HV -D 41fl I8U FOR THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY A MANUAL OF HOMILETICAL AND PASTORAL THEOLOGY BV ^■^ WILLIAM GARDEN BLAIKIE, D.D., LL.D. PROFESSOR OF APOLOCBTICS, AND OF ECCLESIASTICAL AND PASTORAL THEOLOGV NEW COLIERH, EDINBURGH SIXTH AND REVISED EDITION With New Appendices and Enlarged Bibliography LONDON J. NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET 1896 In compliance with current copyright law, LBS Archival Products produced this replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48-1984 to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. 1993 (00) PREFACE. nnHE object of this book is to present in short compass a comprehensive view of the leading subjects that bear on the Avork of the Christian Ministry. It has been the aim of the writer of the volume to make it the completest work on homiletical and pastoral theology, and also the most practical. He is very gi^ateful for the favourable reception which it has received in various churches and countries, and is especially pleased to hear of the aid which some foreign missionaries have derived from it, in the training of native preachers. It can never be expected that on such a subject all one's views shall be accepted ; the great matter is to bring the various points under the notice of young preachers, so that their own judgment may be exercised upon them, and their course in reference to them intelligently and deliberately settled. The author has not deemed it necessary to remove a few things which have a somewhat local or denominational refer- ence, believing that these will not essentially interfere with the catholic spirit and aim of the book. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE CHEISTIAN MINISTRY A SIINISTRY OF THE WURD. PAGE Purposes for which ministry appointed— Instrumentality for ac- complishing them, the Word— Apparent inadequacy— Distrust of it by the world— Craving for other weapons— Ritualism— Place of external influences in the gospel— Acquaintance with Scrip- ture the great end of theological training — ConneC ion of ministry with the Word gives it : 1. Atjthokitt and Power— Contrast between pulpit in seventeenth and eighteenth centunes — Delilahs in the camp— Testimony of Art to power of Bible truth— Testimonv of Literature : 2. Originality— Firs impres- sion different — The Bible never exhausted— Unlike any other book in this— Fertilitv and freshness of Nature like fertility and freshness of the Bible— Yinet's remarks on novelty {>_wte) : 3. Vakiety- Manv preachers leave out great part of Bible- Great varietv of Bible— Book of Genesis— Breadth as well as intensitv needed for our teaching— Exaggeration and reaction- Complementary truths to be presented : 4. Durability— Two senses : Durability of the institution— Durability of impression —Power of God's Word over the conscience.— Tendency of some modem preachers to appeal to mere semse of right and true for authority— Recognition of human feelings in their place desir- able— Charge of fostering intolerance— Need of the preacher's soul being penetrated with the truth 1-12 CHAPTER n. THE CALL TO THE lONISTRY. No man taketh this honour to himself— Manner of call different from^hat to Old Testament priesthood— Internal fitness founda- tion of the call— Function of the Church and of the individual m forming the ministerial office — Personal relation between Christ and his minister— Implied in : 1. Name ; 2. Nature of the work ; CONTENTS. 3. The " gift " of Christ ; 4. Analog}- of Old Testament prophets; o. Analogy of apostles; 6. Promises to ministers — Notion of call to ministry not fanatical — No church can make an uncalled man a true minister— Analogy of i "calling" — Three elements inclination, ability, opportunity — Christian interpretation of them necessary — Leaning to^rards ministry not equivalent to call — The philanthropy of the ministry — Special qualifications: — 1. Conversion; 2. Sympathy with Christ in his enterprise as Saviour; 3. Kcadiness for appropriate habits of life and modes of service — "Willinsness to make ministry one's life-work — Spirit of tho ministry — Literary and philosophical studies do not foster it — Danger of them ; 4. In- tellectual qualifications — Capacity of study — Exceptional cases occasionally occur — Description of — Such men have true education — Most powerful ministers men of great intellect and acquirement; 5. Physical qualifications — Bodily strength, voice, lungs, ncr^-e ; 6. Social qualifications — " Winsomeness " — The minister a peacemaker — Temper — Complaints of congregations against unsuitable men — Manner of solving doubts as to one's call \ . . . 13-2i CHAPTER III. PREACHING A CHIEF FUNCTION OF THE MINISTRY. Preaching an ordinance of the New Testament^ — Instances in the Old occasional — Our Lord at Nazareth — John the Baptist — Preaching not resorted to by founders of philosophical schools — Christ's system most efiectiv — Remark of ICidder — Expressions used to denote preaching: — 1. \-.vay^tK\tii}\ 2. Karayyt'XXoj ; o. Kjjpirffoai ; 4. AcnXfyc^ai ; 5. AaXJtu — Preaching not formally defined — Remark of Yinet — Two purposes of preaching, in- struction and persuasion — Enduring scope for instruction — Persuasion the terminus ad qtiem — Yindicates the permanence of pulpit — Modem crusade against pulpit — Objections: — 1. Trac- tarian dislike — As interfering with predominance of Sacraments — Fundamental difference between Popish and Protestant pulpit; 2. Said to overlay worship - How far just — Arises from ab\ise of pulpit, which ought to foster worship ; 3. Unnecessarj-, owing to other means of instruction, kc.\ 4. Imjiertinent, claiming protection of authority ; 5. "Unworthy of the age — Poor and powerless — Specimens of accusation- by '' A Dear Hearer" — Objections to Scottish preaching by modern Cal- vinist — Sifting of these objections— True state of the question often misunderstood — Purpose of ministry as living agency forgotten — Difference between subversive and reforming criti- cism — Duty of young preachers^ Credit of a Divine institution is intrusted to tbem — Great need of pains and prayer . . 26-36 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. THE HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN PULPIT. FAGB Wisdom of the institution shown by its effects— Apostolic preach- ing artless and simple— Few great preachers in second and third centuries— Apologetic p- liod, persecutions, philosophical tendencies— " Pedagogus " of Clement of Alexandria — Ina- portant service of Origen in third century— Brilliancy of pulpit in fourth and fifth centuries— Latin and Greek orators— Some causes of this— Circumstances of the Church— Influence of Christian ladies— Educated men abandoning other professions Defects— Great want of doctrinal clearness — Whereia they excelled— Augustine and Chrysostom— Pulpit of Middle Ages poor— Occasional exceptions— Development of Ritualism de- stroyed the pulpit — Pioneers of Reformation great preachers— Wycliffe and Savonarola — Reformation — Pulpit its _ great weapon— Triumph of the pulpit— Advance on Patristic and Mediseval pulpit— Higher platform— The glad news of Kingdom Rejoicing element — Geumax pulpit — Decay under Ration- alism—A few eminent German preachers— Frexch piilpit — Protestant and Popish— Age of Louis XFV.- Influence of Bour- daloue— Other orators— Excellencies and defects— How appre- ciated by late 1\x. Jav— English pulpit— Sermons of Reformers, of Nonconformists, of Church preachers of seventeenth century —Dryness and coldness of eighteenth— The revival under "Wesley and "Whitefield— i\Iodem types— Scotch pulpit— Defect in language — Strength and weakness of Scotch pulpit — Two types, Blair and Erskines— Modem preaching — Chalmers— American preachers- Alleged decay of the pulpit, how far true and false 3<-50 CHAPTER V. DUALITIES OF EFFECTIVE PREACHING.—CHARACTER OF THE DISCOURSE. I. First quality, Scn>-a^— Central truths— Character of the ' discourse— Salvation by works and by grace— Work of Saviour Of Spirit — Holiness— Surrounding truths — Ethical teaching needed. 2. Clearness— K^x\cq of Guthrie -Circumlocutions- Hazy thinking— Pains to make clear— John Foster. 3. Adap- tation— h:^ capacities in a congregation— Our Lord's discourses Getting to a higher level. 4. ^rj-esili^;.^— Preacher's own experience— Effect of a touch— Getting hold of what is stirring in the hearf.. -3. Variety of faculties — Reason soon exhausted in uneducated— Logic steeped in emotion— Imagination— Feelings Conscience— Example from Epistle to Romans. 6. Illustra- tion The mind likes contrasts and resemblances — Dr. Guthrie Our Lord's lovo of illustration— Adapted to aU classes — True object of illustration- Anecdote of Spanish painter . . 51-62 COjVT£JVTS. CHAPTER VI. QUALITIES OF EFFECTI^-E PEEACHING— SPIRIT OF THE PREACHER. I. The preacher in his relation to God— An instrument— Under what circumstances used and blessed. II. In his relation to the congregation. 1. Preacher must be interested—Aiinlogy of a fountain— Eflfects of spiritual digestion— Fresh interest not always reproduced. 2. FariKsf --Realising solemn position of audience— Solemn nature of revealed tnith— Artificial earnest- ness—Philanthropy, common and evangelical — Professor Blackie's definition— William Burns. 3. Aifectionate— Not in mere words but in soul— Compatible with indignation- God's method to f/raw— Pahif ul truth— Spirit of opposition- Scottish Christianity defective in love 4. Sympathetic— Greeit differ- ence of circumstances— S>Tnpathy not equivalent to indulgence —St. Paul—Chalmers— Our Lord. Sympathy with God. 5. C/'??f^/o?;-;-DifScult to define — The aroma of various qualities- Unction not uuctuousness ....... 63-73 CHAPTER VII. PREPARATION FOR PREACHING. Two kinds— Habitual and special — Experience shows need of former— Remark of Abbe St. Cyran— A high ideal ought to be formed— "Well enough," not enough. I. Intellectual pre- paration— Z>isc/jo/(«e of mind— Skill m investigation of truth- Power to use one's own powers— Benefit in after life— Consola- tion in obscure situations— Intellectual stores—The Bible- Bishop Bossuet— Threefold study of Scripture— (1) Personal; (2) Critical ; (3) Homiletical— Seed-corn to be prepared— Preachers mind organific—^lv. Spurgeou and the daily news- paper — Mr. Jay of Bath on anecdotes. II. Spiritual prepara- tion— Keeping soul in contact Avith eternal realities— M'Cheyne —Treatises promoting spirituality— Baxter— 7'rt/YA/«/ service. m. Physical — Connection between good preaching and good health— Mr. Beecher on invalid ministers— Effect of physical languor on young— Three organs needing attention, stomach, nerves, lungs— Saturday in the study— The speakers that move the crowd 74-85 CHAPTER VIII. PULPIT STYLE. Prejudice ao'ainst rules of style — Definition of style— Its connec- tion -with thought — Conversational style — Advantage of it — theoretical capacity — Dialogues of our great fictional writers — CONTENTS. Our Lord's style — Great preachers— Qualities of good style — 1. Clearness — "Aiming at nothing in particular" — The most accurate words not always clearest — Words in common use — Anecdote of Archbishop Tillotson — The magniloquent rhetorical style. 2. Force — Proverbs — Thinking deeply leads to speaking forcibly — Speculation not favourable to force. 3. Fulness — Specially needed in speaking— Analogy of digestion — Our Lord's habit of expansion — Burke — Chalmers — Methods of expansion. 4. Beauty — Its place — The Bible — Bunyan, Milton, Cowper — Pains in style — Franklin, Addison, JPitt, Bright, Gibbon, Broug ham 86-98 CHAPTER IX. TEXT, PLAN, AXD STRUCTUEE OF SERMON. Use of texts from Scriptxire — Four reasons for — No meaning to be attached but that meant by Holy Spirit — Fantastic explanations revolting — How texts obtained — Xeed of consulting the original — A short text — Various objects to be kept in view — Greatsub- jects— Remark of Dr. J. W. Alexander — Need of methodizing power — Remark of Dr. Shedd — Skeletons and commentaries — Archbishop Whately on skeletons — Order and disorder — Remark of Theremin — Too great length — Tediousness easily avoided — Limited capacity of gi\-iag attention — Exceptions — Jonathan Edwards and Dr. Thomwell — Amount of inattention prevalent — Remarks of Taylor — Idea of the audience should be ever present — Remarks of Vinet — Lay preachers — Trained preachers should be superior 99-111 CHAPTER X. INTRODUCTION, DIVISION, AND CONCLUSION. Aristotle's four parts of an oration : I. Inthodtjction — Need of — Reason for — Various kinds — 1. The Context — The student's method — With whom effective ; 2. Connecting text ^^•ith wider subject; 3. An analogy; 4. An anecdote; ■;. A difference ; 6. Something special ; 7. Something strange ; 8. Dramatic method — Instances of all. II. Proposition — Instance, Dr. Chalmers. m. Proof — Divisions, purpose of — Often formiil and useless — Claude's essay — General rules as to number, arrangement, state- ment — Texts and subjects — Texts with their own division — Leading and subordinate statements — Order of time and of nature — Aspects of certain texts — Illustrations of a general principle — Division of subjects — Rules of little avail — Claude. IV. Conclusion — Specially to be attended to — Cicero's rule — Inferences or appeal — The golden opportunity . . 112-126 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XI. EXPOSITORY LECTURES. PAGE Object of lecture— Context very important— Combinatiou of thu past and the present — Antiquarianism to be avoided — Introduc- tion — Advantages of expository preaching — Disadvantages and difficulties— False conception of the lecture — Need of analytical and synthetical poorer — Rev. Daniel Moore on Puritan lecturers — German expositors — Passages suggesting their own division, Psalm i.— Natui-al order of topics, 2^ Cor. v. 1-8— Difficult pau- sages— Historical passages— iSeries of observations— Practical view— Lecturing not al-«-ays edifving— Robert HaU— Passages suitable for lectures— Books of Old Testament— New Testament ^Selected chapters— Biographies— Connected subjects—" Run- ning Commentary " — Matthew Henry — Lecturing on whole books— Less scope for oratory — Ample' scope for usefulness 127-137 CHAPTER Xn. MODES OF DELIVERY. Sermons not written at first— Extempore remarks— Chrysostom and Augustine— ^^ermons of others committed- Practice of reading— Bishop Burnet's account of its origin— Charles II.'s decree against it— Its progress and abuse— Sir Roger de Coverley in the Spectator.— \. iJeaf/i/,,^— Advantages— Draw- backs. 2. i?(Ti//;'7— Benefit — Loss. 3. Extempm-e — Various methods of— Only one admissible— M. Bautain on extempore preaching— Regard to be had to 1. Tauperame»t of preacher — Reading demands lively tones, style, and thought— French tem- perament more suitable to reciting— MassiQon—Bourdaloue— Other temperaments to extemporaneous— Robert HaU— In- stances of failure and the cause. 2. Subjects of sermons— .'5. Judieuces — Advice of Dr. Chalmers to young preachers- Delivery, -what it implies— The preacher's great opportunity 138-160 CHAPTER Xin. PULPIT ELOCUTION AND MAKNTER .'othing to be lost— Anecdote of Thomson's reading of the " Sea- sons " — Bishop Berkeley's question — Public taste — A living agency designed by our Lord — Other provisions might have been made — Artificial rules not to be given— Passage from Faust — Be natural— Manner of a little child a model— Rules needed for CONTENTS. PAfiK helping nature-l. Foi^^-Adolplie Monod-Tlic Presbyterian minster especiaUy requires to cultivate the voice-^ ocal power of Anglo-Saxon race- The Scotch voice-Non-hturgical service -Need of relief and variety of sound-False modes oi using the voice-Distinctness of articulation-SIonod onthis-Kespiration. •^ ^rtw«q/4of/y-Two causes of cramping-Muscular stiffness ^ndtimiditv. 3. The Face-Force of ^ ti-ue expression-The eve a preaching organ-Its power-The heart the source of aU Sue expression-Adolphe Monod on the tone ot conversation and its wonderful efiect- A gainst declaiming and pretences to emotion— Tabna, the French player ioi-io^ CHAPTER XIY. DEVOTIONAL SERVICES. Question of liturgies and free prayer-Arguments on each side- Need of great pains for extempore prayer- Relation ot preach- in- to worshit-Preaching should give the knowledge and ro^e the feelings engaged m worship-Need of enlarged views on common worship-Directions for 1. Selections of I'sahns and Eunms-Bvn-^^l poetry-Improvement of psahnody-PmTpose and place ol music in our worship ; 2. Pubhc ^^'^''^^..^ojip- <„,.,,_Ohiect didactic or devotional-Art of reading Bible one of best gifcs ; 3. Pr<7V«— Its nature- Offering up desures of heart to God-Preaching and other so-called prayers-- Prayer to be for and from congregation— Individuahty not admissible m pubUc pravei— Remarks on (1) 2b;nr.-^Specihed by Ongen -Robert Hall-s pravers ; (2) Xa«-7««r/f-feimplicitv indispen- s-ible-Scriptural expressions-Addison s remarks-The Lord s Praver- (3) 7;-/«— Plaintive and fervent— Lmon oi contrition and'gladness-Faults in prayer-Excessive length-Anecdoteoi ^\^litefield-lnaccurate quotation— Expletives and redundancies — " To draw near "—Secret Prayer qualities for pubhc . lbo-180 CHAPTER XV. PASTORAL INTERCOURSE. Anta"-onism of pulpit and pastorate— Not necessary— :\Iay help each other— Pastoral functions in Scripture — Emblems- Enforced from earliest times— Ignatius— Archbishop Leighton —Doddridge— Archbishop AVhately— Advantages— Bond of s^Tnpathy— Eairerness of people to be visited— Need of system— .Snare of'a small charge— Svstem makes irksome work easy— 1. Visittttiou of FinniUcs—TivcQ'Aioiis for— AVhately on the idea of pastoral intercourse— Need of frankness— Difficulty of drawing out religious conversation — Biographical acquaintance— Stoliditv of some families— Art of conversation— Some ministerc CONTENTS. visit little— President Edwards— 3Ir. Jay of Bath ; 2. Visitation of Sick, ^-c, bond of afi'ection — Highest objects of such visits — Death-bed cases — The bereaved families — Distressing events in families — Influence of disappoiatment .... 181-193 CHAPTER XVI. PASTOPwiL CAEE OF THE YOUNG. Claims of the young — Often the hope of the minister— Relation of Christian Church to them — How they should be recognised — Two classes — 1. Children — Ordinary services — separate services — Need of freshness in preacher and in audience — Successful preachers to the young — "Bairns' hymns" and bairns' sermons — American preachers to young— Examination on sermon- Sunday schools and children's church ; 2. Toiincf men and ?<'o;»e«— Catechizing, its antiqmty and great benefits— Old Scot- tish practice of catechizins- all— the Bible class —Mode of con- ducting it— Place of the Bible— Topics— The Shorter Catechism — Explanations of it — Other books and topics— Written exercises —Need of preparation — Young communicants — Mode of dealing with them — Case of grown-up persons — Need of careful dealing — Grounds of admission— The three examiners and their several parts 194-205 CHAPTER XVII. PASTORAL ENGAGEMENTS AND MEETINGS. 1. Special occasions— Marriasres-As conducted in Scotland— The tone depends on the minister — The service- Baptisms- Funerals — Fimeral sermons — Other special domestic occasions —Children leaving home — 2. Pastoral meetings — Praver meet- ings—Trie idea of them— Cottage lectures— Prayer-meetings in United States — Week-day lectures — Missionary prayer- meeting — 3. Religious revival— Languor of ordinary "congrega- tion—Special times needed — Conmnmion occasions— In the Highlands— Weeks of prayer, fee. — Meaning of "revival" — Gradation of subjects — For "awakening the careless— For guiding the awakened — Dangers incident to a revival movement — Presi- dent Edwards's " narrative " — " Natural History of Enthusiasm " — " Fanaticism " — A revival may benefit or mar a congregation, according as it is guided 206-216 CHAPTER XVm. ORGANIZATION OF WORK. Opposite theories as to functions of clergy and people— Combina- tion of activity in both — " Many members in one body "—One minister to be over the congregation— Other gifts— Elders and CONTENTS. xui PAGB deacons to be ordained — Others to be recognised — Manifold labourers in the Church at Eome — The line between minister and others not easily drawTi — Active service a great blessing to the workers — Religious work a spu-itual education — People ought to be indoctrinated in these views — Unpopularity of them in some quarters — Work of organisation, how to be gone about — Consultation— Prayer — Educating the people for work — What gives to some men power in getting others to work — Development of social and spiritual feeling among workers — Meetings for workers — Books — Is Christianity a failure r . 217-226 CHAPTER XIX. EELATIONS OF THE MINISTER TO PUBLIC INTERESTS. Minister a public man — Sometimes too little public spirit, some- times too much — Necessity of attending to his own vineyard — Various public relations : — 1. To ministers of other denomina- tions — Opposite impulses of neighbourliness and faithfulness — Barren testimony — Sectarian bitterness ; 2. To brother ministers — Unsocial ministers — Gatherings of brethren — Interest in dis- trict generally — Church courts — Labour and honours — Men who object; 3. To public institutions and movements — What is suitable for ministers — Education — The poor — Public charities — Calls to take up special matters — Social problems — Need of faithfulness in repro\'ing public evils ; 4. To public contro- versies— Perils of controversy — The Christian controversialist ; 5. Science and literature— Perils of Christianity — The Church ought to encourage men to give themselves to this department — Jealousy of dilettanti coatributors and critics — Honest work needed to give influence — First duty of clergy to cultivate literature of their own profession — Influence of a literary position 227-238 CHAPTER XX. THE INFLUENCE OF CHARACTER. Character, how acquired — Men of moral weight — Sketched by Chaucer and Bunyan — "Davie Deans" — Consistency of life-- Extract from Bishop Burnet — Elements: 1. Gravity — Required by nature of ofiice — To be relieved by a little playfulness — Frivolity — Genuine and affected seriousness — Place of humour — Extract from George Herbert — Questions as to a minister's personal demeanour — Society and amusement -The minister's household ; 2. Openness — Evils of duplicity — Straightforward- ness—Need of decision — Frankness of utterance — Inward CONTENTS. sincerity the true foundation ; 3. Temper — " Taking offence " unworthy of a Christian pastor — Peaceahleness — Anecdote of employer in "West of Scotland — Gossip and scandal ; 4. Punctuality, &c., in statements — In promises — In money matters — In business — Perfection here not unattainable ; o. Eejinement of manner — The product of a refined mind — George Herbert on the parson's apparel ; 6. The inner life — Fello-ws}Jp with God — Culture of graces — Example of Dr. Chalmers — — Passage from his diary — The secret of strength . . 239-262 APPENDIX A. SUPPLElilENTAEY HINTS. I. — On Style. Rules for attaining clearness — Force — Use of figures — Dr. Camp- bell's Philosophy of Ehetoric — Rules for atta inin g fubiess — Modes of amplification — Rules for beauty — True beauty of style an element of real strength 253-259 U. — On Visiting the Sick. Steame' s Tractatus de Visitatione Infirmorum — Manner of visit- ing — Time — Length of visit — Use of Scriptiire — Other helps — Books for the sick — Reference to case of others — Benefits to ministers — Classification of the sick, &c., Dr. Andrew Bonar's book — Sample texts and comments ...... 259-266 III. — On Conducting Bible-classes. Formation of the class — For whom — Its character and tone — Its great end — Helps to teaching it — A real class, and a Bible class — Sample of teaching — First question of Shorter Catechism analysed, explained, and applied — Method not applicable to young children 266-271 rv. — On Spiritual Counsel. 1. Persons inclined to scepticism— two classes, scofiing and honest — how to be dealt with respectively. 2. Persons in anxiety about salvation — Hindrances to such — Looking to themselves for recommendations to God — Distrust of God's generosity- Distrust of self as to the future — Lurking attachment to sinful and worldly ways — the Divine power needed — 3. Amusements, &c. — General principles — Special rules — Hole of the Protestant minister, as opposed to the Father-confessors .... 271-277 CONTENTS. v.— Oy Home Mission Work. PAOR Importance of knowledge of causes, of home heathenism — Enume- ration of the chief — The great end to be set before us— Suspi- ciousness of the people — Visitation of the careless, needs to be attractive and cheerful — Addresses — Best materials for — Work among young— The mission staff— Subsidiary objects and me- thods — Temperance reform — Prayer-meetings — Habits of working 277-283 VI. — On Evangelistic Movements. Preliminary considerations. 1. Movement must be right earnest — 2. Revival in congregation precedes — 3. Revival of prayer— 4. Movement must be from above. Suggestions — 1 . Preparation in ordinary ministrations. 2. Preparatory meetings for prayer. 3. Full notice to be given. 4. Length of time. 5. Speeches. 6. Their spirit. 7. Address to be biblical. 8. Personal dealings. 9. Selection of helpers to be carefully made. 10. Young Chris- tians to be urged to self-consecration. 11. After treatment of young converts. 12. Revival of ordinary means of grace to be studied. 13. Love for Bible to be fostered. 14. Employment of converts. 15. Culture of humility, modesty, and self-control. 16. Other seasons not to be unfruitful .... 283-290 APPENDIX B. HOMILETICAL AISTD PASTORAL LITERATURE. 1. Patristic and Mediaeval writers. 2. French and Swiss. 3. German. 4. Dutch. 5. British. 6. American . . 291-299 INDEX 300-304 CHAPTER L THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY A MINISTRY OF THE WORD. THE great purposes for which the Christian ministry has been set up are familiar to us from such passages as these : " Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost : teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matt, xxviii. 19, 20). " I send thee to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me" (Acts sxvi. 18), "He gave some . . . pastors and teachers ; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ : till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ " (Eph. iv. 11, 12, 13. See also 2 Cor. v. 18 21 ; 2 Tim. ii. 24 — 26). It is impossible to conceive any change so gi-eat or so glorious as that which the Christian ministry is thus designed to effect. It aims at a radical change in the relation of men to God ; an entire change, too, of charac- ter and life ; it aims at bringing men habitually under the influence of the purest motives, and at making their life the best and noblest possible, and the fittest preparation for the life to come. The influence of the Christian minister does not terminate with his pubhc services ; it is designed, under God's blessing, to be a silent power with his people during every hour of their lives ; in hours of work and in hours of rest, in the market-place and the counting-house, in the family and in the closet ; prevaihng, through the power of the Spirit, above all contrary influences, counteracting some of the strongest natural inclinations, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. 2 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY For accomplishing all these changes, the chief instrument furnished to the Christian minister is — the Word. He is to come into contact with men chiefly by means of spoken truth. What his Master has committed to him is "the Word of reconcilia- tion " (2 Cor. V. 18). As a sower, " he soweth the ^Yord (Mark iv. 14). As a preacher, he preaches the word. (2 Tim. v. 2). That Word is " the word of salvation" (Acts xiii. 26). It is the forerunner of faith and all other vital graces — " faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God " (Rom. x. 17). We do not speak at present of the unseen power that makes the instrument ethcient ; we advert to what is outward and apparent — the means furnished to the minister for efiecting the change.. So far as he is concerned, that change must be efl'ected by the delivery of a message from God — a message which, in the first instance, reveals the way to his favour, but which has bearings at the same time on the whole sphere of human life and duty. The end of the Christian ministry is thus a marvel of sub- limity ; the instrument for accomplishing it is not less a marvel of simplicity. It is often hard to believe that so great results can be achieved by the simple weapon with which the soldier of the cross is sent forth to confront the Goliath that defies the army of the living God. As of old, the wisdom of the world is ever ready to despise the sling and the stone, and is for cloth- ing the shepherd lad in more elaborate and imposing armour. Nothing could have been of less avail under the old pagan priest- hoods than words spoken to the worshipper ; the pretended acts of magic and divination were needed to give power to the priest. In the Church of Eome, and in churches of similar spirit at the present day, the " word " sinks into insignificance before the other means employed to produce and deepen spiritual impres- sion. The minister must become more than a servant, a StaKoi^os, — he must be turned into a priest, a member of a sacred caste, possessing, among other mysterious faculties, the power of forgiving sin and dispensing grace, and a power more awful still — that of creating the Saviour out of a morsel of bread, and offering up his body and his blood as a sacrifice for the living and the dead. The services of religion must be turned into rites palpable to the senses and fitted to overawe the soul ; the chief work of the minister mi; t be the performing of these rites ; and the more complete his ritual the greater is his success ; so that a triumphant climax is reached when the faithful on their deathbeds receive from him one by one the last ofiices of the Church ; their souls being, as it were, serenaded A MINISTRY OF THE WORD. 3 into heaven, while then* bodies, protected before burial from infernal influences by lights and litanies, and carried forth amid songs and prayers, are at last committed to that holy bed which their ever mindful mother has prepared for them in the consecrated earth of the cemetery. But the true-hearted minister will reject all such substitutes for his simple weapon as not only needless but pernicious. In his work, influences that operate externally are to be used only in the most sparing way. They are not to be altogether ex- cluded, for baptism and the Lord's Supper appeal in the first instance to the outward senses, and poetical rhythm and musical sound — both outward things — are employed in the simplest service of public worship. But these things are designed for the purpose of elucidating the truth spoken, and making it more impressive ; they are not to supersede or to overlay it. "The word," says Vinet, "does not become a rite; but the rite becomes a word." The sacraments are designed to make the message more expressive and its freight of blessing richer ; but not to substitute an impression on the senses or an opus operatum for the intelligent and believing reception of the truth. The Christian minister is not called a minister of rites and ceremonies ; he is emphatically a " minister of the "Word " (Luke i. 2). " Christ sent me," said St. Paul, " not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel " (1 Cor. i. 17). The baptizing was subordinate to the preaching, not the preaching to the baptizing. If "the Word " — the spoken truth of God— be thus the great instrument of the Christian ministry, it is clearly a matter of overwhelming importance that all intrusted witli this instru- ment become right skilful in its use. If the chosen men of Benjamin have no weapon but the sling and stone, they must be tramed to sling stones at an hairbreadth, and not miss (Judges XX. IG). Indeed, the great end of our theological training in all its branches is to promote a thorough acquaint- ance, intellectual and experimental, with the Word of God. Our theological studies would utterly fail if they did not brinw back the student to the Scriptures, illuminated and vivified, filled with a clearer and richer meaning to himself, and more capable of becoming in his hands, through the power of the Holy Spirit, an instrument of spiritual influence over others. Such a study of the Bible is a study for a lifetime ; and when it opens up in its true proportions, the longest liver has more cause to fear that his life will be too short for the study than that the study will be too meagre for his life. 4 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY However little the world may esteera the arrangement which makes the Christian ministry so emphatically a ministry of the Word, those who look deeper will readily discover in it ele- ments of the greatest value, so that in this, as in other Divine arrangements, " wisdom is justified of her children." It may be enough for our present purjiose to point out four such elements of value — to show how, from this arrangement, the instructions of the Christian ministry derive — 1. Authority and power; 2. Originality; 3. Variety; and 4. Durability. 1. Authorit}/ and poiver. — The Christian pulpit has never been such a powerful engine as when it has kept most closely to the function of expounding and enforcing the Word of God. The English pulpit of the seventeenth century difiered from that of the eighteenth in being alike more Scriptural and more power- ful. Whatever else may be said of the Puritan preaching, it was certainly preaching of the Word. It kept in the foreground the great central truths — the fall, the doom of sin, the redemp- tion of Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the solemn consequences of the choice which every man is called to make between guilt and pardon, between sin and holiness, between hell and heaven. Whatever variations there might be in the successive bars of the music, the fundamental air was ever the same ; the communication came to men as a solemn message from heaven with which it was madness to trifle. That ministry, whatever its faults and defects in other ways, was certainly a ministry of power. But when the pulpit ceased to be a place for expounding and enforcing the Word ; when passionless essays and exhortations to the practice of virtue took the place of clear statements of Divine truth and earnest appeals to the conscience, the pulpit lost its efficacy. In the eighteenth century earnestness was deemed fanaticism, and a mild statement of some branch of the Christian evidence in answer to the charge that the Bible was a forgery, or a mild recommendation of some acknowledged virtue, was regarded as the most proper expression of Christian zeal. But, as Dr. Samuel Johnson remarked, men got tired of hearing the apostles tried once a week for the crime of forgery ; their souls longed for better food. In the hands of Wesley and Whitefield the pulpit again became an instrument of power, just because it returned to its great function of setting forth authoritatively the Word of God. We are sometimes told at the present day that the scope of the pulpit is far too narrow. If by this is meant that preachers A MINISTRY OF THE WORD. 5 generally confine themselves to too narrow a circle of Divine truth, there is some ground for the criticism. But if it is meant that preachers ought to give up preaching " old Hebrew doctrines," and to turn the pulpit into a kind of popular plat- form, from which everything interesting in science, exciting in politics, beautiful in art, and even amusing in light literature, ought to be freely dispensed, we believe not only that such an institution would be a failure, but that the pulpit would then become in reality what a German Roman Catholic called it in ridicule — " the chatterbox." It is well that the pulpit should know wherein its great strength lies. There are Delilahs in the tent tempting Samson to part with his secret, and persuading him to allow a razor to come upon his head. And truly the Philistines would be upon us if we should ever forget our office as ministers of the Word, and be tempted to abandon those solemn truths which, uttered in God's name, fasten themselves to the conscience, and, even where they do not lead to conver- sion, leave an awful sense of their importance and of the mad- ness of trampling them under foot. Far better no pulpit at all than a pulpit that did not, as its chief business, solemnly address men as lost sinners, summon them to repentance, faith, and humility, and entreat them, in Christ's stead, to be recon- ciled to God. There are several incidental sources from which we may see what it is about the pulpit that lays hold on men and stirs their hearts. One of these is Christian art. The subject has a pain- ful interest, art having been so often abused and perverted to unspiritual ends. Yet it is certain that whatever power belongs to the masterpieces of Christian art is due to the degree in which they represent the great supernatural truths of the Bible. Ai't is admitted to be powerful in proportion as it is biblical, and when mere tradition becomes its basis it sinks accordingly. The pictures that stir men most are those which somehow embody the great facts of sin and redemption. "It may at once be laid down," says Lady Eastlake,"^' " that the interests of Christian art and the integrity of Scripture are indissolubly con- nected. Where superstition mingles, the quality of Christian Art sufi'ers ; where doubt enters, Christian Art has nothing ta do. It may even be averred that if a person could be imagined deeply imbued with aesthetic tastes and sentiments, iind utterly ignorant of Scripture, he would yet intuitively prefer, as Art, • " Lite of our Lord in Christian Art." By Mrs. Jameson and Lady Easllake. 6 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY all those conceptions of our Lord's history which adhere to the simple text." It is said that the music of Handel falls comparatively dead upon a French audience, where religious scepticism prevails, and demands for its appreciation some degree at least of sympathy with a scriptural creed. Its power lies in the ex- pression it gives to great scriptural truths. If from art we pass to literature, we arrive at the same con- clusion. In Titanic strength and grandeur Dante stands with- out a rival ; and is not the very soul of his poetry the Christian doctrine of retribution — "the soul that sinneth, it shall die" '? It is very plain that the mind of Shakespeare was deeply impressed with the nature and the doom oi sin ; it was as something much more than a weakness or imperfection that sin appeared to him; and his hell was very different from that coarse bugbear which it is often said to be. If we think of Milton, we think of one to whom the Bible was such a power, that without his faith in it he would not merely have been a ditierent man, but he would hardly have been a poet at all. What a contrast in enduring power and interest between Milton and Pope ! The one the incarnation of the deep Puri- tanic faith of the seventeenth century (without the Puritanic bareness), the other the reflection of the deism of the eighteenth, or, as his Essay on Man has been called, " Bolingbroke in verse." Thus it appears that the very truths which the culture of the present day would explain away as mythical, or repudiate as barbarous, constitute in no small measure the enduring strength of the Christian pulpit. 2. OnijinaUty. No doubt our first impression is that Biblical p)i'eachiug cannot be original. If the problem were stated thus : A certain book is furnished as the basis of in- structions to be given age after age and century after century to the whole of Christendom, how long will it be ere its contents are exhausted, and every new or original view which it can supply brought forward ? the reply would probably be, that it was impossible that a single book, handled constantly by innumerable expounders, could furnish anything new after two or three generations at most. Every grain of wheat, it would be thought, must by that time have been separated from a mass subjected to such continual thrashing. But the case is quite ditierent. To any thoughtful mind it must be a great marvel not that there are many commonplace preachers, but that there are still any original preachers at all. That out A MINISTRY OF THE WORD. 7 of a book eighteen hundred years old, which preachers ^vithout number have been continually handling, men should stUl be able to gather anything fresh or vivid, should be able to construct discourses that command the attention of intelligent and -well-read audiences, and to do this with apparently no more difficulty than their predecessors at the dawn of Christianity, is surely an intel- lectual phenomenon demanding some explanation at our hand. Is there any other book in the wide world susceptible of such treatment ? Plato, Aristotle, Bacon, Shakespeare — is it con- ceivable that any of them should be drained in like manner week after week, in all ages and in all countries, and yet should never run dry ? Would the expositors never feel it a penance to be confined to a path beaten so hard by their predecessors, and the hearers to be for ever subjected to hearing the same names and being fed with the same food ? The question, let it be observed, is not whether Scriptural preaching is never a weariness to any. No doubt it is. But to these persons all truth of the same kind Avould be a weariness. The phenomenon before us is, that in all ages and in all countries there are multitudes who listen to the lively exposition and enforcement of Scripture truth with the keenest interest, and that there are preachers who bring it out as freshly as if it had come but yesterday from heaven.* There must be something very special about the Bible to account for this. Our explanation is that the Bible is given by inspiration of God, and that it is as full of Divine forms and germs pertaining to the spiritual world as the book of nature is full of them pertaining to the physical. No age can exhaust the fertility of nature. There are combinations of her forms and colours to be detected ever and anon as fresh as anything seen by Adam ; and neither pamter nor poet can ever be constrained to weep, like Alexander, that he has ex- hausted the old world, and that no new world can be found to conquer. It is the same, too, with the Bible. Divine truth lies there in forms innumerable, and no single preacher, nor school nor age of preachers, can ever bring the whole to light. The more we penetrate into this treasury, the more shall we be enabled to bring out of it things new and old. If we con- tent ourselves with an easy and superficial study of it, we shall * " Novelty is a great means of interesting, and preaching can only maintain its ground in this respect by continually renewing itself. Men •wish for novelty, and, all things considered, they are not wrong. . . . Every prudent preacher will bring forth fi-om his treasury things new and old."— FiM^^ 8 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY of course be able to produce nothing but what is familiar to all. But if we penetrate below the surface, if we dig in the Bible as for hidden treasure, we shall never cease to find what is fresh and interesting. The most original mind cannot create truth ; it can only bring to light truth that already exists, or find out relations of truth which have not been formerly apprehended. God's Book of Kevelation is no more exhausted in these respects than God's Book of Nature. It is to nature that the artist must look if he would freshen his mind — if he would get into some new line of representation that will fascinate and move the lovers of art.* It is to the Bible, in like manner, that the preacher must look if he would give fresh interest and power to truths that have begun to pall upon the general ear. But it must be the Bible worked by meditation and prayer into his own soul, producing a spiritual originality which will make his applications of it to actual life as vivid as if the book had been written for the present day. 3. Variety. In reference to this, too, as a product of biblical preaching, the first impressions of many are difierent. The notion is apt to prevail that a strictly biblical ministry must be a monotonous one. And in many cases, it must be owned, preachers getting into a round of leading truths, and repeating them^ again and again with little variety, do foster this im- pression. It is a fault into which some of our most spiritual preachers are apt to fall. They deem it unworthy of earnest men, yearning for souls, to preach on any topics but those which concern, in the most dii-ect way, the relation of the sinner to the Saviour. But in leaving out, as they do, a great portion of the Word of God, they are apt to cultivate in their hearers a narrow type of piety, instead of embracing in their instructions in due proportion the whole scope of that Word which, in its fulness, is fitted to make the man of God perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. It is quite remarkable, indeed, how very small is the number of texts usually made use of by the evangelist passing from place to place. But the pastor who has to feed the flock from week to week and from year to year, must study to combine the conditions of unity in variety, and variety in unity. • Sir Walter Scott was once asked why he was so careful in examining and descrihing real scenes, when he could so easily have constructed his scenery from his own imagination. His answer was that hid imagination would have been exhausted in a very few efforts ; but that there was infinite freshness and variety in nature. A MINISTRY OF THE WORD. 9 No better mode of doing this can be found than by trying to make the lessons of the pulpit co-extensive with the teaching of the Bible, Looked at even supei-ficially, the Bible is a book of remarkable variety. Besides theology, in the stricter sense of the term, it presents history and biography, extending often to the minutest details ; devotional writing, bringing out all the varied experiences of the human heart, especially in its search for God ; the proverbial wisdom of men in whom a rare worldly shrewdness blended with the profoundest veneration ; typical representations of God's kingdom, of great interest and variety, if only we could get the right key to their meaning ; songs and poems equally remarkable for their appreciation of nature and for the depth of their spirituab'ty. What shall we say of the Gospels, the Acts, and the Epistles ? The person, the life, and the death of Christ — what a study is this, and how fitted to stir the heart to its depths 1 The kingdom of God set up on earth — what a wonderful conception ! Ifow solemnizing to think of this Divine creation being in the midst of us, and of our being citizens of it, with all its holy rules of living, and of the imme- diate relation of every member of it to the Divine King ! Look across any part of the Bible, and passages of quite Divine beauty are sure to meet your eye. Take Genesis, the oldest book of aU, with its first articulate utterance of the Divine voice, " Let there be light ; " fit word to herald all the rest — morning star, as it were, of " the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." The happy garden, the cursed temptation, the fall, the expulsion, the promise ; the contrasted characters and dismal tragedy of Cain and Abel ; the gloom of a growing corruption relieved by the bright star of Enoch ; the flood, the destruction of all flesh, the salvation of the elect family, the bow in the cloud, the fall and shame even of the chosen patriarch ; the rebellion of Babel and its memorable punishment ; the rise of the great empires on the banks of the Euphrates and the Nile ; the call of Abram, tbe chequered lives of the pilgrim-fathers, the prophetic blessing of the dying Jacob, the romantic fulfilment of Joseph's dreams, and the curtain falling on the embalmed remains that could rest nowhere but in the land of holy promise. To master all the treasures of the Bible, to blend all its voices into a harmonious whole, is no easy attainment. Though one great line of doctrine runs through Scripture, it has its diversities, like the parts of a musical harmony. Superficial men are ever finding contradictions where the profounder lo THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY student will find a remarkable balance and agreement. To preserve this balance we must follow the manifoldness of Scripture, and not confine ourselves to certain favourite lines. We must have breadth as well as intensity in our teaching, otherwise we may foster a feverish life which will be followed by a time of reaction and dreary lifelessness. The history of the Christian Church is too full of such cases. Eager to uphold some great truth which has been the object of assault, the teachers of the Church have sometimes sufi"ered other truths, forming its true complement and balance, to drop out of view. Meanwhile a craving has arisen in some hearts for the nourishment to be derived from these neglected truths ; exag- geration in one direction and disparagement in another have followed, till some most painful strife and lamentable schism have completed the process. There is something in the very nature of Divine truth, and its solemn bearing on eternal life and death, that renders good men liable to exaggerate, and to show excited and feverish energy in defending treasures of such inestimable value. The safeguard against such extremes would undoubtedly be if our pulpits were exponents of the whole counsel of God, and our pastors wise and faithful stewards, able to give to all their Master's household a portion of meat in due season. 4. Durability. We ascribe this property to biblical preaching as including both the endurance of the institution itself, and the permanence of the impression made by it on men's minds. The Christian ministry has a singular vitality. Schools of philosophy, once full of life, have died away ; bright popular enterprises, like that of chivalry, have come and gone ; insti- tutions for the advancement of art and science, guilds for the benefit of trade, mechanics' institutes, people's colleges, and what not, have tried to strike their roots into the deep soil of our social life without more than partial and transitory success. The Christian ministry has fared otherwise. We do not refer now to what calls itself the Christian priesthood, which depends for its endurance on quite another set of conditions. We speak of an institution which claims no magical powers, but stands out before the world simply as the pillar and ground of the truth. What chance of permanence would the Church have, if, severing herself from special connection with the revealed message of God, she were to become a mere agent of Christian civilisation and improvement ? — if her churches were to become lecture-rooms and opera-houses, and, instead of showing to men ^ MINISTRY OF THE WORD. n the way of salvation, she were to show them experiments in chemistry and regale their ears with songs and jokes ? Clever men may no doubt draw audiences for a time on Sunday evenings to hear expositions of the physical basis of Hfe, illus- trated by means of a black-board and a piece of chalk, and interspersed with snatches of music ; but what hold can such things take of the masses, or what chance of endurance can they have ? Like those trees whose roots run along the surface of the ground, such institutions can have but a short and fitful existence ; and never can you expect to see in connection with them what you see so often under the Christian ministry — the steady crowded congregation assembling from age to age, the children taking the place of their fathers, their attachments becoming stronger, their sympathies deeper with advancing years. To give to the Christian ministry its vital attachments, it must be plainly in connection with the saving truth of God, aftording ground for the conviction expressed by the poor maiden of Philippi — " These men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation " (Acts xvi. 17). And as this connection is necessary for the permanence of the institution, so it is also for the endurance of any impressions that may be_ made by it. If the clergy aimed only at setting forth such views of truth and duty as have commended them- selves to their own mmds, they no doubt might have a number of attached and admiring hearers, but their words could not sink very deep or turn the current of many Hves. The echoes would not live as do the echoes of many a scriptural sermon, slumbering, perhaps, while life flows smoothly, but awaking in the day of trial, and comforting the soul in the hour of death. If we would preach sermons of such a kind as to arrest the conscience and turn the will, we must fill them vsdth the Word of God. It is the enduring efiect of such teaching, in contrast with the transitory impression of what is merely of human origin, that St. Peter thus describes : " Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away : but the Word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you." These views of the efficacy of biblical preaching are the more worthy of consideration because of the tendency of some 12 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. preachers at the present day to appeal for the authority of what they say not to the Word of God, but to the reason of their hearers— their sense of what is right and fit, their innate per- ception of truth and duty. If the authority of Scripture were recognised as supreme, and it were sought, in addition, to draw out for its truths the testimony of reason and of conscience, all would be right ; and the fresh vigour of such preachers would be a valuable help to the efficacy of the pulpit. But the authority of Scripture is not represented as supreme. Men are constituted in a sense their own guides, their own lawgivers, and their own rulers ; and the degree of their deference to such authority cannot rise much above the authority itself. The desu-able thing would be to combine the old appeal to the Word of God Avith that frank recognition of man's actual thoughts and feelings which this class of preachers make so copiously. It is a great duty to commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God ; but whatever support we seek to derive for our lessons from the conscience must be secondary to that which we draw from our great standard — the written Word of the Lord. Some will no doubt complain that this is the way to produce intolerant preachers, and that no men are so ofiensive in their intolerance as those who claim that all their views are identical with the Word of God. But, where there is real ground for this oli'ensiveness, it arises from this claim being made in reference to lesser matters on which the Bible gives no du-ect utterance. If the Bible really is a message from God on the great matters of sin and salvation, he must be a poor messenger who has no definite conception of the substance of the message, and allows men to accept or reject it according as they like it or no. To preach with power and effect, it is plain that the Christian minister must be in deep sympathy with the Lord of the Bible, habitually thinking, as it were, his very thoughts and breathing his feeUngs. Divine truth digested into the substance of his spiritual being, and reproduced as if it were part of himself, goes to the heart of his hearers with all the power of a Divine message, and with all the freshness of a human experience. A church replenished with such a race of ministers stands in no danger of extinction ; her path will be that of the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. CHAPTER, n. THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. OF the New Testament ministry it may be said aa really as of the Old Testament priesthood — "No man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron" (Heb. v. 4). But the manner of the call is widely and obviously diflerent. The call to the priesthood came through hereditary descent — it ran in the blood ; but in the New Testa- ment we find no trace of any such arrangement for the Chris- tian Church. The manner in which men are called to the New Testament ministry corresponds to the nature of the New Testament dispensation. The evidences of this call are inter- nal rather than external ; they are to be found in inward qualifications, not in outward marks. Our theory of the ministry is that the existence of the qualifications is the founda- tion of the title to the ofiice ; that it lies with the applicant and the Church jointly to determine whether he has this title ; and that when the Church ordains a man to the ministry, she pro- ceeds on the principle that as he appears from his qualifications to have been called to the office by the Lord, he ought to be invested with it by man. The Church, however, is often not able to come to a very clear judgment on the question whether a man has really received a call from the Lord to enter into his public service ; all the more, therefore, it is incumbent on applicants to be very careful in this matter, faithfully applying the rule — " Let a man examine himself." While this lecture shall be occupied chiefly with considera- tions for the settlement of the personal question, we desire emphatically to lay down the position, that, however clearly it may seem to an individual that he has the Master's call, the approval and ordination of the Church are ordinarily necessary to constitute the ministerial office. Gx'eat evil has arisen in the discussion of this subject from looking only at one side of a 14 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. question which undoubtedly has two sides. Some look ex- clusively at the inicard qualifications, and hold that if « man has these the approval and ordination of the Church are worth- less ; others hold that if a man has the approval and ordination of the Church, he is a true and authorised minister, let his per- sonal qualifications be what they may. The latter is no doubt by far the more dangerous error; but there is danger, too, in the other. The latter would invest some men with the character of Christ's ambassadors ■v/hom He never sent, and never could have sent, because they are evidently destitute of his spirit ; and "if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his." The other would allow men to assume the ministerial ofiice without any check on their own judgment of their fitness, thus encouraging the rough and forward, and discouraging the self- distrusttul and humble, and doing away v/ith all that comely order which the Head of the Church esteems so highly. The true view is that which combines both, holding that the thing of intrinsic value — that w'hich constitutes the foundation of a real call to the ministry — is personal qualification ; but that, in ordinary circumstances at least, there must be a tr^-ing of the spii'its and a judgment on their qualifications by the Church, in order to the constitution of the ministerial office. On this foot- ing we proceed to investigate the subject. It is of great importance to accustom our minds to the idea of a personal relation between the Christian minister and the Lord Jesus Christ. This, in fact, is implied (1.) in the very name ; a minister, servant, StciKovos, must hold a personal rela- tion to a master ; an ambassador must be appointed to his office by the person whom he represents ; an under-shepherd must receive the portion of the llock for which he is to care from the hands of the Chief Shepherd. (2.) It is implied, further, in the nature of the work to be done ; the establishment of Christ's kingdom proceeds on a connected scheme, in which each part of the work bears on the rest ; the building of the spiritual temple is carried on in conformity to a comprehensive plan ; and though men may work who are not called, and their work may be overruled for good, yet the true and authorised work- men must be subject to the call and instructions of the Master Builder. (3.) It is implied in the fact that efficient ministers are represented as the gifts of the Lord to those portions of the vineyard that enjoy their services. " I will give them pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed them with knowledge and understanding " (Jer. iii. 15). " When He ascended upon THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 15 high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men, . . . and He gave some, apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, evan- gelists ; and some, pastors and teachers ; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Eph. iv. 8, 11, 12). (4.) It is implied in the ana- logical case of the Old Testament prophets, who were called by God to their mission — " Before I formed thes in the belly I knew thee ; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations" (Jer. i. 5) ; while of unauthorised prophets it is said, "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran : I have not spoken unto them, yet they prophesied" (Jer. xxiii. 21). (5.) It is implied further in the analogy of the apostles, all of whom were called by Christ and sent by Christ — " As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world " (John xvii. 18). (6.) And finally, it is implied in the promises made to Christ's ministers. " The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things " (John xiv. 26). " When the Chief Shep- herd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away " (1 Pet. v. 4). It is important that such views as these of the relation between Christ and his ministers and the appointment they hold from Him be attentively considered, as some are disposed to regard the idea of a Divine call to the ministry as a fanatical one, unworthy of the consideration of sober minds. But if the Head of the Church knows his sheep and calls them by name, it is obvious He must know his shepherds ; and if even the foremost of the apostles could not be intrusted with feeding the sheep and tending the lambs till he had three times answered a question relating to his personal state, it is not only not un- worthy of the attention of candidates for the ministry, but eminently the reverse, to inquire whether this oftice of shepherd is designed by their Lord for them. It is an inquiry relating to a matter of fact, and on the answer to it must depend a great question of right or wrong. If a man who consciously is not called assume the ofiice, no sanction that may be given to him by a fallible church can reverse the fact, and make him a true shepherd of Christ's sheep. His career must be vmblessed, unhallowed — a profane handling of sacred things, the intrusion of a thief and a robber into the sheepfold, to whose voice the sheep will not listen. How soon to such a man, when the first feeling of novelty is past, will the ministry in its true function? I6 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY, be a burden and a weariness ! How sorely will he be tempted to make it a mere platform for benevolence or a theatre for self-display, or to add to it some more sprightly occupation, instead of keeping to Christ's grand object — building up that kingdom which is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. And how distressing his influence on the flock, guiding them not to the green pastures and still waters, but to the dry places of the wilderness — mountains where there is no dew, neither the rain falleth upon them! The common application of the words " calling" and "voca- tion " to men's ordinary occupations shows that even there, in virtue of certain considerations, some men are providentially designed for particular modes of life. These considerations have a certain resemblance to those which determine a call to the Christian ministry. A person is understood to have a vocation to a profession or pursuit when three elements are combined — inclination, ability, and opportunity ; — and the more decidedly that all these point to that particular pursuit the more clear is his vocation. A man with ability to be an artist, with a passion for art, with the opportunity of learning and prosecuting the profession, may be held to have a calling to it, subject, of course, to the risk of error under the head of ability, which must at first be doubtful, and to difficulties under the head of opportunity, which, however, may be designed only to call forth the energy and resoluteness of his character. If we give a full scriptural interpretation to the terms, it may be sufficient to say that these three elements, inclination, ability, and oppor- tunity, constitute the call to the Christian ministry. But we must not leave the matter in this vague form, since these terms may be understood in a variety of ways. For example, inclination. Ministerial life may be attractive to young persons of particular temperament in some of its secondary aspects ; they may have a liking for a life of quiet usefulness ; their literary tastes may be attracted by the clergjonan's little study and theological library ; they may have a personal attach- ment to some who are engaged in the pursuit ; or they may feel that, more than any other, it fulfils their ideal of a desirable life. Their ability may have been tested by the usual methods in their preparatory classes, and by the crowning evidence of their having passed the final examinations with eclat. Their opportunity may have been determined so far by the absence of any other pursuit which it would have been natural for them to THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 17 follow, by the encouragement and approval of their friends, and by the probability of their obtaining a suitable sphere of labour. Now there are no doubt instances not a few of young men entering on preparation for the ministry with views as indefinite as these, who, either in the course of then- studies or in their first grappling with the difficulties of the ministry, have been led to a far more profound sense of its responsibilities, and have proved themselves to be able and successful ministers of Jesus Christ. Not seldom a man, while sitting in his place in divinity class-rooms, has for the first time heard the voice of the Master asking "Whom shall I send?" and for the first time been moved in spirit to reply, " Here am I, send me." A man may receive his real call to the ministry even after he has been formally in the office. But let it be understood, that whatever the grace of God may afterwards effect, a mere leaning towards the ministry, based on such secondary grounds as we have now adverted to, cannot be regarded as a call to it. It may be that Christ destines some such for high usefulness in that office ultimately, but Avith their present views and feelings they are not entitled to regard Him as calling them to feed his sheep and his lambs. The reason is plain. In the ministry of the gospel there is need for a man's soid to do the work, while in the cases that have been supposed the soul has received no adapta- tion for it. The work of Christ demands a glow upon the spirit, a devotion, a fervoui', arising from a deep experience of sin and grace, and the power of the world to come — demands an active desire for the salvation of souls, not always to be found in those who favour the ministry as a quiet useful life. There are various forms of Christian philanthropy or benevolence, to which, according to their opportunity, all Christian men are called ; but the philanthropy which is peculiar to the Christian ministry is the love of souls. It is in many ways important and desirable that the ministers of the gospel should encourage, and, so far as other duties permit, personally promote, these various forms of philanthropy ; but it must be clearly under- stood that these do not constitute their primary work, and that an interest in them is not the specific qualification which indi- cates, on the part of Christ, a call to his ministry. The minister is the servant to whom Christ intrusts the carrying out of the grand purpose for which he came into the world. " This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners ; of whom I am chief '* (1 Tim. i. 15). In all whom Christ calls to be his servants iu c i8 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. this work, there must be found some fitness for it iu this its highest aspect — a special interest in the salvation of souls, and a deliberate purpose to make this the great business of their lives. 1. Plainly, then, in the first place, a call to the ministry presupposes the existence of the great mark of a servant of Christ— conversion of heart and life. It is not to be supposed that Christ would call men to his ministry, or the work of saving souls, whose own souls are not saved, and who are not partakers of that life which comes from the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. The order of his kingdom is, " Let the dead bury their dead." It is true, at the same time, that unconverted men have sometimes been the instru- ments of saving good to others, and instances could be given of persons who have been led to the Saviour, and have continued to adorn his doctrine, while he who first led them had come to wallow in the lowest depths of sensuality. This fact may well make students of divinity careful in examining the foundations of their Christian profession. No one is entitled to assume that all must be right with him in this respect, since otherwise he would not be an aspirant to the ministry. There is no such thing as an official road to heaven. Whatever may be the way in which he was led, he must have given himself to Christ before he can be his minister. There must be found in him that sense of unworthiness and emptiness which leads him day by day to the blood that cleanseth from all sin, which draws him to God, makes him hang upon the promise of the Spirit, encourages him to read and pray, and makes him earnest and unceasing in the conflict with sin and temptation. Carelessness in the keeping of his own vineyard can be no recommendation in the keeper of other vineyards ; and of all men the servant of the Lord should be the last to lie open to the reproach — " "What meanest thou. sleeper? arise, call upon thy God" (Jonah i. 6). 2. More than this, a call to the ministry supposes a peculiar sympathy with Christ in his great enterprise as Saviour, and a strong desire to be of service to Him in that enterprise. A deep sense of the guilt and misery of sinners, far from their father's house, and often fain to fill their belly wiih the husks ; much distress of soul at the thought of lives perverted by sin from their great end, and prostituted to objects shallow and unsatisfying at the best ; a yearning desire to gather the wanderers to the Saviour ; a sense of mental refreshment, a seeing of the travail of one's soul and being satisfied in the THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 19 accomplishment of this desire ; a feeling that to help thus would be to apply one's lile to the noblest purpose, and to reap a reward that leaves nothing to be desired ; a fervent wish to be sent out by the Master on such errands, an eagerness to hear from his lips the command, " Go, work to-day in my vine- yard ; " — some such experience as this is one of the spiritual conditions that mark off some out of the mass of young Chris- tians as specially qualified to take part in Christ's ministry. We would not exclude those who, feeling deeply that this is the true spirit of his service, but lamenting their own poverty and emptiness in regard to it, are lifting up their souls to God, beseeching Him to pour it out upon them. We should indeed be most hopeful of such, knowing that as the aii* rushes most rapidly into an exhausted receiver, so the grace of God fills most readily the soul that is consciously empty. The Church has no such ministers as those in whose breasts the Word of the Lord so presses for utterance, that even if like Jeremiah they should say, "I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name " (Jer. xx. 9), his word would be in theii" heart as a burning fire shut up in their bones, so that they could not keep it from bursting forth. Natural tempera- ment — that part of a man which it is least easy to alter — may have something to do with this ; but be our temperament what it may, we have little cause to believe that we are called to Christ's public service unless it be at least our aim and prayer to have his word so dwelling in us that "we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard " (Acts iv. 20). 3. It follows that where there is a real call to the ministry, along with this sympathy with Christ in his great enterprise of salvation, there will be a readiness for those habits of life and modes of service that tend to its accomplishment. A genuine aspirant to the ministry must have the power of contemplating what has now been described as the main part of his life-work, and of setting himself to accomplish it accordingly. Of course, young men at the beginning of a race cannot know experimentally all its difficulties and temptations, and cannot therefore have before them all the circumstances that would enable them to say intelligently that they never would tire of it. But this is not necessary. ' It is enough that, so far as they know themselves, and know the work, and know the promises and helps that are available for it, their hearts go with it, and that, recognising this state of mind as the gift of God, they feel the necessity of continually asking Him to renew and deepen 20 THE CALL TO THE MLNISTRY. it, so that as time rolls on they may like the work better, and live for it more. It ought not to be concealed that the experi- ence of life that will come to you by-and-by will bring with it temptations which you may feel but feebly now. To renounce the world, with its aims and prizes, is often an easier thing for a young man in the free independence of youth, than for one whose position is complicated by domestic relations, and who is sometimes tempted to desire for the sake of others what he could quite freely renounce for himself. But, under any cii'- cumstances, an aspirant to the ministry must see to it that he is content, with God's help, to lead a life which cannot well fail to be one of much labour and self-denial ; that he possesses those habits of self-command which shall preserve him from the snares of indolence and fitfulness ; that, like Moses, he can turn aside from the allurements of wealth and pleasure, feeling that the humble path he has chosen has rewards of its own far higher than those of Egypt ; that he has faith enough in his Master to keep his mind at ease as to temporal things, in the belief that God will supply all his need, according to his riches in glory, by Christ Jesus ; that he has a special abhorrence of all those vices, such as sensuality, deceit, or dishonesty, a single act of which, openly committed or disclosed, might be enough to dis- credit if not ruin his character and usefulness for ever ; and, above all, that he is so alive to the necessity of maintaining this spirit and these habits of life by daily fellowship with the Foun- tain of Life, that they form the subject of his most earnest sup- plications at the throne of grace. The maintenance and culture of this spirit is indeed one of the most important elements, if it be not the most important element, of preparation for the work of the ministry. Unfortu- nately, it cannot be said that literary and philosophical studies have a direct tendency to foster it. Rather, perhaps, the other way. Breadth and expansion of intellect they do give, and, what is extremely valuable in education (for it is education itself), they enable you to use your mental powers, to work and control that wondrous machinery of the brain which would otherwise lie idle like an unmanageable ship, or rush about wildly like a flooded stream. But the spirit of consecration cannot be said to arise from either classics, or physics, or philo- sophy. Sometimes, indeed, we see students entering on their literary studies with more of Christian fervour and devotedness than they show at the close. It is of vast importance, therefore, that pains be taken, not only to ascertain the existence of a THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 21 spirit of consecration, but to foster and deepen it. The student's own private exercises of devotion, in which he must never allow the pressure of other work to lead him to become slack ; his Sabbath-day communion vidth the upper world ; his home- mission work, so useful at this period of his career ; his private reading, embracing, as he will strive to make it embrace, the memoirs of earnest ministers, and all else that stimulates the spirit of consecration — will serve, by God's blessing, to nourish this habit, and thereby make it the more apparent that it is in obedience to Christ's own summons that he is entering on the work of the ministry. It must not, however, be supposed that an intense sympathy with Christ in the great enterprise of salvation, and the preva- lence of aU those feelings and habits of life which we have noticed in connection with it, constitute, in all cases, a call to the ministry. That they constitute a caU to some form of service is undoubted ; in the case of women, for example, where such feelings are often peculiarly strong, the call to serve Christ in some shape is unquestionable ; but few females, how- ever enthusiastic, fancy that their vocation is to preach the Gospel. To complete the elements that go to constitute a call to the ministry, we must consider what is peculiar to that mode of service, and therefore indispensable to the successful per- formance of its duties. 4. We remark, then, further, that a certain amount and form of intellectual abihty must be regarded as a requisite for the ministry of the Word. There must evidently be a certain capacity of intellectual acquirement. No man is qualified for the office of the ministry (except in cases of great rarity, where other qualifications are extraordinary) who is incapable of furnishing himself with the ordinary branches of theological knowledge, to whom Greek and Latin are but unknown tongues, philosophy a region of mist and cloud, theological discussion a battle-field of hard words, and the history of the Church a mere labyrinth of facts and conflicts, schisms and heresies, that no memory can carry and no brain digest. There must be some capacity to feel at home in such walks, because in these times especially, when speculation is so much in vogue, when educated laymen are often so much in need of guidance, when the library of every Mechanics' Institute has its comple- ment of sceptical works, when young tradesmen and ploughmen are becoming familiar with the infidel arguments of the day, it were presumption in any one to aspire to the office of a 22 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. spiritual guide who did not know more about these subjects than his people, and who was not better qualified to discuss them. We say that it is only in cases of great rarity, where other qualifications are extraordinary, that the want of such a capacity can be excused. We can conceive men of such spiritual force, such power of making the truth appear as its own witness, such skill in attacking the conscience, moving the will and touching the feelings, and in such obvious alliance with the Spirit of God, that the absence of human learning would hardly be felt to be a defect, and at the feet of such teachers the greatest scholars might be content to sit. But men of this calibre are rarely to be met with, and when they do occur, they will either, by their extraordinary spiritual momentum, assert their right to be regarded as exceptions, or they will find a special sphere of usefulness of another kind. Let it be observed, however, in regard to such men, that it would be a gi-eat mistake to regard them as uneducated, even if they have but little of human acquirement. They possess one thing which it is the great aim of education to impart — the power of using their powers — a command over their own faculties — a capacity of launching their weapons with an in- stinctive certainty of aim, and with a force which is all the greater that the operation is so natural and so sure. Where a natural gift of this kind is consecrated by the Holy Ghost the impression ip marvellous ; but so far from proving that human culture is of little consequence in ordinar}' cases, it proves just the reverse. For that marvellous development and command of one's mental faculties which such men seem to have as a natural gift, the great mass of men have to acquire by educa- tion and by practice. The enlargement of our mental powers, the capacity of using them at will, the ability to have them in orderly an-ay, so that they shall not jostle nor impede one another, but shall multiply the force which is exerted by each, is a more important and valuable result of education than any amount of undigested acquirement. Some measure of this intellectual abilitj' is doubtless to be regarded as a qualification for the ministerial ofiice. Some measure of intellectual grasp, some readiness of intellectual movement, some skill in intellectual concentration. And let it not be said that in thus dwelling on the importance of intellect in the ministry we dishonour the Spirit of God. The fact is, that from the Apostle Paul downwards it is men of great learn- ing and high intellectual culture who have been the mightiest 7^HE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 23 instruments of spiritual results. Augustine, Calvin, Owen, Baxter, Jonathan Edwards were all men of full acquirement and well-developed intellectual power. But their reliance on the great source of spiritual strength was not impaired either by the fulness of their learning or the force of their intellect. They laid all their attainments at the foot of the Cross, and would have entered very cordially into the remark of Archbishop Leighton to a friend who admired his books, and congratulated him on having produced them: **Ah," said Leighton, "one devout thought outweighs them all." 5. There are also certain physical qualifications which are not to be overlooked in judging of a call to the ministry. Extreme bodily feebleness, especially feebleness of the throat or the chest, on which the faculty of utterance is so dependent, is certainly a disqualification, and can be disregarded only on the strength of an unusual measure of other qualifications. So also is a nervousness so extreme that it will never allow one to forget one's-self, while it produces a kind of mental paralysis in presence of an audience, that makes a public appearance a kind of martyrdom, and renders one most helpless when one ought to be strongest. It is scarcely possible to draw a hard and fast line between that measure of natural shyness which may be overcome by practice, by courageous efi'orts to do one's duty, and by earnest prayer for the help of God, and that extreme nervous feebleness which unfits one for ever being a good public speaker. But it is certain that nothing appears to the lay mind more out of place than the appearance in the pulpit of one whose feeble accents and general helplessness make him more an object of compassion than of respect. And on no occasions are people more disposed to pass hard judgments on theological institutions and those who conduct them than when such men appear as their instructors. The pubhc are but little in the way of accepting the lesson which an eminent man used to say that he could always draw even from the poorest sermon he ever heard — a lesson of patience. 6. And perhaps we ought to advert to certain social elements not to be overlooked. The ministry is a social office, and men of unsocial temper, who shrink from the company of their fellows, and instead of being disposed to let out their hearts to others ever keep them defended ivs by a coat of mail, are pro tanto disqualified. This tendency, too, is one which, unless overcome in youth, will grow with years, creating at last a positive repulsion between the minister and at least the younger 24 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. members of his flock. To encourage his people to speak on religious topics, and to enter freely into his plans of work, a measure of frankness is indispensable ; for it is frankness that draws frankness, it is cordiality that begets cordiality, that breaks down the barriers of reserve, and knits the bonds of brotherhood. Considering, too, how much it is his duty to " beseech " and " persuade " men, it is evident that a genial, kindly, persuasive spirit must be of eminent service. Yet, on the other hand, seeing that the minister of Christ is called to deal in the pulpit and elsewhere with very awful realities, it is essential that he be free from all levity of cha- racter, from everything that would lower in men's eyes the dignity of his office, or connect paltry or ludicrous associations with the grand truths he is called to proclaim. Called too, as he is, to aid in the work of the great Peacemaker, and often finding it his duty to endeavour to adjust the differences that arise in families and in communities, he has need of a calm and peaceable temper, and of that prudence which enables one to steer one's course calmly, without stirring elements of strife which lie around one on this side and on that. A morose, reserved, and surly temper, or an irascible and violent one, are therefore serious disqualifications for the ministry. For " the servant of the Lord must not strive ; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves ; if God peradventure will give them repent- ance to the acknowledging of the truth ; and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will " (2 Tim. ii. 24 — 26). It is quite true that some of the qualifications for the ministry that have now been adverted to are of secondary importance, and that the partial absence of them does not conclusively show that the person has no call from Christ to this office. On the other hand it is also certain that several men of true excellence have not only done no good service, but much mischief in the ministry, by the want of talent for public speaking and public instruction, by a feeble, nervous, awkward manner, by an ungeuial, mule-like temper, or by a pugnacious, exasperating spirit. We are constantly hearing expostulations from persons outside against some of those whom we send forth to preach, but who are utterly unfit for the charge of a congregation. If young men only knew themselves, and knew their natural in- firmities, they might do a great deal at the present stage in checking and overcoming them ; they might learn a lesson of THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 25 humility and watchfulness from the very knowledge of them ; they might be thrown into that relation of conscious dependence on God into which Paul was thrown by his thorn in the flesh, and taught to prize, as he was, the ever-glorious promise, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness " (2 Cor. xii. 9). It would be matter of deep regret if these observations had only the efiect of making any conscientious young man uncom- fortable, of stirring doubts in his mind as to his Divine vocation to an office which hitherto he may have been contemplating with unclouded satisfaction. If, however, any doubts have been raised, let them not be sufi'ered to remain. In the first place, let him bear in mind that though he is responsible for presenting himself as a candidate, and though that does imply