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10. Redundant book heading and redundant chapter headings have been
    omitted.





TO MY YOUNGER BRETHREN

Chapters on Pastoral Life and Work

by

THE RIGHT REV. HANDLEY C.G. MOULE, D.D.
Lord Bishop of Durham

Fourth Edition







London
Hodder and Stoughton
27, Paternoster Row
1902

Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.




        TO

        MY DEAR BROTHER AND VICAR,

        THE REV. JOHN BARTON, M.A.,

        INCUMBENT OF TRINITY CHURCH, CAMBRIDGE,

        AND RURAL DEAN,

        AND TO MY DEAR BROTHERS AND FRIENDS,

        THE PRESENT AND PAST STUDENTS

        OF RIDLEY HALL, CAMBRIDGE,

        THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.

                               H.C.G.M.


  "_Give those who teach pure hearts and wise,
    Faith, hope, and love, all warm'd by prayer;
  Themselves first training for the skies
    They best will raise their people there._"

    ARMSTRONG.




PREFACE.


The following pages do not appear to need any extended preface; their
topic is set forth in the first lines of the first chapter. With what
success it has been handled is another matter.

But as a writer reviews his own words, it is inevitable that some sort
of _envoi_ should present itself to his mind. In this case the _envoi_
seems to me to be the vital necessity of personal holiness in the
Christian Minister, in order to the right working of the Christian
Ministry; a personal holiness which shall be no mere form moulded from
without but a life developed into manifestation and action from within.

Never did the Church of Christ more need to remember this than at the
present day. The strongest surface currents of the age are against it;
alike that of unregulated, hurrying, indiscriminate enterprize, and that
of an exaggerated ecclesiasticism. In the one case the worker's
communion with God tends to be sacrificed to the work, the fountain
choked for the sake of the stream. In the other case there is a serious
risk that "the Church" may come to be regarded as an almost substitute
for the Lord in matters affecting the life and growth of the Christian
man, and of course of the Christian Minister. Sacred are the claims of
order and cohesion, but more sacred and more vital still is the call to
the individual constituent of the community to come to the living
Personal Christ, "nothing between," and to abide in innermost
intercourse with Him, and to draw every hour by faith on His great
grace.

If these simple pages may at all, in His most merciful hands, promote
the holy cause of such a hidden life and its fruitful issues, it will
indeed be happiness to the writer. In these days of stifling
materialism in philosophy, and withering naturalism in theology, but in
which also the Holy Spirit, far and wide, is breathing upon us in
special mercy from above, there is no duty more pressing on the
Christian than to seek, in the world of work, after that life which is
"lived in the flesh by faith in the Son of God," and which is manifested
in the strong and patient "meekness of wisdom."

RIDLEY HALL, CAMBRIDGE,
_April 22nd, 1892_.




  "_Servant of God, be fill'd
    With Jesu's love alone;
  Upon a sure foundation build,
    On Christ the corner-stone;
  By faith in Him abide,
    Rejoicing with His saints;
  To Him with confidence, when tried,
    Make known all thy complaints._"

  MORAVIAN HYMN-BOOK.




CONTENTS.


  CHAPTER I.

  _THE SECRET WALK WITH GOD_ (i.).
                                                                    PAGE

  Need of watching and prayer over three departments of
  a Minister's life--The secret department--Temptations
  in it from work--From solitude--Secret Devotion--The
  Morning Watch--Physical precautions--Evening
  hours--A Minister's prayers must sometimes
  forget the Ministry--This will be to the advantage of
  the Ministry--"_Tell Him all_"                                       1


  CHAPTER II.

  _THE SECRET WALK WITH GOD_ (ii.).

  Secret intercourse with God the life of a Minister's life--The
  Example of Jesus Christ--Testimony of von
  Machtholf--Special need of divine communion at
  the present day--The cry for effort and enterprize--Secularizing
  theories of religion and the
  Ministry--A call to young English Clergymen--A
  caution from Laodicea--Study of the Holy Scriptures--"The
  New Testament about twice a week"--What
  says the Ordinal?--M. Henri Lasserre on
  Devotional Literature and the Gospels--Study the
  Bible unprofessionally--Bridges' quotation from
  Witsius--Ridley in the Orchard                                      21


  CHAPTER III.

  _SECRET STUDY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES._

  A fragmentary chapter--Higher Criticism--A technical and innocent
  term--Actual assertions of certain critics--"Do not follow this
  Book; follow Christ"--Weigh facts before theories--Testimony of
  Nature and History to Scripture--The Duke of Argyll in the
  _Nineteenth Century_--Prediction--Problem of the Human Knowledge
  of Jesus Christ--Current fulfilments of Prophecy--Methods of Bible
  Study--The plough--The spade--Specimen of spade-husbandry, in a
  Church Congress Study of the Epistle to the Philippians             45


  CHAPTER IV.

  _THE DAILY WALK WITH OTHERS_ (i.).

  Secret Communion with God must _accompany_ everything
  else--We are watched--Self-respect--Consistency largely means
  Considerateness--"A consistent gentleman"--The Tongue--St
  Augustine's couplet for the dinner-table--The Clergy-House, its
  opportunities and risks--The duty of Example--Is it remembered as
  it used to be?--"For their sakes I sanctify Myself"--"Others" and
  their claims on us--Manner--Temper--Simeon's patience--The Secret
  of the Presence                                                     79


  CHAPTER V.

  _THE DAILY WALK WITH OTHERS_ (ii.).

  "Take heed unto thyself"--Relations with Woman--Christian
  chivalry--And Christian caution--Special difficulties--"Know
  thyself"--Celibacy--The Clergyman's Wife--The problem of
  means--The Clergyman and money--Pecuniary intemperance--Accurate
  accounts--Investment circulars--"Lay not up for yourselves"        101


  CHAPTER VI.

  _THE DAILY WALK WITH OTHERS_ (iii.).

  Curate and Incumbent--A Chancellor on Curates--The ideal
  Incumbent--No Incumbent perfect--And no parish perfectly
  content--Loyal watchfulness needed accordingly--The Curate's
  Party--"The lost grace, humility"--Subordination--Take sides
  against yourself--A letter to _The Record_ on Curates'
  grievances.                                                        123


  CHAPTER VII.

  _PASTOR IN PARISH_ (i.).

  A boundless subject--Visiting--All-important--Prepare for
  the round with prayer--Method--Brevity but not hurry--An
  example--Courtesy--It must be impartial--Visitation of the
  sick--Its special demands--Punctuality always a duty--Use of
  the Bible--The advantage of coming as "the Clergyman"--Mistaken
  for the undertaker--Come to the point--Lying in wait for the
  occasion--Happy rebukes to timid reticence                         147


  CHAPTER VIII.

  _PASTOR IN PARISH_ (ii.).

  Teach as you go--Urgent need of teaching--About Christ--And
  the Holy Spirit--And Sacraments--Common mistakes about the
  teaching of the Church--Sin--Evidences--Recollections of a
  visiting round--The retired tradesman--The sceptical
  blacksmith--The invalid artizan--The civil-servant--The
  consumptive--The dying printer--The cripple--Aged poor
  saints--Saddening visits--Humbling memories--A bright
  conversion at eighty-two                                           173


  CHAPTER IX.

  _THE CLERGYMAN AND THE PRAYER BOOK._

  "As bad as inspired"--Imperfections in the Book--Yet it is
  priceless--Spirituality of the Prayer Book--What it takes for
  granted in the worshipper--A remarkable reason for secession--The
  Prayer Book as a weapon--Its Scripturality--Its compilers jealous
  for the Word of God--Ministerial use of the Prayer Book--Put
  yourself into it--We are not to preach the prayers--Yet we are to
  pray them--Reading of the Lessons--Baptism--Marriage--Burial--The
  Holy Communion--Reverence--Of what sort--Instruction-addresses
  on the Prayer Book--"Less worship"                                 201


  CHAPTER X.

  _PREACHING_ (i.).

  The Pulpit a central point in the Ministry--Mutual influence of
  "parish-work" and preaching--"Truth through personality"--Let us
  "labour in the Word"--"Litho Sermons"--Addison's village-parson
  and his sermons--_Attractive_ preaching--Is a duty--Audibility--Of
  the right sort--Good English--Why to be cultivated--Mr Spurgeon's
  style--French hearers of an English preacher--Good effects on his
  style--"Written or extempore?"--Length--Action                     225


  CHAPTER XI.

  _PREACHING_ (ii.).

  Further remarks on Attractiveness--And, in passing, on
  Ministerial Considerateness--This is to be practised in
  preaching--As well as in other functions--Attractiveness to be
  guarded by Faithfulness--Requisites to attractiveness--"Preach
  the Gospel earnestly, interestingly, fully"--Jesus Christ is
  _the Gospel_--Personal conviction the essence of
  _Earnestness_--"Matter-of-Fact"--_Interest_ sustained by anecdote
  and illustration--But still more by intelligibility and
  practicality--Expository sermons--_Fulness_ in the message--Jesus
  Christ for us--And in us--The Holy Spirit must work with the Word  249


  CHAPTER XII.

  _PREACHING_ (iii.).

  Notes from a Sermon-Lecture--On diction, arrangement, fidelity
  to the text, proportion of parts, accuracy--On statements about
  revelation, justification, faith, grace--A paper in _The Churchman_
  on Old Sermons--Be a preacher indeed, whatever be the fashion of
  the time--The Directory of 1645--Its instructions on "the
  Preaching of the Word"--Spiritual Power in Preaching--How sought
  and received--Farewell                                             273

  _Fordington Pulpit_                                                301




  _"What contradictions meet
    In Ministers' employ!
  It is a bitter sweet,
    A sorrow full of joy;
  No other post affords a place
  For equal honour or disgrace"_

  OLNEY HYMNS.


  "_The Interpreter had Christian into a private Room, and bid
  his Man open a Door; the which when he had done, Christian saw
  a Picture of a very grave Person hang up against the Wall, and
  this was the fashion of it: It had eyes lift up to Heaven, the
  best of Books was in its hand, the Law of Truth was written
  upon its lips, the World was behind his back; it stood as if it
  Pleaded with Men, and a Crown of gold did hang over its head._"

  PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.




CHAPTER I.

_THE SECRET WALK WITH GOD_ (i.).


  _Pastor, for the round of toil
    See the toiling soul is fed;
  Shut the chamber, light the oil,
    Break and eat the Spirit's bread;
  Life to others would'st thou bring?
  Live thyself upon thy King._


Let me explain in this first sentence that when in these pages I address
"my Younger Brethren," I mean brethren in the Christian Ministry in the
Church of England. Let me limit my reference still further, by premising
that very much of what I say will be said as to brethren who have lately
taken holy Orders, and are engaged in the work of assistant Curacies.

AIM OF THE BOOK.

Day by day, for many years past, my life has lain among men preparing
themselves for just that work. As a matter of course my thoughts have
run incessantly in that direction. Many a lecture in the library where
we work together, and many a conversation in dining-hall, or by study
fire, or in college garden, or on country road, has given point to those
thoughts and enabled me, I trust, better to understand my younger
Brethren, and with more sympathy to make myself, as an elder brother,
understood by them. What I here seek to do, with the gracious aid of our
blessed Master, is somewhat to extend the range of such talks, and to
ask a friendly hearing from younger Brethren in the holy Ministry with
whom I have never had the opportunity of speaking personally.

I have not the least intention of writing a treatise on the Christian
Pastorate. To talk to young Christian Ministers about some important
details of pastoral life and work, but above all of life, inward and
outward--this is my simple purpose.

       *       *       *       *       *

THREE LINES OF PRAYER.

One day in each week, at Ridley Hall, we unite in special prayer,
without liturgical form, for those members of the Hall who have gone out
into actual ministry. As I lead my dear younger Brethren in that
supplication, the heart feels itself full of many, very many,
well-remembered faces, characters, lives. It seems to see those many old
friends scattered abroad in the Lord's work-field; and it sees, of
course, a very large variety among them, in the way of both character
and circumstances. But, with all this consciousness of differences, my
thoughts and my petitions always, by a deep necessity, run for all alike
along three main paths. The first prayer is for the young Clergyman's
inner and secret Life and Walk with God. The second is for his daily and
hourly general Intercourse with Men. The third is for his official
Ministrations of the Word and Ordinances of the Gospel. And in all these
directions, after all, one desire, one prayer, has to be offered, the
prayer that everywhere and always, from the inmost recesses of life to
its largest and most public circumference, the Lord and Master may take,
and keep, full possession of the servant. I pray that in secret
devotion, and in secret habits, Jesus Christ may be intensely present
with the man; and that in common intercourse, in all its parts, He may
be the constant and all-influencing Companion, to stimulate, to control,
to chasten, to gladden, to empower; and that in the preaching of the
Word the servant may really and manifestly speak from, and for, and in,
his Lord; and that in ministration of the sacramental and other
Ordinances he may truly and unmistakably walk before Him in holy
simplicity, holy reverence, and full spiritual reality, "serving the
Lord," and serving the flock, "with all humility of mind." [Acts xx.
19.]

My present talks on paper will take very much the lines of these
prayers. Secret walk with God, common and general walk with men, special
ministrations--I desire to say a little on each and all of these points,
and more or less in this order, though without attempting too rigid an
arrangement, where one subject must often run over into another.

       *       *       *       *       *

SECRET WALK WITH GOD.

Let me take up the first great topic of the three for a few preliminary
words in this chapter: THE SECRET WALK WITH GOD of the young Pastor of
Christ's flock.

HINDRANCES: WORK.

My brotherly reader will not need any long explanation or careful
apology from me here. He knows as well as I do, on the one hand, that a
close secret walk with God is unspeakably important in pastoral life,
and, on the other hand, that pastoral life, and not least in its early
days, is often allowed to hinder or minimize the real, diligent work
(for it is a work indeed in its way) of that close secret walk. He finds
all too many possible interferences with the inner working on the part
of the outer. Such interferences come from very different quarters. The
new Curacy, the new duties and opportunities, if the man has his heart
in his ministry, will prove intensely interesting, and at first, very
possibly, encouragement and acceptance may predominate over experiences
of difficulty and trial. Services, sermons, visits to homes and to
schools, with all the miscellanies that attend an active and
well-ordered parochial organization--these things are sure to have a
special and exciting interest for most young men who have taken Orders
in earnest. And it will be almost inevitable that the Curate, under even
the most wise, considerate, and unselfish of Incumbents, should find
"work" threatening rapidly to absorb so much, not of time only but
thought and heart, that the temptation is to abridge and relax very
seriously indeed secret devotion, secret study of Scripture, and
generally secret discipline of habits, that all-important thing.

*HINDRANCES: SOLITUDE.

Then, on the other hand, there is a risk and trial from a region quite
opposite. The Curate comes to his new work, and takes up his abode in
lodgings--alone. Only a few months ago, perhaps only a few weeks ago, he
was in rooms at College, amidst all the social as well as mental
interests of University life, and (so it is, thank God, for many
University men now) feeling on every side the help of Christian
friendship and fellowship of the warmest and truest sort. And now,
socially and as to fellowship in Christ, he is, to speak comparatively,
alone. I say, _comparatively_. Very likely he has found in his Incumbent
a friend and elder brother, perhaps a friend and loving father, in the
Lord. And most probably he will find among his people, and that very
soon if he is on the watch, friends in Christ, gentle or simple. He may
be associated with a brother Curate or Curates; and if so, the inmost
aim of both or all ought to be, and in most cases will be, not only to
work in the same parish but to work heart to heart as "in Him."
Nevertheless, the Vicar or Rector, though a friend, is a very busy
friend; and so is the brother Curate; and the Christian friend in the
parish is after all only one of the many souls to whom the man has to
minister, and he must not forget those who perhaps need him most just
because they are least congenial to him.

*ITS DANGERS.

So the sense of change, of solitude, in such part of his life as is
spent indoors, may be, and, as I know, very often is, real and deep, sad
and sorrowful, and in itself not wholesome, to the young Minister of
Christ. Possibly my reader knows nothing of all this; but I think it
more likely that at least he knows something of it. And it needs his
prompt and watchful dealing if it is not to hurt him greatly. Solitude
will not _by itself_, if I judge rightly, help him to secret intercourse
with God. A feeling of solitude, under most circumstances, much more
tends, by itself, to drive a man unhealthily inward, in unprofitable
questionings and broodings, or in still less happy exercises of thought.
Or it drives him unhealthily outward, quickening the wish for mere
stimulants and excitements of mind and interest. Aye, let me not shrink
from saying it, it sometimes quickens a wish for "stimulants" in the
most literal sense of the word. Exhausting and multifarious parochial
work, and the lonely bachelor quarters at the day's end, have brought to
many a young man sore temptations of that sort, and sometimes they have
won the battle, to the wreck and ruin of the work and of the worker.

HINDRANCES ARE OCCASIONS.

Well, all these facts or possibilities are just so many reminders that
the new Curate's life will not, of itself, greatly help him to maintain
and quicken his Secret Walk with God, that vital necessity for his work.
It certainly will _not_ do so directly; it will, directly, be a problem,
not an aid. But on that very account, dear Brother and reader, your new
conditions of life may prove indirectly a most powerful aid, by being a
constant and urgent _occasion_. As you are a Minister of Christ, your
life and work will, in the Lord's sight, be a failure, yes, I repeat it,
a failure, be the outside and the reputation what they may, if you do
not walk with God in secret. But therefore your life and work are a
daily and hourly occasion for the positive resolve, in His Name, that
walk with Him you will. Recognize the risks, right and left, the risks
brought by pastoral activities and interests, and those brought by
pastoral loneliness and uncheerfulness. Remember the vital necessity
amidst those risks. And then you will the more deliberately purpose and
plan how to guard your secret devotions, and how to order your secret
hours even when devotion is not your direct duty, so that your Lord
shall be indeed there, at the centre, "a living, bright Reality" to you.

SECRET DEVOTION.

Let me plunge into the midst at once, with a few simple suggestions on
SECRET DEVOTION.

LET IT BE DELIBERATE.

I ask my younger Brother, then, to keep sacred, with all his heart and
will, an unhurried time alone with the Lord, night and morning at the
least. I do not intrusively prescribe a length of time. But I do most
earnestly say that the time, shorter or longer, must be _deliberately
spent_; and even ten minutes can be spent deliberately, while
mismanagement may give a feeling of haste to a much longer season. Do
not, I beseech you, minimize the minutes; seek for such a fulness of
"the Spirit of grace and of supplications," [Zech. xii. 10.] as shall
draw you quite the other way. But if the time, any given night or
morning, _must_ be short, let it nevertheless be a time of quiet,
reverent, collected worship and confession and petition. One thing
assuredly you can do: you can, if you will, secure a real "Morning
Watch" before your day's work begins. I do not say it is easy. Young men
very commonly sleep sounder and longer than we seniors do; they are not
always easy to rouse in a moment. But they can direct some of their
energy to contrive against themselves, or rather _for_ themselves, how
to secure a regular early rising to meet their Lord. Most ingenious, not
to say amusing, are some of the devices which friends of mine have
confided to me; schemes and stratagems to get themselves well awake in
good time. But after all, in most lodging-houses surely it must be
possible to be called early, and to instruct the caller to show no mercy
at the chamber door. Anyhow, I do say that the fresh first interview
with the all-blessed Master must at all costs be secured. Do not be
beguiled into thinking it can be arranged by a half-slumbering prayer in
bed. Rise up--if but in loving deference to Him. Appear in the presence
chamber as the servant should who is now ready for the day's bondservice
in all things but in this, that he has yet to take the day's oath of
obedience, and to ask the day's "grace sufficient," and to read the
day's promises and commands, at the Master's holy feet.

A PRACTICAL SUGGESTION.

I do not recommend an unpractical physical mortification as the rule for
such early hours with God. Fully believing that there is a place for
definite "abstinence" in the Christian (and certainly in the
ministerial) life, I do not think that that place is, as a rule, the
early morning hour. Very many men only procure a bad headache for the
day by beginning any sort of earnest mental effort without food. Such
men should take care accordingly to eat a _chotee h·zaree_ (as old
Indians say), "a little breakfast," however little, before they pray and
read. There are appliances, simple and inexpensive, by which the man in
lodgings can, without giving any one trouble, provide himself with his
cup of cocoa or coffee as soon as he is up; and he will be wise to do
something of this sort, if he is a man whose work by day is heavy for
both body and spirit, and who is thus specially apt to find the truth of
what doctors tell us, that "sleep is, in itself, an exhausting process."

But at any cost, my dear friend and Brother in the Ministry, we must
have our Morning Watch with God, in prayer and in His Word, before all
the day's action. Not even the earliest possible Church service can
rightly take the place of that.

GOOD HOURS AT NIGHT.

It is obvious to add that punctuality and early hours in the morning
will bring into your life another rule; that of punctuality and
reasonably good hours at night. No temptation is greater, sometimes, for
the man alone than to ignore or break such a rule. And no doubt the
exigencies of pastoral life, sometimes, but surely not often, make it
hard to keep it. But it is extremely important, for the man who would
walk closely and humbly with his God, to end the day deliberately at His
feet. And here accordingly is another occasion for watchfulness, and for
method, and for will. Do not _drift into the night_. Have a settled hour
when, as a habit, you lay interests and intercourse of other sorts
down, and turn unhurried to the holy interview, spreading open your
Bible by the lamp, the Bible marked and scored with signs of past
research, and then kneeling, or standing, or _pacing_, for your
prayer--your prayer which is to be the very simplest (while most
reverent) speech with the Lord.

PRAY AS A PRIVATE CHRISTIAN.

In such acts of worship, morning and night, thought for others, for dear
ones, for parishioners, for colleagues, will have its full place of
course. Let it be so, with an ever-growing sense of the preciousness of
the work of intercession. But I do meanwhile say to my Brother in
Christ, take care that no pre-occupation with things pastoral allows you
to forget the supreme need of drawing out of Christ's fulness, and out
of the treasures of His Word, for _your own_ soul and life, as if that
were the one and solitary soul and life in existence. We Clergy are in
danger of becoming too official, too clerical, even in our prayers. We
_are_ the Lord's Ministers; we have a cure and charge of souls as the
unordained Christian has not; and let us daily remember it, humbly and
reverently. But also we are, all the while, sheep of the flock,
absolutely dependent on the Shepherd, men who for their own souls'
acceptance, and holiness, and heaven, must for themselves "live at the
Fountain." We have to serve others, and "lay ourselves out" for them,
daily and hourly. But on that very account, that "our selves" may be, if
I may say so, worth the laying out, we must see that "our selves" are,
in their own innermost life and experience, filled with the Spirit of
God, filled with the presence of an indwelling Lord Jesus Christ by the
Spirit. And so we must worship Him, and draw on Him, and abide in Him,
and acquaint ourselves with Him, just as if there were no flock at all,
that we may the better be of use to the flock.

LIVE BEHIND YOUR MINISTRY.

I am sure that this is an important point for the thought and practice
of the young Clergyman. While never really forgetting his ordained
character, let him, for the very purposes of his ordained work,
continually "live behind" not only the work but the character; living in
the presence, in the love, in the life, of his Lord and Head, simply in
the character of the redeemed sinner, the personal believer, the glad
younger Brother of the glorious Firstborn, the living Christian with the
living Christ; "knowing whom he has believed," [2 Tim. i. 12.] and
walking by faith in Him.

FOR THE MINISTRY'S SAKE.

Do you so live, by His grace and mercy? Is the sitting-room and the
bedroom of your curacy-lodging the place where you habitually hold
intercourse in this holy simplicity with Him who has loved you and given
Himself for you? Then I venture to say that all the more for this, by
that same grace and mercy, you shall be enabled to "lay yourself out"
for others, in your pastoral charge. You shall understand other men
better, by thus securing for your own soul a deeper understanding of the
Lord Jesus and a fuller sympathy (if the word is reverent) with Him. I
hardly care to analyze how, but somehow, you shall more readily and
closely "get at" men through this direct, simple, unofficial, unclerical
drawing very near indeed to God in Christ. The more you know Him thus at
_first-hand_ the more shall you understand alike the needs of the human
heart (of which all individual hearts are but various instances), and
the supplies that are laid up for all its needs in Him. And so you
shall go out among your people armed, equipped, with a truly
heaven-given sympathy and tact. True personal intercourse with the Lord,
the very closest and deepest, is the very thing to open the whole man
out for others, and to teach him how, with a loving intuition, to look
into them and "upon their things." [Phil. ii. 4.]

A HYMN.

In the next Chapter I shall speak a little more about the young
Clergyman's secret devotion, and secret study of the heavenly Word. But
enough for the present. And let me close with the quotation of a
hymn,[1] a new friend of mine, but already a very dear one, and
thankfully added to the treasures of memory. It puts in the simplest
form possible, while in a form most beautiful, the vital truth that
"intercourse with God is the power for holy service." Happy the young
Clergyman whose secret daily life, from its beginning in the "Morning
Watch," on through the intercourse and energies of the day, up to the
evening hour of weariness and repose, is a translation into experience
of that blessed hymn.

[1] By G.M. TAYLOR: _Hymns of Consecration and Faith_ (Second Edition),
No. 349.


"TELL HIM ALL."

  "When thou wakest in the morning,
    Ere thou tread the untried way
  Of the lot that lies before thee
    Through the coming busy day;
  Whether sunbeams promise brightness,
    Whether dim forebodings fall,
  Be thy dawning glad or gloomy,
    Go to Jesus--tell Him all!

  "In the calm of sweet communion
    Let thy daily work be done;
  In the peace of soul out-pouring
    Care be banish'd, patience won
  And if earth with its enchantments
    Seek thy spirit to enthral,
  Ere thou listen, ere thou answer--
    Turn to Jesus--tell Him all!

  "Then, as hour by hour glides by thee,
    Thou wilt blessed guidance know;
  Thine own burthens being lighten'd,
    Thou canst bear another's woe;
  Thou canst help the weak ones onward;
    Thou canst raise up those that fall;
  But, remember, while thou servest,
    Still tell Jesus--tell Him all!

  "And if weariness creep o'er thee
    As the day wears to its close,
  Or if sudden fierce temptation
    Bring thee face to face with foes--
  In thy weakness, in thy peril,
    Raise to heaven a truthful call;
  STRENGTH AND CALM FOR EVERY CRISIS
    COME--IN TELLING JESUS ALL."




CHAPTER II.

_THE SECRET WALK WITH GOD_ (ii).


  _He that would to others give
    Let him take from Jesus still;
  They who deepest in Him live
    Flow furthest at His will._


I resume the rich subject of Secret Devotion, Secret Communion with God.
Not that I wish to enter in detail on either the theory or the practice
of prayer in secret; as I have attempted to do already in a little book
which I may venture here to mention, _Secret Prayer_. My aim at present,
as I talk to my younger Brethren in the Ministry, is far rather to lay
all possible stress on the vital importance of the habit, however it may
prove best in individual experience to order it in practice. "As a man
thinketh in his heart, so is he" [Prov. xxiii. 7.]; and as a life
worketh in its heart, so is it. And the heart of a Christian Minister's
life is the man's Secret Communion with God.

Let us Clergymen take as one of our mottoes that deeply suggestive word
of the Lord by Malachi, where the ideal Levi is depicted: "_He walked
with Me_ in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity."
[Mal. ii. 6.]

THE LORD'S EXAMPLE.

Remember with what a heavenly brightness that principle was glorified in
the recorded life on earth of "the great Shepherd of the sheep," [SN:
Heb. xiii. 20.] who in this also "left us an example, that we should
follow His steps." [1 Pet. ii. 22.] Never did man walk more genuinely
with men than the Son of Man, whether it was among the needy and wistful
crowds in streets or on hill-sides, or at the dinner-table of the
Pharisee, or in the homes of Nazareth, Cana, and Bethany. No Christian
was ever so "practical" as Jesus Christ. No disciple ever so directly
and sympathetically "served his own generation by the will of God" [Acts
xiii. 36.] as did the blessed Master. But all the while "His soul dwelt
apart" in the Father's presence, and there continually rested and was
refreshed, [John iv. 32, 34.] and there found the "meat" in the strength
of which He travelled that great pilgrimage by way of the Cross to the
Throne. Jesus Christ, our Exemplar as well as our Life, did indeed live
behind His work, behind His ministry, behind His ministerial character,
in the region of a Filial Communion in which His Father was His all in
all for peace and joy, His law of action and His eternal secret of life.
And observe, this habitual communion in the midst of active service did
not at all supersede in His blessed experience the stated and definite
work of worship and petition before and after the busy hours of service.
"He was alone, praying" [John vi. 57.]; "He continued all night in
prayer to God"; and at last, "He was withdrawn from them about a stone's
cast, and kneeled down and prayed." [Luke ix. 18; vi. 12; xxii. 41.]

All this is not only matter for wondering notice, as we read our New
Testament. It is example, it is model. The Head is thus showing His
members the way, the only way, to maintain a life among men and for men
which shall be full of good for them, because itself ever filled with
the life and presence of God.

TESTIMONY OF LUCIUS VON MACHTHOLF.

From a leaflet which came long ago into my hands, I quote the experience
of a German Christian, eminently successful in spiritual work; a
passage which will illustrate and bring home my appeal in this whole
matter:--

"When Lucius von Machtholf was asked how he carried on religious
intercourse with individuals, he wrote:--'I know no other tactics than
_first of all to be heartily satisfied with my God_, even if He should
favour me with no sensible visible blessing in my vocation. Also to
remember that preaching and conversation are not so much _my_ work as
the outcome of the love and joy of the Holy Ghost in my heart, and,
afterwards, on my lips. Further, that I must never depend upon any
previous fervour or prayers of mine, but upon God's mercy and Christ's
dearly-purchased rights and holy intercession; and cherishing a burning
love to Christ and to souls, I must constantly seek for wisdom and
gentleness.... Finally, I would guard myself from imagining that I know
beforehand what I should say, but go to Christ for every good word I
have to speak, even to a child, and submit myself to the Holy Spirit, as
the Searcher of hearts, who, knowing the individuals I have to do with,
will guide and teach me when, where, and how to speak.

"'Be always following, never going before. It were better to be sick in
a tent under a burning sun, and Jesus sitting at the tent door, than to
be enchanting a thousand listeners where Jesus was not. Be as a
day-labourer only in God's harvest-field, ready to be first among the
reapers in the tall corn, or just to sit and sharpen another's sickle.
Have an eye to God's honour, and have no honour of your own to have an
eye to. Lay it in the dust and leave it there. Never let your inner life
get low in your search for the lives of others.'"

I dare to say that this quotation contains no mere "counsels of
perfection," but principles which are indispensable for the Minister of
Jesus Christ who would be not only reputable, popular, and in the
superficial sense of the word successful, but--what his dear Master
would have him be for His work. And the blessed spirit it suggests and
exemplifies is a thing which cometh not in "but by prayer" and by at
least such fasting as takes the shape of a most watchful secret
self-discipline. When von Machtholf speaks of "never depending on
previous prayers" it is obvious what he means; not that prayer should
not precede work, but that nothing should satisfy the worker short of a
living and present trust in a living and present Lord. But that trust is
the very thing which is developed, and prepared, and matured, in the
life of genuine secret intercourse, in which the Lord is dealt with as
man dealeth with his friend, and gazed upon and (I may reverently say)
studied in His revealed Character, till the disciple does indeed "know
_whom_ he has believed," "who He is that he should believe on Him." "My
soul shall be satisfied ... when I remember Thee, when I meditate on
Thee, in the night watches," [2 Tim. i. 12; John ix. 36; Ps. lxiii. 5,
6.] aye, and in the Morning Watch also.

URGENT PRESENT NEED TO MAINTAIN SECRET DEVOTION.

I know not how to get away from this subject; not only because of its
intense connexion with the most blissful experiences of the believing
soul, but because of its unspeakably important bearing on the work of
the Ministry, the Ministry of our own time and of my reader's own
generation. Never was there a period when the cry for enterprize and
practical energy was louder; and God knows there is occasion enough for
the cry, and for the answering resolve. But never was there a time when
the need was greater to distinguish true from false secrets of energy,
and to be content with nothing short of the deepest and most divine as
our ultimate secret. Do you not well know what I mean? Is there not far
and wide in the "Christian world"--I do not speak now of the exterior
regions of avowed scepticism or indifference--a tendency to merge the
whole idea of religion in that of philanthropic benevolence, and thereby
to draw inevitably the idea of philanthropy downward in the end into its
least noble manifestations? Is it not a fashionable thing to regard the
Christian Ministry, for example, as a useful and ready mechanism with
which to work out the social and sanitary amelioration of the lives of
the multitude, and so to take him to be the best qualified Clergyman who
is, perhaps, the most "muscular" of Christians, or the cleverest at the
invention or superintendence of recreations on a large scale, or the
quickest student and exponent of the principles or theories of political
economy, or possibly of socialistic enterprize? But all this may leave
entirely out the very life-blood of what the New Testament means by the
Gospel of the grace of God; and in many, many cases it does entirely
leave it out.

*"NATURALISM" IN CHRISTIAN WORK.

A conception of "Church work" is widely entertained, and thought to be
adequate, out of which is practically dropped all the mystery, and all
the mercy; above all, the work and message of the atoning Cross and the
dying Lamb; and the need of the sovereign grace of the Holy Ghost to
begin and carry out the Regeneration of the soul; and the depth of our
Fall; and the offered greatness and splendour of our New Creation; and
"that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of the great God and our
Saviour Jesus Christ." [Tit. ii. 13.] It is just one wave of the great
anti-supernatural tide of our time. Christian work is viewed as much as
possible as man's work for man in this present world, under the example,
doubtless, of the beneficent life of our Lord, but not under the shadow
of Calvary, nor in the light of Pentecost, nor in the definite prospect
of an immortality of holy glory.

HOW TO COUNTERACT IT.

To counteract this tendency, and to do so _in the right way_, is one of
the very noblest tasks set before the younger Clergy of the English
Church in our time. It is for them, under God, in a pre-eminent degree,
to find out the secret, and then to live it out, how to be at once the
perfectly genuine _man_, devoted to the service of men, carrying what he
is and what he believes into the actual surroundings of modern life, not
allowing illusions and poetic day-dreams to come between him and facts;
and also the convinced, unwavering, spiritual _Christian_, conversant
with his own soul, and with his living Lord and Saviour, and with that
sacred, unalterable written Word which that Saviour put into His
people's hands, never to be taken out of them. Nothing is more wanted at
present in the sphere of "Church life and work," unless I am greatly
mistaken, than a generation of young Clergymen (soon to be seniors) who
shall conspicuously combine the best forms of practicality with an
unmistakable chastened personal spirituality which is seen to be "the
pulse of" their busy "machine." And if the spirituality is to be indeed
genuine (away with it if it is anything but genuine to the centre), if
it is to be quite different on the one hand from a thing of artificial
phrases, and on the other from merely formulated and regulated
devoutness, I am deeply sure that its only secret and preservative is a
fully-maintained secret walk with God.

"GOD, I THANK THEE."

"I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." [SN:
Rev. iii. 17.] Such was the thought and word of the Laodicean long ago.
Is it not in effect the thought, if not the word, of not a few hard
workers and energetic enterprizers now? "What do I want with the dialect
of 'Christian experience'? What have I, with all these irons in the
fire, and a strong hammer and a strong hand with which to strike them,
what have I to do with 'old-world faiths' about sin and salvation, about
grace and conversion, about pardon and justification? What have I so
pressingly to do with much prayer, save in the form of much work? God, I
thank Thee that I am a worker; let it be for others to dive into
spiritual secrets, if it is good for them to do so."

"THOU KNOWEST NOT."

I would not overdraw the picture. And the words I have put into a
possible mouth are words which, if I heard, I hope I should hear with
every wish to judge them fairly and to see where any truth lay in them.
But none the less I am sure that those words not unjustly represent a
type of thought widely prevalent among even ministerial workers, and
that it is a type of thought pregnant with disaster for Christian work.
"Thou knowest not that thou art poor"; "I counsel thee, to buy of Me";
"I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear My voice and open the
door I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with Me." [Rev. iii.
17, 18, 20.] So said Jesus Christ to the Laodicean. And though it may
seem paradoxical to compare a man involved in the rush of modern "Church
work" with the Laodicean, the comparison may not be always far astray,
nor the words of the Lord in Rev. iii. 18 out of place accordingly. To
be "neither cold nor hot" towards _Him_ is all too possible for us,
alas, even when "the irons in the fire" are most numerous, and even when
they are being most briskly hammered.

TO KNOW CHRIST IS INDISPENSABLE.

So let us listen, making a pause to do so. Perhaps just now the knock
may be audible, and certain articulate sounds may come from outside,
saying that a PERSON waits for readmission to HIS place in our busy,
multifarious life, and that HE can be content with nothing short of
heart-intimacy with us, and that we, if we would not forsake our own
mercy, must be content with nothing short of heart-intimacy with HIM.

"I counsel thee to _buy_ of Me." Let us do it; let us pay over, at His
feet, our poor fancied wealth of self's energies and undertakings (as
regards our own good opinion of them), receiving from Him the heavenly
"gold" of His own glorious grace and peace, and the "white robe" of a
living and loving conformity to His likeness, and the "eye-salve" of His
illumination, in which we see things as He sees them. It is better, as
von Machtholf says it is, to have Him within the heart's chamber, at
once as Guest and as Host, in that blessed inter-communion, than to be
apparently the most successful of organizers or of toilers, strong in
ourselves, but without the secret of the Presence of the Lord.

It is scarcely needful, I trust, to explain what I do _not_ mean. My
very last intention is to speak slightingly of devoted work and
self-sacrificing endeavours, whether or no they take the line which most
approves itself to me. A _fainÈant_ in the English Ministry to-day is
something worse than even a cumberer of the ground; he is, I dare to
say, like a upas upon it, blighting where he throws his shadow, so
conspicuous and so deadly must be the example of such a life in the
Minister of such a Gospel. But what I mean, again and again, is this,
that the days demand, along with a thoroughgoing while prudent
practicality, more and more also of a profound reality of spiritual
knowledge of the Lord in those who labour in His Name. With the growing
stress of our time we _must_ have not less but more of this, in those
who are called to meet that stress. This is vital, if we would not be
stifled and succumb as Christians altogether.

So this is my plea, dear Brother in the Ministry, now making your first
essays in some great city parish, or wherever it may be: cultivate, as
for your life, secret intercourse with God.

BIBLE STUDY.

And with this view, I now say specially, cultivate such intercourse
_laying His holy Word open before you_. I spoke in the previous Chapter
of the Bible spread open by the evening lamp, the Bible marked with
signs of diligent search. With all my heart I mean to press that
thought. It will be best to reserve for another Chapter certain
suggestions on methods of Bible study. But I may, and I will at once,
offer a few words on the subject in general. It is a subject which lies
near my heart, and of the urgent importance of which I am very sure.

THE ORDINATION CHARGE.

Above all then I would entreat you to be a Bible student _at whatever
cost of other religious reading_. It is a very common thing to
substitute, practically, for the Bible a little library of _livres de
piÈtÈ_, as the French would call them, small "good books." Not very long
ago, in the course of an ordination examination, I came across an
instructive instance. In answer to a question in a "Pastoral Paper" for
candidates for Priest's Orders, a thoughtful young Clergyman stated
incidentally that he used every day with great profit certain devotional
books, and that about twice a week he took for definite meditation and
prayer a passage from the Gospels. It struck me that here was a strange
and sad inversion of the right order of proportion; devotional books
daily, and the New Testament (in any sense of earnest meditative study)
about twice a week! Very different, I thought, is the view and teaching
of the Church of England in this matter of the spiritual reading of her
Ministers. What does the Church say, through the Bishop, when the Deacon
is ordained Presbyter? "Seeing that you cannot by any other means
compass the doing of so weighty a work, pertaining to the salvation of
man, but with doctrine and exhortation taken out of the Holy Scriptures,
and with a life agreeable to the same; consider how studious ye ought to
be in reading and learning the Scriptures.... We have good hope that you
will continually pray to God the Father, by the mediation of our only
Saviour Jesus Christ, for the heavenly assistance of the Holy Ghost;
that, by daily reading and weighing of the Scriptures, ye may wax riper
and stronger in your Ministry."

And I need not go about to prove that the Church does not mean such
daily "reading and weighing" to wait till the young man is actually
ordained Priest. We should scarcely have had the First Homily of the
First Book written, if such had been her mind. Have you ever read over
that "Voice of the Church"?

M. HENRI LASSERRE ON DEVOTIONAL READING.

A remarkable confirmation of my present contention comes to us from an
unexpected quarter. I refer to the Preface prefixed by that ardent Roman
Catholic, M. Henri Lasserre, to his remarkable French translation of the
Four Gospels, the book which, December 4, 1886, received the cordial
benediction of Leo XIII., but within a twelvemonth, such is "the power
behind the Pope," was placed on the _Index Expurgatorius_. Probably such
passages as the following had much to do with this strange and sudden
self-reversal of the judgment of the Vatican.

"A timid school," after the crisis of the Reformation, which finds, of
course, little favour with M. Lasserre, and on which, very unjustly, he
lays much of the blame of the practical prohibition of the Bible within
"the Catholic Church," "a timid school tended thenceforth to strike from
the hands of believers the divine Book which makes the foundation of
our faith, and laboured to substitute for it by degrees a pious
literature, intended to furnish hearts and minds with a nourishment
suited to their weakness, a diet without danger. Some of these books, we
own without hesitation, are excellent in themselves, and have
contributed to the sanctification of many souls. However, this is the
exception. In the majority of these works, where, alas, the sugar of
devotion takes the place of the salt of wisdom, the eternal truths and
the genuine teachings of the Gospel were soon diluted, and, as it were,
lost in strange waters.... One and all, the better specimens and the
deplorable (_les lamentables_) alike, they are another thing altogether,
yes, absolutely another thing, than the Gospel, whose apostolic mission
they have noiselessly usurped by an invasion insensible, I had almost
called it clandestine.... The general ignorance of the Gospels has been
the one cause in France, these twenty years, of the success of the
scandalous romance which appeared under the title of _La Vie de JÈsus_.
Among a people moderately familiar with the narratives of St Matthew,
St Mark, St Luke, and St John ... there would have been no need to
refute it. Every one would have seen, without assistance, its flagrant
falsifications, its gross sophisms, its absolute emptiness. This
deep-seated and complex evil, this enervation of the Christian spirit,
this _anÊmia_ (_cette anÈmie_) of so many among us, are an object of
sorrowful anxiety (_prÈoccupation_) for the Catholic thinker" (pp. x,
xxv).

CURRENT NEGLECT OF SCRIPTURE.

For the Protestant thinker too, within a Church which has now for
centuries, in every possible official way, pressed home the reading of
the Bible upon her every member, and of course upon her every Minister,
there is material for similar anxieties, _mutatis mutandis_. Bible
study, such as our Lord and the Apostles enjoined and encouraged, is not
on the increase amongst us, to say the least of it; certainly the
ignorance of the blessed Book even among candidates for holy Orders is
sometimes, is not seldom, very great indeed. Nay more, there is
sometimes, however rarely as yet, an ominous disposition even in
clerical circles to shelve the Bible. Quite lately I heard, on excellent
authority, that a certain large Clerical Society, revising its rules,
deliberately decided that the meetings shall _not_ in future be begun
with the reading of Scripture. My friend and Brother, do not swim even
on the edges of such a current. Swim with all your might, in your
Master's might, against it.

READ IT FOR YOUR OWN NEEDS.

Then lastly I put in my plea, as I sought to do when we were considering
the matter of secret prayer, for such a secret study of the Word of God
as shall be _unprofessional, unclerical, and simply Christian_. Resolve
to "read, mark, and inwardly digest" so that not now the flock but the
shepherd, that is to say you, "may embrace and ever hold fast the
blessed hope of everlasting life." It will be all the better for the
flock. Forget sometimes, in the name of Jesus Christ, the pulpit, the
mission-room, the Bible-class; open the Bible as simply as if you were
on Crusoe's island, and were destined to live and die there, alone with
God. You will be all the fresher, all the more sympathetic and to the
point, when you do come to speak to the listening people about the Book.
The discoveries which we make in it for our own souls are just the
things which we cannot help reporting so as to interest and attract our
brethren; as least, that is the sure tendency of things.

BRIDGES AND WITSIUS ON BIBLE STUDY.

Let me write out a slightly abbreviated extract from a golden book,
unhappily no longer in print, _The Christian Ministry_, by that diligent
student, loving and laborious Pastor, and heavenly-minded man, the
remembrance of whom shines on me like a ray reflected from the Chief
Shepherd's face, the late Rev. Charles Bridges.[2]

[2] He died at Hinton Martell, in Dorset, 1869.

"The maxim, _Bonus textuarius est bonus theologus_, marks a grand
ministerial qualification--'mighty in the Scriptures.' The importance of
this is beautifully expressed by Witsius: 'Let the theologian ascend
from the lower school of natural study to the higher department of
Scripture, and sitting at the feet of God as his teacher, learn from His
mouth the hidden mysteries of salvation, _which eye hath not seen nor
ear heard, which none of the princes of this world knew_; which the most
accurate reason cannot search out; which the heavenly chorus of angels,
though always beholding the face of God, _desire to look into_. In the
hidden book of Scripture, and nowhere else, are opened the secrets of
the most sacred wisdom. Let the theologian delight in these sacred
Oracles; let him exercise himself in them day and night; let him
meditate in them; let him live in them; let him draw all his wisdom from
them; let him compare all his thoughts with them; let him embrace
nothing in religion which he does not find there. The attentive study of
the Scriptures has a sort of constraining power. It fills the mind with
the most splendid form of heavenly truth. It soothes the mind with an
inexpressible sweetness; it satisfies the sacred hunger and thirst for
knowledge; ... it imprints its own testimony so firmly on the mind, that
the believing soul rests on it with the same security as if it had been
carried up into the third heaven and heard it from God's own mouth; it
touches all the affections, and breathes the sweetest fragrance of
holiness upon the pious reader, even though he may not perhaps
comprehend the full extent of his reading.... We ought to draw our views
of divine truths immediately from the Scriptures themselves, and to
make no other use of human writings than as indices marking those chief
points of theology from which we may be instructed in the mind of the
Lord'" (pp. 79, 80, ed. 1830).

       *       *       *       *       *

RIDLEY IN THE ORCHARD.

"In thy Orchard, Pembroke Hall," wrote Nicholas Ridley within a few days
of his fiery martyrdom, "(the wals, buts, and trees, if they could
speake, would beare me witnes), I learned without booke almost all
Paules epistles, yea, and I weene all the Canonicall epistles, save only
the Apocalyps. Of which study, although in time a great part did depart
from me, yet the sweete smell thereof I trust I shall cary with me into
heaven; for the profite thereof I thinke I have felt in all my lyfe tyme
ever after."

And so shall it be with us also, if we go and do likewise in our "lyfe
tyme," our period, not at present of martyrdom but, God knoweth it, of
need.




CHAPTER III.

_SECRET STUDY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES._


  _Like those Emmaus travellers we go
  Forth from the city-gate of things below;
  Christ at our side, His Scripture for our light,
  Here burning hearts and there the beatific sight._


Already I have broken ground to some extent in the all-important subject
of private Bible Study. Let me now put before my reader and Brother a
few more detailed remarks and suggestions on that subject. Such is the
holy Book, and such is the variety of possible modes of study, that all
I can dream of doing is to touch some parts and sides of the matter
which present themselves with special impressiveness to my own mind, or
which experience of the needs of friends has suggested to me somewhat
particularly.

HIGHER CRITICISM.

To discuss the sacred problems of Scripture Inspiration is not my
purpose here. Elsewhere[3] I have attempted to deal with some of them.
All I would do here is, in view of what is truly a "present necessity,"
to ask my Brethren, very deliberately, not to be in haste to take up
with the last and boldest word of what is called the Higher Criticism (I
speak particularly now of its application to the Old Testament), as if
its "advances" were always towards light and fact. I have no complaint
against the term Higher Criticism, which has a recognized place in
literary technical language, denoting that familiar and lawful process,
the study of books not for their grammar and style only, but in order to
infer from their whole phenomena what their age is, and their structure,
and their character. The Higher Criticism is a term pointing not to
methods and results transcending ordinary intelligence, but to a study
which aims "higher" than grammatical and textual questions considered as
final. And thus of course the most earnest defender of the supernatural
character of the Scriptures may be, and very often is, as diligent a
"higher critic" as the extremest anti-supernaturalist.

[3] _Veni Creator_, ch. iii

A PLEA FOR CAUTION.

It is not its definition in the abstract but its actual work and spirit,
as seen in many leading instances, which constrain me to enter an
earnest protest against a too easy confidence in this criticism of,
particularly, the Old Testament Scriptures. It is "a thing to give us
pause" when we are asked to accept it as proved, or at least as
extremely probable, that righteous Abel is a myth; that there was
little, if any, monotheism before Abraham; no theophany at Sinai; no
Wilderness-Tabernacle; no record of the conquest of Canaan written till
long generations after the event; not much written record at all till
Samuel; few, if any, Psalms before the age of the Captivity, if not
before the age of the Maccabees; certainly two if not more Isaiahs, and
probably hardly one Daniel; at least, that the book bearing his name
dates from the second century before Christ, and is in fact a
Palestinian story-book which has not, perhaps, even a nucleus of history
within it. It ought to make us stop and think when we are told that
Isaiah did not predict coming events; indeed (for the drift of this
teaching goes very strongly in that direction), that predictive prophecy
is hardly to be recognized anywhere; that it is better out of our
thoughts; that it is but "soothsaying" after all, and that the true work
of the prophet was not to fore-tell but to "_forth_-tell," to proclaim
present and eternal principles, which again were not revealed to him
from above but arrived at by intuitions and meditations within his own
consciousness. It is a grave thing to be asked to believe, as many would
have us do, that such was the lack of feeling for veracity in ancient
Judah that Hilkiah, Jeremiah, and Huldah could arrange for the
"discovery" of a fabricated Deuteronomy, and then (_see the narrative_
in the Second Book of Kings) [xxii. 8-20.] get the prophetess to follow
up the fabrication with awful denunciations--all fulfilled--in the name
of THE LORD Himself. Such theories we are asked to hold in face of our
Master Christ's deliberate, persistent, manifold testimony to the
supernatural character and _authority_ of the Old Testament; to the
solidity of its records of fact, to the reality of its predictive
element--on which He stayed His sacred soul in Gethsemane, and on the
Cross itself. It is no longer a question of details, an inquiry whether
the numerals are invariably authentic and accurate; whether the minute
particulars of a king's death as told in Chronicles tally with the
account in Kings. It is a question whether the Old Testament at large is
not a singularly and flagrantly untrustworthy record. It is a question
whether its literature as a whole is not to be explained, practically,
by "natural causes"; including a causation by deliberate, elaborate, and
interested untruth.

A GRAVE ALTERNATIVE.

Is it too much to say that the alternative has come to be this: Was our
Lord Himself right or very gravely wrong about the nature of Scripture?
Did the Spirit of Pentecost guide the Apostles into all truth, or leave
them under a vast illusion in this central matter of their witness? "Do
not follow this Book, young men; follow Christ": so said a speaker of
high Christian reputation, holding up a Bible, before a great gathering
in America, not long ago. But what does this mean? Christ carries the
Book in His hand; if you follow Him you must follow it. If you decline
to follow the Book, your following Him is a following--so far as at
present you agree with Him, and not further.

WITNESSES FOR SCRIPTURE.

Meantime, what are some facts of the case, facts not nearly so well
remembered now as they should be? One comprehensive fact is that the
testimony of nature and of history goes, as a whole, to affirm the
veracity of the Scripture records, and to do so more and more pointedly
as research advances. In a remarkable recent essay by the Duke of Argyll
(_Nineteenth Century_, January, 1891), the growing accumulation of
geological evidence for a Great Flood, affecting at least the northern
hemisphere, and falling within the human period, is forcibly set out by
a master hand. In the same paper is indicated the fast-gathering
evidence, now digging up month by month from the soil of Palestine, to
the accuracy of the picture of Canaan drawn in the Pentateuch and
Joshua. The Ordnance Survey of Sinai has amply shown that the geology of
the peninsula confirms down to minute details the record in Exodus.[4]
And now the Oxford Arabic Professor is making it, at the least,
extremely likely that the Hebrew written two centuries before Christ was
more modern by many generations than that presented by the Book of
Daniel.[5]

[4] See Sir J. DAWSON: _Modern Science in Bible Lands_, "The Topography
of the Exodus."

[5] _See_ MARGOLIOUTH: _The Place of Ecclesiasticus in Semitic
Literature_.

I am only indicating and suggesting. Remembering the curiously similar
history of New Testament criticism during the recent past, some of its
stages running out their course within my own memory, I cannot but
think, looking from the merely literary view-point, that the days are
not far off when the now powerful theories of revolutionary criticism
will seem improbable. And so I ask my younger Brethren at least _to
pause_ before going with the strong, deep stream.

THE DUKE OF ARGYLL QUOTED.

Let me quote a few sentences from the Duke of Argyll's paper:--

THE WORK OF THE SPADE.

"The assumption ... that precision in research is undermining the credit
of the Hebrew Scriptures, is a presumption almost comically at variance
with fact. There is, in particular, one 'weapon of precision' which has
of late been working wonders in precisely the opposite direction. That
weapon is the spade. And what has it been unearthing? Everywhere over
that narrow strip of our planet on which its human interests have been
most impressive and profound--everywhere from Tyre and Sidon, from
Carmel and Lebanon, on the west, to Babylon and Nineveh and the boundary
mountains of Assyria on the east--the spade has been disentombing
continuous and triumphant proof of the genuine antiquity and historical
character of the Jewish books.... Only the other day Mr Flinders Petrie
has told us how the spade has uncovered those impregnable walls of the
Amorite cities which were reported to invading Israel by the spies of
Moses....

"I may be permitted to express a very strong opinion that in recent
years Christian writers have been far too shy and timid in defending one
of the oldest and strongest outworks of Christian theology. I mean the
element of true prediction in Hebrew prophecy. It may be true that in a
former generation too exclusive attention had been paid to it.... But
the reaction has been excessive and irrational. A great mass of
connected facts, and of continuous evidence, remains--which cannot be
gainsaid. Even if the greater prophets can be brought down to the very
latest date which the very latest fancies can assign to them, they
depict and predict overthrows and vast revolutions in the East which did
not take place for centuries" (pp. 28, 30).[6]

[6] "Professor Huxley speaks of the hopeless position of Christian
divines 'raked by the fatal weapons of precision with which the _enfants
perdus_ of the advancing forces of science are armed.'... Perhaps he
means the small arms of the modern critical school. If he does, then
precision is the very last characteristic which belongs to it. Its
methods are largely subjective. Here and there it may have a clearly
ascertained fact to rest upon. Here and there it may have arrived at
some tolerably secure results. But in the main its methods are
metaphysical, resting on nothing but individual preconceptions, applying
tests and private canons of interpretation which are purely arbitrary"
(_Ibid._, p. 28).

       *       *       *       *       *

PREDICTION.

The analysis of prophetic _consciousness_ may be, and in a great measure
is, impossible. But the facts of prediction remain. It remains that our
Lord Himself predicted. He foretold minutely His own death, and the end
of the City and the Temple, and the circumstances of the close of this
Êon. Was He "soothsaying"? It remains that He perpetually and most
emphatically claimed to be the exact Fulfilment of predictions which,
on any hypothesis, were then ages old. Was He mistaken in their
character and quality?

CHRIST'S WITNESS TO THE BIBLE.

In those last words I step, as I well know, upon a field of the most
urgent controversy. What is the weight to be assigned to our ever
blessed Lord's verdict upon the Old Testament as history and prophecy?
It is now asserted, and by Christian men, that that verdict is not
final; that He in the days of His flesh so submitted to human
limitations that He was liable to mistakes of fact just as His best
contemporaries were; that we adore Christ, and rely absolutely on Him,
but it is on Christ not as He was but as He is, the glorified Christ.
Here is an unspeakably overawing subject. I would not treat of it as if
the question could be swept away in a sentence. But I do, as in our
living Master's presence, venture to say that His witness to the nature
and character of the Old Scriptures claims definitely to be _ex
cathedr‚_. True, He doubtless spoke in this matter, as elsewhere, not in
what may be called the technical style; not every reference of His to
"Moses" need necessarily mean to assert precisely that Moses wrote
every clause of the Pentateuch. But the present question goes, as we
have remembered, much deeper. It asks whether or no the Lord Jesus was
altogether and in principle mistaken. He treated the Law, Prophets, and
Psalms as a solid structure of historic fact and supernatural promise,
divinely planned all through, divinely carried out and up from the
foundation, and leading straight up to Himself. Was it all the time true
that large parts of them were no more historical than the False
Decretals on which the high Papal claims were built?[7]

[7] I may remind the reader that about the middle of the ninth century
there were published, by one Isidore, a collection of decisions and
decrees, purporting to be by the earliest Bishops of Rome, all
supporting the Papal claims as known in the Middle Ages. The collection
was afterwards increased, and in the middle of the twelfth century
engrafted into Gratian's _Decretum_, on which is based the Canon Law of
the Roman Church. These documents are undoubtedly fabrications long
after date.

If we revise the opinion of our Redeemer on this conspicuous point of
His teaching, where shall we securely pause? Certainly we cannot
_securely_ trust, as oracular and final, His own predictions of things
still future, at least in their details.

HE HAS AFFIRMED IT FROM ABOVE.

One great utterance is often quoted as a confession that His conscious
knowledge had limits; Mark xiii. 32. Quite true; but what sort of
confession is it? It indicates in its very terms the vastness of His
supernatural knowledge; asserting His cognizance of the fact that _the
angels in heaven did not know_ that day and hour. Such an avowal of
nescience is an implicit assertion of an immeasurable insight.

And has He not, _as the glorified Christ_, thrown a light of affirmation
on the "opinions" of the days of His flesh? The glorified Christ sent
down the Paraclete. And the first and abiding work of the Paraclete was
to illuminate the Apostles with a new understanding of the truth and
glory of the Old Scriptures, altogether in the lines of their crucified
Master's teaching about them. Unless indeed Resurrection, and Ascension,
and Pentecost are themselves to melt into the haze of myth! The New
Testament is as full of the supernatural as the Old.

Reverently and humbly, and with full recognition of a large place and
lawful work for a true higher criticism in the literature of the Old
Testament, and of the New, I yet decline to think that our Lord's
estimate of the nature of the Bible is not to be final for me, and that
His reasonings from it are to be revised, while yet I adore Him as my
Light, my Life, and my God. And I ask my Brethren to pause many times,
and on their knees, before they think otherwise.

PRESENT FULFILMENTS OF PROPHECY.

As regards prediction, let them look around them. Two great fulfilments
of Old Testament prediction are going forward at this moment. One is,
the vast work of missions, whose whole aim is to make known "to the ends
of the earth" the Name of Messiah, Son of David, Son of Abraham, Son of
God. The other is, the dispersion and yet permanence of the Jewish race,
and (may I not add, in view of the facts of the last few years?) the
beginnings of a re-population of Palestine by the Jews. Credible
statistics assure us that they are now returning to their old land at
the rate of many thousands in a year. True, no "miracle" brings them
back. But no thoughtful student has ever said that the miracle of
prediction demands miracle in the circumstances of the fulfilment.

BIBLE READING IS THE BEST DEFENCE OF THE BIBLE.

I have gone beyond my intended length in these observations.[8] The
present urgency of the subject, which encounters us everywhere, is my
apology. But now, all the more gladly for the delay, I hasten to a few
simple words of suggestion on that practical duty of Secret Bible
Reading which is, after all, the best and surest antidote and
preservative against scepticism about the Bible, if it is carried on at
once thoroughly, intelligently, and as before the Lord. Vain without it,
worse than vain, will be the most diligent and successful study of the
apologetics of the Bible. For the Bible was given to be, not a
battle-field, but a field of wheat, and pasturage, and flowers, and a
gold-field also all the while.

[8] (I) have elsewhere called attention to the following among works
helpful at present in the controversy about Scripture: Lord Hatherley's
_Continuity of Scripture_, Dr Waller's _Authoritative Inspiration_, Dr
Cave's _Inspiration of the Old Testament_. Let me add four able popular
tractates: Cave's _Battle of the Standpoints_ (Queen's Printers),
Eckersley's _Historical Value of the Old Testament_ (Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge), G. Carlyle's _Moses and the Prophets_
and Seaver's _Authority of Christ_ (Elliot Stock). Dr Liddon's memorable
sermon, _The Worth of the Old Testament_, is full of helpful
suggestions. See too Professor Leathes' _Witness of the Old Testament to
Christ_, Sir J.W. Dawson's _Modern Science in Bible Lands_, and Bishop
Harold Browne's _Messiah Foretold_. I specially call attention to Canon
R. Girdlestone's recent book, the work of a master, _The Foundations of
the Bible_, most temperate, judicial, solid, and establishing; and to
this must be added now (1892) Bishop Ellicott's excellent Charge,
published by the S.P.C.K. under the title _Christus Comprobator_.

How then shall I read my Bible so as at once spiritually and mentally to
know it, or rather, to be always getting to know it? The answer must
be--"at sundry times and in divers manners." I must make time to read
often, however brief each time may be. And I must use methods of study,
more than one, in parallel lines.

As a sort of ground-work to all other methods I venture first to say, be
always reading the Bible _through_, however slowly, or rapidly. For
certain purposes, for instance in order to grasp the scope of a book, as
perhaps an Epistle, or the Revelation, or St John's Gospel, or the
latter half of Isaiah, or the Book of Genesis,[9] rapid reading may be
quite reverently done. In any case, get as soon as you may, and as
often as is practicable and practical, over _the whole surface_. Lord
Hatherley, amidst the heavy occupations of a barrister's and judge's
life, used to read the whole Book through carefully every year, and this
for more than thirty years. I cannot say that I do the same. But I aim
to read the Bible over carefully within every few years.

[9] To touch on a very small point I write here "the Book of Genesis,"
not "the Book Genesis." English literature, if I do not mistake, is as
unfamiliar with the latter phrase as it is with "the city London."

PLOUGH-HUSBANDRY.

Then, practise what I would call the _plough-husbandry_ of the Book.
"Make long furrows." Investigate what the Scriptures have to say by
topics, by doctrines, by leading words, over great breadths of their
surface; keeping _that_ subject, _that_ word, all along in view. Bring
all your mind to work that way, in the light of the Presence sought by
prayer. An occasional special form of such study may be illustrated by
that admirable book, written long ago, but full of life still, the late
Professor Blunt's _Undesigned Coincidences_. I was thankful in my first
days of ministry to be led to put in practice its examples and
suggestions by ploughing in the field of the New Testament for the
coincidences between the Gospel narrative and the allusions to our
blessed Lord's life scattered over the Epistles.

SPADE-HUSBANDRY.

Then, practise also a diligent _spade-husbandry_ in your Bible study.
Dig as well as plough. In each narrow plot of the great field there are
treasures hid. Dig a verse sometimes, using perhaps the spade of
parallel references. Dig a paragraph at other times; a chapter; a short
book. You are quite sure, under the blessing of the Master of the Field,
to bring up rich results, more or less.

I will close my talk upon the Bible by offering a specimen of such
spade-husbandry. A few years ago, at the Church Congress at Wakefield, I
read a paper on Bible-reading. It mainly took the line of recommending
earnestly the use of the Biblical student's "spade," and then it
illustrated the recommendation by the following "spade-study" of the
Epistle of St Paul to the Philippians; given here just as it was read.

       *       *       *       *       *

A CHURCH CONGRESS PAPER ON BIBLE STUDY.

"It has been laid on me to say a few words on the devotional study of
the Holy Scriptures, taking some one Book of Scripture, and in some
sort exemplifying such study from it. I accept the theme, with a deep
sense both of its opportuneness in our busy period, so full of
temptations to the Christian Minister to postpone his Bible-study to
other things, and of its sacred, paramount, vital importance. May our
divine and sovereign Master be pleased to use my simple suggestions to
call once more the attention especially of His ordained servants to the
urgency of our need to be personal Bible-students before Him, and to the
strength and joy that lies in such study, really pursued. He, in the
days of His flesh, was the supreme Believer in the Bible, the supreme
Lover, Student, Expositor, and Employer of the Bible. With the letter of
the Bible He sustained Himself and quelled the Enemy in the Temptation,
and the quotations He then selected suggest the minuteness of His study.
Upon the written Word He spent the whole Easter afternoon. Accepted
Sacrifice for Sin, Conqueror of Death, Lord and Head of Life, He had
come that morning from the grave; and He came as it were holding the
Scriptures in His hands.

"He found around Him in those earthly days a mass of religious popular
opinions, and He spoke His holy mind freely against the false among
them. But there was one opinion which He noticed only to sanction, to
sanctify, to glorify. It was the opinion that the Scriptures were
divine, were charged with the authority of God.

"I pray to Him, and trust Him, my Master and Lord, to hold me now humbly
firm to the end, after many a struggle, in His opinion of the Holy
Scriptures. I would enter into, as He abode in, their rest; therefore I
accept, as He accepted, their yoke. I would feel what He felt, that
living incitement to their study which is indissolubly bound up, if I
mistake not, with the firm persuasion of their supernatural character
and authority. I would read them, as He read them, above all things to
act upon them in the life which we, His followers, have in Him; that
life whose exercise and outcome means our whole walk here as well as
hereafter. I would regard them, as it is apparent that He regarded them,
as being (in a sacred sense) self-sufficient; not, indeed, to the
self-sufficient reader, but to the reader who prays in reverent
simplicity that the Holy Spirit may dispel every moral mist, every
hindrance of heart and will, from between him and the meaning of the
written Word; and who intends in truthful sincerity to consent to, to
obey, the discovered meaning; and who is taking pains over the Book.

"It is a great joy to know how entirely this was the view of the matter
held, and loved, and taught in the ancient Church. Is there anything
about which there is a larger consent of the Fathers? St Athanasius
loves to dilate on the [Greek: autarkeia], the self-sufficingness, of
'the divine Scriptures.' St Cyril of Jerusalem entreats his hearers to
guide and fix their belief by the reading of the Canonical books. St
Chrysostom boldly accounts for all mischiefs by the lack of personal
acquaintance with the Scriptures.

"We are in the nineteenth century, almost in the twentieth, and perhaps
we therefore need, even more than our elder brethren of the fourth, to
renew our energies in Scripture-study by prayerful, painstaking
recollection of what the Book is. We need an ever fresh realization of
what it is immortally, unalterably; the divinely trustworthy, and
therefore authoritative, account of God's mind, and specially and above
all of God's mind concerning Jesus Christ and our relations to Him, our
life by Him, our peace, and power, and hope, in Him. And it is a few
words about this aspect of Scripture, and the search of Scripture, that
I now lay before you, with humility and simplicity of purpose, in the
way of a description and example of a sort of study that has been a
great blessing to myself.

"Take one of the holy Books, or a section of one of them; and for this
purpose shorter is better. By a certain exercise of imagination suppose
yourself to be reading a _newly-discovered_ fragment of the apostolic
age. Treat it somewhat as many of us have recently sought to treat
Bryennius' discovery, _The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles_. What
microscopic attention has been brought to bear upon that little book,
just because good evidence gives it a place in the first century, and
because it speaks of Christ, and of Christians; of faith, worship,
ministry, and life, in a part of the primeval Church! Now I attempt from
time to time, reverently but very simply, to treat some inspired Epistle
somewhat in the same way. I place myself before it as much as possible
as if it were new to me and others. I seek, with something of the
curiosity which such conditions would create, to collect and arrange its
theology and its ethics. And then I bring in upon the results of my
study the fact that it is God's Word, the Word which I am to embrace,
and live upon, and act upon, to-day.

"For example and suggestion, let us turn to the EPISTLE TO THE
PHILIPPIANS; few but golden pages, precious product of those two years
of St Paul's physical imprisonment but blissful spiritual liberty. To
stimulate our consciousness of what the Epistle contains to reward
search, and search alone, let us try to place it before us as what it is
not now, but once was, a newly-given oracle of God. It was once read for
the first time, perhaps in the house of Lydia. Let it be to us, so far
as thought can make it so, what it was then. And let us remember all
the while that it is really even now new, for it is immortal with the
breath of the Spirit of God. It not only 'abideth,' but 'liveth,' for
ever.

"Let us take two titles under which to classify the results of our
inspection of this primitive Document. First, its doctrine of Christ;
then, its doctrine of Christian Life. As a subordinate third title we
may collect what it indicates of Christian life as exemplified in the
Writer's allusions to his own experience.

"I.--The Christology of the Epistle.

"(1) We trace hints of the _human history_ of Christ. He was man, in
reality and in seeming; He died a death of suffering, the death of the
Cross [ii. 7, 8; iii. 10.]; He rose again, for there is a power of His
Resurrection; [iii. 10.] and, apparently, He so left this earth that it
was known that an immeasurable exaltation attended His going, so that
the heavens are now His seat [ii. 9.], from which He is definitely
expected to return. [iii. 20.]

"(2) Going back to antecedent and prehistoric matters of faith about
Him, we find here that before He became man He subsisted in possession,
lawful and natural, of the manifested reality [Greek: morphÍ] of
Godhead, equal to God [ii. 6.]. His appearance as man was the sequel of
His own action of will in that eternal state [ii. 7.]. It was a novel
and voluntary assumption of the condition of the Bondservant, the
[Greek: Doulos], of God. Antecedently possessing the [Greek: morphÍ] of
God, He now _de novo_ 'took' the [Greek: morphÍ] of a bondservant. What
created beings in general are of course, God's bondservants, He had not
been but now became; a fact as astonishing in its region as the fact of
His possession of the Supreme Nature is in its region. He assumed this
[Greek: douleia], we find, because His essential work was to obey, to
'become obeying,' yes, to the extent of death [ii. 8.]; which death was
thus in Him altogether voluntary, part of a free undertaking to be not
His own. The immediate result for Himself, it next appears, was an
exaltation by God to supreme majesty under all these conditions. As
being all this, possessor of Deity and accepter of bondservice, He was
now _de novo_ proclaimed as [Greek: Kyrios], as Lord, in a sense
interpreted by the adoration of the universe; to the glory of God His
Father. For it repeatedly appears in the Epistle that God is His Father;
He is the Son of God [ii. 11.]. Further, all 'the riches of God in
glory' [i. 2; ii. 11.] are 'in Him.' [iv. 19.] It appears that in His
exaltation He is embodied still, for it is to likeness to the body of
His glory that the body of our humiliation is to be changed at His
expected return. He is Almighty 'to subdue all things,' and the
subjugation is 'to Himself.' [iii. 21.]

"(3) As regards His relation to His followers, such is it that their
whole life and every exercise of it is mysteriously but emphatically
said to be IN HIM. He, the supreme Bondservant, is to them (we
continually read) absolute Lord. His grace animates their spirit. The
divine Spirit ministered to them is His [i. 2; iv. 23.]. Their 'fruit of
righteousness' is generated and produced 'through' Him [i. 19.]. He is
evermore and profoundly near to them. Their heart-emotions are 'in His
heart.' [i. 11; iv. 5.] To believe in Him is their essential
characteristic [i. 8.]. To suffer for Him is a special boon to them [i.
29.]. They live in expectation of His return, His day. [i. 6, 10; ii.
16; iii. 20.]

"II.--The Epistle's account of Christian Life, inward and outward.

"We gather that the disciples are saints, [Greek: hagioi], separated
from self and sin to God; brethren to one another; the true Israel,
citizens of the City above [i. 1, 14; iii. 3, 20; iv. 21.]. Their being
and life are so united to Christ, that they as Christians (and it is
evidently assumed that this covers _everything_ for them) exist, and are
to act, 'in Him.' In Him, we find, they are 'saints' and 'brethren' [i.
1, 14; iv. 1, 2; ii. 29.]; in Him they are to 'stand fast'; to be 'of
one mind'; to 'receive one another'; to possess comfort, consolation; to
glory; to rejoice [ii. 1; iii. 1, 3; iv. 4.]. It is solemnly guaranteed,
under certain most holy and happy conditions, that 'the peace of God
Himself shall'--the promise is positive--'keep safe their hearts and
thoughts in Him' [iv. 7.]; wonderful words, but perfectly distinct. In
them God 'has begun a good work, to be carried for its completion up to
the day of Christ'; and God is now 'working in them to will and to do
for the sake of' His plan and purpose [i. 6; ii. 13.]. It is laid upon
them accordingly, in the profound inner rest of such union, such
possession, such submission, to 'work out their salvation,' to live out
their life as the saved, with the 'fear and trembling' of sacred
reverence [ii. 12.]. They are 'to look each not on his own things,' but
on the things of others, in their Lord's manner [ii. 4.]; to hold
together in loving and courageous union for the Gospel, standing fast in
'one soul,' under the 'one Spirit's' power; to keep their place in the
midst of evil surroundings as the 'children of God' [i. 28.] and the
'light-bearers' of 'the message of life.' [ii. 16.] They are to abstain
totally, in the power of their life in Christ, from all sin, to 'do
nothing' (I take all possible note of these '_alls_' and '_nothings_' as
I study and classify) 'for strife or vainglory' [ii. 3.]; to be 'anxious
about nothing, but in everything' to tell God their desires; to 'do all
things without murmurings and disputings' [iv. 6; ii. 14.]; to be
'unblamable, unhurtful, unblemished, God's children,' not in a
dreamland, but in the realities of Philippian life; to bear fruit,
'fruit of righteousness, which is through Jesus Christ,' [ii. 15.] and
so to bear it that at last it shall turn out, in the day of the Lord,
that they are 'filled' with it [i. 11.]; every branch is laden. They
are to let their 'moderation,' that is to say their yieldingness, their
self-lessness, come out in common life, 'known to all men,' in the power
of a 'Lord at hand' [iv. 5.]; to fill their thoughts with all that is
good, straightforward, chastened, pure [iv. 8.]; to 'mind' the things in
heaven [iii. 20; ii.]; to have 'the mind of Christ'; to grow in
spiritual perception, along with the growth of love [i. 9.]; to live the
life expressed in that profound summary, 'worshipping God in the Spirit
(or, by the Spirit of God); exulting in Christ Jesus; having no
confidence in the flesh.' [iii. 3.]

"III.--The Life in Christ exemplified in the Writer.

"Here let us forget the Apostle, for he speaks wholly as the Christian,
and in a way manifestly meant to be an instruction to all Christians. He
appears, then, in our document, as one whom Christ has 'seized,' has
'grasped' [iii. 12.]; as one who has discovered in Christ, and in Christ
alone, the supreme Gain, the supreme Object of knowledge, the supreme
Spiritual Power as the Risen One, [iii. 10.] the supreme Interest and
Reason of life [i. 20; iii. 7-14], the one possible supply of the
unspeakable need of a valid Righteousness before the Judgment Seat. Yes,
he must be 'found in Him, having the righteousness which is from God on
terms of faith,' [iii. 9.] the faith which enters into Christ. 'In
Christ,' we discover, the Writer is, everywhere and always. His 'bonds'
are 'in Christ'; his 'glory' is 'in Christ' [i. 13, 26.]; his hopes
and trusts about the common events of life are 'in Christ'; in Christ he
has 'found the secret' how to do all, all he has to do, in peace [iv.
19, 24.]. Christ fills his present life [iv. 13.]; when he dies, he will
be so 'with Christ' that it will be 'far better' than this present life,
though it is full of Christ [i. 21, 23.]. He is the willing but most
real bondservant of Christ [i. 1.]. His relations with Christ so fill
him with peace and the power of peace, that extremely irritating rivalry
and opposition at Rome does not irritate him, but occasions holy joy,
and the suspense about life and death in which Nero keeps him is
powerless, wholly because of Christ [i. 12, etc.], to evoke anything
but a statement of the dilemma of blessings which life and death in the
Lord are to him [i. 21, etc.]. On the other hand, as the whole Epistle
indicates, every pure human sensibility circulates naturally in this
supernatural atmosphere [_E.g._ ii. 27, 28; iv. 10.]. And meanwhile,
though 'perfect,' in respect of reality of union and communication with
his Lord, he is not yet 'perfected' in respect of application and
results; the goal, the prize, is yet to come. [iii. 12, 14.]

"And so I shut my Epistle to the Philippians, leaving very much more in
it for the next occasion. Such a study has not demanded long hours. It
has asked only interest, purpose, and painstaking, a few such fragments
of daily time as we must, yes, _must_, make and take for the Bible, if
we are not to starve our people and ourselves. Suffer me to repeat it
with deep earnestness; we must, we absolutely must, not merely
devotionally read but devotionally search and penetrate this divine
Book. And what shall come of the effort? By the grace of God, sought in
the deep joy of a profound submission, it shall come that we shall each
one realize, with a vernal newness and delight, that Christ is mine;
that the springs and secrets of this life in Him are mine, for the
realities of my home, my parish, my study, my soul. I go (it is for each
one of us to say it) with renewed thirst and certainty to Him the
eternal Fountain; I live, I live, yet not I; and therefore I can work.
It will be 'with fear and trembling,' as I know myself to be indeed in
the eternal Presence; yet it will be also in the power-giving 'peace
that passeth understanding, keeping the heart and thoughts, in Christ
Jesus,' a keeping that is not meant to vanish outside holy places and
holy hours, but to do its strongest and serenest work in the midst of
crookedness and perverseness, under the stress of toils and burthens, as
truly for me to-day as for the Philippians and their Teacher then."


  "_The Spirit breathes upon the Word
    And brings the truth to sight;
  Precepts and promises afford
    A sanctifying light._

  "_My soul rejoices to pursue
    The steps of Him I love,
  Till glory breaks upon my view
    In brighter worlds above._"

    COWPER.




CHAPTER IV.

_THE DAILY WALK WITH OTHERS_ (i.).


  _When the watcher in the dark
    Turns his lenses to the skies,
  Suddenly the starry spark
    Grows a world upon his eyes:
  Be my life a lens, that I
  So my Lord may magnify_


We come from the secrecies of the young Clergyman's life, from his walk
alone with God in prayer and over His Word, to the subject of his common
daily intercourse. Let us think together of some of the duties,
opportunities, risks, and safeguards of the ordinary day's experience.

A WALK WITH GOD ALL DAY.

A word presents itself to be said at once, about the connexion between
the secret and the common walk of the servant of God. The former is
never to _give way to_ the latter; it is to _run into_ it, underground.
"To walk with God _all day_" is to be our distinct and practical
purpose, and not merely a sweet sentiment and holy aspiration of the
hymn-book. The man who prays in secret is to be the man who knows how
to pray secretly in public. The man who pores over the Word all alone is
to be the man who, out in the open field of life, "sins not" because he
has "hid that Word in his heart" [Ps. cxix. 11.]; and who, being called
upon by circumstances, however casually, to show himself actually a true
"man of the Book," is internally ready to do so. Nothing short of "a
life with Christ behind our work," always and everywhere, is to content
us Pastors. To live that life is from one point of view our wonderful
_privilege_, in our living union with our blessed Head. From another
point of view it is our truest and deepest _work_, as we watch and pray
over our privilege, and draw upon our Head in the holy diligence of
faith.

I have spoken already of this vital connexion between the walk with God
in secret and the secret walk with God in public. But it bears
reiteration. It is something gained if we only remind one another, with
the emphasis of repetition, that such a life is our bounden duty and our
blissful possibility:--

  "You may always be abiding, if you will, at Jesu's side;
  In the secret of His Presence you may every moment hide."[10]

[10] I quote from a beautiful hymn, beginning, "In the secret of His
Presence." It is given in part in several recent hymn-books, but for its
complete form see _From India's Coral Strand_, (_Home Words_ Office,
Paternoster Buildings,) a collection of the poems of its gifted writer,
a Hindoo Christian lady, Miss E.L. Goreh.

But now, what will be the surface and expression of such a hidden life,
as the young Clergyman passes through his busy common day?

LIFE IN LODGINGS.

Let me speak first of his life indoors, that is to say, probably, in his
lodgings. There the day at least begins and ends; and, in more ways than
he is aware of till he sets himself to consider, he may--or may
not--glorify his Master _there_. He is quite certain to be watched,
whether the eyes are friendly or unfriendly to himself and to his
message and ministry. He will be watched of course not only as a man but
as a Minister. And the results of the observation may be most important,
for good or for evil, to the immediate observers; and they are pretty
sure to reach many other people through them. "What shall the harvest
be?"

SELF-RESPECT.

Let one result be, a clear impression in the house that you, the new
Curate, are a man of SELF-RESPECT. Perhaps that _word_ will not be used,
any more than its Greek equivalent, [Greek: aidÙs], that noble
pre-Christian ethical term which lay ready and waiting to be glorified
by the Gospel. But let Self-respect be your principle and your practice,
and it will leave its impression, by whatever word the impression may be
described. Let the man be seen by those who are about him, and who in
one way or another wait on him, to be _quite simple while quite refined_
in ways and habits; to be active and wholesome in the hours he keeps; to
hold self-indulgence under a strong bridle (shall I say, not least the
self-indulgence which cannot do without the stimulant and without _the
pipe_?); and he will be in a fair way to commend his message indoors.
Let him be seen, without the least affectation, but unmistakably, to
find his main interests, within doors as well as without, in his Lord
and His cause and work; to be the avowed Christian at all hours; and he
will be doing hourly work for Christ. With it all, let him be seen to be
"gentle to others" while "to himself severe"; let him, while always
self-respectful, be always watchfully CONSIDERATE; and his light will
shine; he will be an OEcolampadius, a _House-light_, indeed.

CONSIDERATENESS.

On that last point I must dilate a little; on the point of
Considerateness. I remember a conversation a few years ago with one of
our college servants, an excellent Christian woman, truly exemplary in
every duty. She was speaking of one of my dear student friends now
labouring for the Lord in a distant and difficult mission-field, and
giving him--after his departure from us--a tribute of most disinterested
praise: "Ah, Sir, he _was_ a consistent gentleman!" And then she
instanced some of my friend's consistencies; and I observed that they
all reduced themselves to one word--Considerateness. He was always
taking trouble, and always saving trouble. He was always finding out how
a little thought for others can save them much needless labour. The
things in question were not heroic. The thoughtfulness for others
concerned only such matters as the bath, and the shoes, and the clothes,
and some small details of hospitality. But they meant a very great deal
for the hard-worked caretaker, and they were to her a means of quite
distinct "edification," upbuilding, in the assurance that Christ and the
Gospel are indeed practical realities. I break no confidence when I add,
by the way, that my friend had not always been thus "a consistent
gentleman." But the Lord had found him, and he had found the Lord, in
the midst of his University life; and he had learnt most deeply and
effectually, at the feet of Jesus, the consistency of Considerateness.

I do press this aspect of our daily walk with all earnestness on my
younger Brethren. I press it on them at least _to think about it_ with
painstaking attention. No Christian man, as such, means for one moment
to be selfish. But lack of attention does in very many cases indeed
allow the real Christian to contract, or to continue, selfish habits.
Many good men quite fail to realize how selfish, practically, it is to
be unpunctual. You have your understood mealtimes in your lodging. It
may not be always possible to keep strictly to them; the exigencies of
work may make it honestly necessary now and again to be out of time. But
let nothing less than duty do so for you. The breakfast kept standing
because you are not up when you should be may very likely mean much
needless trouble and much domestic disarrangement. Guests often brought
in without any notice may mean the same.

SIMPLICITY AT TABLE.

Perhaps I need not say, yet I will say it, that the consistent servant
of God, whether at his own table or at his neighbour's, will "take heed
unto himself" not even to _seem_ fastidious. There are some men about
whom, if you know them, you feel sure that they will _not_ choose the
best dish at the table; and there are others, I am afraid, about whom
you feel pretty sure that they will. One man will not think, or at least
will not seem to think, whether the meat is hot or cold; and another
will rather decidedly avoid the latter. Pardon the details; they have
something very real to do with our Consistency.

USE OF THE TONGUE.

And indeed we have need to ponder Consistency when we come to "the
unruly member." It is not often, perhaps, that the risks of the tongue
are specially present in a bachelor's life in lodgings. But they are not
absent there. Friends come in, and we will suppose that you and they are
waited upon at your meal. What does the servant hear? Much talk about
other and absent persons? Unkind or flippant criticisms? Idle, frivolous
words? Very likely not, thank God; for we do want to remember our Lord.
But let us take heed. Nothing is more conspicuously inconsistent in the
Christian than needless, unloving discussion of the characters and lives
of others; nothing is more keenly noticed when overheard; nothing more
breaks the spell of influence for God.

  "_Quisquis amat dictis absentum rodere vitam,
    Hanc mensam vetitam noverit esse sibi._"[11]

[11] POSSIDONIUS: _De Vit‚ Augustini_, c. 22.

Such was the memento which St Augustine had inscribed upon his
dining-table. He found it necessary to remind the Bishops (_coÎpiscopi_)
whom he entertained not to misuse their ordained tongues. And the
Pastors of the nineteenth century need it still, quite as much as it was
needed in the fifth.

"SET A WATCH."

It is impossible, of course, to lay down exhaustive rules for the
Christian guidance of conversation in detail. It is quite certain that
the Gospel does not prescribe, or intend, that we should never speak
except about things spiritual, or even except about our special duties
in the Ministry. But it is quite certain too that the Gospel does
prescribe inexorably the utmost watchfulness and self-discipline in the
matter of the tongue, for all who name the Name of Christ. "For every
idle word that men shall speak they shall give account" [Matt. xii.
36.]; "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but such
as is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the
hearers" [Eph. iv. 29.]; "If any man among you seem to be devout
([Greek: thrÍskos]), and bridleth not his tongue, that man's devoutness
([Greek: thrÍkeia]) is vain" [Jas. i. 26.]; "Set a watch, O Lord, before
my lips." [Ps. cxli. 3.]

LIFE IN A CLERGY-HOUSE.

I may say a few words in this connexion about the peculiar call for care
and consistency where a group of young Clergymen live together in a
"clergy-house."

*ITS OPPORTUNITIES AND NEEDS.

It seems to me that such groups must in the nature of the case be
_either_ means of the greatest good in the mutual intercourse of their
members, _or_ just the opposite. As sure as _corruptio optimi est
pessima_, so sure it is that the young Clergyman who is not consistent
in temper, word, and habit, is the most unhelpful specimen of the young
man; just because of the discord between his ministerial character and
his personal. And if, say, three or four young servants of God (by
profession) domicile together and are _not_ consistent, I am afraid they
will positively and actively draw one another, without in the least
meaning to do so, away from the mind of Christ and the walk with God. Do
they allow themselves to engage in trivial foolish, unkind talk? Do they
so valiantly determine "not to be goody-goody" as tacitly to avoid all
open-hearted, loving, reverent conversation about their Lord and His
truth? Are they much fonder of endless argument than of the Word of God
and prayer? Do their united devotions tend to be formal and perfunctory?
Do they (I come back to that point again) "bridle not their tongues"
about the absent, about those over them, about those who differ from
them? Then they are doing each other harm, at a rapid rate, by their
collocation. On the other hand, are they each for himself living close
to their Master and Friend in the secret chamber and in the inner heart?
Are they walking humbly and gladly with their God, much in prayer, and
having the Scriptures often open? And are they considering one another,
to provoke unto love and to good works? Are they remembering generally
and habitually the sacredness of the duty of mutual influence and
example, in personal habits, and otherwise? Are they determined each for
himself to help his brethren in all things pure, and just, and lovable,
and of good report, and to strengthen them to endure hardness, and not
to be ashamed of the blessed Name? Then they are blessing one another in
Christ, as few men otherwise can do. But personal, individual
consistency is the absolute requisite to this; each man must follow the
Lord _for himself_ in faith and fear.

THE DUTY OF EXAMPLE.

I spoke just above of the sacredness of the duty of example. It is a
theme on which I entreat my younger Brethren very often to reflect,
with self-scrutiny before their Master: I may be wrong, but I cannot
help thinking that here is a duty which is decidedly less remembered
now, among young Christian men, than it was in other days. With
exceptions many and bright, I yet fear that there is a decline in this
matter as a rule. That unhappy _individualism_ which is the bane of our
day, and which is the fatal enemy of all true and healthy
_individuality_, breathes its malaria through even earnest Christian
circles. In the formation or allowance of personal habits, in
particular, it is sadly common to see young Christian men practically
quite forgetful of the power and responsibility of example. I do not
think that this was quite so common twenty or thirty years ago. Not that
I wish to take up the futile part of a mere _laudator temporis acti_; I
believe that the phenomenon has its reasons, its law so to speak, in the
peculiar conditions of our day. But then the Christian man is never to
be the slave of the conditions of his day, while he _is_ to "serve his
own generation by the will of God." [Acts xiii. 36.] So I appeal most
urgently to my reader, if he should chance to need the friendly call, to
awake to a renewed attention to the responsibility of example, and to
watch accordingly over consistency in everything.

"FOR THEIR SAKES."

With the humblest reverence may I quote in this connexion the words of
our blessed Lord in the High Priestly Prayer? "_For their sakes I
sanctify Myself._" So said JESUS CHRIST. [John xvii. 19.] Perfectly holy
personally, He was yet always deliberately hallowing Himself, separating
Himself, to the Father's will and work, "for their sakes"; because of
His relations with His disciples. Shall not we sinners, at whatever
interval, yet really, "follow His steps" in this also? "For their
sakes," for the sake of our brethren in the Ministry, for the sake of
our servants, for the sake of our neighbour of all sorts and kinds, let
us "sanctify ourselves" in a daily, willing separation from the way of
self to the will of God, diligently seeking the expression of that will
in His holy Word. It is the duty of every Christian. It is _par
excellence_ the duty of every Christian Minister, from the oldest
Archbishop to the youngest Deacon. To take Orders is to renounce all
ideas of a selfishly _private_ life. Our whole life henceforth is "for
their sakes"; even in those parts of it which must, from another point
of view, be most jealously protected from officialism, and lived as if
for the time no one existed but the man and his God. We are emphatically
now "their bondmen for Jesus' sake." [2 Cor. iv. 5.] "Others" have now
an indefeasible right not only to our ministry of Ordinances, and to our
preaching, and our visiting, but to the example of our habits, of our
lives.

MANNER.

Following up the same line of remark, let me say a word about our duty
to others in the matter of _manner_. It is sometimes, surely, forgotten
by Christian men that they have no right to be careless of their manner.
Many an excellent and otherwise consistent Clergyman seems to assume
that, whether with his brethren or with his parish neighbours, his
manner may take care of itself, if he only "does not mean it." But
well-meaning is a poor substitute for well-doing; especially that otiose
sort of well-meaning which only means not meaning ill.

*"NOBLESSE OBLIGE."

Christians have no business with so poor and thin a phantom of virtue.
They are not at liberty not to think about a kindly courtesy of address,
and a manly deference towards elders, and watchful "honour" given to
woman [1 Pet. iii. 7.], and a _manifested_ (as well as felt) sympathy of
heart with all who ask it. They are forbidden by the whole will and
rights of their Master to be loud and "casual" in intercourse; to be
moody and uncertain; to be difficult to please, easy to offend; to think
it a small thing to speak the word to others which may wound, even
lightly, with any wound but the really "faithful" one of a loving
caution or reproof in Christ. No one is to be so independent in one
aspect as the Christian man, and particularly the Christian Minister.
Few men have so strong a vantage-ground for independence as the
Clergyman of the English national Church. But it is the sort of
independence which carries also the deepest obligation, the strongest
sort of _noblesse oblige_. It is "for their sakes." And so the same man
is bound to be also the most accessible, the most attentive, the most
courteous and sympathetic. Avoiding carefully, of course, all
affectation and unreality, he is to take care that a Christian reality
within does show itself in a Christian manner without. "Let your
moderation, your oblivion of self, be _known unto all men_." [Phil. iv.
5.] Let it be seen and felt, in your rooms, in your parish, in your
church.

TEMPER.

Obviously this takes for granted the Clergyman's recognition of the call
to "rule his spirit." [Prov. xvi. 32.] The temptation not to do so is
very different for different men. One man finds temper and patience
sorely tried by things which do not even attract the attention of
another. But very few men indeed, in the actual experiences of pastoral
life, whether in town or country, quite escape for long together the
stings which irritate and inflame. But they _must_ learn how to meet
them in peace and patience, unless they would take one of the most
certain ways to dishonour their Master and discredit their message. The
world has some very true instincts about the power of the Gospel, as it
ought to be, as it claims to be. And one of them is that a Christian as
such is a man who ought always to keep his temper. The Christian
Clergyman is most certainly, at least in an ironical sense, "expected"
never to be _personally_ vexed and hot. Will it be so? Will he take
ignorant rudeness pleasantly, should it cross his way? Will he meet
opposition patiently, however firmly? Will he show that he remembers the
text, "The bondservant of the Lord must not strive"? [2 Tim. ii. 24.]

THE REV. C. SIMEON.

That text was the watchword of a great man of God, the Rev. Charles
Simeon, in the early and exquisitely trying experiences of his long
ministry (1782-1836) at Trinity Church, Cambridge. The parishioners shut
their house-doors in his face, and locked their pew-doors against those
who came to hear him. Every form of irritating parochial obstruction was
employed. And the young Clergyman had by nature a very short temper, and
a very fearless spirit. But he had found peace through the blood of the
Cross a few years before, and the interests of his Saviour were become
all in all to him. So his first thought was, what would best commend
Jesus Christ to the angry people? And the words seemed to sound
constantly in his soul, by way of answer, "The servant of the Lord must
not strive." Never was tried patience more beautifully made perfect. He
was always giving way, and always going on. He carefully ascertained
that it was illegal to lock the pew-doors; but he _did not take the law_
of those who locked them. His soul was kept in peace; and by degrees, as
might be expected, a calmness which clearly was not cowardice but
consistency won a victory whose effects are felt to this day through the
whole Church of England in the results of Simeon's mighty influence.[12]

[12] I may be permitted to refer to my brief sketch of Mr Simeon's Life:
_Charles Simeon_ (Methuen, 1892), ch. iv.

THE SECRET OF PEACE.

How shall we, in our measure, whenever called to it, "not strive," but
"let our oblivion of self be known unto all men"--in the cottage, in the
villa, in the vestry? There is only one way. It is by abiding in the
Secret of the Presence, in the "pavilion" where "the strife of tongues"
may be heard indeed, but cannot, _no, cannot_, set the hearer on fire.
We must claim on our knees, very often, our Master's power to keep the
soul which He has made, and which longs to manifest Him

  "In faith, in meekness, love,
    In every beauteous grace,
  From glory thus to glory changed
    As we behold His face."

POWER OF A CONSISTENT LIFE.

I have inevitably touched only some parts of the great subject of
personal ministerial Consistency. More will be said later. But the
treatment on paper, at almost any length, must be incomplete at the
best; many an important side of the subject will need to be omitted. My
aim has been, and will be, to speak of those sides most, if not only,
which are in special danger of neglect at the present day; and this
means of course the passing by of some large topics.

PAINS AND MEANS.

But contributions, however fragmentary, to the study of Consistency will
not be in vain. "A Minister's life is the life of his ministry," says
some one of other days with pithy force. "Happy those labourers of the
Church," says blessed Quesnel, the Jansenist (on Mark vi. 33), "the
sweet odour of whose lives draws the people to Jesus Christ." We all
recognize the beauty and truth of such sayings. We all admit the
fitness and duty of Consistency. But we must also recollect that in
order to our consistency there is needed more than an abstract
approbation; we must attend, we must reflect, we must examine ourselves,
we must discipline ourselves, as those who aim at an object at once
lovely and necessary. Above all, we must "order our steps in our Lord's
Word," [Ps. cxix. 133.] and we must maintain a living communion of
spirit with our Lord Himself, who is not only our Exemplar, our Law, and
our King, but also our Secret, our Strength, our Life.




CHAPTER V.

_THE DAILY WALK WITH OTHERS_ (ii.).


  _If Jesus Christ thou serve, take heed,
    Whate'er the hour may be;
  His brethren are obliged indeed
    By their nobility._


In the present chapter I follow the general principles of the last into
some further details. And I place before me as a sort of motto those
twice-repeated words of the Apostle, TAKE HEED UNTO THYSELF.

These words, it will be remembered, are addressed in both places to the
Christian Minister. [Acts xx. 28; 1 Tim. iv. 6.] At Miletus St Paul
gathers round him the Presbyters of Ephesus, and implores them to take
heed to themselves, and to the flock. A few years later he writes to
Timothy, commissioned (whether permanently or not) to be Pastor of
Pastors in that same Ephesus, and lays it on his soul to take heed to
himself, and to the doctrine. In each case the appeal to attend to
"self" comes first, as the vital preliminary to the other. And in each
case it takes the form of a solemn warning; not only "remember" but
"TAKE HEED."

TAKE HEED UNTO THYSELF.

I have already tried to emphasize the duty of "heed-taking," in several
directions. But I come in this chapter to some important matters which
seem specially to fall under such a heading; matters in which the lack
of prayerful heed may, and often does, work great and even fatal
mischief in the lives of Clergymen.

RELATIONS WITH WOMAN.

i. Let me first say a little, in brotherly confidence and candour, about
the young Clergyman's _relations with Woman_ in ordinary intercourse.

It would be waste of words to talk about the delicacy of the subject; it
is self-evident. And it is obvious also that in a book like this the
subject can be treated only in the way of general suggestion; no vain
attempt shall I make to state and discuss possible exceptional cases of
social difficulty. But it is quite necessary to say something on this
matter, for it is indeed a pressing and important thing in ministerial
life.

I will begin, then, with the assumption that the young Clergyman
recognizes, and seeks to practise, the great Gospel principle of a
sanctified chivalry. "To the feminine vessel, as to the weaker, give
honour," writes St Peter [1 Pet iii. 7.]; words which must be cut large
and deep into our ministerial hearts if we are to live as true Ministers
and true men. They have a particular reference to married life, I know;
but their full scope is far wider. And they are among the most wonderful
utterances of the apostolic Gospel, when we read them in the light, or
rather under the contrasted darkness, of the contemporary
_anti_-chivalry of the Rabbinic teaching about woman. They are the
utterance of Peter, the married man, after his discipleship in the
Spirit at the feet of Jesus, the Mother's Son. "_Giving honour_;" do not
forget the phrase. It lifts us into a higher and far healthier region
than that of either mere fondness or mere admiration. Indeed, it is
all-important to remember what a deep gulph lies between two things
which at first sight may be mistaken for one another--Admiration for
Women, Reverence for Woman.

So let apostolic chivalry, unaffected, but watchful and practical,
govern your life, by the grace of God. Let it be quite impartial as a
principle. You may possibly have to speak with a princess; you are sure
to have to speak and deal with very poor and ignorant women. But each
and all they are WOMAN, and you must remember the Apostle's word.
Courtesy and consideration are due to them all, as you are a man, a
Christian, a Minister of God. The expression may vary, and within limits
it must, but the principle must be always there. To the poorest woman
give the wall in the street, offer the best seat in the train.

WE ARE TRUSTED.

I must here so far anticipate a future chapter as to point out how
constantly this call to "give honour" must be remembered in pastoral
visitation. We Clergy are _trusted_ to an extraordinary degree in
personal intercourse with female parishioners. How often a pastoral call
is paid, whether at mansion or cottage, when no man is at home! "Take
heed unto thyself" _then_. The call under those circumstances should be
as brief as possible. And the whole interview should be ruled by a
heedful while unobtrusive respect and self-respect. Do not think a
strong word of caution in this matter out of place and out of scale.
Carelessness of even appearances here may wreck a life; it may certainly
blight an influence.

WHEN AND HOW TO TAKE HEED.

But I do not forget that we are not yet concerned directly with pastoral
visitation as such; we are thinking of incidental social intercourse.
The young Clergyman will sometimes, however seldom, find himself
visiting in not exactly the pastoral sense of the word. Courteous
hospitality will be shown him by neighbours; and while he will very
often decline these calls, because his Master's work in other and more
obvious forms claims him, sometimes he will accept them, as his Master
did. Or his needful holiday has come, and he is staying at a friend's
house, or is thrown into new intercourse at some health-resort. And we
will suppose that he is a bachelor, and not engaged. In what particular
directions shall he take heed?

"KNOW THYSELF."

Below and above all details, he will take heed to remember his always
present Lord and Friend, and to live and talk as knowing that "HE is the
unseen Listener to every conversation"; a recollection which ought to
banish from our talk, whether we talk with man or woman, alike
frivolity, unkindness, untruthfulness, and dulness. Then, to come to a
few details under that great principle--the man will need to watch and
be heedful in one or more quite different directions, according to his
character. And God grant us all such honesty and simplicity before Him
as shall teach us to know at least something of our own characters,
especially in their weak points. There ought to be no surer prescription
for a true [Greek: gnÙthi seauton] than to "walk in the light" [1 John
i. 7.] of the presence of Him who sees everything just as it is, and in
that light to look at ourselves, and the world, and His Word; aiming
every day, not to be thought "nice," or to be thought remarkable, but to
let Him shine out of our lives.

THE DUTY OF RESERVE.

One man, then, will need more than another to cultivate a quiet reserve
and restraint of manner in social intercourse with young ladies. It is
the way of some men, without thinking about it, to be too
demonstratively attentive. It is the way of others to forget that they
are not everywhere at home, and to be far too familiarly friendly. "I
look on every girl I meet as if she were my sister;" so said one young
Clergyman, a very fine fellow indeed, but certainly in this sentiment
very much and very dangerously mistaken. Attentions and confidences may
be meant as honestly as possible. But if they go beyond a certain line
(soon reached) they may most naturally be thought to mean something
more; to be a preliminary, however distant, to an offer. And just
possibly such a thought may not be unwelcome to the other person
concerned. And if so, and if all the while nothing but courtesy was
meant, you, my friend and Brother, without knowing it, perhaps without
ever knowing it, may _spoil the life_ of one who cannot possibly, as a
woman, express herself to you. I have known such a case in clerical
life. The man was a true man, but he allowed himself, for the
pleasantness of it, to be very agreeable where he meant no more than
friendship. Great, while silent, was the sorrow that resulted. Take heed
unto thyself.

SPECIAL RISKS.

There are some parochial circumstances where even unusual caution is
needed in this direction; for reasons which I allude to with pain. It
is a fact, I fear, that in some parishes the Curate is in danger of
being rather actively pursued, by here and there a parent, as a possibly
desirable son-in-law. I have even heard of a certain Incumbent who was
given not indistinctly to understand that the coming Curate would be
less welcome if he was a man already married. Such a state of things is
of course one of exceptional social risk and difficulty for a Curate,
and for a young single Rector or Vicar still more so. Nothing will do
but a very real "heed-taking," beginning always in secret with God, and
then quietly carried out with sanctified common-sense. Fatal mistakes,
really fatal to future usefulness in the Ministry, may very easily be
made otherwise.

But then there is an opposite side to the question. Some young men, not
all certainly but a good many, are in great danger of a rather
exaggerated estimate of their own attractions and importance. There are
some junior Clergymen who are, if I do not mistake, prone to think that
most young ladies whom they meet are fascinated by them, or are at least
in imminent peril. Such delusions meet sometimes with not very gentle
corrections. But it is better to be forearmed against the delusion--as
it most probably _is_ a delusion in the given case. And the best
prophylactic is the old one; a secret walk with God "in the light," and
a recollection of the constant need of self-knowledge exactly where such
knowledge is least pleasant. I repeat it; may the Lord grant us each and
every one His true [Greek: gnÙthi seauton]. By a blessed paradox it is
sure to prove the secret of a true self-oblivion; for it means for
certain, among other things, a truer and fuller sight of HIM.

MATRIMONY OR CELIBACY?

The subject thus before us is a very large one. It connects itself with
the whole question whether marriage or celibacy is the will of God in
the man's ministerial life. Happily I have no need, in the Church of
England, to defend "the holy estate of matrimony" as if it were in the
slightest measure incompatible with the fullest sanctification of life
and of ministry. Personally my belief is that, in the immense majority
of cases, the married Clergyman is the more useful Clergyman _if_ (an
"if" of extreme importance) his wife is _altogether one with him in the
Lord_. But I distinctly think that there are very many exceptions to the
matrimonial rule. There are branches of ministerial work, particularly
in parts of the sacred _missionary_ field, where the single man seems to
make the better Minister. And no true servant of God will allow himself
to think first of an opening for marriage and then of an opening for
ministry.

"ONE IN THE LORD."

Here I pause to say what it lies much on my heart to say somewhere. Let
the true man, who is at present free in respect of marriage-engagements,
resolve that in the whole question of seeking or not seeking a wife he
will consider first, midst, and last his Master's work, his Master's
Ministry. Better a thousand times be the most solitary of human beings
than choose with your eyes open a married life in which you will not
find positive help (not merely no positive hindrance) in your work for
the Lord Jesus Christ. Beware of the temptation to seek the mere pretty
face, or the mere fortune large or small, or mere accomplishments, or
indeed anything short of the truly converted believing heart and
dedicated will.

*MARRIED LIFE AS IT SHOULD BE.

The Clergyman and his Wife are sacredly bound to live their united life
wholly for Christ. They are to help one another on in Him, to stimulate
one another in work for others in Him, to give each other always mutual
aid towards a constant growth in faith, hope, and love; towards an ever
better use of means, and time, and tongue, and everything. If their Lord
gives them children to train for Him, those children are to see their
parents so living, not only individually but together, as to glorify and
commend the Gospel _to them_, from the very first. And the wider family
of the parish, sure to be observant, is to see the same sight in
measure. Happy the married Pastor whose home and its life respond to
such a description. Alas for the man whose passion, blindness, hurry,
self-will, or whatever else it is, has betrayed him into a condition of
things which cannot be so described.

I may be writing for some readers to whom such a "take heed unto
thyself" may be in point even as they read. If so, let me seize the
occasion. With not a few very sorrowful illustrations in my mind I lay
all emphasis on this earnest word of affectionate warning. And let me
add to it another word, as in duty bound, and with the utmost solemnity,
knowing that the thing is vitally important. I appeal to you not lightly
to seek marriage, not lightly to make engagement, even where you have
good assurance that all would be spiritually well, if there is a real
probability of a married life _clogged with pecuniary perplexities_.

You observe that I do not speak absolutely on this point; I dare not. I
do not say, Do not do it; I say, Do not _lightly_ do it. Faith is one
thing; "light-heartedness" is another. And sometimes light-heartedness
means nothing better than a vague expectation that "something will turn
up." Perhaps what does turn up is a weary and distracting struggle with
debt, and a gradual habituation to a not very creditable life upon the
means of others, who very likely can spare only with difficulty what
comes at length to be taken without gratitude. I beseech my Brother to
"suffer the word of exhortation."

RISKS OF DEBT.

ii. I touch thus already on the second point about which I would fain
cry, Take heed unto thyself. That matter is _Money_. A few words here
will sufficiently convey my appeal, but those few must be pressing. I
appeal to my younger Brethren to be watchful day by day in the matter of
money. At this moment there rises in my memory the face and name of a
Clergyman with whom, long years ago, I became acquainted about the time
of his ordination. He was unquestionably in earnest; I believe that he
truly knew his Lord and Master, and was truly desirous to serve Him in
His flock. But I am perfectly sure that he must have forgotten, almost
from the first, to take heed unto himself in the matter of money. [SN:
PECUNIARY INTEMPERANCE.] Perhaps he had brought with him from the
University that fatal habit of _pecuniary intemperance_ which sometimes
gets a hold upon a man second in its grasp only to that of intemperance
commonly so called. Unhappily the ways of modern college life too easily
generate such a habit, as University men are led more and more by their
surroundings into a dread of appearing to be poor, and are almost
expected to cost their fathers more for the academical year of eight or
nine months than they will earn in the clerical year of twelve. But
however it was, my poor dear friend _had_ about him the tendency to
debt. And not all his earnestness and his devoutness could maintain his
influence when that tendency began to tell. One post of duty had to be
soon quitted for another, and so again and again, under this
ever-recurring failure. Let us take heed unto ourselves.

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE MONEY.

In dealing with money which in any sense is public, no care can be too
great. In a case well known to me, a Clergyman imperilled his whole
influence, to the verge of ruin, by the simple but effectual process of
allowing money collected for a church-object to be mixed and "muddled"
with his private funds. He was not business-like, and he was not at all
well off. And somehow, when the time of reckoning came, the money had
melted, he knew not whither. Strenuous exertions on the part of friends
replaced privately the missing collection; but it was only just in time.
I have often heard our Indian Missionaries say how great and frequent is
the difficulty raised by the apparent incapacity of some otherwise
excellent native Pastors to keep public and private money apart. They
mean all that is honourable; but a friend comes in begging for a loan,
and there is the church fund at hand, and of course the sum taken shall
be soon repaid, and of course it is _not_ repaid. But such difficulties
are not confined to India. The native Pastors of England have great need
to take heed unto themselves.

THE ACCOUNTS IN GOOD ORDER.

If possible, let us make our lay parochial friends our secretaries, and
above all our treasurers. But if it must be otherwise, and often it must
be, let us take heed, at any cost of pains. To do so may be overruled to
win a positive influence for the Clergyman. I well remember a dear
friend of mine telling me, with loyal pleasure, of his holy and devoted
Vicar's care in this direction, and its power over the keen-sighted and
not always friendly members of the school-committee in his great parish.
Every item of the books was accurate; every halfpenny of receipts
accounted for. Men could find no fault in that Clergyman save concerning
the Law--and the Gospel--of his God.

INVESTMENT-CIRCULARS.

Perhaps I need only allude in passing to that crude sort of temptation
put so freely before us Clergy, the circular advertisement of the mine
which is to pay twenty per cent., or of the company just formed (I have
such a circular in my possession, and keep it sacredly,) to promote the
construction of a new projectile which shall make war more horrible than
ever; one condition to the success of the Clergyman's investment being,
of course, that war, thus made more horrible than ever, shall also be as
frequent and continuous as possible. But the schemes announced in these
circulars are very various in character; good, indifferent, and bad.
Need I say that, as a very safe rule, they must all be viewed as bad
from the point of view of the young Clergyman's (or indeed of the
Clergyman's) purse? It is a truism to remark that high interest means
low security; but even a truism can bear occasional repetition when it
has to do with a good man's whole life and work, and when the oblivion
may mean acute or chronic misery. Such investments are for us a form of
gambling, almost as much so as the shameless circulars which we
sometimes receive from foreign cities, announcing the possibility of
clearing a fortune at one stroke by a turn of the lottery machine. Does
the sending of such missives to the English Clergy mean that English
Clergymen sometimes answer them? If so, I say that it is strictly
impossible that the man who so answers, whether he loses or wins, can
also be walking with God, and so working that the Lord works with him.
So far as such acts go, he is acting an awfully untrue part, and his
Master knows it. Let us take heed unto ourselves.

OTHER MONEY-PERILS.

In conclusion, I turn another way. The whole question of the increase
and investment of money is a very solemn and searching one for the
Christian, clerical or lay. There are holy men who say that we ought in
no degree to "lay up." While I reverence their meaning, I do not agree
with them. Yet I do most deeply feel that their warnings raise a
danger-signal in a direction opposite to that which we have been
viewing, but equally important. Some of my younger Brethren have already
a private competency; others may be expecting one.

*"WHEN RICHES INCREASE."

To others, gifted in one way or another for marked acceptance in the
Church, posts are, or will be, offered which even in these days bring a
good income, perhaps a growing one. Take heed unto thyself. It is with
deep significance that the Word of God bids us not set our heart upon
riches _when they increase_. [Ps. lxii. 10.] It is often observed, I
fear, that a man's readiness to give diminishes in proportion to his
power for giving. There is a subtle fascination for many minds, and
among them for minds generous at first, in an access of possessions; the
thirst for more sets in, however imperceptibly, and perhaps the
Christian, perhaps the Pastor, has become--before he knows it--covetous;
caring a good deal for money. Let us take heed unto ourselves.[13]

[13] I cannot help relating a pathetically amusing remark I once heard
in a Dorsetshire cottage. I had looked in on the good housewife in the
course of a long walk, and she was telling me about the needs and
straits of a recent time of illness. The aged Vicar of the large and
thinly-peopled parish was a well-to-do man, and not at all unkind in
meaning and manner. But he never gave alms, or indeed material help of
any kind. "Poor Mr ----," said the cottager, with the kindliest
_naÔvetÈ_, "he never _do_ give away anything. There, _I suppose it be
his affliction_."

"LAY NOT UP FOR YOURSELVES."

I am sure that the Gospel has no censure for modest comforts and for
simple refinements. I am sure that it bids the Christian, whether Pastor
or not, "_provide_," look beforehand, with a view to save needless
anxiety and disadvantage both for himself and yet more "for them of his
own house." [1 Tim. v. 8.] But I am equally sure that it commands us
even more emphatically not to lay up treasure upon earth; not to make
the sad mistake of thinking that the work of life is to get. Rather may
ours be the spirit of a noble-hearted friend of mine, now at rest for
ever, early called away from heroic Missionary work. He had found
himself rapidly getting richer in a successful school-enterprize; and
recognized _in this_ a summons to give it up, and volunteer for the
foreign field.

But I say no more. Probably to the great majority of my readers these
last paragraphs seem little to the purpose, at least at present. But
there are few lives in which, sooner _or later_, such reflections may
not find a corner for application.

THE MOTIVE.

Meanwhile, whether our call is to avoid debt or to avoid gathering, we
will look up for new motive power into our Master's face. Him we love;
Him we long to commend; and to Him we belong with all we have. In His
Name, and for His sake, we will take heed unto ourselves.




CHAPTER VI.

_THE DAILY WALK WITH OTHERS_ (iii.).


  _Thrice happy they who at Thy side,
      Thou Child of Nazareth,
  Have learnt to give their struggling pride
      Into Thy hands to death:
  If thus indeed we lay us low,
  Thou wilt exalt us o'er the foe;
  And let the exaltation be
      That we are lost in Thee._


Let me say a little on a subject which, like the last, is one of some
delicacy and difficulty, though its problems are of a very different
kind. It is, the relation between the Curate and his Incumbent; or more
particularly, the Curate's position and conduct with regard to the
Incumbent.

A LECTURE ON CURATES.

I need not explain that the legal aspect of this important matter is not
in my view. Not long ago I listened, in the library of Ridley Hall, to
an instructive lecture, by a diocesan Chancellor, on the law of Curates;
one of a series on Church Law delivered under the sanction of the
University. The Lecturer informed the audience, certainly he informed
me, of many points of practical moment not clearly known to us before.
He gave a sketch of the history of the licensed Curate as an
institution, and made us aware that he is a modern institution,
comparatively speaking. Before the Reformation the numerous host of
"chantry-priests" was largely used to supplement the offices of the
parochial Clergy. After the Reformation, for a very long while, the
pastoral arrangements did not include a special institution of
Assistants. Then, as the unhappy system of pluralities grew large and
common, such as it was all through the eighteenth century and beyond it,
"the Curate" meant not the active assistant of the resident Pastor but
the substitute for the non-resident--the Curate-in-Charge. It was not
till well within these last hundred years that men were commonly to be
found doing what we now understand so well as Assistant-Curates' work.
The presence in the Church of us Assistant-Curates (I hold a licence
myself, and am therefore one of the company) is at once an effect and a
sign both of the great increase of population and of the concurrent
increase throughout the Church of England of the desire for fuller and
more laborious ministrations.

A CHANCELLOR'S SUGGESTIONS.

So our able Lecturer led us through our own history; and then he
proceeded to instruct us in some main elements of our legal
qualifications, and duties, and rights: how to get into a Curacy, and
how to get out of it; what are the Bishop's rights over the Curate, and
how the Archbishop may interpose if the Curate pleads a grievance
against the Bishop. But I trust that this and other Lectures of the same
course may see the light some day in a better form than a rough and
passing report of mine. My purpose in referring to them now is that I
may call attention to one point on which the Lecturer laid no little
stress. It was, that it is the wisdom of the Curate, when he has once
deliberately accepted a Curacy, to be thoroughly loyal all along; to
consider himself as "at the Vicar's beck and call"; to serve him
heartily and unreservedly. If tempted to do otherwise, particularly if
tempted to complain of the Vicar to the Bishop, let him resist that
temptation to the utmost of his power. "There may be sad exceptions, and
necessity knows no law; but _as a rule_," said my honoured friend, "I
may assure you, from a large experience, that the Curate who complains
of his Incumbent to his Bishop injures not the Incumbent but himself."

LOYALTY.

Our Lecturer avowedly spoke not as a spiritual but as a legal
counsellor. I would now take up his words, and from the point of view of
the friend and Brother in the Lord say a little to my younger Brethren,
engaged or about to be engaged in assistant Curacies, concerning the
Christian rightness and Christian wisdom of taking the sort of line
which the diocesan Chancellor recommended.

THE IDEAL INCUMBENT.

As I come to the subject, let me say on the threshold that I am sure to
be writing for many readers who little need the discourse, at least at
present. You are working under a Vicar or a Rector whose example and
also whose friendship is one of the greatest blessings of your life. You
see in him a man perhaps much older than yourself, perhaps nearly your
coeval, but however a leader, who is also, in the Lord Jesus Christ,
your brother, and your most considerate while stimulating friend. He
consults you, without forgetting his responsibility of ultimate
direction. He gladly and fully recognizes and honours your work done
under his organization. He has not the slightest wish to come between
you and the affections of his parishioners among whom you move. He
cultivates, in his busy life, Christian fellowship with you in private;
you pray together, and talk together, not only about the parish but
about the Lord, and the Word, and your own souls. He lets you find in
him, as he is glad to find in you, just a man, a friend, a Christian,
with trials and blessings of inner experience on which it is sometimes
good to speak to one another; a living soul, companionable and human,
while in it Christ dwells by faith. You have experienced with happy
uniformity your Incumbent's patience, sympathy, fairness,
trustworthiness. You have seen in him one who is himself always at work,
always watching for the flock; who does not put on you this duty or that
merely because it is irksome to himself, but whose whole purposes are in
the cause of God, and who distributes labour in any and every interest
but his own.

And perhaps you see this man honoured and loved by all around you, as
they too see and know him to be what he is. You move about in the
parish, and you are quite sure to hear allusions to the Vicar. And as a
rule, perhaps, they are all friendly, all loyal, all grateful. You find
yourself, in short, under no appreciable present temptation, being (as
of course you are) a true man yourself, to do anything but identify
yourself very gladly with him.

YET EVEN HE IS NOT PERFECT.

But then, even in this bright supposed case--a case of which the Church
of England contains hundreds of practical examples, thank
God--appreciable temptations in the other direction, the wrong, unhappy,
fatal direction, may very conceivably creep upon you with time. Your
admirable Incumbent is all the while a mortal man, and as such, most
certainly (he himself above all men knows and owns it), he is not
perfect, not quite equal to himself in every way. Perhaps he has come to
be not perfect in physical health, and thus he is obliged, to his own
grief, to do less in this or that branch of activity than some of his
people think he ought to do; and then you are tolerably sure to hear
some not very just and generous complaints in the parish. Perhaps
domestic sorrow, or domestic straits and care, may have come in to
becloud his spirit and to make his energies for a season flag. Perhaps
among his many gifts you may find some gift a little lacking; he may be
manifestly less strong in the committee, or in the labours of
arrangement generally, than in the pulpit or the class; or it may be
just the other way. And you, my dear friend, may be (or may think
yourself to be) somewhat strong where he is somewhat weak; an
opportunity for many subtle temptations. The days and weeks go on; and
if you let "the little rift" of criticism widen, and do not continually
take it to your Lord to be examined and mended, other feelings--not born
from above--may steal in between you and this good man, your elder and
leader in Christ. Petty dislikes and impatience may rise in your heart
about some trifling point of manner, some momentary failure of sympathy,
some oblivion of arrangement or engagement due to a sore stress of
work, some very small matter of Church order, or Christian dialect; or
who can tell what?

GRAVE POSSIBLE TEMPTATIONS TO DISLOYALTY.

But also it is just possible that I am writing for some reader who finds
himself in more grave and pressing difficulties than these. My most
honoured brethren the Incumbents, if any of them should cast their eyes
over these chapters, written by a Curate mainly for Curates, will not
blame me for saying that there are cases, sad and sorrowful, where the
Curate cannot honestly think with perfect happiness of his leader's work
and influence. Perhaps that Incumbent has "run well," nobly well, but
(as it was of old with some primitive saints) something or someone
"hindered him." [Gal. v. 7.] Perhaps he has lost first love and
zeal, and sunk, he knows not how, into an indolent clericalism, or
anticlericalism, of thought and habit. Perhaps he has suffered care,
disappointment, parochial conflicts, to sour his spirit, or at least to
take his heart away from his people. Perhaps he has felt the sad
influence of controversial battles, and the love and richness of the old
Gospel has somewhat faded out of his life, and conversation, and
sermons; I do not refer to faithful care over distinctive and
world-offending truth, but to the controversial _spirit_, which is
altogether another thing. Perhaps he has somewhat lost command over
temper; perhaps he has not yet found in our Lord's great fulness the
open secret by which He supplies patience to His servants, even when
they are sorely vexed by man. And just possibly difficulty between
Curate and Vicar threatens to arise from some side-quarter; from those
who stand around the Vicar, who inevitably see him often and intimately,
who are active and important under-workers in his field, and who may
themselves be not quite fully "governed by the Spirit and Word of God."

BEWARE OF THE GROWTH OF A CURATE'S PARTY.

I have put a good many supposed cases. How much I should rejoice if I
could know that not one reader of this page could find any of my
"peradventures" the least in point within his experience. But I must
emphasize one of them which is hardly a peradventure at all; namely that
the Curate is practically certain, sooner or later, to find temptations
presented to his loyalty by the conversation of parishioners. There is
not one parish in all England where everybody is pleased with the
Incumbent; pleased always and about everything. And if the given Vicar
or Rector employs a Curate, and if that Curate is you, it will be a
moral miracle if you never hear of such discontents. You will hear of
them, very probably, in ways which will offer you, however faintly, an
opportunity of acting towards your chief a little as Absalom acted
towards David when he expressed certain pious wishes that _he_ were made
judge in the land in his father's place. [2 Sam. xv. 1-6.] I do not for
a moment mean that you are, or ever will be, a man of treacherous
_purposes_; the Lord forbid. But if you do not watch, and are not in
some measure forewarned, you may easily be betrayed unawares, quite
unawares, into speech or into action which will practically be
treacherous to the man who is over you in Christ, and so toward Christ's
work and cause in the parish where you serve. Do you not know the
possibilities to which I refer? Have they not crossed either your own
path or that of some Curate-friend of yours? Is there no such thing as
an intimacy formed by the Curate in some house where the Incumbent is
not liked, and is that intimacy never used by the Curate _not_ for the
noblest ends? Is there no weak listening to parochial gossip on the
Curate's part? Is there never any allowance by the younger man of a
growth around him, in ways which he could stop summarily, if he tried,
of a certain unwholesome sort of preference and popularity? Is it not
sometimes known that a Curate condescends so low as to concur with
criticisms or sarcasms on his chief, or even to volunteer them? Alas for
the parish where there is a "Curate's party," small or more extensive.
Happy the parish where no chance is given in that direction by either
Incumbent or Curate. Happy the Curate who is so truly loyal and dutiful,
it may be even under difficulties, that he makes it quite unmistakable
that, if a party is to gather, it must gather around some one else.

HOW TO REPRESS IT.

Some cases happily in point are present to my own mind. I once knew of a
parish in which the truly devoted Vicar was, however, not popular; he
had sadly felt the weight of depression and disappointment, and this had
had a weakening reflex influence on his ministry. He was joined by a
Curate, a man in the prime of youth and vigour, well qualified to
attract confidence and affection, and particularly gifted as a preacher.
Very soon many parishioners showed a preference for the young man's
ministrations in public, and for his company in private; it was a golden
opportunity for the almost spontaneous formation of a Curate's party. By
the grace of God, the young Clergyman was enabled both to see the
position at once and, by most decisive and manly speech and act, in the
right quarters, to show, without a chance of mistake, that he considered
his work as altogether identical with his Vicar's, never to be carried
on for an hour outside a faithful subordination. Another instance may be
given. Some years ago it was my duty to explain at a meeting the objects
and work of the Divinity Hall with which I am connected. Quite
incidentally, while describing our course of teaching, I mentioned my
earnest desire always to caution my student-friends against giving the
slightest encouragement to the rise of Curates' parties.

*AN EXAMPLE.

At the close of the occasion, a Clergyman rose at the back of the
parish-room where we met, and said a few words, as gladdening as they
were unexpected. He had come to the meeting-place with no knowledge of
the meeting; merely to keep an appointment. But he happened to be the
Vicar of a large town parish, and there to have had a friend of mine as
his Curate; and he told us how this same Curate had come to him at a
time when the parish, under circumstances inherited from past years, was
ripe and ready for partizanship and division. Nothing would have been
needed but the Curate's passive allowance of such tendencies to
embarrass and spoil the difficult work of the Vicar. But my dear young
friend was "found in Christ"; he knew his Lord's will in the matter, and
he strove to do it. By active discouragement he precluded the mischief
completely, and thus greatly strengthened his leader's hands for the
work of God before him.

"THE LOST GRACE, HUMILITY."

Surely few Christian men have wider and nobler opportunity than Curates
have for the practice of "that lost grace, humility," in its form of
unselfish dutifulness, "good fidelity in all things." [Tit. ii. 10.] My
Brethren know the sort of humility I mean; no artificial mannerism,
nothing in the least degree unworthy of the "adult in Christ." What I do
mean is that thing so scarce in our days, the noble opposite to that
individualistic spirit than which nothing is more narrow, more low, more
hostile to all true, genial development and greatness. I mean the
generous modesty which delights to recognize the claims of an elder, of
a leader; which loves the idea of trustworthy service, taking as its
motto a more than princely _Ich Dien_. I mean the temper of mind which
sees the happiness of siding against ourselves, of judging not others
but ourselves; the spirit which is much more anxious to vindicate a
superior's reputation than our own, more alert to ward criticism off
from him than to shield our own head from its arrow. I mean the life
which shows that so far from being ashamed of the idea of subjection,
the man has learnt at the feet of Jesus to think true service the
truest freedom.

Another day, very probably, the Curate will find himself an Incumbent,
and will have his own helping brother at his side. It will be a happy
thing then for both parties if he has thoroughly learnt that great
qualification for command, the experience of obedience; and has
cultivated the exercise of sympathy with his subordinate by having first
striven in honest loyalty to take his chief's part against himself.

TAKE PART AGAINST YOURSELF.

Few, very few, are the cases where a man who has accepted a Curacy _with
his eyes reasonably open_ finds that such is the friction of the
position that his first duty is to seek a release. There are such cases,
I am afraid. But, I say it again, they are very few; and in every case
which looks as if it were one of them, the Curate should _first_
exercise the severest scrutiny upon himself, trying honestly to find, in
some magnifying mirror, "the beam in his own eye." [Matt. vii. 3.] And
even where such scrutiny still leaves it plain, after consultation not
only with sensible friends (if necessary) but of course with the Lord
Himself, that it is best to seek a change, let it be remembered that, up
to the very last day of connexion, the Curate is still the Curate, bound
to all possible loyalty and good faith.

"SUFFER THE WORD."

It is with some misgivings of feeling that I have dwelt thus at length
on difficulties and anxieties incident to the relationship of Curate and
Incumbent. But I do not think after all that I shall be misunderstood.
In the nature of the case, the bright sides of the matter have hardly
needed comment. The Curate who finds himself the favoured and advantaged
helper of some true-hearted leader needs little counsel from me, unless
it be in face of the fact, on which we have touched, that the noblest
leaders in the Lord in the whole English Church are not above parochial
criticism, or even parochial slander. But I do know that there are
Curates whose circumstances are less favourable; and I long to impress
it upon them that few Christians have a larger and more fruitful field
than they for the cultivation of some of the crowning graces of the
Gospel. It is for them to make no common proof of the power of the
Indwelling Lord to subdue the iniquities of His people, to hallow their
inmost spirits, to set before their lips the watch and ward of His
blessed Presence, to drive utterly away from their pastoral souls the
wretched spirit of sarcasm, to enable them for an unselfish faithfulness
when no eye but the unseen Master's oversees.

INDEPENDENCE AND LOYALTY.

It is no part of the system of the Church of England, as it is of that
of the Church of Rome, to put a man (or a woman) under the "spiritual
direction" of a fellow-sinner, who is to be, for the "directed," the
organ and representative of the will of God. For such a method is no
part of the apostolic Gospel, which never for a moment bids us
surrender conscience into the keeping of another. "Who art thou that
judgest _Another's_ servant? To his _own Master_ he standeth or
falleth" [Rom. xiv. 4.]; words which deeply and decisively contradict
the root-ideas of spiritual despotism, for they teach us to think of
our fellow-Christians, as if--for purposes of the conscience--He who
is their Master and ours was, for them, _another_ Master than
ours.[14] Yet the ideas of spiritual despotism are only the distortion
or parody of ideas which are as true and sacred as the Gospel can make
them; the ideas of self-abnegation for the good of others, and of
resolute denial of the miserable spirit which prefers self to others
and talks about rights when we should be intent on duties. The
Christian man, and _‡ fortiori_ the Minister of Christ, is called (as
we have seen in earlier pages) to nothing less than a life in which,
while conscience is inviolable, self is surrendered to Christ, in that
practical sense of the words which means surrender, for His sake, _to
others_, in all things which concern not right and wrong but our
self-will.

[14] I owe this remark to my friend the Rev. H.E. Brooke.

"CLOTHED WITH HUMILITY."

"Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder." [1 Pet. v. 5.]
I never forget how the Apostle finishes the passage; "Yea, _all of you_,
be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility," [Greek:
egkoubÙsasthe tÍn tapeinophosynÍn], "tie humility round you" as the
servant ties on his apron. Most characteristic of the Bible is the
impartiality of the precept, so given; the Elders in the Church of God
will not forget it on their side. But nevertheless the stress of the
precept bears upon the younger man. He, in the Lord's order, is
especially to recollect the sacred duty of a willing, loyal, and
open-eyed humility.

A NOBLE SUBORDINATION.

All the instincts of our time are against this. But for the true
disciple of Jesus Christ there is something stronger than any spirit of
the age; it is the Spirit of God, dwelling in the inmost soul. By that
wonderful power the Christian Curate, who walks with the Lord in secret,
and finds in Him his way of purity and consistency in the more general
aspects of his "walk with others," will daily be enabled for a bright
and glad consistency in the path of ministerial subordination. He will
not cease to be a man, who must observe and think; nor will he
necessarily hold it his duty never, in all loyalty and respect, to
express to his Vicar a differing wish or opinion. But his bias will be
against himself, and for his chief, if he indeed lets the Spirit of God
lead him, and rule him, and fill him. For the Lord's sake, [Greek: dia
tou Kyrion], and by the Lord's power, [Greek: dia tou Kyriou], he will
carry the principle of a watchful "submission" not only into greater
things, but even into the smaller preferences of his elder and leader,
if they in the least degree affect the duties of the parish and the
church.

A LETTER ON CURATES' GRIEVANCES.

I close this chapter with a quotation. It is a letter written to the
Editor of the _Record_, in the spring of 1885, after the perusal of a
correspondence in that paper in which some "grievances of Evangelical
Curates" had been set forth, and in which it had been implied that such
grievances might give some sufferers occasion to transfer their
sympathies to another "school."

"After reading the recent correspondence, I cannot forbear a few words
expressive of the sad impression left upon my mind. Far be it from me to
say that Incumbents have no lessons to learn from this correspondence.
All Incumbents who have, by grace, 'the mind that was in Christ Jesus'
will surely embrace every suggestion, however painful in form, which can
stimulate them to larger manifestations of holy and self-forgetting
sympathy, perfectly compatible with the firm attitude (which is also
their duty) of responsible direction. But this thought leaves unaltered
the mournful impression taken from the tone of the letters of my
aggrieved Brethren. In one form or another one thought seemed to breathe
in all;--the thought of _my_ rights, _my_ position, _my_ gifts and
opportunities, and what was due from others in regard of them; the
complaint that others were not humble, when the Christian's first
concern with humility is to derive it for himself from his Lord. Such a
spirit is not easily compatible with a true secret hourly walk with God
and abiding in Christ, the _sine qu‚ non_ of fruit-bearing. And
fruit-bearing is the supreme inner aim of the true pastoral life,
fruit-bearing in the devoted doing of the Master's present will.

"In one letter I read with pain that 'it is no marvel' if men who cannot
secure justice and happiness in one party should transfer their
allegiance to another. Is it indeed 'no marvel'? Is it to be expected,
then, in the holy Ministry, that convictions about divine truth should
be modified by the personal claims and comfort of the holder, if the
word 'hold' may be used without severe irony in such a connexion? Can a
saint and servant of God, young or old, Vicar or Curate, walk closely
with Him all day, truly given to Him, wholly submissive to His word and
will, and yet find it possible to deal with convictions so? What are
personal rights and exterior happiness weighed against the claims of
what we have really grasped as truth in the presence of the Lord? It is
well for us that martyrs and confessors, and their worthy successors,
our Evangelical ancestors of a century ago, knew how to answer that
question.

CONVICTION SACRED, SELF NOWHERE.

"I aim to speak with all humility and sympathy. But I cannot but thus
earnestly express the unalterable conviction that the only ministerial
life which can be 'sanctified and meet for the Master's use' is the life
in which conviction is sacred, in which Christ is all, and in which self
is nowhere."




CHAPTER VII.

_PASTOR IN PARISH_ (i.).


  _Master, to the flock I speed,
    In Thy presence, in Thy name;
  Show me how to guide, to feed,
    How aright to cheer and blame;
  With me knock at every door;
    Enter with me, I implore._


We have talked together about the young Clergyman's secret life, and
private life, and his life in (so to speak) non-clerical intercourse
with others, and now lastly of his life as it stands related to his
immediate leader in the Ministry. In this latter topic we have already
touched the great matter which comes now at once before us, the man's
work amongst his neighbours as he approaches them in his proper
character, as a Pastor.

"THE PULSE OF THE MACHINE."

How shall I speak of "parish-work"? It would be a boundless subject if
treated in detail and in the style of a directory of methods. But such a
treatment is far from my purpose. To undertake it, I should not only
need to be a widely experienced Pastor, which I cannot claim to be, for
my life for many years has been mainly devoted to academic teaching; I
should need to be several widely experienced Pastors bound up into one
living volume. So let no one expect to find here a prescription for the
right plans and right practice of the many departments of the rural
pastorate, or of the urban, or suburban; directions how to organize
work, and how to develop it; how to deal with the Sunday School, or the
Day School, or the Institute, or the Guild, or the Visitors' Meeting, or
the Missionary Association. My hope is rather to get behind all these
things to the pulse of the busy machinery; to offer a few hints to my
younger Brethren "how to do it," from the point of view of their
personal and inner preparedness for the multifold work, and to state
some plain general principles which may run through all the doing.

VISITING.

I set before me then the Curate, and the Parish, with its demands for
pastoral labour, and particularly for _Visitation_. Well do I know how
immense the differences are between place and place in this same matter
of visitation; how the parish of a few hundreds, or even of two or
three thousand, is one thing, and the parish of ten, or eighteen, or
twenty thousand is another. I know that there are parishes, in London
for example, where all the efforts of a staff of devoted Clergy seem to
fail to do more than touch the edges of the work of domestic visitation.
Yet surely even in such cases that work must not, and will not, be quite
given up as hopeless. A little, where only a little is possible, is
vastly better than none; even if it be only the visitation of the sick,
and of those who immediately surround them, and with whom the sick-visit
gives the Clergyman an opportunity. Such efforts, where nothing more of
the kind is possible, if only done in an unmistakable spirit of love and
self-sacrifice, must carry good to the people. And do not forget that
they must, quite as necessarily, carry good to the Clergyman. For they
are a means, for which nothing else can be quite the substitute, of
bringing him into contact with the people's thoughts and lives in ways
which will tell usefully (as we have seen in an earlier page) upon his
whole ministry, particularly upon his work in the pulpit, and at the
mission-room desk, and in the open air.

But, to be as practical as possible, I will assume that the Curacy is of
a more normal kind than that just supposed. The parish, whether in
country or in town, is not so large as to make visitation from house to
house impossible. And the Curate has had his work of this kind assigned
him, and is setting out upon it. A good portion of every day (though I
hope it is possible to give a part of one day each week to some sort of
wisely managed holiday) is devoted to "the district"; now for a steady
round of calls, door by door; now, in an irregularity not without
method, for visits to special cases of sickness, or sorrow, or other
need.

PREPARE FOR VISITATION WITH PRAYER.

What shall be my first suggestion? It shall point to the Throne of
Grace. Preface the pastoral round with special secret prayer. Sermons
are usually (I wish it were always so now) prefaced with prayer in the
pulpit that the heavenly blessing may rest upon the ordinance. Is it
less fitting, less necessary, to prepare for the afternoon's or
evening's visitation with a secret petition in your own room that the
apostolic ordinance of domestic visitation [Acts xx. 20, 21.], to be
administered now by you, may have the special grace of God in it? Pray
for yourself, my younger Brother.

*PRAY FOR SPIRITUAL READINESS AND SPIRITUAL FULNESS.

Ask that you may go out well furnished with the peace, and patience, and
wisdom laid up for you in your Lord; that you may have "by the Holy
Spirit a right judgment in all things"; that you may have "the tongue of
the taught,[15] to speak a word in season to them that are weary";
whatever sort of weariness it is. Pray for that secret skill of
discernment which can see the difference of spiritual states, and allot
warning or comfort not at random but "in due season." Pray for that
readiness for the unexpected which is best secured and best maintained
in a close and conscious intimacy with your Saviour. The man "found in
Him" will be found ready _in spirit_ (and that is after all the
essential in spiritual work) for the sudden question, whether anxious or
captious, for the sudden rudeness of ignorance or opposition, and again
for the chronic and so to speak passive difficulty of indifference. "The
tongue of the taught," while the "taught" man is found in Christ, will
ever be sweet, wise, and truthful, as the owner of it goes his round.
But we must seek for it; "He will be enquired of for this thing." [SN:
Ezek. xxxvi. 37.]

[15] Isai. l. 4. Obviously the word "learned" in our Version is there
used in its old English sense, "instructed, taught." No slight on
"book-learning" is ever conveyed in the Scriptures. But the man in view
here is not the highly-educated person, but the believer who has
listened with _the ear_ "of the taught" (see the end of the verse), as a
disciple at the Master's feet; and so goes forth to speak with "_the
tongue_ of the taught," as a messenger who has learned sympathy,
insight, holy tact and truthfulness, from the Master's heart. The whole
passage is full of the blessed Messiah Himself, I know. But it has its
reflected reference for all His true followers, and above all for all
His true Ministers. May He give us, in His mercy, for every act of our
messenger-work, both the ear and the tongue of His "taught" ones.

Then, as you pray for yourself, you will pray also for the people you
are about to visit. Perhaps they are as yet strange to you, and you can
ask for them only in general. But if you know anything at all about them
it will be worth while to individualize your prayer, however briefly.
Special, detailed prayer _is_ a power with God. And it is a power with
man too. To be dealing with one for whom you know you have prayed is
already to have a foothold there. Perhaps you may have an opportunity to
_say_, quite naturally, that you have been praying for him; and this may
very possibly be a direct vehicle of blessing.

You will go out then, as directly as possible, from the secret place of
heavenly intercourse. That is a bracing atmosphere:

  "Fresh airs and heavenly odours breathe around
              The throne of grace;"

and those airs can quicken the young Pastor's spirit for the heaviest
hours of a sultry afternoon or evening, till he comes back weary to his
rooms, "tired in the Lord's work, but not tired of it," as dying
Whitefield said.

So you go forth with real prayer. It is your wonderful privilege, thus
going to carry nothing less than the blessed "Fulness of the Holy Ghost"
for your inmost equipment. I say deliberately, nothing less than the
heavenly Fulness--a far different thing from a mere stir and lift of the
emotions. That most divine gift is a "calm excess" of tranquil power,
received humbly by the prayer of faith. It is not meant to be a rare
luxury; it is a daily and hourly offer, a provided _viaticum_ for every
stage of walk and duty. Can we work aright for God while any corner of
our being has no room for God, and is not possessed by Him?

METHOD.

Then, for true prayer and true practicality are the closest and most
harmonious friends, you will of course aim with forethought and
persistency at _method_ in the pastoral work. The visits will be
arranged as far as possible with economy of _space_; no difficult task
in most town parishes, while in the country, of course, the matter is
often much less easy. And you will study also economy of _time_. Your
round is a work of sacred _business_. The minutes, the quarters of an
hour, are never to run loose and unobserved. Who that has ever visited
in a parish does not know the need of remembering that point, so easily
forgotten? Here we visit a pleasant, welcoming neighbour, and it is all
too easy to stay on, perhaps to little real purpose, with the secret
satisfaction of knowing that the next and much less attractive call must
be shortened in proportion. Here, less willingly, we are detained by
one of those ingenious tongues which make it so difficult to get in a
word, or to stop the unprofitable continuity of topics. All these cases,
and endless kindred ones, need a little foresight and firmness, and a
little of the skill which is soon learnt by open heart and open eyes.

ECONOMY OF TIME.

Obviously this line of caution is more needed by some men than by
others. But it is needed by not a few; particularly in respect of the
temptation to lengthen out unduly the visits that are pleasant to the
visitor. One young Clergyman known to me, an indefatigable and devoted
visitor, needed a strong reminder in this direction in the early days of
his ministry. He would visit a sick person, who proved more or less
responsive to his efforts, and would allow himself to _over_-visit, to
an unwise extent, going often more than once a day, and long after the
state of the invalid made such attentions urgent. And other work of
course suffered in proportion. Wesley's precept to his workers needs our
remembrance often; "Go not where you are wanted, but where you are
wanted most."

BUT AVOID HURRY.

But a risk on the other hand must be remembered. Economy of time must
never mean hurry of manner, a thing which is nearly if not quite fatal
to the usefulness of a visit. It is perfectly possible to combine
promptitude with quiet; to come manifestly on business, and yet not in a
bustle. We Clergymen may learn many valuable lessons in this, as in some
other parts of our work, from our medical friends. Observe how a wise
and kindly doctor visits _his_ parishioners. He knows exactly why he
comes; he knows that other patients are wanting him, in long succession;
he knows that he must observe and advise as promptly and as much to the
point as possible; and he knows that all must be done with a quiet,
strong, untroubled manner, if it is to be done aright.

I spoke in a previous chapter about the sacred duty of watching and
regulating manner. This is to be done at all times of intercourse, but
above all in pastoral visits. To speak only of this point of hurry or
calm of manner; it is most important. The right manner will make a visit
of five minutes practically longer than a twenty minutes' visit which
gives all through it the impression that the Clergyman must be off. One
of the most admirable Pastors I have ever known, the late Rev. Charles
Clayton, of Cambridge,[16] did much of his work by five-minute visits.
But they were always visits in which the whole thought was given to the
case before him, and the word in season came from full knowledge of his
flock and from an unmistakably pastoral heart.

[16] Afterwards Rector of Stanhope and Canon of Ripon.

IMPARTIAL COURTESY.

A duty which you will carefully remember throughout your round is that
of quiet Christian courtesy; impartially shown to rich, to middling, and
to poor. I say impartially, with a view to _both_ ends of the scale.
Some men (perhaps not many, but some) seem to think that ministerial
courage and fidelity in dealing with well-to-do parishioners demand a
certain dropping of the courtesies of life; a very great mistake. Many
more men are tempted to forget that their visits to the poorest should
be, in the essence of the matter, as courteous as when they go to the
portal which carries a brass knocker. At the door of the dingiest
cottage, or dingier lodging, never forget that you _ask_ for entrance;
it is your neighbour's castle-door; and you are not a sanitary
inspector. If you happen to come in at the meal-time of the roughest and
dirtiest, apologize as naturally and honestly as you would if you
intruded on the wealthy churchwarden's well-set luncheon. Among the very
lowest, do all you can to honour parents before their children (I know
it is nearly impossible in some sad cases); and always honour old age.

BE NATURAL.

Surely one good maxim on manner with our poorer neighbours is to aim to
address them very much as we would address our neighbours of our own
class. A patronizing manner is most certainly a very great pity, and
almost sure to be resented. But so, too, is the ostentatious
"hail-and-well-met" manner which is sometimes assumed; an over-drawn
imitation, perhaps, of the workman's manner with his fellows. This is a
mistake, because it is almost always unnatural. Few gentlemen get better
at others by ceasing to act and speak as gentlemen. Let us talk quite
quietly and pleasantly, as just what we are, and as those who most
unaffectedly "honour all men," [1 Pet. ii. 17.] and we shall not go far
astray; always supposing that the matter of our talk is sensible, true,
and to the purpose.

THE SICK-ROOM.

To turn aside for a moment to the special and sacred work of Visitation
of the Sick. It is not to be lightly done, as if it were an easy part of
our duty, quite obvious in its aims and methods. The greatest judgment
is often needed in the sick-room. We need quickness to perceive how much
conversation the invalid can bear, if the case is one of great pain, or
(what often makes undue length even more irksome) great weakness. We
need an insight into the best side of approach to conscience, or to
will. We need the skill which knows how to question enough, but not too
much, not as the inquisitor but as the helper. Many another matter will
call for sanctified common-sense in the sick-room; a restful _voice_,
easy, quiet _movements_, and the like. And let me say that where you are
visiting a chronic case, and need to call again and again, if a day and
hour for the next visit is mentioned it should be _kept to_ with
jealous punctuality. Nothing is more trying to the suffering and weary
than uncertainty and suspense. I have known of much harm done to good
men's influence by their neglect of punctuality with sick people.

PUNCTUALITY.

Of punctuality generally I can (and surely need) speak only in passing.
It is a primary duty of the busy but patient work of the pastorate. To
be neglectful of it is to set up and keep up a needless and mischievous
friction in our intercourse with others, and indefinitely to injure our
influence in many ways. "No man ever waited five minutes for me in my
life, unless for reasons quite beyond my power;" such was a remark of
Charles Simeon's in his last days. _We_ may be for ever unable to say
this of our own past. But if so, shall it not be true for us also _from
this day forward_?

USE OF THE BIBLE IN VISITING.

Thus prepared by secret and special intercourse with God, and
recollecting some simple maxims about practical points, you go out into
the parish. But no; let me suggest one other preliminary, which, before
most rounds of pastoral visiting, cannot be out of place. You will take
in your pocket _two books_, if not more; one, your visiting register and
diary, the other--your Bible. Of the use to be made of the note-book I
need not speak. About that to be made of the Book of God let me say a
very few words.

I do not mean at all that you will make the reading of the Holy
Scriptures a matter of form or routine; a thing which _must_ be done, as
an _opus operandum_, wherever there is a chance. But I do mean that you
should have the Book always ready for use, and be prompt to sow the
"incorruptible seed" [1 Pet. i. 23.] from house to house as God gives
opportunity. Remember, it is a Book sadly little known by the very large
majority of your people; so that every natural and naturally-taken
occasion to "let it speak," in private as well as in public, is a
contribution to that urgent need of our modern world, Bible-knowledge.
Remember again that, despite all the wretched unsettlements of belief
amongst us, the Bible is still the Bible, for untold multitudes; it is
owned by them, whether or no it is used, as the Oracle of God. Let us
let the Book speak at the open ear of such a conviction, however dimly
the conviction is entertained. And then remember that the Bible,
whatever be the state of current opinion about it, _is_ as a fact the
Oracle of God, and its immortal and life-conveying words have a
mysterious fitness all their own to be the vehicle of the Spirit's voice
to the human heart. Offer it, as often as you can, to be that vehicle.

CHOOSE A PASSAGE BEFOREHAND.

Two simple expedients for effective use of the Scriptures in a parish
round are presented to me by my own past experience, gathered from
several years of regular parochial work. One is, the choice of some
short pregnant passage which shall be, for that round, _the_ passage to
be read not once only but in house after house, unless, of course, there
is special reason to the contrary. Such a reiteration, so I have often
found, is a great help to the visitor, who probably feels on each new
occasion that a new power and point appear in the passage, and that it
seems each time easier to speak from it, however briefly, to the soul.
The other expedient which my experience recommends is to be prepared,
whenever a hopeful opportunity occurs, to leave a Scripture message
visibly behind you as you go. I used to carry with me a little sheaf of
slips of paper, on each of which was printed the request, _Please read
this passage, and think about it_. A short message from the heavenly
Word would be written on the slip in pencil as I was about to go; and
this visible and personal invitation to "read and think" proved often a
real remembrance from the Lord.

THE VISITING PASTOR AT WORK.

But now you are actively engaged from door to door. If you are a
new-comer, and particularly if it is also a district (in the great City
perhaps) where visitation has been an unwonted thing, you must be
prepared of course for very various sorts of reception. But assuredly in
most districts by far, and at most doors, the man who exercises common
tact and courtesy, and is plainly trying to do his duty in a loving and
earnest spirit, and is known already, or now introduces himself, as the
Clergyman, will be civilly and often gladly met.

*OUR ADVANTAGE AS MINISTERS OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

Let me pause for a moment to remind you of one great and valuable
advantage which is ours as the Ministers of the National Church and the
servants of the parochial system. All honour to devoted servants of God
in the Ministry of other denominations; in numberless instances they
have done in the past, and are doing now, work which the National Church
has either neglected, or has been unable to overtake; and the power of
the Lord has been and is present with them to bless. But nevertheless I
for one thank God for a National Church, and recognize in that Church's
historical and practical position a unique opportunity and an immense
advantage, so it be used faithfully and in loyalty to the Lord and His
Word. And one feature of that position of opportunity is this, that it
is the popularly (and rightly) recognized _duty_ of the Church of
England Clergyman to ask admission at every door, so far as he can go to
every door, within his portion of the national vineyard. To a large
degree this is understood to be our duty, our business, as it is not
understood to be that of other Ministers of religion; and this is a fact
which for the man who will use it with good sense and unobtrusive
diligence is an invaluable introduction. A "younger Brother" of my own,
whose work began in a Liverpool Curacy, told me of his experience in
this matter. His district contained a very miscellaneous population;
almost all the great dissenting Churches were represented, and there
were many Roman Catholics, and not a few Jews. But the Curate went to
every door, as in duty bound; as a friend, a neighbour, a Christian, but
distinctly as one of the Clergy of the parish. And with one solitary
exception, an instance in which a Jew repulsed him, he was not only
admitted but welcomed everywhere in his character as the Clergyman.

Of course there are, as I have said just above, streets and lanes where
it is not quite so. Another friend of mine, labouring in East London,
found that his black coat and white tie suggested to some of the people
only the guess that he was--the undertaker; so strange to them was the
presence of a Clergyman, or the idea of his duty. The same friend, by
the way, found that there was one sure prescription for securing a
welcome on a second visit--to make the people _laugh_ before the first
visit was over. He was no careless Pastor, who forgot that he was in
quest of souls, and that the message of the Lord is no jest. But his
experience was that in that strange "lapsed" population the _rapport_
between man and man set up by an honest laugh was important as the first
step to something very different which was to follow.

COME TO THE POINT.

In the ordinary pastoral round no such ingenious merriment will be
necessary; though you will of course aim not only to be but to be seen
to be _happy_ in your work, and in your Master; _bright_ with a light
which is as natural in its influence as it is divine in its origin. In
the ordinary round one great principle to be remembered, if I am right,
is that you should _come to the point_ as soon as possible. Some earnest
men greatly shrink from this, and aim at the souls of their people by
very circuitous routes. As a rule, I am sure, there is little need to do
so; we are "expected" to be about our Master's business, and to deliver
His messages without needless delay. I would not counsel the general
verbal adoption of one good country Parson's salutation, who always
opened the cottage door with, "_How are you? How is your soul?_" But I
have no doubt it was a good greeting for many a parishioner of his; and
the _principle_ of it is good for almost every pastoral visit. Yes, we
shall do well to take people very much for granted, coming before them
as we do (unless we quite forget our true character) as the Lord Jesus
Christ's messengers and delegates, whatever else we are.

KEEP IT ALWAYS IN VIEW.

Most certainly and obviously the Pastor will often allude to common
human interests, and should indeed know something and have something to
say and do about temporal problems, things of body and estate. But then
I do hold that he should "draw all things this" supremely important
"way." All his pastoral intercourse should bear somehow upon the
question of the state before God of the person or persons visited; upon
conviction of sin, or comfort in grace, or Christian conduct; upon
Christ and the soul, upon holiness and immortality, as the Gospel
"brings them out into the light." [2 Tim. i. 10.]

A DIFFICULT CASE WELL MET.

There are cases most certainly where this has to be done with peculiar
tact and caution unless quite obvious mischief is to be done instead of
good. But let the man be always _lying in wait_, and he will very seldom
do so quite in vain. An instance occurs to me, in the work of a most
honoured veteran in the Ministry. He called on a new parishioner, a lady
of his own class, and soon found out that she was politely but
resolutely arranging to keep Jesus Christ out of the conversation; so
cleverly that he fairly failed to break the fence. Just as he was
leaving, for he could not go without one mention of his Master, he said,
as the last word of his courteous farewell, "_The Lord bless you_." That
was all; but it was enough to carry in it the Spirit's message. The
utterance stayed in the parishioner's soul, sounding solemnly on. It was
impossible to be offended; it was impossible not to think. And the issue
was, in God's time, a real and deep conversion.

A HAPPY REBUKE TO COWARDICE.

But, I repeat it, such difficulties in "the daily round" need not be
very frequent, if we do not create them for ourselves. How often the
very persons to whom we think it wiser not to speak openly about the
Lord Jesus Christ (remember, it is about HIM, even more than about
themselves, we are to speak) are longing to hear us do so! In the early
days of my ordination I remember visiting an invalid gentleman, who had
known me (for it was my Father's parish) all my life; and I was very
cowardly in his case about coming to the point of Christ and the soul.
Several visits, let me confess it with shame, were paid before I found
myself able to propose that we should open the Bible together, and then
pray. I was moved to the inmost heart by the actual tears of delight
with which the proposal was welcomed.

And not seldom, if we do not come to the point, our people will bring us
to it. A very dear friend of mine, a few years ago, was going his first
circuits in a large London parish, and paid one among many first visits.
He allowed it to be a mere visit of introductory civilities; but he need
not have been so cautious. As he rose to go the good woman on whom he
had called said to him, "You will have a word of prayer with me, will
you not? The Vicar always does."


  "_Go, labour on, spend and be spent;
    Thy joy to do the Father's will;
  It is the way the Master went;
    Should not the servant tread it still?_

  "_Go, labour on while it is day,
    The world's dark night is hastening on;
  Speed, speed thy work, cast sloth away;
    It is not thus that souls are won._"

  BONAR.




CHAPTER VIII.

_PASTOR IN PARISH_ (ii.).


  _Work on in hope; the plough, the sickle wield;
    Thy Master is the harvest's Master too;
  He gives the golden seed, He owns the field,
    And does Himself what His true servants do._


I take up again the all-important subject of Pastoral Visitation, for
the same sort of informal and fragmentary treatment as that attempted in
the last chapter, and with the same feeling that the subject is
practically inexhaustible.

LET THE VISITOR BE A TEACHER, WATCHING FOR OPPORTUNITIES.

One object which the visitor will do well to keep steadily before him
is, to be a _teacher_ as he goes. I have said something of this already,
in recommending my Brethren to seize every good occasion for bringing in
the Bible, and words about the Bible. But the whole work of instruction
needs remembrance in our private intercourse with parishioners. Of
course we shall avoid with watchful and willing care the magisterial
manner, the too didactic tone. And only when obvious occasions present
themselves shall we even seem to _set ourselves_ to teach; as when we
are distinctly asked what is the meaning of this doctrine, or that
passage of Scripture, or that phrase of the Prayer Book, or how to meet
that difficulty of belief. Such moments do come; in some pastoral lives
they come frequently; and whether the inquiry is made in a friendly
spirit, with a real wish for information, or whether, as sometimes, it
is the question of a critic or a caviller, it is an opportunity for
which, in the Lord's grace, we should stand quite ready. To be sure we
may have sometimes to remember that sensible precept of the Rabbis,
"_Teach thy tongue to say, I do not know_"; the answer, often, of the
truest and deepest-sighted wisdom. But even when answering so,
instruction may be given, as we state the reasons for the answer. And we
shall at least have the opportunity while so doing to bring in that
other maxim, which we owe, I think, to the late Archbishop Whately,
"_Never allow what you do know to be disturbed by what you do not
know_"; a principle of very wide application.

But I am thinking now rather of the every-day sort of pastoral call and
conversation, in which perhaps the parishioner visited may be anything
but a caviller, and anything but even a questioner; much too ready,
perhaps, to take everything about Christian truths for granted, which,
alas, means too often to take them as understood, to take them as
believed, when there is little understanding of the matter, or even
thought about it. Now it is a great thing when a pastoral visitor has
the art (which needs to be considered, and to be acquired) of putting
here and there into a quiet and friendly talk, best of all towards the
close, some sentence which sets out a great truth clearly, strongly, and
in a shape which may wake attention and help remembrance. That is the
kind of didactic work which I earnestly recommend.

*THE PASTORAL TEACHER'S TOPICS.

If possible, let no visit close without some such utterance, if only
one. It may be about the very foundations of all Christian truth; about
the certainty of Christian facts, the Resurrection above all; about the
Person of the Lord Jesus; about His finished work of Atonement; about
faith, and our acceptance as believers in Him, and our victory and
deliverance in temptation by the power of the Holy Ghost through faith;
about sin, its true nature, its guilt, its end. Or it may be about the
holy practicalities of Christian conduct; about the Lord's call to us to
break with everything that is against His will; about that deep,
far-reaching truth of the Gospel that, while the sinner is saved by
faith only, he is saved on purpose that he may serve, on purpose that he
may "walk and please God," [1 Thess. iv. 1.] and that he may do this
above all in "the duty that lies near," in the plain things of the home,
the business, the handicraft, the social circle. Or it may be about the
mighty claims of the Missionary cause, about the strangely forgotten
fact that the Christian Church exists mainly in order to evangelize the
non-Christian world. Or it may be about the principles and duties of
Church membership and Christian ordinances; the true nature of worship;
the sacred duty of united worship; the call to hallow the Lord's Day;
the precious benefits of the Sacraments of Christ, explained with the
holy reverence and equally holy simplicity and moderation of the
Catechism and the Articles.

NEED FOR SUCH WORK.

I need not fill my pages with numberless details. For my plea is that we
should rather hold ourselves ready for the natural rise of such or such
topics, and for a clear instructive word in season upon them, than that
we should propose a theme and deliver a discourse. But I cannot too
earnestly remind my Brethren how great _the need_ of instruction is
among many of our kindly neighbours, even among our neighbours who go
regularly to Church and are constantly to be seen at the Table of the
Lord.

CHRIST "A BLESSED ANGEL."

Let me take one pre-eminent subject as my illustration: the
foundation-truth of the Godhead of our Blessed Redeemer. Are you at all
aware how widely spread is ignorance and error on that subject, far
beyond the limits of the "Unitarian"[17] community? I remember a
pastoral visit long ago to a slowly dying parishioner, a labouring man
somewhat stricken in years, who had been a church-goer, though not a
communicant. I soon fell into a conversation with my friend which took a
sort of catechetical shape; my aim was to see where the soul's hopes for
eternity really rested. Who and What was JESUS, whose name I know he
humbly reverenced? Was He a good Man? Yes. But anything more? There was
a long hesitation, and then the dear man expressed a faltering
persuasion that the Lord could not be less than "a blessed angel." That
case, I am well convinced, is very much more representative than some of
us may think. At a recent Church Congress I heard some remarks in just
this direction from Bishop Walsham How, who speaks from a large pastoral
experience; his anxiety about the immense extent of popular ignorance or
misbelief about the Saviour's Person was at least as great as mine.

[17] A term which I use under protest. If a Unitarian means a believer
in the Unity of the Godhead, every orthodox Christian is a true
Unitarian. Only, he is a Trinitarian also, from another side. I may
venture to refer on this subject to a small book of my own, _Outlines of
Christian Doctrine_, p. 20.

"ALL MY SUFFERMENT HERE."

And so too is ignorance and misbelief about the work of His Cross, and
of His Holy Spirit. "I hope I shall have all my sufferment here," said
one poor invalid to me in old days, speaking indeed from a very
comfortless bed, in the slow pains of a dire disease. She had been long
within sound of clear, bright Christian teaching. But deep in the soul,
unmoved and ah, so difficult to dislodge, lay that notion of an atoning
value in our own pains which is a radical contradiction to the glorious
paradox of the perfect and unique work of Calvary:--

  "Thy pains, not mine, O Christ,
    Upon the shameful tree
  Have paid the law's full price,
    And purchased peace for me.

  "Thy Cross, not mine, O Christ,
    Has borne the awful load
  Of sins that none in heaven
    Or earth could bear but God."[18]

[18] Bonar, _Hymns of Faith and Hope_ (First Series).

THE TRUTH OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

As regards the Person and the Work of the blessed Spirit, great and
general is the oblivion, and manifold are the mistakes. I fear that even
in the best instructed congregations, under the clearest public
teaching, there are all too many who, practically, "have not so much as
heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." [Acts xix. 2.] The belief in His
glorious Personality is faint and vague. The confusion of His Presence
and Power with our "better feelings" is very, very common. The solemn
questions which the Scripture bids us put to ourselves, [Rom. viii.
9.] whether _or not_ we "have the Spirit of Christ"--not merely "a
Christian spirit" in the sense of tone and temper, but the Holy Ghost,
proceeding from the Son, and uniting the true believer to Him--are
little understood, and rarely used upon the man by himself. And the very
thought of such a presence and such a power of the Lord the Life-Giver
as shall "_fill us with_ the Spirit" [Eph. v. 18.] is not yet existent,
I fear, in the minds of many even earnest Christians.

Here are fields, large and fruitful, for the teaching visitor's
cultivation. And so are the other possible subjects indicated above;
such as the claims of the Lord upon our personal consistency in little
things; His solemn call to all His people to be, directly or indirectly,
the evangelists of the world; and the nature of His blessed sacramental
Institutions.

THE TRUTH OF THE SACRAMENTS.

On that last subject it is not my intention to enter at any length. But
a few words I may take this occasion to say, and I will assume that I
am speaking to a younger Brother who in the main agrees with me in what
are commonly called Evangelical Church principles. Let me first then
counsel you to take care that no one shall be able, lawfully, to charge
you with making light of the Sacraments,[19] or with leaving uncertain
your belief as to their divine purpose and function. A ministry which is
silent about them, and indistinct in its teaching on them, cannot in
this respect be fully true to either the Prayer Book or the Bible. Let
your instructions on this great subject, in public and in private, be
definite, reverent, and full of thankfulness and praise for those great
gifts of God. Then on the other hand, do not, if I may speak freely,
while with all respect, think to honour the Sacraments by exaggeration,
by speaking more of them than of that far greater thing, the blessed
Grace of God in Christ, of which they are the "sure _witnesses_ and
effectual _signs_."[20] If I do not mistake, one of the most prevalent
tendencies of current thought in the Church now is the tendency to
invert, in a certain way, the relations between Sacrament and Grace; to
develop a doctrine of the Sacrament such that the doctrine of Grace can
be seen only, as it were, through it. And the result is, very often, so
at least it seems to me to be, a very poor and attenuated presentation
of the glorious things said in Scripture about "the grace of God which
bringeth salvation," [Tit. ii. 11.] and about the work of pure and
simple, but mysteriously mighty, faith in our appropriation of Christ's
merits and our reception of Christ's living power by the Holy Ghost. Let
no such inversion mark your teaching. And if I may give one further
suggestion, I would say, remind yourself frequently of the very words of
the Prayer Book (including the Catechism) and the Articles on these
great subjects. And inform yourself to some extent, at first hand, of
the views of the men who cast our Services and our Articles into their
practically present shape; the views of Cranmer, of Ridley, of Jewell,
and, just after them, of Hooker; not forgetting one great foreign
theologian, Henry Bullinger, who exercised a special influence on the
English divines of Edward and Elizabeth's time in the matter of
sacramental doctrine.[21] You will find in him a full measure of holy
reverence, and at the same time a luminous clearness and definiteness of
exposition. The central idea of his teaching is the idea of the Covenant
Seal, the "instrument" of solemn, valid, legal "conveyance."

[19] I mean of course Baptism and the Supper of the Lord, which _alone_
the Church of England recognizes as Christian Sacraments, _Sacramenta
Evangelica_, "Sacraments of the Gospel" (see Art. xxv., par. 2).

[20] _Certa testimonia, efficacia signa_ (Art. xxv.). It is worth the
while to point out that a "_sign_" is "_effectual_" when it _effectually
does the work of a sign_, not some quite different work. A seal is an
effectual seal, not because, conceivably, its matter could be used as a
powerful medicine, but because, _attached to its document_, it
effectually seals the document's validity. A seal is in this respect a
special sort of "effectual sign." And so are the Sacraments.

[21] See the Parker Society's collection of authors for Bullinger's
_Decades_, or Doctrinal Sermons; officially recognized as a body of
divinity by the Church of England in Elizabeth's reign.

MISTAKES ABOUT CHURCH DOCTRINE.

While on the subject of Church Doctrine, I may go a little further, and
remind you how very likely you are to discover in your rounds many
mistakes about both the doctrine and the government of the Church of
England. I have had considerable experience of such questions in the way
of private pastoral ministry; I have found pious dissenters, or
church-people whom they had influenced, fully persuaded that the Church
of England teaches unconditional regeneration in the hour of Baptism,
that she teaches at least a near approach to Transubstantiation, that
she entrusts to her priests the power of conferring or withholding the
divine forgiveness, and that, officially and in set terms, she
"unchurches" all communities not episcopally organized.[22] It is well
to be quite sure that these beliefs about the Church are mistakes,
provably such, in the light of the Prayer Book and Articles, and of
history. It has been my happiness to bring some such questioners as I
have described to "sincere and conscientious communion with" the Church
of England, in a loyalty which leaves ample room for loving sympathy
with all true Christians. And the chief means has been the production of
proof that the Church herself, as distinguished from particular teachers
and leaders in the Church, does not teach the tenets alleged.

[22] As regards the Scottish and Continental Protestant Churches it is
not too much to say that, with the very rarest exceptions, English
Church writers _of all schools_ regarded them as "Sister Churches of the
Reformation"--_till about 1830_.

DEFECTIVE VIEWS OF SIN.

But to come back to matters more primary than even these; I must remind
my younger Brother that there is, all around him, in the average circles
of even church-going people, a sorrowfully faint insight into the
sinfulness of SIN; into the terrible realities of its _guilt_ before God
(a point too often absent from even earnest modern teaching), and of its
_power_; yes, and into its true _nature_, as it comes out, not in
outbursts of word or deed, or in practices which public opinion
condemns, but in imagination, in desire, in tone. It may surprise us
(when we think how very elementary are the spiritual principles
involved), but I fear it is a fact, that sin is regarded by vast numbers
of church-people (I am not thinking at all of "the lapsed masses" now)
as a matter of little importance if it does not come out in some very
positive form. Multitudes among us are quite insensible to the spiritual
penetration of the law of God, and have never given a thought to the
question of a heart-surrender to His will in everything, and the sin of
merely withholding that surrender.

Then, to take another primary subject of a different class; there is a
wide and general ignorance of the great lines of Christian Evidence, and
a large open door accordingly for the active attacks of shallow, or
subtle, unbelief. Few have ever been taught in any definite way the
supreme significance in this respect of the fact of the Lord's
Resurrection, and its mighty walls of proof; and the reasons for our
belief that the Bible is indeed not of man but of God; the witness of
history to prophecy; and so on.

LET US DROP SEEDS OF TEACHING.

I owe an almost apology for this long talk about subjects of doctrine,
and practice, and evidence. But I have kept all along the purpose of
this chapter in view. I wish to remind my Brethren how very much they
may do, in the course of visitation, to _drop seeds_ of fact, of truth,
of principle, in careful, thoughtful words, the product of private
reading and reflection, called out by some natural occasion.
Undoubtedly, the subjects I have outlined are themes for the pulpit, and
for the Bible class, as well as for the visit. But my feeling is that
the visit gives opportunities quite of its own for didactic work. We
ought to be "natural" everywhere; but we are sometimes suspected, or
imagined, to be less so in public than in private; and besides, in
private we give and take; we are open to question and answer; and this
may give quite special advantage to the word spoken, quietly and
pleasantly, but pointedly, in the pastoral interview.

"PURCHASE THE OPPORTUNITY."

"The priest's lips should keep knowledge." [Mal. ii. 7.] The Clergyman
should be ready everywhere to be the teacher on the great subjects which
he is supposed to make his own. He will never intrude instruction, or
parade it; but he will everywhere be on the watch for the occasion for
it, [Greek: exagorazomenos ton kairon], "purchasing the opportunity,"
[Eph. v. 10.] at the cost of care.

VISITATION OF THE SICK.

And here I may come again to that important branch of visitation, the
visitation of the sick. The Church, as we well know, provides a Form of
Visitation; most helpful and suggestive in its principles and outline
for all. But it is, as you are aware, _imposed_ by the Canon (lxvii.)
only on such Clergymen (very scarce personages) as have no licence to
preach. As a fact, we Presbyters are left to our own discretion in this
sacred part of our work; and that discretion we should seek prayerfully
to cultivate. How different are the circumstances in each one of an
average series of sick-visits! As I write the words, such a series from
my own past days rises up before me; and I transcribe a few
recollections from the book of memory.

A SERIES OF VISITS.

W.S. is a retired tradesman, a thoughtful and rather reticent man;
brought up a Socinian, and professedly such still. I am trying to lay
siege to him, not without merciful tokens of hope from the Lord. And the
simple plan is, not to open the controversy between Socinus and
Scripture, but to arrange that each visit shall have its short Scripture
reading, its friendly talk, and its prayer, all bearing mainly on the
deadliness of sin and the wonder and glory of salvation. I happen to
know that the married daughter of W.S., a very intelligent woman, was
brought from heresy to a divine Saviour's feet by means of a sermon, not
on Christ's Godhead, but on the sinfulness of sin.

T.H. is a sturdy old blacksmith, old enough to have been bred in the
infidel school of Carlile (quite another person than Carlyle), and
steeped in old-fashioned Chartism. He always has the newspaper on his
now helpless knees, never the Bible; but he almost always has some Bible
difficulty ready for me. It is pleasant to be able this afternoon to
show him, holding the page up before his eyes, that his last
stumbling-block is one of his own (or his friends') bold invention. He
meets civility always civilly, and never resents a natural transition
from the last bit of politics to the Gospel. But it is a hard, sad case.
The Lord only knows how the apparently motionless conscience fares.

T.G. is a fine, manly artizan, a coach-painter, scarcely yet in middle
life; lately the somewhat bitter and very self-satisfied critic of his
good and devoted wife's simple faith. I have had rather discouraging
talks with T.G. before to-day; but now he is very ill, and a few Sunday
afternoons ago he sent across the road for the Curate, who to his own
solemn joy found him broken down in unmistakable conviction of sin,
asking what he must do to be saved. It is a blessed thing to visit him
now, for already the rays of the eternal sun are shining between the
clouds of a deeply genuine repentance; and the visitor's task is
plain,--

  "To teach him all the mercy, while he shows him all the sin."

Soon it will be my happiness, I hope, to administer to him, as a
penitent believer, with his now happy wife and a faithful friend, the
precious Communion; and I look forward to see him depart in due time in
the peace of God, to be with Christ, for whom already he has learnt to
testify.

Then comes another visit, to one of our "bettermost" neighbours; this
door bears, or ought to bear, the proverbial brass knocker. But be the
door what it may be, there is great need and great mercy inside it. The
dear man, W.T., lately in active professional life in the home
civil-service, is sinking under the most agonizing of human maladies,
and it is very near the close; this is the second visit to-day, in his
urgent need. But, blessed be God, grace, once absent, has found its way
through the terrible obstacle of pain, and his scarcely articulate
utterance--intelligible to his visitor only because now so
familiar--speaks of the joy and rest of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of
the sufferer's longing for the salvation of another soul, a soul very
dear to him.[23]

[23] Wonderful to say (it is to me very wonderful), I have known more
than one bright conversion take place amidst the untold pangs of such an
illness.

Such visits tell upon the heart, and upon the head, and perhaps the
round among the suffering has been long enough to-day. To-morrow we will
try to get a quiet half-hour with W.R., a shopkeeper, sinking in
consumption; a man of no common natural refinement and thoughtfulness,
but long troubled with that sort of scepticism which is generated (who
knows in how many cases?) by the mysteries, not of God's revelation, but
of His providence. For him, too, the visitor's business is to lay a
gentle siege, "here a little, and there a little," trying never to lose
patience with objections and difficulties, but rather to sympathize with
them _as to their pains_, and then to suggest the answer in Jesus
Christ. And oh joy, the Lord is finding the way in, through His Word,
and the clouds are passing away from the man's mind, and soul, and
forehead, as he is getting to "know WHOM he believes."[24]

[24] I possess a beautiful little Bible given me by dear W.R., who has
now been many years with Christ. Such a gift is a very sacred treasure
to a Pastor.

Then we can walk round the corner--how the beloved streets and lanes
rise up in memory before me as I write!--to see J.F., a young printer,
dying in the brightest joy and peace, won from carelessness to a solid
faith by the work and witness of earnest dissenting Christians, but glad
and thankful to receive the Communion of the Lord from his dear Vicar,
or his Vicar's son. And then five minutes' walk takes us to a tiny alley
in the denser part of the widespread parish, where a poor life-long
cripple, W.G., lies day and year upon his _little_ bed--little, because
though the head is full-sized, and the brain within it is an adult
brain, the body has never grown since childhood. Here is a case for
steady sympathy, and also for gentle and steady aiming at instruction as
well as comfort. And then, not far off, we will take the privilege of a
quiet visit to an aged Christian woman, J.N. In long past years loving
saints found her pining in extreme poverty, and sunk in a dull,
despairing indifference. Now it is a great spiritual help to sit in her
little attic beside her, and draw her on to speak (she is no loquacious
person by nature, and needs drawing on) about the needs of the soul, and
the glorious fulness of the Son of God. She is no common Christian; not
only in life but in thought this appears. At the time of her conversion,
she could not read a letter. Since then, she has repeatedly read with
great spiritual insight and enjoyment Archbishop Leighton's Commentary
on St Peter. Here is a room in which the visitor learns quite as much as
he teaches. And so he does in a still smaller and much darker room,
three minutes' distant from J.N.'s. There lies blind R.W., in his strong
days the head-servant of an old farmer of our village, and to all
appearance as little capable of spiritual interests as the animals he
fed. But on his sick-bed, the comfortless couch of many declining years,
a loving visitor, a devoted lady-worker, has found him out, and the Lord
has found him out through her. He never knew A from B in his life, and
never will. But do you want proof of the power of grace to quicken mind,
as well as to convert soul? Come with me up the stairs into dear old
R.W.'s darksome room, and in the course of our talk you shall hear his
quavering voice saying things, quite humbly and naturally, about the
glory of his Saviour, and the way of salvation, and the joy and peace of
his heart in God, which are not only loving ascriptions but clear and
sound divinity. It is good to be with him.

I have spoken mainly, though not only, of cases of warm interest and
encouragement. Of course there are sorrowful and heart-trying visits to
the sick. One such, to poor old T.H., I have described. And we might see
the much older A.C., a woman of near ninety years, who seems
impenetrable to the true light, though grateful and kindly towards the
visitor; and B.F., older still, ninety-six, so vain of her age that it
is difficult to get her off the beloved theme; and J.G., a steady,
self-righteous man; and C.W., clever, and disposed to scoff; and T.B.,
known to be leading a very evil life, civil, but immovable.

RESOLVE TO BE A VISITOR.

The work is very various, very interesting, and full of the call for
"long patience," while full, too, of blessed encouragements and
surprises. But "the time would fail me." Ah, let me not close without
saying to my younger Brother how deeply humbling to me are the memories
of those pastoral days, and humbling above all as I look back and wish
now, in vain for ever, that I had _visited more_, among both the sick
and the whole. "Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, O Lord"; "To
Thee only it appertaineth to forgive sins."

My dear younger Brother, resolve that by the grace of God you will be a
visitor, whatever else you are, or are not. And be a visitor who
respects his neighbours, who feels with them, whose heart lives with
them, and who on the other hand watches over his call to instruct them,
to clear up and deepen their thoughts of self, and God, and life, and
death, and salvation, and duty, and eternity.

A CONVERSION AT EIGHTY-SIX.

"Go, labour on; spend and be spent." There is a sure reward, seen or not
seen as yet; and often the most unlikely quarter shall prove the quarter
of blessing, and the last shall be first. One recollection, drawn out
of my earliest childhood, shall close this wandering talk. It is of dear
old Mrs E., then aged quite eighty-six. She must have been born under
the rule of King George the Second. A farmer's widow, she had been
absolutely and perfectly respectable all her life, and was entirely
satisfied with her state and her prospects for the next world. My dear
Father, and his devoted Curate of those days, the Rev. W.D., not seldom
saw her, but without leaving any apparent impression on her conscience.
At last that conscience woke. The Curate read a chapter, in her hearing,
to her pious invalid daughter, who had sought her mother's conversion
for years in prayer, and had _lived_ true Christianity all the while in
her mother's home. And on a sudden, something in that chapter (it was
the third of Romans) said to the old lady, "You have lived eighty years
in the world, and never done a single thing for the love of God." The
conviction was tremendous in its depth and quality, and it lasted long.
But a very bright light followed, and shone with holy fulness through
what proved to be several remaining years of beautiful old age. She
rejoiced in her adorable Saviour with joy unspeakable, a joy meanwhile
perfectly sober and full of the good fruits of loving righteousness. She
died at last, singing, or rather musically murmuring, _Rock of
Ages_.[25] And my recollection, across seven-and-forty years, is of that
dear old lady of the past, sitting upright in her parlour, as my Mother
led me in to see her, and wearing a look upon her face which I can only
now describe as a remembered ray of light.

[25] My dear Father, many years ago, published a full narrative of Mrs
E.'s last days, in a little volume of pastoral recollections, _Pardon
and Peace_.


  "_I love, I love my Master;
    I will not go out free;
  For He is my Redeemer,
    He paid the price for me._

  "_I would not leave His service,
    It is so sweet and blest,
  And in the weariest moments
    He gives the truest rest._"

  MISS F.R. HAVERGAL.




CHAPTER IX.

_THE CLERGYMAN AND THE PRAYER BOOK._


  _Dear pages of ancestral prayer,
    Illumined all with Scripture gold,
  In you we seem the faith to share
    Of saints and seers of old.

  Whene'er in worship's blissful hour
    The Pastor lends your heart a voice,
  Let his own spirit feel your power,
    And answer, and rejoice._


In the present chapter I deal a little with the spirit and work of the
Clergyman in his ministration of the ordered Services of the Church,
reserving the work of the Pulpit for later treatment.

THE PRAYER BOOK NOT PERFECT BUT INESTIMABLE.

Let me begin by a brief reminder of the greatness of the spiritual
treasure which we possess in the Book by which we minister. How shall I
speak of it as I would? "The Prayer Book isn't inspired, I know," said
an old coast-guardsman some years ago to a friend of mine, "but, sure
and certain, _'tis as bad as inspired_!" "I find the Liturgy," said
another veteran, Charles Simeon, "as superior to all modern compositions
as the work of a philosopher on any deep subject is to that of a
schoolboy who understands scarcely anything about it." "All that the
Church of England needs to make her the glory of all Churches," said
Simeon's friend, the late Rev. William Marsh, "is the spirit of her own
services."

I am not so blind as to maintain that our Book is ideally perfect, and
that its every sentence is infallible. It is not quite literally "as bad
as inspired." After using it in ministration for nearly five-and-twenty
years I own to the wish that here and there the wording, or the
arrangement, or the rubrical direction, had been otherwise in some
detail, perhaps in some important detail. I do certainly wish very
earnestly indeed that the Revisers of 1661-2 had expressed themselves
more happily in that Rubric about "Ornaments" which within recent years
has proved--little as they expected it, or intended it, to do so--such a
fertile field of discord. But for all this, my five-and-twenty years'
ministerial use of the Prayer Book has only deepened my sense of its
inestimable general value and greatness.

If a temperate and equitable revision were possible at the present time
I should welcome the prospect on most accounts. But it seems to me
plain that it is _not_ at present possible. And meanwhile I thank God
from my inmost heart for the actual Prayer Book as a whole.

Let me point out a very few of the claims of the Book on our love and
gratitude; and now specially in view of what we may sometimes hear said
about it by Christians not of our own Church.

i. Observe its profound and searching _spirituality_. It is quite true
that in a certain sense the Book takes all who use it for granted; it
assumes them to be worshippers in spirit and in truth; it does not pray
for them, or lead them in public worship to pray for themselves, as for
those who do not know and love God, who have not come to Christ. But
then what form of public, common prayer can well do this? And meantime
the Book does, especially in the service of the Communion, and
particularly in that too often omitted part of it, the "longer
Exhortation," beginning _Dearly beloved in the Lord_, throw the
worshipper back upon himself for self-examination. This is just the
method of St Paul in his addresses to the Christian community. He
writes to all as "saints," "faithful," "elect," "sanctified." What does
he mean? Does he mean that those glorious terms are satisfied by the
fact that all have been baptized, or even that all are communicants at
the sacred Table? Not at all. He takes all for granted as being what
they profess to be, when he greets the community. [Rom. viii. 9; 1 Cor.
xvi. 22; 2 Cor. xiii. 5; Gal. v. 6.] But he says also, "If any man have
not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His"; "If any man love not the
Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema"; "Examine yourselves, whether ye
be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not that Jesus Christ is
in you--except ye be [Greek: adokimoi], counterfeits?" "In Jesus Christ
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith
which worketh by love." Such sentences throw a flood of holy and
searching light on the sense in which St Paul "took them all for
granted." And the Prayer Book is in true harmony with both parts of the
Apostle's method.

WHAT IT TAKES FOR GRANTED IN THE WORSHIPPER.

And then, think what the Book _does_ thus searchingly and helpfully
"take for granted." It assumes a deep sense of sin, such a sense as is
indeed "grievous unto us." It takes for granted our deep desire both for
pardon and for spiritual victory. It assumes our desire to be "kept this
day without sin"; to "follow the only God with pure hearts and minds";
to "be continually given to all good works"; to "be enabled by the Lord
to live according to His will"; to have "all our doings ordered by His
governance"; to have "such love to Him poured into our hearts that we
may love Him above all things." It assumes our desire to "read, mark,
learn, and inwardly digest all the Holy Scriptures." It assumes our
readiness to "suffer on earth for the testimony of the truth, looking up
steadfastly to heaven, and by faith beholding the glory that shall be
revealed." It assumes our adoring devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ, and
that we present "ourselves, our souls and bodies, a reasonable, holy,
and living sacrifice," to our God.

I heard a few years ago of a remarkable case of secession from the
Church of England. A thoughtful and conscientious man left us because,
as he said, he could no longer seem to concur in such words of intense
spiritual reality and surrender _while he did not fully mean them_. On
his principles, I fear there ought to be a large exodus from our Church.
But that is not the fault of the Church, or of the Church's Book. It is
the fault of the worshippers, and it is a solemn call to us not so much
to criticize the Liturgy as to "examine _ourselves_."

THE PRAYER BOOK AS A WEAPON.

In this connexion I am reminded of a characteristic saying of an
honoured friend of mine, now at rest with the Lord after a long and
faithful ministry. He was one of those men who instinctively speak
strongly, perhaps sometimes roughly; but such roughness is often useful.
"The Prayer Book," said he, "is always handy to throw at people's
heads"; figuratively, of course, not literally. He slung it out in
vigorous quotations from his pulpit, point blank at the unreality, and
formalism, and pharisaism, and love of this present evil world, which
too often underlies the most precise "churchmanship" and the most
punctual church-going.

My old friend's strong word may carry a suggestion to some of my younger
Brethren; though I would advise their deferring a _projectile_ use of
the Book till they are seniors in the Church. But the youngest Minister
of Christ, in all loving modesty, may reach many a conscience (beginning
with his own) by well-timed words from the Prayer Book, showing what the
Book takes for granted in the worshipper.

SCRIPTURALITY OF THE BOOK.

ii. Next I point to the abundant and loyal _Scripturality_ of the Prayer
Book. I venture to say that no Service Book in the world is quite like
ours in this. This characteristic lies on the surface; in the wealth of
Scripture poured out in every service before the people; Psalms,
Lessons, Canticles, Epistle, Gospel, Introductory Sentences, Decalogue,
Comfortable Words. At the Font, in the Marriage Ordinance, at the Grave,
it is still the same; Scripture, in our mother tongue, full and free,
runs everywhere. And below the surface it is the same. Take almost any
set of responses, or any single prayer, and see the strong warp of the
Bible in it all.

*"THE PREFACE" ON THE BIBLE.

And then go for a moment from the Services to the Preface of the Book,
and see what the Fathers of our English Liturgy thought and intended
about the place of the Holy Scriptures in worship. I hope my Brethren
have all read that "Preface" with care; I mean, of course, the whole
length of introductory matter which precedes the Tables of Lessons;
nothing of it later than 1662, most of it (indeed all but the first
section, written by Sanderson) dating in substance from 1549.[26] I hope
it has all been read by you; but I am not quite certain of it, so little
attention is at present called to those important and authoritative
statements of principle. But however well you may already know them,
they will repay another reading; and so you will be reminded again that
the really first thought in the minds of the men who gave us our Prayer
Book in English was to let "_the Word of God_ have free course and be
glorified" in all the worship of the people. [2 Thess. iii. 1.] Those
men were learned in the past, and they reverenced history and
continuity. But they reverenced still more the heavenly Word, and where
they found the ample reading and hearing of it impeded by even
immemorial usage, the usage had to give way, without reserve, to the
Bible.

[26] I do not forget that some modifications in detail, as to the
Lectionary, are quite recent.

Yes, the Prayer Book is, whatever else it is, searchingly, overflowingly
Scriptural; full of the Bible, full of Christ. Let us drink its
principles and its manner in, that they may come out in our life and our
preaching.

And now for a few simple practical suggestions on our ministerial use of
the Book.

USE THE BOOK WITH DILIGENCE.

i. First, I would entreat my younger Brother to resolve in the Lord's
name that his own use of the Prayer Book in his ministration be to him a
thing of sacred importance and personal reality. We _need_ to form such
a resolve deliberately, and to watch and pray over it. Do we not know
what strong temptations lie in the other direction? We have to use these
forms over and over again; before many years are over perhaps we could
"take" a whole service, except the appointed Scriptures, without looking
at the book: is it not too easy under such conditions to read as those
who read not, and to pray as those who pray not? And all too often the
Clergyman, younger or older, allows himself almost consciously, almost
on principle, to form an inadequate estimate of his Prayer-Book work.
Perhaps he regards the prayers as in such a sense "the voice of the
Church" that he is willing to be little more than a machine through
which the Church offers them. Or perhaps on the other hand he lets
himself forget their immense importance, under a strong, and just, sense
of the sacred importance of the Sermon. He is alive and awake in the
pulpit, and seeks his Lord's presence there, and realizes it as sought;
but in the desk--he goes by himself, and much of his precious time there
is spent in thought which wanders to the ends of the earth while his
voice does its decent but somnambulatory part alone.

*USE IT WITH LIVING REALITY.

I can only appeal with all my heart to my younger Brother not to let it
be thus with him. And the only effective recipe against the trouble is
faith, exercised in prayer and watching, with a full recollection of the
urgent importance of the matter. For indeed it _is_ all-important that
the servant of God should be "given wholly to" his work, at the reading
desk, at the lectern, at the Table, at the Font.

PRAY THE PRAYERS.

It is easy to say, as it is often said, that we "must not preach the
prayers," must not obtrude our personality in leading the devotions of
the congregation; that our part is to be regular and audible, and
otherwise to "efface ourselves." Most certainly we ought not to _preach_
the prayers, in public any more than in private. But then, we ought to
_pray_ them. Most certainly we ought not to obtrude our personality upon
the thought of the worshippers. But then, we ought to serve them with
our personality, and we can best do this, surely, by a spirit and a
manner which is unmistakably that of the fellow-worshipper, who feels
_himself_ to be in the presence of the King, and knows that the
petitions and the promises are for him at least a holy reality. I am
perfectly well aware that it is not _easy_ to steer between a more or
less mechanical manner and a demonstrative one, and that perhaps of two
evils the former is the less. But I am sure it is _possible_ to steer
the right line, by using sanctified common-sense, and asking for a
little candid counsel from those who hear us, and above all by being
what we seek to seem--true worshippers, spiritually awake and humbly
reverent.

As long as man is man, so long will the law of sympathy hold good. And
by that law it is certain that the way to promote, so far as we can, a
spirit and tone of true worship in our people is to possess--and to
show--that spirit ourselves, as we lead, and also join, their worship.
Never declaim the prayers, but always pray them, from the soul and with
the voice.

"GIVE ATTENDANCE TO THE READING" OF THE LESSONS.

ii. I spoke just now of what we should do at the lectern. Let me
earnestly press upon my Brethren the great duty of rightly reading the
Lessons. Do you want to carry out the will and purpose of the Church of
England? As we have seen, that purpose is above everything to glorify
the Word of God. See then that the Lesson, as read by you, is as
audible, as intelligible, as impressive as you can make it. Take care
beforehand that you understand its points, its arguments, its emphasis.
Take counsel with yourself, and perhaps with others, about ways and
means for bringing these things out in your public reading. Remember
that for very many of your people (I fear I am right in saying so) the
Church Lessons are the most solid pieces of Scripture they ever hear,
or ever read. Many years ago it was not uncommonly said that in "these
days of universal reading" we might perhaps abbreviate our Church
Lessons. But since that time it has been more fully and sadly realized,
by very many of us at least, that universal reading does not mean
universal Bible reading by any means, but much rather universal
newspaper and novel reading. The heavenly Book is _terribly unfamiliar_
to multitudes of churchgoers, as you will find, if you ask, when you go
about your parish; of this we have already thought. Therefore, make all
you can of the reading of the Lessons in public worship. [Greek:
Proseche tÍ anagnÙsei], says the Apostle to Timothy, "Give attention to
the reading" [1 Tim. iv. 13.]; does he not mean, be diligent in reading
the Scripture to the people? The precept is as much as ever in point in
our day.

OPPORTUNITIES OFFERED BY THE OCCASIONAL SERVICES.

iii. As regards the occasional services, Public and Private Baptism,
Marriage, Burial, I would earnestly counsel my Brother to put
personality into his reading in them all, in the moderate sense
indicated above. The fact that such occasions are necessarily more or
less _special_ in their interest for some at least of those present
should never be forgotten; bring the power of a sympathetic interest and
earnestness to bear upon it. In administering Public Baptism I have
often realized this to a very peculiar degree. Who can feel the least
fondness for little children, and have the slightest insight into a
parent's heart, and not do so? Our service is undoubtedly long; very
long indeed when accompanied by a chorus of perhaps several little
crying voices. But let the servant of God "be in it," and he will find
himself much more touched than troubled by the babies' lamentations as
he speaks to the sponsors about the young helpless souls, and turns to
the Lord of all grace to dedicate them to Him and to invoke His blessing
on them for time and eternity, and then applies the watery Seal of all
the promises to their small foreheads. I have always found it very hard
to get through that service with a perfectly steady voice; and after
all, why should we be so careful to do so?

_Private_ Baptism is indeed a special occasion. There are reasons, no
doubt, why it must not be too readily administered; in some parishes
parents, for one reason or another, too often try to secure "a
christening" in private, on insufficient grounds, with no intention of a
public dedication afterwards. But when the case is clear, and you are at
the little suffering one's side, perhaps with a distressed mother close
beside it and you, see to it that you so minister the rite, so read the
few precious words, as both to sympathize and to teach. Let me add that
Private Baptism often brings the Clergyman into a house where religion
is utterly neglected; and the opportunity may be a priceless one, if the
power of love and spiritual reality is with you in the work.

And when you officiate at a Wedding, different as the conditions are
from those just remembered, still do not forget that for at least some
there present the hour is a deeply moving one. And is not the Marriage
Service a noble one to read, to interpret, with its peculiar mingling of
immemorial and archaic simplicity with a searching depth of scriptural
exhortation, and a bright wealth of divine benedictions? Throw the
power of a true man's solemnized sympathy into your reading of that
service.

PROBLEMS CONNECTED WITH THE USE OF THE BURIAL SERVICE.

Of the ritual of the Grave I hardly need to speak. I know only too well
that there are funerals and funerals. There are occasions of unrelieved
sadness. There are occasions when the Minister's heart is chilled by a
manifest and utter indifference. But the saddest, dreariest of burials
is an opportunity for the Lord. Whether or no you see your way to give
an address, let it be seen that you are dealing with God in the prayers,
and read the Lessons "as one that pleadeth with men."

A brief word in passing on the problem raised by some of the phrases of
our Burial Service. Let me call attention to the studied generality of
the words, _In sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal
life_. Before 1662 this ran "in sure ... hope _of resurrection_, etc.,"
which, as you will observe, expressly applied the "hope" to _that_ case
of burial; the change was evidently made on purpose to relieve
conscience in the matter. Then remember that the whole service is
constructed, like all our services, for the member of the Christian
community taken on his profession; and that assumption, unless flagrant
facts withstand it, is to be made, in public ordinance, as much at the
grave as elsewhere. And do not forget that _hope_, be it ever so
"trembling," is _never_ forbidden at a grave-side. I am no advocate of
what is called "the larger hope"; I dare not be. But I am deeply
convinced that mercies of the Lord, in cases quite beyond our possible
knowledge, are experienced in the very act of departure.

  "Betwixt the stirrup and the ground
  Mercy I sought, mercy I found."

That instance has many parallels; and God only knows their limits. Never
should we say, whatever we may awfully fear, that such and such a soul
is _to our knowledge_ lost.

As regards the practical management of extreme cases, the young
Clergyman will of course act altogether under his Incumbent. And the
young Incumbent will remember that he can have recourse to his Bishop
for counsel.

THE HOLY COMMUNION.

iv. Let me say one special word on our administration of the precious
ritual of the Table of the Lord. I am not attempting here any
discussion of its doctrinal aspects in detail. For myself, as I have
said elsewhere, I make no secret of long-settled "Evangelical"
convictions. I regard the Holy Eucharist as above all things else the
Lord's way of sealing to His true Israel the unutterable benefits of the
New and Everlasting Covenant, rather than an occasion on which He
infuses into them His glorified Manhood. His sacred Body and Blood are,
for me, the Body and the Blood _as they were_, once for all, at Calvary,
and as they are not therefore literally now; and my participation in
them is accordingly my participation in the virtues of the Atoning
Sacrifice, there once and for ever wrought and offered. But this is by
the way. I speak now of our spirit and manner in the administration, in
respect of some principles which are little if at all affected, it seems
to me, by even grave differences of doctrinal theory. Alas, at the
present day it is too often the case that the communicant is fairly
bewildered by the varieties of Communion ritual, or by the complications
of it. Ought this to be so, on _any_ theory of the Eucharist? Did I for
one believe our adorable and beloved LORD to be locally present (I use
the words not technically but practically) on the Holy Table as nowhere
else here on earth, I think that all my instinct would go towards a
reverence whose depth was manifested not by an elaborate ceremonial but
by the most solemn possible simplicity of act. A ritual whose details
must be matter of careful practice, and which suggests almost the need
of a Spanish master-of-the-ceremonies--ought _that_ to be the natural
effect of an, as it were, invisible Presence?

SIMPLICITY AND REVERENCE.

But probably I write for readers whose inclinations or risks lie little
in that direction. And for them I say, let your administration of the
blessed Communion always combine a manifest reverence and a restful
simplicity. The Lord _is_ there, the Master of His own Table, the Prince
of His own Covenant, ready to give His people His royal Seal by your
hands. And His people are there, to have their sacred interview with
Him. Do not obstruct their view, their colloquy; humbly aid it. Be their
servant, as in HIS presence; obtrude yourself as little as you possibly
can.

ADDRESSES ON THE PRAYER BOOK.

As I draw the chapter to a close, I make one practical recommendation to
my younger Brethren. It is, to do what they can to interest their people
in the Prayer Book, and to promote its intelligent use, by taking what
opportunities they can to talk to them about it. Many a private occasion
for this will no doubt present itself. But if now and then a simple
lecture on the history of the Prayer Book can be given, and if possible
well illustrated, it will be very useful; and so will be a series of
week-night devotional addresses on the teaching of the Prayer Book. And
let not the need of plain matter-of-fact explanation of obsolete terms
and technical phrases be forgotten on such occasions. Of course the
Curate will carefully consult his Incumbent on the whole matter. But few
of my elder Brethren will not feel with me that such "talks upon the
Prayer Book," carefully considered and conducted, whether by Incumbent
or by Curate, may be of the greatest use, under our Master's blessing.

"MORE CEREMONIAL, LESS WORSHIP."

One last word, and I have done with these suggestions. An English Bishop
once told me that he had lately met a gentleman who, after ten years'
residence abroad, returned to England, and to his place as a worshipper
in our Churches. "Do you remark particularly any change or advance in
what you see there?" "I observe on the one hand much more ceremonial, on
the other hand, apparently, much less worship. Fewer kneel, fewer
respond, fewer around me seem devoutly attentive." Less worship! Is it
so indeed? Let the very opposite be the case, so far as our influence
and teaching can have effect, with our fathers' Prayer Book in our
hands, and in our hearts.


  "_Lo, God is here; Him day and night
    Th' united quires of angels sing;
  To Him, enthron'd above all height,
    Heaven's hosts their noblest praises bring;
  Disdain not, Lord, our meaner song,
  Who praise Thee with a stammering tongue.

  "Being of beings, may our praise
    Thy courts with grateful fragrance fill;
  Still may we stand before Thy face,
    Still hear and do Thy sovereign will;
  To Thee may all our thoughts arise,
  Ceaseless, accepted sacrifice._"

  J. WESLEY, from TERSTEEGEN




CHAPTER X.

_PREACHING_ (i.).


  _Earthen vessels, frail and slight,
    Yet the golden Lamp we bear;
  Master, break us, that the light
    So may fire the murky air;
  Skill and wisdom none we claim,
  Only seek to lift Thy Name._


I have on purpose reserved the subject of Preaching for our closing
pages. Preaching is, from many points of view, the goal and summing up
of all other parts and works of the Ministry. What we have said already
about the Clergyman's life and labour, in secret, in society, in the
parish; what we have said about his study and use of the Book of Common
Prayer; all, so far as it has been true, ought to contribute its
suggestions as we approach this great theme.

THE PULPIT THE CENTRAL POINT.

For, indeed, "the Pulpit" (I use the word in its widest application,
wide enough to cover the mission-room desk, or the preaching place in
the open air) is no mere isolated item in the midst of other matters
which call for a Clergyman's attention. If the man is working, and
ordering his work, aright, the Pulpit will not be a something which has
to be taken by the way, a link in a long chain in which committees,
clubs, and social gatherings, and the like, are other and co-ordinate
links. It will be a sacred central point, the living heart of the busy
life, to which everything will bear relation. To the Pulpit everything
will somehow converge, and from the Pulpit everything will be
influenced. As the Pastor moves about amongst his people, he will be
gathering incessantly, from all parochial places and seasons, material
which will tell upon his sermons; he will be getting to know his
people's minds and lives with an intimacy which will give his preaching
to them a point which otherwise it could not have. And when he stands in
the Pulpit, this continually accumulating knowledge will come out, not
indeed in the way of diluting or distorting his Gospel, but so as to
give its eternal and holy message a point and closeness of application
which will ensure its "coming home," as God gives the blessing.

TEMPTATIONS TO FORGET THIS.

It needs thought and care to keep the parish and the sermon thus _en
rapport_. But such thought and care is infinitely well worth taking.
The Clergyman who longs to be useful for his Lord in the highest degree
he can be, cannot possibly think lightly of his sermons. Yet he may be
tempted, half unconsciously, to treat them too lightly in practices,
particularly if he is beset with a consciousness that he is not "a born
preacher," or if he stands in the opposite danger of having a "fatal"
facility of speech. Let the Clergyman only remember that his sermon, his
public delivery of instruction, of exhortation, in the Lord's name, is
not to be an exhibition of his own powers of thought or utterance, but a
faithful message-bearing to his own flock, in the light of what he knows
of Christ and the Word on the one side, and of the needs of the flock on
the other, and he will find a most useful encouragement, or a most
useful corrective, as the need may be. "O my Lord, I am not eloquent,"
[Exod. iv. 10.] will be no disheartening thought, as he carries to the
pulpit the ever-growing weight of pastoral experience, all giving point
and freshness to the unalterable message. And the secret temptation to
think the sermon a light thing because mere words come easy, will be
powerfully counteracted in the other case not only by contact with the
realities of life in the daily work, but by remembering that the sermon
will have to do with not an abstract audience but _these particular_
souls and lives thus laid on the man's conscience and affections.

THE PASTOR PREACHES TO THOSE PARTICULAR HEARERS.

Let me repeat it as earnestly as I can. The sermon, if it is to be what
it should be, should be affected at every point by the facts of the
preacher's own inner life, and by those of his intercourse with his
people. Those facts must, of course, be thoughtfully weighed and
handled. The tact which is so important in a Pastor, and which is best
learned and developed in the school of Christ's love, will see
instinctively how to apply in preaching the experience gained in prayer,
in conversation, in every branch of ministering life. We shall remember
that indefinite harm, not good, may be done when a man, particularly a
young man, unwisely preaches what may fairly seem to be personalities; I
have known some sad instances in point here. But taking that for
granted, assuming the good sense and sympathy of the preacher, I am
quite sure that the most eloquent sermon, adapted to _any_ audience, is
far less likely to be blessed and used by our Lord than the sermon which
is penetrated with the Pastor's personal intimacy with _that particular_
audience, and which goes therefore straight from him to them.

It has been well said that preaching may be described as "truth through
personality"; not merely the presentation somehow of so many facts and
thoughts, but the presentation of them through the medium of a living
man, who brings into the pulpit his heart, his character, his
experience, and so gives out his message. We may add to this suggestive
dictum that the true pastoral sermon is also "truth _to_ personalities";
the living man's delivery of the message to living men and women whose
life, more or less, he knows. And so it presupposes some real amount of
pastoral intercourse, intelligently brought to bear on pulpit work.

PREPARE SERMON IN THE PARISH.

I linger a little over these thoughts, though they are little more than
introductory. For experience tells me how easily, in these days, the
Clergyman is tempted to dislocate his "parish work" from his sermons, to
the great loss of one or both parts of his duty. And if once he begins
to think of his sermons as a thing really apart, which must be got
through somehow, but rather as a mere duty than as a vital ministerial
function, the results will be sad for the sermons. So I lay stress on
the thought that the sermon-preparation ought to go on not only in the
study, over the Word, but in the parish, over the hearers of it. The
more constantly this is recollected, and put in practice, the less fear
will there be that the sermon will be a weariness either to people or to
preacher.

"LABOUR IN THE WORD."

But let me, however, entreat my younger Brother, by any and every means,
to watch and pray against a slack or low view of his function as a
preacher. From very many quarters at the present day we are invited to
slight our sermon-labour. Sometimes it is "work," organization,
committees, which is set against the sermon; sometimes it is the
reading-desk and the Communion Table--the liturgical functions of the
Ministry. Let pastoral activities and holy rites alike have ample place
in our thoughts and work; but for Christ's sake, my Brother in the
ministry of the Word and Sacraments, do not forget the Word. A Christian
Church where preaching sinks to a low ebb, where the labour of public
teaching and exhortation is neglected, in favour either of machinery or
ritual, cannot possibly--I dare to say it deliberately--be in a truly
healthy state now, and most assuredly is not laying up health and
strength for years to come. For the very life of our flocks, and of our
Church, and for the dear glory of our Master, let us "labour in the Word
and teaching." [1 Tim. v. 17.]

"LITHO SERMONS."

Is it necessary, in the case of any reader of these pages, that I should
not only appeal thus in general, but add one special entreaty--always to
preach _your own_ sermons? Probably it is not necessary; but it may be
"safe" [Phil. iii. 2.] nevertheless. Not long ago I was distressed to
read, in the advertisement columns of an excellent Church newspaper, a
conspicuous announcement of a series of "_litho sermons_," that is, I
suppose, sermons so printed as to look like manuscript. If such
literature has a sale, it is a miserable fact. Can these discourses
possibly be either written by a "man of the Spirit," or used by such a
man? I say, No. The production of them (in order to be lithographed),
and the use of them in their "litho" state, are untruthful acts,
untruthful in the very sanctuary of truth. The Lord pardon--and the Lord
forbid!

Better the most stammering and incoherent utterances of a man who loves
the Lord, and the Word, and the flock, and who in Christ's Name does his
best, than the unhallowed, and usually, I think, vapid glibness of such
acted as well as spoken falsehoods.[27] And surely, the more the
Clergyman keeps his pulpit and his parish in living relation, the less
will he be tempted, be it ever so remotely, by any exigencies, to dream
of expedients such as these.

[27] I am far from saying that the preacher should never get help from
other men's sermons. This may be done honestly and usefully, in many
ways. But to let another man's sermon pass as one's own is a sin.

"DR SOUTH IN THE AFTERNOON."

Quite conceivably, there may be rare occasions when another man's sermon
may be rightly used by you. But then, of course, you will do it
honestly and above-board, telling your people whose it is. In Addison's
_Sir Roger de Coverley_ there is a pleasant scene, where the venerable
Knight asks the Parson who the preacher for next Sunday is to be. "The
Bishop of St Asaph in the morning," replies the good man, "and Dr South
in the afternoon."[28] That is, he was about to read, openly and
honestly, a sermon of Beveridge's, and then a sermon of South's;
neither, certainly, in lithograph. I do not say he did the best for his
people in so doing; most certainly he could not "speak home" to the
details of their village life, and its temptations, if he spoke only in
the phrase of the two classical pulpit-masters. That _rapport_ of parish
and pulpit of which I have spoken could not have been much felt, at
least on that coming Sunday. But the good Parson was honest, however.
The practice of which I speak is not honest.

[28] "He then shewed us his list of preachers for the whole year, where
I saw with a great deal of pleasure Archbishop Tillotson, Bishop
Sanderson, Dr Barrow, Dr Calamy, with several living authors."
(_Spectator_, No. 106, July 2nd, 1711.) Calamy by the way was a
Presbyterian, made one of the King's chaplains at the Restoration.

WE MUST PREACH ATTRACTIVELY.

Let me come now to a closer view of the preacher's work, and I will be
as practical as possible. I have besought my Brother to let nothing
tempt him to push his preaching into a neglectful corner. Let me now
beseech him to remember that he must not only be a diligent preacher,
but do his very best to commend his preaching to his people,--to be, in
a right sense, _attractive_.

I deliberately say, attractive. That word, of course, suggests some very
undesirable applications. It is only too possible to aim at
attractiveness by bad methods. We may tone down the Gospel-message,
leaving out unpopular and man-humbling truths, and try to "attract"
people so. We may strive to "attract" them to hear us by doubtful
external accessories (of very different kinds), which, after all, will
rather attract attention--for a season--to themselves, than to the
message, and the Lord. But none the less it is every Clergyman's plain
duty to make his preaching, so far as he can, lawfully attractive. It is
his duty to see that he preaches Christ Crucified; and "the offence of
the Cross" [Gal. v. 11.] will always occur, sooner or later, in such
preaching; but it is his duty to see that there is no other "offence" in
it, so far as he can help it. If he so speaks of sin, and righteousness,
and judgment, that the unregenerate heart does not like it, though the
preacher has spoken wisely and in love, that is not the preacher's
fault. If he has so magnified Christ, and the glory and fulness of His
salvation, that it sounds like exaggeration to the unspiritual hearer,
though the words have been said in all reverent reality, that is not the
preacher's fault. But it _is_ his fault if he has repelled his hearers
from his message by what is not the message, but his own setting of it;
his spirit, manner, his delivery, his neglect of some plain precautions
against prejudice and weariness. Of a few such precautions I come now to
speak; and first, of what I may call the most external amongst them.

NEEDFUL AND NEEDLESS OFFENCES.

Beginning, then, with physical precautions against needless "offences,"
[Greek: skandala], in our preaching I say first, let us do our best to
be _audible_.

AUDIBILITY: MEANS TO IT.

The word sounds almost amusingly commonplace. But it must be said. Many
more of us Clergymen than know it, or think about it, are not audible.
The lack of training for the bodily work of the pulpit, in our Church,
is serious; far more is done in this way among our Nonconformist
brethren.[29] And accordingly there are numbers of young English
Clergymen who read and speak without a thought of methodical audibility.
They do not articulate distinctly. They do not remember that the _pace_
and _force_ of utterance, fit for a private room, are quite unfit for a
large building. They do not know, perhaps, how extremely important is
the articulation of consonants, and of final syllables of words, and of
closing words in a sentence. They do not know that a certain equability
(not monotony) of voice is necessary, if the utterance is to "carry" to
the end of a long church, or a church of many pillars.

[29] Let me cordially commend the Rev. J.P. Sandlands' book, _The Voice
and Public Speaking_. Mr Sandlands has done, and is doing, admirable
work as an oral teacher of clerical elocution, in the intervals of his
parochial labours.

PLEASANT AUDIBILITY.

Or again, they do not know, or do not remember, that audibility is not
secured by mere loudness and bigness of voice, nor again by raising the
voice to a high pitch. "People tell you to speak up," said that
excellent elocutionist, Mr Simeon; "but I say, speak down," down as
regards the musical scale. Again, the larger the building the more
accentuated must be the articulation, and the more limited the variation
of pitch; but too often this is not thought of by the preacher.

Further, it has to be remembered, but it is frequently forgotten, that
the audibility we should aim at is a pleasant and attractive audibility.
It is a great thing to be easily heard; which of us does not know the
combined physical and mental labour of listening to a sermon, or a
speech, which only reaches us indistinctly? But it is a greater thing to
be pleasantly heard; heard so that the listener finds nothing to tire
and repel in the utterance. Here, of course, different voices give very
different advantages; but there are some common secrets, so to speak,
which all--who will make a sacred business of it--may profitably and
effectively use. Above all, there is the secret of quiet naturalness;
the watchful avoidance (do not forget this) of tricks and mannerisms in
delivery;[30] the watchful cultivation of the sort of utterance which we
should use in an earnest conversation on grave subjects, with only such
differences as are suggested by _the size_ of the place in which we
speak. Of some other "common secrets" I shall speak when I come to the
question of style and phrase.

[30] I have known a sermon which in matter and style were really
excellent made, to some hearers at least, almost unendurable by the
accident that the preacher had got the habit of (needlessly) _clearing
his throat_ at the end of almost every sentence.

FIND A CANDID FRIEND.

How shall we best work upon such hints? Very largely, by the use of the
plainest common-sense and every-day observation on our own part. But
largely also by trying to find some friend, equally kind and candid, who
will help us "to hear ourselves as others hear us." For myself, after
twenty-five years, I welcome more and more gratefully every such
criticism as the occasion presents itself. Let the Curate ask his Vicar
to tell him without mercy if his utterance, his articulation, is clear;
if his manner is natural; if his preaching is or is not easy to listen
to in these respects. And let friend ask friend; let pastor ask
parishioner; let husband ask wife!

GOOD ENGLISH.

There are other directions in which we must cultivate attractiveness.
There is English style. Here, again, gifts differ widely in detail, yet
there are common secrets open to common use. It is open to every one to
avoid, on the one hand, an ambitious, long-worded style; on the other, a
style which many young men of our time are in more danger of
patronizing--the slovenly, shapeless style, in which the Queen's English
is very "freely handled," and into which the broken English of an
ever-growing _slang_ not seldom makes its way. These defects have only
to be recognized, surely, to be avoided, by keeping our eyes open as we
read and our ears as we hear, and by remembering that the sacred message
of the King, while it is too great to be tricked out with false
rhetoric, is also too great to be slighted, not to say insulted, by a
really careless phraseology.

A GOOD STYLE IS A PRACTICAL POWER.

Pains will be needed, of course, as we pursue the object of a good
style. We must watch and think. We must read and observe good models,
the written words of men who have proved themselves powerful preachers
to the people, and indeed of men generally who are known masters of
English. We shall have, again, to consult candid friends. But my point
is, that all this is abundantly worth our while. A neat, straight,
well-worded sentence is not a mere literary luxury. It is a practical
power. It is far easier to listen to than a careless, formless sentence
is, and it is far easier to remember. The truth which it conveys is much
more likely, therefore, to find its way securely into the mind, and to
lie there ready for the vivifying touch of the Spirit of God.

I emphasize this matter of style, for in many quarters it is much
neglected, and some of my younger Brethren do, if I mistake not,
entertain the thought that the simplicity of the Gospel is best set
forth, and God most honoured, where plans and methods of language are
neglected. To speak about "a good style" to those who think so, may seem
perhaps little else than a recommendation to bid for human applause in
the line of literature. But my intention is far enough from this. Mere
literary ambition, the quest of the glory of self in this as in every
other line, is a forbidden thing to the true bondservant of the Lord.
But it is by no means forbidden him, for his Lord's sake, to aim at
clearness, point, force of expression, that the message may be the
better taken in. God is as little glorified by a bad style as by a bad
voice, or bad handwriting, or bad reasoning. And by a good style I mean
not a style polished and elaborated to please fastidious tastes (the
best taste, by the way, is best pleased with correct simplicity), but a
style which shall be both pure and plain in word and phrase,
"understandable of the people" yet such as not to vex those who care for
their native tongue, and just enough formed and pointed to make
attention pleasant to the ear. For average audiences, I know no style
more perfectly answering my idea than that of Mr Spurgeon,[31] in his
printed sermons of recent years. And I happen to know that Mr Spurgeon
has always taken great and systematic pains with his English.

[31] Since these words were written this great Christian and preacher
has passed away to his Master's presence.

FRENCH HEARERS OF ENGLISH.

Some preachers need much more than others a hint to keep their sentences
_straight_, and to avoid the tangle of parentheses, long or short. Here,
again, Mr Spurgeon gives me an admirable illustration. His sentences,
never thin or weak in matter, are always straight. If any of my younger
Brethren are tempted, as I confess I am, in the digressive direction, I
would recommend them (if they usually preach without writing) to _write_
a sermon now and then, and rigorously to exclude, or re-write, all
sentences which transgress. It occurred to me recently, when acting as a
summer chaplain in Switzerland, to find the benefit of a different
corrective. On one particular Sunday I had among my hearers in the
morning a French Presbyterian, in the afternoon a French Roman Catholic,
each understanding a little English; and in each case I had special
reasons for hope and longing that the sermon might bring some spiritual
help. Instinctively, I avoided every expression which could in the least
complicate my English and thus obscure the message to my foreign
friends. And so thankful was I for the pruning of periods that resulted,
that I am much disposed, in all future preaching, to put mentally
before me those same two hearers.

"WRITTEN OR EXTEMPORE?"

On that great question, Shall I preach from writing, or not? I say very
little. Speaking quite generally, and thinking now only of the regular
church congregation, not of the mission-room or open air, I would advise
my younger Brethren to write for some while, but usually with an
ultimate view to speech without writing. No hard rule can be laid down.
One man is so gifted that from the first he can express himself
correctly and well without any manuscript before him. Another finds, all
his life through, that he speaks best, and his people listen best, when
he reads (vividly and naturally) from his prayerfully-prepared
manuscript. But on the whole, I repeat it, writing is the best
discipline for a man in his early days of Ministry, while beyond doubt
the freely-spoken sermon, like the freely-spoken speech, (carefully
enough prepared as to matter and order,) is usually best to listen to,
and therefore should be the preacher's goal. Some men write their
sermons and then learn them by heart for delivery. For myself, I own
this would be a severe ordeal to nerve; and in very few cases, if I am
right, does it produce a perfectly natural effect. Not long ago, if not
now, it was a frequent custom in Scotland; and one amusing story comes
to my mind. A good minister, known to a near relative of mine, always
thus "mandated" his sermon, and punctually delivered it word for word.
One day a tremendous hailstorm assailed the church windows, and not only
did his parishioners fail to hear him, but literally he lost the sound
of his own voice. Yet he _dared not stop_, lest memory should play him
false; and when the storm ceased, "I found myself," he said, "with some
surprise, in a quite distant part of the sermon."

ORDER AND DIVISION.

Another important aid to attractiveness is order and division, simply
and sensibly managed. Nothing is much more repellent, at least to modern
hearers, than an excess of arrangement; headings and subdivisions
overdone. But nothing is more helpful to attention than a simple,
natural, luminous division, present in the preacher's mind, announced to
the audience, and faithfully carried out. Remember this, among many
other things, in the choosing of the text; _ceteris paribus_, that text
is best which best lends itself to natural division.

PAINS AND FAITH.

There are many other points, more or less of the exterior kind, so to
speak, which concern the attractiveness of our preaching. There is the
question of length, which can only be settled by careful and prayerful
consideration of special circumstances, with recollection of the general
principles that the morning sermon should be short compared with that of
the evening, and that he who would reach the hearts of the poor must not
give them "sermonettes," but sermons. There is the question of action, a
large subject. All that I can say is, that _some_ action is almost
always a help to attention, but that it proves the very opposite as soon
as it seems uneasy, or a mannerism.

I have yet to deal with some thoughts about the preacher's message, and
the inmost secrets of his power. Meanwhile, may our Lord and Master
enable us so to "labour in the Word" that we shall think no means too
humble which will really help us to make His message plain, and no
dependence on Him too absolute for the longed-for spiritual results.

  "_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 impress'd
  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._"

  COWPER.




CHAPTER XI.

_PREACHING_ (ii.).


  _For Thy sake, beloved Lord,
  I will labour in Thy Word;
  On the knees, in patient prayer;
  At the desk, with studious care;
  In the pulpit, seeking still
  There to utter all Thy will._


I pursue the subject of attractive preaching, taking still the word
attractive in its worthiest sense, and again laying stress on the
_necessity_ of attractiveness of the right sort. We have looked a little
already at some of the external requisites to this end; now let us
approach some which have to do with matter more than manner.

CONSIDERATENESS.

On the way, I pause to say a word in general on one of the reasons why
we should do our best to speak so that our hearers shall care to hear.
The supreme reason is manifest; it is the glory of our Master and the
good of souls. For His sake, and for the flock's sake, we long and must
strive to speak so as to draw their attention to His message and to
Himself. But subordinate to this great motive, and in fullest harmony
with it, there is another; and this is a motive which, once clearly
apprehended, will affect not our preaching only, but all parts of our
ministry--our conduct of public worship, our pastoral visitation, our
whole intercourse with our neighbours. I mean, the simple motive of a
loyal and faithful _considerateness for others_, as we are on the one
hand Christian men and English gentlemen, and on the other hand
servants, not masters, of the Church and parish. Possibly this aspect of
the Pastor's public and official ministry may not have presented itself
distinctively as yet to my younger Brother; but it cannot be recognized
and acted upon too early. Some things in our clerical position and
functions tend in their own nature to make us forget it, if we are not
definitely awake to it beforehand. In some respects the Clergyman, even
the youngest Curate, has dangerous opportunities for _in_ considerate
public action. Take the management of divine Service in illustration. In
his manner of reading, his tone, his pace, the Clergyman may allow
himself, only too easily, to think of himself alone. In the
reading-desk, or at the Table of the Lord, he may consult only his own
likes and dislikes in attitude, gesture, and air. But if so, he is
greatly failing in the homely duty of loyal considerateness. What will
be most for the happiness and edification of the congregation? What will
least disturb and most assist true devotion? How shall the Minister best
secure that the worshippers shall remember the Master and not be
uncomfortably conscious of the servant? The answers to such questions
will of course vary considerably under varying conditions; but it is
_the principle_ of the questions which I press home. Our office, and the
common consent and usage of the Christian people, give us a position of
independence in such matters which has its advantages, but also its very
great risks; and it is for us accordingly to handle that independence
with the utmost possible _considerateness_.

This thought was much upon my own mind lately during the interesting
experiences of a Continental summer chaplaincy, to which I referred in
the last chapter. As usual in a health resort abroad, the English
residents represented many different shades of Church opinion and
practice. By the convictions of many long years, I am an Evangelical
Churchman, in the well-understood sense of the term; and of those
convictions I am not at all ashamed. My manner of conducting public
worship, especially in the Communion Office, would probably make it
plain at once to most worshippers where I stand as a Churchman. But that
does not mean, I trust, that I am to allow myself to be inconsiderate of
the feelings of others in the matter; and on the occasions referred to
it was my earnest and anxious aim to remember this with regard to
worshippers, and particularly communicants, whose beliefs, or however
whose sympathies, were what is called "higher" than my own. On their
account I sought to make it plain that no rubrical direction was
neglectfully treated by me, and that reverence of manner and action was
a sacred thing in my eyes--a reverence not elaborated, but attentive. I
hope I should have been reverently careful whatever the composition of
the congregation was; but under the circumstances the duty of this
obvious sort of ministerial _considerateness_ was laid on my heart with
special weight. That duty bears in many directions. It is, I venture to
say, inconsiderate, on the one hand, when the Clergyman conducts the
services of the Church with a disturbing artificiality of performance.
It is inconsiderate, on the other hand, when he conducts them with any,
even the least, real slovenliness and inattention.

TEMPTATIONS TO FORGET IT.

But if all this is true of the desk and of the blessed Table, it is true
also, and in a high degree, of the pulpit. Singularly independent, up to
a certain point, is the position of the preacher. He chooses his own
text; he assigns himself (at least in theory) his own length of
discourse; he is entitled, under the Êgis of the law of the land, to
speak on to the end without interruption; he is bound, within the limits
of a sanctified common-sense, to speak with the authority of his
commission. Here are powerful temptations to an inconsiderate man,
perhaps especially to an inconsiderate young man, to show much
inconsideration. And therefore, here is a pre-eminent occasion for the
true Pastor, who thinks, prays, loves, and is humble, to practise the
beautiful opposite. Shall you and I seek grace to do so?

RESPECT ELDER HEARERS.

Put yourself often, my dear Brother, while I do the same, into the
position--which we once occupied always, and often do still--of the
hearer. You, the Curate, or the young Incumbent, have recently come into
the parish, and you are full of a young man's energy and enterprize, and
a little infected perhaps with a common and natural belief of your time
of life, but a belief not quite true to facts, that the world is made
for young men. And among your hearers, week by week, as you preach from
that pulpit, sit men and women who were working, and thinking, and
perhaps believing, literally long before you were born. Put yourself in
their place. Into many of their experiences, and their sympathies born
of experience, you cannot possibly enter personally. You cannot _feel
personally_ how this or that innovation of language or manner, this or
that too crude statement of your message, this or that baldly new and
perhaps by no means true theory, aired as if it were all obvious and of
course, must look and sound to them. You cannot _feel_ it all; but you
can think about it. Perhaps these are educated and refined people, and
accustomed all their lives to value clear thought and pure diction, in
any case accustomed to carefulness in the matter and manner of the
sermon. You cannot enter into all their mental habits in your own mental
workings; but you can take account of them, and in a loyal and
thoughtful _considerateness_ you can remember them in practice, and
honestly aim so to prepare and to preach as to conciliate the thoughtful
and the elders.

Such considerateness will not mean the stifling of prayerful conviction,
or the failure to be faithful as the messenger of the Lord. But it will
mean a severity upon yourself as regards the tone and spirit of your
thoughts, and also as the manner of your utterance. You will take pains,
even at a heavy cost to self (and such costs are always gains in the
end), so to minister as to attract the attention of the flock, not to
yourself, but to your blessed Master and His Word; preaching "not
yourself, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and _yourself their servant_ for
Jesus' sake." [2 Cor. iv. 5.]

With this aim of Attractiveness, then, in our minds, and with this
motive of Considerateness beside it, let us come to some thoughts in
detail about the matter of preaching.

And here first I must bring in another word to meet the word
"attractive." That word is "faithful."

WRONG KINDS OF ATTRACTIVENESS.

As a matter of most obvious fact (we noticed it in the previous
chapter), there is a false and useless attractiveness, as well as a
true. There is the poor and miserable attractiveness--it draws a certain
class of modern hearers--of mere brevity; the "ten-minute sermon." There
are no doubt exceptional occasions when ten minutes, or even five, may
be the right limit to our utterance; but there is something wrong with
both sermon and audience if in the regular ministration of God's holy
Word the preacher must at once begin to stop. There is again the
specious and spurious attractiveness of excitement and froth of manner,
or of a merely emotional appeal to perhaps not the deepest emotions, an
attraction which has little in it of that divine magnet which draws the
will and lifts the soul in regenerate faith and surrender. There is the
attraction, tempting, but futile for the true purposes of the pulpit,
of the sermon which is after all only a lecture, or a leading article;
full of the topics of the day, of the hour; full perhaps of some
celebrated name just immortalized by death[32]; but not full of the
eternal message for which the pulpit exists. Most certainly there is no
divine rule which excludes from the sermon all allusions to politics, to
society, to science, to great men; but there _is_ a divine rule, running
through the whole precept and example of the New Testament, which keeps
such things always subordinate to the supreme work of preaching Jesus
Christ.

[32] "I went longing to hear about Christ, and it was only Newman from
beginning to end." This was the actual lament of an anxious soul, one
Sunday in 1890.

FAITHFULNESS.

Across all our thoughts how to secure attractiveness, as a co-ordinate
line which fixes attention to the true point, runs the word
"Faithfulness." The preacher is to be attractive while faithful,
faithful while attractive. And he is to be attractive not for the sake
of so being, but in order that he may win an entrance for the words of
faithfulness, to his Master's praise.

WE ARE MESSENGERS.

Yes, this is what we are to be as preachers. We are to seek "mercy of
the Lord to be faithful." [1 Cor. vii. 25.] We are not popular leaders,
looking for a cry, or passing one on. We are not speculative thinkers,
feeling out a philosophy, communicating our guesses at truth to a
company of friends who happen to be interested in the investigation. We
are "messengers, watchmen, and stewards of the Lord." We are in
commissioned charge of a divine, authentic, and unalterable message. We
are the expounders of a "Word which liveth and abideth for ever," [1
Pet. i. 23.] a Word which man is always trying to judge and to
disparage, but which will judge man at the last day. [Joh. xii. 48.] We
are the bondservants of an absolute Master, who is at once our Sender
and our Message, and who overhears our every word in its delivery.

It is a grave mistake, as we saw in our last chapter, to think that
faithfulness means a repellent utterance of "the faithful Word." [Tit.
i. 9.] But it is at least an equal mistake to think that attractiveness
means a modification of that Word, which to the end of our world's day
will still be a "folly" and a "stumbling-block," [1 Cor. i. 23.] in
some respects, to the unconverted soul, and will always have its
searching point and edge for the converted soul also.

But this consideration here is only by the way. I return from it to the
matter of a right and faithful attractiveness and some of its higher
conditions.

SECRETS FOR TRUE ATTRACTIVENESS.

"_Preach the Gospel--earnestly, interestingly, fully._" Such, I believe,
is the prescription given, by the great preacher whom I cited in the
last chapter, to the Pastor who would fill his church, and keep it full.
In the first instance, no doubt, Mr Spurgeon gives it as a prescription
to the Nonconformist Pastor; but it is quite as much to the purpose for
the Conformist, so far as he is a Minister of the Word.[33] What I have
to say in these present pages shall run on the lines of that sentence of
good counsel.

[33] And let it never be forgotten that this is his _primary_ function
in the mind of the Church of England. See the Priest's Ordination,
particularly its Exhortations, its Commission, and its final Collect.

"PREACH THE GOSPEL."

i. "_Preach the Gospel_," that is to say Jesus Christ, in His Person,
His Work, His Offices, His Teaching, all applied to the souls and lives
of men. Would you truly and permanently attract, with an attraction
which God will bless? Let that be your first condition. I do not dilate
upon it here, but with all the earnestness possible I lay it upon my
younger Brother's heart as we pass on. Preach the Gospel, that is to say
the Lord, in all He is for man as man is a sinner, a mortal, a mourner,
a worker. Do not let Christ be one subject among others. As little can
the sun be one among the planets. He is _the_ Subject; all others get
their reality and importance for us preachers by their relation to Him.
In particular I venture to say, do not let occasional, temporal, local
topics, even very important ones, dislodge Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ
of the whole Bible, from His royal place in your preaching; and do not
forget continually (though not monotonously) to keep to the front the
fact that He is _the sinner's Saviour_. More will be said later about
that point of view, but I state it at once. Speak indeed of Christ as
Exemplar, Ideal, Friend, Man of Men; but do not let your brethren forget
that, "_first of all, Christ died for our sins_, according to the
Scriptures," [1 Cor. xv. 3.] and that His primary practical relation to
us is always that of Saviour to sinner. That truth is not altogether in
fashion now. But it is eternal; it is deep as the human soul, and as the
Law of God, and as such it is a mighty condition to attractiveness,
wisely and truly handled. It corresponds to the inmost facts of the
hearers' being, whether they are aware of it yet or not; and is there
not here the most powerful of magnets, at least _in posse_?

"PREACH IT EARNESTLY."

ii. "Preach the Gospel _earnestly_." This does not mean necessarily
with vehemence, or even with fervour, of manner. Some men's delivery is
fervent, or even vehement, in the most natural way possible; and let
such men preach so, if they will do it thoughtfully and to the purpose.
But the slightest artificial cultivation of such qualities, or of the
semblance of them, is a great practical mistake. And earnestness is at
once a wider and a simpler matter all the while. The man who preaches
earnestly is the man who is altogether in earnest, and speaks out his
conviction and his purpose.

*PREACH IT AS A WITNESS.

He is the man who has the Lord's message deep in his own soul, and is
conscious of its vast importance for the souls of others. He is the man
who does not merely discuss, or explain, or even expound, however
soundly and luminously, but whose words--well chosen, well weighed, well
ordered--are _also_ the living words of one who "testifieth that he hath
seen." [Joh. iii. 11.] Yes, the essence of the right sort of earnestness
is the witness-character of the preacher. What is a witness? One who has
personal knowledge of the matter of his words [2 Tim. i. 12.]--"_I know
whom I have believed._" Is there not a great need at this time, in our
dear Church, of more such witness-preaching? I do not mean preaching
that advertises the preacher as a remarkable Christian, certainly not
preaching that puts for one moment our "testimony" on a level with the
infallible Word once written. But I do mean the preaching which, by one
of the surest laws of our nature, attracts attention to that Word in a
living way by the preacher's manifest confession that its message is a
mighty reality and certainty to himself.

Some years ago I heard an account of the peculiarly impressive preaching
of a young Mission-clergyman. It was described to me as remarkable not
for energy of manner, or warmth of diction, but for the impression left
on all hearers that the truths handled by the man were for himself
absolute and present facts. He stated them with a directness and
quietness which was emphatically matter-_of-fact_. This sort of
preaching is earnest indeed.

"PREACH IT INTERESTINGLY."

iii. "Preach the Gospel _interestingly_." How shall we secure this? Some
recipes for interest are familiar. There is the method of illustration;
there is the method of anecdote: both excellent, and almost
indispensable. Only, they are methods which have their risks, and must
be used with care. Illustrations are apt to overwhelm the thing
illustrated, the moment much detail is allowed; and they are apt to go
on three feet, or even upon one, instead of upon four; and they may be
drawn from quarters too remote to strike the hearers with effect.
Anecdotes have the same risks; and, besides, they need, if they are to
be used aright, to be carefully sifted and verified. I say this not to
disparage what in some preachers' hands is a most powerful and also a
most delicate weapon; yet the caution is certainly needed, especially by
younger men.

INTEREST OF EXPLANATION.

But the surest secrets of interesting preaching lie deeper than anecdote
and illustration. One of them, a very simple one to state, is clearness
of thought, and of the expression and explanation of thought. I entreat
my Brother to be an _explanatory_ preacher, by which I mean, not that he
should treat his _brethren_ as if they were his _children_ (unless
indeed it is a children's sermon), but that he should handle familiar
religious terms with the resolve to make them _live and speak_ to the
ordinary hearer. Nothing is more opiate-like than a sentence which is
unreal to the hearer because it is mere phraseology. Nothing can be made
more interesting than familiar phraseology (supposing it to be true and
important) so treated as to speak its meaning out fresh and living in
modern ears.

INTEREST OF EXPOSITION.

Another deep and unfailing secret of interest, so that it be used
intelligently and prayerfully, is close akin to this last. It lies in
the right sort of _expository_ preaching. I have in my mind such
exposition as will be found in Dr Vaughan's sermons on the Philippian
Epistle. The charm and power of those sermons lie, I know, very much in
the extraordinary excellence, the _curiosa simplicitas_, of their
literary style, so unpretentious and so masterly. But it lies also in
the fact that the preacher takes us over a familiar Scripture passage,
verse by verse, phrase by phrase, and translates it into the dialect of
present circumstances. Let me heartily commend this sort of preaching
from my own parochial experience in past days. In a congregation
consisting chiefly of the poor, I found that the most intelligent and
sustained interest was excited by a series of Sunday evening sermons on
a selected chapter or paragraph, in which the aim was first to
paraphrase the sacred phrases, as it were, into modern shapes, and then
at the close to enforce some main message of the portion. The method is
as old as the Homilies of Chrysostom, and older.

INTEREST OF PRACTICALITY.

Another secret of interest, permanent and effectual, is _practicality_
in preaching. I protest, whenever I can, and I hope to do so to the
last, against the common but unhappy fallacy of an outcry against
doctrine: "_Give us not a creed, but a life_." The whole New Testament,
the whole Bible, protests against such a sentence. There, a divine creed
is always seen as necessary for a divine life. Supernatural facts,
livingly apprehended, are necessary for supernatural peace and power in
this formidable natural world. But then, on the other side, it is a
fallacy almost as fatal to preach the supernatural fact and truth
without a constant and practical application of them to the crude and
stern realities of life. A young pastoral preacher was once, in my
hearing, warmly and lovingly thanked for his pulpit-work, on the eve of
his quitting his Curacy; and the point on which his humble friends dwelt
was that he had always preached Christ, _and_ always showed them how to
make use of His presence and power in the actual circumstances of their
lives. Eloquent words, aye and true words, spoken _in vacuo_, will be
dull to most hearers; eternal truths laid alongside the weekday work and
temptation will always be interesting.

"PREACH THE GOSPEL FULLY."

iv. "Preach the Gospel _fully_." Here is our great Nonconformist's last
adverb, in his recipe for attractive preaching. Its point is not so
obvious perhaps as that of the other words, but it is nobly true. "The
Gospel" is, as I have said, and as we know, nothing less than Jesus
Christ the Lord, in His whole harmonious glory of Person, Work, and
Word. It is deeply true that in that mighty and manifold theme there are
points which must be always prominent and ruling; and most surely the
man-humbling and soul-blessing truths of the Atoning Sacrifice are such
points. "First of all" (we have recalled that all-significant sentence
already), "first of all, Christ died for our sins." [1 Cor. xv. 3.] Alas
for the Church, for the congregation, for the pulpit, where that is
forgotten, obscured, or put into a secondary, or perhaps a tertiary
place! One thing is certain; that pulpit cannot be bearing its right
witness meanwhile to the "exceeding sinfulness" of sin--not merely the
deformity of sin, but the awful evil and condemnable guilt of sin. [SN:
Rom. vii. 13.] But then it is a thing to be regretted (and corrected)
when the Pastor's preaching is _always and only_ concerned with the
urgent need, and wonderful provision, for the pardon and acceptance of
the believing sinner. I dare to say it is impossible that such preaching
should be permanently, or even long, interesting and attractive, and
this because of the nature of the case.

*PREACH PARDON, BUT MORE ALSO.

Man's fallen and sinful soul needs pardon unspeakably, and always, but
it needs it as a means to an end; and that end is nearness to God,
conformity to Him, power to do His blessed will as His servant for ever.
For this same great end the soul needs, even in the range of truths
which are of the order of means, to learn more than the glorious
_rudiments_ of forgiveness. It needs to know something of the heavenly
Offices of the once Crucified One: His Mediation, Suretyship, and
Intercession; His Priesthood; His Royalty; His Headship. In Him lie
stored the divine treasures with which our _whole_ extent of need is to
be met. And the preacher who would permanently attract his people, by
bringing out of his storehouse things eternally old and new, must seek
and pray to preach Christ fully.

CHRIST FOR US AND IN US.

To some devoted men it seems impossible not to be always preaching the
glory of "Christ _for_ us"; others can never leave the precious theme of
"Christ _in_ us." But if they are not missioners, but pastors, they will
assuredly find that a _permanent_ attraction can only be secured by
doing what the Word of God does--setting forth _both_ glorious sets of
truths in fulness, in harmony, and in application to the realities of
sin and of life.

So we have thought awhile about attractive preaching. Need I say again
what the sort of attractiveness is which I have in view? It is indeed,
on the surface, attraction to the church, attraction to the sermon; but
its whole inner purpose is an attraction which neither church nor sermon
can in the least degree cause, but which the Eternal Spirit, sovereign
and loving, can cause through them--an attraction to Jesus Christ, in
true repentance, living faith, genuine surrender, and patient, happy
service.


  "_Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim,
  And publish abroad His wonderful Name;
  The Name all victorious of Jesus extol,
  His kingdom is glorious and rules over all._

  "_Then let us adore and give Him His right,
  All glory and power, all wisdom and might,
  All honour and blessing with angels above,
  And thanks never ceasing, and infinite love._"

  C. WESLEY.




CHAPTER XII.

_PREACHING_ (iii.).


  _Eternal Fulness, overflow to me
  Till I, Thy vessel, overflow for Thee;
  For sure the streams that make Thy garden grow
  Are never fed but by an overflow:
  Not till Thy prophets with Thyself run o'er
  Are Israel's watercourses full once more._


Again I treat of the sermon. We have looked, my younger Brother and I,
at some main secrets and prescriptions for attractive preaching. What
shall I more say on the subject of the pulpit? In the first place I will
offer a few miscellaneous suggestions, and then come in closing to the
deepest theme of the whole matter--Spiritual Power in Preaching.

NOTES FOR A SERMON-LECTURE.

I address myself to write, soon after delivering to my students, in the
library adjoining my study, a lecture on Preaching. Let me call it
rather, a talk on Sermons, which is a term less grandiose and much more
true; for in fact the discourse has been a most informal series of
remarks and suggestions on topics suggested by a collection of sermons
written for me, and which I now came to give back, annotated, to their
writers. It occurs to me to offer my kind reader a written version of
some of these remarks just made _viv‚ voce_ to my friends. They happen
to touch on a variety of points which are not unimportant in themselves
and also typical of very many more.

For the purposes of the lecture, they have been divided between matters
of form and matters of substance; and I report them, or rather some of
them, in that order.

I. _Remarks on Diction, Style, etc._

(_a_) Take care to "pull the sentences together," to avoid loose and
redundant phrases and words. Why write "_grief and sorrow_," "_fatigued
and tired out_," "_attacks and assaults_"? A subtle intellect may see
distinctions here, but it is too much for me, and, I am sure, for most
plain people in church.

(_b_) Respect the Queen's English. "_The one_ who lives a Christian
life" is scarcely English; say "the man," not "the one." "_Like_ Adam
and Eve walked in Paradise"! This is a serious, though common, piece of
bad grammar. Say, "_Like Adam_, when he walked," but "_As_ Adam
_walked_."

(_c_) Remember that the genius of English eschews a large use of
_connecting words_, particularly in spoken discourse. Not often is a
sentence the better for an "_and_" at the beginning. Many a
"_therefore_" and "_because_" are well away, if you would speak with
freedom and vigour.

AVOID RHETORICAL DICTION.

(_d_) Avoid altogether such touches of expression as characterise verse,
or rhetorical prose. I find in one sermon the sentence, "_Think you_ St
Paul trembled at the prospect?" Please re-write this, and say, "_Do you
think_ St Paul was afraid?" For you certainly would not say, speaking
however gravely, to your friend, "Think you that we shall have a fine
day to-morrow?" Rhetorical phrases rarely give an impression of
practical reality.

(_e_) Do not speak in the pulpit as if you were writing notes for an
edition of the Epistles. What does the labourer (and what do many
hearers more highly educated than he) think when you say, on Rom. v. 1,
that "_weighty manuscript authority gives another reading_"? And what
does he think you mean when you talk about "_SheÙl_"? By the way, when
you quote Scripture in the pulpit, passingly, to a general
congregation, I would advise you to quote not the Revised Version, but
the Authorized, which will surely be "_the_ English Bible" for many long
days yet. Unless you have before you some special difference between the
two Versions, on which you can _stop to speak explicitly_, quote the
familiar (and inimitable) diction of 1611.

PREACH WHAT CAN BE REPORTED.

(_f_) Prepare your sermon, and preach it, so that it shall be _easy to
report_. One sermon here before me would be as hard as possible to
retail at home. It is on Rom. v. 1, and it says some excellent things
upon it. But it brings in holiness of heart where the text speaks only
of acceptance of person, and it mingles the two topics so ingeniously
together that the impression is seriously complicated. Think of the
pious daughter yonder in church, going home to her infirm old mother,
and trying to answer the question, "What did the gentleman preach about
to-night?" Let us do our best to preach sermons which are not only
sound, but portable.

(_g_) Take care to keep the sermon in _tune with the text_. Here is a
manuscript on Psal. v. 12, a verse of exultant joy; but the last
passage of the sermon, the passage which ought to concentrate the whole
message, is full of solemn _warning_. Warn by all means; do not forget
to sound the watchman's trumpet. [Ezek. xxxiii.] But sound it in the
right place.

CUT THE PREFACE SHORT.

(_h_) Here is a sermon sadly spoiled by a _long introduction_. It tells
us much about the circumstances of the inspired writer, but so as to
throw little light on the message of the text. Here is another, on the
wonderfully definite hope of blessedness after death given us in Phil.
i. 21. This also is ruined by its introduction, which truly begins _ab
ovo_, discussing the genesis of man's belief in immortality! That
preface would leave, in the actual delivery of the sermon, about five
minutes for the handling of the precious words, "To depart and to be
with Christ, which is far better." Generally, be shy of much
introduction and preface in the pulpit. I do not mean that we are never
to elucidate connexions and contexts. But, remember limits. Your minutes
are few, ah, so few, for such a Message,--Christ Jesus in His fulness,
for man's need in its depth. Pass quickly through the porch into that
Church.

BE ACCURATE IN STATEMENT.

(_i_) When you refer to _Scripture facts_, be accurate; a slip-shod
habit there may fatally prejudice a not quite friendly hearer who knows
something of the Bible; and it will certainly do no good to _any_
hearer. Here is a sermon on Phil. i. 21, and it speaks of St Paul as
writing to Philippi from his "_dark cell_." But St Luke says that he was
"in his own hired house," [Acts xxviii. 30.] or at worst, "his own hired
rooms." Here again I read of David as returning to "Jerusalem, _the city
of his fathers_." But his fathers had lived and died at Bethlehem; and
Jerusalem was in heathen hands till David himself took it!

2. _Remarks on Points in the Substance of the Sermons._

(_a_) Are you quite sure that the Patriarchs had no anticipation of a
life eternal? Many lecturers, and many editors, now say so. But the
Epistle to the Hebrews says that "they desired a better country, that is
an heavenly" [Heb. xi. 16.]; and that is better evidence for this
purpose than any inferences (or beliefs) of modern "scholarship." True,
the old saints say little explicitly about their hope. But many things
lie deep in a man's faith, and in his experience too, about which, for
various reasons, he may say very little.

REVELATION WAS NOT INTUITION.

(_b_) I do not like this sentence, which says that the later Prophets
had a "_fuller perception_ of" the eternal future than their
predecessors. Not that I blame the phrase in itself; but I dislike its
associations. There runs a strong drift in modern theology, as we all
know, towards the explanation of Scripture by "perception" rather than
by revelation. "The Lord appeared unto me"; "The Lord spake unto me";
say the Prophets, and they appeal occasionally to supernatural
attestation of their assertions. But the modern expository savant, wiser
to be sure than the Prophet, assures us that they arrived at their
messages by observation, by meditation, by development of thought and
character, and practically by nothing different from these things.
Accordingly, their "inspiration" was strictly speaking the same in kind
as that of a Chrysostom, or a Luther, or a Shakespeare. Do not you say
so, or imply that it is so. Do not go for mere company's sake with the
current of naturalistic thought. Sure I am that you are most unlikely,
if you do, to be the instrument of _super_natural _effects_ in your
preaching.

"WHAT IS JUSTIFICATION?"

(_c_) "What is Justification? It is, _the making man just_." Is it
indeed? I should read that sentence with alarm, if I did not know the
writer! Its sentiment is practically Roman Catholic. Moreover, it puts a
meaning on the word in question, contradicted by the common usages of
language; an important consideration when we study a Scriptural
theological term. When I "justify my opinion" I do not _make it right_,
but vindicate it as already right. When the Hebrew judge "justified the
righteous," [Deut. xxv. 1] he did not improve him, but pronounced him
satisfactory to the law. And when God, for Christ's sake, justifies you
who believe in Jesus, He does not in that act make you good; He
pronounces you, for His Son's sake, to be satisfactory to His Law, for
purposes of your personal acceptance.

"WHY DOES FAITH JUSTIFY?"

(_d_) "Why has faith such power to justify? Because, _carried out to its
fullest extent, it implies assimilation_ to its Object." Here again I
should be alarmed, if I did not know the writer's general convictions,
which are sound enough. But this particular sentence again is in full
harmony with Romanist doctrine. And, as a fact, with the Bible open, and
with usages of common language before us, it can easily be exposed as a
confusion of words and thought. Faith, carried out ever so fully, is
just faith still; personal reliance, personal confidence on God in His
Word. That reliance is His appointed (and divinely natural) way for our
reception of Jesus Christ. For our Justification, it receives Christ in
His merits; it does _that_, and that only, and always. For our
Sanctification, it receives Christ in His inward power, by the Holy
Ghost. But faith is just faith, to the end.

(_e_) "We are not _forced_ to receive salvation." Most true. "He
enforceth not the will." But do not forget on the other hand to magnify
the necessity of grace, "preventing grace," [Act. x.] that is to say,
God Himself "working in us _to will_" to receive our salvation. The two
sides of truth are both divine. [Phil. ii. 13.] Do not neglect either,
whether you can harmonize them or not here below.

       *       *       *       *       *

END OF THE LECTURE.

Such are some specimens of a Saturday morning's talk in our library.
They are taken, just as they come, from notes constructed after the
study of a set of some twenty sermons, written, and then commented upon,
without the slightest thought that any public or permanent use would be
made of the materials thus given. But perhaps the remarks may be in
point to some of my readers all the more because of the unstudied nature
of the materials.

Let me say, before I quite leave this part of my subject, that adverse
criticism was by no means my only work this morning in the lecture-room.
It was my happiness, on the other hand, to commend thankfully many a
clear setting of living truth, and many a sentence of forcible point and
of true beauty, happy omens for future years, in which, if it please
God, "the torch shall be carried on," bright and clear, when we elders
shall be heard no more.[34]

[34] Ungracious as it may seem, I must betray one less pleasant
confidence of such occasions. Sometimes I have had to note in sermon
MSS. a strange neglect of punctuation, and, here and there, a little
aberration from received usages of spelling! No Clergyman ought to think
such matters beneath his notice. His people, some, if not many of them,
will from time to time receive letters or other written messages from
him; these ought to be unmistakably the writing of the educated
gentleman. Is it too much to say also that _the handwriting_ ought to be
clear and easy? It is distressing, certainly to one who has many letters
to read daily, to see how _rare_ such handwriting is now.

"MY CASES OF OLD SERMONS."

But now let me return from this discursive report of a sermon-lecture to
some more central thoughts about the Preaching of the Word. Sacred,
solemn theme! I was made to realize its character in a peculiar way
quite lately, when reading a heart-searching and most instructive essay,
by the Rev. R. Glover, Vicar of St Luke's, West Holloway, entitled, _My
Cases of Old Sermons_.[35] The essay was simply an experienced
preacher's review of many years of pulpit labour, in the light of the
collected and ordered manuscripts which silently represented it. The
writer had much to say, to my great profit, about his methods of
preparation and delivery, and about the pains taken to distribute the
choice of texts widely and impartially over the field of Scripture.
Then he went on to speak of the ascertained spiritual history of some of
those many sermons; the messages to souls which in this or that instance
they had carried; the savour of life unto life, or perhaps, alas, of
death unto death, which had to his knowledge breathed from them. The
impressions left on my mind were, above all others, two; first, the call
to thorough diligence in preparation, if the preacher is to give his
account with joy; and then, the indescribable solemnity and greatness of
the work of a true pastor-preacher.

[35] In _The Churchman_ of August, 1891.

*BE A PREACHER INDEED.

I may seem to reiterate too much, but I _must_ say again, with new
emphasis, to my younger Brother, resolve to be a preacher indeed, by the
grace of God. Do not let secondary things, however good, distort your
attention from that supremely sacred commission, "Preach the Word; be
instant, in season, out of season[36] [2 Tim. iv. 2.]; reprove, rebuke,
exhort, with all long-suffering and doctrine. _For_," the Apostle
significantly proceeds, "the time will come when they will not endure
sound doctrine." Therefore, an age impatient of thorough Scriptural
preaching is the very age in which to seek, in wisdom and courage, to
make much of it. Do not let organization spoil your preaching-work. Do
not let current events spoil it. Do not let elaboration of ritual spoil
it. Do not let organist and choir rule over you, and claim for music the
precious moments called for by the Word.

[36] That is, irrespective of _your own_ convenience.

       *       *       *       *       *

"THE DIRECTORY."

Let me present to my reader, in this last chapter, an extract from an
old book which however may be new to him. The book is not one which as a
whole I greatly love; how could I? It is that sternly-imposed substitute
for the Book of Common Prayer, commonly known as the Parliamentary
Directory of 1645; the exact title is, _A Directory for the Publique
Worship of God in the Three Kingdomes_.[37] Its associations are
altogether with an unhappy time, in which it was a seriously penal
offence, at least in theory, to use the Prayer Book even at a sick
friend's bedside. Yet great men of God had a hand in the making of the
Directory; and their words are well worth the reading. In particular, I
find in the volume one passage, full of golden wisdom, a precious
message to all Christian preachers. It is the section which I now quote
exactly as it first appeared, and which is entitled

[37] It is printed in W.K. Clay's _Book of Common Prayer Illustrated_.
Parker, 1841.

"OF THE PREACHING OF THE WORD.

*THE DIRECTORY ON PREACHING.

"Preaching of the Word, being the power of God unto Salvation, and one
of the greatest and most excellent Works belonging to the Ministry of
the Gospell, should bee so performed, that the Workman need not bee
ashamed, but may save himself, and those that heare him.

"It is presupposed (according to the Rules for Ordination) that the
Minister of Christ is in some good measure gifted for so weighty a
service, by his skill in the Originall Languages, and in such Arts and
Sciences as are handmaids unto Divinity, by his knowledge in the whole
Body of Theology, but most of all in the holy Scriptures, having his
senses and heart exercised in them above the common sort of Beleevers;
and by the illumination of Gods Spirit, and other gifts of edification,
which (together with reading and studying of the Word) he ought still to
seek by Prayer, and an humble heart, resolving to admit and receive any
truth not yet attained, when ever God shall make it known unto him. All
which hee is to make use of, and improve, in his private preparations,
before hee deliver in publike what he hath provided.

CHOICE OF THE TEXT.

"Ordinarily, the subject of his Sermon is to be some Text of Scripture,
holding forth some principle or head of Religion; or suitable to some
speciall occasion emergent; or hee may goe on in some Chapter, Psalme,
or Booke of the holy Scripture, as hee shall see fit.

"Let the Introduction to his Text be brief and perspicuous, drawn from
the Text itself, or context, or some parallel place, or generall
sentence of Scripture.

"If the Text be long (as in Histories and Parables it sometimes must be)
let him give a briefe summe of it; if short, a Paraphrase thereof, if
need be: In both, looking diligently to the scope of the Text, and
pointing at the chief heads and grounds of Doctrine, which he is to
raise from it.

HOW THE TEXT IS TO BE HANDLED.

"In Analysing and dividing his Text, he is to regard more the order of
matter, then of words; and neither to burden the memory of the hearers
in the beginning with too many members of Division, nor to trouble their
minds with obscure terms of Art.

"In raising Doctrines from the Text, his care ought to bee, First, that
the matter be the truth of God. Secondly, that it be a truth contained
in or grounded on that Text, that the hearers may discern how God
teacheth it from thence. Thirdly, that he chiefly insist upon those
Doctrines which are principally intended, and make most for the
edification of the hearers.

"The Doctrine is to be expressed in plaine termes; or if any thing in it
need explication, is to bee opened, and the consequence also from the
Text cleared. The parallel places of Scripture confirming the Doctrine
are rather to bee plaine and pertinent, then many, and (if need bee)
somewhat insisted upon, and applyed to the purpose in hand.

"The Arguments or Reasons are to bee solid; and, as much as may bee,
convincing. The illustrations, of what kind soever, ought to bee full of
light, and such as may convey the truth into the Hearers heart with
spirituall delight.

"If any doubt, obvious from Scripture, Reason, or Prejudice of the
Hearers, seem to arise, it is very requisite to remove it, by
reconciling the seeming differences, answering the reasons, and
discovering and taking away the causes of prejudice and mistake.
Otherwise, it is not fit to detain the hearers with propounding or
answering vaine or wicked Cavils, which as they are endlesse, so the
propounding and answering of them doth more hinder than promote
edification.

"Hee is not to rest in generall Doctrine, although never so much cleared
and confirmed, but to bring it home to speciall use, by application to
his hearers: Which albeit it prove a worke of great difficulty to
himselfe, requiring much prudence, zeale, and meditation, and to the
naturall and corrupt man will bee very unpleasant; yet hee is to
endeavour to perform it in such a manner that his auditors may feele
the Word of God to be quick and powerfull, and a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart; and that if any unbeleever or
ignorant person bee present, hee may have the secrets of his heart made
manifest, and give glory to God.

HOW THE MESSAGE IS TO BE APPLIED.

"In the Use of Instruction or information in the knowledge of some
truth, which is a consequence from his Doctrine, he may (when
convenient) confirm it by a few firm arguments from the Text in hand,
and other places in Scripture, or from the nature of that Common place
in Divinity, whereof that truth is a branch.

"In Confutation of false Doctrines, he is neither to raise an old
Heresie from the grave, nor to mention a blasphemous opinion
unnecessarily; but if the people be in danger of an errour, he is to
confute it soundly, and endeavour to satisfie their judgements and
consciences against all objections.

"In exhorting to Duties, he is, as he seeth cause, to teach also the
meanes that help to the performance of them.

"In Dehortation, Reprehension, and publique Admonition (which require
speciall wisdome) let him, as there shall be cause, not only discover
the nature and greatnesse of the sin, with the misery attending it, but
also shew the danger his hearers are in to be overtaken and surprised by
it, together with the remedies and best way to avoyd it.

"In applying Comfort, whether generall against all tentations, or
particular against some speciall troubles or terrours, he is carefully
to answer such objections, as a troubled heart and afflicted spirit may
suggest to the contrary.

"It is also sometimes requisite to give some Notes of tryal (which is
very profitable, especially when performed by able and experienced
Ministers, with circumspection and prudence, and the Signes cleerely
grounded on the Holy Scripture) whereby the Hearers may be able to
examine themselves, whether they have attained those Graces, and
performed those duties to which he Exhorteth, or be guilty of the sin
Reprehended, and in danger of the judgments Threatened, or are such to
whom the Consolations propounded doe belong; that accordingly they may
be quickened and excited to Duty, humbled for their Wants and Sins,
affected with their Danger, and strengthened with Comfort, as their
condition upon examination shall require.

"And, as he needeth not alwayes to prosecute every Doctrine which lies
in his Text, so is he wisely to make choice of such Uses, as by his
residence and conversing with his flocke, he findeth most needfull and
seasonable: and, amongst these, such as may most draw their soules to
Christ, the Fountaine of light, holinesse and comfort.

"This method is not prescribed as necessary for every man, or upon every
Text; but only recommended, as being found by experience to be very much
blessed of God, and very helpful for the people's understandings and
memories.

IN WHAT SPIRIT THE PREACHER IS TO WORK.

"But the Servant of Christ, whatever his Method be, is to perform his
whole Ministery;

"1. _Painfully_, not doing the work of the Lord negligently.

"2. _Plainly_, that the meanest may understand, delivering the truth,
not in the entising words of mans wisdome, but in demonstration of the
Spirit and of power, least the Crosse of Christ should be made of none
effect: abstaining also from an unprofitable use of unknown Tongues,
strange phrases, and cadences of sounds and words, sparingly citing
sentences of Ecclesiasticall, or other humane Writers, ancient or
moderne, be they never so elegant.

"3. _Faithfully_, looking at the honour of Christ, the conversion,
edification and salvation of the people, not at his own gains or glory:
keeping nothing back which may promote those holy ends, giving to every
one his own portion, and bearing indifferent respect unto all, without
neglecting the meanest, or sparing the greatest in their sins.

"4. _Wisely_, framing all his Doctrines, Exhortations, and especially
his Reproofs, in such a manner as may be most likely to prevaile,
shewing all due respect to each mans person and place, and not mixing
his own passion or bitternesse.

"5. _Gravely_, as becometh the Word of God, shunning all such gesture,
voice and expressions as may occasion the corruptions of men to despise
him and his Ministry.

"6. _With loving affection_, that the people may see all coming from his
Godly zeale, and hearty desire to doe them good. And

DOCTRINE AND LIFE.

"7. _As taught of God_, and perswaded in his own heart, that all that he
teacheth, is the truth of Christ; and walking before his flock as an
example to them in it; earnestly, both in private and publique,
recommending his labours to the blessing of God, and watchfully looking
to himselfe and the flock whereof the Lord hath made him overseer. So
shall the Doctrine of truth be preserved uncorrupt, many soules
converted, and built up, and himselfe receive manifold comforts of his
labours even in this life, and afterward the Crown of Glory laid up for
him in the world to come.

"Where there are more Ministers in a Congregation than one, and they of
different guifts, each may more especially apply himselfe to Doctrine or
Exhortation, according to the guift wherein he most excelleth, and as
they agree between themselves."

SPIRITUAL POWER IN PREACHING.

I have little to say after the recitation of this passage of pregnant
and solemn counsel. That little shall be given to a supreme aspect of
the whole subject; I mean, Spiritual Power in Preaching. Who that knows
the Lord, and contemplates the preacher's work, does not long for
Spiritual Power? By that longing he means no ambitious wish to be
remarkable, nor any unwholesome craving to be a leader in scenes of
religious excitement. He means the deep desire to be an effectual
messenger of his Master; to be the living channel of the Holy Spirit's
energy in His converting, sanctifying, strengthening, perfecting work.
He knows that it is possible to be truly orthodox, and yet not to be
this; to be eloquent, to be impressive, to be impassioned, and yet not
to be this; to be unimpeachably truthful, reasonable, intellectually
convincing, and yet all the while not to be this. How shall he be a
vehicle of spiritual power?

THE OPEN SECRET.

The Scriptural answer is very simple, but it goes deep. If a man would
have spiritual power with men, and prevail, he must be real with his
Lord. What he says, he must first know, he must first live. As regards
HIM who is at once his Master and his Gospel, he must indeed "_know_
whom he has believed," [2 Tim. i. 10.] and, in calm but entire
simplicity, "_submit himself_ under His hands." Granted a true creed,
and a humble faith in its Subject, he must, in quiet reality, "yield
himself unto God," if he would be used by Him. Observe the Apostle's
phrase; "Yield yourselves," [Greek: parastÍsate heautous]: not, "yield
to God" (though that is implied), but, "yield _yourselves_, hand
yourselves over, to God," as you would hand over a tool, a weapon [Rom.
vi. 13.]. And another aspect of the same thing appears in the same
Apostle's later words: "_If a man_ _purge himself_ of these, he _shall
be a vessel_ unto honour, sanctified (to), and meet for, the Master's
use," [Greek: hÍgiasmenon euchrÍston tÙ DespotÍ]. [2 Tim. ii. 21.]

The deepest secret of spiritual power, in God's sense of the phrase,
lies there. Let the man be watchful over his Scriptural creed, and let
him discipline his life, and let him toil in his study, and among his
people. None of these things can be spared; they are all vital. But the
central secret, which they as it were enclose and protect, lies in the
words _Surrender in faith_. And the Christian man's heart must be its
own inquisitor, before God, in the inquiry after the point, or points,
where you, where I, need to make that surrender for ourselves.

In the void thus left, in the chasm thus cut deep into our ambitions,
into our self-love, the mighty Spirit in His tranquil fulness will
spring up. And then, whether we know it or not, we Ministers of the Word
shall assuredly be vehicles of spiritual power, to our Lord's praise.

       *       *       *       *       *

FAREWELL.

So let me close these fragmentary words spoken "to my younger Brethren."
May God's mercy be upon the writer. Upon the readers, whom he loves in
the Lord, may grace and peace come every hour and day, in secret, in
society, in holy ministration of Word and Ordinance. And in due time,
when they are no longer juniors but, if the Lord will, veterans and
leaders in the work, may they in turn pass on the message to those who
follow, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.


     "CHRISTIANITY is so great and surprising in its nature that, in
     preaching it to others, I have no encouragement but in the
     belief of a continued divine operation. It is no difficult
     thing to change a man's opinions. It is no difficult thing to
     attach a man to my person and notions. It is no difficult thing
     to convert a proud man to spiritual pride, or a passionate man
     to passionate zeal for some religious party. But to bring a man
     to love God, to love the law of God while it condemns him, to
     loathe himself before God, to tread the earth under his feet,
     to hunger and thirst after God in Christ, and after the mind
     that was in Christ, this is impossible. But God has said it
     shall be done; and bids me go forth and preach, that by me, as
     His instrument, He may effect these great ends; and therefore I
     go."

     CECIL.




FORDINGTON PULPIT:

A PREACHER'S WEEKDAY THOUGHTS,

_Written, in 1878, in the Church of the Author's Baptism, and where he
first Ministered as his Father's Curate._


  Many voices yester-even
  Made these walls and arches ring
  With their high-sung hopes of Heaven,
  And the glories of its King;
  Now my footfall sounds alone
  On the aisle's long path of stone,
  Save that yonder from the loft,
  With a solemn tone and soft,
  Beating on with muffled shock,
  Conscience-waking, speaks the clock.
    Holy scene, and dear as holy,
  Let me ponder thee this hour,
  Not in aimless melancholy,
  But in quest of Heaven-given power;
  Seeking here to win anew
  Contrite love and purpose true;
  Near the Font whose dew-drops cold
  Fell upon my brow of old,
  Near the well-remember'd seat
  Set beside my Mother's feet;
  Near the Table where I bent
  At that earliest Sacrament.
    Let me, through this narrow door,
  Climb the Pulpit's steps once more.
  Blessed place! the Master's Word,
  Child and man, I hence have heard;
  Awful place! for hence, in turn,
  I have taught, so slow to learn.
    To the silence now to hearken
  Here I mount and stand alone,
  While the spaces round me darken
  And the Church is all my own;
  While the sun's last glories fall
  From the window of the tower,
  Tracing slow their parting hour
  On the stones of floor and wall.
    Seems a secret Voice to thrill
  All the dusky air so still;
  Turns a soul-compelling gaze
  On me from the sunset haze:
  Sure the eternal Shepherd's hand
  Beckons me awhile apart,
  Bids me in His presence stand
  While He looks me through the heart.
    Sinful preacher, ask again
  In this nearness of thy Lord,
  How to HIM has rung thy strain,
  When it seem'd to speak His Word.
  'Midst thy brethren's listening numbers
  Hast thou felt, with heart sincere,
  How, in thought that never slumbers,
  This great Listener stood more near?--
  Listening to His own high Name
  Spoken by His creature's breath;
  How from out the Heavens He came,
  How He pour'd His soul in death,
  How He triumph'd o'er the grave,
  How He lives on high to save,
  How He yet again shall come,
  Lord of glory and of doom.
    Has He found thy message true?
  Truth, and truly spoken too?
  Utter'd with a purpose whole,
  From a self-forgetful soul,
  Bent on nothing save the fame
  Of the dear redeeming Name,
  And the pardon, life, and bliss
  Of the souls He bought for His?
    Think!--But ah, from thoughts like these
  Hasten, sinner, to thy knees.

_Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, La., London and Aylesbury._


       *       *       *       *       *


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