, point 2, apply RC to "He," "Apostles,"
   "Himself," and "His." Point 3, apply RC to "Divine," "His," and
   "Gospel." Paragraph one, apply RC to "Divine" and "Gospel."
 - The break between pages 14 and 15 is in the word "consciousness":
   con|sciousness. In this and all subsequent cases the whole word
   was moved to the earlier page.
 - Page 15, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Divine." Paragraph one,
   apply RC to "Divine" and "Word."
 - The break between pages 15 and 16 is in the word "enthusiasm":
   en|thusiasm.
 - Page 16, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel." Point 2, apply RC
   to "Gospel"; change "wo" to "woe"; apply RC to "Gospel"; point 3,
   apply RC to "Divine" (twice).
 - Page 17, point II, apply RC to "Gospel." Point II 1, apply RC to
   "Christ."
 - Page 18, paragraph zero, point 5, apply RC to "Word" and "Gospel."
 - Page 19, paragraph one, apply RC to "Divine." Point III, apply RC to
   "Him."
 - Page 20, paragraph zero, add comma to "prayer the."  Paragraph one,
   point 1, apply RC to "His." Point 2, apply RC to "Divine." Point 3,
   apply RC to "Divine" and "Word."
 - Page 21, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel." Section ii., part
   I, paragraph one, apply RC to "Divine" and "His" (twice). Point
   I 1, apply RC to "Gospel."
 - The break between pages 21 and 22 is in the word "evidently":
   evi|dently.
 - Page 22, point 2, change "centre" to "center"; apply RC to
   "Apostles."
 - Page 23, in-line note on "niggardly."
 - Page 24, paragraph zero, change "practising" to "practicing."
   Point 5, remove comma from "weeks, and." Point 6, change
   "practises" to "practices."
 - Page 25, point II 1, apply RC to "Gospel."
 - Page 27, paragraph zero, add comma to "order for." Paragraph one,
   apply RC to "His."
 - The break between pages 27 and 28 is in the word "service":
   ser|vice.
 - Page 28, point 2, add comma to "activity a."
 - Page 29, point 3, add comma to "failed and."
 - Page 30, paragraph one, remove comma from "place, and."
 - Page 32, point 1, remove comma from "choir, and."
 - Page 33, point III, apply RC to "Word" and "Him." Point III 1 (1.),
   add comma to "Thus a."
 - Page 34, paragraph zero, point (4.), apply RC to "Word."
 - Page 35, paragraph zero, remove comma from "Scripture, and." Point
   (3.), add comma to "instances false."
 - Page 36, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Word."
 - The break between pages 37 and 38 is in the word "expression":
   expres|sion.
 - Page 37, paragraph one, change "exigences" to "exigencies."
 - Page 38, paragraph one, point (1.), apply RC to "Divine."
 - Page 39, paragraph zero, point (3.), add comma to "case there."
 - Page 40, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Divine," "His," "Gospel," and
   "Divine" (twice).
 - Page 41, paragraph one, point 4 (2), apply RC to "Divine."
 - Page 42, paragraph one, apply RC to "Divine."
 - Page 43, paragraph zero, change "moulded" to "molded." Point V,
   change "centre" to "center"; apply RC to "Himself," "He," "Him"
   (thrice), "Gospel," and "Word."
 - Page 44, paragraph one, apply RC to "Gospel" Point 1, apply RC to
   "Divine," "Word," "Divine," and "Word." Point 2, apply RC to
   "Gospel."
 - Page 45, paragraph zero, remove comma from "life, and." Paragraph
   two, point 1, apply RC to "Him," "His," "Divinity," and "His"
   (twice).
 - Page 46, paragraph zero, apply RC to "He," "His" (twice), "He,"
   "Him," "He," "His" (thrice), "He," "Him," "He," "His," "Gospel,"
   "His," "He," "His," "Himself," and "His." Capitalize "Fall." Apply
   RC to "His" (twice). Change "centre" to "center." Apply RC to
   "Him" and "Gospel."
 - The break between pages 46 and 47 is in the word "possible":
   possi|ble.
 - Page 47, paragraph zero, point (2.), change "defence" to "defense"
   and "imperilled" to "imperiled."
 - Page 48, paragaph zero, apply RC to "Divine"; change "skilful" to
   "skillful."  Point (2.), change "mould" to "mold."
 - Page 49, paragraph zero, add comma to "also in." Point (3.), apply
   RC to "Word."
 - Page 50, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel" (twice). Point (2.),
   apply RC to "Him" and "His."
 - The break between pages 50 and 51 is in the word "adoring":
   ador|ing.
 - Page 51, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Him" (twice). Point (3.),
   remove comma from "courage, and." Apply RC to "Gospel." Paragraph
   one, add comma to "subjects I." Point (2.), apply RC to "Divine,"
   "Him," and "Divine."
 - The break between pages 52 and 53 is in the word "discriminating":
   dis|criminating.
 - Page 53, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Divine" and "Gospel."
   Paragraph one, capitalize "Sermon on the Mount."
 - Page 54, point (4.), apply RC to "Divine"; remove comma from
   "theme, and."
 - Page 55, paragraph zero, point 5, apply RC to "Word"; remove comma
   from "effort, and."
 - Page 61, paragraph zero, remove comma from "alone, and"; apply RC
   to "Him."
 - Page 63, paragaph zero, point 3, apply RC to "Him."
 - The break between pages 63 and 64 is in the word "perhaps":
   per|haps.
 - Page 64, paragraph zero, change "exigences" to "exigencies."
 - Page 65, paragraph two, point 2, apply RC to "Gospel" and "Word."
 - Page 66, paragraph zero, add comma to "purpose have."
 - The break between pages 66 and 67 is in the word "stubble":
   stub|ble.
 - Page 67, paragraph one, remove comma from "bear, and."
 - Page 68, paragraph zero, point 3, change "centre" to "center."
 - Page 70, paragraph one, apply RC to "Divine" and "His."
 - Page 72, paragraph zero, point 3, apply RC to "Divine." Paragraph
   one, change "centre" to "center"; apply RC to "Him."
 - Page 73, paragraph zero, capitalize "Passover." Remove comma from
   "administration, but."
 - Page 74, paragraph one, remove commas from "school, and,
   believing."
 - The break between pages 74 and 75 is in the word "well-filled":
   well-|filled.
 - Page 75, paragraph zero, remove comma from "schools, and."
   Paragraph one, point 2, remove comma from "women, and."
 - Page 77, paragraph zero, remove commas from "trashy, but" and
   "directly, and."
 - Page 78, section vii., paragraph one, apply RC to "Divine," "His"
   (twice), "He," "His," "He," "Him," and "His."
 - Page 80, paragraph zero, remove comma from "one, and." Paragraph
   one, apply RC to "Him" and "His."
 - Page 81, point I, paragraph two, apply RC to "Gospel"; change
   "exigences" to "exigencies."
 - Page 83, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel" (twice).
 - Page 84, paragraph two, add comma to "reason it."
 - Page 85, paragraph zero, add comma to "turn they." Paragraph one,
   add comma to "rule a."
 - Page 86, paragraph zero, add comma to "accessible and." Point III,
   paragraph one, apply RC to "Word"; remove comma from "God, and."
 - Page 87, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Him." Paragraph one,
   capitalize "Divine," referring to a churchman. Paragraph two, add
   comma to "conversations new."
 - Page 89, paragraph two, add comma to "week he"; remove comma from
   "burnings, but."
 - Page 91, paragraph zero, apply RC to "His" (twice).
 - The break between pages 91 and 92 is in the word "circumstances":
   circum|stances.
 - Page 92, paragraph one, point 3, remove comma from "friend, and."
 - Page 93, paragraph zero, add comma to "possible help"; apply RC to
   "He," "Him," "His," and "Him"; change "Saviour" to "Savior."
 - The break between pages 93 and 94 is in the word "everything":
   every|thing.
 - Page 94, paragraph one, apply RC to "Gospel." Section viii.,
   paragraph one, apply RC to "Gospel."
 - Page 95, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Divine" (twice), and
   "Gospel"; remove comma from "men, and."
 - The break between pages 96 and 97 is in the word "religious":
   re|ligious.
 - Page 96, paragraph one, apply RC to "Him," "My," and "His."
   Paragraph two, point 2, apply RC to "Gospel."
 - Page 97, paragraph one, remove comma from "it, and"; apply RC to
   "Gospel."
 - Page 98, paragraph one, change "scepticism" to "skepticism."
 - Page 101, paragraph two, point 2, change "centres" to "centers"
   (twice).
 - Page 103, paragraph one, point 1, remove comma from "teaching,
   and"; add comma to "success the."
 - Page 105, paragraph one, point 3, remove commas from "appears,
   and" and "fact, and." Paragraph two, point 4, remove comma from
   "watch, and."
 - The break between pages 105 and 106 is in the word
   "relinquishing": relin|quishing.
 - Page 106, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel." Section xi.,
   paragraph two, point 1, add comma to "then it."
 - Page 107, paragraph one, point 2, remove comma from "indulged,
   and"; change "offence" to "offense."
 - Page 108, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel" and "He"; remove
   comma from "accidental, but"; apply RC to "He" (twice) and
   "Gospel."
 - The break between pages 108 and 109 is in the word "acceptance":
   accept|ance.
 - Page 109, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Him" and "Gospel" (twice).
   Paragraph one, point 4, add comma to "standing and."
 - Page 110, paragraph one, point 5, apply RC to "Gospel."
 - Page 111, paragraph one, apply RC to "Gospel."
 - The break between pages 111 and 112 is in the word "contribution":
   contribu|tion.
 - Page 112, paragraph two, point 3, remove comma for "this, or."
 - Page 115, paragraph zero, remove comma from "work, and."
 - Page 116, paragraph one, point 4, apply RC to "Word."
 - The break between pages 116 and 117 is in the word "eminently":
   emi|nently.
 - Page 117, paragraph two, point 2, change "defence" to "defense"
   (twice).
 - The break between pages 117 and 118 is in the word "evangelical":
   evangel|ical.
 - Page 118, paragraph zero, change "exigences" to "exigencies";
   apply RC to "Gospel." Paragraph one, point 4, apply RC to
   "Gospel"; change "centres" to "centers"; apply RC to "Gospel."
 - Page 119, paragraph zero, point (2.), apply RC to "Gospel" and
   "Divine." Point (3.), apply RC to "Word."
 - Page 120, paragraph one, remove comma from "country, and."
 - Page 122, paragraph zero, point 3, remove comma from "discipline,
   and." Point 4, change "pretence" to "pretense."
 - Page 123, paragraph one, add comma to "Finally I."
 - Page 124, paragraph zero, remove comma from "necessity, and"; add
   comma to "certainly the." Section XVI, apply RC to "His."
 - Page 125, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel" (twice).
 - Page 126, paragraph zero, remove comma from "advisers, and." Point
   4, apply RC to "Gospel."
 - Page 130, paragraph zero, remove comma from "him, and." Paragraph
   one, point 1, change "dulness" to "dullness."
 - Page 133, paragraph zero, remove commas from "experience, and" and
   "pulpit, and." Paragraph one, point 6, add comma to "it power."
 - Page 134, paragraph one, apply RC to "Apostles" (twice) and
   "Word"; add comma to "ministers we."
 - Page 135, paragraph zero, remove comma from "membership, and."
 - Page 136, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel"; add comma to "this
   he"; remove commas from "spirit, and" and "life, or"; change "he
   lose habits" to "he loses habits" and "fulness" to "fullness";
   apply RC to "Gospel."
 - Page 137, paragraph one, apply RC to "Word." Point 1, apply RC to
   "Gospel." Point 2, apply RC to "Gospel" and "Divinely-constituted."
 - Page 138, paragraph zero, remove comma from "reason, and." Section
   xvii., paragraph one, add comma to "respect they."
 - Page 139, paragraph one, remove comma from "study, and."
 - Page 141, paragraph zero, remove comma from "plan, and."
 - Page 142, paragraph one, remove comma from "mill, but."
 - The break between pages 142 and 143 is in the word "standpoints":
   stand|points.
 - Page 143, paragraph three, point 1, change "marvellously" to
   "marvelously"; apply RC to "Word."
 - Page 144, paragraph two, remove comma from "manhood, and."
 - Page 145, paragraph one, point 4, apply RC to "Gospel." Paragraph
   three, apply RC to "Gospel"; and add comma to "Bible a."
 - The break between pages 145 and 146 is in the word
   "undiscriminating": undiscriminat|ing.
 - Page 146, paragraph one, point 1, apply RC to "Word," "Divine,"
   "Word," "His," and "Divine."
 - Page 147, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel."
 - Page 148, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Apostle," "Gospel," "He"
   and "His" (twice). Of Paul, point 2, apply RC to "Divinely-called"
   and "Apostle." Of Paul, point 3, apply RC to "Apostle" and
   "Gospel." Apply RC to "Gospel." Of Christ, point 1, apply RC to
   "His" and "He." Of Christ, point 2, apply RC to "His," "Divine,"
   "He," "His," and "Word."
 - Page 149, paragraph zero, remove comma from "it, and"; apply RC to
   "Gospel"; remove commas from "text-book, and" and "thought, and."
 - The break between pages 149 and 150 is in the word "formation":
   forma|tion.
 - Page 150, paragraph two, apply RC to "His" and "Gospel."
 - Page 151, paragraph one, apply RC to "He" and "His." Point 1,
   change "ch. iv. 9" to "Phil. iv. 9" for concreteness; change
   "unblamably" to "unblameably"; remove comma from "pulpit, and."
 - The break between pages 151 and 152 is in the word "proposes":
   pro|poses.
 - Page 152, paragraph zero, add comma to "evidently he." Point 3,
   apply RC to "Gospel" and "He." Point 4, apply RC to "Gospel";
   change "doest" to "dost" to match KJV quotation. Paragraph one,
   apply RC to "His."
 - Page 153, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Divine" and "His."
 - Page 155, paragraph two, apply RC to "Gospel" (twice); change
   "exigences" to "exigencies."
 - Page 156, paragraph two, point 1, remove comma from "franchise,
   and."
 - Page 157, paragraph one, remove comma from "life, but."
 - Page 159, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel." Paragraph one,
   change "centres" to "centers."
 - The break between pages 159 and 160 is in the word "ministerial":
   min|isterial.
 - Page 160, paragraph zero, remove comma from "household, and."
   Paragraph one, point 4, remove comma from "innocent, but."
 - The break between pages 160 and 161 is in the word "amusements":
   amuse|ments.
 - Page 161, paragraph one, point 5, apply RC to "Him" and "His."
   Paragraph two, point 6, remove comma from "fact, but." Paragraph
   three, apply RC to "Gospel."
 - Page 162, paragraph one, point 1, change "dulness" to "dullness."
 - The break between pages 162 and 163 is within a unit (a scripture
   reference), "1 Cor. vi.|12." The whole unit was moved to the
   earlier page.
 - Page 163, paragraph one, point 3, apply RC to "Gospel."
 - Page 164, section xx., paragraph one, apply RC to "Divine."
 - The break between pages 164 and 165 is in the word "bursting":
   burst|ing.
 - Page 165, paragraph one, apply RC to "His" (twice), "He," "His,"
   "He," "His," "Divine," "His," "He" (twice), "Himself," "Him,"
   "His," "Me," "My," "Myself," "Divine," "He," "His," and "He"
   (twice). Paragraph two, change "marvellous" to "marvelous"; apply
   RC to "His" and "Gospel."
 - Page 166, paragraph one, apply RC to "Apostles," "He," "Divine,"
   "Him," "His," "Apostle," and "Divine."
 - Page 167, paragraph two, point I, apply RC to "Divine" and "His."
 - Page 168, paragraph one, apply RC to "Divine," "His" (thrice), and
   "Him."
 - Page 169, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Divine" and "Word."
   Paragraph two, apply RC to "Divine" (thrice), "Gospel," and "His."
 - Page 170, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Word"; change "marvellous"
   to "marvelous." Paragraph one, apply RC to "Himself" and "He"
   (twice). Poem, apply RC to "His." Paragraph two, apply RC to "He,"
   "His" (twice), "Him," and "His."
 - Page 171, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel"; change "centre" to
   "center"; apply RC to "Word," "Thy," "Thy Word," "Gospel" and
   "Divine" (twice).
 - The break between pages 171 and 172 is in the word "applying":
   ap|plying.
 - Page 172, paragraph zero, remove comma from "himself, and"; apply
   RC to "Gospel." Paragraph one, point III, apply RC to "His."
 - Page 173, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Him." Paragraph one, apply
   RC to "His," "Me," "My," "Himself," and "Gospel"; add comma to
   "self-dedicated he"; capitalize "The" after the colon, because a
   whole sentence follows the colon; apply RC to "Divine."
 - Page 174, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Himself."  Paragraph one,
   point IV, remove commas from "life, but" and "God, and." Paragraph
   two, apply RC to "Gospel" and "His."
 - Page 175, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel." Paragraph one,
   apply RC to "His"; remove comma after "2 Cor. iv. 17" reference.
 - Page 176, paragraph one, apply RC to "His"; add right double quote
   after "small thing"; remove comma after "1 Cor. iv. 4" reference;
   add comma to "thus will"; apply RC to "Gospel." Paragraph two,
   apply RC to "He" and "Him."







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