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 BV 1471 .C36 1903 
 [Canfield, James Hulme] 
 
 1847-1909. 
 The training of the clergy 
 

 THE TRAINING OF THE CLERGY 
 
 From the Standpoint of a Layman, What Constitutes 
 
 Adequate Preparation for the Priesthood of the 
 
 Protestant Episcopal Church 
 
THE TRAINING OF THE CLERGY 
 
 From the Standpoint of a Layman, What Constitutes Adequate 
 Preparation for the Priesthood of Our Church* 
 
 Small apology need be made for the abruptness, the assertiveness, 
 and the one-sidedness of this paper. Its length does not measure 
 at all the importance of its theme. In the twenty minutes allotted 
 me this morning, it is impossible to discuss this practical and far- 
 reaching inquiry in either a very logical or a very philosophical 
 or a very complete manner. You must be content with a mere 
 outline, a skeleton which you yourselves must clothe with living 
 flesh if it is to be rounded out- and made to appear in good form. 
 
 It is entirely proper that this question should be presented from 
 the standpoint of a layman. Very humbly, and because of their needs, 
 the laity assert that the Church exists for their advancement and 
 betterment; that on its divine and on its human side, in spirit and 
 in forms of organization and of administration, the Church was cre- 
 ated for the laity. The Church does not exist for the three orders 
 of the ministry, it exists for the laity, and the three orders are or- 
 ders of service to the laity. The Church and the three orders 
 are entirely and absolutely and always subservient to the needs 
 of the laity. The Church and all its orders and forms and rites and 
 ceremonies must meet that supreme test of all organization and 
 effort, sacred or secular, ecclesiastical or civil or social: the ef- 
 ficiency with which it advances and enlarges and renders more 
 completely satisfactory the life of the individual man. The laity 
 have a right, therefore, to be heard in this matter. 
 
 And, dear brethren of the Clergy and of the Episcopate, the 
 laity have a far deeper interest in education for the priesthood 
 than you perhaps imagine. The subject is more often a topic of 
 conversation among them than you perhaps will readily believe. 
 The intelligence of this interest is greater than you may think pos- 
 sible. But this interest and this intelligence would be far greater 
 and far more effective if both were recognized at your hands, and 
 recognized as of possible and practical value. 
 
 With regard to the problem under consideration, let it be un- 
 derstood with some emphasis that this is adequate preparation for 
 one who is to be of the second rank in the Church, for one who 
 
 ^ * Read »t the Church Congresi, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Norember 4, 1903, bjr Jame* H* 
 Caafield, Librarian, Columbia University in the City of New York. 
 
in the language of the Book of Common Prayer is to receive "the 
 Order of Priesthood." I lay especial stress upon this, because it is 
 not difficult to believe that some will say that an impossible stand- 
 ard is being raised, that the ideal is purely theoretic and cannot be 
 realized, that to insist upon it would mean the emptying of many 
 of our pulpits. But, men and brethren, let me assure you, first, 
 that in all kindness yet in all sincerity the laity believe that worse 
 could happen to our beloved Church than the emptying of some 
 of her pulpits! And second, that the laity marvel that the Church 
 seems to feel it necessary to recognize in orders so much that is 
 confessedly weak, while it treats in such a left-handed manner cer- 
 tain nearby sources of strength. I refer to the use of laymen 
 themselves, much more generally and in a much more definite way 
 than now. Many a priest is carrying his entire work alone, with 
 great and unnecessary wear and tear, wondering anxiously when 
 he will be able to have that long-hoped-for assistant; when he could 
 easily secure from among his own people one or more lay-readers, 
 to his great relief and not infrequently to the edification of the 
 entire parish. For it is still true that there is no greater power 
 than the pure Word of God read intelligently and intelligibly be- 
 fore the people, and no thought or language more comforting or 
 more helpful than that of our service presented sympathetically, 
 day after day, in the usual place of worship. And how many- 
 laymen would be quickened into new life by their careful prepara- 
 tion for such service, by their new or renewed study of the Word, 
 by their constant effort to prove worthy of such confidence and to 
 fit themselves to lead the people in these devotions. There is no 
 reason why there should not be at least three such lay-readers in 
 every parish having no other assistants: one for the morning ser- 
 vice, one for the evening service, one for special services and to 
 relieve each of the others when necessary — and all for mission 
 work as far as their daily vocations will permit. This work would 
 never be a financial burden to the parish, because it should always 
 be gratuitous: the contribution which these citizens of our ecclesi- 
 astical commonwealth gladly make towards the common interest 
 and common betterment. Such a thing as a paid lay-reader ought to 
 be absolutely unknown in our Communion. There is danger in 
 this from every point of view: and there is no necessity for it 
 whatever. 
 
 And, brethren, the laity would really like to know if it is not pos- 
 sible, by some form of organization or of re-organization, to make 
 more of the Diaconate. By the early history and practice of our 
 Church it would seem to have been quite as distinct and permanent 
 an order as either of the other two: not simply a landing on the ec- 
 clesiastical stairway where men may stop a moment to catch breath 
 
before again climbing upwards. The laity believe that many a man 
 may be ready for this position long before he is adequately prepared 
 for the priesthood: nay, more, that many men may enter upon 
 this work who may never reach the priesthood. The laity wonder 
 if it is impossible to revive or secure a permanent Diaconate: and 
 can see a large measure of usefulness in such an order in a some- 
 what modified form from that known at present. If this cannot be, 
 then at least let the Diaconate be a state of probation, the real 
 (not the nominal) testing ground of all who are to enter the 
 priesthood. Let those only who respond in a satisfactory way to 
 prolonged severe trial and examination pass to the higher position. 
 Let the rubric be amended so as to read "and here it must be de- 
 clared unto the Deacon that he must continue in that office of a 
 Deacon at least a whole year, and until it shall seem clear to the 
 Bishop that he is perfect and well expert in all things appertain- 
 ing to ecclesiastical administration." 
 
 It seems necessary and desirable to make a brief preliminary 
 statement as to the field, its character and itS' demands. All lay- 
 men still hold the ministry to be one of the most important of al! 
 human vocations. He who enters upon this form of service should 
 walk humbly before God and man. He who accepts this form of 
 leadership should feel keenly the responsibility of his position: a 
 responsibility always entirely commensurate with his opportunity. 
 He who undertakes to wield such a social, civic and moral force as 
 a modern parish, should know himself and his task well, should be 
 quick of eye and foot and pliant and strong of wrist. No calling 
 makes greater or more imperative or more varied demands upon 
 body, mind and spirit, than does this. That ordinary and one may 
 almost say national resourcefulness, which makes an American 
 about as strong and about as successful in one position as in 
 another, while it counts for much, counts for less in the ministry 
 than in any other form of human activity. More than almost any- 
 where else is there need of special temper, special fitness, special 
 preparation: need of a very "effectual calling." An attorney works 
 continually with his kind, with men who are his peers or his super- 
 iors, but always with men whose minds are constantly and seri- 
 ously given to the consideration of the same subjects that he is 
 considering, whose habits of thought and whose general temper 
 and interests are quite identical with his own. The physician is 
 practically absolute in both theory and practice, and cannot well 
 be gainsaid because he is so generally silent. He deals with those 
 who are either entirely ignorant of what is passing in his mind 
 or are temporarily too weak in mind and body to take issue with 
 him even if they would. The teacher has constantly before him the 
 immature mind, the brain which is still gelatinous and without def- 
 
inite outline, the human intellect and the human will still weak and 
 staggering, as wobbly and as ungainly as a new-born colt — and as 
 easy to direct and train, if one only knows how. The specialist in 
 any of the dozen or more callings which have already risen to 
 the dignity of new professions, speaks with final authority to 
 those who are in business or other relations with him because of 
 their confidence in his strength and general fitness to be their guide, 
 and who expressly surrender themselves to his direction. But the 
 minister must take a single theme which is at least two thousand 
 years old and upon every variation of which myriads of human be- 
 ings have already exhausted their highest powers, a theme in which 
 the human heart has great interest but against the general trend 
 and conclusions of which that same human heart seems to rebel; 
 and he must so vitalize this and revivify it and clothe it anew that 
 it shall take strong hold with convincing power upon old and young, 
 men and women, the learned and illiterate, the wise and the fool- 
 ish, the strong mind and the feeble mind, the sober and the frivol- 
 ous, the interested and the indifferent, those who are always and 
 everywhere easily persuaded and those who always stand so straight 
 that they are in danger of falling backward: to all of these, and to 
 more and other, the minister must be leader and guide and friend, 
 ever discerning the truth that is eternal, and quickening and in- 
 spiring all these to make it their truth, their very own, part of their 
 own inmost lives. 
 
 And he must have sympathies so warm and so strong that he is 
 welcomed at every fireside, where he halves all trouble and sor- 
 row and doubles all joy by sharing both; yet of all men he must 
 place an alert and well-balanced and keenly appreciative and per- 
 ceptive intellect at the very threshold of his faculties and powers, 
 directing them all, holding all in check in order that all may have 
 full play. Otherwise sympathy soon wears out his heart with ex- 
 cess of emotion, or becomes maudlin and misleading. 
 
 The demand for absolute integrity in all mental processes, for 
 unswerving honesty in all relations, for unquestioned sincerity in 
 all moral and spiritual manifestations, for warmth and glow of the 
 whole emotional nature, is imperative and unceasing. Once, even 
 once, let action seem cold and formal and perfunctory, manifest 
 even the slightest patronizing spirit, let the shadow of doubt be 
 cast upon the sincerity of purpose or the unselfishness of motive, 
 and the first step has been taken on a downward path almost sheer 
 in its descent. 
 
 There is still another side to all this. Someone has well de- 
 scribed a modern parish as not only a field but a force. These peo- 
 ple are to be set right not only with God but with their fellow men. 
 Indeed, we are coming to understand, I had almost said we are 
 
only just coming to understand, that we can be set right with God 
 only by assuming correct relations with our fellow men. It is 
 difficult to understand how we can manifest love to God except 
 through our very efficient interest in God's creatures: and this in- 
 terest must cover not only the more limited personal relations, 
 but those general and broader though none the less exacting rela- 
 tions which constitute human society and the modern community 
 or state. And so the minister is not only teacher and monitor and 
 guide, but in the largest and best sense of the word he is a states- 
 man. Not a politician, even in the good sense of the word: for the 
 choice between political parties ought to be simply a choice of 
 means for attaining the same great end, good government; and 
 this choice should be made freely and without disturbing far 
 more important parochial relations. But a statesman, in that he is 
 continually setting the faces of his people towards that which is 
 thoughtful and considerate and unselfish and wise and large-mind- 
 ed in all public affairs. Possibly, since the struggle for communal 
 interests and communal righteousness is so constant and so severe, 
 it were better to describe the minister as a regimental or brigade 
 or division commander. With the heart of his people right to- 
 wards God, he organizes them for that sort of warfare which is 
 correctly described by the phrase "church militant" — a far safer 
 temper and position than that which contents itself with being 
 merely a church protest-ant, so often alas! quickly becoming the 
 church dormant. In this great effort to revive and strengthen 
 neighborhood feeling and neighborly interest, he organizes his 
 people thoroughly, seeing that each has something definite to do, 
 studying the peculiar fitness of each, striving as far as possible to 
 keep square pegs out of round holes. Here is the demand for 
 tactfulness born of experience and of some sad experience, per- 
 haps, for a knowledge of men, an acquaintance with human nature 
 in all its phases, ability to adapt means to ends, resourcefulness, 
 shrev/dness, genuine administrative power. Above all, right here 
 he must have the grace and strength to avoid that greatest of 
 temptations, a "brilliant administration": in which the personality 
 of the leader is ever resplendent, and the rank and file are ever in 
 shadow, in the background. He must learn that most difficult of 
 all lessons, the lesson of self-effacement, the lesson of patience, the 
 lesson of doing slowly and painfully and inefficiently through others 
 that which he can do much better and so much more quickly 
 alone. "The trouble is," cried Theodore Parker in those trying 
 days of the anti-slavery struggle, "the trouble is that God can 
 wait for man's cooperation and I can't " Yet it is better to be 
 ten years in reaching a given point and have with you an appre- 
 ciative, intelligent, self-respecting people, who know what they 
 
fight for and love what they know, than to reach the same goal in 
 half the time by your own unaided strength, by your own dominant 
 mind, by your own masterful spirit — surrounded by a confused, 
 dazed, perplexed, half-appreciative and half-irritated people. This 
 last is the method of that power which drops from the dying hand 
 of what the world often unwisely calls greatness: but the first is 
 the possibly unseen path of those who create vital organisms, the 
 constitution-makers of the world, of those whose finite work is 
 taken up in part at least by a divine hand and woven in and in 
 with that divine plan which is enduring and eternal. 
 
 This then is the demand which the conditions of to-day and the 
 mind and temper of to-day make upon the ministry. Nor should 
 we be guilty of the only too common error of believing that this 
 demand differs materially in different parishes: that the demand for 
 high character and sound preparation which falls upon the rector 
 of a rural parish is less than that which comes to one responsible 
 for the administration of a parish in the small town or inland 
 city, and that this again falls below that of a metropolitan organ- 
 ization. That as between parishes there may be a difference in 
 the peculiar qualities which must be more dominent to insure suc- 
 cess, and a difference in the constant and hourly pressure upon the 
 ecclesiastical leader, may be and doubtless is true: but that strength 
 of character and sufficiency of preparation and experience and 
 equipment may be safely scaled down from Pittsburg to Podunk or 
 from New York to Navesink, is a terrible mistake in both judg- 
 ment and practice. Wherever a weak country parish is found to- 
 day, it is weak generally because of this error. It is a very 
 human error and affects other undertakings than parish building. 
 With unconscious simple-mindedness and shortsightedness, with 
 great thoughtlessness, yet with perfect sincerity, many Eastern 
 educators still recommend to full chairs in Western universities — 
 institutions in which the average line of vital instruction and in- 
 spiring personal influence rises quite as high as it does east of the 
 Alleghenies — persons who could scarcely find places in their home 
 high schools. Exactlj' so do some Bishops pass on to that vague 
 section called the West, and send to the country villages, ministers 
 who have proved to be absolute failures in their own dioce&es or 
 in some city parishes. We need a great awakening to the truth that 
 often most of all does the rural parish or that of the small town 
 make the very strongest demands upon every faculty and power, 
 and with but a tithe of the aid so easily within call in nearly every 
 city organization: that in the rural parishes are laid the founda- 
 tions of character and religious belief which in time form the 
 chief cornerstones of all our civic greatness: that in such parishes 
 there is far more interest taken in the personality of the rector 
 
and far more known about the rector because of far more con- 
 stant and intimate personal relations: and that there is no happier 
 or more blessed lot than to go in and out among these people, their 
 counselor and friend, their pattern and inspiration, their leader and 
 guide, till two and possibly three generations call yon blessed; 
 and at the last the whole countryside mourns beside your open 
 grave and the little children cry in the village street when they 
 hear that you have gone. 
 
 Pardon me if I seem to dwell too long upon the field, if I even 
 seem to magnify the office. Unless you realize the estimate 
 which the layman places upon the ministry, you will not be able 
 to understand his demands for preparation or to sympathize with 
 him in these demands. This then, briefly, almost roughly, is the 
 field as the laity see it; and these are the qualities of mind and 
 heart which the laity believe to be demanded. 
 
 He, then, who is adequately prepared for the priesthood should 
 bring to it, first, a sound body. You will recall the extraordinary 
 care used to secure perfect bodily health in the priests in the an- 
 cient Temple, and this is not without its lesson. There are ex- 
 ceptions, of course, to all rules: and therefore to this. But he is 
 bold who will claim that he is an exception, and he is bolder yet 
 who will accept and endorse such a claim. The man who is to 
 move both freely and powerfully in the intellectual and spiritual 
 world needs that perfect health which makes him practically un- 
 conscious of his body. No man can serve two masters, and no 
 man can serve his stomach or his lungs or his liver or his nerves 
 and effectually serve a great and divine cause at the same time. 
 Self-consciousness is always a serious weakness and defect, and 
 the worst form of this is physical self-consciousness. It be- 
 comes a veritable body of death from which men pray in vain to 
 be set free. Both mental and moral vision are clouded by it, where 
 both ought to be most serenely clear. It warps and twists and dis- 
 torts the whole man, as well as his physical frame. The successful 
 minister of God needs good red blood in his veins and arteries — of 
 infinitely more consequence to him than the bluest blue blood on 
 earth! — the abounding physical resilency which breaks the effect of 
 every rude shock, that physical buoyancy which will rise triumph- 
 ant over every obstacle, that abundant and surplus energy which 
 carries a man swiftly and safely through every emergency, that 
 steadiness of eye and nerve necessary for every delicate task. 
 
 To this he should add such general education and culture as are 
 represented by an approved and standard college course: a mod- 
 ern college course, in which such humanities as economics and 
 socio!of=cy and political science and industrial history have full rec- 
 ognition. This is not because he has special need of the Greek and 
 
Latin, though this is true; nor because he will make direct use of 
 his mathematics or literature or even of his philosophy; but be- 
 cause he does need the maturing and ripening, the self-knowledge 
 and self-control, the general ^elf-mastery, which rarely come as 
 well or as soon by any other process or by any other form of 
 life. The other great and standard professions are coming to 
 recognize this, and the ministry cannot afford to lag in the rear. 
 The proportion of college-bred men in every parish is constantly 
 increasing, and he who is to be an influential man among men must 
 meet this condition. One may easily bend down, if necessary, to 
 touch one's fellows; but it is almost impossible to reach up and 
 make your touch that of a master-hand. Consciously or uncon- 
 sciously, we Americans have expressed our appreciation of the 
 place and value of college training, in that we have so chosen our 
 public servants and representatives that one per cent, of the pop- 
 ulation (college bred) holds forty per cent, of all the positions of 
 trust, honor and responsibility in the gift of the people. The 
 priesthood, as the laity see it and accept it, as a great profession 
 and as a sacred trust, cannot afiFord to fall behind in this matter. 
 
 I am entirely willing to admit, and without discussion, that some 
 men who have had scarcely more than the elements of a com- 
 mon school training have reached the highest positions of trust 
 and honor and responsibility and financial reward; and that some 
 who have added to this limited early education very inadequate 
 special preparation, have stood high in the Christian Church in all 
 ages. To deny this would be as foolish as it would be futile: to 
 ignore it would be very short-sighted indeed. But the path to 
 successful service, in the Church or elsewhere, is an exceedingly 
 difficult path. Where one has trodden it successfully, hundreds 
 have been beaten back — discouraged and disheartened, with se- 
 rious loss of that which with better preparation might have been 
 positive productive power, a loss not only to themselves but to the 
 community at large. Worse than this discouragement and fail- 
 ure, however, is the fact that other hundreds who have found 
 place and even preferment, have brought disaster and suffering to 
 the world because they have never been more than half prepared 
 for their work. In this day, and in thiS' land of ours which keeps 
 the pathway to this preparation wide open to all, which in a very 
 generous manner makes this pathway of preparation firm and 
 smooth; which supports a system of public and free education, in- 
 cluding in all parts of the country primary and secondary schools 
 and in many states of the Union covering even the highest forms 
 of general, technical and professional training; with scholarships 
 and fellowships innumerable, and with unusual opportunities af- 
 forded to young men, who must make their own way, as the 
 
 10 
 
saying goes — under all these conditions there is no excuse what- 
 ever for the man who seeking this high vocation neglects or for 
 any reason fails to secure his first academic degree. Our ques- 
 tion is simply this: not what may barely sufilice in the way of 
 preparation, rather what is ample and sufficient: not how slight 
 the preparation may be and yet give some measure of success, 
 rather what constitutes complete and adequate preparation for the 
 largest success. 
 
 Added to thorough college training must come technical or 
 professional training. Let no one imagine that this paper is to 
 criticize the curricula or methods now known in our theological 
 seminaries. I am not entirely uninformed as to these details. I be- 
 lieve that I know what the laity think this special training ought to 
 be, and I am quite sure that I know what it is not — in several 
 seminaries! But the present discussion is to remain purely aca- 
 demic, and concerns itself with what ought to be, and in this matter 
 at least with what is entirely possible. 
 
 The general conditions of all worthy and successful technical or 
 professional training are the same everywhere, and consist (briefly) 
 of the following: 
 
 First — A body of instructors who are easily and generally rec- 
 ognized as expert, each an accepted authority in his special field 
 of inquiry, each in full possession of his powers, each still vigor- 
 ous and alert and keenly alive to all that is transpiring in his line 
 of thought and effort, men who are open-minded and sane and well- 
 balanced, men to whom is granted all possible freedom of thought 
 and expression, and men whose mental and spiritual activity shows 
 itself at least occasionally in the printed page. 
 
 The converse or obverse of this, of course, would be men prac- 
 tically unknown; men who have drifted into their positions as into 
 snug harbors of safe retreat from the cares and responsibilities of 
 active life, or who having been counted as good sailors before the 
 invention of steam have never taken the trouble to modernize their 
 craft and consequently lie becalmed and motionless the greater 
 part of the time; men of whom when their death-notice appears 
 other men look dazed and exclaim, "Why, I thought he died sev- 
 eral years ago"; men who are without definite opinions or con- 
 cerning whose opinions little is known and less is cared; men 
 whose lecture manuscripts are yellow with age and so faded that 
 even their authors can scarcely decipher the pages; men who 
 seem strangely dead to all that is passing about them, who never 
 feel the mighty onward flow of modern life, or who feeling it 
 simply struggle feebly against it; men whose foresight is always 
 gloomy and whose hind-sight is ever rose-tinted; men who still 
 think the world too weak and too infantile to take truth except in 
 
 II 
 
such rare and homeopathic doses as they may see fit to adminis- 
 ter. There are such men, of course, even in the world of to-day: 
 and far be it from me to assert that they have no place in the 
 divine polity. But nothing can convince the laity that they have 
 a rightful place in our schools of theology. 
 
 Second — Sufficient maintenance to give both faculty and stu- 
 dents every desirable and necessary facility for the prosecution of 
 their investigations and studies. 
 
 Sound and thorough education is expensive; it makes large and 
 just and necessary demands upon material resources, that it may 
 adequately repay those who give it their time and effort. I am not to 
 be understood as declaiming against the institution which is small 
 in its student membership — that condition may be even desirable, 
 though it may indicate a waste of both instruction and money. 
 But institutions whose material resources are so limited that it 
 is simply impossible for them to provide either adequate instruc- 
 tion or reasonable equipment, are certainly under the bann — and 
 ought to bestir themselves mightily if they are to give a satis- 
 factory reason for their continued existence. Institutions in which 
 one man is supposed to be expert in a half-dozen subjects, in which 
 administration and instruction are disproportionately blended, or 
 in which the chief instruction is sought to be covered by a short 
 series of gratuitous lectures delivered by already overworked pres- 
 byters, which never give to members of its instructional force the 
 Sabbatical year so necessary for that individual study and ob- 
 servation upon which all individual advancement and development 
 are conditioned; — such institutions cannot meet the demands of to- 
 day. It is to be hoped that there are none like this within the lim- 
 its of our own communion. 
 
 Third — Over both instructors and students, administrators who 
 are large-minded, resourceful, good judges of men, swift to dis- 
 cern weakness but neither captious nor hypercritical, industrious, 
 and truly and lawfully ambitious. 
 
 The laity believe that the head of every theological seminary has 
 four-fold relations and duties: 
 
 To the trustees he must be the man who wisely and vigorously 
 executes their plans, who sees that every man in the faculty is 
 well-chosen and well-placed and that every dollar is well-spent, 
 who can at any time put the trustees in the possession of any infor- 
 mation they may need regarding the material condition or education- 
 al work of the seminary, who will make it possible for the trustees 
 to consider general policies rather than to care for details, and who 
 will keep the trustees in touch with every person and every interest 
 and every condition — but only in touch, not burdened thereby. 
 
 To his faculty he is the one who makes possible uninterrupted 
 
attention to the work of investigation and instruction, who sees 
 that each has the greatest equality in right of way and all reason- 
 able assistance in running his race, who prevents friction and re- 
 moves misunderstanding, who is sufficiently sympathetic and suf- 
 ficiently informed as to the work of each to quicken with com- 
 mendation where commendation will count most and to stand like a 
 wall of adamant between an instructor and unjust criticism and at- 
 tack from either inside or outside the seminary world, whose 
 character and example and authority make him a terror to every 
 man who is either idle or incompetent; and who possesses the 
 three characteristics absolutely essential to successful leadership 
 — wisdom, energy and tact. 
 
 To the students he is the father of the seminary family, one who 
 has a broad outlook both within and without the institution, who 
 has had experience and observation as to men and affairs and is 
 therefore a wise counselor, who has forgotten neither his youth 
 nor his blunders and therefore has the patience of a true friend, 
 who is open and approachable and thoughtful and considerate — 
 more willing to close his eyes occasionally than to be always mak- 
 ing an "issue" yet with a constantly firm though light touch upon 
 the reins — never for a moment permitting a personal whim to 
 grow into a permanent tangential movement. 
 
 To the laity — for, brethren, the laity would really like to know 
 personally the men who are directing the courses and who are re- 
 sponsible for the work and fortunes of our seminaries, and the laity 
 are given to the belief that there might be possible advantage to 
 the Deans themselves in contact with their brethren at large — to 
 the laity he ought to be a man who breaks bread with them under 
 their own roofs, who listens^ to their suggestions and studies their 
 thought and their needs, who knowing their thought and their 
 needs plans to meet both as far as in him lies, who reports to "them 
 face to face the work which is being accomplished either by the 
 institution or by some student in whom they may have special in- 
 terest, who devises ways of exciting the interest of the laity and 
 drawing them from indifiference to active cooperation, who actually 
 feels himself in some way accountable even to the laity for a proper 
 use of the power which has been entrusted to him, who knowi 
 his graduates and their success or failure and who is naturally and 
 properly the wisest adviser of parishes which are endeavoring to 
 fill vacant pulpits, and who can secure the confidence of the laity 
 by the largeness and the value and the generosity of his service to 
 any parish seeking his advice. 
 
 Fourth — Courses of study which are thorough yet flexible, com- 
 prehensive, inclusive, which cover the conditions and demands of 
 the life of to-day, which are scientific in temper and in method. 
 
 13 
 
The laity cannot and do not assume to even suggest what form 
 the work in technical theology should take, how much time should 
 be given to that which is exceedingly remote, how much mental 
 and spiritual energy shall be expended upon that which seems at 
 times rather mouldy. But that part of the laity which is at all 
 informed in educational thought and present-day methods in- 
 sists that topical schemes and the study of sources and the use of 
 charts and all similar modern helps ought to have due considera- 
 tion and recognition, and the laity in general believe that some- 
 where in the course of training demanded as preparatory to the 
 priesthood there should be sound and persistent and sufficient in- 
 struction in these four subjects: (i) voice-building and use, to the 
 point of distinct enunciation, proper emphasis and pleasing mod- 
 ulation: (2) the details of parish organization and administration, 
 surely at least until the fact of marriage and the legitimacy of 
 children are duly established by proper and accurate and authen- 
 tic records, till such account is kept and rendered of the moneys 
 passing through the rector's hands as will guard him against an 
 intolerable confusion of his private and official finances, and until 
 at least an outline of the history and work of the parish is pre- 
 served for posterity: (3) a careful study of the place and value 
 and methods of the modern Sunday school: and (4) such knowledge 
 of the sociological movement of the day as will throw some light 
 upon the reasons for a multiplicity of parochial relations and un- 
 dertakings, opportunities and duties, never dreamed of even a single 
 generation ago. 
 
 Fifth — Practice-work or what may be called laboratory-work: 
 now possible in every theological seminary not so remote from the 
 world as to have the wisdom of its location called seriously in 
 question. This should include every form of parish-work and or- 
 ganization, is the concrete or objective side of the work to which 
 reference has already been made, and should stand to theological 
 training precisely as the practice-classes of a well-regulated nor- 
 mal school stand to educational training. 
 
 After all this, what? — Or do you think that the demands of the 
 laity already exceed that which is reasonable. Well, the laity are 
 entirely willing to work with inexperienced graduates, but the 
 laity do not believe that it is either wise or necessary or fitting 
 that inexperienced graduates be put over them. Though an attor- 
 ney may be admitted to the bar at an early age, he quite generally 
 remains in comparative obscurity and under supervision until he is 
 thirty. A physician rarely undertakes much independent or im- 
 portant work before he has reached that age, and if he did un- 
 dertake it he would meet with scant encouragement. Not often 
 does a teacher go to the head of a school at an earlier age. Most 
 
 14 
 
business men and nearly all technical men serve a like apprentice- 
 ship. The Master himself was thirty before He began to teach 
 and preach. Why should not those who aspire to become leaders 
 of men in spiritual things be equally careful and conscientious and 
 equally patient under apprenticeship in their preparation for this 
 sacred trust. Years ago Mark Hopkins, then President of Wil- 
 liams College, told me that he most sincerely believed that as a 
 rule the men who so early assume full charge of independent par- 
 ishes do more harm than good before they reach thirty years of 
 age. After life-long observation in our own communion, my re- 
 vered father was firmly of like opinion. I have heard more than 
 ■one Bishop assent to this. And I know that this sentiment is 
 very general among the laity. Men and women who have given 
 years to careful and conscientious preparation for their own life- 
 work, including a long apprenticeship, smile incredulously if not 
 scornfully when some youngster in both years and training is put 
 over them in ecclesiastical and spiritual affairs. Men who have 
 grown gray in the intelligent and generous service of the Church 
 find it hard to accept such men as leaders, and equally hard to 
 be compelled to be their ecclesiastical nurses until they are able to 
 walk alone and can be trusted to go out after dark. Why should 
 there not be then, after graduation from the Seminary, some years 
 — five years if you please — of service under approved supervision, 
 in city or town or village, before full charge of a parish is either 
 asked or granted. If in the city, this may be as assistant in a 
 parish or in its missions, or as a worker in some of the almost in- 
 numerable social or socio-charitable organizations, or in all of 
 these combined. H in village or town, then under the charge and 
 guidance of some nearby priest, or possibly under a wise exten- 
 sion of the powers of the Arch-deacons-. In this way the Bishop 
 would have ample opportunity to study the man, the laity would 
 come into better knowledge of him, and above all and better than 
 all the man would come into better knowledge of himself. Then 
 the final call to what I venture to call the full priesthood would 
 come as it surely came of old — from without as well as from 
 within, possibly from without before from within: and the Church 
 would have that greater assurance of successful service which fol- 
 lows upon a consensus of opinion carefully established upon suf- 
 ficient observation. 
 
 But suppose this call to an independent position does not come? 
 Well, there still remains what ought to be, or ought to be made to 
 be, the large and useful and dignified position of an assistant. Sure- 
 ly, no man who rejects this is fit for the priesthood. It does not 
 seem necessary to waste words over that proposition. There are 
 thousands of men, the world over, happy and successful and ef- 
 
ficient in subordinate positions — and why may not this be true of 
 the clergy? But even if the failure is complete, there are still other 
 thousands' of men who find no place or welcome in the profession 
 which they have chosen, and quietly and patiently turn aside to oth- 
 er fields. 
 
 This, then, brethren, is my thesis, all too inadequately presented 
 and defended: that as an office and calling the priesthood stands 
 very high in the opinion of the laity, that it calls for extraordinary 
 qualities of mind and heart sustained by a sound body and made 
 effective by peculiar personal experience and power, and that ade- 
 quate preparation for this sacred vocation demands long and thor- 
 which they have chosen, and quietly and patiently turn aside to 
 other fields. 
 
 i6 
 
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