^^ OF P^l^^^. 
 
 i^OlOGICAL StVA^ 
 
 BV 660 .M54 1878 
 
 tdiller, John C. 
 
 Letters to a young clergyman 
 
LETTERS TO A YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 
 
LETTERS 
 
 TO A 
 
 YOUNG CLERGYMAN 
 
 JOHN C MILLER, D.D., 
 
 CANON RESII)ENTLA.RY OF ROCHESTER, VICAR AND RURAL DEAN 
 
 OF GREENWICH, EXAMINING CHAPLAIN To THE 
 
 LORD BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. 
 
 LONDON : 
 HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 
 
 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 MDCCCLXXVIII. 
 
Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbury. 
 
RIGHT REVETIKND FATHER IN GOD^ 
 
 ANTHONY WILSON THOROLD, D.D,, 
 
 LORD BISHOP OF ROCHESTER^ 
 THESE LETTERS 
 
 ARE, 
 
 BY PERMISSION^ 
 INSCRIBED, WITH GRATEFUL RESPECT, 
 
 BY 
 
 HIS lordship's FAITHFUL AND AFFECTIONATE CHAPLAIN^ 
 
 JOHN C. MILLER. 
 
 The Vicarage, 
 
 Greenwich Park, 
 
 Dece77iber 27, 1877. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 i. the apportionment of the minister's time 
 
 to the various duties of his ministry i 
 
 ii. the apportionment of the minister's time 
 
 to the various duties of his ministry 17 
 
 iii. the work of the ministry 29 
 
 iv. pulpit preparation 45 
 
 v. the work of the ministry . . . . 71 
 
 vi. the theology of our sermons . . -93 
 
 vii. the work of the ministry — visitation . ii9 
 
 viii. the work of the ministry— visitation 
 
 (continued) 139 
 
 ix. the work of the ministry — visitation 
 
 (continued). ... . . 167 
 
 X. PUBLIC catechizing— SCHOOLS — BIBLE CLASSES 
 
 — CONFIRMATION 1 83 
 
 XI. SURPLICE DUTY . . . . . . . 213 
 
 XII. MISCELLANEOUS COUNSELS 22$ 
 
 XIII. LECTURE ON PREACHING 245 
 
vyv^/V' 
 
 LETTERS TO A YOUNG 
 CLERGYMAN. 
 
 I. 
 
 TJie Apportionment of the Minister's Time to the 
 Various Ditties of his Ministry. 
 
 My dear Brother, — You are now a minister 
 of Jesus Christ. The vows of God are upon 
 you, with a solemnity then only to become 
 more solemn, when, by His grace, you shall 
 have ** used the office of a deacon well," 
 and shall be admitted to a higher order of 
 the ministry. 
 
 Often, I doubt not, under an almost over- 
 whelming consciousness of the weakness 
 of self, you have asked, '* Who is sufficient 
 for these things ? " And your strength 
 and comfort have been found in this : '* My 
 ^ strength is made perfect in weakness." 
 
 I 
 
2 LETTERS TO A 
 
 In asking you to read a few letters from 
 me, as from an elder brother in the ministry, 
 whose lot has been cast, with the very brief 
 exception of his first curacy, in large parishes, 
 I do not propose to enlarge upon the dignity 
 and responsibilities of your office. I have 
 not undertaken to write a treatise on the 
 ministry, but a few letters on the details of 
 ministerial work. 
 
 In this my first letter, let me try to put 
 myself by your side, as, on the first day of 
 your settling down in the parish which is 
 to be the scene of your earliest labours, you 
 contemplate, in the silence and solitude of 
 your study, the various departments of your 
 work. 
 
 Whatever be the character of your parish 
 — whether large, moderate, or small ; whether 
 agricultural, manufacturing, or commercial ; 
 whether you are called to minister to the 
 higher, middle, or lower classes, or to all — 
 you will naturally feel that if you are to 
 work systematically, you must estimate the 
 comparative importance of the varied calls upon 
 your time and strength^ and do your best, as 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 3 
 
 being yet inexperienced, to adjust their 
 claims. For it is to be hoped that, while 
 experience will teach you that you must not 
 be the slave of system, but must yield when 
 sudden and pressing calls to duty require 
 elasticity, you will determine that your work 
 must not be done in a hap-hazard fashion. 
 Some system is essential, if only for this 
 reason, that some of your duties will, almost 
 certainly, be less pleasing than others ; and 
 these, without systematic recognition, will 
 too often be neglected for the more 
 pleasant. 
 
 First, and as of an importance which can- 
 not be overrated, no amount of pressure of 
 work for others must lead you to neglect 
 your own spiritual life. Nothing can justify 
 this. Nothing compensate for it. To nourish 
 this is no less a duty to your people than to 
 yourself. 
 
 Hurry, bustle, excitement, and even rush, 
 are characteristics of the days in which we 
 live. They are, to far too great an extent, 
 characteristic of the ministry of very many. 
 And it is but too plain that they have told — 
 
4 • LETTERS TO A 
 
 and are telling — upon the tone of not a few 
 of the best among us. 
 
 No words can express too earnestly my 
 conviction, nor convey to you too urgently 
 my counsel, that you must resolutely deter- 
 mine that, whatever is left undone, you must 
 set a hedge, an impenetrable one, around 
 your seasons of personal communion with 
 God. 
 
 Your study must first be your oratory. 
 You must lock and bolt and bar it. 
 
 Not only bene orasse, but scBpe orasse, will 
 be the secret of your strength. Here must 
 you begin and end your day by looking up. 
 Hither must you often betake yourself, as, 
 amid the day's work, difficulties and cares 
 and vexations and disappointments arise. 
 Here must you trim your lamp. Here must 
 you mend your net. Here must you follow 
 the Master's call, *' Come apart, and rest 
 awhile." Here, too, must your Bible be 
 read, not as your text-book but, as your 
 own lamp and light — rather, here must it 
 be fed on as your spiritual food, for your 
 own life and growth. Your ordination has 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN, 5 
 
 brought with it no exemption from these 
 needs. 
 
 Further, the same counsel must be urged 
 in reference to study. No pressure of parish 
 work, however urgent, must draw you al- 
 together from this. You will find it very, 
 very hard to be resolute. It will seem to 
 be your duty — I speak of the ceaseless 
 claims of a large parish — to be out early 
 and late. You will be tempted to think 
 that you are never at your work when you 
 are not on circuit in your parish, or busy in 
 your schools, or, pen in hand, over parochial 
 accounts or reports. 
 
 Hence it is that too often our young 
 deacons (sometimes, it must be acknow- 
 ledged, under too exacting incumbents) 
 plunge at once into parish work, and give 
 themselves to it, as if their books had been 
 finally closed after their examination, or 
 were only to be taken up to ensure not 
 being ''plucked" for priest's orders. Hence 
 the incapacity of but too many of our clergy 
 to deal with the great questions of the day, 
 and to be leaders of thought. Hence con- 
 
6 LETTERS TO A 
 
 tempt, on the part of too many, of Christ's 
 great ordinance of preaching. 
 
 Be sure then, in the adjustment of your 
 time, to reserve jealously a season for read- 
 ing and for study. Go deeper than the 
 light religious literature of the day. Much 
 of it may be good milk and water. But 
 you must live on stronger food. You must 
 brace your mind and your theology by 
 breathing the atmosphere of our great 
 divines. There have been giants in the 
 Church, in days gone by. There are some 
 now. And although, if you would be fully 
 equipped for the ministry in such a day as 
 this, you must not be a theologian only, but 
 furnish your mind from the more varied 
 stores of general literature, you must give 
 your chief study to those divines who will 
 live when the shallow — too often muddy — 
 streams at which young clergymen idly 
 drink now, will have passed away and been 
 forgotten. Don't shirk 5//)f books — the very 
 reading and digesting of which is a gym- 
 nasium for the mind. You can hardly need to 
 be reminded that a great change has taken 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 7 
 
 place, since the beginning of the present 
 century, in reference to the diffusion of reli- 
 gious knowledge. True, the religious know- 
 ledge of our people is not deep. But the 
 extension of general education and the vast 
 multiplication of religious books — particu- 
 larly popular periodicals — bring the preacher 
 in his pulpit, and the pastor in his inter- 
 course, face to face with a people no longer 
 mainly dependent upon his teaching. The 
 secular press, too, has taken the field in 
 religious matters, and even in theological 
 discussion. We read *Meaders " and other 
 articles which (to speak of their power only, 
 both of thought and language) may well 
 make us feel that the pulpit will lose its 
 legitimate influence — which should be great 
 — if our preachers be drawn from an illiterate 
 or shallow clergy. 
 
 You will not, for a moment, suppose that 
 I am asking you to substitute secular know- 
 ledge and literature, or *^ enticing words of 
 man's wisdom," for the simple preaching of 
 that gospel which is the wisdom and the 
 power of God. But, as has been well said, 
 
8 LETTERS TO A 
 
 *' If God has no need of our wisdom, He has 
 still less need of our ignorance." 
 
 In reiterating the charge of the apostle, 
 ** Give attendance to reading," we desire 
 that the results of all reading shall be con- 
 secrated to your Master's work and glory. 
 That every flower and every gem should be 
 brought, as were the gifts of the Magi, as 
 an offering to Him. 
 
 Be a student then, not a reader only. The 
 
 fewer books you can buy, the fewer you 
 
 have time to read, the more important that 
 
 ^ they be well chosen and well mastered. 
 
 "^ *' Not to read or study at all," says 
 
 Ouesnel, quoted by Bridges, ** is to tempt 
 
 God ; to do nothing but study is to forget 
 
 the ministry ; to study only to glory in 
 
 one's knowledge is a shameful vanity ; to 
 
 study in search of the means to flatter 
 
 sinners, a deplorable prevarication ; but to 
 
 store one's mind with the knowledge proper 
 
 to saints by study and by prayer, and to 
 
 diffuse that knowledge in solid instructions 
 
 and practical exhortations — this is to be a 
 
 prudent, zealous, and laborious minister." 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. . 9 
 
 Carry with you throughout your ministry, 
 however lengthened it may be, the habit of 
 daily renewing and increasing your stores of 
 matter. Wise and weighty are the words 
 of one of the intellectual giants of the Irish 
 Church — Bishop O'Brien : — 
 
 *' A man who preaches much, without 
 from time to time renewing the stock of 
 matter with which he began his career, how- 
 ever sound or pious he may continue to be, 
 will be almost sure ultimately to become 
 a very barren preacher. And I only say 
 almost, in consideration of a few rare in- 
 stances, in which observation of life, and 
 intercourse with varieties of character, seem 
 to make an original and peculiar cast of 
 mind, independent in a good measure of 
 reading. But these are rare exceptions. 
 Generally, and all but universally, a public 
 teacher requires to have his own mind sup- 
 plied and exercised by books. And to 
 derive full advantage from them, I need 
 hardly say, that he must not only read, but 
 think. Undigested reading is better, I am 
 sure, than none. I know that a different 
 
10 LETTERS TO A 
 
 opinion is entertained by some, but this is 
 mine ; for there is no one who does not take 
 away some matter from what he reads, and 
 no mind can be so inert as not to be forced 
 to some activity, while taking in new facts 
 or thoughts. And, what is not to be put 
 out of view, every mind becomes more un- 
 furnished and more inert, when reading is 
 wholly given up." — Bishop of Ossory s fDr, 
 O^ Brien^ sj Charge at his Primary Visitation^ 
 1842, p. 23. 
 
 Here I close for the present, hoping to 
 resume the subject in my second letter. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 John C. Miller. 
 
 Postscript to Letter I. 
 
 In my first letter I wrote, '' Don't shirk stiff 
 books." 
 
 I have been asked to name a few such 
 books, as samples of the class intended. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. n 
 
 I do this with great hesitation and diffi- 
 dence ; and, in doing it, to a very limited 
 extent, must carefully guard myself against 
 more than general recommejidation, as distin- 
 guished from entire approval. 
 
 It would be absurd to suppose that to 
 theological students and ministers one is to 
 recommend no books but the books of one 
 school, nor any but such as we think theo- 
 logically sound. It is one thing to recom- 
 mend a book to a young and comparatively 
 ignorant enquirer, another to say that it is a 
 book which a clergyman should read. We 
 must assume that he is now able in some 
 measure *'to discern good and evil." 
 
 My younger brethren need no recommend- 
 ation of the recognised treasures of theology, 
 whether Patristic, or Anglican, or Puritan. 
 
 I am asked to name a few modern books 
 which will repay the student, not only as 
 worth reading for their subject-matter, but 
 as affording a healthful discipline for his 
 mental powers. 
 
 One or two are included which are 
 neither modern nor *' stiff," but which are 
 
12 LETTEES TO A 
 
 less likely than others to suggest themselves 
 to the ordinary student. 
 
 Works of Edward Polhill, of Burwash, in Sussei 
 (reprinted from the edition of 1678). A mine of gold. 
 (T. Ward and Co.) 
 
 Witsius on the Economy of the Covenants. 
 Neander's Planting of Christianity. (Bohn's edition.) 
 Neander's Life of Christ. (Bohn's edition.) 
 Newman's Arians. (Rivingtons.) 
 Marcus Dods on the Incarnation. (William Allan, 
 London.) 
 
 Wilberforce on the Incarnation. One of the ablest 
 works of modern theology. Emm a High- Chu7xh stand- 
 poifit. 
 
 Kurtz on the vSacrificial Worship of the Old Testa- 
 ment. (Clark's Theological Library.) This throzus a 
 flood of light on Jewish Eitiial. 
 
 Lee on Inspiration. (Rivingtons.) 
 W. Goode's Divine Rule of Faith and Practice. 
 (Shaw.) 
 
 W. Goode's Nature of Christ's Presence in the Euch- 
 arist, (Hatchards.) 
 
 Vogan on the Lord's Supper. (J. H. & J. Parker.) 
 
 Pusey on Daniel. (Parker.) 
 
 East on the proper Deity of the Son of God. (Tegg.) 
 
 Francis Goode on the Better Covenant. (Hatchards.) 
 
 Hessey's Bampton Lectures. (Murray.) 
 
 Mansel's Bampton Lectures. (Murray.) 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 13 
 
 Liddon's Bampton Lectures. (Rivingtons.) 
 Mozley's Bampton Lectures. (Rivingtons.) 
 Mozley's University Sermons. (Rivingtons.) 
 Mozley's Primitive Doctrine of Baptismal Regener- 
 ation. (Murray.) 
 
 Robert Hall's Works. (Bohn.) 
 
 Elliott's Horae Apocalypticse. (Seeley.) 
 
 David Brown on the Second Advent. (Johnstone 
 
 and Hunter.) 
 
 ( McCosh's Works. 
 Wardlaw's Christian Ethics. (Jackson and Walford.) 
 Bishop O'Brien on Justification. 
 Bishop O'Brien on Prayer. (Macmillan.) 
 Archer Butler's Sermons. (Macmillan.) 
 Henry Melvill's Sermons. (Rivingtons.) 
 Robertson's Sermons and his Lectures on Epistles to 
 
 Corinthians. Unsotmd in some very hiiportant points^ hut 
 
 often beautiful in thought and style. 
 Trench's Synonyms. (Macmillan.) 
 Arthur John Maclean on the Unity of God's Moral 
 
 Law. (George Bell, and Macmillan.) Very lucid and 
 
 able, 
 
 Fairbairn's Typology. (Clark, Edinburgh.) 
 Westcott's Gospel of the Resurrection. (Rivingtons.) 
 Isaac Taylor's Works. 
 Edward Garbett's Bible and its Critics. (Seeley and 
 
 Griffiths.) 
 
 Archdeacon Hardwick's Christ and other Masters. 
 Trench's Hulsean Lectures. 
 
14 LETTERS 70 A 
 
 Wace's Boyle Lectures. (Pickering.) 
 Waterland on the Eucharist. (Clarendon Press.) 
 Pratt's Scripture and Science not at Variance. 
 (Hatchards.) Excellent, 
 
 The works of the Rev. Prebendary Griffith 
 (formerly of Ram's Chapel, Homerton) are 
 full of thought, viz. : — 
 
 The Apostles' Creed; The Spiritual Life; The 
 Fatherhood of God (Hatchards) ; Fundamentals ; Studies 
 of the Divine Master (H. S. King & Co.). 
 
 A few years ago it might have been 
 superfluous to name Leighton on St. Peter, 
 or to advise young ministers to keep up 
 their acquaintance with Butler's Sermons, 
 no less than with his Analogy. It is to be 
 feared that they are comparatively but little 
 read now ; and the neglect is to be greatly 
 lamented. 
 
 If your means of buying books are very 
 limited, the commentary of Dr. Jamieson, 
 Mr. Fausset, and Dr. D. Brown will be 
 found a treasury. 
 
 Among living expositors and commenta- 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN, 15 
 
 tors it is perhaps unnecessary to name the 
 works of Bishop Ellicott and Canon Light- 
 foot. No minister should be without them. 
 Archbishop Trench's ** Commentary on the 
 Epistles to the Seven Churches of Asia " is 
 one of his most delightful and admirable 
 publications, affording help that reaches 
 beyond the particular Epistles on which he 
 directly comments. Perowne on the Psalms, 
 and Spurgeon's ** Treasury of David," are 
 first-class works. 
 
 Haldane on the Romans must be recog- 
 nised even by those who may differ from his 
 theology as a masterly book. 
 
 The commentaries of Dr. Hodge, of 
 America, on the Epistle to the Romans, and 
 on I and 2 Corinthians, and Ephesians, can- 
 not be too widely known to ministers. 
 
 The Rev. W. G. Humphry has published 
 a very scholarly and useful little volume on 
 the Acts of the Apostles. 
 
II. 
 
 The Apportionment of the Minister s Time to the 
 Various Duties of his Ministry. 
 
 My dear Brother, — I take up again the 
 subject of my first letter. I propose to deal, 
 in successive letters, with each department 
 of duty. At present, I confine myself to the 
 general subject of the relative and compa- 
 rative importance of the several and (in a 
 very large parish) apparently conflicting 
 claims upon your time and strength. 
 
 You have been ordained in a branch of 
 Christ's Church which works, for the most 
 part, by the parochial system. True, in our 
 cities and large towns the congregational 
 element has become, and is increasingly 
 becoming, prominent, not to say predomi- 
 nant. But, however the parochial system 
 may have broken down, in past years, from 
 
 2 
 
1 8 LETTERS TO A 
 
 the inadequate working of it, and however 
 many parishes may yet urgently need sub- 
 division, I trust that the day is far distant 
 when it shall cease to be the basis of our 
 Church work. Let us aim rather at carry- 
 -j^ing it out in its perfection. 
 
 Your commission is, primarily, for a 
 parish with its legal territorial boundaries. 
 
 You are not simply a preacher — indeed, 
 as a deacon, you are a preacher only by 
 the special license of the bishop for this 
 function. You are a pastor. Your min- 
 istry involves the constant shepherding of 
 the flock — visitation of the healthy, the sick, 
 and the afflicted, whether the well-to-do or 
 the poor — and, almost always, the Christian 
 instruction of the young. You are at once 
 a witness, a herald, an ambassador, an 
 under-shepherd, a watchman, a steward, a 
 builder and a husbandman. 
 
 In a manageable parish there will be 
 comparatively little difficulty in systemati- 
 cally apportioning your time to the duties 
 which are involved in these various aspects 
 and bearings of your ministry. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 19 
 
 It is in our large town parishes, in which 
 the population is numbered by thousands — 
 a large proportion of whom, perhaps, are of 
 the wage-earning classes and of the poor — 
 that the clergyman feels the pressure of the 
 difficulty with which I am dealing. Here 
 are masses of people, haply in a state of 
 nothingarianism and home-heathenism, to be 
 visited, with much of poverty and sickness 
 among them. All your time and strength 
 may be expended on them, yet not suffice. 
 Is every other duty to be neglected ? Are 
 you to be a house-to-house visitor only ? 
 
 One thing I would impress upon you. 
 Whether your parish be large or small, 
 manageable or comparatively unmanageable, 
 give a place in your apportionment of your 
 time to every branch of your duty. It is 
 very improbable that every branch will be 
 equally pleasant. You have a gift or a turn 
 for one, but not for another. You are 
 ready to give all your time to the elabor- 
 ation of sermons, but you have no liking for 
 sick rooms, courts or cottages, garrets or 
 cellars. You are fond of children and of 
 
20 LETTERS TO A 
 
 teaching, and would willingly spend your 
 mornings or afternoons in your school-rooms. 
 You are of a social turn, and would readily 
 degenerate into a mere morning caller and 
 a lounger in drawing-rooms ; or you have 
 great faith in secular or semi-secular means 
 for the social elevation of your people — • 
 clubs, penny readings, concerts, etc. One 
 has known clergymen who have seemed to 
 degenerate into mere school-managers or 
 school-masters ; and clergymen who have 
 seemed to look for spiritual influence over 
 the working classes and the poor by social 
 agencies rather than by the influence of 
 that gospel which is '* the power of God 
 unto salvation," and to which every secular 
 or semi-secular means is to be subordinate. 
 
 Be jealous of your own special leanings. 
 Be sure that they do not unduly warp you 
 in the making of your plans. As I warned 
 you in my first letter, you will be in danger 
 of neglecting, if not wholly omitting, that 
 which is distasteful. 
 
 Here then is room for faithfulness, for self- 
 discipline, for self-denial, for self-mastery. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN, 21 
 
 You may, by reason of the special cha- 
 racter of the gifts which God has given 
 you, be much stronger in one point than 
 in another. You may have your forte. 
 But you must pray and labour in the direc- 
 tion of your weaknesses and defects, so that 
 you be absolutely wanting in none of the 
 qualifications which your ministry demands. 
 And, in your self-searching at the close of 
 every day and every week, ask of your 
 conscience, as before the heart-searching 
 Master, whether you have honestly, and to 
 the best of your judgment, proportioned 
 your time to your varied work. Have you 
 hung too long over your sermon ? or have 
 you slurred it ? Will conscience reproach 
 you that the visit due to such and such a 
 sick one — sick, perhaps, unto death — has 
 been put off, or one visit made instead of 
 two or three, because the case is not an 
 interesting one, or the room is squalid, or 
 the air foul, or the physical incidents of the 
 case painful and repulsive ? Has the time 
 been given to a pleasant call, unworthy 
 even of the name of a pastor's visit, which 
 
22 LETTERS TO A 
 
 should have been given to this dying one, 
 whose ceaseless cough, or failing intellect, 
 or deafened hearing, or overwhelming weak- 
 ness, may render the postponed visit useless, 
 even if you be not met with the announce- 
 ment, ^* He is gone " ? 
 
 It is possible, no doubt, to be a slave to 
 rule and system. I am not urging that you 
 should buckle yourself into a strait-waist- 
 coat. There must be elasticity in your 
 rules. You must accommodate yourself to 
 circumstances. There will be calls to duty 
 which must be obeyed at once. But it is 
 urged that a desultory, hap-hazard, planless 
 way of working, without any mapping out 
 of your time, and without any attempt to 
 adjust your work in proportion to the rela- 
 tive and comparative importance of your 
 varied duties, will keep you and your work 
 in a state of hurry, worry, and confusion. 
 If, therefore, you are naturally disorderly, 
 let not your natural failing be your excuse. 
 Still less, as we are sometimes tempted to 
 do, fall back upon the notion that disorder 
 is a sign of genius — that great minds are, 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN, 23 
 
 not to be fettered by rules. Discipline your- 
 self vigorously out of disorder into order. 
 Order not only saves time ; you will do 
 more work, and do it better, and do it more 
 happily, and do it with less worry. 
 
 I turn to the New Testament. And in 
 the New Testament, first to the example of 
 St. Paul, as I proceed to select for the fore- 
 most place the foremost work of your minis- 
 try. It seems to me to admit of no doubt, 
 as I ventured to urge in the first lecture 
 before the Church Homiletical Society, and 
 which is printed at the end of this volume, 
 that, when St. Paul sets forth that in which 
 he deemed that the highest function of his 
 ministry consisted, he fastens on this — the 
 proclamation of the gospel of the grace of 
 God (Eph. iii. 8). 
 
 ** The pulpit," says George Herbert, " is 
 v^ his " (the parson's) ** joy and thfone." 
 
 Looking at preaching from the human 
 side, to some extent, it has been urged, and 
 urged truly, by one of the greatest of living 
 orators (I am not quoting his words, but his 
 thoughts), that no man has such an oppor- 
 
24 LETTERS TO A. 
 
 tunity for Influencing the minds and lives of 
 others, as the man who stands up, week by 
 week, with the peculiar and vast advantages 
 of a preacher in a Christian pulpit. He 
 addresses a congregation — frequently of 
 hundreds — sometimes of thousands — who 
 come prepared, for the most part, to listen 
 respectfully and attentively — often with the 
 deepest interest of which a human mind and 
 heart are capable. From the nature of your 
 position, they must listen without opportu- 
 nity of immediate and direct reply. And 
 you know — for I would fain suppose this — 
 that your theme is the most awful which 
 can occupy their attention. You believe, or 
 you are indeed powerless, that this gospel, 
 summed up in *' Jesus Christ and Him 
 crucified," Is God's plan and message for 
 the recovery of man for both worlds ; and 
 that It is a distinct office of God the Holy 
 Ghost to own and to accompany this mes- 
 sage of salvation with divine power. "• It 
 pleased God by the foolishness of preach- 
 ing to save them that beHeve." 
 
 Can such opportunities be surpassed ? 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 25 
 
 Shall such a work as this be subordinate to 
 aught beside ? Shall sermons be carelessly 
 put together ? scrambled together on Satur- 
 days, without study, meditation, toil, and 
 prayer ? For the light of the Holy Spirit, 
 and the blessing of God's grace and power, 
 are not promised to you in any such sense 
 as to exempt you from diligent preparation. 
 It was not to the ordinary preacher, but to 
 disciples in prospect of very special circum- 
 stances, that the promise was given, which 
 forbade premeditation, and assured them 
 that " it should be given them in the same 
 hour what they should speak." 
 
 There can hardly be any hesitation as to 
 the next claim on the apportionment of your 
 time. I put aside for the present all refer- 
 ence to your ordinary duties in church, 
 whether in public worship or in what we 
 call ** surplice duty," because in these (of 
 which I shall hope to speak in a future letter) 
 you have no option. So that we put next 
 Visitation, in all its branches. 
 
 I. Visitation of the sick; 2. Visitation of 
 the afflicted; 3. Visitation from house to 
 
26 LETTERS TO A 
 
 house ; 4. Social visiting. Let me remind 
 you that all these, as well as your preaching, 
 will be taken up in detail in subsequent 
 letters. We are now adjusting various 
 duties. As a parochial minister, never be 
 content with being merely a preacher. This 
 word "merely" is used in no disparage- 
 ment of preaching. But our commission 
 from our Master and from our Church is 
 wider and manifold. And as to practical 
 results, while I do not venture to say that 
 the most diligent and loving visitation will 
 do away with the necessity of, at least, toler- 
 able preaching ; of this I am quite sure, 
 that average preaching, with diligent and 
 loving visitation, will tell in time upon most 
 parishes, more effectually than mere preach- 
 ing, however eloquent or popular. It will 
 tell more effectively for the true, deep, last- 
 ing work of the minister. And it is in this 
 that those who are placed over our largest 
 parishes, with their populations of ten, fif- 
 teen, or twenty thousand, feel their grievous 
 disadvantage. 
 
 Such parishes generally bring to those 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 27 
 
 who are at the head of them much ex- 
 traneous work, both in and out of their 
 parishes, and thus personal visitation and 
 knowledge become simply impossible to any 
 one man. The visitation must be divided 
 among the incumbent and his fellow-helpers. 
 
 You need hardly be reminded that in visit- 
 ation the sick and the afflicted must have 
 precedence. 
 
 Add to your visitation your Schools, and 
 you have the three chief departments of 
 duty between which you must allot your 
 time : conflicting duties sometimes, in their 
 claims ; but not conflicting in their bearings 
 upon your great work, regarded as a whole. 
 They have a combined influence : each 
 strengthens the other in many ways. 
 Yours faithfully,' 
 
 John C. Miller. 
 
III. 
 
 The Work of the Ministry. 
 
 My dear Brother, — '* Dissatisfaction," 
 writes Richard Cecil, *' accompanies me in 
 the study and in the pulpit. I never made 
 a sermon with which I felt satisfied ; I never 
 preached a sermon with which I felt satisfied. 
 I have always present to my mind such a con- 
 ception of what MIGHT be done, and I some- 
 times hear the thing so done, that what I do 
 falls very far beneath what it seems to me 
 should be. Some sermons which I have 
 heard have made me sick of my own for a 
 month afterwards."* 
 
 Yet Cecil was a '' master in Israel." As 
 such, he had a just estimate of the power 
 of the pulpit. His standard of a good ser- 
 mon was high. 
 
 * " Remains of the Rev. Richard Cecil, M.A." New edit., 
 1876, p. 210. Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, E.C. Price 5s. 
 
30 LETTERS TO A 
 
 For ourselves, practically, our standard 
 should be to give God and our people our 
 best, our very best, according to the gifts 
 and opportunities given to us ; the best we 
 can produce after prayer and pains. 
 
 Having inquired into the apportionment 
 of the minister's time to the various duties 
 of his ministry, and assigned the first place 
 to the preaching of the Gospel, I now pro- 
 ceed to offer hints and counsels on this de- 
 partment of your ministerial duty. 
 
 I. Pulpit Work. II. Pulpit Preparation. 
 
 I. Pulpit Work. Why am I going into 
 the pulpit ? Why should the sermon be 
 added to the worship of prayer, praise, and 
 holy communion ? The Word of God has 
 been read : what would be lost, were there 
 no sermon ? 
 
 You are not going into the pulpit to read 
 or say something before the people ; * nor to 
 deliver a rhetorical oration ; nor to utter, 
 
 ■* See Trophy-Room Lectures on Preaching, No. IV., in 
 Clergyman^ s Magazine for December, 1876, p. 337. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 31 
 
 from book or memory, a succession of true 
 but pointless platitudes ; nor to give a lec- 
 ture on morals. You are going — 
 
 I. To deliver a message fro7n God. 
 
 To do this you must speak — and speak 
 directly and earnestly and faithfully — to the 
 people. Earnestness does not mean rant, 
 nor even loudness. It does not mean scold- 
 ing. There may be the reality and the 
 manifestation of deep, loving, anxious ear- 
 nestness, where there are the tones and 
 gestures of a calm, grave, and penetrating 
 solemnity. I am persuaded that the lack of 
 this earnestness is the fatal defect of very 
 much of our preaching. One has listened 
 to many a fair sermon, bearing on it the 
 marks of care and study. It has had good 
 matter in it, has been well arranged — sensibly 
 put; but it has lacked directness. From first 
 to last, the preacher has been speaking before 
 us, not to us. Forgive me for reiterating 
 Mr. Simeon's distinction. Few elements in 
 preaching seem to me to be more import- 
 ant. You must not give me the idea of a 
 man who has, in the discharge of a duty, 
 
32 LETTERS TO A 
 
 put together, with thought and care, some- 
 thing which sensible people may listen to, 
 for half an hour or so, without any great 
 strain on their attention. You must show 
 me that you feel you have a commission and 
 a message, and that you are burning to 
 deliver that message, as that which has an 
 urgent and a paramount claim on my imme- 
 diate attention. You must thaw before you 
 come into the pulpit. It is no place for 
 icicles. You must speak earnestly to my 
 conscience, to my hopes, my fears — the 
 deep yearnings of my heart, so vague and 
 mysterious even to myself. You must talk 
 to me of my soul, of eternal judgment, of 
 heaven, of hell. You must tell me of God 
 my Father, in all the love and pity of His 
 Fatherhood ; of Jesus my Saviour, in all the 
 adaptation and sufficiency and freedom of 
 His salvation. You must remember that I 
 am a sinner, a sufferer, a sorrower, a dying 
 man. I am fighting life's battle, and it is a 
 hard one. 
 
 God's providence is often dark. From 
 the varied and inexhaustible pharmacopoeia 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 2>Z 
 
 of God's Word, you must give me the medi- 
 cines, the anodynes, the cordials, the stimu- 
 lants, which I need. 
 
 Alas ! how many sermons are preached 
 every Sunday which rise, perhaps, to a 
 decent mediocrity of ability, but are so de- 
 livered as to leave the impression that the 
 preacher is not at all concerned whether a 
 single soul be the better for it all. His 
 heart seems utterly unpenetrated by St. 
 Paul's words, *^ Thou shalt both save thyself 
 and them that hear thee." **Why," said 
 Sydney Smith, " call in the aid of paralysis 
 to piety ? Why this holoplexia on sacred 
 occasions alone ? Is sin to be taken from 
 men, as Eve was from Adam, by casting 
 them into a deep slumber ? And from what 
 possible perverseness of common sense are 
 we all to look like field preachers in Nova 
 Zembla, holy lumps of ice, numbed into 
 quiescence and stagnation and mumbling ?" 
 Nor must it be forgotten that, as God's 
 messenger, you have a message, not only 
 for the mere formalist, the unconverted, the 
 worldling, and those (a large number, alas ! 
 
 3 
 
34 LETTERS TO A 
 
 of our church-goers) who are hardening 
 under the sound of the Gospel, but, also, 
 for Christ's faithful soldiers and servants, 
 for God's '' dear children." 
 
 No doubt, one of the most embarrassing 
 difficulties of the Christian preacher in such 
 a day and such a country as ours lies in the 
 promiscuous character of our Sunday con- 
 gregations. 
 
 To send none away without a *' word in sea- 
 son " is very difficult — often, perhaps, im- 
 possible ; so varied, in many respects, are the 
 classes and the cases before us. But, while 
 I fully believe that, in our Sunday sermons, 
 the awakening element should be far more 
 prominent and powerful than it is in the 
 sermons of very many, we have also to 
 warn, to counsel, to build up. Nor must 
 the *' Barnabas " element be wanting- — '* a 
 son of consolation." Remember, you have 
 before you those (perhaps many) who are 
 sorrow-stricken, perplexed, sorely tempted. 
 Others (perhaps not a few) who can eat and 
 digest strong meat. They must be led on 
 to perfection. They are hungering for good 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 
 
 35 
 
 things. You must not always send them 
 empty away. It is a high function of the 
 ministry to comfort them that mourn, to 
 perfect the saints, to build up believers on 
 their *'most holy faith." 
 
 Does your message reach to all this ? Is 
 it thus many-sided ? Does the Gospel need 
 no supplement for all these varied ends ? 
 One rule will carry you through. Christ 
 fully preached suffices. Mark — ** fully." 
 Not partially ; not in one part of His work, 
 in forgetfulness of another. All our Father's 
 love in Him, all the Spirit's offices and work 
 in Him, and all His own offices and work. 
 Your message centres in Christ — Christ is 
 your message. Let it be the dominating, 
 the all-pervading, idea of every sermon, to 
 bring out some point of the revelation of 
 God's truth and love, His grace and glory 
 in Christ Jesus. Never preach a Christless 
 sermon. Bring Christ with you into the 
 pulpit, or do not enter it. Without Christ 
 you have no message. 
 
 But your pulpit work includes another — 
 the most important duty. You go into the 
 
36 LETTERS TO A 
 
 pulpit, not only to deliver a message from God, 
 but— 
 
 2 . To expound the Word of God. 
 
 Never let this duty fall into a secondary 
 place. Still less let it be altogether neg- 
 lected. It is not necessary for this end 
 that we should always preach directly and 
 exclusively an expository sermon. But it is 
 a great thing gained, if, as the result of a 
 sermon, one obscure text of Scripture be 
 cleared up. This may be done in passing, 
 and sometimes parenthetically, when a diffi- 
 cult text is quoted in confirmation or illustra- 
 tion of your subject. But courses of exposi- 
 tory sermons, if not too long continued, nor 
 carried out too much in a spin -text fashion, 
 are much valued. The ignorance of many 
 of our regular church-goers upon points 
 of doctrine is, it is to be feared, very 
 lamentable. Many well-taught Sunday- 
 school children would beat our gentlemen 
 and ladies hollow, in a competitive examina- 
 tion or public catechizing. We are very, 
 very far from having a people " mighty in 
 the Scriptures." 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN, 37 
 
 If your choice falls upon one of St. Paul's 
 argumentative Epistles, remember that one 
 main object — indeed the first — should be 
 to set out clearly his train of thought. No 
 easy task at all times, even for a well-read 
 and well-equipped theologian. For example : 
 in the Epistle to the Romans, distinguish 
 between the full treatment of a text in a 
 topical manner, and the exposition of it 
 and its context. Show the links of the 
 logic. Follow St. Paul's rapid transitions. 
 Disentangle his parentheses. Do not preach 
 a sermon on " Justification " every time that 
 the word occurs. Explain it and the term 
 ** Righteousness," as fully as may be, at 
 starting. Refresh the memories of your 
 hearers with the explanation now and then, 
 as you go on. But, in such a case, let con- 
 tinuous exposition be the leading idea and 
 endeavour. 
 
 Cecil remarks on the difference between 
 the later and earlier styles of preaching — 
 the preaching in the primitive Church, the 
 preaching of the Puritans, and that of our 
 own day — '*They brought forward Scrip- 
 
38 LETTERS TO A 
 
 ture; we bring forward our own state- 
 ments. They directed all their observa- 
 tions to throw light on Scripture ; we quote 
 Scripture to throw light on our observa- 
 tions."^ 
 
 A preacher may never be more sure of 
 the help and blessing of God the Holy 
 Ghost than when he is studying and striving 
 to spread the accurate knowledge of the 
 Word of God. 
 
 I have said that there is, even among 
 our church-goers, a lamentable lack of Bible 
 knowledge. As preachers, we take too 
 much for granted. We assume far too 
 much knowledge. It is safe to assume 
 much ignorance, and (not avowedly and 
 offensively, but practically) to act upon the 
 assumption. 
 
 Whether your lot, as a young minister, 
 be cast in a town or in a country parish, 
 you will probably have as one of your 
 earliest duties a schoolroom or cottage 
 LECTURE. Seek with all painstaking to 
 make this useful to yourself, as well as to 
 
 ^ "Remains," p. i8o. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 39 
 
 your humble hearers. You will thus gain 
 confidence and ease in extempore speak- 
 ing. But more than this. Take thorough 
 pains with your subject. Although you 
 have but a few poor folk — many of them 
 old women, or a score or two of rustics — 
 study your subject thoroughly; get it up 
 to the very best of your ability. First, as 
 your present duty. Each and every one in 
 your scanty and humble gathering has a 
 soul to be saved or lost. You have come 
 with God's Word, as God's minister. Be 
 faithful in little. Your Master, all worn 
 and wearied, took pains with one woman 
 at Jacob's well. We know what followed 
 His pains. 
 
 Further, you are laying up stores for 
 greater opportunities and greater work. 
 It is gain to you to have mastered, so far 
 as may be, a parable or miracle, or some 
 incident in Bible history. You will be 
 ready to preach from it readily and ripely 
 from your pulpit. 
 
 Many a man who has become, in after 
 years, not only a ready speaker but, a 
 
40 LETTERS TO A 
 
 skilful expositor of the Word of God and an 
 able preacher, has looked back upon the 
 schoolroom or cottage, with its humble 
 benches, scant ventilation, and glimmering 
 tallow candles, not only with happy memo- 
 ries of usefulness but, as an important 
 means to himself personally of gaining 
 experience and acquiring the ease which 
 he now feels in his pulpit work. 
 
 Never yield to the temptation. ** It's 
 only a schoolroom lecture " — ** Only a 
 cottage lecture" — *' I shall have no one 
 there but a few old women and children." 
 For your own sake, not less, than for their 
 sake, and for the Master's sake, do your 
 best. Never think yourself too great a 
 man to take pains with what seems little 
 work, if it \i^ your work and God'' s work. 
 
 In connection with the exposition of God's 
 Word, as the most important element in 
 your PULPIT WORK, we must not omit 
 Variety. 
 
 Week after week — it may be for years — 
 you will be called on to address the same 
 people on the same great subjects, with 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 41 
 
 the same great aims. And, not seldom, 
 more than once or twice in the week. 
 There are some of us who have to deliver 
 to the same people, or to congregations 
 in which the majority is composed of the 
 same individuals, three or four sermons 
 every week — sometimes with aching heads, 
 sometimes with aching hearts. And we 
 want sameness with variety. We must 
 give that which is old, but give it with 
 freshness. It should be old, but not stale. 
 To this end we must avail ourselves of 
 the rich Variety of the Scriptures. The 
 variety of forms, I mean, under which 
 God's truth — the subject matter of our 
 pulpit work — is revealed. History, bio- 
 graphy, types, spiritual songs, promises, 
 prophecy, proverbs, parables, miracles, dis- 
 courses, letters, doings, sufferings. The 
 field is wide, the garden diversified, the 
 treasury inexhaustible. Without tying 
 yourself slavishly to a Medo-Persian rule, 
 it may be well to preach, if not in regular 
 alternation, yet with some approach to 
 system, from each and all of the above 
 
42 LETTERS TO A 
 
 departments of Holy Scripture In succes- 
 sion. Now from its histories ; now from 
 a biography or the briefer story of an in- 
 dividual. This week take your text from a 
 parable. Next week from a miracle. Let 
 this sermon elucidate and apply a type. 
 Let it be followed by the cordial of an ex- 
 ceeding great and precious promise. The 
 words of the Great Teacher, as recorded by 
 the Evangelists, must be frequent topics. 
 But St. Paul and his fellow-apostles must 
 help to complete your pulpit teaching. The 
 Gospel may be preached from the story of 
 Naaman, no less than from the story of the 
 cross. Abel's altar and the scapegoat 
 ritual teach the atonement, no less than the 
 fifty-third of Isaiah and the narratives of 
 Calvary. You will find suggestive illus- 
 trations of pardon, justification, and sanc- 
 tification in Zechariah's vision of Joshua 
 and Satan. Of the Psalms, writes Hooker, 
 *' The choice and flower of all things profit- 
 able in other books the Psalms do more 
 briefly contain and more movingly express. 
 .... What is there necessary for m.en 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 43 
 
 to know which the Psalms are not able to 
 teach ? They are to beginners an easy and 
 familiar introduction, a mighty augment- 
 ation of all virtue and knowledge in such 
 as are entered before, a strong confirmation 
 >* to the most perfect among others." * 
 
 While then we cannot deny that, under 
 very frequent calls to pulpit work, amid 
 the pressure of other duties in a large parish 
 — especially if physical strength be not 
 great, and the opportunities of rest few and 
 far between — you will sometimes sorrow to 
 feel that pulpit preparation comes to you too 
 much as a task, the variety of Scripture — 
 not to speak of the other and ever-accumu- 
 lating stores of a man who keeps up his 
 reading — will be found to be a great help 
 both to yourself and to your people. The 
 land from Dan to Beersheba will seldom 
 seem all barren to a diligent student, if he 
 be also a man of prayer. As has been well 
 said, *' If milk and honey" are ^* flowing" 
 upon the surface, so too " out of" its ''hills" 
 -we may " dig brass." 
 
 * Eccles. Polity, book v., ch. xxxvii., sec. 2. 
 
44 LETTERS 70 A YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 
 
 In my next letter I hope to pass from 
 Pulpit Work to Pulpit Preparation. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 John C. Miller. 
 
IV. 
 
 Pulpit Preparation. 
 
 My dear Brother, — We pass on to 
 Pulpit Preparation. 
 
 Begin on your knees. Let every sermon 
 be planned, thought out, finished, preached, 
 followed up, in prayer. Seek wisdom and 
 strength from God for that which is pecu- 
 liarly God's work. Remember that your 
 Master is the living and exalted Head of 
 the Church ; that the Holy Ghost, your 
 wisdom and strength, is given through 
 and by Him. You are a witness to Christ. 
 *' He shall testify of me," is a chief func- 
 tion of '*the Spirit of truth." Your aim is 
 to glorify Christ. "He shall glorify me," 
 is your Lord's own declaration of the 
 Spirit's work. Let no gifts, no study, 
 induce self-confidence or neglect of this 
 
46 LETTERS TO A 
 
 Divine Helper. Seek first that your own 
 heart may be tuned and toned by Him, that 
 your sermon may not be a task or a merely 
 professional duty to be got through. If not 
 on holy ground, you are at holy work. 
 You are about to handle God's Word, to set 
 forth God's truth. Your own spirit needs 
 to be elevated and hallowed. You will 
 never preach a sermon for which you will 
 not have to give account. Let every sermon 
 be prepared under the earnest desire and 
 prayer that it may be a means of blessing 
 to many souls ; and the preparation and 
 preaching of it a blessing to your own. 
 And, as years roll on, strive to keep up 
 this solemnity of feeling in all its freshness 
 and power. For there is great danger lest, 
 as you get habituated to sermon-writing, 
 and acquire facility by practice, it should 
 become a matter of routine duty, and you 
 should cease to feel the responsibility and 
 privilege of your work. And this danger 
 can only be met by prayer and by ** the 
 communion of the Holy Ghost." 
 
 But I would fain hope that I need not 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 47 
 
 enlarge upon this point, and will proceed at 
 once with such counsels and hints as an 
 elder brother may, in all humility, offer. 
 
 First, as to the choice of Subjects and Texts. 
 
 As a young preacher, at any rate, be not 
 ajnbitioics. Wait a while before you choose 
 difficult subjects or texts. Neither affect 
 eccentricity by the choice of fanciful or odd 
 texts. Be simple. To say nothing of other 
 reasons, you will have to preach to a con- 
 gregation the great majority of whom are 
 older than yourself; some of them, let us 
 hope, advanced and ripe believers. The 
 great and leading truths of the Bible will 
 always be acceptable. But they will not 
 think you clever, but conceited, if, as a 
 young beginner, you attempt very difficult 
 texts, or plunge into the deepest waters. 
 Leave these to your elders, or reserve them 
 to your own riper years. To instance what 
 I mean, let a few years pass over your head 
 before you take up Genesis and geology, 
 election and predestination, and unfulfilled 
 prophecy. If ever you dogmatize as a 
 prseterist or futurist, as a pre-millenarian or 
 
48 LETTERS TO A 
 
 a post-millenarian (dogmatize I hope you 
 never will), let it not be, at any rate, as a 
 young deacon, nor during the earlier years 
 of your ministry. If for no other reason, 
 you will have little weight, and many will 
 set you down as conceited, pretentious, and 
 presumptuous. Daedalus, says the Grecian 
 myth, flew safely over the ^gean Sea, on 
 his wings of wax. Young Icarus went too 
 near the sun, melted his wings, and was 
 drowned. Young Phaethon found the sun's 
 horses too much for him, and nearly set the 
 earth ablaze. 
 
 You will find it a great advantage to 
 yourself, as it will be a great advantage to 
 your people, to avail yourself of your posi- 
 tion as a minister of a Church which 
 provides fixed tables of Psalms and Lessons, 
 and which does not give the Word of God 
 to her congregations desultorily and with- 
 out system. These will be fresh in your 
 people's minds. They will have heard 3^our 
 context but an hour before you are in your 
 pulpit. You thus start at a great advan- 
 tage. And often there will have been some 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 49 
 
 point in the Scriptures read to them on 
 which they will have been desiring expla- 
 nation. 
 
 But, as you need not tie yourself to this 
 plan, keep a note -book for texts as they 
 strike you, in your reading. 
 
 To repeat advice given before, as a rule 
 the text should be chosen early ; the sermon 
 written, not too late for revision — but late — 
 and, if possible, without any considerable 
 intervals in the composition. I am not now 
 speaking of deep and learned sermons for a 
 university pulpit or special occasions, but 
 of ordinary parish sermons. Forgive me 
 for repeating the wise counsels of Arch- 
 deacon Evans,* quoted in my lecture before 
 the Homiletlcal Society — *' Strike it off at 
 a heat." Dean Burgonf writes, ** It is a 
 great help to writing effectively, that, as 
 soon as a man has made up his mind how 
 he will treat a subject, he should write fast 
 and fervently; from his heart rather than 
 his head. I mean that it is well to write off 
 
 * "Bishopric of Souls." 
 
 t " Burgon on the Pastoral Office," ch. v., p. 188. 
 
 4 
 
50 LETTERS TO A . 
 
 a sermon at one, or at most two sittings. 
 Let a man beware of freezing over repeated 
 acts of composition. While he is curiously 
 casting about for a better phrase, he is for- 
 getting the precise thing which he wished 
 to express. While he is pondering, another 
 and yet another view of the subject unfolds 
 itself, or some irrelevant thought intrudes, 
 and leads the pen astray. In the end he 
 grows confused and paralyzed, and his 
 sermon proves a failure. At best it can 
 only become an accurate, perhaps a highly 
 intellectual, composition ; but without ease, 
 or fire, or freshness. The writer would gladly 
 exchange it, when he gets into the pulpit, 
 for the least pretentious sermon he ever 
 dashed off with a moistened eye and a 
 beating heart." 
 
 Your text chosen, and the original care- 
 fully studied^ think it well out before you 
 turn to books. Do not write upon crutches. 
 Let the works of other sermon-writers and 
 of commentators be used rather to correct, 
 amplify, and illustrate your own thoughts — 
 not to save you the trouble of thinking. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 
 
 51 
 
 The affluency of help now within reach, 
 unless your library be very scanty indeed, 
 may be abused to the stunting of your own 
 powers. 
 
 By this advice I do not mean for a 
 moment, or in the slightest measure, to 
 undervalue the Church's storehouse. A 
 well-chosen theological library, although 
 small, is as a treasury and an armoury with 
 which God has furnished us, by giving gifts 
 to our great thinkers and eminent theo- 
 logians. I mean only. Think and study for 
 yourself. God's help and man's help do not 
 exempt you from self-help. 
 
 Your text once chosen, picture as vividly 
 as you can, in your mind's eye, your con- 
 gregation — old and young, rich and poor, 
 educated and unlearned. Write as not 
 writing an abstract essay, but as one who 
 has to talk naturally and earnestly to living 
 men and women. Nor must you ask your- 
 self, of your ordinary sermons, Would this 
 look well in print ? It has been acknow- 
 ledged by masters of oratory, that what 
 reads well is seldom half as effective when 
 
52 LETTERS TO A 
 
 spoken ; you must be content to find that 
 what is effective when spoken will not read so 
 well in print, as a literary composition. 
 
 In confirmation of this, a sermon in 
 delivery admits of greater diffuseness and 
 repetition than it does in print. You will 
 not suppose that I am recommending the 
 diftuseness and repetition which arise from 
 carelessness or poverty of thought. But we 
 are too apt to suppose that our hearers take 
 in an argument or a thought at once. The 
 expansion which is recommended is not 
 such as will weary your hearers, but such as 
 will help them, by driving the argument or 
 thought more closely home. For, to apply 
 the words of Aristotle, your hearers are, for 
 the most part, those ot ov hvvavTo.i Sta ttoWcjv 
 (Tvvopav, ovhe Xoyit^eaOai TToppoiOev {Rhetoric, i. 
 2). A venerable and very able dignitary of 
 our Church — one of the thinkers of our 
 day — told me that, in a conversation which 
 he once had with William Wilberforce on 
 preaching, that great master of persuasive 
 eloquence said to him, ** You preachers do 
 not repeat yourselves enough.'* On this 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 53 
 
 point let me quote a passage from a valu- 
 able little volume, ** Papers on Preaching 
 and Public Speaking, by a Wyke 
 hamist " : — 
 
 **What would look like repetition upon 
 paper does not sound like repetition when 
 spoken ; and repetition, with slight varia- 
 tions, is necessary for the full understanding 
 of many things. To the preacher from 
 notes, we may say what Dr. Johnson said 
 to Boswell, when he handed him notes for 
 a speech to an election committee in the 
 House of Commons : * This, sir, you must 
 enlarge on ; you must not argue these as 
 if you were arguing to the schools. You 
 must say the same thing over and over 
 again in different words. If you say it but 
 once, they miss it in a moment of inatten- 
 tion.' Fox advised Sir Samuel Romilly, 
 when about to sum up the evidence in Lord 
 Melville's trial, ' not to be afraid of repeat- 
 ing observations which were material.' Pitt 
 urged a similar defence for that amplifica- 
 tion which was thought a defect in his style. 
 * Every person,' he said, * who addressed a 
 
54 LETTERS TO A 
 
 public assembly, and was anxious to make 
 an impression on particular points, must 
 either be copious upon some points, or else 
 repeat them ; and copiousness is to be 
 preferred to repetition.' Lord Brougham 
 gives his testimony on the same side : * The 
 orator often feels that he could add strength 
 to his composition by compression, but his 
 hearers would then be unable to keep 
 pace with him, and he is compelled to sacri- 
 fice conciseness to clearness. The expansion , 
 which is a merit at the moment of delivery, 
 is turned into a defect when a speech is 
 printed. What before was irnpressive seems 
 now to be verbose, and the effect is dimin- 
 ished in much the same proportion as ori- 
 ginally it was increased. It was for some 
 such reason that Fox asserted that if a 
 speech read well it was a bad speech. No 
 Athenian audience could have followed 
 Demosthenes in the condensed form in 
 which his speeches are printed.' — Quarterly 
 Review, No. 206. Fuller reminds us that, 
 to the uneducated listener, the intellectual 
 food should not be presented in too solid a 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 55 
 
 form, saying, in his quaint way, * Without 
 a fair proportion of chaff, a horse is apt to 
 bolt his oats.' " * 
 
 The expansion and repetition here in- 
 tended are a very different thing from that 
 which is described by Bassanio, in Shak- 
 speare's '* Merchant of Venice" — ** Gratiano 
 speaks an infinite deal of nothing more than 
 any man in all Venice. His reasons are as 
 two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of 
 chaff: you shall seek all day ere you find 
 them ; and when you have found them, they 
 are not worth the search" (Act i., scene i). 
 It is to be feared that there are pulpit 
 Gratianos among our preachers, of whose 
 sermons it may be said, as Rowland Hill 
 said of some men's speeches, they have ** a 
 river of words with only a spoonful of 
 thoughts." 
 
 I have said that, at your study table, you 
 must, in imagination, set your congregation 
 vividly before you. You will very soon have 
 gained some idea of their intellectual power 
 and culture (or lack of both) by pastoral 
 * Pp. 44, 45- 
 
56 LETTERS TO A 
 
 visitation and intercourse. An excellent vil- 
 lage clergyman, a mathematical first-class 
 man, and now a learned Professor of Divinity, 
 whom I know well, was purposing to preach 
 about the brasen serpent. He had the sense 
 and forethought, not always possessed by 
 fellows of colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, 
 to try beforehand the soil upon which, on 
 the following Sunday, he was going to sow 
 his seed, and he found that his villagers 
 would not understand him if he preached 
 about a serpent. A snake was intelligi- 
 ble. And about the brasen snake he 
 preached. 
 
 And if it be your early lot to preach to 
 such, you have a work calling for your best 
 powers. It is a problem which puzzles 
 senior wranglers and first-class men. They 
 have grappled with the differential calculus, 
 with dynamics and hydrostatics, with Plato 
 and Aristotle, with tough or corrupt passages 
 in -^schylus and Pindar, but find a new and 
 a harder task in preaching to farm servants, 
 field labourers, and ploughboys. 
 
 Whatever be the character of your con- 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 57 
 
 gregation, preach to them as having hearts 
 as well as heads, 
 
 I say this because there is a class of men, 
 both preachers and hearers, of the cold- 
 blooded order, who either feel or affect a 
 supercilious contempt for all appeals to the 
 emotions. Mere sensational rant and gush 
 are of course to be eschewed. But there is 
 more heart-power than brain-power for you to 
 work on in your congregation. There are 
 hidden and deep well-springs of feeling in 
 every man, woman, and child. God, in the 
 Bible, appeals often and largely to the emo- 
 tional part of our nature. He addresses, 
 not our intellect only, nor our conscience 
 only, but, our hearts. It may be said that it 
 is an easy achievement for the preacher to 
 draw forth women's tears. I am not urging 
 that you should become a mere pocket- 
 handkerchief preacher, nor that you should 
 plume yourself complacently on being a 
 master of eloquence because you can make 
 men or women cry. But pathos has its 
 legitimate and important place in pulpit 
 oratory. The advocate who is addressing 
 
58 LETTERS TO A 
 
 a jury must begin with his facts and his 
 law ; but he will be but a poor pleader, if he 
 does not avail himself of the fact that those 
 twelve men in the jury box have hearts. I 
 say nothing of the candidate seeking the 
 suffrages of a constituency, because elec- 
 tioneering speeches have more or less of 
 clap-trap in them. But we may take the 
 case of the statesman in Parliament, when 
 speaking on some burning question. He 
 will not fail, if it be a question which at all 
 admits of it, to remember that he must not 
 only convince the understanding, but move 
 the feelings of the House. " Depend upon 
 it,'' said Mr. Gladstone, in his late address 
 to the boys at Marlborough College, '' it 
 would be a great deal better for us who are 
 men if we were not so much ashamed of 
 emotion as we generally are. A very small 
 proportion of the errors committed in the 
 world, a very small proportion of the errors 
 in public life, are due to the mere excess 
 of emotion. It is to other more dangerous 
 enemies than these that we owe the mischief 
 with which the world abounds.*' 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 59 
 
 Let preachers remember and act on Mr. 
 Gladstone's words. We don't want crying 
 men. But we want men who can cry — and 
 there are few who cannot. Warm up then 
 in the pulpit. Try to warm up others. Put 
 heart as well as brains into your sermon. 
 You are not working out a mathematical 
 problem, nor weighing the force of a Greek 
 particle or tense, but speaking to dying men 
 about the loss or salvation of their souls. 
 Whitfield and Wesley would never have 
 riveted and awakened slumbering masses, if 
 they had preached to the intellect only. 
 The Rev. J. Angell James, in his admirable 
 work on ** An Earnest Ministry the Want of 
 the Times" — a book which I warmly re- 
 commend to you — tells an anecdote of a 
 *' pleader who, on being applied to by a 
 client to undertake her cause, upon perceiv- 
 ing the coldness of her manner in stating her 
 case, told the applicant he did not credit her 
 tale." Stung by this reflection upon her 
 veracity, and this disbelief of her grievance, 
 she rose into strong emotion, and affirmed 
 with expressive vehemence the truth of 
 
6o LETTERS TO A 
 
 her story. ** Now," said he, *' I believe 
 you.'** 
 
 ** With regard to the Exordium of a 
 sermon, it is advisable not to lose much time 
 over it. It is a great thing to arrest the at- 
 tention at first by a short and pithy sentence 
 or two. Throw thought, pith, and strength 
 into the opening remarks. It is a great 
 mistake to begin a discourse weakly or care- 
 lessly."t ^'Let your onset," writes TAbbe 
 MuUois, *' be bold and vigorous. "J But a 
 high-flown exordumi is a mistake. It cannot 
 be sustained throughout the sermon. The 
 homely saying will almost certainly be ful- 
 filled : ** He went up like a rocket, and came 
 down like a stick." You excite your hearers 
 too soon. Be content with arresting them. 
 
 You will of course desire, not only to give 
 your sermon throughout a scriptural cast 
 and tone but, in the spirit of your Church, 
 to base everything on Holy Scripture, and to 
 
 •^ p. 152. Third Edition. 
 
 t See Lecture on Preaching at the end of this vol., p. 245. 
 % " The Clergy and the Pulpit in their Relations to the 
 People," by M. I'Abbe Isidore Mullois, ch. iii., p. loi. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 6i 
 
 prove everything which needs proof by Holy 
 Scripture. But this may be carried to ex- 
 cess. Avoid mere Concordance preaching. 
 By this is meant needless multiplication of 
 proofs by over-copious quotations. No need 
 to cite half a dozen texts to prove a point, 
 unless they prove it in different aspects and 
 bearings. Strictly, one text is enough, if 
 clearly to your point. People grow weary 
 of a mere string of texts. And it gives the 
 impression that you are taking refuge in 
 quotation to eke out your scanty thoughts. 
 
 Long sentences are a great mistake : with 
 the illiterate, a fatal one. They are soon 
 lost in the mazes of your syntax, however 
 readily you may parse them. But, although 
 short sentences should be the rule, a longer 
 one may now and then be brought in. An 
 uninterrupted flow of very short sentences 
 becomes wearisome. But the longer must 
 not be very long. Again to quote Aris- 
 totle : — *' Aet Se koI to. KCjXa, kol raq irepLoSov^y 
 IxrJTe iL€iovpov<^ eivai, ixrJTe ixaKpd<^. To /xeV 
 
 yap flLKpOV TTpOCTTTTaieiV TToXXctfCtS TTOieL TOV 
 
 d KpoaTijv' avdyKT) ydo orav en opixcov inl to 
 
62 LETTERS TO A 
 
 TToppoi Koi TO yiirpov ov e^ec Iv iavTcj opov, 
 avricnracrOfi Travo-ayiivov, oiov TTpocnTTaUiv 
 yiyvecrOai 8ta Tr]v avTiKpovcTiv. To, Se (xaKpa 
 aTTokeiirecrOaL Trotet. . . ." — Rhetoric, iii. 9. 
 
 There is often great grandeur in the roll 
 and sweep of the lengthened reasonings or 
 majestic perorations of Chalmers, Edward 
 Irving, Melvill, and Archer Butler, but they 
 would not be followed to the end by hearers 
 of uncultivated minds. Avoid ra^ntiing. 
 Aim at unity and cohesion of thought. 
 Have an aim. Keep it always and de- 
 finitely before you. I quote one of Rowland 
 Hill's oddities, not for its decorum but, for 
 its lesson. He said once of a subject, " It 
 will naturally divide itself into three parts. 
 First, we shall go into the subject ; secondly, 
 we shall go round about the subject ; thirdly, 
 we shall go away from the subject alto- 
 gether." My advice is, take his first 
 division only. Don't go round about the 
 subject ; still less away from the subject al- 
 together. Into it your hearers may follow 
 you ; they will decline to follow you round 
 about, or away fro?n it altogether. At any 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. (>i 
 
 rate, they will complain that you led them 
 out of it.* 
 
 Whether or no you are purposing to make 
 Extempore Preaching your rule, I entirely 
 concur in the advice that, with very rare 
 exceptions, it will be wise to keep up, for a 
 considerable period, the habit of written 
 composition. Should you have a gift of 
 ready thought and fluent utterance, your 
 case is a very rare one If you will not be 
 the better for the practice of writing. For 
 bear In mind that, while ready thought and 
 fluent utterance are most valuable gifts, they 
 have obviously their corresponding danger, 
 and that a very serious one. You may, un- 
 consciously to yourself, mistake fluency of 
 speech for solid thought, mere words for 
 matter. Writing will help to clearness and 
 compactness of thought. You will detect on 
 paper froth and emptiness, which will escape 
 your notice when speaking. Excitement — 
 the feeling that you dare not stop, but must 
 
 * See some very lively and interesting papers on " Rowland 
 Hill," by Rev. Edwin Paxton Hood, in the Sunday at Home, 
 March, 1877. 
 
64 LETTERS TO A 
 
 go on saying something, however little you 
 may have to say — the satisfaction that you 
 are not brought to a stop for lack of words 
 — may blind you to what your hearers are 
 feeling painfully, that you are doing little, 
 if anything, else than talking. If experi- 
 ence and honest self-criticism tell you that 
 you have not a gift for extempore speaking, 
 that no cultivation or practice will put you 
 at your ease, and make you a ready speaker, 
 recognise the fact that this gift is denied 
 you, and that your usefulness does not lie 
 in that direction. I do not mean by this 
 that you should not give yourself a fair trial. 
 You may try your powers on small occasions, 
 and before listeners with whom you are 
 comparatively at ease. But if, after fair 
 and full trial, you feel that you are not 
 gaining courage, ease, and fluency, be not 
 disheartened. Many a man has been an 
 able and useful minister — some have been 
 great in their pulpits too — who have not 
 been extempore preachers. But, while I 
 say this, I must not conceal my conviction 
 that there is no congregation with whom 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 65 
 
 good extempore preaching is not the more 
 effective. Years ago there was a foolish 
 prejudice against it. But let it be seen that 
 extempore preaching does not mean thought- 
 less and unstudied preaching, but, on the 
 contrary, the results of thoughtful study, 
 so completely mastered as that you can 
 give them appropriate, facile, and forcible 
 utterance ; and there can be no question of 
 its being the more excellent way, espe- 
 cially with country-folk and with the poor. 
 Mr. Gladstone tells us that Dr. Dollinger 
 once said to him, " Depend upon it, if the 
 Church of England is to make way, and be 
 a thoroughly National Church, (he did not 
 speak of competition with Nonconformists 
 at all, but in its relation to the great bulk 
 and body of the people,) they must give 
 up the practice of preaching from written 
 sermons.' " But, adds Mr. Gladstone, *' It 
 is only out of the full heart, and likewise 
 out of the well- furnished mind, that good 
 extemporaneous preaching can proceed."* 
 
 * The Times, March 23rd, \Z']']^ Report of Conference on 
 ''Pew and Pulpit:'' 
 
 5 
 
66 LETTERS TO A 
 
 A man must be a very good writer of 
 sermons, and must deliver his sermon with 
 great ease, to hold the attention of such 
 hearers by a read sermon. To be tied to the 
 book, never able to look at your people, 
 not to move arm nor hand — for natural 
 action is very difficult with a written 
 sermon, and generally means a formal re- 
 petition of one or two mechanical move- 
 ments — this is fatal with the poor, except 
 in very rare cases. These rare cases are 
 when the preacher has so mastered his 
 sermon as to be nearly independent of his 
 manuscript, and when he has a very earnest, 
 pointed manner of delivery. 
 
 Two such exceptions I can remember. 
 They were very different preachers, in almost 
 every respect — Henry Blunt and Henry 
 Melvill. The former, as his published 
 volumes show, was a very model of sim- 
 plicity, both in matter and manner. He 
 seldom grappled with deep theological diffi- 
 culties ; his sermons had no subtle logic in 
 them, no lofty flights of rhetoric. I never 
 saw him lift an arm — seldom, if ever, a 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. . 67 
 
 hand — when preaching. But my memory 
 retains him as one of the most impressive 
 preachers I ever heard. He spoke from the 
 heart to the heart, with a calm, grave, 
 penetrating earnestness. I felt, if I may 
 so say, as if he had my conscience in his 
 hand. Henry Melvill consecrated the 
 powers of a second wrangler and a first 
 Smith's prizeman mainly to the preaching 
 of Christ's gospel. He wrote his sermons. 
 They will not die. Not seldom he grappled 
 with difficult subjects and difficult texts. 
 You may follow for yourself the closeness 
 of his logic, the thrilling power of his 
 rhetoric, and the keen home-thrusts of his 
 appeals to the conscience and the heart. 
 He used no vehement action. But he was 
 on fire with his message, and the effect can 
 never be forgotten, after but once hearing. 
 I adduce these two examples of preachers 
 — very different from each other, but each 
 great in his own gifts and usefulness — to 
 show that there are rare cases in which the 
 written sermon may equal or surpass the 
 extempore sermon in power and effect. 
 
68 LETTERS TO A 
 
 I leave this well-worn topic, which, how- 
 ever, could not be left altogether untouched, 
 as one on which you must carefully and 
 conscientiously decide for yourself, after 
 trial, and upon the honest advice of those 
 who have heard you make the trial. Some 
 men will never succeed. Many will fail at 
 first, and afterwards attain. Aim at it as 
 worth painstaking trial. But if you feel 
 constrained to give it up, remember for 
 your comfort that your efficiency and use- 
 fulness by no means turn on this only ; 
 for, as I have said already, many men have 
 been able ministers, and even great — great 
 in usefulness — as preachers without it. 
 
 I cannot better close this my fourth letter 
 than in the words of one of the foremost 
 of modern preachers, Robert Hall — words 
 which of themselves attest his eloquence 
 as containing a sublime accommodation of 
 one of the sublimest of the visions of the 
 Apocalypse : ** Are you desirous of fixing 
 the attention of your hearers strongly on 
 their everlasting concerns ? No peculiar 
 refinement of thought, no subtlety of reason- 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 69 
 
 ing", much less the pompous exaggerations 
 of secular eloquence, are wanted for the 
 purpose : you have only to imbibe deeply 
 the mind of Christ, to let His doctrine 
 inspire your heart, and your situation^ in 
 comparison to other speakers^ will resemble that 
 of the angel of the Apocalypse, who was seen 
 standing in the sun. Draw your instructions 
 immediately from the Bible ; the more 
 immediately they are derived from that 
 source, and the less they are tinctured with 
 human distinctions and refinements, the 
 more salutary, and the more efficacious. 
 Let them be taken fresh from the spring."* 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 John C. Miller. 
 
 * " Discourse on the Discouragements and Supports of 
 the Christian Minister." Robert Hall's works. Bohn's 
 edition. Vol. ii., p. 1 86. 
 
V. 
 
 The Work of the Ministry.. 
 
 I. Pulpit Preparation {continued), 
 
 II. In the Pulpit, 
 
 My Dear Brother, — I have but little to 
 add with reference to the general work of 
 Pulpit Preparation. A word, however, 
 about Illustration and Anecdote. The former, 
 if clear and apposite, will be telling with 
 all classes of hearers, the educated as well 
 as the uneducated. But your illustrations 
 must be well chosen, and not strained. 
 Neither must they be used too profusely. 
 Neither must you mistake them for argu- 
 ments. You will never excel greatly in 
 illustration, unless you have a special gift 
 for it. But much may be done by an ob- 
 servant eye and varied reading. You will 
 thus draw upon natural objects and pheno- 
 
72 LETTERS TO A 
 
 mena in the physical world, and upon your 
 literary stores, and strengthen any natural 
 turn you may have for discerning resem- 
 blances and analogies. It was a homely, 
 but telling illustration, when a preacher 
 said, ** When we pass a shop on a week- 
 day, and see the shutters up, we suppose 
 that there is a dead body there ; when we 
 pass a shop on Sunday, and see the shutters 
 down, we knov^r that there is a dead soul 
 there." Julius Hare has a striking illus- 
 tration when, speaking of the truth being 
 heard heedlessly without faith, and there- 
 fore without impression, he compares it to 
 *' the wind through an archway." Such 
 illustrations are seldom forgotten. As to 
 Anecdote, I cannot go so far as the Wyke- 
 hamist, whose ** Papers on Preaching" are 
 well worth reading, when he says, ** In 
 every sermon give us at least a good 
 anecdote." If it were desirable, I do not 
 believe it possible. No man who preaches 
 very often can command such a store of 
 opposite and well-authenticated anecdotes 
 as to produce one for every sermon. He 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 73 
 
 will be tempted to drag in such as are un- 
 suitable for the pulpit, or such as do not 
 sufficiently illustrate his subject. 
 
 You will observe that I have used the 
 term '* well-authenticated ; " for you must 
 not leave room for the suspicion that you 
 have picked up a good story, and, after the 
 fashion of the tellers of good stories, em- 
 bellished it, without authenticating it. I 
 am afraid that in our platform speaking we 
 are not sufficiently careful on this point. 
 Often at a dinner-table ** a good story " 
 may be laughed at, but there is a very 
 considerable residuum of incredulity when 
 the laugh is over. '* Made to tell " whisper 
 the hearers. Let your anecdotes be trust- 
 worthy, and introduce them in such a way 
 as to remove from the minds of your 
 hearers all doubt as to their truth. But 
 at best, while a good anecdote gives liveli- 
 ness, and helps to point the truth which it 
 illustrates, excess of anecdote introduces 
 somewhat of the sensational element, and 
 your hearers will look for them as a matter 
 of course. You may be much more free in 
 
74 LETTERS TO A 
 
 the use of anecdote with the poor and with 
 rustic congregations. 
 
 As it is well to begin your sermon with 
 pith, point, and power, so it is well to end it 
 in like manner ; sometimes with a longer 
 peroration, in which your hearers see that 
 you are coming to a close, and are carried 
 along with you, as you sum up the main 
 points of your sermon, and concentrate 
 them, in their personal and practical bear- 
 ings, upon their consciences and hearts. 
 But sometimes, and especially with those 
 who are less able to follow long sentences, 
 it is well to end with a short, weighty, and 
 even startling sentence. For example, one 
 who was no mere popular preacher in his 
 day, but solid and sterling — the late John 
 Hambleton, of Islington — ends a sermon on 
 the Sabbath with the startling and sug- 
 gestive question, *' Where shall the Sabbath- 
 breaker spend his eteriiity V It was his last 
 arrow, and a sharp one. 
 
 In passing from the general work of 
 Pulpit Preparation, I avail myself of 
 words reported in the Times of this day, as 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN, 75 
 
 uttered by Mr. Gladstone yesterday, on this 
 subject.* ** One word," he says, *' upon a 
 question which must be familiar to all who 
 are conversant with this great function, the 
 question of preparation ; and here we come 
 upon ground that is common to secular and 
 to divine oratory. This we are all agreed 
 on, that there cannot be too much prepar- 
 ation, if it be of the right kind. No doubt 
 it is the preparation of matter ; it is the 
 accumulation and thorough digestion of 
 knowledge ; it is the forgetfulness of per- 
 sonal and selfish motives ; it is the careful 
 consideration of method; it is that a man 
 shall make himself as a man suited to speak 
 to men, rather than that he should make 
 himself as a machine ready to deliver to 
 man preconceived words." 
 
 I pass now to one or two specialties. The 
 case of Domestic Servants has long ap- 
 peared to me to deserve far greater and 
 more special attention from us than, for the 
 most part, it receives. Just now I confine 
 
 ^ March 23rd, 1877. Report of Conference on " Pew and 
 Pulpit." 
 
76 LETTERS TO A 
 
 myself to one point of this important subject 
 — our relation to it as preachers. 
 
 No doubt, in not a few families servants 
 have many religious privileges. At least, 
 they hear the Word of God read at family 
 prayer, and are called on to join in the 
 worship of God. In some cases a Christian 
 master and mistress so order their household 
 that each servant in turn has the advantage 
 of morning service, and not afternoon or 
 evening service only. But the cases are 
 very numerous in which servants have no 
 other religious privilege on Sunday than 
 afternoon service, all the year round. And 
 to this they come very hurriedly, as either 
 the family luncheon or dinner, and their 
 own dinner, have followed upon the service 
 of the morning. Surely, as they form so 
 very large and so very important a part of 
 our flock, they should have their special 
 share of direct attention. For it is also to 
 be borne in mind that, notwithstanding the 
 educational advancement of the times, they 
 are often painfully ignorant. At best, they 
 have had the brief and broken instruction of 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 77 
 
 a short school life. Pastorally, they are the 
 hardest of all classes to get at. Our diffi- 
 culties seem all but insurmountable, when 
 the requirements of duty, the mournful 
 indifference of masters and mistresses, and 
 the indifference of many servants them- 
 selves, are taken into account. And even 
 in our churches, our afternoon and evening 
 congregations are often so mixed that we 
 cannot be always preaching to servants 
 only. Nor is it necessary ; for very much 
 of what we have to say in the pulpit applies 
 to them in common with others. 
 
 Bat there are many cases in our large 
 towns in which there are three services. If 
 I mistake not, in the majority of these the 
 afternoon congregation consists mainly of 
 servants; and the duty of preaching at 
 this service falls on one of the assistant 
 curates. He has been present at the morn- 
 ing service, when perhaps the church has 
 been full, the service lively and stirring, 
 and, may be, the sermon powerful ; while 
 the congregation has consisted of the chief 
 parishioners. He returns, after the whole- 
 
^8 LETTERS TO A 
 
 some and spiritually bracing excitement of 
 such a service, to the same church, after an 
 interval of less than three hours, and in 
 many cases finds a comparatively sparse 
 congregation, consisting almost exclusively 
 of servants. Such cases, although not the 
 rule, are not rare. The temptation to in- 
 difference and sluggishness is great, both 
 in the prayer desk and in the pulpit. The 
 morning service and sermon deserve all his 
 strength. But anything will do for servants ! 
 Nay, my Brother. I have long been 
 strongly convinced that if younger brethren, 
 in the early days of their ministry, when 
 placed in the position which I have de- 
 scribed, would lay themselves out for servants, 
 they might do a much-needed, a great, and 
 blessed work ; not always by preaching 
 special sermons to servants as such; not by 
 avowedly singling them out as a class, but 
 by throwing themselves heartily and earn- 
 estly into this service, and by adapting their 
 sermons to their case and capacities. To 
 preach specially to servants, as such, is not a 
 work for which, as a rule, young clergymen 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 79 
 
 — certainly not bachelors in lodgings — are 
 peculiarly fitted, unless they have had pre- 
 vious opportunities of observation and ex- 
 perience in their old home-life. 
 
 But what I would urge is this, — put away 
 from you the wicked thought, '* They are 
 only servants — anything will do for them." 
 Remember, their souls are as precious as 
 the souls of their masters and mistresses in 
 hall and mansion. Death, judgment, and 
 eternity are as awful and as pressing realities 
 to housekeeper and butler, lady's-maid and 
 nurse, cook and housemaid, valet and 
 coachman, footman and groom, and to the 
 humble wench from the scullery, as to the 
 influential congregations for whom we put 
 forth all our strength. Remember, too, and 
 realize, that in not a few cases nearly all 
 the spiritual instruction which these sheep of 
 your flock receive is from you. The dreari- 
 ness of many an afternoon service, and the 
 sleepiness of many an afternoon congre- 
 gation, lie to a large extent at the clergy- 
 man's door. I know you are at a great 
 disadvantage. The afternoon is a sleepy 
 
8o LETTERS TO A 
 
 time of day to most of us, especially if we 
 hurry from a meal to church. But there 
 your congregation is ; and if there be 
 special difficulties, you must nerve yourself 
 to meet them, and as far as may be to over- 
 come them. There is room for great im- 
 provement in our afternoon services. They 
 are often bald, cold, sleepy affairs. If you 
 are so situated as to be able to make the 
 experiment, try whether a devout, warm, 
 simple service, with suitable, stirring, loving 
 preaching, will not draw to your church 
 devout worshippers of the servant class, and 
 keep them awake, and win the servants of 
 men to be the servants of God. 
 
 Of course, where the congregation con- 
 sists largely of servants, occasional special 
 sermons, pointedly adapted to their case, 
 are most desirable. I know a clergyman 
 who valued as one of the best testimonies 
 to his pulpit ministry the remark of a ser- 
 vant, overheard by a friend, after a sermon 
 specially addressed to servants : ** One 
 would think he had been a servant him- 
 self!" Too often it is with servants, spec- 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 8i 
 
 ially rustics, as with Tennyson's *' Northern 
 Farmer Old Style '\— 
 
 *' An' 'eerd un a bummin' awaay loike a buzzard clock 
 
 ower my 'ead, 
 An' I never knawed whot a mean'd, but I thowt a 'ad 
 
 summut to saay, 
 An' I thowt a said whot a owt to 'a said an' I coom'd 
 
 awaay." 
 
 Servants have their peculiar trials, dangers, 
 and besetting- sins, and some unsound 
 principles, or at any rate practices, in their 
 code of morals. One of the most startling 
 effects I ever saw produced by any pulpit 
 utterance was when a preacher, addressing 
 a large congregation of servants, alluded in 
 plain, homely, language (calling a spade a 
 spade) to the notion which many servants 
 have that filching from the tea-caddy is no 
 sin : *' Whatever you call yourself,'' said 
 the preacher, *'God calls you a thief y 
 The words sent an electric shock through 
 the congregation. 
 
 Be not afraid of being too homely, of 
 descending too minutely and familiarly into 
 details. The example of St. Paul is before 
 
 6 
 
82 LETTERS TO A 
 
 you. He introduces one of his most com- 
 prehensive and condensed statements of 
 gospel truth, as you will remember, by bid- 
 ding Timothy ** exhort servants to be obe- 
 dient unto their own masters, and to please 
 them well in all things, not answering again, 
 not purloining, but showing all good fidel- 
 ity ; " and then sets to us preachers an 
 example in more than one respect ; for he 
 goes on to lay down the grand motive, ** that 
 they may adorn the doctrine of God our 
 Saviour in all things," etc. ; thus showing 
 us that the homeliest duties of the homeliest 
 folk are to be urged on the highest and 
 holiest motives ; and showing us, too, that 
 he who, when building up Ephesian and 
 Colossian saints, could handle the noblest 
 themes, and rise, as in the close of the eighth 
 chapter to the Romans, to the highest flight 
 of glowing eloquence, in setting forth the 
 saint's standing and privileges in Christ 
 Jesus, did not think it beneath Titus or 
 beneath himself to tell a servant that his 
 duty as a Christian forbad him to pilfer or 
 to give a saucy answer. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAA. ^^ 
 
 I have a shrewd suspicion that there is 
 room for plain speaking to some of the 
 housekeepers, butlers, grooms, and cooks in 
 London and elsewhere. The golden rule 
 applied to their dealings with the time, 
 property, and characters of their master and 
 mistress would work out some startling 
 results in the ethics of our servants, and 
 ** flutter the Volsclans," in the kitchen and 
 servants' hall. To help you in the art of 
 speaking ** in a language understanded by 
 such classes," town and country servants, 
 or a rustic congregation, so that you may 
 not fly over their heads, you will find the 
 sermons of Augustus Hare very useful. 
 You will see that it is possible for a man of 
 high intellect, ability, and refinement to be 
 plain spoken without being coarse. 
 
 Another specialty on which I would speak 
 briefly — Preaching to Children. Happily, 
 within the last few years. Children's Ser- 
 vices have been multiplied. Apart from 
 these, I would strongly recommend that, in 
 your ordinary sermons, you should point a 
 few words at the children in your congre- 
 
84 LETTERS TO A 
 
 gatlon, whenever the subject allows it. We 
 are too apt to overlook them. Very much 
 of what we say is necessarily above them. 
 They thus fall into the habit of thinking that 
 the sermon is not for them. But if we watch 
 for our opportunity, and they see that, at 
 any point in our sermon, we can turn to 
 them with a few simple, fatherly words, de- 
 pend upon it these will tell upon the mind, 
 and be treasured in the memory of many a 
 little one, and the children will gradually 
 fall into a habit of listening, because there 
 may be some word for them. 
 
 But it is of Preaching to Children that 
 I now speak more particularly. 
 
 First, do not look upon it as an easy thing 
 which requires neither preparation nor pains. 
 To preach suitably and effectively to chil- 
 dren is far more difficult than to preach 
 suitably and effectively to adults. Experto 
 crede. ' Here your powers of illustration may 
 have free play. Now you may be more 
 liberal with your anecdotes. But here, too, 
 there may be excess. True, you must gain 
 and hold their attention. You must try 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 85 
 
 (success is hard, but you must try) that 
 every eye from every little face may be 
 fixed on you, and that not a child may fall 
 off into a doze, or find escape from your 
 prosiness in playing and making- his 
 neighbours his playfellows. But it is not 
 wholesome for children to look in a sermon 
 for illustrations and anecdotes only. The 
 sermon must not become an amusement. 
 There is great danger here to the preacher. 
 We are all in God's house — at any rate, 
 even in the schoolhouse, we are gathered 
 together for God's worship. Gravity, 
 solemnity, must be our prevailing spirit. 
 Our illustrations must not be ludicrous,, 
 our stories must not be funny. These 
 cautions are not uncalled-for. 
 
 We have an inexhaustible storehouse in 
 the Bible. It is very full of narrative, 
 history, and biography, with their lessons 
 of example and warning. Remember that 
 children do not take in abstract ideas. 
 Preach to them in the concrete. Be 
 graphic. Be incisive. You will want to 
 ground them in doctrine, not only to give 
 
86 LETTERS TO A 
 
 a few moral precepts. The doctrines which, 
 as theologians, we designate as Adoption, 
 Regeneration, Repentance, Conversion, Ab- 
 solution, Justification, Sanctification, Glori- 
 fication, may be all taught graphically, and 
 in the concrete, from Bible narratives, spe- 
 cially from the miracles and parables, and 
 sometimes, too, from a striking type. For 
 example, you must be a very poor teacher of 
 children indeed, if you cannot use the story 
 of Naaman as illustrating the disease of sin 
 — the simplicity and efficacy of the gospel 
 remedy — the action of faith — the pride of 
 man's natural heart. The sins of selfishness, 
 lying, disobedience to parents, covetousness, 
 bad temper, envy, jealousy, revenge, etc., 
 may all be taught from Bible narratives. 
 
 Whatever may be said about long sermons 
 to others, they must be a mistake with chil- 
 dren. You have to fill a very small vessel. 
 
 I do not in this letter enter upon Public 
 Catechizing, properly so called. But it is 
 an admirable plan to blend the catechetical 
 element with your sermons ; that is, to follow 
 the plan which is found so efficacious by 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 87 
 
 our missionaries abroad, with their adult 
 native converts — to stop every now and 
 then, and put a question, either to draw 
 out from the children what you were going 
 to say, or to make sure that you have put 
 what you said into them, by drawing it out 
 ^them. It adds greatly to the life of the 
 sermon, by keeping them on the watch for 
 a question which may come at any moment. 
 II. I would now go with you into the 
 Pulpit. 
 
 " The thing that mounts the rostrum with a skip." 
 
 Be this far from you and me ! Be self 
 forgotten; forgotten man's criticism; for- 
 gotten the fear of the learned or great 
 or influential persons who may be present. 
 You will richly deserve the embarrassment 
 and mortification which you will feel, if, as 
 you espy unexpectedly some such in the 
 congregation — haply an eminent preacher — 
 you at once say to yourself, ** If I had known 
 he was to be present, I would have taken 
 more pains to preach a better sermon/* 
 Speak with the courage, not incompatible 
 
88 LETTERS TO A 
 
 with the deepest humility, of Christ's am- 
 bassador. Fear not the face of man. As 
 you go up the pulpit stairs, go in the spirit 
 of one who has not forgotten, ** This may 
 be my last sermon ; then my account." Or 
 there is one, or more than one, in church, 
 to whom it is his last sermon. Keep your 
 Master and your account before your eyes. 
 God is among your hearers. 
 
 Coldness of manner, like heaviness of 
 matter, is mortal sin in a preacher. But, 
 as I have already said, earnestness does not 
 mean rant or scolding. It must be, not the 
 harsh, repulsive, unseemly earnestness of a 
 man who delights in fierce denunciation but, 
 the grave, winning earnestness of a man 
 whose heart and whose sermons have caught 
 the loving spirit of the gospel. A hearer 
 once expressed his disgust at a preacher 
 who was wont to indulge in unfeeling and 
 fierce denunciation, in these strong terms, 
 **I feel as if he would gloat over my 
 damnation." Doubtless it was but the tone 
 and manner of the preacher. But the effect 
 was sad. " He that winneth souls is wise." 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN, 89 
 
 No doubt In the present day there is a 
 dangerous tendency to keep back the threat- 
 enings of the Bible — not to mention " hell 
 to ears polite " — a tendency arising in some 
 quarters, it is to be feared, from unbelief of 
 the awful truths themselves. To this you 
 must not yield. Damnation, hell, perdition 
 of the ungodly, are parts of your message. 
 But I have now to do with your spirit and 
 manner in the pulpit. Draw rather than 
 drive. It has been very strikingly but truly 
 said that in very many places of the Bible 
 God seems as one on His knees entreat- i^ 
 ing us to be reconciled. Think of St. Paul 
 as he wrote of "the enemies of the cross 
 of Christ, even weeping." Remember the 
 Redeemer's tears over Jerusalem. 
 
 A word or two about Action. On this 
 one must speak with discrimination. It is 
 hopeless for some men to attempt it. It is 
 not in accordance with their temperament. 
 And although it may be said that suitable, 
 moderate, and effective action may be in 
 measure attained by practice, I confess that 
 I shrink from the idea of learning and prac- 
 
90 LETTERS TO A 
 
 tising it artificially for the pulpit, as if a man 
 had chosen the bar or the stage as his pro- 
 fession. It will be said by some that as 
 action is almost essential for effective ora- 
 tory, it is, not only lawful, but a duty to 
 cultivate it, as we cultivate other gifts, or 
 attempt by art to supply other natural de- 
 ficiencies. But without speaking dogmati- 
 cally, I must, in counselling a younger 
 brother, say that preaching is, from the 
 nature of a preacher's office and of his sub- 
 ject-matter, so peculiar a class of oratory, 
 that I shrink from introducing artificial ele- 
 ments, and would rather that you should be 
 actionless in the pulpit, than be tempted to 
 bring into it the attitude '* practised at a 
 glass." At the same time, suitable and 
 moderate action is very effective ; and as 
 I have elsewhere ventured to say, the want 
 of it is a very serious defect in English 
 preaching. The best advice I can give you 
 is. If you have a tendency to it, do not repress 
 it further than to keep it from degenerating 
 into extravagant and grotesque gesticulations. 
 I close this letter by quoting the admira- 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 91 
 
 ble remarks which appeared in the Times, in 
 a leading article having reference to the 
 conference on ** The Pew and the Pulpit," 
 to which I have already referred. The pas- 
 sage applies both to Pulpit Preparation 
 and to the Preacher in the Pulpit: — 
 
 ** The object of any but the most per- 
 functory preacher must always be to drive 
 something home to his audience, to pro- 
 duce in them a conviction of some kind or 
 another. This conviction may be simply 
 one as to the cleverness or eloquence of the 
 preacher himself. Unworthy as this object 
 is in any speaker, and especially out of 
 place and mischievous as it is in a sermon, 
 yet it may be produced by a sermon just as 
 readily as by any method ; and if the trick 
 is well performed, it is just as likely to 
 escape detection there as elsewhere. The 
 best preaching, however, is as far as possi- 
 ble removed from this. Not only does the 
 best preacher forget himself, but he makes 
 his audience forget him too. The word 
 spoken is everything to them. They are 
 too fixed on that to have a thought to spare 
 
92 LETTERS TO A YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 
 
 for the instrument by which it reaches them. 
 There is room, and indeed need, for the 
 broadest and fullest preparation, and the 
 most careful artistic treatment, but there 
 must be no troublesome sense of the pre- 
 sence of these adjuncts. They must not 
 overlay the discourse, and, as far as can be, 
 neither preacher nor hearer should be aware 
 of them. The hearer who has had no 
 special training as a judge of eloquence will 
 go home filled with the subject, delighted, 
 or awed, or convinced. He will carry the 
 flavour of the discourse with him, and will 
 mark his sense of its exquisiteness by dwell- 
 ing on its memory, and by returning again 
 and again to the rich treat. Yet probably 
 the very last thought that would occur to 
 him, the very last expression that would 
 rise to his lips, would be. What a splendid 
 preacher Mr. So-and-so is ! " * 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 John C. Miller. 
 
 * The Times, March 24th, 1877. 
 
VI. 
 
 The Theology of our Sermons. 
 
 My dear Brother, — We live in days In 
 which there is a cry iox practical preaching. 
 If we are to interpret this cry as the expres- 
 sion of a desire that we should bring our 
 preaching to bear on the details of daily life, 
 domestic, social, and commercial — on reli- 
 gion at home, in daily intercourse, and in 
 business — the demand is a just one. And 
 we can set ourselves to meet it in the full 
 conviction that the doctrines, precepts, and 
 examples of the Bible enable us fully to do 
 so. The religion of Jesus Christ is eminently 
 adapted for our daily life. This is patent 
 in the teaching both of the Great Master 
 and of His apostles. Proof by quotation is 
 needless. It abounds from the Sermon on 
 the Mount down to the last of the epistles. 
 
94 LETTERS TO A 
 
 In this, St. Paul and St. Peter, St. James, 
 St. John, and St. Jude are at one, as they 
 are in their doctrinal teachings. They 
 come down to the minutest details, to the 
 government of the tongue, to the saucy 
 answer and the petty theft of a servant. 
 
 But it is to be feared that the cry to which 
 I have alluded has, in too many cases, an- 
 other meaning. It is the utterance of dis- 
 like to dogmatic teaching. It is a protest 
 against distinctive truth. In a word, against 
 Theology. It means that belief is of small 
 or no moment, and thus ignores the fact 
 that our practice must spring from our 
 motives, and that these motives must be 
 furnished by the great truths of the Gospel, 
 not indeed as merely embodied in creeds or 
 articles, or received with a mere historical 
 faith but, as embraced with the heart, and 
 exercising in the heart, and therefore in the 
 life, their enlightening, emancipating, eleva- 
 ting, and purifying power. Too many — 
 some, it is to be feared, among the 
 clergy — say with Pope, in his well-known 
 couplet — 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. , 95 
 
 " For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight ; 
 His can't be wrong whose life is in the right." 
 Essay on Man : Epistle iii.. lines 305-6. 
 
 I select a few points only which appear to 
 me to deserve greater prominence and dis- 
 tinctiveness in much of the preaching of the 
 present day. 
 
 First, Repentance. Is this, ^>^ its details, 
 sufficiently insisted on ? It was the first 
 summons uttered by the Forerunner and by 
 Jesus Christ Himself. And when St. Paul 
 recapitulated to the Epheslan elders the 
 main points of his two years' teaching at 
 Ephesus, his retrospect is this : '* Testifying 
 both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, 
 repentance towards God, and faith toward 
 our Lord Jesus Christ."* He left them as 
 a Church capable of appreciating and feed- 
 ing upon the advanced and sublime teach- 
 ings of the epistle subsequently addressed 
 to them. But he had qualified them for 
 this by the fundamental truth, not oi faith 
 only but, of repentaiice. In nothing that is 
 here urged is there the slightest intention 
 
 * Acts XX. 21. 
 
96 LETTERS TO A 
 
 to disparage the urgent earnestness with 
 which many preachers press upon men the 
 duty and the blessedness of at once accept- 
 ing God's message of mercy and eternal 
 life in His Son. Not for one moment is it 
 intended to make of repentance a Saviour 
 or a half- Saviour ; nor to imply that God 
 has prescribed a certain term of delay or 
 a certain measure of tears to qualify the 
 sinner for the acceptance of His free and 
 full salvation in Christ Jesms. But in the 
 urgency with which, especially in mission 
 and revival services, men are called on, 
 then and there, to accept a present pardon 
 and to come at once to Christ, is there not 
 too often an ignoring of conviction of sin, 
 of contrition, of confession (I need not, I 
 hope, guard myself in using the term), of 
 subsequent amendment, as indicative of a 
 change of heart and mind, which alone can 
 attest, by the fruits of holiness, virtue, and 
 good works, the reality and value of the 
 emotions excited ? Is there not a tendency 
 to rest almost, if not altogether, upon present 
 emotion and sensation, without setting forth 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 97 
 
 the heinous character of sin, and the pro- 
 minence given in Holy Scripture to deliver- 
 ance from the mastery, as well as the guilt 
 of sin, as a no less needed and a no less 
 privileged blessing ? Well do I remember 
 that, in the early days of my ministry, an 
 aged and ripe Christian man, who listened 
 Sunday after Sunday to a highly gifted and 
 faithful preacher, said to me, ** We don't 
 hear enough about repentance." I hope the 
 remark has been useful to me from that 
 day to this. And, if I may, in a letter such 
 as this, refer to myself, without danger of 
 being charged with egotistical allusion, I 
 may add that I had, not very long since, an 
 opportunity of learning that this deprecia- 
 tion of the importance of repentance is an 
 error into which some excellent Christian 
 men are falling. It fell to me, during a 
 course of Home Mission Services, to address 
 a large gathering of the rougher order of 
 our people — men who seldom, if ever, 
 entered a church. The closing part of the 
 address consisted of a plain (I hope earnest 
 and loving) invitation to them to accept, 
 
 7 
 
,98 LETTERS TO A 
 
 without further delay, the mercy of God in 
 Christ — a present pardon. I tried, heart and 
 soul, to preach the gospel as the good news 
 of God. But the former part of the address 
 was an endeavour to bring home conviction 
 of sin — the sins of blasphemy, drunkenness, 
 lewdness, wife-beating, neglect of children, 
 improvidence, etc. An excellent lay-friend 
 called on me a few days afterwards, and ex- 
 pressed his satisfaction with all the latter part 
 of the address, but regretted that I had 
 said so much about their sins ! It had 
 seemed to me that it was a legitimate use of 
 the law to prepare for the gospel, and that, 
 if I wanted them to go to the physician, I 
 must convince them of the reality and dead- 
 liness of their disease. 
 
 And when I read the blessings pronounced 
 upon those who mourn for sin ; when I 
 listen to the stricken David, as he declares 
 from the depths of a heart which the Spirit 
 of God, bringing home the rebuke of Nathan, 
 has broken — *' The sacrifices of God are a 
 broken spirit : a broken and a contrite heart, 
 O God, Thou wilt not despise ; " when I mark 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN, 
 
 99 
 
 the teaching of St. Paul to the Corinthians, 
 in the seventh chapter of his second epistle 
 (vers. lo, ii); when Messiah Himself, speak- 
 ing by His prophet, sets forth as a main 
 feature of His mission, that He is sent *'to 
 bind up the broken-hearted," I can come to 
 no other conclusion than that, if I would 
 preach scripturally, I must preach convic- 
 tion, contrition, confession, and the fruits of 
 repentance ; and that, however great my 
 earnestness in urging men to do *' the work 
 of God, by believing on Him whom He 
 hath sent,"* I must not so preach as to send 
 men per saltum over stages of experience to 
 which such frequent prominence is given in 
 God's Word. 
 
 Not for a moment would I deny that 
 there may be and have been exceptional 
 cases in which the work of grace has been 
 very rapid, and even sudden. But I must 
 confess to a great and grave distrust of 
 emotional and sensational experience, under 
 the high forcing of hotbed processes, where 
 there has been no experience of deep self- 
 
 * John vi. 29. 
 
loo LETTERS TO A 
 
 abasement for sin, and where, however 
 great his joy, the sinner does not come to 
 the cross — I say not with the price^ but with 
 " the sacrifice of a broken and contrite 
 heart." Let me therefore urge you to utter 
 often the summons, ** Repent ye, and 
 believe the gospel ! ' ' and often to go in 
 detail into the subject of repentance, and 
 often to use the law as the instrument of 
 conviction, and so as the instrument of 
 bringing them to Christ. 
 
 II. Justification. — Observe, not pardon 
 only. Surely it is a mistake to suppose 
 and to teach that pardon is co-extensive 
 with jusTiFiCATFON ; that, in fact, they are 
 synonymous. If we turn to the teaching 
 of the Homilies, upon no point are they 
 clearer or more express. They set forth 
 our need, not only of pardon, but of a 
 POSITIVE RIGHTEOUSNESS. And this point 
 they explicitly declare to be met by the 
 righteousness of Christ — by Christ as our 
 righteousness. And our righteousness not 
 merely by reason of His having paid the 
 penalty by His vicarious and propitiatory 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. loi 
 
 death, but because, by His active, flawless, 
 perfect obedience, He has fulfilled the law. 
 The believing man is saved, not only as 
 being washed from his sins in the most pre- 
 cious blood of the slain Lamb of God but, 
 as having fulfilled the law in the person of his 
 Surety. Being by a lively faith united to 
 Christ — being mystically and legally in 
 Christ — Christ becomes his righteousness. 
 He does not enter heaven, as walking 
 over the fragments of the tables of God's 
 law, but as having fulfilled that law in 
 Christ. 
 
 I have referred to the Homilies. Quota- 
 tions might be multiplied. I must content 
 myself with two from the Homily entitled 
 ** The First Part of the Sermon of Salva- 
 tion." "He" (God) "provided a ransom 
 for us, that was the most precious body and 
 blood of His own dear and best beloved 
 Son, Jesus Christ, who, besides this ransom^ 
 fulfilled the law for us perfectly.''^ Again, 
 " Upon Christ's part, justice, that is, the 
 satisfaction of God's justice, or the price of 
 our redemption, by the offering of His body, 
 
102 LETTERS TO A 
 
 and shedding of His blood, with fulfilling oj 
 the law perfectly and thoroughly ^ . . . ** So 
 that Christ is now the righteousness of all 
 them that truly do believe in Him. He for 
 them paid their ransom by His death. He 
 for them fulfilled the law in His life, so that 
 now in Hi7n, and by Hint, every true Chris- 
 tia?i 7nan may be called a fulfiller of the law ; 
 forasmuch as that which their infirmity lacketh, 
 Chrisf s justice hath supplied ^ And Hooker 
 writes, ** Christ hath merited righteousness 
 for as many as are found in Him. In Him 
 God findeth us, if we be faithful ; for by 
 faith we are incorporated into Him. Then, 
 although in ourselves we be altogether sinful 
 and unrighteous, yet even the man which in 
 himself is impious, full of iniquity, full of 
 sin ; him being found in Christ through 
 faith, and having his sin in hatred through 
 repentance ; him God beholdeth with a 
 gracious eye, putteth away his sin by not 
 imputing it, taketh quite away the punish- 
 ment due thereunto by pardoning it, and 
 accepteth him in Jesus Christ, as perfectly 
 righteous as if he had fulfilled all that is com- 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 103 
 
 manded hhn in the lam : shall I say more 
 perfectly righteous than if himself had ful- 
 filled the whole law? I must take heed 
 what I say ; but the apostle saith, * God 
 made Him which knew no sin to be sin for 
 us, that we might be made the righteousness 
 of God in Him.' Such we are iji the sight of 
 God the Father^ as is the very Son of God 
 Himself Let it be counted folly, or phrensy, 
 or fury, or whatsoever, it is our comfort and 
 our wisdom ; we care for no knowledge in 
 the world but this, that man hath sinned, 
 and God hath suffered ; that God hath made 
 Himself the sin of man, and that men are 
 made the righteousness of God."* 
 
 I am not writing a theological treatise. 
 You know your Bible well enough to know 
 that the language of the Homilies and that 
 of Hooker faithfully represents the teaching 
 of God's Word on this fundamental point. 
 But I sometimes fear that, were St. Paul to 
 appear among us as a hearer even of some 
 who are regarded as faithful preachers, he 
 
 * Hooker's Works (Keble's editiorij vol. iii., Sermon vi., 
 p. 610). 
 
I04 LETTERS TO A 
 
 would say to their preaching of Forgiveness, 
 ** True — all true — but where is my doctrine 
 of justification by faith ? Forgiveness is not 
 the whole truth." And that Luther would 
 make the same complaining criticism, ** True 
 — all true — but where is my doctrine of 
 justificatio7i by faith ? " I must refer you to 
 the Homilies — to Luther on the Epistle to 
 the Galatians — and, among modern writers, 
 to the great work of Bishop O'Brien. 
 
 IIL The Second Coming of Christ. — 
 We are most deeply indebted to some of 
 the students of prophecy in these later days, 
 however widely we may dissent from their 
 general schemes of prophetical interpreta- 
 tion, as Premillenarians and Postmille- 
 narians, Pr2eterists, Futurists, for having 
 drawn the attention of the Church to this 
 grand subject, '* that blessed hope and the 
 glorious appearing of the great God and 
 our Saviour Jesus Christ." It may not be 
 wholly unnecessary to ask you to read your 
 Bible with a view to the study of this sub- 
 ject. And, to say nothing of many grand 
 passages in the Old Testament, you must 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 105 
 
 be brought to the conclusion (if you have 
 not yet arrived at it), that the second coming 
 of the Lord Jesus is the hope of the Church ; 
 that looking for, waiting for, loving His 
 appearing is to be the Church's spirit and 
 attitude. 
 
 This subject has suffered from the extra- 
 vagant and, in some cases, even presump- 
 tuous statements of the less sober students 
 of prophecy. But, without falling into their 
 errors, we must give completeness and 
 brightness to our teaching by bringing out 
 the FACT. Whatever system we adopt, as 
 we survey the whole range of unfulfilled 
 prophecy, in reference to the future of the 
 Jews, their ingathering, their land, their 
 city, and their future place and work among 
 the nations of the earth, we must so preach 
 as to keep the faith and hopes of our people 
 centred, not so much upon the incipient 
 blessedness of our disembodied spirit, when 
 *' with Christ in joy and felicity," (although 
 this may be proved by sure warrant of God's 
 word,) as upon His personal return in glory, 
 and the consummation of the blessedness of 
 
io6 LETTERS TO A 
 
 the saints, at their " gathering together unto 
 Him ; '' when His work of redemption shall 
 be crowned by the resurrection of their 
 bodies, and this travailing and groaning 
 creation ^' delivered from the bondage of 
 vile corruption into the glorious liberty of 
 the children of God." Preach the coming 
 Saviour as the hope of the Church, and bid 
 your people fix their eyes beyond and above 
 the grave. Preach death as a solemn stage 
 in life, as a solemn event for which they are 
 to stand prepared; preach death to be- 
 lievers as a departure to be with Christ ; 
 but preach the return of the King and the 
 final setting up of His kingdom, as that to 
 which their hearts are to be upraised. 
 *' When Christ, who is our life, shall ap- 
 pear, then shall ye also appear with Him 
 in glory." * 
 
 IV. God's Grace and Man's Responsi- 
 bility. — On this unfathomable subject — a 
 subject of long-enduring controversy — is it 
 not to be feared, on the one hand, that the 
 preaching of many is defective ; and, on 
 ^ Colossians iii. 4. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 107 
 
 the other hand, that the preaching is too 
 narrow ? We must not shrink from going 
 as far as Scripture goes ; but we must not 
 go farther. We have a model in the seven- 
 teenth Article of our Church. In the spirit 
 of that Article we must be careful to remem- 
 ber and to insist upon this, that man's 
 salvation is presented to us from two stand- 
 points in Holy Scripture — God's side and 
 ma7i^s side. The Bible sets forth to us both 
 God's grace and our own responsibility. 
 Some preachers, in magnifying the one, 
 minimize, if they do not destroy, the other. 
 To omit all mention of God's electing grace 
 and predestinating purpose is surely to keep 
 back a part of His ** whole counsel." We 
 find it in Scripture, our Church teaches it 
 unmistakably. But are there not many 
 preachers who say, '* The subject is too 
 deep for us : we do not presume to touch 
 upon such mysteries " ? Are there not 
 others who see nothing but election in the 
 Bible, and who are perpetually harping 
 upon one string — election ? The effect of 
 the former preaching is to deprive the true 
 
io8 LETTERS TO A 
 
 children of God of a doctrine very full of 
 comfort, and one by which they would be 
 stimulated to holiness.* The effect of the 
 latter preaching is to weaken our sense of 
 responsibility, to slacken effort, to reduce 
 men to a state of perilous passivity, and to 
 a neglect of the diligent use of the means 
 of grace. The effects, if developed in all 
 their full peril, may be presumption and 
 careless living, issuing in grievous sin. 
 The truth is, that the doctrine of God's 
 grace underlies and pervades all, while it 
 is sometimes very strongly set forth. But it 
 is no less the truth that we must so preach 
 to men as not, in any sense or measure, to 
 lower or relax their sense of their respon- 
 sibility, and their need of diligent effort, 
 and of the diligent use of divinely-appointed 
 
 * " The godly consideration of Predestination, and our 
 Election in Christ, is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeak- 
 able comfort to godly persons, and such as feel in themselves 
 the working of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of 
 the flesh and their earthly members, and drawing up their 
 minds to high and heavenly things, as well because it doth 
 greatly establish and confirm their faith of eternal salvation 
 to be enjoyed through Christ, as because it doth fervently 
 kindle their love towards God." 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 109 
 
 means. We shall appear inconsistent — not 
 seldom even to ourselves. There is no real 
 inconsistency in God's truth. But we 
 cannot see the whole in its every bearing 
 and relation. 
 
 We must therefore be content to appear 
 to our people inconsistent — too Calvinistic 
 to some; to others, too Arminian. Say 
 honestly that the full reconciliation of these 
 apparently conflicting truths is beyond you. 
 Never force truth out of its proportions in 
 order to force harmony and symmetry. As 
 I have urged elsewhere, preach not only 
 what is in Scripture, but preach it as it is 
 in Scripture. Truth distorted and out of 
 proportion becomes error. 
 
 As I leave this point I give you more 
 words from Hooker : — 
 
 ** No man's condition so sure as ours : 
 the prayer of Christ is more than sufficient 
 both to strengthen us, be we never so weak; 
 and to overthrow all adversary power, be it 
 never so strong and potent. This prayer 
 must not exclude our labour : their thoughts 
 are vain who think that their watching can 
 
no LETTERS TO A 
 
 preserve the city which God Himself is not 
 willing to keep; and are not theirs as vain, 
 who think that God will keep the city, for 
 which they themselves are not careful to 
 watch ? The husbandman may not there- 
 fore burn his plough, nor the merchant for- 
 sake his trade, because God hath promised, 
 * I will not forsake thee.' And do the pro- 
 mises of God concerning our stability, think 
 you, make it a matter indifferent for us to 
 use or not to use the means whereby to 
 attend or not to attend to reading ? to pray 
 or not to pray that we * fall not into tempta- 
 tions ' ? Surely if we look to stand in the 
 faith of the sons of God, we must hourly, 
 continually, be providing and setting our- 
 selves to strive. It was not the meaning 
 of our Lord and Saviour in saying, ' Father, 
 keep them in Thy name,' that we should 
 be careless to keep ourselves. So our own 
 safety, our own sedulity, is required." * 
 
 V. Controversial Preaching. — Some 
 preachers are pulpit belligerents, never so 
 happy as when preaching as direct contro- 
 
 * Hooker's Works, Sermon i., vol. iii., p. 597. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN, m 
 
 versialists. On the other hand, there are 
 preachers who have an undue, and even 
 morbid, aversion for controversy. As a 
 general rule, be content with preaching and 
 pressing positive truth — the truth opposed 
 to the errors from which you would pre- 
 serve your people. They will then be fur- 
 nished with a touchstone and a test. But 
 there may be occasions when controversy 
 becomes a duty — a duty plain and urgent. 
 *' Contend earnestly" (not angrily) **for the 
 faith once for all delivered to the saints," 
 is a divinely inspired injunction. A contro- 
 versial spirit is sometimes uppermost in the 
 writings of St. Paul. Error may be aggres- 
 sive in your parish — from infidelity, from 
 Socinlanism, from Romanism, from Dissent, 
 from the specious sophistries of Plymouth 
 Brethrenism ; and although it is wise to be 
 careful, even in such cases, lest you preach 
 it into importance and notoriety, and do its 
 advocates a service by drawing the attention 
 of your people to it, there may be times 
 when the words of St. Jude and your Ordi- 
 nation Vow — to be " ready, with all faithful 
 
112 LETTERS TO A 
 
 diligence, to banish and drive away all 
 erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to 
 God's Word" — may press irresistibly (and 
 justly so) upon your conscience. One can 
 only say, seek Divine guidance, and, as a 
 young man, the counsel of your elders. 
 And if a sense of duty impels you to enter 
 the lists, be on your guard against impulse, 
 temper, uncharitableness, and lack of can- 
 dour. Watch your motives and spirit 
 narrowly. Remember ** what manner of 
 spirit ye are of." *^ In meekness instruct- 
 ing those that oppose themselves." **The 
 wrath of man worketh not the righteousness 
 of God." 
 
 VI. Should your work lie among intelli- 
 gent and educated people ; if you have to 
 preach to men who are reading the current 
 literature of the day, and discussing those 
 points in which it is urged that physical 
 science is in fatal and triumphant collision 
 with the Bible, you must not fail to introduce 
 an evidential element into your pulpit teach- 
 ing. They will naturally look to you — some 
 of them perhaps — in a carping and cynical 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 113 
 
 Spirit, but others inquiringly and anxiously 
 — for an answer to objections against the 
 Mosaic account of Creation, against all that 
 is supernatural, and against the moral teach- 
 ing of some of the lessons and examples of 
 Scripture, especially in the Old Testament. 
 Amid such a class of hearers as I have 
 specified, you cannot wholly ignore these 
 things. There is a deep and strong under- 
 current of scepticism in many minds. More 
 men are shaken than care to tell you of it. 
 
 Here you need the greatest wisdom. 
 
 Do not assume that all difficulties and 
 doubts are the result of moral depravity. 
 There is such a thing as honest doubt. There 
 are real moral difficulties in the lives of 
 some of the Old Testament saints. Take, 
 for instance, the character of Jacob. Deal 
 kindly and tenderly with such doubters ; and 
 with the difficulties of those who are not 
 doubters, but only oppressed, often painfully, 
 with difficulties which they would gladly 
 have removed. Make allowance for tem- 
 perament, for intellectual idiosyncracies. 
 Do not denounce harshly ; nor ticket a man 
 
 8 
 
114 LETTERS TO A 
 
 as a sceptic, when he is only in difficulty. 
 The very difficulty and doubt may be the 
 outcome and working of earnest inquiry, 
 and a sign of far more lively interest in 
 religious truth than is to be found in men 
 who have simply inherited their creed, and 
 who have never doubted because they have 
 never studied, and never felt a difficulty 
 because they have never given an intelli- 
 gent, far less an anxious, thought to the 
 matter. 
 
 With reference to a point of which we 
 hear tcsqiie ad nauseavi — the alleged antagon- 
 ism between Revelation and Science — you 
 cannot perhaps evade it. But be careful. 
 To denounce men of science en masse, as if 
 they were all infidels or atheists, is as un- 
 wise as it is uncharitable, and as uncharit- 
 able as it is untrue. Many eminent men of 
 science have been and are humble believers. 
 True, some are hasty and arrogant, but not 
 all. Great and grievous harm is done by 
 sweeping accusations from pulpit and plat- 
 form. When you deem it to be a duty to 
 touch upon these points, remember the 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 115 
 
 calibre and power of those against whose 
 errors you would warn your flock. In such 
 cases a ** little" science ** is a dangerous 
 thing." Be sure that you have enough of 
 it for the question in hand, and that it is 
 sound. Beware of making yourself ridicu- 
 lous ; and, what is far worse, injuring by 
 your unsound science or illogical reasonings 
 the cause which you would defend. Be sure 
 of your sling and stone when you go out to 
 meet Goliath. Better leave the matter un- 
 touched than show yourself a pretentious 
 ignoramus. Truth is strong even in the 
 mouth of a feeble advocate. But be sure it 
 is truth. 
 
 VII. One point more. No doubt the 
 great truths of the Gospel are to be the 
 staple of the pulpit teaching. But we are 
 ministers of the Church of England. We 
 would attach our people to our Church, not 
 as ignorant members, blind bigots, or politi- 
 cal partisans. We want them to understand 
 our principles. Whence our Church's mis- 
 sion and credentials ? What her claims ? 
 Why should the Church of England be esta- 
 
it6 letters to a 
 
 blished ? What are her principles ? What her 
 teaching ? Why is Churchmanship better 
 than Romanism or Dissent ? How do we 
 defend Episcopacy ? What have we to say 
 when this and that passage in our Prayer 
 Book is assailed ? 
 
 Here we have been, too many of us, 
 wanting. Romanists, Presbytgu-ians, Wes- 
 leyans. Independents, Baptists, to go no 
 further, are better indoctrinated in their 
 principles than most members of the Church 
 of England. No doubt, we want our people 
 first to be true Christians. But should we 
 not sometimes help them to give an answer 
 to the question — "Why am I a Church- 
 man? " ij^.,.,,,,. ^- . ^M' •■ ^-. 
 
 I am by no meanb arguing for keeping 
 up a direct and constant fire from the pulpit 
 battery against other religious systems and 
 bodies. Far otherwise. But surely we may 
 seize occasions, and make occasions, for 
 training them in an intelligent, loyal, and 
 grateful Churchmanship, without keeping 
 up a running fire of controversy or making 
 them intolerant bigots. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. ny 
 
 The result of our neglect is the apathy of 
 which we often complain. This is a real 
 weakness, in the hour of our Church's 
 danger. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 John C. Miller. 
 
 
VII. 
 
 The Work of the Ministry. — Visitation. 
 
 I. The Sick. 
 
 My dear Brother, — *'No practitioner 
 worth calling to the bedside was ever pro- 
 duced by bookwork merely. A man so 
 trained would not merely be useless, he 
 would be positively dangerous." 
 
 So said one of the most eminent of Eng- 
 lish surgeons, a short time ago.* 
 
 His words apply, with much force of truth, 
 to the important branch of ministerial duty 
 to which we now pass — Visitation. You 
 must become an efficient Visiting Pastor by 
 practical experience. Elder brethren can only 
 give hints and counsels to start you. Your 
 
 Sir Henry Thompson, at University College Hospital 
 Dinner. — Ti7nes, May 7th, 1877. 
 
120 LETTERS TO A 
 
 theology may be learned from books — visita- 
 tion must be learned by visiting-. 
 
 In no function of his ministry does the 
 young and inexperienced minister find him- 
 self so much at a loss as when called, for 
 the first time, to visit a sick or dying man. 
 He is thoroughlyill at ease, at a time when 
 he requires all his self-possession. Often he 
 has had little or no experience of sickness 
 in his own person, or in the cases of others. 
 He cannot enter into the sick man's weak- 
 ness and nervous sensibility. And, what is 
 worse, while he is painfully impressed with 
 his responsibility in ministering to one who 
 may be a dying man, he is no less painfully 
 conscious of his own rawness and of his lack 
 of knowledge and skill in dealing spiritually 
 with the case. How shall he set about it ? 
 What shall he read? What shall he say? 
 A few hints may not be in vain. 
 
 Faithful, painstaking, discriminating visi- 
 tation will soon tell upon your sermons. 
 Visitation in which you are not content with 
 the utterance of a round of platitudes and 
 the continued offering up of the same 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 121 
 
 Stereotyped forms of prayer, but in which 
 you are studying the symptoms of each 
 particular case. In physical ailments, the 
 life or death of the patient turns, in no 
 small measure, upon the skill of the physi- 
 cian or surgeon in diagnosis. The disease 
 or accident may be identical in a given 
 number of cases ; but in every case it will 
 be affected and modified more or less by 
 the constitution, temperament, previous con- 
 dition, and habits of the patient. 
 
 Aim then at accurate and skilful diagnosis. 
 Adopt and modify general rules by the 
 circumstances of the individual case. The 
 object of the physician or surgeon is to heal ; 
 or, if that be hopeless, to diminish suffering, 
 and to give such ease and comfort as the case 
 may admit. Your object, too, in all cases 
 is one and the same. But it is not to be 
 pursued, in every case, by the same means. 
 The physician knows to which class of 
 remedies in the pharmacopoeia he must turn 
 for the benefit of his patient. But in draw- 
 ing up his prescriptions, and in laying down 
 his treatment, he will blend or modify his 
 
122 LETTERS TO A 
 
 remedies according* to the circumstances of 
 the individual case. 
 
 Here, then, at once, you become a close 
 and earnest student of human nature. You 
 must study it, not in the abstract only, but 
 in the individual man or woman beforey ou. 
 
 You are studying a case which is one of 
 a class ; and this, I need hardly say, what- 
 ever be the result to the sick person, very 
 soon and very beneficially must influence 
 your sermons. You will find that, with a 
 good foundation of theological knowledge, 
 visitation is the best preparation for preach- 
 ing ; that is, if your sermons are not to be 
 mere matter-of-course addresses, occupying 
 a conventional twenty minutes or half-hour, 
 but real, practical, well-adapted utterances 
 to your own flock. For, except in very rare 
 instances, every case which you are visiting 
 is typical of many others. You are studying 
 that with which you have your first concern, 
 in and out of the pulpit — human nature in 
 the persons of your own parishioners. No 
 mere bookworm can be a true pastor. Your 
 college tutors and professors may have 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 123 
 
 turned you out a good and even learned 
 divinity scholar ; but you must walk the 
 hospital^ and have your clinical practice. Our 
 greatest physicians and surgeons are not 
 only healing their patients, but studying their 
 cases, and learning from them every day. 
 The pages of the Lancet and the Medical 
 Gazette contain every week details of cases 
 and of treatment which are enriching the 
 stores of medical science and art, and con- 
 tributing to the development and perfecting 
 of medical knowledge, and to the diminution 
 of physical suffering. In dealing with this 
 difficult and important function of your 
 ministry, I purpose to touch on — 
 I. Visitation of the Sick. 
 II. Visitation of the Afflicted. 
 
 III. General Visitation. 
 
 I. Visitation of the Sick. — At the 
 outset I cannot withhold a discouraging 
 remark, in reference to a large number of 
 cases which will call for your anxious and 
 faithful diligence. I mean the cases of men 
 and women who have been living in utter 
 neglect of their souls, and even in notori- 
 
124 LETTERS TO A 
 
 ous vice. Such an one has never entered 
 your church doors. And if your parish is 
 a manageable one, in which you personally 
 know all your people, and visit their homes 
 in their times of health, this may have been 
 in spite of all your earnest remonstrances. 
 He has evaded, procrastinated; perhaps 
 insulted you. Now that he is laid low by 
 accident or disease, you are sent for by 
 mother, or wife, or child — perhaps by him- 
 self. Conscience is awakened. He is fright- 
 ened at the thought of possible or probable 
 death. Remorse brings wretchedness. He 
 protests that, if he recover, he will turn over 
 a new leaf. You shall see him at church. 
 He will be a different man at home. You 
 begin to be hopeful. Clearly he is impressed. 
 
 He recovers. Sick-bed fears and reso- 
 lutions are soon forgotten. His seeming 
 repentance was only fright. What appeared 
 his sorrow for sin was only fear of hell. The 
 dog turns to his own vomit again ; the sow 
 to her mire. 
 
 These are most sad cases. They are 
 among a pastor's bitterest disappointments. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 125 
 
 But, alas ! they are very common. I believe 
 that there are few experienced pastors who 
 will not tell us mournfully that the instances 
 are rare in which an ungodly man who has 
 been thus frightened into professions and 
 resolutions has, upon recovery, carried them 
 out. The smell of the fire of his affliction 
 has soon passed away. Nevertheless, your 
 duty is clear — to do your best, with much 
 prayer, earnestly, faithfully, and lovingly. 
 It is only right that we should prepare you 
 for disappointment. At least, your visits 
 and your teachings may tell upon others in 
 the house. And you are "pure from " his 
 "blood." 
 
 It is with unaffected self-diffidence and 
 reluctance that I differ from Dean Burton, 
 in whose " Treatise on the Pastoral Office " 
 there is so very much which must be com- 
 mended to your study, as truly admirable in 
 practical wisdom and in Christian spirit. 
 But my experience leads me to question 
 his statement, " Only in particular cases 
 will anything be gained by being quite 
 alone with a sick person." No doubt there 
 
126 LETTERS TO A 
 
 is great truth In his words, *' That it is a 
 great gain if others of the household can 
 be persuaded habitually to be present at our 
 ministrations to the sick, and to join in our 
 prayers. . . . Sickness and death are often 
 sent into a family for the sake of the healthy 
 survivors." But I believe it to be of very 
 great importance to secure one interview, at 
 least, alone; and this for more than one 
 reason. 
 
 As a rule, sick people are reticent about 
 their spiritual state in the presence of rela- 
 tives, even the nearest and dearest. So I 
 have often found it. I need not say that I 
 am not dreaming of such probings of the 
 conscience and heart as are involved in the 
 system of auricular confession. I am not 
 for a moment supposing that you are in the 
 sick man's house as a Romish confessor 
 or director. But you want to take as accu- 
 rate a diagnosis as you can. Now the sick 
 man may have sins, and fears, and con- 
 flicts, of which to speak, which he will 
 (after a while, at any rate) feel it to be 
 a great relief to tell to you, but which he 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 127 
 
 would shrink from laying bare before his 
 mother, wife, or child. I can, while I am 
 writing, recall the recent case of a sick man 
 who would abhor the confessional, and 
 would have shrunk with indignation had I 
 attempted to be his confessor, but who, of 
 his own accord, told me very touchingly, 
 and with strong emotion, even to tears, of 
 spiritual conflicts, past and present, which I 
 feel sure that he would not have laid bare, 
 had we not been alone. He never touched 
 on them until the only bystander — his wife — 
 had left the room. 
 
 It may be wise not to ask for such privacy 
 at first. Let the sick man get accustomed 
 to you. Very many would have a nervous 
 fear, if left alone at the first or second visit. 
 
 Here I can cordially take up the admira- 
 ble words of Dean Burgon, who, having 
 repudiated the desirableness of ''systematic 
 training" (of pastors) "in any part of the 
 casuistry of the confessional," and declared 
 that no consideration of the sad consequences 
 of unskilfulness or unfaithfulness '* are suffi- 
 cient to outweigh the conviction entertained 
 
128 LETTERS TO A 
 
 of the evils which would arise from the 
 recognised admission of any part of that 
 detestable system which has borne such 
 deadly fruit in the Church of Rome," writes 
 in a passage which I cannot abstain from 
 quoting : — 
 
 '' For (the question may fairly be asked) 
 does not this solicitude about the art of deal- 
 ing with unquiet consciences arise out of a 
 mistaken view of what is required of the 
 physician of souls ? Is it his office to probe 
 the hearts of those who come to him ' to 
 open their grief ? Is it not rather to lend 
 a patient, yet most incurious, ear (the reverse 
 of inquisitive, I mean,) to the history of what 
 does so weigh down a fellow-sinner ; by 
 soothing words to calm his agitated spirit, 
 if he seems unduly miserable ; or if (a far 
 more probable supposition) he shows him- 
 self unaware of the largeness of his misery 
 — glossing and palliating, and, as it were, 
 half-explaining, his offence away — by calm 
 and friendly speech to remind him that not 
 7na7i, but God, is his judge; and that not 
 unto us, but unto the Searcher of hearts, he 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 129 
 
 IS In reality confessing his sin ? Above 
 all things, in silence and in love to listen; 
 next, if need be, with a faithful, yet merciful, 
 hand (faithful, as remembering whose ambas- 
 sadors we are ; merciful, as remembering 
 our own exceeding unworthlness) to touch 
 the sore which has thus been brought to 
 light ; yet not with judicial inqulsltlveness 
 (God forbid!), as having for our object the 
 eliciting of one additional detail ; but with 
 brotherly sympathy rather, as supremely 
 anxious to minister * such ghostly counsel, 
 advice, and comfort,' that the conscience of 
 the other * may be relieved ; ' then (if ques- 
 tioned), according to the best of our ability, 
 to resolve any doubts or inquiries which may 
 be proposed to us ; lastly, as far as possible, 
 to put all that has taken place clean away, 
 observing silence concerning every parti- 
 cular, profound as the silence of the grave 
 — this seems to represent, in the main, our 
 duty in this difficult department of pastoral 
 responsibility. And I see no part of it which 
 a man of discretion and intelligence, fur- 
 nished with an ordinary amount of theo- 
 
 9 
 
I30 
 
 LETTERS TO A 
 
 logical learning, and who has had a fair share 
 of parochial experience (who, therefore, in no 
 sense can be called a novice), may not hope 
 to discharge with sufficient success."* 
 
 There is a further reason, and, in some 
 cases, my experience teaches me, a very 
 strong one, for desiring one private inter- 
 view, at any rate. This is when the pastor 
 feels it to be his bounden, though difficult 
 and painful, duty to endeavour to convince 
 of sin. There are cases in which he must 
 awhile withhold direct couifort. He detects 
 self-righteousness. The language often 
 heard is of this kind: " I know that I have 
 not been what I ought to have been ; but 
 I have not been as bad as some others. I 
 have done nobody any harm. I have done 
 my best for my family. But God is merci- 
 ful, and I look to my blessed Saviour to 
 make up my defects." These are cases in 
 which the pastor soon finds out that the 
 man is resting not upon Christ only. He 
 has not ceased from the vain endeavour to 
 establish his own righteousness, but, at 
 
 * " Treatise on the Pastoral Office/' pp. 220, 221. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 131 
 
 best, Is looking to Christ to eke out his 
 defects. He is not shut up unto grace — 
 grace only. And perhaps he has been out- 
 wardly a moral man — an amiable husband, 
 a kind father — no drunkard, nor a profligate. 
 He says all this, and those dearest to him 
 are standing by. They hear every word. 
 You want, not to disparage morality, nor 
 to make it out that he might as well have 
 been a bad husband or a vicious man but, 
 to show him that these are no true ground- 
 work for a sinner as his hope of salvation. 
 You want to show him their insufficiency, 
 and that he needs a Saviour. Now, on 
 such occasions, I have known a wife, for 
 instance, chime in with the sick man's self- 
 approval and self-dependence, and, as it 
 were, add fuel to his righteousness. You 
 have before you a very difficult and very 
 delicate task — to e^npty him of self ; and she, 
 by her presence, adds to your difficulties. 
 You seem unkind, and even cruel, to her, 
 if she be as unenlightened as he. 
 
 It is, at best, one of the most trying duties, 
 when a dying man is in feebleness and pain, 
 
132 LETTERS TO A 
 
 and either utterly dark or encased in self- 
 satisfaction, to set about the work of spiritual 
 enlightenment or of the overthrow of 
 his self-righteousness. Our hearts yearn to 
 speak peace. But it is a time for probing 
 rather than for peace, for conviction rather 
 than comfort. I ask only that our diffi- 
 culties be not increased by the presence of 
 others who, in their mistaken affection, 
 would have us cry, ** Peace, where (as yet) 
 there is no peace," and thus send a sinner 
 into eternity with *' a lie in his right hand." 
 After all, we may secure both the advantage 
 to the sick and to ourselves of one private 
 interview, and the undoubted advantage to 
 the healthy, of which Dean Burgon writes 
 truly, that they should have the ** great 
 gain" of joining us in the sick room in our 
 prayers, thus learning for themselves the 
 lessons which are addressed directly to the 
 sick or dying man. I am by no means ask- 
 ing that all our visitations should be in 
 private ; but only that we should have full 
 and fair opportunity for the freest pastoral 
 intercourse with the sick to whom we minister. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 133 
 
 Tenderness is essential. Enter the cham- 
 ber very gently. Tread noiselessly. Get 
 near to the sufferer. Speak as softly as 
 may be. Remember his nerves ; noise is 
 often torture. Sympathise with his weak- 
 ness, restlessness, and pain. True, you are 
 not come to minister to his body ; but enter 
 into his symptoms and his suffering. Ask 
 what his doctor has said. Avoid a profes- 
 sional, official, conventional air. The case 
 may be too grave for cheerful words ; but, 
 if otherwise, let your face carry a little sun- 
 shine into the sick room. Avoid fussiness. 
 Be ready to kneel without stool or cushion. 
 Go with a brother's heart. Always take 
 the sick man's hand, if he can bear it. Be 
 brief — brief in your talk, brief in your read- 
 ings, brief in your prayers — your whole visit 
 brief. Take up one point. A sick man's 
 brain is soon over-tasked ; his nerves soon 
 jar ; his strength soon fails. Leave a well- 
 chosen text behind you, as you say *' Good- 
 bye ! " Let your *' Good-bye" be *^ God 
 bless you ! " Let your last look be one of 
 tenderness and love. Whatever you are in 
 
134 LETTERS TO A 
 
 your pulpit, Barnabas, not Boanerges, is 
 your pattern by the sick bed. 
 
 In all cases seek Divine guidance and 
 blessing. Never cross a sick man's thres- 
 hold without lifting up your heart in prayer, 
 that God, by His Spirit, may give you the 
 word in season for this individual case. 
 
 From time to time, you will be called to 
 the visitation of ripe and rejoicing Chris- 
 tians, in whose cases the anticipatory words 
 of your great Master and Judge will be 
 directly and closely fulfilled, ** Sick, and ye 
 visited me." You will find yourself by the 
 side of a sick or dying one who is far ahead 
 of you in spiritual knowledge and Christian 
 experience. In some cases he has been 
 long, very long, afflicted — almost, if not 
 quite, bedridden. Shut out from the privi- 
 leges of God's house, and from all public 
 means of grace, such an one will remind 
 you that *' there is 7ioiie that teacheth like 
 Hi^ny You will look and listen wonder- 
 ingly, as words of most patient, unmur- 
 muring submission, and even of fervent 
 gratitude, fall from his lips. The tear 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 135 
 
 which glistens in his eye is not a tear of 
 sorrow. Sometimes, haply in homely phrase, 
 pithy and golden sayings are dropped, 
 which you will treasure up. Here you will 
 feel yourself to be a learner rather than 
 a teacher, carrying away more than you 
 impart. Such cases, as exemplifying the 
 faithfulness of God, the sufficiency of Christ, 
 and the power of Holy Scripture, will be to 
 you a blessed confirmation of your faith. 
 You may be well versed in evidential theo- 
 logy; you may have mastered Butler and 
 Paley; but in the power of the gospel to 
 sustain and cheer, by faith and hope, those 
 who have passed long years of suffering, 
 amid almost unbroken spiritual sunshine, 
 under the felt presence of God, and in the 
 light of His countenance, you will have the 
 most touching evidence of the reality of 
 Divine grace, and will go back to your 
 study and your pulpit with a deepened con- 
 viction that you are not preaching *' cun- 
 ningly devised fables," and that ^' there 
 is none other God that can deliver after 
 this sort." The three happiest men and 
 
136 LETTERS TO A 
 
 women I have ever seen were three bed- 
 ridden Christians — two of them in poverty. 
 
 The administration of the Lord's Supper 
 to sick persons who during m.any years of 
 health and opportunities have wholly neg- 
 lected it, but who now ask for it for the 
 first time, is a matter calling for great care 
 and faithfulness. It will be a blessed result 
 of your painstaking visitation and teaching, 
 if such neglect, and the carelessness and 
 sin which have led to it, be truly repented 
 of, and an intelligent and hearty desire for 
 Holy Communion be awakened. The ex- 
 amination prescribed by the rubric in the 
 Office for the Visitation of the Sick, as to 
 repentance, charity, forgiveness of wrong 
 suffered or done, and readiness in tlie latter 
 case to make amends, must be made search- 
 ingly and faithfully. And you must do 
 your utmost to dispel the notion of a viati- 
 cum, as if to *^ take the sacrament" would 
 of itself make all right. Let your teaching 
 as to the design and efficacy of this Holy 
 Sacrament be such as that you are clear 
 of the guilt of such a superstitious reception 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 137 
 
 of it as would make it nothing better than 
 extreme unction. 
 
 With regard to the use of the Office for 
 the Visitation of the Sick in the Prayer Book, 
 the Church, in the sixty-seventh canon, 
 leaves the minister, *' if he be a preacher,'* 
 at full liberty either to use it or to *' instruct 
 and comfort " '' as he shall think most need- 
 ful and convenient/' Not disputing Dean 
 Burgon's estimate of its excellence, when 
 he writes, " It seems to me one of the most 
 beautiful in the Prayer Book ; while inquiry 
 shows that it is perhaps the most carefully 
 revised of all ; "* I cannot recommend so 
 constant a use of any portion of it, either 
 memoriter or from book, as he deems advis- 
 able, when, not insisting indeed upon *' a 
 servile adherence to it from end to end," 
 but allowing omissions and substitutions, 
 he adds: *'But the prescribed form — from 
 the first words of it, down to the end of the 
 prayer, * Hear us. Almighty and most merci- 
 ful God and Saviour ; ' and again, from the 
 words, * O Saviour of the world,' to the end 
 
 * "Treatise on the Pastoral Office," p. 213. 
 
138 LETTERS TO A 
 
 of the service — would, it is apprehended, 
 be deviated from with manifest disadvan- 
 tage."* 
 
 I submit rather that, however beautiful 
 the service, it is not desirable, in protracted 
 cases, to repeat the same office frequently; 
 and that a spiritually minded pastor, taking 
 the office as his model, may wisely adapt 
 his readings and his prayers to the indivi- 
 dual case. 
 
 To whatever decision you may come, always 
 pray with the sick man, even when he is too 
 weak to listen to reading. Apart from the 
 higher end — the efficacy of prayer — a short, 
 earnest, well-adapted prayer seldom fails to 
 touch the sick man. 
 
 In avoiding the slightest approach to the 
 auricular confession of the Church of Rome, 
 do not shrink from the Scriptural and sober 
 words of the rubric — '* H^re shall the sick 
 person be moved to make a special co?i/ession of 
 his sins, if he feel his conscience troubled with 
 any weighty matter'' Only mark the words 
 carefully. They are a provision for a special 
 * " Treatise on the Pastoral Office," pp. 213-4. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 139 
 
 case — *^ If he feel his conscience troubled with 
 any weighty matter^ But they are not to be 
 so extended and strained as to cover habi- 
 tual or enforced "confession to a priest," 
 as " a direct sacramental ordinance of the 
 Church of Christ;" and the notion "that 
 to be duly practised it must be secret and 
 compulsory, numbering all remembered 
 sins."* For such a system of confession — 
 in a word, for The Confessional — there is, 
 thank God, no warrant whatever in the 
 Prayer Book of the Church of England. 
 And whatever the force of the form of 
 absolution which follows (into which it is 
 beyond the scope of these letters to enter), 
 it is, be it remembered, attached to this special 
 case. The rubric runs — " After which con- 
 fession^ the priest shall absolve him (if he 
 humbly and heartily desire it) after this 
 fashion." 
 
 For the study and exposition of this ab- 
 solution I must refer you to some of the 
 many writers who have discussed it fully. 
 
 * Bishop Wilberforce's " Addresses to the Candidates for 
 Ordination," p. 113. 
 
I40 LETTERS TO A 
 
 Among others, to the remarks of Dean 
 Burgon, in the treatise to which I have 
 made reference in this letter. I quote only 
 the words of Bishop Wilberforce : * — ■ 
 
 *^ It is plain, first, that our Church never 
 designed that the ministers of God's Word 
 and Sacraments should abdicate that which 
 is amongst the most important functions of 
 their office — the dealing as ministers of 
 God with the consciences of men. Yet, on 
 the other hand, it is equally clear that there 
 is a broad distinction between her intention 
 herein and that of the Church of Rome. 
 Can, then, this difference be referred to any 
 guiding principle of action ? It seems to 
 me that it may, and that we may find the 
 difference here. The object of the Roman 
 Communion and of our own is widely dif- 
 ferent, and this difference at once affects our 
 several practice. The object of the Roman 
 Church is to bring the conscience under the 
 power of the priest, to make him the judge 
 to whose sentence it should absolutely defer. 
 The object of our own Church is so to 
 
 ^ Pp. 112, 114-5. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 141 
 
 awaken, enlighten, and strengthen the con- 
 science, that with the aid of Holy Scripture, 
 and the ordinary public ministrations of 
 God's Word, it may rightly guide the in- 
 dividual soul. 
 
 *'Now in opposition to this system" 
 (that of Rome) " the Church of England, in 
 exact conformity, as we maintain, with the 
 Word of God, and the teaching and the 
 practice of the primitive Church, allows 
 private confession instead of enforcing 
 it, and recommends it only under certain 
 prescribed circumstances and conditions, 
 as a means of restoring health to a sick 
 conscience, instead of treating the habit 
 of confessing as the state of health. She 
 treats it as wise men treat medical aids, as 
 blessed means of renovation, stored by 
 God's mercy for their need in times of 
 sickness, but still as not meant for, and 
 not wholly compatible with, a settled habit 
 of strong health. And this difference of 
 view is founded upon a great doctrinal dif- 
 ference, as to the place which confession 
 occupies in the new kingdom of Christ. 
 
142 LETTERS TO A 
 
 The Church of England does not treat It 
 as a separate (oi^ dinance of Christ, endowed 
 with a special sacramental grace of its own ; 
 but she regards it as a permitted ' opening 
 of grief,' as a * lightening' of a 'burden,' 
 as in no way bringing any special pardon 
 or absolution to the penitent over and above 
 that which he might equally obtain by 
 general confession to Almighty God and 
 public absolution In the congregation, but 
 only as a spiritual confidence which might 
 be entrusted to any brother Christian, but 
 which it Is most natural and best to commit 
 to the physician of souls, as having more 
 experience of such cases, and as being 
 specially provided by God with grace for 
 their treatment and relief." 
 
 In dismissing the subject of the Visitation 
 of the Sick, let me draw your attention to 
 the wise direction of the Church: **And if 
 he hath not before disposed of his goods, 
 let him then be admonished to make his 
 will, and to declare his debts, what he 
 oweth, and what Is owing unto him ; for 
 the better discharging of his conscience, 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 
 
 143 
 
 and the quietness of his executors." Many 
 a widow, and many a family, have had to 
 smart for the neglect of this duty on the 
 part of the dying, where obedience to the 
 Church's suggestion would have saved 
 much confusion, if not protracted litigation, 
 heavy loss, and bitter family strife. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 John C. Miller. 
 
VIII. 
 
 The Work of the Ministry, — Visitation. {Con- 
 tinued}) 
 
 11. Visitation of the Afflicted. 
 III. General Visitation. 
 
 My Dear Brother, — Never will you be 
 doing more directly the work of a pastor 
 than in the Visitation of the Afflicted, And 
 seldom, if ever, will the faithful and loving 
 discharge of your duty bring you a happier 
 or more immediate reward. The afflicted 
 are very grateful for prompt pastoral sym- 
 pathy. If in the higher or middle class of 
 society, they will receive calls or letters of 
 condolence in abundance — in some cases 
 too conventional to be of much value. 
 From yoic they should have neither call nor 
 letter of a nlerely conventional character. 
 Let me hope that you cherish habitually a 
 
 lO 
 
146 LETTERS TO A 
 
 Spirit of true, practical sympathy with your 
 people ; a sympathy which prompts you to 
 pray at home for all who are stricken with 
 sorrow. This will soon show itself, and be 
 recognised as one of your characteristics. 
 So that, when you enter the home of mourn- 
 ing or pen a few words of consolation, they 
 will be felt to come from your heart, and 
 will reach the hearts of those whose home 
 death has darkened, or who are smarting 
 under some other form of trial. It is true 
 that sympathy can do but little ; yet who 
 among us that has known tribulation has 
 not felt that this little seems much ? Whether 
 it be the grief of husband for wife, or of wife 
 for husband, of parent for child, or of child 
 for parent, whether it be family disgrace or 
 financial disaster, hasten to show your sym- 
 pathy. 
 
 Nor only so. Remember that their day 
 of sorrow is your opportunity. The season 
 of affliction is to them a season of special 
 and solemn responsibility. If worldlings, 
 it may be to them as it was to Manasseh : 
 **When he was in affliction, he besought 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 147 
 
 the Lord his God, and humbled himself 
 greatly before the God of his fathers, and 
 prayed unto Him : and He was intreated of 
 him.'' Sorrow may soften where sermons 
 have failed. For God preaches by provi- 
 dences. Sorrows are among His most strik- 
 ing sermons. Point out lovingly that this 
 trial has its message. And while the bleed- 
 ing heart is painfully sensible of the in- 
 sufficiency of the world's consolations, pour 
 in the balm of the consolations of God. 
 
 Depend upon it, you miss one of your 
 most golden opportunities when you neglect 
 your people in their times of trouble. The 
 metal is, more or less softened to your hand. 
 There will be cases ,from time to time, which 
 will need all your skill. *' It is the glory of 
 God to conceal a thing." And sometimes 
 the form in which trial comes is so very- 
 trying — so very trying because so peculiarly 
 dark — that you will find it most hard to deal 
 with a spirit of rebellion, a spirit unable to 
 believe that such a blow can have been dealt 
 by a just God, still less by a loving Father. 
 There are cases which are trying even to 
 
148 LETTERS TO A 
 
 our own faith. We can feel how they must 
 test to the uttermost the submission even of 
 God's children ; much more of those who 
 are not spiritually minded, and by whom the 
 precious truth of His Fatherhood is not 
 grasped by personal experience. 
 
 The mystery of human pain and sorrow 
 must be great and trying at all times. It 
 is so to you and to me. But there are times 
 when it presses very sorely, even as we look 
 on the sufferings of others. We must not 
 deal hardly and harshly with those upon 
 whom its pressure is falling with peculiar 
 weight, and in some of its rarer forms. To 
 make light of it — to speak reproachfully and 
 reprovingly — is not our duty, as, certainly, 
 it is not our true policy. Show that you, 
 too, feel the difficulty. Sympathise with it. 
 Let your teachings not be on the lines of 
 explanation, but rather of faith. " Shall 
 not the Judge of all the earth do right ? " 
 ** He doeth all things well." This is not 
 punitive vengeance, but, if we will receive 
 and use it aright, fatherly chastisement — 
 not for destruction, but for profit. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN, 149 
 
 Your great weapon is prayer — prayer with 
 and for the suffering. Suggest that you 
 kneel down together. In loving pleadings 
 pour out your heart to the God of all grace 
 and of all comfort. Commend them to Him. 
 Ask with them and for them the faith, the 
 resignation, the comfort they need. You 
 will seldom find that such prayer has failed 
 of all immediate effects. And when those 
 whom you have thus visited and comforted 
 come forth from their houses of mourning, 
 and listen again to your sermons, they will 
 listen as they have never listened before. 
 Their very gratitude to you will be sancti- 
 fied. Having proved yourself a true pastor 
 out of the pulpit, you will be to them a more 
 acceptable and useful preacher in the pulpit. 
 
 These manifestations of practical sympathy 
 must not be confined to the well-to-do among 
 your people, the classes whose social position 
 alone may seem to entitle them to courtesy 
 and attention. Rather must you be on your 
 guard against even the appearance of being 
 more prompt and more earnest with your 
 wealthy and well-to-do parishioners than with 
 
I50 LETTERS TO A 
 
 your humble tradesmen, your labourers, and 
 your poor. Beware of pastoral toadyism. If 
 the widowed husband or wife, the fatherless or 
 motherless children, or the father and mother 
 whose darling has been reft away by death, 
 be in your back streets or your cottages, your 
 consolatory words are as urgently called for, 
 and will be as gratefully appreciated, as by 
 the afflicted among other classes. And often 
 prejudice will be dissipated, and bitter feel- 
 ings against the Church and Church parsons 
 softened, as they find that they are not 
 neglected, but that you recognise that their 
 wound is as deep, and their smart as sore, 
 as are those felt by the great folks at *' the 
 Hall," and by the afflicted among the well- 
 to-do classes. That which you have long 
 tried to bring about by your own visitations 
 and through lady visitors, and Scripture 
 readers, and Bible-women, and by shoals 
 of tracts — namely, to bring this man to fill 
 his vacant place in church — is at once ac- 
 complished, because the parson found time 
 to come and see him in his trouble, to speak 
 words of comfort, and to offer words of prayer. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN, 151 
 
 To qualify you for this department of your 
 pastoral duties, you will, in God's times 
 and in God's ways, have your own trials. 
 He will make you to pass through the 
 training-school of affliction, that you may 
 learn your lesson ; not from manuals of 
 Pastoral Theology, but by experience. Thus 
 will you know the heart of a widower when 
 * ' the desire of " his ^ ' eyes ' ' is taken from him , 
 or the darling from his nursery, or the son 
 or daughter whom he has seen growing up 
 in his home, for whom many a hope has 
 been cherished and many a plan laid. You 
 will ** be able to comfort" others **by the 
 comfort wherewith" yourselves ^'are com- 
 forted of God." The fire of the furnace 
 shall make the vessel more fit for the 
 Master's use, and your sorrowing people 
 shall recognise the reality, the adaptation, 
 and the tenderness of your consolations ; the 
 utterances, not of conventionalism, nor pro- 
 fessionalism, nor theory, but, of experience. 
 For this, as for other reasons, are the ministers 
 of the New Testament, like the priests of the 
 Old Testament, *' taken from among men." 
 
152 LETTERS TO A 
 
 III. General Visitation. — We have yet 
 to deal with the most difficult branches of 
 Visitation — Ordinary Pastoral Visits in times 
 of health, and Social Visiting as guests at the 
 tables of your people. 
 
 In reference to the former, the pastor of a 
 parish of moderate area and population hasf 
 obviously a great advantage over the in- 
 cumbent of a parish which numbers many 
 thousands. The former needs only diligence 
 and system ; the latter cannot hope even to 
 know each and every one of his parishioners 
 personally; still less to be a house-going 
 pastor to the extent which he desires. It is 
 here chiefly that the pressure is felt by an 
 over-weighted pastor. He feels that he 
 ought to be no stranger in any house in his 
 parish — that not one resident in it should be 
 able to say, ** My clergyman has never been 
 into my house. I never see him but in the 
 pulpit, or when I am sick or in sorrow." 
 But, were visiting his only duty, this would 
 in some cases be impossible. 
 
 Should your lot be cast in one of these 
 vast parishes, do your very utmost in this 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 153 
 
 matter. Let not the hopelessness of doing 
 all tempt you to do nothing. And in doing 
 what you can, let your visits have in them as 
 much as possible of the pastoral elejne^it. Be 
 not a mere morning-caller or a hanger-on 
 at five-o'clock tea. There is great danger 
 lest your visits should degenerate into mere 
 conventionalism — or worse, into mere chat 
 and gossip. And the danger is the greater 
 because very many who will complain that 
 you never visit your people, that they see 
 little or nothing of you out of the pulpit, are 
 not desiderating pastoral visits, but only the 
 attention of a call. 
 
 I do not deny that something is gained 
 by the fact that your people become per- 
 sonally acquainted with you, although the 
 visit may give no fair opening for such con- 
 versation as you desire. You may feel re- 
 gretfully, and perhaps self-reproachfully, as 
 the street door is shut behind you on leaving, 
 that you have done no good, that not a 
 word has been spoken for edification. Your 
 pastoral visit has been such in name only — 
 little, if anything, better than a morning 
 
154 LETTERS TO A 
 
 call. They are satisfied, but you are not. 
 Yet something is gained towards future use- 
 fulness. Their hour of sickness and sorrow 
 will come. When it comes, they will seldom 
 care much even for their own clergyman, if 
 he is known to them only in public. But if 
 they have known you personally before their 
 affliction, they will look for and receive you 
 now, when they want, not a conventional 
 call but, pastoral sympathy. It is a great 
 thing not to be a stranger in their houses 
 when you are the person to whom they 
 naturally turn for words of consolation. 
 Therefore, although your general visits may 
 not be all you desire — and with some of the 
 people it is very difficult to make them 
 spiritually profitable — they will, at any rate, 
 have broken down shyness and prevented 
 estrangement. They are accustomed to you 
 and you to them. The door is open for 
 the pastor, as such, into the house of 
 mourning. 
 
 But it is most desirable that, as far as pos- 
 sible, you should never let them forget, even 
 in your most friendly visits, that you are a 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN, 155 
 
 minister of God and their pastor. Do not 
 forget it yourself. I know that, in this 
 matter of visitation, men differ in gifts 
 qualifications, common sense, and tact, as 
 much as they differ in their gifts as preachers- 
 Some men have a felicitous and most envi- 
 able gift for pastoral intercourse. They can 
 seize opportunities, direct conversation into 
 profitable channels, check frivolity, and 
 speak the word in season. Others are shy, 
 reticent, awkward, longing to escape from 
 mere empty talk, but lacking tact and 
 courage. They feel that they ought to 
 have made an effort for ** speech" "with 
 grace," *' seasoned with salt." They are 
 full of self-reproach that, however much 
 they have desired it, they have left no pro- 
 fitable word behind them. In praying and 
 striving for this gift, be simple, be natural. 
 Get rid of a mere conventional gravity and 
 attempted solemnity. Be genial. Don't 
 walk into the house as if you must banish 
 every smile, and stiffen into a melancholy- 
 looking official, or an undertaker come to 
 measure some one for his coffin. If there 
 
156 LETTERS TO A 
 
 are children, don't drive them upstairs or 
 into corners, as frightened by a smiieless man 
 in black, but give them a sunny look and a 
 cheery word. Be a child again, and not a 
 starched cleric. 
 
 Passing from the children, let me extend 
 to the higher and middle classes what Dean 
 Burgon says so wisely of pastoral inter- 
 course with *' our humbler brethren " : — 
 
 *' It may be laid down confidently, that 
 to talk religion is not to be regarded as the 
 invariable object, or even as an essential 
 part, of a pastoral visit. Nothing is more 
 abhorrent to good taste than the systematic 
 attempt to warp whatever is said into some- 
 thing religious. If a man once falls into this 
 practice, he will find it beget a corresponding 
 method in his people, — who will pay him 
 back in the same sorry coin ; and some day, 
 when he is bent on something practical, will 
 keep on parrying every honest thrust by 
 forced allusions to Scripture, whereby his 
 intercourse with them will become wholly 
 unreal and unprofitable. The younger folk 
 will acquire hypocritical ways, and learn 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 157 
 
 to hate religion, of which they will in- 
 fallibly consider this a fair sample. The 
 shepherd of the flock, instead of being- 
 the apostle of cheerfulness, — the appointed 
 guide and friend in all things, — will be as- 
 sociated with images of restraint and gloom. 
 After all, we do not behave so in the daily 
 intercourse of private life. Why then in our 
 ^^ intercourse with our humbler brethren ? " * 
 Again : '* Few things are more distressing 
 than the artificial tone of intercourse which 
 ensues if the presence of the clergyman is 
 the signal for religious conversation to com- 
 mence. A moment ago, the household were 
 engaged in something secular: a moment 
 hence, they will be so engaged again. 
 Meantime, because he was seen approach- 
 ing, the Bible, forsooth, was reached down, 
 and the tract hunted for, and every face as- 
 sumed an expression of restraint. All this 
 is fraught with mischief. The office of 
 religion, as we know, is to sanctify the 
 business of the day, not to set it aside : to 
 hallow labour, not to supersede it. More- 
 
 * " Treatise on the Pastoral Office," p. 228. 
 
158 LETTERS TO A 
 
 over, whatever disconnects us from the prac- 
 tical life of those to whom we minister is an 
 evil : an evil to them, for it gives them a 
 mistaken notion of our aims ; an evil to us, 
 for it conceals from us those occupations, 
 habits, trials, desires, which we have to cope 
 ^ with and to address." * 
 
 I will not attempt to lay down a general 
 rule of duty in reference to dinner or even- 
 ing parties. It is very undesirable that you 
 should exhibit the religion of Christ as un- 
 social, ungenial, or ascetic. And there is 
 doubtless much truth in the observation that 
 if Christian ministers were never to enter 
 into general society, a wholesome, restrain- 
 ing, and elevating influence would be with- 
 drawn. But there is great wisdom in the 
 cautions of Richard Cecil : — 
 
 *'What passes on these occasions too often 
 savours of this world. We become one 
 among our hearers. They come to church 
 on Sunday, and we preach ; the week comes 
 round again, and its nonsense with it. Now 
 if a minister were what he should be, the 
 
 * " Treatise on the Pastoral Office," p. 229. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 159 
 
 people would feel it. They would not at- 
 tempt to introduce this dawdling, silly, 
 diurnal chat. When we countenance this, 
 it looks as though — * On the Sunday I am 
 ready to do my business ; and in the week 
 you may do yours.'' This lowers the tone 
 of what I say on the Sabbath. It forms a 
 sad comment on my preaching. I have 
 traced, I think, some of the evil that lies at 
 the root of this. We are more concerned 
 to be thought gentlemen than to be felt 
 as ministers. Now, being desirous to be 
 thought a man who has kept good company, 
 strikes at the root of that rough work — the 
 bringing of God into His own world. It is 
 hard and rough work to bring God into His 
 own world. To talk of a Creator and Pre- 
 server and Redeemer is an outrage on the 
 feelings of most companies."* 
 
 ** Christ is an example to us of entering 
 into mixed society. But our imitation of 
 Him herein must admit of restrictions. A 
 feeble man must avoid danger. If any one 
 could go into society as Christ did, then let 
 
 * " Remains," edit. 1876, p. 139. 
 
i6o LETTERS TO A 
 
 him go : let him attend marriage feasts and 
 Pharisees' houses.''* 
 
 In our desire to be social and genial, and 
 to make ourselves agreeable, we must not 
 forget that gravity should be our charac- 
 teristic. Nor must we allow the desire to 
 *' tell a good story " lead us to be jesters 
 and buffoons, or even triflers. There is no 
 sin in moderately enjoying ** pleasant food." 
 It is as pleasant to us as to other men. But 
 beware of such enjoyment as to expose you 
 to the charge of being ** a man who likes a 
 good dinner and a glass of wine," as those 
 words are commonly understood. In the 
 great majority of cases, a minister of Christ, 
 on looking back upon a large dinner party 
 with its luxurious and costly fare, or an 
 evening party with its inanities — I must 
 add, not seldom, upon the songs sung — 
 finds little or nothing which he can treat 
 with satisfaction. Late hours spent in frivo- 
 lous talk and noisy mirth will soon tell upon 
 your spiritual life. But it is difficult to lay 
 down rules. You must be left to your Bible, 
 
 ■^ " Remains/' edit. 1876, p. 214. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. i6i 
 
 to the example of your Master, to conscience, 
 and to experience. It is, to a great extent, 
 a question of degree, and also of your own 
 3^ temperament, self-control, and gifts. 
 
 It will be no bad rule for us, in our social life 
 and in our recreations, never to be such men 
 as that our people will feel that we their 
 pastors are not the teachers, counsellors, and 
 comforters, whomi they would desire to sum- 
 mon in hours of sickness and sorrow, or 
 upon their beds of death. At such seasons 
 . the veriest worldling among them will feel, 
 if he cares for the presence of a Christian 
 minister at all, that a mere diner-out or 
 morning-caller — a mere ladies' man — a good 
 joker and teller of a story — is not the pastor 
 he would care to call in when he needs a 
 pastor's spiritual help. 
 
 The same spirit of Christian faithfulness 
 and consistency must be your guide in the 
 matter of Recreation. To say that a clergy- 
 man is never to take a cricket bat into his 
 hand after his ordination, never to play a 
 game at croquet or lawn tennis, is surely 
 to take an extreme view. The opposite ex- 
 
 1 1 
 
1 62 LETTERS TO A 
 
 treme, and a most pernicious one, is that a 
 young- clergyman should be at every archery 
 meeting in the district, in every croquet 
 party in the parish. You have to remember 
 that even ^^ lawful'' things are not always 
 *' expedient'' and that the question of degree 
 is important. To urge no other considera- 
 tion, your people should never have reason 
 for concluding that your time is of little 
 value, or that amusement, even though un- 
 objectionable in its nature, becomes a chief 
 occupation and an end. If you err at all, lean 
 always to the side of moderation and gravity. 
 Strictness becomes your office better than 
 laxity. '* Giving no offence in anything, 
 that the ministry be not blamed." It has 
 been most truly said, *' If a minister takes 
 one step into the world, his hearers will take 
 two." 
 
 In connection with this subject of social 
 visiting and general intercourse with your 
 people, I feel bound to offer you, as a young 
 minister, grave and earnest caution upon a 
 delicate point, more particularly if you are 
 unmarried ; and this not merely by reiter- 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 163 
 
 ating St. Paul's caution — '* the younger 
 (women) as sisters with all purity" — but by 
 adding, " with circumspection and gravity." 
 On this point a caution, always useful and 
 even necessary, is doubly so in an age in 
 which, to a mournful and perilous extent, 
 fastness is characteristic of so many young 
 women, even in our congregations. The 
 loss of self-respect and modest womanly 
 demeanour, which, to so great an extent, 
 allows and encourages undue freedom of 
 language and manner on the part of young 
 men in their social intercourse with young 
 women, has infected the Church, not the 
 world only. The young clergyman is] in 
 danger of too great familiarity both of con- 
 duct and language with younger women of 
 the middle or higher class. They, in their 
 turn, are often very susceptible and — truth 
 must be written — sometimes very silly. 
 The young clergyman is kindly received — 
 in some cases, a set is made at him. He 
 is admired, flattered, petted. Gradually he 
 becomes a morning caller, an intimate in 
 the home, a lounger, a joker. He begins 
 
t64 letters to A 
 
 to call daughters by their Christian names ; 
 and flirtation ensues. In some cases it is 
 well if he does not thoughtlessly, or out of 
 sheer vanity, encourage expectations in hearts 
 not proof against familiar attention from an 
 educated young man of good social position, 
 and with the prestige which his spiritual 
 office gives him, in women's eyes more 
 especially. Never be a clerical flirt. Never, 
 even by thoughtlessness, arouse in a woman's 
 heart expectations which are groundless. 
 That some women are foolish enough to 
 cherish them without warrant — that you 
 have never mea7it anything — will be no ex- 
 cuse for you. Never lay yourself open to 
 the charge of flirtation or of heartless 
 trifling-. And, to avoid this mischief, re- 
 member that in no direction does your con- 
 duct need more care than in your social 
 intercourse with the young women of your 
 flock. I am not suggesting that, under the 
 influence of a vain self-consciousness,you 
 should live and talk as under the fear that 
 every young woman will fall in love with 
 you, if you are not very careful ; but I am 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 165 
 
 urging that you should be to young women 
 a grave Christian minister and an honour- 
 able Christian gentleman. 
 
 Yours faithfully^ 
 
 John C. Miller. 
 
IX. 
 
 The Work of the Ministry. — Visitation. {Con- 
 tin2t,ed) 
 
 III. General Visitatiox — The Poor. 
 
 My Dear Brother, — " Prayer and kindly 
 intercourse with the poor are the two great 
 safeguards of spiritual life ; it is more than 
 food and raiment." 
 
 Thus wrote a good and great man, whose 
 time and strength were devoted, for the 
 most part, to duties which did not lead him 
 necessarily to the homes of the poor — Dr. 
 Arnold.* 
 
 The testimony comes with peculiar weight 
 from one whose busy intellectual life was 
 sanctified and elevated by an inner life of 
 high purpose, noble aim, and Christian self- 
 consecration. And if, as we doubt not, his 
 testimony be true, the Christian pastor finds 
 
 * Dean Stanley's " Life of Dr. Arnold," vol. ii., p. 56. 
 
1 68 LETTERS TO A 
 
 in his dilig-ent and kindly visitation of his 
 poor, not only a duty but, a means of foster- 
 ing and developing his own spiritual life. 
 
 It is to \kiQ^ general visitation of your poorer 
 parishioners that I now call your attention. 
 
 It is of the first importance that this be 
 carried out in a right spirit and manner. 
 You must not be a spiritual inquisitor, nor 
 a mere statistician. The old saying, that 
 an Englishman's house is his castle, should 
 always be borne in mind. Knock at his 
 door. Lift his latch — the latch of the poor- 
 est — with courtesy and delicacy. Don't 
 rush in rudely, because he is not a squire, 
 or a tenant farmer, or a tradesman. Re- 
 spect his home, though it be but a cottage 
 or a hovel. Avoid mealtimes and the time 
 in which the wife is getting a meal ready. 
 Avoid house-cleaning days and hours. 
 Dean Burgon speaks of "the fatal error 
 (for such it is) of calling at the wrong time." 
 It is a great mistake to keep all your courtesy 
 and consideration for the well-to-do and 
 the great. Be sure of this ; the poor soon 
 recognize and appreciate a gentleman — not 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 169 
 
 the lacquered sham of a mere conventional 
 gentleman, — but the true gentleman, whose 
 refinement is shown, not by an elaborate 
 condescension but, by delicate considera- 
 tion for the rights and feelings of others. 
 In your desire to be at your ease with them, 
 don't be rough and rude. *' He that will be 
 respected must respect."* 
 
 I have said that you are not to go in the 
 spirit of a mere statisticia^i. You may want, 
 for your own convenience or for public pur- 
 poses, to tabulate certain particulars ; but, 
 as a rule, avoid taking memoranda in their 
 presence. Reserve these until you are out 
 of sight. This hint applies particularly to 
 large parishes, in which you may wish to 
 tabulate population, number of families in a 
 house, number of children in a family, and 
 many other points of inquiry. In such 
 cases avoid all approach to inspection or 
 officialism. Never lose the spirit and the 
 manner of a friend. '' Let a circumstance 
 also be stated in passing," writes Dean 
 Burgon, " which is perhaps sometimes lost 
 
 * George Herbert's " Country Parson," ch. xxviii. 
 
170 LETTERS TO A 
 
 sight of in visiting persons of the humbler 
 class; namely, that their feelings are quite as 
 acute as ours. They do not indeed feel what 
 we feel, but they feel as we do. They have a 
 code of their own, which there is no danger 
 of our violating, if we be but sincerely 
 desirous not to hurt their feelings."* 
 
 You must be a good listener. Some of 
 your old folk will sorely try your patience 
 by diffuseness ; sometimes by giving you 
 more of their early history than you care 
 to hear ; sometimes by over-minuteness in 
 telling their present troubles. You see and 
 feel that their tale might be told more 
 briefly, and that much need not be told at 
 all. But often you must bear it. You 
 must not appear impatient. It is a pleasure 
 and a relief to them to pour it all out into 
 your ears. You must largely condescend to 
 their infirmity by being a good listener. 
 They will be greatly drawn to you by your 
 patient sympathy. 
 
 You will not understand me to extend 
 this patience to gossip about other people 
 
 * Page 236. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 171 
 
 in your parish. Against this you must set 
 your face and close your ears. You may be 
 tempted to encourage it — or, at least, to 
 allow it — under the pretence that it is well 
 for you to know as much as you can about 
 everybody in your parish ; and that in this 
 way you may pick up information which 
 may be useful to you. But such a mode of 
 picking up information is vicious in prin- 
 ciple. The end will not justify the means. 
 
 You will probably be assisted in this part 
 of your pastoral duties by lay helpers. 
 Your District Visitors will go as your fellow- 
 workers and, in a sense and measure, your 
 representatives. Teach and train them to 
 go in the spirit and manner now recom- 
 mended to yourself. Not as superior beings, 
 not as inquisitors, critics, censors, or statis- 
 ticians ; but with sympathy, tenderness, 
 courtesy, consideration. What is wanted is 
 not officialism, but manly and womanly 
 sympathy. And, underlying all and domi- 
 nating all, not mere neighbourly kindness 
 and philanthropy, not a mere desire to set 
 things socially, domestically, and physically 
 
172 LETTERS TO A 
 
 right in your parish, but to win, and warn, 
 and counsel, and comfort, and build up, by 
 spiritual work, as a spiritual friend. 
 
 You may be surprised to hear me say 
 that it is sometimes possible to over-visit. 
 This may seldom apply to your own visits, 
 but, unless I am mistaken, it applies to 
 some District Visitors. They drop in too 
 often. They make themselves too cheap. 
 Sometimes they may even be troublesome ; 
 just as tracts may be left too often, and be- 
 come a drug in their homes. 
 
 I pass on to a subject of great importance 
 and difficulty closely connected with your 
 visitation of your poor — a department of our 
 work which, after forty years' experience 
 amid large populations, I regard to-day as 
 one of the most difticult duties which we are 
 called to perform — Temporal Relief, as 
 administered by ourselves or by our agents. 
 
 The subject is attracting great attention 
 at this time, and there is some danger of 
 our rushing from one extreme to the other. 
 I have long been convinced that it requires 
 very careful and very grave consideration. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 173 
 
 Our indiscriminate almsgiving and many of 
 our parish doles have wrought great social 
 mischief in pauperizing our people. The 
 waste of the money has been the least part 
 of the evil. Far worse has been the social 
 mischief, in the weakening or destroying the 
 sense of independence and self-help ; worse 
 still the premium upon self-indulgence, im- 
 providence, and drunkenness. I shall never 
 forget one scene in my later parochial ex- 
 perience. At a meeting held in one of my 
 school-rooms, some few years since, one of 
 my leading parishioners, who devotes much 
 time and much of the thought of an intelli- 
 gent and vigorous mind to social questions, 
 gave utterance, before an audience of poor 
 folk and of working men, to the conviction 
 that they too, like those in the well-to-do 
 classes, should, in time of full work and 
 wages, '* lay up for a rainy day." He was 
 met by derisive hisses and howls. *' What ! ' ' 
 thought I to myself, ''have our charities, 
 our doles, and our relief-tickets, brought us 
 to this?" 
 
 A further mischief has resulted, and one 
 
174 LETTERS TO A 
 
 which bears directly upon our spiritual 
 work. One of my lady- visitors was offering 
 a poor woman a few words of spiritual 
 counsel about herself and her family. 
 *' Oh ! " said the woman, with enough of 
 plain-speaking frankness, certainly, *'we 
 don't want none of that. Have you got a 
 ticket about you?" Thus, to too great 
 an extent, parson, lady-visitor, Scripture- 
 reader, Bible-woman (if used as almoners) 
 are looked upon as relieving officers, and 
 their spiritual errand is, at best, just toler- 
 ated in the hope of loaves and fishes. 
 
 Lay it down as a principle of national im- 
 portance, that indiscriminate and injudicious 
 almsgiving is a national mischief. You have 
 a principle of sound political economy in 
 the New Testament, written with all the 
 authority of Divine inspiration — ** Even 
 when we were with you, this we commanded 
 you, that if any would not work, neither 
 should he eat." * 
 
 How many a drunkard has felt one re- 
 straint weakened or altogether removed by 
 
 * 2 Thess. iii. lo. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 175 
 
 the thought that '' the parson or the visiting 
 lady will take care of the wife and family." 
 
 Remember then, that by unwise almsgiv- 
 ing — not to be dignified with the name of 
 charity — you are not only misapplying 
 money, but doing public mischief. You 
 are contributing, as far as in you lies, and 
 within the area of your influence, to the 
 perpetuating and the increase of impro- 
 vidence, idleness, and vice. 
 
 But I have said that there is nowadays 
 danger of our rushing to the opposite 
 extreme — the extreme of a stony-hearted 
 political economy which would either banish 
 almsgiving from the duties and privileges 
 of Christian men, or rob such charity of its 
 grace by the dry, grudging, suspicious 
 spirit in which it is bestowed. True, Chris- 
 tian ministers, and Ladies Bountiful, and 
 District Visitors have been — and are — very 
 injudicious. The good which they are 
 doing is alloyed with much harm. But our 
 Bibles — Old and New Testament — are too 
 full of precepts and exhortations and bene- 
 dictions and threatenings to allow us to 
 
176 LETTERS TO A 
 
 neglect the poor, or to deal with them 
 harshly. " The poor shall never cease out 
 of the land," is as true of England as of 
 Judea. " Ye have the poor always with 
 you," says our great Master. 
 
 I need do no more than remind you and 
 myself how touchingly, but how solemnly, 
 God appears and speaks as the champion 
 and avenger of the poor in the Old Testa- 
 ment, and in the injunctions of our Lord 
 and His apostles in the New Testament. 
 Under these old heavens and this old earth 
 poverty will never be extirpated. A vast 
 amount of it is self-induced and self-in- 
 flicted. A vast amount, therefore, may be 
 remedied, palliated, and removed. By all 
 means let enlightened legislation, religious 
 education, the encouragement of self-reli- 
 ance, industry, and providence, be combined 
 to lessen its amount and its severity. But 
 there will always be room for the exercise 
 of wise Christian almsgiving, because there 
 will always be deserving poor. And when 
 we have shut up our bowels of compassion 
 against the idle, the reckless, and the pro- 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 177 
 
 fligate, there will remain a large and varied 
 mass of poverty with which the Christian 
 Church must deal, and feel it to be a privi- 
 lege — a Christ-like, God-like privilege — to 
 deal. We must not, for a moment, imagine 
 that there is no poverty which is not the 
 result of direct personal fault. In the 
 widow and the fatherless, in the sick and 
 aged, who could not have provided for the 
 day of sickness or old age, in those who 
 have been stricken by one or other of the 
 calamities of life, there will remain those 
 whom God commends to us in His Word, 
 and in compassionating whom we may 
 bring down upon ourselves His heavenly 
 benediction. Let us organize against pro- 
 fessional beggars and against impostors, 
 but let us not organize almsgiving out of 
 the Church, as if the whole question were 
 to be solved by the workhouse. Our work- 
 houses, like our hospitals, may be due to 
 Christianity, and standing evidences of that 
 care for the poor which Christianity, in the 
 spirit and after the example of its Divine 
 Founder, enjoins. But the Christian Church 
 
 12 
 
1.78 LETTERS TO A 
 
 is not to relegate all her poor to the work- 
 house ; nor is the relieving officer the sub- 
 stitute for the Christian pastor and his 
 Christian flock. 
 
 What then is to be done ? In a large 
 and poor parish the difficulty is very great. 
 It is so easy to raise money for the poor ; so 
 pleasant to give it away. The importunate 
 and the clamorous, always the least deserv- 
 ing, give you no trouble. They are often at 
 the parsonage or the vestry. The deserving 
 are among the timid and retiring, and must 
 be searched out. I am not undertaking to 
 give you a cut and dried plan. You must, 
 according to the character and circum- 
 stances of your parish, the amount of your 
 charitable resources, the strength of your 
 staff of helpers, work your way to your own 
 plans. Appreciate the difficulty; try to 
 grapple with it, and to minimize it, at any 
 rate. Distinguish clearly between scriptural 
 almsgiving and easy, careless money- giving. 
 You must have principles and you must 
 have plan. Never give without inquiry. 
 Never encourage the running about after 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 179 
 
 tickets. Whether or no your spiritual 
 helpers should also be your almoners, 
 whether you should form a lay- relief com- 
 mittee, are points open to question. The 
 difficulties are so great in large and poor 
 parishes, that one is tempted to throw it off 
 from one's own brains and shoulders upon 
 laymen. But I have never been able to see 
 my way to dissociate myself entirely from 
 the administration of relief to the poor. 
 The example of our Master seems to forbid 
 it. He cared for the bodily wants of men, 
 although His great mission was to save 
 their souls. While then I would gladly 
 ** serve tables" less, I have never seen my 
 way to commit this duty wholly to others. 
 The poor will have little faith in our care for 
 them, if we recognize their spiritual wants 
 only. 
 
 At all events, whatever your plans and 
 agencies, avoid charitable bribery, ** The 
 household of faith " find their representa- 
 tives, in human judgment, in regular wor- 
 shippers and communicants. But one hears 
 with shame of days — past, we would hope, 
 
i8o LETTERS TO A 
 
 for ever — when a dole from the sacrament 
 money was the regular reward of poor com- 
 municants. I should be ashamed to refute 
 the misapplication of our Lord's example, 
 were it not that I once heard it used 
 seriously by a clergyman, who forgot that 
 our Lord did not induce the multitude to 
 follow Him by promising them loaves and 
 fishes ; but worked His bounteous miracle 
 to sustain them after their attendance ; 
 and on one of the two occasions, warned 
 them that they were seeking Him because 
 they had eaten of the loaves, and were 
 filled. 
 
 Clearly, one of the best means of helping 
 the poorer classes is by stimulating them 
 to provident habits, by moderate premiums 
 upon deposits, whether in penny banks or in 
 our various clubs. There are not wanting 
 instances in which, with no premium, deposit 
 clubs are very successful. 
 
 It is greatly to be desired that the provi- 
 dent prmciple should be applied very generally 
 to medical relief also. 
 
 You will hardly need to be warned 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. i8i 
 
 against giving relief in 7noney. There will 
 be a case occasionally in which it will be 
 both wise and considerate to give the re- 
 cipient the opportunity of spending your 
 gift for himself; but these cases will be rare 
 exceptions. If you are well assured on the 
 score of sobriety, more especially, and have 
 good grounds for confidence, it will be well 
 to show it in an unsuspecting spirit. Amid 
 many who are unworthy, there are those 
 among the poor whom you may thoroughly 
 trust, and they will make your money go 
 farther than you can, and more exactly meet 
 their special wants. You will find it very 
 hard to teach and train your District Visitors 
 in this matter. Their tendency is to let the 
 temporal element of their office obscure the 
 spiritual. I am supposing that you give 
 relief, in some measure, through them. 
 They are too apt to degenerate into reliev- 
 ing officers. As women, they have tender 
 hearts, and are too often sensitive and 
 impulsive. All your reasonings, however 
 sound and scriptural your political economy, 
 are powerless before a case of poverty. 
 
i82 LETTERS TO A YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 
 
 Their hearts run away with their heads. 
 Wise district visitors are rare. Mere ticket- 
 givers are rife. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 John C. Miller. 
 
X. 
 
 Public Catechizing — Schools — Bible Classes — 
 Confirmation. 
 
 My dear Brother, — ** The neglect of 
 Catechizing is the frustrating of the whole 
 work of the Christian ministry." The state- 
 ment, as thus made by an eminent Bishop, 
 is over-strong, but is nevertheless true, to 
 no inconsiderable extent. 
 
 ** The Curate of every parish shall dili- 
 gently upon Sundays and Holy-days, after 
 the Second Lesson at Evening Prayer, 
 openly in the Church instruct and examine 
 as many Children of his Parish sent unto 
 him, as he shall think convenient, in some 
 part of this Catechism." 
 
 **And all Fathers, Mothers, Masters, and 
 Dames, shall cause their Children, Servants, 
 and Apprentices, (which have learned their 
 
1 84 LETTERS TO A 
 
 Catechism,) to come to the Church at the 
 time appointed, and obediently to hear, and 
 be ordered by the Curate, until such time as 
 they have learned all that is here appointed 
 for them to learn/' 
 
 Such are the injunctions, as set forth in 
 the rubrics at the end of the Catechism, in 
 the Book of Common Prayer. 
 
 *'If," writes Dean Burgon,* ''there be 
 one practice more than another which has 
 been urgently recommended by our Divines, 
 as well as emphatically enjoined, and yet 
 has fallen into general desuetude, it is this. 
 The rubrics of every edition of the Prayer 
 Book have been express, and they have ever 
 increased in stringency. In 1549, the curate 
 ' once in six weeks at the least .... once 
 upon some Sunday or holiday, half an hour 
 before Evensong^ was required * openly in 
 the church, to instruct and examine so many 
 children,' etc. In 1552, catechizing was 
 enjoined * upon Sundays ^Xi^ holidays;^ and 
 then made a regular weekly ordinance. By 
 the canon of 1603 (No. Ix.) it was enforced 
 
 * Page 279. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 185 
 
 under penalty of exco7nmimication to * Parson, 
 Vicar, or Curate,' as well as to the people 
 who neglected it. In 1662, the rubric sus- 
 tained a memorable alteration. Catechizing 
 was to take place ' after the Second Lesson 
 at Evening Prayer,' the evident intention 
 being to secure the presence of the congre- 
 gation. But instead of drawing to the Cate- 
 chism, this had the effect of driving away 
 from the prayers." 
 
 I have no hesitation in affirming that the 
 very general (although not universal) neg- 
 lect of these injunctions has been a great 
 spiritual loss to our people, and that the 
 universal revival of Public Catechizing, by 
 obedience to these rubrics, — at least in their 
 spirit,* — is greatly to be desired. 
 
 And when I say this, I mean by Cate- 
 chizing, actual Catechizing — not religious 
 instruction only, but — religious instruction 
 by question and answer. 
 
 Is it not a fact that even now, after all 
 
 * Now-a-days, when our composite service is divided, the 
 Litany is sometimes read as the service for the afternoon, 
 without a lesson or lessons. 
 
1 86 LETTERS TO A 
 
 our religious teaching in our day and Sun- 
 day schools, a large number even of our 
 church-going folk are mournfully — I had 
 almost said disgracefully — ignorant of 
 elementary religious truth ? And this 
 applies, not only to servants and to the 
 humbler classes, but to children in the 
 classes above them, not excluding the 
 highest. Have we not, to a great extent, 
 allowed the latter to slip through our 
 fingers ? Are they not too often far more 
 ignorant of these elementary and funda- 
 mental truths than our best school-children ? 
 They are brought to church by their parents, 
 but our sermons are necessarily unsuited, 
 in great measure, to their knowledge and 
 capacities. Hence it has become one of 
 the pressing questions with which the 
 Church has to deal at this moment, ** How 
 we may reach the children of the upper and 
 middle classes." For there are thousands 
 of the children of our nobility, gentry, and 
 upper tradesmen who would be *' nowhere " 
 in a competitive examination with the children 
 in our parochial day and Sunday schools. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 187 
 
 True, within the last few years, Services 
 for the Young and Children^ s Services have 
 happily become common. Earnest pastors 
 have felt that there was a want, and have, 
 to this extent, and by these means, tried 
 to meet it. And these services are most 
 valuable. No pastor who has tried them, 
 unless he be utterly destitute of the gift 
 of speaking simply, lovingly, tersely, and 
 graphically to children and young people, 
 has found them fail. But I submit, notwith- 
 standing, that these services do not fully 
 meet the want. As I have written in a 
 former letter, such addresses may be — and 
 should be — made, to a great extent, cate- 
 chetical. Every now and then a skilled 
 preacher throws in a question, and, as the 
 children do not know at any moment that 
 a question may not be put, such a plan 
 keeps them on the qui vive. 
 
 But, for the most part, systematic teaching 
 is wanted, whether on the Catechism of 
 the Church, or on a series of consecutive 
 subjects and parts of Holy Scripture. By 
 systematic teaching is not meant the com- 
 
i88 LETTERS TO A 
 
 pression of their knowledge and faith into 
 some narrow system of theology of man's 
 devising, but systematic teaching in the 
 sense of an orderly consecutive, compre- 
 hensive arrangement of scriptural truth, as 
 opposed to that which is random and desul- 
 tory. 
 
 *' But," you say, *^ you are forgetting or 
 ignoring our Sunday schools. Are not 
 they an adequate substitute for the old- 
 fashioned catechizing enjoined by the Prayer 
 Book, and a substitute more in accordance 
 with our modern likings and habits ? '' 
 
 Let no words drop from my pen in unjust 
 and ungrateful depreciation of Sunday 
 schools. Least of all at an educational 
 crisis when, under the working of present 
 legislation, they are becoming of greater 
 importance than ever, and when we recog- 
 nize with thankfulness that clergy and laity 
 are putting forth efforts for their greater 
 efficiency, and are impressing upon our 
 teachers the growing importance of their 
 holy work and their heavier responsibilities. 
 
 I should be digressing, perhaps, too 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 189 
 
 widely from the special object of these 
 letters, were I to enlarge on the benefits 
 which we have long reaped from our Sun- 
 day schools, if only in the fact that they 
 have brought thousands of loving Christian 
 workers of a higher social grade into sym- 
 pathetic contact with thousands upon thou- 
 sands of the children of the humbler classes. 
 
 ** Teacher," to use the children's term, 
 has not seldom become the watchful, wise, 
 and affectionate friend and adviser of his or 
 her scholars. Nor is it to be forgotten that 
 our Sunday schools have presented a field 
 of Christian work to countless Christians, of 
 both sexes and of all ages, when, having 
 been impressed by a Saviour's love, and 
 drawn from selfish idleness or worse, they 
 have felt an earnest zeal for that Saviour 
 and for souls for which He died kindling 
 in their hearts. These schools have given 
 them a niche as Christian workers. From 
 them has sounded out the call — *' Go work 
 to-day in my vineyard." 
 
 All this, and more than this, is heartily 
 recognized. 
 
I90 LETTERS TO A 
 
 Nevertheless — the statement, as I know 
 from experience, will gravely displease 
 many whom I am sorry to offend — my con- 
 viction, long felt and firmly held, is that, 
 on the whole, the actual spiritual results 
 OF OUR Sunday schools have been over- 
 rated. Observe, I say — on the whole — 
 not doubting for an instant that they have 
 been largely blessed, and that many a 
 Sunday-school teacher can give decisive and 
 cheering evidences of life-long good and 
 of rich blessing upon lambs of the Good 
 Shepherd's flock, who, in later years or on 
 beds of early death, have given every reason 
 to hope that, as the result of their teacher's 
 efforts, they have learned to love their Father 
 in heaven and His dear Son their Lord. 
 
 But my point is not to disparage Sunday 
 schools — far, very far, be it from one who, 
 during his ministry, has found, in three 
 large parishes, some of his most devoted 
 and efficient ** helpers in Christ Jesus" 
 among his Sunday-school teachers. My 
 point is this, that the most efficient Sunday 
 schools are not a sufficient substitute for the 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 191 
 
 ancient Church practice of public catechiz- 
 ing by the parish clergy. For the clergy- 
 man is thus brought into direct contact with 
 the lambs of the flock, as their pastor. In 
 very many of our parishes the clergyman 
 can do little else on Sunday for his Sunday 
 school than visit it. Whether he be a coun- 
 try clergyman, single-handed — sometimes 
 with a distant hamlet in his parish — or a 
 town clergyman, with a large church — to 
 become a regular teacher in his Sunday 
 school is to undertake work beyond his 
 physical strength. No man who has to 
 preach, for instance, in the morning should 
 lose the freshness of his spirit and of his 
 physical strength by teachmg in his Sunday 
 school. In very many cases he will be single- 
 handed throughout two services at least, 
 to say nothing of the administration of the 
 Lord's Supper and of surplice duty. Not to 
 go into the varying details of varying cases, 
 it may be taken as a rule that most clergy- 
 men would be overtasked, mentally or phy- 
 sically, by being Sunday-school teachers. 
 But let the arrangements of the day's duties 
 
192 LETTERS TO A 
 
 be such as that Public Catechizing shall 
 have its place, according to local circum- 
 stances, in the Church services. Whether 
 literal compliance, every Sunday, with the 
 rubric be impracticable or undesirable for 
 the spiritual interests of his people, as a 
 whole, is not for me to determine. I am 
 contending for obedience to the spirit, at 
 least, of our Church's requirements. In my 
 own case, I have felt it to be right to have 
 a monthly children's service, the addresses 
 at which are characterized by something of 
 the catechetical element ; and sometimes to 
 announce public catechizing pure and simple. 
 It may be that, at first, there will be a 
 little discontent among the worshippers at 
 afternoon service, but this will seldom last 
 long. Servants, who, it will be observed, 
 are included by name in the rubric, will soon 
 find and acknowledge that, if catechizing be 
 well conducted by the minister, they learn 
 more from it than from his sermons. In- 
 stead of dozing under the latter, their in- 
 terest in the answers of the children (even 
 if you cannot induce them to answer for 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 193 
 
 themselves), and the simple, intelligible form 
 which the teaching must assume, must help 
 him greatly. 
 
 ** The chief difficulty attending this ordi- 
 nance," again to quote Dean Burgon,* *' is 
 to preserve a middle course between, on the 
 one hand, so exclusively teaching the chil- 
 dren as to annoy the congregation ; and, on 
 the other, so exclusively teaching the con- 
 gregation that the children shall be practi- 
 cally overlooked. The former method makes 
 catechizing first unpopular, then impracti- 
 cable ; while the latter renders it null and 
 void, destroying its professed purpose. We 
 must ever have an eye to the instruction of 
 those lambs of the fold who come to be 
 taught ' which be the first principles of the 
 oracles of God' (Heb. v. 12). But this need 
 not make our teaching unacceptable to their 
 elders. By frequent remarks of a loftier kind, 
 which we shall not affect to address to the 
 juniors, but to the congregation at large, we 
 shall seek to conciliate indulgence in respect 
 of the elementary instruction which it is our 
 
 * Page 280. 
 
 13 
 
194 LETTERS TO A 
 
 declared purpose to convey. But it is a 
 mistake to imagine that elementary instruc- 
 tion is unacceptable to country people of 
 mature age. Many simple things which fall 
 from us are new to them ; or we explain 
 what they have often wished to know about, 
 but have been ashamed to ask." 
 
 Only, truth must be told, even though it 
 sound discouragingly. Public Catechiz- 
 ing is to few of us an easy work. Some men 
 have special love for children and special 
 gifts for attracting and teaching them. An 
 electric sympathy — strange and undefinable 
 — is at once felt on both sides. They see in 
 their questioner, not a stern, prim, unelastic 
 man, with the aspect and tone of a formid- 
 able schoolmaster, but a man whose face 
 beams, because his heart yearns, at the 
 sight of a group or mass of Christ's little 
 ones gathered before him, to be fed in 
 Christ's pastures and won to Christ's love. 
 They soon remember that he too was once 
 a child, and feel that he knows a child's 
 heart. 
 
 It would be absurd to deny — we see it in 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 195 
 
 our homes — that all men are not such as I 
 am describing. We see too that children 
 are keenly sensible of the difference between 
 those who speak to them from hearts which 
 love children, and those who speak unreally, 
 unsympathizingly, and by constraint. And 
 it would be absurd to deny that all men 
 have not the gift of dealing with children. 
 But you must not dismiss this part of your 
 duty by saying, **I have no gift for it." If it 
 be a duty, you must try by observation, by 
 diligence, by practice, by prayer, to discharge 
 it to your very best, as God, by His Spirit, 
 may enable you. And in discharging it, re- 
 member Xh.'dX preaching \% not catechizing, — that 
 is, the strength lies in being catechetical. You 
 must not ride off into a sermonette. Keep 
 to question and answer. Catechize it into 
 them, as it has been often and well put, 
 and then catechize it out of them. You will 
 never know what you have succeeded in put- 
 ting in, until you see what you can draw 
 out. 
 
 In putting your questions, be very brief, 
 very plain, and very pointed. Consider your 
 
196 LETTERS TO A 
 
 question before you put it. Be careful not 
 to bewilder young and weak brains by put- 
 ting the question in two or three forms at 
 once — I mean by mending it and patching 
 it as you go on. I remember to have been 
 told that Bishop Blomfield, who could edit 
 ^schylus, was a very good catechizer, and 
 that one of the elements of his excellence 
 was that he never put his question twice — 
 that is, he never puzzled the children by 
 mending it as he went on. 
 
 Never discourage or humble a child by 
 ridiculing what may be a wrong, or even 
 silly, answer. Very much oftener than we 
 think, a child has a reason for such an 
 answer. He has some association in his 
 mind, thoroughly blundering perhaps, which 
 prompts his answer, however wide of the 
 mark, and even laughable. A kindly smile 
 must be all ; not a contemptuous laugh nor 
 an angry reproof. 
 
 Your catechizing should be wound up by 
 a few moments of direct personal and prac- 
 tical application. Don't let it end as a 
 lesson for the head. Leave the impression 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 197 
 
 that, however much you wish to instruct their 
 minds, your first aim is to reach their hearts ; 
 that they are not to be content with glib and 
 correct answers, but are learning lessons of 
 the highest moment, and for daily practice. 
 
 The benefit to yourself will be very great 
 — great in proportion to your own intellec- 
 tual power and to your acquirements. To 
 instil the most solemn truths into young 
 hearts will be found to bring a reflex benefit 
 to men of highest mental grasp and culture. 
 It helps them to clearness and thoroughness 
 of view. They cannot teach others what 
 they do not see clearly themselves. It 
 obliges them to be simple. It brings them 
 from the abstract to the concrete. 
 
 From what has been already said, you will 
 have gathered that your catechizings are 
 not to be announced and carried on as for the 
 children of the poor only. Stir up parents of 
 all classes to send their children. Stir up 
 masters and mistresses to send their ser- 
 vants. Be assured that it will be your 
 fault if your catechumens do not value and 
 enjoy it. 
 
198 LETTERS TO A 
 
 It is important to encourage preparation 
 on their part, by announcing your subject 
 beforehand. Particularly let your day-school 
 masters and mistresses prepare their scholars. 
 Readiness on the part of even a few to 
 answer will stimulate others, and your efforts 
 will not be frustrated by a dead silence. 
 Let me here repeat what I urged in a former 
 letter. In your desire to interest children in 
 your sermons and catechizings, beware of 
 losing gravity and unction. Let your live- 
 liness be tempered by gravity. In striving 
 to attract and hold their attention, never 
 drop into irreverence. This caution is not 
 needless. It is given by one who is now 
 conscious of having erred. 
 
 Obviously, it is most desirable to direct 
 their attention to the seasons of the Church's 
 year. Explain to them the meaning of the 
 terms Septuagesima, Sexagesimal Quiiiqua- 
 gesimay Lent, etc., etc. ; and, from time to 
 time, explain to them any words in the 
 Prayer Book which are now used in a 
 different sense or have become obsolete. 
 While your first endeavour is to ground 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 199 
 
 them well in the understanding of Holy 
 Scripture, and to press practical lessons 
 upon their consciences and hearts, do not 
 lose sight of the duty of helping to train 
 them, as members of the Church of Eng- 
 land, to the intelligent and edifying use of 
 her Prayer Book. Give them, therefore, a 
 general view of the construction and order of 
 our Liturgy. You need not to be told that, 
 in thus doing, you will not be substituting 
 the Prayer Book for the Bible, but richly 
 illustrating the former from the latter. 
 And, without leading them into the thorny 
 paths of theological controversy, point out 
 to elder children and servants, when oc- 
 casion arises, the difference between the 
 teaching of their Church and Romish error. 
 Take, for instance, the worship of the Virgin 
 Mary and the ministratio7z of angels. It is 
 easy and most important to show, simply 
 and plainly, the distinction between Catholic 
 truth, as held by our Church, and the accre- 
 tions of Romish superstition and idolatry. 
 
 Already I have necessarily said some- 
 thing about Sunday Schools, in speaking 
 
200 LETTERS TO A 
 
 of Public Catechizing. Visit your Sunday 
 school personally as often as you can. Your 
 lengthened absence will discourage your 
 superintendent and teachers, and give an 
 impression that you set no great store by 
 them. 
 
 Insist as far as possible on continuous and 
 systematic teaching, not haphazard lessons 
 at the judgment or caprice of the teachers. 
 " The Church of England Sunday School 
 Institute" and ''The Sunday School Union" 
 furnish abundant and excellent materials, if 
 you have neither time nor talent to draw out 
 systematic courses for yourself. 
 
 One great difficulty, often a very serious 
 and embarrassing one, is to procure good 
 teachers — good, not only as godly, zealous, 
 and well-meaning, but as being fairly edu- 
 cated themselves, and skilled in teaching. 
 In larger districts it will be found most 
 desirable to form a Teachers' Union, if you 
 will, in connection with the Church of Eng- 
 land Sunday School Institute, and to have 
 monthly meetings, at least, for addresses, 
 and especially for model lessons and prac- 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 201 
 
 tising classes. In Greenwich, as in many 
 other places, these are found to be of great 
 value to all the teachers, especially to 
 novices. They have the additional effect of 
 binding the teachers together. An annual 
 public meeting or social gathering calls the 
 attention of parishioners generally to Sun- 
 day-school work, and draws out their sym- 
 pathies. In cases in which such plans are 
 impracticable, it is most important that one 
 of the clergy have teachers' classes, taking 
 beforehand the lessons to be given on the 
 following Sunday. Insist continually that it 
 is essential to be largely catechetical. Check 
 sermonettes. It is so much easier for a 
 teach^ to sit down and pour out a stream 
 of washy talk than to catechize. 
 
 Looked at in the light of their self-denial, 
 our teachers are, many of them, among the 
 most self-denying workers in the Church of 
 Christ; for they are drawn very largely 
 from the ranks of persons who labour hard, 
 early and late, during six days. We can 
 hardly appreciate their Sunday work in our 
 schools too gratefully. But most of them 
 
202 LETTERS TO A 
 
 are, at first, thoroughly raw and unskilled. 
 Some plan therefore must be carried out 
 for their instruction and training. 
 
 A few words on the attendmice at church 
 of Sunday scholars. At length, common 
 sense has begun to prevail in many parishes. 
 The question has often been asked despond- 
 ingly, *' How is it that so many who have 
 been taught in our Sunday schools drop out 
 of the number of our church-goers when 
 they have left us? " To a larger extent, I 
 believe, than we have been aware of, this has 
 been owing to the distaste which they have 
 felt, when scholars, for our mistakes about 
 church attendance. No parent in his senses 
 would deal with his own children as we have 
 dealt with thousands of our Sunday scholars. 
 We have kept them from nine or half-past 
 nine in the morning, often under a prosy, 
 preaching teacher, until church time. We 
 have then taken them to church, and too 
 often thrust them into our under galleries, 
 in out of the way sittings, where they could 
 see and hear but imperfectly, if at all. We 
 have given them full morning prayer, and a 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 203 
 
 sermon, if not long, yet utterly unsuited to 
 their capacities. They have either fallen 
 asleep or amused themselves. And, if we 
 have not all of us set a functionary over 
 them such as I once heard a clergyman 
 from the North humorously describe — a 
 nobbier I — to hit and poke them as they fell 
 asleep under the pressure of heat and bad 
 air — we have, at any rate, wondered that, 
 when they grew up, their reminiscences of 
 church-going were not such as to induce 
 them to continue their attendance. And if 
 all have not exclaimed, as a young man did 
 at Birmingham, as he passed by when the 
 church bell struck up, *' How I hate that 
 bell ! " — in remembrance of his Sunday 
 weariness — they have brought away a dis- 
 taste for what was, in their school days, so 
 irksome to mind and body. Better far to 
 make it the privilege of the elder scholars 
 to come to church, and to give the young- 
 sters and the tinies a short and suitable 
 service in their school-room or elsewhere. 
 
 Use all your endeavours to retain older 
 boys and girls at school. But remember 
 
204 LETTERS TO A 
 
 how sensitive you were, when emerging into 
 manhood, if any one treated you still as a 
 boy, and you will feel it to be essential to 
 withdraw your elder scholars into a class- 
 room, and not leave them with children. 
 
 Of your duty in your day schools, if 
 happily you retain such, it is unnecessary 
 for me to say much. If your other duties 
 allow it, give some measure of religious 
 instruction in them personally. Visit them 
 frequently. Show that you look upon your 
 schoolmasters and schoolmistresses as fel- 
 low workers in a most important part of 
 your work. 
 
 But, if my observation is correct, some 
 clergymen give an undue proportion of their 
 time and energy to their schools. They 
 feel — and feel rightly — the vast importance 
 of the education of the young ; and their 
 schools are not only much to them, but 
 well nigh everything, That a man's schools 
 should be his strong- point may be well if he 
 have a special gift and taste in that direc- 
 tion. By their means he does a great, a 
 •very great, work. But we are ordained, 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 205 
 
 not to be schoolmasters, but pastors and 
 preachers. 
 
 Some parochial clergymen have kept up, 
 as far as possible, a connection between 
 their schools and the scholars who have 
 gone out into life — especially girls who have 
 gone into domestic service — by a yearly 
 gathering of old scholars, and by a reward 
 for continuance in their places. This can be 
 done partially only. But it is an excellent 
 plan. 
 
 Bible Classes, when your other duties 
 allow you time and strength for them, are 
 most valuable for all sorts and conditions 
 of your people. If they are to be successful 
 you must not mix young girls and grown-up 
 women, boys and men. Here too you will 
 require great skill to keep up the catecheti- 
 cal element, and prevent them from be- 
 coming occasions for private preaching. I 
 am not disparaging the latter, — occasions, 
 I mean, for your own direct expositions of 
 Scripture. But these are not Bible classes. 
 
 It will be well, where it is practicable, 
 to give out a few questions to be answered 
 
2o6 LETTERS TO A 
 
 on paper. Correct the mistakes in these 
 papers, and make your comments at a 
 future meeting of the class, without any 
 mention of names. 
 
 Such classes afford an opportunity for 
 the members to ask your help on any diffi- 
 cult texts, or on other points on which 
 they may desire it. Let these be brought 
 to you in writing, and answered, without 
 giving the writer's name, at a future meet- 
 ing. You will find that not a few of your 
 people have difficulties on doctrinal or 
 practical points which they long to have 
 solved, but which they will not venture to 
 bring before you, without invitation and 
 specific opportunity, especially if they know 
 you to be a very busy man. 
 
 There remains one subject to be touched 
 on In this letter — a subject to which much 
 of what has been said leads up — Confir- 
 mation. 
 
 You will find no pastor who throws his 
 heart and energies Into the preparation of 
 his candidates for Confirmation who does 
 not regard it as an opportunity of great 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 207 
 
 value. And very many who are now living 
 consistent Christian lives look back upon 
 their Confirmation, after the instructions of 
 a painstaking pastor, as, under the blessing 
 of God's Spirit of light and life, the turn- 
 ing-point of their soul's history. 
 
 It is one of the most decisive and cheer- 
 ing evidences of a higher standard of duty 
 among the clergy — not our parochial clergy 
 only, but also our clerical schoolmasters — 
 that candidates are no longer presented to 
 the Bishop in the perfunctory and formal 
 way which was too prevalent not many 
 years since. j\Iany an one has said to me, 
 ''' When I was confirmed, I was asked a ques- 
 tion or two in the Catechism, and that was 
 all." No classes, no special instruction. It 
 is most mournful to remember that their 
 Confirmation was but too generally treated 
 as a mere form. Now, thank God, it is 
 regarded by every true-hearted pastor as 
 a golden opportunity, occurring but once ; 
 and, if once lost, never to be recovered. 
 
 Writing to a young clergyman, let me 
 first say, By all means read the admirable 
 
2o8 LETTERS TO A 
 
 volume of Lectures by the late Edward B. 
 Elliot, the learned author of " HorcE Apoca- 
 lypticce.y You will learn much from it in 
 regard to the ecclesiastical history of this 
 rite, and be enabled to put it in a true and 
 unexaggerated view before your candidates. 
 It will be most satisfactory to your own 
 mind to see how, as it is now administered 
 in our Church, it has been freed from ele- 
 ments of superstitious error. 
 
 The precise details of your preparation of 
 candidates must depend very much upon 
 their number, and various other circum- 
 stances which I need not specify. Whether 
 it be desirable to form Classes, or to give 
 Lectures, or to issue Questions to be an- 
 swered in writing, — or to combine all these 
 — when and where Classes are to be held 
 or Lectures given — must be left to your 
 own judgment. And, amid a large mass 
 of Confirmation literature, you must make 
 choice for yourself. Addresses and tracts 
 of varied degrees of excellence abound, from 
 which you must make your selection, accord- 
 ing to your own teaching, and suitable to 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 209 
 
 the capacities and circumstances of your 
 own candidates. Only realize and prize the 
 preclousness of the opportunity. Throw 
 heart and . soul into the work. If possible, 
 with reference to your other duties and 
 the number of your candidates, see each 
 separately. And while it is your duty, as 
 a clergyman, to make the Catechism and 
 the Prayer Book generally the basis of your 
 instructions, rise, and try to raise your 
 young people, to what it really involves. 
 Now is your opportunity to ask searchingly, 
 in the light of their Baptismal privileges 
 and obligations, not simply whether they 
 know their Catechism but, whether they 
 know their Father and their Saviour. Let 
 not the answer to the question, '' What did 
 your godfathers and godmothers then for 
 you ? " be repeated in its letter only, but 
 show how much it involves. Press the 
 question, "- Have you been living as Christ's 
 faithful soldier and servant ? " Try to make 
 them realize that the Baptismal Service was 
 read at their baptism ; that for them those 
 prayers were put up ; for them those vows 
 
 14 
 
210 LETTERS TO A 
 
 made; that into those privileges they were 
 admitted. Press the enquiries, ** Have 
 you lived under the remembrance of your 
 baptismal obligations ? " '' Have you made 
 the great choice?" ^' Are you decided?" 
 ** Are you in the right road ? " ** You wear 
 Christ's uniform. Are you a deserter? Are 
 yon fighting manfully under His banner? " 
 Warn them against the awful mockery of 
 uttering the solemn " I do " of their Con- 
 firmation with their lips only — a lie to God. 
 You will, of course, ask whether they are 
 living in the habit of daily prayer and of read- 
 ing their Bibles. You will be faithful about 
 worldliness. And you will show them that, 
 as Confirmation looks back to Holy Baptism, 
 so it looks forward to Holy Communion^ and 
 that, if they are in a state to be confirmed, 
 they are in a state to become communicants. 
 Many clergymen advise their candidates to 
 communicate on the very next Sunday. My 
 own practice has been to give a course of 
 three or four lectures on the Lord's Supper 
 immediately after Confirmation, and to advise 
 them to attend after such instruction has been 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 211 
 
 given. And it is well to ask all who come, to 
 come as newly confirmed on the same Sunday. 
 
 Forgive me for stating what is my own 
 practice. I am not setting it up dogmati- 
 cally or arrogantly, as a standard for 
 others. 
 
 Your Bible-classes will be found to be an 
 important means of retaining a hold upon 
 those who have been confirmed and taken 
 their places among your communicants. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 John C. Miller, 
 
XL 
 
 Surplice Duty. 
 
 My Dear Brother, — Among the various 
 duties of the Ministry there is none in which 
 we are more in danger of losing life, reality, 
 and freshness, than in that which we com- 
 monly speak of as Surplice Duty — the 
 administration of the Sacrament of Holy 
 Baptism, and the offices for Holy Matrimony, 
 the Churching of Women, and the Burial of 
 the Dead. 
 
 In parishes in which the Surplice Duty 
 is what is termed '* heavy "to — use an 
 objectionable phrase — we are prone to fall 
 into a mechanical, business spirit, and thus 
 to lose reverence, unction, and impressive- 
 ness. 
 
 We may say, with truth and thankfulness. 
 
214 LETTERS TO A 
 
 that, of late years, there has been great im- 
 provement. But we need not go back very 
 far for the days in which these ministrations 
 were gone through disgracefully, not as 
 holy services of prayer and praise, but as 
 formal ceremonies, connected with the pay- 
 ment of fees. Clergyman and parish clerk 
 were alike irreverent, slipshod, and per- 
 functory. The dirtiest of the dirty and 
 mildewed surplices was reserved for them, 
 and services of the highest spiritual tone 
 and of exquisite pathos gabbled through. 
 Men who theoretically attached the highest 
 value to Holy Baptism showed practically 
 no appreciation of that sacrament Vv^hen at 
 the font, and exacted the abomination of 
 baptismal fees, under the pretext of a fee 
 for registration. The mother coming to be 
 *' churched" was taught by her Prayer 
 Book to remember before God that He had 
 ** delivered" her "soul from death," and 
 *' her feet from falling;" but the minister 
 of God hurried in and out perfunctorily, 
 and neither showed sympathy with her joy, 
 nor impressed her with the greatness of the 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 215 
 
 mercy which she came to acknowledge, in 
 having been delivered '* from the great pain 
 and peril of childbirth." The clerk asked 
 (too often sharply) for the fee, and thus 
 ended the brief and perfunctory office. 
 The bride and bridegroom, at an epoch of 
 their life of which Jeremy Taylor has said, 
 **They that enter into a state of marriage 
 cast a die of the greatest contingency, and 
 yet of the greatest interest in the world, 
 next to the last throw for eternity," found 
 provided for them an incomparable service ; 
 but that service was first mutilated, and 
 then hurried through without reverence, 
 sympathy, or pathos ; the Holy Ghost's own 
 Homily, in the concluding exhortation, 
 drawn from Holy Scripture, being alto- 
 gether omitted, because the clergyman was 
 too lazy or too much in a hurry to seize 
 the precious opportunity of impressing upon 
 husband and wife their new duties. 
 
 And — worst of all, if worse were possible 
 — when mourners, often with bleeding and 
 bursting hearts, followed their dead to the 
 grave, the difficult task was achieved of 
 
2i6 LETTERS TO A 
 
 robbing our noble and thrilling Burial 
 Office of well-nigh all its power. 
 
 There were occasions indeed when out- 
 ward reverence was shown and pains were 
 taken. The babe at the font — the mother 
 who came to be churched — the bride and 
 bridegroom — the body to be buried — were 
 from the so-called *' better classes." Then 
 the surplice was clean — the clergyman 
 careful — the clerk spruce. The Service 
 was read with care at least. The Church 
 functionaries were at their best. 
 
 I have said that improvement — great im- 
 provement — has taken place. But this 
 picture is not altogether one of the past. 
 There is room for improvement, even now, 
 in many parishes. 
 
 I know that, where surplice duty is fre- 
 quent, we have need of great and constant 
 watchfulness over ourselves. The tendency 
 is to a spirit of routine and formality. The 
 familiar and oft-read words come naturally 
 to our lips. We know them^ by heart, as 
 we speak, and therefore too often say them 
 without heart. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 217 
 
 Let me offer a few considerations which 
 may help us to do better. 
 
 It may seem unnecessary to remind you 
 that these services are services to God. 
 But are they so ministered by us all ? We 
 are praying to Him who ** cannot be de- 
 ceived, and will not be mocked.'* To Him 
 the praises are offered — even to the High 
 and Holy One, the Searcher of hearts. 
 We are not simply reading a service, but 
 offering worship, asking for blessings, 
 giving thanks for His greatest mercies, 
 reading His holy Word— as truly as in our 
 Morning or Evening Prayer. Surely this 
 should be enough to quicken us to rever- 
 ence, reality, and care. 
 
 Consider, too, the mournful effect pro- 
 duced, almost necessarily, upon those to 
 whom and for whom we are ministering. 
 Can we wonder that these holy and touching 
 offices — connected, each and all of them, 
 with momentous and solemn epochs in their 
 lives — come to be regarded merely as proper 
 and decent forms — things which it is proper 
 to go through — when the minister of God 
 
2i8 LETTERS TO A 
 
 shows himself to be hurried, careless, and 
 unimpressed ? And without sympathy. 
 Which of the chief persons engaged in these 
 services does not deserve sympathy? Surely 
 the helpless babe, born in sin, now to be 
 grafted into Christ's Church, amid the 
 riches of God's covenant love, as his heavenly 
 Father, and to be signed '*with the sign of" 
 Christ's '^ cross, in token that he shall not 
 be ashamed to confess Christ Crucified, and 
 fight manfully under His banner, against 
 sin, the world, and the devil, and to continue 
 Christ's faithful soldier and servant unto his 
 life's end" — surely the mother and the 
 father under their new joys and solemn 
 responsibilities — surely the woman who has 
 come up from the gates of the grave — 
 should be met, not by an ecclesiastical 
 functionary and a fussy parish clerk, but by 
 a sympathising pastor. 
 
 Surely, the spectacle of mortality, however 
 familiar — the humblest group of mourners, 
 the widower, the widow, the fatherless, the 
 childless, the brother, the sister, the friend, 
 for whom the Church has provided the 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 219 
 
 noblest Burial Office in the world, should 
 not be robbed of it by a heartless reader. 
 
 And, in reference to what has been already 
 said about former days, I cannot too ear- 
 nestly entreat you to be on your guard 
 against reserving your reverence and pains 
 and sympathy for the well-to-do, while you 
 slur over your sacred duties in the cases of 
 the humbler classes. 
 
 Do not suppose that I am urging an 
 artificial, over-emphatic, declamatory, dra- 
 matic straining after effect in any case. All 
 I urge is reverence, reality, sympathy, pains. 
 But, if in any case more than ordinary pains 
 be taken, let it be for the poorest. You 
 have to-morrow a baptism, a churching, a 
 marriage, a burial, not from a wealthy 
 tradesman's mansion, nor from '' the Hall," 
 but from the home of a v*^orking man, from 
 the hovel of poverty — may be, from the 
 workhouse. You will not see, in the bap- 
 tismal group or marriage party, silks or 
 satins, jewels or costly array. *' The bride- 
 groom's joy" will draw forth no '^golden 
 fee." Your mourners will not follow a 
 
2 20 LETTERS TO A 
 
 hearse with nodding plumes — it will not be a 
 grand funeral. But the infant's clothes will 
 tell of the parents' poverty — its christening 
 robe will be its mother's shawl. The mother 
 to be churched will be barely clad, and 
 she will kneel perhaps solitarily in God's 
 house to offer up her thanks. There will 
 be brought to you a corpse, for the decent 
 burial of which there has been a hard 
 struggle — or the dead may be lying within 
 a parish coffin. Now, if ever, be reverent, 
 hearty, painstaking. Cherish sympathy, 
 and show it. Do your very best — simply, 
 naturally, lovingly, with the Church's holy 
 offices. 
 
 Do it because it is your duty. Do it 
 because your heart prompts you to it; for 
 these opportunities are golden, and the loss 
 of them great. As you know but too well, 
 in not a few cases you have parishioners 
 at church on these occasions who seldom 
 enter it at other times. Take the Bap- 
 tismal Service and the Burial Service — what 
 sermons are wrapped up in them ! to say 
 nothing of the actual words read from Holy 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 221 
 
 Scripture. What words of Christ more 
 likely to touch a mother's or a father's 
 heart, or to remind sponsors of responsi- 
 bilities too often undertaken to be forgotten, 
 than — ** Suffer the little children to come 
 unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is 
 the kingdom of heaven — " and the record of 
 the Evangelist — " He took them up in His 
 arms, and blessed them"? Oh! there is 
 more than Registration here ! It is a grand 
 opportunity to have people, more or less 
 with softened hearts, brought to listen to 
 the words of God by St. Paul, on sin, death, 
 the resurrection, the end, and the glory. 
 How much of gospel truth have they heard 
 who have heard but this chapter read — 
 following upon the Burial psalms ! 
 
 Consider further the help to your minister 
 among the working classes and the poor. 
 They see, in the case of their own clergy- 
 man, at any rate, a practical contradiction 
 to the allegation that we care only for the 
 rich and well-to- do . The roughest working 
 man — whose prejudices against religion are, 
 alas ! too often grounded on our defects and 
 
2 22 LETTERS TO A 
 
 faults — will be half gained — not to you only, 
 but to God, if he is made to feel, " The 
 parson married me, or churched my wife, 
 or christened my child, or buried my dead, 
 just as if I had been a rich man, or the 
 Squire, or ' my Lord ' himself. He does 
 not look for the broadcloth and the silks 
 and satins ; he's a working man's friend — a 
 poor man's clergyman." 
 
 Let me sum up in a sentence. I am 
 going to use an undignified — you may say a 
 coarse word. But I will write it as I should 
 write it if these letters were never to go 
 beyond manuscript, and never to meet the 
 public eye. Avoid clerical flunkeyisfn — the 
 worship of rank and title — above all, of 
 money. Hateful in all, it is despicable and 
 detestable in a clergyman, who ministers 
 for Him who said, " To the poor the gospel 
 is preached." The minister of Christ should 
 be the last man to show any approach to 
 tuft himting, or the worship of wealth. 
 
 You will be sometimes pained by the 
 patent and offensive heartlessness of the 
 baptismal or marriage party ; by a frivolous 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 223 
 
 and jaunty irreverence. It may not, at all 
 times, be such as to justify direct or sharp 
 rebuke ; but there will be very few cases in 
 which you will not succeed, before the end 
 of the service, in subduing such spirit and 
 conduct. Go through the service with great 
 gravity and solemnity. If necessary, look 
 the triflers fully and steadily in the face. 
 
 The Marriage Service, read devoutly, will 
 break down the hardest. I have seldom, if 
 ever, found it falL And be sure, when you 
 have registered the marriage, not to let 
 them leave the vestry without a kindly word, 
 and a shake of the hand, and a hearty '' God 
 bless you ! " I fear that too often we let 
 them go without this — as if we had done our 
 work, and had no further care about the 
 matter. We are polite and attentive to the 
 rich. The true gentleman — much more the 
 Christian minister — is tested by courtesy 
 and kindness to the artisan and the poor. 
 These points may seem to be trifles. But 
 they tell. They will be long remembered. 
 The working classes and the poor feel them 
 keenly. 
 
2 24 LETTERS TO A YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 
 
 If the size of your parish at all admits 
 of it, follow up these services by a pastoral 
 visit to the mother whom you churched, the 
 parents whose child you have baptized, the 
 bride and bridegroom whom you have joined 
 together in marriage, and the mourners 
 whose dead you have buried. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 John C. Miller. 
 
XII. 
 
 Miscellaneous Counsels. 
 
 My dear Brother, — This my last letter 
 will be devoted to a few miscellaneous points 
 of practical importance for your usefulness 
 and happiness. 
 
 Let me speak to you first of your Rela- 
 tion to your Incumbent. Happy is the young 
 clergyman whose first curacy is under a 
 spiritually-minded, experienced, and able 
 minister of Jesus Christ — one from whose 
 piety, earnestness, ability, and method he 
 may learn much, and who will treat him with 
 the courtesy of a gentleman, the confidence 
 of a friend, and the sympathy of a brother. 
 Happy, too, if he be a teacher and preacher 
 from whose sermons he may derive instruc- 
 tion, not only for his own spiritual edifica- 
 
 15 
 
226 LETTERS TO A 
 
 tion but, for suggestions in his work as a 
 preacher. 
 
 The relation is a delicate one, and needs, 
 more or less, mutual respect, confidence, and 
 forbearance. 
 
 Be loyal to your incumbent. Identify 
 yourself with him and uphold his influence 
 among your people. He will have his faults 
 and failings ; and sometimes these may be 
 a trial to you. He may have his enemies in 
 the parish, or at best, some who have pre- 
 judices against him, and who will be ready 
 to disparage his plans, preaching, and even 
 his character. There may be a party 
 against him. There may be persons so far 
 wanting in good feeling and good taste as 
 to try to draw you into their habit of dis- 
 paragement. If you cannot honestly speak 
 in his praise, be silent. Never allow him to 
 be talked about in your visits, if it be not 
 in terms of respect. I do not mean that he 
 may not deserve all that is said against 
 him. But disparagement should not come 
 from you, his fellow-worker. Say nothing, 
 do nothing, listen to nothing, calculated 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 227 
 
 to undermine his influence or to lower 
 him. 
 
 It would be well were it not needful to 
 give you counsel under the possibility of 
 graver danger in this relationship. There 
 are not wanting instances of painful differ- 
 ences between incumbent and assistant 
 curate which lead to rupture between them, 
 and, as a consequence, to party feeling and 
 party action in the parish. It has always 
 appeared to me — and my experience is now 
 not a short one — that, when a curate finds 
 that he cannot work comfortably with his 
 incumbent — although the fault may be with 
 the latter — it is the duty of the former to 
 seek another post of labour, always except- 
 ing those very rare and painful cases in 
 which to resign the curacy may involve the 
 appearance of shrinking from investigations 
 necessary for the vindication of personal 
 character. Under any other circumstances, 
 neither self-will nor pride should induce a 
 young clergyman to be a party to strife 
 which may last long, create public scandal, 
 and do much mischief to the cause of true 
 
228 LETTERS TO A 
 
 religion in the parish. It is far more in 
 accordance with the spirit and the dictates 
 of Christian duty to give way, even at much 
 personal inconvenience and sacrifice. It 
 may be a painful trial, but to meet it in 
 such a spirit will be followed by a blessing. 
 You may see that you could readily gather 
 round you a party ; and, as I have said, 
 your incumbent may be in the wrong. But 
 an open quarrel in a parish between two 
 ministers of God, who should be working 
 together in harmony, is so great a mischief 
 and so grave a scandal, that it is to be 
 avoided at any sacrifice, short of the sacri- 
 fice of character. An ** incumbent's party" 
 and a ** curate's party" maybe the means 
 of stopping, for awhile, all spiritual good. 
 
 If your incumbent be a kind and genial 
 man, ready to welcome your confidence, 
 encourage his counsels and his criticisms. 
 Ask for hints. Tell him your difficulties. 
 Do not wince if he points out faults in your 
 sermons or otherwise. If he be a thoughtful 
 and able preacher, you may gain many use- 
 ful lessons and hints from his style and 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 229 
 
 manner of preaching. And perhaps it is 
 unavoidable that you should, in some 
 measure, unconsciously catch something of 
 his manner. But, should you be curate to 
 the ablest preacher in the Church of Eng- 
 land, do not so far set him up as your model 
 as to lose your own individuality and origi- 
 nality. Do not be a mere copyist. Culti- 
 vate your own gifts, and be natural. You 
 see how it is among poets. It is one thing 
 to catch something of the spirit of Tennyson. 
 It is another — as many a poetaster shows us 
 now-a-days — to pour out a little Tennyson 
 and a great deal of water. A painter, a 
 sculptor, or architect studies the works of the 
 greatest masters ; but we look for him to 
 give us something better than a mere repro- 
 duction of another man's picture, statue, or 
 building. 
 
 Let me counsel you also to be upon your 
 guard against restlessness^ especially in eager 
 haste for preferment. " I never got any- 
 thing I asked for," said a querulous clergy- 
 man to Bishop Blomfield. ** And I," replied 
 Bishop Blomfield, ** never asked for any- 
 
230 LETTERS TO A 
 
 thing I got." I do not mean that it is not 
 natural and lawful for a young clergyman 
 to look forward hopefully for an indepen- 
 dent position and for a competency ; nor 
 that he is called on to have no aspiration 
 beyond a curacy. Nor do I mean to lay 
 down as an iron rule that he may not him- 
 self take the initiative in putting his name 
 before a patron, either directly or through 
 influential friends. But I mean that he 
 should avoid a restless spirit, and rather 
 watch for God to open a door than be always 
 striving to open a door for himself. You 
 can hardly realize the strength and happi- 
 ness it will give you to be able to feel con- 
 fidently that you did not thriLst yourself into 
 a post, but that the great Bishop and Master 
 clearly opened up your way. Such a spirit 
 He will honour and bless. And when difli- 
 culties and trials arise, it will brace and nerve 
 and comfort you to remember that they arise 
 in a post to which you w^ere clearly called. 
 There are many cases in which the use of 
 means may be lawful and wise. But let 
 them be used in entire dependence on God, 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 231 
 
 in entire submission to His will, and with 
 an absolute acquiescence in disappointment. 
 It may be a tempting prospect, it may be 
 good preferment, but you will not have it 
 unless it is your niche. And this God 
 knows best, and not you. Never toady 
 patrons — bishops or others — in hope of their 
 patronage, however true it may be that 
 there will be cases in which you may 
 modestly put your wishes and claims before 
 them. I remember to have heard of a 
 clergyman who acquired the soubriquet of 
 *' Solicitor-General." 
 
 To pass to another point. Popularity may 
 be your lot. You may not have sought it, 
 nor even expected it. You may find that 
 God has given you pulpit gifts of which you 
 were, as a layman, quite unconscious. Sud- 
 denly you find your congregations large. 
 It soon reaches your ears that your preach- 
 ing is filling the church. Compliments — 
 flattery — pour in. Be on your guard, lest 
 praise be poison. Elements of popularity 
 are elements of great — may be fatal — 
 danger. Go back to God, and while you 
 
232 LETTERS TO A 
 
 give Him thanks for His gifts, as remember- 
 ing that you have nothing which you have 
 not received, pray earnestly for grace, as re- 
 membering that your gifts bring with them 
 the most solemn responsibility. Pray that 
 your popularity may be consecrated to His 
 glory. Be careful not to strain at the reten- 
 tion of popularity by flashy claptrap and 
 bombast. Be on your guard against women' s 
 flattery. Remember that popularity does 
 not always mean true success. Distinguish 
 between the intoxicating flattery which 
 tells you '' What a fine sermon you gave us 
 yesterday!" and the grateful recognition 
 of God's message of counsel and comfort 
 from your lips which will sometimes come to 
 you from those to whom God has made His 
 own word a word of power and blessing. 
 
 You will make a grave mistake if you 
 look upon popularity as the measure of use- 
 fulness. No doubt the gift of preaching is 
 a great gift, and a well-grounded popularity 
 a cause for thankfulness. But, not to speak 
 of the many other functions of your ministry, 
 the popular preacher is by no means neces- 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 233 
 
 sarily the most useful preacher. His preach- 
 ing may be very empty. It may be flashy 
 and frothy. It may tickle ''itching ears," 
 and be '' but as a pleasant song," or as the 
 playing well upon an instrument. There 
 are thousands of faithful, earnest, hard- 
 working ministers, who have no shining or 
 popular gifts, either in or out of the pulpit, 
 of whom I firmly believe that by quiet, 
 persevering labour, and by the eloquent 
 rhetoric of consistent lives, they are doing a 
 far greater, more thorough and more lasting 
 work, albeit they will never be known to 
 fame, than some others who are run after as 
 great preachers. With moderate pulpit gifts, 
 diligently used ; by faithful, unpretentious, 
 earnest, loving preaching ; by vigilant and 
 untiring oversight as pastors ; and by holy 
 living, many who are but as the ** rank and 
 file" in the army of God's ministers, are 
 doing the great mass of the work in our 
 teeming towns and in our country villages. 
 Discourage among your people the notion 
 that the sermon is everything. I do not 
 disparage God's great ordinance of preach- 
 
234 LETTERS TO A 
 
 ing". I do not undervalue great pulpit 
 abilities in any man. Great preachers have 
 done great work, and left behind them great 
 results. But it betokens a most unhealthy 
 state of things in minister and people when 
 church-going means merely sermon-hearing ; 
 when the worship of Almighty God — the 
 noblest occupation of the noblest intellects, 
 whether of men or angels, whether now or 
 throughout eternity — is put into a secondary 
 place, and a great oration from the pulpit 
 regarded as the one thing to be looked for. 
 
 But, if God has given you popular gifts, 
 remember that they are gifts which bring 
 with them great and constant need for 
 watchfulness. You, of all men, must watch 
 against vanity, pride, self-exaltation. ** By 
 the grace of God I am what I am," must 
 be inwrought into the very texture of your 
 heart. And you must strive in the prepara- 
 tion, the delivery, and the retrospect of every 
 sermon, to realize that unless the blessing of 
 the Spirit of life be upon your preaching, 
 you can have no true success. Amid your 
 crowds of followers, and with all your genius. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 235 
 
 imagination, and fluency, — with all your logic 
 and all your tropes, — not a conscience will 
 be pricked, not a heart touched, unless the 
 arm of the Lord be revealed." 
 
 It is recorded as the result of Mr. Simeon's 
 long and wide experience, that the men 
 whom he had seen most honoured of God 
 were men of moderate gifts, great diligence, 
 and great personal piety. 
 
 To lay yourself out for popularity is utterly 
 unworthy of you as a minister of Jesus 
 Christ. But there will come, without your 
 seeking, a genuine, well-grounded popularity, 
 in the best sense, from your loving, pains- 
 taking, and self-denying efforts to be the 
 shepherd of your flock, both in and out of 
 the pulpit, watching for their souls, and 
 seeking not theirs, but them ; extending 
 your care and pains and sympathy to the 
 poorest as well as to the great folk in your 
 parish. They will soon learn to tolerate but 
 average preaching from your lips, if they 
 love you as their pastor — a friend, a coun- 
 sellor, a comforter in their times of need. 
 You may be a poor preacher to others ; you 
 
236 LETTERS TO A 
 
 will be a good preacher to them. Your life 
 and work will help your sermons. Your 
 name may not be a magnet on a placard. 
 But your sermons will tell in your own 
 parish. 
 
 So then, when you hear a great preacher, 
 or read his sermons, be not down-hearted. 
 You may serve your Master and feed your 
 flock without any other excellency of speech 
 than the simple excellency of your message 
 — the good news of God. Give God and 
 your people your best, as preacher and 
 pastor, and you shall not lack blessing. 
 The Rev. Mr. Breay, of Birmingham, was 
 a striking example of what I mean. He was 
 not intellectually a great man, nor, oratori- 
 cally, a great preacher. But, in the heart of 
 Birmingham, amid hard-headed and shrewd 
 men, he did a great work as preacher and 
 pastor. It is said that on the day of his funeral 
 the then Bishop of Worcester, the patron of 
 his living, passed through Birmingham ; and 
 that he was so struck with the manifesta- 
 tions of public sorrow, that although not 
 belonging to Mr. Breay' s theological or 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAA. 237 
 
 ecclesiastical school, he then and there 
 determined to nominate as his successor a 
 like-minded clergyman. This was true 
 popularity. Mr. Breay's name is yet fragrant 
 in Birmingham, and his memory blessed, 
 and his work lasting. 
 
 I pass to a point connected with your 
 personal temper and conduct. It is 
 Richard Cecil, I think, who says that a 
 minister should be tmqffendable. It is 
 difficult, very difficult, to carry out his 
 counsel. But the counsel is very wise. 
 You may meet with discourtesies and even 
 insults, in private or in vestry meetings, 
 which greatly try your temper and charity. 
 But you must bear much for the sake of 
 your ministry. You must not quarrel with 
 any one among your people, if you can 
 possibly avoid it. You must bear a great 
 deal, however sensitive your temperament. 
 You must be long-suffering and forgiving. 
 For the man who has been rude and even 
 insolent is one of your flock. You must 
 live such things down. Watch your oppor- 
 tunity. The time of his sickness or trouble 
 
238 LETTERS TO A 
 
 may come. Show that, as his minister, 
 you can rise above private resentment. If 
 the challenge, '' What do ye more than 
 others?" comes home to all Christians, 
 much more to you. In the best sense of 
 the words, " Heap coals of fire on his 
 head." Let not his breach of duty to you 
 induce you to neglect your duty to him. 
 
 Let me offer another counsel. Get good 
 out of unfavourable criticisms, whether upon 
 your preaching or anything else. Do not 
 thrust them aside angrily or proudly, as if 
 you were a sacred person with whom no one 
 should find fault. I am writing freely and 
 familiarly, to give a younger brother any 
 benefit which my own experience may enable 
 me. I do not shrink, therefore, from direct 
 personal allusion. Having lived long in a 
 public position, and been subject to much 
 sharp criticism in newspapers and from other 
 quarters, I can look back and say that very 
 seldom, if ever, has there been no ground 
 for the unfavourable criticism, however rough 
 and unkind, sometimes, the spirit and the 
 language in which it has been made. There 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 239 
 
 was — and with all my self-sensitiveness and 
 conceit, I was obliged to own it to myself — 
 something in it. My critic had hit a blot. 
 He may have made it larger, and may have 
 hit it mercilessly ; but there was something in 
 it. And Burns' words have come home : — 
 
 " wad some power the giftie gie us, 
 To see oursels as others see us ! 
 It wad frae monie a blunder free us, 
 And foolish notion." 
 
 We then see very different selves, but 
 perhaps truer. 
 
 One word about Secular vieans for helping 
 our work. 
 
 We are living in days of working men's 
 institutes, penny readings, concerts, etc. I 
 by no means condemn them, wholesale and 
 indiscriminately. As far as they help us in 
 weaning the working classes and the poor 
 from low and immoral recreations, and in 
 showing that we sympathize with them and 
 would weld all classes in our parish together, 
 foster them and take part in them. But keep 
 them jealously in a subordinate place. They 
 
240 LETTERS TO A 
 
 may be auxiliary and supplementary. But 
 they are not our proper work, nor our chief 
 weapons. They may bridge the chasm be- 
 tween us and some classes of our people, 
 but they must not be relied on as the first 
 or best means. For God's great work — the 
 saving of souls — we have God's own means 
 and God's own message — the ministration 
 of His Gospel. Our magnet is Christ 
 crucified. To this all secular means must 
 be subordinate. Beware of an unspiritual- 
 ized ministry. It is not the ministry which 
 you have ** received of the Lord Jesus." 
 Give first things their first place. Keep 
 all others down in their due subordination. 
 We are not ordained to be caterers for 
 the amusement of our people, but to be 
 '' ambassadors for Christ." You will never 
 evangelize your parish by institutes, or read- 
 ings, or concerts. ** The weapons of our 
 warfare are not carnal." 
 
 Another counsel. Make it pmi of your 
 work to stir tip others to work. In a large 
 parish, more especially, do nothing yourself 
 which you can get other fit instruments to 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 241 
 
 do. It is not enough that you make general 
 and public appeals for workers. Learn your 
 people. Keep your eye on individuals. In 
 this way get together district visitors, Sunday^, 
 school teachers, secretaries, and treasurers. 
 And when you have chosen them and tried 
 them, and they have stood the trial, trust 
 them. Leave them, to some extent, alone. 
 Let them feel their responsibility. If they 
 do their work well in the main, do not insist 
 on its being done exactly in your own way. 
 Leave room for the play of their individ- 
 uality. A good servant does not like to 
 be followed at every step in her work, 
 so neither does a good worker. If your 
 workers are worth anything, keep a general 
 supervision and control, but do not keep 
 them in leading-strings. 
 
 Some good clergymen have too much 
 of the autocrat in them with their fellow- 
 workers. I am not asking you to give 
 up the reins. But don't use the curb 
 too freely. We all like to be trusted. 
 And trust often makes men trustworthy. 
 It is no bad test of your own ability 
 
 16 
 
242 LETTERS TO A 
 
 and efficiency as a worker, that you call out 
 workers, and keep them happily at work. 
 
 And now I bring my letters to a close. 
 I said at the outset that I had not under- 
 taken to write a treatise on the Christian 
 ministry, but only, as an elder, to offer 
 practical counsels to a younger brother. 
 My aim has been to write what might be 
 offered as a gift volume to a young clergy- 
 man on the day of his ordination, or early in 
 his ministry. The works of Burnet, Baxter, 
 Cecil, Bridges, Evans, Burgon, and others, 
 will remain as the great manuals for young 
 ministers. If I have ventured to throw 
 together a few hints and suggestions, I 
 excuse my presumption on the ground that, 
 having had to do, during all but the whole 
 of a long ministry, with large and populous 
 parishes, in which nearly every kind of 
 ministerial work has necessarily fallen on 
 me, I have thought that younger brethren 
 might not be iMiwilling to weigh, at least, 
 some results of the experience of one whose 
 work is well-nigh done. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 243 
 
 My reader may have a long life of work 
 and usefulness before him. Let me urge 
 him, above all things, not to merge his 
 care for his own spiritual life and growth 
 in his professional duties and activity. 
 Never may it be said of you, my brother, 
 **They made me the keeper of the vine- 
 yards; but my own vineyard have I not 
 kept.'' *'Save thyself" first— then ''them 
 that hear thee." " Dwell " th3^self " in the 
 secret place of the Most High." " Abide " 
 thyself " under the shadow of the Almighty." 
 Live in Christ. See that Christ live in thee. 
 "Be filled with the Spirit." Enter upon 
 each day's ministry — its privileges, its toils, 
 its anxieties, its conflicts, its hopes, its dis- 
 appointments, its joys, its sorrows — under 
 the "unction from the Holy One." Walk 
 in close fellowship with God. "Tell Jesus,' 
 daily, what things you have done and what 
 things you have taught. Keep before you 
 your great account. As under the great 
 Master's eye, and in thought of the great 
 Master's coming, hear His charge in Paul's 
 message to Archippus — "Take heed to the 
 
2 44 LETTERS TO A YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 
 
 ministry which thou hast received in the 
 Lord, that thou fulfil it " (Col. iii. 17). 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 John C. Miller. 
 
A LECTURE ON PREACHING 
 
 Delivered in the Trophy-Room of St. PauVs Cathedral, in 
 March, 1874, and afterwards re-delivered, for the 
 Church Homiletical Society, at Oxford. 
 
 In offering- to you, Gentlemen, a few prac- 
 tical remarks upon the subject before us — 
 in doing which I desire to stand before you 
 simply as a brother among brethren, — I 
 cannot forbear, at the outset, from saying a 
 few words on the place which preaching is 
 to occupy among the functions of our min- 
 istry. And, in endeavouring to estimate 
 this aright, I turn to him who is, next to the 
 great and Divine Master, our highest earthly 
 model — St. Paul. His writings prove to 
 demonstration that, if any one had asked 
 St. Paul what he conceived to be the highest 
 function of the minister of Christ — what it 
 was that, at times, overwhelmed him with 
 
246 LETTERS TO A 
 
 adoring gratitude to the grace of God which 
 called him to be an apostle, his answer 
 would have been, the commission to preach 
 "the unsearchable riches of Christ.'' And 
 if I do not dwell upon the fact that Christ 
 was always his great theme, and the Holy- 
 Ghost his strength and wisdom, it is be- 
 cause I assume that this will be admitted 
 by you all. 
 
 Neither is the importance of this function 
 of preaching lessened, by any means, in the 
 present day. We preachers are constantly 
 hearing, through one channel and another, 
 complaints about sermons. We do wisely 
 to weigh these strictures. From some of 
 them we may learn much ; others are unjust. 
 We are asked for what we cannot consent 
 to give. 
 
 There are those who ask for semi-secular 
 addresses. We are to give interest to our 
 sermons by a spice of political economy, or 
 geology, or talk on sanitary matters. But 
 we maintain that our business in the pulpit 
 is with the one great message, and that 
 everything which does not directly tend to 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 247 
 
 illustrate this — without in the slightest degree 
 throwing it into the shade — is worse than a 
 great impertinence. 
 
 It is clear that in these days we have a 
 rival, and a very formidable rival, in the 
 public press. Secular newspapers discuss 
 theological, ecclesiastical, and moral subjects 
 with great ability ; and our homes are filled 
 to repletion with religious books and peri- 
 odicals. There was a time, and that too at 
 a not very remote date, when in hundreds, I 
 might almost say thousands, of parishes in 
 England, the sermon for the Sunday, sup- 
 plemented by the suggestions to be found in 
 two or three good books, was the sole supply 
 of religious teaching. In our own day it is 
 very different. Things are entirely changed. 
 Men read for themselves. We are flooded 
 with religious books, good, bad, and in- 
 different, at the cheapest possible rate. 
 
 Let me speak first of country parishes. 
 I am addressing some who may hereafter 
 find themselves in county curacies. You 
 will make a grievous mistake — even those 
 of you who may have left college with the 
 
248 LETTERS TO A 
 
 highest University distinctions — if you think 
 that anything will do for these people. Far 
 otherwise. As the severest test of a curate's 
 powerj of preaching, I should put him 
 through the ordeal of preaching to a country 
 congregation, on a very hot afternoon in 
 August, during the time of harvest, and say 
 to him, " Will you undertake to keep that 
 congregation awake? " The man who can 
 succeed in doing that is a much more 
 effective preacher than is commonly sup- 
 posed. It is no easy task. If I had the 
 two duties before me next Sunday, I should 
 feel it easier to preach before the University 
 than to preach to rustics in August, for 
 twenty minutes ; to get something into their 
 heads and hearts which they would carry 
 away. Do not think then that anything will 
 do for the poor or for rustics. 
 
 It has been well said, that the work of 
 a country clergyman is threefold: — '* You 
 have your mother's tongue to learn ; a poor 
 man's heart to anatomise; and a poor man's 
 brain to dissect." 
 With regard to dangers particularly inci- 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 249 
 
 dent to preachers in large towns. The 
 principal one consists in this : — viz., the 
 great extent to which secular and semi- 
 secular w^ork accumulates upon us. It was 
 truly remarked by Professor Blunt, '' There 
 was a period, and almost within my own 
 memory, when a notion prevailed, that the 
 duties of the clergy were the duties of the 
 Sunday, and little more ; but I am not clear 
 that the moment is not come when the 
 danger lies the other way ; and whether the 
 pastor of the parish, yielding to the im- 
 portunate demands of an overwhelming 
 population, does not occupy so much of his 
 time, in the ' goings into the streets and 
 lanes of the city,' as trenches on his studies 
 and his sermons. The one should be done, 
 '^\h.Q other assuredly not left undone.* 
 
 Our sermons suffer. This semi-secularism 
 disturbs, distracts, aye, and in a great many 
 cases well-nigh engrosses, the time of 
 clergymen, so as to leave them no leisure 
 for pulpit preparation at all. 
 
 * Quoted in ''Papers on Preaching and Public Speaking," 
 by a Wykehamist, p. 25. 
 
250 LETTERS TO A 
 
 Let me not seem to exalt preaching un- 
 duly. I most heartily and fully recognise 
 the worship of Almighty God in church as 
 the first object in going to His house, and 
 in ministering to our people. But I do say 
 most emphatically and earnestly, in the 
 arrangement of your time, let ever^lhing, as 
 far as possible, give way to pulpit prepara- 
 tion. If something must needs suffer, it 
 must not be the sermon, as long as 
 preaching is what it is according to the 
 ordinance of God. Consider the great- 
 ness and the advantages of pulpit oppor- 
 tunities. There must be — especially in 
 these days — meditation, study, time, for our 
 sermons. 
 
 And we must take a true view of the 
 dignity of the pulpit. This will humble us, 
 and not puff us up. When we realize our 
 position as Christ's ambassadors; that we 
 are fellow-workers with God; that, in the 
 mysterious arrangements of God's grace, 
 there is a real connection — only, of course, 
 an instrumental connection — between the sal- 
 vation of souls eternally and every sermon 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 251 
 
 we deliver, surely we must have a deeply 
 solemn and by no means self-exalting view 
 of our work. 
 
 Let us now go into practical details. 
 
 First, I will go with the young preacher 
 into his study. And, while there, let him 
 remember that, for the great end of preaching 
 — the conversion and edification of souls — he 
 is dependent upon supernatural power : that 
 this power is not in himself. Therefore — 
 most earnestly and affectionately "would I 
 say it — before you begin the work of pre- 
 paration, go down upon your knees. Aye, 
 and when you have finished your preparation 
 — do not think me superstitious — take the 
 very manuscript or notes themselves, and 
 spread them before God, sanctifying them 
 by prayer. And when you are in the pulpit, 
 both before and after the delivery of God's 
 message, the more you throw yourself out 
 of self into the strength and wisdom of the 
 Spirit of God, praying Him to give you 
 soundness, faithfulness, unction, freshness, 
 fertility, facility, freedom, acceptance with 
 the people — the more will you preach to the 
 
252 LETTERS TO A 
 
 comfort of your own soul, and the more 
 God will bless you. 
 
 But not only when you are in your study 
 are you to be thinking of your sermons. 
 One secret of becoming effective preachers 
 is, never to let your pulpit be long out of 
 your sight. *' We can only account for this 
 exhaustless flow of fresh discourses from the 
 fact that these truly great preachers spent 
 much time in general, and comparatively 
 little in special preparation. There were 
 two books never out of their hands — the 
 Bible and the human heart. These they 
 read continually. The leaves of these two 
 great volumes lay open before them by night 
 and by day. All other books were but 
 tributaries, which brought, like King Solo- 
 mon's navy, sometimes gold and sometimes 
 apes and peacocks. But the Bible and the 
 human heart were the reservoir; to these 
 they went, and therefore their supply of 
 spiritual truth never failed." * To this end, 
 study human nature ; it is of little use to 
 
 * "The Pastor and the Parish," by Rev. John B. Heard, 
 M.A., p. 97. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 253 
 
 Study books only. This makes preaching dry. 
 Study human nature. AVe must be students 
 of books. But our best storehouse is the 
 Bible and the human heart. Study man 
 at all times, in all places, and in all circum- 
 stances — in railway carriages, in drawing- 
 rooms, in cottages, in garrets, by sick beds, 
 in houses of mourning. The pastoral work 
 is so great a help to preaching. It will 
 suggest many a subject, and give you many 
 a text and many a sermon. 
 
 I remember that, many years ago, when I 
 was a young clergyman, and in the habit of 
 preaching two written sermons, I was in the 
 heat of writing when I was summoned unex- 
 pectedly to a sick bed. I confess that the 
 old Adam did rise within me for a moment. 
 I wished this person had not been ill at that 
 particular time, or, at all events, that I had 
 not been sent for. But I went, and found 
 afterwards that my time had not been lost. 
 I came back all the better for my visit. 
 Depend upon it, pastoral visitation, in all 
 its varieties, will give abundance of material 
 for pulpit preparation, which will in vain be 
 
254 LETTERS TO A 
 
 sought for from books. And in these days 
 of shaky faith and of scepticism, one of the 
 strongest evidences of the truth of the 
 Gospel is the power of God's grace in the 
 afflicted, the sick, and the dying. I told 
 the working men at the Brighton Congress 
 some time since, and I now repeat it, that 
 the four happiest people I have ever seen in 
 my life — without a single exception — were 
 four bedridden sick women — all bright 
 Christians, not only not murmurers, but 
 joyful sufferers. Depend upon it, when our 
 convictions are shaken by scepticism ; when 
 even the deep arguments of Butle*r and the 
 lucid arguments of Paley fail to satisfy 
 doubts, or to answer dififlcult suggestions 
 which present themselves, we shall often 
 find, in our pastoral visiting, convincing 
 exhibitions of the reality of God's grace, 
 and abundant testimony to the power and 
 faithfulness of the God of the promises, to 
 the preciousness of Christ, and to the com- 
 fort of the Holy Ghost. We shall come 
 back exclaiming, *' There is no other God 
 that can deliver after this sort." 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 
 
 255 
 
 See to it then that you draw all your 
 studies this way. Lay under contribution 
 everything which you read. Read your 
 daily or weekly newspaper with an eye to 
 your sermons. Learn to look at men and 
 things with a non-professional eye — as men 
 of intellect and wit and power of writing 
 see them. Look at them often from a lay- 
 man's standpoint. Many and many a hint, 
 I can assure you, I have gained for my 
 sermons from reading my newspaper, as 
 well when agreeing with, as when differing 
 from, the writer. ** Let us not then make 
 any distinction, but say that there is a 
 general kind of preparation, a profound and 
 continuous study of the congregation, of 
 human life, of our own hearts, and of the 
 Bible ; a habit of mental discipline, and of 
 arranging ideas that may pass the mind, 
 which will never leave the preacher at a 
 loss in a familiar address or a simple expo- 
 sition of Scripture." * 
 
 Never take up the fanatical notion that 
 study is unnecessary. The promise of the 
 
 * Vinet — quoted in " The Pastor and the Parish," p. 96. 
 
256 LETTERS TO A 
 
 Holy Ghost (Mark xiii. ii), and the precept 
 which accompanied it — " Take no thought 
 beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do 
 ye premeditate" — was given for special 
 circumstances to a particular class of men. 
 It is not a general promise applicable, under 
 all circumstances, to you and to me. 
 Richard Cecil says, we may expect a special 
 blessing "to accompany truth, but not to 
 supersede labour." Speaking of those who 
 seemed to expect just the contrary, he adds, 
 " I have been cured by observing how these 
 men preach, and I have often heard such 
 talk nonsense by the hour." But, with all 
 your study, beware lest your sermons lose 
 freshness and bloom and unction. We want 
 the lamp, but not the smell of it. The 
 cultivation of our talents, be they many or 
 few, is absolutely necessary. There have 
 been a few men who have been good and 
 great preachers without much study or art ; 
 and there is a large class of men whom no 
 study will ever make great preachers : but 
 a man who possesses great gifts may im- 
 prove them by careful study. And many a 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 257 
 
 man, who would otherwise be perhaps almost 
 useless — almost intolerable — as a preacher, 
 from lack of particular gifts in that direction, 
 may, by diligent and prayerful attention, 
 cultivate the little measure of talent which 
 he has, and ultimately prove a useful minister 
 of Christ. 
 
 There is an oft-told story of the present 
 eloquent Prime Minister, that when he first 
 attempted to speak in the House of Com- 
 mons nobody listened. He said, '* The day 
 shall come when you shall hear me; " and, 
 as we all know, that day has come. Some 
 of us present remember good Bishop Villiers. 
 He used to say that, when he first began 
 extempore preaching, he completely broke 
 down. It was only by continual persever- 
 ance in the simple schoolroom expositions, 
 that he attained to be one of the most useful 
 and acceptable preachers in London, and 
 one who, under God's blessing, has left his 
 mark on many souls. 
 
 We are still,. remember, in the study. We 
 come next to the choice of texts — a very 
 important point ; and, when you have been 
 
 17 
 
258 LETTERS TO A 
 
 many years In the ministry, by no means an 
 easy one. Bishop Burnet, in his work on 
 ** The Pastoral Care," says— *'A sermon 
 should be made for a text, and not a text 
 for a sermon." There was once upon a 
 time at Oxford — a long while ago now — a 
 certain undergraduate, who, if the examiners 
 had allowed to be a candidate for Holy 
 Orders sooner than they did, instead of 
 plucking and plucking and plucking him, 
 till the poor man had scarcely a feather left, 
 would have fallen short of the mark in this 
 respect. He had his first sermon written 
 long before he passed '' Greats " at any rate 
 — probably ** Smalls " — and a friend asked 
 him "What's your text?" He had not 
 thought about a text. Doubtless the 
 sermon turned out somewhat discursive, 
 however orthodox. 
 
 First, then, as a rule, the choice of a text 
 should not be sudden. Choose a text some 
 time before you preach upon it, in order that 
 you may have time to think it well out. As 
 a rule, ''write late." I do not advise you 
 to write your sermon on the Monday or 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 259 
 
 Tuesday for the following Sunday. And 
 here I am borne out by Archdeacon Evans, 
 who, in his *' Bishopric of Souls," says, 
 ** Strike it off at a heat." Go into your 
 pulpit on Sunday morning with the sermon 
 thoroughly fresh in your mind and heart. 
 Again, do not be ambitious in the choice 
 of texts. Choose plain, full texts. There 
 are some texts which almost preach them- 
 selves. It is very desirable, and it will be 
 found greatly to facilitate preaching, that 
 a beginner should take grand and leading 
 texts of Scripture, containing great truths of 
 the Gospel, or bearing especially on practical 
 life. It will be safer for you too, generally 
 — and especially for beginners — not to try 
 to preach upon odd texts, but rich, massive 
 texts — as, for example, '* The grace of God 
 that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all 
 men," etc. (Titus ii.) ; or, "Seek ye the 
 Lord while He may be found," etc. (Isa. Iv.) 
 Aim at bringing out before your people 
 the Variety of Scripture. This variety is* a 
 great advantage, both to minister and 
 people. Students of the Old and New 
 
26o LETTERS TO A 
 
 Testament have history, type, prophecy, 
 discourses, parable, epistles. Apocalypse, 
 all as their storehouse. And if *' rightly 
 divided," the same truth will come out of 
 each of them, only with different surround- 
 ings — the same gem, with different settings. 
 When I was first ordained, I preached upon 
 Original Sin, and Justification by Faith, and 
 other cardinal doctrines ; and I fancied, in 
 my conceit and ignorance, I had said all that 
 I could say on the subject. But time has 
 shown me how superficial the thought was. 
 Take Justification by Faith — you may preach 
 it not only from St. Paul's Epistles, but, yet 
 more graphically, from Zechariah's vision of 
 the change of raiment. The great doctrine 
 of the Atonement — a doctrine of fundamental 
 and vital importance — is to be found in the 
 Old Testament as well as in the New. ** In 
 the Old Testament," says Augustine, *'the 
 New Testament lies hid ; in the New Testa- 
 ment, the Old Testament lies open." A 
 life's ministry will exhaust neither the hidden 
 nor the open. Seek this variety in preaching 
 the Word of God. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 261 
 
 Cultivate Expository Preaching. There is 
 nothing like it. I recollect hearing Dean 
 Close say-^and those of you who do not 
 agree with his school of theology must 
 acknowledge that, during a long life, he 
 has been a great light and a great preacher 
 — " I cannot be too thankful that, at one 
 part of the day, I have been in the habit of 
 taking a mass of Scripture, and explaining 
 it to the people." The practice, we shall 
 find, involves honesty to the Word of God. 
 It secures us, too, against having/^/ subjects,- 
 It prevents us from dwelling upon particular 
 portions of truth constantly, to the neglect 
 of comparatively minor subjects. Moreover, 
 it will sometimes shield us from the suspicion 
 of personality. If we take a particular text, 
 and preach upon it, and it happens to go 
 home more than usually to one of our 
 hearers, we shall very likely be accused of 
 personality. But when we come across the 
 same text in the natural order of our exposi- 
 tion, no one can reasonably say we are guilty 
 of a direct attack upon him. At any rate, 
 we did not go out of our way for our subject. 
 
262 LETTERS TO A 
 
 Make very sure of the original and of the 
 context. How many a man has sat down 
 post-haste to write a sermon, and then 
 turned, (happily) just at the last, to his 
 Greek Testament, and has found '* It won't 
 do ! The original won't bear it." I have 
 no sympathy with the scruples of some who 
 say that we have no business to unsettle 
 people's minds by a, reference to the original. 
 We must avoid pedantry. There is no 
 necessity to be always choosing texts just 
 for the sake of airing our scholarship. But 
 when translation is manifestly erroneous, 
 and we have a body of scholars at our 
 back, it is our solemn duty to translate 
 accurately to our people. Surely we dare 
 not present as God's word a text erroneously 
 translated. If, however, a man is a shallow 
 scholar, let him know his weakness, and be 
 quite sure, before attempting to enlighten 
 others, that the authorities on which he 
 relies are hrst-rate and trustworthy. 
 
 We remember a sermon preached, many 
 years ago, before the Queen, from the text, 
 ''Not slothful in business" (Rom. xii. 12). 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 263 
 
 The preacher's doctrine was true and prac- 
 tical. But ttJ ctttouSt} [Ly] oKvrjpoi cannot mean 
 ** not slothful in business," as intending by 
 ** business" our several vocations. It should 
 be rendered ''zeal.'' 
 
 A man may preach a very useful sermon 
 from the text, '^ Abstain from all appearance 
 of evil" (i Thess. v. 22). It is very doubt- 
 ful whether this is what St. Paul says. So 
 again, *'That no man go beyond and defraud 
 his brother in any matter" (i Thess. iv. 6). 
 It is very questionable, indeed, whether this 
 contains the slightest reference to dishonesty. 
 It is a delicate allusion to the painful subject 
 of which he is speaking in the context. 
 ** Whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Rom. 
 xiv. 23) ; — in a sense this is universally true ; 
 but if you take it out of the context, and 
 apply it, you are liable to a challenge from 
 any scholar, as it /lere means really, *' What- 
 soever your own conscience does not tell you 
 to be right, must be sin and wrong ^0 yotc.'' 
 It is not a general proposition. *' The Lord 
 added to the Church daily such as should be 
 saved" (Acts ii. 47) ; they were not added 
 
264 LETTERS TO A 
 
 in order that they might be saved, but 
 because they were in process of being saved. 
 Many a sermon has been preached from that 
 verse in Isaiah, *' From the sole of the foot 
 even unto the head, there is no soundness in 
 it ; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying 
 sores" (Isa. i. 6) ; and often has it been 
 quoted as if it refers primarily to the corrup- 
 tion of human nature. Its meaning is, that 
 the Jews were so bruised and beaten by the 
 chastisements of God — of course as the result 
 of their sins — that, as a nation, " the whole 
 head was sick, and the whole heart faint " 
 (ver. 5). So again with the passage, *' Know- 
 ing . . . the terror of the Lord, we persuade 
 men" (2 Cor. v. 11); not, "Knowing the 
 awful terrors of God's wrath, we were to 
 preach them;" but surely, ** Knowing the 
 fear of God, we seek to persuade men — our- 
 selves being impelled by that fear." 
 
 These are samples. And therefore make 
 very sure of the Hebrew and the Greek. 
 
 But, in these days of abundant helps, it is 
 not well to be premature in rushing to Com- 
 mentaries in the preparation of your sermons. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 265 
 
 Think a passage out for yourself yzr^/; and 
 afterwards those able scholars whose works 
 may be within your reach — not ancient 
 Fathers or old Expositors only, but our 
 own Alford, Wordsworth, Trench, Ellicott, 
 Lightfoot, to say nothing of the best of the 
 Germans — may test your own conclusions. 
 
 With regard to divisions in Sermons. It 
 is important to have them, as a rule, for the 
 sake of others. They are pegs upon which 
 people's memories hang what you have said. 
 There are few who can draw out a lucid 
 chain of reasoning in such a way as to 
 ensure its being fastened on the minds and 
 memories of those who listen to it, unless 
 they have these divisions to fall back upon. 
 But avoid a hard and fast line. Cultivate 
 variety even in structure and in argument. 
 But, whether you have divisions or no, be 
 sure to aim at sojuet/mtg, so that, when the 
 sermon is over, no one shall be at a loss 
 to know what it was about. Archbishop 
 Whateley used to say that some preachers 
 "aimed at nothing, and always hit it!" 
 The Archbishop was not without reason for 
 
266 LETTERS TO A 
 
 his complaint. I remember a clergyman, a 
 most admirable pastor, of whom, when he 
 had left the parish, an artisan said to his 
 
 successor, '* Mr. , in his sermons, always 
 
 seemed to be hunting for something, but had 
 never caught it when he came to the end." 
 
 With regard to the exordium of a sermon. 
 It is advisable not to lose much time over it. 
 It is a great thing to arrest the attention at 
 first, by a short and pithy sentence or two. 
 Throw thought, pith, and strength into the 
 opening remarks. It is a great mistake to 
 begin a discourse weakly or carelessly. 
 
 Above all, avoid too abstract a style of 
 preaching, especially to plain and simple 
 folk. *' Preach not so much Christianiiy as 
 Christ." There is a great deal of differ- 
 ence between the two — between a system of 
 dry, abstract, dogmatic truth, and a real, 
 living, personal Saviour. The Gospel is 
 wrapped up, so to speak, in the person and 
 nature, the offices, the work, the sufferings 
 of Christ. To preach the Gospel is simply 
 to unfold these. It is most important, in 
 reading the Gospels, the Acts, and the 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 267 
 
 Epistles, to observe that it is to Christ thus 
 personally 7'egarded, not to an abstract system, 
 that we are directed. Our faith and love and 
 hope are centred upon Immanuel Himself, 
 made flesh, living, obeying, suffering, rising, 
 ascending, returning in His glory ; not so 
 much on the atone77ie7it^ as on Christ atoning ; 
 not so much on a righteousness in Christ, or 
 from Christ, as on the Lord our righteousness. 
 
 It was thus that Paul preached Christ. 
 He kept, not so much salvation, as the 
 Saviour, before men's minds and hearts. 
 We are to keep before them, not a lifeless, 
 abstract, speculative system ; but Christ 
 living, Christ dying, Christ loving us and 
 giving Himself for us — Christ risen, as- 
 cended, exalted, pleading, sympathising — 
 whom haviiig jiot seen we love, but whom one 
 day we shall see for ourselves, and our eyes 
 shall behold, and not another. 
 
 In like manner, do not preach about 
 Providence ; preach about God. There is 
 no objection to the word *' providence " 
 when used in connection with God. But 
 when a man says, *' I am very thankful to 
 
268 LETTERS TO A 
 
 Providence," *' Providence has been very 
 good to me," I always feel disposed to 
 say, *' You coward ! why don't you say 
 God ? You know you mean God all the 
 time." It gives great point and power to 
 a sermon not to be abstract. Get your 
 people to believe in a living, loving, per- 
 sonal Father, and a living, loving, personal 
 Saviour. Remember what the key-phrase 
 of the New Testament is : *' In Him." 
 This is the key-phrase of the Gospel dis- 
 pensation, as looked at experimentally — not 
 so much a system, not only a creed ; but 
 a real, mysterious union with a living Person. 
 Mark St. Paul in the sixth chapter of the 
 Romans, how he keeps this great truth in 
 the fore-front ; and in the third chapter of 
 Colossians (ver. 3), containing that most 
 wonderful of all wonderful texts — I fancy 
 sometimes it sounds as the deepest text in 
 the whole Bible — "■ Ye are dead, and your 
 life is hid with Christ in God.'*^ Surely that 
 is not an abstract thing ; it is the idea 
 of our life — however mysteriously — being 
 hidden in and with a personal Saviour. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 269 
 
 Bear with me, if, as the result of long ex- 
 perience, — while I ask you not to forget what 
 I have said about preaching Providence in- 
 stead of God, — I add one other exhortation 
 on this point. It is this : Preach ofte^i on 
 the provide7ice of God, I would speak with 
 emphasis on this point, because I have 
 seldom or never preached a sermon bear- 
 ing directly on God's providence, but I 
 have been privileged to receive grateful 
 testimony as to the usefulness of that 
 sermon. In your study, picture your con- 
 gregation. See them in your ** mind's 
 eye." Who — what — are these to whom you 
 are to preach? Sinners and sufferers. Some 
 oppressed with money cares and troubles. 
 Rachel mourning for her children. Newly 
 made widows. Husbands from whom the 
 desire of their eyes has only just been 
 taken away. Children fatherless or mother- 
 less. Many a one who, if talking to you 
 in your study or in their own homes, would 
 say, '' Ah ! Sir, I have seen much trouble." 
 Yes ; you are going to preach that sermon 
 to many a sin-laden, sorrow- stricken, world- 
 
270 LETTERS TO A 
 
 wearied, restless heart. Preach then to 
 each and all of these a covenant God, the 
 Fatherhood of God, the "• exceeding great 
 and precious promises." God's sufficiency 
 in trial, the blessedness of trial, the uses of 
 affliction, the responsibilities of a heavenly 
 Father's chastisement, and the true end of 
 discipline. Only do this, and you may be 
 quite sure your sermons v^ill come home to 
 the every-day life of your hearers, and you 
 will have the delightful experience so pre- 
 cious to the minister of Christ — not indeed 
 the empty flattery of silly women, nor vain 
 compliments about * a fine sermon ; " but 
 the experience of something far better and 
 far sweeter — the grasp of the hand, and, it 
 may be, a tear in the eye, with the acknow- 
 ledgment from a comforted believer or an 
 awakened sinner — ** Oh Sir, your sermon 
 seemed as if it were meant for me ; it 
 suited my case exactly. I thank you for 
 it with all my heart." This will cheer you 
 on your way — to know that God, by His 
 own Spirit, has carried your discriminating 
 and loving words right home to the con- 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 271 
 
 science and the heart, — that you have '^filled 
 the hungry with good things." 
 
 Again, be 07i your guard agai7ist the narrow- 
 ness of human systems. Would that every can- 
 didate for Holy Orders and every minister 
 would read **The Remains of Richard Cecil" 
 — a small volume, sound in theology, and 
 teeming with sanctified common sense. As 
 a practical volume it is unrivalled. Mr. 
 Cecil writes thus: ** No man will preach 
 the Gospel ^o freely as the Scriptures preach 
 it, unless he will submit to talk like an 
 Antinomian, in the estimation of a great 
 body of Christians ; nor will any man preach 
 it so practically as the Scriptures, unless he 
 will submit to be called, by as large a body, 
 an Arminian. Many think that they find a 
 middle path : which is, in fact, neither one 
 thing nor another, since it is not the incom- 
 prehensible, but grand, plan of the Bible. 
 It is somewhat of human contrivance. It 
 savours of human poverty and littleness." * 
 *' The right way of interpreting Scripture is 
 to take it as we find it, without any attempt 
 
 * "Cecil's Remains," loth Edit., p. 289. 
 
272 LETTERS TO A 
 
 to force it into any particular system. What- 
 ever may be fairly inferred from Scripture, 
 we need not fear to insist on. Many 
 passages speak the language of what is 
 called Calvinism, and that in almost the 
 strongest terms. I would not have a man 
 clip and curtail these passages, to bring 
 them down to some system : let him go 
 with them in their free and full sense ; for, 
 otherwise, if he do not absolutely pervert 
 them, he will attenuate their energy. But 
 let him look at as many more, which speak 
 the language of Arminianism, and let him 
 go all the way with these also. God has 
 been pleased thus to state and to leave the 
 thing ; and all our attempts to distort it, one 
 way or other, are puny and contemptible." '** 
 
 Preach not only what is in Scripture, but 
 preach it as Scripture puts it. Truth is pre- 
 sented in varied aspects in the Bible. No 
 ultra- Calvinist would have said, ** Make you 
 a new heart and a new spirit " (Ezek. xviii. 
 31) ; yet God says it. 
 
 In some of our old-fashioned towns, we 
 
 * Ibid, p. 290. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 273 
 
 see the box trees closely cropped — not a 
 twig, not a leaf straggling — all trim and 
 tidy. They are curiosities. But we all 
 greatly prefer to see them as they were 
 naturally, and before the shears did their 
 work so well with the twigs and branches. 
 Why ? because it is as God made the tree. 
 Beware, then, of clipping and cramping the 
 fulness and freedom and simplicity of God's 
 truth with your own pet shears. 
 
 As regards simplicity, an eminent Dis- 
 senting minister once said to me, when 
 speaking of the evangelical clergy, '^ I am 
 afraid, in their desire to be simple in their 
 preaching, they are becoming shallow : there 
 is no theology in their sermons." Simpli- 
 city is not necessarily shallowness. Sermons 
 should be vertebrated ; they should have a 
 back-bone of sound, distinctive theology. 
 
 Much evil has followed from too great 
 anxiety about the dignity of the pulpit. I am 
 not speaking of the dignity of the office^ but 
 the dignity of the style, *' The good old 
 Church of England," it was once observed, 
 '' is dying of dignity." Thank God ! that is 
 
 18 
 
2 74 LET2ERS 10 A 
 
 not true now. But the great majority of the 
 clergy seem to be afraid of a homely word, 
 or familiar every-day expression in the 
 pulpit, and thus very many of our sermons 
 fly over the heads of our people altogether. 
 We are not to be coarse or vulgar. Avoid 
 " sesquipedalia verba." There is a great 
 deal of nonsense written and talked about 
 Saxon words. Never mind whether it is a 
 Saxon word or not ; is it a word which the 
 people will understand? That's the point. 
 Never mind whence it comes. Many Saxon 
 words, however, are far better understood in 
 the majority of congregations than words 
 from Latin or Greek sources. It is better 
 to talk of '' happiness " than *' felicity ; " to 
 speak of '*home" rather than the ** domes- 
 tic circle;" and of ** heaven " rather than 
 the "■ celestial regions." 
 
 If you have a talent for it, it is most 
 important to cultivate the power of Illus- 
 tration — '^ windows which let in the light." 
 But they are not arguments. We are not 
 to feed our congregations upon them. We 
 do not live upon flowers, but they are very 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 
 
 275 
 
 pleasant in their way. This is one of the 
 secrets of Mr. Spurgeon's power. He has a 
 wonderful gift of illustration. Referring to 
 that controverted point of the believer fall- 
 ing away — the indefectibility of grace — he 
 once made this observation, from his own 
 standpoint of truth (about which I am not 
 arguing now), '* The believer, like a man on 
 shipboard, may fall again and again on the 
 deck, but he will never fall overboard." 
 You may agree or not with the statement, 
 but you will admit that the illustration is 
 striking. Again, ^'We mustn't preach 
 cream, and live skimmed milk." Very 
 homely, but very striking. The admirable 
 Dr. Guthrie — as a rule too flowery and too 
 much given to illustration — said once, ** A 
 selfish man — whose heart is no bigger than 
 his coffin ; just room enough for himself." 
 These are nails in a sure place. 
 
 Preach doctrine practically^ and practice 
 doctrinally. Interweave the two. Good Dr. 
 Marsh once said to me, *' It is a difficult 
 thing to preach a whole epistle; " by which 
 he meant to preach both the doctrinal part 
 
276 LETTERS TO A 
 
 and the practical. Take the second chap- 
 ter of St. Paul's Epistle to Titus — a great 
 model for us. See how he grounds upon 
 the grace of God, which bringeth salvation, 
 and upon the redeeming work of Christ, the 
 duty of servants to be honest, and not even 
 to give a saucy answer. Aim at every-day 
 life. Aim at the counting-house, the shop, 
 and weights and measures, and the adulter- 
 ation of goods, and trade lies. Aim at the 
 drawing-room, the nursery, and the kitchen. 
 Aim at crabbed tempers, harsh judgments. 
 Spare neither tattlers nor busy-bodies. 
 
 Do not be afraid of your pew-rents. The 
 Rev. William Howels, of Long Acre, a 
 great preacher in his day, was anxious to 
 ascertain, by pastoral visitation, whether his 
 sermons had been understood. One day he 
 called on a woman who kept a small huck- 
 ster's shop, and who had heard him preach 
 on the previous Sunday. In answer to his 
 testing inquiries, she said, ''Well, Sir, I 
 comed home and burnt my bushel ! " She 
 had used a dishonest measure, but he had 
 touched her conscience, and this was the 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 277 
 
 practical result. Give me a sermon which 
 makes sinners burn their bushels. 
 
 Aim at the conscience — the heart — and 
 not the head only. Do not forget that your 
 people have got hearts as well as heads. It 
 is therefore a great mistake to be afraid of 
 exciting the feehngs. This should not be 
 done unduly. It is easy to make women cry 
 — and some men too. But God appeals to 
 our feelings. We too must appeal to them. 
 *' No preacher is a preacher who cannot 
 satisfy the understanding; but he is a bad 
 preacher who leaves off there." 
 
 I pass on now to the vexed question — and 
 I shall not attempt to settle it — of Written or 
 Exttmpore Servions. Certainly you must cul- 
 tivate the art of extempore speaking. It is 
 really essential in the present day. On many 
 important occasions a man is positively 
 nowhere as a clergyman who cannot get 
 up and speak, with self-possession, good 
 sense, and fluently. At public meetings 
 there is a sad contrast between the young 
 clergyman and the young barrister. You 
 go up to a young minister and say, ** Would 
 
278 LETTERS TO A 
 
 you say a few words ? " And the answer is, 
 ** I am no speaker." But go to a young 
 barrister with a brief in your hand — his start 
 in life, perhaps. Does he say, ** I am no 
 speaker — I am too nervous — I shall break 
 down — you must excuse me ' ' ? Not a bit 
 of it. I say therefore to one and all — 
 Cultivate the art. Of course there are 
 dangers connected with it. But, as Arch- 
 deacon Evans says, *' It is more dangerous 
 than difficult." Too many men mistake 
 fluency for fertility, and froth for substance. 
 It is extremely desirable to preach extem- 
 pore, if you can. There is a mysterious 
 sympathy between hearers and speaker, 
 which goes very far to rivet the attention 
 more closely to extempore preaching. You 
 will look your people more fully in the face. 
 This is a great matter. The power of the 
 eye is great. Only you must be careful 
 not to make your hearers nervous lest you 
 should break down. Master your subject ; 
 get your mind full of it; make up your 
 mind what you are going to say. 
 
 With regard to the plan of delivering a 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 279 
 
 sermon memoriter. This is, of all plans, the 
 least desirable. You will be hampered by 
 trying to fall back accurately on your pre- 
 pared notes or manuscript. And even if 
 you succeed, your sermon must lose almost 
 always much of its spontaneity and natural- 
 ness ; to say nothing of the wear to the 
 mind, which is very great. Many and many 
 a man, simply from pacing up and down his 
 study, committing his sermon to memory, 
 and then delivering it verbatim on the Sun- 
 day, has damaged his health, and his brain 
 tpo. You may take my word for what it is 
 worth — I do not stand here as an oracle — 
 but I believe it to be, except in some rare 
 cases, the most trying plan of all. 
 
 It is very important, if our sermons are 
 written, not to be slaves to the book. We 
 must know thoroughly well what we are 
 going to say, remembering w^hat Bishop 
 Burnet's rule is, that a discourse, to be 
 heard with any life, must be spoken with 
 some. 
 
 Above all things, when you are in the 
 pulpit, strive to realize God's presence; 
 
28o LETTERS TO A 
 
 realize whose work it is in which you are 
 engaged ; realize the interests' which are at 
 stake — that you have the truth of God as 
 your trust ; and then — words cannot tell you 
 how earnestly I would say it — cast yourself 
 entirely, and all your preparation, on the 
 present help of the Spirit of God. This 
 gives unction — that indescribable thing 
 which makes a sermon from an inferior man 
 often far more effective than a grand sermon 
 from a great preacher. Mr. Simeon said, 
 ^* Don't preach as if you were preaching 
 before people; don't preach as if you were 
 preaching at people; but preach as if you 
 were preaching to people." I take it, this 
 is a great defect in the preaching of the 
 Church of England in the present day; 
 there is not enough of the *' Thou " and the 
 ** Yoity We lack directness. Too many 
 preach as if they were preaching before the 
 people ; instead of which they ought to feel, 
 *' Now I am determined you shall not sit 
 there and criticise me ; I will take good care 
 not to leave you in the position of suppos- 
 ing that I am reading an essay, and you are 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 281 
 
 to judge it. I am preaching a sermon — a 
 message from God — and that sermon is to 
 judge you." 
 
 Preach then with a direct aim. Be very 
 earnest in your pulpit exhortations. " Re- 
 member that in all this you have a real work 
 to do. Let this thought be always with you. 
 Go out to visit in your parish, not because 
 you ought to spend so much time in visiting 
 your people, but because they have souls ; 
 and you have committed to you (feeble as 
 you are) the task of saving them, in Christ's 
 strength, from everlasting burnings. When 
 you talk with them, beware of the dreamy 
 listlessness which would decently fill up some 
 ten minutes with kindness, good words, an 
 inquiry as to their families, their work, their 
 health, ending possibly with a formal 
 prayer ; but say to yourself. Now must I get 
 into this heart some truth from God. Be real 
 with them ; strike as one that would make a 
 dint upon their shield of hardness, yea, and 
 smite through it to their heart of hearts. 
 When you preach, be real. Set your people 
 before you in their numbers, their wants, 
 
282 LETTERS TO A 
 
 their dangers, their capacities : chobse a 
 subject, not to show yourself off, but to 
 benefit them ; and then speak straight to 
 them, as you would beg your life, or counsel 
 your son, or call your dearest friend from 
 a burning house, in plain, strong, earnest 
 words."* 
 
 Be very earnest in your pulpit exhort- 
 ations. But do not scold, nor rant. '' It is 
 the thunder that frights, but the lightning 
 that smites." In a work, not sufficiently 
 known, by the Abbe Mullois, great stress is 
 laid upon a ** spirit of love in the pulpit." 
 The Abbe remarks, ** After the many rules 
 for eloquence which have been laid down of 
 late years, strange to say, the first and most 
 essential of all has been overlooked, viz., 
 charity ; to address men well, they must be 
 loved muchy 
 
 Remember that we are not to elevate 
 ourselves, as if we were superior beings. 
 One secret of an effective ministry is to put 
 yourself, and to let the people see that you 
 put yourself, on the same platform with 
 
 •^ Bishop of Oxford's Ordination Charge, 1846, pp. 16, 17. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 283 
 
 them. *' I am a sinner ; I am a sorrower; I 
 have felt the burden under which you are 
 suffering." When you speak of the loss of 
 a child, or parent, or wife, as the case may 
 be, without talking of yourself, let them see 
 that you have gone through the same trials 
 (if indeed it has been so), and that therefore 
 you can feel for, and feel with, them. 
 
 As to '* Action'' in the pulpit. I suppose 
 we are all agreed that to Englishmen excess 
 of action is distasteful. Rules are undesir- 
 able. Be natural. I am no advocate for 
 the '* start theatric, practised at a glass." 
 But if you have a tendency to action, if your 
 temperament is such that you find it difficult 
 to throw it off, do not discourage it. If 
 hands and arms will work, let them. Check 
 excess. But do not pin them down, as long 
 as their action is natural. Let them go. 
 Speaking of the hand as an organ of ex- 
 pression. Sir Charles Bell says, *' Were we 
 to seek for authorities, we should take in 
 evidence the works of the great painters. 
 By representing the hands disposed in con- 
 formity with the attitude of the figures, the 
 
284 LETTERS TO A 
 
 old masters have been able to express every 
 different kind of sentiment in their com- 
 positions. Who, for example, has not been 
 sensible to the expression of reverence in 
 the hands of the Magdalens by Guido, to 
 the eloquence of those in the cartoons of 
 Raphael, or the significant force in those of 
 the Last Supper by Da Vinci ? In these 
 great works may be seen all that Quintilian 
 says the hand is capable of expressing ; 
 * For other parts of the body assist the 
 speaker, but these, I may say, speak them- 
 selves. By them we ask, we promise, we 
 invoke, we dismiss, we threaten, we entreat, 
 we deprecate, we express fear, joy, grief, 
 our doubts, our assent, our penitence ; we 
 show moderation and profusion ; we mark 
 number and time. ' " * It has its power in 
 the pulpit, to an extent of which very few 
 are aware. Therefore, much as we may per- 
 haps question the desirability of constantly 
 having recourse to this method of securing 
 attention or impressing the mind, it is 
 
 * Bridgwater Treatise. — The Hand. By Sir Charles Bell. 
 Sixth Edition, i860, p. 166. 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 28:; 
 
 certain that, judiciously employed, it has 
 that effect. The want of natural and 
 moderate action is a great and general 
 defect in English preaching. 
 
 I must make a few observations, and they 
 shall be very few, upon the practice of 
 preaching other people's sermons. I know 
 that some of our bishops — and good bishops 
 too — have recommended it ; and I grant you 
 that, now and then, a vicar or a rector does 
 put his curate under the necessity of over- 
 preaching. A beginner has two or three 
 sermons to prepare in a week. The unfor- 
 tunate man finds his duties somewhat diffi- 
 cult of fulfilment, and he is driven to borrow. 
 There may be exceptional cases of pressure. 
 But, as a rule, my advice is, preach your 
 own only. If you preach other men's, tell 
 your people that they are not your own. 
 Tell them that you have been hard-worked 
 throughout the week, or so unwell that you 
 have selected a sermon for them. But not 
 seldom men who borrow borrow the sermons 
 of the greatest preachers, and thus give 
 something immeasurably above what they 
 
286 ' LETTERS TO A 
 
 could have produced. And ask yourself 
 whether, when you take your manuscript or 
 notes into the pulpit, you do not seem to 
 say before God and man, **That is my own." 
 To preach other men's sermons without 
 acknowledgment seems to be at least an 
 equivocal proceeding. But I make no re- 
 flection on others. *' Let every man be 
 fully persuaded in his own mind." 
 
 There are also secondary considerations 
 in connection with the habit, which will not 
 be trifling ones. Generally, as I have said, 
 those who preach other people's sermons 
 preach those that are far superior to their 
 own ; and the consequence is, that, now and 
 then, they are placed in a very awkward 
 position. I remember the case of a clergy- 
 man who preached for me many years ago, 
 and was extremely dexterous in doing it. 
 He took the precaution to adopt a different 
 text. He preached, not verbatmi et literatim^ 
 but substantially, another man's sermon from 
 *'They that are Christ's have crucified the 
 flesh, with the affections and lusts" (Gal. v. 
 24) — a sermon in which the character of the 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 287 
 
 true Christian was depicted. But he took a 
 very different text. He went to Daniel, 
 *'Thou are weighed in the balances, and art 
 found wanting" (Dan. v. 27). And when 
 Hugh White made out such and such a man 
 was not a Christian by St. Paul's tests, my 
 friend put the false professor into the 
 ''balance," and found him "wanting." 
 But now the awkward part of the story has 
 to be told. The sermon made such an im- 
 pression upon the congregation, that he 
 was straightway asked to print it ! Such 
 is the awkward position in which you may 
 find yourself. 
 
 I have heard of another case. A minister 
 had preached in the morning a very good 
 sermon, and promised to finish his subject 
 in the evening. Lucklessly, the wife of the 
 friend for whom he was preaching recog- 
 nised the sermon, and went to her husband's 
 bookcase between the services, and laid the 
 preacher's evening sermon in the study 
 which he was to occupy. She had a wife's 
 jealousy for her husband's reputation, as 
 the " strange preacher" had outshone him. 
 
288 LETTERS TO A 
 
 But, to speak more seriously, preach it as 
 you will, and though the sermon may be a 
 better one than your own, there will be a 
 want of freshness about it. It will not have 
 been thought out, nor prayed over, in the 
 same way as your own, and you cannot look 
 for the same blessing as upon the product of 
 your own thought and labour and prayer. 
 
 I must draw to a close. In all your 
 preaching remember the words of George 
 Herbert — "The greatest and hardest pre- 
 paration is within." "The character of his 
 sermon is holiness. It is gained, first, by 
 choosing texts of devotion, not controversy, 
 — moving and ravishing texts, whereof the 
 Scriptures are full. Secondly, by dipping 
 and seasoning all our words and sentences 
 in our hearts before they come into our 
 mouths, truly and cordially expressing all 
 we say, so that the auditors may plainly 
 testify that every word is heart deep." Nor 
 let it be forgotten that it is one thing to 
 preach an occasional sermon as a stranger, 
 but it is quite another thing to be preaching 
 as a pastor going in and out among his 
 
YOUNG CLERGYMAN, 289 
 
 people. Cecil says, **We look at a man 
 out of the pulpit to see what he is worth in 
 it; " and Cowper tells us that he venerates 
 the man 
 
 " whose doctrine and whose life 
 Coincident, exhibit lucid proof 
 That he is honest in the sacred cause." 
 
 {Task: Timepiece.) 
 
 ** You are always," says Archdeacon Evans, 
 ** in public." The main secret of the power 
 of the minister is that his whole life is a 
 continual sermon. On the other hand, not 
 all the powers of a Boanerges will compen- 
 sate for the evil influence of an inconsistent 
 life. We may apply the illustration which 
 I have already quoted, ** We must noX. preach 
 cream, and live skimmed milk." The 
 standard of the life sermon must not fla- 
 grantly differ from the standard of the pulpit 
 sermon. The 'r)QiKy] Trto-rt? is mighty in its pre- 
 sence and mighty in its absence, — '* ay^^^ov, 
 
 WS etTTetl/, KVpiCOTaTT]!/ eX€L TTLCTTLV TO TjOo^J^ * It 
 
 was once said of an able preacher, '* When 
 he is in the pulpit, it is a pity he should 
 
 * Aristot. Rhetoric, i. 2. 
 
 19 
 
2 90 LETTERS TO A YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 
 
 ever come out of it ; and when he is out of 
 it, it is a pity he ever gets into it." Well 
 indeed it is for Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, 
 or Boanerges, if his daily life '* allures to 
 brighter worlds, and leads the way," — if 
 *' Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ," 
 be not mockery on his tongue. The pos- 
 sibility of preaching to others, and being 
 oneself ** a castaway," — what more urgent 
 incentive to prayer, watchfulness, to circum- 
 spection, to consistency, to holy living ? A 
 devil might shudder to see a great preacher 
 drop from his pulpit into hell. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
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