Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
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 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
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THE TIMES AND THE MAN 
 
 An Address 
 
 BY 
 
 s 
 
 REV. PRENTISS de VEUVE, D. D., 
 
 Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Dayton, Ohio. 
 
 Delivered at the Opening of 
 
 UNION BIBLICAL SEMINARY, 
 
 September 4, 1889. 
 
 DAYTON, OHIO: 
 
 PRESS OF UNITED BRETHREN PUBLISHING HOU8E. 
 1889. 
 
€ 
 
THE TIMES AND THE MAN. 
 
 The brief time left at my disposal, after the invitation was 
 given me to address }^ou this morning, precluded any carefully 
 prepared paper, such as is commonly furnished on an occasion 
 like this. I therefore was diffident about acceding to the request 
 of the Faculty, feeling that I could not do justice to myself; 
 but I finally consented, in the humble hope that what I might 
 furnish would accomplish some good to the cause in which I am 
 so deeply interested, even if it redounded little to my own credit 
 as a literary performance. 
 
 The theme I have selected, "The Times and the Man," is so 
 thoroughly practical, and so fairly within the scope of my min- 
 isterial experience and observation, as I shall treat it, that I shall 
 at least escape the criticism of a well-known professor on young 
 preachers, namely, that they would do so much better by simply 
 "telling people what they knew instead of trying to tell them 
 what they did not fcwow." I simply propose to give you some of 
 the experience gained, and the conclusions reached after a min- 
 istry of over thirty years, that you may esteem it for what it 
 may be worth, and may secure what profit from it you can. 
 
 Not many, I am sure, can labor for over a generation in the 
 ministry of the gospel in this stirring century without enjoying 
 experiences, and forming opinions which may profit others. 
 Experience is well likened by Coleridge to the "stern light of a 
 vessel, casting its gleam upon the path which has been tra- 
 versed." But as all of our paths cross the same"sea of life, and 
 are not far removed from each other, the path I have traversed 
 may help to guide others. 
 
 The lapse of a generation finds me tenaciously holding all the 
 great doctrines of the faith which I resolved in my youth to 
 proclaim to my fellow-men. But I cannot, after thirty years' 
 experience, feel satisfied that a man should desire to preach the 
 gospel to-day just as he did thirty years ago. The character of 
 the age in which a preacher ministers ought to modify the char- 
 
4 THE TIMES AND THE MAN. 
 
 acter of his preaching, and the modes of pastoral work. Nor am 
 I sure that our fathers knew everything to be known about the 
 Bible, or the work of the minister among the people. With an 
 ever growing knowledge of language and history, of physiology 
 and psychology, of archaeology and sociology, why should there 
 not be secured a larger adaptability to grasp the full meaning of 
 Scripture and to come to a better understanding of the ways in 
 which the gospel can meet the wants and satisfy the aspirations 
 of the human soul ? 
 
 Light has been continually "breaking forth from the word of 
 God," as devout men have studied it with all the helps of modern 
 culture; and without of necessity abating the force of any doc- 
 trine essential to the integrity of the gospel, the message of 
 salvation has been brought home more intelligently and usefully 
 to the hearers of to-day. Times have indeed changed since the 
 audience stood and listened two hours at a stretch to Chrysostom 
 rolling out his beautiful periods as he sat before them ; and our 
 age would receive no profit from the ponderous discourses of the 
 seventeenth century divines of England, or the polished ora- 
 tions of the French pulpit in the times of Louis the XIV. The 
 change, however, does not condemn our age, for the discourses of 
 to-day, though briefer, less scholastic and oratorical, are much 
 more calculated to do good, are much nearer the model furnished 
 by the Divine Teacher. 
 
 The same contrasts appear in respect to pastoral work. I shall 
 never forget the formality of the pastoral work of my early min- 
 istry, when, after announcing my coming from the pulpit, I 
 went from house to house during the busy hours of the day 
 accompanied by an elder, and the whole household was sum- 
 moned in and we had worship, and I was expected (in a very 
 blundering way, too often was it done) to talk to all on the sub- 
 ject of religion. How different now, when the pastor's visits are 
 generally visits of friendship, in which he meets those of the 
 family who may happen to be at home, and must watch his 
 opportunity to find the others, and when the happy occasion 
 offers, press the matter of their spiritual welfare upon their 
 attention. We have lost so much, as some think, in all this 
 change. I do not stand here prepared to controvert that claim, 
 but I do say that, except in seasons of general religious awaken- 
 ing, when the church or the community are deeply stirred, the 
 old style of pastoral visitation would not work now ; and he is 
 
THE TIMES AND THE MAN. O 
 
 the wise pastor who accepts the change in public sentiment and 
 labors along the line with it, as he may do very effectively if he 
 be discreet. 
 
 The limit, however, to which the preacher may adapt himself 
 to the times is always the line of fundamental truth and minis- 
 terial fidelity as Christ's ambassador. Truth is eternal, and 
 human nature has suffered no molecular change under the 
 altered circumstances of the generations. God and man occupy 
 the same relations to one another. The problem to be solved 
 remains precisely the same. 
 
 But let us proceed now to consider, as briefly as may be pos- 
 sible, the practical question : How far have the times in which 
 we are living affected the work of the preacher for good or ill, 
 making it easier or more difficult? 
 
 Strangely varied are the opinions held as to our times. With 
 
 some, the times are evil, and very evil, and are growing worse. 
 
 With others, these are glorious times, full of promise of a 
 
 magnificent future. For myself, I can only say that I am 
 
 neither pessimist nor optimist, although gladly inclining much 
 
 further towards optimism than its reverse. These are glorious 
 
 times. 
 
 We are living, we are dwelling 
 In a grand and awful time, 
 An age on ages telling 
 To be living is sublime. 
 
 But the good abounding is not unmixed with ill. We are free 
 to confess that there is a background of shadow to the bright- 
 ness. We are not free from grave perils to church and state. 
 An inordinate greed of gain, and love of pleasure doubtless 
 characterize our age, varied and most insidious forms of un- 
 belief as well as the coarser blasphemies and unbeliefs of all 
 ages prevail. Contempt is thrown upon the Word of God. His 
 holy Sabbath is widely profaned, and everywhere appropriated 
 to man's care and enjoyment, rather than to God's worship. In- 
 temperance is doing inconceivable evil. Debauchery is openly 
 practiced and secretly revelled in. Crime develops quite out of 
 proportion to the increase of the population. The Press, which 
 ought to be the public Censor condemning crime and vice, has 
 become a very propagator of vice and crime by its prurient 
 details of disgusting crime and hideous vice; by its vile pictures 
 inflaming evil desire ; by its unscrupulous use of its power for 
 party and business purposes, without regard to truth, honesty, or 
 
O THE TIMES AND THE MAN. 
 
 honor. Gigantic monopolies are shielded and fostered. Politi- 
 cal corruption is wide spread and despicable, and conspiracies 
 against good order and the very life of government are con- 
 stantly brought to light. Be it so, and we cannot deny this 
 impeachment of the age, but shall we therefore become hope- 
 lessly panic-stricken and denounce the age as hopelessly bad ? 
 
 Nay ! For where is the age which can show a record every 
 way more favorable ? When we fear for the church on account 
 of the corruption which abounds, let us seek relief in the study 
 of other times. May we not boldly demand of the despairing 
 that they show us an age which can boast of any superiority ? 
 An age really purer, more under the dominion of love, and when 
 the gross vices alluded to were any less prevalent or virulent ? 
 Ages may be readily picked out in which mankind were poorer, 
 and luxury with its attendant evils were in consequence con- 
 fined to the few, but what the multitude lacked in self-indulg- 
 ence was more than made up in the sad total of sin and misery 
 caused by their ignorance and brutality. A dose of history, as 
 taken from Lecky or Hallam, Home or Macaulay, Thackeray's 
 "Four Georges," or Dorchester's convenient " Manual of Religious 
 Progress " ought to suffice to answer as a corrective. Vices 
 abound in our day, they frown, nay, they glare upon us and 
 terrify the timid; but let it be remembered we view them and 
 treat them as vices. There have been times in the past when 
 duelling, adultery, and fornication, blasphemy, and gambling, 
 and drunkenness were hardly regarded as vices. Now they re- 
 ceive the open approval of none but the abandoned classes. 
 
 But while thus correcting the false conception of our times as 
 relatively so evil, we should carefully prosecute the inquiry con- 
 cerning their special bearing upon the work of the minister of 
 the gospel. As mach as a dozen years ago a distinguished 
 preacher, still living,* and greatly honored among the churches, 
 started this very inquiry in discoursing before a Theological 
 Seminary in New England, and some of the points he made then 
 have as much force to-day. He asserted that the notion of " fate 
 with all the consequences which it brings with it to the 
 ideas of responsibility, and even to the fundamental con- 
 ceptions of personal belief," was the most common, and the 
 most wonderfully subtle of all the difficulties lying in people's 
 minds, when he wrote, " With this notion comes the inevitable 
 
 * Phillips Brooks. 
 
THE TIMES AND THE MAN. 7 
 
 consequences of hopelessness, and restraint pervading all society 
 — different in different natures; hard and defiant in some, soft 
 and luxurious in others, but, in all their various forms, unfitting 
 men for the best happiness, or the best growth, or the best useful- 
 ness to their fellowmen." Other ages, of course, have developed 
 this trait of our age, but it is now re-asserting itself, with pow- 
 erful results in lessening the sense of personal responsibility, and 
 easing the soul in living a life of selfishness and sin. Nursed, 
 nay, pampered in the lap of this luxurious age, so powerfully dis- 
 posed to materialistic unbelief through the discoveries of modern 
 science, this dangerous tendency must be met by the preaching 
 in the bravest and most powerful manner of the pride-humbling 
 and soul-stirring doctrines of the gospel, revealing the personal 
 God, and human responsibility to the divine law, and disclosing 
 the awful adjustments of the future life. The conscience must be 
 thoroughly awakened, in the belief that it will speak boldly and 
 truly, when roused. 
 
 Dr. Brooks discusses two other points with equal power. 
 
 His practical analysis of the tolerant spirit of our times is 
 striking. We may rejoice that we live in an age which, except 
 on heathen shores, is a stranger to the fires of persecution. We 
 may rejoice that in our own land especially, a generous spirit of 
 toleration pervades almost all the churches, bringing them 
 nearer together in catholicity of spirit. It also characterizes the 
 attitude of the world toward the church. But is all this 
 unmixed good ? The question should be cautiously considered, 
 for the rising generation of ministers may find no greater obsta- 
 cles in their way than can result from the sacrifice of truth to 
 liberty. Truth is many-sided, and those who see one side more 
 clearly than another may be no less honest and earnest, differing 
 intelligently and kindly from those of different views. Whereas, 
 a toleration may exist which means simple ignorance of all dis- 
 tinctions, and general indifference to truth as truth. Truth is 
 readily sacrificed to good feeling — is not felt to be of sufficient 
 importance to contend for it — the very marrow of truth has 
 been drawn out of the bones to feed a mistaken desire for mere 
 brotherliness in the church. I really fear this is the character of 
 much of the toleration of our times — it has been foaled in 
 ignorance, and reared in utter indifference to all truth, and, of 
 course, as an inevitable result, it has no fear of error. The 
 watchword is : All the creeds are good enough ! We are all 
 
8 THE TIMES AND THE MAN. 
 
 going to the same place! A man is not responsible for his 
 beliefs! No wonder that with such views — mere morality of 
 life goes for religion — such tolerant souls can readily mistake 
 form' for substance, their own righteousness for Christ's right- 
 eousness, no belief for sincere faith, and the husk for the kernel. 
 The delusive hope deceives but to destroy, and at last perishes in 
 unbelief and utter worldliness. I fear that the rising generation 
 of preachers will have more and more of this to contend with in 
 our luxurious age, and they can meet and master it only by the 
 most positive teachings of the gospel — enforcing the folly of 
 trusting in a religion which has no basis of vital truth formulated 
 to the intellect, or living spiritual power to bring to bear upon 
 the heart. 
 
 Another point made by Dr. Brooks is equally suggestive — i. e., 
 the tendency to sentimentalism coloring so much of our 
 modern religiousness. We hear much in these latter days of a 
 " religion superior to the teachings of the Scriptures." The twad- 
 dle comes to us in various potencies from the well-meant utter- 
 ances of some emotional and shallow believers down to the 
 gaseous flashings of Ingersoll and his rude blasphemies, defile- 
 ments which are emptied on the public through the channel of 
 a subservient and unbelieving press. This sentimentalism, 
 which creates a God of love without justice and a religion of 
 beauty without any sense, is rampant in some quarters. It has 
 invaded the realm of music and poetry. Our fathers may have 
 been austere, but their children are bent on being milk-sops. 
 There is nothing worse than a hard theology but a soft one, and 
 that is what is now being taught by these wise ones. Jesus, in 
 their opinion, is always to be regarded as the tender, pitiful 
 Savior. It is the love of Christ which must ever be put forward ; 
 it will always hold sinners true to the path of righteousness. " In 
 His name!" The hardest heart will break under the spell! 
 Under it, the hardest duty may be done cheerfully ! Such gush 
 in prayer ! So many tears ! Ah, it is simply sickening ! ! Jesus 
 wept over Jerusalem, but he cursed it. Jesus died upon the cross 
 for sinners, but he commanded repentance as well as faith, and 
 made obedience to his commandments the test of love. Jesus exe- 
 crated Pharisee and scribe as heartily as he welcomed publican 
 and harlot. It will be an easy road out from this sentimental- 
 ism to skepticism, and many will go to ruin by it, as many 
 have already. The cure must be found in proclaiming the full 
 
THE TIMES AND THE MAN. 9 
 
 gospel, the real teaching of Christ. There is another characteris- 
 tic of our age, which must be viewed with alarm — i. e., the in- 
 crease of socialistic tendencies of all .sorts, and for the 
 rising generation of ministers the fact is full of significance, 
 and should give a trend to their preparation. I allude not 
 merely to the hateful and bloody forms of anarchism, and law- 
 lessness, and murder, upon which the state, in self-defense, must 
 lay a strong and ungloved hand, but I refer also to the growing 
 contempt for proper distinctions in society, based on education 
 and culture, and the determination to level all classes down to a 
 common standard of vulgarity. An incident occurring the other 
 day, in our own city, and near my own residence, will illustrate 
 my meaning admirably : Two ladies of refined manners and 
 appearance were conversing on the sidewalk by their homes, 
 when a miserable vagrant woman, dirty and forlorn, leading two 
 children as offensive as herself, approache them, saying, "Seed 
 here, womanfolks, do you know anyone who wants a washer- 
 lady to work?" This spirit is rife among the fouler poor, and 
 its fainter shadow is reflected on classes much above them. 
 Labor is coming to be regarded in this country — the very para- 
 dise of the laborer — as a disgrace, to be repudiated in name if 
 not in fact, by appropriating the titles to which merit, and edu- 
 cation, and refinement, and ability are entitled — salesladies, and 
 it would be sales-gentlemen, but for the awkwardness of the term; 
 artists whose skill is directed towards cutting hair, or shoeing 
 feet, or blacking boots, abound. Yes, everything is professional, 
 from gambling to car-driving. This ignoble tendency must be 
 corrected in our Sunday-schools, and from our pulpits, by the 
 teaching of true manliness of soul. We must preach Christian 
 manhood and womanhood, and say, with Burns, — 
 
 " What though on bamely fare we dine, 
 Wear hoddin gray, and a' of tbat ; 
 Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine, 
 A man's a man for a' of that. 
 
 " For a' of that, for a' of that, 
 
 Their tinsel show, and a' of that, 
 The honest man, though e'er sae poor, 
 Is king of men, for a' of that." 
 
 With this rapid glance at some of the peculiar features of our 
 "times," we must now ask to what extent the relation of the 
 preacher to the people has been modified bv these changed 
 conditions. We must confess that it requires no very careful 
 investigation to discover important modifications 
 
10 THE TIMES AND THE MAN. 
 
 First of all the sacerdotal element no longer enters into the 
 estimate of pulpit power. Among Protestants in this land, and 
 in fact, among some Protestants in every land, all power to- 
 mediate as priests is entirely disavowed by the ministry. We 
 neither attempt to offer sacrifices nor to forgive sin ; cheerfully 
 have we surrendered in the interest of truth and righteousness 
 the veneration with which superstition once invested the person 
 of the minister, as well as his office. The Protestant minister 
 expects to be honored only for his Master's sake, and only so far 
 as he reflects his Master in his walk and conversation. 
 
 Again, the minister of to-day holds no monopoly of educa- 
 tional power in the community. The preacher, the lawyer, 
 and the doctor are no longer the only educated men of the com- 
 munity. In most flocks the preacher shepherds men and 
 women of culture equal, and even superior to his own, ready 
 to controvert, as well as to be convinced. 
 
 But social and political standing no longer gives the power 
 which the preacher once secured from them. Without a state 
 church to clothe us in the official relations, making us " My 
 Lord Bishop " and giving us great influence with a peasantry, 
 our social and political influence depends on our essential worth, 
 and our force of character. We are entitled to our views and 
 our votes. The entrance of a minister of the gospel upon the 
 arena of active politics, however, always awakens a prejudice 
 against him in his sacred calling. Political preachers generally 
 minister to divided and contending flocks, and very generally 
 bring the church into disrepute. 
 
 But now must it be confessed that these altered conditions 
 are unfavorable to the successful prosecution of our work 
 as ministers? I am quite confident that they are not. Certainly 
 no one will plead for a return of the sacerdotal feeling among 
 our people. The blessed Master "came not to be ministered 
 unto, but to minister, ' and the " disciple should not be above 
 his Master, nor the servant greater than his Lord." Christianity 
 arose and was developed in entire freedom from such adventi- 
 tious surroundings, and the more there is of the Master's spirit 
 among the ministry, and abroad in the church, the less weight 
 will be put upon them. When ministry and people began to 
 lose Christ's spirit, sacerdotalism crept in, and it rounded out 
 at length in the papal hierarchy, and the gloom of the dark ages. 
 
 But, is the change in the literary and educational relation of 
 
THE TIMES AND THE MAN. 11 
 
 the ministry to the church, a change for the worse? Certainly 
 no one will claim that it is so without he be ready to accept the 
 false dictum that "ignorance is the mother of devotion." Pro- 
 testant Christianity thrives best on intelligence. The school 
 with the church always. Believing the Scriptures to be the 
 Word of God, as implicitly as it believes the world to be the 
 work of God, Protestant Christianity fears neither the advance 
 of science, nor the progress of learning among the common 
 people. The fact that he preaches to men and women of intel- 
 ligence and culture simply tends to inspire a true minister of 
 Jesus Christ. With newspaper and printed volume in every 
 home, a constant spur is furnished to grapple with his fellow- 
 men more firmly in intellectual and spiritual combat. No time 
 need be lost in mere preliminary work of instruction. The 
 foundation truths have been laid, the people know them. 
 
 But the preacher need never fear that the press will supplant 
 him. Print and paper can never supplant the contact of living 
 souls. Even a dry political campaign cannot be waged with 
 documents alone, however valuable the documents may be. The 
 very impersonality of the press is as much a cause of weakness 
 as in some aspects it may appear to be a source of strength. 
 Especially is this the case in the discussion of moral and 
 religious questions. It passes without saying that too many of 
 our newspapers are not controlled and edited by even moral 
 men, and yet more conspicuously do they lack a religious char- 
 acter. When a man, therefore, who is known to seldom go to 
 bed quite sober, or whose purity is readily to be impeached, or 
 whose honesty is at a discount, attempts to teach morals, or to 
 claim the magisterial right to pronounce opinions on matters of 
 spiritual import, his influence is not very telling. When one 
 would become a religious instructor, he must command respect 
 for his character, or his labors will prove vain. It is the con- 
 taminating influence which politics always presupposes in the 
 minds of thoughtful men that detracts from the influence of a 
 political minister. He seems to them to have forsaken the pure 
 and holy Jesus to become like other men, and this feeling will 
 weaken the appreciation of the man's true worth. 
 
 But what are the qualifications of the man who shall 
 more or less successfully meet the requirements of these 
 times ? The qualifications of a true minister demanded in these 
 times are numerous and vital ; but time would fail for me to- 
 
12 THE TIMES AND THE MAN. 
 
 enlarge upon them all. What you desire from me, I feel sure, is 
 simply the suggestion of the qualifications which appear to me 
 most important. It goes without the saying that he must be an 
 earnest Christian within the most positive views of religious truth, 
 and a real, if not a lively, religious experience. Intense loyalty 
 to Jesus Christ must characterize his piety — "he serves the Lord 
 Christ." Without these qualifications no minister can fairly meet 
 the wants of our times. The day has passed when unconverted 
 men could boldly enter the ministry of the gospel without pro- 
 test from the people. Personal character is now regarded as the 
 most significant of all qualifications, and the preacher must not 
 merely enjoy the reputation for unblemished morality, but also 
 for real spirituality. The people may be deceived as to the last, 
 but tbey must be deceived, for willingly, knowingly they will not 
 endure a hypocrite or ungodly man in the sacred office. 
 
 To say that the minister for the times cannot be an unedu- 
 cated man is a fact confessed by all branches of the Christian 
 church in these days. The class of preachers who boasted of 
 their ignorance has become, like the Dodo, an extinct species. 
 True, a plenty of ignorant ones are left, but now they try to 
 conceal the fact that they know so little. The pious craze which 
 struck some educated men a few years since and led them to dis- 
 regard the carefully prepared sermon and trust to the immediate 
 inspiration of the Spirit has, I believe, largely died out. The 
 scriptural foundation for it was slender. Balaam's ass was the 
 only striking case given in scripture. A man may in truth 
 educate himself outside of the schools, but all the better and 
 easier in the schools. Thank God for all the advantages you 
 have in this well-equipped school of the prophets, and faithfully 
 improve all your opportunities of every sort provided by these 
 admirable professors and this excellent curriculum. The ten- 
 dency of our age in theological culture is rather toward biblical 
 than systematic theology, but both are required for the proper 
 balance. Avail yourselves of every chance for becoming versed 
 in natural science, not, let me say, that you may make fools of 
 yourselves by fighting the scientists, but that you may not be 
 disturbed by their inconsequent conjectures and reasonings, and 
 also that you may secure the happiest and widest ability for 
 illustrating the truths you teach. I have often grieved over my 
 own indifferent training in the sciences and have coveted the 
 privileges of training now to be enjoyed by students. 
 
THE TIMES AND THE MAN. 1& 
 
 A very important branch of investigation which should be 
 pursued by our rising ministry is sociology. Around that sub- 
 ject gather the burning questions of the times, and we must not 
 as the ministry of Jesus Christ fail to understand them, and 
 endeavor to solve them on gospel principles. 
 
 Poetry offers an important field for your thought and examina- 
 tion. Unbelief is now working this mine for all it is worth, 
 and doing vast harm. The unbelief and pessimism of Matthew 
 Arnold breathed out in his exquisite verses will live, and curse, 
 long after Ingersoll and his silly trash and his frantic ravings 
 have been utterly forgotten— and even Arnold's prose writing 
 has cease to be read, just as the songs of Watts and Wesley, 
 Cow per and Palmer, will bless the world from age to age. 
 
 Every age has required the full-orbed gospel, but each particu- 
 lar age has specially demanded some particular phase of gospel 
 truth. At the Reformation it was salvation by faith alone. In 
 the eighteenth century it was a living gospel as opposed to dead 
 orthodoxy and stony rationalism, and their soul-destroying influ- 
 ences. For our age, and more and more clearly is the fact being 
 revealed, the imperative demand is for ethical preaching. The 
 age is developing a class of gospel hearers and weak Christians, 
 with consciences responsive to the demands of the gospel for faith 
 in Christ and the extension of the church, but strangely unre- 
 sponsive to the claims of the Divine law upon their daily lives — 
 self-indulgent ones, anxious to get all they can out of this world, 
 and yet to hold on to their hopes for the future life. Covetous- 
 ness is a widespread sin among this class. They make haste to 
 become rich, and do not disturb themselves much over the way in 
 which to secure their wealth. The land is filled with gamblers 
 — gamblers in stocks, in lands, in the very necessaries of life, 
 and the transactions are of frightful magnitude. The most 
 unscrupulous means are resorted to to acquire wealth suddenly, 
 without labor, and in great magnitude. The consciences of men 
 seem to be utterly seared ; they have no regard to God's honor, 
 or the rights of man. Trusts are multiplying, not merely to 
 protect legitimate business, but to ruin the prospects of all but 
 the few and to "grind the faces of the poor." Our congregations 
 contain not a few who worship God on Sunday and bite and 
 devour their fellow-men all the week ; who help to support 
 churches out of gains made at the expense of truth, and justice, 
 and mercy — the public conscience and the Loid's day. To- 
 
14 THE TIMES AND THE MAN. 
 
 meet this most unhealthy condition of affairs God's ministers 
 must bring God's law to bear heavily on men's consciences. 
 They must preach searchingly, but kindly. They must heroicly 
 favor every brave movement made in support of morals and 
 reform, and they must use wisdom in discriminating between 
 measures that are wise and that are unwise, however well inten- 
 tioned. The cause of sound morals has suffered bitterly from 
 the foolish radicalism of its friends, as well as from the antago- 
 nism of its foes. Wisely and boldly to discuss and support the 
 cause of temperance, and social purity, and public honesty, 
 and brotherly kindness, will require all our natural gifts and 
 gracious bestowments. And to know how far to go, and when 
 to be content taxes the courage and the wisdom often the most 
 severely. 
 
 A strong degreee of self-reliance seems to be more necessary to 
 God's ministers now than ever before. In many respects the 
 minister must now stand more alone and unsupported than 
 ever before. Those who share with the minister the control of 
 the flock are in very important respects, especially in our cities, 
 less able to help him spiritually now than previously. Too 
 many of our church officers are thoroughly worldly in their 
 views, and the more prosperous they become the more worldly, 
 as a general thing, are they likely to be. You see it in their in- 
 tense devotion to business and their unwillingness to do spir- 
 itual work. Too often in our cities they mix largely with the 
 world. You find them at the theatre and in the fashionable 
 world. Their children are taught to dance as faithfully as to 
 pray, and are practically made to understand that their wordly 
 success is that which the parent has chiefly in sight. Such laxity, 
 of course, unfits church officers for hand-to-hand work with un- 
 converted souls. They are admirable on dress parade, but poor 
 dependences in the strife with the world and sin. 
 
 To a young man of scholarly tastes, who dreams that when 
 once in the ministry he will have such delight in pursuing his 
 studies and composing his sermons, this fact, that he cannot de- 
 pend on the church officers to do the spiritual work with him, 
 much less for him, and, therefore, that he must expect to do 
 it largely by himself, is a fact which should be carefully pon- 
 dered while pursuing his studies. Aim to secure as largely as 
 possible the ability for and the love of pastoral work. Make 
 yourselves useful in the churches of your denomination here. 
 
THE TIMES AND THE MAN. 15 
 
 Offer your services as a learner for all sorts of pastoral work 
 within your sphere. Especially seek direct intercourse with the 
 unconverted, reasoning, pleading, praying with them. The help 
 which will thus be obtained for future labor will be very valua- 
 ble. Not having to learn how to deal with men and women and 
 children as a pastor after entering on the pastoral work, you will 
 economize a large amount of time for the study, and the pulpit, 
 from the outset of your ministry. 
 
 I must specially impress upon you my profound conviction 
 that the burning questions of the hour in sociology will be more 
 successfully solved by a ministry of pastors leading their con- 
 gregations with them in ministrations of practical Christianity 
 among the masses than by the eloquence of the preacher or the 
 enactments of the state. What is needed among the different 
 classes is sympathy practically shown by individual labor. The 
 exacting demands of the pulpit in our cultivated congregations 
 make this sort of pastoral labor almost impossible, except the 
 occupant of the pulpit be a man of unusual ability, and thor- 
 ough mental training. A careful attention to stud} r , and espe- 
 cially the most thorough training of the mind for the exercise of its 
 powers, is the wise preparation for the future which will insure 
 more time for pastoral work. The pulpit must always be the 
 minister's throne, but a preacher who is no pastor lacks vital 
 elements of success. How hard it is to reach success as preacher 
 and a pastor, there are very many ready to testify. The people 
 expect so much more than we can possibly give them ; and yet 
 they realize so little how much they do expect, else they would 
 more cheerfully lend a helping hand. 
 
 In the discharge of duty both as a preacher and pastor a 
 prime qualification is manliness. Do not fear the face of anj r one 
 in the congregation when you are speaking for your Master, but 
 always "try to speak the truth in love." First, last, all the time 
 satisfy your own conscience and leave results with God. Covet 
 a contented mind, free from [even the "mildly complaining 
 spirit," as one gently terms it. Have you trials ? You have 
 great blessings. Must you be poor in this world's goods? You 
 can be rich toward God. Cultivate from the outset the good 
 habit of giving to the causes of benevolence. Remember the 
 poor, but do not allow yourself to be imposed on. Do not, as I 
 have heard of ministers doing, hire a carriage to go and marry, 
 or bury anyone, but let those who want you send for you. Some 
 
16 THE TIMES AND THE MAN. 
 
 minister is always near at hand. They know that you can't 
 afford such an expense, but they will say nothing of it if you 
 are simple enough to be imposed upon. A want of conscience, 
 and a lazy desire to save trouble, are common infirmities of 
 human nature. 
 
 My young brethren, I covet you the privilege of entering upon 
 your work in this age of the world. It has always been a 
 glorious privilege to live and to labor for Christ ; it never was 
 more glorious than now. Grasp the full significance of the age, 
 and rise to your responsibilities and privileges. With the eye of 
 faith discern the triumphs in which you will share. Mount on 
 the wings of prayer into closer fellowship with the Master. Let 
 God and not man be the centre of your preaching, your life, and 
 of all your labor. Fear no difficulties, for with you is not "an 
 arm of flesh." Sink under no sorrows or trials, for afflictions are 
 but chastisements for your profit, and trials are but the putting 
 you to proof that you may know better where your strength lies. 
 Model your lives after Jesus — after no man, however great — 
 the only model for all ages, places, and conditions, is Jesus, " the 
 author and finisher of our faith." 
 
 And now, with one more word of congratulation that you 
 have been led to take up the holy calling of the ministry, let me 
 close. Your heart being in it you will never regret it. I was 
 privileged some years ago to ascend the great Pyramid of 
 Gihzeh, and the view from its summit I shall never forget. I 
 looked down over the great desert wastes on one side, and over 
 beyond the hills I knew it was desert also, bleak and drear ; but 
 below me was a strip of living green — more lovely and striking 
 for the barren surroundings; it was the land of Egypt, rendered 
 thus beautiful by the beneficent river Nile, whose waters are 
 diverted by human skill to bless the land. My young brethren, 
 just such a stream of mercy flows through this sorrowful world, 
 made sorrowful by man's sin. It is the river of Salvation, and 
 your life work will be to lead off the rills in one direction and 
 another into the deserts of human woe, that they may become 
 the garden of the Lord. Can you or I ask for a nobler or more 
 soul-satisfying labor ? Ought we not to be very thankful that 
 the Master has called us into the work ? 
 
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 The times and the man : an address 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
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