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 i 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER 
 AND HIS DUTIES 
 
,«^<1I^ » 
 
 ^i? >*-*Jf 
 
 THE 
 
 CHRISTIAN MINISTER 
 AND HIS DUTIES 
 
 BY 
 
 .1 
 
 J. OSWALD DYKES, M.A., D.D. 
 
 PRINCIPAL EMERITUS OF WESTMINSTER COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE 
 
 Edinburgh: T. & T. CLARK, 38 George Street 
 
 1908 
 
r%^4-^ 
 
 ,1.1 ;r, llli'.* 
 
 \\\;:'n '■vil'.ii 
 
 6^8-7 
 
 Printed by 
 Morrison & Gibb Limited 
 
 FOR 
 
 T. & T. CLARK, EDINBURGH 
 
 LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, AND CO. LIMITED 
 NEW YORK : CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 ^ 
 
PREFACE 
 
 If a ministry of close on fifty years, during about a score 
 of which it was my duty to lecture to Students of Divinity 
 on their future work, do not plead an apology for the 
 following pages, I fear I have no better one to offer. They 
 would never have seen the light but for the repeatedly 
 expressed desire of former students. 
 
 In their preparation for the press I have aimed less 
 at the formal completeness of a scientific treatise than at 
 practical utility. I have tried to keep in mind the actual 
 requirements of candidates for sacred office and of the 
 junior clergy, not in one Church only, but in every 
 evangelical communion. For the duties of a Christian 
 Minister are in all Protestant communities fundamentally 
 the same. Even in details they approximate more closely 
 than our superficial divisions might lead us, on a casual 
 survey, to perceive. But, while keeping present-day con- 
 ditions steadily in view, I have not forgotten that, like 
 every other theological discipline. Practical Theology must 
 draw its guiding principles from the New Testament, and 
 derive illustration from its own past in the Christian 
 centuries. 
 
 Without curtailing the two departments of a Minister's 
 ojBfice which, under the names of Homiletics and Pastoral 
 Theology, occupy the bulk of most text-books on the 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 subject, it will be found that more space than is usual in 
 English works of this class has been given to the conduct 
 of public worship — a duty which in every non-liturgical 
 service lays such a heavy demand on the officiating 
 Minister. 
 
 The function of a Church Kuler has been omitted, 
 because the Minister's share in the administration of 
 ecclesiastical affairs and in the exercise of discipline varies 
 so much with each separate Church organisation that no 
 treatment of it could find general application. 
 
 I owe cordial thanks to the Eev. Dr. John Kelman of 
 Edinburgh for kindly revising these sheets in MS., and 
 favouring me with suggestions of which I have frequently 
 availed myself. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART I 
 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. Official and Non-official Ministey 
 II. The Ministry not a Priesthood 
 III. Lessons from the New Testament 
 IV. The Call to the Ministry 
 ' V. The Minister's Devotional Life 
 VI. Ministerial Character . 
 VII. Ministerial Manners 
 VIII. Home Life .... 
 IX. Citizenship * . . . 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 20 
 30 
 43 
 51 
 57 
 66 
 77 
 
 PART II 
 
 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 X. Theory of Christian Worship . 
 XI. Worship in the Church of the First Century 
 XII. Sixteenth Century Reforms in Worship 
 
 XIII. Order of Weekly Worship 
 
 XIV. S acramenta l Services .... 
 XV. Week-day Services .... 
 
 88 
 101 
 114 
 126 
 149 
 171 
 
 PART III 
 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 XVI. What is Preaching? 
 XVII. Pastoral Preaching : I. 
 
 vu 
 
 180 
 188 
 
vni 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 XVIII. Pastoral Preaching : II. 
 XIX. Evangelistic Preaching . 
 XX. Preparing to Preach : Choice of a Text 
 XXI. Preparing to Preach : Plan of the Sermon 
 XXII. Diction and Delivery . 
 XXIII. Preparation of the Preacher . 
 
 PAGE 
 
 204 
 216 
 228 
 239 
 264 
 282 
 
 PART IV 
 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 XXIV. The Care of Souls 
 
 XXV. Household Visitation 
 
 XXVI. The Sick and the Bereaved 
 XXVII. The Care of the Young 
 
 XXVIII. Cases of Spiritual Trouble 
 
 300 
 310 
 321 
 333 
 351 
 
 INDEX 
 
 367 
 
PART I 
 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 CHAPTEE I 
 OFFICIAL AND NON-OFFICIAL MINISTRY 
 
 The official familiar to the modern Churches under a variety 
 of titles, as pastor, priest, clergyman, parson or minister, is 
 a functionary who had no exact equivalent in the age of 
 the apostles. It is true that we know little of the arrange- 
 ments which obtained in many of those groups of converts, 
 Hebrew or Greek, which were gathered by the labours of 
 apostolic missionaries in the first century. We are de- 
 pendent on casual allusions in the few extant letters 
 addressed to them by theii' founders, or in the Book of 
 Acts. But the ordained officers mentioned there differed 
 in a number of important respects from the modern 
 ministry. Leaving out of view those younger officers 
 called " deacons," our knowledge of whose functions is too 
 slight to found conclusions upon, the closest analogue to a 
 modern minister must be found in the presbyter-bishop — a 
 class of officials selected from the membership of a church 
 or congregation for their age, gravity or experience, to 
 whom was entrusted a general superintendence of the 
 religious welfare of the brotherhood. The earliest men- 
 tion of them is in the Mother Church of Jerusalem, under 
 the Jewish title of Presbyters or " Elders." ^ The only 
 
 1 Acts 1130. 
 
2 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 Churches on Greek soil in which we learn from our sources 
 that under the missionary ministry of St. Paul presbyter- 
 bishops were ordained, are the newly-founded communities 
 in Southern Galatia {circa 49), the Church at Ephesus 
 (c. 58), and that of Philippi (c. 62 or 63). At a later 
 date Titus was instructed to appoint them also in Crete.^ 
 But they are not named in Paul's letters to Thessalonica, 
 or to Corinth, or to Kome ; that is, not in any letter of his 
 of earlier date than his Eoman imprisonment. Are we to 
 infer, as Baur did in the case of Corinth particularly, that 
 no such office then existed in those great Churches ? Such 
 an inference e silentio would be a precarious one. Never- 
 theless, it is a mistake to assume, as disputants on Church 
 polity used commonly to do, that there was a uniform 
 organisation in the apostolic Churches, which prevailed 
 over the whole field as well as over the whole half century 
 covered by our New Testament documents. It seems 
 pretty clear, on the contrary, not only that a certain 
 development in Church organisation must be recognised 
 within the apostolic period, but also that different arrange- 
 ments obtained simultaneously in different places. But 
 even if presbyter-bishops were everywhere appointed, they 
 were far from monopolising every form of congregational 
 ministry as they practically do to-day. The earlier letters 
 of St. Paul speak much of freewill services rendered by 
 groups of exceptionally gifted members, who were not set 
 apart as permanent officials. They are found not only in 
 Churches where, as in Corinth, we hear nothing of presbyters, 
 but also, as at Ephesus, where we are sure presbyters 
 existed. No fewer than nine forms of such " charismatic " 
 ministration are named in a single passage of St. Paul's 
 Pirst Letter to Corinth as exercised alongside each other, 
 and exercised by different persons variously gifted.^ Four 
 or five on the list must have ceased with the cessation of 
 supernatural powers. Such as survive, with others as well, 
 have now fallen, mainly, if not exclusively, into the hands 
 
 1 Acts 1423, 20", Phil, 11, 1 Tim. Z\ Tit. l'. 2 1 Cor. 128-". 
 
OFFICIAL AND NON-OFFICIAL MINISTRY 3 
 
 of the regular ordained ministry. It may be that the 
 modern minister is now the nearest representative of the 
 primitive presbyter, otherwise called " bishop." He may 
 even be the historical descendant, by unbroken succession, 
 of that order. But his office covers at least a much 
 wider range of duties. There is no evidence that either 
 the conduct of public worship or the delivery of religious 
 discourses formed at first any part of the official duty of 
 a presbyter-bishop. Their function, wherever found, is 
 described as one of oversight or superintendence : and they 
 may very well have acted as a moderating force on the 
 excesses of enthusiasm. For no great religion ever bursts, 
 new and aggressive, upon the world, to win rapid success, 
 that is not inspired with enthusiastic ardour for the faith 
 it preaches. And in the primitive fervour of Christianity, 
 it was by apostles and prophets that the faith was preached. 
 In the first age, as in every age, conspicuous gifts of im- 
 pressive speech secured for their possessors an influence 
 both wide and deep ; and in the first age, more than in 
 subsequent ones, all might speak, provided only they 
 possessed the gift. 
 
 The arrangement, one sees, was of a temporary 
 character, suited to the formative age of the new society. 
 Fairly soon it passed away ; but it is no longer possible to 
 trace the steps by which the services of these gifted 
 volunteers were superseded, until every function needed for 
 the life of a Christian community came to be lodged in 
 official hands. We probably detect some of the earliest 
 signs of change in the Pastoral Epistles ; for example, in 
 the special " honour " bestowed on elders who were also 
 competent to " labour in the Word and in teaching," ^ and 
 generally in the increased importance attached by these 
 late documents to ordained officers. Whatever be their 
 date, a stage had by that time been reached when the 
 Church could trust less than at first to impromptu en- 
 thusiasm, and when the need for a "form of sound 
 
 1 1 Tim. 517. 
 
4 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 doctrine" was more keenly felt. It is possible, I think, 
 that in places where the Greek element preponderated and 
 the Greek democratic spirit was strong, some Churches may- 
 have retained for a longer period than elsewhere a pre- 
 ference for free and spontaneous services by private 
 members. And the BidoLche is evidence that in a very 
 different part of Christendom, among obscure country 
 churches of Hebrew origin where presbyters were 
 ordinarily in charge, itinerant preachers, "prophets and 
 apostles," still enjoyed exceptional privileges. At the 
 same time, it shows, by precautions taken against the 
 abuse of these high titles, that the palmy days of the 
 " charismatic " ministry were over.^ The process of 
 transition must have stretched over more than a single 
 generation ; and the Montanist movement in the second 
 century, while it meant much more, probably indicates 
 that the primitive system died hard. It was part of 
 the Montanist reaction against change to " reassert," in 
 Hatch's words, " the place of spiritual gifts as contrasted 
 with official rule." ^ The very failure of that reaction no 
 doubt helped to consolidate the power of the official classes 
 in the Church ; but probably a more effective cause was 
 the rapid spread of sacramentarian and sacerdotal ideas. 
 By investing the clergy with the mysterious prerogatives 
 of a priestly caste, and making them indispensable channels 
 of saving grace, this secured to them a monopoly of spiritual 
 functions and fastened on the Ancient Catholic Church the 
 yoke of clerical ascendency. 
 
 But although, in some later periods of her history, the 
 ministration of non-official members of the Church almost 
 ceased, they have been again and again in various forms 
 revived. The Koman Church itself has known how to 
 utilise such freewill services outside her regular priesthood, 
 by enrolling many groups of devoted servants of Christ, 
 both male and female, who, to the vast enrichment of 
 
 ^ Didadie, c. xi. ; cf. Hermas, Sim. ix. 25 ; Mand. xi. 
 '^ Organisation of Early Christian Churches^ 1881, p. 120. 
 
OFFICIAL AND NON-OFFICIAL MINISTRY 5 
 
 her life, have given themselves to specific forms of 
 Christian work, philanthropic or educational. The recent 
 growth in Protestant lands of similar " charismatic " 
 agencies has begun to force upon our own Churches a 
 similar problem. The days are past when every detail 
 in the ecclesiastical life of a parish, every part of the 
 Church's ministry to the poor or the irrehgious, could 
 be left to the ordained clergy. Lay readers, evangelists, 
 Bible-women, and city missionaries are doing the Church's 
 work, though as yet they receive for the most part no 
 ordination nor possess any defined standing among her 
 ministers. Already the visitation of the sick poor by 
 Christian women has been formally recognised in sister- 
 hoods of Deaconesses ; the Church Army, Hke the Salva- 
 tion Army, marks an effort to organise aggressive 
 home-mission operations ; and it may not be very long 
 before the vast array of Sunday-school teachers in England 
 and America will claim, or, if they do not claim, will 
 receive, a quasi-official status. In fact, the present 
 tendency of Church life runs towards the multipHcation 
 of what are called " lay agencies." Should these be kept, 
 as it is desirable to keep them, in close association with 
 the Church, the result must be to make the " Minister " 
 more and more, what he already is in many places, the 
 organising and inspiring Head of a staff of active, though 
 unpaid and unofficial, workers for the Kingdom of God. 
 In the meantime, the ordained Ministry has long ago 
 annexed, and seems likely long to retain, as its exclusive 
 sphere, certain other essential departments of Church work, 
 especially in connection with pubhc worship, which were 
 originally distributed amongst private members gifted 
 for their discharge. 
 
 Nor is this widening of his official duties the only 
 thing which distinguishes a modern minister of religion 
 from any officer known to the apostolic Churches. The 
 primitive "presbyter" was selected in mature life from 
 the ranks of the local congregation over whose interests 
 
6 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 he was appointed to watch. He received no special 
 training to fit him for so responsible a post; nor did 
 his office in all likelihood entail the abandonment of his 
 ordinary secular avocation. In these respects he closely 
 resembled a Presbyterian "elder" of the present day, or 
 the "deacon" in a Congregational church. It is very 
 different with the modern "minister/' In nearly every 
 communion, certainly in the older and the national 
 Churches, he has devoted himself, usually in early manhood, 
 to the service of the larger body, of which the local con- 
 gregation where his work lies forms only a small part. 
 He has been, as a rule, required to prepare himself for his 
 life-work by a long, expensive, and scholarly education. 
 In most cases he is ineligible for the care of a parish 
 or of a congregation until the entire Church which he 
 aspires to serve has^ satisfied itself of his quahfications 
 by repeated examination of his gifts or attainments, 
 spiritual and intellectual, and has put upon him its own 
 imprimatur. None of these things could have been said 
 of any official mentioned in the New Testament. 
 Practically, therefore, our present-day ministry, Protestant 
 and Catholic alike, represent a type to which the apostolic 
 Church offered no very close parallel. 
 
 It is, of course, a perfectly fair question, on which 
 opinions may reasonably differ, whether this concentra- 
 tion of functions in the same official hands has not gone 
 too far for the best interests of the Christian Brotherhood. 
 Two modern forms of ecclesiastical life in this country 
 have answered the question by reverting to primitive 
 usage, leaving free room, especially in worship, for 
 voluntary ministrations by private members. The Society 
 of Friends bases its freedom in worship, as is well known, 
 upon the worshipper's dependence on an immediate 
 inspiration from the Holy Spirit, which is supposed to 
 render every form of cultus or prearranged channel for 
 the Spirit's action superfluous or worse. ^ This, however, 
 
 ^ Cf. Barclay, Apology ^ x. and xi. 
 
OFFICIAL AND NON-OFFICIAL MINISTRY 7 
 
 does not exclude officialism in every shape. "Elders," 
 whose duty it is to watch over the young and care for 
 the poor, have long been in existence in the Society. 
 And although no one is educated for the office of preacher 
 or ordained to such a ministry, yet such members as have 
 long proved their possession of gifts for edification may 
 receive from their brethren some sort of recogniti6n or 
 approval.^ It is one thing to widen in this way to the 
 utmost the liberty of private members in the exercise 
 of their gifts, or, in other words, to reduce the number 
 of functions reserved for officials, at the risk even of 
 exaggerating the fortuitous or incalculable element in the 
 Holy Spirit's action to the neglect of His ordinary methods. 
 It is a different thing to object on principle to the exist- 
 ence of office-bearers in the Christian Society altogether. 
 Where such an extreme position is taken up, as it is 
 supposed to be by the " Brethren," ^ the defender of 
 ecclesiastical office has two lines of defence open to him. 
 
 The one is to show that from the nature of the case, 
 specialisation of functions in the hands of a special class of 
 Church members is necessary, if not for the preservation, 
 at least for the order and effectiveness of the body. As a 
 mere protest against certain types of hard and fast official- 
 ism, repressing free activity in Church life, the reaction of 
 " Plymouthism " in last century was intelligible and may 
 have been useful. But all life tends to organise itself. 
 Every community needs to perform certain common 
 acts through organs set apart for such service. And the 
 Christian Society, being subject to the same conditions as 
 
 ^ "We do believe and afl&rm that some are more particularly called to 
 the work of the ministry, and therefore are fitted of the Lord for that 
 purpose ; whose work is more constantly and particularly to instruct, 
 exhort, admonish, oversee, and watch over their brethren" {Apology, x. § 26). 
 What Barclay chiefly objects to is the limitation of the ministry to such 
 as have been expressly educated for it in languages and philosophy. 
 
 ^ I am not sure that in some churches of the "Brethren," an informal 
 ministry is not conceded, as among the "Friends," to certain qualified 
 members. 
 
8 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 other societies, could not do otherwise. It may be going 
 too far to say with Htiffell ^ that, without a ministry of 
 the Word, Christian life would have expired within a couple 
 of centuries. At least the unequal distribution of gifts 
 constituted from the first what Nitzsch ^ calls a " natural 
 or native clergy." And even if our Lord and His Apostles 
 had launched the Church into existence quite amorphous 
 or inorganic, as a loose aggregate of individuals, with none 
 to lead and none to be led, it is quite certain that it would 
 have early addressed itself to the task of self-organisation. 
 But it is easy to show, in the next place, that it was 
 not so launched into being. From its first day, it had its 
 leaders in the Twelve. One of the earliest acts of the 
 Mother Church taken on their initiative was the ordination 
 of " the Seven " to serve tables : a special organ developed 
 to do a special function. In the same Mother Church 
 under the eye of the Twelve we soon read of " Elders." 
 And the first missionary to the Gentiles on his first mission 
 tour " appointed elders in every Church." If the question 
 be put : Did Jesus institute a permanent office in His 
 Church ? the answer must be : By immediate personal 
 appointment — no ; for in that way what He instituted was 
 the Apostolate, which was not permanent. But, through 
 indirect utterance of His will — yes ; and that in various 
 ways. First, by the bestowal of gifted servants fitted for 
 office ; next, through the Apostles as His plenipotentiaries, 
 when they ordained such persons to an office designed to 
 be permanent ; and, lastly, by the results which have ever 
 since sealed the institution. Hence St. Paul does not 
 scruple to speak of the original office-bearers at Ephesus 
 as given and appointed by the Lord Himself.^ If it be 
 further asked : Has the modern office of the Ministry been 
 in this sense instituted by Christ ? I conceive the answer 
 must be : In its present form, not, in so far as the precise 
 shape it has assumed in different communities is due to the 
 
 ^ Wesen und Beruf des Evang. GeistUchen (4 Aufl. 1843). 
 
 2 PraUische Theologie, 1847-1867, i. 16. ^ gph. 4", Acts 202«. 
 
OFFICIAL AND NON-OFFICIAL MINISTRY 9 
 
 exigencies of modern need met by the discretion of the 
 Church herself. But, in respect of its essence — yes; 
 inasmuch as the place and functions of the Ministry among 
 us do not essentially differ, though they differ in details, 
 from those of the overseers whom Paul in Christ's name 
 set up at Iconium, Ephesus, Philippi and Crete. Fresh 
 duties have been imposed, particularly the conduct of 
 congregational worship. Special care has been taken to 
 secure a steady supply of qualified men. They are become 
 the agents of a larger body than the Christians of a single 
 city. And they receive a salary, that they may devote 
 themselves entirely to their work. But none of these 
 changes, though important, touches the essence of office. 
 That remains what it began by being amongst the earliest 
 converts : — the oversight of the flock of God. They tend, 
 they feed, they watch for, they rule, the charge allotted to 
 them, and are examples to their brethren, exactly like 
 those faithful men of the first Christian generation to 
 whom St. Paul wrote, or St. Peter, or the author of the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews.^ 
 
 1 Cf. 1 Pet. 52- 3, Acts 202«-3i, 1 Tim. 5", Heb. 13". 
 
CHAPTER II 
 THE MINISTRY NOT A PRIESTHOOD 
 
 Our conception of office in the Christian Church will be 
 determined by the view we take of the nature of the 
 Church itself; so that, as two very different theories of 
 the Church obtain in Christendom, there have arisen two 
 contrasted ways of regarding ecclesiastical officers. 
 
 Those who accept the Catholic doctrine of the Church as 
 an institution endowed by its Head with power to convey 
 to men His saving grace through the administration of 
 sacramental rites, necessarily regard the clergy, by whose 
 hands alone those rites can be administered, as invested by 
 Christ Himself with this ministry of mediation. On this 
 theory, the ministry becomes a mediating priesthood, 
 occupying, as the indispensable channels of salvation, an 
 intermediate place between the laity and their Lord. And 
 the act which ordains to office, when legitimately performed, 
 is supposed to convey this exclusive right and power to 
 mediate grace, by an unbroken transmission of it from 
 Christ Himself through His Apostles and their episcopal 
 successors. 
 
 Against this idea of a mediating priesthood, every 
 Protestant communion, Lutheran and Reformed alike, is in 
 vehement protest ; the best of the Anglican High Church- 
 men as emphatically as any.^ In that sense, we are all 
 agreed that there is but one unique and perfect Mediator 
 
 ^ Cf. Moberly, Ministerial Priesthood; Gore, The Church and its Ministry ; 
 Liddon, University Sermons (2nd Series) ; Different Conceptions of Priesthood 
 and Sacrifice : Report of a GonfercncQ, edited by Sanday. 
 
 lO 
 
THE MINISTRY NOT A PRIESTHOOD ii 
 
 and High Priest, who, having by Himself purged our sins 
 and passed through the heavens, presents for ever before 
 the throne His one atoning sacrifice, and by His intercession 
 procures for all His people the saving grace of the Holy 
 Spirit. This leaves neither need nor room for any other 
 to stand between the soul and God, or to open for any man 
 the way to peace. For through His effectual mediation, 
 we all enjoy the same free access into the Holy Presence, 
 and for our persons and our offerings the same gracious 
 acceptance. 
 
 The conception of the Church to which this leads, and 
 which we believe to be both scriptural and primitive, is that 
 of a priestly Brotherhood of spiritual equals. It makes 
 every believer a priest, not in the Levitical sense of one 
 who has an exclusive privilege of access to God and there- 
 fore can offer sacrifices on behalf of others, but in the 
 wider meaning of one who has for himself direct access as a 
 worshipper to the Divine Presence. The united Church is 
 at once a community of such priests and a priestly com- 
 munity. But, of course, it is so solely in virtue of its union 
 with Christ, brought near to God in Him, and privileged 
 to share His access to the Holy Place. 
 
 The emphasis, it is obvious, is laid by Protestantism 
 no longer on the ministry, as distinguished from the laity, 
 but on the entire membership of the Church. As a visible 
 society, the Church has been by the will of its Founder 
 organised to be His instrument for a double purpose : for 
 self-edification through the development of Christ-like 
 character in its members, and for self -propagation through- 
 out the world. To this whole Body there have been given 
 for the attainment of both these ends, the Word of God 
 and the sacramental means of grace. These are the specific 
 means by which the Spirit of Christ operates age after age 
 in the work of the Kingdom of God. 
 
 It is the common belief of the Protestant Churches 
 that Christ has likewise conferred upon His Church a 
 permanent ministry to be her stated organ for the effective 
 
12 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 proclamation of His Word and the valid administration of 
 His sacraments. But if certain functions, expressive of the 
 common life of the Church and required for her common 
 work, come in this way to be ordinarily restricted to such 
 official members, that is merely for the sake of their more 
 orderly, constant, and efficient discharge. The motive for 
 office is that the ends of the Church's existence may be 
 the better secured. The quaHfication for office is excep- 
 tional ability to secure these ends, conferred by Christ upon 
 certain chosen members. But essentially and fundamentally, 
 the work remains that of the whole Society. For its 
 prosecution the entire membership is jointly and severally 
 responsible : each Christian being under law to Christ to 
 exercise in His service and for His ends such gifts as he has 
 received from the Divine Head. 
 
 What we reach along this line as the Protestant theory 
 of Church office is that ministers are representative organs 
 of the Brotherhood, through whom its public and organised 
 activities can be carried on. The fact that certain functions 
 have been so strictly assigned to officers set apart for their 
 more orderly and effective performance, that ordinarily they 
 are never discharged by any private member, is to be 
 explained simply on the principle that when any community 
 engages in common acts, someone must act for it, in its 
 name, and authorised by its mandate. This lays on him 
 no doubt a special responsibiHty. It even confers on him 
 a certain privilege. But it does not mean in every case, 
 perhaps need not in any case, that all the other members 
 in the body are excluded from exercising in more private 
 and occasional ways services of a similar character for 
 which they too are qualified by their gifts. 
 
 For example : we have seen that a general oversight 
 of the flock resident in a given locality was very early 
 entrusted, at least in some cases, to local officers set apart 
 for the purpose under the title of " seniors," or " overseers " ; 
 but it still remained the right and even the duty of a 
 private Christian to watch over the religious well-being of 
 
THE MINISTRY NOT A PRIESTHOOD 13 
 
 his brother, and, upon occasion, to counsel, or to admonish, 
 him.^ In the same way, the modern restriction of preach- 
 ing in congregational worship to men trained and appointed 
 to that office, by no means implies, either that other 
 Christian men are not also taught of God by the " anointing 
 from the Holy One " ; or that they have not liberty, if 
 qualified, to proclaim at fit seasons the way of salvation ; 
 or that room and opportunity ought not to be made for 
 what is termed " lay -preaching," so that much ampler use 
 may be made than at present of all the ability which God 
 giveth. Of all Church acts, the administration of a sacra- 
 ment is that which for obvious reasons has most need to be, 
 and has been, limited to authorised persons. Yet so far does 
 the inherent right of private members extend, to fulfil in 
 case of urgency the most jealously guarded offices of religion, 
 and so widely has it been by implication recognised, that a 
 right to baptize in articulo mortis, and where no priest is 
 available, is conceded by the most ritualistic of all Churches 
 not only to laymen, but even to women. Were it conceiv- 
 able that at any time the succession of duly ordained 
 ministers could be wholly interrupted and fail, it follows 
 from the Eeformed doctrine of the Church that the duty 
 of providing for the discharge of every indispensable function 
 of Church life would devolve on the united membership. 
 The Church lives on, officers or none. The King's work 
 must be done ; and men gifted by Him for the doing of it 
 can never fail. 
 
 At first sight it might appear as if the change at the 
 Eeformation from Catholic priests to Protestant pastors had 
 been for the Ministry a serious descent in influence or in 
 dignity. In proportion as the laity recovered spiritual 
 independence and rehgious privilege, in that proportion did 
 the clergy seem to suffer loss of position. They lost their 
 sacrosanct character. They ceased to be indispensable 
 to the very being of the Church. They no longer occupied 
 an elevation above the flock and nearer God. They came 
 
 1 Cf. 1 Thess. 5"- ", 2 Thess. S^^, Rom. 15", Col. S^^. 
 
14 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 to stand on the level of the people as their spiritual equals. 
 And their office exhausted itself in ministering to the 
 people's wants. 
 
 I question, however, if, as a matter of history, the 
 Protestant ministry has suffered either in usefulness or in 
 esteem. For one thing, it still retains in the belief of the 
 faithful the weight which attaches to a Divine sanction. 
 Christ's original gift of ministers to His Church is felt by 
 us to cover the office of a present-day presbyter — not to 
 say, the bishop in Episcopal communions — quite as truly at 
 least as it has ever apphed to Eoman priests ; all the more 
 truly in so far as they more closely reproduce the apostolic 
 " elder " or " bishop." Not only so : there has not even 
 occurred any material breach in the transmission of office 
 from one generation to the next. Such an unbroken 
 succession is hard to prove in detail, and does not possess 
 in the eyes of most Protestants the consequence which High 
 Churchmen assign to it. But at least it is a valuable 
 witness to the continuity of the Church's life. It serves 
 for all of us as a precious link with the apostolic age ; and 
 it transmits to each new generation of ministers the 
 inheritance of a long and honourable ancestry. At the 
 Eeformation no sudden or widespread hiatus occurred. 
 There was on the whole a transmission of office. Many of 
 the first presbyters and bishops in the Eeformed Churches 
 had been in orders before the change. They took part in 
 the ordination of their successors. And whatever be the 
 value of transmission of orders, continuity has ever since 
 been maintained with as much security in Presbyterian as 
 in Episcopal communions. 
 
 But what gave to the post-Reformation ministry its 
 real power and dignity was this, that it was a ministry of 
 the Word of God. It has been usual to say that under 
 the new era the pulpit took the central place previously 
 assigned to the altar. No doubt, preaching did become 
 the chief method employed by the Eeformed for bringing 
 the Word of God to bear on the consciences and hearts of 
 
THE MINISTRY NOT A PRIESTHOOD 15 
 
 men. But, in truth, every part of the ministerial calling, 
 not the pulpit alone, was regarded as an application of the 
 Word of God, and as deriving from that Gospel Word its 
 value and its efficacy. As a pastor of souls, the minister's 
 instrument was still the same. If he catechised, the 
 religious instruction of the young was instruction in 
 revealed truth. Even the sacraments held an ancillary 
 position as signs to set forth, and seals to confirm to faith, 
 the Gospel Word of promise. 
 
 It is this prominence assigned to the Word of God, 
 spoken as well as written, as the one great instrument 
 given to the Church for the begetting and for the training 
 of Christian life in the soul, which enables us to appreciate 
 the position ever since accorded to Ministers in the 
 Churches of the Keformation. This, and this alone, 
 accounts for the note of authority which has characterised 
 their utterances. As authorised exponents and proclaimers 
 of the Divine Word, they have been clothed with some- 
 thing of its own authority. Not with the authority of the 
 Church merely, as holding a mandate from it, but with 
 the authority of God whose Word is on their lips. In 
 Calvinistic Churches, the usual title of their officers has 
 been neither pastor nor priest, but " Minister of the Word." 
 And their traditional arrangements for ministerial education 
 have been modelled on the same conception of office. A 
 careful training in the original languages of Holy Scripture 
 and in the theology of the Confessions, is designed to fit 
 the future minister before everything else for the exposition, 
 both in the pulpit and out of it, of the Bible and of the 
 truths which it is believed to contain. The very omissions 
 to be noted in the usual divinity curriculum of these 
 Churches find the same explanation. For instance : that 
 the minister is to be a pastor of souls has been constantly 
 recognised ; yet it has not been customary to subject him 
 to much separate training for that portion of his task. 
 Still less has it been deemed necessary to familiarise him 
 in his student days with questions of Christian ethics, or 
 
i6 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 with cases of conscience, as in a Eoman seminary for 
 priests. Still more noticeable is the neglect of any proper 
 preparation of future ministers for the conduct of divine 
 service. In Churches of the Protestant faith where forms 
 of prayer are prescribed, some previous instruction in the 
 use of the prayer-book is usual, although here it might 
 more easily be dispensed with. But where everything is 
 left, as in Congregational or modern Presbyterian worship, 
 to the minister as sole leader, his training for this high 
 function has been notoriously and unaccountably neglected. 
 Nor has even catechetics, or the art of teaching the young, 
 entered into the education of a Presbyterian minister as it 
 does into that of a Lutheran Pfarrer; in spite of the 
 fact that the Keformed have never been behind their 
 Lutheran brethren in providing catechisms as aids for the 
 instruction of their children. It may be that too much 
 attention has not been devoted by the Eeformed Churches 
 to theology and the sacred languages, but at least it has 
 been a too exclusive attention ; and I can only account for 
 the omission of other subjects by supposing that one who 
 fully knew and could rightly teach the Word of God was 
 presumed to be sufficiently equipped by that alone for an 
 office, all whose varied functions centred in the interpreta- 
 tion and enforcement of that Word. 
 
 The legitimate authority with which ministers have 
 been accustomed to speak as interpreters of the sacred 
 text and stewards of Divine mysteries was for a long time, 
 and to some extent still is, strengthened by the wide 
 interval which for generations elevated the scholarly and 
 expert minister above his untrained flock. Sometimes, it 
 must be confessed, ministerial authority has been claimed, 
 and has been conceded, too much on such personal grounds. 
 It has rested more than is meet either on the minister's 
 scholarship as a learned student whose dicta the illiterate 
 are not qualified to question, or on his piety as one 
 exceptionally taught of God. Hence it has not always 
 been sufficiently remembered, either by the pastoral 
 
THE MINISTRY NOT A PRIESTHOOD 17 
 
 preacher or by his congregation, that however superior his 
 gifts for edifying address may be, he is here also an organ 
 and representative of the Christian society, bearing its 
 testimony, as well as his own, to the common Christian 
 faith, as that which is taught by the anointing Spirit to 
 the humblest believer. For the better instruction of the 
 people, to increase their knowledge of Scripture, to correct 
 mistakes and clarify their conceptions of the Gospel, and 
 to enforce the admitted duties of their Christian profession 
 — for such ends has he been raised above his hearers in 
 sacred learning. But that personal experience of the 
 Gospel which alone can make his word living and powerful, 
 is their experience as well ; and the testimony which he 
 bears to Christ is the united testimony of the witnessing 
 Church in which dwells the Spirit of illumination. 
 
 If I mistake not, it is not in the sermon only, but 
 likewise in other parts of Divine service where their repre- 
 sentative character is more evident, that some ministers 
 are apt to overlook it. When the collective Church 
 assembles in one place to draw near to God, each wor- 
 shipper makes approach for himself and has his own 
 spiritual offering to present. Only a leader is required, a 
 spokesman to voice the common acts of all. This is the 
 minister, who is thereby made a representative, to whose 
 words they all make response, if not audibly, yet, surely, in 
 their hearts. 
 
 It is at this point that the question arises whether 
 the leader in worship ought not to be, or at least may 
 not legitimately be, described as a priest — not a mediating, 
 but a representative, priest. For, of course, the universal 
 priesthood of all believers as one with Christ, in the New 
 Testament sense of the word, is to be fully recognised. 
 Their acts of common worship are the " spiritual sacrifices " 
 of what St. Peter calls a Updrev/jLa dytov, a ^aaikeiov 
 Updrevfia.^ " The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit," 
 and this each penitent brings with him. The whole 
 
 1 1 Pet. 24-10. 
 
i8 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 congregation join to " offer up a sacrifice of praise to G-od 
 continually, that is, the fruit of lips which make con- 
 fession to His name." ^ Nor is it in the eucharist alone, 
 but throughout the service, that they "present their 
 bodies — themselves — a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable 
 to God." 2 But I do not think all this requires us to term 
 the leader a priest in any exceptional sense. For the 
 sacrificial character inherent in the worship of Christian 
 men pertains no more to the minister than to any other 
 worshipper. He is a priest, but not in virtue of his 
 ministry. When Anglican Churchmen, if Evangelicals, 
 excuse, or, if High Churchmen, warmly applaud, the use 
 in the rubrics of the Prayer Book of both terms as 
 alternatives — " Minister " and " Priest " — they do it on 
 the ground that he who represents and acts for a priestly 
 community in its priestly acts may be styled in a certain 
 eminent sense a priest. As an apology this may be allowed 
 to pass, but 1 cannot join in the applause. Canon 
 Moberly's definition : " ministerial organs of the Church's 
 priesthood,"^ we may accept without accepting his con- 
 clusions. When regard is had to the history of the word 
 " priest," and to its employment over the greater part 
 of Christendom, the risk of confusion between the two 
 senses in which it is taken — ^its Levitical and Eoman use 
 on the one hand, its New Testament connotation on the 
 other — is so serious that those Churches of the Keforma- 
 tion have surely done more wisely which have dropped the 
 misleading title altogether. In this judgment, as Canon 
 Moberly himself has told us,* some of the most judicious 
 of Anglican divines have concurred. Eichard Hooker's 
 words are well known : " To pass by the name, let them 
 use what dialects they will, whether we call it a Priesthood, 
 a Presbytership, or a Ministry, it skilleth not; although 
 in truth the word Presbyter doth seem more fit, and 
 
 1 Heb. 13^^ 2 ^Q^ 121. 
 
 ^ Report of Conference, ut supra, p. 142. 
 ' Minist. Priesthood, p. 238-239, footnotes. 
 
THE MINISTRY NOT A PRIESTHOOD 19 
 
 in propriety of speech more agreeable than Priest with the 
 drift of the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ." ^ And with 
 this the more recent language of the late Bishop Light- 
 foot is in accord : " It might have been better if the later 
 Christian vocabulary had conformed to the silence of the 
 Apostolic writers, so that the possibility of confusion would 
 have been avoided." ^ 
 
 ^ Eccl. Polity, Bk. v. Ixxviii. 3. 
 ^ Diss, on the Apostolic Age, p. 235. 
 
CHAPTEE III 
 LESSONS FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 The fundamental ideas which govern service in the 
 kingdom of God, and even more the spirit in which it 
 is to be rendered, remain substantially the same at all 
 periods. The wise office-bearer of to-day will therefore 
 draw largely for direction, warning, or stimulus upon the 
 experience of the past. Biographies of eminent servants 
 of Christ in every age may serve as models ; but in 
 especial the records preserved in Sacred Scripture were 
 written for his admonition. The example even of Old 
 Testament prophets, in spite of obvious differences, can 
 be made in many ways instructive. Their surrender 
 to a divine call, their public spirit, their watchman-like 
 vigilance, their courage, their loyalty to the truth as they 
 received it from God — have all been put to use by in- 
 genious authors for the profit of the Christian minister. 
 But naturally the New Testament is richer both in lessons 
 and in examples apposite to his case. From the charge 
 which Jesus gave to the first messengers whom He sent 
 out into the villages of Galilee, down to St. PauFs 
 directions for the choice of elders at Ephesus or Crete, 
 its pages abound in material which has been worked out 
 by a host of writers on this subject, but which the 
 conscientious minister can best study for himself in its 
 original setting. Supreme over all is, of course, the 
 ministry of our blessed Lord Himself, who, both as a 
 religious teacher and as the Chief Shepherd and Bishop 
 of souls, set once for all the pattern which His servants 
 
 20 
 
LESSONS FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 21 
 
 have to copy till the end of time. Next to this in value, 
 though longo intervallo, must be put the autobiographic 
 passages in the letters of His foremost follower, St. Paul. 
 From these sources mainly, but indeed from the whole 
 New Testament, endless guidance as well as inspiration 
 comes to the minister who knows how to use it.^ 
 
 That the present-day minister, by whatever title he 
 is known, is virtually the only acting official in many 
 of our Churches, and in all of them the one most in 
 evidence, who unites in his single person almost every 
 form of official activity, is the fact which justifies us 
 in transferring to his work, under one or other of its 
 departments,- nearly every significant title or picturesque 
 metaphor applied by sacred writers to Christian ministers 
 of their own generation.^ He combines the duties of an 
 ambassador on Christ's behalf, of a steward over the house 
 of God, of a bishop and shepherd of the flock, of a 
 presiding elder and ruler, of a leader to animate, and 
 of a pattern to be imitated. 
 
 In this collection of expressive terms, the foremost 
 thought (as might be expected) is responsibility for the 
 oversight of souls ; although with that is blent, so that 
 the two can hardly be kept apart, the further task of 
 religious instruction. The idea of oversight comes out 
 
 ^ On the lessons to be learned from the example and directions both of 
 our Lord and of His apostles, the student may consult Beck's Pastoral 
 Theology of the N. T. (T. & T. Clark, 1885). On our Lord as an example, see 
 Blaikie, Public Ministry and Pastoral Methods of our Lord (Lond. 1883) ; 
 and cf. Bruce's Training of the Twelve, and Latham's Pastor Pastorum. 
 Of St. Paul as a model, an old book is The Portrait of St. Paul a true Model 
 for Christians and Pastors (1806), translated from a French MS. of Fletcher of 
 Madingley. The more recent work of Canon Newbolt, Speculum Sacerdotum 
 (1894), is based on 2 Cor. 6*-i«. Dr. Stalker's Yale Lectures for 1891, The 
 Preacher and his Models, draw lessons from Hebrew prophets and (in the 
 last four lectures) from St. Paul. See also Fairbairn on The Pastoral 
 Epistles (1874); Stirm, "Die Pastoral-theologischen Winke der Pastoral- 
 briefe," in Jahrb. /. deut. Theol. B. 17 ; and Chadwick, The Pastoral 
 Teaching of St. Paul {Ijondi. 1907). 
 
 2 This was done long ago by Gilbert Burnet, bishop of Sarum, in his Dis- 
 course of the Pastoral Care ; whom Vinet follows in his Th^ologie Pastorale. 
 
22 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 best perhaps in the Greek iiriaKOTro^;, an officer whose 
 vigilance cannot be accused of meddlesomeness, because 
 it has been laid upon him to watch over, superintend, 
 and act for the community. The same idea is suggested 
 by the historical associations of the Jewish title 
 " Presbyter " or " Elder " ; but with this added suggestion, 
 that the authority of the official ought to be sustained 
 by such natural influence or power to lead as comes from 
 gravity, experience, and the wisdom of years. 
 
 Of wider compass is that lovely metaphor of Shepherd 
 or "Pastor"; for it embraces also instruction, or the 
 nurture of old and young on the pasture of the Word. 
 But its primary sense is still surveillance or tendance of the 
 flock, recovery of the strayed, defence in danger ; before all 
 else, personal and self-sacrificing devotion to its safety, 
 with a peculiar tender flavour of belonging each to the 
 other — flock to shepherd, and shepherd to flock. No other 
 word sends us so straight to Jesus as the model of our 
 office, or so dignifies our relation to His people by associat- 
 ing it with His own, or is steeped in more touching and 
 poetic associations. We are the under-shepherds of the 
 one great and good Chief Shepherd.^ 
 
 Next to shepherd comes Steward. Kooted in Jesus' 
 own use of the word in this connection, it finds illustration 
 both from St. Paul and St. Peter.^ Like shepherd, it too 
 carries the same idea of responsible oversight ; but its 
 special reference is probably to the provision of the house- 
 hold of God with supplies of divine truth out of the 
 storehouse of the Word. Eesponsibility for what is taught 
 in God's house ; for its abundance, variety, suitableness, 
 and purity : — this is what the modern minister of the Word 
 has to be for ever learning from this image. 
 
 ^ The full compass of this image is to be studied in Ps. 23 and the great 
 chapter in Ezek. 34 : next in our Lord's own exposition of it in John 10 ; 
 then in the restoration of St. Peter to office, John 21, which is illustrated 
 finally by Peter's own pathetic reference to the subject, 1 Pet. 5^*^. 
 
 2 See Luke 12^1-^8^ 1 Cor. 4i-5, 1 Pet. 410. 
 
LESSONS FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 23 
 
 It is less in his relation to those within the Church 
 than to the world without that a minister, but especially 
 an evangelist or missionary, inherits St. Paul's bold 
 metaphor for him'self and his brother missionaries : 
 " Herald " or Ambassador of Peace, bearing abroad to men 
 the divine Word of reconciliation.^ But however much 
 the pastoral side of one's office may under modern con- 
 ditions preponderate in the field allotted to many of the 
 clergy, there is no minister of Christ who will not find 
 manifold occasion, as well as opportunity, to become a 
 preacher of God's peace to the conscience ill at ease, or a 
 herald of His grace to sinners yet unreconciled to God. 
 
 Each of these titles brings a contribution of its own 
 towards a complete conception of ministerial work. When 
 the variety no less than the difficulty of all these solemn 
 duties is suffered to make its due impression on the mind, 
 no one, I should think, can escape the feeling that too 
 much has surely been laid by our modern system on the 
 shoulders of one man. Where ecclesiastical arrangements 
 permit of a division of functions, one is inclined to say, it 
 must be easier to find agents gifted, one for this, and 
 another for that department. Nor is there anything in 
 Scripture to forbid such distribution of the parts of 
 ministerial duty. That in our ordinary congregations and 
 parishes, where a single servant of Christ carries the whole 
 load, things are not worse than they are, may be an 
 indication that after all the various functions of the office 
 stand closer to one another than is at first sight apparent. 
 Between one department of his work and another, however 
 dissimilar on the surface, there may be found in practice 
 such an inward unity or affinity that the same gifts of 
 mind and heart — the same training by observation and 
 experience — which qualify a man for one part of his 
 office, go far at least to qualify him also for the rest. 
 
 ^ Only the verbal form irpea^e^xM is found (2 Cor. ^'^ and Eph. G^"). 
 But cf. the closely allied Kripv^ in 1 Tim. 2^ and 2 Tim. 1", which 
 yields the very frequent verb so characteristic of the Gospel — Kripijcrffeiv. 
 
24 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 One thing at least does lend unity to the manifold 
 duties of the ministerial office ; one supreme gift there is 
 which is called for by all of them alike. It is the Christ- 
 like spirit — the temper of lowly and loving service to the 
 brotherhood — in which all ministry within Christ's 
 kingdom ought to be discharged. 
 
 The New Testament word which we render by 
 " service " or " ministry " (hiaKovla), while it has yielded 
 a title to the deacon as the humblest officer in the society, 
 describes an attitude which is characteristic of them all 
 from the lowest to the very highest. It is the attitude 
 of the Lord Himself. " I am in the midst of you as he that 
 serveth/' said Jesus.^ St. Paul in one place calls his Master 
 a " minister (that is, servant) of the circumcision." ^ To the 
 Apostolate the term is frequently applied.^ Indeed, every 
 gifted member bestowed on His Church by Christ is given 
 " unto the work of ministering." * 
 
 What is to be noted about this New Testament use 
 of the word is not that church officers are servants of 
 Christ. That goes without saying : " Ye call Me Master, 
 and Lord : and ye say well ; for so I am." ^ The 
 Christian minister is one whose obedience is due to an 
 unseen Lord, whose discharge of official duty must bear 
 ceaseless reference to Christ's future judgment, and whose 
 reward will lie in the King's ultimate verdict of approval.^ 
 This primary and indefeasible relationship underlies and 
 governs every other. In particular, it has a most im- 
 portant bearing on the minister's relation to his brethren 
 both as their commissioned representative and as their 
 minister. Yet the exceptional feature about Christian 
 office is not that it is service paid to a Master, — all service 
 is that, — but that it is a serving of one's fellow-servants 
 for the Master's sake. It is a fundamental law of the 
 
 1 Luke 2227. 2 lioijj 158^ 
 
 3 See Acts !"• ^^ 20^4 2P», Rom. ll^^ i Qor. 3°, 2 Cor. S^-a 6^ 1123. 
 ^ Eph. 4'2. 5 John 13", cf. Matt. 23'0- 
 
 « Cf. Matt. 24^6 2521, Luke l^^\ 1 Cor. ^'^•'^ 
 
LESSONS FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 25 
 
 new kingdom, that whoever will serve Christ is set by 
 Him to minister to Christ's brethren ; and to the officer in 
 His household this law applies with peculiar force. " If 
 any man would be first," said our Lord, "he shall be last 
 of all, and minister of all."^ Nay, St. Paul does not 
 scruple to accept for himself a much stronger word : " We 
 preach not ourselves," he writes, " but Christ Jesus as Lord, 
 and ourselves as your bond-servants (SouXou?) for Jesus' 
 sake." 2 
 
 Such language, standing alone, might easily lend itself 
 to an interpretation offensive to the instincts of the 
 Christian brotherhood ; as if our ministry lay in a servile 
 subjection to our fellow-Christians, or in the humouring 
 and flattering of others. From this it is saved, partly by 
 its voluntary character,^ but much more by that supreme 
 responsibility to the common Master of us all, of which I 
 have just spoken. That forbids obsequiousness to men. 
 It frees the minister from any temptation to serve their 
 mere pleasure, to be the slave of their whims, to live upon 
 their favour, to covet their applause, or to cringe for their 
 approval. " If I were still pleasing men, I should not be a 
 servant of Christ." ^ 
 
 This danger of men-pleasing is not less excluded by 
 the ends which the ministry is designed to effect. The 
 whole work of the Church on earth, and in particular of 
 its officials, is not rightly apprehended until it is viewed 
 as a co-operation with Christ for securing the results of 
 His own mission into the world. Of that mission the 
 design, as we well know, was primarily the salvation of 
 individuals from sin, but ultimately the formation and 
 perfecting upon earth of the kingdom — the reign — of God. 
 To that aim was His personal ministry in life and death 
 consecrated. Toward that aim He continues to work on 
 
 1 Mark 935. 2 2 Cor. 4^. 
 
 ^Cf. 1 Cor. 91*: "Though I was free from all men, I brought myself 
 under bondage to all, that I might gain the more." 
 4 Gal. 11". 
 
26 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 through the ages, using now as His chief earthly instru- 
 ment the Church which is His body. For the outward 
 and visible society into which He has been pleased to 
 organise His followers has this for its chief use and raison 
 d'etre, not to be, but to bring about, the realm of God 
 among mankind. So long as we still need to pray, " Thy 
 kingdom come ! " so long has the Church as an organised 
 society its work to do. It has to perpetuate itself from 
 one generation to another through the Christian training 
 of its own immature members ; to edify itself by cultivating 
 a devout and holy life ; to keep itself pure, and therefore 
 effective for its purpose, through internal discipline; to 
 bear witness, by worship and proclamation of the Gospel, 
 to its Lord and His truth ; and to propagate itself in 
 missionary evangeHsm to the ends of the earth. All these 
 things ifc has to do as a fellow- worker with Christ ; and it 
 does them largely through its official members. Strictly 
 speaking, these things are not ends in themselves. They 
 are means which the King, the Lord of the enterprise, 
 employs toward His ultimate end, namely, the perfect 
 realisation at last of the divine kingdom. Nevertheless, 
 while subordinate in view of that supreme and final end, 
 these activities of the Church's life are the immediate 
 ends for which the ministry exists. As a practical guide, 
 therefore, in the duties entrusted to him, no minister need 
 set before himself any higher aim than the growth and 
 perfecting of the Church as Christ's own living organ or 
 instrument for the saving of the world ; nor dare he set 
 himself any lower. The test which St. Paul applied to 
 public worship at Corinth applies to every detail of a 
 minister's work : " Let all things be done unto edifying." ^ 
 
 If this canon be duly pondered to regulate the several 
 functions of his office, it is obvious that it must deliver 
 him from unbecoming subjection to the people's likes and 
 dislikes. A ministry that seeks the very same result 
 which Christ seeks cannot be an obsequious man-pleasing 
 
 ^ 1 Cor. 1426. 
 
LESSONS FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 27 
 
 ministry. It is not the pleasure of his fellow-members 
 that the minister has to consult, but their profit ; not 
 what they wish, but what will do them good. 
 
 But the same canon, while it guards his legitimate 
 independence, equally forbids him to prostitute his office 
 into an instrument of self-assertion or self-aggrandisement. 
 The spiritual interests of the Church (which in the case 
 of a pastor must mean primarily those of his own con- 
 gregation) are to be his first consideration, to which private 
 interests must give way. The minister's comfort or ease, 
 his personal feelings even, and reputation, are secondary 
 when they come, as may sometimes happen, into competi- 
 tion with the spiritual welfare of the people entrusted to 
 his care. He exists, he labours, for their sake ; not they for 
 his. Still less, of course, dare he permit himself to trade 
 upon his sacred office as a means of worldly advantage, 
 profit, or dignity. To treat the clerical calling simply as 
 a profession of emolument and of some social importance, in 
 which a cultured gentleman, by a decent attention to his 
 duties, may pass creditably and comfortably through life, 
 is an abuse common enough at certain periods, from which 
 I think our Churches are to-day comparatively free. But 
 temptations abound from which aspirants to the office or 
 holders of it can never hope entirely to escape : tempta- 
 tions to seek the " priest's office " for " a piece of bread," 
 to be ambitious of preferment, to grow self-important over 
 the influence which office confers or the respect in which 
 it is held. Especially must danger always lurk for proud 
 or wilful natures in those parts of his work which lift the 
 minister in some respects above the ordinary Christian, as 
 a teacher, for instance, a counsellor, or a ruler. Church- 
 men in all ages have been prone to " magnify " their office 
 in a sense of which St. Paul would not have approved ; 
 forgetting what that stout assertor of his own position 
 tells us, that even Apostolic authority was given him for no 
 other use than to build up the Church.^ That this tempta- 
 
 ^ 2 Cor. IS^o, 
 
28 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 tion to a lordly temper was to prove during the history of 
 His Church one of its most inverterate and serious dangers 
 was early foreseen by its divine Founder. So much, I 
 think, we may with reverence infer from the exceptional 
 pains He was at to guard against it, and the frequency 
 with which He enforced the duty of humility.^ Not only 
 did He again and again define with precision the moral 
 contrast which His servants were to exhibit in this respect 
 with secular rulers, He pointedly proposed Himself as 
 their typical example of humility in service. 
 
 Two classical passages in the Gospels deserve here 
 especial attention. The one is that curious incident when 
 the mother of a pair of brothers solicited on their behalf 
 the two most favoured seats in Messiah's future kingdom.^ 
 Of this opportunity everyone remembers how Jesus took 
 advantage to warn against the ambition and lust of 
 pre-eminence which inspire the intrigues of earthly courts, 
 and to teach from His own example the novel lesson 
 that a lowly temper, stooping with unselfish devotion to 
 minister to others, is in His spiritual realm the one 
 pathway to distinction. With this should be compared 
 that strange pathetic scene of the feet-washing in the 
 Fourth Gospel.^ Again was the same much-needed lesson 
 enforced ; this time not by word only, but also by 
 symbolic action. The sole relation betwixt brethren 
 which is absolutely prohibited is lordship ; competing for 
 priority, the one forbidden attitude. The services we 
 are called on to render to one another — so the Master 
 teaches — can never be too obscure or menial or distasteful 
 for a humility and a love that have taken Him for their 
 model. Nay, just in proportion as they are lowly, are 
 they to be accounted precious or honourable. Certainly 
 there is a " pride that apes humility." Imitations even 
 of the feet- washing have been known to degenerate into 
 
 ^ Besides passages cited below, cf. Matt. 23^-^2^ Mark S^'^', Matt. 18^-*, 
 and Luke 9^-^\ 
 
 2 Matt. 2020-28, Mark lO^^-^ 3 131-17^ ^f^ j^^^^ 2224-27. 
 
LESSONS FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT 29 
 
 caricature. We escape such risks to the quality of our 
 ministry just in the degree in which it is our Master's 
 own aim that we pursue, and the spirit, not the form, of 
 His great ministry that we copy. " Whosoever would 
 be first among you shall be your bond-servant ; even as 
 the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to 
 minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." 
 
CHAPTEK IV 
 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY 
 
 Like the priesthood of which the writer to the Hebrews 
 
 speaks, the holy ministry is an honour which no man 
 
 taketh to himself, but when he is called of God.^ Yet 
 
 this is not a distinction marking it off sharply from 
 
 ordinary secular avocations. It is only the highest 
 
 instance of a general rule. When St. Paul counselled 
 
 his converts to abide each man in the calling wherein 
 
 he had been called to be a Christian, he taught by 
 
 implication the important truth that every man's position 
 
 in society — even a slave's — was that appointed for him 
 
 by Divine Providence.^ In the humbler pursuits of life, 
 
 where little turns on the selection of a trade or craft, 
 
 small causes commonly serve to fix a youth's choice. A 
 
 fortuitous circumstance, a slight fancy, the calling of his 
 
 father or his mere pleasure, a hopeful opening at the 
 
 right moment, may be enough to determine one's whole 
 
 career. In proportion as the services which a man is 
 
 to render to society are more distinguished, or require 
 
 an exceptional combination of gifts, do we find him 
 
 marked out for his vocation by a more decided natural 
 
 fitness, or by strong predilection or some imusual train 
 
 of events. Artistic or literary genius, for example, 
 
 indicates to a few the line of life which is to prove 
 
 their path to fame. An irresistible hunger for adventure 
 
 urges others into the career of a pioneer or discoverer. 
 
 From such cases that of a minister does not essentially 
 
 1 Heb. 5^ 2 1 Cor. 7"-3*, 
 
 30 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY 31 
 
 differ. Nor does his "calling" always disclose itself so 
 strongly, or so early in life, as these. Only because it 
 is a call to the most solemn and sacred form of service 
 to God and man, where the consequences of mistake are 
 more fatal and lasting than anywhere else, is it reasonable 
 to take the utmost pains to discover the will of God, 
 not only correctly, but with a sufficient degree of 
 certainty. 
 
 The ways in which a young Christian's thoughts are 
 first directed towards the holy ministry, or his desire for 
 it awakened, are manifold. Parents' wishes, or their early 
 dedication of their son ; a studious and quiet disposition ; 
 a marked crisis in religious experience ; or some facility 
 in public address : such things may have given rise to 
 the idea. No sensible person will permit himself to drift 
 under influences so casual as these into a permanent 
 office, or conclude without much closer investigation that 
 because motives of that sort, legitimate as they may be, 
 have bent his mind in this direction, therefore he has 
 a divine vocation to be a minister. If for his future 
 success it is essential that Christ's minister be truly 
 chosen and sent by his heavenly Master, — as truly, though 
 not so supernaturally or unmistakably as Jeremiah under 
 the Old, or Paul under the New, Testament, — it is no 
 less requisite for his own comfort that he should become 
 well assured of his vocation ; able at every season of 
 discouragement or disappointment or hardship to stay 
 himself upon this, that a stewardship has been entrusted 
 to him.^ 
 
 In order to reach a rational and fairly confident 
 persuasion on this point, it is needful to receive a two- 
 fold " call " : one inward, which is personal and private ; 
 the other exterior, public and official. Not the one 
 without the other, but the one to sustain and confirm the 
 other. What makes this double call requisite is, of course, 
 the twofold relation which he who holds ecclesiastical 
 
 1 1 Cor. 917. 
 
32 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 of3&ce sustains, at once to the unseen Master to whom 
 his whole life-work is due, and to the society whose 
 agent and minister he is to be. For other kinds of 
 religious work, it is immaterial whether a Christian's 
 fitness be recognised by the society or not. It is enough 
 that the man has heard in his own heart a personal 
 summons to this form of service. Still, as in primitive 
 days, we are constantly seeing laymen led through circum- 
 stances and their own pronounced gifts to initiate or carry 
 forward valuable enterprises of Christian activity; and 
 neither they themselves nor anyone else questions that 
 for such a task they have been really equipped and 
 designated by a divine hand, although no hands of 
 bishop or presbyter have been laid upon their heads. 
 But for functions which are to be discharged in the name 
 of the Church or under her authority, it is obvious that 
 no supposed inward call can suffice. Into her ministry 
 may no man intrude himself on the allegation that he 
 is conscious of a call from Christ. Through whatever 
 organ any particular branch of the Church is accustomed 
 to express its will, some valid act of " ordination " must 
 testify to the satisfaction of the Church body with the 
 fitness of a candidate for office and set him apart for 
 definite services. On the other hand, the ecclesiastical 
 presupposes a personal vocation. The importance attached 
 to this act differs in different communions; but no body 
 of Christians, I think, professes to substitute it for an 
 inward call of Christ, expressed to the conscience and 
 heart of the man himself — a secret and personal convic- 
 tion, antecedent to anything the Church may do, that 
 it is the Lord's will he should serve, if permitted, in 
 this and in no other vocation. 
 
 I. How then shall a man perceive and judge of this 
 private call from the Lord ? The question is one which 
 not seldom occasions prolonged and severe searchings of 
 heart in serious-minded young men ; and, in so far as a 
 matter so intimate and personal, lying between the soul 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY 33 
 
 and God, admits of general rules at all, it deserves to 
 be carefully answered. 
 
 Let it be said, then, to begin with, that, like all 
 similar questions regarding God's will for individuals, it 
 can only be determined with greater or less probability 
 after weighing well a variety of concurrent considerations. 
 We have no right to look for such extraordinary and 
 compelling signs as would silence all misgiving or render 
 superfluous the exercise of the reason in the balancing of 
 opposed considerations. This is not said merely of out- 
 ward signs. Few are likely to attach much value to 
 external messages from the unseen, such as dreams or 
 voices or visions. But it sometimes happens that an 
 inward impression on the mind is suffered to overmaster 
 cool judgment, and is taken by an enthusiastic young 
 person for a quite dominant and irresistible command 
 from God. Now, unquestionably, a powerful and settled 
 desire to enter upon the holy ministry is in every case a 
 most important element, and one that can hardly be dis- 
 pensed with in any case. Yet it is not to be taken 
 simply by itself for conclusive proof that God means him 
 who has it to be a minister. Few things, indeed, require 
 more to be cross-examined than just this strong desire, 
 especially when it is of sudden origin, or when it occurs 
 in early life, or immediately after conversion to God. No 
 wish more natural or honourable can spring up in the 
 bosom of an ardent young believer. But it may have 
 many sources, some of them anything but Divine. If the 
 desire be of God, it will be attended with great tenderness 
 of conscience, fear to be found unworthy or presumptuous, 
 and a trembling solicitude lest one mistake the path of 
 duty. To be genuine, moreover, it needs to be a longing, 
 not for the sweets or honours of office, but for its spiritual 
 successes, with a willingness to face for their sake sacrifices 
 and toils. It must therefore be able to stand the test of 
 delay and difficulty in the attainment of its object, and not 
 shrink from strenuous labour in acquiring through years 
 
 3 
 
34 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 of training the requisite preparation for the right discharge 
 of ministerial duty. 
 
 Where the inclination for the ministry has thus proved 
 itself a genuine and enduring outcome from the deepest 
 religious experiences of the soul, and not a passing breath 
 of enthusiasm, though it is not yet conclusive evidence 
 of a " call," it does constitute the most important fact to 
 start from as a basis. It not only entitles, it requires, the 
 man to go on to search with prayerful conscientiousness 
 for other indications that will confirm it. 
 
 1. High on the list of "gifts," the possession of which 
 is an indication of fitness for the ministry, I am disposed to 
 place the specific quahty of a man's piety. I do not mean 
 merely that his piety be deep and strong. There is much 
 strong deep piety of a too cloistered type, immured in the 
 interior life, expressing itself in quiet meditation or secret 
 prayer, which feels little need and betrays little desire to 
 throw its energies out upon the evil world. The piety 
 which finds in ministerial work its congenial sphere is 
 of another type. Keenly alive to the religious needs of 
 the society around, it is marked by profound sympathy 
 with the Saviour in His saving work, an active compassion 
 for the sinful, and an impulse to engage in whatever 
 efforts for the kingdom of God lie to its hand. Where 
 such features of the religious life are lacking, even a very 
 devout person may prove ill-adapted for the winning and 
 the upbuilding of souls. Where they are present in con- 
 spicuous strength, they are so valuable that they make up 
 for much else. A passion for saving others is to the 
 Church what " public spirit '' is to the citizen in the State. 
 It qualifies the citizen of the kingdom of God for official 
 life. It stands high, therefore, among those gifts which 
 mark out followers of Christ as fitted to "become fishers 
 of men." 
 
 2. Next come, I think, certain combinations of moral 
 and intellectual aptitudes, not often found united, but 
 much in demand as promising ministerial success. A 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY 35 
 
 combination, for instance, of intellectual sobriety and good 
 sense, with a capacity for being kindled into enthusiasm 
 over great moral issues or high moral enterprises. A com- 
 bination of prudence and self-control, with a frank, familiar, 
 and winsome disposition which lays itself readily alongside 
 of other people and gains their confidence. A combina- 
 tion of the studious temperament, delighting in close study 
 and severe thinking, with tact in dealing with men, and 
 a fair amount of talent for practical affairs. Given such 
 qualities as these, in rare but precious combination, you 
 have a reasonable likelihood that such a man will make a 
 useful minister, and a corresponding probability that his 
 desire for the work is inspired of God. Of his possession 
 of such qualities no man is himself the best judge. One's 
 early advisers and those who know one most intimately 
 are counsellors whom on these matters one does well to 
 consult, since there is no doubt that it is here mistakes 
 are most often made. Probably few ministers turn out 
 badly through want of piety ; but who has not known 
 instances in plenty in which some defect of character, even 
 some fault in manner, or idiosyncracy of temperament, 
 perfectly obvious to his companions, yet discovered too 
 late, if discovered at all, by the man himself, has neutral- 
 ised far more imposing qualities of mind and heart, or 
 even wrecked in the end ministerial usefulness ? 
 
 3. Last come, what it seems scarce needful to name, 
 since of these the Church as well as the candidate has 
 to take account, a past life free from flagrant vice,^ the 
 absence of incapacitating physical defects, sound health 
 with a good voice ; and, of course, adequate scholarship, or 
 at least means and ability to acquire it. 
 
 ISTot one of all the matters I have named, greater 
 or smaller, can be safely left out of reckoning when a man 
 would settle with himself, /oro conscientice, tbe grave issue 
 of his call to the ministry. It is not meant that every 
 
 ^ This is, as a rule, desirable ; though, in vieAv of a few famous instances 
 to the contrary, it cannot be called indispensable. 
 
36 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 qualification must be possessed in the highest, or in an 
 exceptional, degree ; for then no man would be called. 
 Some things can be better dispensed with than others. 
 Some shortcomings can be compensated for by other advan- 
 tages. What is meant is that a man's religious life, his 
 natural aptitudes, his physical state, and his theological 
 education need to be, each of them singly, and all of them 
 together, fairly satisfactory. They are all matters in which 
 any marked deficiency ought to be viewed as a grave 
 disqualification, casting doubt on his fitness for office, and 
 doubt by consequence on his vocation to enter upon office. 
 
 Every student contemplating the ministry should be 
 encouraged, at one stage of his preparation for it aftei* 
 another, to review his conclusion on this momentous 
 question of a " call " ere it be too late. Eor, as he advances, 
 the favourable indications on which his judgment is built 
 ought to emerge into greater clearness and to become more, 
 not less, constraining. Absolute certainty it is scarcely 
 reasonable to expect until actual trial of the ministry shall 
 have put the seal of success in after years upon the judg- 
 ment both of the man himself and of the Church. Yet a 
 high and growing probabihty inferred, by calm and prayerful 
 reflection, from many signs which multiply as step after 
 step is taken on the path which leads to office — this a 
 student of divinity may reasonably ask for and ought 
 steadily to seek after. He who strives humbly and with 
 earnestness to ascertain the mind of Christ in a matter 
 which touches so closely the welfare of His kingdom, shall 
 not always be left at a loss, but may count on secure 
 guidance in the way the Master would have him go.^ 
 
 11. The action of the Church in conferring office 
 constitutes a second " call " : an outward one, of which 
 the result is to test and to confirm the conviction already 
 
 1 Consult Vinet, Theologie Pastorale, Introd. § 7 ; Blaikie, For tlie 
 Work of the Ministry, cliap. 2 ; and Fairbairn, Pastoral Theology, chap. 2. 
 Dr. Howard Crosby's Yale Lecture for 1879-80, entitled The Christian 
 Preacher^ is devoted to the qualifications for the ministry. 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY 37 
 
 reached by the man himself in the secrecy of his own soul, 
 that he has been qualified and called by Christ. 
 
 It consists of two parts : first, an " examination " or 
 inquiry to ascertain whether the conditions for ordination 
 laid down by the particular Church are in this case satisfied ; 
 and, next, the act of ordination itself. Each of these has 
 an interest for us here, chiefly as it affects the confidence 
 with which a young minister enters On his duties, or the 
 success with which he is likely to discharge them. 
 
 The points upon which it has always been and still 
 is usual for the Church to satisfy itself before conferring 
 office, are such as these : — 
 
 1. Age and physical health. The canonical age for a 
 presbyter, originally fixed at thirty years,^ was in 1314 
 reduced to five and twenty ; and this was retained by most 
 Eeformed Churches,^ although in this country at least I do 
 not think any age limit is now strictly enforced. The 
 absence of disabling defects, mental as well as physical, has 
 always been insisted on. 
 
 2. Previous character and repute for Christian conduct, 
 as testified by those who know him — usually his own 
 minister or parish priest, and the head of his school or 
 college. It has also been customary, immediately before 
 ordination, publicly to call for objections to the candidate's 
 life and conduct, and sometimes this step has also been 
 taken in the parish to which he belongs. 
 
 3. The purity of his motives in desiring office is a matter 
 variously inquired into ; often at a private interview, but 
 usually by demanding in pubHc, if nothing more, at least a 
 solemn disclaimer of simonaical practices or mercenary aims. 
 
 4. His orthodoxy : whether his beliefs are in sufficient 
 accord with the creed of the Church. In many modern 
 
 ^ By the Council of Neo-Csesarea in 314, and sanctioned by later councils 
 and by the civil law, of. Edwin Hatch's art. " Holy Orders " in Smith and 
 Cheetham's Diet, of Christ. Antiquities. 
 
 2 In the Dutch Church it is twenty-three (Van Oosterzee, PraUische 
 Theologie, i. 50) ; and practically that may be regarded as the minimum acted 
 on by the majority of British communions. 
 
38 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 communions this test has been attenuated to a minimum ; 
 but, unless where a Church has no professed creed at all, 
 it cannot be omitted. 
 
 5. His scholarship, general and theological. Whatever 
 evidence on this head a Church requires, has, of course, 
 been furnished at an earlier stage than the ordaining act : 
 although a final examination in divinity may still (as with 
 the Calvinistic Methodists of Wales) form part of the 
 ordination services. Bodies which, like the State Churches 
 of Germany, England, and Scotland, draw their students 
 from national universities, can, of course, accept an academic 
 degree as evidence of general scholarship. 
 
 6. Any proof the candidate may have already given of 
 capacity for religious work, such as preaching, or of success 
 in it. So far as I know, the Methodist Churches are those 
 which have been led by their traditions to give to this last 
 point the greatest attention. 
 
 Naturally, details vary considerably in different com- 
 munions ; but such diversities in practice are of minor 
 consequence. The important thing for the individual 
 minister is that the Church shares with him the responsi- 
 bility of decision as to his fitness, and, consequently, to some 
 extent as to his " call." I am far from saying that this 
 task has always been discharged with thoroughness, or in 
 the best way. Nevertheless, it can have no design but to 
 safeguard the Church from unsuitable officials ; and, wher- 
 ever it is gone about with care, the ordinand is entitled to 
 accept the judgment of his Church as a weighty confirmation 
 of his own — in respect at least to qualifications upon which 
 the Church is competent to pronounce. It is not only the 
 latest, it is one of the best pieces of evidence available, that 
 he has not misread the will of God. Coming when it does 
 at the critical moment of his career, it supplies a welcome 
 support in his final act of self-dedication to the holy 
 ministry. 
 
 On this examination and testimony to fitness there has 
 always followed in the ordinals of East and West a declara- 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY 
 
 39 
 
 tion of appointment, constituting the Church's own formal 
 and solemn " call " to office. Originally this was probably 
 the one essential part of admission to orders, succeeded at 
 once by the ordinand's discharge of some characteristic 
 duty of his office.^ But, of course, it was always befitting 
 that at some stage in the ritual of ordination, the assembled 
 Church should unite in a great act of intercession for the 
 brother whom it was setting apart to sacred responsibiUties, 
 and this was almost invariably accompanied by the im- 
 position of the hands of the ordaining bishop. Eespecting 
 the spiritual value of this part of the rite, there has grown 
 up a serious divergence of opinion ; especially how far its 
 virtue depends on the Church's prayers, how far on 
 manual contact by episcopal hands. 
 
 To lay hands on the head of one who is being ap- 
 pointed to office was a Hebrew ceremony, of which two 
 instances occur in the Book of Numbers.^ The ancient 
 practice seems to have been in use among the Jews of 
 later times at the installation of their judges,^ and thence 
 to have passed naturally into the Apostolic Church. But 
 the New Testament cases of its occurrence fall apparently 
 into two distinct classes. When the Seven were set apart 
 to serve tables, when Barnabas and Saul were designated 
 as missionaries to the Greeks by the Church of Antioch, 
 when presbyters were ordained by Timothy at Ephesus * — 
 it is possible to regard the gesture which accompanied 
 intercession as simply meant to designate the person 
 prayed for, and by a significant action to express his 
 setting apart for a special work. This is probably what 
 Augustine meant by his often-cited words : " Quid aliud 
 est manuum impositio, quam oratio super hominem ? " ^ By 
 his time, however, a different interpretation of the act was 
 
 ^ See Hatch, art. ** Ordination" in Smith and Cheetham. 
 2 When the Levites were set apart for service, Num. 8^°, and when 
 Joshua was appointed as Moses' successor, ih. 27^^'-^, cf. Deut. 34^. 
 ^ See Schiirer, Gcsh. d. jud. VolJces, ii. 152. 
 '* Acts 6^ 133, 1 Tim. 5^2. ^ j^^ ^^^^, c. Donat, iii. 16. 
 
40 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 being introduced, based on the other class of Apostolic 
 precedents. When the Apostles prayed over their converts 
 that they might receive the Holy Ghost, they also laid 
 their hands on them, as St. Paul, for example, did to 
 Timothy to qualify him as his missionary delegate.^ Here 
 the act has been taken to express a conveyance in some 
 measure of that spiritual power which the Apostles 
 possessed. So soon, therefore, as the idea entered that 
 bishops were successors of the Apostles, it was inevitable 
 to transfer to them this ability to convey the special gifts 
 of the Spirit which qualify for office, and to connect with 
 that the laying on of their hands in ordaining priests, as 
 well as in confirming the baptized. This theory of ordina- 
 tion is as old as the time of Cyprian, and had therefore 
 been very long current before the awful words "Accipe 
 Spiritum Sanctum " found their way into any ordinal. 
 That did not happen in the West before the twelfth 
 century. The Church of England has retained these words 
 in her " Ordering of Priests " ; and this fact lends support 
 to the claim of High Churchmen that admission to 
 Anglican orders, though not a sacrament, as the Church 
 of Kome teaches,^ does nevertheless convey through the 
 bishop a '^^apiafia or grace of office. This effect ascribed 
 to the rite was stated bv Hooker in these terms : " When 
 we take ordination, we also receive the presence of the 
 Holy Ghost, partly to guide, direct, and strengthen us in 
 all our ways, and partly to assume unto Itself for the 
 more authority those actions that appertain to our place 
 and calling." That is to say, as he futher explains it : 
 " Whether we preach, pray, baptize, communicate, con- 
 demn, give absolution, or whatsoever, as disposers of God's 
 mysteries, our words, judgments, acts and deeds are not 
 ours, but the Holy Ghost's." ^ 
 
 There is no need to take this widely accepted view of 
 ordination in a crass materialistic fashion, as if manual 
 
 1 Acts 8"-i9, 2 Tim. l^. 2 Canons of Trent, Sess. vii. c. 9. 
 
 3 Eccl. Pol. Bk. V. 77-78. 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY 41 
 
 contact could be, or were imagined to be, a vehicle or 
 medium by which spiritual grace is conveyed. Indeed, 
 apart from the direct address : *' Eeceive the Holy Ghost," 
 there is nothing even to suggest that the divine gift is 
 bestowed by the bishop, of and from himself. No doubt 
 he is supposed to effect what in the first age the Apostles 
 effected. But it is open to say with St. Augustine, that 
 the Apostles prayed for the Spirit to come upon those on 
 whom they laid hands, did not themselves bestow Him, and 
 that the Church in the person of its leaders observes still 
 the same custom.^ It is therefore quite possible for a 
 High Churchman to hold, as evangelical Churchmen do, 
 that the effective portion of the rite is the bishop's inter- 
 cession, and not the imposition of his hands. But, of 
 course, he will still hold that the gift invoked by a 
 successor of the Apostles, and by him alone, is as certainly 
 bestowed and as abiding, as when the Apostles conferred 
 the Spirit on the Christians of the first century. 
 
 Nor does the Eeformed view, on the other hand, over- 
 look the value of the Church's intercession, or reduce that 
 to a bare form. It rejects the theory of episcopal suc- 
 cession with the consequent limitation to bishops of the 
 power to ordain. It does not suppose that under all 
 circumstances the mere act of ordination secures to the 
 ordained the abiding inward presence of the Spirit, 
 although it does qualify him to administer the sacraments. 
 Nevertheless the Eeformed Church has retained what seems 
 to me to be of spuitual value in the rite ; that is to say, 
 the solemn intercession of the Church as the Body of 
 Christ in which His Spirit dwells. When the Eeformed 
 Church, with or without the expressive and venerable 
 usage of imposition of presbyters' hands, invokes from her 
 living Head in heaven the gift of the Holy Ghost to 
 equip His servant, at his entrance upon ^office, for every 
 
 ^ " Orabant [apostoli] ut venirat in eos qiiibus manus imponebant, non 
 ipsi eum dabant ; quern morem in suis prsepositis etiam nunc servat 
 ecclesia " {De Trin. xv. 26). 
 
42 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 official duty, it asks for the very same blessing which 
 episcopal ordination is believed to confer. The difference 
 seems to be, that the divine answer to that prayer, as to 
 all prayers, is here acknowledged to depend upon moral 
 conditions of faith and obedience. More turns than on 
 the CathoHc theory upon the spiritual condition of the 
 man who is being ordained. If the Church, when it sets 
 apart to office, possesses unconditional power to qualify for 
 office by a supernatural " donation," irrespective of the 
 man's rehgious receptivity, then it matters less whether 
 he has been beforehand qualified by the secret and inward 
 grace of Christ or not. Whereas, on the evangelical 
 theory, ordination proceeds upon and recognises an existing 
 fact. It presumes the man to be already prepared and 
 equipped by the possession of spiritual gifts ; in particular, 
 by such a hving fellowship with Christ through faith, 
 as will enable him hereafter to receive from day to day, 
 as the need arises, every grace-gift (;j^a/9tcr/Lta) which is 
 called for by the sacred duties of his office. On this 
 assumption, it asks for him as his constant endowment the 
 abiding presence of the Spirit. The minister knows he has 
 still his personal part to take in stirring up the gift of God 
 which is in him.^ Upon his own fidehty and pray erf ul- 
 ness, he knows, will largely depend the daily assistance 
 of the Holy Ghost in every detail of His work. Never- 
 theless, the ordination prayer is no empty word ; nor is it 
 by any means the last, though it is the earhest, solemn 
 act of intercession on his behalf in which the Church of 
 God engages. Every conscientious minister who carries 
 on his ministry in the spirit of that united prayer, — pray- 
 ing for himself the while without ceasing, — feels that he 
 can rely on the unceasing intercession on his behalf of the 
 faithful upon earth, as well as of their High Priest above. 
 Eeassured by this, he labours in confident expectation of 
 an ample and a gracious answer. Nor can his hope be 
 disappointed. He does receive the 'x^apla/jua of his office. 
 
 1 2 Tim. 1«. 
 
CHAPTEK V 
 THE MINISTER'S DEVOTIONAL LIFE 
 
 To maintain and to perfect his personal fitness for the 
 work of ministry, so that his official functions shall become 
 more and more the natural expression of his real hfe — this 
 has now become for the young minister the first of duties. 
 
 He has been approved and set apart to office simply 
 on the ground that both he himself and the Church have 
 judged him to be suited for it. By natural temperament, 
 by inward graces of the Spirit, and by intellectual attain- 
 ments, he is believed to have already reached, not com- 
 pletely, yet to a promising degree, such adaptation to this 
 calling that person and office answer to one another. In 
 other words : he is what an official Christian needs to be ; 
 on the other hand, the functions of the ministerial office 
 are precisely such forms of activity as his life will most 
 naturally run into of its own accord. For the supreme 
 instance, ever-to-be-studied, of what this means, — the 
 person and the official work quadrating or fitting into one 
 another, — let him look to his blessed Lord Himself. Of 
 the opposite, sad examples have been plentiful enough : 
 ecclesiastics who mistook their calling ; men of quite alien 
 tastes and aptitudes, on whom the clerical profession hung 
 like an ill-fitting dress — something outside their real self 
 and out of harmony with it. Cases of that sort give rise 
 to " officialism." There is no " officialism," in the sinister 
 sense which clings to that word, where the duties of a 
 man's office are just what he loves best to do, that into 
 which the deepest tides of his nature run spontaneously, 
 
 43 
 
44 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 and in the doing of which all that is best in him finds 
 both satisfaction and reward.^ 
 
 Such a correspondence between the man and his office 
 can never be complete at the outset, that is, at his ordi- 
 nation. Whatever general sympathy may already exist 
 between his inner life and the service to which he is set 
 apart, there must be a crowd of details about official life, 
 its engagements and its methods, which are still strange to 
 him. No one can quite know what his duties are to be or 
 how he is to address himself to their performance, till he 
 actually begins to do them. This is nothing peculiar to 
 the ministry. In every calling the workman's hand has to 
 get subdued, like the dyer's, to the stuff he works in. In 
 every calling, moreover, the first enthusiasm of a young 
 practitioner needs to be slowly replaced by conscientious 
 habits of duty. More often perhaps than in other profes- 
 sions does it happen that a young minister sets out with 
 exaggerated or rose-coloured anticipations, or in a mood of 
 exalted feeling which dies down as the commonplace 
 realities of ministerial experience grow famihar to him. 
 He will have to train himself always to obey the call of 
 duty, even when it is unwelcome, and always to do his 
 best, whether he be in a mood for it or not.^ 
 
 About a process like this there are risks to be escaped 
 or to be overcome, not without labour and self-discipline. 
 It must not be taken for granted that the mere discharge 
 of sacred offices for a certain length of time will of itself 
 and without more ado bring about that perfect stage at 
 which a minister's whole being is subdued to his work, and 
 his work has become the spontaneous expression of himself. 
 It is true that there is no better means of grace nor any 
 finer training for the ministry, than just to do the work of 
 it : provided always that it be done in the very spirit of it, 
 
 ^ Cf. Schweizer, Pastor altheorie (1875), p. 223 ff. 
 
 ^ For a realistic sketch of a minister's work, showing how unlike it is to 
 the ideal with which one sets out, see Dr. Watson's Cure of Souls (Yale 
 Lectures, 1896), pp. 227-234. 
 
THE MINISTER'S DEVOTIONAL LIFE 45 
 
 not as a function, perfunctorily, but as the utterance of a 
 soul in fellowship with Christ. But then that is precisely 
 the condition which it is so excessively hard to secure and 
 to maintain. For of all plagues in ministerial life this is 
 the most common, the most inveterate, and the sorest — 
 that its duties tend to become perfunctory, professional 
 and nothing more ; done correctly to the public eye, but 
 without heart in the sight of God. For when a sacred 
 duty becomes customary, it ceases to be so sacred to us. 
 The sense of responsibility weakens by repetition. Holy 
 awe at the solemn issues of one's work rubs off the soul 
 with long practice, like bloom from the peach when it is 
 handled. With this melancholy result in innumerable 
 cases, that, in proportion as a minister gets used to the 
 conventional way of conducting divine service and dis- 
 charging other functions in his daily routine, does he 
 find it difficult to do them in the old spirit, with a 
 tender solemn fear, and a scrupulous care not to pro- 
 fane them, and a humbling of his soul because of 
 unworthiness. 
 
 Now the only cure for perfunctory service is the 
 cultivation of the interior hfe of devotion. This includes 
 a sharpening of the conscience to perceive one's hidden 
 faults ; a deepening of contrition for them when discovered ; 
 a more abiding sense of the divine presence ; a firmer and 
 less unstable reHance on the aid of the Holy Spirit : — every- 
 thing, in short, which goes to make a holy man of God. In 
 particular, I think that feature in personal religion is to 
 be cultivated which we signahsed as the first to be asked 
 after when one begins to contemplate the ministry at all : 
 I mean, sympathy with the heart of Jesus in His Saviour- 
 hood ; in His zeal for the Father's honour ; His pity for 
 the lost ; His seeking till He find ; His lowly service of 
 meanest needs ; His surrender of all things, even of life, 
 for the salvation of others. To maintain this spirit of his 
 Master, so far as he has it, and to deepen it, and to perfect 
 it, ought to be, as I think, the first care of a true minister ; 
 
46 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 for none of his qualifications is so apt to be lost, and of 
 none is the loss so disastrous. 
 
 The means to be used for the cultivation of the inner 
 life are so simple and well-known that they hardly need to 
 be named. It is much to be wished, indeed, that the 
 whole surroundings of a minister's life, his daily habits, his 
 companionships, and his domestic arrangements, should as 
 far as possible be of a kind to favour, and not repress, 
 religious ardour, especially ardour in his Master's cause. 
 Mainly, however, like every other Christian, he has to be 
 dependent on seasons set apart for devotional reading, 
 meditation, and prayer. The difficulty in the experience 
 of most lies less in lack of will than in lack of leisure. 
 Present-day ministers stand at a disadvantage, compared 
 with their brethren of an older generation. The days are 
 past when a clergyman's life could be described as a quiet 
 one, with stated, but not too frequent, public appearances, 
 separated by considerable intervals free from interruption, 
 which could be devoted to other pursuits, to study, or to 
 devotion. Survivals of this state of things may still be 
 found in rural parsonages or in Highland parishes ; but in 
 the industrial town or large city, the pressure on every 
 minister's time, due to a whirl of public engagements, has 
 crowded out the leisure which was once enjoyed for retire- 
 ment, reflection, and prayer. His days are spent in public. 
 His hours are claimed by ceaseless demands, arising in part 
 from the organisation of the modern congregation, and in 
 part from the so-called " religious world " outside. 
 
 It has come to be a serious problem with many of us 
 how far one is justified in surrendering to the social, phil- 
 anthropic or semi-political " causes " for which a minister's 
 active co-operation is expected, indeed, is all but demanded, 
 hours which are required for higher things. Even the 
 machinery of committees and societies by which ecclesiastical 
 affairs have come to be carried on exacts from not a few 
 active and willing men a waste of time against which they 
 are beginning to rebel. Our modern methods of doing 
 
THE MINISTER'S DEVOTIONAL LIFE 47 
 
 Christian work of all kinds need, it seems to me, to be 
 overhauled and simplified. Endless wheels revolve with 
 small result. There is room for a better distribution of 
 responsibility for what is every Christian's affair, a lightening 
 of the load that is laid by tacit consent upon the shoulders 
 of the clergy, with possibly an enhstment of larger aid 
 from such of the laity as have leisure. At all events, no 
 busy pastor ought to be suspected either of laziness or of 
 lack of proper interest, who ventures firmly to decline 
 outside engagements on the plea that his closet or his study 
 is being starved. 
 
 Another modern burden under which the minister, like 
 other men in public office, sometimes groans, is his 
 correspondence. His daily post-bag may be counted by 
 dozens, yet courtesy requires a prompt return to every 
 correspondent, who, writing on his own affairs, has 
 forgotten, nevertheless, to enclose a stamp for reply. Even 
 the harmless post- card is hardly accepted as a substitute 
 for a letter. Nor does professional etiquette sanction as 
 yet the cutting down of epistolary style to the curtness 
 of a city office, and periphrastic politeness costs trouble. 
 It is a ceaseless drain upon time and temper, as well as on 
 the purse ; but it is one which a busy minister must tutor 
 himself to accept as simply a part of his daily task. 
 
 What makes the matter worse is that much of all this 
 daily business is really of a secular character, only in name 
 rehgious work at all. Therefore it not only squanders 
 one's scanty leisure, it absorbs one's spiritual energies. By 
 its multiphcity and pettiness, it conceals the sacredness of 
 the minister's vocation. It renders more needful than ever 
 that quiet brooding over divine themes which happier 
 generations enjoyed, till in the stillness of devout musing 
 a holy fire burned. If it never was so difficult, it has 
 rarely been more necessary, for the minister to be a man of 
 much private devotion. 
 
 It is of no use to quarrel with the conditions of one's 
 age. Granted that there are drawbacks in the din and 
 
48 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 stress of modern society, there are doubtless compensations 
 also. Let the sensible minister take stock of his situatioji 
 and make the most of it ; note its perils, and set himself to 
 escape them. Let him cultivate intimacy with like-minded 
 brethren. Let him seek inspiration from the most fervid 
 evangehsts or missionaries he comes across. Let him be 
 careful not to lose touch with the actual needs of the 
 world — its sin and its suffering. Let him learn to utilise 
 for self-recollection the few spare moments that are 
 intercalated between the engagements of the busiest day, 
 and cultivate the habit of ejaculatory prayer. All these 
 things help. Above all, let him jealously guard such 
 private hours as he can compass, remembering that times 
 for devotion, if not likely to be found, have at any cost to 
 be made. 
 
 Among the High Church clergy, as in the best circles 
 of the Catholic priesthood, a good deal of value is put 
 upon " retreats " : prearranged seasons, that is, of deliberate 
 withdrawal from ordinary ways for the discipline of the 
 devout life through exercises which are partly social, but 
 largely solitary. Such methods do not suit Protestant 
 taste so well. Yet small fraternal conventions for similar 
 purposes have been tried in other sections of the Church 
 and found useful. These things may supplement, they 
 cannot replace, daily and weekly periods of lonely devotion 
 in the closet. Each man must arrange these as he best 
 can. The morning half-hour, or hour, ere the day begins, 
 before letters or newspapers have distracted one's thoughts ; 
 a longer season once a week, preferably on Saturday 
 evening as the Lord's Day approaches : these, with, of 
 course, as I have just suggested, an occasional summons to 
 oneself in the course of the day to recall the presence 
 of God, and silent petitions shot up to Heaven at moments 
 of conscious need: — these may be all that a busy pastor 
 can afford. At rarer intervals, a whole day spared from 
 holiday recreation for prolonged self-scrutiny and meditation 
 is advisable. Many a minister, I am afraid, would confess 
 
THE MINISTER'S DEVOTIONAL LIFE 49 
 
 here to a record of failure — plans formed again and again, 
 only to be broken. But he must never give in. This is 
 the key of the position. For such hours of solitude with 
 God he must fight as for the breath of his life. To let 
 engagements, no matter how clamant, rob him of such 
 hours, and to acquiesce in the loss of them, means failure. 
 There is no sorer battle in ministerial hf e ; but defeat here 
 is fatal. 
 
 How the precious moments redeemed for secret 
 worship can be best used, or what aids to devotion he shall 
 employ, must be left to each man's own experience. 
 Many will confine their reading at such times to Holy 
 Scripture ; but it needs to be read meditatively and with 
 self-application, not for scholarly study or to find material 
 for sermons. Devotional books of the best class are not 
 too numerous, but they are to be had. Some have found 
 stimulus in the lives and diaries or letters of saintly men 
 like Kutherford, Brainerd, Henry Martyn, or M'Cheyne. 
 To others these memoirs do not appeal. One of the most 
 searching and widely helpful books in English literature is 
 Baxter's Reformed Pastor, which one American writer 
 counsels the minister to read through once a year.^ Others 
 find they can use with benefit a few choice manuals of 
 Catholic devotion. Every man/ must be guided by what 
 he finds most helpful. But such helps, however valuable, 
 are not for everyday use, nor at any time of the first 
 consequence. The great thing to aim at surely must be to 
 come into the closest and most living contact with the 
 Father of our spirits through His Son, reviewing in His 
 presence one's work and the spirit in which it is done, that, 
 having confessed with contrition its defects, one may catch 
 afresh a holy enthusiasm from the altar of Jesus' Passion. 
 For this must lead every earnest servant of Christ to 
 register fresh vows of fidelity and to re-dedicate himself to 
 his ministry with revived ardour. How it is done matters 
 little. But the minister's communion with his Lord needs to 
 
 1 Shedd, Homiletics and Pastoral Theology (Edin. 1869), p. 281. 
 4 
 
so ' THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 be intimate and unreserved. May we not fitly regard the 
 hour of prayer as a workman's confidential interview with 
 Him whose work he is doing, at which everything is talked 
 over, with infinite reverence, yet frankly, with the generous 
 Master, and instructions and assistance are received in view 
 of fresh labours now to be attempted ? 
 
CHAPTEK VI 
 MINISTERIAL CHARACTER 
 
 Betwixt the interior life with its secret exercises, through 
 which the minister strives to bring himself into ever closer 
 accord with the spirit of his ministry, and the public 
 functions of his office, there lies a wide intermediate 
 region of action common to him with other men. 
 
 It does not enter into the Protestant conception of a 
 presbyter or clergyman that, like a Catholic priest, he 
 should be separated as far as possible from ordinary life, 
 social or domestic. Ever since the idea entered the Church 
 at an early period in her history, that Jesus had counselled 
 for certain of His followers a superior grade of virtue and 
 of merit, which is optional, not obligatory upon all, the 
 order of the priesthood has come to lead a removed or 
 isolated existence, aiming at this more perfect type of 
 saintship. Freedom from family ties, segregation in 
 separate dwellings, ascetic self-discipline, virginal purity, 
 a daily routine ordered by artificial rules, and a life wholly 
 devoted to religious exercises : all these were steps in a 
 historical process which has ended in denaturalising the 
 presbyter into the priest, and concealing him behind a halo 
 of unearthly sanctity, genuine or imaginary. 
 
 Neither the seclusion of a celibate nor the ascetic- 
 ism of a monk attaches to the ideal of an evangelical 
 minister. For one reason, because he is simply the first 
 in a brotherhood of saints, all of whom are his spiritual 
 equals, sharing and sustaining his responsibilities. Also, 
 because it contributes to his legitimate influence as a 
 
 51 
 
52 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 leader, counsellor, and exemplar, that he should mingle 
 with little reserve in those social relationships which bind 
 men to one another ; be husband and father, friend and 
 neighbour, subject and citizen, like the rest. Above all, 
 because true Christianity does not know of two ethical 
 standards of conduct — two codes of moral duty : a lower 
 level which is all that a man can reach who has to lead 
 the secular life, and a higher to which he only may attain 
 who abjures marriage, flees worldly society, and observes 
 a peculiar style of living. That the holiness which suffices 
 for a layman is too poor a degree of virtue to become the 
 ecclesiastic who handles sacred things, is not a notion 
 confined to persons trained in Catholic teaching. It has 
 been found to creep in wherever an exalted reverence for 
 clerical office has possessed the popular mind. Nor is 
 there any security against artificial or imreal distinctions in 
 morals, save by holding firmly to the principle that there 
 can be but one standard of character for all alike — one 
 perfect Christian walk in the Holy Spirit, obligatory on 
 the humblest believer as much as on the bishop of souls. 
 
 At the root of this exaggerated demand for ministerial 
 sanctity, there is nevertheless a truth which it is of con- 
 sequence for the minister to bear in mind. It is not 
 unreasonable for the common people to expect their 
 spiritual guides to be on the whole better men and better 
 Christians than themselves. For although the same 
 principles of conduct bind the pastor and the flock, yet 
 they bind the pastor even more than his flock. All 
 Christians alike ought to aim at the perfection of Christ, 
 for we dare measure ourselves by no inferior model. But 
 to approach that standard is popularly believed, not 
 without reason, to be easier for the man whose days are 
 screened in some measure from the usual temptations 
 which beset life in the world, and are spent so largely in 
 the things of reUgion. To fall below the standard, on the 
 other hand, is worse and more discreditable in one who is 
 set before the eyes of other men as a selected representative 
 
MINISTERIAL CHARACTER 53 
 
 of how a Christian ought to act. According to one ex- 
 planation of the word " parson," it means the persona who 
 represents the Church, in whom its ideal is embodied or 
 its character illustrated.^ The reason assigned for this 
 derivation, as Dr. Skeat remarks, " may well be doubted 
 without affecting the etymology." ^ But the idea is a just 
 one nevertheless. For, beyond doubt, every minister of 
 Christ is, in Vinet's phrase, "I'homme symbole."^ He 
 stands before the Church and before the public as an 
 embodiment of the Christian ideal, a specimen Christian, 
 from whom men may learn what a Christian ought to be. 
 His life, as Philip Henry put it, " should be the book of 
 the ignorant." No doubt, the public voice pushes this too 
 far. Too much is popularly expected from ministers ; and 
 religion is reproached for their defects to an extent which 
 is excessive and unfair. That is true, I think, even where 
 the inconsistencies of " the cloth " are not made by the 
 profane a mere pretext for hostile attacks upon religion 
 itself. Yet, however it may serve tlie purpose of irreligious 
 critics to hold the Gospel responsible for the faults of its 
 public servants, it remains true, and is to be seriously 
 pondered by every minister, that he who has undertaken 
 to be Christ's assistant in the task of showing others the 
 way to heaven, has need himself to walk very closely in 
 the Good Shepherd's footsteps. To say that he ought to 
 be a follower of his Master is to say too little. He is 
 called to be " an ensample to them that believe " ; ^ one 
 who, with whatever modest misgiving or reserve, may yet 
 borrow without flagrant presumption the bold exhortation 
 of St. Paul : " Be ye imitators of me, even as I also am 
 of Christ." ^ If we who hold office in the Church do not 
 lay to heart as we ought this more urgent reason for 
 blameless conduct which lies upon us, other people do not 
 forget it. The world never does. The Church rarely does. 
 
 1 Shedd, ut supra, p. 282. ^ Etymological Diet., S2ch voce. 
 
 3 TMol. Pastorale, 2me ed., Paris, 1854, p. 140. 
 
 *» 1 Tim. 412, cf. Tit. 2\ ^ 1 Cor. US cf. 4i«. 
 
54 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 So that, while the very highest type of honourable and 
 irreproachable character is never deemed anything to boast 
 of in a minister of Christ, very slight faults call down 
 severe censure from all but the most charitably-minded 
 persons. 
 
 ]S"or is it without good cause that by some modern 
 German authorities this subject of clerical morality is 
 handled in connection with pastoral duty, as at once the 
 prime condition for its right discharge, and the chief 
 source of the pastor's influence.^ But, in truth, it is not 
 his pastoral usefulness alone, it is the success of his 
 ministry as a whole, which requires the minister to be an 
 exceptionally good man. No doubt ministerial success of 
 the highest kind is conditioned on the superhuman power 
 of the Spirit of God. In so far, however, as it is affected 
 by the human instrument at all, it is far more affected by 
 his goodness than by intellectual ability. The most useful 
 ministers are by no means always the ablest, still less the 
 most eloquent. The influence which a minister wields is 
 moral influence, built on the confidence, respect, and 
 affection which men always give to one whose life re- 
 commends his message and puts detractors to shame. 
 Words have little weight unless backed by a consistent 
 example ; private dealing in such a case only provokes 
 contempt ; ministrations without heart are instinctively 
 detected and leave no blessing. The whole value of our 
 work, in short, is put in hazard when it is not penetrated 
 by that indefinable sense of moral authority which belongs 
 to character and to nothing else. Says Baxter : " One 
 proud, surly, lordly word, one needless contention, one 
 covetous action, may cut the throat of many a sermon, and 
 blast the fruit of all you have been doing." 
 
 To name all that a minister ought to be would be to 
 rehearse the complete circle of Christian graces. But within 
 the ideal of the all-round Christhke character, incumbent 
 
 ^e.g. Schweizer, op. cit., Dritter Theil ; Palmer, Pastoraltheologic (1863), 
 pp. 143-209 ; Achelis, Praktische Thcol. (1890) p. 467 flf. 
 
MINISTERIAL CHARACTER 55 
 
 on him as on every Christian, there is a specialised type, 
 determined by the conditions of his calling, which it is 
 usual to speak of as the ministerial character; just as 
 there certainly are faults which deform it more than others 
 do, and which more quickly dissipate his official influence. 
 For both of these we cannot do better than study the 
 indications scattered through the New Testament as to 
 what a church officer is expected to be ; especially the 
 directions given in the Pastoral Epistles for the selection 
 of presbyters, as well as for the guidance of Timothy and 
 Titus themselves.^ To some extent, it is true, these are 
 coloured by local conditions and by the habits of the time. 
 Yet in the main they are applicable everywhere and in 
 every age of the Church. Guided by these inspired 
 directories, we reach the following as leading features in 
 ministerial character : — 
 
 1. The groundwork of the character described seems 
 to consist in that grave or serious frame of mind which 
 goes with habitual self-command.^ Obviously this befits 
 the sacred and responsible position of a minister. It is 
 not inconsistent with constitutional cheerfulness or even 
 with playfulness on occasion. But it excludes uncontrolled 
 outbreaks of temper ; it requires all indulgence of the 
 senses to be severely temperate ; and it suggests sobriety or 
 moderation in one's judgments on men and things, as well 
 as a gravity of deportment which is neither austere nor 
 sour. The passionateness of a hasty nature and the 
 frivolity of a shallow one are equally out of place. 
 
 2. Close on the heels of this follows the gentle or 
 pacific temperament, tutored to meet opposition with 
 patience, and to bear contumely or wrong without undue 
 resentment. " The Lord's servant must not strive, but be 
 
 ^ Fully treated by Fairbairn in his work on The Pastoral Epistles j cf. 
 also Vilmar, Lehrhuch d. Fastoraltheologie (1872), pp. 39-56. 
 
 ^ The student should examine the precise force of (rib<ppci}v, ^o-tos, iineiK'/js, 
 Kda-fxLos, and the like words used in N.T. to describe the moral attitude of 
 the presbyter. 
 
56 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 gentle towards all, apt to teach, forbearing, in meekness 
 correcting them that oppose themselves." ^ This character- 
 istic Christian attitude, in contrast to the self-assertion and 
 contentious insistence on one's supposed rights which is the 
 usual temper of society, finds scope for its exercise even in 
 the quietest times, when a minister has nothing worse to 
 encounter than the wilfulness or touchiness of good people. 
 In days of rebuke and strife and persecution, it can rise to 
 a heroic height, and discover the strength of a divine 
 patience that knows how to " endure all things for the 
 Gospel's sake." 
 
 3. It sounds like an anti-climax to add that the 
 minister is not to be a greedy man nor a lover of money. 
 But no one will feel surprise at the emphasis laid on this ^ 
 who recollects with what sharp eyes the public looks for 
 signs of self-interest in those who profess devotion to higher 
 aims. Money is so completely the god of the vulgar, that 
 they instinctively test our religion by this — is money not 
 our god too ? And there is no point where a minister's 
 failure to rise above the world's own level will sooner 
 undermine the respect which society entertains for him. 
 To preach only for a fee, to covet promotion for a bigger 
 salary, to marry for a fortune, to court the well-to-do and 
 neglect the poor, to be stingy to dependants, and so on : 
 by ways like those an ill name is easily brought upon the 
 ministry and the Church. 
 
 From these with similar directions it is not hard to 
 gather a fairly exact conception of the sort of Christian 
 whom the New Testament would have an official Church- 
 man to be. And the man who answers to this conception, 
 who is temperate and sober-minded, gentle, not soon angry 
 nor contentious, and no lover of money, is just the man 
 likely to be " without reproach," having, as he needs to 
 have, " a good testimony from them that are without." ^ 
 
 1 2 TiiE. 22^- 25. 2 1 Tim. z\ Tit. 1^. 
 
 3 Cf. 1 Tim. 32-7 and Tit. P-»- 
 
CHAPTEE VII 
 
 MINISTERIAL MANNERS 
 
 When we pass from moral character to " manners," we 
 enter a wide and miscellaneous department of conduct, 
 conversant with the minor ethics of life, with its pro- 
 prieties and outward details. Here each one's idiosyn- 
 cracies play a large part. So much so, that a man's 
 demeanour, conversation, and bearing, especially during his 
 unbent hours, are on the whole perhaps the sincerest 
 utterance of what is distinctive about him — that from 
 which he is most surely known by his fellows. Yet 
 nobody but a " character " or an oddity acts on the 
 principle of abandoning himself to do just what he likes. 
 Each of us, t<) a greater or less degree, abstains from the 
 free indulgence of personal tastes, likings, or whims ; be- 
 cause he keeps these things under subjection to some 
 ruling aim or more general principle of conduct. Thus 
 one man orders his exterior life wholly in compliance with 
 social convention or the traditions of his class. Another 
 tries to fashion himself by his own ideas of what is proper 
 or becoming to a person in his position. With many it is 
 the wish to get on in the world or to make a fortune 
 which forms the determining consideration. Now, for the 
 minister of religion such a restraining rule is found in his 
 desire to " give no occasion of stumbling in anything, that 
 his ministration be not blamed." ^ He is entrusted with 
 an office, noble and holy, with which the honour and the 
 cause of Jesus Christ are wrapt up, and it must not suffer 
 
 1 2 Cor. 63. 
 57 
 
58 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 at his hands. It is not his personal reputation as a 
 man he has chiefly to care for ; it is his reputation as a 
 servant of Christ and an officer in His house. Love for 
 the souls he is set to save, which must ever be his highest 
 motive, prescribes as the normal rule to be observed in 
 every detail of behaviour, the small as well as the greater : 
 *' Take thought for things honourable, not only in the sight" 
 of the Lord, but also in the sight of men." ^ 
 
 Youth is impatient of restraint ; and (in spite of the 
 text-books of his craft which speak here with one voice) 
 many a young minister, fresh from the freedom of student 
 years, begins by resenting as unreasonable, if not unmanly, 
 such deference to what people will think or say of him. 
 St. Paul was by nature a man of marked individuality, 
 in whom the love of liberty was exceptionally strong. In 
 reading his correspondence, one feels that he sometimes 
 frets under the necessity of vindicating his actions, or of 
 adjusting his movements to the prejudices of friend and 
 foe. Yet it is he who by precept and example is here the 
 Church's foremost legislator. To him more than to any 
 other do we owe the rule that Christ's servant, though he 
 be free from all men, must bring himself under bondage to 
 all, that he may gain the more, becoming all things to all 
 men that he may by all means save some.^ Longer 
 experience in the ministry brings most of us back to Paul's 
 rule as our safest guide. 
 
 1. The obligation of this canon is most apparent when 
 it is applied to the borderland of morals, the debatable 
 ground where dwell what are known as adiaphora — 
 questions of conduct which change their moral complexion 
 with changing circumstances, or on which conscientious 
 men may easily differ as to the limits of the permissible. 
 The great passages in which the Apostle has worked out 
 with care the Christian duty of the strong-minded to 
 respect the scruples of weaker brethren, and to abstain from 
 what will put an occasion of falling in their way, deserve 
 1 2 Cor. 82^ 2 I coj.. 9I8-2S. 
 
MINISTERIAL MANNERS 59 
 
 to be specially studied by every young minister.^ The 
 duty is indeed incumbent on all Christians, for it springs 
 out of brotherly love. But for more reasons than one it 
 is peculiarly binding on the minister. His behaviour is 
 more widely known and narrowly observed than that of 
 private Christians. More is looked for from him than from 
 a layman. When he is blamed, religion is blamed. Above 
 all, he is a guide and pattern whom others think it safe 
 to imitate, whose example, therefore, may easily mislead 
 the immature, the ill-informed, or the weak, into doing 
 what is safe for him, yet perilous for them. 
 
 One cannot bluntly lay it down as a rule that he 
 is never to do anything which can possibly be ill-taken 
 or uncharitably construed, or for which some persons 
 might blame him. That would be to make him a slave 
 to popular opinion. To his own Master he stands or falls ; 
 and so long as he is clear in his own conscience, it is 
 comparatively a small matter for him how society thinks 
 of him. But then it is to Christ Himself, as Master and 
 Saviour of weak and strong alike, that this care for the 
 effect of his example is due. He must " cause no hin- 
 drance to the Gospel." He must beware lest through 
 his knowledge he that is weak perish, " the brother for 
 whose sake Christ died." It is not men he has to please, 
 else he would not be a servant of Christ. But for 
 Christ's sake, and for Christ's work's sake, and for the 
 sake of Christ's redeemed, he must not allow himself to 
 do any doubtful act, which he thinks he can do with a 
 good conscience, till he has weighed beforehand its probable 
 effects upon others as well as upon his own ministerial 
 influence. 
 
 I have hinted at one limit of danger to be observed 
 in practising this prudential regard to men's opinions. 
 It is when it degenerates into mere prudence or a slavish 
 fear for the judgment of others : asking not, what in view 
 of all the circumstances Christ would have me to do, but 
 
 1 Rom. 14, 1 Cor. 8-10. 
 
6o THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 what will the religious public say, or my congregation, or 
 the newspapers ! This extreme demoralises conscience, 
 robbing it of independence and virility. There is another 
 limit of danger : when by sacrificing to others our own 
 judgment of what is permissible, we help to create, or, by 
 accepting, sanction, a false standard of right and wrong. 
 Some things, for example, a layman may do without giving 
 offence which would be held improper for a clergyman. 
 This may be carried so far that the same act appears, not 
 unbecoming merely, but positively sinful in the clergyman, 
 though quite lawful for other people. We have no right 
 to give way to popular prejudice to the effect of thus 
 erecting Protestant " counsels of perfection." It must ever 
 be made clear that when a minister abdicates his liberty 
 to do what others are doing without committing sin, it 
 is a freewill abdication of his moral freedom, not a betrayal 
 of it. The same danger of yielding unwisely, or too far, 
 will arise as often as a false morality is growing up inside 
 any community. Thus, should an act of self-denial, say, 
 be pressed, not as a voluntary sacrifice of one's rights, 
 but as a duty absolutely binding on every Christian's con- 
 science, or as a term of office, or even of Church member- 
 ship, then it may become for a time more needful to assert 
 liberty in things indifferent than to surrender it, to correct 
 the sentiment of the community than to respect it. 
 
 Subject to these limits, however, the canon for such 
 matters stands : " Give no occasion of stumbling, either to 
 Jews, or to Greeks, or to the Church of God." ^ 
 
 2. On similar lines may the minister usually guide 
 himself in less important particulars of ordinary life : his 
 costume and public deportment, for example, or his social 
 intercourse. He can never divest himself of his official 
 character, even when not occupied with the duties of office. 
 Hence his whole behaviour is to be informed by the spirit 
 of his ministry, and influenced by a genuine concern for 
 its highest ends. 
 
 i 1 Cor. 1032. 
 
MINISTERIAL MANNERS 6i 
 
 As to such outward matters as appearance and bearing, 
 there is a happy mean to be struck between such a 
 demeanour as obtrudes upon the bystander the thought of 
 one's sacred calling and such as would require people to 
 forget it. 
 
 At the one extreme there is a peculiar clerical or semi- 
 priestly air — be it hauteur, or primness, or an unctuous 
 affectation of sanctity, or professional stand-offishness — 
 which produces a painful impression on the spectator. It 
 is as if the minister not only could never forget that he is 
 different from other men, but wished them never to 
 overlook the difference. This overdone consciousness of 
 his position is fatal to any frank and purely human 
 fellowship with laymen. At all costs it is to be avoided. 
 Beginning at first in the youthful clergyman as a mere 
 affectation, it grows to be an unconscious habit in the 
 elderly. Whether it appear in a demure look or a self- 
 important one, in a patronising manner or a preter- 
 naturally solemn face, or in a professional trick of the 
 voice, it is quite contemptible and often ridiculous. 
 Whatever he is, let the minister be a man, simple and 
 unaffected. 
 
 On the other hand, there is an opposite extreme : when 
 the minister of Christ affects the layman, permits himself 
 such an abandon of manner, eccentricities of gait, unclerical 
 attire, loud bold speech, effusive demonstrativeness, 
 unseasonable or excessive jocosity, and the like, as to 
 betray, if not forgetfulness of his calling, at least 
 indifference to its sacredness. By thus ignoring any 
 distinction between his own position and that of others, 
 he provokes onlookers to ignore it likewise; or, if they 
 remember it, as all serious persons must do, then they will 
 be vexed and ashamed at the incongruity between his 
 calling and his deportment. 
 
 Somewhere between the two extremes lies the 
 demeanour that is becoming. It is difficult to define in 
 words. Yinet, with a Frenchman's neatness in phrasing, 
 
62 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 puts it thus: "II faut . . . sinon qu'on le reconnaisse 
 pasteur, du moins qu'on ne s'^tonne pas d'apprendre qu'il 
 est pasteur."^ Compare Schweizer's clumsier way of 
 saying the same thing : " Man nimmt das Amt nicht 
 iiberall hin mit sich, sondern nur das Bewusstsein in 
 anderen Stunden vor denen, mit welchen man jetzt gesellig 
 frei umgeht, amtlich aufzutreten." ^ 
 
 It is certainly to be desired that a sense of the 
 sacredness of his official duties be never so utterly absent 
 from a clergyman as to exert no sobering influence upon 
 even his lightest or most unguarded hours. But this will 
 not come by effort, or deliberate thinking about the matter. 
 It comes by his being such a man as becomes his ofi&ce. 
 When the spirit of the holy ministry, grave, simple, sweet 
 and peaceful as it is, becomes the ruling spirit of the man, 
 possesses and informs his inmost being, then will he 
 unaffectedly and unconsciously be everywhere and always 
 the minister. He will need to put on no airs, to check no 
 natural outflow, to study no prim or solemn paces. Being 
 what he is, he will be what he ought to be. So it is best. 
 But since we cannot all be thus ideal ministers, nor be it 
 all at once, there is need for cautions and rules. Hence 
 the text-books on the subject usually give detailed advice. 
 For instance : in dress the pastor is told not to be singular 
 or attract observation, but to wear what good society 
 expects to be worn by men of his profession ; following, 
 not preceding, the prevalent mode. In conversation, he 
 is counselled to speak little rather than too much ; quietly 
 rather than loudly ; to argue seldom and wrangle never ; 
 to be sparing of slang ; to jest playfully, not bitterly ; and 
 never to point his jests with Scripture or subjects connected 
 with his calling. As to demeanour ; gravity tempered with 
 habitual affability or accessibility, and relieved upon 
 occasion by innocent playfulness, is what the authorities 
 recommend. Such counsels are not amiss. Only each 
 man has so completely a manner proper to himself that 
 
 1 Op. cit. p. 139. 2 Op. cit. p. 265. 
 
MINISTERIAL MANNERS 63 
 
 wide variations must be allowed if one is not to be pressed 
 into a Procrustean bed of professionalism. Enough that 
 each set himself from the outset to train himself into the 
 most perfect sympathy with the work to which he is 
 devoted, then let that inner self have free play to mould 
 by degrees his outward manner ; eschewing only with 
 dehberate endeavour whatever he knows ought to lower 
 him in the eyes of others. 
 
 3. Much casuistry has been expended on the subject of 
 clerical recreations. But few are likely to go far wrong 
 here. A conventional understanding seems to have been 
 reached, rather more liberal than was accepted a generation 
 back ; and amusements still held questionable by the 
 circle in which a minister moves fall into the class of 
 adiaphora, and are to be treated accordingly. On the 
 general question how he shall take his recreation, each man 
 must be left to decide : two rules only, as it seems to me, 
 being always kept in view : First, that diversions which 
 are not found in practice to refresh him, physically or 
 mentally, for his work, but rather to unfit him for it, 
 ought, on personal grounds, to be avoided ; and second, 
 that wherever the sentiment of the best members in his 
 own flock would be shocked by any form of amusement, 
 the presumption is in favour of abstaining, unless a cogent 
 reason can be pled on the other side. 
 
 4. I imagine the minister will find the same rule of 
 doing all things for the Gospel's sake, avoiding whatever 
 would lessen his legitimate influence, to be a safe guide 
 in social intercourse. 
 
 It is in intercourse with his own parishioners or 
 members of his own flock that mistakes are most likely 
 to be made. Friendly relations of a purely social character 
 with suitable families or single persons in the congregation 
 cannot, of course, be interdicted; and he will indulge in 
 these with the more freedom as he finds friends of kindred 
 tastes and culture to his own. The difficulty is, not to 
 give offence or awaken jealousy by his selection of 
 
64 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 intimates. So long as a man is everyone's pastor, he is 
 bound to be everyone's friend. He must " do nothing 
 by partiality " ; ^ that is, in every more intimate friendship 
 which he contracts inside the congregation, he ought 
 strictly to respect this limit, that his kindly pastoral 
 relations with the rest shall in no wise suffer. So narrow 
 and petty is sometimes the tone of society among the 
 lower middle classes from which many congregations 
 are drawn, so divided is it into coteries, so addicted to 
 gossip, and so touchy about its dignity, that not a few 
 promising pastorates are spoilt in this way. A little 
 indiscretion when a young minister begins work in a strange 
 town, a httle error due to ignorance of local feeling, is 
 occasionally enough to hamper his usefulness or his 
 comfort for years. It is safer to err on the side of reserve 
 or over-caution, at least till he has felt his ground. Better 
 to risk the imputation for a time of being unsociable, than 
 to let himself be entangled in old feuds, or compromised 
 ere he is aware as a partisan in some local squabble. To 
 the close of his ministry the minister should attach himself 
 to no clique or social set. He will be wise if he suffer no 
 intimacy to become over-familiar, or to monopoHse his 
 attentions, or to assume a purely secular complexion. In 
 the unreserve of his most familiar hours, it is well to 
 recollect that he is the minister of God to all his flock, 
 and to all of them alike. 
 
 It is expected of a newly-inducted minister, especially 
 when he happens to be the sole representative in the town 
 of his own branch of the Church, that he do a good deal 
 of work not strictly belonging to his own parish or congre- 
 gation. It is a simple duty of Christian brotherhood to 
 be on the best terms with all the other clergy and ministers 
 of the place, so far as they will let him ; and he owes it 
 to his position to take his fair share, when called upon, 
 in public movements in which Christian men combine. 
 This semi-professional occupation with outside affairs may 
 
 1 1 Tim. 521. 
 
MINISTERIAL MANNERS 65 
 
 mean a serious drain upon both time and strength, so that 
 (as I have hinted in a previous chapter) it often becomes 
 a question with a conscientious public-spirited minister 
 how far it should be kept up, at least after due homage 
 has been paid to the claims of sister Churches or of the 
 local public. A careful study of the situation may be 
 requisite before he decides; but the principles by which 
 he is to be guided appear to me simple : — 
 
 (a) No outside work ought to be suffered to infringe 
 upon the duties of his proper pastorate. He is the 
 minister, in the first instance, of a congregation that has 
 called him or of the parish of which he is the incumbent, 
 not of the town or of the public; and it deserves his 
 first care. 
 
 (h) Those forms of wider service have most claim upon 
 his spare energy which are most directly in the line of 
 his own work : those, that is, by which the spiritual 
 ends of the ministry are best served. 
 
 (c) Where a choice is open, preference may lawfully 
 be given to public engagements which, besides their other 
 claims upon him, promise to promote his influence or 
 usefulness at home, amongst the people of his charge. 
 
 (d) Other outside work can be taken up or let alone 
 just as he finds it laid to his hand by Providence, or 
 believes that he can thereby render some signal service 
 to the good of the community and to the kingdom of his 
 Lord and Master. 
 
CHAPTEK VIII 
 HOME LIFE 
 
 It is wedlock which constitutes the " home " in the true 
 sense ; and over a great part of Christendom, during 
 nearly the whole of its history, it has been judged advisable 
 in the interest of their sacred ofl&ce that ministers of the 
 Church should enjoy no " home life " at all. " CeHbacy 
 of clergy" was in the first instance an obvious inference 
 from the ascetic theory of morals which almost from the 
 outset infected Christian thought. He who ministers 
 about holy things will always be expected to order his 
 conduct by what his age accepts as its highest ideal. So 
 soon, therefore, as superior merit was assigned to virginity 
 over wedlock, the natural consequences followed. Prohibi- 
 tion, first of second marriages, next of marriage contracted 
 after ordination, as in the Orthodox Greek Church to-day, 
 and then of continued intercourse subsequent to ordination, 
 were so many steps leading up to the final enforcement 
 in the West of complete celibacy as a condition of priests' 
 orders. The growing stringency of the rule kept pace 
 with the growth of sacramental doctrine ; for it is above 
 all in the celebrant at the sacrifice of the altar that 
 Catholic feeling demands the utmost priestly purity. 
 
 Eegarded as a disciplinary regulation, this compulsory 
 celibacy in the Koman Church has had the effect, possibly 
 the intended effect, of securing a more subservient priest- 
 hood, entirely at the disposal of its superiors, and free 
 to give to the Church a devotion unshared by competing 
 family claims. Probably those only who have known the 
 
 66 
 
HOME LIFE 67 
 
 system by experience and observation from the inside are 
 in a position to say at what price this result has been 
 attained, or how far it has been worth the cost. At any 
 rate, I presume no Protestant regrets to-day that at the 
 Reformation the rule was dropped, almost as a matter 
 of course ; in part, because it was so closely inwoven with 
 the sacerdotal theory of ofi&ce that it stood or fell with 
 that, but mainly because it could plead no sufficient 
 justification from the New Testament or from the practice 
 of the Apostolic Age. 
 
 Not only did our Lord call St. Peter himself to the 
 Apostolate when he was already a married man, but Peter 
 continued in after years to enjoy the society of his wife, 
 even on his missionary tours.^ Although St. Paul gave 
 a preference to the unmarried state "by reason of the 
 present distress," and elected for himself to remain single, 
 yet even as an Apostle he claimed the right "to lead 
 about a wife " like Peter and the others.^ In the Pastoral 
 Letters it was assumed to be the rule that both presbyter- 
 bishops and deacons were to be family men. The solitary 
 phrase^ which, in the opinion of many, forbids second 
 nuptials to a presbyter, sanctions by implication his first 
 marriage, if it does not do more than sanction it. To 
 fix with confidence the original force of the words " the 
 husband of one wife " seems now to be beyond our power. 
 The phrase may prohibit the ordination of a cehbate ; 
 or it may forbid a second marriage to the presbyter; 
 or, as the foremost G-reek exegetes understood it, it may 
 allude to contemporaneous or bigamous connections which 
 the laxity of pagan manners rendered frequent — such, for 
 example, as a new alliance contracted within the lifetime 
 of a divorced partner.* No Keformed communion, so far 
 as I am aware, has officially adopted any one of these 
 
 1 Matt. 8", 1 Cor. 95. 2 1 Cor. 7^^^' 9^-^. 
 
 3 In 1 Tim. Z^ ^^ and Tit. 1«. 
 
 * So Theodoret, for instance, Theophylact, and Chrysostom. Cf. 
 Appendix B in Fairbairn's Pastoral Epistles (1874). 
 
68 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 interpretations by giving effect to it in its requirements 
 for ordination. All of them without exception have 
 vindicated for their clergy freedom in the matter ; certainly 
 they have never required them to be married men.^ 
 
 What has been regained for the Protestant minister 
 being just his natural right to order his home Hfe on 
 normal family lines, nothing can exonerate him from the 
 responsibihty of so ordering it that it shall promote and 
 not hinder the success of his ministry. It is plainly not 
 a matter on which any general rule can be laid down. 
 On the whole, as the result of nearly four centuries of 
 experience, the balance of opinion in Protestant countries 
 now leans pretty heavily in favour of family life, at least 
 in the case of settled pastorates in quiet times. For one 
 reason, because it contributes to the healthy development 
 of the minister's own character ; also, for the assistance 
 and encouragement in his work which he may derive from 
 suitable house companions ; but chiefly perhaps, in order 
 that from his own experience of domestic life in its duties, 
 temptations, and trials, he may the better counsel other 
 parents, instruct their children, and bring solace to their 
 homes in days of sorrow. 
 
 These considerations create, I think, a primd facie 
 probabihty in favour of family ties, but nothing more. 
 Not only do they depend on the character of the inmates and 
 the kind of home-life which they lead ; but in no case can 
 the advantages be all on one side. There is always 
 a minority of instances in which domestic advantages must 
 be sacrificed for the work's sake. For certain posts a 
 celibate alone ought to be eligible. Who would wish a 
 married man to volunteer for the chaplaincy of a leper 
 settlement, or to pioneer missionary effort among unvisited 
 cannibal tribes, or even to accept an appointment in a fever 
 swamp ? Men do such things, no doubt, who find women 
 heroic enough to share their lot. But one may be permitted 
 
 1 Lea in his History of Ecclesiastical Celibacy (3rd ed., 1907, i. 98) tells 
 us that in modem Russia ** marriage is obligatory on the parish priest." 
 
HOME LIFE 69 
 
 to doubt the wisdom of exposing wives or children to such 
 risks ; and no age has been without its examples of those 
 who, in the words of Jesus, have " made themselves eunuchs 
 for the kingdom of heaven's sake." ^ Instances much less 
 conspicuous may be occurring nearer home. Whatever be 
 the comforts of house-comradeship, circumstances will arise 
 which either place them beyond his reach, or make the 
 young minister feel that he can serve Christ better by 
 renouncing them. Questions of personal temperament may 
 enter, or questions of private means ; or family duty, as to 
 a widowed mother or an orphaned family of nephews and 
 nieces. He will not always have a free hand. His domestic 
 associates may be selected for him by Providence. But in 
 so far as he is free to choose, he has to consider what state 
 of life or what sort of household promises, in view of all 
 the conditions, to add the most, not to his personal happiness, 
 but to his spiritual power and to the probable usefulness of 
 his ministry. There are risks on every hand. If the 
 ordinary life of the family has in it great capabilities, 
 it also conceals grave difficulties. The call of Christ lays 
 exacting demands on those whom He selects for the honour 
 of it ; and single-hearted consecration to it is not always 
 easy to harmonise with the competing claims of earthly 
 kindred. A minister who shirks arduous or hazardous 
 duties in order to spare his wife anxiety or shelter his child 
 from infection, is not, I am afraid, unheard oE ; and the too 
 cosy home may easily grow seductive to an indolent 
 temperament. Allow the utmost weight one can to other 
 reasons for a celibate clergy, such as a mistaken asceticism 
 or a priestly conception of office, it will still be hard to 
 convince oneself that a rule so widespread and so difficult 
 of enforcement drew no part of its strength from real 
 temptations in family life, with which the devoted servant 
 of Christ in every communion will have to reckon. Of 
 what that may mean, one can catch some notion who 
 listens to the stern saying of our Master to a certain 
 
 1 Matt. 1912. 
 
70 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 disciple : " Leave the dead to bury their own dead ; but go 
 thou and publish abroad the kingdom of God." ^ 
 
 Often, therefore, it may become a question hard to solve 
 how far the spiritual " soldier on service " ought to " entangle 
 himself in the affairs of this life." ^ The young minister 
 who is free from family ties will be spared in any case some 
 distraction of energy and some loss of time. He is much 
 less dependent upon salary. He can more readily shift 
 his sphere of duty at home or go abroad on foreign 
 employment. In days of public disaster he will have 
 less to sacrifice for the cause of Christ. To a man who 
 for such reasons wishes to gather his life well in hand and 
 sit as loose as may be to whatever would divert him from 
 the " one thing " he does, it may easily occur that ties 
 of kindred ought not to be multiphed beyond those in 
 which God has already placed him. 
 
 It is, of course, on the question of marriage, though not 
 on that alone, that considerations like these commonly bear ; 
 and there is no such presumption either for or against the 
 wedded state as can release the bulk of men from the duty 
 of a dehberate and well-weighed choice. In the minister's 
 case, the leading element in his decision will probably be 
 one which concerns himself more than anyone else. The 
 reflex influence of a family home upon the minister's own 
 spirit, in the way either of sustaining him in his daily 
 duties or of incapacitating him for their discharge, is almost 
 incalculable. It is an aspect of home-life to which writers 
 on Pastoral Theology are quite justified in calling special 
 attention.^ In no other calling is a man so dependent 
 on home influences for keeping him day by day in the 
 fittest condition for doing his public duty as in the holy 
 ministry ; simply because in no other caUing does the 
 quaUty of work depend so absolutely on the moral and 
 religious state of the workman. It needs no words to 
 show that the quiet punctual orderliness of a well-conducted 
 
 1 Luke 960, cf. Matt. S^l 2 2 Tim. 2\ 
 
 3 e.g. Scliweizer in hia Pcbstoraltheorie (Leipzig, 1876, §§ 97-99). 
 
HOME LIFE 71 
 
 household must contribute materially to maintain serenity 
 of temper, with a constant readiness for duties which can 
 only be performed when one's spirit is at leisure from itself. 
 To secure regular hours for prayer and reading, to have 
 them free from interruption, to find the moral atmosphere 
 of the parlour or nursery in harmony with that of the study, 
 to be able to go forth from home to one's work in a self- 
 collected and reverent mood, and to return to it as to an 
 arbour of refreshment where one is sure of sympathy, — all 
 this means a great deal to the busy pastor, and it is pre- 
 cisely this which a suitable partner and a carefully ordered 
 household ought to furnish. 
 
 But they will only do so, of course, where his house- 
 mates are in such practical sympathy with the spirit of his 
 sacred calling that nothing is tolerated in the normal 
 arrangements or atmosphere of the home which is uncon- 
 genial or distracting, nothing to foster indolence or self- 
 indulgence, nothing either to damp his ardour or to restrain 
 him from his duty. Under adverse conditions, the mischief 
 which may be wrought by unsuitable companions in the 
 home circle is proportionately great. It is not from the 
 graver trials of family life that hindrance is to be appre- 
 hended. No : the family man has indeed given hostages 
 to fortune ; but sickness or bereavement will but ripen in 
 him as in other children of God the graces of patience, 
 tolerance, and compassion, fitting bim to be a better 
 messenger of consolation to his people. It is rather 
 the petty irritations of domestic intercourse, especially when 
 the household is a narrow or a pinched one, that are to be 
 dreaded. And it is here that love finds occasion for 
 continual self-denial in small things. A man is not to 
 repress the noisy glee of his children or vex the soul of his 
 wife with grumbles, merely thaC his study may be un- 
 disturbed by household din. Selfishly to fence himself 
 from worry at the expense of aU his house-mates would be 
 a poor way of cultivating the pastoral spirit. On the other 
 hand, sympathetic house-mates for their part will do what 
 
72 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 they can to guard his private hours of labour from unneces- 
 sary invasion. In a hundred details must every member of 
 the little circle be prepared for small unnoticed sacrifices — 
 sacrifices which win dignity only from the cause in which, 
 and the Master to whom, they are made. Neither must 
 the family expect, nor dare the minister concede, any time 
 or attention bestowed on their personal convenience which 
 is inconsistent with a conscientious performance of his 
 pubUc duties. Here the claims of kindred have to be 
 gently but firmly set aside in loyalty to a higher obligation. 
 " Who," said the Lord at one memorable moment in His 
 own ministry — " who is My mother, and who are My 
 brethren ? " ^ 
 
 Enough surely has now been said to emphasise the 
 unspeakable consequence which attaches — should he 
 decide upon married life — to a minister's choice of a 
 partner. This does not mean that the first thing to be 
 sought for in a pastor's wife is a helpmeet in his official 
 duties. In many circles, modern methods of organising 
 woman's work, philanthropic or religious, have created 
 most useful posts for ladies who possess the gift of public 
 speech or who can conduct meetings of their own sex. 
 This is tending, I think, to create an impression that 
 the best wife for any minister must be one who is herself 
 half a minister, fit for every variety of curate's work 
 in the parish. This seems to me a mistake. Although, 
 when other things are equal, it is obviously desirable, as 
 it is expected, that the lady of the parsonage or the manse 
 should be competent to take an active share in such 
 Christian service as falls nowadays to other ladies, yet 
 it is of far greater moment that she should make a 
 suitable house-companion for her husband. 
 
 Of course, that means a companion who suits him 
 not only as a man, but likewise as a minister. If a wife 
 is to be a helpmeet, the least that can be asked for is that 
 she be in the fullest possible sympathy with his ministry ; 
 
 1 Matt. 12^8. 
 
HOME LIFE 73 
 
 herself devoted in her own way to the same ends to which 
 he has devoted his life. A devout Christian, attached 
 to the branch of the Church in which her husband serves, 
 inspired by such a measure of zeal for the glory of her 
 Lord and the growth of His kingdom, that she is prepared 
 to share inevitable sacrifices for these objects : — this, it 
 seems to me, is the first requisite. Sacrifices there are 
 sure to be: very probably of pecuniary profit and social 
 position which her husband's talents might have won in 
 another profession ; possibly even of his health ; sacrifice 
 in any case of home privacy and of his society in leisure 
 hours for the sake of public engagements. A wife who 
 is too solicitous about worldly display or her own comforts, 
 or even so anxious to coddle her husband that she restrains, 
 instead of sustaining, him in the discharge of incumbent 
 duty, is nothing short of a hindrance rather than a help. 
 
 For the rest, what she needs above all is prudence, 
 and in most cases the qualities of a good housewife. 
 For the income of a pastor is usually a narrow one ; yet 
 his bills must be punctually paid, his housekeeping should 
 not appear penurious, and his home ought never to be 
 untidy. The domestic arrangements of the minister, in 
 respect of order and hospitality, need not differ from those 
 of other well-conducted Christian homes of the middle 
 class ; unless it be by an even greater simplicity of living 
 or avoidance of display, and by a hospitality which is 
 professional rather than promiscuous. His income rarely 
 allows of extravagance, either in table or in dress. In 
 only too many cases, not in one type of Church alone, 
 it is really inadequate to the legitimate claims upon it. 
 However restricted it be, an effort must be made to set 
 aside something — more than is called for from others 
 whose means are the same — for charitable and rehgious 
 objects. This is a necessity of his position which is apt 
 to press heavily upon the ill-paid minister. Yet it concerns 
 his honour and the credit of his office that he should pinch 
 at other points in order to be generous here. He will 
 
74 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 be exposed to many appeals, and will run unusual risks 
 of being taken in by the unworthy. Nevertheless, for 
 a man who represents the spirit of his Master, it is better 
 to be occasionally imposed upon than ever to be churlish 
 or unkind to the poor. I know that the shameless 
 mendicancy of modern city life is a grievous trial to 
 many a minister. It is well known to the professional 
 beggar and the begging-letter writer and the swarm of 
 lazy impostors who prey upon the charitable, that the 
 clergy are a class on whom distress has a professional 
 claim. The wise minister in a large town will find the 
 benefit of informing himseK about every local charity. 
 But guard his purse from the unworthy as he may, he 
 must be prepared to devote to charity a liberal percentage 
 of his slender income. 
 
 The judicious management of their resources is there- 
 fore a matter to which the minister and the lady of 
 his household — be she wife or sister — must not grudge 
 a good deal of conscientious and even prayerful attention. 
 If to diligence and domestic economy, the mistress of the 
 manse can add the supreme grace of silence that knows 
 how to endure without complaining, and neither to bear 
 tales, nor betray secrets, nor add needlessly to the pastor's 
 anxieties, then her presence in his dwelling will nearly 
 double the usefulness of his pastorate. All honour to 
 those obscure virtues of the home ! To be thrifty, neither 
 penurious nor mean ; to pay every debt honourably and 
 promptly ; to preserve the self-respect of gentle folks on 
 the income sometimes of a superior artisan ; to deny them- 
 selves personal comforts rather than complain or reveal 
 their poverty to the world ; to bear and be silent even 
 when, to the discredit of his people or of some careless 
 official, the stipend is not punctually forthcoming ; to keep 
 such sordid anxieties from their congregation, even, as far 
 as possible, from their own children; to retain a quiet 
 trust in God's providence, and go tranquilly about His 
 service, thopgh the purse be exceeding light : — these belong 
 
HOME LIFE 75 
 
 to the hidden heroisms of the pastoral calling. To do 
 them wins no fame, except in heaven. Not to do them 
 would dishonour the name we bear before an unfeeling 
 world. Many a manse and many a curate's parsonage 
 has concealed such heroic virtues ; and conceals them 
 to-day. 
 
 To " have his children in subjection with all gravity " 
 was very early specified as a quahfication for the episcopate. 
 The rule is perpetuated to-day in a popular expectation 
 that the children of the parsonage shall be patterns of care- 
 ful upbringing. It is by no means always the case. There 
 are difficulties in the way, peculiar to the ministerial calling. 
 The minister's family has to reconcile itself to his absence 
 on many evenings which most private citizens can spend 
 at home if they choose. In this way the care of growing 
 boys and girls is apt to be thrown more than is quite 
 desirable upon the mother, without the support to which 
 she is entitled from the head of the house. Other seasons 
 ought therefore to be found, or made, at which the father 
 can bring his paternal influence to bear, especially as the 
 young people are approaching adolescence. To be taking 
 care for the Church of God will be no excuse for failure to 
 rule well his own house ; and the lads who grow up un- 
 familiar with their father or untutored by his grave and 
 kindly wisdom, are all the more likely to go wrong. 
 
 But it is possible to err by excess, as well as by neglect, 
 of rule. I do not credit what one sometimes hears, that 
 the proportion of clergymen's sons who make shipwreck in 
 after years, is above the average in other callings. Statistic^ 
 are said to reveal an opposite result. At all events, it is 
 notorious that a high percentage of those who achieve 
 marked success in professional or business careers, come 
 from the homes of the clergy. The manse has proved 
 itself a fruitful nursery for the pulpit. Not seldom does 
 ministerial office tend to become hereditary. It is true 
 nevertheless that one's natural expectation is now and then 
 falsified by a minister's son who turns out badly, bringing 
 
76 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 not sorrow only, but discredit on an honoured father ; and 
 such a breakdown when it occurs is sure to attract more 
 than the usual measure of attention. Were it either 
 possible or needful to trace cases of this sort to any defect 
 in parental discipline, one might suspect them to be revolts 
 against undue severity in the training of the home. In 
 some instances, at all events, they have had this origin. 
 The tendency in previous generations has been, and to 
 some extent still is, to over-strictness ; notably in puritanical 
 circles, and with reference to such external points as the 
 observance of the Lord's Day. When a rigorous code of 
 conduct was conjoined with a narrow theology, it might be 
 suffered during the early years of childhood without much 
 visible harm ; but where restraints which were legitimate 
 or innocuous in childhood were prolonged after youths had 
 reached some degree of personal responsibility, and of the 
 sense of freedom which that brings along with it, they 
 were very apt to be succeeded by a recoil which might 
 easily become licence. 
 
CHAPTEE IX 
 CITIZENSHIP 
 
 The attitude which the Churches and in particular their 
 ministers ought to hold toward politics and social questions 
 is a matter on which a good deal of discussion has recently 
 taken place. It has revealed acute differences of opinion 
 which discourage the hope that any common line of action, 
 or even common principle of action, is likely soon to be 
 agreed upon. By some the advice is urgently given that 
 the ministry should confine itself to its " proper work " of 
 preaching the Gospel, striving to save individual souls from 
 sin. In other quarters loud and insistent voices are calling 
 on every minister of religion actively to engage in social 
 reform as part of his proper work, and in particular to 
 advocate legislative measures which aim at the moral or 
 economic elevation of the labouring poor. May there not 
 be wisdom in the suggestion that there is room and need 
 enough for ministers of both sorts, so that each man may 
 feel himself free to follow that course of conduct in this 
 matter .which commends itself to his own judgment, or 
 which best suits his temperament, his gifts, and his sphere 
 of labour ? 
 
 But since in no other department of his duty does the 
 young minister encounter greater perplexities than here, it 
 is certainly desirable, if only it be possible, to mark out 
 some guiding lines for his assistance. 
 
 1. In the quiet exercise of his political rights as a private 
 citizen, at least, no difficulty is likely to arise. That he is 
 as free as others, and certainly as much called on, to form 
 
 77 
 
78 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 his own opinions on politics and to give them effect at the 
 polling-booth, no one questions. His sacred office cannot 
 release him from the responsibility which attaches to all 
 citizenship. 
 
 2. Whether under any circumstances, and if so, under 
 what circumstances, he is well advised to become an active 
 and public party man, mingling in political strife, is less 
 clear. When, if ever, for instance, may he speak on a 
 political platform or canvass in an election ? 
 
 The obvious objections which it is usual to urge against 
 such a course arise partly from what is good for himself, 
 and partly from what is due to his office. Like his 
 medical brethren, though even more than they, the minister 
 is understood to be set by his sacred calling happily aloof 
 from, and in a sense above, the claims of mere partisanship ; 
 just in order that his time may be free for higher service 
 to the public, and that his thoughts may not be diverted 
 from higher concerns. Not that the din and dust of a 
 political contest must necessarily unfit every one who 
 engages in it for religious work ; still less that a Christian 
 who enters upon it from pure or noble motives is not 
 thereby serving Christ as well as his country. But the 
 minister of religion has prior claims upon him ; and he can 
 hardly descend into the arena without suffering distraction 
 from themes and from duties which deserve his undivided 
 attention. Still less is it safe to do so in the interests of 
 his office. He represents to the eye of the public a purely 
 religious society which has, or at least ought to have, no 
 political colour. The best of Christians may be found in 
 either political camp. The great majority of controverted 
 questions in the public life of the State, even when they 
 are not purely political, offer no such clear issue to the 
 Christian conscience as must range all religious persons 
 under the same banner. They may indeed have moral 
 aspects and probable moral issues ; but these are compli- 
 cated in almost every case either by the political principles 
 involved, or by prospective gain or loss to this or that 
 
CITIZENSHIP 79 
 
 political party. The result is that men of the highest 
 Christian character differ in their party allegiance, accord- 
 ing as family traditions, or early education, or personal 
 convictions, or the interest of their order, chance to sway 
 them. For the pastor under these circumstances con- 
 spicuously to espouse a side, must mean to place himself 
 alongside one portion of his flock in antagonism to another 
 portion of it. It must be so, as long as our Churches are 
 what Churches ought to be, and are not yet become gather- 
 ings of people who all think alike on affairs of State as 
 well as on the Gospel. 
 
 Nor is it simply from a prudential wish not to divide 
 the allegiance of his parishioners or alienate a part of his 
 congregation, that an official of the Church needs to keep 
 his duties as a private citizen carefully apart from his 
 pubhc position as a minister of religion. It is because, if 
 he engage in the public advocacy of a political cause 
 through the press or on the platform, his advocacy will be 
 regarded neither by friend nor foe as the action of a mere 
 private citizen — but also as that of a minister of religion. 
 Nor ought it to be, since the minister can never divest 
 himself of his official character, or of the prestige which 
 that gives him in the eyes of many. The weight of his 
 advocacy cannot but be increased by the fact that he is 
 a minister of religion. To carry over in this way into a 
 political camp, for purely poHtical ends, an influence which 
 comes to him from his sacred office, is to divert that 
 office to an end quite foreign to it. Moreover, this must 
 tend in the long run to weaken his prestige in the sphere 
 where it is legitimate. I mean, that he who misuses his 
 authority as a teacher of religion to support his opinions 
 as a politician, is sure to forfeit some of that authority, 
 even when it is religious truth he is enforcing. Especially 
 will those who differ from him in politics trust him the 
 less in religion. 
 
 Are we not touching here on one of the deepest 
 causes for that loss of clerical influence over large sections 
 
8o THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 of our population, which every reflecting person observes 
 and all serious persons deplore ? I have said that 
 Churches ought to have no political colour. It is one of 
 the worst fruits of ecclesiastical division in England, that 
 our several communions, being drawn to a large extent 
 from distinct classes among the people, have come to 
 reflect the political complexion of their respective con- 
 stituents. The ecclesiastical history of England has 
 produced recognised types of churchmanship which merge 
 into the outstanding parties of the political world. Even 
 the venerable Church of England, which ought to mirror 
 the mind of the whole nation, has had such long and 
 close historical associations with the ruling and privileged 
 classes, that it is confidently expected to cast its influence 
 on the side of rank, of the country gentry, of land owners, 
 and of the professions.^ Dissent in England has, through 
 its unfortunate history, acquired an opposite, but an even 
 more avowed bias. There are Churches which depend on 
 the prosperous and well-to-do middle class to such an 
 extent that they are almost identified in practice with 
 middle-class ideas or interests. Denominations, on the 
 other hand, which have done their best work among the 
 labouring poor, can hardly be blamed for championing the 
 cause of labour or advocating the claims of poverty, 
 although they may be able to bring to either little 
 financial and even less social strength. 
 
 All this, however easy it may be to account for it, 
 appears to me to have had the greatest and most deplor- 
 able results on the life of England ; and one of those I 
 
 ^ In his sermon preached before the Church Congress at Barrow in 1906, 
 and reprinted recently in his volume entitled The New Theology and the 
 Old Religion (1907), Bishop Gore had the frankness to admit that the 
 Church of England is *' not in touch with the mass of the labouring people." 
 It has failed, he says in stronger words than I have used, "to be the 
 Church of the people in an effective sense in town or country." "The 
 opinions and the prejudices that are associated with its administration as a 
 whole are the opinions and the prejudices of the higher and upper middle 
 classes, rather than of the wage- earners " (p. 282). 
 
CITIZENSHIP 8i 
 
 take to be the indifference, if not contempt, with which all 
 Churches, with their official representatives, are regarded by 
 considerable numbers of our fellow-citizens. Has it not 
 gone far to rob every Church of the weight it would carry 
 were its aims more exclusively and more conspicuously 
 " not of this world " ? Of course, no single minister in 
 any communion, especially no young minister, can do much 
 to counteract this state of things. But at least he should 
 resist as he best may the pressure which bears upon him 
 from the prevailing prejudices of his own Church and from 
 the political ideas or passions which have grown to be 
 traditional in it. This he needs to do if he is to guard 
 his personal independence, both of opinion and of action ; 
 still more if he would secure purity and elevation of 
 motive in everything he attempts as a worker for the 
 kingdom of heaven. He needs to do it if he would win 
 spiritual influence. Sacred and precious is that power 
 which gathers through the years around any servant of 
 Christ who is felt to have no mixture of earthly aims in 
 the zeal with which he furthers his Master's cause ; who, 
 when he speaks in his Master's name, is known to have 
 his eye set on no lower end than to lead men up to God, 
 to holiness, and to heaven. To this rule of action it ever 
 comes back. FideHty to his own high mission is for every 
 minister the first of duties. And the secret of his useful- 
 ness, which he must cherish as his best jewel, is just the 
 moral power which that fidelity will give him over the 
 hearts and consciences of men. 
 
 3. So far we seem to have reached a safe general rule, 
 applicable to the majority of questions in politics. But 
 it is felt by many that this avoidance of political 
 partisanship is liable, in our own day especially, to 
 exceptions, so that the path of duty has become less easy 
 than it looks. There are two kinds of political matters in 
 debate on which difficulty must arise. The one is where 
 ecclesiastical interests are very closely touched. Of this, 
 proposals for the disestablishment of a national Church 
 6 
 
82 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 afford an obvious instance. The other is where the moral 
 or religious welfare of the people, or of large sections of 
 the people, is involved : a numerous group, lying on the 
 borderland between politics and sociology, including 
 legislation for primary education, for the discouragement 
 of intemperance, the suppression of gambling, the protec- 
 tion of the Sunday rest, and similar matters. 
 
 It is impossible to deny that on both those groups of 
 subjects, when they enter into politics, official guardians of 
 religion have more than a right, have a responsibility, to 
 make their voices heard.^ But then they do so, not as 
 party politicians, not even as politicians at all, but as 
 Christian men and Christian ministers. In other words, 
 such action as they feel constrained to take is not private, 
 but strictly official, action : action incumbent upon them 
 as ministers of rehgion no less than as patriotic citizens. 
 The effect of this is, of course, to alter its character materi- 
 ally. By elevating its motive above the ordinary level 
 of party, it ought to impart to it a tone of moderation, 
 dignity, and Christian charity befitting whatever a man 
 does in the holy name of religion. Those who embark on 
 the advocacy of legislative measures affecting the Churches 
 or the religious and moral welfare of the nation, have need 
 to take care that their zeal for a holy cause is as free from 
 baser alloy as it professes to be, and that their judgment 
 is not warped nor their tone embittered by sectarian and 
 party aims. The minister who succeeds in thus exempli- 
 
 1 Cf. Newman, Parochial Sermons, i. 183-184 : " If, indeed, tliis world's 
 concerns could be altogether disjoined from those of Christ's kingdom, then 
 indeed all Christians (laymen as well as clergy) should abstain from the 
 thought of temporal affairs, and let the worthless world pass down the 
 stream of events till it perishes ; but if (as is the case) what happens 
 in nations must affect the cause of religion in those nations, since the 
 Church may be seduced and corrupted by the world, and in the world 
 there are myriads of souls to be converted and saved, and since a Christian 
 nation is bound to become part of the Church, therefore it is our duty to 
 stand as a beacon on a hill, to cry aloud and spare not, to lift up our voice 
 like a trumpet, and show the people their transgressions and the house of 
 Jacob their sins." 
 
CITIZENSHIP 83 
 
 fying in his own person that religious temper in which 
 every serious problem of the sort ought to be approached, 
 can do much by his public utterances to commend to 
 others a similar temper, and to secure that, so far at least 
 as his influence extends, it is the bearing of legislative 
 schemes upon the sacred interests of righteousness, peace, 
 and humanity which is kept in view. 
 
 The difficulty which ecclesiastics experience in pre- 
 serving this correct Christian tone is immensely greater in 
 the former of the two groups of questions I named than 
 in the second. It is comparatively easy to keep one's 
 eye single and one's motives high when it is a measure 
 for the moral elevation of the people that one champions. 
 But the temper which ecclesiastics display when fighting 
 for the privileges of thek order or the supposed interest 
 of their Church, has too often been anything but worthy. 
 Days of vehement ecclesiastical debate in the past poHtical 
 history of our land — the days, for example, of the Common- 
 wealth in England, or of the Eeformation and the Covenant 
 in Scotland — were by no means models of sober discussion 
 conducted in a courteous or religious spirit. If in either 
 half of the island, or in both, we have before us a similar 
 period of strife, — such a strife, say, over the relations of 
 the State to the Church as some countries of the Continent 
 are passing through, — it may come as a test of our 
 Christianity. May it be given ahke to those who desire 
 and to those who fear change, to clear their hearts of 
 unworthy motives, personal or sectarian, to rid debate of 
 rancour, and to aim, with as Httle as may be of human 
 prejudice, at the honour of our Lord and the advancement 
 of His kingdom ! 
 
 4. What has been said above applies to those social ills 
 which it is proposed to remedy by legislative measures. 
 But outside of legislation lies a very wide field for social 
 philanthropy and reform, upon which is now concentrated 
 a larger amount both of discussion and of effort than was 
 ever the case before. It seems to me unreasonable to ask 
 
84 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 from the overworked pastor and preacher in any of our 
 towns much personal service in this new department of 
 Christian service. Some portions of the field, indeed, for 
 example, the intricate and technical problems connected 
 with labour and capital or with the treatment of pauperism 
 and the unemployed, lie too remote from his professional 
 studies and require more specialised knowledge than he 
 is likely to possess. They are for the economist, the 
 pubhcist, or the statesman. Other matters, certainly, like 
 the housing of the people, or the regulation of the liquor 
 traffic, although they likewise call for experts to handle them 
 well, do touch the Church very closely, because they relate 
 to conditions which are adverse, if not fatal, to her own 
 task of preaching the Gospel to the poor. They are not 
 matters, therefore, from which the Christian Church can 
 hold itself aloof. Nor indeed can a society which exists, 
 as the Church does, for the express purpose of advancing 
 God's reign on earth, neglect as beyond its scope any wise 
 effort to provide human beings with the means of healthy, 
 sober, and virtuous living. But social reform is not the 
 concern of the Church alone : it is for the philanthropist 
 and the patriotic citizens, whatever be his attitude to the 
 religious life. Nor is it the Church's direct and primary 
 business, for the performance of which her ministers are 
 set apart. In so far, therefore, as it is the duty of a Church 
 to do more than second the efforts of other people, or 
 encourage her members to become volunteers in the 
 " noble army " of philanthropy ; in so far as she finds it 
 laid upon her in these days to combine organised social 
 work with her own evangelism, such work, it seems to me, 
 is best done by the Christian laity, inspired only, and, if 
 need be, organised or led, by their official leaders. The 
 spiritual duties for which the ministry has been set apart 
 must ever be fenced from invasion, even by the hohest and 
 most urgent of philanthropic efforts that have for their 
 object the material welfare of the people. At present, one 
 of the sorest troubles with which a conscientious minister 
 
CITIZENSHIP 85 
 
 has to contend, is the dissipation of energy and waste of 
 time occasioned by a . multitude of outside enterprises, 
 societies, committees, and charities of every sort, in which 
 he is expected to show interest by taking an active share. 
 Excellent work most of it ; work with which he must 
 sympathise, because it hes in the line of the Master's 
 kingdom and breathes more or less of the Master's spirit. 
 But is it necessary for him to do it, or even to take any 
 prominent part in the doing of it ? Is it not by the 
 freewill exertions of the Church's private members, under 
 the inspiration of the Gospel which their minister preaches 
 from Sunday to Sunday, that all this social beneficence, 
 whether organised as Church work or not, ought to be 
 carried on ? In spite of all that has yet been done, there 
 is here a clamant and growing opportunity for the conse- 
 crated ministry of Christlike men and women : might not 
 the pastor's sympathy with it be more often taken for 
 granted ? 
 
 Two things, I think, in the future, ministers may fairly 
 be asked to do. The one is to acquaint themselves at first 
 hand with the social evils to be remedied, and to give some 
 study to the methods attempted for their remedy, in order 
 that they may be more competent to preside over that 
 hive of activity — a modern " institutional " or home- 
 missionary congregation. 'Not only must it limit their 
 usefulness and lessen their influence to betray indifference 
 or ignorance on what so many take to be the main task 
 — it is certainly one of the main tasks — to which Christ 
 is calling us to-day : it is even unworthy of their position 
 as examples of the Christian spirit. And without some 
 special study no one is competent to give sympathy which 
 is intelligent, or guidance which is helpful. 
 
 The other service is one that falls to the preacher. 
 The attention now devoted to sociology has made it urgent 
 on divines to examine, and on preachers to expound, with 
 greater thoroughness than heretofore, the social applications 
 of the ethics of Jesus. Christianity is a religion for this 
 
86 THE MODERN MINISTER 
 
 world and for the daily life ; but this side of it has not 
 hitherto received adequate attention. It is from the 
 pulpit that the teaching and example of our Lord have 
 to be brought to bear upon the present-day relations of 
 class to class and of man to man in the common life of the 
 State. Sermons, therefore, ought neither to be so abstract 
 as to lose touch with facts and with the responsibilities that 
 spring out of facts, nor so exclusively aimed at the culture 
 of the interior life as to have no eye for civic duties and 
 national well-being. It is more than safe, it is right, for 
 the capable preacher to urge his hearers to act out their 
 Christianity as citizens, as employers or employed, as 
 traders, masters or servants — in short, in every relationship 
 of life. He will be at no loss for texts, and need not 
 travel beyond his New Testament. But he will be help- 
 less enough in this region and make awkward blunders, 
 unless he has prepared himself by a careful and prolonged 
 study of New Testament ethics. 
 
 As a rule, the preacher may very well content himself 
 in his public teaching with explaining ethical principles 
 and indicating their general bearing on everyday affairs. 
 Their detailed application under the variable and entangled 
 conditions of society must be left to the individual con- 
 science. But this does not forbid him to censure with 
 some precision prevalent forms either of vice or of injustice ; 
 to censure them with greater precision, I would say, than 
 has for some generations been usual in the Protestant 
 pulpit.^ Situations may even arise, when a very out- 
 spoken application of Christian principles to public life is 
 permissible. For example, when gross injustice is bearing 
 hardly on the poor ; or when there has been lawless excess 
 or revolt among the masses ; or when profligacy is flagrant 
 in the higher circles ; or when some widespread vice like 
 gambling is eating as a canker into the commonwealth ; 
 
 ^ Athanase Coquerel's remarks may be referred to : Observations 
 Pratiques sur la Predication (Paris, 1860), translated by Bertram under 
 the title The Preacher's Counsellor (London, 1867). 
 
CITIZENSHIP 87 
 
 or when public attention has been aroused by a conspicuous 
 instance of commercial fraud. Perhaps it is seldom dis- 
 creet in a junior minister, or one whose voice carries httle 
 weight with the public, to constitute himself in this way a 
 pubhc censor. But anyone who from his age or position 
 is entitled to do so will usually know how to avoid the risks 
 which attend it. He will deliver his message under a sobering 
 sense of responsibihty, taking care to distribute blame with- 
 out partiality, to exaggerate nothing and defame no one, 
 and never to afford the slightest ground for the suspicion 
 that he is advertising himself or hunting after notoriety. 
 
PART II 
 
 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN 
 
 WORSHIP 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 THEORY OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP 
 
 I COULD wish that our English speech, like the German, 
 had frankly borrowed the Latin word cultus to denote 
 public and solemn forms of worship, such as every religious 
 community gives to its devotions. In a truncated shape 
 we do occasionally use the word ; any particular form of 
 divine service we call a " cult." But for the abstract 
 idea underlying all cults we have no better name than 
 " public worship," although such common forms are as much 
 a necessity for man as religion itself. " Rehgios zu seyn," 
 says Nitzsch, " und Religion zusammen zu pflegen, ist dem 
 Menschen wesentlich." No doubt religion, wherever it is 
 ethical, inculcating moral motives and precepts, fashions 
 for itself another mode of expression from the ritual one, 
 through those social duties to which a man feels himself 
 urged by his fear or love of God. Still, no religion is 
 satisfied with an exclusively ethical manifestation of itself. 
 Its religious faith seeks some more direct utterance in acts 
 or words which serve no other end than to give outward 
 form or body to its feelings towards the Divine. 
 
 So long as this is confined to a private worshipper, or 
 even to the family circle, it hardly needs preconcerted 
 arrangements. But wherever a larger social group, united 
 
 88 
 
THEORY OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP 89 
 
 on the basis of a common faith, gives to that faith a public 
 expression, some agreement is requisite as to the time, the 
 place, and the manner of it. Usually, too, a representative 
 or official functionary is required, either to perform the 
 rites in the name of all, or at least to lead the people in 
 their common acts. At once there arises an order of 
 divine service, a ritual ; in fact, what may be called in 
 the earliest and widest use of the term, a " liturgy." Por 
 at first, as its derivation implies, Xeirovpyo^ denoted any 
 officer who discharged a State function. At Athens it was 
 applied to citizens who at their own charge undertook 
 certain onerous civic offices. Even in profane Greek, it 
 came to be extended (at least in Egypt ^) to the service of 
 the gods. With this apphcation to the sphere of religion, 
 words from this root are frequent in the Septuagint, and 
 occur once at least in the New Testament of a Jewish 
 priest.2 Hence they came naturally to be used of apostles 
 and prophets in the Christian Church, even of our Lord 
 Himself.^ It was a limitation when the word " liturgy " 
 became a technical term in the ancient Church of the 
 West* for the office of the eucharist as the central act of 
 Christian worship ; and, of course, its modern restriction in 
 English to a prescribed form of common prayer, is equally 
 a departure from its primary width of meaning. German 
 authors are therefore within their rights when they employ 
 " Liturgik " for the whole theory of public worship in the 
 Church. 
 
 The characteristics of every religion are, of course, 
 reflected in its ritual ; so that our conception of the public 
 services which are proper for a Christian congregation has 
 to be formed from the governing ideas of Christianity 
 itself, and from the experience common to Christian 
 believers. The first change which the advent of 
 Christianity effected bore on the comparative importance 
 
 * Deissmann gives instances from the papyri {Bibl. Studies, p. 140). 
 
 2 Luke 123. 3 Acts 132, Rom. W^, Phil. 2", Heb. S^- «. 
 
 ** Not so limited in the East, according to Bingham's Aoitt. Bk. 13, c. 1. 
 
90 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 attached to substance and to forms in worship. Between 
 the outward and the inward there ought naturally to exist 
 a close and constant relation. Outward forms were 
 moulded at first by the inner belief, emotions, and wants 
 of the devout, and to the end they need to be sustained 
 and inspired by them. But all external rites tend to out- 
 live the feelings which gave them value at the first. They 
 come in course of time to be repeated as a tradition, or 
 with a blind trust in the efficacy of the form after its 
 meaning has departed from it. To some extent this will 
 hold of every cult. But Christianity as the religion of 
 the spirit is distinguished, not only by the simplicity of its 
 rites, but even more by the supreme value which it 
 attaches to the inward over the outward. The latter 
 alone without the former it treats as worthless. 
 
 When it appeared, the world had long been accustomed 
 to the pompous cults of the Empire ; to the splendour of 
 holy places; to temples and images on which art had 
 lavished all its skill ; to a sensuous ritual of animal sacri- 
 fice, music and drama, with State processions and symbolic 
 pageants, venerable for the antique myths and forgotten 
 mysteries which they enshrined. Behind this gorgeous 
 and imposing worship, celebrated by Imperial functionaries 
 and creating for the populace a yearly circle of festive 
 holidays, how much or how little personal piety could be 
 supposed to lie ? 
 
 Beyond a vague inherited reverence for the gods and 
 an occasional votive offering for good luck, the religious life 
 of an antique pagan either held a most limited content, or 
 drew its inspiration more from philosophy than from the 
 popular faith. Nor was it much better with the religion 
 of Judaism. Few national rituals can have been more 
 impressive than that of the Jewish Temple in its best 
 days. But from its forms, too, the spirit had evaporated. 
 The priestly round of Temple sacrifice and liturgy went 
 on ; although the religious hope of the nation had gone 
 to inflame political factions, and piety had become 
 
THEORY OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP 91 
 
 crystallised into a scrupulous observance of legal tradition. 
 Of both the Jewish and the Gentile cults in the first 
 century, may we not say that the material apparatus of 
 worship vastly overloaded its inner content, which had 
 shrunk almost to a minimum ? 
 
 Into such a society the Gospel came, enriching of a 
 sudden the souls of its disciples with an astonishing wealth 
 of novel and absorbing experiences. New thoughts of God 
 as the Father of all men, revealed in His Son ; union of 
 man with God realised at last in the Person of Jesus ; the 
 expiation of guilt achieved by His cross ; the liberty from 
 the letter which the advent of the Spirit gave ; a sense of 
 security and superiority to the ills of hfe ; anticipation of 
 coming glory ; a life to be lived every day in intimate 
 filial fellowship with God through the risen Lord: — all 
 this and much more flooded the Christian consciousness, 
 clamouring to be expressed in the assemblies of the 
 brethren : a whole new world of inner emotions, desires, 
 and hopes which grateful hearts burned to utter in the 
 ear of God as the common possession of Christ's Spirit- 
 filled Church. 
 
 What was strange was that, with this unexampled 
 deepening and enrichment of the inner side of religion — 
 its devotional contents, the forms for its expression became 
 in the same proportion few, and simple even to meagre- 
 ness. The heathen thought Christians had no cult at all. 
 Temple, sacrifice, and ritual had disappeared. Forms and 
 ceremonial there was next to none. The exuberant life of 
 personal experience broke forth in individual utterances 
 that might even be ecstatic, and were at times ill-regulated. 
 Concerted or common acts at first hardly existed. The 
 symbolic dwindled to a couple of familiar rites: a bath 
 and a meal. Everything else was spoken, not acted: — 
 the chanted psalm, the Old Testament lesson read, the 
 extempore prayer, the half-inspired address. Always it 
 was the Word that was the medium through which had to 
 be conveyed from soul to soul, or from many souls to God 
 
92 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 Most High, every variety in the rich experiences of the 
 new- religion. 
 
 The explanation of a change so striking must be looked 
 for in the principles laid down by our Lord at Jacob's Well.^ 
 From the spirituality of God followed, He said, the spirit- 
 uality of acceptable worship. It was not novel teaching. 
 Brave voices had often protested in Israel against formalism 
 and lip-worship. But the truth was to receive in the new 
 religion a new emphasis and to yield new results. It was to 
 have far-reaching consequences beyond the one which Jesus 
 deduced from it at the time — the abolition of holy places. 
 One is that no external form retains any worth at all in 
 God's eyes when it is divorced from the inner feeling of the 
 heart, whose outcome it ought to be. For the inward 
 spirit of self-devotion which a devout soul feels in the 
 presence of its God, not only is the best worship — it is the 
 only worship which pleases the Father. There, in the lowly 
 surrendered spirit of the man, is the true shrine wherein 
 God dwells and His human child adores. Worship can no 
 longer be a ceremonial — an outward performance. A second 
 inference is that it cannot be done by proxy. The priest's 
 service on the people's behalf and in the absence of the 
 people, is not such service as the Father seeks. For each 
 private worshipper has his own spiritual contribution which 
 he must bring, uniting his personal devotions with those of 
 his brethren. Common worship is the sum of the devout 
 emotions animating the assembled worshippers. And yet 
 another of these consequences is that the visible symbols, 
 the manual acts, the material offerings of older faiths, 
 have now to yield precedence as forms of expression to 
 that simple Word which is the soul's purest utterance of 
 herself — that by which spirits convey to other spirits (so 
 far as they are communicable at all) their own deepest 
 innermost states. As the Father is Spirit and reveals 
 Himself by His Word, so it is by their words His spiritual 
 children are now to speak to Him. When worship is thus 
 
 1 John 419-24. 
 
THEORY OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP 93 
 
 " in spirit," it cannot fail to be also " in truth " ; for any 
 external medium which the soul finds to utter itself by, 
 will be no empty shell, devoid of substance, no outworn 
 formula or misleading pretence of piety. Poor as it may 
 be, it will be a genuine channel for the outpouring of 
 the heart's sincere devotion. 
 
 Having learnt from this pregnant saying of the Master 
 that the only real and acceptable worship of the Father is 
 inward and spiritual, it is natural to raise the question : 
 Why should this inward and spiritual worship seek or 
 require any outward expression of itself at all ? What, 
 in other words, is the purpose or the value of the Church's 
 common service of God in public ? 
 
 Two answers have been given. Since Schleiermacher, 
 the best writers on the subject ^ have agreed with him in 
 saying : The imited utterance of Christian devotion simply 
 obeys and satisfies the craving of all life after self- 
 expression, — a craving strong in proportion as hfe is 
 strongly moved by emotions which are shared in common 
 by a social group. Wherever the minds and hearts of 
 many are swayed by the same impulse, they seek of 
 necessity a concerted form of utterance. It is therefore 
 inevitable that devout Christian people, banded by Christ's 
 will into a Church society, will strive to express their 
 common emotions towards God in Christ, and will do this 
 in the most perfect form attainable, primarily as an 
 offering of their devotion to God Himself, but also as a 
 natural bond of sympathy with one another. 
 
 Social worship falls on this theory under the category 
 of human actions which are intransitive or merely expres- 
 sive. It is the category to which the fine arts belong; 
 and worship, too, is subject in its own way to those laws of 
 taste which prescribe to every expressional act its fitting 
 
 ^ Schleiermacher, Christliche SittenleJire, and his posthumous Praktische 
 Theologie (1850). See also, Ehrenfeuchter, Theorie des christl. CuUus (1840) ; 
 Kliefoth, Theorie d. CuUus d. evcmg, Kirche (1844) ; Vetter, D. Lehre 
 vom Christ. CuUus (1839). 
 
94 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 measure and most perfect form. Theoretically, this 
 rationale of a cult justifies itself as at bottom correct. 
 Yet, nakedly put, it jars against both the sentiment and 
 the practice of average Christians. Devout people have 
 long cherished a very different explanation. They go to 
 church, they say, to be edified. It is a means of grace. 
 Take away this expectation of personal profit, and they 
 would feel as if their chief inducement to join with fellow- 
 worshippers in the services of the sanctuary were taken 
 away. 
 
 When these two answers to the question, the scientific 
 and the popular, are looked at apart, it seems to me plain 
 that each of them is inadequate. The former without the 
 latter loses touch with concrete fact and remains an 
 unattained ideal. The latter without the former lowers 
 worship into a prudential means of self-improvement, and 
 so misses the proper idea of worship altogether. But the 
 two are neither mutually exclusive, nor to be held severely 
 asunder. Even from a formal point of view, the theory of 
 self-expression, when closer looked at, is found to involve 
 self- edification as well. It does so in two ways. 
 
 First, by a law of our nature, every mental state, 
 especially every emotion, is fixed, strengthened, and 
 deepened by being expressed ; and this all the more when 
 it receives a social or a formal expression. Nothing 
 heightens any mood of feeling more than to join with 
 others under the sympathy of numbers in giving to it 
 festive or solemn utterance. Then the ardour of each 
 kindles into enthusiasm under the contagious ardour of the 
 crowd. Now, aU such intensifying of devotional states 
 must tend to build up the religious life out of which they 
 spring. So that common worship, whether designed for 
 edification or not, must at all events promote it as a 
 result. 
 
 In the next place, the religious experience of Christian 
 people cannot possibly receive adequate, or anything like 
 adequate, expression in their common devotions, unless 
 
THEORY OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP 95 
 
 their sense of imperfection and their longing after growth 
 in grace play a large part in the service. For they play 
 a very large part in experience. Confessions of failure, 
 supplication for divine aid, efforts to nourish the inner life 
 on the "strong meat" of the Word of God, will be 
 prominent items in every cult which fairly reflects the 
 average life of a Christian congregation ; and none of 
 these can be conceived apart from the hope and intention 
 to purify and strengthen the inward life.^ 
 
 These considerations, however, lead us past the merely 
 formal side of public worship as an act of expression, to 
 examine what lies behind it, namely, the devout life itself, 
 which is the thing to be expressed. And this ought, if I 
 mistake not, to set in clearer light the connection between 
 these two theories of its design. 
 
 It may be taken for granted, I suppose, that the root- 
 idea in religion, at least in all its higher stages, is union or 
 reunion with the Divine, and that it is this, therefore, which 
 men have everywhere sought by worship to realise, it 
 may be, to restore, but, at all events, to express. The 
 radical thought which remains constant under every cult is 
 some sort of intercourse or commerce with the Supreme. 
 Men draw near to the presence of their God, first, that 
 they may offer such gifts, believed to be acceptable, as it is 
 in their power to present; and next, that they may 
 receive from the Divine Power benefits which they are 
 conscious of needing. Both the giving and the receiving 
 may be of the rudest or the most earthly kind. The 
 transaction may descend in unethical religions to the level 
 of a bargain, or even of a bribe or of a spell. It may also 
 be transfigured, as in Christianity, into the loving, con- 
 fiding fellowship of a reconciled child with his heavenly 
 Father, whose moral approval is the best of boons, and to 
 whose moral designs he can lend the co-operation of a son. 
 But always the end aimed at is a bond of amity, which 
 
 ^ ''Da die Kirche immer auch im Werden begriffen ist, so muss sie sich 
 auch als Werdende im Cultus darstellen. " Schweizer, Homiletik (1848), p. 68. 
 
96 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 shall embrace the Worshipped and the worshipper in one 
 — each giving to the other of his own in a mutual passage 
 or interchange of goodwill. This is worship. 
 
 Now, what is it that Christians come near to God to 
 give, and what to receive ? 
 
 Christianity being the religion of perfected reconcilia- 
 tion between God and man in Christ Jesus, the worshipper's 
 faith apprehends peace with God as already un fait 
 accompli. He has not to approach with an offering 
 intended either to expiate for guilt or to propitiate the 
 favour of an indifferent Deity. To bring any gift, be it 
 mass or eucharist, penitential tears, vows of amendment, 
 or simply the homage of song or prayer, with the idea of 
 winning Heaven's grace, is to worship as a Jew or a pagan 
 might, not as a Christian. Not that we have no need to 
 come owning our faults and begging for forgiveness. 
 But the way of access to the mercy-seat being not only an 
 open, but, to Christian feet, a familiar road, the worshipper 
 needs but to recall, in order afresh to realise, his footing of 
 acceptance in the Beloved. More is not needed for that 
 emotion of fihal confidence and gratitude to be reawakened 
 in his bosom, which is the keynote of a Christian's devotion. 
 Its keynote : since what has above all things to be 
 expressed in our address to God, is the adoring wondering 
 thankfulness of redeemed men — humble in its joy, and 
 chastened into tender awe as it recalls the price at which 
 their pardon has been bought. 
 
 There is but one gift, adequate to express this 
 gratitude of the reconciled, which it is theirs to offer. It 
 is what St. Paul in a classical passage describes in 
 sacrificial language as " presenting your bodies a living 
 sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God — your reasonable ser- 
 vice." ^ It is himself the worshipper offers : the wealth 
 of his own redeemed personality, his own love, his own 
 will, his own body and soul devoted to bear and to do all 
 the will of his Father in heaven. More he has not to lay 
 
 1 Rom. 121. 
 
THEORY OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP 97 
 
 upon God's altar. Less he has no heart to offer, nor will 
 less be accepted. 
 
 It is obvious that such a self-sacrifice to the service of 
 God is not a thing to be confined to an hour of Sunday- 
 worship. It is of the daily life St. Paul is speaking. It 
 is through the whole week, with its plain practical duties 
 of submission and obedience, that our oftering, like that 
 of our Lord, is to be presented. So all life becomes 
 eucharisbic and sacrificial. The aroma of grateful affec- 
 tion and meek yielding up of choice, and the joy of 
 pleasing another, and lowly adoration of the Blessed One : 
 this fragrance of worship clings about each common act of 
 duty, and fills homeliest service with sweet odours to our 
 King. 
 
 Of such a life pubHc worship is the flower. To possess 
 its true significance, it ought to be an occasional and 
 combined utterance, in concerted acts or words addressed to 
 God, of an attitude of the soul which is habitual because 
 it is deep as the roots of the soul's life. When a congrega- 
 tion of such priestly worshippers unites its many 
 consecrated hearts and wills into a single oblation, con- 
 densing the meaning of all the weekly life into a festive 
 ritual of eucharist and sacred song and lowly fervent 
 prayer, it is but imitating, as to the spirit and inner 
 meaning of the act, the supreme self-oblation of the great 
 High Priest. 
 
 This is the one side of worship — its purely expressive 
 side. So far it is true that it seeks no ulterior end. Like 
 the doxologies overheard by the seer in the celestial 
 courts, it is an end in itself. But worship is never one- 
 sided. Our fellowship with God is not complete till we 
 receive as well as offer. And the praises of the earthly 
 sanctuary are always dashed and clouded by a painful 
 sense of the unattained, or worse, of sinful shortcoming. 
 When a man is worshipping he is usually at his best. 
 He is giving expression to the ideal at which he aims, 
 rather than to his actual measure of attainment ; what 
 
 7 
 
98 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 he hopes and means to be rather than what he is. Being 
 at his best, he must be most keenly conscious of his worst. 
 The very words he uses serve to remind him how far his 
 performance falls beneath his profession. From this sense 
 of dissatisfaction springs up the longing for divine help to 
 live as he worships ; to be as good in fact as he is in idea 
 or in desire. This is the boon he craves from God. 
 Every petition of the worshipping congregation offered on 
 its own behalf concentrates itself on this one supreme 
 moral aim — assimilation to the divine ideal disclosed in 
 Jesus. And this is the " profit " which devout people 
 look for from their attendance at church. For this they 
 listen once more to the Gospel message, and submit them- 
 selves to the correction and instruction of the Divine 
 Word. They find it in an ampler effluence of Divine 
 influence — a completer union of the indwelling Spirit with 
 the inward movements of their own spirits. 
 
 Thus all social worship moves betwixt those two poles 
 of the Christian life : — self-consecration as the utterance 
 of grateful praise for redemption by the Son ; longing for 
 more perfect holiness in the Spirit. In the synthesis of 
 the two does the Church's communion with God complete 
 itself on both its sides, as a giving to God and a receiving 
 from Him. 
 
 From the spiritual contents of congregational worship 
 to the religious tone which befits it is a short step. Here 
 also we must be guided by the characteristics of the 
 Christian faith. These prescribe in the outward expres- 
 sion which we give to our devotions the three notes of 
 reverence, confidence, and cheerfulness. 
 
 1. Christianity as the religion of filial fellowship 
 with the Father is so far from lessening (as a thoughtless 
 observer might suppose) the sacred awe which ever becomes 
 a sinful creature in his approach to the Divine Majesty 
 that it rather strengthens it. Christian piety rests on a 
 much deeper consciousness of sin and of indebtedness to 
 mercy than is found in any other faith. The very fact 
 
THEORY OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP 99 
 
 of being brought closer to God, with the nearer view of 
 Him which this affords, brings into relief the moral 
 contrast, the distance between, and the condescension of 
 Him who admits " dust and ashes " to a place so near 
 His love. St. Peter's reasoning is justified by a sound 
 psychology of the rehgious feelings.^ Just because we 
 are encouraged to invoke under the name of " Father " 
 the Holy One, who not only is to be, but is, the impartial 
 Judge of each man's work ; just because the price of our 
 redemption was the precious blood of the Lamb without 
 spot : — therefore is our sojourn on earth to be spent " in 
 fear." This must breathe into our worship a profound 
 awestruck reverence, scrupulous to shun the faintest trace 
 either of flippancy, or of presumption, or of over-familiarity. 
 It is an offence to the trained Christian sense when rash 
 worshippers " rush in where angels fear to tread." 
 
 2. In entire consistency with such reverence, and to 
 be combined vnth the reserve which it begets, is the filial 
 confidence or (as our English New Testament has it) 
 " boldness " ^ which is so marked a feature in the attitude 
 of evangehcal believers. It has more than one source. 
 The standing before God which Christians enjoy as re- 
 conciled and adopted sons, begets a grave and tranquil 
 assurance, a sense of privileged security, which ought to 
 be mirrored in the Church's prayers. Eelieved from 
 servile apprehension, God's children fall beneath their true 
 position if they do not draw near with sacred boldness to 
 the throne. Besides, it has to be remembered that the 
 incarnation has introduced into religion a strange new 
 note of friendly frankness, or even of homely familiarity 
 with our Divine Lord, based on His own experience as a 
 Man. Of this one result is that there is no circumstance 
 too trivial to be laid before Him, nor any shade of feehng 
 too personal or too subtle for Him to understand. 
 Although such matters are in the main to be reserved for 
 
 •' 7rapp7i<ria. Cf. Heb. 4" 10", Eph. 3^2, 1 John 3" 4""" 5". 
 
loo THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 secret devotions, to which they impart a peculiar charm, 
 yet even the joint worship of the congregation shares in 
 a measure the same beautiful character of a confidential 
 outpouring in the sympathetic ear of the Son of Man, 
 who is ever present to be the interpreter of its desires. 
 
 3. As a result of all this, there should be imprinted 
 upon the worship of the evangeHcal Churches a prevailingly 
 cheerful character. Private acts of devotion cannot be 
 invariably confident, still less cheerful. For individual 
 experience knows moments of depression, even of misgiving 
 and bitter self -upbraiding; moments, too, of crisis, of 
 struggle with doubt, and of darkness nigh to despair, when 
 the soul can do no more than lie low on the ground with 
 " strong crying and tears." Such exceptional moods are 
 not for public utterance. What common worship has to 
 express is normal religious experience, conscious indeed 
 of shortcoming, yet conscious too of the victorious grace 
 of God and of all that the Church possesses in her Eisen 
 Head. Therefore it ought to reflect the calm of her 
 assurance and the peacefulness of her faith. A tranquil 
 tone, rising into bright thanksgiving and hope, at its 
 highest into jubilant praise : this becomes it best. 
 Exceptional raptures, it is true, are for the closet, no less 
 than exceptional agonies. Yet at its supreme moments 
 the united voice of the congregation ought to show itself 
 capable of swelling into doxologies and paeans of praise 
 over the riches of its inheritance. 
 
CHAPTEE XI 
 
 WORSHIP IN THE CHURCH OF THE FIRST 
 
 CENTURY 
 
 The lifetime of Jesus and His Apostles was a period of 
 transition, when the old worship and the new met and 
 crossed each other. Although, as we have seen, our Lord 
 foretold that the days of an exclusive cult on hallowed 
 spots of immemorial sanctity, like Jerusalem or Gerizim, 
 would soon be over, He set up no model to take its place. 
 So far as we are told, He did not even initiate any 
 separate worship for His followers so long as He was with 
 them. On the contrary, He and they continued loyally 
 to frequent the Temple festivals as well as the village 
 synagogues. Yet He certainly anticipated that after His 
 departure they would hold meetings among themselves for 
 common prayer. The power which lies in concerted 
 petition could be no alien thought to Him who said : " If 
 two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that 
 they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which 
 is in heaven." And, lest the fewness of His disciples in 
 any place should act as a discouragement to such concert 
 in prayer. He was careful to fix the quorum of a wor- 
 shipping assembly as low as " two or three." Even to 
 this minimum number of associated worshippers He 
 granted the charter of congregational worship in the 
 startling promise : " Where two or three are gathered 
 together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." 
 It is more than the charter of congregational worship — it 
 is the consecration of congregational fellowship. Even an 
 
 lot 
 
I02 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 ecclesiola is fully equipped for its functions when to the 
 "two or three" is added One more — the Master of 
 assemblies Himself.^ 
 
 A little further than this Jesus went. To a general 
 sanction of Christian assemblies for worship, He added 
 some shght hints on the contents of their service. At the 
 request of the disciples (though only when requested), He 
 dictated a brief model of united prayer, the germ of every 
 later liturgy. He desired the baptismal rite of His 
 forerunner to be kept up with a new significance as an 
 initiation into the society of His disciples. Most important 
 of all, He instituted at the Last Supper — so His first 
 followers understood Him — a memorial celebration of His 
 death. But all this, while it amply sanctioned social 
 worship in His Church, and even defined some guiding 
 lines, went a very little way towards a directory how it 
 was to be conducted. If more detailed instructions were 
 left with the Twelve, they have not been preserved. The 
 contrast with previous cults could not be better marked. 
 No service-book was ever more minute in its rubrics than 
 that of Israel in its matured shape ; but Jesus bequeathed 
 no service-book to His Church. The spirit of the new 
 devotion He inspired ; its forms He left for the most 
 part free. 
 
 It is certain that the Church parted company but 
 slowly with the synagogue. St. Paul, who in one place 
 seems to brush aside the sacred seasons and observances 
 of Hebrew law, as well as of Gentile usage, with a touch 
 of contempt foreign to his Master, as " beggarly rudiments " 
 of the world's nonage,^ is found on another occasion 
 expediting his voyage from Europe to Palestine in order 
 to be present at the great Hebrew festival of Pentecost, 
 and when there joining reverently in Temple services.^ 
 Of the services in Christian assemblies, on the other hand, 
 how little could we have gathered from his correspondence, 
 if no abuses had crept in at Corinth. Had a great deal 
 
 ' Matt. 18i»- 20. 2 Qai^ 41-n 3 ^j.ts 201^, cf. 2123-29 24"-i8. 
 
WORSHIP IN CHURCH OF FIRST CENTURY 103 
 
 depended on an exact imitation of primitive forms, one 
 wonders if more pains would not have been taken to 
 record them. 
 
 Yet, even in the canonical books, materials do exist, 
 though not complete. These, especially if we are allowed 
 to supplement them by documents from the generation 
 which outlived the Apostles, enable us to construct a 
 fairly full sketch of the Church's worship within the 
 first hundred years after its foundation. 
 
 More than one stage in the development of a cult, 
 both among Hebrew and Greek converts, can be faintly 
 traced in the New Testament. During the opening years 
 that succeeded the advent of the Spirit, the Apostles 
 clung, as far as they could and as long as they could, to 
 the ancestral services both in Temple and in synagogue.^ 
 None the less, from the very first day, Hebrew believers 
 in the Messiahship of Jesus constituted a distinct group 
 inside Judaism, holding daily and weekly meetings of their 
 own in addition to those which as Jews they continued 
 to attend. These were held in private dwellings. The 
 service embraced already common prayers, praise, instruc- 
 tion by the Apostles, and, above all, a common meal that 
 closed probably with the Lord's Supper under the name 
 of " Breaking of Bread." ^ Our sources leave no reasonable 
 doubt that the eucharist, as the most characteristic act of 
 social Christian devotion, and the bond and badge of 
 believing fellowship, grew at once into a custom out of the 
 recent example, if not at the command, of Jesus Himself. 
 At first observed daily, it is not till later that we come on 
 traces of a weekly celebration each Lord's Day.^ 
 
 A second stage of Hebraeo - Christian worship neces- 
 sarily began on the expulsion of the young society, to be 
 henceforth in the eyes of orthodox Judaism a separated 
 " sect." * Perhaps it is to this stage, which may have lasted 
 some time in purely Hebrew groups, that the Epistle of 
 
 1 Acts 24« 31 520- « 920 1314 etc. 2 ^cts 242-". 
 
 3 Acts 20"^, 1 Cor. 1120- '3. « aipe<ns in Acts 24i*. 
 
I04 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 St. James refers, with its graphic sketch of a presiding 
 " synagogue " where, as in its Jewish prototype, Christian 
 " elders " sat in seats of honour, and every male adult was 
 at liberty to teach or exhort.^ 
 
 In two later writings of the same school, the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews and the Apocalypse, some scholars have 
 seen traces of yet a third stage.^ Both indicate change. 
 By the time Hebrews was composed, the "leaders" (not 
 here called elders) are described as " speaking the Word 
 of God," as well as " watching for souls." ^ What is more 
 striking is that in this treatise there is mention for the 
 first time of congregational praise. Still more, that it is 
 spoken of as a sacrifice (Ovcrla) perpetually offered up to 
 God on earth, just as the Apocalypse speaks of the prayers 
 of saints as ascending, perfumed with incense, in the 
 heavenly sanctuary.* Not only is the worship of the 
 Church looked upon by the writer to the Hebrews as a 
 sacrificial oblation, but the Lord as our High Priest is 
 represented as carrying on ceaseless ministrations on our 
 behalf in the courts above.^ This imparts new significance 
 to " the assembling of ourselves together." Worship means 
 a drawing near to God with clean bodies and purified hearts 
 to find admission — in spirit it must be — into the " holiest 
 of all," the nearest and most immediate presence of God ; 
 while the poor prayers and praises which we offer here 
 below are taken up into the upper courts, to be presented 
 there with acceptance by our exalted Priest, before " the 
 throne of the Majesty in the heavens." 
 
 The idea at the root of this, of a parallel worship going 
 on in heaven as on earth, is advanced yet a step in the 
 Apocalypse. For the author of that book, in harmony 
 here as elsewhere with much late Jewish thought, sees in 
 
 1 Jas. 21-4 31 514^ cf. 1 Pet. 4i'>- ". 
 
 ^ See Jacobi's art. in the Jahrb.f. deut. Theologie for 1873. 
 ' Compare the parallel progress in Greek Churches to be observed in the 
 Pastoral Letters. 
 
 * Heb. 1315, Rev. S^- •* 5^. s jjeb. S^- 2 9=4 l0i»-25. 
 
WORSHIP IN CHURCH OF FIRST CENTURY 105 
 
 celestial worship the ideal on which Levitical ritual in the 
 Temple had been fashioned.^ The divine Throne, the Seven 
 Lamps, the Cherubs, the Lamb slain, the Censer of incense, 
 the Harping Choir: all reappear in their glorified pro- 
 totypes in the Temple of heaven. It is even noticeable 
 that this idealised worship, while it is the pattern on 
 which the Jewish was modelled, is set before us in a way 
 to recall early Christian services. It may be an accident 
 that the twenty -four elders sit on thrones round about the 
 throne of God, very much after the arrangement of 
 presbyters' seats in the Early Church. But at least the 
 ascriptions of praise which the seer heard so often in his 
 vision have quite a liturgical ring, and may well enough 
 have been imitated from hymns or doxologies already in 
 use, and familiar to the author in the churches of Asia 
 Minor. This must remain conjecture. What is certain is, 
 that not only do we see in the Hebrew section of the 
 Apostolic Church a Christian service fairly developed ; but 
 that cult of neo- Israel retains under Christian dress the 
 great idea of sacrifice which had always formed the kernel 
 of Israel's ancient rites. 
 
 It is rather a different atmosphere into which we enter 
 when we turn to the Greek communities of the first 
 century. St. Paul is here almost our sole canonical source. 
 If from him we learn more about the way in which 
 Christians worshipped at Corinth than anywhere else, that 
 is only, as I said, because at Corinth the services had 
 become unusually disorderly. The items in their service 
 which he foimd occasion to name are common prayer, a 
 psalm, edifying discourses of several sorts, and the common 
 meal for which viands were brought by the members to be 
 consumed in pubhc, and which was followed as elsewhere 
 by Holy Communion in the Supper of the Lord. 
 
 Some investigators have believed that in the Apostle's 
 First Epistle it is possible to distinguish two different kinds 
 of church meeting : one which he regulates in the fourteenth 
 
 iCf. Heb. 8" 923- 24. 
 
io6 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 chapter, to which non- Christians were admitted, and at 
 
 which prayers and addresses formed the leading exercises ; 
 
 and a more private gathering of the members at another 
 
 time for the purpose of the Holy Supper alone. With the 
 
 latter they connect the passage in the eleventh chapter.^ 
 
 If this be correct, then it was at the more open or public 
 
 service, which was evidently conducted with much freedom, 
 
 that addresses were delivered which, if properly managed, 
 
 might convict the casual heathen listener, by revealing to 
 
 him the secrets of his own heart. A deal of discussion has 
 
 taken place over the three kinds of discourse named by St. 
 
 Paul; all of them delivered with the aid of the Divine 
 
 Spirit, but under diverse conditions of the speaker's own 
 
 mind. According to the most careful results, it seems 
 
 likely that a calm and reasoned exposition of the contents 
 
 of the faith was called " teaching " ; that " prophecy " 
 
 denoted a more impulsive and imaginative discourse, in 
 
 which the prophet under some excitement was inspired 
 
 to utter his " apocalypse " on an aspect of divine truth 
 
 borne in upon him at the moment ; while in the third 
 
 class, known as " tongues," the state of the speaker must 
 
 have been one of pure ecstasy — his power of conscious 
 
 reflection being for the time in abeyance, and his utterance 
 
 unintelligible to the ordinary bystander. Whether this 
 
 last phenomenon occurred as a part of congregational 
 
 worship anywhere else than at Corinth, we do not know. 
 
 Other cases of it on record belong to a different category.^ 
 
 Prophecy at least seems to have been fairly frequent ; for 
 
 we read of it at Thessalonica and Ephesus, as well as 
 
 Jerusalem and Antioch.^ When both gifts passed away, 
 
 there remained to the Church, as the only standing form 
 
 of address in her worship, the most quiet and normal of 
 
 them all. 
 
 ^ Jacobi's art. ict supra ; Weizsacker in a subsequent paper in the same 
 magazine for 1876; and Kostlin, Gesch. d, christl. Qotttsdiensies (Freib. 1887). 
 2 In Acts 24 104« and 19«. 
 8 See 1 Thess. b'^\ Eph. 22o, Acts 11^7 and IS^. 
 
WORSHIP IN CHURCH OF FIRST CENTURY 107 
 
 The table fellowship at Corinth comprised two parts, 
 not separated by any long interval : the agap6 or meal of 
 brotherhood, and " the Lord's Supper." Possibly these were 
 divided by the eucharistic prayer, to which the congregation 
 responded by an " Amen."^ It is difficult to account for 
 the aga]p6 as a meal distinct from the eucharist. Though 
 it dated, as we saw, from the earliest days of the Palestine 
 Church, it found no other parallel in Jewish worship 
 beyond the annual family supper of the Passover. Its 
 acceptance by Greek converts may have been facilitated by 
 the custom of symposia in Greek society ; but it certainly 
 did not originate from them, still less from the a-vcraiTCa of 
 Sparta or of Crete — mess-tables provided for poor citizens 
 at the expense of the State. It is on the whole best 
 accounted for by supposing it to be a reminiscence of our 
 Lord's last supper, at the close of which He instituted the 
 new memorial communion of His Body and Blood. 
 
 St. Paul's immediate design in discussing Corinthian 
 worship forbids us to infer that other usages which he 
 had no occasion to mention did not exist there. For 
 instance, he says nothing of Scripture readings. Nor does 
 he elsewhere name them, unless his advice to Timothy, 
 "Give heed to reading," referred to lessons read in 
 church.2 Even if it did, we can hardly conclude with 
 Jacobi that this portion of the service was only then 
 beginning to be customary in Gentile congregations. The 
 acquaintance with the contents of the Old Testament 
 which is presupposed in all St. Paul's letters to his converts 
 is difficult to explain, unless from the first the synagogue 
 practice of reading Scripture systematically at every service 
 had been taken over by Christian assemblies, Greek as 
 well as Hebrew. 
 
 How the public praise was conducted is a point on 
 which we are almost without information. Paul names 
 "a psalm" as one of the contributions which a member 
 might bring to the common worship;^ but whether he 
 
 1 1 Cor. 14i«. 2 1 Tim. i^\ ' 1 Cor. 14=6. 
 
io8 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 means one of the Hebrew psalms or a Christian com- 
 position, or how it was recited or sung, we are not told. 
 His counsel to believers at Ephesus and Colossse to 
 admonish one another or themselves with sacred songs, 
 like the similar language of St. James, seems best under- 
 stood of a private use of religious verse.^ One or two 
 passages in his letters are conjectured to be quotations 
 from Christian poetry,^ which we know on evidence cited 
 by Eusebius ' to have been composed at a very early date. 
 But when or to what extent musical praise found its way 
 into the worship of the primitive communities remains 
 uncertain. 
 
 Another custom there was, however, connected with 
 meetings for worship, although it can scarcely be called 
 a part of it, which is well established as Apostolic — the 
 " kiss of peace," or " of love," as a seal of the Christian's 
 new-found brotherhood.* 
 
 In the Pastoral Epistles we reach the latest stage 
 in the New Testament documents of Greek Christendom. 
 It is marked by two, or possibly three, features unnamed 
 in earher writings: (1) the effort to secure as presbyters 
 men who were themselves fit to teach ; (2) careful direc- 
 tions for intercessory prayer on behalf of civil rulers and 
 of all classes, to be offered by male members of the Church 
 only — " holdiDg up holy hands " in the Jewish manner ; and 
 (3) possibly the inclusion of public readings from Holy Writ.^ 
 
 Scanty as these materials are, they give us the elements 
 at least of a congregational service, made up of prayer, 
 instruction, and the holy meal, with the possible addition 
 of praise and Scripture lessons. Now, these are just the 
 acts which we find entering into the Sunday services of 
 the sub-apostohc Church when we pass beyond the canon 
 to the opening decades of the second century. 
 
 1 Eph. 5^9, Col. 316, Jas. 5^3. 
 
 2 Eph. 5", 1 Tim. S^", less probably Tit. Z*-\ ^ H. E. v. 28. 
 4 Rom. 16^6, 1 Cor. W^\ 2 Cor. IS^^, 1 Thess. b'\ 1 Pet. 5^4 
 
 5 1 Tim. 5", Tit. 1\ 1 Tim. 2i-8 4". 
 
WORSHIP IN CHURCH OF FIRST CENTURY 109 
 
 For example, the well-known report which Pliny sent 
 to the Emperor Trajan in the year 109 A.D. describes 
 the worship of the Christians at Bithynia. They met 
 twice on Sunday (for that, no doubt, was the " fixed day " 
 referred to) : first, very early, before sunrise — possibly 
 a precaution for the sake of concealment, and again at 
 some later hour. On the second occasion, they came 
 together for the purpose of taking a common meal ; but 
 this meeting, which had drawn upon them suspicion as 
 an illegal or possibly seditious club, they had suspended 
 in obedience to the governor's orders. The early morning 
 assembly was evidently for worship. Two acts of devotion 
 only are named by PUny. The one was a Christian 
 hymn of praise to our Lord, recited or chanted after some 
 alternate fashion. The other is characterised by the 
 Koman official as a sacramentum^ a word which must 
 bear, of course, not its later ecclesiastical sense, but its 
 current classical one. Was this solemn oath or formula 
 by which the Christians engaged themselves to lead a 
 blameless life, the explanation of Holy Communion which 
 these incriminated brethren had furnished to the authori- 
 ties ? On the whole I am disposed to think it was. It 
 is difficult to conjecture what else they could so describe ; 
 whereas it is quite easy to see why they should reveal 
 no more of their sacred rite to a heathen magistrate than 
 simply its moral obligation as binding the brotherhood 
 to a life of virtue. Assuming this view to be correct, 
 it is the first occurrence of the eucharist as a morning 
 celebration, separated from the evening agajp6\ as well 
 as the earliest application to it of the term sdcramentum, 
 though in another than the later sense. 
 
 Not much light is thrown on the ritual of the larger 
 and better-known Churches, or of any portion of Greek 
 Christendom, by that curious directory, the Didache. 
 Neither its date nor its place of origin is certain. The 
 very early period, between 80 and 110 A.D., to which 
 scholars inclined at first to assign it, has not held its 
 
no THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 ground; and opinion leans to a later decade in the first 
 half of the second century. In any case, it is a strongly 
 Hebrseo - Christian production, designed apparently to 
 regulate Church procedure in some out of the way rural 
 district, possibly in Syria or in Egypt. Its theology is 
 far from Pauline ; there is no invocation of the Holy 
 Spirit ; nor is its conception of the eucharist at all an 
 elevated or even distinctively Christian one. But it 
 agrees with other sources in making the eucharist, as 
 the Christian sacrifice of thanksgiving, the central feature 
 in the worship of every Lord's Day. The first act in the 
 service was " to confess their trausgressions that their 
 sacrifice might be pure." Nothing is said either of the 
 reading of Scripture or of praise. The chief novelty is 
 that brief forms of prayer are prescribed to be said before 
 and after celebration of the eucharist, as well as at 
 baptismal services. A separate grace is to be recited 
 over each of the elements, and the cup takes precedence 
 of the bread, A few minor details are added to our 
 previous knowledge. Thus, the rule is laid down that 
 members who are at variance are to be reconciled before 
 communicating. Two days in the week are to be kept 
 as fast days. And the private repetition of the Lord's 
 Prayer is recommended three times a day at the hours 
 usually observed by devout Hebrews. 
 
 In connection with the occurrence of set prayers in 
 the Didache^ it seems to me of special interest to turn to 
 the other " find " which Archbishop Bryennios made at the 
 same time. I refer to the six recovered chapters near 
 the end of Clement of Eome's Epistle to the Corinthian 
 Church (chaps. 58 to 63). The date is considerably earlier, 
 as early, according to Bishop Lightfoot, as 95-96 a.d. 
 Of these chapters the greater portion is occupied by a 
 long prayer, which recent editors and critics of Clement 
 judge to have been taken from the public services of the 
 Church of Rome, over which he presided. If this be so, 
 it possesses for the student of liturgical language a singular 
 
WORSHIP IN CHURCH OF FIRST CENTURY in 
 
 value. Opening with a prayer for the Church coupled 
 with words of lofty praise, it passes to supplication for 
 various classes of suffering brethren. Then follow petitions 
 for absolution and for peace, and the whole is closed by 
 a long intercession on behalf of civil rulers, which winds 
 up with a doxology. Scriptural and elevated in its 
 phraseology, it sets a model, although composed within 
 the lifetime of the Apostle St. John, of the same solemn 
 and dignified style, both of thought and of language, with 
 which later liturgies have familiarised us. 
 
 Similar forms of common prayer can hardly have been 
 everywhere in use at that early period. At least we meet 
 with no indication of them, rather of the contrary practice, 
 in the full and careful account of worship, as he knew it,^ 
 which half a century later Justin Martyr laid before the 
 Emperor in his First Apology. Drawn up about a hundred 
 and twenty years after the origin of the Church, it practi- 
 cally sums up for us the results we have reached. 
 
 The service on the Lord's Day, as he describes it,^ 
 opened with readings from the memoirs of the Apostles 
 and from the writings of the Prophets. When the Eeader 
 ceased, the President or Leader gave an address of in- 
 struction and exhortation. Evidently it was based on the 
 lesson, as was the synagogue practice. Then all rose up 
 and offered prayers, which included intercessions ; and at 
 the close of these, the members saluted one another with 
 a kiss. Bread was next brought forward with a cup of 
 water and mixed wine, contributed by the worshippers ; 
 over which the President offered up prayers and thanks- 
 givings at some length, " as he is able," ^ the people 
 responding with the usual " Amen." It is probable that 
 in this eucharistic prayer were incorporated the words of 
 
 ^ Unfortunately we do not know whether it was written in Palestine or 
 during Justin's residence at Rome. 
 
 2 Apol. c. 35, 67. 
 
 ^ 6(Tri Hvafiis avT<^ — a much discussed phrase. In the Library of the 
 Fathers it is rendered by ** with all his strength." But other senses have 
 been suggested. It is hardly consistent with a prescribed form of prayer. 
 
112 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 institution. Distribution of the elements by the deacons then 
 took place ; and to the absent also they were sent through 
 the hands of the same ofi&cials. The service closed ap- 
 parently with a collection to be deposited with the 
 President for the succour of orphans and widows, the sick, 
 strangers, or any others who were in want. 
 
 If the above was meant to be a complete order of 
 service, the absence of praise would excite surprise. But, 
 seeing that in an earlier chapter (chap. 13) Justin had 
 already spoken of thanking God in " hymns," it is safe to 
 assume that the omission was accidental. Of the agapi 
 as a distinct act, he also makes no mention. 
 
 To this sketch of ordinary weekly service in the 
 middle of the second century, it only remains to add a 
 brief reference to services which were not weekly. That 
 from the commencement, Sunday, as the weekly festival 
 of the Eesurrection, bad been set apart in place of the 
 Jewish Sabbath for Christian worship, is sufficiently 
 attested in the New Testament^ and confirmed by the 
 sub-apostolic documents just referred to. But the observ- 
 ance of the Passover season as a Christian " Holy Week " 
 in memory both of the Passion and of the Eesurrection, 
 rests on a different footing. It is not mentioned in the 
 canonical writings ; nor, so far as I am aware, in any 
 extant document of the period we have traversed from 
 the founding of the Church till the middle of the suc- 
 ceeding century. Very few years, however, after Justin 
 wrote his Apology ^ there broke out (in 155 a.d.) the well- 
 known and long sustained discussion between the Churches 
 of Asia Minor and the rest of Christendom as to the mode 
 in which the date of its celebration ought to be calculated. 
 Into the history of this (so-called) quarto-deciman contro- 
 versy there is no need here to enter. But its early 
 emergence, together with the keen desire exhibited on all 
 ha^nds to bring the Churches to a simultaneous observance of 
 
 1 Cf. besides our Lord's own appearances and the coming of the Spirit on 
 that day, Acts 20', 1 Cor. 16^, Rev. l^". 
 
WORSHIP IN CHURCH OF FIRST CENTURY 113 
 
 what was for all of them alike a season of unusual sacred- 
 ness, and the fact that Apostolic authority was confidently 
 appealed to gn both sides — force on my mind the conclusion 
 that the observance itself was a custom old enough to go 
 back at least to the close of the Apostolic age, if not 
 earlier. In his letter on the subject which Eusebius 
 cites,^ Irenseus tells us that much divergence of practice 
 existed respecting the manner and duration of the fast 
 which invariably accompanied the commemoration of the 
 Lord's Passion. But on the fact that always and every- 
 where this annual commemoration had been kept by 
 Christians from the days of the Apostles, no difference of 
 opinion can be observed. It was just because it was the 
 one anniversary recalling our redemption which was sacred 
 to every Christian Church, that the sentiment of Christian 
 unity was wounded, when in a single region it was regu- 
 lated by a different tradition from what obtained else- 
 where, even though that tradition claimed to have 
 descended through only half a century from the Apostle 
 St. John. Seeing that the Passover week proved to be 
 in coming generations the starting-point for the growth of 
 the whole Church year, this fact becomes one of first-rate 
 consequence for the student of Christian worship. 
 
 1 H, E. V. 23-24. 
 
 8 
 
CHAPTEK XII 
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY REFORMS IN WORSHIP 
 
 The forms of Divine service which Protestant ministers are 
 required to conduct, date in substance from the sixteenth 
 century. In spite of considerable diversity among them, 
 they all resulted from the effort of Keformers to revert to 
 the practice of the Church at some earlier and purer period 
 of her history. Casting aside the Mass, as well as Mariol- 
 atry, the use of images, the invocation of saints, prayers for 
 the dead, with other superstitious and sacerdotal features 
 in mediaeval service-books, an endeavour was made to return 
 with more or less thoroughness to a mode of serving God in 
 closer harmony with the spirit of the Christian faith, and 
 even to an approximate reproduction of the Church's wor- 
 ship in its pristine simplicity. This is what the Eeform 
 was meant to be — what to a fair extent it actually was. 
 
 It is easy to see how new forms of worship, fundament- 
 ally at variance with mediaeval ritual, sprang of necessity 
 out of men's changed beliefs. Stated as broadly as possible, 
 Protestant cultus differs from Catholic in two essential 
 features : — First, its value depends, not on manual acts of 
 a priest, but entirely on the religious attitude of each 
 individual worshipper who takes part, — an attitude of his 
 spirit known only to God ; so that its forms are appropriate 
 just in the measure in which they lend united expression 
 to the devotional feeling of the congregation at the 
 moment. 
 
 And, second, since this devout feeling in the worshipping 
 
 people is a natural outcome of their faith, that is to say, 
 
 114 
 
SIXTEENTH CENTURY REFORMS 115 
 
 the response which follows under the Spirit's influence from 
 an intelligent acceptance of the Gospel of divine grace, the 
 proclamation of that Divine Word through which faith is 
 begotten and sustained, must be the most prominent, if not 
 the central, act of the service. This at once gives to the 
 open Bible, read or expounded, a position which in Catholic- 
 ism had been assigned to the altar. 
 
 It is quite clear that these are both simple corollaries 
 from what it is customary to describe as the two essential 
 principles of the Eeformation : its "material" and its 
 " formal " principles respectively. The former change was 
 involved in what theologians call " justification by faith " ; 
 for by that is meant that each man's acceptance with God, 
 or the forgiveness of his sins, depends solely on his inward 
 state as a penitent believer in the promise of God through 
 Jesus Christ; while the second followed no less directly 
 from the sole authority over Christian faith and life 
 ascribed by Protestants to the Word of God revealed in 
 Holy Scripture. 
 
 But although, as a matter of logic, reformed worship 
 grew irresistibly out of reformed teaching, it is none the 
 less startling to witness a revolution so rapid and so radical, 
 in a department of human conduct where, if anywhere, 
 traditional usages are slow to alter. When one reflects 
 that the main ideas which gradually embodied themselves 
 in the Catholic rites had entered the Church as early as the 
 third century, and for how many centuries they had swayed 
 the minds and regulated the devotions of Christian men 
 with all but unchallenged authority ; when it is remembered 
 that for generations more than one could reckon, the priest, 
 the Mass, and the confessional had been the holiest things 
 known to Christendom ; and when one's imagination calls 
 up the venerable and often gorgeous ceremonial of the 
 mediaeval Church, how it appealed to every sense, and laid 
 the arts of music, architecture, painting and sculpture 
 under tribute to augment its solemnity and impressive- 
 ness : — I confess that nothing in the Lutheran movement 
 
ii6 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 strikes me with more astonishment than the suddenness and 
 completeness with which large regions in Central and 
 Northern Europe flung it all aside and went back to the 
 simplest and most unadorned elements of worship as in the 
 primitive days of Christianity. 
 
 It was inevitable that the gain should be purchased at 
 the cost of some loss. Any violent rupture of historical 
 continuity shatters links with the past which are of value. 
 In this case, the sense of Church unity and cohesion, of 
 which a uniform ritual had been at once a product and a 
 symbol, suffered disastrously. Nor has any universally 
 accepted order of service been able to establish itself in the 
 Keformation Churches, such as might have restored to 
 Protestant Christendom a unity of its own. Divine 
 services, too, have suffered much in their beauty and 
 impressiveness. If the old ritual did owe most of its 
 impressiveness to what was sensuous in it, or symbolic, is 
 it not through the senses; that uneducated people are 
 most impressed, and by symbols that they most easily 
 apprehend the unseen ? A good Protestant need not 
 hesitate to admit that a severely spmtual cult lies under a 
 disadvantage when the question is how to address unspiritual 
 natures. Any service which is largely composed of verbal 
 teaching must make heavy demands on the intellect, and 
 call for a devoutness less aided by the imagination than is 
 usually to be met with among average persons. The case 
 has often been made a good deal worse than it need have 
 been. In some countries, reformed worship has meant a 
 service of God devoid of beauty, bald and severe to ugliness, 
 as if piety and good taste were natural foes. And whereas 
 it belongs to the very genius of the reformed system that 
 the whole congregation is the worshipping unit, each 
 member in which has his own part to take in the common 
 acts, how often have the people seen their share in vocal 
 worship dwindle to a minimum, through a too exclusive 
 prominence given to the leader or an excessive reliance on 
 his fitness to lead ! 
 
SIXTEENTH CENTURY REFORMS 117 
 
 All this and more may be frankly conceded, while we 
 still give God thanks for the change, devoutly recognising 
 that what the new era gained far outweighs the loss. 
 Mediae valism had been a relapse into lower religious 
 conceptions and outworn modes of religious observance, 
 unworthy of the Christian Gospel. It was a manlier 
 devotion which took the place of its meretricious, if 
 splendid, ritual ; just as it was a more free and filial 
 attitude toward God which breathed through it. Unattract- 
 ive they may be to the indifferent or undevout, but in the 
 unadorned services of our evangelical Churches penitent 
 and faithful souls will always feel themselves at home; 
 because there, amid no inconsistent or irrelevant accessories 
 to distract the mind, they can give utterance to that inward 
 worship of the Father " in spirit and in truth " which was 
 consecrated by the Lord Himself. 
 
 The two great divisions of Protestantism, while agreed 
 in spirit, differed in the thoroughness with which they 
 strove in points of detail to reproduce primitive worship. 
 Luther was cautious and conservative in his alterations. 
 So long as nothing was left from which people could learn 
 doctrine inconsistent with the Gospel, he was disposed not 
 to break with accustomed usages. Given the essentials of 
 evangelical devotion, lesser details seemed to him matters 
 of prudential arrangement. In this way the Lutheran 
 Churches retained a good deal which Calvinists rejected. 
 Pictures were left on the walls. The crucifix and the lights 
 remained on the holy table. At certain prayers the 
 clergyman continued to turn to it with his back to the 
 people. The Gospel and Epistle were still read every 
 Sunday, and made obligatory as texts for the weekly 
 sermon. Besides festivals which commemorate the great 
 events of our redemption, a few other feasts of the Church 
 year were likewise retained, such as All Saints', Michaelmas, 
 and St. John's Day, not as in themselves sacred, but as 
 affording opportunity for extra services which it was 
 profitable to utilise. In the same spirit, Luther's revision 
 
ii8 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 of the Mass, not only the earlier one in 1523, but even his 
 more drastic recension three years later, while it dropped 
 everything which implied a sacrificial oblation of the elements, 
 with a crowd of minor ceremonies, allowed certain of the 
 ancient prayers to remain, along with the versicles, the Kyrie, 
 the Pax vohiscum, and the Creed. It is upon one or other 
 of these revisions that the Lutheran States have modelled 
 the various Agende or service-books which have since been 
 sanctioned for public use. 
 
 The Keformed Churches of Switzerland, followed by 
 those of the Palatinate, of France, Holland, and Scotland, 
 with a more express intention to be guided by the New 
 Testament, went somewhat further. Even they did not in 
 point of fact reproduce in every particular the worship of 
 the Apostolic Church. For instance, they revived neither 
 the love-feast nor the kiss of brotherly love. They did not 
 dispense with prepared prayers at the Lord's Day services ; 
 nor did they any longer celebrate the Lord's Supper on 
 every Sunday, according to immemorial and invariable 
 usage, but reserved it for special occasions. They continued 
 to recite the Apostles' Creed in worship. Moreover, they 
 retained, although the New Testament is silent on the 
 subject, the five great festivals of the Christian year — 
 Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, Whitsunday, and Christmas ; 
 and they gave to the weekly festival of the Lord's Day a 
 stricter and more legal aspect by identifying it in point of 
 divine authority with the Hebrew Sabbath. In other 
 respects, however, they stripped the worship to its essentials, 
 making it as bare and simple as they could ; casting organs, 
 for example, and pictures out of their places of worship, 
 abolishing the fixed lessons, and exchanging the traditional 
 prayers for newly devised forms. 
 
 What in the end afifected Calvinistic worship more 
 deeply than these matters of detail was the excessive 
 emphasis laid upon doctrinal instruction. The Swiss went 
 further than Luther, not perhaps in exalting the preaching 
 of the Divine Word, but at least in giving to the intellectual 
 
SIXTEENTH CENTURY REFORMS 119 
 
 element in religion a preponderance over both the 
 emotional and the aesthetic elements. The sermon became 
 to them, not simply the main thing at every service, but 
 the central or controlling part of worship, to which its 
 other acts were contributory. What this meant was that 
 imperfection, adhering to the actual life of Christians, was 
 more prominent in their religious consciousness, and was 
 allowed a more prominent position in their public worship, 
 than the ideal of Christian life in Christ — the perfection 
 which is already the Christian's own by the gift of God. 
 It resulted of necessity that self-edification, or the cultiva- 
 tion of spiritual life in the soul, with the correction of its 
 faults, was kept ever before the mind of the worshipper as 
 the chief end to be aimed at in Divine service. Worship 
 tended to become little else than a means of grace. It is 
 true that this one-sidedness, with the under-estimation of 
 worship as an end in itself to which it gave rise, was less 
 apparent among the continental Keformed of the first 
 generation than it became on this side of the Channel 
 during the next century. It was then, under the influence 
 of a rigid orthodoxy and an introspective piety, that 
 Puritan cultus, among both Presbyterians and Inde- 
 pendents, put on the unlovely appearance with which it 
 has so often been reproached. 
 
 Transplanted to English soil, the same diversity in 
 practice which in Central Europe had from the beginning 
 divided Lutheran from Calvinist, assumed an acuter form 
 and gave rise to more vehement debate betwixt the two 
 parties which divided the national Church. English 
 Keformers, influenced more from Wittenberg than from 
 Geneva, had revised the Missal in a spirit still more 
 conservative than Luther's. Ceremonies had been abolished, 
 not because they " had their beginning by the institution of 
 man," but either on the ground of their abuse in time past, 
 since " the abuses could not well be taken away, the thing 
 remaining still," or for the less weighty reason that " the 
 great excess and multitude of them hath so increased in 
 
I20 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 these latter days that the burden of them was intolerable." ^ 
 A reform so tender in its handling of accustomed forms in 
 worship, effected less change than took place in any other 
 part of Protestant Europe. With a very large proportion 
 of the population adhering to the Roman allegiance, policy, 
 no less than sentiment, counselled the retention as far as 
 possible of usages with which the people were familiar. A 
 very large number of festivals and saints' days, the 
 cathedral system nearly unaltered, daily prayers in which 
 the old offices of the " Hours " appear in abridged form, an 
 order for Holy Communion which follows in the main the 
 early liturgies, a large number of collects taken from the 
 Gregorian and Gelasian sacramentaries : — were all feat- 
 ures the retention of which enabled conservative-minded 
 Englishmen to pass from the old to the new state of 
 things with the least possible sense of dislocation or of 
 novelty. And whatever else may have come about in con- 
 sequence, one result has been, that no existing liturgy 
 excels the Anglican for the beauty of its prayers or the 
 richness of its materials, nor has any other Protestant 
 communion preserved so much of the stateliness of the 
 Roman cult. 
 
 It was natural that from the first a party should exist 
 in England, encouraged by continental divines, which sought 
 to have the Church assimilated in a more thoroughgoing 
 fashion to the example set by the Swiss Cantons. But the 
 objections of the early Elizabethan Puritans referred to 
 relics of the old ritual which were of secondary consequence. 
 For the services, in particular the Order of Holy Com- 
 munion, had been substantially purged, even in the revision 
 of 1559, from the Roman teaching on the subject of the 
 Mass. Of any change in the elements or any offering of 
 them to God in sacrifice, no mention was left. The Supper 
 is called simply, " a perpetual memory of that His precious 
 
 ^ Preface, " Of Ceremonies, why some be abolished, and some 
 retained," first prefixed to the 1549 edition of the Book of Common 
 Prayer. 
 
SIXTEENTH CENTURY REFORMS 121 
 
 death." The elements are described as " these Thy creatures 
 of Bread and Wine." " His most blessed Body and Blood " 
 are expressly termed " spiritual food." All that is char- 
 acteristic of the Mass has disappeared.^ What exception 
 was taken against, were such external details as sacerdotal 
 vestments, kneeling at the reception of the eucharist, the 
 use of the name "priest" for presbyter, the sign of the 
 cross at baptism, god-parents, saints' days, the retention of 
 the word " altar," and the ring in the marriage ceremony. 
 From a list of " nocent " ceremonies like this one could 
 hardly have foreseen that English Christianity would 
 permanently split into two antagonistic camps, with all 
 the bitterness, intolerance, and narrowness of which that 
 has proved the prolific parent throughout the subsequent 
 history of English society. As little, however, could it 
 have been foreseen that, as a result of the remaining leaven 
 of Catholicism, our age should witness such a widespread 
 revival, not only of Catholic ritual, but likewise of Catholic 
 teaching on the subject of the "Mass," as constitutes 
 to-day the peril of the ancient and venerable Church of 
 England. 
 
 As the discussion between High Churchman and Puritan 
 developed, it became necessary to ground both attack and 
 defence on some general principle. To urge merely that 
 the practices complained of savoured of Rome, or that they 
 gave offence to tender consciences, or that foreign Reformed 
 Churches had discarded them, or that a simpler ceremonial 
 was to be preferred — were all of them too weak pleas to 
 prevail against immemorial use and wont. Too weak, at all 
 events, among a people slow to change, and in a Church 
 tenacious of historical continuity. For English divines 
 had striven, while dropping the later abuses of mediaeval 
 worship, to fall back on Catholic antiquity and the consent 
 of the Catholic Fathers ; so that the canons, no less than 
 the creeds, of councils, down to the fifth or sixth century, 
 
 1 As is well known, the tenet of Baptismal Regeneration did not so 
 completely disappear from the Order for that sacrament. 
 
122 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 were freely cited as authorities. A " middle way " so 
 characteristically English, ia which the great majority of 
 English Churchmen ever since have seen the best recom- 
 mendation of their Church, could only be abandoned at the 
 bidding of some imperative principle. It became necessary, 
 therefore, for the Puritans to take their stand on the position 
 that nothing ought to be introduced either into the life or 
 into the worship of the Church which is not sanctioned in 
 the Word of God, if not expressly, at least by some general 
 rule laid down in Scripture. It was Calvin's position : that 
 the Word of God is for His Church the sole supreme directory 
 for practice, as well as standard for doctrine. " They did 
 not deny but certain things are left to the order of the 
 Church, because they are of the nature of those which are 
 varied by times, places, persons, and other circumstances, 
 and so could not at once be set down and established for 
 ever." ^ But as the main rule to guide in all such matters, 
 they laid it down that " the Word of God containeth the 
 direction of all things pertaining to the Church." ^ Hooker 
 admitted that Puritanism " hath grown from no other root, 
 than only a desire to enlarge the necessary use of the 
 Word of God." 3 
 
 The ablest advocates of this view were Cartwright and 
 Travers. But the Church, put to her defence by her own 
 sons, found to the full as able apologists in Hooker and 
 Whitgift. It is above all to Richard Hooker's monumental 
 work that the student will turn.* Article XX. of the 
 Thirty-nine adopted in 1562 and issued in the following 
 year by Royal authority, had laid it down as the teaching 
 of the Church of England: "The Church hath power to 
 decree Rites and Ceremonies, and authority in Controversies 
 of Faith. And yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain 
 anything that is contrary to God's Word written, neither 
 may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repug- 
 
 1 Cartwright quoted by Hooker — Keble's ed. i. p. 405 footnote. 
 
 2 Ihid. p. 289 note. 3 Ihid. p. 287. 
 
 * Of the Laws of Eccl. Polity, 1593, with later dates for Bk. v.-viii. 
 
SIXTEENTH CENTURY REFORMS 123 
 
 nant to another." ^ This is in substance the thesis which 
 Hooker had to maintain. His main line of argument, set 
 Out with opulence of reasoning and in classic English, is 
 well known and easily stated : — 
 
 The sufficiency of Holy Scripture means its sufficiency 
 for the end for which it was given ; and that was " to deliver 
 a full instruction in all things unto salvation necessary, the 
 knowledge whereof man by nature could not in this life 
 attain unto." For this purpose Scripture is complete. 
 But it does not follow that it must lay down directions 
 concerning everything which men either ought to do or 
 lawfully may do. For God has other ways of conveying 
 His will to us ; such as, the light of natural reason and the 
 positive laws which regulate human actions in societies, 
 civil or spiritual. Scripture itself assumes that men are 
 able to inform themselves as to what is best to be done on 
 many matters, and counts on their doing what by reason 
 and nature they find to be good or right, although there 
 be no express direction to that effect in the written 
 Word. 
 
 No doubt all this is true and pertinent in many depart- 
 ments of human conduct. At the same time, it is quite 
 possible to doubt whether it applies to the introduction of 
 ecclesiastical ceremonies into Divine worship. For the ques- 
 tion what liberty Christ has left to His Church in that matter 
 is a much narrower one. The Church is the special creation 
 of Jesus Christ, His house in which He alone is Master; 
 and if it can be shown that binding and permanent direc- 
 tions on ritual, no less than on doctrine, have been laid 
 down in the N'ew Testament, which both disputants accepted 
 as Christ's statute-book, then it may well be that beyond 
 these Church rulers are not at liberty to go. It will then 
 
 ^ It has been much disputed whether the opening words of this Article 
 were inserted by competent ecclesiastical authority or by the Crown. Some 
 have supposed they were inserted in the copy subscribed in Convocation, 
 by Queen Elizabeth herself, in support of the claim made by the Crown to 
 decree ceremonies. Cf. Hardwick, Hist, of the Articles, London, 1895, pp. 
 140-144. 
 
124 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 be a society administered at all points under the statutes 
 of its Founder ; with a certain discretion, no doubt, but a 
 strictly limited discretion, in the application only of these 
 binding statutes. The distinction which the Puritan party 
 drew between the substance of Christian worship and its 
 accidental or variable circumstances, is one which it is 
 hardly fair to describe as only a difference of degree. 
 There is a material difference between leaving to Church 
 rulers, as Article XX. does, a perfectly free hand " to decree 
 rites and ceremonies," so long as nothing is ordained 
 contrary to Scripture, and limiting their power to " circum- 
 stances concerning the worship of God . . . common to 
 human actions and societies." ^ 
 
 The question has never again been debated with the 
 same thoroughness or ability. It has lost at the present 
 day much of its former interest. We are not now so sure 
 as men were three hundred years ago that the 'New Testa- 
 ment does lay down binding and permanent directions, 
 either on modes of worship or on the government of the 
 Church. There are many who would even give a wider 
 application than Hooker himself gave to his dictum, that 
 the end for which revelation was given and for which alone 
 it is sufficient, is " to deliver a full instruction in all things 
 unto salvation necessary." Yet the history of ceremonial, not 
 only in past ages, but even within our own time, attests the 
 tendency of Churchmen to encumber Christian worship with 
 additions which are too significant of erroneous ideas to be 
 called " details," or which mar its simplicity even when they 
 do not corrupt its spirituality. As a simple measure of 
 precaution, therefore, it would have been well for the purity 
 of Christ's Church had the limits laid down by Puritan 
 controversialists been more respected as limits beyond which 
 it is neither necessary nor safe to go. 
 
 But even if in principle we cut down the Church's 
 liberty in legislation to such modest limits, it is obvious 
 that room will still be left for honest variations in practice. 
 
 ^ Westminster Confession of Faith, i. 6. 
 
SIXTEENTH CENTURY REFORMS 125 
 
 The minds and tastes of individuals, of different nations in 
 Christendom, and of successive generations, are variously- 
 constituted. Some will always see a perilous innovation 
 where others find nothing more than a reasonable or beauti- 
 ful ordering of the " circumstantial " in worship. Even the 
 Pauline canon, which is perhaps the best rule of all : " Let 
 all things be done unto edifying," ^ will not always carry us 
 clear of difficulty. The ritual which is helpful at one time, 
 or in one place, may be "nocenf at another. The most 
 stringent purists do not stand to-day exactly where they 
 stood even a generation back; nor would any evangelical 
 Church in this country be satisfied with forms of Divine 
 service so meagre and unadorned as satisfied at one period 
 the extreme schools of Puritan dissent. 
 
 1 1 Cor. xiv. 26. 
 
CHAPTEK XIII 
 
 ORDER OF WEEKLY WORSHIP 
 
 The outward acts of a congregation which, variously arranged 
 and performed, go to make up Divine service as we practise 
 it on the Lord's Day, are few in number and extremely 
 simple. Musical praise by choir and congregation ; prayers ; 
 readings out of the Old and New Testaments ; the recitation 
 of a creed; a sermon; the offering of our gifts to G-od; 
 celebration of baptism occasionally, and, as often as we will, 
 of the Lord's Supper : these constitute, if I mistake not, a 
 complete list. It is nearly all a service of godly words, 
 spoken or sung ; and although both praise and prayer admit 
 of considerable varieties in form, yet one feels that if the 
 whole compass of a Christian people's emotions and desires 
 in the presence of our Father is to find utterance, study 
 must be given to use to the full these few and simple 
 elements at our command. For the devout states of the 
 worshippers, which are to be the spiritual contents that fill 
 up these forms and lend to them their whole value, are both 
 more numerous and more complex. In one or other act, if 
 the service is to be a full one, the congregation has to give 
 expression to a great many moods of its devotional life: 
 to adoration, to contrition, to gratitude, to trust and peace 
 in believing, to its consecration to the Divine service and 
 its surrender to the Divine will, to brotherly love and the 
 sympathy of the Christian body with its suffering members ; 
 to a crowd of desires also, that always press for utterance 
 in the ear of God : desires for forgiveness, for comfort, for 
 
 help in temptation, for growth in knowledge and in holiness, 
 
 126 
 
ORDER OF WEEKLY WORSHIP 127 
 
 for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ; everything, 
 in short, which enters into the normal experience of pious 
 believers. 
 
 Now, it is to the adequate and orderly presentation, 
 within the few minutes allowed by custom to a Sunday 
 service, of such varied feelings and desires, nothing over- 
 done and nothing omitted, that the earnest effort of the 
 leader needs to be chiefly turned, in so far as he is left 
 responsible for the conduct of the service. Were it in one's 
 power to construct an ideal programme for the weekly 
 worship, what would be the points to be kept in view ? 
 Probably there are just three merits which it would be 
 important for such a service to combine : — 
 
 1. That each act of worship be devoted to a definite 
 purpose and bear a character of its own, having its distinct 
 contribution to make to the completeness of the whole ; 
 
 2. That no devout feeling or desire, common to the wor- 
 shippers and requiring expression, be left wholly unex- 
 pressed; and 
 
 3. That the acts succeed one another in what may be 
 called a natural sequence ; following, that is, so far as may 
 be, the order of normal Christian piety. That the moods 
 which spontaneously arise in Christian hearts during their 
 dehberate approaches to the throne of grace do usually 
 succeed each other in some order natural to the new life, 
 will probably be conceded; although everyone might not 
 set them down quite in the same sequence. 
 
 In other words, the worship-acts ought to be distinct, 
 comprehensive, progressive. 
 
 But the leader of worship has not usually been left in 
 this matter without guidance. Only in Churches on the 
 Independent model, where each congregation constitutes an 
 autonomous unit, is the minister free as a rule to construct 
 an order of service of his own. Even there, I imagine, 
 traditional usage in a particular Church will frequently 
 prescribe to any new pastor the order of service he is 
 expected to observe. In larger Church bodies, at all events. 
 
128 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 the minister is always required more or less strictly to 
 follow an order laid down for him by ecclesiastical authority. 
 There are two degrees of guidance he may receive, by which 
 his responsibility is more or less shared and lightened. In 
 the Catholic and Anglican communions everything is dic- 
 tated with all but faultless exactness by a " liturgy '' ; that 
 is to say, by an Office of Common Prayer, covering the 
 entire service, and prescribing for his use and that of the 
 people their respective shares in the service, from which 
 neither he nor they are at liberty to deviate. In the 
 Presbyterian Churches of G-reat Britain and the British 
 colonies, and in those of America which sprang from 
 British emigrants, a lesser degree of guidance is afforded 
 by the Directory of the Westminster Assembly, in which 
 an order of service is laid down, with the general character 
 of its separate acts ; but the phraseology of the prayers in 
 particular is left to the discretion of the leader. Lutheran 
 and Eeformed Churches on the Continent, with the Kirk of 
 Scotland in her earlier history, adopted a combination of 
 the two ; portions only of the service consisting of prescribed 
 or written forms ; though, if I mistake not, their clergy have 
 never been rigorously tied to these liturgical forms, as in 
 the Anglican and Eoman rituals.^ 
 
 The basis of all Eeformed service-books was Calvin's 
 " Book of Geneva," ^ still in force in French Switzerland, in 
 France, and among the German Eeformed. Introduced also 
 into Scotland, it was accepted, with some enlargement, as 
 the "Book of Common Order" for the Kirk. Through 
 A'Lasco's adaptation of it for the Church of the Foreigners 
 in London, which was translated into Dutch, it became the 
 chief source of the liturgy of Holland and of the Dutch 
 Eeformed Church in the United States. The Palatinate, 
 
 ^ This certainly was not the case in the Scottish Church. *' A directory 
 with forms for optional use" is Dr. M'Crie's account of it. (See his Public 
 Worship of Presbyterian Scotland, Edin. 1892, p. 106.) 
 
 2 Issued in 1536 under the title, Fonne des Prilres Eccl6siastiques, but 
 subsequently revised and re-issued at Geneva in 1556. 
 
ORDER OF WEEKLY WORSHIP 129 
 
 with other Eeformed Churches on the Lower Ehine, like- 
 wise adopted a form based on the same model. 
 
 In theory, the difference between a liturgy and a 
 directory affects only the language employed in public 
 prayer. For everything else, the rubrics of the one may 
 be as precise and comprehensive as those of the other. 
 In practice, however, the rubrics of the Westminster Direc- 
 tory, though nominally binding upon most English-speaking 
 Presbyterians, have long ceased to be closely observed. 
 Where that document has not been subjected to recent 
 revision/ it may almost be said to be obsolete; with the 
 result that a good deal of diversity has come to obtain in 
 Presbyterian worship. Numerous suggestions for its reform 
 have within the last century been made by Church Service 
 Societies or individual ministers; but an authoritative re- 
 casting of the Puritan Directory of the seventeenth century 
 is an urgent need, which the Scottish and American Churches 
 might combine to supply .^ 
 
 With so much liberty prevailing outside the Churches 
 which use a liturgy, the actual practice in many evangelical 
 communions, both in this country and in America, is not 
 readily ascertained and hardly admits of exact comparison. 
 Any casual observer might be forgiven if he were more 
 impressed by their diversities than by their substantial 
 
 ^ As it has been in the Presbyterian Church of England and by the 
 Federal Assembly of Australia and Tasmania. 
 
 ^ The Euchologion issued by the "Church Service Society" of the Church 
 of Scotland is well known and has been pretty extensively used. More 
 recently a similar society in the United Free Church of Scotland, the 
 "Public Worship Association," has provided for its ministers ample material, 
 first in the way of subjects for prayer {New Directory for the Public Worship 
 of Gody Edin. 1898), and now also by forms of prayer selected from a wide 
 range of sources {Anthology of Prayer for Public Worship, Edin. 1907). 
 Although prepared for Scottish use, all these will be found helpful by others 
 who are called to lead in non-liturgical Churches. None of these has re- 
 ceived an oflBcial imprimatur. But some time ago the General Assembly of 
 the Church of Scotland permitted the issue of a service-book for the use of 
 worshippers deprived of the services of a minister {Prayers for Social and 
 Family Worship, revised ed., Edin. 1892). 
 
 9 
 
I30 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 agreement. Not that uniformity in details would be in 
 itself any great merit. Christian freedom to differ, and the 
 adaptation of worship to the needs of different communities, 
 are principles too precious to be sacrificed to a cast-iron 
 sameness, were it even more desirable than it is. Yet 
 agreement there may well be where there is no uniformity. 
 And I think that underneath superficial variety the pre- 
 vailing forms of evangelical worship do bear a broad 
 resemblance to one another. They belong to the same 
 type. In the arrangement of their parts, especially, they 
 either conform, or, in the hands of a capable leader, they 
 may readily be made to conform, to a fairly uniform scheme. 
 How far that scheme is one in which the features laid down 
 above as desirable can be traced, will best appear from a 
 rapid review of the ordinary Lord's Day service. 
 
 1. The Preface 
 
 The main service of a congregation on the Lord's Day 
 is always introduced by a " preface " of some sort.^ For at 
 any solemn function, civil or sacred, the abrupt and the 
 hurried are to be avoided ; and reverence dictates that in 
 drawing near to God the mind should collect itself, striving 
 to fix its thoughts on Him and to realise His presence. 
 
 This is done in a variety of ways : either 
 
 (a) By a simple call to worship ; or 
 
 (h) By reciting a Scripture verse while the people rise : 
 it may be always the same ; e.g. the formula given in the 
 Book of Geneva, " Our help is in the name of the Lord, 
 who made heaven and earth" has long been current among 
 continental Presbyterians ; or it may be selected, as in the 
 Church of England, from a suitable list. 
 
 Or (c) by a brief prayer of lowly adoration coupled with 
 invocation of the Holy Spirit's aid in worship, as in the 
 
 1 The " Introiius" of the German liturgies; which is usually a brief 
 responsive prayer, said by clergyman and people, followed by the Gloria 
 Patri. 
 
ORDER OF WEEKLY WORSHIP 131 
 
 Westminster Directory. This is now common, but is often 
 made too long. 
 
 Or (d) by the singing of a psalm or hymn, as was long 
 the invariable practice in Scotland. Only the leader needs 
 to see that the verses chosen are appropriate for the open- 
 ing. Every act of praise, no less than of prayer, should, of 
 course, bear a character of its own, befitting its position and 
 purpose. Here the object is to attune the heart to the 
 spirit of devotion and give a keynote to what is to follow. 
 
 Where a combination of two or more of these is at- 
 tempted, care has to be taken that the whole Preface, as 
 well as each act in it, is not made too long. All through 
 the service, in fact, it is the duty of the leader, so far as he 
 has control, to arrange that, while there is no appearance 
 of haste, neither is there any part that drags, or repeats 
 itself, or is prolonged to tediousness, or encroaches on the 
 time of the rest. There is so much to be done in a brief 
 space. The secret lies in knowing beforehand exactly what 
 desire or feeling has now to be expressed, giving it utter- 
 ance in quiet, concise, apt words, enough and no more — 
 then passing on with grave deliberateness to the next. 
 
 2. Confession of Sins 
 
 The congregation having now placed itself consciously 
 in the presence of God, the instinct of every devout heart 
 is to recall in that presence its own uncleanness and un- 
 worthiness, with which among believers is invariably 
 associated the thought of the new and living way by which 
 we have access to the Father. Consequently the service 
 proper opens most fittingly with a General Confession of 
 Sin and a Petition for Divine Forgiveness. The Church, 
 admitted to the presence-chamber, begins by taking the 
 lowest room. 
 
 According to Achelis,^ this formed a regular part of early 
 worship until the custom of private confession to a priest came 
 
 ^ Praht. Theologies ii. 146. 
 
132 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 in, and it was restored to the German Mass in the twelfth 
 century. Its universal introduction at this stage into the 
 order of every Reformed Church was due to the influence of 
 Calvin, who adopted it in his Book of Geneva ; but the form 
 of " General Confession " everywhere used is now said to 
 have been the work of OEcolampadius of Basle. It first 
 appeared in the Zurich Service-book of 1525. That this 
 important feature dropped out of the services of Scottish 
 Presbyterians after 1645 was a result of its omission from 
 the Westminster Directory, and has been a serious im- 
 poverishment of the worship. It has lately been restored 
 in their revision of the Directory by the English Presby- 
 terians. Leaders of worship in Congregational or Presby- 
 terian Churches who desire its reintroduction will be more 
 likely to frame a confession for themselves than to fall back 
 upon any Reformation formula. Without entering into 
 much detail, it ought to acknowledge in simple and un- 
 exaggerated, though in humble and contrite, language, such 
 faults of character and shortcomings in Christian duty as 
 are to be found in all of us, so that the entire congregation 
 can honestly appropriate every word of it. 
 
 In the Lutheran and Anglican Churches, whose ministers 
 are empowered to pronounce penitents to be absolved, the 
 " General Confession " is followed by a prescribed form of 
 absolution. This Calvin is said to have omitted only 
 through fear of giving offence.^ The Church of England, 
 while expressly claiming for her clergy such a power, is 
 careful, like the German liturgies, to give to the declaratory 
 formula a general, not a personal, application, and follows 
 it up by a bidding prayer for " true repentance " in which 
 the most scrupulous of Protestants may join.^ In most 
 evangelical congregations, it will probably be deemed 
 sufficient to recite a Divine promise of forgiveness for 
 
 1 See Baird, Chapter on Liturgies (London, 1856), p. 21, footnote. 
 
 2 '*He pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent and un- 
 feignedly believe His holy Gospel. Wherefore, let us beseech Him to grant 
 us true repentance and His Holy Spirit," and so on. 
 
a 
 
 ORDER OF WEEKLY WORSHIP 133 
 
 Jesus' sake and, pleading His merits, to append to the act 
 of confession a simple petition for penitence and pardon. 
 This, however, ought never to be omitted. 
 
 3. Scripture Readings 
 
 From this point the worship is that of men who, how- 
 ever imperfect, have afresh committed themselves to the 
 Divine mercy, and who now realise their acceptance in 
 Christ as sons of God. 
 
 One of the earliest needs of the new life is for fuller 
 teaching, guidance, and support out of the Word of God. 
 Speak, Lord," is its voice ; " Thy servant heareth." Very 
 naturally, therefore, do the people at once assume the 
 attitude of disciples while the Holy Book is read. Ere we 
 directly address our petitions to the Most High, it is fitting 
 that we should meekly hear what He has to say to us. 
 Man's prayers are a response to Heaven's revelation. 
 
 It was an old custom in the Church of Scotland to mark 
 the gratitude of the forgiven by placing before other 
 Scriptures a reading or chanting of Psalms, as the Church 
 of England does. The brevity of a modern service may 
 make it difficult to spare time for this in addition to the 
 two usual " lessons/' Each of the latter, however, is usually 
 followed by an Act of Praise, which may, if desired, be taken 
 from the Psalter. These Acts cannot be intended merely 
 for variety, or to give the reader a pause. They express 
 the joy with which a pious soul welcomes and responds to 
 the Word of the Lord, " as one that findeth great spoil." 
 Hence they ought never to be on a minor key, but bright 
 bursts of grateful praise. For one of them there can be 
 nothing better in itself than the Te Beum. Its length is 
 here its only drawback ; but if used in this connection and 
 not at a more advanced stage, its length seems to make it 
 fitter that it should succeed the second reading rather than 
 come in between, as it does in the " Book of Common Prayer." 
 
 In many Churches the selection of the passages to be 
 
134 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 read is left to the leader, who discharges the duty most 
 frequently by choosing well-known portions which have 
 some connection with the subject of the sermon to follow. 
 The practice has fixed itself so firmly in many quarters that 
 it would now be difficult to uproot it. Yet I am convinced 
 it is a faulty one. There are two pleas on which it is 
 justified. The one is that it imparts unity to the service. 
 So it does, but the unity is merely that of a single thought 
 made dominant at each service. To be consistent, indeed, 
 the prayers also, no less than the lessons, would need to be 
 coloured (as sometimes they are) by the theme of the 
 preacher's discourse. By this means a kind of unity is no 
 doubt gained ; but it is at the sacrifice of what is of far 
 greater consequence, the unity of a complete service of 
 Divine Worship, in which each devout mood of the people, 
 with all their wants, finds adequate and harmonious ex- 
 pression, in the degree of its importance in religious 
 experience. 
 
 A second plea is that in Protestant worship the Word of 
 God is the prevailing feature which ought to give character 
 to all the rest. That is true ; but to make the Word of God 
 felt all through every service as its leading factor, is a very 
 different thing from making the particular subject selected 
 for that day's sermon by the preacher, the governing thought 
 in the whole worship of each Sunday, to which everything 
 else is to be subordinated. Wherever a true feeling for 
 common worship is strong, the devotions of the assembled 
 people will assert their own claim apart from the sermon. 
 
 Now, so soon as an independent value is conceded to the 
 Scripture readings, and the need of the flock to be fed in the 
 pastures of the Word is made the guiding consideration in 
 their selection, it is seen to be desirable that the public 
 reading of the Bible from week to week should follow some 
 intelKgible order and aim at approximate completeness, in 
 order " that the people may become better acquainted with 
 the whole body of the Scriptures." ^ When a preacher, to 
 
 ^ Westminster Directory. 
 
ORDER OF WEEKLY WORSHIP 135 
 
 fit his text or to please his taste, selects at random, the usual 
 result is that a limited number of favourite or familiar 
 passages are repeated again and again, while the great body, 
 even of what retains a present-day value for edification, is 
 never read at all. Ignorance of the Bible is confessed to be 
 on the increase among us. It is less and less read in the 
 family, possibly even in the closet. If a systematic acquaint- 
 ance with the facts and teachings of Holy Writ is to be 
 gained at all by many of our people, it must be gained at 
 church. 
 
 It is a misfortune that no quite satisfactory and well- 
 known lectionary exists to which a minister can have re- 
 course. The Church of England has inherited an ample one, 
 but it is compiled for Matins and Evensong on every day 
 in the week, with the unhappy result that worshippers who 
 are only present on Sundays hear one lesson out of every 
 seven, and are carried at a leap over the intervening six. 
 The old " pericopes," as they are termed, that is, the Gospel 
 and Epistle, are for Sundays only, it is true ; but they 
 possess no continuity, besides being brief and adjusted to 
 the Church year. To draft a course of Lord's Day readings, 
 for one year or for two, is a needed service for all our 
 Churches. If the Scottish Churches, for instance, were to 
 undertake it in combination, it would be found helpful far 
 beyond their own borders. In the meanwhile, each minister 
 can construct one for himself. It is only needful to take 
 care that the suitable contents of the canon be divided into 
 coherent sections, each possessing some unity of subject, and 
 not exceeding in length on the average, say, from twenty to 
 five and twenty or thirty verses. To read these ordinarily 
 in consecutive order need not exclude an occasional inter- 
 ruption when a Sunday occurs that wears a character of its 
 own : such as Easter, or Children's Day, or a church anni- 
 versary, or the last Lord's Day in the year. 
 
136 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 4. The Creed 
 
 If the congregation is to profess its faith at all in weekly 
 worship, this seems to me the right place for it ; a fitter 
 place than where Calvin put it in his Liturgy, quite at the 
 close of the service. For the " Belief " is our response to 
 the Gospel teaching just read out of Holy Scripture. 
 
 One chief end for which the Church of Christ exists is 
 to bear witness to the world of the Message of her Lord ; 
 and this end at least is served by the Creed as often as it is 
 recited in public. But the devotional recital of a Creed 
 means something more than this. It is a spontaneous utter- 
 ance on the part of each worshipper of his personal faith, 
 addressed, not to the world, but to God. It is an act of 
 trust in the acts of God for the redemption of the world. 
 It makes, therefore, a distinct contribution to our common 
 devotions as the expression we give to our Christian piety, 
 and if it be present at all, it must fill a place that is all its 
 own. Hardly any other devotional exercise is more char- 
 acteristic of the Christian religion than to confess the 
 Triune God, telling out what He has done for us, through 
 the redemptive acts of Jesus Christ, to the glory of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The custom had existed in the Church from the fifth 
 century,^ and the Apostles' Creed passed into Protestant 
 service-books, among others into the Common Order of the 
 Kirk of Scotland. That it was dropped out of Scottish 
 worship under later Puritan influence, and never found 
 admission at all, so far as I am aware, into Independent 
 congregations, has been the loss of a link, where we have 
 not too many, with the rest of the Chm^ch Universal. 
 
 Its reintroduction where it has fallen out of use will 
 probably be a matter of time. Some ministers who appre- 
 hend objections to its weekly recitation are inserting it 
 in the Communion Service. Probably few congregations, 
 however, if fairly consulted, would object. Here and 
 
 ^ Bingham, Antt. x. 4. 17. 
 
ORDER OF WEEKLY WORSHIP 137 
 
 there the usual attenders at a particular church include a 
 number of persons whose personal belief is too indefinite or 
 has been too deeply shaken by present-day difficulties to 
 permit them to repeat with full assurance all the clauses in 
 the Creed. Such cases are exceptional. An obstacle to its 
 adoption which is more widely felt lies in the unhappy ver- 
 sion of that much-debated clause which runs in English : 
 " He descended into hell " ; or rather, it lies in the difficulty 
 of agreeing upon a more accurate rendering of the original.^ 
 To substitute " Hades " for " hell," which would restore the 
 true sense, has now been rendered more easy by the use of 
 that Greek word in the Kevised Version of the New Testa- 
 ment. Or, the clause being a comparatively late insertion, 
 unknown before the recension of Kufinus (c. 390 A.D.), its 
 omission might be defended. At any rate, it seems hopeless 
 to propose the use of any other symbol. Otherwise much 
 might be urged in favour of the so-called " Mcene," more 
 accurately, Constantinopolitan Creed; especially the fact 
 that it comes nearer than any other to absolutely universal 
 acceptance, being the solitary Confession of Faith that is 
 of authority over all Oriental, as well as Occidental, 
 Christendom. 
 
 5. The Service of Prayer 
 
 The worship of the congregation now moves a step 
 forward to a more intimate converse with the Most High. 
 We have been disciples, and we have professed one faith ; 
 we are now to be filial suppliants and intercessors with the 
 Father. Hitherto it is the intellectual side of religion 
 which has received expression. What we have received 
 from God has been His Word of instruction and of gracious 
 promise through His Son ; what we have presented to Him 
 has been our sacrifice of praise for the great mercies of His 
 Gospel, with an avowal of the Church's belief in Eevelation 
 facts and truths. A different side in religious experience, 
 
 1 eis Tbv 487JP. See SchafF's Creeds of Greek and Latin Churches, 
 p. 46. 
 
138 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 one of equal moment, remains to be reflected in our worship : 
 its practical aspects and needs as a life of emotion and of 
 desire, spent in daily contact with the trials and duties 
 of this world, a life of human want, responsibility, and 
 temptation. 
 
 Here, just as in the previous section, worship must be 
 true to its idea as a fellowship of man's spirit with God in 
 mutual acts of giving and receiving. But it is not here, in 
 God's house, it is outside it, in the home and the mart, 
 that the great sacrifices of life can be offered, the ceaseless 
 oblation of grateful obedience and of surrender to the 
 Divine Will. Not here, but there, that the soul which 
 waits on God must draw into herself in a ceaseless tide the 
 gift of His Spirit's energy, to purify, sweeten, and enrich 
 her life. All that can be offered in Church is merely the 
 devotional expression of this daily commerce in giving and 
 receiving. That devotional expression takes the dual shape 
 of thanksgiving and petition. 
 
 Thanksgiving is praise cast into the form of personal 
 gratitude as the worshippers recall their own past experi- 
 ence and note what countless benefits they have all received, 
 as members of the human family, or as members of the 
 Church of God, from the unwearied, open-handed liberality 
 of Him from whom cometh down " every perfect boon." 
 An Act of General Thanksgiving is therefore the first offering 
 wherewith we now draw near to speak unto the Father. 
 
 But life is as full of our own needs as of His gifts: 
 needs always urgent, sometimes bitter. The heart of each 
 worshipper comes laden with its private wants ; and the 
 congregation has desires of its own, no less than those which 
 touch the welfare of the universal Church. Conscious, 
 therefore, of present needs and anticipating more to come, 
 what can we do, but make our requests known unto God, 
 craving at His hand fresh gifts of His love, not inferior to 
 those for which we have thanked Him : benefits temporal, 
 but much more spiritual, for ourselves, and also for others ? 
 
 If this be a just rationale of the long prayer, or if it be 
 
ORDER OF WEEKLY WORSHIP 139 
 
 preferred, of the series of short prayers, which forms a 
 feature in nearly all services, it will be apparent why it 
 should fall into three main divisions and no more: — a 
 Prayer of Thanksgiving ; a Prayer of Supplication for the 
 congregation then present; and a Prayer of General 
 Intercession.^ At the close we fitly sum up our desires in 
 the Divine Prayer which Jesus taught, in whose words all 
 can unite. 
 
 Of these three, the second may well be the freest portion 
 of the whole service. For here, more than anywhere else, 
 the leader, who is also pastor, prays with and for his own 
 flock, out of his close acquaintance with their local circum- 
 stances and needs. None so able as he to interpret to 
 God those longings, born of the hour and of the place, 
 which his own spirit shares with the most spiritual of his 
 people : longings for whatever he and they know the flock 
 to stand in present need of ; the quickening, for example, 
 of such as are members only in name ; the recovery of any 
 who have gone astray ; the training of youth in the home ; 
 the preservation of brotherly harmony ; the succour of the 
 tempted ; the comfort of the sick or the bereaved ; the 
 success of the congregation's efforts to win the irreligious 
 around. This, of course, he is able to do when he is at 
 liberty to vary his petitions from week to week as his 
 pastoral experience dictates. At this point supplication 
 can scarcely be too precise, nor can it be too fervent or 
 imploring. 
 
 It is otherwise with the Thanksgiving, and still more so 
 with the Intercession. The latter is, of course, a higher act, 
 one of the highest of all ; for in it a priestly community, 
 in association with its high-priestly Head, is interceding 
 on the world's behalf. For this reason a calmer or more 
 restrained tone, as well as a more formal style, is suitable 
 than in their entreaties for themselves. It naturally 
 comes last. There is less room for variation or for detail. 
 
 ^ The service-books both of the Reformed Churches and of Westminster 
 deferred the prayer of intercession till after sermon. 
 
I40 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 The petitions should be precise, no doubt, and cover as 
 great a variety of objects as time will allow : always in- 
 cluding (1) the whole Church, (2) civil rulers and the 
 common weal, with (3) every class of the afflicted and 
 needy ; yet always couched in such general terms, concise, 
 aptly phrased and free from repetition, as do not require 
 to be much altered from day to day.^ Few men can 
 compose such a prayer on the spot. 
 
 Here then we are made sharply aware of the question, 
 once keenly debated in this country, between the advocates 
 of liturgical and of free prayer : — if, indeed, we do not find 
 here a suggestion of the best way to solve it. The com- 
 parative advantages and disadvantages of each are by this 
 time too well understood to make it necessary to fight the 
 old battle over again ; and probably there are not a few who 
 would prefer to either a combination of them both. In 
 fact, no service entirely wants the liturgical element in 
 which the Lord's Prayer is regularly recited. In certain 
 other prayers, such as the Confession of Sin and the 
 Intercessions, a form for habitual use is so appropriate 
 that, where it is not imposed by authority, ministers are 
 found who compose or adopt one for themselves. Prepared 
 forms likewise suit occasions which, like baptism or marriage, 
 bear closely on unusual circumstances and do not recur too 
 frequently. On the other hand, the unvarying repetition 
 of the same words throughout a long service is apt, in the 
 experience of many, to degenerate into a mechanical re- 
 citation of phrases only too familiar, which tends to 
 narcotise the mind. This is certainly not admitted by 
 loyal members of the Church of England, habituated from 
 childhood to the Prayer Book ; but it would probably be 
 felt by worshippers accustomed to a freer method. A 
 prayer conceived for the occasion, they maintain, is more 
 
 ^ Yet a leader who is free to make changes may give variety, if he will, 
 by introducing more detailed petitions, now into one, and now into an- 
 other, of the three main groups named above ; but all three ought to be 
 remembered on every occasion. 
 
ORDER OF WEEKLY WORSHIP 141 
 
 likely to be the utterance of devout feeling in him who 
 frames it, and consequently better adapted to arouse 
 attention and beget devotion in those who listen to it. 
 At any rate, the changeful experiences of a Christian flock, 
 with the incalculable movements of the Spirit of God in 
 the hearts of leader and people, find no room under rigid 
 forms. Some plan, therefore, which provides a reasonable 
 measure both of concerted and of extempore utterance, 
 seems to commend itself. 
 
 That, however, is a matter for Church authorities. In 
 the meantime, what each officiating minister has to aim at 
 is, to avoid the usual faults of the system under which he 
 serves, while endeavouring to secure its benefits and training 
 his people also to use and to enjoy it. 
 
 The leader in a liturgical service has no doubt a much 
 lighter responsibility than burdens his brethren of the non- 
 liturgical Churches. Nevertheless, he too has besetting sins 
 to guard against. To read prayers (where it is not necessary 
 from the size of the building to intone them) in a worthy 
 manner, putting into every reading of them the earnestness 
 of personal devotion as one who is actually praying with 
 the people, and to escape such vices of delivery as a 
 monotone, or a sing-song, or an over-rapid and indistinct 
 gabble — this is possibly less easy than it looks ; for it has 
 not always been attained by the clergy. 
 
 On the other hand, one whom his Church has honoured 
 with the weightier duty of leading in free prayer, needs to 
 bestow on its right discharge a great deal of attention, if 
 he would avoid the graver perils which beset him. What 
 these are no one needs to be told. Loose and disconnected 
 prayers, full of repetition and circumlocution, yet omitting 
 some material topic, often substituting didactic statement 
 for petitions, couched in a dull, verbose or slipshod style 
 — these were for long a familiar reproach against the 
 Presbyterian — and also, if not equally, against the Congre- 
 gational — ministry. There has recently been, if I mistake 
 not, a change for the better. More care is given to the 
 
142 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 conduct of worship. Few of the younger ministers probably 
 take as little pains as their fathers did to qualify themselves 
 for the discharge of a duty more sacred than preaching 
 and probably quite as difl&cult. What is to be desired is 
 a general training as well as special preparation. The 
 general training required is partly to study the nature and 
 purposes of public cultus, the character of Christian worship, 
 its parts and the tone appropriate to each, together with 
 the relation of the leader to the body of worshippers, what 
 and how much he should express of their common feelings 
 and desires ; but also to familiarise himself with devotional 
 material. There is a language of devotion in which the 
 minister does well to steep himself. It has been the 
 product of centuries of devout life. It is not a mosaic 
 of Bible phraseology, but it is modelled on Scripture 
 examples and even more on its spirit and tone. It is a 
 rare essence, distilled from the experience of all saints, 
 fragrant with their concentrated devoutness. With classic 
 specimens of its literature, which are not numerous, a man 
 would need to be conversant who should catch the mingled 
 dignity and simplicity, depth and sweetness, boldness and 
 reverence, gravity and cheerfulness, warmth and chaste 
 reserve, which befit the temper of Christian piety at its 
 best. 
 
 After such a preliminary discipline, less preparation 
 will be wanted for each Sunday's prayers : less, but not 
 none. On this point it is difficult to lay down a rule. 
 Shall the minister write out his prayers, and learn or 
 read them? or simply meditate the order of thought and 
 endeavour to possess his heart at the time with the spirit 
 of devotion? Here, as in preparing sermons, what suits 
 one best will not suit another. Some young ministers 
 will find it needful to begin by composing prayers before- 
 hand, and possibly to continue doing so for a year or two. 
 Yet I think, after some practice, it will generally answer 
 better to fix in one's mind what each prayer is to contain, 
 with its specific value or design in the structure of the 
 
ORDER OF WEEKLY WORSHIP 143 
 
 service, so that nothing of consequence be overlooked ; 
 then let the mind, once embarked on the flow of devotional 
 feeling, utter itself in the words which the Spirit prompts. 
 Such a prayer, though less crisp or finished in style, is 
 likely to breathe a fresher and more fervent mood for being 
 to a limited extent impromptu. 
 
 6. The Hymn 
 
 It does not appear to me desirable to interrupt these 
 prayers, or this long prayer (as is done in the Anglican 
 service and often in other Churches), by an anthem or 
 similar act of praise. This can hardly have any better 
 reason than to relieve the strain of what after all need 
 not be a very protracted exercise. But a hymn naturally 
 follows at the close, of a different character from any 
 previous act of praise. Since the opening hymn, the 
 prevalent note in all that has been sung by the congrega- 
 tion should be, more than, I think, it often is, one of 
 grateful praise to God, for what He is in Himself and for 
 what He has done for us. This hymn, however, from its 
 position between the prayers and the sermon, may most 
 fitly be a rich and warm utterance of ripe Christian ex- 
 perience — a song of trust, or of hope, or of breathings 
 after holiness; in any case a subjective song, answeriug 
 to what in Germany is denominated the Hauptlied^ or main' 
 hymn. In the choice of it, it is not amiss if the leader 
 have regard to the subject of the discourse which is to 
 follow. 
 
 Where an anthem is included in the ordinary service, 
 as is now frequently the case, it is probably better, on 
 musical grounds, that it be left to the choir, the rest of 
 the worshippers joining only in spirit, yet indicating their 
 participation by a standing posture. Every other act of 
 praise, however, is to be such as the people generally can 
 unite to sing. This is in many places of, worship the only 
 part of the worship in which they are accustomed to take an 
 
144 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 audible share. Enthusiasm for the improvement or cultiva- 
 tion of Church music, however much to be welcomed, is 
 carried too far when the vocal praises of the worshippers 
 are sacrificed to it. For a similar reason, the innovation 
 of wholly musical services on Sunday evenings is to be 
 discouraged. The weekly seasons of Divine service have 
 too many and too precious uses to be surrendered to 
 organist or choir-master. The minister must also recollect 
 that, although he does not lead the music, it is his duty 
 to retain the leadership of the people's praise, by himself 
 selecting what is to be sung or chanted. It will be his 
 wisdom at the same time to do so after frank and 
 sympathetic consultation with the musical leader. 
 
 7. The Offering 
 
 The modern money-collection, or "offertory," may be 
 viewed as either a survival or an equivalent of the gifts in 
 kind contributed by members in the primitive Church, out 
 of which were taken Bread and Wine for the Lord's Supper, 
 as well as food for the Love-feast. Whether it be cere- 
 monially presented on the Communion Table or not, it is an 
 integral part of worship ; and, for all who bear in mind its 
 symbolic significance, an important as well as unique 
 element in it. From a material point of view, its money 
 value as alms for the poor, or as a contribution to the 
 expenses of the house of God, is not in most cases a matter 
 of indifference. But in His eyes who sat over against the 
 treasury, we must believe that its religious value as an act 
 of devotion is estimated, not by its amount, but by the 
 generosity which dictates it, by the proportion it bears to 
 the giver's means, and by the consecration to God of his 
 whole substance which it implies. Like the first-fruits in 
 ancient Israel, it is a part which represents the whole. Its 
 inner meaning as an act of worship I take to be that our 
 devotion holds back nothing from the service of Him who, 
 for our sakes, became poor, but lays at His feet, along with 
 
ORDER OF WEEKLY WORSHIP 145 
 
 ourselves, our possessions also, to be used in His honour and 
 for the welfare of His kingdom. If it means this surrender, 
 the smallest of coins becomes eloquent. 
 
 8. The Seemon 
 
 That the sermon has been removed from the Order of Holy 
 Communion, where it still stands in the Book of Common 
 Prayer, and has been made in every other Protestant form 
 of worship an invariable and integral portion of morning 
 and evening services, is a change which we owe to the 
 new emphasis laid at the Reformation on the truth that 
 " the Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the 
 preaching of the Word an effectual means of salvatioiL" 
 The Reformed Service-books gave it a place before the 
 Intercessory Prayer ; thus dividing the prayers probably in 
 order that the sermon might be the central act in worship ; 
 and this position it retains in many Presbyterian Churches. 
 It is doubtful how far this really enhances its importance, 
 and the cutting into two of the " devotional exercises " has 
 had the unfortunate effect of creating an impression of their 
 subordinate value, as though they were no more than 
 accessories to the preacher's discourse, which they either 
 serve to introduce as " preliminaries " or to follow up. Such 
 an imfortunate impression is got rid of when the body of 
 common prayer is ended before the preacher's address begins. 
 
 The sermon is to be fully treated in Part III. Its 
 prominence as a means of grace, taken by itself, would 
 hardly require us to handle it separately as a distinct function 
 of ministerial office ; not even when we add the amount of 
 labour which it entails upon the minister. Its peculiarity 
 rather lies in this, that it is the one act of Divine service in 
 which the leader does much more than lead. In every 
 other he is simply the foremost worshipper, the mouthpiece 
 of the assembly, who guides its acts and voices its devotion. 
 But as the preacher, he detaches himself from the congrega- 
 tion. He addresses, not God along with them, but them on 
 10 
 
146 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 behalf of God. A new relationship has entered, that of an 
 orator to his audience. So that, while the sermon is taken 
 up into congregational worship, and from that fact derives 
 a character which religious addresses do not bear under 
 other conditions, yet it remains a speaker's or "orator's" 
 discourse. Moreover, the intention to edify, which through- 
 out most of the service is secondary and kept in the back- 
 ground, steps at this point into the foreground. It is in this 
 way that preaching comes to be a distinct function, claiming 
 for itself a large division of practical theology. 
 
 9. Close of Wokship 
 
 The brief " prayer after sermon " for the Divine blessing 
 on the words of the preacher, like the petition " for illumina- 
 tion," which by old custom precedes the sermon, marks our 
 dependence on the Holy Spirit, in whose hands even the 
 Gospel message is but an instrument, impotent unless His 
 power operate through it. It is well to swathe the Word 
 in prayer. 
 
 But now, unless the offertory has been postponed till 
 this point (which is the Prayer-Book order), nothing 
 remains, when there is to be no celebration of a sacrament, 
 but to bring the service to a close. It should not end, any 
 more than it began, abruptly. 
 
 Two short acts, and no more, are usual. The first is 
 praise, which in many congregations is a hymn echoing the 
 sentiment of the sermon. But if the main hymn before 
 sermon was selected with this reference, it is better that this 
 should be expressly a closing act — a dismission, or a doxology, 
 or at evening worship a vesper hymn. 
 
 Then comes the real act of dismission, which is always a 
 prayer, but a prayer of a very peculiar kind. The minister 
 invokes the Divine blessing upon the people. How are we 
 to understand this act ? 
 
 One of the quaintest and most venerable features in the 
 ancient ritual, which, I think, lingers nowhere among 
 
ORDER OF WEEKLY WORSHIP 147 
 
 Protestants save in the English Liturgy and in Lutheran 
 Agende, was this mutual greeting exchanged between leader 
 and congregation : — Minister : " The Lord he with you " ; 
 Answer : " And with thy spirit." The closing benediction 
 resembles it, only it is not mutual but one-sided; more 
 official and less fraternal. Although in pronouncing it the 
 minister is simply uttering a petition, for he does not 
 declare the people blessed, but asks for a blessing on them ; 
 still he does so in some official capacity. He separates 
 himself from them, for he does not as in other prayers 
 include himself; and its official character is visibly 
 symbolised by the posture usually adopted in it. 
 
 It is hardly to be wondered at, therefore, that a good 
 many people scruple at this, because they suspect in it a 
 savour of priestliness, and dislike it accordingly. No doubt 
 the Trinitarian benediction which is usually employed is the 
 New Testament substitute for the Aaronic blessing ; ^ and 
 that was pronounced by the Hebrew priests. Nevertheless, 
 there could be nothing sacerdotal about its employment by 
 St. Paul,2 and therefore there need be none when it is spoken 
 by the Christian minister. 
 
 In what capacity, then, does he bless the people; for 
 " without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better " ? ^ 
 The simplest explanation of a formula which certainly calls 
 for explanation, is probably the one given by the divines 
 who sat in the Jerusalem Chamber in the seventeenth 
 century. " It belongs," they said, " to the office of the pastor 
 to bless the people from God." From Lightfoofs Journal 
 one learns that this result was only reached after a long 
 discussion.* It seems a safe solution. No one need take 
 exception at the pastor of a flock parting from his assembled 
 people, as St. Paul took leave by letter of his Corinthian 
 converts, with a formal and solemn prayer that " the grace 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the 
 
 ' Num. 622-27. 2 2 Cor. 13^*. » Heb. V. 
 
 * See Form of Presbyterian Church Government, and cf. LightfooCs 
 Journal of date 8th Nov. 1643. 
 
148 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 communion of the Holy Ghost" may be with them all. 
 May we not likewise catch through the lips of its ordained 
 minister the voice of the great Church of God, interceding 
 for this small company of its membership, and calling down 
 upon every one of them the threefold benediction of the 
 New Covenant ? 
 
 Let the act be done with solenmity. Never may the 
 leader in worship relax the intense strain upon his own 
 spirit until he has put his whole soul into these great 
 closing words. 
 
GHAPTEE XIV 
 
 SACRAMENTAL SERVICES 
 
 On certain Sundays, which it is well should recur at fixed 
 dates, so that people may count upon them, worship either 
 morning or evening, instead of closing in the usual way, is 
 prolonged to include a sacramental service. The rule for 
 both Baptism and the Lord's Supper requires public 
 administration; for both, private celebration is in most 
 Churches a permitted exception. It is true that they do 
 not stand quite on a level in this respect. Holy Com- 
 munion is by its nature a social act; and although I 
 believe its occasional observance by a select group of 
 Christian friends in the sick-room of a chronic invalid to 
 be not merely a legitimate, but even a desirable, privilege, 
 yet it ought never to be administered to the sick person 
 alone, Like the viaticum of the Koman Church. Baptism, on 
 the contrary, is an individual rite ; and, wearing in the case 
 of infants a family or domestic character, it is much more 
 tolerant of household administration. But this liberty has 
 in the past been greatly abused ; and the present tendency 
 in Presbyterian communions to insist on publicity, as the 
 Scottish Booh of Common Order required, is certainly wise. 
 The admission of a new member into the Church entails 
 responsibilities on the society as well as on the individual. 
 In Baptist congregations it must always take place, for 
 obvious reasons, in a part of the church buildings arranged 
 for the purpose ; nor have I often heard of adult baptism 
 in any communion taking place at home, although such an 
 
 exception would be permissible. The case is not materially 
 
 149 
 
I50 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 altered when it is an infant member who is to be formally 
 received and enrolled. The rubric of the Church of 
 England requiring children to be brought to the font 
 "immediately after the the last Lesson" at Morning or 
 Evening Prayer, " when the most number of people come 
 together," is certainly not now observed. It is probably the 
 length of the Order for Baptism which has made it obsolete. 
 But the reasons given for it still hold for any Church : " As 
 well for that the Congregation there present may testify 
 the receiving of them that be newly baptized into the 
 number of Christ's Church ; as also because in the Baptism 
 of Infants every man present may be put in remembrance 
 of his own profession made to God in his Baptism." 
 
 Ministers of other Churches no doubt encounter the 
 same objection to incorporating a baptismal service into the 
 Lord's Day worship, namely, that it unduly prolongs the 
 service. To meet this difficulty either by curtailing the 
 usual service or by crushing the Order of Baptism into as 
 few minutes as possible, is equally undesirable. Where the 
 difficulty is seriously felt, perhaps the best plan is to hold 
 the baptismal rite in church immediately after the dis- 
 missal of the morning congregation, inviting all who are 
 piously disposed and not pressed for time, to remain during 
 the few minutes which it occupies, just as communicants do 
 when Holy Communion is to follow. 
 
 It may well be that household administration for in- 
 sufficient reasons or for none at all, and the hurried fashion 
 in which it is sometimes administered in Church, have both 
 contributed to depreciate the importance attached to this 
 Holy Sacrament. At all events, low views of its meaning 
 and value are too common in our Churches. By some 
 parents it is regarded simply as a family ceremony for the 
 dedication or for the naming of their child. By others it is 
 said to be omitted altogether with no sense of loss. One 
 even hears of persons being admitted to the Lord's Supper 
 in riper years who never are baptized at all — the minister 
 being either ignorant of the fact or indifferent to it. One 
 
SACRAMENTAL SERVICES 151 
 
 cause which has helped to create this heedless attitude is 
 the disuse in bygone generations of adult baptism, from 
 the universal custom of christening every child as a matter 
 of course. Against such indiscriminate administration the 
 Baptist Churches in England have at least been a standing 
 protest. In Scotland, the law of the Presbyterian Church 
 refusing the rite to all but the children of Church mem^bers 
 has -tended to uphold, in theory at least, a worthier concep- 
 tion of the ordinance. But it is the rise of missions, with 
 the consequent reception into the Church of adult converts 
 in large numbers, which has probably done most to restore 
 to this sacrament its full significance in the thoughts of 
 many Christians. It tells us much of the unaggressive, non- 
 missionary state of British Christianity in the seventeenth 
 century, that the Puritan Directory of that date took no 
 notice whatever of the baptizing of adults. Nowadays, with 
 the growing indifference of non-religious classes in our 
 population, even to the forms of religion, the baptism of 
 persons in riper years is far from an infrequent duty of the 
 home minister ; and he needs, before admitting applicants 
 to Communion, to satisfy himself that they have already 
 received the earlier sacrament of initiation. 
 
 Whenever either sacrament is administered, its import- 
 ance justifies the universal custom of enshrining it within 
 a special form of service of its own. As soon as a love for 
 material symbols invaded the early Church, and ceremonies 
 which had no Apostolic warrant came to be multiplied by 
 popular piety, with or without ecclesiastical sanction, it 
 was natural that these should cluster thickly around both 
 Baptism and the Eucharist. For these two were the only 
 rites of material symbolism which the Church had received 
 from its Founder. Everything else in the Christian cult 
 was thoughts expressed in words. Here ideas were 
 embodied after a manner far more usual in earlier and less 
 spiritual faiths, in manual acts and material substances. 
 It was a recognition of that symbolism in nature of which 
 Jesus in His parables had made constant use for teaching 
 
152 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 purposes. It was, if you like, a concession to the infirmity 
 of human faith in the unseen. Most men apprehend truth 
 best in a figure. Here, at least, were two Christian rites of 
 unimpeachable authority, to which much else that was 
 symbolic, whether drawn from pagan mysteries or from 
 Jewish ritual, could readily attach itself. 
 
 This occurred, as time went on, to a much greater extent 
 in the celebration of the Supper than in the simpler rite of 
 Baptism. Yet there also a number of additions were early 
 made, which are still retained in the Eoman ordinal but 
 have been discontinued in Protestant services. To this dis- 
 continuance, indeed, I recall but a single exception, the sign 
 of the cross on the forehead of the baptized, the retention 
 of which by the Church of England was a bone of conten- 
 tion with her Puritan members. The form of administration 
 among Protestants is therefore singularly uniform ; except 
 where post-Eeformation objections to paedobaptism and the 
 belief in immersion as the only valid mode, have introduced 
 divergencies. 
 
 Where his Church has furnished him with no Order of 
 Baptism, a minister has it in his own hands, by his mode 
 of conducting it, either to disparage this sacrament in the 
 eyes of the people, or to do it honour. The indispensable 
 acts which constitute the unchanging framework of the 
 service are few, and leave room for a good deal of variety 
 in other parts. 
 
 1. The first of them is the reading of the words of 
 institution (Matt. 28^^"2°). An address of instruction or 
 exhortation founded upon it, or upon other passages in the 
 Gospels, is optional. But, in view of the ignorance and 
 indifference which prevail regarding this great Christian 
 seal of cleansing and new birth, it must be often advisable, 
 and because it is a difficult duty the young minister does 
 well to take special pains in its discharge. Especially is 
 this called for in the administration of baptism to infants. 
 To be faithful to the doctrinal position of his Church, a 
 Eeformed pastor has to correct on the one side a frequent 
 
SACRAMENTAL SERVICES 153 
 
 tendency of ill-instructed parents to lean on the mere per- 
 formance of the rite as an indispensable guarantee to them 
 of their child's salvation ; on the other side, to bring out its 
 significance and value to the offspring of believers, as con- 
 firming to them the promised grace of the Gospel and 
 marking the privileged place within the fellowship of the 
 Church which is theirs by birth. 
 
 2. The questions addressed to an adult candidate or 
 to the parents (or sponsors) of a child need to be known 
 beforehand by those who are to make the responses, and 
 therefore ought not to be left, as is customary in Scotland, 
 to the discretion of the officiating minister, but be prescribed 
 by authority and never deviated from. They always em- 
 brace two things : a " creed " or equivalent profession of 
 belief ;i and a promise to discharge certain duties. The 
 purpose of both in the case of an adult candidate is obvious. 
 It is on the ground of his profession of personal Christian 
 faith and promise of Christian obedience that he is received 
 into the Church. God-parents in the Church of England, 
 as in the Catholic Church, make the same profession of 
 belief and undertake the same vow to lead a holy and 
 obedient life, not in their own behalf, but " in the name of 
 the child," as its spokesmen. In its name, also, they re- 
 nounce, in the terms of a very old formula, the devil, the 
 world, and the flesh. It is therefore under an implied 
 condition that the child, when come to years of discretion, 
 will hold the faith and lead the life of a Christian, that he 
 is baptized in infancy. The unreality of such professions, 
 made in the name of an unconscious infant, has always been 
 
 ^ The representatives of the Kirk of Scotland present at the Westminster 
 Assembly contended for the use of the Apostles' Creed in baptism, to which 
 in their own Service-book they were accustomed, but were overruled by the 
 English Puritans. They got certain questions introduced as a substitute, 
 which do not now stand in the text of the Directory. '*It has been sup- 
 posed," says Sprott, "that they were struck out by the House of Commons " 
 {Worship aiid Ogees of the Church of Scotland, 1882, p. 66). I presume he 
 is founding on the authority of the Portland Paiiers, i. 194. (Hist. MSS. 
 Commission, 13th Report; Appendix, Part I.) 
 
154 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 felt to be a difficulty in the Catholic ritual. It is got over 
 in all Reformed communions by founding the right of a child 
 to be baptized, not on its own assumed future faith avowed 
 in its name, but on the present faith of its parent, and his 
 undertaking to instruct his child in Christian truth and train 
 it to a Christian life. When, in Churches of this order, a 
 sponsor is, in rare cases, substituted ^ for an absent parent, 
 he simply assumes for himself the same responsibilities. 
 
 3. The administration of the rite. Where it is desired 
 and may conveniently be done, immersion as an alternative 
 to pouring water on the head is in some communities ex- 
 pressly recognised, and, I presume, would be admitted in 
 all. But it is only among Congregational Baptists that the 
 mode of administration is deemed essential to the validity 
 of the sacrament. 
 
 4. A formal reception of the new memler should follow ; 
 with a commendation of him to the fraternal fellowship of 
 the brethren. This is suitably answered on their part when 
 the congregation unites in singing a benediction-prayer; 
 such as the Aaronic one : '' The Lord bless thee and keep 
 thee," and so forth. 
 
 With what other prayers and acts of praise these four 
 essential acts are accompanied may usually be left to the 
 leader, because they naturally vary with the circumstances 
 under which the rite is administered. In every case, this 
 service is to be made as bright and as full of Christian hope 
 and love as it well can be ; for it is a joyful day when a 
 young member is formally received into the brotherhood of 
 Christ's Church. 
 
 We have seen that the Church's worship as an expres- 
 sion of the Church's life is all one prolonged act of com- 
 munion with God, having two sides : one of sacrificial 
 offering on our part, which is devotion in its primary sense ; 
 
 1 *' In the Scottish, as in all other branches of the Reformed Church, 
 god-parents were joined with parents as sponsors" (Sprott, op. cit., p. 61). 
 But "substituted " only in case of the parent's necessary absence. 
 
SACRAMENTAL SERVICES 155 
 
 and another of waiting upon God for His benefits, which is 
 worship regarded as a "means of grace." ^ Now, in the 
 several parts of Divine service those two are combined in 
 unequal proportions. Thus, when a congregation devoutly 
 listens to the Word of God, read or spoken, and when it 
 offers up supplications for pardon or for grace, the receptive 
 side of worship is clearly prominent. For then man's need 
 waits with open mouth and thirsts for the Water of Life. 
 In pure acts of praise, on the other hand, in the sacrifice 
 of thanksgiving, and in the offering of its substance, the 
 Church presents to God for an oblation something of its 
 own, such poor gifts as it has to offer. 
 
 Applying this test to the Holy Sacrament of the Body 
 and Blood, what makes it, as all admit, the highest act, as 
 well as the most characteristic, in Christian worship, must 
 be that here both sides in the Church's communion with its 
 Lord attain their moment of greatest intimacy, and are com- 
 bined in equal perfection. To eat His flesh and drink His 
 blood, said Jesus, is " to dwell in Me, and I in him." Closer 
 or more complete fellowship there cannot be. And it makes 
 this union and communion with Christ only the more easy 
 for men still living in the flesh to reahse, and, when realised, 
 all the more intimate, that it finds a twofold medium adapted 
 to our twofold nature. Material symbols, no less significant 
 and pathetic than they are simple, addressed to eye and 
 touch and taste, unite with the Divine Word of Promise 
 addressed to intellect and heart : a completed form of 
 expression given to complete and perfect fellowship. 
 
 Hence we Protestants need have no quarrel with the 
 Catholic because he cherishes so high an esteem for this 
 sacrament as the supreme moment in Christian cultus. Our 
 complaint is that he has materialised it, and by a crass and 
 literal reading of its teaching has missed its spiritual contents. 
 For the faithful in that communion, public worship consists 
 in frequent attendance at Mass ; and one is thankful to know 
 that through such attendance multitudes of true worshippers 
 
 ^ See ante, pp. 95-98. 
 
156 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 have offered a genuine and profound devotion. Nevertheless, 
 the cult is complete and attains its end although there be no 
 one present except the priest. For it is the manual act of 
 the priest alone which offers the sacrifice that is believed to 
 propitiate, winning Divine benefits alike for the living and 
 the dead.^ 
 
 It was disastrous to spiritual worship when men first 
 ascribed to the earthly substances of bread and wine offered 
 on the altar, a religious value or virtue of their own, divorced 
 from those inward states of the recipient's mind and heart 
 which alone can bring him into spiritual contact with the 
 Divine Keality behind the symbols. Such a change began, as 
 I suppose, as early as the third century, with a confused identi- 
 fication of the sacred elements with that real and efficacious 
 Presence of our Lord's Body and Blood which they repre- 
 sented to faith. It took many a century for this confusion 
 to work out its full effects in the West. In the East they 
 have never been fully worked out. It only reached its 
 logical issue in the mediaeval dogma of transubstantiation. 
 But the materialising of sacramental worship had gone far 
 in advance of the dogma. Scholastic divinity only came 
 behind with a theory to buttress or explain what popular 
 devotion had been beforehand in assuming — that the 
 consecrated Host was, and did not merely represent, or 
 accompany, or convey, the Divine Victim offered on the 
 Cross. The dogma justified the people in their devotion, 
 and gave, as was but natural, a prodigious impulse to its 
 worst forms. Then at last everything became material and 
 objective : a cult made effective and complete by priestly 
 acts, even in the absence of any worshipper. The retroces- 
 sion of what had been spiritual in the rite behind what was 
 material could go no farther. 
 
 To bring the sacrament back to its New Testament idea, 
 it was enough that Keformation theology should restore to 
 
 ^ Of. Thomas Aquinas: ^^ Fer/ectio hujus sacramenti non est in usu 
 fidelium, sed in consecraiione materice.'' See also Canones Trident. 
 Sess. xxii. 
 
SACRAMENTAL SERVICES 157 
 
 its rightful place in religion that inner life of faith which it 
 is the design of Christian worship to reflect. There can be 
 but one real link to unite man's spirit with God and 
 establish between them a living fellowship. It is not a 
 material, but a spiritual, link : the trustful attitude of a 
 contrite and humble soul, reposing on God's revelation 
 of His grace in Christ His Son. Under the illumination of 
 this controlling idea, which it is for every Protestant pastor 
 when he leads in sacramental services to keep clearly before 
 his own mind, both sides in the blessed act of Communion 
 assume their proper aspect. 
 
 {a.) The offering which the Church has to present to the 
 Father is not the ineffable sacrifice for the sins of the world 
 once offered on the cross ; but, recalling that one propitiation 
 through the aid of the sacred memorials, each believing 
 worshipper associates himself with it by faith, and, as one 
 in spirit with his Lord, offers himself a living sacrifice of 
 thanksgiving by a devout surrender of his own heart and 
 will to the pleasure of the Father. The spirit of this self- 
 oblation is indeed the same as that of his Lord's. He has 
 kindled his devotion at Christ's own altar-fire. But it is 
 himself he offers, because it is himself alone that is his own 
 to give. And in no other act of worship does this surrender 
 of one's personality, which is the inspiration of all Christian 
 living, find an equally perfect expression. 
 
 (&.) Similarly — what the worshipper receives from God 
 is the gift of His Son, not under a material form to be 
 received by the mouth, but as He is offered to us in the 
 Gospel, to be more and more fully appropriated by each 
 man's inward faith. Christ he receives in all His fulness of 
 Saviourhood; not only for remission of sins through His 
 Body broken and His Blood shed once for all, but likewise 
 in His energy as the Divine Food of the spiritual life, for 
 inward nutriment and growth. " He that eateth Me," said 
 Jesus, " even he shall live by Me." This incorporation of 
 two lives, this mutual indwelling, is a great mystery. But 
 it is a spiritual mystery ; and the organ that effects it 
 
158 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 is faith. In no other act of worship does the Christian's 
 participation in the hidden source of Christian life receive 
 so perfect an expression. 
 
 It is a characteristic rule in the Reformed Church that 
 the Communion service is invariably preceded by a sermon. 
 This bears in Scotland the name of an "Action Sermon," 
 meaning that it prepares the communicants for the holy 
 action of the Supper. The practical result has been that 
 the sacrament follows the usual congregational worship on 
 the Lord's Day. The usage is in accord with the order 
 prescribed by the ancient liturgies and retained in the Book 
 of Common Prayer of the Church of England. But the 
 reason for it in Reformed worship must be sought, I think, 
 in the Reformed doctrine of the sacraments as means of 
 grace. They are taken to be ancillary to the Word of God 
 as the chief means through which the Holy Spirit operates. 
 They illustrate the Gospel as symbolic signs ; they confirm 
 it as seals to the covenant of grace ; they bring home its 
 general promises to the individual. But they possess no 
 independent value as vehicles to convey grace to the soul. 
 To attach the Lord's Supper, therefore, to a foregoing pro- 
 clamation of the Gospel served to mark this relationship 
 between the two. It was a seasonable protest against the 
 incessant repetition of Masses, to which as mere perform- 
 ances (ex opere operatd) Cathohc teaching ascribed a merit 
 and an efficacy of their own. 
 
 While in this way the Reformed Church never separated 
 the Lord's Supper from the preaching of the Gospel, it did 
 not observe it every Sunday as a constant factor in the 
 weekly worship of the congregation. This is what Calvin 
 himself would have preferred; but Calvinistic Churches 
 have leant to a less frequent celebration. In some lands, 
 notably in Scotland, notwithstanding that the ancient 
 Order of the Scottish Church spoke of it as " commonly 
 used once a month," Presbyterians have gone to an extreme 
 of infrequency. Once or twice a year used to be customary, 
 not only in landward parishes, but even in burghs. The 
 
SACRAMENTAL SERVICES 159 
 
 explanation is not that they undervalued the ordinance; 
 rather that they attached to it, under one of its aspects, a 
 veneration so exalted as to border on superstition. If as 
 a means of grace it was only a handmaid to the Word 
 which it served to symbolise and seal, yet as the supreme 
 act expressive of communion with Christ it was accounted a 
 season of rare devotion, a festal privilege reserved for times 
 of exceptional elevation of feeling. Not without careful 
 preparation of the heart by self-examination, as St. Paul 
 counsels, was it deemed profitable, or even safe, to approach 
 the Holy Table where such intimate fellowship with the 
 Unseen was to be enjoyed. To come unprepared was to 
 risk the appalling judgment denounced by St. Paul upon 
 " unworthy communicants." ^ 
 
 This reverential awe and fear to offend account, not 
 only for the rarity of communion seasons, but likewise 
 for the imusual devotions, in the closet and in the house of 
 God, with which Scottish custom surrounded such seasons 
 when they came round. The fast-days which went before, 
 with the numerous meetings for public worship that 
 attended them ; the concourse of worshippers from adjacent 
 parishes, and the number of clergymen who came to take 
 part ; the prolonged and solemn services of the Communion 
 day itself; the small proportion of the people who, in 
 Highland congregations at least, deemed themselves fit to 
 partake; the rigour with which unworthy persons were 
 "debarred" from communicating: these things all betray 
 the tendency of Calvinistic piety to make of the Memorial 
 Supper, not "daily bread" for the soul, but a very high 
 and exceptional feast. It took the place, one may say, of 
 the abolished festivals of the old Church year.^ 
 
 Something of this feeling survives, but not much. In 
 
 1 1 Cor. 1127-32. 
 
 ^ Some of these Communion seasons are remembered in the annals of the 
 Kirk for the revivals of religion to which they gave rise. Others, like the 
 anniversaries of martyrs {natalitia) in the post-Nicene Church, became scenes 
 of scandalous licence. 
 
i6o THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 all British Churches, the recent tendency has been to more 
 frequent celebration of the sacrament. The abolition of 
 statutory fasts in the Northern kingdom was at once a 
 result and a cause of this tendency. Even Presbyterians 
 are gravitating towards monthly observance, which is, I 
 think, usual among the Free Churches of England. This is 
 probably as often as congregations are in the habit of com- 
 municating where simultaneous Communion is the rule.^ 
 For at daily, or even at weekly celebrations in the Anglican 
 Church, it may be presumed that no more than a small 
 percentage of the people partake on each occasion. 
 
 In so far as this disposition to multiply opportunities 
 for receiving the sacrament is due to any deepening of 
 devotional life, one can only rejoice at it. At the same 
 time, there are not a few in all the Northern Churches, not 
 all of them of Puritan leanings or merely conservative 
 tastes, who view it with misgiving. They regret the 
 passing away of the solemn festivals, with the profound 
 impression which they were fitted to produce on susceptible 
 souls. They fear that a more frequent, may come to be 
 a less reverent, celebration. All leaders in worship, there- 
 fore, especially those who are bound by no prescribed order 
 in the service, would do well to be on their guard lest the 
 hallowed awe which ought always to invest the Supper of 
 the Lord should suffer at their hands; and this all the 
 more in proportion to the frequency of its repetition. 
 
 Two incidental results, neither of which was probably fore- 
 seen, have resulted from more frequent observance of Holy 
 Communion. One of these is that fewer worshippers except 
 the communicants themselves are present at the ordinance.^ 
 This is at variance both with the theory and with the older 
 
 ^ Except, of course, among Plymoiitli Brethren, a body whicli owed its 
 rise in part to a desire to revert to the weekly Eucharist of the Apostolic 
 period. 
 
 2 All the early liturgies dismissed the other worshippers before the 
 Eucharist. But this was only a temporary rule in the Catholic Church, 
 and possibly began and ended with the disciplina arcani — which lasted 
 from early in the third till the sixth century. The reason for such reserve 
 
SACRAMENTAL SERVICES i6i 
 
 usage of the Eeformed Church, which has always regarded the 
 rite as a public proclamation of the Lord's death calculated 
 to impress onlookers, and to be especially profitable to the 
 immature members of the Church, whose presence, there- 
 fore, has always been desired. So long as its observance 
 recurred very seldom, it was possible to alter for one day 
 the whole order of Divine service, and secure that every 
 class of worshippers continued their attendance throughout 
 the " feast." But if it take place once a month or so, it is 
 obviously inconvenient to make any great change in the 
 usual worship, and the bulk of the non-communicants 
 present find it impossible to remain for what is practically 
 a second service. It is true they are generally invited to 
 do so. The continuity of the entire service is in many 
 cases indicated by not pronouncing the dismissal benedic- 
 tion until after Communion.^ I am afraid, however, that in 
 practice communicants are for the most part left alone, as 
 they usually are in Anglican places of worship. 
 
 The other result referred to has, on the contrary, been 
 an advantage. Frequent Communion has favoured simul- 
 taneous reception. The old Scottish method of numerous 
 " tables," each of them accommodating merely a fraction of 
 the membership, often allowed persons to partake who 
 could not otherwise have done so ; but it was objectionable, 
 less because it greatly prolonged the exercises of worship 
 without adding anything to their religious contents, than 
 because it did not give visible expression to the unity and 
 brotherhood of the congregation as a whole. Where the 
 custom is for communicants to partake, as in Lutheran or 
 Anglican worship, in small groups at the altar rail, there 
 is, of course, still less to suggest this corporate aspect of 
 the Supper. The prominent thought there is individual 
 
 or secrecy is still uncertain. It possibly grew up under the influence of 
 heathen mysteries and their ceremonies of initiation. Cf. Froramann, De 
 Visffiplind Arcani (Jena, 1833) ; and R. Rothe, De Disci:plince Arcani Origine 
 
 (Heid., 1841). 
 
 A After long debate, this question of closing the first service in the usual 
 way was left open by the Westminster divines in the seventeenth century. 
 
i62 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 privilege, not Church fellowship. But the idea of the 
 Supper as the bond of Christian brotherhood, to which St. 
 Paul alludes in his Epistle to the Corinthians,^ is one on 
 which, by their whole manner of observing it, the Eeformed 
 have always laid a good deal of emphasis. The very 
 posture adopted, the spreading of a table, and the passing 
 of the elements from hand to hand, although probably due 
 in the first instance to a desire to copy as far as may be the 
 details of its institution in the upper room, are fitted to 
 bring out very clearly this idea of a family meal, at which 
 the brethren realise their relationship to one another by 
 sharing in common in the same sacred food. It can matter 
 little in itself whether one receives the elements standing, 
 as the Lutherans do, or kneeling, as in the Church of 
 England, or sitting at table, as is customary in the 
 Eeformed Churches. It is possible that kneeling, the 
 traditional as well as lowliest attitude, was changed because 
 it had become too closely associated in the public mind 
 with adoration of the Host. A disclaimer of this intention, 
 like the " kneeling " rubric inserted in the Book of Common 
 Prayer, many might feel to be too feeble to break that 
 association. It was an additional reason for the new 
 attitude of sitting round a common table that it utterly shut 
 out any notion of reception at the hands of a priest. But 
 I suspect the strongest motive for its adoption was a wish 
 to conform, as far as Western manners permit, to the 
 example of those who reclined around the Lord "on the 
 night in which He was betrayed." Be that as it may, it 
 has the merit of laying stress on the equality and fraternity 
 and unity in Christ of all believers — truths which it is our 
 wisdom to retain and cherish. 
 
 When the Communion service proper is about to com- 
 mence, it has been widely felt that the people should be 
 briefly reminded of the solemn responsibility which attached 
 to the act. I think it probable that it was this feeling 
 
 ^ 1 Cor. 10" : " We being many are one bread, and one body : for we are 
 all partakers of that one bread." 
 
SACRAMENTAL SERVICES 163 
 
 which inspired the famous formula found in every ancient 
 liturgy : ra dyca tol^ dytoL<;. That came in too late in the 
 service, however, to be of any real use as a warning to the 
 profane; for it immediately preceded actual reception. 
 Very much to be preferred are the elaborate exhortations 
 provided for the use of the clergyman in the Prayer Book 
 of the English Church : — one to be read when " warning for 
 the celebration " on a preceding Sunday ; the other " at the 
 time of the celebration." These may be compared with 
 advantage with the similar form given in the Westminster 
 Directory, which only requires to be turned into direct from 
 " oblique " speech, to be an admirable guide to the young 
 minister to-day. Of all these the design is twofold: to 
 warn unfit persons, and to invite and encourage timid 
 penitents who shrink from so high a privilege under a sense 
 of their own unworthiness. That many ministers of the 
 Church of Scotland, substituting addresses of their own for 
 the sober form recommended by their Church in her official 
 Directory, did at one time exaggerate the warning, and fail 
 to urge on hesitating consciences the inviting side of this 
 preface, is no reason for dropping it altogether. 
 
 So soon as this short address is over, bread and wine can 
 be brought forward and arranged on the Holy Table. This 
 is all that now remains to us of the primitive custom of an 
 oblation of gifts in kind, from which the elements were 
 taken for the Supper of the Lord: — unless, indeed, it 
 survives under another form, in the collection for the poor 
 which frequently accompanies or follows the service. 
 
 The bread is in Protestant worship as in the East an 
 ordinary leavened loaf. It may be that the unleavened 
 "wafer," long used by the Eoman Church, more closely 
 represents the Paschal cakes of Jewish ritual. But it cannot 
 be proved to have been always the custom even in the West, 
 and it is strongly objected to by every Oriental communion.^ 
 I cannot but regret that the sixteenth century 
 Reformers abandoned the mixed cup of wine and water 
 
 1 Of. Neale's Holy Eastern Ghurchf vol. ii. : Dissertation on Azymes. 
 
i64 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 which, apparently from the very beginning, was universal 
 in the early Church of all lands, with, it is said, the single 
 exception of Armenia. For this primitive practice, fanciful 
 reasons came later to be assigned; as, for example, that 
 it symbolised the union of the two natures. Patristic 
 ingenuity invented fanciful reasons for every usage the 
 origin of which was lost in antiquity. But for this one no 
 more recondite explanation was required than that our Lord 
 and His Apostles, like other Jews of their day, no doubt 
 drank diluted wine at the Last Supper. The proportion of 
 water to wine was never fixed ; and the few early heretics 
 we read of, who, on ascetic grounds, abstained from the use 
 of wine, simply drank water alone. It might even be 
 difficult to maintain, as a general proposition, that in the 
 chief rite of a world-wide religion, meant for every zone of 
 the globe wherever men are found, the contents of "the 
 cup " must invariably be " the fruit of the vine," and 
 nothing else. Among ourselves not a little trouble has 
 arisen over " ecclesiastical wines," turning principally on the 
 dispute whether these beverages answer to the correct 
 description of " wine " or not. Had the diluted cup been re- 
 tained at the Eef ormation, it is conceivable that the scruples 
 which in our own day have led to the wide substitution 
 of non-alcoholic beverages for the heady wines our fathers 
 used, might never have been seriously felt.^ 
 
 We now proceed to the Communion service itself. Its 
 indispensable portions are few — no more probably than 
 four : (1) Eecital of the Words of Institution from one of 
 
 ^ A few years ago, Dr. Harnack of Berlin surprised students of Christian 
 antiquity by an. attempt to prove from Justin's references to the Eucharist, 
 supported by a passage in Cyprian's correspondence, that down into the third 
 century, water was in common use instead of mixed wine and water. See 
 " Brod und Wasser " in Texte u. Untersuchungen, B. vii. (1891). The evidence 
 has since been carefully examined, especially by Zahn {Brod u. Wein, 1892), 
 Funk, and JtQicher. It is far from adequate to sustain Harnack's wide 
 inference ; but there is no doubt that for one reason or another (ascetic 
 abstinence or a wish to avoid scandal) water alone was occasionally used in 
 the early Church in the eucharistic cup, and not always by heretical 
 sects. 
 
SACRAMENTAL SERVICES 165 
 
 our four sources, usually from the earliest of them in First 
 Corinthians. (2) The Eucharistic Prayer of Consecration. 
 (3) Distribution of the Elements. (4) A closing act of 
 Praise. But the leader ought to resist the temptation in 
 non-liturgical Churches to abridge to its essentials or to a 
 minimum a service of so much consequence for religious 
 life. There will therefore always be an introductory part, 
 which cannot omit at least an act of praise and a brief 
 petition or collect, uplifting the heart to God, and answering 
 in idea to the Sursum cor da of the ancient Church. 
 Eeformed liturgies, both Zwinglian and Calvinistic, judged 
 this a fit position for the creed, which the Church of 
 England placed earlier; and I observe a disposition among 
 Presbyterians to restore its use here. The praise at this 
 point will naturally be not so much jubilant as lowly and 
 adoring — its model the Ter Sanctus of the seraphim in the 
 prophet's vision.^ This inspired song every early liturgy 
 embodied, as well as the words of institution, in the 
 eucharistic prayer itself, which thereby became extremely 
 long as well as broken. It seems preferable to treat both as 
 independent acts. 
 
 When those two insertions have been removed from the 
 Church's great prayer before Communion, quite enough 
 remains. For it requires to group together in a single act, 
 not too prolonged, and in language the most reverent and 
 befitting, four or five distinct devotional states, all of which 
 are so appropriate to this solemn moment, that they may 
 be presumed to coexist in the breast of every communicant, 
 and consequently to crave utterance through the lips of 
 the minister who leads. Arranged in their natural order, 
 they are as follows : — 
 
 {a) An acknowledgment of our unworthiness and unfit- 
 ness for so high a privilege ; 
 (h) A thanksgiving for the Father's love in our redemption 
 through the incarnation and work of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ ; 
 
 1 Isa. 63. 
 
i66 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 (c) A profession of humble trust in His atoning death 
 for the remission of sins, which we are about 
 to commemorate ; 
 {d) An invocation of the Holy Spirit to bless the 
 elements, consecrating them into a means of 
 grace to our souls ; and 
 (e) A dedication or devotion of ourselves to God as 
 the crowning act of our " Eucharist.'' 
 I do not see how any one of these can well be left out. 
 The last does not find a place in Catholic sacramentaries, 
 for there the sacrifice is not the self-oblation of the 
 worshipper, but something infinitely different; from Pro- 
 testant services it surely should not be absent. It may, 
 however, be deferred till after participation.^ The invo- 
 cation of the Spirit is likewise omitted, this time unaccount- 
 ably, from the Eoman Mass — an omission unfortunately 
 repeated in the English Prayer Book as well as in the 
 Scottish "Book of Common Order"; but the omission has 
 been regarded as a serious blemish by Eastern Christendom. 
 The "manual acts" of the officiating minister become 
 of importance at this point, for two reasons : first, because 
 it has always been felt that in obedience to the words : " This 
 do in rememhrance of Me," each recorded action of our Lord 
 at the institution ought to be closely followed; and also 
 because a wide-spread belief has prevailed that these 
 actions, which are the same in all our sources (" He took " 
 — " He blessed " — " He broke " — " He gave ") possess, as parts 
 of a symbolic rite, separate symbolic significance. 
 
 In two particulars, nevertheless, there has been a very 
 general departure from the order observed at the Last 
 Supper. 
 
 1. We have the authority of two Evangelists (Matthew 
 and Mark) for believing that Jesus said grace twice, first 
 over the bread and then over the cup; and St. Paul's 
 expression, "the cup of blessing which we bless," so far 
 as it goes, rather confirms this. This double saying of 
 
 ^ So in the Anglican Prayer Book. 
 
SACRAMENTAL SERVICES 167 
 
 thanks has never, I think, been the usual practice of the 
 Church; though instances do occur of a literal imitation 
 of the Master's example. The Didache, for example, pre- 
 scribed two little prayers, first for the cup and then for 
 the bread ;^ and in Scotland, in the seventeenth century, 
 Gillespie speaks of a brief thanksgiving introduced in 
 distributing each kind, in addition to the earlier prayer 
 over both. 
 
 2. In every one of our four accounts, it is said that 
 Jesus " took '' the bread or cup before, not after, He 
 "blessed" or "gave thanks." This is said to have been 
 the undeviating practice in Scotland "for at least two 
 hundred years after the Keformation." ^ It certainly is so 
 ordered in the Scottish " Book of Common Order." The 
 Westminster Directory is silent on the point. The Church 
 of England rubric requires each kind to be lifted in the 
 course of the prayer, just at the moment when the words 
 of institution that refer to it are being pronounced. Accord- 
 ing to Dr. Sprott,^ it was about the middle of the eighteenth 
 century that the custom of "lifting" before, not after, the 
 prayer began to be given up in Scotland. Not, however, 
 without a protest. Among the Antiburgher Seceders it 
 occasioned a division, and one minister is reported to have 
 suffered himself to be deposed from office rather than treat 
 the matter as one of indifference.* It would surely be as 
 well to adhere to the old usage in strict compliance with 
 our Lord's example. 
 
 As to the symbolism of these " manual acts," few will 
 nowadays see in the "lifting" of the bread an emblem 
 of the setting apart of the Saviour to His work of re- 
 demption, as some of the old Scottish divines did. But 
 there can be little doubt that Jesus meant significance 
 
 ^ In agreement with Paul's order in 1 Cor, 10, though not in chap. 11 
 or in other authorities. 
 
 ^ Wright, The Presbyterian Churchy p. 168, 
 
 3 Op. cit. p. 115. 
 
 •* See Macpherson, History o/tJie Church in Scotland^ Paisley, 1901, p. 345. 
 
i68 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 to attach to His " breaking " of the bread, or, at least, that 
 the early Church understood Him to do so. It is true 
 that we cannot now found this on the word KXco/juevov in 
 1 Cor. 112^, since that word has been omitted from the best 
 modern texts. But that the action was retained in the 
 Apostolic Church and was regarded as important, can be 
 inferred, I think, from the very early name — " the Breaking 
 of Bread" — given to the rite, as well as from St. Paul's 
 expression : " The bread which we break, is it not a com- 
 munion of the body of Christ ? " ^ The meaniug which the 
 first Christians saw in it must have been either a setting 
 forth to the eye in symbol of the violence done to the 
 sacred body which was given up for us all, or the share 
 which every partaker has in the " one loaf," which repre- 
 sents the one mystical body of the faithful. 
 
 In the next act, of "giving" the symbols, with the 
 emphatic words : " Take, eat,'' " Brink ye all of it," it is 
 reasonable enough for faith to see an emblem of that 
 unspeakable act of love by which our Lord, who gave 
 Himself once to death, still gives Himself to each of us 
 without ceasing as both our propitiation and our spiritual 
 nourishment. The idea is, of course, continued in the 
 expressive action of every communicant when he takes 
 and eats and drinks, appropriating by faith the Divine 
 
 gift. 
 
 Mutatis mutandis, these acts are repeated in both kinds ; 
 but because our Lord took the cup as it stood ready and 
 is not said to have poured wine into it, we do not, as part 
 of the ritual, pour out of the flagon into the cup or chalice, 
 though this is done in the Mass by the Roman priest. 
 But the minister must follow Christ's example by taking 
 the cup into his own hand as he pronounces the invitation : 
 " Brink ye all of it," and then by giving it untasted to 
 one of the communicants. 
 
 The custom recently introduced into some congregations 
 of what is called the " individual cup " must be judged of 
 
 1 See Acts 2<2. 46 20?, 1 Cor. 10^^ 
 
SACRAMENTAL SERVICES 169 
 
 by the hygienic reasons adduced in its favour. At first 
 sight it appears to miss the sense of unity conveyed by 
 common participation. After all, however, no large con- 
 gregation which partakes simultaneously ever does drink 
 literally out of only one cup ; and it can make no difference 
 in principle whether the wine be distributed into five or 
 ^ve hundred separate vessels. But, however sound this 
 reasoning may be in logic, the sentiment of partaking in 
 common is seriously wounded when no two drink out of 
 the same vessel. What still more seriously offends against 
 the idea of corporate communion in one "cup," is the 
 objectionable innovation of using two different kinds of 
 beverage at the same celebration — one fermented and the 
 other not. 
 
 Suitably to close the service nothing more is called for 
 than prayer and praise ; but both should bear a well-marked 
 character. G-ratitude for the high privilege received and 
 entreaty for grace to live in daily fellowship with Christ, 
 will occur at once to every communicant. From such 
 personal experiences the people should be led to rise 
 to the thought of the Church universal. For each fresh 
 season of Communion sets the local congregation, however 
 small, into conscious fellowship with the vast company of 
 Christ's faithful followers over all the earth. It even sets 
 the living into union with the faithful of every age who 
 in their generation commemorated the same Lord by the 
 same memorial acts. Here, therefore, it seems to be at 
 least as appropriate as at an earlier stage to intercede in 
 accordance with ancient practice for the good estate of the 
 Church catholic, and to revive the memory of departed 
 saints in the Church triumphant. A prayer for the speedy 
 consummation of the kingdom at the second advent of the 
 King will fitly conclude. We only keep the feast "till 
 He come." 
 
 Throughout the whole of this solemn service of worship 
 it is essential to preserve the utmost possible order, silence, 
 and freedom from distraction. Ministers cannot be too 
 
I70 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 careful that each detail is arranged beforehand, so that 
 tranquillity may reign in the sacred edifice. This stillness, 
 however, only reflects the inner mood which he should 
 strive to secure in the worshippers. To do this let him 
 strive above all to be himself in a subdued, peaceful, and 
 devout frame of feeling. The spirit of the service is one 
 of tender emotion. Not intellect is called here into play, 
 but the heart. There should be little said. Anything 
 unfamiliar only distracts. It is an hour when the in- 
 dividuality of the minister needs to be suppressed. Here, 
 if anywhere, he is not an exhorter, but the leader only 
 in a common act. How often do his words jar on the 
 meditative mood of the communicants rather than assist 
 it ! Unless he himself be moved and bowed by the mighty 
 emotions of the hour, his leadership can only mar, instead 
 of fostering, the devotions of the people. 
 
CHAPTEE XV 
 
 WEEK-DAY SERVICES 
 
 A FEW old ministers still survive who recollect the days when 
 a couple of services on a Sunday nearly, if not quite, made 
 up the tale of their public duties. It might be felt right to 
 hold, in urban parishes at least, what was called a " weekly 
 prayer-meeting"; but it was so poorly frequented that in 
 Scotland it sometimes met in a vestry or side-room, and 
 added little to the pastor's labours. For the rest of the 
 week the church premises showed a locked door. In 
 England the framers of the Prayer Book had contemplated 
 the daily reading of morning and evening prayers in every 
 parish church,^ as well as in cathedrals; but during the 
 early decades of last century the rule seems to have been 
 all but universally disobeyed. It is now as generally ob- 
 served, at least by High Church incumbents. The hours, 
 however, for matins and evensong suit the convenience of 
 very few save persons of leisure. In the case of many 
 devout Anglicans, early Communion must often take their 
 place. If busy people in other churches are to benefit by 
 a week-day service, it needs to be arranged for a fairly 
 late hour in the evening, after the day's engagements are 
 over. In nearly all their places of worship, therefore, the 
 " prayer-meeting," or what is now termed the " week-night 
 service," has long been a recognised tradition. 
 
 ^ A similar rule obtained in the old days of the Kirk of Scotland. Twice 
 
 a week a sermon took the place of common prayer with Scripture lessons. See 
 
 Sprott, Worship and Offices of the Chicrch of Scotland, Edin. 1882, p. 105 ; 
 
 M'Crie, Public War sUi) of Preslyterian Scotland, Edin. 1892, pp. 114, 167. 
 
 171 
 
172 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 Of late, it is true, a crowd of miscellaneous meetings has 
 threatened to swamp the old established mid-week worship. 
 There is scarcely a chui^ch or chapel, large or small, whose 
 doors are not open at some hour and for some purpose on 
 several days in every week. The recent development of 
 Church life in England and America, by multiplying the 
 organised activities of every town congregation, has added 
 immensely to the responsibilities and labours of the 
 ministry; so that it grows every day a more pressing 
 question whether the subdivision of groups and the multi- 
 plication of meetings has not already gone too far for the 
 real efficiency of congregational machinery. It seems to me 
 probable that a movement for the concentration of energy 
 will shortly have to set in to counteract the present dissipa- 
 tion of it. Be that as it may, the numerous other gatherings 
 which occupy so many evenings, such as class meetings, 
 Bible classes, guilds, literary societies, bands of hope, 
 Christian endeavourers, working parties, social entertain- 
 ments, and the like, appeal, as a rule, to special sections of 
 the congregation, and are designed for other than purely 
 devotional purposes. They belong, therefore, in so far as 
 the minister has to do with them, to the pastoral department 
 of his office. Whereas, on the one evening invariably set 
 apart for Divine service, nothing sectional is contemplated, 
 but the presence of as many of the flock as possible is 
 desired. 
 
 To this mid-week worship most ministers of experience 
 continue to attach a high value. It not merely breaks the 
 long interval of secular occupation between one Lord's Day 
 and the next; provides an opportunity for devotion to 
 persons who find few such opportunities at home; and 
 brings pious members of the Church into kindly intercourse 
 with their pastor and with one another : but, above all, it 
 has two definite functions which it ought to fulfil in the 
 economy of the congregation's life. It ought to supply 
 religious inspiration to every other part of the congregational 
 activity ; and it ought to be a central service of intercession. 
 
WEEK-DAY SERVICES 173 
 
 incessantly calling down upon every part the power and 
 blessing of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Both of those are uses the value of which cannot be 
 exaggerated. The more manifold, exacting, and subdivided 
 becomes the organisation of a modern Church, drawing into 
 one or other of its agencies the varied gifts of its members, 
 branching out, moreover, into social ministry, material and 
 educational no less than religious, the greater risk arises 
 lest the spiritual consecration, which ought to link all such 
 agencies to the person of the Kedeemer and animate them 
 with His Spirit, should evaporate. Then must the Church's 
 ministration to human need degenerate into a busy, bustlino- 
 philanthropy, useful, but not distinctively Christlike, or even 
 religious. To avert such a risk as this, and warm all Church 
 business and every workers' meeting from the central fire 
 of pious love to Christ, is the first benefit to be derived 
 from an earnest, loving, and well attended mid-week worship. 
 To render this benefit it needs to be well attended. How 
 can it supply motive-power for all the work of the Church, 
 if the workers are not present ? 
 
 The other function of intercession is no less important. 
 The Church lives by its prayers just as individual Christians 
 do. Barren of results, at least of the highest results, must 
 its work be, unless it be steeped in an atmosphere of prayer. 
 It must ask before it can receive. I believe this is widely 
 felt, and deeply felt, by the ministry ; and just because it is 
 so, do we everywhere hear regrets, not always loud but deep, 
 over the decay of the "prayer-meeting." I question if 
 there is any other part of an average minister's work which 
 he finds so disappointing. Thin attendance, lack of interest, 
 absence of the young and active members, want of helpers 
 to take part in the prayers, a general coldness or formality 
 in the service, a few loyal people only turning out for duty's 
 sake : such complaints abound, and the heart of many a 
 minister is made sad. While the opening of each winter 
 season sees ingenuity successfully expended in devising fresh 
 and varied plans, say, for attracting and instructing young 
 
174 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 people, for example, or for stimulating the interest of older 
 members in missions, domestic and foreign, nothing ever 
 seems to infuse fresh life into this old-fashioned " prayer- 
 meeting" — so many minsters tell you: it lingers on in a 
 feeble, if not moribund, condition. 
 
 One practical result has been that even where the con- 
 gregational " prayer-meeting " has not changed its name to 
 a "mid-week service," it has changed its character, and 
 become to all intents and purposes a shortened edition of 
 the Sunday worship, a little less formal, perhaps, with less 
 labour bestowed on the "address" than on the "sermon," 
 but otherwise conducted on identical lines. The steps in 
 this metamorphosis are easy. No man can profitably occupy 
 a whole hour in devotional exercises when no voice but his 
 own is heard from beginning to end. In a few places the 
 minister is fortunate enough to have members in his church 
 in suf&cient numbers who are both competent and inclined 
 to assist, and the service may go on with spirit as simply a 
 service for devotion. But where this is not the case, an 
 " address " is unavoidable. And insensibly the order then 
 approximates to the type most familiar to both leader and 
 people, that is, to the Lord's Day worship. 
 
 Such a week-day worship of an hour's duration with a 
 sermonette, may be the best thing that can be done. If 
 successfully conducted, it will in a measure accomplish 
 both the ends we desire — nurture devotional feeling in the 
 flock, and intercede for a blessing on its operations. But it 
 is not a " prayer-meeting," and, with one's best endeavours, 
 it cannot quite fill the place of one. A consciousness of 
 this is inducing some ministers to attempt a supplement 
 of some sort to the usual week-night service. They begin 
 to realise that for the purpose of intercession, pure and 
 simple, the attendance of the active and busy workers 
 themselves, however desirable, is not indispensable. A few 
 praying people will do. Where the minister has strength 
 and the people inclination, a short meeting to ask a blessing 
 on the various labours of the day is sometimes held on the 
 
WEEK-DAY SERVICES 175 
 
 Lord's Day, it may be for ten or fifteen minutes only, 
 either before morning worship opens or at the close of 
 evening worship; and that is better than nothing. It 
 would, however, be worth a good deal of pains to get 
 together, some time in the week, even a small company of 
 warm-hearted members of the flock, who, if they can help 
 in no other way, will combine to be God's " remembrancers," 
 pleading while others labour, interceding for the blessing of 
 " the Lord of the harvest " upon the ploughing and the sowing, 
 by giving to each item in the congregation's work and to 
 every group of workers in its field, a stated place in their 
 petitions. We ought not to despise such a gathering for 
 , prayer and nothing else because its members are few. It 
 ought, I think, to be an axiom in this matter that it is not 
 numbers that count, but concert and devout importunity. 
 The Divine condition is : " If two of you shall agree 
 on earth." The Divine test is : " Always to pray and riot 
 to faint." ^ I think the best of our " workers " would try 
 to be members of the "praying band" as well. But 
 why should not such a band, in whose breasts pious desires 
 are warm, even if it were composed of those who come out 
 to few other meetings, or can give but little aid in other 
 ways, be just as truly a piece of service for the kingdom 
 as any other, as teaching an infants' class, for instance, or 
 visiting the sick poor, or singing in the church choir ? It 
 would fill its own niche, and have its recognised place and 
 use among those more active associations which are at 
 present in vogue. 
 
 Its meetings need not exceed half an hour in duration. 
 Everything should be as free and brotherly as possible. All 
 who come might be encouraged to take some part, were it 
 but by suggesting a topic for intercession. It would be the 
 office of the leader to arrange beforehand concerted subjects 
 of petition for each occasion, securing the utmost variety ; to 
 receive suggestions and report private requests for prayer ; 
 to interpose between the prayers a helpful promise from 
 
 1 Matt. 1819, Luke IS^-s, cf. ll^-is. 
 
176 THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 Holy Writ or a hymn verse ; to keep the meeting to the 
 business in hand by quietly checking irrelevance or prolixity 
 in those who take part ; and to close punctually. In such 
 a brief service there should be little else than petitions, 
 brief, pointed, and intense, like arrows shot towards heaven. 
 It may be a dream, but 1 can imagine such a prayer-meeting 
 to tell like a benediction on the whole hive of energetic and 
 varied "workers" who constitute the modern ideal of 
 congregational life. 
 
 Be this as it may, the practical problem for most 
 ministers is how to invest a mid-week service of an hour 
 with so much interest and value as to attract to it a con- 
 siderable proportion of the people, and at the same time 
 to furnish a material contribution to the best life of the 
 congregation. 
 
 My own impression is (and it is only one's impressions 
 one can give) that it is a mistake to make the order a 
 reduced copy of Sunday worship, or at least, to repeat this 
 on every occasion. Such a sameness argues a lack of 
 inventiveness. Uniformity breeds dulness. No special need 
 of the congregation is met which the Sunday services do 
 not meet. Offering no fresh features, it awakens no fresh 
 interest. Yet the conditions are different from those on 
 the Lord's Day, and to be met in a different way. Every 
 Lord's Day is a weekly festival. It is, so to say, a 
 " State occasion." The congregation is present, at one of the 
 diets of worship at least, in its unity and completeness. 
 Young and old combine, as at no other time, to present before 
 God their common faith and life with as much solemnity 
 and fulness of utterance as are attainable. It is fitting, 
 therefore, that the worship should express all the common 
 emotions and desires of Christian experience, under regulated 
 forms which cannot greatly vary from week to week. But 
 here the circumstances are quite altered. A portion only 
 of the membership — as many as can spare an hour in the 
 midst of week-day toil and worldly cares — are come together 
 in a much less formal fashion. They are all busy folk, and 
 
WEEK-DAY SERVICES 177 
 
 the children are absent. Is it not better to aim at some- 
 thing as little reminiscent of familiar Lord's-Day forms as 
 may be? Something which need not be invariably the 
 same, nor regulated with equal strictness ? In order to 
 create interest and maintain it, giving people a motive to 
 attend strong enough to draw them away from their usual 
 secular engagements, surely what is wanted is, first, a dis- 
 tinct purpose on each occasion, and then, variety from week 
 to week. Let each meeting wear as far as possible a 
 distinctive character, and it will have an interest of its own. 
 Let that character be changed as much as possible at success- 
 ive meetings, and the interest will be kept fresh. It is 
 seldom convenient to continue the weekly service over 
 more than a portion of the year; and for the weeks of 
 (say) seven months or so, few ministers would find much 
 difficulty in drawing up a varied programme, adapted to 
 the needs of their own flock. 
 
 One group of evenings, scattered over the year, ought 
 always to be strictly devotional, given up either to prayer or 
 to praise. The prayer-meetings may, of course, be organised 
 on the lines described above ; with topics selected beforehand 
 and qualified persons arranged to assist ; with definite 
 petitions bearing, some on the congregation's own operations, 
 some on more personal requests for prayer sent in privately ; 
 with commonly an interval allowed for silent supplication, 
 or at times liberty given for any who choose to volunteer to 
 lead in prayer. An occasional hour so spent, if carefully 
 prepared for and not too frequently repeated, would meet a 
 want felt by many of our best people. A quite different need 
 is met on other evenings by a praise-meeting, at which the 
 resources of the hymn-book are laid under contribution, and 
 the assistance of the choir, after special rehearsals, is called 
 in. The programme of sacred song, arranged by the leader 
 some time previously, will be more or less ambitions from a 
 musical point of view according to the attainments of the 
 congregation; but it can always follow a given order of 
 religious thought, so as to possess unity and interest. 
 12 
 
lyS THE MINISTER AS LEADER IN WORSHIP 
 
 Bible teaching of various kinds will supply material for 
 profitable hours of a different character. Then is the 
 minister's opportunity fco deal with aspects and applications 
 of truth less suitable for the Sunday sermon, either because 
 they are too technical or because they run too much into 
 detail. The practical bearings, for instance, of the ethics of 
 Christ on the family, on business, on social duties . or 
 problems, are matters in which many Christians of all 
 classes are taking in our day a keen concern. In the 
 pulpit they can only be handled rarely and in large outline. 
 A study of these, based on all the relevant material to be 
 culled from the New Testament, would stimulate self- 
 examination, call people's attention to unnoticed faults in 
 daily conduct, and help to mould opinion on public 
 questions. 'Not less is it a duty of the hour for the minister 
 to guide his people into the fresh ways of reading their 
 Bible which recent scholarship has made inevitable. The 
 best results of criticism can be made intelligible to the 
 humblest Christian, and there are few readers of Scripture 
 who do not welcome wise and plain instruction on many 
 points. The date, purpose, and characteristics of single 
 books, or the unfolding of a great truth from one epoch of 
 revelation to another, or the diverse lights under which it 
 is viewed by the several inspired writers : — there is simply 
 no end to the variety which may be imparted to a " Bible- 
 hour" by any well-informed expositor of the sacred 
 volume. It is a sort of teaching much needed, and by not 
 a few nowadays much desired. 
 
 Information on philanthropic and missionary efforts, 
 both at home and abroad, forms another group; keeping 
 well to the front those fields of labour to which the people 
 are in the habit of extending financial aid, or in which they 
 themselves are taking an active share, yet sketching now 
 and then the progress of Christ's kingdom in regions where 
 less known agencies are at work. But any minister who 
 cares to diversify in this way the character of his week-night 
 service can readily add to the specimens I have named; 
 
WEEK-DAY SERVICES 179 
 
 the aim being that every class in his flock may find some- 
 thing to profit as well as interest them, and that the 
 dulness or stagnation so often complained of may be kept 
 far away. It asks for initiative and versatility in the 
 leader. Certainly it means taking trouble, and making 
 one's preparations some time in advance. But have we any 
 reason to count on many people putting themselves to 
 inconvenience in order to be present, if we grudge the 
 trouble of providing what may prove fresh and attractive 
 as well as helpful ? 
 
PART III 
 
 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 CHAPTEK XVI 
 
 WHAT IS PREACHING? 
 
 Pkeaching is an art; and the principles which regulate 
 the practice of it must spring out of a correct theory of its 
 nature and design. No amount of instruction either in the 
 principles or in the rules of any art will ever make an 
 artist. Nothing can do that but practice. Yet a prelimin- 
 ary study, both of the theory of preaching and of the rules 
 which long experience has suggested to experts, ought to be 
 of material service to a young preacher. It sets before him 
 an ideal, and supplies a standard by which to estimate good 
 or bad workmanship. It puts him on his guard against 
 wrong methods of working. He knows better what to 
 avoid and what to aim at. Self -discipline and practice must 
 do the rest. 
 
 For the purposes of our art, then, preaching may be 
 described as that continuous and public testimony which 
 the Church is always giving, through discourses by her 
 official members, to her own living faith in Christ, as 
 rooted in and sustained by the written Word of God. 
 
 To understand this definition, it is fundamental to 
 
 assure ourselves that the pulpit takes the Church for 
 
 granted, and utters the testimony, not simply of a solitary 
 
 believer, but of a divinely founded society. There was a 
 
 1 80 
 
WHAT IS PREACHING? i8i 
 
 Church before there was a Christian preacher. Peter, even 
 at Pentecost, on the birthday of the Church, spoke in the 
 name of a hundred and twenty believers. A propagand- 
 ist of the faith finds it his sorest trial when, alone and 
 unsupported by Christian comrades, he has to preach the 
 good news on the strength of his own personal experience. 
 Yet the loneliest foreign missionary, the single confessor 
 in a heathen land, has at his back the universal Church of 
 all lands. He witnesses to the belief of a multitude that 
 no man can number. And he knows it. What sustains 
 him is the consciousness that he has behind his solitary 
 voice the testimony to Christ of Christendom and the 
 Christian centuries. 
 
 In the case of a pastoral preacher, selected by a con- 
 gregation or trained and commissioned by a great Christian 
 community, it is far more obvious that, be his personal 
 convictions ever so strong, he never stands merely aloof or 
 over against the people, as one who speaks his own faith and 
 not also theirs. The Church has other ways of expressing 
 her witness to the Gospel. She does it by her creed, by her 
 sacraments, by her hymns. This particular way is by a 
 public discourse into which, however, much more than into 
 these, there enters what is personal to the speaker. Nor is 
 every public discourse an official testimony as this is. 
 Public discourses may on occasion be delivered by private 
 members of the Church. Nothing that can be said on the 
 theory of ministerial preaching, whether missionary or 
 pastoral, can for a moment limit or prejudice the inherent 
 right of every Christian to declare his faith on suitable 
 occasions and in his own way. It rather presupposes that 
 as a duty lying upon the whole brotherhood. If it were 
 not the right and duty of Christian discipleship to testify to 
 the truth as it is in Jesus, it would be hard to see how a 
 testifying order of disciples came to be organised at all. 
 Private witness-bearing, in the home or in social intercourse, 
 is a duty of every Christian. Public witness-bearing, when 
 and where occasion invites, is a privilege open to any 
 
i82 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 competent adult, now as in the primitive assemblies. But 
 when, for reasons of order or of profit, or in obedience to 
 what is taken to be the will of Christ, all utterances for 
 the edification of the brethren at the stated assemblies for 
 worship are committed to chosen men specially trained or 
 believed to be specially fit, it is plain that their official 
 discourses must take for granted the common faith. No 
 doubt the sermon is something else and something more 
 than a creed ; but it takes the creed for granted. The man 
 will not be tolerated if he contradict those cardinal 
 Christian verities on which he and the people are presumed 
 to be at one. 
 
 Plainly we have reached here at the outset our first 
 antinomy, or pair of mutually limiting elements betwixt 
 which the preacher's art has to move. The personal and 
 the representative or official are united in him, and in his 
 discourses. Each of these has to come by its due and no more. 
 Each is essential and has its separate value. The more full 
 his accord on the one hand with the specific type of Chris- 
 tian belief and piety which obtains in the Church he serves, 
 so much the more representative a speaker does he make. 
 On this representative character does his official commission 
 as a preacher rest ; and his possession of such a commission 
 affects in many ways the character of his preaching. It 
 lends him confidence. It adds weight to his words. It 
 gives dignity to pulpit utterances, and imposes on them a 
 certain reserve. It checks the expression of vagaries of 
 private opinion or of abnormal and eccentric experiences 
 in religion. It distinguishes the preacher from the lecturer, 
 or the platform speaker, or any self-constituted advocate of 
 his own individual notions or beliefs. The fact that he is 
 authorised to speak out of the heart of a great community 
 what it holds for deepest and truest in the things of God, 
 may become a fetter, but it ought to be an inspiration. 
 While it sobers the speaker by a sense of his responsibility, 
 it ought to elevate him to his best. 
 
 On the other hand, what is personal to the preacher 
 
WHAT IS PREACHING? 183 
 
 needs equally to come by its rights. To his own personal 
 convictions, won by experience, he must testify, not to the 
 borrowed beliefs of other people ; else he is no true witness 
 at all, but the pitiful echo only of a voice. Unless he be 
 free to utter in his own way and with the intensity due to 
 personal assurance what he himself has been taught by the 
 Spirit of God in the struggles and victories of his inner life, 
 you make of him the most dismal of machines, 'No doubt 
 all through the service the leader, if he is truly to lead, 
 needs to be himself in living possession of the feelings and 
 desires of the congregation. But in the sermon far more 
 than anywhere else, both the thing spoken and the form of 
 its utterance are to be the man's very own. For it is, what 
 no other part of worship is, a speech addressed by one man 
 to his fellows ; forged, therefore, in his own living brain and 
 heart, cast into an intellectual mould of his own, and pro- 
 jected by the heat of his own emotions. The more true, 
 therefore, to himself the preacher is, the better for the 
 purposes of his oratory. 
 
 Eightly to adjust these contrary factors in preaching — 
 the personal and the official — tests the preacher's skill. 
 For although they always coexist, they coexist in varying 
 proportions in different kinds of preaching, as we shall see, 
 as well as in preachers of dissimilar temperament and at 
 various periods in the history of the pulpit. Yet the pre- 
 sence of either may be so much in excess as to constitute 
 a fault. 
 
 The same remarks apply to a second pair of factors 
 which appear in our definition of preaching: the variable 
 and the permanent in the subject-matter of it. I refer to 
 the " living faith " of the actual Church at any given time 
 on the one hand, and the " written Word of God " on the 
 other. If the pulpit is to be a genuine witness-bearing by 
 living believers, then it is not the belief of any past age 
 which it has to utter, but what we ourselves who speak 
 do believe and know of God's truth. Often enough, no 
 doubt, a dead orthodoxy has rattled the bones of creeds and 
 
i84 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 of systems of divinity, out of which all moisture and vitality 
 had long departed. But that is not true preaching. The 
 pulpit ought ever to stand in close relations with the 
 thought and life of the Church of to-day, acting upon it, 
 but also acted upon by it. Both in its substance and in its 
 form, it should mirror the influential beliefs of our genera- 
 tion, its attainments, its aspirations, its struggles, and its 
 duties. This is why preaching has decayed as often as 
 Christian life has decayed, but has gained in power when- 
 ever God revived His Church, and changed its form when 
 His providence brought fresh aspects of truth to view, or 
 set her amid the currents of a new period. 
 
 None the less is there a deposit of saving truth em- 
 balmed in a permanent literary form — a norm of belief and 
 life to be reckoned with amid these fluctuations of the genera- 
 tions. By it has the old to be fortified and the new to be tested. 
 To it as to a standard must the Church recur for correction 
 of error ; to it as to a fountain for fresh and deeper draughts 
 of revealed truth. Out of it must the life of every genera- 
 tion of Christians be fed ; and from it has come again and 
 again the inspiration that breathed fresh Hfe into a som- 
 nolent or corrupt Church. To Holy Scripture, therefore, 
 ought the pulpit to abide faithful; for it is out of its 
 treasures, ever better understood and more livingly appre- 
 hended, that the preacher fulfils his double office of edifying 
 the saints and winning the world to Christ. 
 
 To harmonise these two elements is another of the 
 preacher's tasks. If his discourses err on the one extreme, 
 they become too subjective, experimental, or pietistic ; if on 
 the other, they grow over-doctrinal, scholastic, or exegetical. 
 It is neither a class-meeting nor a Bible-class he is conduct- 
 ing in the pulpit ; but it is with Christian life and Bible 
 revelation in living union that he has to deal. 
 
 At its widest acceptation, preaching contemplates two 
 distinct results; for it is the Church's chief instrument 
 for effecting both of the great ends for which the Church 
 
WHAT IS PREACHING? 185 
 
 exists: self -propagation and self-edification. Alike in its 
 contents and in its methods, it must be profoundly affected 
 according as the preacher sets himself to produce the one 
 or the other result : to beget repentance and faith in the 
 unregenerate or to nurture and mature Christian life in 
 those who are already believers. This gives rise to a broad 
 distinction betwixt two kinds of preaching, which, however 
 seldom we may find them quite separate in practice, it is 
 yet necessary to treat apart in our homiletic theory. I shall 
 call them pastoral and evangelistic. Both of them date 
 from the very foundation of the Church. They are carefully 
 marked in our New Testament sources by different names ; 
 though, from the nature of the case, we hear more in the 
 first days of Christianity of missionary or evangelistic, than 
 of pastoral or congregational, preaching. 
 
 For the former the technical New Testament terms are 
 KTjpvao-etv and euayyeXl^eaOac. Neither word quite forfeits 
 in Scripture the metaphor which underlies it. St. Paul twice 
 calls himself by the title of a " herald " or public crier who 
 makes public an official proclamation ; ^ and in an earlier 
 passage he plays on the use of the word in the stadium : 
 " Lest, after making proclamation to others, as the herald 
 at the public games, I myself should be rejected as a dis- 
 qualified competitor." ^ The companion verb, evayyeXi^eo-OaL, 
 frequent in the Gospels and in Acts, is used by St. Paul in 
 the same connection of his missionary preaching of the 
 Gospel to heathen cities; and it, too, seems never to lose 
 the flavour of its original sense as an announcement of 
 glad tidings. The choice of terms like these is full of 
 instruction. This earliest and greatest branch of the 
 Church's ministry by word needs to be carried on even 
 within Christendom by the most public methods, as the 
 proclamation of a grave and authoritative message from 
 
 1 1 Tim. 2^ 2 Tim. 1". 
 
 2 1 Cor. 927. For the noun K'^pvy/u,a, see Rom. IG^^, 1 Cor. l^i 2^ IS^", 
 Tit. 1^ 2 Tim. 4". It is used only by St. Paul. The verbal form is much 
 more frequent. 
 
i86 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 God, which yet carries the best and gladdest news that 
 ever greeted the ears of men. Since the modern revival 
 of missionary enterprise at home and abroad, we are not 
 likely to overlook it; although we are far as yet from 
 giving it the place it deserves either in the study or in 
 the teaching of Homiletics. Many of the German authorities, 
 in fact, especially since Schleiermacher,^ have confined 
 themselves to the pastoral sermon alone. It was by way 
 of protest against this one-sidedness that Rudolph Stier in 
 1830 issued his Karzer Grundriss einer hiblischen Keryhtih. 
 This new -coined name he proposed to substitute for 
 " Homiletics," in order to convey the idea that all preach- 
 ing whatever is addressed, as he put it, to "the natural 
 man in his blindness and sinfulness." The protest missed 
 its aim because it was no less one-sided. When Beyer ^ 
 would have the modern preacher take Apostolic examples 
 for his model, he is not wholly on wrong lines. Only he 
 does not sufficiently distinguish betwixt missionary preach- 
 ing and addresses for the edification of the Church. Of the 
 latter we possess no such illustrative specimens from the 
 Apostolic period as we have of the former in St. Peter's or 
 St. Paul's evangelistic discourses to Jew or Gentile.^ Nor 
 had it yet received a name of its own. In St. Luke's 
 account of the midnight meeting in an upper room at 
 Troas,^ for the first and only time in the New Testament, 
 we find the verb which afterwards furnished a name — 
 "Homily" — for this class of Christian addresses, used 
 possibly in a sense which approximates to its later technical 
 signification. Wherever else in the New Testament the 
 verb ofitXelv occurs, ib retains its ordinary meaning of con- 
 sorting or conversing with anyone. But the religious 
 intercourse of those early Christian teachers with their 
 
 ^ See his posthumously published Praktische Theologie (Berlin, 1850). 
 " Das Wesen der christlichen Predigt nach Norm und Vorhild der 
 apostolischen Predigt (1861). 
 
 3 Acts 2, 3, 10, and 13 ; and 14 and 17. 
 
 "• Acts 20" : i<p' lKav6v re bixCk'qaas ^X/ois ai^y^s. 
 
WHAT IS PREACHING? 187 
 
 converts took the form of conversational instruction in 
 the things of the spiritual life. So the Greek word 
 " homily " which Xenophon had applied in the Memorahilia ^ 
 to the same easy familiar style of teaching, was given to 
 every pastoral address, when in course of years the earliest 
 form of the Christian sermon was developed. 
 
 The division in practice between these two ground- 
 types of preaching is rarely a clean-cut one. To a purely 
 heathen audience the missionary's address must be wholly 
 evangelistic. In a congregation composed of none but 
 genuine Christians, the pastor's address would be wholly 
 pastoral. The former case does occur in the foreign mission 
 field, as in bazaar or street preaching in a heathen city. 
 The latter never occurs, for every Christian congregation 
 is wider than the true Church, and includes hearers whose 
 Christianity is only nominal. As a rule, therefore, preach- 
 ing needs to be of a mixed character. The proportion in 
 which, on any given occasion or to any given audience, it 
 is the preacher's duty to combine the two, is a matter left 
 to his discretion. In practice it gives frequent rise to 
 much perplexity. But we can quite well hold the two 
 distinct in theory, and a complete homiletic would allot 
 to each a treatment of its own. Here, since we have in 
 view the settled ministry in our home congregations, I shall 
 speak first and most fully of pastoral preaching ; adding 
 only some notes on the modifications which result when 
 the evangelist is called on to address an irreligious, or at 
 least an unconverted, audience. 
 
 ^ Memor. i. 2, 6, 15. 
 
CHAPTEE XVII 
 PASTORAL PREACHING: I 
 
 The feature in pastoral preaching which first arrests atten- 
 tion is that it is a part, and an important part, in the 
 pubHc service of God. The preacher who realises that, 
 when he delivers his sermon, he is about an act of worship, 
 will find, I think, that from the very nature of worship in 
 general there arise for his guidance at least three canons. 
 
 First, as to the matter of his discourse, it is restricted 
 to the sphere of religion. For surely it needs no proof 
 that nothing can have a legitimate place in any act of 
 solemn devotion which does not bear upon our relations 
 with God. The rule is hardly a limitation of the field 
 that lies open to him, since all human life, when seriously 
 contemplated, and (not less) truth in its manifoldness, have 
 religious bearings ; but it does define the point of view from 
 which every subject is to be handled in the pulpit. Over 
 whatever interests or affects his hearers, it is conceivable 
 that he may find occasion to range. Only it must be 
 regarded in its relations to the religious life or for a 
 religious purpose, before it can claim to lie within the 
 preacher's scope. What is historical or scientific or philo- 
 sophic or secular, as such and for its own sake, is out of 
 place. 
 
 Next, as to the tone and manner of the preacher, that 
 is to be reverential and devout as befits a sacred occasion 
 and a devotional act. This canon of reverence prescribes 
 to the speaker in the first instance the mood in which he 
 is himself to be. But it also extends to the mood of feeling 
 
 i88 
 
PASTORAL PREACHING 189 
 
 which his language and his gestures have a tendency to 
 awaken in his hearers. This suggests, I think, the true 
 answer to the question: May the pulpit admit what is 
 witty or jocose? It should admit nothing of which the 
 effect or the tendency must be to impair the devotional 
 attitude of the worshippers, by arousing associations in 
 their minds which are ludicrous or simply diverting. We 
 rule out in this way the vulgar jests and merry tales of a 
 certain school of preachers in the late Middle Age. Only, 
 in applying this canon, we have to bear in mind that 
 different ages, or different classes in any age, receive very 
 different impressions from the same discourse. Flashes of 
 wit, homely anecdotes, colloquialisms, and the like, have 
 often been harmlessly indulged in, not only because the 
 hearers tolerated such things or relished them, but because 
 they were so much a part of their everyday religious life 
 as to awaken no sense of indecorum or of irreverence. If 
 I am not mistaken, the Catholic pulpit has not on the 
 whole maintained the dignity of preaching quite so well 
 or so uniformly as the Protestant has done; the reason 
 being, as I suppose, because in Eoman ritual the sermon 
 has been dissociated from the holiest acts of worship, 
 delivered from a different part of the building, and com- 
 monly at another time from the service of the altar. On 
 the other hand, Protestant preachers have been accused 
 of carrying formal dignity too far, now to the extreme of 
 frigidity, again to that of pomposity. There is a risk of 
 what is called "dying of propriety." If the spring of 
 reverential awe is within a man's soul and not assumed, 
 it ought to leave him perfectly natural and true to himself ; 
 only it will be to his best and highest self. For that very 
 reason he ought to be as far from pomposity as from levity. 
 For the pompous is always the self-conscious, the affected ; 
 and sui^ely, if ever a man is not to be inflated by his petty 
 self-importance, or to pose as bigger than he is, it must be 
 when he speaks for God with the fear of His presence upon 
 him. 
 
igo THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 The third canon suggested by the place which preaching 
 holds in Divine service, is that it strive after artistic 
 perfection, alike in matter and in form. This applies to 
 every act of worship. The music, the hymns, the prayers, 
 the reading, are all to be as good as we can make them. 
 For two reasons : partly because we are giving expression 
 to the deepest and worthiest that is in us, and whatever is 
 expressional aims at beauty of form ; partly because wor- 
 ship is an offering which we make to the Most High, of 
 whom our best is unworthy. The same rule must apply 
 to the sermon. What is slovenly, in bad taste, or poverty- 
 stricken, is not worthy of Him in whose service it is 
 uttered. A random talk in the pulpit, an ill- jointed dis- 
 course, a negligent style, a clumsy delivery : these things 
 not only offend good taste ; they sin against the law of 
 sacrifice. Shall I offer to my Maker what costs me 
 nothing ? 
 
 The late Bishop Phillips Brooks of Boston denies any 
 place in the sermon to this quality of artistic perfectness.^ 
 He does so on the ground that the sermon is spoken for a 
 purpose. It exists " to persuade and move men's souls " ; 
 and this is, he affirms, " thoroughly inartistic," because 
 "art contemplates and serves the absolute beauty." One 
 feels there is a mistake here ; and it springs, I think, from 
 confounding a work of pure art which exists for its own 
 sake alone, with that artistic perfection which applied art 
 may confer on a useful object. The sermon certainly is 
 not a product of " pure art." It serves undoubtedly a 
 " further purpose." So does a Greek vase. Its purpose is 
 the homely one of holding liquor. Yet on it the artist can 
 lavish the utmost grace of outline and the loveliest designs. 
 Such is the art of the preacher. At this point we come 
 in sight of those relations of Homiletics to Khetoric of 
 which so much has been made in homiletic literature. 
 Since it is by ordered speech the preacher has to minister 
 to the service of God, and to persuade men, let him do his 
 
 ^ Yale Lectures on Preaching, 1877, p. 109. 
 
PASTORAL PREACHING 191 
 
 best to make perfect for its purpose and beautiful in its 
 usefulness, every discourse by which he seeks to lead men 
 on to higher faith and hohness. 
 
 Besides these rules springing out of the very idea of 
 worship, there are certain characteristics of Christianity, 
 which as they impress themselves on every part of 
 Christian worship, so also must their influence be felt in 
 the pastor's preaching. 
 
 1. For example, we saw that, in contrast with both 
 pagan and old Hebrew ritual, the spirituality of the 
 Christian religion implies that the worshipper is brought 
 into communion with God " in spirit and in truth " — not, 
 that is to say, by the aid of sensuous or material symbols, 
 which are shadows of truth, but through the word addressed 
 to the reason and the conscience. In harmony with this 
 must the preacher also " commend himself by the mani- 
 festation of the truth to every man's conscience." In other 
 words, it is on the naked force of religious and moral truth 
 that he must rely. Efforts to play upon the passions 
 except through the understanding, are unworthy of the 
 Gospel. Even appeals to the imagination through the 
 senses merely are out of keeping with it. For ecstasies 
 and tumultuous conditions of the soul, created by a heated 
 fancy under the excitement of numbers, have merely a 
 momentary effect, and do not produce those permanent 
 ethical results at which the Gospel aims. It is from this 
 point of view that we must judge of what in the modern 
 pulpit is termed " sensationahsm." Sobriety and sanity 
 are marks of a genuine enlightenment by the Spirit of God ; 
 and the sermon, like the whole service, ought to be simple, 
 manly and sober. The preacher may agitate the soul of 
 the sinner, and, in extreme cases or among the more excit- 
 able races, such agitation may discover itself through its 
 effects upon the body, but the means to be employed must 
 always be moral and spiritual truth, — not adventitious or 
 meretricious aid from harrowing pictures of physical 
 torment, the exhibition of a crucifix to the eye, even sen- 
 
192 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 suous details of the Passion, or the mere influence on the 
 nerves of a falsetto voice. 
 
 2. Moreover, Christianity is the religion of completed 
 revelation. It is not, in Paul's phrase, '' a veiled G-ospel." 
 The Word of God is spoken in Christ, not in hints, or 
 figures, or mysteries for the initiated, but plainly, to be 
 understood of all men. The preacher's first duty, therefore, 
 is to be intelligible. Not ignorance, but knowledge, is the 
 parent of Christian devotion. We are not hierophants, but 
 proclaimers of an open message. Let the preacher there- 
 fore make his meaning plain to his audience by using 
 words commonly understood ; the days for tongues that 
 no one understands are over. And let his discourse be 
 both rational and coherent, bringing light to the intellect 
 as well as warmth to the heart. To wrap up one's meaning 
 in a cloud of words ; to obscure it from the average man 
 by learned, technical, or far-fetched terms ; to pour forth 
 rhapsodies ; or to hint at half-unfolded thoughts, " mystic, 
 wonderful," such as can only be discovered by meditating 
 over them : — none of these things is for the pulpit. 
 
 3. Once more, ours is a worship based on the certainty 
 of faith. Its attitude is that of men who " know that the 
 Son of God is come," and '* that in Him we have eternal 
 life.'' There is a tone of assurance proper to such an 
 attitude. " We use great boldness of speech." It is out of 
 the heart of this settled confidence in the Church's pos- 
 session of truth and life in Jesus Christ, that every preacher 
 is supposed to testify. He is a witness, or he ought to be, 
 to what he personally knows. He is addressing a con- 
 gregation of fellow-believers who also know. It is true 
 that our lot is fallen on days when such confident belief is 
 become more difficult, both for those who speak and for 
 those who hear. To not a few in our audiences the words 
 of that speaker will carry most power who has himself 
 doubted, if only he has resolved his doubts and over- 
 come them. N"or is the Church entitled to require that 
 even her preachers shall have reached assured results on 
 
PASTORAL PREACHING 193 
 
 every question in religion. Enough if they have attained 
 through personal experience to the assurance of faith on 
 the essential verities of the evangel, and within that region 
 at least are not afraid to say : we know. For the preacher 
 is no speculator or investigator, discussing questionable 
 theories in religion, or ventilating novel discoveries. He 
 believes and therefore speaks. There springs from this a 
 certain dogmatism, if I may call it so, that is peculiar to 
 the pulpit, and perfectly consistent with personal modesty. 
 It is consistent likewise with a desire to awaken in the 
 hearer, or to confirm, a reasoned faith. And if to the 
 people's faith he would add knowledge, he will be at pains 
 to exhibit the reasonableness of revealed truth, its harmony 
 with itself and with other truths, its adaptation to human 
 needs, and the like. He will argue and define and illustrate, 
 putting all he knows in the clearest and most convincing 
 light. Yet it is what he knows. He makes a mistake if 
 he utters the message of salvation in halting or apologetic 
 tones, claiming for it no more than a bare probability, or 
 putting it forth like some happy guess, as likely to be true 
 as not. 
 
 4. In the last place, ours is the worship, not of timid 
 bondmen or dubious suppliants, but of free-born sons of 
 God who have " received the reconciliation." As we found 
 before that this imparts to all Christian service a note of 
 peace and joy, so that ought to be the dominant note in 
 preaching. It is quite true that the glad news is relieved 
 against a sombre background. Guilt and judgment with all 
 the solemn facts of human sinfulness which shut us up to 
 seek comfort in the Gospel — these are only part of that 
 background. Gethsemane and Calvary are another part of 
 it. The price of our redemption has to be counted. " Know- 
 ing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men." Earnestness, 
 solemnity, urgency, are the graver notes which sustain and 
 enforce the preacher's appeal. Still, it remains true that in 
 all preaching, but in the pastoral pulpit more particularly, 
 doleful and warning notes are to be firmly subordinated to 
 
 13 
 
194 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 evangelical comfort. If not in every sermon, yet certainly 
 in one's ministry as a whole, there should reign a temper of 
 devout restf ulness, hope, and peace with God. A too exclusive 
 denunciation of Divine wrath, or dissection of human frailty, 
 or exposure of sinful character, or dwelling on the dark side 
 of religious experience : these are things which have some- 
 times imparted to preaching a character of gloom which 
 misrepresented piety and shadowed the lives of the saints. 
 No : ours is a good and a glad, as well as a serious, message ; 
 never to be spoken with levity, it is true ; but also not with 
 austerity. 
 
 It has been pointed out in a previous chapter that two 
 things are aimed at in our worship which blend, though 
 unequally, in its several parts : its direct and its reflex or 
 secondary aim. The one, to present before God in His 
 honour some worthy expression of our religious life with its 
 pious affections and aspirations ; the other, to crave and to 
 receive at His hands more grace for the further upbuilding 
 or maturing of our very imperfect Christian life. Although 
 possibly both of these may be detected in every act of 
 worship, yet they blend in very unequal proportions. And, 
 next to the simple reading of God's Word, it is in the 
 pastoral preaching of it that the element of direct worship 
 is not lost but subordinated, while the edification of the 
 worshippers comes to the front as the leading end in view. 
 The object of the preacher, when he preaches as a pastor, is 
 to edify. Building on a foundation already laid, he leads 
 the people of God forward from what has been attained to 
 the yet unattained. To use inspired language, his work is to 
 " build up the body of Christ," till his people " all attain 
 unto the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son 
 of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the 
 stature of the fulness of Christ."^ Such a work as this 
 breaks into two factors — an intellectual and an ethical ; for 
 spiritual growth is a synthesis of the two: — increase in 
 
 1 Eph. 412. 13. 
 
PASTORAL PREACHING 195 
 
 knowledge and increase in virtue. A twofold aim has 
 therefore to be kept in view — to instruct and to correct. 
 Or, to use Paul's language again, if he would "present 
 every man perfect in Christ," the pastor must " admonish 
 every man," as well as " teach every man in all wisdom." ^ 
 On the one side, the truth which has been already accepted 
 by all, has to be exhibited with greater purity and com- 
 pleteness on the basis of God's finished revelation in His 
 Son, that with growing knowledge, ignorance or mistake 
 may be removed and feeble faith wax stronger. On the 
 other hand, the imperfectly sanctified Church is to be led to 
 seek more perfect conformity with the ethical ideal in Jesus 
 Christ, that its faults may be rectified, defects made good, 
 and every member in the body brought nearer to the stature 
 of a mature spiritual manhood. 
 
 This dual aim, once grasped, defines with much precision 
 the relation of pastoral preaching to revealed truth. It 
 gives the preacher as his instrument nothing less than the 
 complete revelation of God, yet always in its bearings upon 
 Christian life. Since the result he aims at is so compre- 
 hensive as a perfect Christian life, he must be at liberty to 
 employ for its production every part of Christian truth. 
 Like the Apostle at Ephesus, he must not " shrink from 
 declaring anything that is profitable," and the "whole 
 counsel of God " may be, for one purpose or another, at one 
 season or another, profitable.^ It would not, I think, be 
 accurate to say that he may not pick and choose among the 
 truths or the duties of Christianity. For of both duties and 
 truths there are some which, for their own central import- 
 ance, or for their needfulness to a particular congregation 
 at a given time, deserve to be selected for more frequent 
 handling. But the pastor claims for his province none 
 the less the entire contents of Christian revelation, the 
 " treasures of wisdom and knowledge " that are " hidden " in 
 Christ. He has the right to use them all so far as he has 
 learnt them ; but he is responsible for using them for the 
 
 1 Col. 128. 1 ^ctS 2020- 27, 
 
196 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 profit of the flock, and therefore in the measure and in the 
 way in which they severally contribute to its edification. 
 
 Thus we reach what is perhaps the most important of 
 all homiletic rules, especially for a pastoral preacher : 
 Christian truths are always to be handled in their practical 
 bearings upon Christian life. It is the first lesson a young 
 minister has to learn. A theologian the preacher is presumed 
 to be; but the theological training through which he has 
 passed has not always taught him how to use his theology 
 for practical profit. It may even have divorced in his mind 
 doctrine from experience. The first thing, therefore, he has 
 to learn as a preacher is that it is not theology simply 
 which he is set to preach. Not an exact definition of 
 dogma in terms of scientific divinity, nor the articulation of 
 doctrines into a system, nor their apologetic defence or 
 proof, constitutes his primary business. I do not deny that 
 the profit of his hearers may at times call upon him to do 
 any of those things. When their faith is like to be shaken, 
 he may have to defend it ; when they are in danger to be 
 misled for want of an accurate or exact acquaintance with a 
 doctrine, he may have to explain it. But such things he 
 does at the rare times when edification demands them. It 
 is a mistake to imagine that men's religious profit is in 
 proportion to their minute familiarity with orthodox 
 definitions. That has sometimes made a disputatious, rather 
 than a godly, people. The life of piety is fed by Divine 
 truth in its depth rather than by its logical definitions. The 
 infinity of Divine thoughts enlarges the soul. Circum- 
 scribed within dogmatic formulas, they may be contracted 
 in their power, as well as stripped of their attractiveness. 
 But in his effort to combine truth with experience, there are 
 two extremes, not one only, into which the preacher may 
 fall. While it is true that preaching which is doctrinal and 
 not much else is sure to be over-intellectual, frigid, and 
 lifeless, breeding orthodox rather than vital Christians, what 
 used to be termed " experimental " preaching is just as apt 
 to beget a self-centred, introspective religion. 
 
PASTORAL PREACHING 197 
 
 The business, then, of the pastoral preacher is to cor- 
 relate Christian truth and Christian living with one another, 
 employing the former for the upbuilding of the latter. Un- 
 doubtedly every portion of revealed teaching has a side or 
 aspect, rather it has many aspects, towards piety and morals, 
 which fit it for homiletic treatment. Entering into the life 
 of the soul, truth works there like a live thing. In mani- 
 fold ways it works according to each man's needs, suscepti- 
 bility, or willingness to welcome it. The formal " five uses," 
 which it became a fashion early in the seventeenth century 
 for divines to append to each discourse by way of application, 
 wear nowadays a whimsical air ; but do not let that obscure 
 from us the lesson which lies at the bottom of the old- 
 fashioned custom. Every truth we preach is "profitable" 
 for many things — "for teaching, for reproof, for correction, 
 for instruction in righteousness," and for " comfort." ^ Such 
 " uses *' of doctrine it is our business to find out, although 
 I hope we shall apply them in a less forced and mechanical 
 way than those forefathers of ours did three hundred years 
 ago. The skill to do this has to be learnt. As a rule, ifc is 
 by practice young preachers need to acquire it ; and it is a 
 pity they should so often have to learn it largely by their 
 mistakes. Erom books, except from sermons themselves, 
 there is little help to be got. For the homiletic value or 
 application of a doctrine is a field that has scarcely been 
 worked. Most modern German writers on homiletics devote 
 a section to what they call " material " homiletics, that is, 
 what one ought to preach ; but they do not discuss in detail 
 what practical employment is to be made of this or of that 
 doctrine of the faith. The only deliberate attempt to do 
 this with which I am acquainted is the work of Dr. Heubner 
 of Wittenberg, entitled Christliche Tojpik?- He has endea- 
 
 1 The five uses were taken from 2 Tim. 3^^ and Rom. 15*. The passages 
 refer in the first instance to inspired Scripture. 
 
 2 Potsdam, 1863. An earlier book, with apparently a similar design : 
 Fuhrmann's Christliche Glauhetislehre von ihrer praktische Seitc hearleitet 
 (Leipz. 1802), is known to me only by its title. 
 
198 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 voured under each head of doctrine to set forth its religious 
 or ethical bearings, with a view to help the preacher in the 
 use he makes of it. It is very doubtful, however, whether 
 any literature would here be of much assistance. The 
 preacher has but two main aids to lean on — experience and 
 Scripture. 
 
 1. First of all, he needs to study with attention the 
 bearings of Divine truth in his own life as a Christian man 
 and in the experiences of others, especially of his own 
 congregation. A man preaches best, of course, what has 
 come home to himself in the needs or struggles of his own 
 inner life; from which it follows that in proportion as a 
 minister grows riper with the passage of the years and 
 assimilates more of religious truth through widening and 
 deepening experience, in that degree ought his preaching to 
 grow richer and more mellow. If this seem to reflect at all 
 on the pulpit work of the younger ministry, let it be borne 
 in mind that it is only a compensation after all which the 
 years bring to old preachers for their inevitable loss of fire 
 and energy. May we then, as some do, lay down the rule : 
 preach only that truth which you have learnt from personal 
 experience ? By no means. To counsel a young minister 
 to make no effort to apply Divine truth to cases which are 
 not, or at least are not yet, his own, — to console, for instance, 
 before he himself has been afflicted, — is neither necessary 
 nor safe. It is true, he may not fulfil such a duty of his 
 office so well as he will do after he has been longer in the 
 school of Christ. Nevertheless, the Christian life is so much 
 of a unity, and the elements of human experience are at 
 bottom so simple, that every Christian may be said to 
 possess already in gremio all that is essential to the religious 
 life, and thus to be competent from the first to understand in 
 a measure, and to sympathise with, experiences remote from 
 his own. He holds in his hand at least the living Word, 
 whose treasures it is his privilege to open up in their mani- 
 foldness, all of them "hidden" in Christ Himself as the 
 personal centre and sum of Gospel truth. These the all- 
 
PASTORAL PREACHING 199 
 
 wise Spirit of Christ dispenses to every variety of need. 
 Were it otherwise, every pastor, even the oldest, would be 
 shut out from large regions in the spiritual life of his 
 people ; for the religious experience of the ripest of us 
 remains to the last a very partial thing. 
 
 Besides, the pastor has in this matter a wider range of 
 observation than falls to almost any private Christian. It 
 is in the faithful study of his people's varied experiences 
 as they come before him in pastoral care that a preacher 
 gains acquaintance with types of religious life diverse from 
 his own, and discovers how the truth of God can be handled 
 so as to minister to their requirements. This alone makes 
 him in any genuine sense of the expression a pastoral 
 preacher. To separate pulpit duty from the office of pastoral 
 superintendence over the flock, as has often been proposed 
 and occasionally attempted, would mean to alter its char- 
 acter considerably, if indeed it did not cut the nerve of its 
 usefulness. At least I am afraid it would have this effect 
 in any Protestant Church. The Lenten preacher of the 
 Eoman communion is often a different person from the parish 
 priest ; but then he has open to him a very effectual method, 
 which Protestant preachers have not, for coming into the 
 closest contact with the religious life of the people — I mean 
 the confessional. If our ministers are to speak in the 
 pulpit out of a knowledge of their hearers at all approach- 
 ing that intimacy with men's inner religious condition which 
 a father confessor acquires, it must be gained by the closest 
 pastoral intercourse. To be widely and familiarly conversant 
 with specimens of religious experience, both in its strength 
 and in its weaknesses, is for the preacher hardly less essen- 
 tial than to be saturated to the deeps of his own being wjth 
 Christian truth.^ 
 
 2. To rectify, however, and to supplement our own very 
 
 ' As yet the psychology of the religious life in general, of conversion in 
 particular, and of Christian sanctification, is an almost untouched depart- 
 ment of study. The day may come when it will yield a new instrument to 
 the hand of the preacher. 
 
200 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 limited acquaintance with the application of Divine truth 
 to human life, it has pleased God to put into the preacher's 
 hand a quite invaluable guide in Holy Scripture. To every 
 other means at his command for learning this supreme art 
 of his calling — how to bring revealed doctrines to bear upon 
 the edification of the flock of God — this is always to be 
 added : let him be a thoroughly biblical preacher. 
 
 There are more reasons than one why it has been an 
 invariable rule, never seriously questioned, though not always 
 equally obeyed, in the history of the pulpit, that all teaching 
 and all exhorting in the congregation's worship should be 
 grounded on the exposition of the sacred Book. In the 
 earliest age, we have learned from Justin Martyr that the 
 address of the president in a Christian assembly was simply 
 an exhortation to practise the lesson read from " the memoirs 
 of the Apostles." This conception of the homily as a running 
 commentary on a considerable passage, often carried through 
 whole books on successive Sundays, lasted for a long while 
 in the Church ; and although a topical sermon on a briefer 
 text took a place alongside of it, it has never wholly died 
 out. But the mere length of the text, or even the use of 
 a text at all, is a purely formal matter which may be left 
 over till we come to examine the structure of the sermon. 
 What is more important is the relation of the contents 
 of pastoral preaching to the Bible as a whole. Here the 
 traditional understanding has been that, text or no text, the 
 utterances of every pulpit orator ought to be through and 
 through an emanatio totiits Smphirce — the outflow of a mind 
 and heart charged to repletion with Bible teaching. 
 
 Let me repeat that this canon concerns the substance of 
 pastoral preaching rather than its form. It is not obeyed, 
 for instance, by weaving together a cento of scriptm^al 
 phrases. Frequent quotation of texts, whether to establish 
 a doctrine or to enforce a duty, is now less usual in the 
 pulpit than it used to be ; probably less usual than is quite 
 desirable. Of great modern preachers, Newman is perhaps 
 the one who made the freest and the happiest use of this 
 
PASTORAL PREACHING 201 
 
 old practice; and I believe he might be imitated in this 
 with advantage. Many congregations hear too little 
 deference paid to the very words of Scripture. Still, a good 
 memory for texual quotations will not of itself make a 
 biblical preacher in the best sense. Neither will a free 
 employment in one's diction of the characteristic or technical 
 terms of the Bible. If we need to import into everyday 
 language a pulpit phraseology at all, it is better, no doubt, 
 to borrow it from our English Bible than from the divinity 
 school; and to a certain extent this is unavoidable. To 
 express its own ideas, Christianity had to mint a terminology 
 of its own. It selected a number of common terms, which 
 it charged with its own deeper fulness of significance, and 
 these must remain its circulating medium to the end of 
 time. Such words as " repentance," " conversion," " faith," 
 " grace," and " new birth," it is safe as well as necessary to 
 employ; for with them everyone is familiar, and most 
 people understand with fair correctness their Christian 
 connotation. Of the later or latest coinage of scientific 
 divinity there are few of which the same can be said. 
 Purely technical terms of the schools are rarely admissible 
 in addressing an average congregation. "You will never 
 find," says Cardinal Maury, "in the great masters of the 
 pulpit, a single scientific word." ^ But when it is urged that 
 pastoral preaching should be biblical, it is not of the 
 language one is thinking, but of the ideas expressed, and of 
 their setting, and of their illustration, and of their religious 
 bearings and moral implicates. What is meant is that the 
 thoughts of the preacher, besides being rooted in biblical 
 teaching, are to move mainly along its lines, so that his 
 whole way of conceiving of things — his way of thinking 
 about God and man, and sin and redemption, and life and 
 duty, is to be the scriptural way of thinking about such 
 themes. And, what is a still more subtle quality, it is 
 meant that the spirit of his thinking is to be that of Holy 
 Writ. It does well to betray the indefinable, yet quite 
 
 ^ Essai sur V Eloquence de la Chaire, p. 258, Paris, 1845. 
 
202 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 recognisable, flavour of the Holy Book. This comes only 
 when the preacher's own religious life is steeped in Bible 
 study. He must be all the year round not " a man of one 
 book," to be sure, but conversant with God's Book before 
 everything else, if he is to speak habitually, as if out of its 
 very bosom, with the accents of inspiration echoing in each 
 tone and the fragrance of it clinging to his breath. 
 
 One reason for this close dependence of the pastoral 
 pulpit upon Holy Scripture is, no doubt, the theological one 
 already hinted at, that Scripture is the norm for both 
 Christian faith and duty, and that, since it is not his own 
 ideas he is there to ventilate, but a message he has to bring 
 from God, the people must be left in no hesitation how far 
 he has behind him the authoritative record of revelation. 
 But besides this reason springing out of Protestant doctrine, 
 there is another more practical one, that Scripture is the 
 chief text-book for the religious life. And it is so, just 
 because of all books in existence it is the one which never 
 treats religious truth apart from the lives of men, or human 
 life apart from religion. That interweaving of truth with 
 experience which it is the pastor's aim to achieve in his 
 sermons is here achieved to perfection. From beginning to 
 end of the wonderful literature, Hebrew and Christian, which 
 we bind together and call our Bible, there is not a page that 
 is not concerned with God, His doings or His thoughts, and 
 yet there is not a page of abstruse or abstract writing about 
 theology, not the vestige of a creed or of a system of divinity ; 
 but it keeps throughout in the closest touch with the mani- 
 fold affairs of human life and history. In a myriad ways 
 and by a crowd of instances, great or small, it is concerned 
 to show how Divine teaching found its way into the hearts 
 of men, and how it wrought there ; how variously they 
 related themselves to it, well or ill ; and how, as often as it 
 reached them, it showed itself a word of living power, to 
 convict, to subdue, to cleanse — in a word, to remodel human 
 character and the interior life of human souls. An incom- 
 parable record of astonishing compass, leading the preacher 
 
PASTORAL PREACHING 203 
 
 into the very secret he seeks to know : that is, how God's 
 truth is to accomplish its saving work upon the men and 
 women whom he is set to build up in the Christian life. 
 It never served this purpose for the pastoral preacher so 
 well as it does to-day, since its human aspect as a religious 
 literature has come to be studied, for the very problems 
 which most fascinate the modern scholar are precisely how, 
 through endless earthly channels. Divine thoughts came to 
 men of old, moulding the lives of Prophet and Apostle into 
 a diviner likeness, and lifting them into the fellowship of 
 God. 
 
CHAPTEE XVIII 
 PASTORAL PREACHING : II 
 
 Naturally, it is the junior minister who, before he has 
 acquired skill by practice, is tempted to treat of doctrines in 
 the abstract, without tracing in sufficient detail their work- 
 ings in the religious life. In a prolonged pastorate other 
 difficulties arise, besides the difficulty created by the mere 
 intellectual strain of over-production. Even this alone, 
 however, may be seriously felt. Where the undivided 
 pulpit duty falls, as in the Protestant Churches of Britain 
 and America it usually does, to a single minister, his office 
 is extremely exacting. Apart altogether from other duties 
 during the week, to address the same audience twice every 
 Lord's Day is a severer demand than is made on any other 
 class of public speakers. When such a steady and rapid 
 output of sermons is kept up, as it often is, with no change 
 of sphere nor any more than a very occasional break for 
 fifteen or twenty years, it is obvious that there must be a 
 great danger of intellectual exhaustion, showing itself in 
 monotony or in repetition, both of the matter and of the 
 form of his discourses. The most candid way in which 
 such an overtaxed minister can repeat himself, is also, I 
 conceive, the least harmful either to himself or to his people. 
 It is that after a considerable lapse of years he should 
 feel free, with no damage to his reputation, to fall back 
 occasionally on old material, more or less worked over and 
 brought up to date. Some men shrink from doing this 
 openly, under an impression that it is disliked by the people. 
 
 But to have recourse to it in a furtive or veiled fashion can 
 
 204 
 
PASTORAL PREACHING 205 
 
 be wholesome for no one. Nor is there, I believe, any real 
 need to do so. When an old sermon has been the product 
 of honest toil and possesses both grit and body, the repeti- 
 tion of it is often welcome, and will rarely be objected to by 
 former hearers: — not to say that congregations are con- 
 stantly in a state of rapid change. To permit the use, with 
 or without acknowledgment, of another man's sermon, as the 
 Church of England tacitly does, affords an equal measure of 
 relief, certainly ; but the practice is absolutely condemned 
 in other communions, and, even where it is permitted, it is 
 open to the serious objection that it violates the conception 
 of preaching.^ The borrowed discourse is no longer the 
 speaker's own personal testimony, spoken out of personal 
 experience and conviction. It is a recital, at most an endorse- 
 ment, of another's testimony, which is a different thing. 
 
 But, long before he has reached through over-production 
 a stage of intellectual barrenness, at which he is fain to fall 
 back on used material, the pastoral preacher, addressing 
 weekly the same audience, finds it difficult to secure variety 
 in his discourses. Not so much in his subjects as in his 
 manner of discussing and presenting them. Every man's 
 mind has its limits, and works in a way of its own. He who 
 has to be perpetually delivering addresses, all of which are 
 confined to the region of the religious life, can scarcely avoid 
 settling into a groove. It is so much easier to construct a 
 new sermon on lines very like the old ones, approaching 
 each subject in a similar manner or arranging his matter on 
 a similar framework. Sameness of this sort in the form of 
 his sermons comes to mean dulness. Eegular hearers get 
 accustomed to the speaker's method, even to his mannerisms ; 
 and the freshness of thought or of its presentation, which at 
 first gave zest to his production, wears off. 
 
 1 On the lawfulness of preaching borrowed sermons, I am not aware that 
 there is any question in the Church of England. On the wisdom of it, how- 
 ever, opinions have been divided. Archbishop Whately, for example, 
 advised it {Quarterly Review, vol. iii. p. 488) ; Daniel Moore condemned it 
 {Thoughts <m Preaching^ 2nd ed., Lond. 1869, chap. iii.). 
 
2o6 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 How then is the minister to secure the requisite 
 diversity in the form of his sermons ? Not by the old 
 plan of constructing them by artificial rules or with the 
 help of the " topics." The efforts of the older homilists to 
 gain diversity of treatment by an artificial classification of 
 sermons based on some logical scheme were not successful, 
 and are now abandoned. It is true that the early suggestion 
 of Hyperius of Marburg ^ in the Eef ormation age proceeded, 
 not on the structure of the discourse, but on the practical 
 ends aimed at by the preacher ; and this might still perhaps 
 be remembered with advantage. His five genera were — 
 sermons (1) to teach doctrine, (2) to confute error, (3) to 
 train in piety, (4) to reprove sin, and (5) to comfort sorrow : 
 to which a mixed genus made a sixth. But the Lutheran 
 text-books of a century later, after the Thirty Years' War, 
 assorted sermons by far more artificial differences, and laid 
 down rules for producing them in a greater variety of ways. 
 At first modestly content with four or five methods, they soon 
 reached five and twenty ; nor did the chase after new sub- 
 varieties take breath till a list of quite a hundred had been 
 compiled.2 They even took to naming these varieties, as a 
 Dutch florist might a new tulip ; so that you get the " Jena " 
 method of sermon-making, the " Leipzig," the " Helmstadt," 
 and so forth. The manual of that period, a more sober one, 
 it is true, which has had in this country the greatest vogue, 
 is the essay by the famous French preacher, Jean Claude.^ 
 Translated by Eobinson of Cambridge for the use of dissent- 
 ing preachers, and re-issued in 1776 by Charles Simeon with 
 
 ^ In recent years, interest has revived in this writer on homiletics, whose 
 work was in advance of his time. He was the first to see that the Christian 
 pulpit must fashion its own form untrammelled by classical oratory. His 
 book, De formandis Concionihus sar.ris (1553, 2nd ed. 1562), appeared in 
 London in 1577 in an English version, The Fractis of Preaching, otherivise 
 called the Pathway to the Pulpit, Englished by John Ludham, Ficar of 
 Witherfjield. The original was reprinted in Germany by Wagnitz in 1781, 
 but this edition also is now scarce. His five genera (like the ''five uses") 
 were taken, of course, from 1 Tim. 3^''. 
 
 2 e.g. in the Hodogeticum of the elder Carpzov (1656). 
 
 ^ Traits de la Composition d'un Sermon (1688). 
 
PASTORAL PREACHING 207 
 
 a hundred " skeleton " sermons of his own appended, this 
 little book formed the basis for Sturtevant's ponderous 
 and dull volume,^ last edited by Henderson in 1866. It has 
 thus enjoyed a wider and longer repute than falls to the lot 
 of better treatises on homiletics, but it does not deserve its 
 fame. I am afraid that much of this formal technique in 
 sermon-building and assorting is but labour lost, as far as 
 the modern preacher is concerned. Our shorter sermons 
 require, and present-day taste prefers, a far simpler and more 
 natural " disposition " of what we have to say ; nor do the 
 " topics " of the ancient rhetoricians, nor any other artificial 
 schemes, render us much assistance. As Dr. Watts said: 
 "Persons of any invention or imagination need not go 
 knocking at the door of the topics to help them out of their 
 difficulties." 
 
 The truth is, that an experienced preacher who achieves 
 diversity in his preaching, does it simply by giving his chief 
 attention to the subject of each sermon, allowing that to 
 prescribe its own appropriate manner of treatment. One of 
 the first things he has to learn is that his discourses are not 
 to be all modelled on a single block. There is no doubt a 
 ground type discussed in every handbook on homiletics ; but 
 there is no need to force every subject into that typical 
 mould as if it were a bed of Procrustes. To turn out every 
 week the regulation article, with its introduction, three 
 divisions, and an application, is but apprentice work. The 
 learner may have to follow the rules of his craft. The 
 master will use his freedom. The sermon would never have 
 become a byword for dulness had pulpit methods been more 
 elastic. This brings us back to the fact that the secret of 
 variety lies primarily in the variety of a sermon's theme, 
 aim, and religious tone. These must be suffered to fashion 
 the form of it. And of this variety in the subjects there is 
 no lack, if only we will be biblical preachers. The Bible at 
 least is manifold enough. History and biography, incident 
 and emblem, poetry and apothegm, the didactic treatise, the 
 ^ Sturtevant's Preacher's Manual (1830). 
 
2o8 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 devotional lyric, the parable and the exhortation : — each 
 has its fitting mode of presentation. Surely we have made 
 a poor use of the opulence of literary material at our com- 
 mand. How can men prelect so monotonously on a litera- 
 ture so diversified ? 
 
 Without attempting at this time of day to invent 
 absolutely novel kinds of pulpit addresses, I think good 
 might result from the revival, with a difference, of an old 
 kind which has fallen into desuetude. What killed the 
 " expository lecture " that was once so common was the 
 fatal ease with which it degenerated into a string of 
 disconnected comments on the passage, verse after verse 
 or clause by clause. This cheap method brought discredit 
 on " lecturing." If it has for the speaker the advantage of 
 facile preparation, it is most wearisome to listen to, for it 
 ceases to be a continuous address at all. I suppose it was 
 the " homily " of the early Church run to seed. Useful in 
 the hands of Origen or Augustine, its inartificial form and 
 colloquial style, to which the latter Father repeatedly alludes, 
 require to be remodelled now. Given greater pains to work 
 it into the unity of a coherent discourse, it lends itself to 
 admirable use in dealing with Scripture in its larger masses. 
 The two points in which it differs from the most textual of 
 ordinary sermons are these : first, that the speaker assumes 
 the humbler role of an interpreter, who stands aside, as it 
 were, to let the written Word tell its own story ; and, second, 
 that, instead of selecting only from the contents of the 
 passage so much as will serve a purpose of his own, he 
 makes it his aim to explain and focus everything which is 
 really of consequence for the understanding of the passage 
 as a whole. 
 
 To do this well is not easy. It is more difficult than 
 sermon-making. Its difficulty obviously lies, not only in 
 seizing the central thought or lesson of the passage selected, 
 but in making all its parts, with the details needful for their 
 elucidation, contribute to impress upon the hearer that 
 central lesson. It can only succeed, therefore, when one is 
 
PASTORAL PREACHING 209 
 
 careful to choose a section of Scripture which is a whole in 
 itself — a unity. It fits most readily to a parable, for 
 instance, or a psalm, or a short story — some incident, 
 historical or biographical, which stands out well from the 
 surrounding narrative. It used also to be the favourite 
 method in going consecutively through the paragraphs 
 of a didactic book like an epistle; only here greater care 
 is called for in the right division of the paragraphs. 
 
 Discourses of this kind are appropriate to the work of a 
 pastoral preacher, and have always been found instructive 
 by Bible-loving Christians. They permit the preacher to 
 touch upon topics which he could with difficulty select for 
 any other treatment. They make hearers who attend with 
 regularity familiar with the drift and connection of revela- 
 tion as a whole. In this way the revival of the old-fashioned 
 " lecture " in a modern dress would help to meet the newly 
 awakened desire of many intelligent worshippers for a kind 
 and amount of Bible study which the usual sermon cannot 
 give. For the public is rapidly waking up to the progressive 
 character of revelation. The historical and literary features 
 in the Bible are matter of everyday knowledge. Men feel 
 that it is a collection of archaic and Oriental documents, 
 every one of which asks for separate study and needs help 
 in the right use of it. The task of the modern preacher 
 shapes itself accordingly. He is bound honestly to apply 
 those modern methods of hermeneutics which he has learned 
 to regard as sound. He can no longer with impunity put 
 the whole Gospel into every book, or treat Scripture as a 
 magazine of proof-texts, or interpret poetry as if it were 
 prose, or wring profit out of narrative by spiritualising it. 
 He is bound to discriminate between one age of revelation 
 and another, between one inspired author and another. 
 The pulpit expositor of the future will be expected 
 to make it clear to his hearers how the light dawned 
 gradually on ancient prophet and seer; how their lessons 
 for their own time still yield principles which bear a 
 modern application ; how casual sayings of Jesus in Galilee 
 
 14 
 
2IO THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 remain fountains of perennial truth, and gain fresh value for 
 ourselves ; how His ethical maxims can be guides in present- 
 day duty ; and how expositions of Christianity, written for a 
 few converts at Corinth or Eome, can still inspire and 
 regulate Christian life under the complicated social condi- 
 tions of the twentieth century. All this means exposition ; 
 and exposition of a new Jkind, unlike in many ways to the 
 comments which edified our forefathers.^ 
 
 Lack of variety is by no means the worst danger which 
 besets the pulpit ministrations of a pastor. He will find it 
 to be a graver difficulty to leave no important part of Divine 
 teaching untouched, and give to each the prominence it is 
 entitled to. If he would be a good workman, declaring " the 
 whole counsel of God," and " keeping back nothing that is 
 profitable," he needs to arrange his work for the pulpit with 
 deliberate forethought. No material department either 
 in the faith or in the duty of a Christian is to be overlooked 
 in the course of his ministry, nor undue prominence given 
 to any. Amid the vicissitudes of a congregation's history, 
 while its component parts change, and often change rapidly, 
 it has a certain unity of its own, and a common life, either 
 advancing or declining, which has to be nurtured. Besides 
 variety, besides even the regard to be had week by week to 
 temporary conditions, it is obvious that something like 
 system in the exhibition of both truth and duty must 
 be striven after. 
 
 I do not know any matter on which a conscientious 
 minister finds it less easy to satisfy himself than this. He 
 will get little assistance from the text-books. The subject 
 is rarely alluded to in the usual manuals, and I know of 
 none in which it is discussed with thoroughness. What is 
 certain is that a proper balance and symmetry will not be 
 observed in the teaching of a long ministry, if it be left to 
 
 1 Consult sucli recent books as, e.g.^ Watson's God's Message to the 
 Human Soul (Lond. 1907) ; or Garvie's Guide to Preacfiers (Lond. 1906) ; 
 or Forsyth, Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind (1907). 
 
PASTORAL PREACH [NG 211 
 
 chance. I do not recommend a man to tie his hands 
 beforehand by any hard and fast scheme laid down a long 
 while in advance. But I think he ought to keep a record 
 of his preaching, and look back from time to time over the 
 course it has taken, to note what has been excessive in it, or 
 what missing. He will thus make sure that he is not 
 hiding any vital portion of Gospel truth, nor putting 
 truths into a false perspective, nor harping incessantly on 
 the same theme, nor narrowing down his message to a thin 
 layer of elementary commonplaces, nor giving to doctrine 
 an undue preference over duty or to duty over doctrine. 
 What seems to me quite wrong, although, I fear, it is rather 
 common, is to go on season after season, preaching on any 
 text that happens to strike one, without ever inquiring 
 whether one is fairly covering the ground or "rightly 
 dividing the Word of truth." Some settle into favourite 
 lines, and for months keep hammering at a subject which 
 happens to have taken possession of them. Others are so 
 eager in the hunt after fresh ideas, that they fritter their 
 energies away on out of the way or insignificant points. 
 You might attend their ministry long enough and never 
 learn how men are redeemed and regenerated at all. I say 
 nothing of the cowardice or disloyalty which would suffer 
 any preacher deliberately to suppress part of the truth 
 because it is unfashionable or unpalatable; because I do 
 not suppose any of my brethren to be guilty of that. But 
 there is among the doctrines and duties of Christianity a 
 homiletic perspective — a measure of relative value for the 
 Christian life, which it is easy through inadvertence to 
 overlook, or by applying a mistaken standard, to misread. 
 
 There is likewise a perspective — an order of importance 
 — in our systems of theology. But he would make a 
 serious blunder who should take that for his guide in the 
 pulpit. The place of a truth in the scientific system is 
 determined for the most part by logical, in preaching by 
 vital and practical, considerations. Neither school divinity, 
 therefore, nor confessional symbols are here a safe guide. 
 
212 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 No one needs to be told how both preaching and religious 
 life at certain periods suffered from confounding the theo- 
 logical with the practical value of a dogma. The great 
 period of systematic divinity, for example — the sixteenth 
 century — put its school system too much into its preaching. 
 Although the Westminster Confession, like the theology of 
 its age, made the doctrine of election a pivot on which the 
 whole doctrinal structure turned, it was nothing short of 
 mischievous folly to give to that mystery a place equally 
 central in the pulpit. Because theology had been built up 
 by federal theologians on the theory of a twofold covenant, 
 preachers indoctrinated our Puritan ancestors in that scheme, 
 imprinting, as one result, upon the religious mind of 
 Scotland a scholastic mould which lasted for generations. 
 There is at present no theological system equally dominant, 
 at least in this country. But there are movements of 
 thought which for a time sway unduly the mind of the 
 public, and theologoumena which fascinate smaller groups 
 of devout people. Against such influences the preacher 
 needs to be on his guard, as well as against favourite 
 branches of study which have for himself a legitimate 
 intellectual attraction. One is vastly interested in the 
 bearings of evolution on religious thought ; another in the 
 higher criticism ; a third in kenotic theories ; a fourth in 
 eschatology. But these are for the study : they must not 
 be suffered to monopoUse the pulpit. 
 
 By what rule, then, shall we fix the proportion of 
 prominence which each part of truth is to receive ? Prob- 
 ably by the closeness of its relation to Christ — to His 
 Person and His Work ; or — which comes to the same thing 
 — to the life of a Christian in union with Him. For 
 whether our theology be Chris to -centric or not, I suppose 
 we shall all agree that our religion is so, and therefore our 
 preaching is to be so too. We have laid it down already 
 that it is the religious value of any truth in the practical 
 life of a Christian which is the preacher's concern, in fact, 
 which entitles that truth to a place in his preaching at all. 
 
PASTORAL PREACHING 213 
 
 The same test must determine what that place is to be. 
 But all truth is vitalised and receives value for the devout 
 life when it is set into relationship with Jesus Christ as the 
 personal centre and sum of all Gospel teaching. ''In Him 
 are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden." ^ He 
 is the life-centre of the whole revelation of God, in whose 
 light every part of it is to be construed, who binds every 
 portion of it into one organic whole of truth. Can we 
 measure the vital quality of a doctrine, or its value for 
 the upbuilding of the Church's life, by any Other standard 
 than this : the closeness of its connection with His blessed 
 Person and His saving Work ? ^ 
 
 In most of the great branches of the Church of Christ, 
 in the Catholic, the Lutheran, the Anglican, and some of 
 the Keformed, the minister has, in the festivals of the 
 Church year, a guide to the place he shall assign to cardinal 
 Christian facts and the doctrines connected with them. 
 For one half of the year, from Advent till Whitsuntide, the 
 chief events in our redemption, our Saviour's Birth, 
 Passion, Eesurrection, and Ascension, and the advent of the 
 Holy Spirit, are celebrated in chronological sequence, so 
 that the meaning of these supreme events for Christian 
 faith and living comes automatically before the minds of 
 preacher and people at least once a year. Whatever else 
 may be said of the Christian year, this at least must count 
 in its favour. It does secure that the central facts on 
 which repose the foundation mysteries of the creed cannot 
 be entirely elbowed out of sight by any other teaching that 
 is^ss imperative or less vital. 
 
 Where there is no observance of these commemorative 
 days, each minister is trusted to take his own plan for 
 keeping before the congregation the events which they com- 
 
 1 Col. 23. 
 
 ^ In his lately-published volume, Positive Preaching and the Modern 
 Mind (1907), Dr. Forsyth has addressed to preachers an urgent and a 
 timely call to observe this proportion in the value of doctrine, putting first 
 things first. 
 
214 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 memorate. If at the seasons when the rest of Christendom 
 is remembering the Birth or the Passion, the Eesurrection 
 or Pentecost, he does not choose to select the same events 
 for his theme of discourse, at least let him take care to do 
 so at some other time. 
 
 Among the Free Churches of England there is creeping 
 in of late what may be called a " Church year " of a different, 
 and, in my judgment, less valuable description. Efforts are 
 made to combine Churches in the observance of " Children's 
 Day," a day for Foreign Missions, Hospital and Citizen 
 Sundays, a "Temperance" day, and I know not what 
 besides. These are voluntary observances, and consequently 
 escape the objection which many entertain against festivals 
 imposed by ecclesiastical authority. The innovation may 
 have its use, if kept in moderation, by affording to the 
 pastor occasions for considering topics which otherwise 
 might be forgotten; but at present it is threatening to 
 burden the Churches with a crowd of anniversaries of sub- 
 ordinate consequence, at some sacrifice of what is of greater 
 value. 
 
 In the recurrent celebration of the Lord's Supper, a 
 minister finds most fitting opportunities for concentrating 
 devout thought upon the central mysteries of our Saviour's 
 death and risen life. Where the Holy Meal is observed 
 as frequently as once a month or even oftener, it may not 
 answer to deliver on every occasion what in the Scottish 
 Church is called an "Action Sermon." But once in two 
 months, at any rate, the day's discourse may quite profitably 
 bear on the event commemorated, in one or other of its 
 almost innumerable aspects or implicates. For the chief 
 rite in Christianity has been fashioned with Divine skill to 
 gather to a point the vital truths of our religion as well as 
 to invest them with moving and tender associations. 
 
 Besides giving in this way a central position to central 
 truths, every prolonged ministry ought to be made as 
 comprehensive as possible. It is not possible in a year 
 or two to cover anything like all the bearings of the Gospel 
 
PASTORAL PREACHING 215 
 
 on human experience and everyday life. But somewhere 
 or other in the course of a protracted term of service in the 
 same flock, every minister would like to feel that he had 
 ranged widely and touched with some minuteness on all 
 the more usual experiences of Christian people, and on the 
 relative duties of personal, family, or social life. Help may 
 be obtained by plotting out for his own guidance series 
 of sermons which have an inner connection with one 
 another. When this takes the form of going in order 
 through a portion of , Scripture, such as the Decalogue, or 
 the Sermon on the Mount, or the parables, the people will 
 be privy to his plan, and the series had better be brief and 
 not too continuous. At another time he may block out a 
 course on scattered texts which shall be knit together by 
 some ruling idea in his own mind, not necessarily apparent 
 to his audience. By methods like these the pastoral 
 preacher strives to gain internal completeness for his 
 pulpit work without any sacrifice of that external variety 
 which is part of its charm for the weekly worshipper. 
 
CHAPTEE XIX 
 
 EVANGELISTIC PREACHING 
 
 Under this rather loose title it would be possible to 
 embrace all proclamation of the Gospel, whether inside 
 Christendom or beyond it, which is sharply distinguished 
 from the Pastoral Preaching described in the last two 
 chapters by having for its aim, not to edify, but to convert. 
 For the whole of the Church's self -propagating activity, we 
 have no better name than Evangelism — no other equally com- 
 prehensive and at the same time familiar. But it manifestly 
 covers vast fields of labour, with which the minister of a 
 congregation, whose duties we are considering, has little or 
 nothing directly to do. It branches out into both home 
 and foreign missions, where the Gospel appeals to men 
 under such diverse conditions that a large variety of agents, 
 as well as of methods, need to be employed. The system- 
 atic study of those methods is only in its infancy ; for the 
 special training of those agents hardly anything serious 
 has so far been attempted. All that lies obviously outside 
 our present scope, and might claim a treatise, or several 
 treatises, for itself. 
 
 It does not by any means follow, however, that the 
 ordinary minister has nothing to do with these outlying 
 fields of evangelism. Take foreign missions, for instance. 
 It is the Home Church which is the true conductor of 
 every enterprise to plant Christianity in heathen or 
 Mohammedan territory. For both men and money it is 
 responsible; bound, therefore, to sustain it, if not also 
 (which is the ideal best) to organise its operations. To 
 
 2l6 
 
EVANGELISTIC PREACHING 217 
 
 my thinking, therefore, every young minister, on completing 
 his training, does well to regard the world as his field, in 
 this sense at least, that he will feel any call from his own 
 branch of the Church to serve her abroad, to be no less 
 weighty than the invitation of a home congregation. In 
 our day the pressure of an inward obligation is impelling 
 numbers of ardent students to volunteer for distant service 
 — an augury of promise for the future. But even where 
 that impulse to volunteer is absent, ought there not to be 
 presumed in every candidate for ministerial office a readi- 
 ness to listen sympathetically to any summons for such 
 service which may reach him, and to weigh it as in the 
 sight of Christ. Before Providence shall have fixed his 
 sphere of duty, he is potentially an evangelist or a 
 missionary, as much as a pastor. Nor is his concern with 
 the propagandist side of Church activity ended on his 
 acceptance of a pastorate. On the contrary, every pastor 
 is supposed to carry the needs of the world on his heart, 
 and ought to charge himself with quickening among his 
 flock, zeal and liberality for the cause of missions. That 
 his own post is here and not there can only be treated as 
 an accident of his calling. For the field is one, and Christ's 
 servants are at home in every corner of it. 
 
 With what are termed "Home" or "Inner" Missions, 
 directed to the irreligious or the unbelieving within 
 Christendom, the pastor, especially of a town cure, naturally 
 comes into far more intimate and constant contact. He 
 may be called on personally to organise or to superintend 
 one. No urban parish, hardly any urban congregation, 
 fails to lay demands on its incumbent, not merely for over- 
 sight and advice in its mission-work, but for an actual 
 share in the conduct of evangelistic services or the delivery 
 of evangelistic addresses. Let him not grudge it. Whether 
 such duties devolve upon him as a matter of course or not, 
 it seems to me that every minister does well to keep more 
 or less in touch with such work, to study its methods, and 
 to lend it occasional aid. He has no better means for 
 
2i8 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 warming his own spirit, or infusing into his pastoral 
 sermons the true evangelical fervour, than to go himself 
 at frequent intervals where the non-Christian elements of 
 our population are to be met with, and himself carry to 
 them at first hand, fresh from his heart, the original 
 message of his Lord: "Eepent ye and believe in the 
 Gospel." 1 
 
 But that is not all. The pastor has no need to leave 
 his own pulpit in order to be also an evangelistic preacher. 
 In every congregation, no matter how " close " its com- 
 munion may be, and still more in every place of worship 
 where miscellaneous audiences are accustomed to assemble, 
 will be found groups of people in divers states of religious 
 experience, who may not be, and probably are not, in 
 inward and fruitful fellowship with Christ. The existence 
 of these nominal Christians, more or less regular in their 
 attendance at Church services, at once introduces into the 
 pastoral pulpit a large infusion of evangelism. No minister 
 dare preach solely for the edification of genuine " saints." 
 He is compelled to consider hearers with various shades of 
 belief or of indifference, at various degrees of distance from 
 living faith, whom he may be in no position to identify with 
 confidence, yet whom it is his business, if he can, to win 
 back to God. 
 
 I am afraid that in some quarters those pseudo- 
 Christian or " unconverted " hearers are far too seldom 
 remembered by the present-day preacher. Perhaps at one 
 time they were remembered too incessantly. Perhaps there 
 are still ministers, reared in a strongly evangelistic atmo- 
 sphere, who read their commission to preach the Gospel 
 somewhat too narrowly, and deem no sermon complete 
 which is not an explicit statement of the way to be saved, 
 or a direct invitation to the sinner to come to Christ. But 
 if I am not mistaken, the danger to-day lies at the opposite 
 extreme. I think we do not hear often enough the plain 
 setting forth of Christ as Saviour, the rousing appeal, the 
 
 1 Mark V\ 
 
EVANGELISTIC PREACHING 219 
 
 urgent invitation, the pleading with sinners, even with tears 
 in the voice, to forsake their sins and be reconciled to 
 God. Too rarely is the preacher an ambassador on behalf 
 of Christ, as though God were entreating by him. What 
 was once the staple of all evangelical preaching has 
 grown strange to the ears of many modern congregations. 
 Yet there is always a fringe of loosely-attached adherents 
 who frequent our services, as well as the casual hearer 
 who in populous centres wanders on Sunday from one place 
 of worship to another, but belongs to none. I do not for- 
 get that, when a preacher has an audience to address which 
 is always for the most part composed of the same people, 
 the solemn warnings and moving appeals of an evangelist 
 may through constant iteration lose their power. Never- 
 theless, in every ministry ought they not to have a fairly 
 frequent place ? 
 
 Apart from this floating element, chiefly met with in 
 town churches, something must be said of certain groups to 
 be found in every congregation, who stand still closer to the 
 pastoral preacher, and for whom he cannot but own himself 
 directly responsible. These differ much from one another, 
 and need very different styles of treatment. 
 
 The most difficult to deal with are the self-deceived — 
 the most elusive class of all, because they are hidden from 
 human detection, lost among the pews in the crowd of re- 
 putable Christian folk. One fears there must everywhere 
 be a few of this class, regarding whose genuine piety, even 
 if their names stand on a roll of membership, no one has 
 less misgiving thlan themselves. Few tasks can be at- 
 tempted more delicate than to lead them to a truer 
 acquaintance with their own condition. The most skilful 
 or practised preacher must often hesitate how he is to 
 pierce the mail of self-complacency, to insinuate suspicion of 
 their real shortcoming, or to beget a deeper and more vital 
 experience of religion in the breasts of those amiable and 
 blameless persons who are not far from the kingdom of 
 God, yet on whom Heaven's judgment is : one thing thou 
 
220 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 lackest.^ Any handling of such hearers which is either 
 indiscriminate or unsympathetic can do nothing but harm. 
 Besides, there is always a risk that words meant for their 
 case may be misapplied by others, and so make sad without 
 cause some honest yet timorous soul. The wisdom which 
 the preacher needs can come only " from above." 
 
 A second group requiring quite different treatment will 
 be found among young people of both sexes, belonging to 
 Christian families, who might be expected to be communi- 
 cants, yet for one reason or another are not. For them I 
 should suppose the best thing may be a winsome presenta- 
 tion of what Christ, if He be frankly surrendered to, can do 
 for a young life, to unfold what is best in it, to realise its 
 noblest ideal, to deepen its currents, enriching while He 
 hallows, and gladdening while He sobers. The path to a 
 fuller trust needs to be smoothed for the feet of such 
 hesitating disciples, and their steps allured to a more 
 resolved and conscious following of the Lord and Master 
 of their souls. 
 
 Just at present, too, there is a fair percentage of 
 cultured society to be found now and then at least in 
 church, whose attitude to Christianity hovers between a 
 traditional recognition of its claims, at all events of its 
 ethical requirements, and a critical or negative scepticism. 
 For the most part, this state of mind is best met by a posi- 
 tive and reasonable presentation of Christian truth. Yet 
 one who knows that it is there and who has an intellectual 
 sympathy with it, can quietly frame his presentation of the 
 truth in such a way as will meet it effectively, though not 
 obtrusively. Not every minister is competent to deal by 
 way of direct argument with prevalent forms of doubt ; and 
 the public has come to be rightly tired of flimsy and 
 shallow apologetics. Where a man finds that express 
 controversy in defence of the faith is called for on his part, 
 let him first make sure that he has fully informed himself 
 so as to be qualified for the task. Even then it may be 
 
 1 Mark lO^i. 
 
EVANGELISTIC PREACHING 221 
 
 advisable to reserve the subject for some special season, 
 rather than introduce it into his usual ministry. 
 
 A preacher of the Gospel, who takes his office of 
 evangelist seriously, and would discharge his conscience by 
 commending his message with wisdom no less than fidelity 
 to hearers of every class, needs above everything else to 
 acquaint himself with their several states of mind that he 
 may discover by what avenue they can be best approached. 
 Minor questions of method, however, will likewise crop up : 
 whether it is better to address them directly or obliquely ; 
 whether to devote an occasional sermon wholly to 
 evangelism, or to insert a passing reference in a discourse 
 mainly adapted for genuine believers; and so on. All 
 methods are at his option, and circumstances must deter- 
 mine. He will rarely judge it discreet to follow the simple- 
 minded old device of a twofold application at the close to 
 " saints " and " sinners." Modern taste smiles at that. 
 What is of more consequence, experience has shown that it 
 misses its aim. If people are left to sort themselves neatly 
 into two classes, the very persons who most need your 
 warnings will pass them on to their neighbours. Our 
 evangelism has to be more adroitly planned than that. 
 Probably most preachers will feel it right to prepare a 
 discourse now and then with a specific design to decide 
 waverers, or disabuse the self -deceived, or arouse the un- 
 reflecting, or sting into activity the drugged and slumbrous 
 conscience. Then the speaker will consciously bend his 
 strength to accomplish by God's help One definite 
 result; though he need not openly avow his purpose or 
 challenge a special hearing from the class he has in view. 
 But if a preacher be in his heart an evangelist, and carry 
 about with him a sense of the need of the unsaved and of 
 his own responsibility for their conversion to God, occasions 
 will be constantly arising in sermons not expressly con- 
 structed for their benefit, when a word fitly spoken by the 
 way will hit its mark. These he will be quick to utilise. 
 Whatever plan he adopt, he should have no uncertainty in 
 
222 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 his own mind, nor confound in his private intention the two 
 broadly contrasted aims of his preaching, but be always 
 clear as to what class of hearers he has in view. 
 
 Feehng acutely the difficulty of combining, by any 
 satisfactory method, Gospel appeals which single out the 
 nominal Christians in an average assemblage of worshippers, 
 with one's ministry of the Word for the upbuilding of 
 believers, the plan of an occasional " mission- week " has 
 recently been hit upon. Of this my own experience has 
 been too slight to entitle me to judge of its utility. Any 
 one can see, however, that under the name of a " mission," 
 several different objects may be in view ; and probably not 
 much will be effected unless the conductors of it set clearly 
 before themselves the class of persons they seek to benefit, 
 and adapt their methods accordingly. A "mission" may 
 first of all be conducted inside the church, with the aim of 
 benefiting the congregation itself. Then there are at least 
 three distinct results, ordinarily aimed at by the stated 
 ministry, which such a series of exceptional meetings, kept 
 up for a week or ten days, and addressed by a " missioner," 
 may be hoped to yield in a richer than the ordinary measure : 
 namely, (1) the deepening of the devout life in godly 
 people through a continuous or prolonged waiting upon 
 Grod; (2) the overcoming of hesitation or removal of 
 obstacles in the way of young persons, junior members in 
 Christian families, or senior scholars ; and (3) the awakening 
 to a truer knowledge of themselves and of their spiritual 
 need of any in the congregation who " are at ease in Zion." 
 It is possible that those three aims may all be combined by 
 the promoters of a "mission" of this description, and by 
 God's blessing may be accomplished by it. Provided the 
 usual congregation, or a fair proportion of it, can be 
 induced to attend, night after night, to hear the strange 
 voice of a " missioner," proclaiming with more than usual 
 insistence the claims of the Gospel upon us all, and especially 
 Jesus' demand for a surrendered and consecrated life of 
 service, good may be done to all the groups of persons 
 
EVANGELISTIC PREACHING 223 
 
 I have named. And if nothing else be aimed at, no elaborate 
 or public preparation for the "mission " is called for in the 
 way of advertising or canvassing the district by door to 
 door visitation. 
 
 But a " mission " for the ingathering to Church connection 
 of irreligious or "lapsed" persons is another matter, and 
 needs, I think, to be promoted on quite other lines. Its 
 success will be measured by the number of persons brought 
 by it within the sound of the Gospel or under its power, 
 who had drifted away from the Christian Church, although 
 they might be offended were we to deny them the Christian 
 name. Such aggressive efforts call for evangelism of a 
 different type. If a congregation organise one, it does so, 
 not for its own profit, but in the warmth of its outgoing 
 zeal. The effort sustains a similar relation to home mission 
 services conducted all the year round in a " mission room " 
 or " Gospel hall," which the congregation's own week of 
 special meetings bears to its Sunday worship. The 
 "missioner" may in this case also be an outsider, lay 
 or clerical ; but it is coming to be recognised as desirable 
 that such meetings should be as far as possible under the 
 control of the local clergyman himself. In any case, the 
 class to be addressed being different, a different manner 
 of preaching will naturally be adopted. 
 
 Every form of evangelism, whether at Church meetings 
 for worship or anywhere else, is marked off from the 
 pastoral sermon by more than one peculiar feature deserving 
 of attention. 
 
 The first is the more restricted range of truth open to 
 the evangelist. We have seen how wide is the field which 
 the pastoral pulpit ought to cover, all revelation being 
 given to make "the man of God perfect." But for the 
 awakening and turning of sinners to God, elementary and 
 central truths are alone suitable. The choice open to the 
 speaker will, of course, differ with different audiences. He 
 must always start from ground common to himself and his 
 
224 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 hearers. St. Paul rested his message to Felix, to Greeks at 
 Athens, or to the people of Lystra, on quite different ground 
 from the reasoning out of the Old Testament which he 
 employed in the synagogues.^ The foreign missionary can 
 only build on the moral sense common to all men, or on 
 true religious ideas embedded in their native faiths, or on 
 the seeking after God which St. Paul tells us is implanted in 
 the human heart. With professed Christians in our congre- 
 gations, including habitual frequenters of " mission rooms," 
 we have, of course, a very large amount of common ground 
 on which to proceed. In all home evangelism, therefore, it 
 seems to me, we have mainly two things to keep in view : 
 (a) to inform the conscience or rouse it to repentance ; and 
 (h) to persuade the hearer's will to prompt acceptance of 
 the Gospel message. 
 
 As to (a): those whom we address, be they Church 
 frequenters or not, are persons who bear the Christian 
 name, but whom a form of religion contents without the 
 reality. This betrays either that their conception of what 
 true Christian religion involves is defective, or that 
 conscience is inert. In the former case, the evangelist has 
 to instruct the conscience by revealing the nature, the 
 fruits, and the tests of vital faith in Christ, so that they 
 may recognise how far their life comes short of what a real 
 Christian's would be. The sources of such self-deception 
 being numerous and subtle, this is delicate work which calls 
 for much care. Yague denunciation of hypocrisy or railing 
 at a false profession is of no use. What such hearers require 
 is kindly but serious instruction on the inner side of piety, 
 and on its unmistakable evidences in outward conduct. 
 Where the conscience is not ill-instructed but inert, that is, 
 where a person knows at the bottom of his heart, if he 
 would own it to himself, that his religious profession is 
 hollow, yet is made nowise unhappy by that secret 
 knowledge, there he needs to be stimulated to wholesome 
 alarm. The peril of mistake, the demand for sincerity and 
 
 1 Act8 2425 1722-31 1415-17^ cf^ the sermon in chap. 13. 
 
EVANGELISTIC PREACHING 225 
 
 thoroughness in one's relations with the Almighty, and the 
 dread of Divine judgment, may all have to be pressed, in 
 the hope of stinging into action a dormant or apathetic 
 conscience. With coarse natures, we are here at some 
 disadvantage through the decay of the old unquestioning 
 belief in future penalties. There is no doubt compensation 
 with minds of finer culture in their superior sensitiveness 
 to inward honesty and reality. But there are some who 
 are susceptible to nothing less ignoble than fear ; and the 
 apprehension of judgment no longer affrights such persons 
 as it used to do. 
 
 (&) In the more agreeable duty of urging upon the 
 penitent or awakened the gracious offer of the Gospel, its 
 essential facts may generally be taken for granted; only 
 the evangelist must beware of assuming too easily that the 
 meaning of the facts is correctly understood. The Gospel 
 has to be explained before it can be accepted with 
 intelHgence. In every Gospel address there should be the 
 plainest possible statement of all that is essential to be 
 known. Mere reiteration of the call to " come to Jesus," 
 to "believe and be saved," is of little use unless it is 
 accompanied or prefaced by clear teaching on the work of 
 Christ as the ground as well as warrant of faith. Beyond 
 that he need not go. At the same time, this exposition of 
 the Gospel ought never to be of an abstract theological 
 character. It has to be kept warm and human by making 
 much of the love of God, and of Christ's pity and sympathy 
 as our High Priest. A tender alluring presentation of the 
 personal Saviour, whose self-sacrifice for us has laid bare 
 the heart of the Eternal Father, is the evangelist's supreme 
 gift. Such preaching can never be too simple, too gracious, 
 or too winning.^ 
 
 In proportion as an evangelist's audience differs from 
 an ordinary congregation of Christian worshippers, other 
 deviations from the pastoral type of preaching set in, besides 
 this more limited range of topics. 
 
 ^ See Canon Mason's Ministry of Conversion (Lond. 1902). 
 15 
 
226 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 For one thing, the address loses by degrees its character 
 as an act of common worship. The less Christian the hearers, 
 the more, of course, are the characteristic notes of Christian 
 devotion absent. This explains why at such services the 
 usual acts of worship tend to become themselves evangel- 
 istic. At a " revival " meeting, for instance, and sometimes 
 in mission halls, the hymns chosen either are a singing of 
 the Gospel, or they express sentiments appropriate to a 
 penitent coming to Christ. The prayers, too, become peti- 
 tions for pardon, or entreaties to the Holy Spirit to use the 
 Word for the awakening and conversion of the hearers. 
 On these lines there is still room for worship of a sort, 
 since there is still a nucleus of belief in Christianity common 
 to speaker and to audience. In evangelising non-Christian 
 races, even this fails. "When a missionary stands up to 
 deliver his message in an Indian bazzar or a Chinese village, 
 there can be no common worship at all. 
 
 For the same reason, and in a like degree, the evangelist 
 is much less an expositor of Holy Scripture than the 
 pastoral preacher. In addressing a home audience, he may 
 generally take Gospel facts and truths and illustrations 
 and arguments freely from the Bible. Assuming these to 
 be familiar, he makes them the warp and woof of his dis- 
 course. But it is a mistake for him to burden a plain 
 message with minute or detailed explanation of Bible 
 language. His text should be an easy and well-known 
 passage, where evangelical truth is put so unmistakably as 
 to need no pains to bring it out. Even the use of a text 
 at all may be given up when his audience is a heathen 
 crowd, or a rude and ignorant street gathering at home. 
 The sooner the speaker goes on to direct testimony, with 
 appeals to the conscience and the heart, the better. Let 
 the time that is spared from expounding Scripture be 
 devoted to every method of persuasion ; for such sermons 
 need to be nearly all " application." The preacher must 
 get at once into sympathetic touch with his hearers. He 
 must speak to their peculiar diffculties, temptations, and 
 
EVANGELISTIC PREACHING 227 
 
 sorrows. He must come into close grips with their con- 
 science. He needs to adapt his discourse, as it proceeds, 
 to their changing moods, noting the subtle signs they give 
 of being moved by his words. A very free and impromptu 
 style of address suits best. 
 
 Lastly, it is clear that this kind of preaching leaves 
 freer scope to the preacher's individuality. Any checks 
 which his position, as the representative or leader of the 
 Church in its worship, imposes on a pulpit orator are here 
 withdrawn. The desk or platform of a hall, still more the 
 corner of a street, admits of a freedom in speech, an uncon- 
 ventional bearing, freaks of manner, and indulgence in 
 private idiosyncrasies, which everyone would feel to be out 
 of place in a pulpit. What is of more consequence, it not 
 only admits, it calls for, a more individual testimony. The 
 speaker speaks for himself. He is less the organ of a 
 common witness-bearing to common experience. He is 
 thrown back more on his personal religious knowledge of 
 the Gospel. If I have to face alone a crowd of unbelievers, 
 I must tell at first hand just what I know and have tasted 
 of the Gospel's power to save. Such unsupported testimony, 
 as every practised evangelist is aware, puts a severe strain 
 on the spiritual resources of the solitary herald. This is 
 why such preachers like to have at their back a strong 
 platform of earnest Christians. They like to know that 
 sprinkled up and down an audience are a few praying 
 people. Even in open-air addresses, it is judged well to 
 station a group of fellow-believers by the speaker's side, 
 to add to his words the weight of their consenting 
 testimony. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 PREPARING TO PREACH : CHOICE OF A TEXT 
 
 The minister in regular work, who has to deliver one or 
 two sermons every Lord's Day, will, if he be a prudent 
 man, spare himself that wasteful and irritating hunt after 
 a subject which costs some men much loss of time. He 
 will take care always to have a stock of suggestions at 
 hand, from which he has only to select the most appropriate 
 for the next occasion. 
 
 The rule is that a good sermon is not one sought after, 
 but one given. That is to say, its central idea, the germ 
 of thought out of which it is all to grow, has at one time 
 or other spontaneously offered itself with living power to 
 the preacher's mind. It comes to him in the course of 
 general reading, or of Bible study, or of pastoral and social 
 intercourse, or of private devotion. Anything may suggest 
 it. Few men who are intellectually and spiritually alive, 
 and whose minds are habitually working round the truths 
 of religion, can fail to find, provided they are on the watch 
 for them, striking and fruitful thoughts, which at least have 
 a primd facie interest for them as if they had received them 
 for themselves. That is the first essential. And it is a 
 good rule not to be satisfied to preach on anything until 
 it has thus quickened in one's own soul, become alive there 
 with a promise of growth.^ 
 
 1 " In every discourse, if it have life, there is a parent idea or fertile germ, 
 and all the parts of the discourse are like the principal organs and members 
 of an animated body" (Bautain, Art of Extempore Speaking^ 3rd ed., Lond. 
 1860, pp. 150-151). 
 
 223 
 
PREPARING TO PREACH : CHOICE OF TEXT 229 
 
 Such creative moments are precious: to be made the 
 most of. The mind is far from being equally productive at 
 all seasons. When these times occur, let them be at once 
 seized. Let the ideas which they offer be detained and fixed 
 in writing. A MS. volume for the purpose should be at 
 hand. A blank page or two is to be given to each fresh 
 suggestion of a theme; the exact idea to be set down 
 without delay, just as it occurs ; and if time permit, let 
 the mind keep on working while in the vein. The occur- 
 rence of such a fresh and vivid view of truth is like the 
 opening of a spring. Tap it and secure its waters, lest it 
 run to waste. 
 
 It is when a man has been thus found and gripped by 
 a truth of G-od that he may be expected to preach best. 
 Unfortunately, sermons have sometimes to be delivered on 
 aspects of truth which have not thus come home with the 
 force of a message to the preacher himself — almost with 
 the freshness of a discovery. Yet Dr. Horton has done 
 service by emphasising in his Yale Lectures the duty of 
 every minister to seek to be filled and possessed by the 
 truth before he stands to speak it forth in his Master's 
 name. He calls it the " coming of the Word of the Lord " 
 to the man ; and so it is.^ One need not be in a hurry to 
 use these subjects to preach from. Ideas once started grow 
 and ripen in the mind insensibly, even when one is not 
 thinking of them. Now and then, in a leisure hour of 
 quiet musing, let the half -filled pages of one's '' seed-plot " 
 be turned over. Kecall the original line of reflection ; 
 define with more precision the thought which struck you ; 
 add whatever has since occurred in your reading or think- 
 ing that is cognate. Perhaps on second thoughts the 
 idea looks thinner, or less original, or less prolific, than 
 it did at first. It may have to be rejected. If there 
 be in it the making of a sermon, carry on the process 
 of incubation a little farther. Appropriate materials will 
 gather round it : illustrations, related ideas, developments 
 
 1 Verbum Dei (1893). 
 
230 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 along fresh lines, practical applications of all. All great 
 sermons grow.^ 
 
 When the time comes for deciding on a subject for next 
 sermon, one is selected from the note-book list in view of 
 three considerations: that the preacher's mind lies to it; 
 that the people need it; that it is wanted to keep one's 
 handling of the truth balanced. I think I have named 
 these three in their just order of consequence. But Phillips 
 Brooks places the need of the people first.^ He may be 
 right, for the pastoral consideration deserves much weight. 
 On the other hand, it is rarely worth while to fight against 
 a positive disinclination to handle a particular subject at 
 present ; while the matter which is ripest in one's mind, or 
 to which one feels most drawn at the moment, is that which 
 promises the best results. It matters less, however, in 
 what order we put these considerations in choosing any 
 single subject, than that they be all habitually present to 
 the judgment to qualify one another. " The sermon preached 
 only with reference to the people's needs is heavy," says 
 Bishop Brooks. " The sermon preached for symmetry is 
 formal. The sermon preached with sole reference to the 
 preacher's wish is whimsical. The constant consideration of 
 all three makes preaching always strong and always fresh." * 
 
 So far I have said nothing about a text, because the 
 germinal conception of a fertile subject to speak about is 
 the main point to start from. In most cases, that will 
 present itself in connection with a passage from Holy 
 Scripture. Either it is out of some written word of God 
 the idea has leapt to the light ; or else, at the heels of the 
 idea, a written word flashes into recollection. When that 
 happens, the passage first thought of is quite likely to prove 
 the fittest text for the futm^e discourse. But it may not ; a 
 better may have to be sought for ; or the conception of a 
 possible sermon may have occurred unaccompanied by any 
 
 ^ Compare Mr. Moody's plan of collecting material in separate envelopes, 
 as reported by his son in his Life, (p. 381 f.). 
 
 2 Oj^. cU. p. 153. 3 Ihid, p. 156. 
 
PREPARING TO PREACH: CHOICE OF TEXT 231 
 
 Scripture passage. At all events, this is the place to con- 
 sider, not only why a preacher needs a text at all, but also 
 what sort of text he ought to choose. 
 
 The homiletic practice of taking the theme of every 
 sermon from a passage of Holy Writ, has been an all but 
 invariable tradition in the Christian Church. Here and 
 there, it is true, an innovator has been found to select, in 
 preference to any words of Scripture, a verse of a hymn, or 
 a popular proverb, or a sentence out of the catechism ; or 
 even to open with no text at all. But such experiments 
 have been few and far between.^ In last century, one or 
 two writers followed the lead of Voltaire in the eighteenth, 
 by questioning the utility of this venerable usage. It was 
 in his Sihcle de Lozds Quatorze that Voltaire had expressed 
 the wish that Bourdaloue, in reforming the pulpit, had 
 banished this custom from it. And in 1837, Claus Harms 
 ventured to say that preaching from texts had been detri- 
 mental, not only to the art of preaching, but also to 
 Christian knowledge and even to Christian life. Vinet 
 was more cautious, but leant to the same opinion. In 
 the end, however, neither the German nor the French- 
 man had the courage to propose that the custom should be 
 dropped.2 One may concede all that Vinet has urged against 
 
 ^ Schmidt {Gesch. der Predigt vmi Luther hisSpener, Gotha, 1872) gives at 
 p. 119 quite a number of volumes of sermons on hymn-verses published about 
 the time of the Thirty Years' War. The custom was not new in Germany, 
 however ; cf. ibid. pp. 74-76. As instances of preachers who dispensed with 
 a text, Hiiffell names Theodoret in the ancient Church, in the mediaeval 
 Rabanus Maurus, Bernard, and Geiler von Kaisersberg, and Luther and 
 Ewald among moderns ( Wesen u. Beruf, Giessen, 1830, i. 217). 
 
 2 * ' Diirften wir auch noch die Behauptung wagen dass das Predigen nach 
 Texten nicht allein die Ausbildung der Predigtkunst sondern ebenfalls die 
 christliche Erkenntniss, und selbst, was noch mehr sagen will, das christ- 
 liche Leben, sehr gehemmet habe? . . . Indessen, nur ausnahmsweise 
 mbcht' ich selber nur passiren lassen, ausser anderen Griinden, aus dieser 
 pastoral theologischen : Die Gemeinde verliert die Gewahr, oder, was sie 
 fur eine Gewahr halt, dass eine solche Predigt, wirklich Gotteswort sei." 
 Harms, Pastor altheologie, Iter Theil (Kiel, 1837, pp. 65, 83) ; cf. Yinet's 
 HomiUtique (Paris, 1853, p. 109). The question is discussed at length in 
 Dr. Carl Clemen's Predigt und biblishcr Text (Giessen, 1906). 
 
632 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 it in the case of topical sermons, where it is difficult always 
 to fit the text to the theme and the theme to the text, and 
 yet conclude that the reasons in its support are of over- 
 whelming strength. The strongest is that to which even 
 Harms bows, that it lends to the central idea of the sermon 
 the authority of the Divine Word. Hence in Old English, 
 as one can see in Chaucer, it was called the " authority " 
 (auctoritas). The great fact, of which the text is an index, 
 is that every true sermon grows up out of the living Word 
 of Revelation, and, because it has that behind it, is to be 
 both spoken and listened to, not as a " word of man's 
 wisdom," but as the message of the Eternal for our salvation. 
 Surely that fact ought to be made visible and kept before 
 preacher and audience alike. It is no answer to say that a 
 man may take a text and yet preach unbiblically. He may ; 
 but if he does, his text condemns him. 
 
 Minor advantages will readily occur. It secures to each 
 discourse a character of its own, no two texts being exactly 
 alike. It affords to the hearer a peg on which to hang the 
 substance of the discourse for easier recollection. It be- 
 speaks at the outset a reverent hearing for what the 
 preacher has to say. It lays to his hand an endless variety 
 of those human interests and picturesque images in which 
 the Bible is so rich. And it gives the pastor an opportunity 
 for leading his people into deeper acquaintance with their 
 Bible. But the main thing is that it reminds speaker and 
 congregation of what a sermon ought to be — an utterance 
 of God's Word revealed to Christian faith, not human 
 opinions or speculations. 
 
 If in reality, and not as a mere form, the text is to carry 
 this value as an " authority," it is clear that it needs to be 
 selected with care. It is needless to say that not every 
 combination of words in the Bible is fit to be preached from. 
 Words even occur which taken by themselves, apart from 
 their context, contain not truth, but an untruth : like *' Let 
 us do evil, that good may come." Plenty of passages also, 
 in the Old Testament especially, are incapable of yielding 
 
PREPARING TO PREACH : CHOICE OF TEXT 233 
 
 such instruction or profit as a sermon ought to afford. Bare 
 lists of names in a genealogical table, rubrics in the Levitical 
 service-book, many topographical or archaeological details in 
 Hebrew annals, do not naturally convey any rehgious lesson. 
 It is true that some preachers have delighted to startle 
 audiences by announcing such an unpromising text, trusting 
 to extort a meaning out of it by ingenious tricks of inter- 
 pretation. Such a tour deforce or homiletic legerdemain is 
 unworthy of the pulpit. There is, no doubt, a happy knack 
 which a few men possess, of picking out unhackneyed say- 
 ings which do really teach truth, yet teach it in a fresh 
 fashion. But no preacher is well advised who makes it his 
 habit to search out far-fetched or fanciful or allusive texts, 
 the connection of which with what he is going to say is 
 remote or strained. Still more ought he to disdain the 
 vanity or the eccentricity of bizarre texts, which can only be 
 utilised in a fashion so odd that the hearer is either 
 astonished or amused by it. Cheap tricks of this sort 
 usually mark an inferior preacher. Great orators prefer 
 great texts ; and as a rule wise preachers choose plain ones, 
 which easily and naturally sustain the thought they desire 
 to illustrate. 
 
 Moreover, if the theme or subject of discourse is to rest 
 upon the passage selected, then the text needs to have 
 unity, and, as far as possible, completeness. It would be 
 easy to extract at random a bit of narrative, for example, 
 or a fragment cut from an apostle's argument, on which to 
 found a few unrelated remarks, but which never could be 
 made to yield any single topic. Nor is it well to choose 
 morsels that carry no complete sense, but require to be 
 supplemented in order to make a whole. To build a sermon 
 on a single vocable, or phrase, or clause in a sentence, is 
 rarely permissible. The text may be brief enough; and 
 some of the briefest are also the fullest ; like " Jesus wept," 
 or " God is love." But it should have substance in it to 
 furnish material for a discourse. There is a nibbling way of 
 treating the sacred book which snips off from it little tags, 
 
234 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 bits that may no d6ubt suggest or infer much more than 
 they say, but which by themselves say very little. It is 
 better surely to take a portion which, whatever its length, 
 has within it bulk and depth of meaning adequate to fill the 
 sermon and to feed the flock.^ 
 
 Nor am I persuaded by what Austen Phelps has ad- 
 vanced in their defence,^ that what are called "motto" 
 texts should be otherwise than sparingly employed. To 
 prefix to a sermon, as one might to a chapter in a book, 
 a borrowed saying, however felicitous, of which no further 
 use is to be made, does not answer the purpose of a text. 
 It seems to me a more wholesome, as well as manly, course 
 to find a passage of God's Word which, in its true sense 
 and organic connection with the rest of revelation, can be 
 fairly summed up in the theme you propose to speak about. 
 
 The first thing, then, to do with such a text is to study 
 it. Examine its meaning exegetically, with the best helps 
 at your disposal, making sure of the precise force of its 
 important words and of its relation to the context. Com- 
 pare it with its nearest cognate passages to discover what is 
 peculiar to itself. Sometimes help can be got from the 
 history of the text in the Church, or its use at crises of 
 religious experience ; for texts have their annals and their 
 associations. " A text," says Athanase Coquerel, " is always 
 richer than we think." ^ If such a process should make our 
 preaching strongly biblical, no harm will be done. How 
 texts can be used to sustain theological dogmas is not 
 for the moment, what it once was, the chief point of interest. 
 But what say the original documents of our faith, as read 
 by modern men in the light of modern questions ? So, too, 
 in handling moral texts, the first thing is to ascertain the 
 Christian meaning which the New Testament breathes into 
 
 ^ Cf. Spurgeon : ' * You must not for ever hover round the mere angles of 
 truth" {Led. to my Students, 1st Series, Lond. 1876, p. 78). 
 2 Theory of Preaching, 1882, p. 44. 
 ^ The Preacher's Counsellor, Lond. 1867, p. 109. 
 
PREPARING TO PREACH : CHOICE OF TEXT 235 
 
 Greek terms for virtues of character, how that differs from 
 their use in Aristotle, or other heathen moralists, and why- 
 it differs — that is, from what root in the Gospel teaching 
 the words drew their new sense. Only after fixing in 
 this way the New Testament force of the terms, can the 
 preacher go on to apply them to present-day conditions 
 and duties. 
 
 In all this, the preacher needs to keep an exegetical 
 "conscience void of offence." It is a homiletic offence of 
 the first magnitude to make Scripture mean anything else 
 than it does mean. The safe rule is the one which Hagen- 
 bach formulated in these terms : *' Conscientious preaching 
 requires that no explanation of Scripture be given which 
 cannot be scientifically justified." That does not hold good 
 of the text only. It holds good of every passage cited for 
 proof, or even for illustration and enforcement of truth, 
 except where Bible language is merely borrowed in the 
 well-understood way of literary adaptation. There is such 
 a thing as quoting the words of Scripture or of secular 
 authors for a purpose never dreamt of by the author, 
 or even in a sense not justified by their original meaning. 
 St. Paul occasionally quotes in this way from his Bible.^ 
 Within the limits of good taste, and where no false inference 
 can be drawn by the average hearer, this is allowable. 
 But whenever the hearer is likely to suppose that we are 
 citing the words of Scripture in their original or intended 
 sense, then it ought to be in that sense we cite them. 
 The text, at all events, must always be taken and used 
 in its strict meaning. 
 
 It is a difficult question, what attitude the modern 
 pulpit is to take up in respect of the very ancient and 
 far-descended habit of spiritualising or allegorising the 
 narratives and the figures of sacred history. This habit, 
 learned from Jewish expositors, has been in vogue among 
 Christians at least since the third century. During the 
 
 ^ For example, when he quotes Ps. 19* in Rom. 10^^: ^^ Their line is 
 gone out through all the earth.'' 
 
236 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 patristic and mediaeval periods it was often driven into 
 strange extremes. When Isaiah speaks of seven women 
 taking hold of one man, we should no longer think with 
 Origen of the sevenfold operations of the Divine Spirit.^ 
 Few moderns would so far spiritualise the parable of the 
 Good Samaritan as to understand the twopence paid to the 
 innkeeper as a figure of the two sacraments, as a Middle 
 Age orator is said to have done. On the other hand, 
 few preachers would hesitate to employ the cure of 
 Bartimeus as a parable of spiritual enlightenment; and 
 I think many of us, in discoursing upon our Lord's words 
 on the Cross, "I thirst," would feel free to extend its 
 application from His bodily need to His deeper longing 
 of spirit for the accomplishment of His mission. Yet 
 Dr. Hoppin of Yale would condemn both.^ The venerable 
 pulpit tradition is out of fashion ; but it has not died out 
 yet. Where are we to draw the line? It is clear that 
 we are badly in want of some sound rule, and this it is 
 not easy to lay down. I suspect that spiritual feeling, 
 held in check by a sober judgment, must practically be 
 our only guide. 
 
 This question of the " accommodation " of Scripture and 
 its limit is commonly discussed in connection with the 
 choice or use of a text. In truth, it is a much wider 
 question. It concerns the whole employment of Scripture 
 for edification, both in its narrative portions and above all 
 in its typology. So far as the latter is concerned, I do not 
 see how we are to rule the Old Testament " types " wholly 
 out of court. The New Testament writers certainly led 
 the way. They even traced it back to the example of 
 our Lord Himself, who used the story of Jonah, for 
 instance (whether by way of accommodation to Hebrew 
 methods of exegesis or not), as a parallel to His own burial 
 and resurrection. In so far as theocratic personages in 
 
 ^ Cited by Ebenezer Porter of Andover in his Lectures on Homiletics aiid 
 Preaching (Lond, 1835). 
 
 2 Homiletics, revised ed., Lond. 1881, pp. 314-317. 
 
PREPARING TO PREACH : CHOICE OF TEXT 237 
 
 Israel held in their own day a relation to the people of 
 God analogous in some respects to the mission or work 
 of the Messiah, afterwards to be revealed, it must be 
 legitimate to employ them for the purpose of illustrating 
 features in His work of salvation. The Aaronic high priest 
 certainly typified His better Priesthood, or the whole Epistle 
 to the Hebrews is based on a mistake. Figures like Joseph, 
 the rejected of his brethren, or Moses, the redeemer of his 
 people, or Joshua, the captain in the holy war, are so 
 adapted to prefigure Christ, that it is difficult to show they 
 were not in the wisdom of God designed to do so. Certainly 
 the instinct of Christian piety has always delighted to see 
 such foreshadows in the economy which prepared a people 
 for our Saviour's advent. It is a difficult use of history 
 to make, and it has been grievously overdone. When 
 we venture beyond the guidance of Scripture to invent 
 types for ourselves, it is even a risky use to make of it. 
 Still, a fantastic allegorising of history is one thing : a 
 cautious typology is another. 
 
 There is, however, another mode of drawing lessons 
 out of Hebrew annals which is liable to no such danger, 
 and which is more to the taste of the modern mind. I 
 mean when the examples of the Fathers, and the teaching 
 of Providence through their experience, are applied, after 
 a simple and natural fashion, either for warning or for 
 imitation. The Bible is the book of Providence, but with 
 the key attached. Its characters are thoroughly human — 
 "men of like passions" with ourselves. What happened 
 to them " happened by way of example," and their history 
 was " written for our admonition." It teems, therefore, with 
 the most beautiful and instructive lessons for all time. 
 The preacher has no need, for instance, to handle Joseph 
 as a type of Christ. He can read from his career a lesson 
 on the Divine overruling of events, or on youthful purity, 
 or on fidelity to a godly upbringing, which every hearer 
 will feel to be thoroughly apt and profitable. Here he runs 
 no risk of indulging his fancy by inventing unreal parallels. 
 
238 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 He preaches from life to life. He teaches by concrete 
 example. Other biographies and the annals of other 
 peoples might teach, it is true, similar lessons. Only in 
 this story it has pleased God to put in our hands a key 
 to the hidden purposes of His ways with men. We are 
 told through His prophets the secret meaning of events, 
 domestic or political. The ways of God with His people 
 of old proceeded on the same principles of righteousness 
 and grace as govern His dealings with ourselves. And 
 we know what these principles were; for it was by this 
 Hebrew story that He revealed Himself, and by it He 
 leads us into the hidden purposes which, still as of old, 
 by our lives as by theirs, He is working out for the 
 coming of His kingdom. 
 
CHAPTEE XXI 
 
 PREPARING TO PREACH : PLAN OF THE SERMON 
 
 The sermon being a personal address by a speaker to an 
 audience, its structure falls under the rules which govern 
 that branch of the art of rhetoric called oratory. That 
 preaching ought to be as oratorically perfect as we can 
 make it, is required, not only, as we saw before, by its place 
 in worship,^ but also by its practical aim. It ought to be 
 skilfully adapted to its purpose. Faults of oratory are not 
 the worst of which the preacher can be guilty. It is far 
 worse to be insincere, or frigid, or false in his teaching. 
 But defective skill in the art of speaking is a much more 
 common fault. Ill-arranged ideas, want of proportion in the 
 divisions of a discourse, slovenly style, and the like, are 
 frequently to be met with. And they are not merely 
 inartistic, they are hindrances to the effect of the sermon ; 
 they interfere with the profit of the hearer. 
 
 The application of rhetoric to the pulpit began early.^ 
 From the time of Origen, indications multiply that the 
 Greek schools were beginning to influence the preaching of 
 the Church. At first a very informal conversational style 
 of address had sufficed for small meetings of the brethren, 
 held mostly in private rooms. During the third century, 
 congregations in the larger cities began to worship in 
 special buildings and with more publicity. The presence of 
 strangers encouraged fuller exposition of Scripture, and, in 
 the hands of Origen especially, the homily became a con- 
 
 1 See ante, Chapter XVII. 
 
 2 E.g. the sermon eh ret. deocpavela ascribed to Hippolytus. 
 
 239 
 
240 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 tinuous and elaborate commentary verse by verse, in short, 
 an expository lecture. 
 
 When men of culture, trained in the universities of 
 Greece, were advanced to the chief sees, still more when 
 Christianity became the religion of the Empire, when its 
 cult was celebrated in imposing basilicas erected by 
 Imperial munificence, and when eloquent bishops could 
 sway the passions of the citizens or influence the politics of 
 the Court, it was unavoidable that the homily should 
 develop into an oration. Then everything favoured the 
 growth of a Christian oratory, by no means free from 
 the faults of pagan Sophists in that age of decadence, yet 
 offering a field for th6 highest efforts of the practised 
 speaker.^ From Augustine to Melanchthon, homiletics was 
 treated almost exclusively as an application of classical 
 rhetoric; and the tradition has been largely followed by 
 later writers. 
 
 Not without an occasional voice raised in protest. 
 Augustine himself counselled the preacher to modify 
 heathen models by the example of St. Paul ; and earnest 
 Christians have often urged that the G-ospel must create a 
 manner of its own, as distinct from that of the Greek or 
 Roman tribune, as its aims are higher. But this is no more 
 than can be said of all applied oratory. In every depart- 
 ment of public speaking, the rules which teach how to 
 speak well are subject to modification from the occasion, 
 the theme, or the design of the particular discourse. In 
 pulpit speaking, therefore, just as in the oratory of the 
 senate or the bar, general rules have to be applied 
 under prescribed conditions. The sermon is a solemn 
 address, spoken in public worship for the conversion or 
 religious edification of the hearer, and always attaching 
 itself to the exposition of the Gospel. It is under these 
 conditions that it aims at producing similar results to those 
 which were contemplated by the ancient orator. In that 
 section of his De Doctrind Christiandy which is really 
 
 ^ Cf. Villemain, Tableau de V Eloquence Chriiienne au fyme, SUcle (1849), 
 
PREPARING TO PREACH : PLAN OF SERMON 241 
 
 our earliest treatise on homiletics, Augustine cites from 
 Cicero as the preacher's three aims : " ut doceat, ut delectet, 
 ut flectet."^ But the three are not of equal consequence. 
 Its sacred character and spiritual purpose subordinate very 
 strictly the desire to please to the desire to profit. They 
 rigorously forbid the use of mere ornaments of speech for 
 their own sake. They reject, above all, every disingenuous 
 argument, clap -trap appeals to prejudice, points made 
 merely for momentary effect, and other tricks of the sort. 
 In brief, the solemn issues that depend on the pulpit 
 emphasise what Theremin calls the "virtue" of the orator, 
 that is, those moral qualities in the speaker which lie at the 
 basis of the truest and noblest eloquence.^ In this way 
 Christianity may be said to have purged the art of speaking 
 of its baser elements. 
 
 It certainly has given to the orator far grander themes 
 and graver tasks. The themes are grander, for they reach 
 to the profundities and altitudes of Divine truth. The 
 tasks are graver, for they aim at no less than the reconcilia- 
 tion of man with God, and the reconstruction of his spiritual 
 life. The inspiration which alone can uplift a speaker to 
 themes and tasks so sacred must needs be drawn from a 
 higher than Greek or Koman source. It is only with the 
 forms of speech that rhetoric can deal; and it is pretty 
 certain that its value for the preacher has often been over- 
 estimated by writers on homiletics. Its formal rules may 
 possess for most of us little more than a negative utility in 
 warning us how to avoid faults which mar the effect of the 
 most earnest speaker. Even were it so, still every preacher 
 ought to know what these rules are, and have them before 
 him in the preparation of his discourses; since, after all, 
 the virtues of a good speech must be in substance the same 
 
 ^ Bk. iv. c. 12. He has'not quoted the De Oratore accurately, however. 
 Did he intentionally change ut probet into ut doceat 1 The comparative 
 importance of the three is discussed by Augustine. 
 
 2 Die BeredtsamTceit eine Tugend, Berl. 1837. Reprinted in Bibliotheh 
 der theol. KlassiJcer, 1888. 
 16 
 
242 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 for sacred as for secular eloquence ; and, for the highest 
 purposes of his mission, Christ's messenger must be left as 
 free as any other to employ every noble means of effective 
 and persuasive utterance which stands at the service of any 
 orator. 
 
 The first virtue, then, in a well-ordered sermon, as in 
 every work of art, is unity: "Tart lui-meme," says Vinet, 
 "ayant pour premier objet de creer un tout, par le rap- 
 prochement d'el^ments disperses." ^ But again I must add, 
 not for art's sake alone ; for the sake of its usefulness also, 
 every sermon ought to be a unity. It is indisputable, as 
 Vinet argues, that an address, listened to, not read, is more 
 easily followed, more agreeable to the hearer, better 
 remembered by him, and more likely to leave a lasting 
 impression on the mind, above all, on the will, when one 
 animating idea informs every part and the whole moves 
 steadily forward to a single aim, than if it be rambling, 
 heterogeneous, or incoherent. I do not know whether Dr. 
 Shedd was correct when he affirmed that "sermons are 
 more defective in respect to unity of structure and a 
 constant progress towards a single end, than in any other 
 respect." 2 But if there be justice in this criticism of 
 current preaching, the minister will do well to pay special 
 heed to this primary condition of effectiveness. 
 
 To the unity of a sermon there are three things which 
 chiefly contribute: two of them essential, and a third 
 desirable. It needs to have a single theme and a single 
 design; it is well if these prescribe also unity or 
 "keeping" in its tone. 
 
 1. Unity of Theme 
 
 What is meant by the '' theme " is simply a proposition 
 which states with precision the subject of discourse. That 
 I assume the preacher to have now pretty clearly in his 
 
 ^ HomiUtique, p. 47. 
 
 2 Eomiletics and Pastoral Theology (Edin, 1869), p. 129. 
 
PREPARING TO PREACH : PLAN OF SERMON 243 
 
 mind. I suppose him to have taken from his store of 
 subjects a germinal idea around which materials have 
 gathered. He has also selected and studied the text which 
 seems to him best adapted to express, or at least to support, 
 his fundamental conception. But at this point he must be 
 advised to give to the subject the utmost precision or 
 definiteness of which it is capable before he proceeds further. 
 It is not enough to throw it out in the form of a loose title, 
 such as one might prefix to a book, after a fashion recently 
 introduced by some preachers. It will much assist the unity 
 of his discourse if he will set it down in writing, for his own 
 use at least, in the form of a proposition. Since in any 
 case it is to be the formative and governing truth developed 
 before his audience, that under which every subordinate 
 idea must be capable of being gathered up, he will find it 
 extremely helpful to have it before him as a clearly 
 expressed statement or thesis. That is his " theme." 
 
 The " theme " thus stated is to bear a fixed relation to 
 the text. It should be at once true to its ascertained 
 meaning and fairly exhaustive of its contents. 
 
 It is true to the text when it springs out of a correct 
 exegesis of it, and does not go beyond its full religious 
 import as a part of revelation. Unless it do this, the text 
 ceases to be a Divine authority for what is taught in the 
 sermon. The preacher may say nothing that is not true, 
 but unless it be the truth contained in the text, the book of 
 God is misused. To build a discourse on a misinterpreted 
 passage has been a frequent sin in the pulpit; but it is a 
 high homiletic misdemeanour, for which it is no apology to 
 plead that you are preaching nothing heretical or unbiblical. 
 You are preaching it from a wrong text.^ Disappointment 
 may be felt at losing, through strict obedience to this rule, 
 a few familiar texts which have been misused by generations 
 of preachers. But the Bible is full of unexceptionable ones, 
 
 ^ Cf. the examples given by Broadus, with his account of the sources of 
 the error, in his Treatise on the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons^ 2nd 
 ed., Lond. 1871, pp. 53 ff., 70-78. 
 
244 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 and a closer study of its genuine meaning under stricter 
 modern methods of interpretation will disclose finer applica- 
 tions than any we can lose. Especially when it is added 
 that our theme may transcend the literal sense of the text- 
 words, provided it do not go beyond their full import in the 
 light of completed revelation. We are surely entitled to 
 place a Scripture passage under the ampler illumination 
 which the finished revelation in Christ has cast back over 
 its earlier portions. If the Bible be the record of a 
 continuous discovery of God which was designed to attain 
 full-orbed completeness in Jesus Christ, then it is per- 
 missible, applying St. Peter's canon of interpretation, to look 
 beyond the original significance of an event or an oracle as 
 it could be understood at the time. The prophets, he says, 
 did not fully know all that the Spirit meant by the revela- 
 tions of which they were the transmitters. They prophesied 
 of a grace that was afterwards to be revealed ; and so they 
 ministered, not unto themselves, but unto us.^ In searching 
 for this fuller spiritual force in ancient words, one has 
 always to start, of course, from an historical reading of the 
 oracle — what it signified to the age and to the men to whom 
 it was given. But we are not forbidden to ask how much 
 more of God's thoughts it may have to say to us, " upon 
 whom the ends of the world are come." Not seldom does 
 the local, the temporary, the far away fact or word of 
 Hebrew origin break like a husk in Christian hands, to set 
 free a principle, a truth, or a lesson of enduring value for 
 the Church of God. 
 
 I said the theme is also expected to be fairly ex- 
 haustive of the text. In one sense, no doubt, we cannot 
 exhaust the force or the contents of a great text ; for the 
 Word of God is infinite in depth and reach. Each young 
 generation of preachers comes to the old words, to find in 
 them fresh aspects and applications of truth. Only when 
 the important ideas in any text are brought into focus, to 
 be summed up under one paramount thought, and that 
 
 1 1 Pet. l^»-i2 cf. Gal. 323 and 1 Cor. 10". 
 
PREPARING TO PREACH : PLAN OF SERMON 245 
 
 thought is your theme, then it may fairly be said to exhaust 
 the text. Some texts are so short and simple that they 
 constitute the theme. Others embrace a plurality of 
 propositions, expressed or implied. Then one is bound to 
 search for a single thought large enough to cover all of 
 them, central enough to combine them into unity.^ In 
 other cases, the text may be a whole narrative. Still, the 
 paramount idea has to be seized. Nor will a strong-brained 
 or manly preacher care to spin sermons out of the fringes 
 and corners of a big subject, but will fasten by preference on 
 the heart and substance of it as a part of the revelation 
 of God. 
 
 2. Unity of Aim 
 
 The aim or " scope " of a sermon is the practical effect 
 which the preacher designs to produce upon his audience. 
 A sermon is not an essay, nor an abstract disquisition or 
 exposition of a truth. It is an address spoken for some 
 practical purpose. The whole plan of its construction will 
 be determined by the object which the speaker has in view. 
 Nay, the very way in which he apprehends his subject, the 
 viewpoint from which he regards it, must vary according to 
 the use he proposes to make of it. Here, therefore, at the 
 outset he needs to come to an understanding with himself — 
 to answer for himself the question : What do I expect to be 
 the result of this discourse ? 
 
 Most subjects lend themselves to a multiplicity of uses : 
 must then a preacher select one out of the number and aim 
 strictly at that alone ? Nothing is more common than to 
 hear a preacher, as he draws near the end of his discourse 
 indicate several " lessons " to be drawn, or several sorts of 
 
 ^ An example will illustrate this ; — 
 
 Text : St. John's Gospel 8*6-59. 
 
 Theme : How Jesus testifies of His Godhead before the unbelieving. 
 He testifies (a) to His sinlessness, 8^« ; (&) to His glory, vv.°«-°^ ; (c) to His 
 eternity, v.^. 
 
246 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 persons whom the same lesson may benefit in diverse ways. 
 Is this wrong ? 
 
 From the point of view of pure oratorical art, I conceive 
 it is undeniable that the more an orator can unite his efforts 
 to convince or to persuade upon a single point, the more 
 effective will his oratory be. That is the most powerful 
 form of speech which drives consciously to one definite 
 result ; making all its arguments, for example, its motives, 
 and its appeals converge upon a line of action to which it 
 seeks to persuade the hearer. Such simplicity of aim can 
 usually be secured in an evangelistic address ; because its 
 one end is to turn the sinner to God. But the edification 
 of the Church is a much more complex result, which is 
 promoted in a vast variety of ways. The practical require- 
 ments of his congregation do not always permit the pastoral 
 preacher to consider one class of his hearers to the exclusion 
 of every other, or to ignore through a whole sermon the 
 bearings of the truth in hand upon various characters and 
 conditions to be found among his flock. Plain everyday 
 preachers, therefore, who simply consult the profit of a 
 mixed audience, constantly find it expedient to embrace 
 under one general aim a plurahty of particulars. But even 
 so, he must have one general aim at least, which admits of 
 being stated. The spiritual profit he hopes to secure may 
 be reached by sundry methods, or the truth may do its work 
 differently on persons in different circumstances. Yet there 
 ought to be no dubiety in his mind as to the general effect, 
 or the kind of impression, which he intends his discourse to 
 produce. About that he ought to be quite clear : and the 
 more closely he is able to define that to himself, the more 
 likely is he to be successful. Otherwise a sermon is 
 extremely apt to drift, and, being aimed at nothing in 
 particular, the result is that it hits nothing. 
 
PREPARING TO PREACH: PLAN OF SERMON 247 
 
 3. Unity of Tone 
 
 With the subject and design of each sermon, its " tone " 
 ought to be in keeping. By that is meant the pitch or key 
 of feeling in the speaker and in his manner of speaking. 
 There are many moods of emotion, any one of which may be 
 dominant. A discourse may be, for instance, restful or 
 impassioned, contemplative or insistent, solemn or cheerful, 
 homely or ornate. And what is intended by this rule is, 
 first, that it should depend on the theme and the aim of 
 each sermon which of those moods is most appropriate ; 
 and then, that, whichever it be, the whole should be in 
 harmony with it. This does not mean, of course, that a 
 monotone of level feeling is to reign from the opening to 
 the close. On the contrary, the note struck will swell or 
 fall as the progress of the discourse requires ; especially is 
 a crescendo movement towards the close always in place. 
 Only, one part of the discourse ought never to strike the 
 listener as in violent disharmony with the rest. 
 
 Such skilful "keeping" imparts to each discourse a 
 character of its own, aiding unity of impression, and is a 
 quality of high value in oratory. But it is hardly to be 
 looked for from untrained speakers. Moreover, the range 
 of tone possible to each speaker is limited by temperament. 
 Some men are habitually intense ; some uniformly sedative. 
 Everyone is entitled to give play to his natural manner; 
 and it is well to recognise that a man may preach well in 
 any way that is natural to him. At the same time, each of 
 us will do well, I think, to cultivate as wide a range as we 
 can compass, and not settle down into one stereotyped mood 
 of feeling in all discourses alike. The endless variety of 
 truth is fitted to evoke from any man various responses in 
 the way of emotion, provided he will let it play freely upon 
 the whole of his nature. To get into the spirit appropriate 
 to each sermon's subject and intention; then to let that 
 mood of feeling have free unconfined utterance: this will 
 
248 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 secure unity in each discourse with wide diversity in one's 
 pulpit moods. 
 
 Guiding lines having thus been fixed in the preacher's 
 own mind, which serve to define the future sermon and 
 secure its unity, he may proceed to plan an outline of what 
 he is to say. In any ordered speech four members are 
 distinguished by the rhetoricians : — (1) The Introduction or 
 Exordium ; (2) Announcement of the Proposition or Theme 
 to be treated; (3) the Development of the Matter under 
 two or more divisions ; and (4) a Conclusion or Peroration. 
 No mechanical scheme of this sort ought to fetter the 
 practised preacher ; nor does it conduce to the pleasure of 
 a hearer when the joints of the skeleton are obtruded. Yet 
 an order of procedure so simple and reasonable will 
 commonly be found to underlie a good discourse even when 
 it is not very visible. To keep it in mind while drafting 
 the outline beforehand will assist the speaker, however free 
 he may feel himself to be when in front of his audience. 
 And what I have to offer by way of suggestion can all be 
 said under these four particulars. 
 
 (1) The Introduction 
 
 It is a mistake, I think, to assume that a sermon must 
 always have a preface. To invent an artificial opening for 
 its own sake, when no real use is to be served by it, appears 
 to me to be a blemish. Yinet indeed, with a Erenchman's 
 fancy for rhetorical art, lays down the rule that the preacher 
 should lead the audience skilfully up to his real subject by 
 starting some idea of a simple character which is not part 
 of his subject, but only lies near to it.^ It is good art, he 
 says, to wind one's way into a theme through a little avenue 
 of approach : what Cicero called " aditus ad causam" ^ Yes ; 
 but the principal use of an exordium in the view of the 
 ancients was to conciliate the audience. That is rarely 
 necessary for a Christian preacher. An evangelist address- 
 
 ^ HomiUtiquG^ p. 356 ff. ^ Ad Brutum. 
 
PREPARING TO PREACH : PLAN OF SERMON 249 
 
 ing a hostile or indifferent assembly may require to bespeak 
 favour ; the pastoral preacher addressing his usual congrega- 
 tion has no such need. Time is precious, and none of it, 
 I think, should be wasted on introductory matter unless it 
 is judged requisite in the interest of the sermon for one or 
 other of the following reasons : — 
 
 Either the theme does not arise so obviously from the 
 mere reading of the text as to be at once and readily 
 apprehended by the hearer. If he has to be assisted to see 
 how the subject springs out of the text, this is the place to 
 do it. The terms of the text may call for a slight explana- 
 tion ; or, in order to bring out its exact force, the context 
 may have to be recalled; or the purpose of the preacher 
 may require the passage to be set in a special light. If 
 for any such reason the audience needs to be led from the 
 text to a better acceptance of the subject drawn from it, 
 there is room for an exordium. 
 
 Or should a congregation be, though not unfriendly, yet 
 sluggish or unsympathetic, an opening is called for which 
 will seize their attention or predispose them to listen. 
 Some congregations have the unfortunate habit of settling 
 themselves, at the outset of the sermon, either into a critical 
 attitude if the preacher be a stranger, or into decorous 
 listlessness if he be too well known. To pique curiosity or 
 awaken interest in the subject is then indispensable; and 
 one's chance of gaining a good hearing depends very much 
 on the first five minutes. 
 
 It is therefore of moment that, if there be an intro- 
 duction, it should be lively, piquant, and brief, couched in 
 choice and studied words. But in his effort to make it 
 striking, the speaker should beware of pitching it on too 
 high a key. Few faults are worse than to fall from an 
 ambitious start into commonplace. Let it be quiet, though 
 interesting. The main thing is to create an impression in 
 the audience from the first that you have something to say 
 worth hearing, and are so much in earnest that you mean 
 they shall listen to it. 
 
250 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 (2) Announcement of the Theme 
 
 Some skilful speakers reserve any express statement of 
 their subject till near the close, trusting to lead the audience 
 forward by steps which are not seen to be conducting 
 towards it until it come out at the end of the discourse. 
 This requires a practised orator with intelligent hearers, 
 intent to listen. As a rule, it is safer to state at this point 
 what you propose to speak about. This satisfies the con- 
 gregation that you at least have a clear idea in your own 
 mind. It assists dull hearers to follow you better. It 
 enables good listeners to connect every part of your address 
 with its governing idea. But the subject has to be stated 
 briefly and neatly, with the utmost simplicity and per- 
 spicuity, avoiding at this stage decorative diction, whether 
 epithets or tropes. 
 
 (3) Development of the Matter lender Divisions 
 
 The bulk or body of the sermon is, of course, to be 
 devoted to working out its main idea by bringing to its 
 elucidation, proof, or enforcement a variety of subordinate 
 and helpful materials of one sort or another. " Le discours 
 est la proposition d^velopp^e, et la proposition est le discours 
 en abr^g^." ^ 
 
 Two sources to which one may go for these materials give 
 rise to the two leading kinds of sermon. When the ideas 
 which form the substance of a discourse are drawn out of 
 the text itself, which may well happen if the passage chosen 
 be large and complex, then the sermon is called " textual " 
 or synthetic.^ When the subject only is yielded by the text 
 and the subsidiary ideas by which it is developed are sought 
 
 ^ F^nelon, Lettres sur V Eloquence. 
 
 2 Example.— Text : 2 Thess. 2"^ ". Theme : The Calling of the Chris- 
 tian. Divisions : 1. Its Author= " He called you." 2. Its outward means 
 = " By our Gospel." 3. Its end, which is twofold : (a) Immediate end is 
 faith and holiness ; (&) Ultimate end is to obtain the glory of our Lord. 
 
PREPARING TO PREACH: PLAN OF SERMON 251 
 
 for elsewhere, the sermon is said to be " topical " or analytic.^ 
 A judicious preacher will practise both kinds, guided on each 
 occasion, partly by the contents of the passage, and partly by 
 the character of the subject. Textual sermons are often 
 easier to produce than topical ones, since they call for 
 less inventiveness or fertility of mind. The speaker's skill 
 is shown in binding up into a synthesis what the passage 
 gives him, or so much of it at least as can be made available 
 for his purpose. On the other hand, the topical sermon 
 admits both of a freer handling and of a more complete 
 discussion of the subject. The text is virtually dismissed so 
 soon as it has yielded up its theme. For the rest, the 
 preacher is thrown upon his own invention. He is at 
 liberty to fetch arguments from Scripture, reason or 
 experience, illustrations from every region of nature or 
 of history, applications of the truth to any department of 
 human conduct, or motives of every description to move the 
 hearers as he would have them moved. Having so much at 
 his command, he has no excuse if he does not select what 
 will contribute most to the precise design which he has set 
 before him. Good sermons in either manner abound. The 
 textual is probably more in favour in our time; but the 
 topical sermon will always remain a choice instrument in 
 the hands of powerful and intellectual preachers. 
 
 With either class of sermon, but most of all with the 
 topical, what old rhetoricians styled "invention" has now 
 to be undertaken ; and it is this crucial portion of his task 
 which most tests the preacher's intellectual training and 
 habits of study. Of the study of the text I spoke in the 
 foregoing chapter. What has now to be studied is the 
 subject itself. It may require reading: either to inform 
 oneself of what others have said about it, or to collect facts 
 in illustration, or to verify literary parallels and allusions, 
 
 1 Example.— Text : 1 Tim. 1": ''The Blessed God." Theme: The 
 Happiness of God. Divisions : 1. What it is. 2. That it belongs in 
 perfection to God only. 3. How far creatures are capable of a like 
 happiness. 
 
252 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 or to keep one's theological teaching straight. But what it 
 
 requires most of all is downright hard thinking. A few 
 
 commonplaces any one can jot down at half an hour's notice 
 
 about any Bible subject you like. But to penetrate to the 
 
 heart of a deep theme, to seize upon what is central in 
 
 a great one, to detect its relations to other truths and 
 
 to human life, to catch the splendour or the mystery of it, 
 
 to work it up into fresh forms by a vigorous exercise upon 
 
 it of both brain and heart, so that it is not apprehended 
 
 merely, but assimilated and made one's own : — this is more 
 
 than it is given to every man to achieve, and more than a 
 
 crowd of indolent men will take the pains to attempt. Yet 
 
 this is exactly what every real preacher needs to do. 
 
 I admit that it is possible for a smart phraser to catch 
 
 for a time the ear of a congregation. But his emptiness will 
 
 be found out. People do not care in the long run for what 
 
 is not fresh — the coinage of one's own mint. When I say 
 
 that sermons are to be " original," no one will take me 
 
 to mean that the truths or the ideas are to be such as 
 
 no man ever thought or spoke before. Who is so foolish as 
 
 to ask that ? All truth is at the heart of it as old as the 
 
 hills, and our message has been ringing through Christendom 
 
 for nineteen centuries. Only it is the property of absolute 
 
 truth. Divine truth, to enter into fresh combinations in each 
 
 living soul that is possessed by it, to take on itself in each 
 
 man's mental workshop a shape it never had before, and so 
 
 to come forth from his living personality newborn, like 
 
 Pallas, in the radiance and the strength of eternal youth. 
 
 This is what people expect at the lips of a preacher. They 
 
 have a right to expect it. Therefore no true preacher ought 
 
 to grudge the toil of brain and spirit through which alone 
 
 the truth can become his own possession — better, can come 
 
 to possess him. 
 
 The prime counsel to anyone who is getting up a sermon 
 
 is, therefore, think ; think for yourself ; not taking too 
 
 much out of books; above all, not trusting to what a 
 
 commentary can give, or a homilist's outline, or another 
 
PREPARING TO PREACH : PLAN OF SERMON 253 
 
 man's printed sermon. All such crutches are for the 
 preacher vanity and a snare. To use them often saps 
 intellectual self-respect. It enfeebles one's power of 
 thinking. It reduces one to a parrot-like repetition of 
 other men's ideas. Give to old metal at least the fresh 
 stamp of your own brain. 
 
 In thus collecting material by reading, by study, and, 
 above all, by thinking, one need not gather with a sparing 
 hand. It is prudent to accumulate everything one can — 
 ideas, facts, sidelights, inferences, illustrations, quotations : 
 set it all down ; for one cannot yet tell what will be helpful 
 when the sermon comes to be built into a whole. What 
 may be profitably said on any given topic is enormously in 
 excess of what either can be or ought to be said in a single 
 sermon. Young preachers, therefore, are not commonly 
 gravelled for want of matter; the fault they frequently 
 commit is to put too much or too many things into one 
 discourse. Tor now comes the last of the indispensable 
 steps in sermon preparation : the selection and arrangement 
 of the material to be used. And it is hard for the beghmer 
 to sacrifice so many of the vivid conceptions and happy 
 illustrations that have by this time occurred to him. 
 Selection one knows there must be ; few have any notion at 
 first how drastic and pitiless it has to be. Luckily, what 
 cannot be said to-day will keep, if it be worth anything, till 
 another time. 
 
 To guide one in this work of selection, two principles 
 are given us by the two "fixed points" I spoke of: the 
 proposition or theme, which is to be the governing thought 
 of the whole discourse, and the aim or design which it keeps 
 in view. The former tells us what may be said ; the other 
 what it is best to say. 
 
 1. Nothing is admissible which has not a twofold rela- 
 tion to the theme : a connection with it at once logical and 
 natural. A logical connection, that is, one justified by the 
 laws of thought ; and a natural connection, or one which is 
 easily recognised by the audience. The former requirement 
 
254 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 excludes what is irrelevant, the latter what is far-fetched. 
 The former needs no defence ; for it is a law of all reason- 
 able discourse whatever, that it be relevant to its subject. 
 But the second is no less a law of the spoken discourse, 
 where the hearer cannot pause as a reader might, or turn 
 back a page, to make sure what relation your remarks bear 
 to the matter in hand. He needs to see that at once as 
 soon as he hears them. Even in addressing trained or picked 
 audiences, a speaker has to be careful to leave no unspoken 
 gaps in the thinking, nor spring upon the listener unexpected 
 statements, whose relation to what precedes is hard to find. 
 The preacher's audience is never, or hardly ever, a picked 
 one. It is a gathering of all sorts of people, of all ages 
 and both sexes, marked by no feature in common save their 
 common faith, and sure to number some persons who are 
 neither clever nor intent to listen. He should never show 
 his own ingenuity by dragging in far-fetched observations 
 at the cost of leaving such hearers in a fog. 
 
 2. This reference to the subject of discourse determines 
 only what is admissible ; to discover what is most pertinent 
 or fittest to be said on any occasion, one must have regard 
 to the end or aim of the speech and the character of the 
 audience. The ideal sermon is one in which, out of the 
 mass of permissible matter, those things are selected which 
 are best adapted to tell on a particular audience so as to 
 produce a particular result. Whether the preacher's aim 
 be to instruct, or to convince, or to evoke religious feeling, 
 or to persuade to a course of action — be it what it may — 
 his business from first to last is to make for his object, 
 choosing those points which are most ejffective for the end 
 he has in view. Thus a good sermon is tied, so to say, by 
 those two " fixed points " behind and before. 
 
 While one is selecting one's points or the material to be 
 used, it has probably fallen of itself into groups or what 
 preachers call " heads of discourse." But this final step — 
 " disposition," the rhetoricians term it — is too important to 
 be left to itself. 
 
PREPARING TO PREACH : PLAN OF SERMON 255 
 
 It is characteristic of any preconcerted address as dis- 
 tinguished from a casual talk, no matter how important, 
 that the speaker, knowing beforehand what he means to 
 say, shall say it in lucid order and consecutive arrangement, 
 finishing each point ere he proceeds to the next. This 
 makes it inevitable that his discourse should fall into 
 masses, whether these be numbered, named, and formally 
 announced, or not. Every organised discourse must thus 
 possess structure, its paragraphs being properly related to 
 each other and succeeding one another in proper order. 
 Such a method there must be in the speaker's mind, and 
 well-nigh every speaker finds it advisable to set it down 
 on paper for his own guidance. There is much diversity 
 in the fulness with which preachers work out their ideas 
 in their written plan or outline. The beginner at least 
 is counselled to block out with considerable detail how each 
 division is to be handled : noting the line of discussion, the 
 subsidiary ideas, the references to life and experience, the 
 illustrations. An artist is not usually content to sketch in 
 the rudest outline the composition of his future picture. 
 He makes a careful study of each of its main parts. 
 
 One of the most frequent faults to be met with among 
 preachers of the present day is the lax or structureless 
 arrangement of their discourses. A prevalent tendency is 
 to let the sermon flow on like an essay, with no marked 
 breaks, each part linked to the preceding, as it seems, by 
 the loosest or most casual suggestion. It is a frequent 
 method in the Anglican pulpit, where the sermon is so often 
 brief and inartificial. If the preacher would avoid such a 
 formless essay, let him build up in his study a firmly-knit 
 and organised framework, all the members of which are 
 articulated into a central backbone of robust connected 
 thinking. Phillips Brooks seems to me wholly right in 
 protesting against the current ridicule of " divisions " as 
 unwise.^ 
 
 This leaves us, of course, quite open to consider when 
 
 1 0^. cit. p. 177. 
 
256 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 or how far the congregation should be told beforehand what 
 the order of the sermon is to be. The custom is one on 
 which a good deal of difference exists. It used at one time 
 to be an all but invariable pulpit habit. F^nelon, who 
 is opposed to it, remarks that " it is not usual with ancient 
 orators or the Fathers, but has been inherited by modern 
 preachers from the schoolmen." ^ The most recent fashion 
 is against it. The leading advantage gained by indicating 
 from the outset what order it is proposed to observe, is that 
 it assists a dull hearer to follow with ease, and afterwards 
 to recall, the course of thought. Few would preach a 
 sermon to children without well-marked stepping-stones or 
 even pithy catch -words ; and for a similar reason an un- 
 educated or slow-witted audience is the better for them. 
 In the case of a sermon that is abstruse or argumentative, 
 even an average congregation will trace the unfolding of 
 the preacher's meaning more surely for knowing beforehand 
 what his line of thought is to be. Every wise speaker aims 
 at being at least luminous; and most audiences grow im- 
 patient of what it requires an effort to follow, and hate to 
 be perplexed by a tortuous or obscure discussion. On the 
 other hand, no audience cares to be treated like children; 
 and, when the division adopted is quite a conventional one 
 or is obviously suggested by the text, it sounds like an 
 insult to their intelligence for a dull preacher with a solemn 
 air to lay down his " heads " ore rotundo^ possibly repeating 
 them twice over. To intelligent and practised auditors, the 
 charm of a discourse may consist in anticipating the line 
 of treatment or in watching it gradually unfold as the 
 address proceeds. Such an audience is apt to grow listless 
 if it has been told beforehand what the argument is to 
 be. Better let it open out piece by piece, and gather it 
 up at the close. No hard and fast rule, it is clear, can 
 be laid down. In each case a skilful preacher will be 
 guided by the character of his sermon or the insight of his 
 
 * Dialogues sur V EloqucTice, Dial. II. Vinet, in discussing the question, 
 cites authorities both for and against. See his HomiUtiq^ie, Pt. ii. chap. 3. 
 
PREPARING TO PREACH : PLAN OF SERMON 257 
 
 congregation. Only, if he decide to mention his "heads" 
 at the outset, let him do so quietly in terse clear words 
 or sometimes in memorable phrases. 
 
 There is little room for choice left to the modern 
 preacher as to the number of divisions his sermon may 
 contain. The Puritans, who preached by the hour-glass, 
 could indulge in a good many main " heads " with sub- 
 divisions under each ; but the brief half -hour or so pre- 
 scribed by modern habit does not justify subdivisions at 
 all, as a rule, and reduces the heads to a very few. To 
 make too many fresh starts robs a speech of continuity and 
 diminishes its effect; for a long list of particulars recalls 
 a table of contents, and leaves no time to dwell on any 
 point to the degree that is indispensable for oratorical 
 momentum or impression. Hence there can hardly be 
 more than four with advantage ; rarely so many. The 
 frequency with which three occur is no reason for avoiding 
 that number ; it only testifies to its convenience. 
 
 Errors on this point are rare : a more frequent fault is, 
 to be so taken up with one division, usually the first one, 
 that it gets more than its share of attention, insufficient 
 time is left for the rest, and the symmetry of the whole 
 is spoilt. The origin of this is a waut of balance in the 
 measure of interest or of pains bestowed on each part 
 during one's preparation of the sermon. Do not suffer any 
 division to bulk disproportionately before your own mind. 
 If you do, another danger arises — of weakening the hearer's 
 interest through over-elaboration. His mind should never 
 be suffered to grow slack by a too slow movement of thought, 
 but be carried forward from point to point before any idea 
 has had time to become stale. Movement is the life of 
 oratory. No single part is to be > welt on as if it were the 
 whole; but only as a part in it 3 relation to the governing 
 idea. When it has been long enough before the audience 
 to make an impression proportioned to its relative import- 
 ance, it is time to go on to the next. 
 
 But these transitions it is confessedly difficult to manage 
 
 17 
 
258 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 well. Opposite extremes have to be avoided. The con- 
 tinuity of impression proper to a speech is lost by any stop 
 in the flow of thought, so complete as to create the effect of 
 a quite fresh commencement. To let an audience down in 
 this fashion is to forfeit what has been gained in the way 
 of interest or of warmth of feeling; and it is doubtful if 
 an equal measure of attention can be recovered again. 
 This is one reason why sermons so frequently prove less 
 effective in the closing than in the opening quarter of an 
 hour. On the other extreme, it is a mistake to fill up the 
 interstice between one part and another so completely that 
 boundaries are obliterated. For if the speaker glide imper- 
 ceptibly from each division to the next, the advantage of 
 having divisions at all is largely sacrificed. The tired listener 
 gets no breathing time, no sense of relief. What is worse, he 
 has no sense of progress. The reposeful consciousness of 
 having advanced a stage is replaced by a breathless chase 
 after the speaker. Nothing therefore is gained by attempting 
 to conceal the fact that a fresh " head of discourse " is to begin. 
 Both of these opposite risks will be best avoided when 
 there is a natural connection between the parts, so that 
 each division leads on the next, and the hearer's mind 
 advances to the n^w matter as to something higher. On 
 every account preachers ought to pay special heed to this 
 law of advance in sermon-construction. There are, in truth, 
 no more than two chief rules to govern the relation of one 
 part of a discourse to the rest. The one is that the divisions 
 be logically co-ordinate, that is, that a conception which 
 is in logic subordinate is not to be placed alongside or on a 
 level with another which is higher or more general.^ But 
 
 ^ This is best seen by an example of the violation of the rule. Theme : 
 God is not moved to save man by any merit in him : — 
 
 1. This is a truth of the highest importance to the sinner. 
 
 2. It is as important for the saint as for the sinner. 
 
 3. While it keeps the saint humble, it also helps to make him holy. 
 It is obvious that (1) and (2) exhaust the bearings of the subject, and (3) 
 falls as subordinate matter under (2). This example, like others in the foot- 
 notes, is taken from a printed sermon. 
 
PREPARING TO PREACH : PLAN OF SERMON 259 
 
 this indispensable rule is too obvious to be often violated by 
 any clear thinker. The second one aims at a superior kind 
 of excellence, not logical, but oratorical, and is more difficult 
 to attain. Indeed, it is not always possible of attainment ; 
 but where it is, it should be striven after. It is that the 
 ideas should succeed each other in an order which constitutes 
 a progress, each being in one way or other an advance upon 
 its forerunner " in interest, in vigour, in emotion," and all 
 of them carrying the hearers forward to the intended 
 conclusion. If you merely set a string of parallel parti- 
 culars alongside one another, with no further relation between 
 them than that they are equally drawn from your subject, 
 you can build up a good and reasonable discourse ; but it 
 will not be one of the highest order. It must lack that 
 movement towards an end which every speaker instinctively 
 seeks after. Daniel Webster, the American orator, is said 
 to have defined eloquence as " always a progress, on, right 
 on, to an object." If the life of oratory be movement, then 
 advance is the power of its life. In support and explana- 
 tion, M. Coquerel's counsel here may be quoted with 
 advantage : — 
 
 " I cannot too earnestly press upon our young ministers 
 to break themselves to this necessity of their task, to this 
 condition of their success. They must mature their plan in 
 such a manner as to classify the ideas, the groups of ideas, the 
 arguments, the examples, the exhortations, in the order of 
 their importance. They must overturn their plan if it has 
 not led as its result to this indispensable order of the matter ; 
 they must even, when the sermon is written, change the 
 disposition of its parts, transpose them, and, by means of 
 new transitions, modify their series, if it is discovered that 
 the strong arguments have taken a place before the weaker, 
 the moving appeals before the more tranquil, and aspiration 
 full of fervour before the remindal of an example, an 
 apostrophe or a prayer before a calm argumentation. This 
 is the price of success." ^ 
 
 ^ 0}). cit. pp. 105-106 of the Englisli translation. 
 
26o THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 (4) Conclusion 
 
 What I have just called the " law of advance " throws 
 the weight of a sermon forward, to rest where it ought to 
 do on the close ; call it peroration, or " application," or what 
 you will. All masters of the art bid us be particular about 
 the conclusion : '* the trying and perilous part " of the 
 discourse.^ To end feebly is to lose half the battle ; because 
 it fails to leave the desired impression planted firm and full 
 upon the minds of the hearers. 
 
 That there ought to be a conclusion appears from the 
 uses which it serves. These are two at least. First, to 
 satisfy the audience that the natural and intended close has 
 been reached. It is one thing to stop — no mortal can tell 
 why ; and quite another thing to conclude, because what 
 you set out to do has been done. A good sermon is bound 
 to end where it does, and the " conclusion " ought to satisfy 
 the hearer of this by giving him a feeling of completion. 
 The other use of a peroration is to gather to a point or 
 climax, not the theme now so much as the design or scope 
 of the speaker, so as to leave the audience in the mood, or 
 full of the purpose, which he desires to create in them. 
 Just as the introduction led up to the theme, so does the 
 conclusion bear closely on the aim of the discourse — the 
 practical issue with a view to which the whole has been 
 planned. 
 
 This near relation to the design of the sermon cannot 
 fail of course to impart to the conclusion a practical 
 character. But it is by no means indispensable that it 
 should assume the shape of an exhortation, or of an express 
 " application," as it is termed. If the bearings of the subject 
 on life and duty have been kept steadily in view all along, 
 this is not necessary. If they have not, it is apt to be 
 formal. People are little moved by admonitions that are 
 railed off in a place by themselves, or that only come in by 
 rule at the end as a concession to pulpit traditions. The 
 
 ^ Hoppin, op. cit. 
 
PREPARING TO PREACH : PLAN OF SERMON 261 
 
 mere suspicion that anything of that sort is said ;pro formd 
 or in cool blood, is fatal to its moral effect. Besides, it looks 
 as if, until the " application " is reached, both preacher and 
 hearers might safely forget that the Gospel has to do with 
 the actual needs of living men. One must never suffer an 
 audience to take the sermon for an academic or intellectual 
 exercise through five-sixths of its length, only redeemed for 
 pulpit use by a sting in its tail. 
 
 But when a preacher speaks all through as a pastor, 
 with his finger on the pulse of his people's life, in sympathy 
 with their rehgious difficulties, trials, or shortcomings, and 
 with a message for them from God in his mouth, he can 
 find many an effective mode of closing quite unlike the 
 conventional " application." It may be by a rapid summary 
 of the line of thought pursued ; or by a sudden rising from 
 details to a wider outlook which commands them all ; or by 
 a sharp contrast, even, which sets off the main lesson with 
 unlooked-for vividness as by a foil ; or by reverting swiftly 
 to the opening, to end upon the thought from which he 
 set out. In any case, it ought to be the most animated, 
 or, at all events, the most intense, part of the whole dis- 
 course. Not long, however ; nor, though for sheer impres- 
 siveness the most weighty, need it be the most ambitious 
 in style. Rather the reverse. If the sermon has been 
 impassioned, it is often wise to let the audience down to 
 a quieter level of feeling ere you close. This is to be done 
 either by addressing the conscience, an address usually 
 marked by calm solemnity rather than by excitement ; or 
 by a deeper utterance of religious emotion, and religious 
 emotion is calm when it is deep. No preacher who knows 
 his business will be afraid of emotion. What is a sermon 
 but an utterance of the speaker's own religious life in order 
 to enkindle or to intensify rehgious life in his hearers ? 
 And of all life the very heart, the central fire, is feeling. 
 On one hand of it stands truth: with that the speaker 
 begins ; it is his instrument for awakening feeling. On the 
 other hand of it stands action : to that the hearer is to be 
 
262 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 led. Between the two, linking them together, there must 
 be high, spiritual, noble emotion. Truth published in love 
 breeds it and feeds it. Once generated, it sets the will in 
 motion; impels it to righteous effort and generous deeds. 
 No mistake is greater than when a young preacher sets out 
 with a dread for emotional preaching, or with a contempt 
 for it.i Now, whatever warmth of feeling, moral or 
 devotional, has been kindled in the minister's own spirit 
 or in a sympathetic listener during the course of the 
 address, ought to glow in the peroration, attaining there 
 its completest and most artistic utterance, that the audience 
 of worshippers may be sent away subdued, melted, or 
 inspired with holy love for holy things. 
 
 How is such a conclusion to be studied or prepared 
 beforehand ? To realise in cool blood what it shall contain 
 is barely possible. I grant it; but it ought not to be 
 prepared in cool blood. All through the preparation of a 
 discourse it is desirable that the minister should himself be 
 in the mood of feeling which befits it. Have we not heard 
 sermons where the thoughts were solemn to pathos, yet 
 they were discussed with the air of detachment that becomes 
 a critic ? A man's theme may lead him to the very fount 
 of tears where simplicity and tenderness are asked for, and 
 he may treat us to flights of fancy or flamboyant rhetoric. 
 Enter on the drafting of a sermon as a purely intellectual 
 exercise, and you will be frigid till the close. But the 
 preparation is to be itself a rehearsal. One needs to get 
 into the spirit of the address when quietly ruminating over 
 it in the study, until one comes to experience its emotions 
 as they are to be experienced in the delivery of it. While 
 you are musing, the fire must burn. I do not care how it 
 is managed : it may be on one's knees.^ Let the preacher 
 keep human souls before him as he studies at home : flesh 
 
 ^ Cf. the late Dr. Joseph Parker's defence of preaching "with tears in 
 it," in his Ad Clerum, p. 70 (Lond. 1873). 
 
 ^ One of good old Cotton Mather's "Counsels " is : "Study your sermon 
 on your knees" {Manducatio ad Ministerium, 1710, sect. xvi.). 
 
PREPARING TO PREACH : PLAN OF SERMON 263 
 
 and blood hearers whom it is to be his business next Lord's 
 Day to move, to rouse, to warn, to comfort, to persuade, to 
 save. Let him suppose himself already in the pulpit, bent to 
 reach and subdue the hearts and wills of his audience ; then 
 it will not be so hard to discover of what sort his closing 
 words should be. Nature will tell him, moved as he is 
 himself, what will move them ; by what swift, brief, intense 
 gathering up of all the passion of his theme, sweet be it 
 or solemn, he can bear down upon these souls before him, 
 and lift them up with himself to God. 
 
CHAPTEB XXII 
 DICTION AND DELIVERY 
 
 Up to this point, diction, or the language in which the 
 preacher is ultimately to clothe his thoughts, has not 
 come at all prominently into view. It can be left to the 
 moment of delivery. The preparation of a careful, even 
 full, plan or outline of all that is to be said, and of the 
 order in which one part is to follow another, is practically 
 indispensable; but nothing else is so. Whether the work 
 of preparation is to be carried a step further by writing 
 out the sermon in full before it is preached, though an 
 important question, is a secondary one. The precomposed 
 and the extemporised discourse have their respective 
 recommendations and drawbacks. Whichever plan may be 
 on the whole the better, there are some men who will do 
 their best work in the one way, and some in the other. I 
 suppose each of us can only find out his own aptitudes and 
 limitations by experimenting with both. But in deciding 
 the question, one has also to take into account the advan- 
 tages and defects of each method. 
 
 The chief benefit of writing out one's sermons is to 
 secure a better English style. Composing pen in hand, a 
 man can weigh his words and pick them. He can prune 
 and polish his phrases. He can construct his periods with 
 skill. He can give to his sentences balance and cadence. 
 He can delete awkward, obscure, and feeble expressions. 
 He can avoid what is tautological, or inexact, or inflated. 
 He acquires a more copious vocabulary, and superior tact 
 
 in using it. In short, it is in his power to train himself to 
 
 264 
 
DICTION AND DELIVERY 265 
 
 write in a style which shall combine the three qualities 
 commended by the rhetoricians, of perspicuity, force, and 
 beauty. 
 
 Every one must recognise that this is to gain a most 
 material aid to effective preaching. Language is our instru- 
 ment; and whatever enables us to wield it with greater 
 mastery, contributes to our power as speakers. According to 
 Cardinal Maury, it is the supreme merit of their style which 
 has assured a long hfe to the masterpieces of the French 
 pulpit.^ The advantage of a finished style, however, is not 
 one the value of which is equal for every audience or for 
 every preacher. It takes a fairly cultured congregation 
 to appreciate the niceties of language, or to be offended by 
 looseness of construction. And there are some speakers 
 whose skill in composition is never likely to be very great. 
 If a man who at his best can only write flaccid or indifferent 
 English is called upon to address people who are not at all 
 sensitive to such defects, he may not after all gain so much 
 by writing out his sermons as to be worth the time and 
 labour. 
 
 Besides, the effort after style has accompanying risks. 
 Chief of these is the risk that through over-elaboration in 
 the absence of an audience, a preacher's diction become too 
 literary, too remote from spoken language. In the study 
 one is apt to compose like a book, not like a speech. One 
 comes even to forget how great the difference is between 
 diction intended to be read and that which is addressed 
 to an audience. The directness of a speech is apt to go. 
 The fulness of utterance in which not much is left to be 
 supplied, the ease in passing from one point to another, the 
 amplitude of exposition, the needful repetition of an idea 
 to catch every listener, the use of the personal pronouns, 
 the apostrophe, the interrogation, the impromptu air : — all 
 these features of spoken style are apt to suffer ; and instead 
 of an address, you may get, what one too often hears from 
 the pulpit, a disquisition or an essay. 
 
 ^ Essai, sect. 37. 
 
266 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 Of course, the recommendations and the defects of 
 extemporising are just the converse of these. He who 
 stands up to say what he has not previously written is 
 pretty sure at least to speak to the people, which is after 
 all the main thing. He gains in ease and naturalness. 
 He is direct and pointed. His address wears a look of 
 reality. It is easy for him to adopt a familiar tone ; and 
 although a young preacher fresh from the classroom may 
 be chary of a semi- conversational manner, all really 
 popular speakers employ it as the basis of their address, 
 only rising in exceptional passages to a more solemn or 
 elevated style. This does not mean that the average 
 pulpit level is not to be above the bald, disjointed chitchat 
 of friendly talk. At its lowest it ought to be more like 
 the intelligent and correct monologue of a cultured and 
 practised speaker when he is addressing his friend on a 
 more than usually serious subject. The leisurely pre- 
 meditation which has gone before, the sacredness of the 
 occasion, and the sympathy of numbers ought all to lift 
 the pulpit orator to a level of chastened passion and well 
 ordered forceful speech, such as conversation in private 
 never or rarely attains. But, then, extempore speech has 
 the defects of its virtues. It easily becomes slipshod. 
 There is risk of becoming impoverished in the vocabulary 
 at one's command. The same poor, thin phrases recur ; the 
 same forms of construction. Sometimes the right word 
 comes, sometimes not. Sentences will trip and get dis- 
 located. Grammar even may suffer. Periods end feebly 
 or run on with loose articulation. You repeat yourself ; 
 even lose your thread. It is hard to keep such a mode of 
 sermonising, when exclusively practised, from degenerating 
 into a maundering, ill-put-together talk. 
 
 There are clearly strong points to be scored, then, by 
 either method, if only it be a success; but whichever a 
 man selects, he will need to secure himself against its 
 pitfalls. 
 
 A second reason sometimes adduced for writing out 
 
DICTION AND DELIVERY 267 
 
 sermons previous to delivery, is that this leaves the 
 preacher less dependent on the mood of the moment. A 
 man can choosp his time; and it is commonly his own 
 fault if he compose his sermon when out of sorts, or over- 
 jaded, or in the wrong mood. Having once secured his 
 manuscript in a happy hour, when fresh from meditation 
 and full of his subject, he is less dependent on the sympathy 
 of an audience or the inspiration of the hour of worship. 
 The truth is that a great many sermons have to be delivered 
 under most disheartening, uninspiring surroundings. A 
 chill church, thin pews, unappreciative hearers, fog in the 
 atmosphere and dulness in the spirit — a thousand things 
 may occur to work languor in the brain, and to disqualify 
 the best of us from speaking at our best. When one 
 listens to a secular orator achieving an oratorical success, 
 it is on some special occasion, on a subject of the day, 
 before a packed and eager throng of partisans ready to 
 punctuate his hits with their plaudits, and reporters below 
 to give his words a wider circulation. Then, to be sure, if 
 a man can speak at all, he ought to speak well. The 
 preacher has none of these attendant stimuli. Before the 
 same people, week after week, in some obscure, ill-lighted, 
 or half-empty chapel, it may be, with no public outside 
 waiting for his message : the conditions are not favourable 
 for eloquence. I know what can be said on the other side. 
 The minister of Christ speaks on the most momentous and 
 inspiring of all themes, with eternal issues depending. 
 He reasons, he pleads, he beseeches in the name of God. 
 He has words to say that are mighty to pierce the con- 
 science and to break or melt the heart. Let him only be 
 alive to his message and to the needs of human souls : 
 should he want any other inspiration ? I recollect all that. 
 But is it not often easier for a man to realise these things 
 in the solitude of his study, when he muses and prays, 
 easier then to pour out his soul in '* words that burn " 
 when he is writing with an imaginary congregation before 
 his mental eye, than it will be in that trying moment when 
 
268 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 he must stand up to address an unsympathetic handful of 
 worshippers ? And if he goes to the pulpit with a discourse 
 already composed in such a lively frame, when thought was 
 fertile and emotion vivid, it may be easier for him to with- 
 stand the influences that depress, to revive the ardour of 
 composition, and pour his thoughts through channels which 
 they fashioned for themselves in a happier hour. 
 
 All this is true ; for some men very true. But the 
 independence of external influences which is thus gained is 
 only comparative after all ; and it is purchased at a price. 
 For, on the other hand, he who has composed beforehand 
 is much less able to catch and respond to the inspiration, 
 when that is favourable — or to create it if it be absent — of 
 the place, the audience, and the hour. In fact, he is not 
 so vigorously summoned to do so, as if he extemporised. He 
 makes therefore, as a rule, less effort to put himself into 
 sympathy with his hearers, or to rouse them into sympathy 
 with his own mood. Too often he is content to recite with 
 propriety what he came prepared to say. Whereas, an 
 extempore speaker is lost unless he can rouse both himself 
 and his audience. That very necessity puts him on his 
 mettle. It peremptorily calls upon him to exert himself. 
 It makes his mind move more nimbly. It compels him 
 to cast himself upon whatever help he can get from the 
 listening people, be they few or many. In such circum- 
 stances even a single quick responsive auditor becomes a 
 valuable aid ; should the interchange of feeling betwixt 
 speaker and congregation grow general and active, then 
 the free speaker is in a position to take full advantage of 
 it. He has more liberty to deviate from his intended 
 course of thought. He can profit by those swift side- 
 glances, happy and suggestive illustrations, touches of pathos, 
 momentary appeals, or the Hke, which offer themselves in 
 the heat of speaking, never can be reached in any other 
 way. Nothing then comes between the orator and his 
 audience. Nothing hinders him from rising on the rising 
 tide of their emotions to his true throne — to heights of 
 
DICTION AND DELIVERY 269 
 
 passion, and that sway over the minds and wills of men 
 which is the highest triumph of eloquence. If the extem- 
 poriser must at times fall flat or fail, at least he has a 
 chance at other times to attain his best. The written 
 discourse keeps closer to the safe level of a speaker's 
 average. 
 
 Between the relative claims, then, of these two methods, 
 every preacher has to strike the balance* for himself. Since 
 excellent results can be attained on either plan, one's choice 
 may be largely guided by other considerations ; chiefly by 
 these two: which method does most justice to one's own 
 powers, and which promises the best results among the 
 kind of people to whom one ministers. In the majority of 
 cases, however, the counsel of perfection seems to me to be 
 this : acquire a command over both methods by conscien- 
 tiously and steadily practising both ; with this additional 
 precaution that each of them be practised in such a way 
 as will reduce its disadvantages to a minimum. 
 
 To some extent, at least, both must be practised if the 
 full benefit of either is to be secured. Those authors who 
 have most strongly urged free speech in the pulpit are at 
 one in insisting that an extempore preacher should train 
 himself for his work by diligent practice at written com- 
 position. M. Coquerel, for example, thinks it necessary to 
 postpone improvising until one has had a long experience 
 of written sermons.^ M. I'Abb^ Bautain, who has written 
 an excellent little book on " The Art of Extempore Preach- 
 ing," heads one of his paragraphs thus : " That to speak 
 well in public, one must first know how to write." ^ In the 
 first of his lectures at Union Seminary on " The conditions 
 of success in preaching without notes," Dr. Storrs of 
 Brooklyn says : " Always be careful to keep up the habit of 
 writing with whatever of skill, elegance, and force you can 
 command." ^ So indispensable does he take such pen-practice 
 
 1 Op, cit, Eng. tr. pp. 123-151. 
 
 2 Op. cit., Lond. 1860, p. 66. 
 
 ^ London, 1892, p. 37. The Rints on Extemporaneous Preaching of an 
 
270 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 to be, that he advises men who do not write their sermons, 
 to write something else, — essays, lectures, or newspaper 
 articles. But if it be so needful to write, why not compose 
 at least one sermon a week ? Surely this ought to form a 
 serviceable style for pulpit extemporising, better than 
 writing for the press would do. 
 
 Nor is it one whit less incumbent on every preacher, 
 whether his sermons be written or not, to acquire the 
 power of speaking without verbal preparation. Occasions 
 are constantly arising in ministerial work, as every minister 
 knows, when he is called upon to speak extempore. Evan- 
 gelistic addresses, for instance, are best unwritten. So with 
 sermons to children. The mid-week discourse should be 
 free. It is an intolerable strain to be obliged to put on 
 paper every week two Sunday discourses and a week-day 
 one as well. Besides, there are frequent calls for platform 
 speeches at public meetings or at Church gatherings, when 
 the modern pastor is expected to show himself ready and 
 effective, sometimes on the spur of the moment. If for all 
 such purposes a minister needs to acquire the power to 
 command his thoughts in face of an audience, and utter 
 them off-hand with self-posession, fluency, and a fair 
 measure of force and correctness, why not use this power 
 at least once a week in the pulpit ? 
 
 The other suggestion which appears to me to have value 
 is that while a minister carries on the practice of both 
 methods abreast, he should so manage each of them as to 
 gain from it a maximum of advantage with a minimum of 
 drawbacks. 
 
 1. When he has to preach a sermon which he has not 
 written, let him take every precaution to guard against the 
 chief dangers of improvisation. These are, I suppose, loose 
 thinking, a bad arrangement of matter, and weak, flabby 
 verbiage. I think the best way to avoid all three is first to 
 
 older American divine, Dr. Henry Ware of Harvard, are very sensible. 
 They will be found reprinted at the end of Ripley's Sacred Rhetoric, 
 (Boston, 1849). 
 
DICTION AND DELIVERY 271 
 
 spare neither pains nor time in the preparation of one's 
 matter through all the stages described in the foregoing 
 chapter. Only it is not enough that a digested and 
 arranged scheme for the whole discourse from opening to 
 close be set down on paper. He must get it into his head. 
 One of the best advantages of free speech is its freedom. 
 To attain that in its highest degree, no scrap of notes should 
 be used in the pulpit ; for any dependence on paper is so far 
 as it goes a fetter. But it is impossible to dispense entirely 
 with notes unless the plan of the discourse has been gone 
 over mentally beforehand so often that it is now lodged 
 securely in the memory. The speaker who trusts wholly 
 to the moment for the form of expression needs to have a 
 complete mastery of the road he is to travel, through all 
 its stages. 
 
 For the success of extempore speaking, it is likewise of 
 the utmost consequence that the minister go to the pulpit 
 in a frame of earnest religious feeling. He needs to be in 
 the spirit of his message ; and if he is to be raised above 
 trepidation or " the fear of man," let him see that his soul 
 is charged with its urgency and with the sacredness of his 
 office. Solitude and leisure for silent meditation and 
 prayer are to be secured just before the service begins. 
 M. Bautain, who presses this point, calls it the " final moral 
 preparation." 1 When the Gospel messenger is full of his 
 message and warm with zeal for God and love for men, 
 then let him speak with confidence as the Spirit gives him 
 utterance. Let him trust in the act of speaking to the 
 impulse of the moment for the words in which to put his 
 meaning ; taking care only to keep the prearranged thread 
 of the discourse well in hand. The charm of this kind of 
 sermon is just to be impromptu, a live utterance of the 
 thought and emotion of the hour, in which (as Milton has 
 it in a famous passage) " words . . . like so many nimble 
 and airy servitors, trip about him at command, and, in well- 
 ordered files, as he would wish, fall aptly into their own 
 
 ^ Oj>. cit. chap. 17, 
 
272 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 places." ^ That is, provided they are there at the speaker's 
 command. But for this the possession of an opulent 
 vocabulary is essential. Louis Stevenson has told how he 
 trained himself to write by noting down choice words met 
 with in his reading and practising himself in the use of 
 them. Some such method is still more helpful for a 
 preacher. The stylist must be a connoisseur in words, deft 
 at the selection and the setting of them. But the orator 
 needs in addition to have his stores within reach, ready of 
 recall. Then may he with safety surrender himself to the in- 
 spiration of the moment. It is not well to look backward now 
 to any chamber jottings, trying to recall phrases or forms of 
 speech previously set down. Launch yourself courageously 
 on the broad bosom of your subject and make for the end 
 of your voyage — the impression to be left upon the hearer. 
 It is quite possible to do this without abandoning control 
 over the course of thought, or over yourself. Never lose 
 self-command. Hold your powers in rein, and let the 
 judgment keep its hand on the emotions. Having calmly 
 decided ere you begin what course you are to steer, keep to 
 it. A certain liberty the practised speaker may permit 
 himself, to enrich his address with brief felicitous additions 
 suggested on the spot ; but if he abuse this privilege by 
 rambling too far from the course marked out, he throws 
 himself away, and will find it hard to recover himself 
 again. 
 
 2. Suppose, again, that the sermon is to be written out 
 in the study : is there any way by which the drawbacks of 
 a written style can be minimised ? I think there is. 
 
 In the first place, write rapidly at a heat, and correct at 
 leisure. Sir Walter Scott said that his best passages were 
 those composed with the greatest rapidity. That is by no 
 means the method of every great author ; but it is the way 
 to imitate with the pen the ease and fluency of speech. It 
 may even be best, where it is practicable, for the whole to 
 be written at a sitting. Slow or unpractised writers, whose 
 
 ^ Apology for Smectymnuus. 
 
DICTION AND DELIVERY 273 
 
 style is still unformed, cannot do that. But each main 
 division, at all events, should be thrown off at a single 
 effort ; and when the work is resumed, it is worth while to 
 read aloud with energy what has been already composed, in 
 order to get back into the swing of composition (having 
 first, of course, endeavoured by prayer and meditation to get 
 one's mind back into the appropriate mood). If the thread 
 be taken up in cold blood, the impetus is lost and the unity 
 of tone is apt to be sacrificed. Nor should the writer ever 
 suspend composition near the conclusion of a sermon. 
 
 Such rapid composition is only to be recommended, at 
 least to any but the most practised writers, on the under- 
 standing that much will be done in the way of revision. 
 Without careful correction, the manuscript, rapidly written, 
 remains an extempore effusion, and might as well have been 
 improvised in church. Eecollect Eoscommon's line : 
 
 **And wi'ite with fury, but correct with phlegm."^ 
 
 The chief end of revision is to sharpen the edge of style, 
 quite as much as to purify it, by pruning away unnecessary 
 epithets, redundant phrases, technical or philosophical terms, 
 inflated diction too high-flown for the thought expressed, 
 and especially all obscurity of statement. Its object is not, 
 as some suppose, a style smoothed or pohshed to the utmost. 
 On the contrary, diction that is somewhat rugged or broken, 
 especially if it betray the speaker's intensity, besides being 
 closer akin to impromptu speech, will bear upon the 
 listener's mind with forceful impact, when the lapse of 
 finished and flowing periods only soothes his ear. Only 
 care must be taken not to pare away the easy flow 
 and fulness of what was written in haste to a point at 
 which sentences become too abrupt or elliptical to be 
 readily apprehended when first heard. The style best 
 suited for a preacher's purpose is that which lets the ideas 
 glide at once without effort into the intelligence of every 
 hearer, yet at the same time drives them home to his heart 
 
 1 Poems by the Earl of Roscommon, Lond. 1717, p. 39. ' 
 18 
 
274 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 with the utmost force compatible with such ease of 
 apprehension. 
 
 Though the fault is not at present specially common, 
 some young preachers need to be on their guard against 
 what is called " an ambitious style." That comes whenever 
 the words are stronger than the thinking, or more ornate 
 and passionate than the state of feeling justifies. No doubt, 
 when an orator is impassioned, the oratorical temperament 
 involves a certain amount of exaggeration, and oratorical 
 effect probably demands it. No imaginative or emotional 
 speaker confines himself to the cautious balanced phrases of 
 a philosopher. He pictures, he amplifies, he uses hyperboles, 
 that he may infuse into his hearer some of his own warm 
 feeling. This is legitimate, but only so long as there is feeling 
 behind no less real and keen than the language suggests. 
 Inflation is at once detected. Indeed, the skilful orator 
 speaks below rather than above his actual state of emotion, 
 knowing that self-restraint is an element of power. Nor can 
 any speaker tarry for more than a moment or two at his 
 supreme point of intensity, but has to give himself and his 
 auditors immediate relief by falling to a more usual pitch. 
 
 Another way to avoid the stiffness of written style is to 
 follow a suggestion I have already had occasion to offer — 
 that he who is writing for the pulpit should keep his 
 audience before his mind while the pen is in his hand. If 
 he come to the act of composition, as I have supposed him 
 to do, with mind and heart full of a train of ideas designed 
 to work some special profit for an actual congregation, there 
 is nothing to hinder him from preaching while he writes. 
 If he suppose himself to be addressing the people, then he 
 will study to put every point as he would try to put it to a 
 real listener, to whom he wished to convey his meaning 
 with the utmost impressiveness. Some men, in fact, are 
 accustomed to compose in this way without writing at all, 
 walking up and down their room. They have the faculty 
 of reproducing in church what has thus been rehearsed at 
 home. Few can do that ; but any one can write with an 
 
DICTION AND DELIVERY 275 
 
 imaginary audience before him. It is a homiletic habit of 
 composition by which the essay sort of sermon is escaped. 
 The notion of a real speech is kept up, and the spirit of one 
 is consequently caught. When in the course of composing 
 or afterwards, one reads over what has been written, it is 
 always wise to read it, or deliver it, aloud, as though one 
 were preaching it, for this tests its fitness for its purpose. 
 It shows whether it is direct enough, and lucid enough, 
 and forcible enough, to go home to the hearer. It serves 
 also to show how far the collocation of sounds is capable 
 of easy enunciation, of rhythmical delivery, and of being 
 pronounced with sufficient vigour for oratorical effect. 
 
 The sermon only comes into existence, in the true sense 
 of the word, by being " delivered," spoken, that is, by the 
 preacher as a real and present utterance of himself to his 
 audience. We talk, indeed, of written or printed sermons, 
 but in strict use of words the manuscript is no more than 
 an aid to the speaker, and the published volume nothing but 
 a report of what has been spoken. The sermon itself is a 
 speech, and as such is born and dies in the hour of its 
 delivery. Nor is this a verbal quibble, but a fact which no 
 preacher can safely allow himself to forget. When it is 
 remembered, no argument is wanted to convince him that 
 his work is not over when the discourse has been prepared, 
 not even when it lies fully written out upon his desk ; that 
 delivery is not an accident, but the very crown and end of 
 all, for which the rest has been merely preliminary : so that 
 to a perfect or finished sermon there goes a perfect and 
 finished utterance of it from the heart to listening ears. 
 
 The minister who is most in danger of forgetting these 
 things is the man who writes, and from the same manuscript 
 may preach the same discourse, not once, but frequently. 
 But even after a sermon has been written, the preacher has 
 still to prepare himself to preach it. Like a written outline, 
 it is but an aid to speech. It is to be used, not abused. 
 The faculty which enables one to use in the pulpit whatever 
 
276 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 has been prepared beforehand is memory ; and a manuscript 
 is abused when memory is denied any share in the operation 
 at all. While, therefore, there are several degrees of 
 dependence on one's manuscript which are legitimate, there 
 is one which I can only term illegitimate. It is when the 
 pages are simply read aloud. When you see a man in the 
 pulpit so entirely dependent on his manuscript that his eye 
 must trace every line of it, and neither voice nor gesture 
 differs from that of any educated person who reads aloud 
 from a printed page what he may never have seen before,^ 
 then you see what I mean by illegitimate use of it. The 
 effect on the hearer is very much as if the address did not 
 proceed from the man at all, but only passed through him, 
 taking sound upon his lips. It has ceased to be a speech. 
 It has become a lecture ; and this is fatal to the art of 
 preaching. We may all have chanced to listen to such 
 pulpit utterances ; but if I am not mistaken, the Church in 
 Christendom which has sinned and suffered most in this 
 way is the Church of England. Reading, pure and simple, 
 of the clergyman's own composition or of another man's, 
 at times from a printed or a lithographed page, has been 
 the bane of the modern Anglican pulpit, and at one time 
 went near to kill pulpit eloquence in that great communion. 
 For, what is "delivery"? It is a giving j forth to the 
 hearer, in the best way attainable, of the best that is in the 
 speaker : the projection, in other words, through voice and 
 eye and gesture, of what lives and burns in his bosom of 
 Divine truth and sacred emotion, so that by the mystic 
 contagion of personality it shall possess and sway his 
 audience. The true preacher is no reciter, or actor, who 
 repeats the language or personates the mood of another, no, 
 nor even calls up emotions which he himself felt once but 
 does not feel now. It is the man's being possessed at the 
 moment by the ideas and the feelings which he utters that 
 makes the utterance of them real, living, not histrionic. 
 
 If a manuscript, then, is to be made use of at all, the 
 preacher must free himself from such a slavish and me- 
 
DICTION AND DELIVERY 277 
 
 chanical reading of its pages, by calling in considerable 
 aid from the memory. There are three ways of doing this, 
 which differ in the degree in which the orator trusts to his 
 recollection; and all of them carry the sanction of high 
 example. 
 
 The one which, on the whole, has probably been most 
 frequently adopted, at least by great preachers, is learning 
 by heart. We call this " committing the sermon to memory," 
 because in it the speaker's dependence on verbal recollection 
 is at its maximum. The masterpieces of the French pulpit 
 in the Louis Quatorze period, like many another famous 
 oration, were produced in this fashion. These French 
 preachers believed themselves to be following the classic 
 example of Greek and Eoman orators. Certainly there has 
 been a general impression that the speeches of Demosthenes 
 and of Cicero, like Burke's great speech at the trial of 
 Warren Hastings, were elaborately composed and memorised.^ 
 At any rate, if classic orators declaimed from memory, it is 
 fairly certain that Greek preachers in the age of Chrysostom 
 did not always adopt this method. Be that as it may, no 
 one doubts that splendid efforts of eloquence are attainable 
 on this plan ; but it is on one condition — the discourse must 
 be learnt perfectly, not imperfectly. It is one thing, as 
 M. Coquerel warns us, to be able to recite it accurately " in 
 the soHtude of the study," and another to " know it surely 
 enough, firmly enough, to deliver it in the pulpit and to 
 yield ourselves in delivering it to the warmth of elocution 
 which we possess." ^ To do this is easy for a very few ; for 
 a good many it becomes possible by practice ; for some it is 
 impossible. If a man either cannot learn with verbal accu- 
 racy at all, or can only learn it well enough to say it like a 
 schoolboy's lesson with stiffness and effort, he had better try 
 some other plan. His labour will be wasted. Even in the 
 case of many who think they commit with ease and complete 
 
 ^ This is strongly questioned, indeed, by F^nelon, though his reasons do 
 not appear conclusive. 
 2 Op. cit. p. 120. 
 
278 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 correctness, the result is a bondage which spoils the delivery. 
 One has heard of preachers who, if their memory tripped in 
 a single phrase, were unable to proceed. I have known 
 some who, during the recital, were consciously following in 
 fancy the lines of their manuscript and mentally turning 
 over its leaves. Others I have seen whose effort to recollect 
 compelled them to keep their eyes fixed on a certain part 
 of the opposite wall or a mark in the front of the gallery. 
 Even Bourdaloue is said to have kept his eyes shut for the 
 same reason. Such bondage, of course, is fatal to the 
 comfort of the speaker ; but it does worse, it robs his 
 delivery of naturalness, spontaneity, and charm. 
 
 Escape from this difficulty is sought by an intermediate 
 method, which aims at combining the freedom of extempore 
 speech, with the precision of a written style. The manu- 
 script is in this case conned and rehearsed until the ideas 
 in their order can be readily recalled, and to a large extent 
 even the language remains in the memory. This rehearsing 
 is best done aloud. The manuscript is then discarded in the 
 pulpit, as in the former case ; only the preacher makes no 
 deliberate effort to recall its words and sentences. He 
 trusts at the moment of delivery to extemporisation; 
 launching himself on his theme with no concern about verbal 
 reproduction of his written pages at all. So much of the 
 language as has stuck to his remembrance is suffered to 
 come back to him if it will ; for the rest, he depends on the 
 inspiration of the hour. This plan suits many, perhaps a 
 majority of speakers, very well. It does not burden the 
 memory with task-work, if only the orator can rid himself 
 of all anxiety to recall and repeat word for word. In the 
 case of most men, a good deal of the diction, and that the 
 best of it, will offer itself in the heat of delivery unsought 
 for ; and what thus comes to their lips will be more apt and 
 choice than if the sermon had never been composed at all. 
 But the success of this method must depend, partly on the 
 extent to which the process of learning from the manuscript 
 has been carried, and partly on the completeness with which 
 
DICTION AND DELIVERY 279 
 
 the half-learned manuscript with its well-turned periods 
 can be thrown to the winds as soon as the speaker is in the 
 pulpit. Hankering after what has been written spoils it. 
 The preacher must think of nothing but of his subject and 
 of his audience, just as if he had never written down a word. 
 There is yet a third way distinct from both of these. 
 Instead of trusting to improvisation to make up for defects 
 of memory, the speaker trusts now to his paper. He has 
 his manuscript before him, but uses it only as an aid to 
 assist his recollection. It approaches to reading, as the last 
 plan approached to extempore speech. Yet it differs from 
 that slavish reading which I called illegitimate in this, 
 that the preacher has made himself sufficiently master of 
 what he has composed, to speak it forth with freedom under 
 the feeling of the moment, aided only by swift, intermittent 
 and momentary glances at the manuscript. Given a good 
 eye, practice enables him to catch as much of the sentences 
 as he requires, without bending over the page, or touching 
 it, or even withdrawing his eye for more than a second at 
 a time from that straightforward look at his audience in 
 which lies so much of the orator's power. It is possible 
 to throw into delivery on this method very nearly as much 
 fire as if one spoke extempore, and not less of earnest 
 directness of speech. The advantage is that the chiselled 
 periods and selected phrases of a careful composition may 
 be closely, all but literally, adhered to. 
 
 In choosing among the various methods open to him, 
 the preacher is guided by the desire to deliver his sermon 
 as effectively as it is in his power to do. All the authorities 
 unite in extolling the immense importance of a good 
 delivery; and it needs little experience in sermon-hearing 
 to be aware that far more sermons are spoilt in the delivery 
 than in the preparation of them. But it goes without 
 saying that, differing widely as men do, each has a way of 
 speaking which is his own and is his best. The conscientious 
 preacher, therefore, makes it his endeavour to train himself, 
 
28o THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 as part of his professional equipment, to be as good a speaker 
 as it is in him to be. To a distressing extent young 
 ministers are left in this matter to their own efforts. Were 
 one not so accustomed to it, it would surely strike every 
 observer with astonishment, that, for a calling which has to 
 fulfil the major part of its office through public speaking, 
 candidates are seldom instructed in the art, or, if at all, 
 most imperfectly. The Koman Church is understood to 
 subject promising seminarists, destined for the pulpit, to 
 a very thorough preparation. But Protestant Churches, 
 though they make more use of preaching, wholly overlooked 
 for a long while this part of a minister's equipment ; and 
 even where some attention has of late been given to the 
 matter, drill in sermon delivery fills but a slender share of 
 the student's curriculum. Some help a young preacher 
 may gain for himself from elocution classes (although these 
 have not been always in the past of unmixed advantage) ; 
 some from studying good examples in the pulpit or else- 
 where ; some from the criticism of a candid friend. But 
 until the governing bodies of Churches and Colleges are 
 moved to take up the subject with the seriousness which it 
 deserves, we must submit to see higher gifts like scholarship 
 and devoted piety neutralised to a painful extent by avoid- 
 able defects in delivery. It is not given to everyone to be 
 a finished orator. But it is in the power of any educated 
 man to be made, or to make himself, if he will, a correct 
 and agreeable speaker. Is it unreasonable to ask of an order 
 of men whose main mission in life it is to deliver religious 
 addresses in public, that they shall at least understand the 
 rules of voice production, pronounce the English language 
 with purity, enunciate their message in distinct tones, avoid 
 grotesque gestures, and know how to face an audience with 
 dignity and self-command ? 
 
 Useful as the art of elocution ought to be for overcoming 
 such faults of voice or manner as mar either the ease or 
 the pleasure with which a speaker is listened to, no art can 
 replace the one indispensable and inimitable quality which 
 
DICTION AND DELIVERY 281 
 
 gives to all oratory its power over an audience: I mean 
 what the Abb6 MuUois calls " the accent of conviction." 
 I do not know where I have met with this sentence ; but 
 it is worth remembering: "The essence of preaching is 
 testimony ; the force of testimony is conviction ; the source 
 of conviction is experience." Out of the depths of his own 
 most cherished and precious experience of the Gospel each 
 preacher fetches that assured faith in its truth, that pro- 
 found conviction of its power to save, which give value to 
 his personal witness in the pulpit. Let us hear Thomas 
 Carlyle : " As Demosthenes was once asked what was the 
 secret of a fine orator, and he replied : ' Action — action — 
 action ' ; so, if I were asked it, I should say, ' Belief — belief — 
 belief ' " ^ Or let us hear Goethe : 
 
 " Wenn ihr's nicht fiihlt, ilir werdet's niclit erjagen, 
 "Wenn es niclit aus der Seele dringt, 
 Und mit nrkraftigein Behagen 
 Die Herzen aller Horer zwingt."^ 
 
 Fortunately, this supreme virtue of the orator is within 
 reach of every true preacher. Let him but speak his best 
 out of a full heart : intellect and spirit both occupied at 
 the hour of service by the thought of his theme and of 
 the practical aim at which it is directed. Then let both 
 voice and gesture be spontaneous, unstudied. Whatever 
 previous labour there may have been to discipline the 
 natural powers or to correct acquired faults, all that is over. 
 At the time there must be no conscious art ; no thinking 
 about delivery in the act of delivering. Of his subject the 
 preacher thinks, and of his audience ; of himself not at all. 
 Only in this way does he speak naturally ; that is to say, 
 naturally for him; out of his own nature. And it is a 
 law of speech that every man speaks best when he is so 
 possessed by what he has to say that no attention is left 
 for his way of saying it. 
 
 ^ Lectures on the History of Literature (Lond. 1892, p. 73). 
 ^ Faust, 1st Scene of the First Part. 
 
CHAPTEK XXIII 
 
 PREPARATION OF THE PREACHER 
 
 Apart from the preparation which he makes for every 
 sermon he has to deliver, the minister who has given his 
 life to this work makes it his daily business to discipline 
 himself for its ever better and better performance. The 
 necessity for the former escapes no one; but compara- 
 tively few realise that the training of the man to be a 
 preacher is of much higher importance. The process is 
 only begun in college years ; it is to be the work of his life. 
 And when this general preparation is well done, " prepara- 
 tions for particular occasions," as F^nelon said long ago, 
 " will cost but little " ^ — certainly they will become surpris- 
 ingly easier. I know no better instance of this than the 
 case of the late Mr. Spurgeon. Of him it is told that in his 
 later years at least his preparation for a sermon consisted 
 in a few memoranda, the fruit of an hour or two's reflection 
 on Saturday evening. Why was so little sufi&cient ? Be- 
 cause the man had spent his whole life in equipping himself 
 for this supreme function — the one thing he did. All his 
 reading, study, meditation, devotion, intercourse with the 
 world of men, had this for their paramount design — to fit 
 him to preach the better ; until by long labour and incessant 
 practice, it came to be as natural for him to preach as to 
 talk. 
 
 It is not to the point to object that self-discipline equal 
 to his will not make every one a Spurgeon. "Each man 
 hath his own gift from G-od " ; and there are constitutional 
 
 ^ Dialogues on Eloquence, Eng. tr., pp. 79-81. 
 
 282 
 
PREPARATION OF THE PREACHER 283 
 
 qualifications born with a man which make him a greater 
 or a better preacher than his fellow. We can only 
 make the most of such gifts as we possess. But we are 
 bound to make the most of them ; and my point is that 
 hardly any man turns out a first-rate preacher who does 
 not concentrate himself upon that as his one task. The 
 greatest American preacher of last century, Henry Ward 
 Beecher, lecturing at Yale, said this : 
 
 " Preaching will have to be your whole business. Now, 
 in a small way, everybody preaches. But if you are going 
 to be professional preachers, if you will make that your 
 life-calling, it is not probable that there is one of you who 
 was built large enough to do anything more than that. It 
 will take all that you have in you, and all your time. I do 
 not think a man could run a locomotive engine, paint 
 pictures, keep school, and preach on Sundays to any very 
 great edification. A man who is going to be a successful 
 preacher should make his whole life run toward the pulpit" ^ 
 
 The words I have italicised hit the nail on the head. 
 But if one's " whole life is to run toward the pulpit," he 
 needs to start with and to keep up the highest ideal of his 
 work. I do not mean that he should set out expecting high 
 and instant popularity, or visible success. That is about the 
 worst thing he can begin with. But he should cherish a 
 very exalted idea of what it is to be a preacher, and consider 
 how terribly difficult it is to be a good one. The preacher 
 who has any adequate notion of the possibilities of his call- 
 ing and of the pitfalls that lie on the road to excellence in 
 it, will not only judge charitably of indifferent practitioners, 
 he will be extremely dissatisfied with his own attempts, and 
 will work very hard and very long to improve upon them. 
 
 Then he must be prepared for sacrifices. No man 
 achieves excellence in any branch who has not made up 
 his mind to limit himself and surrender many things that 
 he may concentrate his powers on his one aim. It is the 
 
 ^ Lectures on Preaching delivered at Yale College (Lond. 1872, p. 53). 
 A suggestive little book. 
 
284 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 athlete's training over again. Many pleasant occupations 
 allure every cultivated man : scholarship, literature, science, 
 wide reading in history, the practice of music or of art. 
 These have to be ruthlessly forsworn, save within those 
 jealous limits inside of which they are either serviceable for 
 your calling or mere recreations after toil. As rival pur- 
 suits which withdraw time or strength required for your 
 business, they have to be surrendered. This law of sacrifice 
 is no harder for the minister of Christ than for the artist, 
 or the politician, or the doctor. Only the transgression of 
 it by a minister in a cure, who finds a living secured to him, 
 is less swiftly and sternly punished than in the experience 
 of some other professions. Are we to account in this way 
 for the crowd of commonplace preachers, who are so content 
 with mediocrity that they never improve ? 
 
 The lines along which a preacher's constant discipline 
 of himself may proceed are various ; but the ends towards 
 which they all run are two : — to beget in him a homiletic 
 habit of mind, and to furnish him with homiletic material. 
 What is called a homiletic mental habit is, in the words of 
 Dr. Shedd, " such a habitual training of the mind as will 
 impart a sermonising tendency to it."^ In other words, 
 a determination of one's faculties and pursuits towards 
 preaching the Gospel as one's chief work and chief delight, 
 begets the habit of viewing things in the way most helpful 
 for pulpit use. 
 
 For example : it disposes a man habitually to contem- 
 plate human life and character in their relations to 
 Christian truth. Just as a physician comes to notice 
 instinctively symptoms of health or unhealth, or, when, he 
 visits a place, marks its sanitary conditions, so with the 
 preacher. Men are to him in spiritual need of the Gospel. 
 Their attitude to it, their susceptibility to it or the reverse, 
 how it may best be applied to their case, how it will operate 
 upon them : such points possess for his mind an interest 
 that is paramount. Conversely, the homiletic mind acquires 
 
 ^ Op. cit. p. 93. 
 
PREPARATION OF THE PREACHER 285 
 
 the habit of studying Scripture truths in their relation to the 
 diverse needs of the soul. Christianity is for the preacher 
 primarily the remedy for moral maladies. Not its specula- 
 tive, but its therapeutic, value is what he cares most about. 
 Again : a homiletic mind gets into a way of instinctively 
 ordering and relating ideas in the manner best adapted for 
 setting them instructively and persuasively before qther 
 minds. With some preachers the tendency is " to 
 skeletonise, to construct plans, to examine and criticise 
 discourses with respect to their logical structure." ^ These 
 excel in the teaching or expounding department of pulpit 
 work. Others acquire the habit of recognising in every 
 truth of religion its power to influence life, with the impulse 
 to project it upon others in order to impress, inspire, or 
 persuade them to action. Such excel in the dynamics 
 of the pulpit. While there are yet others to whom the 
 world of nature is for ever suggesting its affinity with 
 eternal truths of the spiritual world, so that earth becomes 
 for them one vast volume full of symbols and parables of 
 heavenly things. It is certainly true that such a bent of 
 mind in one direction may be carried too far, with some 
 loss of a wide and liberal outlook upon life. This defeats 
 itself ; since to no man is a large all-round culture of more 
 value than to the preacher. Still, within limits that are 
 not very often overstept, the homiletic habit makes the 
 preacher fitter for his work and the work itself more 
 easy. 
 
 With that there must go hand in hand the accumula- 
 tion of homiletic material; and there are at least three 
 main lines along which it has to be gathered. They are (1) 
 the exegetical study of Holy Scripture; (2) systematic 
 reading of the best literature; and (3) familiar and sym- 
 pathetic intercourse with other men. 
 
 1. No wise minister can judge it enough to hunt for 
 ideas or to study texts in his Bible, just when he has a 
 sermon to prepare. Some busy men, it is to be feared, 
 
 ^ Shedd, %t supra, p. 94. 
 
286 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 allow themselves to be reduced to this in the urgency of 
 " hand to mouth " work, when public engagements multiply 
 in their later years. For a junior, or for a rural minister, 
 no such excuse can be pled, if he neglect the systematic 
 study of Scripture apart from the exigencies of sermon 
 preparation. This does not mean the daily or devotional 
 reading of it, even in the original tongues. That has its 
 own value. What it means is, carrying on a minute and 
 exact exegesis of Scripture, in its main portions at least, 
 with the best available helps. I know that to plod steadily 
 through a commentary is felt by some to be a dull task. 
 It may be so, if the mind is merely receptive in the process. 
 It will not be so, if the student has acquired any power of 
 independent research. Diverse lines of investigation can 
 be struck out for himself : such as tracking the growth of 
 revealed truths, comparing the shade of meaning which 
 inspired authors attach to the great key- words of theology, 
 examining their respective ways of conceiving or present- 
 ing the Gospel, and the like. The Bible is the preacher's 
 treasure-field, into which he is to drive shafts, exploring 
 for himself; and there is no other way to keep his 
 preaching from growing stale and worked -out. He is 
 not coining gold into sermons by this process. But he 
 is amassing hoards of the pure ore, of his own extraction, 
 which will yield an ample coinage for homiletic use here- 
 after. I wish every minister could be persuaded how much 
 better material for sermons can be thus dug out of the 
 Bible by independent labour than the flimsy and cheap 
 discourses which a lazy man constructs at second-hand with 
 the help of homiletic magazines, ready-made "skeletons," 
 or even some of those preachers' commentaries in vogue, 
 where the work is all done for us, and the food all but 
 cooked ready to be served up. To make a practice of this 
 is in my judgment to write oneself down a commonplace, 
 second-rate preacher for life. It is only a shade less 
 demoralising to the intellect than the custom one some- 
 times hears about, of borrowing right and left from other 
 
PREPARATION OF THE PREACHER 287 
 
 men's sermons. Not such barefaced plagiarism as takes a 
 whole sermon as it stands; but "cribbing" the conception 
 of a discourse, its leading ideas, out of some printed volume, 
 to be dished up afresh with a slender garnishing of one's 
 own. How far that is done I am not aware ; but it must 
 weaken a preacher's self-respect, and yield him when done 
 a poor sort of sermon. Anything may be helpful which 
 sets one's mind to work ; but nothing can be satisfactory 
 which has not at the least passed through the manipulation 
 of a man's own intellect and taken its shape there. 
 
 2. A second line of preparation to preach is found in 
 general reading of extra-theological as well as professional 
 literature. It has two purposes, to discipline and to emich 
 the mind. Austin Phelps of Andover, who has gone fully 
 into this matter,^ lays down the rule : " The object is 
 discipline as distinct from accumulation." Of course that 
 suggests the advice, given by many others as well, to pay 
 chief and close attention to those few authors of all time 
 whose " sceptred spirits " rule the thoughts of civilised men, 
 and with whom one can never get too familiar as friends 
 for Hfe. It is sound advice to read, re-read, and study 
 books — they are not numerous — of this select order. But 
 when we have said this, have we exhausted the reading 
 which the preacher needs ? I am afraid not. " Accumu- 
 lation" is not equally valuable with discipline of the 
 intellectual powers ; still, it cannot be dispensed with. If 
 a man is to be abreast of the intelligent public he has 
 weekly to address, and to keep up a continual freshness, 
 his reading can hardly be too wide. He cannot afford to 
 be quite ignorant of recent writers who are profoundly 
 influencing the intellectual movements of his time. 
 Audiences' expect to find a public teacher well informed 
 in many fields; and nothing that stirs the busy brains 
 of our hearers during the week need come amiss to a 
 capable preacher. 
 
 ^ In his volume entitled Men and Books, (w Studies in Romiletics (Lond. 
 1882). 
 
288 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 Yet to keep his reading within bounds and reasonably 
 select, the minister must be on his guard ' against wasting 
 time over worthless publications, or such as are at all 
 events worthless for his purpose. Of a great deal of the 
 minor authorship of the passing hour, he should make up 
 his mind to be uninformed. It is scarcely possible to 
 censure too severely that affectation of omniscience which 
 is ashamed to confess ignorance, squandering time on the 
 vain endeavour to turn over every monthly, and know 
 something of every new book that society is talking about. 
 It is really one of the sorest problems a minister has to 
 solve, to understand his age without becoming its creature ; 
 sifting the important from the trashy in current literature, 
 that he may know what needs to be known of the present 
 without forfeiting all fellowship with the giants of the past. 
 
 With most busy ministers the puzzle is how to command 
 the leisure required either for wide or for studious reading 
 in any department. It simply cannot be done, unless a 
 man will husband his time, measure out stated periods for 
 it, and at all costs avoid desultoriness. It is fatally easy 
 to dawdle over the newspaper, or to dissipate leisure by 
 aimless dipping into any book that offers. Depend upon 
 it, the preacher who lacks the moral fibre to compel 
 himself to read by system will run to seed and achieve 
 little. Nor is one's gain from books to be counted by 
 the leaves turned over, but by the mastery which with 
 our own brain we have won over their contents, or by the 
 thoughts which they have stirred within our own souls. If 
 self -discipline on the intellectual side be a duty, then as a 
 duty let it be conscientiously undertaken.^ 
 
 ^ The difficulty which a poorly paid minister experiences in procuring 
 the books he has need of, is a very serious one. Clerical reading clubs offer 
 only a partial remedy. Theological lending libraries are few in number, and 
 might be multiplied with advantage. Intelligent members in our smaller 
 churches could do their pastor no truer kindness than by adding to his 
 often scanty stock ; only they would act wisely were they to consult his 
 own wishes in their choice of books. Well-meaning friends not seldom 
 make mistakes by giving volumes that are unsuitable. 
 
PREPARATION OF THE PREACHER 289 
 
 3. A third contribution to the preacher's equipment 
 comes from his growing knowledge of men. This may be 
 understood in more ways than one. Men of the world, 
 immersed in its business, have often found matter for mild 
 satire in the sancta simplicitas of the clerical order, and its 
 helpless ignorance in the affairs of this world. To judge by 
 the testimony of an American author whom I lately quoted, 
 this venerable jibe against " the cloth " has lost none of its 
 edge in the New World. " The popular conception of a 
 clergyman," says Phelps, " is that he is, ex officio, in respect 
 to the knowledge of mankind, an ignoramus. Be it true or 
 false, this is the popular notion of the clerical character. 
 It produces not a little of that feeling towards the clergy 
 which vibrates between amusement and contempt. In the 
 popular faith we belong to a race of innocents. If not all 
 Vicars of Wakefield, we are cousins-german to that reverend 
 greenhorn. Men of the world feel it to be refreshing when 
 an able preacher breaks loose from the hereditary conven- 
 tionalisms of the clerical guild, and thinks and talks and 
 dresses and acts as they do." ^ 
 
 When allowance is made for a touch of caricature in this 
 passage, it fairly reflects a widespread impression among 
 laymen, which has just enough of foundation to make it 
 worth thinking seriously about. Not every minister by any 
 means is so unversed in secular affairs, or so deficient in 
 worldly shrewdness, as his order is supposed to be. Still, it 
 is true that ministers cannot help forming in some special 
 respects a class apart from the world. Their very training 
 largely unfits them for its business. Their absorption in the 
 things of religion produces a certain aloofness from much 
 that keenly interests men of affairs. They are even exoner- 
 ated, less by law than by courtesy, from some of the usual 
 responsibilities of society. Much of their time is passed in 
 cloistered study, so that when seen they are usually occupied 
 with sacred functions. The laity naturally associate them 
 with solemn occasions when secular business seems an 
 
 ^ Ut supra, p. 21. 
 19 
 
290 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 impertinence, may even environ them with a semi-priestly 
 au- of sanctity. An impalpable barrier, not easy to break 
 through, thus comes to divide them from others, so that lay- 
 men rarely speak out before them quite as frankly as they 
 do to one another. 
 
 For a part, though by no means for the whole, of this 
 remoteness from secular life, the ministry is not to be 
 blamed. It is unavoidable. Nor do I think it matters very 
 much that a preacher is inexpert in the transactions of the 
 Exchange, ignorant of the state of the markets, or unfamiliar 
 with the latest fashions of polite society. Like other men 
 who have a serious calling on hand, he is more than entitled, 
 he is bound, to limit himself to its absorbing demands. No 
 doubt, an irreligious hearer may parry the home-thrust of a 
 Gospel appeal by the remark that it is a preacher's business 
 to preach ; when a busy layman who happens to deliver a 
 religious address will be listened to with respect for his 
 unworldly earnestness. But it stands to reason that, if we 
 are to have an order of men set apart for this work at all, 
 they must give themselves to it ; nor is it likely the weight 
 of their testimony to higher things on Sunday would in the 
 long run be increased, if during the week they occupied their 
 time in learning the details of other men's business. The 
 preaching would only be worse done. 
 
 But intercourse with men is another matter. It seems 
 to me a much more serious loss when the ministry as a class 
 loses what was once its strength, close sympathetic daily 
 intercourse with the people, till it neither commands their 
 confidence nor shares their feelings. Has not this to a large 
 extent taken place ? Not to the same degree in every 
 branch of the Church, yet to some degree in all, ministers 
 of religion have drifted too far out of touch with labour, at 
 least in the large towns, with results which every one 
 bewails to-day. Decay of the old frank intimate associa- 
 tion of the ministry with working people is now a conse- 
 quence of the alienation from organised Churches of such 
 large sections of them. May it not originally have helped 
 
PREPARATION OF THE PREACHER 291 
 
 to produce it? Can we hope to win them back unless 
 ministry and people be brought once more into manly con- 
 verse with each other — such converse in private on simply 
 human lines as breeds first mutual respect, then mutual 
 confidence and sympathy ? 
 
 To the same lack of everyday intercourse with all but a 
 picked section of the people may be traced the feebleness of 
 the modern pulpit when it attempts to apply Christianity to 
 everyday duties, or to the circumstances of special classes. 
 Has it not also given occasion to the complaint — a bitter one 
 for some of us — that while a sermon is actually the one form 
 of literature left among us which is " popular " in the best 
 sense, that is, which addresses itself to the broad humanity 
 that is alike in all of us, rich or poor, nevertheless it is just 
 the kind of public speaking which has become a byword 
 for dulness ? Must it not be that we preachers have lost 
 the key to the public conscience and the public heart ? That 
 we have failed to understand the needs or the ways of 
 thought or the daily affairs and interests of the people, so 
 that the multitude will not come to hear us, charm we never 
 so wisely ? How many pulpit orators have we listened to 
 who soared in a region of abstractions, seldom planting their 
 foot upon the earth ! Who dilated upon all things in heaven 
 and earth except the things with which their audience was 
 conversant ! Who fulminated against imaginary sinners 
 and extolled ideal saints ! Who drew sketches of character 
 or of experience which no one present could appropriate as 
 his own ! To shoot over people's heads is really not so bad 
 as to fire off blank cartridges which can hit nobody. 
 
 I do not think such aimless firing argues an ignorance 
 of human nature in the abstract, so much as a failure to 
 recognise and address one's self to the actual condition of 
 human beings. Most preachers have done a good deal in 
 the study of man. Even their College years have taught 
 them a little about the build of the human soul. As 
 educated men they have daily access to a variegated world 
 of literature — history, biography, poetry, fiction, and the 
 
292 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 drama — -where are to be met the keenest observation and 
 analysis of character and of motive. Above all, every 
 preacher has his own heart for a field of study ; and this 
 has many a time , made even a preacher who led a 
 sequestered life insighted in the science of the human spirit, 
 and adroit to track through all its windings the working of 
 human passion. Men are at bottom alike. He who by the 
 observation of his own heart has come to detect its frailties, 
 its pretexts, excuses, and inconsistencies, as well as what con- 
 siderations have power over him, and before what tempta- 
 tions he falls — ought to possess a key to his neighbour's 
 bosom. It is human nature he is discovering in himself.^ 
 
 But this is not all that is wanted to bring us into effective 
 sympathy with actual men and women. People are not won 
 by being treated as subjects for a moral scalpel. " Besides 
 this general knowledge we are to have,'' writes Ward 
 Beecher, " we should take kindly to individual men, for the 
 very purpose of studying, them." And, to illustrate his 
 advice, he adds this curious little bit of autobiography : — 
 
 " I take great delight, if ever I can get a chance, of riding 
 on the top of an omnibus with the driver, and talking with 
 him. What do I gain by that ? Why, my sympathy goes 
 out for these men, and I recognise in them an element of 
 brotherhood : that great human element which lies under- 
 neath all culture, which is more universal and more 
 important than all special attributes, which is the great 
 generic bond of humanity between man and man. If ever 
 I saw one of these men in my church, I could preach to 
 him, and hit him under the fifth rib with an illustration, 
 much better than if I had not been acquainted with him. 
 
 ' It would seem as if Catholic preachers must be separated from the laity 
 even by a worse barrier than the Protestant pastor. If one would learn how 
 they endeavour to overcome the difficulty, let him peruse the interesting 
 sections 2-4 in Maury's Essai sur l' Eloquence de la Chaire, where he counsels 
 the preacher to find in his own heart "the imaginary auditor, the abstract 
 man, whom he sets himself to convict or to persuade." Who was it that 
 advised a young preacher thus : "Think of your own sins and charge them 
 upon the people " ? 
 
PREPARATION OF THE PREACHER 293 
 
 I have driven the truth under many a plain jacket. But, 
 what is more, I never found a plain man in this world 
 who could not tell me many things that I did not know 
 before. There is not a gatekeeper at the Fulton ferry, or 
 an engineer or deck-hand on the boats, that I am not 
 acquainted with ; and they help me in more ways than they 
 know of. If you are going to be a minister, keep very close 
 to plain folks ; don't get above the common people." ^ 
 
 One might take exception, I dare say, to the great 
 preacher's naively-confessed motive for " taking kindly " to 
 'busmen and deck hands "for the very purpose of study- 
 ing them." His heart was here better, I am sure, than 
 his words. True brotherly sympathy with men is not to 
 be reached, no, nor true understanding of them either, by 
 making them an object of professional observation with a 
 view to pulpit use. But on the main point Beecher was 
 certainly right : a preacher to the people must " keep very 
 close to plain folks." To some men it comes far easier to 
 do this, than to others. But to none can occasion for doing 
 it be awanting. The parish clergyman is bound to it by 
 his office. The quiet pastor cannot miss it in his pastoral 
 duties. Even a popular city orator can be at no loss to find 
 in the vicinity of his church or of his home, homes of the 
 people and people in their homes to make him welcome, if 
 only he come in the spirit of human brotherhood. It seems 
 to me our English pulpit needs to be let down to this level 
 of broad humanity, among the elemental forces. It has to 
 relearn the language of the people, not speaking so exclusively 
 as it does the dialect of middle- class culture. It need to use 
 plainer and more pointed words in rebuke of people's actual 
 sins, but also words of sympathy that comes from first-hand 
 knowledge of their behaviour under their actual difficulties. 
 Not all great preaching in the past has had this note about 
 it, of close face to face contact with common life. But all 
 preaching has had it which has deeply stirred the common 
 people. Nor can our English pulpit, as it seems to me, 
 
 1 0^. cit. p. 78. 
 
294 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 regain its power to move and lead the nation until it learns 
 this secret of genuine " popularity." ^ 
 
 The distrust, however, with which modern labour, strong 
 in its new-found organisation, regards every existing form 
 of organised Christianity, is too complex a phenomenon to 
 be accounted for, save very partially, by the class character 
 of modern preaching to which I have referred, or by its 
 defective sympathy with what interests the working man. 
 It has been the product of a number of influences, some 
 social and some political, which operated in the past more 
 than they do to-day. It can only be gradually and slowly 
 overcome. Meanwhile, I do not see much, apart from this, 
 to justify the stale cry about the " decay of the pulpit," or 
 the exaggerated fear that " its day is over." What is true is 
 that the conditions under which a preacher can work with 
 success have within little over half a century undergone a 
 change which is almost a revolution. But this is no more 
 than has happened in other callings. The ministry is far 
 from singular in having to adjust its methods to the rapidly 
 changing times in which we live. Eelatively to other 
 forces in the national life, the preacher has suffered through, 
 for example, the universal circulation of the newspaper and 
 the magazine, the popularising of literature good and bad, 
 and the multiplication of the subjects which engage pubUc 
 attention. There is no longer a parish in all the land where 
 the Sunday sermon at church or chapel is now, what it 
 once was, the one weekly agency to stir, or to educate, the 
 rustic intellect. The interval between a preacher and his 
 audience, even the humblest, has diminished, happily, and is 
 diminishing, through the spread of education. This gives 
 
 ^ The evangelistic agency which in our time has most heartily adopted 
 this line is the Salvation Arm)' ; and to this fact its early success may have 
 been largely due. The difficulty is not peculiar to our own country. The 
 first portion of M. I'Abb^ Mullois' Cours d^Eloquence Sacrie has for its 
 avowed design to restore to the French Catholic pulpit a really popular style 
 of preaching, in the hope to win the people back to religion. It has been 
 translated by G. P. Badger under the title. The Clergy and the Pulpit 
 in their Belations to the People (Lond. 1867). 
 
PREPARATION OF THE PREACHER 295 
 
 him more intelligent, if fewer, hearers. It makes a heavier 
 demand upon his powers. It may increase in some cases — 
 in others it should lessen — the difficulty of arousing interest 
 in religious questions in minds which have been occupied 
 throughout the week with politics, or science, or sociology. 
 It adds in any case to the difficulty of satisfying their 
 interest when it has been aroused. Few preachers will 
 complain to-day that thoughtful persons are indifferent 
 to the problems of rehgion, however they may hesitate 
 to accept, or qualify their acceptance of, the creed of the 
 Church. But it may well be that the preacher's mode 
 of presenting his message needs to be modified, or that the 
 public asks for fresher and more intellectual discourses. 
 
 It is sometimes inferred that preaching has fallen off in 
 this country, because attendance at public worship is found 
 to be declining. I do not credit that. Declining attendance, 
 so far as it exists, is amply accounted for by changes in the 
 public attitude to the observances of religion. People do 
 not go to church so much as they used to do out of habit or 
 fashion. They go because they feel a need for it ; and even 
 religious people feel less need than they did for two services 
 every Lord's Day. Other ways of spending Sunday, under 
 the breakdown of ideas and usages which fenced its sanctity 
 to our fathers, account for many an empty pew, without 
 entitling us to say that the sermon has fallen off. 
 
 So far as materials exist for a judgment, it rather appears 
 to me that the level of pulpit excellence has been rising, and 
 is likely to rise. Every day there is less to attract into the 
 ministry men whose heart is not in their work. The stand- 
 ard of ministerial education is steadily advancing. Pulpit 
 orators of distinction are "born not made," but it is by 
 training that an average man becomes a skilled preacher, 
 and it is on the whole of less moment that an age should be 
 rich in " great " preachers than that the rank and file of the 
 ministry should be competently equipped and effective for 
 good. The very difficulties which he experiences in gaining 
 the ear or answering the expectation, I do not say of the 
 
296 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 outside public, but even of church-going folk, are putting 
 every young preacher just now upon his mettle. He is 
 driven to cultivate a manner of address which shall compel 
 attention. ' Sometimes he is tempted to resort to methods 
 which are questionable, to say the least. One hears a good 
 deal of the " sensationalism " of the new pulpit. It dabbles 
 in topics heretofore reserved for the newspaper " leader." It 
 advertises its subjects under catching titles. It spices its fare 
 with the talk of the hour. It placards the Cross in staring 
 colours and seeks for broad effects. It will have novelties 
 at any cost. Such advanced bids for popularity often 
 enough spring no doubt from motives which deserve respect, 
 but they are not to be encouraged. Along that line lies 
 danger for the true power of the pulpit. It is a poor 
 ambition to have one's Sunday evening sermon noticed 
 in the " local news " column on Monday morning. On the 
 other hand, any manly preacher who understands his age, 
 who lives keenly in its affairs, and has a real message for it 
 from God, can, without descending to stage tricks, bring 
 his pulpit into closer touch with its democratic life than we 
 have seen paralleled in England since the Commonwealth. 
 
 But, to win the ear of the people, it becomes more and 
 more the first essential to interest them by lessons that 
 leave an imprint on their lives, shunning ever as the one 
 unpardonable sin that venerable vice of the pulpit — dulness. 
 Sermons are become brief. But they will need to put more, 
 not less, into little compass, making straight for some clear 
 practical result. An energetic quick -living generation of 
 busy people, habituated to swift interchange of thought and 
 to business done by telegraph, will ask from the preacher 
 a sinewy, keen-edged and straightforward talk about faith 
 and duty — a message from God that can be translated 
 promptly into action. Preaching that fills the ear but aims 
 at nothing, that pleases like a well-played tune but does 
 not rouse to action like a battle-trumpet, is not the sort of 
 preaching I should expect men to care for in the strenuous 
 hurrying days that seem to be coming on the earth. 
 
PREPARATION OF THE PREACHER 297 
 
 Working thus under conditions subject to rapid change, 
 which, as they change, become ever more arduous, few 
 ministers in any Church, unless they have settled down 
 contentedly into a groove, escape occasional fits of dis- 
 heartenment. The higher their ideal, the less are they 
 likely to satisfy themselves. It is not necessarily an ignoble 
 envy of better men which makes a man painfully aware of 
 his inferiority. If performance is felt to fall dismally short 
 even of his own intention, much more of what he esteems 
 worthy of his sacred opportunity, any modest and sensitive 
 craftsman may fear that he has failed through his own 
 unskilfulness. Now, when such a sense of technical short- 
 coming haunts and oppresses an experienced preacher, either 
 because the methods of his youth, which he is too old to 
 unlearn, are become antiquated, or because his early training 
 in scholarship or in the technique of sermon construction 
 left much to be desired, a legitimate comfort may be drawn 
 from reflecting that the efficacy of a sermon to edify and 
 save is never measurable by its technical perfection. I do 
 not say this to excuse avoidable defects ; for, of course, no 
 one is excusable for doing less than his best. Yet it is true 
 that, for the highest ends of preaching, nothing counts 
 for so much as certain spiritual qualities personal to the 
 speaker ; qualities which, thank God ! are within the reach 
 of every true-hearted servant of Christ. Two in especial 
 may be named : personal character, and that indefinable 
 gift which we can only call " unction." 
 
 Given a discourse which is born out of a faithful pastor's 
 toil and sincerest love for his people, it owes more of its 
 power to do them good to the weight of his proved character 
 than either to eloquence or to homiletic skill. To casual 
 sermons delivered by a preacher of note on some great 
 occasion to a miscellaneous crowd, this hardly applies. But 
 the profit gained from a minister's weekly addresses in his 
 own quiet church, where every worshipper, down to the 
 tiniest, counts him for a friend, depends mainly, or at least 
 very largely, on the reverent affection and confidence which, 
 
298 THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 
 
 through years of patient service, have been gathering round 
 their pastor in the hearts of his people. So that, though we 
 cannot all be great preachers, we may be such good men, 
 valued for our work's sake, that our simple homely words 
 shall carry power for his sake who utters them. He there- 
 fore need not fear a barren unblest ministry who comes 
 forth to his people from his closet rich in their esteem, to 
 pour himself out — his most treasured thoughts and hallowed 
 desires — as a libation for God's honour and for the service 
 of His saints. 
 
 This specially close relationship between the spiritual life 
 of a preacher and the effect of his words, reveals itself best 
 in that unmistakable but inimitable quality which is meant 
 by "unction"^ To compass a merely oratorical success, 
 this gift is not essential ; but for the highest results it is 
 invaluable. It is hard to describe; but it is the note of 
 a speaker who is filled with the Holy Ghost. A man who 
 lives close to God, who thirsts after the salvation of souls, 
 who delivers his message under an overpowering appre- 
 hension of Divine realities — that man may be guilty of 
 countless breaches of technical rules, yet this spiritual note, 
 if he has it, will more than compensate for them all. His 
 word is " with demonstration of the Spirit and with power." 
 
 One cannot look for this quality unless the average level 
 of a minister's religious life be high, his spirit kept devout 
 and tender. Yet it does not invariably accompany genuine 
 or even deep devoutness ; for some very spiritually-minded 
 Christians have proved ineffective in the pulpit. Probably, 
 if one might guess at its origin, it comes at a moment when 
 the speaker is speaking most out of the heart of his Master, 
 under an exceptionally profound and solemn sympathy with 
 the sinful man's huge need of the Saviour and the Saviour's 
 huge pity for the unsaved sinner. I should hope a good 
 many preachers have felt at times a little of this fellowship 
 
 * By French writers on homiletics the word " onction " is used, but bears 
 a different sense : one nearly akin to the English "pathos." (Cf. Maury's 
 Essai, § 73.) 
 
PREPARATION OF THE PREACHER 299 
 
 with their Master ; but, as we grow preoccupied with the 
 routine details of getting up sermons and delivering them, 
 discharging our office as we have often done before, no 
 worse if no better, — the surpassing sacredness of our work, 
 its unspeakable issues, and the awful Power that worketh 
 through us, get hidden from our eyes, and thrill our hearts 
 but rarely with that tremor of hallowed joy and dread which 
 has so wonderful a force to awe and capture the souls of 
 those who hear us. For this gift a man must wrestle on 
 his knees. 
 
PART IV 
 
 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIV 
 
 THE CARE OF SOULS 
 
 It is a unique relationship which subsists between a pastor 
 and his flock. In its intimacy, privacy, and sacredness, in 
 the access also which it gives him to the homes of his 
 people at every season of domestic joy or grief, it reminds 
 one rather of the privileged bonds of kinship, such as bind 
 brothers in the same family, than of any mere official 
 relationship, chill and business-like, which can be created 
 by social convention. 
 
 This peculiarity becomes intelligible on the theory of .the 
 pastorate currently accepted in the Evangelical Churches. 
 They trace it ultimately to the new bond, not of blood, but 
 of spiritual fraternity which Jesus constituted among His 
 followers. "All ye," said He, "are brethren." To "love 
 as brethren," children of the same Heavenly Father, is the 
 simple law which sums up the whole attitude of Christians 
 to one another. And of this newborn brother-love, the 
 characteristic fruit and token are solicitude for each other's 
 spiritual welfare. 
 
 Now, it is out of the bosom of this mutual privilege and 
 responsibility of all the brotherhood to seek each other's 
 growth in grace, that the specialised functions of an official 
 
 pastorate were first developed. To a limited extent, it is 
 
 300 
 
THE CARE OF SOULS 301 
 
 still within the power of all of us to minister to a few of 
 our fellow-members as under-shepherds, through whose 
 helpful and kindly care the Chief Shepherd can exercise 
 His own pastoral oversight. Were the pastor a private 
 Christian, he would still owe his brethren such watchful 
 care. But it would be rendered in his own name merely, 
 and limited to the circle of his private acquaintances. 
 Whereas he gathers up and concentrates in his official 
 person the care which the entire body he represents takes 
 in the religious wellbeing of all its individual members. He 
 is to each the voice, the organ, of all. Acting on behalf of 
 the Church, he is authorised to carry in its name to every 
 person within its communion, the counsel, the instruction, 
 the sympathy, the helpfulness, even the rebukes, which the 
 case of each demands. 
 
 When the care of souls thus becomes an official duty, 
 no change ought to pass over the spirit of it. Appointment 
 to office widens indeed the area of responsibihty ; it makes 
 watching on behalf of others no mere side interest, but a 
 life-work ; and it entitles the pastor to speak with authority 
 in the Church's name where as a private Christian he might 
 have been silent. But the moral value of his pastoral acts 
 continues to lie, not in his office, so much as in himself: 
 for it depends on their being still a service of lowly self- 
 sacrificing brother-love, rendered in the spirit as well as in 
 the name of the Chief Shepherd. 
 
 Beyond question, such a position tests most severely the 
 temper of a man s Christianity. He is an official, and yet 
 the official disposition, in so far as it is opposed to the 
 fraternal, has to be vigorously combated. Two faults in 
 particular, which everywhere beset officialism, need to be 
 overcome, because they are at variance with brotherly 
 love: self-importance, the one, founded merely on the 
 possession of office ; and the other, a hard mechanical tone 
 in the discharge of official duty. The former is at bottom 
 that overweaning sense of superiority against which, under 
 the name of lordliness, St. Peter already found it necessary 
 
302 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 in the infancy of the Church, to warn his " fellow-elders.'* 
 How often since then has it swollen to an incredible height 
 in ecclesiastics ; not always in those of the Church which 
 boasts St. Peter as its foundation-stone. With the slightest 
 tincture of that arrogant temper there come meddlesome- 
 ness, a dictatorial tone, harsh fault-finding. Against it one 
 needs to fight with all one's strength. JSTor is there any 
 cure for it but being " clothed with humility " — that meek 
 humility which springs from ever deeper consciousness of 
 one's own defects. Think of yourself as " less than the least 
 of all saints," then may you in no mock lowliness kneel to 
 wash their feet, being girt about with the towel of humility.^ 
 The other danger is hardness of temper, when duties which 
 ought to be quick with sympathy and tender with the 
 tenderness of love become the perfunctory routine of one 
 who is appointed, even paid, to do them. Then all the 
 charm of service is gone ; its aroma has evaporated. 
 
 There is another way also in which his pastoral duties 
 become the most searching test to which a minister is 
 subjected. Their faithful discharge is left in a large 
 measure to his own sense of duty. More public functions 
 he cannot neglect without attracting public attention and 
 drawing upon himself, if not always censure from ecclesi- 
 astical superiors, at least open discredit. But his care 
 for souls is largely a private matter. Whether he omit to 
 pay a sick visit to-day because it happens to be inconvenient, 
 or how far he is disposed to be at pains for the recovery of 
 a lad who has gone astray — such things as these there are 
 few to observe and fewer still to call him to account for. 
 Here his fidelity, being less open to men's eyes, lies between 
 himself and the Chief Pastor whom he serves. Granted 
 that a genuine love for souls and for the Lord of souls be the 
 prevailing motive in which one's pastorate took its rise and 
 from which, on the whole, it draws the breath of its life, yet 
 there are few so constantly possessed by it as never to need 
 the goad of stern imperious duty. For this department 
 
 1 Cf. 1 Pet. 51-5 with John IS^-^. 
 
THE CARE OF SOULS 303 
 
 of his office, to which all days are alike, covers of necessity 
 a larger space than any other in the minister's life ; and there 
 is no hour in his day when his services in this capacity may 
 not be in demand. He will often have to brace himself to obey 
 an urgent summons when he is tired, or busy, or indisposed ; 
 and the temptation can never be far away to reverse the 
 apostolic rule and " exercise the oversight," not willingly, 
 but of constraint. Then, with its spontaneity, how much 
 of the worth of such service will be gone ! Nor can the 
 best of us, after every precaution against perfunctoriness, 
 indolence, and negligence, say that we have done all that 
 needed to be done or might have been done. The pastoral 
 office is so manifold, it is so crowded with opportunities, it 
 can absorb such an endless expenditure of any man's best, 
 that no one dare hope to exhaust its possibilities. One 
 comes to the end of one's strength, never of one's work. 
 Well for us if only it can be said : He hath done what he 
 could ! 
 
 These are things often and anxiously weighed by every 
 conscientious shepherd of souls. If at times his spirit 
 flag and the burden seem too heavy to be borne, there is 
 but one source from which fresh strength can be drawn — 
 strength of a genuine or worthy sort. It is the co-operation 
 of the Pastor jpastorum. Ministers, when they think of 
 their pastorate, ought to pitch their thoughts high. Great 
 as is the burden, so great is the honour of it. If I am not 
 mistaken, there is no other part of their work which 
 associates them quite so unceasingly, so intimately, or 
 so confidentially, with their unseen Master, as care for 
 individual souls. It is closer than imitation, though that 
 is in it. The pastor does not merely walk in the footprints 
 of Jesus' historical ministry. He is not a vicar of the 
 absent Head Pastor, left to his own resources. He co- 
 operates day after day in an actual Divine ministry which 
 is going on now alongside of his own and through it : over- 
 shadowing his, enwrapping it, directing its acts, and 
 
304 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 graciously making incessant use of it. This, it humbly 
 appears to me, is the master-fact, the thought of which 
 ought to guide and to sustain all pastoral duty. 
 
 Weigh it well : of each soul we tend, Jesus is the 
 real active watchful Over-Shepherd. Say we have a share 
 in the oversight — it is the assistance which He condescends 
 to accept from us in a work with the direction of which He 
 has charged Himself. This, if it relieves us from the 
 ultimate responsibility for results, requires us (does it not ?) 
 to be always trying to trace His dealings with the people of 
 our charge, and to fit in our poor contribution to those 
 operations of grace which all the while are going forward 
 in men's hearts by His providence, His word, and His 
 secret Spirit. I cannot think that any under-shepherd ever 
 worked in too close or too detailed an intercourse with his 
 Divine Chief. It is not presumption, nor is it enthusiasm, 
 it is a reasonable recognition of actual conditions which 
 govern this sacred partnership in labour, when a lowly 
 labourer on earth brings each anxious case beneath the 
 Chief's eye, begs for wisdom beyond his own to keep all his 
 dealing with it right, and craves and expects just that 
 message, of counsel be it, or of consolation, which the 
 Director of the work would have him carry in His name to 
 the soul in need. If he bear Christ in his heart, and with 
 a single eye use his best endeavour, can he be disappointed 
 of an answer ? Is it not this which makes one's pastorate 
 the sweetest, tenderest, holiest part of all one's ministry ? 
 
 But while each simple-hearted servant of Christ is 
 entitled to seek such guidance step by step, and while there 
 is no remedy for officialism, nor any cordial in discourage- 
 ment, so potent as to realise that he is a fellow-worker 
 under "the Shepherd and Bishop of souls," let him not 
 forget that he has not been left without written directions 
 which he is expected to study and observe. The New 
 Testament is rich in such directions.^ The Pastoral Epistles, 
 for instance, not merely lay down the qualifications which 
 
 ^ See Beck, Pastoral-lehren des Neuen Testamentes (1880). 
 
THE CARE OF SOULS 305 
 
 Timothy and Titus were to require in a presbyter-bishop, 
 they instruct these missionary delegates themselves how to 
 deal with sundry groups of converts — with old men and 
 young, old women and young, with widows and with slaves. 
 Those are pastoral hints. Nor is there any more beautiful 
 counsel on the spirit of the pastorate than St. Peter's to 
 his fellow-elders, out of a heart filled with reminiscences 
 of a great day by the Lake of Galilee, when he himself had 
 been reinstalled to tend the several groups which compose 
 Christ's flock. Although there enters into St. Paul's lan- 
 guage to his converts a note of paternal authority, due to 
 the fact that, if they had ten thousand tutors in Christ, 
 they could have no spiritual father but himself ; none the 
 less can a modern minister find among under-pastors no 
 worthier example than he, for self-sacrificing devotion, for 
 adaptation of his methods to diverse situations, or for affec- 
 tionate gentleness as of a nursing mother cherishing her 
 babes. Nor can any reader miss the emphasis everywhere 
 laid on the duty of vigilance : an unresting wakeful outlook, 
 as of a sentinel in the night, to discern in time whatever 
 peril may threaten a brother's advance in spiritual life, so 
 as at the right moment to interpose and guard it. These 
 all are lessons never long out of a good pastor's thoughts. 
 But above all, he does well to keep ever in view the Gospel 
 records of the Master's personal ministry. There can be no 
 model to compare with Him. If the end of all our effort 
 be to build up the kingdom or reign of the Father in the 
 hearts and lives of our people, then it is from Jesus' teach- 
 ing alone we can learn His conception of that kingdom 
 under its present earthly aspects. If it be in concert with 
 Him our ministry is to be carried on that He may work 
 through us, then our safest guide must be His own example. 
 His methods in the days of His flesh will furnish some 
 indication of His methods still. Close study by recent 
 scholars of the Lord's ministry has done something to bring 
 out the lessons for his daily duty which a pastor may draw 
 from the Good Shepherd's way of working, from His recorded 
 20 
 
3o6 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 dealing with individuals, and in particular from His patient 
 training of the Twelve.^ Among these numerous lessons I 
 name only a few. 
 
 It is from our Lord alone that a pastor learns the immea- 
 surable value in the Father's eyes of each single soul gained 
 for His kingdom, and how its recovery repays the utmost 
 pains or sacrifice it may cost. Take along with this our 
 Lord's scrupulous respect for the personal freedom, respon- 
 sibility and right to self-determination and self -development 
 which belong to every human being ; and you have the two 
 complementary truths by which as guiding lines one man's 
 ministry of spiritual help to his fellow is defined. Jesus, 
 while on the outlook for opportunities to help and never 
 sparing Himself, is never found to force His help on any- 
 one ; nor did He ever hurry on the work of a soul's growth, 
 but with endless tolerance gave it time. It was His method, 
 without strife, or the argumentative discussions dear to the 
 propagandist, to drop, as occasion offered, truths like seeds, 
 in terse and easy language, leaving them to germinate in 
 receptive hearts. For He seemed to stimulate independent 
 reflection and to welcome honest inquiry, rather than to let 
 His words be accepted with irresponsive or indolent credulity. 
 No disciple was received in ignorance of what adhesion to 
 His cause might cost, and His habit was rather to punctuate 
 than to gloss over the hard terms of discipleship. Yet with 
 men of an honest purpose, though dull and slow of heart to 
 believe, none could have shown more consummate patience. 
 Needless to say that He never refused to aid the suffering, 
 in their bodily as well as moral ailments, although it is 
 clear that He could only aid when, by a sympathy which 
 always meant suffering for Himself, He had entered into 
 their case. But that is only one example of the self-sacri- 
 fice in daily and small details which He exhibited, who had 
 come to seek the lost, and to give His life a ransom for many. 
 
 ^ I may refer to three English works that will be found of use : Blaikie, 
 The Public Ministry and Pastoral Methods of our Lord (1863) ; Latham, 
 Pastor Pastorum (Camb. 1900) ; and Bruce's Training of the Twelve. 
 
THE CARE OF SOULS 307 
 
 Finally, the homeliness of Jesus' manner, the simple style 
 of His address, His habit of using in illustration of the 
 deepest religious truth everyday affairs and the occurrences 
 lOf home life : these with similar features which made Him, 
 although the boldest and at times the severest of speakers, 
 yet after all the Teacher who has spoken most successfully 
 to the common people, are lessons which no pastor can over- 
 look who will reverently watch the Master at His work. 
 
 Those services of vigilant oversight, guidance in the 
 Divine life, and brotherly counsel, which it is the part of 
 a pastor to render to his flock, were not only, as we have 
 seen, the earliest to be committed to officials, they were also 
 the earliest to be made a subject of study in the Church, 
 and of literary treatment. The chief patristic contribution 
 was the Liber Pastoralis Curce of Pope Gregory the Great. 
 It not only continued to be a classic manual for the use of 
 priests all down the mediaeval centuries, but is not even 
 yet, I understand, antiquated in Eoman Catholic seminaries. 
 At the Eeformation, the duties devolving upon the freshly 
 instituted order of Protestant pastors began at once to 
 receive attention, and the beginnings of a literature appeared, 
 which has since grown to vast dimensions. Interest in the 
 subject was keener among the Eeformed than in the Lutheran 
 branch, to the advantage on the whole of the Eeformed 
 Churches ; ^ although it must be owned that the legal strin- 
 gency inherent in Calvin's system of ecclesiastical discipline 
 produced some very unhappy consequences in the succeed- 
 ing century. When other functions of clerical ofi&ce, preach- 
 ing especially, came to be separately studied by Protestants, 
 there was a disposition to widen the old name of " Pastoral 
 Theology " so as in a looser application to include the whole. 
 Nor was this unnatural ; since it may be truly said that the 
 pastor in his pulpit, or even at the prayer-desk, is the pastor 
 still, aiming at the profit of the souls entrusted to his care. 
 
 ^ One Reformed Confession, the Later Helvetic, gives an excellent list of 
 the duties of a pastor (Art. XVIII. ). 
 
3o8 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 However useful it may be to consider the several aspects of 
 the ministry apart, it is not possible in practice to sever 
 them completely from one another. But since in last cen- 
 tury the whole science of "Practical Theology," as it has 
 come to be termed, required to be subdivided, and its divisions 
 to be accurately discriminated, continental authorities at 
 least have agreed, vdth few exceptions, to restrict the name 
 of Pastoral Theology to such functions as are not discharged 
 in public assemblies nor designed for the congregation as a 
 whole, but are directed to the individuals, whether singly or 
 in groups, of whom it is composed.^ Close, therefore, as are 
 its relations both to worship and to preaching, the pastorate 
 holds a clearly defined position of its own. 
 
 That is a very idle debate, however, which sets the 
 preaching and the pastoral functions in opposition; which 
 discusses which of the two is the more important, or which 
 argues, either that the better preacher a man is, the worse 
 pastor he must make, or conversely. Both being functions 
 of the same office, it follows that to discharge the one well 
 is no sufficient excuse for discharging the other badly. It 
 is true that different gifts are called for each, and therefore 
 some ministers excel in the one, some in the other. The 
 only useful inference we can draw from that is, that so long 
 as both are incumbent, a minister ought to give, if anything, 
 extra pains to fit himself for the work to which he has least 
 natural aptitude or liking. No doubt it is a question for 
 the Church, that has been sometimes raised, whether we 
 should do better in a large field of duty to set one man 
 apart to preach and others for the private care of souls. 
 Experience has not shown that in the Protestant Church 
 such a division of labour works well. In our Churches, 
 there is no way for a minister to keep himself in touch 
 with the spiritual needs of his congregation, except by 
 doing pastoral duty. The relation betwixt the two spheres 
 is of the closest. Each promotes the ends of the other. 
 
 1 See Achelis, Praktischc Theologie (Freiburg i. B. 1890), i. 428 ff. He 
 advocates the use of the name " Poimeuik." 
 
THE CARE OF SOULS 309 
 
 Getting to know his hearers privately, a preacher can 
 adapt his public ministrations to their condition. Salutary 
 impressions on the Lord's Day lose much of their hopeful- 
 ness if they are not followed up during the week. People 
 are much more impressed by the words of a man whom they 
 have learned to know and to esteem ; on the other hand, 
 they are most disposed to confide their private experience 
 to that pastor whose teaching in Church has n^oved or 
 helped them. The two halves of our work dovetail into 
 and sustain each other, if only we show ourselves equally 
 loyal in the doing of both. 
 
CHAPTEK XXV 
 HOUSEHOLD VISITATION 
 
 The first condition for any individual oversight of a parish 
 or congregation is to become acquainted with those who 
 belong to it. The shepherd "calleth his own sheep by 
 name." Every pastor knows what a value people set on 
 being personally recognised, and how hurt they feel when 
 the minister is unable to name them or passes them on 
 the street without recognition. In a very extensive city 
 charge, widely scattered and subject to rapid change, even 
 to do this will tax the memory of a pastor. In the 
 multiplicity of his engagements, he finds it hard to keep 
 himself acquainted with recent comers, and still more with 
 their children. Yet only to know the people by sight 
 or by name is the least possible degree of acquaintance. 
 For effective pastorship, one needs to be informed of their 
 circumstances, to gain some insight into their character, 
 even to form an opinion on their religious condition. The 
 further one can carry such a detailed knowledge, the better 
 for one's pastoral work, so long as it is not an idle curiosity 
 one gratifies, but a brotherly interest wholly dedicated to 
 their spiritual profit. This is one of the many advantages 
 of a small charge. But be the cure large or small, there is 
 no way of obtaining such an acquaintance with the personnel 
 of the flock, but house to house visitation. 
 
 When a minister enters on his duties in a fresh sphere, 
 his earliest task must therefore be to acquire such informa- 
 tion. Besides informing himself generally as to the history 
 
 and character of the congregation, the people's occupations 
 
 310 
 
HOUSEHOLD VISITATION 311 
 
 and circumstances, the moral state of the district, and the 
 like, he has to make the round of his people's homes as soon 
 as possible. In this task the incumbent of an English parish 
 may often be left very much to himself. A Presbyterian 
 minister shares the supervision of his flock with the elders, 
 who as likewise ordained officers are associated with him in 
 pastoral responsibility. In every part of his pastoral care 
 he acts in concert with them, and if he be a wise man, will 
 make as much use as he can of this body of coadjutor^. 
 The deacons of a Congregational church occupy a somewhat 
 similar position. At the outset of a ministry the assistance 
 of these brother-officers is specially valuable. They are 
 already familiar with the people, each of them at least with 
 those who reside within his allotted district, and can afford 
 to their new leader exactly that information which he wants. 
 Sometimes an elder or deacon can accompany the minister in 
 his first caUs. For it is at his introduction to each household 
 that he ought to gather particulars respecting its inmates, the 
 names and approximate ages of the children, the employ- 
 ments of the adults, and their several relations to the Church 
 as communicants or workers. After this first call, people 
 dislike such inquiries, which by that time they think ought 
 to be unnecessary; whereas on an introductory visit they 
 expect them and are gratified by them. 
 
 It is not always prudent to jot down such particulars on 
 the spot ; but they ought to be entered in a visiting book 
 immediately on returning home. Such a register can 
 hardly contain too much, especially of any facts which shed 
 light on the rehgion of the home. With a like care must 
 it be kept up to date, as often as changes occur, or a new 
 family is added to the flock. In large congregations, the 
 date of subsequent visits should be entered, with any fresh 
 particulars ascertained. It is not safe to leave too much 
 to recollection. Unmethodical pastors who grudge the time 
 spent on registers of their work, or think such keeping of 
 day-books too secular an employment, are making a huge 
 mistake. Sacred work is none the less sacred for being 
 
312 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 done with business-like method, accuracy, and despatch. 
 But I do not recommend the entry in a visiting-book, even 
 though it be kept under lock and key, of any judgment the 
 pastor may form, whether now or afterwards, of any one's 
 spiritual condition, or of any private confidences with which 
 he may be entrusted after his relations with his people 
 have become more intimate. JS'either of these is a matter 
 to be safely committed to ink and paper. 
 
 Either during the course of his first visit of inquiry or 
 from the pulpit, it is well to give the people clearly to 
 understand on what footing and with what object he comes 
 into their homes. It is, of course, to be followed up by 
 subsequent visits, whether occasional or regular, not of a 
 social, but of a pastoral character. While he always comes 
 as a friend, with the frank and unprofessional manner which 
 alone befits Christian brotherhood, it will be found to 
 hamper his usefulness if the distinction between a purely 
 social call and a pastoral one be not observed and kept in 
 mind, both by them and by himself. This is, of course, 
 specially requisite in the case of families moving in his own 
 social circle. Both with them and with humbler folk, 
 advantage is to be taken of every occurrence in domestic 
 life which permits him to get closer to them. Births and 
 deaths, illness and loss of friends, young people leaving 
 home on entering upon life, business disasters, anything, 
 in short, which touches nearly the family heart, is an 
 opportunity for a pastoral call not to be neglected. He 
 need not wait to be sent for. It is his opportunity, 
 not only for becoming better acquainted with their 
 inward experience, but still more for ministering to them 
 the sympathy or the counsel which the occasion calls for, 
 and which his office warrants him in proffering in his 
 Master's name. 
 
 Shall he also undertake and keep up, year after year, a 
 round of systematic house to house visitation? This has 
 been since the Eeformation a recognised practice in 
 Reformed Churches, sometimes regulated, as in Scotland, by 
 
HOUSEHOLD VISITATION 313 
 
 ecclesiastical authority,^ but always well understood to be 
 part of a minister's pastoral office. It has been otherwise 
 in the Lutheran communion. There it has not only never 
 been practised, but occasional efforts, on the part of the 
 Pietists chiefly, to introduce it have met with opposi- 
 tion from the majority of the clergy. Eecent writers 
 continue to disapprove of it, not only as a waste of time, but 
 even as objectionable in itself. ^ What they say is that so 
 long as a clergyman contents himself with paying a visit 
 where there is occasion for it or where he has reason to 
 think it will be welcome, he is following a Divine leading 
 and going where Christ's providence or the Spirit of grace 
 has gone before him ; but that to volunteer or force a visit 
 on people who do not want it, is an intrusion upon their 
 evangelical liberty, and likely to do more harm than good. 
 It is wise to bear in mind that visits paid when a special 
 occasion presents itself are the most urgent, because they 
 are the most promising. But the Lutheran objection to 
 going " where one is not wanted " contemplates the formal 
 and official visit to every house in his parish of one who 
 goes as the functionary of a State Church. From that 
 point of view it may be a wise abstinence on the part of 
 the German clergy ; especially as the Lutheran custom of 
 optional confession to a clergyman gives to every one who 
 desires his advice an opportunity of going to him in private. 
 The objection, however, is pointed at a state of things which 
 in this country has passed away. Whatever may have been 
 the case formerly, when clerical authority was stronger, few 
 parish ministers would now dream of pressing their attend- 
 ance where there is no desire for it. In the case of Church 
 members no such difficulty ought to arise. Where household 
 visitation has been customary, it is so far from being resented 
 that it is expected. Its utility must be judged of on its own 
 
 ^ Act of Assembly, 1708, respecting Ministerial Visitations. It will be 
 found in Fairbairn's Past. Theol. 1875, p. 295. 
 
 2 Of., e.g.f Palmer, Evang. FastoraUheoL, Stuttgart, 1863, p. 381 ff. ; 
 Achelis, op. cit. i. 451 f. 
 
314 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 merits ; and the experience of pastors who still continue, at 
 much expenditure of energy, to keep up the time-honoured 
 habit, is, I believe, that where it can be done it is on the 
 whole well worth doing. 
 
 Yet no part of ministerial labour has suffered more in 
 recent days. Many causes incident to modern life have 
 combined to make it more difficult and less effective. So 
 much so, that many conscientious ministers confess that 
 they really do not know what their duty is. It is not that 
 these changes have put it beyond the power of most 
 ministers to make a call, once a year or so, at every house 
 where their Church members reside, or even on every one 
 who habitually worships with them. With some parish 
 ministers who think it their duty to visit every visitable 
 family in their parish, the case is different. Eural parishes 
 can usually be overtaken, no doubt ; especially as there are 
 always groups of Nonconformists in the population who 
 are attended to by their own pastors. But in congested 
 districts of large towns or cities, the non-church-going poor 
 are either visited by a staff of assistant clergy, or they are 
 left to Home Mission agents of one sort or another, lay- 
 readers, district visitors, Biblewomen, or the like. The 
 attention of the incumbent, who alone is legally responsible, 
 is perforce confined, I think, to the superintendence of his 
 curates and to the personal visitation of communicants 
 at his church, very much as that of his Nonconformist 
 brethren has to be. Then the work becomes in most 
 cases manageable. The great majority of congregations 
 are of moderate size. There remain, of course, a few 
 cases where the worshippers are either much more numer- 
 ous or are scattered over a much wider area. These 
 will occupy a longer time, and the visits must be less 
 frequent. But given resolution and persistent effort, the 
 thing can be done, for it is done. The sole condition is 
 that the pastor, even if he be a busy man much taken 
 up with public affairs, shall feel this duty to be urgent; 
 and urgent it can only be, if it can be so conducted 
 
HOUSEHOLD VISITATION 315 
 
 as to become a really valuable instrument in the pastor's 
 hands. 
 
 It is just here where difficulty has been created by 
 changes in the social habits of the population. It used to 
 be much easier formerly to find the people in their homes 
 at the usual calling hours. Nowadays, business men leave 
 home early and return late. The working-classes are massed 
 in factories. Children are more frequently sent to a distance 
 for their education. Domestic servants are no longer under 
 their employers' religious supervision as they once were. 
 The household is hardly ever to be found at home save for 
 the morning and evening meals. A visiting pastor finds no 
 one there in the afternoon but the mistress of the house ; and 
 for mistresses, both rich and poor, it is often inconvenient 
 to be caught at their home occupations. Add to all this 
 that through the multiplication of congregational agencies 
 in a modern church, societies of both sexes and various ages 
 convening on the church premises on several evenings in 
 the week, the minister has other opportunities, unknown to 
 our fathers, for meeting the individuals of his flock and for 
 influencing them. Is it to be wondered at if many a 
 diligent pastor excuses himself, half against his sense of 
 duty, for making half-hearted and intermittent attempts at 
 household visitation, or ends by giving it up altogether ? 
 
 To such a surrender of an important means of usefulness 
 we are by no means reduced. Clerical methods must just 
 be adapted to altered conditions, and become less stereo- 
 typed. Such changes as I have mentioned in industrial 
 and domestic arrangements are very far from affecting 
 every minister's work in the same way or to the same 
 extent. Dififerent parts of the country, different towns or 
 districts in the same town, different social classes and 
 callings, have all their several customs ; so that, while the 
 design of the pastor in his visitation remains the same, 
 his methods will have to bend to local conditions. The 
 purpose to be always kept in view seems to me to be three- 
 fold. First, to convey to the household a sense of its 
 
3i6 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 belonging to the body of Christ's faithful people who are 
 all concerned in its spiritual wellbeing; next, to become 
 better acquainted with the members of the household — as 
 many of them as possible — in those matters especially which 
 affect for good or ill their religious condition ; and lastly, 
 to drop, as occasion serves, some word of life that may bring 
 them such comfort or counsel or correction as their present 
 state calls for. If other ends are served — enlisting a fresh 
 worker for the Church, for instance, or smoothing family 
 unpleasantnesses, or affording to some one a chance to open 
 out a secret grief — these are either of rarer occurrence, or 
 they may be included under those three. Now, should a 
 young minister discover that the old style of formal visits 
 of a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes' duration, carried 
 out on fixed afternoons in regular order and conducted on 
 a fairly uniform plan, are so ill-adapted to the people of his 
 charge, or to certain classes of them, that these purposes 
 are no longer served, he need not scruple to devise a better. 
 Provided the right end be kept in view, the more closely he 
 adapts his procedure to existing circumstances the better. 
 The convenience of the people, not that of the minister, has 
 to be considered. Wherever an afternoon call will accom- 
 plish the purpose, as it will with certain classes, that time 
 ought to be still preferred, in order that as many evening 
 hours as possible may be reserved for work which can be 
 done at no other time. If only an evening hour finds 
 people at home and at leisure, then he must smrender 
 some of his free evenings, or keep others free, for this work. 
 With the working classes, this is likely to be the only time 
 when the head of the house can be seen ; nor is it otherwise 
 with most business men, or with young men and women in 
 situations. These latter will have to be sought at their 
 lodgings, or it may be better to give them an interview at 
 the minister's own house, but always at an evening hour. 
 With men on night duty and any others whose hours of 
 employment are unusual or uncertain, special appointments 
 may have to be made. One ought, I think, to feel bound 
 
HOUSEHOLD VISITATION 3x7 
 
 to no hard and fast rule, either by custom or by personal 
 convenience, but be as free as possible to vary one's plan in 
 different congregations or among different groups within the 
 same congregation. To give the people notice beforehand 
 when to expect a visit, is usually advisable. The only risk 
 that arises from irregular visitation, is lest some get over- 
 looked. To prevent this, each visit paid should be at once 
 duly entered against the address in the visiting-book. A 
 glance will then show what houses have been overtaken and 
 what passed over. 
 
 In the conduct of each visit, a like freedom, it seems to 
 me, ought to obtain. Neither a uniform duration nor 
 imiformity of procedure can be maintained. There are a 
 good many houses where the old method of a very brief 
 service is still the best : a few Scripture verses read, a few 
 words spoken, and a prayer offered for the inmates. When 
 elderly or infirm persons are present, this is often most 
 appropriate. At a Ute-a-Ute interview, on the other hand, 
 the natural course is to engage your companion in a con- 
 versation leading up to religious matters and becoming in 
 the end as frank and confidential as possible. This gives a 
 pastor the best chance of all to win private confidences, 
 which may enable him to minister to hidden hurts, and 
 needs of the inner life. Evening visits, where old and young 
 are met together, will take diverse forms, preferably that of 
 a free talk, winding up with family prayers. The pastor's 
 aim is to combine the utmost measure of simple familiar 
 friendliness, void of every trace of professional stiffness, 
 with a constant endeavour to lead in the direction of the 
 highest things : his hope being that openings will arise for 
 dropping some unforced but helpful or suggestive words in 
 the Master's name. Two extremes are ever to be avoided : 
 being drawn in conversation so far from your object that 
 the talk degenerates into idle gossip ; or thinking it needful 
 to save the character of the visit by a sudden and awkward 
 dragging in at the close of professional or pious utterances. 
 When the number of houses to be visited is extremely 
 
3i8 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 large, a minister may content himself in many cases with a 
 brief friendly visit of inquiry. Even then, however, I 
 think there should be something to distinguish it from an 
 ordinary social " call/' 
 
 Whatever method or variety of methods a minister 
 adopts in household visitation, he rarely finds that the art 
 of turning conversation to religious profit is one which comes 
 to him by nature. By all save a very few it is a thing to 
 be learnt: not easy for many of us; to some extremely 
 difficult. The better certainly a pastor comes to know his 
 people, the easier it will grow ; and in every congregation 
 some are found who meet their minister's advances halfway 
 or more. But glib talkers on religion are not always the 
 best people. It is usually wise, sometimes it is indis- 
 pensable, to prepare oneself beforehand for each visit, 
 First by recalling what one knows about the personal or 
 family circumstances of the household ; then by considering 
 what line of treatment promises in their case the best 
 results ; finally, by an act of intercession — coupled with a 
 petition for direction for oneself. To avoid the risk of 
 awkward silences or the necessity to fall back upon plati- 
 tudes, some recommend the unready man to bethink him 
 beforehand of a text or Gospel lesson deemed suitable, so 
 that, in case no natural opening for religious converse occur, 
 he can frankly pull out his Bible and plunge into his 
 message. That counsel of despair ought very seldom to be 
 called for. There is usually something special to speak 
 about, which, if not quite recent, has at least happened in 
 the family history since the minister's last visit ; or some 
 fresh departure in congregational activity in which they 
 might take part ; or an aged disciple is present ; or a child 
 has gone to school, or a lad to his apprenticeship. Any- 
 thing may supply a natural starting-point from which a 
 moderately skilful visitor will know how to advance to 
 serious talk and appropriate lessons.^ The most difficult 
 
 ^ In his useful and well-known handbook, For the Work of the Ministry 
 (Lond. 1873), Dr. Blaikie writes : ** If I were now beginning a ministry, I 
 
HOUSEHOLD VISITATION 319 
 
 thing of all in most cases is to lead people on to express 
 their own mind. Eeticence on the deeper experiences of 
 the soul is to be expected and is not to be censured. Yet 
 there are hearts among us, not a few, that are weary of 
 bearing their burden alone and in silence. A pastoral visit 
 occasionally offers to such persons an opportunity to open 
 their trouble ; but not often. It seldom happens that there 
 is privacy enough during a family visit. But it may create 
 a desire for a more private interview. If the pastor detect 
 any indication of such a desire, he must create an oppor- 
 tunity. Probably he does well to announce a stated hour 
 in every week when, at his own house or in the church 
 vestry, he is known to be always " at home " to every one 
 who desires to consult him. Many things will bring his 
 people there; but the weary and the heavy laden will 
 venture to come and unbosom themselves all the more 
 readily because their minister has been recently inside their 
 own doors and has shown himself sympathetic there. 
 
 An earnest pastor will often return from visiting, dissatis- 
 fied with himself and depressed by the slender result which 
 he thinks he has achieved. He ought not to suppose his 
 labour has been in vain. In any case it is worth while to 
 be seen once a year or so in every home. It is an attention 
 which Church members count upon and value. It rivets 
 them to the Church. With some of them it is his only 
 means of coming into contact. It makes them all feel that 
 they know their pastor better. It paves the way for closer 
 .pastoral dealing at special conjunctures, when they arise. 
 It makes his preaching more practical and gives him more 
 attentive listeners. It comforts the old. It interests the 
 children. Here and there, at least, a stray word in fit 
 
 should feel it of immense value to store my memory with facts derived from 
 Christian biography, and similar sources, to be used from time to time in 
 prompting pastoral conversation, and making it at once profitable and 
 easy" (p. 286). It is not every one, however, who has the gift of using 
 anecdotes happily. Others, like Mr. Heard in The Pastor and the Parish 
 (Lond. 1865), think it is the minister's business to induce the people to talk 
 to him rather than speak much himself (chap. v.). 
 
320 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 season has been spoken. The most careless has been 
 reminded that rehgion has to do with his home as well as 
 with the house of God. Though every visit will not effect 
 the utmost he intends, yet on the whole the hours which a 
 minister devotes to this duty will not prove to be the least 
 fruitful for the highest ends of the Christian ministry. 
 
CHAPTEE XXVI 
 
 THE SICK AND THE BEREAVED 
 
 Whatever amount of time, be it much or little, a pastor 
 may be able to spare for continuous household visitation, 
 there are other visits which have a first claim upon him. 
 The spirit of his office, no less than the example of his 
 Master, makes him a " son of consolation " to the sick and 
 suffering. These he must on no account neglect, for it is 
 the very glory of his office to bear all such upon his heart 
 and to serve them with tender and assiduous care. They 
 fall into several groups. 
 
 1. Every congregation will number at least a few 
 chronic cases: either invalids of long standing, or elderly 
 and delicate persons who can seldom attend church, at least 
 in winter. These are to be visited periodically, say, once 
 a fortnight to once a month, according to the size of the 
 congregation or the pastor's other engagements. In this 
 duty it is well to be as methodical as a doctor, duly noting 
 each visit on the sick list, that no one be kept long in 
 expectation after the accustomed day has passed. The 
 fact which distinguishes all such cases and should govern 
 one's treatment of them, is simply that they are deprived 
 of the privileges of weekly worship in public. The purpose 
 of a visit, therefore, is to bring to them in their homes some 
 of the benefit they have lost through their infirmity. It is 
 not always to be done in the same way : as, for example, 
 by a short service of Scripture lesson, comments upon it, 
 and prayer. This may be a good normal type ; and when 
 the visit takes that form, any others in the house who are 
 
 21 
 
322 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 at liberty and so disposed can be permitted or invited to 
 join in tbe little service. But a monotonous order is to be 
 avoided. Some account of the Lord's Day sermon, a passage 
 from a book one has been reading that seems appropriate, 
 a choice hymn or sacred poem, news of church work in the 
 congregation or beyond it, will all be useful to give variety. 
 Even an incident in the daily work of the pastor is admiss- 
 ible for its interest, so long as he does not relate in one 
 house what has transpired in another, or allow his chat to 
 become gossipy. Best of all is an occasional serious talk 
 on personal experience in religion, which is not infrequently 
 possible; for among this class are often to be found the 
 choicest of saints and the most deeply exercised in the 
 interior life, to converse with whom does us more good 
 than any benefit we can bring to them. 
 
 So soon as a minister has diagnosed the spiritual state of 
 the invalid and established a friendly understanding with 
 him, he will know how to proceed. The rule is to go pre- 
 pared. Think over beforehand what the character of each 
 visit is to be. Have something ready. . Some ministers 
 carry an interleaved Bible, or one with which a few blank 
 pages have been bound up, on which are entered selected 
 texts suitable for various cases likely to occur. This is not 
 commonly a difficult part of the pastor's work ; it is often 
 one of the most refreshing for his own spirit. It is only in 
 extremely protracted illnesses that tedium is apt to enter ; 
 and then he must be careful not to slacken in his attention 
 or grow remiss in his visiting as though he were weary of 
 it. Even when there is no risk of this, it is an excellent 
 recommendation of Achelis^ to enlist the kindly aid of 
 a private member of the church, introducing him by con- 
 sent of both parties, and arranging that he should peri- 
 odically visit, read to, or pray with the invalid. In 
 Presbyterian Churches there is always a district elder to 
 do this ; yet even his services need not render such friendly 
 ministrations from a private member a superfluity. 
 
 ^ Op. cit. i. 490. 
 
THE SICK AND THE BEREAVED 323 
 
 2. Illness of a more acute kind, not necessarily grave 
 or dangerous, however, at least at first, falls under a different 
 category, comprising many varieties. Against such calls a 
 pastor is never secure, and a sudden summons is to be 
 promptly responded to. Ministers frequently complain 
 that the people, even when publicly requested to do so, 
 abstain from sending early notice of an illness in their 
 homes. When that is followed up by the unreasonable 
 reproach that he ought to have come sooner, it is provoking 
 enough. It is to be remembered, on the other side, that 
 sickness which in the end proves grave may begin with 
 a slight indisposition, and friends are often reluctant to 
 trouble their minister unnecessarily. When the seizure 
 is serious from the first, there is usually excitement in the 
 home, with much to think of. In any case, it need hardly be 
 said, no pastor should stand on ceremony. So soon as 
 he is apprised of sickness, he does well to make an immedi- 
 ate call. He can then judge for himself how soon it should 
 be repeated. Van Oosterzee's rule to visit a serious case 
 every two or three days, one of dangerous illness daily ,^ is 
 good enough as a general guide ; only it is open to many 
 exceptions according to circumstances. Nothing is so 
 urgently expected or so gratefully remembered as close 
 and devoted attendance where the sickness is at all serious 
 — indeed, at every critical period in the history of a family. 
 By the way in which he treats any such incident, the 
 pastor may either attach a household to himself or alien- 
 ate it. 
 
 Where a minister has a previous acquaintance with 
 the patient, with his character, repute, and religious pro- 
 fession, as must usually happen in purely pastoral visits, 
 he ought to be able to adapt his ministrations to the 
 person's state of mind at least approximately. As a rule, 
 his main object will be to calm and cheer the sufferer by 
 leading him to see in this trouble the hand of his Heavenly 
 Father who always corrects in love for our spiritual profit. 
 
 1 Praktische Theologie (Heilbronn, 1878, i. 256). 
 
324 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 Affliction is not invariably a rebuke for sins of the past, 
 though it may be ; but it always tests and exercises, that it 
 may strengthen, Christian graces. The inspired rationale 
 of chastening in the Epistle to the Hebrews ^ may serve as 
 a general directory ; but the precise form which the pastor's 
 counsel ought to take must depend on what he knows, or 
 believes he knows, of the person's state of mind. It is 
 always helpful to keep clearly before one's own mind the 
 spiritual exercises proper to one in sickness so long as the 
 physical malady has not impaired the power of collected 
 thought. Such, I mean, as self-examination, acts of peni- 
 tent trust in God's mercy through Christ, patient endurance, 
 and cheerful submission to the Divine will, and resolutions 
 for an amended life in view of recovery. Which of all 
 these be most called for in a particular case must be judged 
 of from what one knows of it. 
 
 It will occasionally happen that a minister is called 
 to see a sick person with whose previous character or 
 present state he is wholly unacquainted. If the condition 
 of the patient permit so much discourse, it is the minister's 
 first duty, not at once to administer comfort, but by tact- 
 ful questions and often from slight indications to gather 
 whether he is vacant on religious matters or alive to them, 
 anxious or easy in his mind, resting his hope on the 
 Saviour or on some false foundation. This is delicate work. 
 Sick men cannot think much or long, and in many cases 
 nothing can be elicited that justifies any confident inference 
 at all. Under circumstances so unsatisfactory, it seems to be 
 one's duty, first by brief and plain words to strive to rouse 
 the conscience and spirit to religious needs, and then with 
 the utmost simplicity of speech, mostly in the terms of Scrip- 
 ture or of a familiar hymn verse, to set before the sick man 
 the Gospel call and the Gospel promise. It does not do 
 to assume with a person unknown an adequate knowedge 
 of the Gospel. A clear succinct statement of elementary 
 truth in such a case is always wise. An early repetition 
 
THE SICK AND THE BEREAVED 325 
 
 of the visit, or several of them, is to be recommended, 
 that one may see if the soul be opening to the light. 
 Supposing no immediate danger to life, it is often well 
 to leave some marked passages of Holy Writ to be thought 
 over in the interval ; sometimes an easy form of prayer to 
 be used, either by the sick man or by his attendants in his 
 hearing. But it is always possible, where so little is known, 
 that the stranger is silently resting in penitence on the sure 
 foundation ; so that the contrary is not to be assumed in one's 
 manner of addressing him. A warm presentation of God's 
 love and of Christ's atonement in a tone of encouragement 
 and assurance will be equally in place on either alternative. 
 
 Every visit to a person who is really ill, of whatever 
 malady, needs to be brief, care being observed on no 
 account to excite or fatigue the patient. One's manner in 
 the sick-room is to be alert and firm, doing and saying at 
 once without hesitation what has to be said or done, yet 
 with quietness and self-possession, showing no trace of 
 flurry or haste. One must speak softly, especially to the 
 sick person, yet not so low as to make hearing at all 
 difficult ; and never trouble him with many questions nor 
 force him to talk much. What has to be said to the 
 attendants or relatives had better be said outside the room. 
 The rule is, though there are exceptions, to close with brief 
 prayer in direct petitions, slowly uttered if he be very ill, 
 for the most necessary blessings — as forgiveness, peace of 
 conscience, submission, recovery, or the like, — expressed on 
 his behalf, yet so that the sufferer himself can really 
 appropriate them as his own. 
 
 The question is often put: Should the minister be 
 expected to attend infectious cases ? I have known 
 instances in which, the sick person being well known for an 
 experienced Christian in no special need of counsel or of 
 comfort beyond what he is receiving from those about him, 
 his family have been pleased to say they would not desire 
 their pastor to expose himself to any risk. Under such 
 exceptional circumstances, a man may use his own discre- 
 
326 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 tion and go or not as he deems best. But in every case in 
 which his spiritual services are either needed or wished for, 
 he has no more right to avoid risk than a medical man, and 
 his family also must accept whatever risk there is, just like 
 a doctor's household. It is a part of the conditions of their 
 life. I know that this is not required of the clergy of the 
 Church of England. The sixty-seventh canon of that 
 Church says: "When any person is dangerously sick in 
 any parish, the Minister or Curate, having knowledge 
 thereof, shall resort unto him or her (if the disease be not 
 known or probably suspected to be infectious)." Notwith- 
 standing this excess of caution in the law, there is no 
 reason to suppose that Anglican clergymen show less 
 courage or fidelity to duty in this regard than those of any 
 other communion. Every pastor's true attitude is surely 
 expressed by a Lutheran writer when he bids him take it 
 as a matter of course, an incident of his calling, never 
 raising the question — go or not go, at all.^ Of course the 
 minister is as much bound as the doctor to minimise the 
 risk by every prudent precaution, and should inform 
 himself what those are. Commonsense will tell him not to 
 visit such cases fasting or fatigued; not to touch the 
 patient, or bend over him so as to inhale his breath ; not, if 
 he can help it, to take up his position between the bed and 
 the fireplace ; not to make another call or rejoin his family 
 till he has had a walk in fresh air, and qo forth. For any 
 more special prophylactics, should they be called for, the 
 medical man will advise him, or the nurse. On the other 
 hand, to betray reluctance or timidity in the discharge of a 
 plain duty must produce a bad impression, for it betrays 
 the feebleness either of his compassion for his fellow-man 
 or of his trust in God. 
 
 ^ Palmer, O]). cit. pp. 438-439 : "Gehe ich mit dem eiufaclien, aber stets 
 gleichen Bewusstsein zuden Kranken, 'das ist raein Beruf,' iiehme ich's als 
 eine Sache, die sich ganz von selbst versteht, iiber die ich also kein Wort 
 verliere, da ich mich gar nicht erst besinine : soil ich oder soli ich uicht ? — 
 dann bin ich audi vor Anstechung am meisten sicher." 
 
THE SICK AND THE BEREAVED 327 
 
 3. When any malady has reached a dangerous stage, the 
 pastor's attention is redoubled. The approach of death 
 affects Christian people in various ways. The end may 
 be desired, yet not always in a devout temper ; sometimes 
 with impatience at the delay because it means prolongation 
 of suffering. Or it may be feared: either because fresh 
 misgivings have sprung up in the sufferer's mind, doubts as 
 to the reality of his interest in Christ ; or from the mere 
 clinging of nature to life, or anxiety for those they leave 
 behind, or a shrinking from the mysterious act of dissolu- 
 tion itself. Some disorders, too, make the spirit dull or 
 irresponsive. In others the patient refuses to admit the 
 thought of danger at all. 
 
 To a certain extent the pastor must accommodate his 
 ministrations to such diverse moods. Yet the fundamental 
 remedy for them all, which it is never unsafe to apply, is 
 to counsel an unquestioning committal of both soul and 
 body into the Kedeemer's hands, with a humble willingness 
 to await His pleasure, whatever the end may be. Such a 
 readiness for either issue is the only thing that will allay 
 disturbance or the restlessness of uncertainty. It tends to 
 brace and settle the dying man on the safe foundation. 
 The few words which are all that can be spoken, and that 
 at intervals, beside a death-bed, can have but one uniform 
 burden. To hold Christ before the fading eye to the last 
 as the soul's one Hope, and His Cross as the pledge of 
 mercy for every sinner alike, is suitable for persons in any 
 condition of mind. To this in a dying hour must the 
 ripest saint come back. Choice, easy and familiar words 
 out of the Holy Book are the fittest to use. And prayers 
 for the dying, so long as the sick man retains consciousness, 
 must be mere ejaculations such as his feebleness can 
 appropriate. If he be unconscious, then let prayer be made 
 earnestly on his behalf with those around his bed, com- 
 mending the parting soul to God. 
 
 By far the most painful and difficult duty of this sort 
 arises when a minister of religion is suddenly summoned to 
 
328 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 I 
 
 the death-bed of a person whom he either does not know at 
 all, or suspects to be of an irreligious or evil life. Death- 
 bed repentance is probably infrequent enough. Still, it is 
 not impossible. The servant of the Gospel is bound to 
 persevere to the last in holding out to the sinner both its 
 requirement and its promise. He dare not let the man die 
 without an express warning that if he does not repent he 
 must die unsaved. As little dare he withhold the assurance 
 that, if he will turn to God at his latest hour with confes- 
 sion and contrition, God will be merciful even then for 
 Jesus' sake. At such a moment the pastor has need to 
 have ready upon his tongue the very choicest of those full 
 yet short texts which can be most easily grasped. A quiet 
 slow recital of these, varied only by a broken petition for 
 pardon : — more than that in the article of death it is seldom 
 possible to attempt.^ 
 
 In all these suggestions on the pastoral treatment of 
 persons in danger of death, if not actually moribund, it is 
 assumed that the possibility at least of a fatal termination 
 is frankly faced. Not that the patient must be told he is 
 dying, but that it has been conveyed to him in some gentle 
 way that he is in danger. It puts the spiritual adviser in a 
 difficult position if, as not seldom occurs, objection is raised 
 on medical grounds against the remotest hint of the sort. 
 Relatives or nurses sometimes dread to alarm the patient 
 lest it aggravate his symptoms. Sometimes medical men 
 with more authority forbid it, lest, by weakening his will 
 to live, it may lesson the chance of recovery. For such 
 reasons, a policy of concealment, it may even be of deception, 
 is persisted in to the last. 
 
 To disobey doctor and nurse is so strong a step that it 
 should only be taken, if at all, in an extreme case ; that is, 
 only if the minister is practically sure, not merely that the 
 patient is dying, but thab he is dying unprepared, and that 
 
 ^ In Blount's Birectorum Pastorale {Lond. 1865) will be found some 
 useful remarks on bringing dying sinners to repentance (allowance being 
 made for some High Church expressions). 
 
THE SICK AND THE BEREAVED 329 
 
 he does not know it. It rarely comes to that. But it does 
 happen not infrequently that a minister has to overbear the 
 professional advice to "keep him quiet" by pressing more 
 or less firmly his opinion that the patient ought to be 
 gently advised of the gravity of his case. In other cases, 
 he takes it on himself, no objection being offered, to lead 
 the sufferer's mind to the true outlook before him. Not 
 that in the worst extremity any man can, even if he would, 
 cut off hope from a brother ; for to the last we are all in the 
 hand of God to kill or to save alive. But it is a heavy 
 responsibility, and a most dubious kindness, to let a soul 
 pass into eternity oblivious to its danger and unprepared to 
 meet it. It may be that the dying man has worldly affairs 
 to settle or family messages of farewell to leave behind. In 
 any case might he not justly complain of our inhumanity 
 if we persist in concealing from him how soon he may have 
 to stand before his Judge ? Concealment in such a matter 
 is hardly to be distinguished from deception. 
 
 I do not think the minister who deals thus faithfully 
 with his patient need be uneasy about the consequences. 
 In a fairly long ministry, after paying some attention to the 
 point, I have never seen harm come of it. Patients, as a 
 rule, suspect danger where it exists. Suspicion is more 
 agitating than certainty. It is often a relief to know the 
 worst. When the sick man gathers from a few cautious, 
 kindly words, or from expressions used in prayer, that it is 
 feared he may not recover, he will usually put some ques- 
 tion that leads to a confirmation of his fear. The effect is 
 commonly to steady him. He makes up his mind. He 
 looks the prospect in the face. He rallies his moral 
 strength to meet it. He makes his dispositions. He gives 
 his mind to spiritual counsel. He " sets his house in order " 
 to die, as a brave and devout man should. 
 
 4. A pastor's ministry of consolation to the bereaved 
 may begin in the death-chamber itself, where, at the 
 prospect of their impending loss, it is often more needful 
 to sustain the relatives by soothing sympathy than to 
 
330 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 counsel the departing. At a child's death-bed, or when an 
 adult is long unconscious, there is little else to be done. 
 Yet not much can be done at such a trying moment beyond 
 the support which the mere presence of a minister of re- 
 ligion may afford. It is therefore well to pay an early visit 
 of condolence to the house, if possible before the funeral, 
 chiefly for the purpose of offering comfort to the next-of-kin. 
 At the funeral itself, the religious services being of a public 
 or semi-public character and more or less liturgical in form, 
 not much opportunity occurs for pastoral dealing with 
 individual members of the family. Very shortly after it is 
 over, therefore, a visit, which is not to be a hurried one, 
 is always to be paid to the bereaved home. Where a bread- 
 winner has been taken there is often reason for inquiry into 
 the circumstances of the survivors or their altered family 
 arrangements,, with a view to proffer aid as well as consola- 
 tion. Both advice and assistance may have to be given, in 
 seeking employment for the widow, for example, or a situa- 
 tion for a son, or in finding a new home, or in correspond- 
 ence with the burial club, or the like. Yet in every case 
 the more spiritual design of the visit must not be dropped 
 out of sight. Comfort continues to be the foremost aim ; 
 only that it is now best attained, since all is over, by 
 gathering up the religious lessons of bereavement, directing 
 their thoughts to those abiding fruits which discipline is 
 meant to yield, and to the support which, during the un- 
 known dark days to follow, will have to be sought from our 
 Father's guiding hand and from the sympathy of the Man 
 of Sorrows. Usually it is best to do this quite frankly by 
 arranging a little household service when as many as 
 possible can be present, at which suitable Scriptures are 
 read and enforced, closing with a prayer, in the course of 
 which the circumstances of the family are laid before God 
 with some minuteness. 
 
 All this presents no special difficulty ; but in the task of 
 comforting individually the next-of-kin, particularly widows 
 and bereaved mothers, the pastor is not seldom in a situation 
 
THE SICK AND THE BEREAVED 331 
 
 which calls for careful and prudent handling. Excessive or 
 unduly prolonged grief may have, at times, to be repressed, 
 or even to be rebuked where it takes the form of rebellious 
 complaint against the dispensations of Heaven. Sometimes 
 mourners bitterly reproach themselves for remembered 
 faults committed against the departed in his lifetime, or 
 for something omitted, which, had it been done, everything 
 would have been different. One may have to point out the 
 fruitlessness of such remorse, even supposing it to be well 
 founded, and to urge as the only remedy that is left, humble 
 confession, asking pardon of God for every known or sus- 
 pected error in the past. Better still will it be if unavailing 
 regret for the past can be turned into a penitent resolve to 
 act a gentler or more faithful part towards the survivors. 
 
 A worse case is when sorrow is made poignant by a fear 
 that the deceased was not fit to die. When this agonising 
 misgiving haunts the bereaved, they generally try to extract 
 from the clergyman something to confirm their clinging 
 hope that all is now well with their lost friend. Of course, 
 the claims of truth may not be sacrificed even to the 
 charitable wish to speak as well as possible of the dead. 
 One can but say what in the judgment of charity one 
 honestly can, and for the rest, be silent. As our creed does 
 not warrant the idea that prayers can now avail, nothing 
 more is possible but to urge that the departed be left to the 
 unknown mercies of the All-merciful, who will have all 
 men to be saved, with a humble hope that, either in the 
 last hours of life, or by ways unrevealed to us, he may be 
 delivered from the guilt of this mortal life through the 
 merits of Him who is the propitiation for the sins of the 
 whole world. Whenever the pastor fears that, be it from 
 this cause or any other, a mourner — it will commonly be 
 a woman — is giving herself up to a brooding sorrow, the 
 surest remedy is to urge her to active exertion, either for 
 the sake of her own surviving household, or, should that be 
 uncalled for, in the service of some of her suffering sisters 
 worse off than herself. 
 
332 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 When he discharges the office of a comforter, the 
 Christian minister needs to make sure that it is Christian 
 comfort he is bringing, not fetched from semi -pagan 
 commonplaces about the "common lot" and so forth, 
 which are current at such seasons. Christ's victory over 
 death, the Fatherly love which sweetens chastisement, the 
 blessedness of the Christian dead, the hope of reunion, the 
 resurrection-glory: — these are the topics drawn from our 
 Christian faith, which alone can solace effectually a broken 
 heart. Visits to bereaved parents in particular, whose 
 children have died young, can be devoted entirely to such 
 sources of consolation and to others peculiar to themselves. 
 Pull of peculiar comfort are the baptismal pledge of grace, 
 the Good Shepherd's tender love for His lambs, and the 
 thought that they have been early delivered from the 
 hazards of this world. Care has to be taken not to 
 encourage the notion that it is a child's own innocence, 
 rather than the ransoming blood of Christ, which war- 
 rants our belief in its salvation. Some pastors tell of 
 puzzling and unanswerable questions that vex bereaved 
 parents, touching the future life of a child, its growth 
 meanwhile, and the unrecognisable changes that may pass 
 over it. I have never encountered these as a source of 
 disquiet. If they occur, they deserve to be met with 
 sympathy, yet gently relegated to that obscurity which 
 wisely shrouds from mortal vision everything that concerns 
 the world of unseen spirits. 
 
CHAPTEK XXVII 
 
 THE CARE OF THE YOUNG 
 
 The Christian training of the young is a joint concern of 
 the Home, the School, and the Church. Each of these in 
 succession conies to the aid of the others. 
 
 For the first six or seven years of a child's life, the 
 pastor, as representing the Church, can bring his influence 
 to bear only indirectly through the parents; but, though 
 indirect, his influence may be very valuable. It is for the 
 parents to create within their home a Christian atmosphere ; 
 to breathe into the young child's opening heart his first 
 thought of God and of the Good Shepherd's love ; to train 
 him from tender years to the habit of prayer ; to lay deep 
 the foundations of character in reverence, obedience, truth- 
 fulness, and the fear of God; and by family prayers and 
 regularity at public worship to set a pious example that 
 shall never be forgotten. Unless the soil be thus tilled 
 with care from the first, a pastor's subsequent sowing of 
 good seed will have a poor prospect , of f ruitf ulness. But 
 parents require to be reminded of their baptismal obliga- 
 tions to those tender members of Christ's flock. Both by 
 sermons in church on family relations and parental duty, 
 which surely might well be more frequent than they are, 
 and in the course of pastoral visitation, the minister can 
 do much to incite fathers and mothers to perform their 
 part. He may even advise them as to the likeliest methods. 
 If he be himself a lover of little children, like his Master, 
 and his leisure allow him to become a familiar guest in 
 
 333 
 
334 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 their homes, he can easily win such a place in their affec- 
 tions as will in a few years constitute him their trusted 
 spiritual counsellor. 
 
 So soon as school age is reached, a minister can begin 
 in addition to operate directly on the boys and girls in his 
 parish or congregation. Less often, indeed, than formerly, 
 through the day-school; for modern legislation has been 
 steadily dissolving the old ties which once subsisted between 
 the parochial clergy and the primary education of the 
 people, till now they seem to be on the eve of disappearance. 
 All the more on that account does every pastor, whether 
 in the National or in the Free Churches of this country, 
 need to watch for and to cultivate every other opportunity 
 for the religious instruction of youth which existing arrange- 
 ments afford. Of course it is in the first instance for the 
 immature members of his own flock that in his character 
 of pastor each minister is bound to care. His means of 
 access to them for purposes of religious instruction and 
 influence during school years, from seven, say, till fourteen 
 or fifteen, are often less close and effective than is to be 
 desired. Several modern methods for making them more 
 so — some, indeed, of quite recent origin — deserve to be 
 glanced at: a young people's portion in the Lord's Day 
 worship, for instance; children's services; associations for 
 the young, like Bands of Hope, the Boys' Brigade, or Junior 
 Societies of Christian Endeavour; and, above all, the 
 Sunday School. 
 
 1. To devote a few minutes during the ordinary morning 
 service of each Lord's Day to the boys and girls present is 
 a well-meant innovation, not possible, of course, where the 
 worship is restricted to a liturgy, but meriting consideration 
 from the leader of a free service. It has of late been pretty 
 widely adopted in one form or another, and approves itself, 
 I understand, to the majority of adult worshippers, being 
 welcomed by parents, and by others not disliked. If, by 
 giving the service greater interest for their children, it is 
 
THE CARE OF THE YOUNG 335 
 
 found to encourage parents to bring them to church and so 
 to accustom them to a habit of attendance under conditions 
 less burdensome than formerly — this must be deemed a 
 distinct recommendation of the change. For there is no 
 question that a long service, much of which we could not 
 follow, proved a weariness to many of us in our childhood, 
 and has sometimes led older lads to forsake the house 
 of God as soon as they were free to follow their inclination. 
 Experience alone can show how far this method does 
 increase the interest of the service to juvenile worshippers ; 
 but at the least it must make our boys and girls feel that 
 they have a place of their own in the house of God as an 
 integral part of the congregation; and that is a clear 
 benefit. The chief drawback urged on the other side is 
 that by inviting attention to their own part of the worship, 
 it appears to exonerate young people from any effort to 
 attend to the rest of it. Fearing this result, some prepare 
 the juniors to listen and understand what is to follow, by 
 making their own address a simple rehearsal of the main 
 thought in the subsequent sermon. In most men's hands 
 this would be apt to forestall the interest of older hearers. 
 Others recommend no separate address to the young at all, 
 but an occasional remark or illustration, adapted to youthful 
 minds, interjected here and there in the course of the 
 sermon. That, too, I am afraid, is more than most preachers 
 could attempt with success. Dr. Blaikie's outlet from the 
 difficulty is a safer one: to make all one's preaching so 
 lucid, interesting, and in the best sense popular, that it will 
 be in the main attractive and intelligible to young as well 
 as old.^ Even this, however, is not always attainable ; 
 topics have to be handled which cannot be thus simplified for 
 juvenile hearers. I think many a minister will conclude 
 that the drawbacks to the "children's portion" are out- 
 weighed on the whole by the weekly opportunity, even if 
 brief, which it gives him for the express instruction of an 
 important class which it is difficult otherwise to reach. 
 
 1 Op. cU. pp. 296-297. 
 
336 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 To make as much use as they can of the ten minutes at 
 their disposal — for it is hardly possible to spare more — 
 some prefer to devote the whole time to the address. 
 Where a hymn for the young is included, and perhaps also 
 the Lord's Prayer said by all, so as to make a little service 
 of it, which in itself is surely desirable, no more than five 
 minutes will be left for the sermonette. It is just possible 
 to lodge a single truth or lesson in a young heart in five 
 minutes, and even to make it memorable by one happy 
 illustration or short anecdote ; but only if it be very well 
 thought out beforehand. More, of course, cannot be at- 
 tempted ; to do this effectively asks as careful study as a 
 sermon, but is quite as well worth it. The young people 
 are to be addressed as boys and girls (for they resent being 
 called " children "), without preamble, in homely, direct, 
 and impromptu speech ; and it is well if the illustration 
 selected be drawn, as a rule, from their own stock of 
 knowledge or field of experience. 
 
 2. It is surprising that one so seldom hears of religious 
 services exclusively for the young. Some ministers excuse 
 themselves on the plea that they have not the "gift" of 
 preaching to children. It is a difficult duty, no doubt; 
 and the " gift " is possessed by few. Yet any minister who 
 will practise it early in his ministry may learn how to 
 speak to the youth of his own flock, at least, so as both to 
 interest and benefit them. The difficulty seems to be to 
 find favourable occasions, either on the Lord's Day or on week 
 days, when all the young of the flock, including those at 
 school and older youths, can assemble together for the 
 purpose. Where " Children's Day," as it is called, is 
 observed, such a rally for worship will naturally be a 
 leading feature. Advantage can usually be taken of a 
 Sunday-school anniversary. Such a Christian holiday 
 as Christmas lends itself for the purpose. So does a 
 Harvest Festival or a Flower Service. If advantage be 
 taken of every such opening that offers, it ought to be 
 practicable to gather the young people for separate 
 
THE CARE OF THE YOUNG 337 
 
 worship at least once a quarter, and it would be well-spent 
 time. 
 
 At such services the pastor himself should be able to 
 arrange for each occasion a special order of worship, warm 
 and bright, but simple and informal, with the music 
 rehearsed beforehand, and as large a share as possible, 
 recitative or responsive, assigned to the children themselves. 
 If he can hold their attention for a twenty minutes' sermon 
 (not longer), he may by God's blessing leave an abiding 
 imprint on their minds. The amount of actual teaching 
 which can be imparted is probably not great; but that is 
 not his primary object. It is to press upon young hearts 
 the truths of the Gospel as far as they have come to know 
 it, and to make Christ an influential presence in their daily 
 lives. The points to attend to in a sermon to children are 
 not hard to discover : a text brief, arresting, and easy to 
 remember; a single truth, central in religion, but not 
 recondite, lodged firmly in the mind ; a few " heads,'' pithily 
 put and repeated till they cannot be forgotten ; abundant 
 illustrations taken from the circle of a child's own life, or, 
 at any rate, appealing to his imagination; and all spoken 
 without notes in a lively conversational tone. Even a few 
 such sermons in the course of the year may prove invalu- 
 able for the religious life of a congregation. 
 
 3. In these days, when societies of every description are 
 in fashion, even boys' and girls' unions are become common ; 
 and although exception might probably be taken on one 
 ground or another against any form yet devised, where 
 they exist the minister will generally be able to turn them 
 to account in his pastoral work. 
 
 One of the most widespread groups are Bands of Hope. 
 Their original intention as an outgrowth from the temperance 
 movement in last century is to be preserved ; but weekly 
 meetings thrive with difficulty on so narrow a basis, so 
 that they have widened in course of time to embrace other 
 aspects of Christian life and duty as well as temperance, 
 until they often assume, or easily may assume, the general 
 22 
 
338 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 character of religious services conducted with a good deal 
 of freedom. Under this form one can see considerable 
 possibilities lying close to the pastor's hand. 
 
 Of a different type is the "Boys' Brigade," started in 
 Glasgow a quarter of a century ago, and now familiar on 
 both sides of the Atlantic. This organisation is recruited 
 from a limited class; but it is a difficult class, and its 
 difficulties have been met with singular skill. Any minister 
 working in the densely-peopled parts of an industrial town, 
 who is puzzled what to do for the bands of undisciplined, 
 ill- taught lads that infest its streets out of working hours, 
 can find no more effective ally. The misgiving aroused at 
 first by an air of " militarism ''' about these companies has 
 been dispelled by their success in generating in such rough 
 boys habits of discipline, of subordination, and of self- 
 respect. On this foundation their conductors aim at build- 
 ing up a Christian manhood ; for which end they invariably 
 hold weekly religious exercises and attach themselves to 
 some Christian Church. In so far as they attain their aim 
 they are doing valuable service, not only to the State, but to 
 the kingdom of God. 
 
 What are called " Young People's Societies of Christian 
 Endeavour " (to be spoken of later) have sometimes a junior 
 branch in which boys and girls of school age, say, eight to 
 fifteen or so, are enrolled. Certain features in these unions, 
 particularly the pledge which they require from their 
 members, and the meetings for worship in which the young 
 people themselves are expected to take some small and 
 simple share, many will judge to be better suited for youths 
 of an older growth. The danger of precocity, or even of 
 priggishness, must always be borne in mind, and sedulously 
 guarded against. On the other hand, their main design 
 being as early as possible to train to habits of Christian 
 service, there are certainly humble forms of kindly ministry 
 to others which children may quite well begin to render 
 from a pretty early age, so long as they are superintended 
 by prudent Christians of experience. Before he encourages 
 
THE CARE OF THE YOUNG 339 
 
 the formation of these or any similar associations, the 
 minister will, of course, satisfy himself of the wisdom of 
 their arrangements as well as of their general utility. 
 
 4. By far the largest contribution which the Churches 
 make, both in Britain and in America, to the rehgious 
 instruction of boys and girls, is made by the Sunday school. 
 A century and a quarter have elapsed since Eobert Eaikes 
 of Gloucester began his humble essay at repairing, by a 
 Sunday class, the defective education of a few illiterate and 
 neglected children. During this interval the system has 
 won for itself imiversal adoption, and enlisted in its service 
 hosts of the most earnest Christians in every English- 
 speaking community. It has also, especially in America, as 
 a fruit of study and pains ungrudgingly spent upon it, under- 
 gone immense development. In this country its value as 
 an instrument for training the children of the people in 
 Christian knowledge is steadily rising in proportion as the 
 dilB&culties which beset religious teaching in the pubUc day- 
 schools of England baffle the efforts of statesmen for their 
 solution. In view of this growing importance of the Sunday 
 school, it is disconcerting to find existing among us a 
 widespread and fairly deep dissatisfaction both with its 
 educational methods and with their results. 
 
 It must be recollected that at its origin the Sunday 
 school was a contrivance to meet a religious need. It had 
 to be educational in its method, teaching ignorant children 
 to read their Bible, because they were taught nowhere else, 
 and without a knowledge of the Scriptures their religious 
 need could not be met. But its ultimate aim was not the 
 educational, but the religious one — to reach with the saving 
 truths of the Gospel the souls of children growing up like 
 little heathen in the heart of a Christian land. Things have 
 so far changed since then, that it is no longer requisite to 
 give reading lessons. Nevertheless, it is on essentially 
 similar lines that the Sunday school has proceeded all along 
 and proceeds to-day. The teacher has not hitherto been an 
 educationist, either by profession or by training. He has 
 
340 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 not set himself as his business to convey to every scholar 
 within the years of school attendance a fairly complete and 
 orderly acquaintance, either with Holy Scripture, or with 
 the contents of the Christian creed. If he did, his methods 
 would need to be very different. He is a warm-hearted 
 Christian of the type of Eaikes himself, whose aim is to 
 reach and draw to the Saviour the hearts of his pupils, and 
 who is fain to use for this great end a Bible lesson put into 
 his hands. 
 
 The question which now occupies friendly critics of the 
 system is not whether conversion and religious and moral 
 training have been too much kept in view. As a Church 
 institute these must be its dominant aims. It can have no 
 other raison d'etre. But the questions which are asked on 
 many sides are (1) whether its religious results have not 
 been so disappointing as to compel a reconsideration of its 
 methods; and if so (2), how far its imperfect educational 
 appliances may not be responsible for these scanty religious 
 results. 
 
 I am afraid the inadequate and disappointing results of 
 Sunday-school work as at present conducted can scarcely be 
 denied. One has long been familiar with the all but 
 universal complaint that senior scholars drift off and are 
 largely lost both to school and Church just at the age when 
 they ought to be professing personal trust in Christ and 
 becoming members in full communion. The number of 
 such members who are drawn annually from the school roll 
 is said to be far too small. Is it equally certain that the 
 method of instruction pursued is to any serious extent 
 responsible for this ? That is what a good many observers 
 are nowadays affirming with growing emphasis. They 
 allege that through its poor and desultory or unsystematic 
 style of teaching, the school fails to lodge either in the 
 memory, or in the understanding, or in the hearts, of its 
 scholars a coherent and fairly thorough acquaintance either 
 with the facts or with the truths of revelation. Con- 
 sequently, so it is said, pupils do not carry away with them 
 
THE CARE OF THE YOUNG 341 
 
 at the close of school attendance what will really hold them 
 to religion, or keep them loyal to Christian habits of 
 worship, or mould their conduct on Christian lines. In 
 this way the admitted deficiency in spiritual results is 
 accounted for, in good part at least, by faults which they 
 would fain see reformed in the educational machinery of 
 our schools. 
 
 The changes of method which these critics would like to 
 see introduced are such as the following : (a) training for 
 young or prospective teachers in the art of education ; (h) 
 better premises, where classes, larger than at present, could 
 be taught in rooms by themselves ; (c) classification of 
 scholars according to age and attainments ; (d) a scheme of 
 graded lessons to replace the International Lessons now in 
 use ; and (e) the testing of the teaching by examinations, 
 not of a few picked pupils as the Sunday-School Union does, 
 but of entire classes. On all these proposals discussion is 
 now vigorously going on ; although attempts to experiment 
 upon them have not yet gone quite so far. Obviously they 
 hang together, and look all in one direction. They aim at 
 assimilating the methods of Sunday instruction in various 
 ways to those of the day school. From the point of view 
 of national education, one may anticipate that, if religious 
 instruction, driven from the primary school or reduced 
 there to a minimum, comes to depend much more on Sunday 
 teaching, then the educational efficiency of that teaching 
 must acquire as years pass growing importance in the 
 public eye. But this is not the primary point of view from 
 which the changes I speak of are urged, or ought to be 
 urged, inside Church circles. From the traditional point of 
 view, which remains the Christian one, those methods of 
 Sunday-school teaching must always approve themselves, 
 not which lodge most knowledge in the mind, but which win 
 the pupils in the end for Christ and for His Church. And 
 the chief obstacle to the changes proposed has arisen from 
 an apprehension entertained by many of our best teachers, 
 that their spiritual influence, based on personal ties of 
 
342 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 affection between teacher and pupil, would suffer in con- 
 sequence. Undoubtedly that would be a serious loss; for 
 hitherto this personal influence based on Christian affection 
 has been the best feature in all Sunday-school work. To 
 this problem, therefore, the friends of the institution who 
 believe in its capabilities are bound to address themselves : 
 Is it possible materially to reform its methods of teaching 
 without any sacrifice of its religious value or of the personal 
 influence of the Christian teacher upon the taught ? 
 
 The matter is not one to be further discussed here, but 
 I have referred to it because it seems to me that the 
 minister's attention should be seriously given to it. No 
 doubt any extensive reforms lie beyond the power of an 
 individual pastor. Still, he has something in his power. 
 He is in a position to encourage a study of the whole 
 situation by the staff of his own school. He can contribute 
 to create an intelligent public opinion in Sunday-school 
 circles. Some changes, too, there are, which, if he and his 
 teachers are convinced of their wisdom, can be locally 
 introduced without much difficulty. Indifferent to the 
 subject he can never be, for in all that concerns growing 
 boys and girls under his care, the Sunday school ought to 
 be the right arm of the Church. 
 
 The relation of every Sunday school to the congregation 
 with which it stands connected, ought, in a healthy state of 
 things, to be as close as possible. It is the Church's own 
 work — the training for Christ of her own little ones, or of 
 the children of strangers entrusted to her by their parents. 
 It is done by her own members in her name. And it ought, 
 like any other department of Church activity, to be super- 
 intended by the minister and the others, if any, who divide 
 with him pastoral responsibility. 
 
 In certain districts of England it is not so. An unhappy 
 cleft continues to separate the two. Schools are administered 
 by their teaching staff with hardly a link uniting them to 
 the congregation, save that they usually occupy church 
 premises. This unnatural severance is a survival from early 
 
THE CARE OF THE YOUNG 343 
 
 days when schools sprang up through the voluntary enter- 
 prise of private Christians, but were looked on askance by 
 ecclesiastical authorities. Where any minister finds this 
 independent management in force and jealously conserved, 
 as it is likely to be, he gains nothing by prematurely forcing 
 a departure from it. The wiser course is to make the 
 teachers aware that he respects their autonomy and is only 
 anxious to co-operate with them to the utmost. By cultivat- 
 ing personal relations with the superintendent, and, if 
 permitted, meeting the class teachers regularly over the 
 study of their lessons, he will generally gain their confidence 
 and have no difficulty in making his influence felt. But 
 the rule is that a closer relation obtains between school and 
 church, which, while it leaves a good deal of school business 
 to the staff, reserves for the local church authority a 
 sufficient, if vague, right of supervision. The most important 
 point, then, is that the minister be consulted in the selection 
 of teachers, above all, of the superintendent. It is rarely 
 necessary, and, when not necessary, it is undesirable, for 
 the minister himself to superintend, although he should 
 frequently be present. If in a very small flock he cannot 
 find a suitable substitute, he ought at least to be relieved 
 of clerical and other details. For the most part his influence 
 will be felt, rather than his hand seen, in the conduct of 
 school affairs. With its personnel he will keep in close 
 touch. Of his w^arm interest in their work and readiness 
 to render it all the assistance in his power, there ought 
 never to be any question. 
 
 About the age of puberty and for a few years after it, 
 pastoral care for the youth of the flock ought to be at its 
 maximum. As they approach that critical stage of life 
 when adolescence begins, the Sunday school begins to be 
 left behind as too childish, character develops under a sense 
 of self-conscious responsibility, action grows independent, 
 and the passions gain strength. From thirteen to eighteen 
 or so is the most hazardous period of growth, when grave 
 
344 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 risks have to be encountered. Then, if ever, the pastor's eye 
 should be upon a young lad or maiden. 
 
 At what time the first movements of the new life 
 normally begin in a baptized child of the Church, no 
 one knows. It may occur at baptism. It may precede 
 the dawn of moral self -consciousness. Christian life may 
 unfold all through childhood with the development of 
 personality and of character. Who knows ? But what by 
 the laws of human growth is likely to happen is, that 
 a crisis is reached in a young Christian's experience, of 
 which the characteristic feature is this, that the inbred 
 unconscious child-faith becomes at length aware of itself. 
 This it does when intellect, conscience, and will are all 
 sufficiently mature to make deliberate and intelligent choice 
 of Christ as Saviour and of subjection to Him as the rule 
 of life. By the wisdom of his dealing with them at this 
 juncture, the pastor may save from wandering and determine 
 for a Christian life the opening manhood and womanhood 
 of those who shall be the very flower and promise of the 
 Church. 
 
 But if he defer making close acquaintance with them 
 till they have actually reached or passed the critical period, 
 it will often be too late to commence it then. An age of 
 reserve sets in, even of suspicion. The approaches of one 
 who has till then been a stranger may be sooner repelled 
 than welcomed. The minister's attention ought therefore 
 to be turned to those older scholars still on the school bench 
 who within a year or two more will be ready for his own 
 Bible class. It may be too much to ask a minister to form 
 close ties with the hundreds of outsiders who swell the lists 
 in many schools, having no other link with the Church, yet 
 almost swamping the children of the congregation. With 
 them other helpers may be left to deal. But if he cannot 
 know all, let him at least cultivate the friendship of the 
 children of his own Church members. They are a charge 
 for which he is responsible. They ought by this time to be 
 familiar to him by face and name, through family visits or 
 
THE CARE OF THE YOUNG 345 
 
 casual meetings. This acquaintance is now to be improved 
 into a nearer confidence. To invite them to the manse 
 or parsonage, set them small jobs to do about the church, and 
 in every way exhibit a frank interest in them, will more 
 surely and more richly repay his trouble than almost any 
 other duty he can take in hand. If the pastorate had not 
 too much neglected to acquire a personal hold upon the 
 affections of these bigger boys and girls on the eve of 
 adolescence, their transition from the school to the pastor's 
 class would have been, more often than it is, a matter 
 of course. 
 
 It is well to make this transition before the scholar's 
 link with the school snaps of itself; to make it on the 
 pastor's own initiative, and to do it in a way which marks 
 its importance as a step upward or makes it somewhat of a 
 compliment. The change ought to be felt as bringing the 
 youth into manlier relations with his pastor, in fact, as his 
 admission to the dignity of a friend. For the same reason 
 it is well when the minister's class meets under another 
 name, and in another place, from the school. Certainly 
 it should be conducted on different lines. Its object never 
 is to cram with more information, even if it be required to 
 systematise the often scrappy knowledge or loose notions 
 about religion which may be all the pupil has acquired at 
 school. Kather it is to educate mind and heart to act for 
 themselves on Gospel truth, so far as known. Often this is 
 best done by setting the members of his class to inquire and 
 reflect, to search the Bible, and to think for themselves. 
 It may also be desirable to knit their ideas into a clearer 
 whole by taking them systematically through the Creed 
 or the Catechism or some easy manual of doctrinal teaching. 
 But what has to be pressed from point to point is the 
 bearing of it all on their own experience — never suffering 
 them to forget that what matters now is not abstract know- 
 ledge about God, but through knowledge life in Him. 
 
 Wherever a pastor has to deal on these lines with lads 
 pr girls of superior education and disciplined intelligence, 
 
346 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 whom he can really succeed in interesting in his own class 
 for advanced religious education, I question if he wants any 
 other instrument to ripen them for future membership, or 
 need ask for any better means of effective influence over 
 them. In fact, nothing better can be done for adolescents 
 of any class, whp, between the age of (say) fifteen and 
 eighteen or over, ought still to be learners. But it is by no 
 means always practicable to secure their attendance. For 
 one reason or another, many young people, just set free 
 from school, cannot be induced to submit to any longer 
 course of instruction. Then it is that a " Society of Chris- 
 tian Endeavour " may be found helpful. Founded in 1881 
 by Dr. Clark at Portland, United States, these organisations 
 have rapidly sprung up in nearly every evangelical Church. 
 Evidently they offer attractions for young people. Banding 
 together for mutual help in leading a Christian life and for 
 service in connection with the Church, persons of both sexes, 
 whether they already profess themselves servants of Christ 
 or are simply content to place themselves under religious 
 influence, these unions appeal to the love of comradeship 
 and the desire to share actively in common work — both of 
 them powerful motives at that period of life. Primarily 
 they operate on the cultivation of the religious life by daily 
 prayer and Bible-reading, as well as by a weekly devotional 
 meeting at which all in full membership with the society 
 are under promise to take part. Once a month it becomes 
 a meeting for renewal of personal " consecration " to Christ. 
 But they likewise create sundry outlets for youthful zeal by 
 assigning to lesser groups within the society definite forms 
 of Christian usefulness suited to the years or the capacity of 
 the members. " Endeavourers," therefore, if true to their 
 motto — " For Christ and the Church " — are expected by the 
 advocates of this movement to furnish in the near future 
 trained workers, both willing and capable, for every depart- 
 ment of religious service. Not to the intellectual side of 
 the growing Christian life of our time, but to its practical 
 side, do these societies profess to minister ; and yet it ought 
 
THE CARE OF THE YOUNG 347 
 
 not to be impossible in the case of some to link on to their 
 active machinery an easy or alluring method of systematic 
 Bible study, beyond the private perusal of selected chapters. 
 
 It is an understood rule that such unions are invariably 
 to be presided over by the minister. It ought to be more 
 than a nominal or honorary presidency. The system not 
 only attracts certain sections of the young, it has possibilities 
 of value. But it is evidently liable to abuse if neglected or 
 abandoned to the unfit or the immature. It may breed a 
 shallow or fussy conceit in the room of growing self-know- 
 ledge and deepening devotion. Possibly a wise minister 
 will find the safest corrective against such evils in the 
 influence exerted over younger members of the society by 
 a few of the older and more experienced ones, whose character 
 has attained a certain maturity.^ 
 
 I suppose opinion will be divided as to the prudence or 
 the propriety of requiring from persons in their teens, who 
 are not yet candidates for Holy Communion, a pledge which, 
 involving as it does a profession of personal reliance upon 
 Christ as Saviour, with a promise of obedience to Him as 
 Lord, cannot be distinguished from the conditions of adult 
 disciplehood. Certainly, so soon as a youthful believer is 
 ripe to take the " endeavourer's " pledge, there is no reason 
 in the world why he should not be at once enrolled in a 
 Confirmation or Communicants' class, with a view to his 
 immediate reception into the full fellowship of the Church.^ 
 
 ^ I am not aware that there is any upper limit of age for members. 
 
 2 By all candidates for active membership the following card has to be 
 signed : *' Relying on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, and trusting in God 
 for strength, I promise Him that I will strive to do whatever He would 
 like to have me do. I will pray to Him and read the Bible every day ; 
 I will support my own Church and its services in every way within my 
 power ; and throughout my whole life I will 'endeavour, by His grace, to 
 lead a Christian life. As an Active Member, I promise to be true to all my 
 duties, to be present at, and to take some part, aside from singing, in every 
 meeting, unless hindered by some reason which I can conscientiously give 
 to my Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. If obliged to be absent from the 
 monthly Consecration Meeting, I will, if possible, send an excuse for 
 absence to the Society. "—From Yoimg People's Society of Christian En- 
 deavour: What it is and How it Works, by Rev. F. E. Clark, D.D. 
 
348 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 Both the Endeavour Society and the minister's own 
 class for instruction ought, by the Divine blessing, to yield 
 candidates for Holy Communion. It will always be a 
 conscious aim of the pastor to lead these impressionable lads 
 and maidens into such a definite surrender to Christ as will 
 inspire a desire for the Table of the Lord. For this purpose 
 it is of immense consequence to second other religious 
 agencies by private intercourse. Pastoral influence at that 
 age of self-decision rarely fails to tell. It does so not only 
 by the kindliness and familiarity of the pastor's attitude 
 towards them, but also by direct dealing with them alone on 
 spiritual matters. Not too frequently, yet more than once, 
 he takes occasion to lead the conversation to the subject of 
 personal religion, to elicit, if possible, confidences on their 
 part, and to press home their responsibility not to " receive 
 the grace of God in vain." 
 
 The rite which is meant to close this religious crisis in 
 youthful experience is the " first Communion/' whether it be 
 preceded by " Confirmation " or by any other form of admis- 
 sion to Christian adulthood. This great step usually 
 comprises two stages. The first is one of instruction. How 
 a little group of professed candidates for Confirmation or for 
 first Communion can best be instructed, is in many Churches 
 left to each minister's discretion. A frequent practice is to 
 concentrate his lessons around the Holy Supper itself — its 
 institution, its foreshadow in the Passover, its doctrinal 
 implicates, its spiritual meaning and practical uses. This 
 has the advantage of not seeming to carry the catechumens 
 back over familiar ground. At the same time everything 
 which is of primary importance in Christian truth can easily 
 find a place under it, if it be desired. The careful explana- 
 tion of the great sacrament tends to impress the young 
 communicant with the gravity of the step he is taking; 
 and this is valuable, for a first Communion is a critical step 
 which for good or ill can. never be retraced. Both in 
 the class and at private interviews everything is to be done 
 to lead the intending participant in the Body and Blood of 
 
THE CARE OF THE YOUNG 349 
 
 the Lord to deeper penitence for sin, to a warmer sense of 
 Christ's love, to an unreserved dedication to His service, and 
 to a very tender lively gratitude for what he owes to the 
 awful Passion of his Saviour. To know is here not enough ; 
 not enough even to believe. He is to be led to feel and 
 to resolve. 
 
 There only remains a formal act of reception on the part 
 of the Church. The ancient rite of Confirmation retained 
 in the Church of England follows, of course, its own pre- 
 scribed order. Imposition of episcopal hands is really all 
 that distinguishes it from such a ceremony of admission to 
 full membership as is usual in other communions. In them 
 also the reception ought to be celebrated at a solemn service, 
 held, when it can be done, in the presence of the congrega- 
 tion. After an open avowal of their faith and of their 
 resolution to follow Christ, prayer is to be offered for the 
 candidates, with invocation upon them of the Holy Spirit, a 
 brief exhortation to consistent Christian living is to be 
 addressed to them, and the hand of fellowship to be given. 
 
 With their enrolment as adult members, a pastor's care 
 for the youth of his flock loses its specific quality, and is 
 merged in that wider ministry to which all the other 
 members possess a common claim. Yet in modern days 
 it has been practically recognised that young men and 
 women, whether communicants or not, continue for some 
 time to constitute a group with needs and duties of their 
 own. Outside all our Churches, this feeling has given birth 
 to vast organisations known as " Young Men's " or " Young 
 Women's Christian Associations^" Within the Churches, 
 also, young men and women are accustomed to combine 
 for special objects: for the cultivation of the devout life 
 in " Fellowship," or Prayer, Meetings ; for intellectual 
 culture in Literary or Debating Societies; sometimes also 
 for social service, home mission work and kindred forms 
 of Christian beneficence. In Scotland each of the two 
 largest Presbyterian communions has grouped all these 
 
350 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 under one organised "Guild," which has its branches dis- 
 tributed over the kingdom in parish or congregation, yet 
 affords the cohesion and strength of a national agency 
 devoted to Christian life and work. Unions of such a 
 character have commonly asked nothing of the minister 
 except his countenance, sympathy, and occasional assistance. 
 But they are full of hope for the future manhood and 
 womanhood of the Church. 
 
 Where the young men and women of our time are 
 keenly alive to its intellectual movements, fresh develop- 
 ments may be looked for among pupils of an older growth. 
 One I have lately heard of. Within the last few years, 
 I am told that a number of the junior clergy in Scotland 
 have found in the larger towns a new opening among 
 intelligent young people which promises well. Ketaining 
 the old name of a "Bible Class" (after the example of 
 Dr. Alexander Whyte of Edinburgh, with whom the move- 
 ment originated), it really consists of Sunday lectures 
 delivered in church to audiences of young people at the 
 close of evening service. The subjects range over such 
 heads as the relations of religion with literature, art, and 
 science, the influence of selected authors upon the higher life, 
 and any social or biblical questions that are under dis- 
 cussion. What is noteworthy is that large numbers of 
 persons at an age that may average as high as five and 
 twenty are willing to listen to conversational lectures on 
 such subjects, provided the minister be a scholarly and 
 reading man, who is willing to take pains and to give them 
 of his best. How far the experiment has been repeated 
 in England or in America I am not aware. 
 
CHAPTEE XXVIII 
 
 CASES OF SPIRITUAL TROUBLE 
 
 In the course of his ministry, every pastor meets with 
 persons troubled in mind, who are moved to make him 
 their confidant, in the hope that as God's servant he may 
 be able to bring them relief, or direction, or comfort. Such 
 cases admit of classification. The three groups suggested 
 by Achelis — the suffering, the sinning and the erring^ — 
 are now usual in German text-books. But the principle 
 of division is too abstract ; the cases run into one another. 
 In their features, their circumstances, and their causes, there 
 are never two alike ; so that no directory for his guidance 
 is likely to afford the under -physician of sick souls much 
 assistance. It is a department of the cura animarum which 
 the Roman Church has found it needful to pursue into 
 much detail, sometimes unpleasant detail, in her text-books 
 for the use of priests in the confessional, but of which 
 Protestant literature has always been shy. Many con- 
 tinental writers indeed, Lutherans especially, discuss the 
 treatment proper for certain marked classes with some 
 fulness; 2 but in most English or American books on 
 pastoral theology little is to be found. Even exact reports 
 of cases met with in actual practice, which might lay the 
 foundation for an inductive study of the subject, hardly 
 
 ^ Op. cit. i. 495. 
 
 2 See, e.g., the treatises of Vinet (posthumous, 1850), Nitzsch (B. hi. 
 1, 1857), Palmer (1860), Otto (1869), Vilmar (posthumous, 1872), Schweizer 
 (1875), Zezschwitz (1878), Van Oosterzee (German ed. 1879), and Achelis 
 (1890). 
 
 351 
 
352 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 exist ; the example set by Spencer in his Pastors Sketches 
 having had, so far as I know, few, if any, imitators. The 
 minister's own good sense, sympathy, and spiritual insight 
 must be his best outfit for this work, experience his safest 
 guide, and humble reliance on a wisdom higher than his 
 own his unfailing resource. 
 
 One feature there is common to nearly every case of the 
 kind. Unless those who are burdened with such secret 
 loads will be entirely open and without reserve, it is clear 
 that no one can do them much good. In this way a pastor 
 is made the depositary of confidences which, whether they 
 only affect the person making them or others as well, it 
 is needless to say he is bound to hold sacred. No matter 
 whether they refer to the inner experiences of a soul or 
 to the private affairs of a family, he must keep them to 
 himself. Not even in the seclusion of his home may he 
 divulge what has thus been entrusted to his professional 
 honour.^ 
 
 In saying what little I can on a side of pastoral duty 
 so delicate, all I can do is in this closing chapter to give 
 specimens from two or three classes of cases, to show what 
 kind of confidences a minister must be prepared to meet. 
 
 I. I shall begin with persons under conviction of sin who 
 are putting the old question : What must I do to be saved ? 
 
 Every normal instance of this kind a true minister 
 will welcome with solemn thankfulness. One must suppose 
 that numbers of them occur which run their course un- 
 observed by any eye save that of God. Yet in his visiting, 
 or in his class-work, or in connection with the preaching 
 
 ^ Of course, to tell abroad what reflects injuriously upon character must 
 lay him open to a civil action for slander or defamation. If it be even 
 a criminal act which a penitent has confessed, he is not generally held 
 bound to reveal it unless called upon to give evidence in a court of justice. 
 To the rule of secrecy there is, however, one exception. When it is not 
 a crime committed, but the intention to commit one, of which the pastor 
 is made aware, but from which he cannot dissuade the man, he is bound 
 to disclose the information to the proper authorities, that the perpetration 
 of the crime may be hindered. 
 
CASES OF SPIRITUAL TROUBLE 353 
 
 of the Gospel, an earnest man, whose ministry is aimed 
 at soul-winning, may hope to come across them. No joy 
 is purer or more absorbing than this "joy of harvest." 
 To him as to his Master it is like meat and drink. He 
 ought not to need instruction how to deal with them. 
 Yet if a young minister has any opportunity to take part 
 in an " inquiry room " at a revival meeting or a successful 
 " mission," he will be wise to take advantage of it. It will 
 yield him useful hints. Above all, it will sharpen in his 
 mind the conviction that he is here in the presence of 
 a mightier force than his own — a Worker on whose 
 mysterious sovereign energy everything must depend. 
 
 When the inquirer, as will often happen, is one who has 
 borne a Christian reputation, and in whose past life some 
 earlier crisis occurred which was taken at the time to be 
 "conversion," it is better not to let him puzzle himself 
 over the question whether that previous experience was 
 genuine or illusory. Counsel him to leave the past with 
 God, and now to turn to Christ as if for the first time. 
 
 In every case it is a mistake to skin over the wound 
 with premature comfort before the arrow has gone deep 
 enough. For a radical cure a thorough repentance is 
 essential. The wise pastor will probe to make sure that 
 there is more than regret for the past because of its appre- 
 hended consequences, and will seek to deepen the sense of 
 sin's guilt and evil in God's sight. He will urge a full 
 confession to God of the ungodliness in which the penitent 
 has been living, with any definite acts or habits of sin of 
 which conscience accuses him. Then the way of salvation 
 needs in most cases to be clearly explained; for mere 
 exhortations to " come to Christ " may mean little, till the 
 Saviour's expiation and the Divine love of which the Cross 
 assures us are plainly set forth. This usually calls for the 
 removal of vague notions as to what is meant by " saving 
 faith." It has to be urged as an act of personal reliance 
 on the living Person who has won for us the gift of 
 forgiveness. When Christ is accepted. His minister will 
 
 23 
 
354 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 try to make sure that the self -committal to Him is explicit 
 and unreserved, including a deliberate acceptance of the 
 terms of discipleship. Much of the comfort and steadfast- 
 ness of the after life turns on everything being consciously 
 surrendered from the first which conflicts with loyalty to 
 the commands of Christ as the soul's new Lord. Nor 
 ought the case to be considered closed at this stage ; for 
 converts are liable to reaction of feeling and to unlocked 
 for risks and difficulties, such as a tendency to over-con- 
 fidence in themselves, to intemperate zeal, or to uncharitable 
 judgments upon older believers. They require for some 
 time to be kept in hand, warned of such dangers, and 
 encouraged to confide their new experiences to him who 
 has been to them as a father in the faith. 
 
 Abnormal instances of anxiety about one's own salvation 
 also occur, of varied character, but all difficult of treatment. 
 
 One of the simplest, not unusual among ill-taught and 
 superstitious people, is when an inquirer will not believe 
 on the naked word of promise, because he is waiting for 
 some sensible token of the Divine favour, a voice, or dream, 
 or bright light, or at least an exceptional access of joyous 
 relief from his anxiety. 
 
 More difficult to remedy is the case of one who com- 
 plains of being beset and hindered in his prayers or quiet 
 meditations on religion by the involuntary intrusion of evil 
 thoughts, sceptical or blasphemous or impure, which he 
 ascribes to assaults of the Evil One. Some bid us look for 
 the cause of this infliction to the evil habits of the past life 
 or to a sinful indulgence still harboured or tolerated, and 
 prescribe a course of moral self-discipline with vigilance 
 and prayer. But this is not always so, for such distressing 
 incursions of evil may be allowed to harass persons of the 
 cleanest life, and in such a case occupation in wholesome 
 labour for others with a simple trust in Him who came to 
 destroy the works of the devil may be the best remedy. 
 No soul need blame itself for sinful thoughts against which 
 it revolts, but suffer them as it would any other infliction. 
 
CASES OF SPIRITUAL TROUBLE 355 
 
 Again : the sense of sin, instead of yielding to trust in 
 offered mercy, may turn into a settled melancholy that 
 refuses to be comforted, refuses even to pray. This may 
 work out in one of two directions. It may swell into an 
 exaggerated self-accusing, affirming its sins to have been of 
 such exceptional guilt that there can be no forgiveness for 
 them. This often generates a perverted self-importance, 
 for it is quite possible to be proud of being " the chief of 
 sinners." A conscience-twist of this sort is hard to 
 straighten out ; but the pride at the root of it must be 
 unsparingly beaten down. We have all to stand before 
 God in one vulgar category of condemned transgressors, if 
 we are to receive the " common salvation." 
 
 Or the soul may fall into more grievous despair through 
 the obsession of some fixed idea which shuts out light and 
 hope. The most common sources of this malady have been 
 (1) the doctrine of election, or of man's inability to convert 
 himself, when taken in a fatalistic sense, which paralyses 
 every effort of the will to turn to God in penitence and 
 prayer ; and (2) the fear to have committed the " unpardon- 
 able sin," forgetting that whatever be the nature of this 
 sin, God cannot have finally withdrawn His grace from any 
 soul that longs for deliverance and recovery. Be the cause 
 what it may, no condition in the range of spiritual pathology 
 is more painful or more obstinate. Dr. Washington Gladden 
 may be correct in thinking that such cases are less numerous 
 than they used to be ; yet I should suppose most ministers of 
 experience have met with them. To deal with them requires 
 a combination of sympathy, insight, and firmness of touch. 
 The patient has to be persuaded at the outset that the 
 gravity of his case is appreciated. For this purpose the 
 delusion has to be quietly faced and patiently reasoned 
 down by showing it to be devoid of solid foundation. When 
 that has been sufficiently done, the minister will not allow 
 himself to be pulled back to go over and over again the 
 same dismal story ; for it is as bad to humour the trouble 
 as to make light of it. All such patients think their own 
 
356 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 case quite peculiar. The sufferer's attention needs, therefore, 
 to be diverted from morbid dwelling on what he considers 
 the peculiarity of his own condition. To get him back into 
 the common lot, above all, into the common experience of 
 God's abounding goodness, till he can rest on a hope of 
 mercy open to him as to all men: — this is the road to 
 wholesomer thoughts. Then his will must be plied with 
 incentives to let everything else that is dark or dubious go 
 that he may risk all on Christ and His plain words of 
 promise. Such persons usually refuse to pray for themselves. 
 One should insist on their joining in words of prayer or at 
 all events listening while they are prayed for. But no one 
 need be disappointed if the cure be tedious, and whenever 
 the case proves obstinate it is always well to look for con- 
 current physical causes, for it rarely happens that these are 
 wholly absent. If neurotic weakness or hepatic disorder or 
 the like be suspected, the advice of a sensible doctor should 
 invariably be called in. Obstinate cases are never to be 
 neglected ; for " that way madness lies." 
 
 11. Misconduct, secret or open, on the part of members 
 of the Church or of their families, is occasionally brought 
 to the knowledge of the pastor in a way which calls for 
 some action on his part. In every such case the Apostolic 
 direction must, for his own sake as well as theirs, be laid 
 to heart : — " Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any 
 trespass, ye which are spiritual restore such a one in a 
 spirit of meekness; looking to thyself lest thou also be 
 tempted." ^ 
 
 Any minister who comes into confidential relations with 
 his people may chance to hear confessions which astonish 
 him. Many a life that is full of the best fruits of Christian 
 character is kept irreproachable, and made thus fruitful, 
 only at the cost of a hard inward fight which no onlooker 
 suspects : a fight waged under the eye of Christ against, it 
 may be, constitutional tendencies, it may be, temptations 
 
 1 Gal. 6\ 
 
CASES OF SPIRITUAL TROUBLE 357 
 
 that beset from without. Now and again, in an hour of 
 brotherly unreserve, one may be awed by a glimpse into 
 these hidden conflicts in a brother's soul. The better a 
 man knows his own heart, the less will he wonder at it, 
 and the more tender will be the hand with which he tries 
 to lift his tempted brother after a defeat, or to brace him to 
 a fresh struggle. 
 
 For one who has been overtaken in an open trespass to 
 come to his pastor with a spontaneous confession of it is, I 
 should think, rare. More often it is left to reach the 
 minister's ears through rumour or confidentially through a 
 relative — it makes a good deal of difference which. Let me 
 speak first of the privileged communications of relatives. 
 
 Unhappy homes furnish the pastor with some of his 
 worst difficulties. Manners vary in different ranks of 
 society; and among outspoken working folk, a woman's 
 grumbles about her husband's conduct need not always be 
 taken too seriously. But matters are generally pretty bad 
 in an average middle-class household before one inmate will 
 volunteer a complaint against another — especially before 
 the wife's secret burden becomes too heavy to be longer 
 borne in silence. A heart-broken woman has a claim on the 
 best consolation, counsel, or encouragement to patient en- 
 durance which her religious guide can fetch out of God's 
 Word, whether he have any means or not of testing her 
 complaints. She will probably wish her husband spoken to ; 
 but if the facts are only known through her own com- 
 munication, to act upon that private information would be 
 likely to make things much worse. One can but wait until 
 circumstances open up some other source of knowledge or 
 some other opportunity for private dealing with the man. 
 When the trouble has its origin, not wholly in the miscon- 
 duct of one party, but in domestic misunderstandings where 
 blame is to be presumed on both sides, it is almost never 
 prudent to intervene. Only in an extreme case of conjugal 
 disagreement, with the hope of obviating an open rupture, a 
 minister may consent, on the invitation of both parties, to 
 
358 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 attempt a reconciliation, or at least an adjustment, just as 
 any other impartial and trusted adviser might be asked to 
 do. But in no case of family strife can one's good offices be 
 hopefully exerted save at the desire, or at any rate with the 
 consent, of both parties to the dispute. 
 
 A fairly frequent case arises through the anxiety of 
 parents about the conduct of their children. A father or a 
 mother may confide the trouble to the minister in preference 
 to any other, in the hope that he will have influence where 
 their own remonstrances have proved ineffectual. His 
 action will be made easier if they are willing that the youth 
 be frankly told of their having done so. He can then be 
 approached without reserve, and much will depend on the 
 tact with which the approach is made. To accost him with 
 blunt charges made at second-hand would, of course, be to 
 wound his amour pro;pre, and simply throw one's chance 
 away. Nor is that needful ; for the gentlest hint will suffice 
 if it be met with candour on his part, as it generally will be 
 when he sees that he is trusted to explain what has given 
 rise to complaint. All his explanations and even excuses 
 are not only to be listened to, they are to be welcomed. 
 Because it is after hearing sympathetically whatever he has 
 to urge in his defence, that he will accept of blame, grave 
 but gentle blame, founded on what he himself admits to 
 be blameworthy. Parents are sometimes apt to press 
 unduly on youthful indiscretions or irregularities. So long 
 as faults have not yet stiffened into habits, and no irretriev- 
 able act — say of immorality or of dishonesty — has been 
 committed, it is often wiser to say less about the past 
 than about the future. Should open misconduct have 
 occurred, a severer tone may be necessary. For the diffi- 
 culty then is to brush aside evasions and extenuations, and 
 to call forth such shame and genuine sorrow as will lead to 
 a frank confession. In any case one may hope to inspire a 
 resolution of amendment. There is always in young bosoms 
 a reserve of manly unspoilt feeling that can be evoked. A 
 young pastor will have an advantage over an old one in deal- 
 
CASES OF SPIRITUAL TROUBLE 359 
 
 ing with young men. So much so that it is often worth 
 while for an elderly minister to prepare his own way by 
 sending some junior friend of the family or of the youth to 
 talk the matter over. There is a freemasonry among the 
 young. And, for a similar reason, young women are best 
 approached, in the first instance at least, by one of their 
 own sex. 
 
 It is pitiable, however, when matters have gone so far. 
 Better to forestall possible tragedies at the opening of life 
 by gaining beforehand a friendly hold over young hearts 
 which will keep them true ; and by faithfully warning lads 
 and maidens, entering upon business or leaving home, of the 
 risks they are bound to run through doubtful associates or 
 through the seduction of social pleasure. 
 
 Lapses by older members of the Church, either into an 
 evil habit or into a gross act of sin, come to the minister's 
 ears, not confidentially as a rule, but by the voice of com- 
 mon fame. Whether they ultimately call on public grounds 
 for ecclesiastical discipline or not, the pastor has at least a 
 prior duty to discharge to the individual himself. 
 
 We are neither spies upon om' people nor censors of 
 their private manners. We ought neither to be in a hurry to 
 take up an ill report, nor make any man an offender for a 
 trifle. There was a time when both in England and in 
 Scotland the excessive discipline of the Presbyterian clergy, 
 excessive both in what it counted an offence and in the 
 severity with which every offence was visited, wrought much 
 harm. It was not so much that it made Puritan piety 
 unpopular, as that it evoked in public morals a disastrous 
 reaction. The present temper of the average man is disposed 
 unduly to resent clerical censures. It is often difficult for 
 a conscientious pastor to exert, even in the mildest form, his 
 legitimate power to rebuke offenders. To have the least 
 chance, therefore, of doing any good by this function of his 
 office, a man has need to exercise it with scrupulous 
 prudence, tact, and brotherly-kindness. It is on the footing 
 of Christian brotherhood that those " overtaken in a fault " 
 
36o THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 are to be approached, and the fraternal attitude, not a 
 clerical or professional one, promises the best result. In 
 things indifferent the right of a Christian man's liberty must 
 always be respected. Where brethren may reasonably differ 
 in the view they take of the lawfulness of an act, we are not 
 to judge our neighbour. " Let each man be fully assured in 
 his own mind." ^ This applies to a wide circle of questions, 
 such as amusements, luxuries, social customs, and the like — 
 a wider circle than in the days of our fathers. I do not 
 mean that an earnest minister, whose personal habits are 
 strict, may not upon occasion express his private opinion, or 
 even remonstrate with a member of the Church who seems 
 to be permitting himself a questionable, perhaps a perilous, 
 conformity with the usages of the world. Only he must 
 always recollect, and show that he recollects, that in such 
 matters each Christian is Christ's freeman, not bound to 
 render account of himself to any man's judgment. 
 
 Nor will a considerate pastor be in haste to reproach a 
 brother for minor faults unless they are habitual, for from 
 these no one is free. " If any stumbleth not in word, the 
 same is a perfect man." ^ But this does not apply to gross 
 sins of overt act. A single instance, say, of intoxication or 
 of licentiousness, may well justify serious remonstrance. 
 But we must never act on mere suspicion or random gossip 
 nor even on rumour, unless it be persistent and force itself 
 upon us. There is nothing worse than to base an accusation 
 upon a loose report at second-hand, which may be ill-founded, 
 may even be the calumny of an ill-wisher. 
 
 As a rule, the pastor goes alone to the person implicated, 
 when he feels it unavoidable to undertake so painful a duty, 
 and never without purging his own motives by secret self- 
 humbling and prayer. Some neglect on his own part may 
 have conduced to this brother's fall. In similar circum- 
 stances he himself might have fallen as badly or worse. 
 Has he never been secretly guilty of anything in God's 
 sight as bad ? A contrite heart is essential in one whose 
 
 1 Rom. 14^ 2 jas. 32. 
 
CASES OF SPIRITUAL TROUBLE 361 
 
 ofi&ce calls him to be a reprover of his brethren. Every- 
 thing will depend on the offender being made to feel that 
 the minister of Christ comes in pure love for his soul, on 
 an errand which gives him pain and is only under- 
 taken under a constraining sense of duty. 
 
 Such a visit may be met with denials or excuses. 
 It may be resented. Or there may be a light-hearted 
 admission of a fault the gravity of which is not felt. For 
 any of these alternatives the minister needs to go prepared. 
 A man does not receive rebuke in a right spirit until he is 
 softened, and to soften him, one's own heart must be tender 
 and humble. Even then, nothing one can say will bring a 
 hard proud temper to confession and penitence, unless the 
 Divine Spirit breathe upon the soul. Tones of authority 
 or of rebuke are to be kept till the offender is either peni- 
 tent enough to receive reproof, or discovers himself so 
 callous that gentle measures are thrown away upon him. 
 
 One such case as this in years of ministry is a humbling 
 enough experience for any sensitive pastor. When they 
 occur with frequency, he will ask himself whether they do 
 not indicate a low level of religious life in the Christian 
 community around or in his own congregation. It may be 
 that Church members are slipping into slack and un- 
 watchful ways. They have lost sight of the ethical ideal 
 of Christian behaviour, or they are grown self-righteous and 
 high-minded, having forgotten the warning : " Let him that 
 thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."^ His own 
 teaching may be at fault. It may be his duty to raise the 
 standard of holy living by which his people are measuring 
 themselves, or to speak more plainly from the pulpit for 
 the correction of prevalent faults. The whole tone of 
 spiritual life may need to be improved ; and it is for him 
 as overseer of the flock to detect the need and if possible 
 to apply the remedy. 
 
 III. Of cases which may call for special treatment, I 
 
 2 1 Cor. 1012. 
 
362 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 shall name only one class more — those which arise from 
 imsettlement in religious opinion or belief. These also are 
 very varied in their character. 
 
 The form of intellectual unsettlement which is probably 
 of most frequent occurrence, and which certainly gives rise 
 to the most serious trouble of mind — is doubt ; but it is not 
 the only form of it which a minister may expect to meet. 
 In the present welter of opinion, people are apt to be 
 driven hither and thither " by every wind of doctrine." 
 New ideas work like yeast in minds that are often too 
 ill-regulated or too ill-informed to be capable of a sound 
 judgment upon them; and theories, novel or strange, get 
 afloat which puzzle some and captivate others. 
 
 Should a young minister encounter in his pastoral 
 intercourse unfamiliar, or what he deems erroneous, notions 
 of this sort, it may help him to meet them with greater 
 equanimity, to reflect that his primary concern as a pastor 
 is not with the correctness of his people's private opinions. 
 What he has to care for is their wholesome Christian 
 character and spiritual growth in the Divine life — their 
 opinions only in the degree in which these are injuriously 
 affecting their religious welfare. Now, it is true that every 
 morsel of revealed truth, like " every scripture inspired of 
 God," is " profitable," and has some contribution to make, 
 large or small, toward the " completeness " of a " man of 
 God " ^ One can never affirm, therefore, of any teaching 
 in the region of religion or morals that it is certain to be 
 innocuous. At the same time, the harm which a mistaken 
 opinion may work on Christian life varies by infinite 
 degrees. Not every current form of error is deadly ; not 
 every tenet even goes deep enough to do appreciable 
 mischief; and where one might expect it to prove 
 mischievous, it is surprising how much better people can 
 be than their beliefs. The life of God in the soul of man, 
 like lower kinds of life, seems to possess a singular power 
 of appropriating the good and rejecting what is bad. From 
 
 iCf. 2 Tim. 316- 17. 
 
CASES OF SPIRITUAL TROUBLE 363 
 
 such truth as each man holds his higher hfe draws nutri- 
 ment; the error that mingles with it is often neutralised 
 and rendered harmless. On a multitude of peripheral 
 points even of religious doctrine, consequently, excellent 
 Christians think in opposite ways, without the one being 
 made less excellent by his opinion than the other. On 
 such a subject, for example (to name but a couple of 
 instances) as premillenarianism or the inerrancy of inspired 
 Scripture, the view which a person adopts may be, from 
 the pastoral standpoint, of no practical consequence. 
 Possibly every one may not agree with me, but I think 
 much the same might be said of certain quasi-religious 
 speculations — " cranks " some would term them — which are 
 now and then to be met with among blameless and devout 
 persons : such as the Anglo-Israel theory of the Ten Tribes, 
 or faith healing, or Christian science, or the like. If 
 people lend a hospitable ear to these, yet in such a way 
 that they do not touch their religious devotion to Christ, or 
 trench upon any vital element in Christian faith, or under- 
 mine Christian morals at any point — I do not see why they 
 should not be good-humouredly skirmished with when en- 
 countered, without occasioning serious alarm to any sensible 
 pastor. If it become necessary to correct any prevalent 
 error, that may be done in pubHc addresses ; but, as a rule, 
 error of every sort is best forestalled or overcome by the 
 intelligent exposition of positive Christian truth in a spirit 
 far removed from polemics. 
 
 Cases of doubt or of scepticism, whether in reference to 
 vital doctrines of the faith or to the claims of the Christian 
 religion itself, stand, I think, on a different footing. Doubt 
 is always enfeebling to the spiritual life. With every 
 serious and reverent doubter, therefore, a pastor will show 
 himself patient and painstaking. Each case is best dealt 
 with alone, for each presents features of its own. In each 
 case the minister will do his best to ascertain and sympathise 
 with the state of mind or heart out of which the difficulty 
 has grown. But here also the same test of its practical 
 
364 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 bearing on the inner life is useful to discriminate between 
 one ease of doubt and another. Too much should never be 
 made of minor difficulties. Hesitation about accepting 
 some subordinate article of the orthodox creed, or inability 
 to harmonise with one's religious views the teachings either 
 of biblical or of physical science, is an extremely common 
 state at present ; but either the one or the other may be 
 easily detachable from that faith in Jesus Christ by which 
 the soul lives from day to day. If it be so, it ought to be 
 kept in its proper place as a secondary matter. Numbers of 
 men to-day are managing to hold to Christ, and to maintain 
 living relations with Him which they would not for the 
 world surrender, who yet are far from accepting everything 
 that the creeds say, or who keep meanwhile a very open 
 mind on a crowd of problems which they know to be 
 involved in Christianity or in its intellectual implicates. 
 
 But it is far from easy for every young inquirer to 
 appraise in this temper of sang-froid the bearings of his own 
 doubts. Especially when a youth has been brought up in 
 the unquestioning acceptance of traditional views, all of 
 which he is accustomed to regard as equally certain, so that 
 to doubt the least of them is to imperil, almost impiously, 
 the stability of the whole, it must be with trepidation that 
 he finds his inherited ideas for the first time rudely shaken. 
 The earliest thing to be done may probably be to satisfy him 
 that the case is not so critical as he fears. No quiet or 
 impartial examination of his difficulty may be possible, 
 till he discovers that one can be a very good Christian 
 indeed and yet think on many points quite otherwise from 
 his forefathers. Perhaps the next step will be to suggest 
 that, seeing the " ark " is in no danger, there is no need to 
 hurry to a precipitate settlement of every question that can 
 be started. Wisdom does not lie in embracing with haste, 
 any more than in blindly refusing, every new idea. It is 
 true that an attitude of mental suspense is never agreeable 
 to the dogmatic temper of the young. Yet it is often useful. 
 It may be a moral discipline through which God is making 
 
CASES OF SPIRITUAL TROUBLE 365 
 
 many of us to pass. Truth is valuable, but the love of 
 truth, and tbe pursuit of it with candour, with reverence, 
 with fidelity to the light we possess, may be even more so. 
 Every doubter is therefore to be encouraged to be patient, 
 retaining an open mind and taking time to inquire and to 
 grow; for a man's theological convictions, to be of much 
 value, are commonly of slow growth. Besides, we are so 
 situated just now that on most matters which occasion 
 difficulty we have reached no finality. New methods of 
 study have invaded the province of religion, and they have 
 not yet had time to work out their final results. That is 
 for all of us the trial of the position — an appointed trial in 
 this generation. The best informed in many fields of study 
 are often the least positive. Just as in every other branch 
 of advancing knowledge, so in biblical scholarship, in 
 theology, in comparative religion, in the history of revelation, 
 investigation may, by bringing fresh evidence to light, 
 within a few years make the conclusions of to-day insecure 
 or untenable. So long as a soul can cling to the person of 
 our Lord and to any inward experience of His power to 
 save which has been gained through trusting Him, it can 
 afibrd to await with hope whatever growing light the years 
 shall bring. 
 
 I do not forget that in some cases there has been no such 
 experience, and therefore no such inward certitude to fall 
 back upon. But those into whose souls the mordant of 
 unbelief has eaten deeper, are less likely to open up their 
 hidden sore to the pastor's eye. Flippant scepticism will 
 not readily expose itself to the faithful rebukes of a clergy- 
 man. Still less will that worse state of mind which only 
 airs its scepticism when it is convenient to excuse irregu- 
 larities of conduct or a scornful rejection of all religion. 
 But how one wishes it were more often possible for a wise 
 minister of Christ to come into intimate relations with that 
 large class of clean -living and sad-hearted men — whether of 
 the professional or of the artisan class — who ahenate them- 
 selves from the Church because they feel themselves unable 
 
366 THE MINISTER AS PASTOR 
 
 to join in those avowals of Christian faith which seem to be 
 implied in acts of worship. Even when intellectual doubt 
 has advanced so far as to undermine a man's confidence in 
 the whole framework of Christian teaching, there may still 
 be — and with many there is — a basis left of faith in God, 
 sustaining a religious attitude of soul towards all that is 
 sacred and true. For a doubter of this class there is still one 
 course open : to say little about his doubts, but to keep his 
 life — outer and inner alike — well under the control of those 
 fundamental certainties regarding God and the ethical 
 teaching of Jesus which he can and does hold; since, if 
 truths at all, they are at least the holiest and most 
 commanding of all truths. He who can yield allegiance 
 to nothing else can always yield it to the legitimate royalty 
 of the good when he sees it ; and few nowadays refuse to 
 see the good embodied in Jesus of Nazareth. If right 
 thinking be in some sense a condition of right living, 
 it is still more certain that right living is the path to right 
 thinking. " If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know 
 of the teaching, whether it be of God, or whether I speak from 
 Myself." ^ There never was a time when it was more true 
 than now that the value of a man's beliefs for his own 
 religious life is in proportion, not to the number of orthodox 
 statements which he is prepared to endorse, but to the 
 strength of conviction with which he adheres to what 
 he does believe — much or little — and the practical control 
 which he suffers it to exercise over his character and conduct. 
 Nothing but the most tolerant and sympathetic attitude 
 towards sincere and reverent sceptics on the part of 
 ministers of religion, will be likely to retain large numbers 
 of the most thoughtful among us in some attachment to 
 Christ and to the worship of His Church, until they have 
 come either to fight down their doubts or to outlive them. 
 
 1 John 7". 
 
INDEX 
 
 AcHELis, 54, 131, 308, 313, 322, 351. 
 "Action Sermon," 158, 214. 
 Adiaphora, 58. 
 Agap6, 107. 
 A'Lasco, 128. 
 Aquinas, Thomas, 156. 
 Aristotle, 235. 
 Armenia, 164. 
 
 Articles, the XXXIX., 122-124. 
 Augustine, St., 39, 41, 208, 240, 
 241. 
 
 Baird, 132. 
 
 Bands of Hope, 837. 
 
 Baptismal service, 102, 126 ; order of, 
 149-154. 
 
 Baptist Churches, 151. 
 
 Barclay's "Apology," 6, 7. 
 
 Baur, 2. 
 
 Bautain, 228, 269, 271. 
 
 Baxter's "Reformed Pastor," 49, 
 54. 
 
 Beck, 21, 304. 
 
 Beecher, Henry Ward, 283, 292. 
 
 Benediction, 146, 154. 
 
 Beyer, 186. 
 
 Bible class, minister's, 345, 350. 
 
 Bible-women, 5, 314. 
 
 Bingham, 89, 136. 
 
 Blaikie, W. G., 21, 306, 318. 
 
 Blount, 328. 
 
 Book of Common Prayer. See Eng- 
 land, Church of. 
 
 BOURDALOUB, 278. 
 
 Boys' Brigade, 338. 
 
 Brainerd, 49. 
 
 "Brethren," Plymouth, 7, 160. 
 
 Broadus, 243. 
 
 Brooks, Phillips, 190, 230, 255. 
 
 Bruce, 21, 306. 
 
 Bryennios, Archbishop, 110. 
 
 Burke, Edmund, 277. 
 Burnet, Bishop, 21. 
 
 Call to ministry, twofold, 30 ff. 
 private, 32. 
 public, by Church, 36. 
 Calvin, 122, 128, 132, 136, 158, 307. 
 Carlyle, 281. 
 Carpzov, 206. 
 Cartwright, 122. 
 Celibacy of clergy, 51, 66 ff. 
 Ceremonies in worship, 120 ff. 
 Chadwick, 21. 
 Character, ministerial, 55 ff. 
 "Charismatic" ministry, 2, 3. 
 Chaucer, 232. 
 Children of minister, 75. 
 Children's services, 336. See Young, 
 
 care of. 
 "portion " in worship, 334. 
 Chrysostom, 277. 
 Church, Protestant conception of, 11. 
 "Church Year," 118, 120, 213. 
 Cicero, 241, 248, 277. 
 Clark, Dr. F. E.,346. 
 Class. See Bible Class. 
 Claude, Jean, 206. 
 Clemen, 231. 
 Clement of Rome, 110. 
 Communion, Holy, See Lord's 
 
 Supper, 
 seasons, 158-161. 
 simultaneous, 161. 
 Confession, the General, 131. 
 Confessional, 199, 313. 
 Confirmation, 348, 349. 
 Coquerel, Athanase, 86, 234, 259, 
 
 269, 277. 
 Corinthian Church, worship in, 105- 
 
 107. 
 Creed, recitation of, 136. 
 
 367 
 
368 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Crosby, Howard, 36. 
 Cross, use of, in baptism, 121, 152. 
 CiUtus, 88. See Worship, 
 theories of, 93. 
 
 Deissmann, 89. 
 Delivery. See Sermon. 
 Demosthenes, 277, 281. 
 Deportment of minister, 60. 
 Diction. See Sermon. 
 Didache, 4, 109, 167. 
 Directories, 128. 
 Disciplina arcani, 160. 
 Discipline, Presbyterian, 359. 
 Doubt, treatment of, 363-366. 
 
 Education of minister, 6, 38, 280. 
 Ehrenfeuchter, 93. 
 Elder. See Presbyter. 
 Endeavour, Society of Christian, 338. 
 England, Church of, 10. See also 
 Articles, the XXXIX. 
 
 views on ministry, 18. 
 
 on ordination, 40. 
 
 relations with privileged classes, 
 80. 
 
 reformation in, 119. 
 
 Prayer Book, 128, 133, 135. 
 
 confession, 132. 
 
 baptism, 150. 
 
 Lord's Supper, 158 ff. 
 
 borrowed sermons, 205. 
 
 preaching in, 276. 
 
 confirmation, 349. 
 England, Presbyterian Church of, 
 
 129, 132. 
 Eucharist. See Lord's Supper. 
 EusEBius, 108, 113. 
 Evangelistic preaching. See Preach- 
 ing. 
 Expository preaching. See Preaching. 
 
 Fairbairn, 21, 36, 55, 313. 
 Family differences, treatment of, 357. 
 Family of minister, 75. 
 F]^NELON, 250, 256, 277, 282. 
 Festivals, 118, 120, 213. 
 Fletcher of Madingley, 21. 
 Forsyth, Dr., 210, 213. 
 Friends, Society of, 6. 
 Frommann, 161. 
 fuhrmann, 197. 
 Funk, 164. 
 
 Garvib, Dr., 210. 
 Geneva, Book of, 128, 130. 
 
 Gillespie, George, 167. 
 Gladden, Dr. Washington, 355. 
 Goethe, 281. 
 Gore, Bp., 10, 80. 
 Gregory the Great, 307. 
 
 Haqenbaoh, 235. 
 
 Hands, imposition of, 39 fF. 
 
 Hardvv^igk, 123. 
 
 Harms, Claus, 231. 
 
 Harnack, 164. 
 
 Hatch, 4, 37, 39. 
 
 "Heads " of Sermon. See Sermon. 
 
 Heard, 319. 
 
 Helvetic Confession, 307. 
 
 Henry, Philip, 53. 
 
 Heubner, 197. 
 
 Hippolytus, 239. 
 
 Holland, Reformed Church of, 128. 
 
 " Holy Week," observance of, 112. 
 
 Homily, 200, 208, 239. 
 
 Hooker, Richard, 18, 40, 122 f. 
 
 HoppiN, 236, 260. 
 
 HoRTON, Dr., 229. 
 
 Household visits. See Visitation. 
 
 HiJFFELL, 8, 231. 
 
 Hymn in worship, 143. 
 
 Hyperius of Marburg, 206. 
 
 "Individual" Cup, 168. 
 
 Infectious Diseases, visitation of, 325. 
 
 Jacobi, 104, 106. 
 
 Julicher, 164. 
 
 Justin Martyr, 111, 200. 
 
 Kiss in early Church, 108. 
 Kliefoth, 93. 
 
 Kneeling at the Eucharist, 162. 
 Kostlin, 106. 
 
 Lapses of members, 359. 
 Latham, 21, 306. 
 Laying on of hands, 39 ff. 
 Lay readers, 5. 
 Lea, 68. 
 Lectionary, 134. 
 Liddon, Canon, 10. 
 Lightfoot, Bp., 19, 110. 
 Lightfoot's Journal, 147. 
 Liturgical versus free prayer, 140. 
 Liturgy, 89, 102, 128. 
 Lord's Supper — 
 
 institution and early history, 
 102-111. 
 
 at Reformation, 118. 
 
INDEX 
 
 369 
 
 Lord's Supper — continued. 
 
 in Churcli of England, 118-121. 
 
 order of service, 155-170. 
 
 first Communion, 347-348. 
 Luther, 117, 118, 119. 
 Lutheran Churches — 
 
 no priesthood, 10. 
 
 catechisms, 16, 
 
 worship, 117, 132, 147. 
 
 household visitation, 313. 
 
 M'Cheyne, 49. 
 
 M'Crie, Dr., 128, 171. 
 
 Macpherson, 167. 
 
 "Manual acts" in Lord's Supper, 
 
 166. 
 Marriage of clergy, 70. 
 Martyn, Henry, 49. 
 Mather, Cotton, 262. 
 Mattry, Cardinal, 201, 265, 292, 298. 
 Melanchthon, 240. 
 Methodist Churches, 38. 
 Milton, 271. 
 Minister — 
 
 modern, differs from primitive, 5, 6. 
 
 undue burden on, 23. 
 
 spirit of service, 24 ff., 300. 
 
 call of, 30 flf. 
 
 canonical age, 37. 
 
 devotional life of, 45 ff. 
 
 character of, 51 flf. 
 
 manners of, 57 fif. 
 
 home life of, 66 flf. 
 
 as citizen, 77 flf. 
 Ministry — 
 
 need for, 7. 
 
 instituted by Christ, 8. 
 
 Protestant theory of, 12, 51. 
 
 source of influence, 14. 
 
 how far a priesthood, 10 flf. 
 Mixed cup in Lord's Supper, 163. 
 Moberly, Canon, 10, 18. 
 Montanism, 4. 
 Moody, 230. 
 Moore, Daniel, 205. 
 *' Motto "texts, 234. 
 MuLLOis, Abb6, 281, 294. 
 
 Neale, 163. 
 Newbolt, 21. 
 Newman, 82, 200. 
 NiTZSCH, 8, 88, 351. 
 
 Oecolampaditis, 132. 
 
 Oflfering, the, 144. 
 
 Oflficials in church necessary, 7. 
 
 24 
 
 Oosterzee, van, 37, 323, 351. 
 Ordination, 32, 37 flf. 
 Origen, 208, 236, 239. 
 Otto, 351. 
 
 Palmer, 54, 313, 326, 351. 
 Parker, Dr. Joseph, 262. 
 Pastor. See Shepherd. 
 Pastorate, 300 flf. 
 idea and spirit of, 300. 
 opposed to oflficialism, 301. 
 responsibility, 302. 
 Pfarrer, Lutheran, 16. 
 Phelps, Austen, 234, 287, 289. 
 Pliny's Letter, 109. 
 Politics, 77 flf. 
 Porter, 236. 
 Praise, 107, 109, 112, 131, 133, 143, 
 
 146. 
 Prayer in public worship, 137 flf. 
 Prayer meeting, 171 flf. 
 Preacher, preparation of, 282 flf. 
 study of Scripture, 286. 
 
 of literature, 287. 
 intercourse with men, 289. 
 modern conditions, 294. 
 Preaching — 
 what is preaching ? 180-187. 
 personal and oflBcial elements, 182. 
 relation to Scripture, 183. 
 objects of, 184, 
 pastoral preaching, 188-215. 
 its matter, 188. 
 tone and manner, 188. 
 artistic perfection, 190. 
 "sensationalism," 191, 296. 
 intelligibility, 192. 
 tone of assurance, 192. 
 predominant note, 193. 
 practical aim, 194. 
 the "five uses," 197. 
 exposition of Scripture, 200. 
 rapid output of sermons, 204. 
 borrowed sermons, 205. 
 diversity in, 206. 
 expository lectures, 208 flf. 
 comprejiensiveness, 210 flf. 
 "Church Year," 213. 
 evangelistic preaching, 216-227. 
 in regular services, 218. 
 "mission week," 222. 
 characteristics of, 223. 
 "Preface" to worship, 130. 
 Presbyter, 1, 22. 
 Presbyter-bishop, 1, 22, 305. 
 Priest, how far minister is, 17 flf. 
 
370 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Priesthood, Catholic, 10, 13, 48, 51. 
 Puritans. See Ceremonies. 
 
 Quakers. See Friends. 
 
 Quarto -deciman controversy, 112. 
 
 Raikes, Robert, 339, 340. 
 Recreations of minister, 63. 
 Reformation principles, 115. 
 Reformed Churches — 
 
 no priesthood in, 10. 
 
 '♦ ministry of the Word," 14, 15. 
 
 catechisms, 16. 
 
 ordination, 37-42. 
 
 marriage of clergy, 67. 
 
 worship, 118. 
 Roman Catholic Church — 
 
 priesthood, 10, 13, 51, 66. 
 
 worship in, 114, 128. 
 
 the Mass, 155, 158, 163, 166. 
 
 preachers, 189, 199, 213, 292. 
 Roscommon, E. of, 273. 
 ROTHE, 161. 
 RuFiNUS, 137. 
 Rutherford, 49. 
 
 Sacramental services, 149 fF. 
 Salvation Army, t, 294. 
 Sanday, 10. 
 S CHAFF, 137. 
 
 schleibrmacher, 93, 186. 
 Schmidt, 231. 
 
 SCHtJRER, 39. 
 
 ScHWEizER, 44, 54, 62, 70, 95, 351. 
 
 Scotland, Church of — 
 
 reform in worship, 118. 
 
 order of service, 128, 131-136. 
 
 baptismal service, 149-154. 
 
 Lord's Supper in, 158-163, 167. 
 
 visitation in, 313. 
 
 excessive discipline, 359. 
 
 Guilds in, 349. 
 
 Bible classes in, 350. 
 Scott, Walter, 272. 
 Scottish Book of Common Order, 
 
 128, 149, 166, 167. 
 Scriptures, reading of, 107, 111, 
 
 133 fif. 
 Sermon, 228-281. 
 
 preparing to preach, 228 ff. 
 
 selection of subject, 230. 
 
 text, why from Scripture, 231. 
 
 study of text, 234. 
 
 allegorising, 235. 
 
 plan of sermon, 239 ff. 
 
 rhetoric in pulpit, 239. 
 
 Sermon — continued. 
 
 unity of theme, 242. 
 of aim, 245. 
 of tone, 247. 
 
 parts of sermon, 248 ff. 
 introduction, 248. 
 theme, 250. 
 divisions, 250. 
 conclusion, 260. 
 
 diction and delivery, 264 ff. 
 
 writing sermons, 264-267. 
 
 extemporising, 266, 268. 
 
 practising both methods, 269. 
 
 delivering from MS., 275 ff. 
 
 training in elocution, 279. 
 
 " accent of conviction," 281. 
 Service Books, Reformed, 128, 145. 
 Service, Order of. See Worship. 
 Shedd, Dr., 49, 53, 242, 284, 285. 
 Shepherd, 22. 
 Sick, the. See Visitation, 
 Skeat, Dr., 53. 
 Social intercourse, 63. 
 Social questions and the clergy, 83. 
 Sophists, 240. 
 Spencer's Sketches, 352. 
 Sponsors in baptism, 153, 154. 
 Sprott, Dr., 167, 171. 
 Spurgeon, 234, 282. 
 Stalker, Dr., 21. 
 Stevenson, Louis, 272. 
 Steward, 22. 
 Stier, 186. 
 Stirm, 21. 
 Storrs, Dr., 269. 
 Sturtevant, 207. 
 Sunday, festival in early Church, 
 
 112. 
 Sunday schools, 339 ff. 
 
 Temple services, 102, 105. 
 
 Text, choice of, 228. See also 
 
 Sermon. 
 Theodoret, 67. 
 Theophylact, 67. 
 Theremin, 241. 
 Transitions in preaching, 257. 
 Travers, 122. 
 Trent, canons of, 40. 
 
 Unction, 297. 
 
 " Unpardonable Sin," 355. 
 
 Vetter, 93. 
 Villemain, 240. 
 Vilmar, 55, 351. 
 
INDEX 
 
 371 
 
 ViNET, 21, 36, 53, 61, 231, 242, 248, 
 
 256, 351. 
 Visitation, household, 310-320. 
 
 Lutheran objections, 313. 
 
 difficulties, 314. 
 
 altered methods, 315. 
 of sick, 321-329. 
 
 chronic cases, 321. 
 
 serious illness, 323. 
 
 deathbeds, 327. 
 
 of bereaved, 329. 
 Voltaire, 231. 
 
 "Wafer" in Eucharist, 163. 
 Ware, Henry, 269. 
 Water used in Eucharist, 164. 
 Watson, Dr. John, 44, 210. 
 Watts, Dr., 207. 
 Webster, Daniel, 259. 
 Week-day services, 171-179. 
 
 uses of, 173. 
 
 suggestions for, 174. 
 WeizsAcker, 106. 
 Westminster Confession, 124. 
 Westminster Directory, 128, 129, 
 
 131, 132, 134, 153, 163. 
 Whately, 205. 
 
 Whitgift, 122. 
 Whyte, Dr. Alex., 350. 
 Wife of minister, 72 ff. 
 Worship, theory of Christian, 88 fF. 
 spirituality, 90. 
 as intercourse with God, 95. 
 in first century, 101 ff. 
 in Hebrew Churches, 103. 
 in Greek Churches, 105. 
 16th century reforms in, 114 ff. 
 Lutheran, 117. 
 Reformed, 118. 
 Anglican, 119. 
 order of weekly, 126 ff. 
 Wright, 167. 
 
 Xenophon's Memorabilia, 187. 
 
 Young, care of, 333-350. 
 in childhood, 333. 
 of school age, 334 ff. 
 in adolescence, 343 ff. 
 communicants' class, 348, 
 
 Zahn, 164. 
 Zezschwitz, 351. 
 Zurich service book, 132. 
 
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 Ministers of the gospel will find the volume extremely helpful in the presentation of 
 gospel truth in its ethical issues.' — Interior. 
 
T. & T. Clark's Publications. 13 
 
 Lexicon Syriacum. Auctore Carolo Brockelmann. Prsefatus 
 
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 * The appearance of a new Syriac Lexicon, designed to meet the wants of students, is 
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 and will certainly receive, the thanks of every Semitic student K)r thus coming forward 
 to remove what had almost become a scandal to international scholarship, the lack of a 
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 University of Edinburgh) in the Expository Times. 
 
 A Concordance to the Greek Testament. Edited by W. F. 
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 and Prof. A. S. Geden, M.A. In crown 4to (pp. 1040). Nett $7.00 
 
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14 T. & T. Clark's Publications. 
 
 Delivery and Development of Christian Doctrine. By 
 
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T. & T. Clark's Publications. 15 
 
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1 6 T. & T. Clark's Publications. 
 
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T. & T. Clark's Publications. 17 
 
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1 8 T. & T. Clark's Publications. 
 
 Messianic Prophecy : Its Origin, Historical Growth, and Kelation 
 
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T. & T. Clark's Publications. 19 
 
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20 T. & T. Clark's Publications. 
 
 BY DR. C. yON ORELLI. BASEL 
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T. & T. Clark's Publications. 21 
 
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22 T. & T. Clark's Publications. 
 
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T. & T. Clark's Publications. 23 
 
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24 T. & T. Clark's Publications. 
 
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T. & T. Clark^s Publications. 25 
 
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26 T. & T. Clark's Publications. 
 
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T. & T. Clark's Publications. 27 
 
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28 T. & T. Clark's Publications. 
 
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T. & T. Clark's Publications. 29 
 
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30 T. & T. Clark's Publications. 
 
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 Commentary on the Book of Daniel. One vol. 
 
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 Commentary on Jeremiah. One vol, 
 
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INDEX 
 
 Adams, Prof. J., Primer on Teachiiifif ... 6 
 
 Adamson, Rev. R. M., The Lord's Supper . . 2 
 
 Adamson, Dr. T., Spirit of Power . . 28 
 
 Alexander, W. L., Biblical Theology . 21 
 
 Ancient Faith in Modern Light, The . 21 
 Ante-Nicene Christian Library . . -3^ 
 
 Augustine, St., Works of 36 
 
 Bain, J. A., M.A., New Reformation ... 2 
 
 Balfour, Dr. R. G., Central Truths ... 27 
 
 Ball, W. E., LL.D., St. Paul and Roman Law 11 
 
 Ballard, Frank, The Miracles of Unbelief . 5 
 
 Bannerman, Dr. D. D., Doctrine of the Church . 32 
 
 Barty, J. W., LL.D., Duty of Christian Churches 2 
 
 Bayne, Dr. Peter, Free Church of Scotland . . 32 
 
 Beck, Prof., Works by 26 
 
 Bengel's Gnomon 37 
 
 Beveridge, W., The Westminster Assembly . . 10 
 
 Beyschlag, Prof. W., New Testament Theology . 12 
 
 Bible Class Handbooks 35 
 
 Bible Class Primers 35 
 
 Blake, Buchanan, Works by 22 
 
 Brockelmann's Syriac Lexicon 13 
 
 Bruce, Prof. A. B., Works by 17 
 
 Bruce, Canon R., Apostolic Order .... 10 
 
 Bruce, Dr. W. S., Works by 12 
 
 Caldecott and Mackintosh, Profs., Theism . . 11 
 
 Calvin, John, Works of 34 
 
 Candlish, Prof. J. S., Works by . . 8, 27, and 35 
 
 Caspari, C. E., Life of Christ 30 
 
 Gaspers, Footsteps of Christ 28 
 
 Cave, Prof., Works by 22 
 
 Chapman, Principal C., Pre-Organic Evolution . 18 
 Christlieb, Prof., Works by .... 31 and 39 
 
 Clark. Prof. W., Pascal 9 
 
 Concordance to the Greek Testament ... 13 
 
 Cooper-Maclean, The Testament of our Lord . 10 
 
 Crawford, J. H., Brotherhood of Man ... 21 
 
 Cremer's Greek Lexicon 13 
 
 Crippen, T. G., Christian Doctrine .... 34 
 
 Curtiss, Prof., Works by 20 
 
 Dahle, Bishop, Life after Death .... 15 
 
 Dalman, G., The Words of Jesus .... 11 
 Davidson, Prof. A. B., Works by . . .14 and 35 
 
 Davies, Principal, Atonement 33 
 
 Deane, W. J., Pseudepigrapha 13 
 
 Deissman, Prof. A., Bible Studies 
 
 Delitzsch, Prof. F., Works by 
 
 20 and 39 
 
 Deussen, Prof. P., Philosophy of the Upanishads 
 
 Dictionary of the Bible .... 
 
 Dods, Prof. Marcus, Works by . 
 
 Dods, Marcus, Forerunners of Dante 
 
 DoUinger, Ignaz von, Works by 
 
 Domer, Dr. I. A., Works by .... 23 and 39 
 
 Drummond, Dr. R. J., Apostolic Teaching . . 5 
 
 Duff, Prof. D., The Early Church .... 24 
 
 Eadie, Prof. J., Commentaries 27 
 
 4 
 35 
 IS 
 
 24 
 
 Ebrard, Prof., Works by 23 and 39 
 
 Edgar, Dr. R. McC, A Risen Saviour ... 28 
 
 Ewald, Prof., Works by 29 and 39 
 
 Expository Times 34 
 
 ■»-_r_, tu__ iir — 
 
 Fafrweather, W., Works by ... . 
 
 Falconer, J. W., Apostle to Priest . 
 
 Ferries, Dr. George, Growth of Christian Faith 
 
 Forbes. J. T., Socrates 
 
 Foreign Theological Library .... 
 
 Forrest, Dr. D. W., Works by . 
 
 Funcke, Pastor, World of Faith 
 
 Garvie, Prof. A. E., The Ritschlian Theology 
 
 Geere, H. V., Nile and Euphrates . 
 
 Gloag, Dr. Paton J., Works by 
 
 Godet, Prof. F., Works by 
 
 Gotthold's Emblems .... 
 
 Gwatkin, Prof., Works by .... 
 
 Halcombe, J. J., The Gospels 
 
 Hall, Newman, Works by . 
 
 Hamilton, President, Beyond the Stars . 
 
 Hastie, Prof. W., Works by 21, ; 
 
 Hastings, Dr. James, Works by 
 
 Heard. J. B., Works by ... . 
 
 Hefele, Bishop, Church Councils 
 
 Henderson, Dr. Arch., Palestine 
 
 Henderson, H. F., Religious Controversies 
 
 Herkless, Prof., Francis and Dominic 
 
 Hill, Dr. J. H.. St. Ephraem 
 
 Hodgson, G., Primitive Cliristian Education 
 
 Hodgson, Principal, Theologia Pectoris . 
 
 Holborn, Rev. A., The Pentateuch . 
 
 Hudson, Prof., Rousseau .... 
 
 Hutchison, Dr. J., Works by . . . 
 
 Inge, Dr. W. R., Faith and Knowledge . 
 
 Innes, A. D., Cranmer .... 
 
 Innes, A. T., Works by ... . 
 
 Iverach, Princ. J., Works by 
 
 Johns, C. H. W., The Oldest Code of Laws 
 
 Johnston, P. de L., Muhammad 
 
 Jordan, Louis H., Comi)arative Religion 
 
 Kaftan, Prof., Truth of the Christian Religion 
 
 Kant, Immanuel, Works by ... . 
 
 Keil. Prof., Biblical Archaeology 
 
 Kennedy, Dr. J., The Note-Line . 
 
 9 and 35 
 21 
 
 38 and 39 
 
 2 and 6 
 
 28 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 19 
 
 29 
 
 16 and 39 
 28 
 2 and 3 
 
 29 
 
 28 
 
 • ^34 
 and 31 
 4 and 34 
 25 
 24 
 35 
 It 
 
 9 
 6 
 
 21 
 II 
 
 9 
 26 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 ■Tid 35 
 
 and 35 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 
 and 39 
 10 
 
 29 
 
 IS 
 
 s 
 
 34 
 37 
 25 and 35 
 7 
 37 
 20 
 
 31 
 
 • , 7 
 31 and 35 
 
 9 and 35 
 
 13 
 
 27 and 39 
 
 31 
 
 30 
 
 9 
 
 33 
 
 9 
 19 
 
 33 and 39 
 
 34 
 
 37 
 
 8 
 
 20 
 
 32 
 
 Kidd, Dr. J., Morality and Religion . 
 
 Kilpatrick, Prof. T. B., Christian Character 
 
 Kbnig, Prof. Ed., Exiles' Book of Consolation 
 
 Krummacher, Dr. F. W., Works by . 
 
 Laidlaw, Prof. J., Works by 
 
 Lambert, J. C, The Sacraments 
 
 Lange, Prof. J. P., Life of Christ 
 
 Lechler, ProfT, Apostolic Times 
 
 Lehmann, Pastor, Scenes from Life of Jesus 
 
 Lidgett, Rev. J. S., The Fatherhood of God 
 
 Lilley, Dr. J. P., Works by 
 
 Lillie, Arthur, Buddha 
 
 Lindsay, Principal T. M., Works by 
 
 Lotze, Hermann, Microcosnius 
 
 Luthardt, Prof., Works by . 
 
 Macgregor, G. H. C, So Great Salvation 
 
 Macgregor, Dr. Jas., Works by 
 
 M'Hardy, Dr. G., Savonarola . 
 
 M'Intosh. Hugh, Is Christ Infallible? 
 
 Mackintosh, Prof. R., Hegel 
 
 Macpherson, J., Works by 
 
 Mair, Dr. A., Christian Evidences . 
 
 Martensen, Bishop, Works by . . . 
 
 Matheson, Dr. G., Growth of the Spirit of Chris- 
 tianity 
 
 Meyer, Commentary on New Testament 
 
 Milligan, Dr. G., Theology of Epistle to the Hebrews 
 
 Milligan, Prof. W., Resurrection of the Dead 
 
 Moffatt. Dr. J., The Historical New Testament . 
 
 Monrad, Bishop, World of Prayer .... 
 
 Moulton-Geden, Concordance to Greek Testament 
 
 Moulton, Dr. J. H., Grammar of New Testament 
 Greek 
 
 Muirhead, Dr. L. A., Times of Christ 
 
 Mliller, Prof., Doctrine of Sin .... 
 
 Naville, Ernest, Works by 
 
 Nicoll, W. R., LL.D., The Incarnate Saviour 
 
 Oehler, Prof., Theology of the Old Testament 
 
 Oosterzee, Dr. J. J. van, Works by . 
 
 OreUi, Prof., Works by 
 
 Orr, Prof. J., David Hume .... 
 
 Patrick, Principal W., James . 
 
 Plummer, Dr. A., Works by . . . 
 
 Profeit, W., The Creation of Matter 
 
 Punjer, Prof., Philosophy of Religion 
 
 Purves, Dr. D., The Life Everlasting 
 
 Rabiger, Prof, Encyclopaedia of Theology 
 
 Rainy, Principal, D.D., Christian Doctrine 
 
 Rashdall, Dr. Hastings, Christus in Rcclesia 
 
 Reusch, Prof., Nature and the Bible 
 
 Riehm, Dr., Messianic Prophecy 
 
 Ritchie, Prof. D. G., Plato 
 
 Ritschl, Albrecht, Justification, etc. 
 
 Rooke, President, Inspiration, etc. . 
 
 Ross, Rev. C. B., Our Father's Kingdom 
 
 Ross, Dr. D. M., Teaching of Jesus 
 
 Rothe, Prof., Sermons for the Christian Year 
 
 Saisset, Emile, Modern Pantheism . 
 
 Sanday, Prof. W., Life of Christ 
 
 Salmond, Principal, Works by . 
 
 Sayce, Prof., Religion of Ancient Egyptians, etc. 
 
 Schultz, Prof., Old Testament Theology . 
 
 Schlirer, Prof., New Testament Times . 
 
 Schwartzkopff, Dr. P., Christ's Prophecies 
 
 Scott, Dr. J,, New Testament Quotation 
 
 Shaw, Dr. R. D., Pauline Epistles . 
 
 Sime, James, Herschel ..... 
 
 Simon, Principal, Reconciliation by Incarnation 
 
 Smeaton, O., The Medici . 
 
 Smith, Dr. G., History of Missions . 
 
 Smith, Prof. T., Works by 
 
 Smyth, Dr. J., Truth and Reality . 
 
 Snell, F. J., Wesley and Methodism 
 
 Somerville, Dr. D., St. Paul's Conception of Christ 
 
 Stahlin, L., Kant, Lotze, and Ritschl 
 
 Stalker, Prof. J., Works by 
 
 Stanton, Prof. V. H., The Messiah . 
 
 Stead, F. H., The Kingdom of God 
 
 Steinmeyer, Prof., Works by 
 
 Stier, Dr., Words of the Lord Jesus 
 
 Stirling, Dr. J. H., Works by . 
 
 Strachan, J., Hebrew Ideals 
 
 Tophel, G,, Work of the Holy Spirit 
 
 Troup, G. E., To Young Christians . 
 
 Ullmann, Dr. C, The Sinlessness of Jesus 
 
 Vinet, Life of 
 
 Walker, J. Dawson, Gift of Tongues 
 
 Walker, Dr. J., Scottish Theology . 
 
 Walker, W. L., Works by . 
 
 Warfield, Prof., Right of Systematic Theology 
 
 Weiss; Prof. B., Works by. . . 
 
 Welch, A. C, Anselm 
 
 Wendt, Prof. H. H., Works by . 
 
 Whyte, Dr. Alex., Shorter Catechism 
 
 Witherow, Dr. T., Works by . . 
 
 Woods, F. H., The Hope of Israel , 
 
 Workman, Prof. G. C, Text of Jeremiah 
 
 World's Epoch-Makers, The 
 
 Wright, Dr. C. H.. Biblical Essays . 
 
 Zahn, Prof. Theodor, Sermons . 
 
 17 
 6 
 
 31 
 13 
 
 7 and 35 
 30 and 39 
 25 
 17 
 39 
 24 
 and 39 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 18 
 
 and 39 
 
 14 
 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 33 
 
 33 
 
 35 
 
 28 
 
 31 
 
 8 
 
 and 3S 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 
 and 39 
 
 =3 
 
 32 
 
 6 
 
 15 
 
 17 
 
 23 
 
 37 
 
 9 
 26 
 
 9 
 
 9 and 30 
 15 
 
 9 
 21 
 
 25 
 
 and 35 
 26 
 
 and 39 
 
 and 39 
 
 18 
 
 6 
 
 30 
 
 31 
 
 15 
 
 30 
 
 z 
 
 34 
 
 8 
 
 18 
 
 and 39 
 
 9 
 
 10 and 12 
 
 30 and ^15 
 
 IS 
 32 
 
 9 
 27 
 
 3 
 
 23