i-IBRARY OF PRINCETON OCT 0 3 :^:r THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PASTORAL THEOLOGY JUL :^n 1914 By JAMES M. HOPPIN, D.D. PROFESSOR OF THE HISTORY OF ART, AND LATE OF HOMILETICS AND PASTORAL THEOLOGY, IN YALE COLLEGE "// esf, parmi les hornmes, le reprhentant d'une pensie de misSricorde et il la represente en la transportant dans sa propre vie. Seco7irir, c'est son minisfere, c'est sa vie." — Alexandre vinet. FUNK & WAG N ALLS NEW YORK 1884 LONDON 10 AND 12 Dfy Street 44 Fleet Street Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884, By FUNK & WAGNALLS, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. PREFACE. Christian theology has ever presented a strong front to its foes ; it has changed front, so to speak, as the emergencies of the conflict have varied, bringing into view the dogmatic side of truth in the age of the Nicene Creed and that of the Reformation, and the critical and apologetic in the controversies of the eighteenth century and those of the present day under the assault of the rationalistic philosophies ; it is, itself, as instanced by Schleiermacher and Neander, profoundly philosophical, seeking reasons for the knowledge of divine things, and also, in times of nobler faith, mystical ; but through every age, however scientific or unscientific, there is to be seen beneath all forms one spirit, showing that the teachings of the Spirit are identical, and that in them is the same practical element— that of righteousness. Whatever may be the speculations of thinkers upon ideal truth, from Anselm to Bushnell, it is always right to be and to do good — to strive after the pure life of God in the soul. The gospel is the energy of goodness, the expression of infinite love, the holy life of self-sacrifice in imitation of Christ's sacrifice. The best modern spirit of theology recognizes the essential character of the gospel to be the manifestation of a personal Saviour in humanity, who draws men to Himself by His love, and implants in them a new principle of goodness. Christianity is the divine IV FREE A CE. spirit of goodness incarnate. This spiritual religion is a revival of apostolic faith, and the need of the present day is not a new theology so much as a new religion — more truly evangelic and filled with new spiritual life. The Church easily loses the consciousness of its high mission, but the Church, above all, is the sphere of the Holy Spirit's good activities, who is called the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Truth. Pastoral theology, of which the present book treats, ranges itself under this practical — this invariable aspect of divine truth ; it draws its life directly from the Bible and from the life and will of Christ. It is earnestly hoped that the work may be useful in contributing to the practical and spiritual tone of the ministry. The pastor should not be a superficial man or superficially acquainted with the wants of his flock ; but by studying his people with that loving and comprehen- sive insight given by the Spirit, he should seek that they be thoroughly perfected in Christ. The pastoral spirit, being that of direction and guid- ance, is the deepest of all, and forms the starting-point of every good influence, so that the life of the pastor should be identical with the will of Christ. This is the con- dition of its existence. The holy glow that once sur- rounded the ofiice of pastor, the divinity that hedged it about with reverence and awe, has almost vanished away, and his power is now in his character, his Christ- likeness ; and this, perhaps, is as it should be, for the pastoral character reacts upon the ofifice, and thus the right conception of it must at length be attained. This volume comprises, substantially, a course of lect- ures given to classes of theological students, and it forms a companion volume to a work by the author on " Hom- iletics," published in 1881, fulfilling the promise made in rKEFA CE. V the preface of that book ; and I would desire that the two books should go together, and that one of them (contrary to what was said in the preface) should not be considered complete without the other. My endeavor has been to make such a book as I would wish to have had when a theological student and young- pastor— one that would be of real aid in the studies, in- quiries, trials, and mental and moral preparation for the strenuous work of the ministry. I have tried also to set forth the sympathy, the wondrous pitifulness of the Christian religion as exemplified in the pastor who repre- sents his divine Master on earth, and who is no mere theorist, but an untiring good worker, a loving and cour- ageous helper of humanity. The real needs of the day and land in which he lives are the needs which the pastor is to supply, if he obeys the command to " feed the flock of God which is among j you." I have striven especially to bring out this effec- tively practical element of the pastor's character, like the character of Christ. He is not appointed to administer to abstract evil. The actual form of evil which presents itself in the community where he dwells indicates the error at work in the spiritual consciousness of men, and this is the evil to be sought and remedied. He must understand his time. Vice itself wears the fashion of the day, and mocks the beauty of its higher culture, conceal- ing its deformity under the charms of a more exquisite civilization. A keen and trained intelligence, touched by the spirit of divine love, is demanded for the pastoral work of our age and land. Alas ! if the minister of Christ and of light goes through life missing every oppor- tunity of doing good to men from not knowing their real wants. The pastor of souls should know men and what thev talk and think about. In our best communities arc VI PRE FA CE. to be found Americans by birth and education who are professed Buddhists ; there are Mormons ; there are SociaHsts and free Communists, who are working for the abohtion of the laws of a Christian civihzation ; there are men tired of hfe, because they have never truly lived ; there are men eaten up with the love of money, and who know no other religion ; there are materialists who deny all supernatural truth, in every grade from the disciples of the most pessimistic school to the purely scientific worshippers of primitive force in the physical universe ; there are idealists, who are derived from the lofty-minded Spinoza and the German philosophies, and there are those who are led by the more logical reasonings of the modern English school of sceptical philosophy ; there are those who believe nothing and hope nothing ; there are those who wander in search of their lost in the realm of ghosts, like Odysseus in the shades of the lower world. These ideas, the most philosophical, many of them truly so, have become popularized, and are the active forces of the day. They turn men from the true light. They are mingled with scientific truth wrested from its proper basis. They pervade society, they influence ourselves, and they influence the men and women (though perhaps we da not know it) with whom we ourselves come in con- stant contact. These are men and women often of the most truth-loving and beautiful characters. They are to be loved and spiritually aided, although they do not ac- cept Christ in any of His relations to humanity ; and he who thus loves his fellow-men and consecrates all his pow- ers purely to the work of saving souls in the kingdom of God's eternal righteousness and peace, deserves recogni- tion and a high place of honor in our hearts, as the Script- ures exhort " to know them which labor among you, PREFACE. Vll and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you ; and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake." What is said in these lectures is a candid though brief expression of the author's views, echoing no other's opinions, so that he compromises no one but himself ; while, at the same time, he has sought, as far as possible, the concurrence of all the true voices of the Church and of history. He has claimed the widest liberty, believing that important subjects are only to be profitably discussed in the free but sincere spirit of the Broad Church, or in that condition of religious thought in which, while the unity of the spirit is maintained, writers are allowed the utmost scope of investigation and ample space to move in. He is assured that on many mooted points the book will prove too high for some and too low for others, and he begs that it may not be rejected on that account, when its intention to help young men in the rninistry be fairly recognized, and that only what is wrong in it may be cast aside, and what is true received. It aims to be Christian and not sectarian. No one denomination or portion of the Church has been kept exclusively in view, and the single purpose of the book is to portray the Christian pastor in his multiform relations as the friend and guide of men, to set forth those principles which should mould and direct the pastor under whatever form or name of the Church of Christ he is called to serve, so that he may possess that breadth of wisdom and love which has its roots beneath all distinctions, and be in- spired by the apostolic injunction : " Only let your con- versation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ . . . that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel." New Haven, Conn., October i, 1884. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. PACK Sec. I. Place and Literature of Pastoral Theology i PART FIRST. THE PASTORAL OFFICE. Sec. 2. The Pastoral Office Founded in Nature 13 Sec. 3. Divine Institution of the Pastoral Office 23 A7700TOAOf 28 llpo(p?]Trig 36 AvvafiEi^ 39 Xapiafiara ia/idru.' 43 'AvTih'p(>£ig, KvjiEpvJiatir 45 E«a7ye?uoT7;f 46 Iloi[iTjv 50 Atddff/ca/lof 52 YlpeajivTepoq 53 — ' ETTicr/corrof 55 Other Titles of the Ministry 5g Sec. 4. Idea of the Pastoral Office 62 Sec. 5. Model of the Pastor 74 Sec. 6. Call to the Ministry 81 Sec. 7. Ordination loi Sec. 8. Trials and Rewards of the Pastor no X CONTENTS. PART SECOND. THE PASTOR AS A MAN. PAGE Sec 9. Spiritual Qualifications. 126 Sec. 10. Intellectual and Scientific Culture 146 Sec. II. Moral Culture 175 PART THIRD. THE PASTOR IN HIS RELATIONS TO SOCIETY. Sec. 12. Donniestic Relations 187 Sec. 13. The Pastor in Society 194 PART FOURTH. THE PASTOR IN HIS RELATIONS TO PUBLIC WORSHIP. Sec. 14. Theory and Form of Public Worship 224 Liturgies 233 Sec. r5. The Lord's Day 248 Sec. 16. The Sanctuary 283 Sec. 17. Church Music 305 Sec. 18. Preaching 321 Sec. 19. Conducting a Prayer-Meeting 344 Sec. 20. Baptism and the Lord's Supper 354 Sec. 21. Marriage and Burial 382 CONTENTS. xi PART FIFTH. THE PASTOR IN HIS CARE OF SOULS. PAGE Sec. 22. Qualifications for the Care of Souls 387 Sec. 23. Pastoral Visiting 402 Sec. 24. Care of the Sick and the Afflicted 420 Sec. 25. Treatment of Different Classes 438 The Unbelieving and Impenitent 438^^ The Inquirer 445 The Young Convert 475 Sec. 26. Revivals of Religion 480 PART SIXTH. THE PASTOR IN HIS RELATIONS TO THE CHURCH. Sec. 27. Church Membership 513 Church Discipline 521 Poimenics 528 Sec. 28. Christian Nurture 531 Catechetics 533 Sec. 2g. Benevolent Activity and Almsgiving 535 Sec. 30. Missions 54^ Home Evangelization 542 Foreign Missions 547 PASTORAL THEOLOGY. INTRODUCTION. Sec. I. Place and Literature of Pastoral Theology. The pastor is likened in the Bible to an Eastern shep- herd tending his sheep in the wilderness or on the moun- tain-side, \vhere his movements are as free as the things of nature by which he is surrounded ; he watches the flaming sun by day and the stars by night, and grows wise by communion with the spirit of the universe ; now he darts forth to find and rescue a wandering sheep ; now he leads down his flock into the green pastures and by the still waters, and then he seeks fresher fields, where the springs are never dry, by lofty and rugged paths, encountering perils that demand a strong arm and brave heart to meet — and what shall be said ? Shall we put this man into a Church livery, and give him a Church manual for his guide, and arm him with a policeman's baton in- stead of his rude, crooked staff, and order him when he shall get up or lie down, when he shall fold his flock or lead them forth with merry pipe and song ? All the poetiy and usefulness of the vocation to which his divine Master, to whom he is mainly responsible, has called him would be spoiled by thus turning the free mountain shepherd, the child of nature and God, into an 2 PASTORAL THEOLOGY. ecclesiastical machine governed by exact rules ; it were indeed an impracticable and thankless task. Pastoral Theology, though forming a vital and organic part of the science of Qiristian Theology, is a theme evasive of analysis and thus somewhat difficult to treat, having regard as it does to relations which are almost wholly spiritual and personal, and whose roots are deep in the affections. As well might one try to construct a philosophy for the economy of a household and the affectionate and moral (the Germans have a better word, " sittiich") relations of parents and children, as to make a science of those fine relations of a Christian pastor to his flock which constitute the most profound and spirit- ual of human ties. Another difficulty lies in the intensely practical nature of the subject and its multifarious richness of applica- tion to the innumerable wants and changing circum- stances of life and of the life of the Christian Church, regarding pastors as " stewards of the manifold grace of God." While the essentially practical department of Homiletics may be treated in a scientific way, though it also is apt to be injured by applying critical analysis too narrowly, for " the word of God is not bound," and, in fact, preaching is so intimately connected with the pas- toral work, both of them having for their aim the build- ing up of the kingdom of God in the world, that they are but different sides of the same work — yet the teacher of Pastoral Theology is apparently much less advanta- geously placed than teachers in the other departments of theological education. The lecturer on Systematic Theology, let him enter his subject where he may, cannot fail to make his way to a central truth, from which he begins to open the discussion around him in the logical evolution of thought ; the lecturer upon Church History, INTRODUCTION. 3 however he may dwell upon the philosophy of history and search after the creative idea which is to conduct him through the immense field of historic investigation, must at length be content to move on, following the resistless track of a divine law of development, and acting as an in- terpreter to a higher series of facts. The Exegetical in- structor, having ever so carefully laid down his principles of interpretation, has his lesson before him, and a sure if not always plain road marked out for him ; in like manner the teacher of Christian Ethics must himself draw out from the Scriptures in some ordered plan whatever they contain of the principles of moral duty and their reference to human conduct ; but where shall the teacher of Pastoral Theology begin ? Instead of a deter- minate path, a wide and in some respects vague field lies before him. Can his theme be considered a science ? Is it not rather an art than a science ? A science is the development of those abstract Pastoral principles or recognized laws upon which any ^° °^^ ^" art rather particular department of knowledge rests ; ,. hence there is something determinately pro- science, gressive In it — a philosophic even if occult evolution of ideas ; but what purely scientific method can be applied to Pastoral Theology ? It is free, and sub- ject to circumstance and personal wisdom and will, and above all, the divine will. "It is," says Vinet, "art which supposes science, or science resolving itself into art;"' but art, strictly speaking, is the opposite of science ; science refers to the principles of things — their speculative and absolute groundwork ; while art refers to the disposition, modification, and external use of princi- ples for a certain end, and this describes the connection 1 " Pas. Theol.." § i. scheme of theol. edu- 4 PASTORAL THEOLOGY. that Pastoral Theology bears to science, or, more truly, to the science of theology ; it is the art of applying truth — call it scientific truth — to vital ends ; it partakes more of an art than of a science, but it rests back on a ground- work of truth ; it is chiefly concerned in carrying into life and practice those fundamental truths which are taught in the Scriptures and In any true and comprehen- sive system of theological education. This may be bet- ter seen if we lay down even the briefest methodized scheme of a course of theological instruction. A course of theological study is commonly divided into a fourfold classification — ^viz., Exegetic, Systematic, His- toric, and Practical, (i) Exegetic Theology Place of Pas. jncludes ((i:) Historic Criticism of the Books eo . in a ^^ Scripture ; {U) Biblical Hermeneutics, or the laws of scriptural interpretation ; (f) cation. Biblical Exegesis, or the actual interpretation of Scripture. (2) Systematic Theology in- cludes {a) Dogmatic Theology, or the discussion of the principles of faith ; {U) Moral Theology, or Christian Ethics. (3) Historic Theology includes {a) the History of Christian Doctrines ; {U) Symbolic Theology ; {c) Archas- ology ; {d) Theological Literature. (4) Practical Theol- ogy includes [a) Church Polity ; {b) Catechetics ; (r) Liturgies, or the Theory of Worship ; {d) Homiletics ; {e) Pastoral Theology. Pastoral Theology, under this classification, is a branch of Practical Theology, and includes the more personal and ofificial relations of the pastor to the church and to the people of his charge. This department, in our theological training, has been crowded into a small space ; it has been, in fact, almost entirely neglected. Never can the writer forget his own lack of preparation, and his entire inability to meet the INTRODUCTION. 5 practical and urgent duties of the pastoral office put to the test the first time that a mind awakened from its sleep and trembling under the searchings of spiritual truth sought his counsel ; not a hint had he received in the theological school by way of practical instruction as to the methods of treating such a mind. This pastoral skill, you say, cannot be taught, can- not be mapped on the charts of the eternal world, and comes through the finer lessons of experience ; but we do not altogether admit this. Something may be done in the normal school of theological edu- cation to inform the young pastor as to the real duties of his work, to forewarn of its difificulties, and to fore- arm for its glorious warfare ; and from its practical importance and its wide scope of interest this is a de- partment of theology, or more truly of ministerial train- ing, in which the great apostle of humanity, with his unequalled combination of tact, sympathy, and zeal, or the beloved disciple who leaned on Jesus' breast and drew thence the pure pastoral spirit of blended wisdom and love, would have delighted to employ their powers. In regard to the literature of Pastoral Theology it is not necessary for us to go over this wide and somewhat monotonous field. Its most compact, acces- sible, and familiar works are among the best. ^ ^^^ ^^^ ° T-i • • 1 Pastoral The- We name a few of them. Ihe mspired oloev springs are the richest. As the ofifice of the pastor de origine is divine, is imaged on the relation of the Divine Shepherd to his flock, of the Almighty Father to men, his children, we find the head-sources of authority and instruction upon this theme — the commis- sion, the principles of action, the entire work and life of the Christian pastor — comprehended in the Scriptures. In the Old Testament the germs of the pastoral idea 6 PASTORAL THEOLOGY. begin to manifest themselves in the early offices of the The "priest" and the "prophet." It is de- Scriptures, clared (Jer. 3 : 15) : "I will give you pas- tors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding ;" and every Old Testa- ment interpreter of the law of righteousness to whom was given the staff of leadership, and who spoke words that in cloudy symbol or clear precept proclaimed the divine will to men, is a teacher in that "wisdom" which represents the spiritual guidance vouchsafed to the people of God. But in the New Testament of "the Lord our right- eousness" the most perfect image of the pastor is revealed in Christ. The study of the Gospels, or the life of Jesus, from a purely pastoral point of view, has a deepening and establishing influence ; for many of our Lord's words, as in the sending forth of the apostles and at the Last Supper, were especially addressed to his disciples as future spiritual guides and pastors. The same spirit is to be evoked that was then evoked to enable men to become able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter which killeth, but of the spirit which makes alive. The Pastoral Epistles, written as they were primarily to young ministers by an aged minister who had made " full proof of the ministry," and who was appointed by Christ to plant and organize the universal Church — these form the most full and systematic inspired source of the nature of the pastoral authority, and of the duties and qualifications of the Christian pastor ; they are his pan- dects and constitution ; they present a whole theological seminary or seed-plot of heavenly instruction and guid- ance, that, if closely studied, need not to be supple- mented by human precepts. They set forth both the doctrine and the life, for they come through the teach- IN TROD UC TION. 7 ings of that Spirit who is himself " the Bishop and Shepherd of our souls." The real greatness and sim- plicity of the preacher of the " gospel of the blessed God," the end of whose labor is " charity" and " faith unfeigned," as given us in these epistles, may be well contrasted with false human ideas of the work of the ministry, whether they look to intellectual display or hierarchical ambition. Of works on Pastoral Theology, the most satisfactory and the most complete in itself, is " Pastoral Theology or the Theory of the Evangelical Ministry" (*' Theolofjie Pastorale, ou Theorie du Min- _, , ^ ° Theology. istre Evangelique"), by Alexandre Vinet. This book treats the subject in as philosophical a method as it is capable of being treated, and for a European author it is inspired by an extraordinary spirit of Christian free- dom. It glows with an elevated sentiment which seems caught from the Alpine mountains, by whose side the author lived. Like John Foster, with whom Vinet has been compared, his thought is often obscure from its depth ; it is, however, from this circumstance none the less suggestive. He follows the pastoral office to its beginnings in the infinite thought of God, proving the divine reason to be beautifully manifested in its institu- tion, and showing the love and wisdom of Christ, the chief Shepherd, in the ministry which he appointed. Vinet is wonderfully clear and rich in this portion of the subject — the institution and the ideal of the Christian ministry — and in the purely subjective portraiture of the pastor ; but on the more practical qualifications and duties of the pastor there is a deficiency in Vinet's work. This doubtless arises from the fact of Vinet's situation and his residence in the bosom of the pure and devoted but rigidly hemmed-in Swiss Reformed Church, and of an 8 PASTORAL THEOLOGY. Old World civilization. It is not too much to say that the pastoral office itself, in a free country like ours, has assumed nobler proportions than those in which Vinet was ever accustomed to see it exhibit itself, and that here we may hope that its highest ideals shall be more and more fully realized. " A Discourse of the Pastoral Care," by Bishop Burnet, though an old and quaint work, is singularly com- ^ Burnet on the P^^^^^"*^^^^' '^"^ stands its ground to this Pastoral day. Prelatic in tone, its scope and aim rise Care. above ecclesiastical distinctions, and rest upon solid principles. It leaves a strong impression of the divinely instituted authority and intrinsic dignity of the ministry, and it heightens the sense of ministerial obliga- tions. It is animated in style, and is sometimes, like Burnet's other writings, weighty. " A Priest to the Temple, or the Country Parson's Character and Rule of Holy Life" (1632), by George Herbert, is another book that is true gold. ^ Herberts j^ j^ the portrait of George Herbert, done by country , r r 1 1 /-1 • • himself, of a pure-hearted Christian minister, parson. ' ^ and noble Christian gentleman. The High- Churchism of Herbert was the poetry rather than the substance of the man, which was spiritually sound. His book breathes the humble spirit of the man who, leaving the highest walks of rank and literature, preached to the illiterate congregation of Bemerton Chapel. The young pastor who wishes to cultivate humble piety, to learn cheerful self-denial, to acquire genial and practical wisdom in dealing with common men, and to invigorate his Eng- lish style, would do well to make a constant companion of " The Country Parson." Herbert says of students for the ministry, " their aim and labor must be not only to get knowledge, but to subdue and mortify all lusts and IN TR on UC TION. 9 affections ; and not to think that, when they have read the fathers or schoolmen, a minister is made and the thing is done. TJie greatest and hardest preparation is within." In another place he says : " The parson's yea is yea, and nay nay ; and his apparel plain, but rever- end and clean, without spots or dust ; the purity of his mind breaking out and dilating itself even to his body, clothes, and habitation." Again : " The country parson is full of all knowledge. They say it is an ill mason that refuseth any stone ; and there is no knowledge but, in a skilful hand, serves either positively as it is, or else to illustrate some other knowledge. He condescends even to the knowledge of tillage and pasturage, and makes great use of them in teaching ; because people by what they understand are best led to what they understand not." Yet again : " He is not witty or learned or eloquent, but holy — a character that Hermogenes never dreamed of, and therefore he could give no precepts thereof. But it is gained first by choosing texts of devo- tion, not controversy ; moving and ravishing texts whereof the Scriptures are full. Secondly, by dipping and seasoning all our words and sentences in our hearts be- fore they come into our mouths ; truly affecting and cordially expressing all that we say ; so that the auditors may plainly perceive that every word is heart deep." This last sentence is the key of the book. Herbert agrees with Neander, "pectus est quod tJieologiim facit ;" and with John, who looked upon his hearers as his chil- dren in Christ, He says, " The parson is full of charity ; it is his predominant element." Baxter's " Reformed Pastor" sets forth a high idea of the Puritan minister. It is salt, sparkling and pungent. No book can be more quickening to the ministerial conscience, and sometimes it is tremendous in solemn PASTORAL THEOLOGY. earnestness. But while it overruns with energy and holy enthusiasm, its tone is too exacerbat- Baxters jng and intense, and it leaves too little re- reformed . , . . ™, . . pose for the spirit. i he passive virtues are pastor. i r r not sufficiently recognized. The spirit of Christian joy and the encouraging views of the ever- present love and assistance of Christ do not pervade and inspire the book. This was doubtless somewhat owing to the excited and polemical state of the theology of Baxter's day ; but it is nevertheless a noble book, and leads the minister to stand fully in the eye of God. It is a corrective to all low and superficial ideas of ministerial character, and repeats in startling clearness, " if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Bridge's " Christian Ministry" is a book that has little originality, but is a useful compilation ; and there are other less complete works, some of them of Other -.1.1 • i.1 • ancient date and more curious than impor- works. tant, among which might be mentioned Bowles's " Pastor Evangelicus," written by an English clergyman originally in Latin, 1649 ; Cotton Mather's " Student and Pastor," characterized by this author's quaintness and pedantry; Scougal's "Sermon on the Importance and Difficulties of the Ministerial Func- tion ;" Archbishop Seeker's " Charges ;" Bishop Taylor's " Clergyman's Instructor ;" Fletcher of Madely's " Por- trait of St. Paul ;" Robert Hall's " Discourse on the Discouragements and Supports of the Ministry ;" Hum- phrey's " Letters to a Son in the Ministry ;" Oxenden's " Pastoral Office ;" Bruce's " Training of the Twelve ;" Kidder's " Christian Pastorate ;" Shedd's " Homiletics and Pastoral Theology. " To these might be added such suggestive and practical works as Spencer's " Pastor's IN TROD UCTION. I r Sketches ;" Wayland's " Ministry of the Gospel ;" Mullois' " The Clergy and Pulpit ;" Park's " Life of Emmons ;" Stanley's " Life of Dr. Arnold ;" Stopford Brooke's " Life of F. W. Robertson ;" Conybeare and Howson's " Life of St. Paul," and Neander's " Life of Chrysostom." In the French language, after having mentioned Vinet and Mullois, the most noted is Massillon's Frcncli " Discours sur la Vocation a 1 etat Ecclesias- V70rks. tique. " Of German authors the following might be noticed as among the most useful and practical : Glaus Harms's " Pastoral Theologie ;" Bengel's " Pastoral Grundsaetze ;" Schleiermacher's " Praktische ■works. Theologie," especially the two chapters upon Pastoral Theology ; Reinhard's " Letters upon the Stud- ies and Life of the Preacher ;" Nitzsch's " Praktische Theologie ;" Huffel's " Das Wesen und der Beruf des Evangelisch-Christlichen Geistlichen ;" Graffe's " Die Pastoral Theologie in ihrem ganzen Umfange ;" Kaiser's " Sketch of a System of Pastoral Theology ;" Roster's " Manual of Pastoral Science;" Strauss's " Glockentone;" C. Palmer's "Handbuch Pas. Theol. ;" Dr. Wilhelm Otto's Evangelische Praktische Theologie ;" to which might be added Van Oosterzee's " Practical Theology," which is especially rich in the department of Poimenics. Con- rad Porta's " Pastorale Lutheri," and all of Luther's works and words are mines of practical wisdom and sug- gestion ; and if the theological student would imbue his mind with the regally truthful and bravely confessing spirit of Luther, he would be, like him, even in these dull days, a reformer of the Church of God. Of the more ancient works in this department the principal are Chrysostom's TlfpJ lEpoffvvj]? and Pope 12 PASTORAL THEOLOGY. Gregory's "Liber Regulse Pastoralis," the last of which is remarkable for its vigorous setting forth of rysos om ^^^^ discriminating wisdom or "prudence" and Gregory. ° . . , , . which the pastor requires m dealmg with men. King Alfred translated it into Anglo-Saxon. Chrysostom, in his work, contends that the pastor must be a holier man than the monk, or than ordinary Chris- tians, because he has to instruct men in the highest or divine truth, and that in composing a sermon he is not to look to the praise of men, but to God's praise only. The writings of St. Bernard of Clairvaux and of St. Augustine abound in pregnant thoughts upon the duties of the pastoral office, and thoughts leading to its higher springs of power. After noticing these (and hundreds of others might be mentioned), the words of an old writer still hold true, that " a holy pastor has but three books to study — the Scriptures, himself, and his flock." PART FIRST. THE PASTORAL OFFICE Sec. 2. The Pastoral Office founded in Nature. Pastoral Theology, technically speaking, is one branch of Practical Theology, and it includes all that. the other departments do not teach, or all that remains to be taught in the education of definition of Pastoral the Christian minister ; in other words, it Theoloev strictly comprehends those methods of pas- toral labor and instruction which are employed out- side of the study and of the pulpit. It is "a function of the Christian ministry supplementary to the preaching of the Word." It has reference to all extra-pulpit ways and means, all practical efforts and agencies, of extend- ing the Christian faith and benefiting the souls of men. We shall, however, take a still more comprehensive view of Pastoral Theology, and shall follow in part Vinet's plan, although differing from it in important particulars ; indeed, while we would not have the pre- sumption to attempt to make up Vinet's deficiencies, yet we would endeavor to adapt him, in many practical respects, to the wants and requirements of our American ministry ; for, in a country like ours, where the Chris- tian faith has its freest and fullest development, and the J 14 PASTORAL THEOLOGY. separation of Church and State is a real, not theoretical, reform, the Christian ministry has already taken on among us a fairer and larger type than it has ever yet assumed, or can assume, amid the repressive influences of the Old World civilization. Our method will be, from the discussion of the office itself, and its foundations in nature and Scripture, or the absolute view of the subject, to pass on to the actual embodiment of the ministerial ofifice in the fit personal instrument ; and from that to discuss the pastor's general relations to society and the world around him ; and then, advancing from this step, to come to his more special, profound, and enduring work in the care of souls, the realm of spirit, the service of the Church of God, and the -extension of Christ's eternal kingdom. We would, before proceeding further, clearly disclaim the attempt to make factitious distinction between the The pastor functions of the pastor and those of the above all preacher, as if the two constituted separate a preacher, departments of the ministry. The distinc- tion is, at most, a technical one, and is made only for the sake of convenience. The two are essentially one. The pastor is above all the preacher. He was a preacher before he was a pastor. His pastorate would be an empty form were he not a preacher. It is for the sake of preaching the Word of God more effectually that he becomes a pastor. It is to carry on this warfare that he takes this oflflce. He but varies his methods as did the Great Teacher. He concentrates his work upon a more specific and scientific plan. But whether in private or public, in the upper chamber of prayer or the place of great assemblies, by the wayside or within the domestic circle, from pulpit to pulpit or " house to house," in his every contact with the heart of humanity he sows the THE PASTORAL OFFICE. 15 seed waiting on the golden opportunit}-. This is not losing sight of the pastoral office itself, which is a real and not a fictitious one, which is the preacher's authoritative standpoint, which is the application of his labor to a particular pastoral field, and which has regard to the re- ligious wants of a specific communion and to the admin- istration of churchly ordinances to a circle of persons and families ecclesiastically united under one spiritual leader- ship. The pastoral office is an ecclesiastical function, the preaching office a universal duty. Preaching is a duty in some sense obligatory upon every Christian, but the pastoral office is necessarily confined to a few. It is the entire consecration of some to the work of caring for the religious welfare of others, and especially of those who are officially placed under their immediate spiritual charge. If we deny and decry the reality of the pastoral office, we cut from under our feet, as ministers of Christ, the very ground upon which we stand. In treating of the natural foundations of the pastoral office, we would lay down the principle — I. It is an axiom of philosophv that God ^^*"'^^ ^°""- ' . dations of pas. makes his first and fundamental revelation «, in the constitution of our own minds ; that there is an innate faculty of thought and a moral con- sciousness in man to which God appeals, by awaken- ing in him the feeling of religious obligation and the desire of religious knowledge ; for to know truth, and the highest truth — that of God — is the deepest want of the mind. There is, therefore, we reason, an a priori element in man's mind ^vhich makes religious sentiments and religious institutions fit and natural to him. No in- stitution, we may safely assert, which has continued for centuries, and which is of a universal character, and 1 6 PASTORAL THEOLOGY. which, above all, is an institution divinely intended to continue to the end of time, can be without a foundation in nature ; there must be some universal natural want which it supplies, or some essential truth which it stands for ; there must be the subjective groundwork in the human heart, and in human nature, of the outward fact in society. 2. We would, then, affirm that there is this root or basis in nature itself, of the pastoral office ; Proof that ^j-j^j ^g would endeavor to prove this chiefly ,/ P^"- °^" ^^ by four arguments : ^ founded in . (i) As every universal want oi humanity, where there is a capacity to supply this want, creates an office, in like manner the most universal want of man — that of religion — creates the office of religious instructor ; or perhaps, more strictly, we should say, is .the inevitable occasion for the creation of this office. Thus the necessity of public order and safety, and of the limitation of individual liberty for the common good, originates the office of civil government. Some kind of government, more or less elaborate, exists in all com- munities, even the most degraded ; while in nations of more advanced civilization certain men are devoted to the function of framing and administering the laws ; and the more exclusively they are devoted to this office, the better rulers they are. In the judicial department of government, especially, we are apt to think men cannot be too rigorously occupied with their high calling. The more important the government, and the vaster the in- terests at stake, the more entirely should rulers be ab- sorbed in the duties of their office. As another illustra- tion of this general principle, the natural demand for knowledge, and the capacity of the human mind to in- vestigate and enjoy scientific truth, necessitate the ex- THE PASTORAL OFFICE. 17 istence of a class of public educators. The office of educator is a universal one. In the semi-civilized East, one may see Arab children sitting in a circle, under the shadow of some old Egyptian temple, undergoing in- struction from a native pedagogue who does not know that the world goes round the sun ; but here is the ex- clusive and universal ofifice of educator, as truly as if the man had been an instructor in natural science in a Euro- pean university. These analogies might be multiplied. The world thus presents the spectacle of certain recog- nized and fixed ofifices among men, which have sprung from the general wants of humanity and the constitution of the mind ; and with how much greater force does this principle apply to the office of the Christian ministry, which is not to supply a changing but a fixed necessity, not a temporal but an eternal want ! The underlying idea of religion, which is our need of God, and union with God, exists, even if obscured, in all minds, enlight- ened and heathen, and is more widespread and profound than any other. Sin only deepens it ; superstition and idolatry only bring it out in a more intense prominence ; and thus we find in this natural religious instinct the universal demand for the existence of a class of men who, by the gravity of their lives and their intelligence, are supposed to be capable of holding more intimate com- munion with God, of giving expression to divine truth, and of instructing the people in religion. But this is not mere hypothesis, as we shall see in arguments that fol- low. (2) As no true society or community can exist with- out I. officers, 2. rules, 3. members, so the religious element cannot develop itself into an organized form in society without creating its regular of^cers as well as members. As the political element in society naturally 1 8 PASTORAL THEOLOGY. crystallizes into a regularly constituted state, with its officers, laws, and citizenship, so the religious principle in society must do the same by the working of the same principle. This is Whately's argument, and may be found carried out fully in his " Kingdom of Christ," Essay II. Whenever, therefore, the religious element works at all (and there is no portion of humanity in which it does not do so, truly or falsely), it must take on some kind of organized life ; and this organized life, in order to exist and operate, must have its regular officers or ministers as well as its rules and members. (3) Wherever man is, or has been found, something essentially corresponding to the office of the Christian pastor or permanent religious teacher has, in fact, been also found to exist. We find the priestly office existing in the childhood of the race, and in the earliest nations — not to instance it among the Hebrew people, because the Hebrew priestly office might be considered as having been positively instituted — but among nations of a cor- responding antiquity, the Chaldean, Persian, Egyptian, and Greek. The Assyrians, we know, were a highly re- ligious nation ; everything was done in the name of the god. The monarch himself was the high priest of the people. The older Aryans had three classes of priests, (i) seers, (2) sacrificers, (3) wise men. The Iranic or Persian worship was anti-idolatrous and essentially mono- theistic ; Zoroastrianism inculcated purity, inward as well as outward, and the esoteric doctrines of immortality and the resurrection were held by the priestly class. The Magian was a highly sacerdotal religion ; while, on the other hand, it must be said, the religion of China never has been, and is not now, a sacerdotal or hierarchical religion, though the emperor himself may possibly be regarded as a kind of pontifex maximus. The Greek THE PASTORAL OFFICE. ig priesthood, from Homeric Kalchas, son of Thestor, " who knew both things that were and that should be, and that had been before," to the prophetic and terrible Teiresias of Sophocles, with its lights and shadows, whose cheer- ing and mystic offices caused the worshipper to say " Thrice blest is he Who sees these rites ere he depart. For him Hades is life, for others naught but woe," and whose darker power made itself known in an offer- ing like that of Iphigenia at Aulis — this is familiar to classical scholars. These ancient priests and prophets were teachers of divine things, even if mainly false teachers ; and we have reason to think that the more enlightened Egyptian priesthood really possessed some faint conceptions of truth concerning the unity of God's nature, which constituted their mysteries and which was continued and concealed in the Greek Eleusinian mysteries. The sacerdotal class of heathen antiquity presided over the sacrificial rites ; and here we find another root in nature for the ministerial office, since the idea of sacrifice to be perceived in all religions is a natural and universal idea of humanity springing from the per- turbation and want which sin occasions. This same pro- found idea of sacrifice is what the Christian ministry, in higher rational forms and purer spiritual symbols, in its true moral significance, chiefly waits upon and sets forth. Even the Druidic priest of our own English ancestors, dealing in human sacrifices, may have had distorted glimpses of the spirituality of God ; for no idols are found at Stone- henge, or generally throughout the land of the old Celtic cultus. At the present day all existing nations even the most degraded have also their regular religious officers and teachers. In Central Africa the blood-besmeared 20 PASTORAL THEOLOGY. " fetich-priest" described by Dr. Livingstone corre- sponds (as a putrefying body does with a living one) to the true religious leader and instructor ; and as a general rule, these cunning and bloody men are supposed to be the dupes of their deceitful arts, and believers in their own ferocious religions. But we need not confine the argument to pagans and savages, for all men, the most highly civilized and educated, will have, and do have, their religious instructors, whether true or false ; for the need is in man to seek for an expression of the great thoughts of the soul and of divine truths. It is, there- fore, true that even in the most cultivated sceptical circles a few minds guide and rule the rest, as " living oracles," from which there is no dissent. They are the chosen ministers of spiritual things, called to this perilous posi- tion by pre-eminent intellectual gifts, and they have large and devoted flocks of immortal souls. (4) There is something in the nature and gifts of cer- tain men, instinctively recognized by the people, which constitutes them pastors — Tioijxtvai \aobv. Hero-wor- ship, though often indiscriminating and blasphemously exaggerated, and degenerating, in fact, into a kind of devil-worship of force, has a germ of truth in it ; for it is the method of God, fight against it as we may, that some minds are made to be leaders, and the history of the world is, in a great measure, the popular development and assimilation of the thoughts of such minds, that are acted upon by higher influences ; for such minds are more susceptible to such impulses ; they form centres or depositories of that supernatural energy which is im- parted and carried out in great popular movements, ref- ormations, and changes. In the religious world Nature herself may, in some sense, be said to consecrate certain men for the office of spiritual rulers and guides — such as THE PASTORAL OFFICE. 21 Savonarola, Luther, Wyclif, John Robinson, John Wes- ley, and, in a still higher sense, Moses, Samuel, Ezra, Elias, John the Baptist, and the apostle Paul. Such men needed no crook to show that they were shepherds of the people ; the people recognized them, and willingly followed them, and could not help doing so. Nature points out the true pastor of the people by certain indis- putable signs : first of all, by the spirit of self-sacrifice, / the willingness to lay down his life for the sheep ; also by the power of human sympathy, which few men manifest in any large degree ; and yet again, by a kingly love of truth and moral earnestness. Such qualities, bespeaking a natural fitness for the pastoral ofifice, show that some men are marked by nature and chosen by God to be the religious instructors of their fellow-men ; and " one man," says Chrysostom, " inspired with holy zeal, sufficeth to amend an entire people." * There may be, it is true, objections raised to the view which we have endeavored to establish : I. The levelling tendencies of the age, or of coming ages, will do away with the ministerial office. Thus Vinet says that Herder thought that the ministerial office would at some time be done away ; but it was from a very different reason.'^ Herder's idea was, that in the growing and greater general light of the advancing king- dom of truth, the office of truth-bearer, or light-giver, would be gradually absorbed and lost ; but that this can- not be so, and also that the levelling tendencies of the age cannot do away with the ministry, may be inferred from three reasons : {a) As man is born ignorant, with ' Neander's " Life of Chrysostom," Eng. ed., p. iig. ^ " Pastoral Theology," p. 41. 2 2 PASTORAL THEOLOGY. no innate knowledge of God, though with an intellectual and moral constitution exquisitely fitted to receive this truth, he must continue to have instruction in divine truth, {b) As man is an imperfect and sinful being, and will continue to be so, he must continue to have guides to holiness. (<:) And to advance a step beyond nature, and take in, also, an idea of revealed truth, or of the gospel, so long as the present economy of nature and grace remains unchanged, and man continues to be a being who needs to be saved by the redemption of Christ, no man, to the end of time, can be led back to God and saved without the instrumentality, directly or indirectly, of divine truth and love brought to bear upon his heart. 2. Among the truly enlightened and good there is no longer any need of the minister, who is needed only for the ignorant, dark-minded, and wicked ; but every good man's own heart is his temple, and his own conscience his minister. The objector here altogether loses sight of the great fact that man is a social being, and bound up with a race in the same natural and spiritual economy ; that his perfection, or his highest perfection, is in union with the perfection of common humanity, and that no man can individually possess the perfect truth ; he needs the aid and wisdom of his fellow-man to whom may be granted more light in spiritual things. That is the natural way appointed for man to come to the truth, and to widen his own sphere of truth, through the help and sympathy of his fellow-man — the truth thus glancing from mind to mind, or being concentrated, like magnetic centres, in some chosen minds. In short, no man can secede from the race, or from the Church ; he must be willing to sit down at a common table, and feed upon a common bread of life. " One Lord, one faith, one bap- tism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and THE PASTORAL OFFICE. 23 through all, and in you all," is a truth of nature as well as of revelation. We therefore hold that the office of the religious minister will never give way to the encroach- ments or changes of time ; and that men may level the hills, but they cannot build railroads to heaven ; that the pastoral office is as much a natural institution in the moral and spiritual world as a mountain which supplies the plains with moisture and streams is in the physical world ; that human nature responds to the divine com- mand, " Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work unto which I have called them ;" that as all men have recognized the divine office in the past, they will con- tinue to do so in the future ; and it is well, in these times of growing irreverence for positive institutions, and of the increased importance which is given to natural institutions and intuitions, that pastors should show to their people the natural foundations of the pastoral office, and make them see that if they have not the true re- ligious teacher — the " ministry of the word " of God — they will inevitably have the false religious teacher — the ministry of the word of man. But we have higher and surer ground even than this to stand upon. Sec. 3. Divine Institution of Pastoral Office, Whatever is necessitated or established by nature is, in a true sense, a divine institution ; but God has also put a special stamp of positive divine institution upon the office of the Christian pastor. " Jesus Christ instituted little. He inspired much more ;" and the same writer from whom this is quoted says, " Christ implicitly instituted the ministry, unless it may be said that the continuation of the work did not require special men, such as had been needed at the beginning. He appears as the guide of the Church, of its first messengers ; the organization 24 PASTORAL THEOLOGY. and government of the Church are ascribed to Him, and it was evident, according to Paul, that it was His will that the Church should have ministers. The apostles, as they had been sent, sent in their turn ; the ministry continues in itself without having been formally instituted — once for all. . . . Let us also observe that whatever may be said to-day in favor of the abolition of the ministry might have been said at that time against its institution. One might have then said that every faithful person is a min- ister, which is true ; that no believer should be exempt from the showing forth the praises of Him who called them out of darkness into His marvellous light (i Pet. 2 : 9), which is also true ; that the Christian life is a system of preaching ; that faith begets faith. All these things are true ; but with these there are others not less true, which make the ministry as necessary to- day as it ever has been. Let us observe, finally, that the apostles have never spoken of the ministry as an acci- dental, transitory thing, or a temporary institution. In short, on this subject, we think, that to strike out the word institution would scarcely be more than taking away a word ; since, if Jesus Christ has not formally, and in some way by letters patent, instituted the ministry, we cannot doubt as to His will respecting it. It is no departure from truth, no exaggeration to say that the ministry is a divine institution." ' Our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to found a kingdom of truth ; and after his brief ministerial life and testifying death he was to develop and extend in the minds of men the truth he came to establish. He planted the germ, by his own human life and death, which was to be nourished through his spiritual presence ' Vinet's " Pastoral Theologj'," pp. 42, 45. THE PASTORAL OFFICE. 25 in the world after he had left it in the body. The special means, he taught us, by which his spirit was to operate, was through the free and affectionate agency of human instrumentalities informed by his spirit in all truth. In this way the Church was to be saved from idolatry, from the superstitious worship of the human person of Christ, and from the worship of any one im- personated form of truth, rather than the spiritual wor- ship of God ; for the truth was to be taught in many ways, and through the medium of various independent minds, that, taken together, represent the common wants and characteristics of the race and the unity of humanity. The Lord chose, to be the immediate depositaries of the truth, certain men out of the multitudes who were at- tracted by his teachings — men of strong spiritual sus- ceptibilities, though of humble origin, and of the greatest contrasts of natural gifts and dispositions — a little repre- sentative world.' The Lord kept these ever near him ; he ate, walked, and lived with them ; he moulded them into the image of his will ; he prepared them for their work by impressing upon them his own ^j^^ ^ ^^.j^g spirit, by training them to his methods of the first teaching truth, by making them, in a word, Christian Christ-like ; for the apostles were the first "linisters. Christian ministers, taught by Christ himself. The ' Mosheim thinks that the twelve apostles had reference to the twelve tribes of Israel ; that the name itself is Jewish, and was applied to the officials or legates of the high priest, who were despatched on missions of importance, they thus signifying that Christ claimed to be the true high priest of the nation and of men. The number twelve, afterward, as com- posing a jury, and its use in other relations, would seem to indicate that the apostles were intended to represent the popular mind, the world, in a religious point of view. Many types of this number may be found in the Old Testament, as in Num. i : 44, 13 : 3 ; Josh. 4:8; and in the New Testament, Rev. 21 : 12, 21 ; 22 : 2 ; Matt. 19 : 28. 26 PASTORAL THEOLOGY. men out of whom the apostles were chosen were, prob- ably, most of them, John's disciples, and were those who hungered and thirsted after a real righteousness, who prayed for the kingdom of God, and who were thus prepared to look unto and receive Jesus, He immedi- ately brought them into the closer circle of his own in- timate companionship. He made them " fishers of men," Matt. 4 : 18-22 ; Mark i : 16-20 ; Luke 5 : i-ii ; Matt. 9 : 10. Indeed, it seems to have been one of the principal parts of Christ's brief ministry to train these men for their work — and, but for these twelve, humanly speaking, Christianity might have perished.' He taught them to be like himself — catholic, unselfish, self-sacrific- ing. But how unpropitious and crass was the material out of which the apostles were fashioned ! Peter was literally made over again in character, and the beloved and loving John merited the rebuke, " Ye know not what spirit ye are of." But notwithstanding their original crudeness and unfitness for a divine work, Jesus " called unto him whom he would, and they came unto him ; and he ordained twelve, that they might be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach" (Mark 3 : 13, 14) ; and these he taught how to pray, to live holy lives, to observe fasting, and to keep the Sabbath not in the Judaic but Christian spirit ; to become Chris- tians from being Jews, to love all men, and to worship the Father. He sent them forth on missions of preaching and benevolence, correcting and encouraging them ; and at length, after his death, he sent the Holy Spirit, who is also the Spirit of Christ, to be ever with them and fit them to preach the gospel to the world (Matt. 10 : 1-8 ; John 20 : 21). In some respects, therefore, they are Bruce's " Training^ of the Twelve," p. II. THE PASTORAL OFFICE. 27 the models for all Christian ministers, while in other respects they stand alone and unapproachable. The apostles, according to the Saviour's command, con- tinued in Jerusalem for quite a long period — Lechler says for twenty-five years, though other commentators narrow this time down to something like twelve years. The apostles, at all events, remained in Jerusalem long enough completely to organize the Christian Church, and to establish it in all its simple but divine ways, ordinances, and doctrines, preaching and perform- ing the duties of pastors, as would appear from Acts 2 : 42, 5 : 42. The church in Jerusalem very soon grew to the number of five thousand, and doubtless continued to increase rapidly ; though, suffering persecution, it was impossible that it should continue to remain one con- gregation. It was, undoubtedly, soon broken up into different congregations, or parishes, which had teachers and presbyters of the apostles* appointment ; but the whole body was still presided over by the apostles. This primitive idea of different church organizations, with dif- ferent pastors while forming but one Church, founded upon the apostles, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone, as it was seen in this primitive Jerusalem apostolic church, is a beautiful conception of the Christian Church which was then fully realized, and which carried out the truth that will finally be recognized and re-estab- lished, that " there is one body and one Spirit." Let us, then, examine this name or function of "apostle," as being the first historic instance of the divine office of the Chris- tian ministry which was positively founded by Christ Himself ; and let us see wherein it differs from and agrees with the present office of Christian pastor. Vinet says it is " the soul that gives the name ;" and this name of " apostle," as well as other names of the minis- / 28 PASTORAL THEOLOGY. terial office, originally expressed some distinct idea, and sprang from some real necessity. AnoGroXo'i. This is derived from ocnoarLWoo^ " to send off " or " send forth." In classic Greek, anoaroXo'^^ is used for " a commander of a fleet ready to sail ; its prime idea is that of a messenger fully prepared, fitted, charged, to go on some definite commission, such as the legate or ambassador of a government. This idea of definite " commission" is shown in Gal. 2:8. In this sense the term is applied to the Saviour (Heb. 2 : 21). The historic application or significance of this term in Scripture doubtless has reference to the act of the Saviour when He sent forth the twelve (Mark 16 : 15) with the charge, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. " The apostles were spe- cially fitted and commissioned by Christ to bear His mes- sage, and testify of Him to the world. They could do this, because they had seen, known, and been instructed by him. They were His personal and credible witnesses (Luke 24 : 46-48) : "And said unto them. Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day : and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name, among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem ; and ye are wit- nesses of these things." They were not only eye-wit- nesses, but heart-witnesses, by having known and loved Christ, so that they could say (r John i : 2, 3), "For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also might have fellowship with us ; and truly THE PASTORAL OFFICE. 29 our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. " They proclaimed Christ from love, from the deep ap- prehension of their whole being, as Chjist said to them, a short time before his death (John 15 : 15, 16), " Henceforth I call you not servants ; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth ; but I have called you friends ; for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, ^ that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain ; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you." As Christ's friends, they had been brought into fellowship with Christ, and had looked not only on his face, but on his soul ; one of them, at least, had not only leaned upon his breast, but had imbibed his spirit.' Christ's spiritual personality was formed within them ; in John's gospel, especially, we have the divine life as it is only manifested to the soul in communion with the Redeemer, and John's Christology- — profound, vitalizing, contain- ing the hidden germ of eternal life — remains still the deepest revelation of God to the human mind. They were thus superior to all gainsaying on the subject of Christ and his truth, for they knew whereof they af^rmed, and testified that they had seen. The words just quoted above from John 15 were not spoken to Judas, neither was the commission to go forth and preach the gospel spoken to him. His character should be studied by every minister ; for he may also have had some native susceptibility to love what was lovable, and he may have loved Christ at first sight with ' Luke 22 : 28 ; 24 : 44-49 : John 14 : 28 ;. 15 : 26, 27 ; 16 : 13, lyih ch. 30 PASTORAL THEOLOGY. impulsive affection ; but the world was strong in him, and the power of Christ's love was not able to draw him into this higher spiritual fellowship with the Saviour ; he w^as at heart worldly ; the root of supreme selfishness was not cut up in him, and he followed Christ not for his Lord's sake, but for his own. The example of Judas, one of the twelve first Christian ministers, is a peculiar admonition to ministers that the service of Christ, and daily contact with the highest truth, are not enough in themselves to secure fidelity to the Master. But let us look at the more specific application of the term "apostle." Without entering into the controver- sies respecting James and Jude, and other mooted points, the name anoarokoi is strictly applied to the twelve apostles, or, more specifically, to the eleven, sent forth by Christ to testify of Him whom they had personally seen and known. These are what Paul calls (2 Cor. 11:5) oi vn^pkiav aTtoarokoi ; and in Acts I : 26, oi svdsHa anoGToXoi. In this sense, of course, there were no successors of the apostles ; but we find the name a7ro(JTo\o<; applied also to Paul by himself ; and we believe he used it in its original application. He calls himself (i Cor. I : i) nXrjto'i a7toaro\o