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diff --git a/old/23113.txt b/old/23113.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e7d7e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/23113.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6388 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, To My Younger Brethren, by Handley C. G. Moule + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: To My Younger Brethren + Chapters on Pastoral Life and Work + + +Author: Handley C. G. Moule + + + +Release Date: October 20, 2007 [eBook #23113] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TO MY YOUNGER BRETHREN*** + + +E-text prepared by Colin Bell, Thomas Strong, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + 1. Obvious misspellings and printing errors have been corrected. + + 2. Archaic word spellings have been retained. + + 3. The list of books by the same author has been moved from the + beginning to the end of the book. + + 4. Footnotes have been placed immediately following the paragraphs + in which they are noted. + + 5. Notation for Footnote 4, which is missing in the original, has + been supplied. + + 6. A word that is missing at the beginning of Footnote 8 has been + supplied as (I). + + 7. Capitalized headings within chapters are running page headers. + + 8. Running page headers which are designated by * reflect subject + matter that occurs within paragraphs in the original and are + broken into paragraphs for the purpose of better readability in + this document. + + 9. Scripture references (e.g., Mal. 2.1; Acts xx. 19; 2 Tim. 1.12; + etc.) which appear as sidenotes in the original are placed within + [ ] and immediately follow the quoted scripture or statement + pertaining to scripture to which they refer. + +10. Redundant book heading and redundant chapter headings have been + omitted. + + + + + +TO MY YOUNGER BRETHREN + +Chapters on Pastoral Life and Work + +by + +THE RIGHT REV. HANDLEY C.G. MOULE, D.D. +Lord Bishop of Durham + +Fourth Edition + + + + + + + +London +Hodder and Stoughton +27, Paternoster Row +1902 + +Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. + + + + + TO + + MY DEAR BROTHER AND VICAR, + + THE REV. JOHN BARTON, M.A., + + INCUMBENT OF TRINITY CHURCH, CAMBRIDGE, + + AND RURAL DEAN, + + AND TO MY DEAR BROTHERS AND FRIENDS, + + THE PRESENT AND PAST STUDENTS + + OF RIDLEY HALL, CAMBRIDGE, + + THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. + + H.C.G.M. + + + "_Give those who teach pure hearts and wise, + Faith, hope, and love, all warm'd by prayer; + Themselves first training for the skies + They best will raise their people there._" + + ARMSTRONG. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The following pages do not appear to need any extended preface; their +topic is set forth in the first lines of the first chapter. With what +success it has been handled is another matter. + +But as a writer reviews his own words, it is inevitable that some sort +of _envoi_ should present itself to his mind. In this case the _envoi_ +seems to me to be the vital necessity of personal holiness in the +Christian Minister, in order to the right working of the Christian +Ministry; a personal holiness which shall be no mere form moulded from +without but a life developed into manifestation and action from within. + +Never did the Church of Christ more need to remember this than at the +present day. The strongest surface currents of the age are against it; +alike that of unregulated, hurrying, indiscriminate enterprize, and that +of an exaggerated ecclesiasticism. In the one case the worker's +communion with God tends to be sacrificed to the work, the fountain +choked for the sake of the stream. In the other case there is a serious +risk that "the Church" may come to be regarded as an almost substitute +for the Lord in matters affecting the life and growth of the Christian +man, and of course of the Christian Minister. Sacred are the claims of +order and cohesion, but more sacred and more vital still is the call to +the individual constituent of the community to come to the living +Personal Christ, "nothing between," and to abide in innermost +intercourse with Him, and to draw every hour by faith on His great +grace. + +If these simple pages may at all, in His most merciful hands, promote +the holy cause of such a hidden life and its fruitful issues, it will +indeed be happiness to the writer. In these days of stifling +materialism in philosophy, and withering naturalism in theology, but in +which also the Holy Spirit, far and wide, is breathing upon us in +special mercy from above, there is no duty more pressing on the +Christian than to seek, in the world of work, after that life which is +"lived in the flesh by faith in the Son of God," and which is manifested +in the strong and patient "meekness of wisdom." + +RIDLEY HALL, CAMBRIDGE, +_April 22nd, 1892_. + + + + + "_Servant of God, be fill'd + With Jesu's love alone; + Upon a sure foundation build, + On Christ the corner-stone; + By faith in Him abide, + Rejoicing with His saints; + To Him with confidence, when tried, + Make known all thy complaints._" + + MORAVIAN HYMN-BOOK. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER I. + + _THE SECRET WALK WITH GOD_ (i.). + PAGE + + Need of watching and prayer over three departments of + a Minister's life--The secret department--Temptations + in it from work--From solitude--Secret Devotion--The + Morning Watch--Physical precautions--Evening + hours--A Minister's prayers must sometimes + forget the Ministry--This will be to the advantage of + the Ministry--"_Tell Him all_" 1 + + + CHAPTER II. + + _THE SECRET WALK WITH GOD_ (ii.). + + Secret intercourse with God the life of a Minister's life--The + Example of Jesus Christ--Testimony of von + Machtholf--Special need of divine communion at + the present day--The cry for effort and enterprize--Secularizing + theories of religion and the + Ministry--A call to young English Clergymen--A + caution from Laodicea--Study of the Holy Scriptures--"The + New Testament about twice a week"--What + says the Ordinal?--M. Henri Lasserre on + Devotional Literature and the Gospels--Study the + Bible unprofessionally--Bridges' quotation from + Witsius--Ridley in the Orchard 21 + + + CHAPTER III. + + _SECRET STUDY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES._ + + A fragmentary chapter--Higher Criticism--A technical and innocent + term--Actual assertions of certain critics--"Do not follow this + Book; follow Christ"--Weigh facts before theories--Testimony of + Nature and History to Scripture--The Duke of Argyll in the + _Nineteenth Century_--Prediction--Problem of the Human Knowledge + of Jesus Christ--Current fulfilments of Prophecy--Methods of Bible + Study--The plough--The spade--Specimen of spade-husbandry, in a + Church Congress Study of the Epistle to the Philippians 45 + + + CHAPTER IV. + + _THE DAILY WALK WITH OTHERS_ (i.). + + Secret Communion with God must _accompany_ everything + else--We are watched--Self-respect--Consistency largely means + Considerateness--"A consistent gentleman"--The Tongue--St + Augustine's couplet for the dinner-table--The Clergy-House, its + opportunities and risks--The duty of Example--Is it remembered as + it used to be?--"For their sakes I sanctify Myself"--"Others" and + their claims on us--Manner--Temper--Simeon's patience--The Secret + of the Presence 79 + + + CHAPTER V. + + _THE DAILY WALK WITH OTHERS_ (ii.). + + "Take heed unto thyself"--Relations with Woman--Christian + chivalry--And Christian caution--Special difficulties--"Know + thyself"--Celibacy--The Clergyman's Wife--The problem of + means--The Clergyman and money--Pecuniary intemperance--Accurate + accounts--Investment circulars--"Lay not up for yourselves" 101 + + + CHAPTER VI. + + _THE DAILY WALK WITH OTHERS_ (iii.). + + Curate and Incumbent--A Chancellor on Curates--The ideal + Incumbent--No Incumbent perfect--And no parish perfectly + content--Loyal watchfulness needed accordingly--The Curate's + Party--"The lost grace, humility"--Subordination--Take sides + against yourself--A letter to _The Record_ on Curates' + grievances. 123 + + + CHAPTER VII. + + _PASTOR IN PARISH_ (i.). + + A boundless subject--Visiting--All-important--Prepare for + the round with prayer--Method--Brevity but not hurry--An + example--Courtesy--It must be impartial--Visitation of the + sick--Its special demands--Punctuality always a duty--Use of + the Bible--The advantage of coming as "the Clergyman"--Mistaken + for the undertaker--Come to the point--Lying in wait for the + occasion--Happy rebukes to timid reticence 147 + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + _PASTOR IN PARISH_ (ii.). + + Teach as you go--Urgent need of teaching--About Christ--And + the Holy Spirit--And Sacraments--Common mistakes about the + teaching of the Church--Sin--Evidences--Recollections of a + visiting round--The retired tradesman--The sceptical + blacksmith--The invalid artizan--The civil-servant--The + consumptive--The dying printer--The cripple--Aged poor + saints--Saddening visits--Humbling memories--A bright + conversion at eighty-two 173 + + + CHAPTER IX. + + _THE CLERGYMAN AND THE PRAYER BOOK._ + + "As bad as inspired"--Imperfections in the Book--Yet it is + priceless--Spirituality of the Prayer Book--What it takes for + granted in the worshipper--A remarkable reason for secession--The + Prayer Book as a weapon--Its Scripturality--Its compilers jealous + for the Word of God--Ministerial use of the Prayer Book--Put + yourself into it--We are not to preach the prayers--Yet we are to + pray them--Reading of the Lessons--Baptism--Marriage--Burial--The + Holy Communion--Reverence--Of what sort--Instruction-addresses + on the Prayer Book--"Less worship" 201 + + + CHAPTER X. + + _PREACHING_ (i.). + + The Pulpit a central point in the Ministry--Mutual influence of + "parish-work" and preaching--"Truth through personality"--Let us + "labour in the Word"--"Litho Sermons"--Addison's village-parson + and his sermons--_Attractive_ preaching--Is a duty--Audibility--Of + the right sort--Good English--Why to be cultivated--Mr Spurgeon's + style--French hearers of an English preacher--Good effects on his + style--"Written or extempore?"--Length--Action 225 + + + CHAPTER XI. + + _PREACHING_ (ii.). + + Further remarks on Attractiveness--And, in passing, on + Ministerial Considerateness--This is to be practised in + preaching--As well as in other functions--Attractiveness to be + guarded by Faithfulness--Requisites to attractiveness--"Preach + the Gospel earnestly, interestingly, fully"--Jesus Christ is + _the Gospel_--Personal conviction the essence of + _Earnestness_--"Matter-of-Fact"--_Interest_ sustained by anecdote + and illustration--But still more by intelligibility and + practicality--Expository sermons--_Fulness_ in the message--Jesus + Christ for us--And in us--The Holy Spirit must work with the Word 249 + + + CHAPTER XII. + + _PREACHING_ (iii.). + + Notes from a Sermon-Lecture--On diction, arrangement, fidelity + to the text, proportion of parts, accuracy--On statements about + revelation, justification, faith, grace--A paper in _The Churchman_ + on Old Sermons--Be a preacher indeed, whatever be the fashion of + the time--The Directory of 1645--Its instructions on "the + Preaching of the Word"--Spiritual Power in Preaching--How sought + and received--Farewell 273 + + _Fordington Pulpit_ 301 + + + + + _"What contradictions meet + In Ministers' employ! + It is a bitter sweet, + A sorrow full of joy; + No other post affords a place + For equal honour or disgrace"_ + + OLNEY HYMNS. + + + "_The Interpreter had Christian into a private Room, and bid + his Man open a Door; the which when he had done, Christian saw + a Picture of a very grave Person hang up against the Wall, and + this was the fashion of it: It had eyes lift up to Heaven, the + best of Books was in its hand, the Law of Truth was written + upon its lips, the World was behind his back; it stood as if it + Pleaded with Men, and a Crown of gold did hang over its head._" + + PILGRIM'S PROGRESS. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +_THE SECRET WALK WITH GOD_ (i.). + + + _Pastor, for the round of toil + See the toiling soul is fed; + Shut the chamber, light the oil, + Break and eat the Spirit's bread; + Life to others would'st thou bring? + Live thyself upon thy King._ + + +Let me explain in this first sentence that when in these pages I address +"my Younger Brethren," I mean brethren in the Christian Ministry in the +Church of England. Let me limit my reference still further, by premising +that very much of what I say will be said as to brethren who have lately +taken holy Orders, and are engaged in the work of assistant Curacies. + +AIM OF THE BOOK. + +Day by day, for many years past, my life has lain among men preparing +themselves for just that work. As a matter of course my thoughts have +run incessantly in that direction. Many a lecture in the library where +we work together, and many a conversation in dining-hall, or by study +fire, or in college garden, or on country road, has given point to those +thoughts and enabled me, I trust, better to understand my younger +Brethren, and with more sympathy to make myself, as an elder brother, +understood by them. What I here seek to do, with the gracious aid of our +blessed Master, is somewhat to extend the range of such talks, and to +ask a friendly hearing from younger Brethren in the holy Ministry with +whom I have never had the opportunity of speaking personally. + +I have not the least intention of writing a treatise on the Christian +Pastorate. To talk to young Christian Ministers about some important +details of pastoral life and work, but above all of life, inward and +outward--this is my simple purpose. + + * * * * * + +THREE LINES OF PRAYER. + +One day in each week, at Ridley Hall, we unite in special prayer, +without liturgical form, for those members of the Hall who have gone out +into actual ministry. As I lead my dear younger Brethren in that +supplication, the heart feels itself full of many, very many, +well-remembered faces, characters, lives. It seems to see those many old +friends scattered abroad in the Lord's work-field; and it sees, of +course, a very large variety among them, in the way of both character +and circumstances. But, with all this consciousness of differences, my +thoughts and my petitions always, by a deep necessity, run for all alike +along three main paths. The first prayer is for the young Clergyman's +inner and secret Life and Walk with God. The second is for his daily and +hourly general Intercourse with Men. The third is for his official +Ministrations of the Word and Ordinances of the Gospel. And in all these +directions, after all, one desire, one prayer, has to be offered, the +prayer that everywhere and always, from the inmost recesses of life to +its largest and most public circumference, the Lord and Master may take, +and keep, full possession of the servant. I pray that in secret +devotion, and in secret habits, Jesus Christ may be intensely present +with the man; and that in common intercourse, in all its parts, He may +be the constant and all-influencing Companion, to stimulate, to control, +to chasten, to gladden, to empower; and that in the preaching of the +Word the servant may really and manifestly speak from, and for, and in, +his Lord; and that in ministration of the sacramental and other +Ordinances he may truly and unmistakably walk before Him in holy +simplicity, holy reverence, and full spiritual reality, "serving the +Lord," and serving the flock, "with all humility of mind." [Acts xx. +19.] + +My present talks on paper will take very much the lines of these +prayers. Secret walk with God, common and general walk with men, special +ministrations--I desire to say a little on each and all of these points, +and more or less in this order, though without attempting too rigid an +arrangement, where one subject must often run over into another. + + * * * * * + +SECRET WALK WITH GOD. + +Let me take up the first great topic of the three for a few preliminary +words in this chapter: THE SECRET WALK WITH GOD of the young Pastor of +Christ's flock. + +HINDRANCES: WORK. + +My brotherly reader will not need any long explanation or careful +apology from me here. He knows as well as I do, on the one hand, that a +close secret walk with God is unspeakably important in pastoral life, +and, on the other hand, that pastoral life, and not least in its early +days, is often allowed to hinder or minimize the real, diligent work +(for it is a work indeed in its way) of that close secret walk. He finds +all too many possible interferences with the inner working on the part +of the outer. Such interferences come from very different quarters. The +new Curacy, the new duties and opportunities, if the man has his heart +in his ministry, will prove intensely interesting, and at first, very +possibly, encouragement and acceptance may predominate over experiences +of difficulty and trial. Services, sermons, visits to homes and to +schools, with all the miscellanies that attend an active and +well-ordered parochial organization--these things are sure to have a +special and exciting interest for most young men who have taken Orders +in earnest. And it will be almost inevitable that the Curate, under even +the most wise, considerate, and unselfish of Incumbents, should find +"work" threatening rapidly to absorb so much, not of time only but +thought and heart, that the temptation is to abridge and relax very +seriously indeed secret devotion, secret study of Scripture, and +generally secret discipline of habits, that all-important thing. + +*HINDRANCES: SOLITUDE. + +Then, on the other hand, there is a risk and trial from a region quite +opposite. The Curate comes to his new work, and takes up his abode in +lodgings--alone. Only a few months ago, perhaps only a few weeks ago, he +was in rooms at College, amidst all the social as well as mental +interests of University life, and (so it is, thank God, for many +University men now) feeling on every side the help of Christian +friendship and fellowship of the warmest and truest sort. And now, +socially and as to fellowship in Christ, he is, to speak comparatively, +alone. I say, _comparatively_. Very likely he has found in his Incumbent +a friend and elder brother, perhaps a friend and loving father, in the +Lord. And most probably he will find among his people, and that very +soon if he is on the watch, friends in Christ, gentle or simple. He may +be associated with a brother Curate or Curates; and if so, the inmost +aim of both or all ought to be, and in most cases will be, not only to +work in the same parish but to work heart to heart as "in Him." +Nevertheless, the Vicar or Rector, though a friend, is a very busy +friend; and so is the brother Curate; and the Christian friend in the +parish is after all only one of the many souls to whom the man has to +minister, and he must not forget those who perhaps need him most just +because they are least congenial to him. + +*ITS DANGERS. + +So the sense of change, of solitude, in such part of his life as is +spent indoors, may be, and, as I know, very often is, real and deep, sad +and sorrowful, and in itself not wholesome, to the young Minister of +Christ. Possibly my reader knows nothing of all this; but I think it +more likely that at least he knows something of it. And it needs his +prompt and watchful dealing if it is not to hurt him greatly. Solitude +will not _by itself_, if I judge rightly, help him to secret intercourse +with God. A feeling of solitude, under most circumstances, much more +tends, by itself, to drive a man unhealthily inward, in unprofitable +questionings and broodings, or in still less happy exercises of thought. +Or it drives him unhealthily outward, quickening the wish for mere +stimulants and excitements of mind and interest. Aye, let me not shrink +from saying it, it sometimes quickens a wish for "stimulants" in the +most literal sense of the word. Exhausting and multifarious parochial +work, and the lonely bachelor quarters at the day's end, have brought to +many a young man sore temptations of that sort, and sometimes they have +won the battle, to the wreck and ruin of the work and of the worker. + +HINDRANCES ARE OCCASIONS. + +Well, all these facts or possibilities are just so many reminders that +the new Curate's life will not, of itself, greatly help him to maintain +and quicken his Secret Walk with God, that vital necessity for his work. +It certainly will _not_ do so directly; it will, directly, be a problem, +not an aid. But on that very account, dear Brother and reader, your new +conditions of life may prove indirectly a most powerful aid, by being a +constant and urgent _occasion_. As you are a Minister of Christ, your +life and work will, in the Lord's sight, be a failure, yes, I repeat it, +a failure, be the outside and the reputation what they may, if you do +not walk with God in secret. But therefore your life and work are a +daily and hourly occasion for the positive resolve, in His Name, that +walk with Him you will. Recognize the risks, right and left, the risks +brought by pastoral activities and interests, and those brought by +pastoral loneliness and uncheerfulness. Remember the vital necessity +amidst those risks. And then you will the more deliberately purpose and +plan how to guard your secret devotions, and how to order your secret +hours even when devotion is not your direct duty, so that your Lord +shall be indeed there, at the centre, "a living, bright Reality" to you. + +SECRET DEVOTION. + +Let me plunge into the midst at once, with a few simple suggestions on +SECRET DEVOTION. + +LET IT BE DELIBERATE. + +I ask my younger Brother, then, to keep sacred, with all his heart and +will, an unhurried time alone with the Lord, night and morning at the +least. I do not intrusively prescribe a length of time. But I do most +earnestly say that the time, shorter or longer, must be _deliberately +spent_; and even ten minutes can be spent deliberately, while +mismanagement may give a feeling of haste to a much longer season. Do +not, I beseech you, minimize the minutes; seek for such a fulness of +"the Spirit of grace and of supplications," [Zech. xii. 10.] as shall +draw you quite the other way. But if the time, any given night or +morning, _must_ be short, let it nevertheless be a time of quiet, +reverent, collected worship and confession and petition. One thing +assuredly you can do: you can, if you will, secure a real "Morning +Watch" before your day's work begins. I do not say it is easy. Young men +very commonly sleep sounder and longer than we seniors do; they are not +always easy to rouse in a moment. But they can direct some of their +energy to contrive against themselves, or rather _for_ themselves, how +to secure a regular early rising to meet their Lord. Most ingenious, not +to say amusing, are some of the devices which friends of mine have +confided to me; schemes and stratagems to get themselves well awake in +good time. But after all, in most lodging-houses surely it must be +possible to be called early, and to instruct the caller to show no mercy +at the chamber door. Anyhow, I do say that the fresh first interview +with the all-blessed Master must at all costs be secured. Do not be +beguiled into thinking it can be arranged by a half-slumbering prayer in +bed. Rise up--if but in loving deference to Him. Appear in the presence +chamber as the servant should who is now ready for the day's bondservice +in all things but in this, that he has yet to take the day's oath of +obedience, and to ask the day's "grace sufficient," and to read the +day's promises and commands, at the Master's holy feet. + +A PRACTICAL SUGGESTION. + +I do not recommend an unpractical physical mortification as the rule for +such early hours with God. Fully believing that there is a place for +definite "abstinence" in the Christian (and certainly in the +ministerial) life, I do not think that that place is, as a rule, the +early morning hour. Very many men only procure a bad headache for the +day by beginning any sort of earnest mental effort without food. Such +men should take care accordingly to eat a _chotee hazaree_ (as old +Indians say), "a little breakfast," however little, before they pray and +read. There are appliances, simple and inexpensive, by which the man in +lodgings can, without giving any one trouble, provide himself with his +cup of cocoa or coffee as soon as he is up; and he will be wise to do +something of this sort, if he is a man whose work by day is heavy for +both body and spirit, and who is thus specially apt to find the truth of +what doctors tell us, that "sleep is, in itself, an exhausting process." + +But at any cost, my dear friend and Brother in the Ministry, we must +have our Morning Watch with God, in prayer and in His Word, before all +the day's action. Not even the earliest possible Church service can +rightly take the place of that. + +GOOD HOURS AT NIGHT. + +It is obvious to add that punctuality and early hours in the morning +will bring into your life another rule; that of punctuality and +reasonably good hours at night. No temptation is greater, sometimes, for +the man alone than to ignore or break such a rule. And no doubt the +exigencies of pastoral life, sometimes, but surely not often, make it +hard to keep it. But it is extremely important, for the man who would +walk closely and humbly with his God, to end the day deliberately at His +feet. And here accordingly is another occasion for watchfulness, and for +method, and for will. Do not _drift into the night_. Have a settled hour +when, as a habit, you lay interests and intercourse of other sorts +down, and turn unhurried to the holy interview, spreading open your +Bible by the lamp, the Bible marked and scored with signs of past +research, and then kneeling, or standing, or _pacing_, for your +prayer--your prayer which is to be the very simplest (while most +reverent) speech with the Lord. + +PRAY AS A PRIVATE CHRISTIAN. + +In such acts of worship, morning and night, thought for others, for dear +ones, for parishioners, for colleagues, will have its full place of +course. Let it be so, with an ever-growing sense of the preciousness of +the work of intercession. But I do meanwhile say to my Brother in +Christ, take care that no pre-occupation with things pastoral allows you +to forget the supreme need of drawing out of Christ's fulness, and out +of the treasures of His Word, for _your own_ soul and life, as if that +were the one and solitary soul and life in existence. We Clergy are in +danger of becoming too official, too clerical, even in our prayers. We +_are_ the Lord's Ministers; we have a cure and charge of souls as the +unordained Christian has not; and let us daily remember it, humbly and +reverently. But also we are, all the while, sheep of the flock, +absolutely dependent on the Shepherd, men who for their own souls' +acceptance, and holiness, and heaven, must for themselves "live at the +Fountain." We have to serve others, and "lay ourselves out" for them, +daily and hourly. But on that very account, that "our selves" may be, if +I may say so, worth the laying out, we must see that "our selves" are, +in their own innermost life and experience, filled with the Spirit of +God, filled with the presence of an indwelling Lord Jesus Christ by the +Spirit. And so we must worship Him, and draw on Him, and abide in Him, +and acquaint ourselves with Him, just as if there were no flock at all, +that we may the better be of use to the flock. + +LIVE BEHIND YOUR MINISTRY. + +I am sure that this is an important point for the thought and practice +of the young Clergyman. While never really forgetting his ordained +character, let him, for the very purposes of his ordained work, +continually "live behind" not only the work but the character; living in +the presence, in the love, in the life, of his Lord and Head, simply in +the character of the redeemed sinner, the personal believer, the glad +younger Brother of the glorious Firstborn, the living Christian with the +living Christ; "knowing whom he has believed," [2 Tim. i. 12.] and +walking by faith in Him. + +FOR THE MINISTRY'S SAKE. + +Do you so live, by His grace and mercy? Is the sitting-room and the +bedroom of your curacy-lodging the place where you habitually hold +intercourse in this holy simplicity with Him who has loved you and given +Himself for you? Then I venture to say that all the more for this, by +that same grace and mercy, you shall be enabled to "lay yourself out" +for others, in your pastoral charge. You shall understand other men +better, by thus securing for your own soul a deeper understanding of the +Lord Jesus and a fuller sympathy (if the word is reverent) with Him. I +hardly care to analyze how, but somehow, you shall more readily and +closely "get at" men through this direct, simple, unofficial, unclerical +drawing very near indeed to God in Christ. The more you know Him thus at +_first-hand_ the more shall you understand alike the needs of the human +heart (of which all individual hearts are but various instances), and +the supplies that are laid up for all its needs in Him. And so you +shall go out among your people armed, equipped, with a truly +heaven-given sympathy and tact. True personal intercourse with the Lord, +the very closest and deepest, is the very thing to open the whole man +out for others, and to teach him how, with a loving intuition, to look +into them and "upon their things." [Phil. ii. 4.] + +A HYMN. + +In the next Chapter I shall speak a little more about the young +Clergyman's secret devotion, and secret study of the heavenly Word. But +enough for the present. And let me close with the quotation of a +hymn,[1] a new friend of mine, but already a very dear one, and +thankfully added to the treasures of memory. It puts in the simplest +form possible, while in a form most beautiful, the vital truth that +"intercourse with God is the power for holy service." Happy the young +Clergyman whose secret daily life, from its beginning in the "Morning +Watch," on through the intercourse and energies of the day, up to the +evening hour of weariness and repose, is a translation into experience +of that blessed hymn. + +[1] By G.M. TAYLOR: _Hymns of Consecration and Faith_ (Second Edition), +No. 349. + + +"TELL HIM ALL." + + "When thou wakest in the morning, + Ere thou tread the untried way + Of the lot that lies before thee + Through the coming busy day; + Whether sunbeams promise brightness, + Whether dim forebodings fall, + Be thy dawning glad or gloomy, + Go to Jesus--tell Him all! + + "In the calm of sweet communion + Let thy daily work be done; + In the peace of soul out-pouring + Care be banish'd, patience won + And if earth with its enchantments + Seek thy spirit to enthral, + Ere thou listen, ere thou answer-- + Turn to Jesus--tell Him all! + + "Then, as hour by hour glides by thee, + Thou wilt blessed guidance know; + Thine own burthens being lighten'd, + Thou canst bear another's woe; + Thou canst help the weak ones onward; + Thou canst raise up those that fall; + But, remember, while thou servest, + Still tell Jesus--tell Him all! + + "And if weariness creep o'er thee + As the day wears to its close, + Or if sudden fierce temptation + Bring thee face to face with foes-- + In thy weakness, in thy peril, + Raise to heaven a truthful call; + STRENGTH AND CALM FOR EVERY CRISIS + COME--IN TELLING JESUS ALL." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +_THE SECRET WALK WITH GOD_ (ii). + + + _He that would to others give + Let him take from Jesus still; + They who deepest in Him live + Flow furthest at His will._ + + +I resume the rich subject of Secret Devotion, Secret Communion with God. +Not that I wish to enter in detail on either the theory or the practice +of prayer in secret; as I have attempted to do already in a little book +which I may venture here to mention, _Secret Prayer_. My aim at present, +as I talk to my younger Brethren in the Ministry, is far rather to lay +all possible stress on the vital importance of the habit, however it may +prove best in individual experience to order it in practice. "As a man +thinketh in his heart, so is he" [Prov. xxiii. 7.]; and as a life +worketh in its heart, so is it. And the heart of a Christian Minister's +life is the man's Secret Communion with God. + +Let us Clergymen take as one of our mottoes that deeply suggestive word +of the Lord by Malachi, where the ideal Levi is depicted: "_He walked +with Me_ in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity." +[Mal. ii. 6.] + +THE LORD'S EXAMPLE. + +Remember with what a heavenly brightness that principle was glorified in +the recorded life on earth of "the great Shepherd of the sheep," [SN: +Heb. xiii. 20.] who in this also "left us an example, that we should +follow His steps." [1 Pet. ii. 22.] Never did man walk more genuinely +with men than the Son of Man, whether it was among the needy and wistful +crowds in streets or on hill-sides, or at the dinner-table of the +Pharisee, or in the homes of Nazareth, Cana, and Bethany. No Christian +was ever so "practical" as Jesus Christ. No disciple ever so directly +and sympathetically "served his own generation by the will of God" [Acts +xiii. 36.] as did the blessed Master. But all the while "His soul dwelt +apart" in the Father's presence, and there continually rested and was +refreshed, [John iv. 32, 34.] and there found the "meat" in the strength +of which He travelled that great pilgrimage by way of the Cross to the +Throne. Jesus Christ, our Exemplar as well as our Life, did indeed live +behind His work, behind His ministry, behind His ministerial character, +in the region of a Filial Communion in which His Father was His all in +all for peace and joy, His law of action and His eternal secret of life. +And observe, this habitual communion in the midst of active service did +not at all supersede in His blessed experience the stated and definite +work of worship and petition before and after the busy hours of service. +"He was alone, praying" [John vi. 57.]; "He continued all night in +prayer to God"; and at last, "He was withdrawn from them about a stone's +cast, and kneeled down and prayed." [Luke ix. 18; vi. 12; xxii. 41.] + +All this is not only matter for wondering notice, as we read our New +Testament. It is example, it is model. The Head is thus showing His +members the way, the only way, to maintain a life among men and for men +which shall be full of good for them, because itself ever filled with +the life and presence of God. + +TESTIMONY OF LUCIUS VON MACHTHOLF. + +From a leaflet which came long ago into my hands, I quote the experience +of a German Christian, eminently successful in spiritual work; a +passage which will illustrate and bring home my appeal in this whole +matter:-- + +"When Lucius von Machtholf was asked how he carried on religious +intercourse with individuals, he wrote:--'I know no other tactics than +_first of all to be heartily satisfied with my God_, even if He should +favour me with no sensible visible blessing in my vocation. Also to +remember that preaching and conversation are not so much _my_ work as +the outcome of the love and joy of the Holy Ghost in my heart, and, +afterwards, on my lips. Further, that I must never depend upon any +previous fervour or prayers of mine, but upon God's mercy and Christ's +dearly-purchased rights and holy intercession; and cherishing a burning +love to Christ and to souls, I must constantly seek for wisdom and +gentleness.... Finally, I would guard myself from imagining that I know +beforehand what I should say, but go to Christ for every good word I +have to speak, even to a child, and submit myself to the Holy Spirit, as +the Searcher of hearts, who, knowing the individuals I have to do with, +will guide and teach me when, where, and how to speak. + +"'Be always following, never going before. It were better to be sick in +a tent under a burning sun, and Jesus sitting at the tent door, than to +be enchanting a thousand listeners where Jesus was not. Be as a +day-labourer only in God's harvest-field, ready to be first among the +reapers in the tall corn, or just to sit and sharpen another's sickle. +Have an eye to God's honour, and have no honour of your own to have an +eye to. Lay it in the dust and leave it there. Never let your inner life +get low in your search for the lives of others.'" + +I dare to say that this quotation contains no mere "counsels of +perfection," but principles which are indispensable for the Minister of +Jesus Christ who would be not only reputable, popular, and in the +superficial sense of the word successful, but--what his dear Master +would have him be for His work. And the blessed spirit it suggests and +exemplifies is a thing which cometh not in "but by prayer" and by at +least such fasting as takes the shape of a most watchful secret +self-discipline. When von Machtholf speaks of "never depending on +previous prayers" it is obvious what he means; not that prayer should +not precede work, but that nothing should satisfy the worker short of a +living and present trust in a living and present Lord. But that trust is +the very thing which is developed, and prepared, and matured, in the +life of genuine secret intercourse, in which the Lord is dealt with as +man dealeth with his friend, and gazed upon and (I may reverently say) +studied in His revealed Character, till the disciple does indeed "know +_whom_ he has believed," "who He is that he should believe on Him." "My +soul shall be satisfied ... when I remember Thee, when I meditate on +Thee, in the night watches," [2 Tim. i. 12; John ix. 36; Ps. lxiii. 5, +6.] aye, and in the Morning Watch also. + +URGENT PRESENT NEED TO MAINTAIN SECRET DEVOTION. + +I know not how to get away from this subject; not only because of its +intense connexion with the most blissful experiences of the believing +soul, but because of its unspeakably important bearing on the work of +the Ministry, the Ministry of our own time and of my reader's own +generation. Never was there a period when the cry for enterprize and +practical energy was louder; and God knows there is occasion enough for +the cry, and for the answering resolve. But never was there a time when +the need was greater to distinguish true from false secrets of energy, +and to be content with nothing short of the deepest and most divine as +our ultimate secret. Do you not well know what I mean? Is there not far +and wide in the "Christian world"--I do not speak now of the exterior +regions of avowed scepticism or indifference--a tendency to merge the +whole idea of religion in that of philanthropic benevolence, and thereby +to draw inevitably the idea of philanthropy downward in the end into its +least noble manifestations? Is it not a fashionable thing to regard the +Christian Ministry, for example, as a useful and ready mechanism with +which to work out the social and sanitary amelioration of the lives of +the multitude, and so to take him to be the best qualified Clergyman who +is, perhaps, the most "muscular" of Christians, or the cleverest at the +invention or superintendence of recreations on a large scale, or the +quickest student and exponent of the principles or theories of political +economy, or possibly of socialistic enterprize? But all this may leave +entirely out the very life-blood of what the New Testament means by the +Gospel of the grace of God; and in many, many cases it does entirely +leave it out. + +*"NATURALISM" IN CHRISTIAN WORK. + +A conception of "Church work" is widely entertained, and thought to be +adequate, out of which is practically dropped all the mystery, and all +the mercy; above all, the work and message of the atoning Cross and the +dying Lamb; and the need of the sovereign grace of the Holy Ghost to +begin and carry out the Regeneration of the soul; and the depth of our +Fall; and the offered greatness and splendour of our New Creation; and +"that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of the great God and our +Saviour Jesus Christ." [Tit. ii. 13.] It is just one wave of the great +anti-supernatural tide of our time. Christian work is viewed as much as +possible as man's work for man in this present world, under the example, +doubtless, of the beneficent life of our Lord, but not under the shadow +of Calvary, nor in the light of Pentecost, nor in the definite prospect +of an immortality of holy glory. + +HOW TO COUNTERACT IT. + +To counteract this tendency, and to do so _in the right way_, is one of +the very noblest tasks set before the younger Clergy of the English +Church in our time. It is for them, under God, in a pre-eminent degree, +to find out the secret, and then to live it out, how to be at once the +perfectly genuine _man_, devoted to the service of men, carrying what he +is and what he believes into the actual surroundings of modern life, not +allowing illusions and poetic day-dreams to come between him and facts; +and also the convinced, unwavering, spiritual _Christian_, conversant +with his own soul, and with his living Lord and Saviour, and with that +sacred, unalterable written Word which that Saviour put into His +people's hands, never to be taken out of them. Nothing is more wanted at +present in the sphere of "Church life and work," unless I am greatly +mistaken, than a generation of young Clergymen (soon to be seniors) who +shall conspicuously combine the best forms of practicality with an +unmistakable chastened personal spirituality which is seen to be "the +pulse of" their busy "machine." And if the spirituality is to be indeed +genuine (away with it if it is anything but genuine to the centre), if +it is to be quite different on the one hand from a thing of artificial +phrases, and on the other from merely formulated and regulated +devoutness, I am deeply sure that its only secret and preservative is a +fully-maintained secret walk with God. + +"GOD, I THANK THEE." + +"I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." [SN: +Rev. iii. 17.] Such was the thought and word of the Laodicean long ago. +Is it not in effect the thought, if not the word, of not a few hard +workers and energetic enterprizers now? "What do I want with the dialect +of 'Christian experience'? What have I, with all these irons in the +fire, and a strong hammer and a strong hand with which to strike them, +what have I to do with 'old-world faiths' about sin and salvation, about +grace and conversion, about pardon and justification? What have I so +pressingly to do with much prayer, save in the form of much work? God, I +thank Thee that I am a worker; let it be for others to dive into +spiritual secrets, if it is good for them to do so." + +"THOU KNOWEST NOT." + +I would not overdraw the picture. And the words I have put into a +possible mouth are words which, if I heard, I hope I should hear with +every wish to judge them fairly and to see where any truth lay in them. +But none the less I am sure that those words not unjustly represent a +type of thought widely prevalent among even ministerial workers, and +that it is a type of thought pregnant with disaster for Christian work. +"Thou knowest not that thou art poor"; "I counsel thee, to buy of Me"; +"I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear My voice and open the +door I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with Me." [Rev. iii. +17, 18, 20.] So said Jesus Christ to the Laodicean. And though it may +seem paradoxical to compare a man involved in the rush of modern "Church +work" with the Laodicean, the comparison may not be always far astray, +nor the words of the Lord in Rev. iii. 18 out of place accordingly. To +be "neither cold nor hot" towards _Him_ is all too possible for us, +alas, even when "the irons in the fire" are most numerous, and even when +they are being most briskly hammered. + +TO KNOW CHRIST IS INDISPENSABLE. + +So let us listen, making a pause to do so. Perhaps just now the knock +may be audible, and certain articulate sounds may come from outside, +saying that a PERSON waits for readmission to HIS place in our busy, +multifarious life, and that HE can be content with nothing short of +heart-intimacy with us, and that we, if we would not forsake our own +mercy, must be content with nothing short of heart-intimacy with HIM. + +"I counsel thee to _buy_ of Me." Let us do it; let us pay over, at His +feet, our poor fancied wealth of self's energies and undertakings (as +regards our own good opinion of them), receiving from Him the heavenly +"gold" of His own glorious grace and peace, and the "white robe" of a +living and loving conformity to His likeness, and the "eye-salve" of His +illumination, in which we see things as He sees them. It is better, as +von Machtholf says it is, to have Him within the heart's chamber, at +once as Guest and as Host, in that blessed inter-communion, than to be +apparently the most successful of organizers or of toilers, strong in +ourselves, but without the secret of the Presence of the Lord. + +It is scarcely needful, I trust, to explain what I do _not_ mean. My +very last intention is to speak slightingly of devoted work and +self-sacrificing endeavours, whether or no they take the line which most +approves itself to me. A _faineant_ in the English Ministry to-day is +something worse than even a cumberer of the ground; he is, I dare to +say, like a upas upon it, blighting where he throws his shadow, so +conspicuous and so deadly must be the example of such a life in the +Minister of such a Gospel. But what I mean, again and again, is this, +that the days demand, along with a thoroughgoing while prudent +practicality, more and more also of a profound reality of spiritual +knowledge of the Lord in those who labour in His Name. With the growing +stress of our time we _must_ have not less but more of this, in those +who are called to meet that stress. This is vital, if we would not be +stifled and succumb as Christians altogether. + +So this is my plea, dear Brother in the Ministry, now making your first +essays in some great city parish, or wherever it may be: cultivate, as +for your life, secret intercourse with God. + +BIBLE STUDY. + +And with this view, I now say specially, cultivate such intercourse +_laying His holy Word open before you_. I spoke in the previous Chapter +of the Bible spread open by the evening lamp, the Bible marked with +signs of diligent search. With all my heart I mean to press that +thought. It will be best to reserve for another Chapter certain +suggestions on methods of Bible study. But I may, and I will at once, +offer a few words on the subject in general. It is a subject which lies +near my heart, and of the urgent importance of which I am very sure. + +THE ORDINATION CHARGE. + +Above all then I would entreat you to be a Bible student _at whatever +cost of other religious reading_. It is a very common thing to +substitute, practically, for the Bible a little library of _livres de +piete_, as the French would call them, small "good books." Not very long +ago, in the course of an ordination examination, I came across an +instructive instance. In answer to a question in a "Pastoral Paper" for +candidates for Priest's Orders, a thoughtful young Clergyman stated +incidentally that he used every day with great profit certain devotional +books, and that about twice a week he took for definite meditation and +prayer a passage from the Gospels. It struck me that here was a strange +and sad inversion of the right order of proportion; devotional books +daily, and the New Testament (in any sense of earnest meditative study) +about twice a week! Very different, I thought, is the view and teaching +of the Church of England in this matter of the spiritual reading of her +Ministers. What does the Church say, through the Bishop, when the Deacon +is ordained Presbyter? "Seeing that you cannot by any other means +compass the doing of so weighty a work, pertaining to the salvation of +man, but with doctrine and exhortation taken out of the Holy Scriptures, +and with a life agreeable to the same; consider how studious ye ought to +be in reading and learning the Scriptures.... We have good hope that you +will continually pray to God the Father, by the mediation of our only +Saviour Jesus Christ, for the heavenly assistance of the Holy Ghost; +that, by daily reading and weighing of the Scriptures, ye may wax riper +and stronger in your Ministry." + +And I need not go about to prove that the Church does not mean such +daily "reading and weighing" to wait till the young man is actually +ordained Priest. We should scarcely have had the First Homily of the +First Book written, if such had been her mind. Have you ever read over +that "Voice of the Church"? + +M. HENRI LASSERRE ON DEVOTIONAL READING. + +A remarkable confirmation of my present contention comes to us from an +unexpected quarter. I refer to the Preface prefixed by that ardent Roman +Catholic, M. Henri Lasserre, to his remarkable French translation of the +Four Gospels, the book which, December 4, 1886, received the cordial +benediction of Leo XIII., but within a twelvemonth, such is "the power +behind the Pope," was placed on the _Index Expurgatorius_. Probably such +passages as the following had much to do with this strange and sudden +self-reversal of the judgment of the Vatican. + +"A timid school," after the crisis of the Reformation, which finds, of +course, little favour with M. Lasserre, and on which, very unjustly, he +lays much of the blame of the practical prohibition of the Bible within +"the Catholic Church," "a timid school tended thenceforth to strike from +the hands of believers the divine Book which makes the foundation of +our faith, and laboured to substitute for it by degrees a pious +literature, intended to furnish hearts and minds with a nourishment +suited to their weakness, a diet without danger. Some of these books, we +own without hesitation, are excellent in themselves, and have +contributed to the sanctification of many souls. However, this is the +exception. In the majority of these works, where, alas, the sugar of +devotion takes the place of the salt of wisdom, the eternal truths and +the genuine teachings of the Gospel were soon diluted, and, as it were, +lost in strange waters.... One and all, the better specimens and the +deplorable (_les lamentables_) alike, they are another thing altogether, +yes, absolutely another thing, than the Gospel, whose apostolic mission +they have noiselessly usurped by an invasion insensible, I had almost +called it clandestine.... The general ignorance of the Gospels has been +the one cause in France, these twenty years, of the success of the +scandalous romance which appeared under the title of _La Vie de Jesus_. +Among a people moderately familiar with the narratives of St Matthew, +St Mark, St Luke, and St John ... there would have been no need to +refute it. Every one would have seen, without assistance, its flagrant +falsifications, its gross sophisms, its absolute emptiness. This +deep-seated and complex evil, this enervation of the Christian spirit, +this _anaemia_ (_cette anemie_) of so many among us, are an object of +sorrowful anxiety (_preoccupation_) for the Catholic thinker" (pp. x, +xxv). + +CURRENT NEGLECT OF SCRIPTURE. + +For the Protestant thinker too, within a Church which has now for +centuries, in every possible official way, pressed home the reading of +the Bible upon her every member, and of course upon her every Minister, +there is material for similar anxieties, _mutatis mutandis_. Bible +study, such as our Lord and the Apostles enjoined and encouraged, is not +on the increase amongst us, to say the least of it; certainly the +ignorance of the blessed Book even among candidates for holy Orders is +sometimes, is not seldom, very great indeed. Nay more, there is +sometimes, however rarely as yet, an ominous disposition even in +clerical circles to shelve the Bible. Quite lately I heard, on excellent +authority, that a certain large Clerical Society, revising its rules, +deliberately decided that the meetings shall _not_ in future be begun +with the reading of Scripture. My friend and Brother, do not swim even +on the edges of such a current. Swim with all your might, in your +Master's might, against it. + +READ IT FOR YOUR OWN NEEDS. + +Then lastly I put in my plea, as I sought to do when we were considering +the matter of secret prayer, for such a secret study of the Word of God +as shall be _unprofessional, unclerical, and simply Christian_. Resolve +to "read, mark, and inwardly digest" so that not now the flock but the +shepherd, that is to say you, "may embrace and ever hold fast the +blessed hope of everlasting life." It will be all the better for the +flock. Forget sometimes, in the name of Jesus Christ, the pulpit, the +mission-room, the Bible-class; open the Bible as simply as if you were +on Crusoe's island, and were destined to live and die there, alone with +God. You will be all the fresher, all the more sympathetic and to the +point, when you do come to speak to the listening people about the Book. +The discoveries which we make in it for our own souls are just the +things which we cannot help reporting so as to interest and attract our +brethren; as least, that is the sure tendency of things. + +BRIDGES AND WITSIUS ON BIBLE STUDY. + +Let me write out a slightly abbreviated extract from a golden book, +unhappily no longer in print, _The Christian Ministry_, by that diligent +student, loving and laborious Pastor, and heavenly-minded man, the +remembrance of whom shines on me like a ray reflected from the Chief +Shepherd's face, the late Rev. Charles Bridges.[2] + +[2] He died at Hinton Martell, in Dorset, 1869. + +"The maxim, _Bonus textuarius est bonus theologus_, marks a grand +ministerial qualification--'mighty in the Scriptures.' The importance of +this is beautifully expressed by Witsius: 'Let the theologian ascend +from the lower school of natural study to the higher department of +Scripture, and sitting at the feet of God as his teacher, learn from His +mouth the hidden mysteries of salvation, _which eye hath not seen nor +ear heard, which none of the princes of this world knew_; which the most +accurate reason cannot search out; which the heavenly chorus of angels, +though always beholding the face of God, _desire to look into_. In the +hidden book of Scripture, and nowhere else, are opened the secrets of +the most sacred wisdom. Let the theologian delight in these sacred +Oracles; let him exercise himself in them day and night; let him +meditate in them; let him live in them; let him draw all his wisdom from +them; let him compare all his thoughts with them; let him embrace +nothing in religion which he does not find there. The attentive study of +the Scriptures has a sort of constraining power. It fills the mind with +the most splendid form of heavenly truth. It soothes the mind with an +inexpressible sweetness; it satisfies the sacred hunger and thirst for +knowledge; ... it imprints its own testimony so firmly on the mind, that +the believing soul rests on it with the same security as if it had been +carried up into the third heaven and heard it from God's own mouth; it +touches all the affections, and breathes the sweetest fragrance of +holiness upon the pious reader, even though he may not perhaps +comprehend the full extent of his reading.... We ought to draw our views +of divine truths immediately from the Scriptures themselves, and to +make no other use of human writings than as indices marking those chief +points of theology from which we may be instructed in the mind of the +Lord'" (pp. 79, 80, ed. 1830). + + * * * * * + +RIDLEY IN THE ORCHARD. + +"In thy Orchard, Pembroke Hall," wrote Nicholas Ridley within a few days +of his fiery martyrdom, "(the wals, buts, and trees, if they could +speake, would beare me witnes), I learned without booke almost all +Paules epistles, yea, and I weene all the Canonicall epistles, save only +the Apocalyps. Of which study, although in time a great part did depart +from me, yet the sweete smell thereof I trust I shall cary with me into +heaven; for the profite thereof I thinke I have felt in all my lyfe tyme +ever after." + +And so shall it be with us also, if we go and do likewise in our "lyfe +tyme," our period, not at present of martyrdom but, God knoweth it, of +need. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +_SECRET STUDY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES._ + + + _Like those Emmaus travellers we go + Forth from the city-gate of things below; + Christ at our side, His Scripture for our light, + Here burning hearts and there the beatific sight._ + + +Already I have broken ground to some extent in the all-important subject +of private Bible Study. Let me now put before my reader and Brother a +few more detailed remarks and suggestions on that subject. Such is the +holy Book, and such is the variety of possible modes of study, that all +I can dream of doing is to touch some parts and sides of the matter +which present themselves with special impressiveness to my own mind, or +which experience of the needs of friends has suggested to me somewhat +particularly. + +HIGHER CRITICISM. + +To discuss the sacred problems of Scripture Inspiration is not my +purpose here. Elsewhere[3] I have attempted to deal with some of them. +All I would do here is, in view of what is truly a "present necessity," +to ask my Brethren, very deliberately, not to be in haste to take up +with the last and boldest word of what is called the Higher Criticism (I +speak particularly now of its application to the Old Testament), as if +its "advances" were always towards light and fact. I have no complaint +against the term Higher Criticism, which has a recognized place in +literary technical language, denoting that familiar and lawful process, +the study of books not for their grammar and style only, but in order to +infer from their whole phenomena what their age is, and their structure, +and their character. The Higher Criticism is a term pointing not to +methods and results transcending ordinary intelligence, but to a study +which aims "higher" than grammatical and textual questions considered as +final. And thus of course the most earnest defender of the supernatural +character of the Scriptures may be, and very often is, as diligent a +"higher critic" as the extremest anti-supernaturalist. + +[3] _Veni Creator_, ch. iii + +A PLEA FOR CAUTION. + +It is not its definition in the abstract but its actual work and spirit, +as seen in many leading instances, which constrain me to enter an +earnest protest against a too easy confidence in this criticism of, +particularly, the Old Testament Scriptures. It is "a thing to give us +pause" when we are asked to accept it as proved, or at least as +extremely probable, that righteous Abel is a myth; that there was +little, if any, monotheism before Abraham; no theophany at Sinai; no +Wilderness-Tabernacle; no record of the conquest of Canaan written till +long generations after the event; not much written record at all till +Samuel; few, if any, Psalms before the age of the Captivity, if not +before the age of the Maccabees; certainly two if not more Isaiahs, and +probably hardly one Daniel; at least, that the book bearing his name +dates from the second century before Christ, and is in fact a +Palestinian story-book which has not, perhaps, even a nucleus of history +within it. It ought to make us stop and think when we are told that +Isaiah did not predict coming events; indeed (for the drift of this +teaching goes very strongly in that direction), that predictive prophecy +is hardly to be recognized anywhere; that it is better out of our +thoughts; that it is but "soothsaying" after all, and that the true work +of the prophet was not to fore-tell but to "_forth_-tell," to proclaim +present and eternal principles, which again were not revealed to him +from above but arrived at by intuitions and meditations within his own +consciousness. It is a grave thing to be asked to believe, as many would +have us do, that such was the lack of feeling for veracity in ancient +Judah that Hilkiah, Jeremiah, and Huldah could arrange for the +"discovery" of a fabricated Deuteronomy, and then (_see the narrative_ +in the Second Book of Kings) [xxii. 8-20.] get the prophetess to follow +up the fabrication with awful denunciations--all fulfilled--in the name +of THE LORD Himself. Such theories we are asked to hold in face of our +Master Christ's deliberate, persistent, manifold testimony to the +supernatural character and _authority_ of the Old Testament; to the +solidity of its records of fact, to the reality of its predictive +element--on which He stayed His sacred soul in Gethsemane, and on the +Cross itself. It is no longer a question of details, an inquiry whether +the numerals are invariably authentic and accurate; whether the minute +particulars of a king's death as told in Chronicles tally with the +account in Kings. It is a question whether the Old Testament at large is +not a singularly and flagrantly untrustworthy record. It is a question +whether its literature as a whole is not to be explained, practically, +by "natural causes"; including a causation by deliberate, elaborate, and +interested untruth. + +A GRAVE ALTERNATIVE. + +Is it too much to say that the alternative has come to be this: Was our +Lord Himself right or very gravely wrong about the nature of Scripture? +Did the Spirit of Pentecost guide the Apostles into all truth, or leave +them under a vast illusion in this central matter of their witness? "Do +not follow this Book, young men; follow Christ": so said a speaker of +high Christian reputation, holding up a Bible, before a great gathering +in America, not long ago. But what does this mean? Christ carries the +Book in His hand; if you follow Him you must follow it. If you decline +to follow the Book, your following Him is a following--so far as at +present you agree with Him, and not further. + +WITNESSES FOR SCRIPTURE. + +Meantime, what are some facts of the case, facts not nearly so well +remembered now as they should be? One comprehensive fact is that the +testimony of nature and of history goes, as a whole, to affirm the +veracity of the Scripture records, and to do so more and more pointedly +as research advances. In a remarkable recent essay by the Duke of Argyll +(_Nineteenth Century_, January, 1891), the growing accumulation of +geological evidence for a Great Flood, affecting at least the northern +hemisphere, and falling within the human period, is forcibly set out by +a master hand. In the same paper is indicated the fast-gathering +evidence, now digging up month by month from the soil of Palestine, to +the accuracy of the picture of Canaan drawn in the Pentateuch and +Joshua. The Ordnance Survey of Sinai has amply shown that the geology of +the peninsula confirms down to minute details the record in Exodus.[4] +And now the Oxford Arabic Professor is making it, at the least, +extremely likely that the Hebrew written two centuries before Christ was +more modern by many generations than that presented by the Book of +Daniel.[5] + +[4] See Sir J. DAWSON: _Modern Science in Bible Lands_, "The Topography +of the Exodus." + +[5] _See_ MARGOLIOUTH: _The Place of Ecclesiasticus in Semitic +Literature_. + +I am only indicating and suggesting. Remembering the curiously similar +history of New Testament criticism during the recent past, some of its +stages running out their course within my own memory, I cannot but +think, looking from the merely literary view-point, that the days are +not far off when the now powerful theories of revolutionary criticism +will seem improbable. And so I ask my younger Brethren at least _to +pause_ before going with the strong, deep stream. + +THE DUKE OF ARGYLL QUOTED. + +Let me quote a few sentences from the Duke of Argyll's paper:-- + +THE WORK OF THE SPADE. + +"The assumption ... that precision in research is undermining the credit +of the Hebrew Scriptures, is a presumption almost comically at variance +with fact. There is, in particular, one 'weapon of precision' which has +of late been working wonders in precisely the opposite direction. That +weapon is the spade. And what has it been unearthing? Everywhere over +that narrow strip of our planet on which its human interests have been +most impressive and profound--everywhere from Tyre and Sidon, from +Carmel and Lebanon, on the west, to Babylon and Nineveh and the boundary +mountains of Assyria on the east--the spade has been disentombing +continuous and triumphant proof of the genuine antiquity and historical +character of the Jewish books.... Only the other day Mr Flinders Petrie +has told us how the spade has uncovered those impregnable walls of the +Amorite cities which were reported to invading Israel by the spies of +Moses.... + +"I may be permitted to express a very strong opinion that in recent +years Christian writers have been far too shy and timid in defending one +of the oldest and strongest outworks of Christian theology. I mean the +element of true prediction in Hebrew prophecy. It may be true that in a +former generation too exclusive attention had been paid to it.... But +the reaction has been excessive and irrational. A great mass of +connected facts, and of continuous evidence, remains--which cannot be +gainsaid. Even if the greater prophets can be brought down to the very +latest date which the very latest fancies can assign to them, they +depict and predict overthrows and vast revolutions in the East which did +not take place for centuries" (pp. 28, 30).[6] + +[6] "Professor Huxley speaks of the hopeless position of Christian +divines 'raked by the fatal weapons of precision with which the _enfants +perdus_ of the advancing forces of science are armed.'... Perhaps he +means the small arms of the modern critical school. If he does, then +precision is the very last characteristic which belongs to it. Its +methods are largely subjective. Here and there it may have a clearly +ascertained fact to rest upon. Here and there it may have arrived at +some tolerably secure results. But in the main its methods are +metaphysical, resting on nothing but individual preconceptions, applying +tests and private canons of interpretation which are purely arbitrary" +(_Ibid._, p. 28). + + * * * * * + +PREDICTION. + +The analysis of prophetic _consciousness_ may be, and in a great measure +is, impossible. But the facts of prediction remain. It remains that our +Lord Himself predicted. He foretold minutely His own death, and the end +of the City and the Temple, and the circumstances of the close of this +aeon. Was He "soothsaying"? It remains that He perpetually and most +emphatically claimed to be the exact Fulfilment of predictions which, +on any hypothesis, were then ages old. Was He mistaken in their +character and quality? + +CHRIST'S WITNESS TO THE BIBLE. + +In those last words I step, as I well know, upon a field of the most +urgent controversy. What is the weight to be assigned to our ever +blessed Lord's verdict upon the Old Testament as history and prophecy? +It is now asserted, and by Christian men, that that verdict is not +final; that He in the days of His flesh so submitted to human +limitations that He was liable to mistakes of fact just as His best +contemporaries were; that we adore Christ, and rely absolutely on Him, +but it is on Christ not as He was but as He is, the glorified Christ. +Here is an unspeakably overawing subject. I would not treat of it as if +the question could be swept away in a sentence. But I do, as in our +living Master's presence, venture to say that His witness to the nature +and character of the Old Scriptures claims definitely to be _ex +cathedra_. True, He doubtless spoke in this matter, as elsewhere, not in +what may be called the technical style; not every reference of His to +"Moses" need necessarily mean to assert precisely that Moses wrote +every clause of the Pentateuch. But the present question goes, as we +have remembered, much deeper. It asks whether or no the Lord Jesus was +altogether and in principle mistaken. He treated the Law, Prophets, and +Psalms as a solid structure of historic fact and supernatural promise, +divinely planned all through, divinely carried out and up from the +foundation, and leading straight up to Himself. Was it all the time true +that large parts of them were no more historical than the False +Decretals on which the high Papal claims were built?[7] + +[7] I may remind the reader that about the middle of the ninth century +there were published, by one Isidore, a collection of decisions and +decrees, purporting to be by the earliest Bishops of Rome, all +supporting the Papal claims as known in the Middle Ages. The collection +was afterwards increased, and in the middle of the twelfth century +engrafted into Gratian's _Decretum_, on which is based the Canon Law of +the Roman Church. These documents are undoubtedly fabrications long +after date. + +If we revise the opinion of our Redeemer on this conspicuous point of +His teaching, where shall we securely pause? Certainly we cannot +_securely_ trust, as oracular and final, His own predictions of things +still future, at least in their details. + +HE HAS AFFIRMED IT FROM ABOVE. + +One great utterance is often quoted as a confession that His conscious +knowledge had limits; Mark xiii. 32. Quite true; but what sort of +confession is it? It indicates in its very terms the vastness of His +supernatural knowledge; asserting His cognizance of the fact that _the +angels in heaven did not know_ that day and hour. Such an avowal of +nescience is an implicit assertion of an immeasurable insight. + +And has He not, _as the glorified Christ_, thrown a light of affirmation +on the "opinions" of the days of His flesh? The glorified Christ sent +down the Paraclete. And the first and abiding work of the Paraclete was +to illuminate the Apostles with a new understanding of the truth and +glory of the Old Scriptures, altogether in the lines of their crucified +Master's teaching about them. Unless indeed Resurrection, and Ascension, +and Pentecost are themselves to melt into the haze of myth! The New +Testament is as full of the supernatural as the Old. + +Reverently and humbly, and with full recognition of a large place and +lawful work for a true higher criticism in the literature of the Old +Testament, and of the New, I yet decline to think that our Lord's +estimate of the nature of the Bible is not to be final for me, and that +His reasonings from it are to be revised, while yet I adore Him as my +Light, my Life, and my God. And I ask my Brethren to pause many times, +and on their knees, before they think otherwise. + +PRESENT FULFILMENTS OF PROPHECY. + +As regards prediction, let them look around them. Two great fulfilments +of Old Testament prediction are going forward at this moment. One is, +the vast work of missions, whose whole aim is to make known "to the ends +of the earth" the Name of Messiah, Son of David, Son of Abraham, Son of +God. The other is, the dispersion and yet permanence of the Jewish race, +and (may I not add, in view of the facts of the last few years?) the +beginnings of a re-population of Palestine by the Jews. Credible +statistics assure us that they are now returning to their old land at +the rate of many thousands in a year. True, no "miracle" brings them +back. But no thoughtful student has ever said that the miracle of +prediction demands miracle in the circumstances of the fulfilment. + +BIBLE READING IS THE BEST DEFENCE OF THE BIBLE. + +I have gone beyond my intended length in these observations.[8] The +present urgency of the subject, which encounters us everywhere, is my +apology. But now, all the more gladly for the delay, I hasten to a few +simple words of suggestion on that practical duty of Secret Bible +Reading which is, after all, the best and surest antidote and +preservative against scepticism about the Bible, if it is carried on at +once thoroughly, intelligently, and as before the Lord. Vain without it, +worse than vain, will be the most diligent and successful study of the +apologetics of the Bible. For the Bible was given to be, not a +battle-field, but a field of wheat, and pasturage, and flowers, and a +gold-field also all the while. + +[8] (I) have elsewhere called attention to the following among works +helpful at present in the controversy about Scripture: Lord Hatherley's +_Continuity of Scripture_, Dr Waller's _Authoritative Inspiration_, Dr +Cave's _Inspiration of the Old Testament_. Let me add four able popular +tractates: Cave's _Battle of the Standpoints_ (Queen's Printers), +Eckersley's _Historical Value of the Old Testament_ (Society for +Promoting Christian Knowledge), G. Carlyle's _Moses and the Prophets_ +and Seaver's _Authority of Christ_ (Elliot Stock). Dr Liddon's memorable +sermon, _The Worth of the Old Testament_, is full of helpful +suggestions. See too Professor Leathes' _Witness of the Old Testament to +Christ_, Sir J.W. Dawson's _Modern Science in Bible Lands_, and Bishop +Harold Browne's _Messiah Foretold_. I specially call attention to Canon +R. Girdlestone's recent book, the work of a master, _The Foundations of +the Bible_, most temperate, judicial, solid, and establishing; and to +this must be added now (1892) Bishop Ellicott's excellent Charge, +published by the S.P.C.K. under the title _Christus Comprobator_. + +How then shall I read my Bible so as at once spiritually and mentally to +know it, or rather, to be always getting to know it? The answer must +be--"at sundry times and in divers manners." I must make time to read +often, however brief each time may be. And I must use methods of study, +more than one, in parallel lines. + +As a sort of ground-work to all other methods I venture first to say, be +always reading the Bible _through_, however slowly, or rapidly. For +certain purposes, for instance in order to grasp the scope of a book, as +perhaps an Epistle, or the Revelation, or St John's Gospel, or the +latter half of Isaiah, or the Book of Genesis,[9] rapid reading may be +quite reverently done. In any case, get as soon as you may, and as +often as is practicable and practical, over _the whole surface_. Lord +Hatherley, amidst the heavy occupations of a barrister's and judge's +life, used to read the whole Book through carefully every year, and this +for more than thirty years. I cannot say that I do the same. But I aim +to read the Bible over carefully within every few years. + +[9] To touch on a very small point I write here "the Book of Genesis," +not "the Book Genesis." English literature, if I do not mistake, is as +unfamiliar with the latter phrase as it is with "the city London." + +PLOUGH-HUSBANDRY. + +Then, practise what I would call the _plough-husbandry_ of the Book. +"Make long furrows." Investigate what the Scriptures have to say by +topics, by doctrines, by leading words, over great breadths of their +surface; keeping _that_ subject, _that_ word, all along in view. Bring +all your mind to work that way, in the light of the Presence sought by +prayer. An occasional special form of such study may be illustrated by +that admirable book, written long ago, but full of life still, the late +Professor Blunt's _Undesigned Coincidences_. I was thankful in my first +days of ministry to be led to put in practice its examples and +suggestions by ploughing in the field of the New Testament for the +coincidences between the Gospel narrative and the allusions to our +blessed Lord's life scattered over the Epistles. + +SPADE-HUSBANDRY. + +Then, practise also a diligent _spade-husbandry_ in your Bible study. +Dig as well as plough. In each narrow plot of the great field there are +treasures hid. Dig a verse sometimes, using perhaps the spade of +parallel references. Dig a paragraph at other times; a chapter; a short +book. You are quite sure, under the blessing of the Master of the Field, +to bring up rich results, more or less. + +I will close my talk upon the Bible by offering a specimen of such +spade-husbandry. A few years ago, at the Church Congress at Wakefield, I +read a paper on Bible-reading. It mainly took the line of recommending +earnestly the use of the Biblical student's "spade," and then it +illustrated the recommendation by the following "spade-study" of the +Epistle of St Paul to the Philippians; given here just as it was read. + + * * * * * + +A CHURCH CONGRESS PAPER ON BIBLE STUDY. + +"It has been laid on me to say a few words on the devotional study of +the Holy Scriptures, taking some one Book of Scripture, and in some +sort exemplifying such study from it. I accept the theme, with a deep +sense both of its opportuneness in our busy period, so full of +temptations to the Christian Minister to postpone his Bible-study to +other things, and of its sacred, paramount, vital importance. May our +divine and sovereign Master be pleased to use my simple suggestions to +call once more the attention especially of His ordained servants to the +urgency of our need to be personal Bible-students before Him, and to the +strength and joy that lies in such study, really pursued. He, in the +days of His flesh, was the supreme Believer in the Bible, the supreme +Lover, Student, Expositor, and Employer of the Bible. With the letter of +the Bible He sustained Himself and quelled the Enemy in the Temptation, +and the quotations He then selected suggest the minuteness of His study. +Upon the written Word He spent the whole Easter afternoon. Accepted +Sacrifice for Sin, Conqueror of Death, Lord and Head of Life, He had +come that morning from the grave; and He came as it were holding the +Scriptures in His hands. + +"He found around Him in those earthly days a mass of religious popular +opinions, and He spoke His holy mind freely against the false among +them. But there was one opinion which He noticed only to sanction, to +sanctify, to glorify. It was the opinion that the Scriptures were +divine, were charged with the authority of God. + +"I pray to Him, and trust Him, my Master and Lord, to hold me now humbly +firm to the end, after many a struggle, in His opinion of the Holy +Scriptures. I would enter into, as He abode in, their rest; therefore I +accept, as He accepted, their yoke. I would feel what He felt, that +living incitement to their study which is indissolubly bound up, if I +mistake not, with the firm persuasion of their supernatural character +and authority. I would read them, as He read them, above all things to +act upon them in the life which we, His followers, have in Him; that +life whose exercise and outcome means our whole walk here as well as +hereafter. I would regard them, as it is apparent that He regarded them, +as being (in a sacred sense) self-sufficient; not, indeed, to the +self-sufficient reader, but to the reader who prays in reverent +simplicity that the Holy Spirit may dispel every moral mist, every +hindrance of heart and will, from between him and the meaning of the +written Word; and who intends in truthful sincerity to consent to, to +obey, the discovered meaning; and who is taking pains over the Book. + +"It is a great joy to know how entirely this was the view of the matter +held, and loved, and taught in the ancient Church. Is there anything +about which there is a larger consent of the Fathers? St Athanasius +loves to dilate on the [Greek: autarkeia], the self-sufficingness, of +'the divine Scriptures.' St Cyril of Jerusalem entreats his hearers to +guide and fix their belief by the reading of the Canonical books. St +Chrysostom boldly accounts for all mischiefs by the lack of personal +acquaintance with the Scriptures. + +"We are in the nineteenth century, almost in the twentieth, and perhaps +we therefore need, even more than our elder brethren of the fourth, to +renew our energies in Scripture-study by prayerful, painstaking +recollection of what the Book is. We need an ever fresh realization of +what it is immortally, unalterably; the divinely trustworthy, and +therefore authoritative, account of God's mind, and specially and above +all of God's mind concerning Jesus Christ and our relations to Him, our +life by Him, our peace, and power, and hope, in Him. And it is a few +words about this aspect of Scripture, and the search of Scripture, that +I now lay before you, with humility and simplicity of purpose, in the +way of a description and example of a sort of study that has been a +great blessing to myself. + +"Take one of the holy Books, or a section of one of them; and for this +purpose shorter is better. By a certain exercise of imagination suppose +yourself to be reading a _newly-discovered_ fragment of the apostolic +age. Treat it somewhat as many of us have recently sought to treat +Bryennius' discovery, _The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles_. What +microscopic attention has been brought to bear upon that little book, +just because good evidence gives it a place in the first century, and +because it speaks of Christ, and of Christians; of faith, worship, +ministry, and life, in a part of the primeval Church! Now I attempt from +time to time, reverently but very simply, to treat some inspired Epistle +somewhat in the same way. I place myself before it as much as possible +as if it were new to me and others. I seek, with something of the +curiosity which such conditions would create, to collect and arrange its +theology and its ethics. And then I bring in upon the results of my +study the fact that it is God's Word, the Word which I am to embrace, +and live upon, and act upon, to-day. + +"For example and suggestion, let us turn to the EPISTLE TO THE +PHILIPPIANS; few but golden pages, precious product of those two years +of St Paul's physical imprisonment but blissful spiritual liberty. To +stimulate our consciousness of what the Epistle contains to reward +search, and search alone, let us try to place it before us as what it is +not now, but once was, a newly-given oracle of God. It was once read for +the first time, perhaps in the house of Lydia. Let it be to us, so far +as thought can make it so, what it was then. And let us remember all +the while that it is really even now new, for it is immortal with the +breath of the Spirit of God. It not only 'abideth,' but 'liveth,' for +ever. + +"Let us take two titles under which to classify the results of our +inspection of this primitive Document. First, its doctrine of Christ; +then, its doctrine of Christian Life. As a subordinate third title we +may collect what it indicates of Christian life as exemplified in the +Writer's allusions to his own experience. + +"I.--The Christology of the Epistle. + +"(1) We trace hints of the _human history_ of Christ. He was man, in +reality and in seeming; He died a death of suffering, the death of the +Cross [ii. 7, 8; iii. 10.]; He rose again, for there is a power of His +Resurrection; [iii. 10.] and, apparently, He so left this earth that it +was known that an immeasurable exaltation attended His going, so that +the heavens are now His seat [ii. 9.], from which He is definitely +expected to return. [iii. 20.] + +"(2) Going back to antecedent and prehistoric matters of faith about +Him, we find here that before He became man He subsisted in possession, +lawful and natural, of the manifested reality [Greek: morphe] of +Godhead, equal to God [ii. 6.]. His appearance as man was the sequel of +His own action of will in that eternal state [ii. 7.]. It was a novel +and voluntary assumption of the condition of the Bondservant, the +[Greek: Doulos], of God. Antecedently possessing the [Greek: morphe] of +God, He now _de novo_ 'took' the [Greek: morphe] of a bondservant. What +created beings in general are of course, God's bondservants, He had not +been but now became; a fact as astonishing in its region as the fact of +His possession of the Supreme Nature is in its region. He assumed this +[Greek: douleia], we find, because His essential work was to obey, to +'become obeying,' yes, to the extent of death [ii. 8.]; which death was +thus in Him altogether voluntary, part of a free undertaking to be not +His own. The immediate result for Himself, it next appears, was an +exaltation by God to supreme majesty under all these conditions. As +being all this, possessor of Deity and accepter of bondservice, He was +now _de novo_ proclaimed as [Greek: Kyrios], as Lord, in a sense +interpreted by the adoration of the universe; to the glory of God His +Father. For it repeatedly appears in the Epistle that God is His Father; +He is the Son of God [ii. 11.]. Further, all 'the riches of God in +glory' [i. 2; ii. 11.] are 'in Him.' [iv. 19.] It appears that in His +exaltation He is embodied still, for it is to likeness to the body of +His glory that the body of our humiliation is to be changed at His +expected return. He is Almighty 'to subdue all things,' and the +subjugation is 'to Himself.' [iii. 21.] + +"(3) As regards His relation to His followers, such is it that their +whole life and every exercise of it is mysteriously but emphatically +said to be IN HIM. He, the supreme Bondservant, is to them (we +continually read) absolute Lord. His grace animates their spirit. The +divine Spirit ministered to them is His [i. 2; iv. 23.]. Their 'fruit of +righteousness' is generated and produced 'through' Him [i. 19.]. He is +evermore and profoundly near to them. Their heart-emotions are 'in His +heart.' [i. 11; iv. 5.] To believe in Him is their essential +characteristic [i. 8.]. To suffer for Him is a special boon to them [i. +29.]. They live in expectation of His return, His day. [i. 6, 10; ii. +16; iii. 20.] + +"II.--The Epistle's account of Christian Life, inward and outward. + +"We gather that the disciples are saints, [Greek: hagioi], separated +from self and sin to God; brethren to one another; the true Israel, +citizens of the City above [i. 1, 14; iii. 3, 20; iv. 21.]. Their being +and life are so united to Christ, that they as Christians (and it is +evidently assumed that this covers _everything_ for them) exist, and are +to act, 'in Him.' In Him, we find, they are 'saints' and 'brethren' [i. +1, 14; iv. 1, 2; ii. 29.]; in Him they are to 'stand fast'; to be 'of +one mind'; to 'receive one another'; to possess comfort, consolation; to +glory; to rejoice [ii. 1; iii. 1, 3; iv. 4.]. It is solemnly guaranteed, +under certain most holy and happy conditions, that 'the peace of God +Himself shall'--the promise is positive--'keep safe their hearts and +thoughts in Him' [iv. 7.]; wonderful words, but perfectly distinct. In +them God 'has begun a good work, to be carried for its completion up to +the day of Christ'; and God is now 'working in them to will and to do +for the sake of' His plan and purpose [i. 6; ii. 13.]. It is laid upon +them accordingly, in the profound inner rest of such union, such +possession, such submission, to 'work out their salvation,' to live out +their life as the saved, with the 'fear and trembling' of sacred +reverence [ii. 12.]. They are 'to look each not on his own things,' but +on the things of others, in their Lord's manner [ii. 4.]; to hold +together in loving and courageous union for the Gospel, standing fast in +'one soul,' under the 'one Spirit's' power; to keep their place in the +midst of evil surroundings as the 'children of God' [i. 28.] and the +'light-bearers' of 'the message of life.' [ii. 16.] They are to abstain +totally, in the power of their life in Christ, from all sin, to 'do +nothing' (I take all possible note of these '_alls_' and '_nothings_' as +I study and classify) 'for strife or vainglory' [ii. 3.]; to be 'anxious +about nothing, but in everything' to tell God their desires; to 'do all +things without murmurings and disputings' [iv. 6; ii. 14.]; to be +'unblamable, unhurtful, unblemished, God's children,' not in a +dreamland, but in the realities of Philippian life; to bear fruit, +'fruit of righteousness, which is through Jesus Christ,' [ii. 15.] and +so to bear it that at last it shall turn out, in the day of the Lord, +that they are 'filled' with it [i. 11.]; every branch is laden. They +are to let their 'moderation,' that is to say their yieldingness, their +self-lessness, come out in common life, 'known to all men,' in the power +of a 'Lord at hand' [iv. 5.]; to fill their thoughts with all that is +good, straightforward, chastened, pure [iv. 8.]; to 'mind' the things in +heaven [iii. 20; ii.]; to have 'the mind of Christ'; to grow in +spiritual perception, along with the growth of love [i. 9.]; to live the +life expressed in that profound summary, 'worshipping God in the Spirit +(or, by the Spirit of God); exulting in Christ Jesus; having no +confidence in the flesh.' [iii. 3.] + +"III.--The Life in Christ exemplified in the Writer. + +"Here let us forget the Apostle, for he speaks wholly as the Christian, +and in a way manifestly meant to be an instruction to all Christians. He +appears, then, in our document, as one whom Christ has 'seized,' has +'grasped' [iii. 12.]; as one who has discovered in Christ, and in Christ +alone, the supreme Gain, the supreme Object of knowledge, the supreme +Spiritual Power as the Risen One, [iii. 10.] the supreme Interest and +Reason of life [i. 20; iii. 7-14], the one possible supply of the +unspeakable need of a valid Righteousness before the Judgment Seat. Yes, +he must be 'found in Him, having the righteousness which is from God on +terms of faith,' [iii. 9.] the faith which enters into Christ. 'In +Christ,' we discover, the Writer is, everywhere and always. His 'bonds' +are 'in Christ'; his 'glory' is 'in Christ' [i. 13, 26.]; his hopes +and trusts about the common events of life are 'in Christ'; in Christ he +has 'found the secret' how to do all, all he has to do, in peace [iv. +19, 24.]. Christ fills his present life [iv. 13.]; when he dies, he will +be so 'with Christ' that it will be 'far better' than this present life, +though it is full of Christ [i. 21, 23.]. He is the willing but most +real bondservant of Christ [i. 1.]. His relations with Christ so fill +him with peace and the power of peace, that extremely irritating rivalry +and opposition at Rome does not irritate him, but occasions holy joy, +and the suspense about life and death in which Nero keeps him is +powerless, wholly because of Christ [i. 12, etc.], to evoke anything +but a statement of the dilemma of blessings which life and death in the +Lord are to him [i. 21, etc.]. On the other hand, as the whole Epistle +indicates, every pure human sensibility circulates naturally in this +supernatural atmosphere [_E.g._ ii. 27, 28; iv. 10.]. And meanwhile, +though 'perfect,' in respect of reality of union and communication with +his Lord, he is not yet 'perfected' in respect of application and +results; the goal, the prize, is yet to come. [iii. 12, 14.] + +"And so I shut my Epistle to the Philippians, leaving very much more in +it for the next occasion. Such a study has not demanded long hours. It +has asked only interest, purpose, and painstaking, a few such fragments +of daily time as we must, yes, _must_, make and take for the Bible, if +we are not to starve our people and ourselves. Suffer me to repeat it +with deep earnestness; we must, we absolutely must, not merely +devotionally read but devotionally search and penetrate this divine +Book. And what shall come of the effort? By the grace of God, sought in +the deep joy of a profound submission, it shall come that we shall each +one realize, with a vernal newness and delight, that Christ is mine; +that the springs and secrets of this life in Him are mine, for the +realities of my home, my parish, my study, my soul. I go (it is for each +one of us to say it) with renewed thirst and certainty to Him the +eternal Fountain; I live, I live, yet not I; and therefore I can work. +It will be 'with fear and trembling,' as I know myself to be indeed in +the eternal Presence; yet it will be also in the power-giving 'peace +that passeth understanding, keeping the heart and thoughts, in Christ +Jesus,' a keeping that is not meant to vanish outside holy places and +holy hours, but to do its strongest and serenest work in the midst of +crookedness and perverseness, under the stress of toils and burthens, as +truly for me to-day as for the Philippians and their Teacher then." + + + "_The Spirit breathes upon the Word + And brings the truth to sight; + Precepts and promises afford + A sanctifying light._ + + "_My soul rejoices to pursue + The steps of Him I love, + Till glory breaks upon my view + In brighter worlds above._" + + COWPER. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +_THE DAILY WALK WITH OTHERS_ (i.). + + + _When the watcher in the dark + Turns his lenses to the skies, + Suddenly the starry spark + Grows a world upon his eyes: + Be my life a lens, that I + So my Lord may magnify_ + + +We come from the secrecies of the young Clergyman's life, from his walk +alone with God in prayer and over His Word, to the subject of his common +daily intercourse. Let us think together of some of the duties, +opportunities, risks, and safeguards of the ordinary day's experience. + +A WALK WITH GOD ALL DAY. + +A word presents itself to be said at once, about the connexion between +the secret and the common walk of the servant of God. The former is +never to _give way to_ the latter; it is to _run into_ it, underground. +"To walk with God _all day_" is to be our distinct and practical +purpose, and not merely a sweet sentiment and holy aspiration of the +hymn-book. The man who prays in secret is to be the man who knows how +to pray secretly in public. The man who pores over the Word all alone is +to be the man who, out in the open field of life, "sins not" because he +has "hid that Word in his heart" [Ps. cxix. 11.]; and who, being called +upon by circumstances, however casually, to show himself actually a true +"man of the Book," is internally ready to do so. Nothing short of "a +life with Christ behind our work," always and everywhere, is to content +us Pastors. To live that life is from one point of view our wonderful +_privilege_, in our living union with our blessed Head. From another +point of view it is our truest and deepest _work_, as we watch and pray +over our privilege, and draw upon our Head in the holy diligence of +faith. + +I have spoken already of this vital connexion between the walk with God +in secret and the secret walk with God in public. But it bears +reiteration. It is something gained if we only remind one another, with +the emphasis of repetition, that such a life is our bounden duty and our +blissful possibility:-- + + "You may always be abiding, if you will, at Jesu's side; + In the secret of His Presence you may every moment hide."[10] + +[10] I quote from a beautiful hymn, beginning, "In the secret of His +Presence." It is given in part in several recent hymn-books, but for its +complete form see _From India's Coral Strand_, (_Home Words_ Office, +Paternoster Buildings,) a collection of the poems of its gifted writer, +a Hindoo Christian lady, Miss E.L. Goreh. + +But now, what will be the surface and expression of such a hidden life, +as the young Clergyman passes through his busy common day? + +LIFE IN LODGINGS. + +Let me speak first of his life indoors, that is to say, probably, in his +lodgings. There the day at least begins and ends; and, in more ways than +he is aware of till he sets himself to consider, he may--or may +not--glorify his Master _there_. He is quite certain to be watched, +whether the eyes are friendly or unfriendly to himself and to his +message and ministry. He will be watched of course not only as a man but +as a Minister. And the results of the observation may be most important, +for good or for evil, to the immediate observers; and they are pretty +sure to reach many other people through them. "What shall the harvest +be?" + +SELF-RESPECT. + +Let one result be, a clear impression in the house that you, the new +Curate, are a man of SELF-RESPECT. Perhaps that _word_ will not be used, +any more than its Greek equivalent, [Greek: aidos], that noble +pre-Christian ethical term which lay ready and waiting to be glorified +by the Gospel. But let Self-respect be your principle and your practice, +and it will leave its impression, by whatever word the impression may be +described. Let the man be seen by those who are about him, and who in +one way or another wait on him, to be _quite simple while quite refined_ +in ways and habits; to be active and wholesome in the hours he keeps; to +hold self-indulgence under a strong bridle (shall I say, not least the +self-indulgence which cannot do without the stimulant and without _the +pipe_?); and he will be in a fair way to commend his message indoors. +Let him be seen, without the least affectation, but unmistakably, to +find his main interests, within doors as well as without, in his Lord +and His cause and work; to be the avowed Christian at all hours; and he +will be doing hourly work for Christ. With it all, let him be seen to be +"gentle to others" while "to himself severe"; let him, while always +self-respectful, be always watchfully CONSIDERATE; and his light will +shine; he will be an OEcolampadius, a _House-light_, indeed. + +CONSIDERATENESS. + +On that last point I must dilate a little; on the point of +Considerateness. I remember a conversation a few years ago with one of +our college servants, an excellent Christian woman, truly exemplary in +every duty. She was speaking of one of my dear student friends now +labouring for the Lord in a distant and difficult mission-field, and +giving him--after his departure from us--a tribute of most disinterested +praise: "Ah, Sir, he _was_ a consistent gentleman!" And then she +instanced some of my friend's consistencies; and I observed that they +all reduced themselves to one word--Considerateness. He was always +taking trouble, and always saving trouble. He was always finding out how +a little thought for others can save them much needless labour. The +things in question were not heroic. The thoughtfulness for others +concerned only such matters as the bath, and the shoes, and the clothes, +and some small details of hospitality. But they meant a very great deal +for the hard-worked caretaker, and they were to her a means of quite +distinct "edification," upbuilding, in the assurance that Christ and the +Gospel are indeed practical realities. I break no confidence when I add, +by the way, that my friend had not always been thus "a consistent +gentleman." But the Lord had found him, and he had found the Lord, in +the midst of his University life; and he had learnt most deeply and +effectually, at the feet of Jesus, the consistency of Considerateness. + +I do press this aspect of our daily walk with all earnestness on my +younger Brethren. I press it on them at least _to think about it_ with +painstaking attention. No Christian man, as such, means for one moment +to be selfish. But lack of attention does in very many cases indeed +allow the real Christian to contract, or to continue, selfish habits. +Many good men quite fail to realize how selfish, practically, it is to +be unpunctual. You have your understood mealtimes in your lodging. It +may not be always possible to keep strictly to them; the exigencies of +work may make it honestly necessary now and again to be out of time. But +let nothing less than duty do so for you. The breakfast kept standing +because you are not up when you should be may very likely mean much +needless trouble and much domestic disarrangement. Guests often brought +in without any notice may mean the same. + +SIMPLICITY AT TABLE. + +Perhaps I need not say, yet I will say it, that the consistent servant +of God, whether at his own table or at his neighbour's, will "take heed +unto himself" not even to _seem_ fastidious. There are some men about +whom, if you know them, you feel sure that they will _not_ choose the +best dish at the table; and there are others, I am afraid, about whom +you feel pretty sure that they will. One man will not think, or at least +will not seem to think, whether the meat is hot or cold; and another +will rather decidedly avoid the latter. Pardon the details; they have +something very real to do with our Consistency. + +USE OF THE TONGUE. + +And indeed we have need to ponder Consistency when we come to "the +unruly member." It is not often, perhaps, that the risks of the tongue +are specially present in a bachelor's life in lodgings. But they are not +absent there. Friends come in, and we will suppose that you and they are +waited upon at your meal. What does the servant hear? Much talk about +other and absent persons? Unkind or flippant criticisms? Idle, frivolous +words? Very likely not, thank God; for we do want to remember our Lord. +But let us take heed. Nothing is more conspicuously inconsistent in the +Christian than needless, unloving discussion of the characters and lives +of others; nothing is more keenly noticed when overheard; nothing more +breaks the spell of influence for God. + + "_Quisquis amat dictis absentum rodere vitam, + Hanc mensam vetitam noverit esse sibi._"[11] + +[11] POSSIDONIUS: _De Vita Augustini_, c. 22. + +Such was the memento which St Augustine had inscribed upon his +dining-table. He found it necessary to remind the Bishops (_coepiscopi_) +whom he entertained not to misuse their ordained tongues. And the +Pastors of the nineteenth century need it still, quite as much as it was +needed in the fifth. + +"SET A WATCH." + +It is impossible, of course, to lay down exhaustive rules for the +Christian guidance of conversation in detail. It is quite certain that +the Gospel does not prescribe, or intend, that we should never speak +except about things spiritual, or even except about our special duties +in the Ministry. But it is quite certain too that the Gospel does +prescribe inexorably the utmost watchfulness and self-discipline in the +matter of the tongue, for all who name the Name of Christ. "For every +idle word that men shall speak they shall give account" [Matt. xii. +36.]; "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but such +as is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the +hearers" [Eph. iv. 29.]; "If any man among you seem to be devout +([Greek: threskos]), and bridleth not his tongue, that man's devoutness +([Greek: threkeia]) is vain" [Jas. i. 26.]; "Set a watch, O Lord, before +my lips." [Ps. cxli. 3.] + +LIFE IN A CLERGY-HOUSE. + +I may say a few words in this connexion about the peculiar call for care +and consistency where a group of young Clergymen live together in a +"clergy-house." + +*ITS OPPORTUNITIES AND NEEDS. + +It seems to me that such groups must in the nature of the case be +_either_ means of the greatest good in the mutual intercourse of their +members, _or_ just the opposite. As sure as _corruptio optimi est +pessima_, so sure it is that the young Clergyman who is not consistent +in temper, word, and habit, is the most unhelpful specimen of the young +man; just because of the discord between his ministerial character and +his personal. And if, say, three or four young servants of God (by +profession) domicile together and are _not_ consistent, I am afraid they +will positively and actively draw one another, without in the least +meaning to do so, away from the mind of Christ and the walk with God. Do +they allow themselves to engage in trivial foolish, unkind talk? Do they +so valiantly determine "not to be goody-goody" as tacitly to avoid all +open-hearted, loving, reverent conversation about their Lord and His +truth? Are they much fonder of endless argument than of the Word of God +and prayer? Do their united devotions tend to be formal and perfunctory? +Do they (I come back to that point again) "bridle not their tongues" +about the absent, about those over them, about those who differ from +them? Then they are doing each other harm, at a rapid rate, by their +collocation. On the other hand, are they each for himself living close +to their Master and Friend in the secret chamber and in the inner heart? +Are they walking humbly and gladly with their God, much in prayer, and +having the Scriptures often open? And are they considering one another, +to provoke unto love and to good works? Are they remembering generally +and habitually the sacredness of the duty of mutual influence and +example, in personal habits, and otherwise? Are they determined each for +himself to help his brethren in all things pure, and just, and lovable, +and of good report, and to strengthen them to endure hardness, and not +to be ashamed of the blessed Name? Then they are blessing one another in +Christ, as few men otherwise can do. But personal, individual +consistency is the absolute requisite to this; each man must follow the +Lord _for himself_ in faith and fear. + +THE DUTY OF EXAMPLE. + +I spoke just above of the sacredness of the duty of example. It is a +theme on which I entreat my younger Brethren very often to reflect, +with self-scrutiny before their Master: I may be wrong, but I cannot +help thinking that here is a duty which is decidedly less remembered +now, among young Christian men, than it was in other days. With +exceptions many and bright, I yet fear that there is a decline in this +matter as a rule. That unhappy _individualism_ which is the bane of our +day, and which is the fatal enemy of all true and healthy +_individuality_, breathes its malaria through even earnest Christian +circles. In the formation or allowance of personal habits, in +particular, it is sadly common to see young Christian men practically +quite forgetful of the power and responsibility of example. I do not +think that this was quite so common twenty or thirty years ago. Not that +I wish to take up the futile part of a mere _laudator temporis acti_; I +believe that the phenomenon has its reasons, its law so to speak, in the +peculiar conditions of our day. But then the Christian man is never to +be the slave of the conditions of his day, while he _is_ to "serve his +own generation by the will of God." [Acts xiii. 36.] So I appeal most +urgently to my reader, if he should chance to need the friendly call, to +awake to a renewed attention to the responsibility of example, and to +watch accordingly over consistency in everything. + +"FOR THEIR SAKES." + +With the humblest reverence may I quote in this connexion the words of +our blessed Lord in the High Priestly Prayer? "_For their sakes I +sanctify Myself._" So said JESUS CHRIST. [John xvii. 19.] Perfectly holy +personally, He was yet always deliberately hallowing Himself, separating +Himself, to the Father's will and work, "for their sakes"; because of +His relations with His disciples. Shall not we sinners, at whatever +interval, yet really, "follow His steps" in this also? "For their +sakes," for the sake of our brethren in the Ministry, for the sake of +our servants, for the sake of our neighbour of all sorts and kinds, let +us "sanctify ourselves" in a daily, willing separation from the way of +self to the will of God, diligently seeking the expression of that will +in His holy Word. It is the duty of every Christian. It is _par +excellence_ the duty of every Christian Minister, from the oldest +Archbishop to the youngest Deacon. To take Orders is to renounce all +ideas of a selfishly _private_ life. Our whole life henceforth is "for +their sakes"; even in those parts of it which must, from another point +of view, be most jealously protected from officialism, and lived as if +for the time no one existed but the man and his God. We are emphatically +now "their bondmen for Jesus' sake." [2 Cor. iv. 5.] "Others" have now +an indefeasible right not only to our ministry of Ordinances, and to our +preaching, and our visiting, but to the example of our habits, of our +lives. + +MANNER. + +Following up the same line of remark, let me say a word about our duty +to others in the matter of _manner_. It is sometimes, surely, forgotten +by Christian men that they have no right to be careless of their manner. +Many an excellent and otherwise consistent Clergyman seems to assume +that, whether with his brethren or with his parish neighbours, his +manner may take care of itself, if he only "does not mean it." But +well-meaning is a poor substitute for well-doing; especially that otiose +sort of well-meaning which only means not meaning ill. + +*"NOBLESSE OBLIGE." + +Christians have no business with so poor and thin a phantom of virtue. +They are not at liberty not to think about a kindly courtesy of address, +and a manly deference towards elders, and watchful "honour" given to +woman [1 Pet. iii. 7.], and a _manifested_ (as well as felt) sympathy of +heart with all who ask it. They are forbidden by the whole will and +rights of their Master to be loud and "casual" in intercourse; to be +moody and uncertain; to be difficult to please, easy to offend; to think +it a small thing to speak the word to others which may wound, even +lightly, with any wound but the really "faithful" one of a loving +caution or reproof in Christ. No one is to be so independent in one +aspect as the Christian man, and particularly the Christian Minister. +Few men have so strong a vantage-ground for independence as the +Clergyman of the English national Church. But it is the sort of +independence which carries also the deepest obligation, the strongest +sort of _noblesse oblige_. It is "for their sakes." And so the same man +is bound to be also the most accessible, the most attentive, the most +courteous and sympathetic. Avoiding carefully, of course, all +affectation and unreality, he is to take care that a Christian reality +within does show itself in a Christian manner without. "Let your +moderation, your oblivion of self, be _known unto all men_." [Phil. iv. +5.] Let it be seen and felt, in your rooms, in your parish, in your +church. + +TEMPER. + +Obviously this takes for granted the Clergyman's recognition of the call +to "rule his spirit." [Prov. xvi. 32.] The temptation not to do so is +very different for different men. One man finds temper and patience +sorely tried by things which do not even attract the attention of +another. But very few men indeed, in the actual experiences of pastoral +life, whether in town or country, quite escape for long together the +stings which irritate and inflame. But they _must_ learn how to meet +them in peace and patience, unless they would take one of the most +certain ways to dishonour their Master and discredit their message. The +world has some very true instincts about the power of the Gospel, as it +ought to be, as it claims to be. And one of them is that a Christian as +such is a man who ought always to keep his temper. The Christian +Clergyman is most certainly, at least in an ironical sense, "expected" +never to be _personally_ vexed and hot. Will it be so? Will he take +ignorant rudeness pleasantly, should it cross his way? Will he meet +opposition patiently, however firmly? Will he show that he remembers the +text, "The bondservant of the Lord must not strive"? [2 Tim. ii. 24.] + +THE REV. C. SIMEON. + +That text was the watchword of a great man of God, the Rev. Charles +Simeon, in the early and exquisitely trying experiences of his long +ministry (1782-1836) at Trinity Church, Cambridge. The parishioners shut +their house-doors in his face, and locked their pew-doors against those +who came to hear him. Every form of irritating parochial obstruction was +employed. And the young Clergyman had by nature a very short temper, and +a very fearless spirit. But he had found peace through the blood of the +Cross a few years before, and the interests of his Saviour were become +all in all to him. So his first thought was, what would best commend +Jesus Christ to the angry people? And the words seemed to sound +constantly in his soul, by way of answer, "The servant of the Lord must +not strive." Never was tried patience more beautifully made perfect. He +was always giving way, and always going on. He carefully ascertained +that it was illegal to lock the pew-doors; but he _did not take the law_ +of those who locked them. His soul was kept in peace; and by degrees, as +might be expected, a calmness which clearly was not cowardice but +consistency won a victory whose effects are felt to this day through the +whole Church of England in the results of Simeon's mighty influence.[12] + +[12] I may be permitted to refer to my brief sketch of Mr Simeon's Life: +_Charles Simeon_ (Methuen, 1892), ch. iv. + +THE SECRET OF PEACE. + +How shall we, in our measure, whenever called to it, "not strive," but +"let our oblivion of self be known unto all men"--in the cottage, in the +villa, in the vestry? There is only one way. It is by abiding in the +Secret of the Presence, in the "pavilion" where "the strife of tongues" +may be heard indeed, but cannot, _no, cannot_, set the hearer on fire. +We must claim on our knees, very often, our Master's power to keep the +soul which He has made, and which longs to manifest Him + + "In faith, in meekness, love, + In every beauteous grace, + From glory thus to glory changed + As we behold His face." + +POWER OF A CONSISTENT LIFE. + +I have inevitably touched only some parts of the great subject of +personal ministerial Consistency. More will be said later. But the +treatment on paper, at almost any length, must be incomplete at the +best; many an important side of the subject will need to be omitted. My +aim has been, and will be, to speak of those sides most, if not only, +which are in special danger of neglect at the present day; and this +means of course the passing by of some large topics. + +PAINS AND MEANS. + +But contributions, however fragmentary, to the study of Consistency will +not be in vain. "A Minister's life is the life of his ministry," says +some one of other days with pithy force. "Happy those labourers of the +Church," says blessed Quesnel, the Jansenist (on Mark vi. 33), "the +sweet odour of whose lives draws the people to Jesus Christ." We all +recognize the beauty and truth of such sayings. We all admit the +fitness and duty of Consistency. But we must also recollect that in +order to our consistency there is needed more than an abstract +approbation; we must attend, we must reflect, we must examine ourselves, +we must discipline ourselves, as those who aim at an object at once +lovely and necessary. Above all, we must "order our steps in our Lord's +Word," [Ps. cxix. 133.] and we must maintain a living communion of +spirit with our Lord Himself, who is not only our Exemplar, our Law, and +our King, but also our Secret, our Strength, our Life. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +_THE DAILY WALK WITH OTHERS_ (ii.). + + + _If Jesus Christ thou serve, take heed, + Whate'er the hour may be; + His brethren are obliged indeed + By their nobility._ + + +In the present chapter I follow the general principles of the last into +some further details. And I place before me as a sort of motto those +twice-repeated words of the Apostle, TAKE HEED UNTO THYSELF. + +These words, it will be remembered, are addressed in both places to the +Christian Minister. [Acts xx. 28; 1 Tim. iv. 6.] At Miletus St Paul +gathers round him the Presbyters of Ephesus, and implores them to take +heed to themselves, and to the flock. A few years later he writes to +Timothy, commissioned (whether permanently or not) to be Pastor of +Pastors in that same Ephesus, and lays it on his soul to take heed to +himself, and to the doctrine. In each case the appeal to attend to +"self" comes first, as the vital preliminary to the other. And in each +case it takes the form of a solemn warning; not only "remember" but +"TAKE HEED." + +TAKE HEED UNTO THYSELF. + +I have already tried to emphasize the duty of "heed-taking," in several +directions. But I come in this chapter to some important matters which +seem specially to fall under such a heading; matters in which the lack +of prayerful heed may, and often does, work great and even fatal +mischief in the lives of Clergymen. + +RELATIONS WITH WOMAN. + +i. Let me first say a little, in brotherly confidence and candour, about +the young Clergyman's _relations with Woman_ in ordinary intercourse. + +It would be waste of words to talk about the delicacy of the subject; it +is self-evident. And it is obvious also that in a book like this the +subject can be treated only in the way of general suggestion; no vain +attempt shall I make to state and discuss possible exceptional cases of +social difficulty. But it is quite necessary to say something on this +matter, for it is indeed a pressing and important thing in ministerial +life. + +I will begin, then, with the assumption that the young Clergyman +recognizes, and seeks to practise, the great Gospel principle of a +sanctified chivalry. "To the feminine vessel, as to the weaker, give +honour," writes St Peter [1 Pet iii. 7.]; words which must be cut large +and deep into our ministerial hearts if we are to live as true Ministers +and true men. They have a particular reference to married life, I know; +but their full scope is far wider. And they are among the most wonderful +utterances of the apostolic Gospel, when we read them in the light, or +rather under the contrasted darkness, of the contemporary +_anti_-chivalry of the Rabbinic teaching about woman. They are the +utterance of Peter, the married man, after his discipleship in the +Spirit at the feet of Jesus, the Mother's Son. "_Giving honour_;" do not +forget the phrase. It lifts us into a higher and far healthier region +than that of either mere fondness or mere admiration. Indeed, it is +all-important to remember what a deep gulph lies between two things +which at first sight may be mistaken for one another--Admiration for +Women, Reverence for Woman. + +So let apostolic chivalry, unaffected, but watchful and practical, +govern your life, by the grace of God. Let it be quite impartial as a +principle. You may possibly have to speak with a princess; you are sure +to have to speak and deal with very poor and ignorant women. But each +and all they are WOMAN, and you must remember the Apostle's word. +Courtesy and consideration are due to them all, as you are a man, a +Christian, a Minister of God. The expression may vary, and within limits +it must, but the principle must be always there. To the poorest woman +give the wall in the street, offer the best seat in the train. + +WE ARE TRUSTED. + +I must here so far anticipate a future chapter as to point out how +constantly this call to "give honour" must be remembered in pastoral +visitation. We Clergy are _trusted_ to an extraordinary degree in +personal intercourse with female parishioners. How often a pastoral call +is paid, whether at mansion or cottage, when no man is at home! "Take +heed unto thyself" _then_. The call under those circumstances should be +as brief as possible. And the whole interview should be ruled by a +heedful while unobtrusive respect and self-respect. Do not think a +strong word of caution in this matter out of place and out of scale. +Carelessness of even appearances here may wreck a life; it may certainly +blight an influence. + +WHEN AND HOW TO TAKE HEED. + +But I do not forget that we are not yet concerned directly with pastoral +visitation as such; we are thinking of incidental social intercourse. +The young Clergyman will sometimes, however seldom, find himself +visiting in not exactly the pastoral sense of the word. Courteous +hospitality will be shown him by neighbours; and while he will very +often decline these calls, because his Master's work in other and more +obvious forms claims him, sometimes he will accept them, as his Master +did. Or his needful holiday has come, and he is staying at a friend's +house, or is thrown into new intercourse at some health-resort. And we +will suppose that he is a bachelor, and not engaged. In what particular +directions shall he take heed? + +"KNOW THYSELF." + +Below and above all details, he will take heed to remember his always +present Lord and Friend, and to live and talk as knowing that "HE is the +unseen Listener to every conversation"; a recollection which ought to +banish from our talk, whether we talk with man or woman, alike +frivolity, unkindness, untruthfulness, and dulness. Then, to come to a +few details under that great principle--the man will need to watch and +be heedful in one or more quite different directions, according to his +character. And God grant us all such honesty and simplicity before Him +as shall teach us to know at least something of our own characters, +especially in their weak points. There ought to be no surer prescription +for a true [Greek: gnothi seauton] than to "walk in the light" [1 John +i. 7.] of the presence of Him who sees everything just as it is, and in +that light to look at ourselves, and the world, and His Word; aiming +every day, not to be thought "nice," or to be thought remarkable, but to +let Him shine out of our lives. + +THE DUTY OF RESERVE. + +One man, then, will need more than another to cultivate a quiet reserve +and restraint of manner in social intercourse with young ladies. It is +the way of some men, without thinking about it, to be too +demonstratively attentive. It is the way of others to forget that they +are not everywhere at home, and to be far too familiarly friendly. "I +look on every girl I meet as if she were my sister;" so said one young +Clergyman, a very fine fellow indeed, but certainly in this sentiment +very much and very dangerously mistaken. Attentions and confidences may +be meant as honestly as possible. But if they go beyond a certain line +(soon reached) they may most naturally be thought to mean something +more; to be a preliminary, however distant, to an offer. And just +possibly such a thought may not be unwelcome to the other person +concerned. And if so, and if all the while nothing but courtesy was +meant, you, my friend and Brother, without knowing it, perhaps without +ever knowing it, may _spoil the life_ of one who cannot possibly, as a +woman, express herself to you. I have known such a case in clerical +life. The man was a true man, but he allowed himself, for the +pleasantness of it, to be very agreeable where he meant no more than +friendship. Great, while silent, was the sorrow that resulted. Take heed +unto thyself. + +SPECIAL RISKS. + +There are some parochial circumstances where even unusual caution is +needed in this direction; for reasons which I allude to with pain. It +is a fact, I fear, that in some parishes the Curate is in danger of +being rather actively pursued, by here and there a parent, as a possibly +desirable son-in-law. I have even heard of a certain Incumbent who was +given not indistinctly to understand that the coming Curate would be +less welcome if he was a man already married. Such a state of things is +of course one of exceptional social risk and difficulty for a Curate, +and for a young single Rector or Vicar still more so. Nothing will do +but a very real "heed-taking," beginning always in secret with God, and +then quietly carried out with sanctified common-sense. Fatal mistakes, +really fatal to future usefulness in the Ministry, may very easily be +made otherwise. + +But then there is an opposite side to the question. Some young men, not +all certainly but a good many, are in great danger of a rather +exaggerated estimate of their own attractions and importance. There are +some junior Clergymen who are, if I do not mistake, prone to think that +most young ladies whom they meet are fascinated by them, or are at least +in imminent peril. Such delusions meet sometimes with not very gentle +corrections. But it is better to be forearmed against the delusion--as +it most probably _is_ a delusion in the given case. And the best +prophylactic is the old one; a secret walk with God "in the light," and +a recollection of the constant need of self-knowledge exactly where such +knowledge is least pleasant. I repeat it; may the Lord grant us each and +every one His true [Greek: gnothi seauton]. By a blessed paradox it is +sure to prove the secret of a true self-oblivion; for it means for +certain, among other things, a truer and fuller sight of HIM. + +MATRIMONY OR CELIBACY? + +The subject thus before us is a very large one. It connects itself with +the whole question whether marriage or celibacy is the will of God in +the man's ministerial life. Happily I have no need, in the Church of +England, to defend "the holy estate of matrimony" as if it were in the +slightest measure incompatible with the fullest sanctification of life +and of ministry. Personally my belief is that, in the immense majority +of cases, the married Clergyman is the more useful Clergyman _if_ (an +"if" of extreme importance) his wife is _altogether one with him in the +Lord_. But I distinctly think that there are very many exceptions to the +matrimonial rule. There are branches of ministerial work, particularly +in parts of the sacred _missionary_ field, where the single man seems to +make the better Minister. And no true servant of God will allow himself +to think first of an opening for marriage and then of an opening for +ministry. + +"ONE IN THE LORD." + +Here I pause to say what it lies much on my heart to say somewhere. Let +the true man, who is at present free in respect of marriage-engagements, +resolve that in the whole question of seeking or not seeking a wife he +will consider first, midst, and last his Master's work, his Master's +Ministry. Better a thousand times be the most solitary of human beings +than choose with your eyes open a married life in which you will not +find positive help (not merely no positive hindrance) in your work for +the Lord Jesus Christ. Beware of the temptation to seek the mere pretty +face, or the mere fortune large or small, or mere accomplishments, or +indeed anything short of the truly converted believing heart and +dedicated will. + +*MARRIED LIFE AS IT SHOULD BE. + +The Clergyman and his Wife are sacredly bound to live their united life +wholly for Christ. They are to help one another on in Him, to stimulate +one another in work for others in Him, to give each other always mutual +aid towards a constant growth in faith, hope, and love; towards an ever +better use of means, and time, and tongue, and everything. If their Lord +gives them children to train for Him, those children are to see their +parents so living, not only individually but together, as to glorify and +commend the Gospel _to them_, from the very first. And the wider family +of the parish, sure to be observant, is to see the same sight in +measure. Happy the married Pastor whose home and its life respond to +such a description. Alas for the man whose passion, blindness, hurry, +self-will, or whatever else it is, has betrayed him into a condition of +things which cannot be so described. + +I may be writing for some readers to whom such a "take heed unto +thyself" may be in point even as they read. If so, let me seize the +occasion. With not a few very sorrowful illustrations in my mind I lay +all emphasis on this earnest word of affectionate warning. And let me +add to it another word, as in duty bound, and with the utmost solemnity, +knowing that the thing is vitally important. I appeal to you not lightly +to seek marriage, not lightly to make engagement, even where you have +good assurance that all would be spiritually well, if there is a real +probability of a married life _clogged with pecuniary perplexities_. + +You observe that I do not speak absolutely on this point; I dare not. I +do not say, Do not do it; I say, Do not _lightly_ do it. Faith is one +thing; "light-heartedness" is another. And sometimes light-heartedness +means nothing better than a vague expectation that "something will turn +up." Perhaps what does turn up is a weary and distracting struggle with +debt, and a gradual habituation to a not very creditable life upon the +means of others, who very likely can spare only with difficulty what +comes at length to be taken without gratitude. I beseech my Brother to +"suffer the word of exhortation." + +RISKS OF DEBT. + +ii. I touch thus already on the second point about which I would fain +cry, Take heed unto thyself. That matter is _Money_. A few words here +will sufficiently convey my appeal, but those few must be pressing. I +appeal to my younger Brethren to be watchful day by day in the matter of +money. At this moment there rises in my memory the face and name of a +Clergyman with whom, long years ago, I became acquainted about the time +of his ordination. He was unquestionably in earnest; I believe that he +truly knew his Lord and Master, and was truly desirous to serve Him in +His flock. But I am perfectly sure that he must have forgotten, almost +from the first, to take heed unto himself in the matter of money. [SN: +PECUNIARY INTEMPERANCE.] Perhaps he had brought with him from the +University that fatal habit of _pecuniary intemperance_ which sometimes +gets a hold upon a man second in its grasp only to that of intemperance +commonly so called. Unhappily the ways of modern college life too easily +generate such a habit, as University men are led more and more by their +surroundings into a dread of appearing to be poor, and are almost +expected to cost their fathers more for the academical year of eight or +nine months than they will earn in the clerical year of twelve. But +however it was, my poor dear friend _had_ about him the tendency to +debt. And not all his earnestness and his devoutness could maintain his +influence when that tendency began to tell. One post of duty had to be +soon quitted for another, and so again and again, under this +ever-recurring failure. Let us take heed unto ourselves. + +PUBLIC AND PRIVATE MONEY. + +In dealing with money which in any sense is public, no care can be too +great. In a case well known to me, a Clergyman imperilled his whole +influence, to the verge of ruin, by the simple but effectual process of +allowing money collected for a church-object to be mixed and "muddled" +with his private funds. He was not business-like, and he was not at all +well off. And somehow, when the time of reckoning came, the money had +melted, he knew not whither. Strenuous exertions on the part of friends +replaced privately the missing collection; but it was only just in time. +I have often heard our Indian Missionaries say how great and frequent is +the difficulty raised by the apparent incapacity of some otherwise +excellent native Pastors to keep public and private money apart. They +mean all that is honourable; but a friend comes in begging for a loan, +and there is the church fund at hand, and of course the sum taken shall +be soon repaid, and of course it is _not_ repaid. But such difficulties +are not confined to India. The native Pastors of England have great need +to take heed unto themselves. + +THE ACCOUNTS IN GOOD ORDER. + +If possible, let us make our lay parochial friends our secretaries, and +above all our treasurers. But if it must be otherwise, and often it must +be, let us take heed, at any cost of pains. To do so may be overruled to +win a positive influence for the Clergyman. I well remember a dear +friend of mine telling me, with loyal pleasure, of his holy and devoted +Vicar's care in this direction, and its power over the keen-sighted and +not always friendly members of the school-committee in his great parish. +Every item of the books was accurate; every halfpenny of receipts +accounted for. Men could find no fault in that Clergyman save concerning +the Law--and the Gospel--of his God. + +INVESTMENT-CIRCULARS. + +Perhaps I need only allude in passing to that crude sort of temptation +put so freely before us Clergy, the circular advertisement of the mine +which is to pay twenty per cent., or of the company just formed (I have +such a circular in my possession, and keep it sacredly,) to promote the +construction of a new projectile which shall make war more horrible than +ever; one condition to the success of the Clergyman's investment being, +of course, that war, thus made more horrible than ever, shall also be as +frequent and continuous as possible. But the schemes announced in these +circulars are very various in character; good, indifferent, and bad. +Need I say that, as a very safe rule, they must all be viewed as bad +from the point of view of the young Clergyman's (or indeed of the +Clergyman's) purse? It is a truism to remark that high interest means +low security; but even a truism can bear occasional repetition when it +has to do with a good man's whole life and work, and when the oblivion +may mean acute or chronic misery. Such investments are for us a form of +gambling, almost as much so as the shameless circulars which we +sometimes receive from foreign cities, announcing the possibility of +clearing a fortune at one stroke by a turn of the lottery machine. Does +the sending of such missives to the English Clergy mean that English +Clergymen sometimes answer them? If so, I say that it is strictly +impossible that the man who so answers, whether he loses or wins, can +also be walking with God, and so working that the Lord works with him. +So far as such acts go, he is acting an awfully untrue part, and his +Master knows it. Let us take heed unto ourselves. + +OTHER MONEY-PERILS. + +In conclusion, I turn another way. The whole question of the increase +and investment of money is a very solemn and searching one for the +Christian, clerical or lay. There are holy men who say that we ought in +no degree to "lay up." While I reverence their meaning, I do not agree +with them. Yet I do most deeply feel that their warnings raise a +danger-signal in a direction opposite to that which we have been +viewing, but equally important. Some of my younger Brethren have already +a private competency; others may be expecting one. + +*"WHEN RICHES INCREASE." + +To others, gifted in one way or another for marked acceptance in the +Church, posts are, or will be, offered which even in these days bring a +good income, perhaps a growing one. Take heed unto thyself. It is with +deep significance that the Word of God bids us not set our heart upon +riches _when they increase_. [Ps. lxii. 10.] It is often observed, I +fear, that a man's readiness to give diminishes in proportion to his +power for giving. There is a subtle fascination for many minds, and +among them for minds generous at first, in an access of possessions; the +thirst for more sets in, however imperceptibly, and perhaps the +Christian, perhaps the Pastor, has become--before he knows it--covetous; +caring a good deal for money. Let us take heed unto ourselves.[13] + +[13] I cannot help relating a pathetically amusing remark I once heard +in a Dorsetshire cottage. I had looked in on the good housewife in the +course of a long walk, and she was telling me about the needs and +straits of a recent time of illness. The aged Vicar of the large and +thinly-peopled parish was a well-to-do man, and not at all unkind in +meaning and manner. But he never gave alms, or indeed material help of +any kind. "Poor Mr ----," said the cottager, with the kindliest +_naivete_, "he never _do_ give away anything. There, _I suppose it be +his affliction_." + +"LAY NOT UP FOR YOURSELVES." + +I am sure that the Gospel has no censure for modest comforts and for +simple refinements. I am sure that it bids the Christian, whether Pastor +or not, "_provide_," look beforehand, with a view to save needless +anxiety and disadvantage both for himself and yet more "for them of his +own house." [1 Tim. v. 8.] But I am equally sure that it commands us +even more emphatically not to lay up treasure upon earth; not to make +the sad mistake of thinking that the work of life is to get. Rather may +ours be the spirit of a noble-hearted friend of mine, now at rest for +ever, early called away from heroic Missionary work. He had found +himself rapidly getting richer in a successful school-enterprize; and +recognized _in this_ a summons to give it up, and volunteer for the +foreign field. + +But I say no more. Probably to the great majority of my readers these +last paragraphs seem little to the purpose, at least at present. But +there are few lives in which, sooner _or later_, such reflections may +not find a corner for application. + +THE MOTIVE. + +Meanwhile, whether our call is to avoid debt or to avoid gathering, we +will look up for new motive power into our Master's face. Him we love; +Him we long to commend; and to Him we belong with all we have. In His +Name, and for His sake, we will take heed unto ourselves. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +_THE DAILY WALK WITH OTHERS_ (iii.). + + + _Thrice happy they who at Thy side, + Thou Child of Nazareth, + Have learnt to give their struggling pride + Into Thy hands to death: + If thus indeed we lay us low, + Thou wilt exalt us o'er the foe; + And let the exaltation be + That we are lost in Thee._ + + +Let me say a little on a subject which, like the last, is one of some +delicacy and difficulty, though its problems are of a very different +kind. It is, the relation between the Curate and his Incumbent; or more +particularly, the Curate's position and conduct with regard to the +Incumbent. + +A LECTURE ON CURATES. + +I need not explain that the legal aspect of this important matter is not +in my view. Not long ago I listened, in the library of Ridley Hall, to +an instructive lecture, by a diocesan Chancellor, on the law of Curates; +one of a series on Church Law delivered under the sanction of the +University. The Lecturer informed the audience, certainly he informed +me, of many points of practical moment not clearly known to us before. +He gave a sketch of the history of the licensed Curate as an +institution, and made us aware that he is a modern institution, +comparatively speaking. Before the Reformation the numerous host of +"chantry-priests" was largely used to supplement the offices of the +parochial Clergy. After the Reformation, for a very long while, the +pastoral arrangements did not include a special institution of +Assistants. Then, as the unhappy system of pluralities grew large and +common, such as it was all through the eighteenth century and beyond it, +"the Curate" meant not the active assistant of the resident Pastor but +the substitute for the non-resident--the Curate-in-Charge. It was not +till well within these last hundred years that men were commonly to be +found doing what we now understand so well as Assistant-Curates' work. +The presence in the Church of us Assistant-Curates (I hold a licence +myself, and am therefore one of the company) is at once an effect and a +sign both of the great increase of population and of the concurrent +increase throughout the Church of England of the desire for fuller and +more laborious ministrations. + +A CHANCELLOR'S SUGGESTIONS. + +So our able Lecturer led us through our own history; and then he +proceeded to instruct us in some main elements of our legal +qualifications, and duties, and rights: how to get into a Curacy, and +how to get out of it; what are the Bishop's rights over the Curate, and +how the Archbishop may interpose if the Curate pleads a grievance +against the Bishop. But I trust that this and other Lectures of the same +course may see the light some day in a better form than a rough and +passing report of mine. My purpose in referring to them now is that I +may call attention to one point on which the Lecturer laid no little +stress. It was, that it is the wisdom of the Curate, when he has once +deliberately accepted a Curacy, to be thoroughly loyal all along; to +consider himself as "at the Vicar's beck and call"; to serve him +heartily and unreservedly. If tempted to do otherwise, particularly if +tempted to complain of the Vicar to the Bishop, let him resist that +temptation to the utmost of his power. "There may be sad exceptions, and +necessity knows no law; but _as a rule_," said my honoured friend, "I +may assure you, from a large experience, that the Curate who complains +of his Incumbent to his Bishop injures not the Incumbent but himself." + +LOYALTY. + +Our Lecturer avowedly spoke not as a spiritual but as a legal +counsellor. I would now take up his words, and from the point of view of +the friend and Brother in the Lord say a little to my younger Brethren, +engaged or about to be engaged in assistant Curacies, concerning the +Christian rightness and Christian wisdom of taking the sort of line +which the diocesan Chancellor recommended. + +THE IDEAL INCUMBENT. + +As I come to the subject, let me say on the threshold that I am sure to +be writing for many readers who little need the discourse, at least at +present. You are working under a Vicar or a Rector whose example and +also whose friendship is one of the greatest blessings of your life. You +see in him a man perhaps much older than yourself, perhaps nearly your +coeval, but however a leader, who is also, in the Lord Jesus Christ, +your brother, and your most considerate while stimulating friend. He +consults you, without forgetting his responsibility of ultimate +direction. He gladly and fully recognizes and honours your work done +under his organization. He has not the slightest wish to come between +you and the affections of his parishioners among whom you move. He +cultivates, in his busy life, Christian fellowship with you in private; +you pray together, and talk together, not only about the parish but +about the Lord, and the Word, and your own souls. He lets you find in +him, as he is glad to find in you, just a man, a friend, a Christian, +with trials and blessings of inner experience on which it is sometimes +good to speak to one another; a living soul, companionable and human, +while in it Christ dwells by faith. You have experienced with happy +uniformity your Incumbent's patience, sympathy, fairness, +trustworthiness. You have seen in him one who is himself always at work, +always watching for the flock; who does not put on you this duty or that +merely because it is irksome to himself, but whose whole purposes are in +the cause of God, and who distributes labour in any and every interest +but his own. + +And perhaps you see this man honoured and loved by all around you, as +they too see and know him to be what he is. You move about in the +parish, and you are quite sure to hear allusions to the Vicar. And as a +rule, perhaps, they are all friendly, all loyal, all grateful. You find +yourself, in short, under no appreciable present temptation, being (as +of course you are) a true man yourself, to do anything but identify +yourself very gladly with him. + +YET EVEN HE IS NOT PERFECT. + +But then, even in this bright supposed case--a case of which the Church +of England contains hundreds of practical examples, thank +God--appreciable temptations in the other direction, the wrong, unhappy, +fatal direction, may very conceivably creep upon you with time. Your +admirable Incumbent is all the while a mortal man, and as such, most +certainly (he himself above all men knows and owns it), he is not +perfect, not quite equal to himself in every way. Perhaps he has come to +be not perfect in physical health, and thus he is obliged, to his own +grief, to do less in this or that branch of activity than some of his +people think he ought to do; and then you are tolerably sure to hear +some not very just and generous complaints in the parish. Perhaps +domestic sorrow, or domestic straits and care, may have come in to +becloud his spirit and to make his energies for a season flag. Perhaps +among his many gifts you may find some gift a little lacking; he may be +manifestly less strong in the committee, or in the labours of +arrangement generally, than in the pulpit or the class; or it may be +just the other way. And you, my dear friend, may be (or may think +yourself to be) somewhat strong where he is somewhat weak; an +opportunity for many subtle temptations. The days and weeks go on; and +if you let "the little rift" of criticism widen, and do not continually +take it to your Lord to be examined and mended, other feelings--not born +from above--may steal in between you and this good man, your elder and +leader in Christ. Petty dislikes and impatience may rise in your heart +about some trifling point of manner, some momentary failure of sympathy, +some oblivion of arrangement or engagement due to a sore stress of +work, some very small matter of Church order, or Christian dialect; or +who can tell what? + +GRAVE POSSIBLE TEMPTATIONS TO DISLOYALTY. + +But also it is just possible that I am writing for some reader who finds +himself in more grave and pressing difficulties than these. My most +honoured brethren the Incumbents, if any of them should cast their eyes +over these chapters, written by a Curate mainly for Curates, will not +blame me for saying that there are cases, sad and sorrowful, where the +Curate cannot honestly think with perfect happiness of his leader's work +and influence. Perhaps that Incumbent has "run well," nobly well, but +(as it was of old with some primitive saints) something or someone +"hindered him." [Gal. v. 7.] Perhaps he has lost first love and +zeal, and sunk, he knows not how, into an indolent clericalism, or +anticlericalism, of thought and habit. Perhaps he has suffered care, +disappointment, parochial conflicts, to sour his spirit, or at least to +take his heart away from his people. Perhaps he has felt the sad +influence of controversial battles, and the love and richness of the old +Gospel has somewhat faded out of his life, and conversation, and +sermons; I do not refer to faithful care over distinctive and +world-offending truth, but to the controversial _spirit_, which is +altogether another thing. Perhaps he has somewhat lost command over +temper; perhaps he has not yet found in our Lord's great fulness the +open secret by which He supplies patience to His servants, even when +they are sorely vexed by man. And just possibly difficulty between +Curate and Vicar threatens to arise from some side-quarter; from those +who stand around the Vicar, who inevitably see him often and intimately, +who are active and important under-workers in his field, and who may +themselves be not quite fully "governed by the Spirit and Word of God." + +BEWARE OF THE GROWTH OF A CURATE'S PARTY. + +I have put a good many supposed cases. How much I should rejoice if I +could know that not one reader of this page could find any of my +"peradventures" the least in point within his experience. But I must +emphasize one of them which is hardly a peradventure at all; namely that +the Curate is practically certain, sooner or later, to find temptations +presented to his loyalty by the conversation of parishioners. There is +not one parish in all England where everybody is pleased with the +Incumbent; pleased always and about everything. And if the given Vicar +or Rector employs a Curate, and if that Curate is you, it will be a +moral miracle if you never hear of such discontents. You will hear of +them, very probably, in ways which will offer you, however faintly, an +opportunity of acting towards your chief a little as Absalom acted +towards David when he expressed certain pious wishes that _he_ were made +judge in the land in his father's place. [2 Sam. xv. 1-6.] I do not for +a moment mean that you are, or ever will be, a man of treacherous +_purposes_; the Lord forbid. But if you do not watch, and are not in +some measure forewarned, you may easily be betrayed unawares, quite +unawares, into speech or into action which will practically be +treacherous to the man who is over you in Christ, and so toward Christ's +work and cause in the parish where you serve. Do you not know the +possibilities to which I refer? Have they not crossed either your own +path or that of some Curate-friend of yours? Is there no such thing as +an intimacy formed by the Curate in some house where the Incumbent is +not liked, and is that intimacy never used by the Curate _not_ for the +noblest ends? Is there no weak listening to parochial gossip on the +Curate's part? Is there never any allowance by the younger man of a +growth around him, in ways which he could stop summarily, if he tried, +of a certain unwholesome sort of preference and popularity? Is it not +sometimes known that a Curate condescends so low as to concur with +criticisms or sarcasms on his chief, or even to volunteer them? Alas for +the parish where there is a "Curate's party," small or more extensive. +Happy the parish where no chance is given in that direction by either +Incumbent or Curate. Happy the Curate who is so truly loyal and dutiful, +it may be even under difficulties, that he makes it quite unmistakable +that, if a party is to gather, it must gather around some one else. + +HOW TO REPRESS IT. + +Some cases happily in point are present to my own mind. I once knew of a +parish in which the truly devoted Vicar was, however, not popular; he +had sadly felt the weight of depression and disappointment, and this had +had a weakening reflex influence on his ministry. He was joined by a +Curate, a man in the prime of youth and vigour, well qualified to +attract confidence and affection, and particularly gifted as a preacher. +Very soon many parishioners showed a preference for the young man's +ministrations in public, and for his company in private; it was a golden +opportunity for the almost spontaneous formation of a Curate's party. By +the grace of God, the young Clergyman was enabled both to see the +position at once and, by most decisive and manly speech and act, in the +right quarters, to show, without a chance of mistake, that he considered +his work as altogether identical with his Vicar's, never to be carried +on for an hour outside a faithful subordination. Another instance may be +given. Some years ago it was my duty to explain at a meeting the objects +and work of the Divinity Hall with which I am connected. Quite +incidentally, while describing our course of teaching, I mentioned my +earnest desire always to caution my student-friends against giving the +slightest encouragement to the rise of Curates' parties. + +*AN EXAMPLE. + +At the close of the occasion, a Clergyman rose at the back of the +parish-room where we met, and said a few words, as gladdening as they +were unexpected. He had come to the meeting-place with no knowledge of +the meeting; merely to keep an appointment. But he happened to be the +Vicar of a large town parish, and there to have had a friend of mine as +his Curate; and he told us how this same Curate had come to him at a +time when the parish, under circumstances inherited from past years, was +ripe and ready for partizanship and division. Nothing would have been +needed but the Curate's passive allowance of such tendencies to +embarrass and spoil the difficult work of the Vicar. But my dear young +friend was "found in Christ"; he knew his Lord's will in the matter, and +he strove to do it. By active discouragement he precluded the mischief +completely, and thus greatly strengthened his leader's hands for the +work of God before him. + +"THE LOST GRACE, HUMILITY." + +Surely few Christian men have wider and nobler opportunity than Curates +have for the practice of "that lost grace, humility," in its form of +unselfish dutifulness, "good fidelity in all things." [Tit. ii. 10.] My +Brethren know the sort of humility I mean; no artificial mannerism, +nothing in the least degree unworthy of the "adult in Christ." What I do +mean is that thing so scarce in our days, the noble opposite to that +individualistic spirit than which nothing is more narrow, more low, more +hostile to all true, genial development and greatness. I mean the +generous modesty which delights to recognize the claims of an elder, of +a leader; which loves the idea of trustworthy service, taking as its +motto a more than princely _Ich Dien_. I mean the temper of mind which +sees the happiness of siding against ourselves, of judging not others +but ourselves; the spirit which is much more anxious to vindicate a +superior's reputation than our own, more alert to ward criticism off +from him than to shield our own head from its arrow. I mean the life +which shows that so far from being ashamed of the idea of subjection, +the man has learnt at the feet of Jesus to think true service the +truest freedom. + +Another day, very probably, the Curate will find himself an Incumbent, +and will have his own helping brother at his side. It will be a happy +thing then for both parties if he has thoroughly learnt that great +qualification for command, the experience of obedience; and has +cultivated the exercise of sympathy with his subordinate by having first +striven in honest loyalty to take his chief's part against himself. + +TAKE PART AGAINST YOURSELF. + +Few, very few, are the cases where a man who has accepted a Curacy _with +his eyes reasonably open_ finds that such is the friction of the +position that his first duty is to seek a release. There are such cases, +I am afraid. But, I say it again, they are very few; and in every case +which looks as if it were one of them, the Curate should _first_ +exercise the severest scrutiny upon himself, trying honestly to find, in +some magnifying mirror, "the beam in his own eye." [Matt. vii. 3.] And +even where such scrutiny still leaves it plain, after consultation not +only with sensible friends (if necessary) but of course with the Lord +Himself, that it is best to seek a change, let it be remembered that, up +to the very last day of connexion, the Curate is still the Curate, bound +to all possible loyalty and good faith. + +"SUFFER THE WORD." + +It is with some misgivings of feeling that I have dwelt thus at length +on difficulties and anxieties incident to the relationship of Curate and +Incumbent. But I do not think after all that I shall be misunderstood. +In the nature of the case, the bright sides of the matter have hardly +needed comment. The Curate who finds himself the favoured and advantaged +helper of some true-hearted leader needs little counsel from me, unless +it be in face of the fact, on which we have touched, that the noblest +leaders in the Lord in the whole English Church are not above parochial +criticism, or even parochial slander. But I do know that there are +Curates whose circumstances are less favourable; and I long to impress +it upon them that few Christians have a larger and more fruitful field +than they for the cultivation of some of the crowning graces of the +Gospel. It is for them to make no common proof of the power of the +Indwelling Lord to subdue the iniquities of His people, to hallow their +inmost spirits, to set before their lips the watch and ward of His +blessed Presence, to drive utterly away from their pastoral souls the +wretched spirit of sarcasm, to enable them for an unselfish faithfulness +when no eye but the unseen Master's oversees. + +INDEPENDENCE AND LOYALTY. + +It is no part of the system of the Church of England, as it is of that +of the Church of Rome, to put a man (or a woman) under the "spiritual +direction" of a fellow-sinner, who is to be, for the "directed," the +organ and representative of the will of God. For such a method is no +part of the apostolic Gospel, which never for a moment bids us +surrender conscience into the keeping of another. "Who art thou that +judgest _Another's_ servant? To his _own Master_ he standeth or +falleth" [Rom. xiv. 4.]; words which deeply and decisively contradict +the root-ideas of spiritual despotism, for they teach us to think of +our fellow-Christians, as if--for purposes of the conscience--He who +is their Master and ours was, for them, _another_ Master than +ours.[14] Yet the ideas of spiritual despotism are only the distortion +or parody of ideas which are as true and sacred as the Gospel can make +them; the ideas of self-abnegation for the good of others, and of +resolute denial of the miserable spirit which prefers self to others +and talks about rights when we should be intent on duties. The +Christian man, and _a fortiori_ the Minister of Christ, is called (as +we have seen in earlier pages) to nothing less than a life in which, +while conscience is inviolable, self is surrendered to Christ, in that +practical sense of the words which means surrender, for His sake, _to +others_, in all things which concern not right and wrong but our +self-will. + +[14] I owe this remark to my friend the Rev. H.E. Brooke. + +"CLOTHED WITH HUMILITY." + +"Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder." [1 Pet. v. 5.] +I never forget how the Apostle finishes the passage; "Yea, _all of you_, +be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility," [Greek: +egkoubosasthe ten tapeinophosynen], "tie humility round you" as the +servant ties on his apron. Most characteristic of the Bible is the +impartiality of the precept, so given; the Elders in the Church of God +will not forget it on their side. But nevertheless the stress of the +precept bears upon the younger man. He, in the Lord's order, is +especially to recollect the sacred duty of a willing, loyal, and +open-eyed humility. + +A NOBLE SUBORDINATION. + +All the instincts of our time are against this. But for the true +disciple of Jesus Christ there is something stronger than any spirit of +the age; it is the Spirit of God, dwelling in the inmost soul. By that +wonderful power the Christian Curate, who walks with the Lord in secret, +and finds in Him his way of purity and consistency in the more general +aspects of his "walk with others," will daily be enabled for a bright +and glad consistency in the path of ministerial subordination. He will +not cease to be a man, who must observe and think; nor will he +necessarily hold it his duty never, in all loyalty and respect, to +express to his Vicar a differing wish or opinion. But his bias will be +against himself, and for his chief, if he indeed lets the Spirit of God +lead him, and rule him, and fill him. For the Lord's sake, [Greek: dia +tou Kyrion], and by the Lord's power, [Greek: dia tou Kyriou], he will +carry the principle of a watchful "submission" not only into greater +things, but even into the smaller preferences of his elder and leader, +if they in the least degree affect the duties of the parish and the +church. + +A LETTER ON CURATES' GRIEVANCES. + +I close this chapter with a quotation. It is a letter written to the +Editor of the _Record_, in the spring of 1885, after the perusal of a +correspondence in that paper in which some "grievances of Evangelical +Curates" had been set forth, and in which it had been implied that such +grievances might give some sufferers occasion to transfer their +sympathies to another "school." + +"After reading the recent correspondence, I cannot forbear a few words +expressive of the sad impression left upon my mind. Far be it from me to +say that Incumbents have no lessons to learn from this correspondence. +All Incumbents who have, by grace, 'the mind that was in Christ Jesus' +will surely embrace every suggestion, however painful in form, which can +stimulate them to larger manifestations of holy and self-forgetting +sympathy, perfectly compatible with the firm attitude (which is also +their duty) of responsible direction. But this thought leaves unaltered +the mournful impression taken from the tone of the letters of my +aggrieved Brethren. In one form or another one thought seemed to breathe +in all;--the thought of _my_ rights, _my_ position, _my_ gifts and +opportunities, and what was due from others in regard of them; the +complaint that others were not humble, when the Christian's first +concern with humility is to derive it for himself from his Lord. Such a +spirit is not easily compatible with a true secret hourly walk with God +and abiding in Christ, the _sine qua non_ of fruit-bearing. And +fruit-bearing is the supreme inner aim of the true pastoral life, +fruit-bearing in the devoted doing of the Master's present will. + +"In one letter I read with pain that 'it is no marvel' if men who cannot +secure justice and happiness in one party should transfer their +allegiance to another. Is it indeed 'no marvel'? Is it to be expected, +then, in the holy Ministry, that convictions about divine truth should +be modified by the personal claims and comfort of the holder, if the +word 'hold' may be used without severe irony in such a connexion? Can a +saint and servant of God, young or old, Vicar or Curate, walk closely +with Him all day, truly given to Him, wholly submissive to His word and +will, and yet find it possible to deal with convictions so? What are +personal rights and exterior happiness weighed against the claims of +what we have really grasped as truth in the presence of the Lord? It is +well for us that martyrs and confessors, and their worthy successors, +our Evangelical ancestors of a century ago, knew how to answer that +question. + +CONVICTION SACRED, SELF NOWHERE. + +"I aim to speak with all humility and sympathy. But I cannot but thus +earnestly express the unalterable conviction that the only ministerial +life which can be 'sanctified and meet for the Master's use' is the life +in which conviction is sacred, in which Christ is all, and in which self +is nowhere." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +_PASTOR IN PARISH_ (i.). + + + _Master, to the flock I speed, + In Thy presence, in Thy name; + Show me how to guide, to feed, + How aright to cheer and blame; + With me knock at every door; + Enter with me, I implore._ + + +We have talked together about the young Clergyman's secret life, and +private life, and his life in (so to speak) non-clerical intercourse +with others, and now lastly of his life as it stands related to his +immediate leader in the Ministry. In this latter topic we have already +touched the great matter which comes now at once before us, the man's +work amongst his neighbours as he approaches them in his proper +character, as a Pastor. + +"THE PULSE OF THE MACHINE." + +How shall I speak of "parish-work"? It would be a boundless subject if +treated in detail and in the style of a directory of methods. But such a +treatment is far from my purpose. To undertake it, I should not only +need to be a widely experienced Pastor, which I cannot claim to be, for +my life for many years has been mainly devoted to academic teaching; I +should need to be several widely experienced Pastors bound up into one +living volume. So let no one expect to find here a prescription for the +right plans and right practice of the many departments of the rural +pastorate, or of the urban, or suburban; directions how to organize +work, and how to develop it; how to deal with the Sunday School, or the +Day School, or the Institute, or the Guild, or the Visitors' Meeting, or +the Missionary Association. My hope is rather to get behind all these +things to the pulse of the busy machinery; to offer a few hints to my +younger Brethren "how to do it," from the point of view of their +personal and inner preparedness for the multifold work, and to state +some plain general principles which may run through all the doing. + +VISITING. + +I set before me then the Curate, and the Parish, with its demands for +pastoral labour, and particularly for _Visitation_. Well do I know how +immense the differences are between place and place in this same matter +of visitation; how the parish of a few hundreds, or even of two or +three thousand, is one thing, and the parish of ten, or eighteen, or +twenty thousand is another. I know that there are parishes, in London +for example, where all the efforts of a staff of devoted Clergy seem to +fail to do more than touch the edges of the work of domestic visitation. +Yet surely even in such cases that work must not, and will not, be quite +given up as hopeless. A little, where only a little is possible, is +vastly better than none; even if it be only the visitation of the sick, +and of those who immediately surround them, and with whom the sick-visit +gives the Clergyman an opportunity. Such efforts, where nothing more of +the kind is possible, if only done in an unmistakable spirit of love and +self-sacrifice, must carry good to the people. And do not forget that +they must, quite as necessarily, carry good to the Clergyman. For they +are a means, for which nothing else can be quite the substitute, of +bringing him into contact with the people's thoughts and lives in ways +which will tell usefully (as we have seen in an earlier page) upon his +whole ministry, particularly upon his work in the pulpit, and at the +mission-room desk, and in the open air. + +But, to be as practical as possible, I will assume that the Curacy is of +a more normal kind than that just supposed. The parish, whether in +country or in town, is not so large as to make visitation from house to +house impossible. And the Curate has had his work of this kind assigned +him, and is setting out upon it. A good portion of every day (though I +hope it is possible to give a part of one day each week to some sort of +wisely managed holiday) is devoted to "the district"; now for a steady +round of calls, door by door; now, in an irregularity not without +method, for visits to special cases of sickness, or sorrow, or other +need. + +PREPARE FOR VISITATION WITH PRAYER. + +What shall be my first suggestion? It shall point to the Throne of +Grace. Preface the pastoral round with special secret prayer. Sermons +are usually (I wish it were always so now) prefaced with prayer in the +pulpit that the heavenly blessing may rest upon the ordinance. Is it +less fitting, less necessary, to prepare for the afternoon's or +evening's visitation with a secret petition in your own room that the +apostolic ordinance of domestic visitation [Acts xx. 20, 21.], to be +administered now by you, may have the special grace of God in it? Pray +for yourself, my younger Brother. + +*PRAY FOR SPIRITUAL READINESS AND SPIRITUAL FULNESS. + +Ask that you may go out well furnished with the peace, and patience, and +wisdom laid up for you in your Lord; that you may have "by the Holy +Spirit a right judgment in all things"; that you may have "the tongue of +the taught,[15] to speak a word in season to them that are weary"; +whatever sort of weariness it is. Pray for that secret skill of +discernment which can see the difference of spiritual states, and allot +warning or comfort not at random but "in due season." Pray for that +readiness for the unexpected which is best secured and best maintained +in a close and conscious intimacy with your Saviour. The man "found in +Him" will be found ready _in spirit_ (and that is after all the +essential in spiritual work) for the sudden question, whether anxious or +captious, for the sudden rudeness of ignorance or opposition, and again +for the chronic and so to speak passive difficulty of indifference. "The +tongue of the taught," while the "taught" man is found in Christ, will +ever be sweet, wise, and truthful, as the owner of it goes his round. +But we must seek for it; "He will be enquired of for this thing." [SN: +Ezek. xxxvi. 37.] + +[15] Isai. l. 4. Obviously the word "learned" in our Version is there +used in its old English sense, "instructed, taught." No slight on +"book-learning" is ever conveyed in the Scriptures. But the man in view +here is not the highly-educated person, but the believer who has +listened with _the ear_ "of the taught" (see the end of the verse), as a +disciple at the Master's feet; and so goes forth to speak with "_the +tongue_ of the taught," as a messenger who has learned sympathy, +insight, holy tact and truthfulness, from the Master's heart. The whole +passage is full of the blessed Messiah Himself, I know. But it has its +reflected reference for all His true followers, and above all for all +His true Ministers. May He give us, in His mercy, for every act of our +messenger-work, both the ear and the tongue of His "taught" ones. + +Then, as you pray for yourself, you will pray also for the people you +are about to visit. Perhaps they are as yet strange to you, and you can +ask for them only in general. But if you know anything at all about them +it will be worth while to individualize your prayer, however briefly. +Special, detailed prayer _is_ a power with God. And it is a power with +man too. To be dealing with one for whom you know you have prayed is +already to have a foothold there. Perhaps you may have an opportunity to +_say_, quite naturally, that you have been praying for him; and this may +very possibly be a direct vehicle of blessing. + +You will go out then, as directly as possible, from the secret place of +heavenly intercourse. That is a bracing atmosphere: + + "Fresh airs and heavenly odours breathe around + The throne of grace;" + +and those airs can quicken the young Pastor's spirit for the heaviest +hours of a sultry afternoon or evening, till he comes back weary to his +rooms, "tired in the Lord's work, but not tired of it," as dying +Whitefield said. + +So you go forth with real prayer. It is your wonderful privilege, thus +going to carry nothing less than the blessed "Fulness of the Holy Ghost" +for your inmost equipment. I say deliberately, nothing less than the +heavenly Fulness--a far different thing from a mere stir and lift of the +emotions. That most divine gift is a "calm excess" of tranquil power, +received humbly by the prayer of faith. It is not meant to be a rare +luxury; it is a daily and hourly offer, a provided _viaticum_ for every +stage of walk and duty. Can we work aright for God while any corner of +our being has no room for God, and is not possessed by Him? + +METHOD. + +Then, for true prayer and true practicality are the closest and most +harmonious friends, you will of course aim with forethought and +persistency at _method_ in the pastoral work. The visits will be +arranged as far as possible with economy of _space_; no difficult task +in most town parishes, while in the country, of course, the matter is +often much less easy. And you will study also economy of _time_. Your +round is a work of sacred _business_. The minutes, the quarters of an +hour, are never to run loose and unobserved. Who that has ever visited +in a parish does not know the need of remembering that point, so easily +forgotten? Here we visit a pleasant, welcoming neighbour, and it is all +too easy to stay on, perhaps to little real purpose, with the secret +satisfaction of knowing that the next and much less attractive call must +be shortened in proportion. Here, less willingly, we are detained by +one of those ingenious tongues which make it so difficult to get in a +word, or to stop the unprofitable continuity of topics. All these cases, +and endless kindred ones, need a little foresight and firmness, and a +little of the skill which is soon learnt by open heart and open eyes. + +ECONOMY OF TIME. + +Obviously this line of caution is more needed by some men than by +others. But it is needed by not a few; particularly in respect of the +temptation to lengthen out unduly the visits that are pleasant to the +visitor. One young Clergyman known to me, an indefatigable and devoted +visitor, needed a strong reminder in this direction in the early days of +his ministry. He would visit a sick person, who proved more or less +responsive to his efforts, and would allow himself to _over_-visit, to +an unwise extent, going often more than once a day, and long after the +state of the invalid made such attentions urgent. And other work of +course suffered in proportion. Wesley's precept to his workers needs our +remembrance often; "Go not where you are wanted, but where you are +wanted most." + +BUT AVOID HURRY. + +But a risk on the other hand must be remembered. Economy of time must +never mean hurry of manner, a thing which is nearly if not quite fatal +to the usefulness of a visit. It is perfectly possible to combine +promptitude with quiet; to come manifestly on business, and yet not in a +bustle. We Clergymen may learn many valuable lessons in this, as in some +other parts of our work, from our medical friends. Observe how a wise +and kindly doctor visits _his_ parishioners. He knows exactly why he +comes; he knows that other patients are wanting him, in long succession; +he knows that he must observe and advise as promptly and as much to the +point as possible; and he knows that all must be done with a quiet, +strong, untroubled manner, if it is to be done aright. + +I spoke in a previous chapter about the sacred duty of watching and +regulating manner. This is to be done at all times of intercourse, but +above all in pastoral visits. To speak only of this point of hurry or +calm of manner; it is most important. The right manner will make a visit +of five minutes practically longer than a twenty minutes' visit which +gives all through it the impression that the Clergyman must be off. One +of the most admirable Pastors I have ever known, the late Rev. Charles +Clayton, of Cambridge,[16] did much of his work by five-minute visits. +But they were always visits in which the whole thought was given to the +case before him, and the word in season came from full knowledge of his +flock and from an unmistakably pastoral heart. + +[16] Afterwards Rector of Stanhope and Canon of Ripon. + +IMPARTIAL COURTESY. + +A duty which you will carefully remember throughout your round is that +of quiet Christian courtesy; impartially shown to rich, to middling, and +to poor. I say impartially, with a view to _both_ ends of the scale. +Some men (perhaps not many, but some) seem to think that ministerial +courage and fidelity in dealing with well-to-do parishioners demand a +certain dropping of the courtesies of life; a very great mistake. Many +more men are tempted to forget that their visits to the poorest should +be, in the essence of the matter, as courteous as when they go to the +portal which carries a brass knocker. At the door of the dingiest +cottage, or dingier lodging, never forget that you _ask_ for entrance; +it is your neighbour's castle-door; and you are not a sanitary +inspector. If you happen to come in at the meal-time of the roughest and +dirtiest, apologize as naturally and honestly as you would if you +intruded on the wealthy churchwarden's well-set luncheon. Among the very +lowest, do all you can to honour parents before their children (I know +it is nearly impossible in some sad cases); and always honour old age. + +BE NATURAL. + +Surely one good maxim on manner with our poorer neighbours is to aim to +address them very much as we would address our neighbours of our own +class. A patronizing manner is most certainly a very great pity, and +almost sure to be resented. But so, too, is the ostentatious +"hail-and-well-met" manner which is sometimes assumed; an over-drawn +imitation, perhaps, of the workman's manner with his fellows. This is a +mistake, because it is almost always unnatural. Few gentlemen get better +at others by ceasing to act and speak as gentlemen. Let us talk quite +quietly and pleasantly, as just what we are, and as those who most +unaffectedly "honour all men," [1 Pet. ii. 17.] and we shall not go far +astray; always supposing that the matter of our talk is sensible, true, +and to the purpose. + +THE SICK-ROOM. + +To turn aside for a moment to the special and sacred work of Visitation +of the Sick. It is not to be lightly done, as if it were an easy part of +our duty, quite obvious in its aims and methods. The greatest judgment +is often needed in the sick-room. We need quickness to perceive how much +conversation the invalid can bear, if the case is one of great pain, or +(what often makes undue length even more irksome) great weakness. We +need an insight into the best side of approach to conscience, or to +will. We need the skill which knows how to question enough, but not too +much, not as the inquisitor but as the helper. Many another matter will +call for sanctified common-sense in the sick-room; a restful _voice_, +easy, quiet _movements_, and the like. And let me say that where you are +visiting a chronic case, and need to call again and again, if a day and +hour for the next visit is mentioned it should be _kept to_ with +jealous punctuality. Nothing is more trying to the suffering and weary +than uncertainty and suspense. I have known of much harm done to good +men's influence by their neglect of punctuality with sick people. + +PUNCTUALITY. + +Of punctuality generally I can (and surely need) speak only in passing. +It is a primary duty of the busy but patient work of the pastorate. To +be neglectful of it is to set up and keep up a needless and mischievous +friction in our intercourse with others, and indefinitely to injure our +influence in many ways. "No man ever waited five minutes for me in my +life, unless for reasons quite beyond my power;" such was a remark of +Charles Simeon's in his last days. _We_ may be for ever unable to say +this of our own past. But if so, shall it not be true for us also _from +this day forward_? + +USE OF THE BIBLE IN VISITING. + +Thus prepared by secret and special intercourse with God, and +recollecting some simple maxims about practical points, you go out into +the parish. But no; let me suggest one other preliminary, which, before +most rounds of pastoral visiting, cannot be out of place. You will take +in your pocket _two books_, if not more; one, your visiting register and +diary, the other--your Bible. Of the use to be made of the note-book I +need not speak. About that to be made of the Book of God let me say a +very few words. + +I do not mean at all that you will make the reading of the Holy +Scriptures a matter of form or routine; a thing which _must_ be done, as +an _opus operandum_, wherever there is a chance. But I do mean that you +should have the Book always ready for use, and be prompt to sow the +"incorruptible seed" [1 Pet. i. 23.] from house to house as God gives +opportunity. Remember, it is a Book sadly little known by the very large +majority of your people; so that every natural and naturally-taken +occasion to "let it speak," in private as well as in public, is a +contribution to that urgent need of our modern world, Bible-knowledge. +Remember again that, despite all the wretched unsettlements of belief +amongst us, the Bible is still the Bible, for untold multitudes; it is +owned by them, whether or no it is used, as the Oracle of God. Let us +let the Book speak at the open ear of such a conviction, however dimly +the conviction is entertained. And then remember that the Bible, +whatever be the state of current opinion about it, _is_ as a fact the +Oracle of God, and its immortal and life-conveying words have a +mysterious fitness all their own to be the vehicle of the Spirit's voice +to the human heart. Offer it, as often as you can, to be that vehicle. + +CHOOSE A PASSAGE BEFOREHAND. + +Two simple expedients for effective use of the Scriptures in a parish +round are presented to me by my own past experience, gathered from +several years of regular parochial work. One is, the choice of some +short pregnant passage which shall be, for that round, _the_ passage to +be read not once only but in house after house, unless, of course, there +is special reason to the contrary. Such a reiteration, so I have often +found, is a great help to the visitor, who probably feels on each new +occasion that a new power and point appear in the passage, and that it +seems each time easier to speak from it, however briefly, to the soul. +The other expedient which my experience recommends is to be prepared, +whenever a hopeful opportunity occurs, to leave a Scripture message +visibly behind you as you go. I used to carry with me a little sheaf of +slips of paper, on each of which was printed the request, _Please read +this passage, and think about it_. A short message from the heavenly +Word would be written on the slip in pencil as I was about to go; and +this visible and personal invitation to "read and think" proved often a +real remembrance from the Lord. + +THE VISITING PASTOR AT WORK. + +But now you are actively engaged from door to door. If you are a +new-comer, and particularly if it is also a district (in the great City +perhaps) where visitation has been an unwonted thing, you must be +prepared of course for very various sorts of reception. But assuredly in +most districts by far, and at most doors, the man who exercises common +tact and courtesy, and is plainly trying to do his duty in a loving and +earnest spirit, and is known already, or now introduces himself, as the +Clergyman, will be civilly and often gladly met. + +*OUR ADVANTAGE AS MINISTERS OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. + +Let me pause for a moment to remind you of one great and valuable +advantage which is ours as the Ministers of the National Church and the +servants of the parochial system. All honour to devoted servants of God +in the Ministry of other denominations; in numberless instances they +have done in the past, and are doing now, work which the National Church +has either neglected, or has been unable to overtake; and the power of +the Lord has been and is present with them to bless. But nevertheless I +for one thank God for a National Church, and recognize in that Church's +historical and practical position a unique opportunity and an immense +advantage, so it be used faithfully and in loyalty to the Lord and His +Word. And one feature of that position of opportunity is this, that it +is the popularly (and rightly) recognized _duty_ of the Church of +England Clergyman to ask admission at every door, so far as he can go to +every door, within his portion of the national vineyard. To a large +degree this is understood to be our duty, our business, as it is not +understood to be that of other Ministers of religion; and this is a fact +which for the man who will use it with good sense and unobtrusive +diligence is an invaluable introduction. A "younger Brother" of my own, +whose work began in a Liverpool Curacy, told me of his experience in +this matter. His district contained a very miscellaneous population; +almost all the great dissenting Churches were represented, and there +were many Roman Catholics, and not a few Jews. But the Curate went to +every door, as in duty bound; as a friend, a neighbour, a Christian, but +distinctly as one of the Clergy of the parish. And with one solitary +exception, an instance in which a Jew repulsed him, he was not only +admitted but welcomed everywhere in his character as the Clergyman. + +Of course there are, as I have said just above, streets and lanes where +it is not quite so. Another friend of mine, labouring in East London, +found that his black coat and white tie suggested to some of the people +only the guess that he was--the undertaker; so strange to them was the +presence of a Clergyman, or the idea of his duty. The same friend, by +the way, found that there was one sure prescription for securing a +welcome on a second visit--to make the people _laugh_ before the first +visit was over. He was no careless Pastor, who forgot that he was in +quest of souls, and that the message of the Lord is no jest. But his +experience was that in that strange "lapsed" population the _rapport_ +between man and man set up by an honest laugh was important as the first +step to something very different which was to follow. + +COME TO THE POINT. + +In the ordinary pastoral round no such ingenious merriment will be +necessary; though you will of course aim not only to be but to be seen +to be _happy_ in your work, and in your Master; _bright_ with a light +which is as natural in its influence as it is divine in its origin. In +the ordinary round one great principle to be remembered, if I am right, +is that you should _come to the point_ as soon as possible. Some earnest +men greatly shrink from this, and aim at the souls of their people by +very circuitous routes. As a rule, I am sure, there is little need to do +so; we are "expected" to be about our Master's business, and to deliver +His messages without needless delay. I would not counsel the general +verbal adoption of one good country Parson's salutation, who always +opened the cottage door with, "_How are you? How is your soul?_" But I +have no doubt it was a good greeting for many a parishioner of his; and +the _principle_ of it is good for almost every pastoral visit. Yes, we +shall do well to take people very much for granted, coming before them +as we do (unless we quite forget our true character) as the Lord Jesus +Christ's messengers and delegates, whatever else we are. + +KEEP IT ALWAYS IN VIEW. + +Most certainly and obviously the Pastor will often allude to common +human interests, and should indeed know something and have something to +say and do about temporal problems, things of body and estate. But then +I do hold that he should "draw all things this" supremely important +"way." All his pastoral intercourse should bear somehow upon the +question of the state before God of the person or persons visited; upon +conviction of sin, or comfort in grace, or Christian conduct; upon +Christ and the soul, upon holiness and immortality, as the Gospel +"brings them out into the light." [2 Tim. i. 10.] + +A DIFFICULT CASE WELL MET. + +There are cases most certainly where this has to be done with peculiar +tact and caution unless quite obvious mischief is to be done instead of +good. But let the man be always _lying in wait_, and he will very seldom +do so quite in vain. An instance occurs to me, in the work of a most +honoured veteran in the Ministry. He called on a new parishioner, a lady +of his own class, and soon found out that she was politely but +resolutely arranging to keep Jesus Christ out of the conversation; so +cleverly that he fairly failed to break the fence. Just as he was +leaving, for he could not go without one mention of his Master, he said, +as the last word of his courteous farewell, "_The Lord bless you_." That +was all; but it was enough to carry in it the Spirit's message. The +utterance stayed in the parishioner's soul, sounding solemnly on. It was +impossible to be offended; it was impossible not to think. And the issue +was, in God's time, a real and deep conversion. + +A HAPPY REBUKE TO COWARDICE. + +But, I repeat it, such difficulties in "the daily round" need not be +very frequent, if we do not create them for ourselves. How often the +very persons to whom we think it wiser not to speak openly about the +Lord Jesus Christ (remember, it is about HIM, even more than about +themselves, we are to speak) are longing to hear us do so! In the early +days of my ordination I remember visiting an invalid gentleman, who had +known me (for it was my Father's parish) all my life; and I was very +cowardly in his case about coming to the point of Christ and the soul. +Several visits, let me confess it with shame, were paid before I found +myself able to propose that we should open the Bible together, and then +pray. I was moved to the inmost heart by the actual tears of delight +with which the proposal was welcomed. + +And not seldom, if we do not come to the point, our people will bring us +to it. A very dear friend of mine, a few years ago, was going his first +circuits in a large London parish, and paid one among many first visits. +He allowed it to be a mere visit of introductory civilities; but he need +not have been so cautious. As he rose to go the good woman on whom he +had called said to him, "You will have a word of prayer with me, will +you not? The Vicar always does." + + + "_Go, labour on, spend and be spent; + Thy joy to do the Father's will; + It is the way the Master went; + Should not the servant tread it still?_ + + "_Go, labour on while it is day, + The world's dark night is hastening on; + Speed, speed thy work, cast sloth away; + It is not thus that souls are won._" + + BONAR. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +_PASTOR IN PARISH_ (ii.). + + + _Work on in hope; the plough, the sickle wield; + Thy Master is the harvest's Master too; + He gives the golden seed, He owns the field, + And does Himself what His true servants do._ + + +I take up again the all-important subject of Pastoral Visitation, for +the same sort of informal and fragmentary treatment as that attempted in +the last chapter, and with the same feeling that the subject is +practically inexhaustible. + +LET THE VISITOR BE A TEACHER, WATCHING FOR OPPORTUNITIES. + +One object which the visitor will do well to keep steadily before him +is, to be a _teacher_ as he goes. I have said something of this already, +in recommending my Brethren to seize every good occasion for bringing in +the Bible, and words about the Bible. But the whole work of instruction +needs remembrance in our private intercourse with parishioners. Of +course we shall avoid with watchful and willing care the magisterial +manner, the too didactic tone. And only when obvious occasions present +themselves shall we even seem to _set ourselves_ to teach; as when we +are distinctly asked what is the meaning of this doctrine, or that +passage of Scripture, or that phrase of the Prayer Book, or how to meet +that difficulty of belief. Such moments do come; in some pastoral lives +they come frequently; and whether the inquiry is made in a friendly +spirit, with a real wish for information, or whether, as sometimes, it +is the question of a critic or a caviller, it is an opportunity for +which, in the Lord's grace, we should stand quite ready. To be sure we +may have sometimes to remember that sensible precept of the Rabbis, +"_Teach thy tongue to say, I do not know_"; the answer, often, of the +truest and deepest-sighted wisdom. But even when answering so, +instruction may be given, as we state the reasons for the answer. And we +shall at least have the opportunity while so doing to bring in that +other maxim, which we owe, I think, to the late Archbishop Whately, +"_Never allow what you do know to be disturbed by what you do not +know_"; a principle of very wide application. + +But I am thinking now rather of the every-day sort of pastoral call and +conversation, in which perhaps the parishioner visited may be anything +but a caviller, and anything but even a questioner; much too ready, +perhaps, to take everything about Christian truths for granted, which, +alas, means too often to take them as understood, to take them as +believed, when there is little understanding of the matter, or even +thought about it. Now it is a great thing when a pastoral visitor has +the art (which needs to be considered, and to be acquired) of putting +here and there into a quiet and friendly talk, best of all towards the +close, some sentence which sets out a great truth clearly, strongly, and +in a shape which may wake attention and help remembrance. That is the +kind of didactic work which I earnestly recommend. + +*THE PASTORAL TEACHER'S TOPICS. + +If possible, let no visit close without some such utterance, if only +one. It may be about the very foundations of all Christian truth; about +the certainty of Christian facts, the Resurrection above all; about the +Person of the Lord Jesus; about His finished work of Atonement; about +faith, and our acceptance as believers in Him, and our victory and +deliverance in temptation by the power of the Holy Ghost through faith; +about sin, its true nature, its guilt, its end. Or it may be about the +holy practicalities of Christian conduct; about the Lord's call to us to +break with everything that is against His will; about that deep, +far-reaching truth of the Gospel that, while the sinner is saved by +faith only, he is saved on purpose that he may serve, on purpose that he +may "walk and please God," [1 Thess. iv. 1.] and that he may do this +above all in "the duty that lies near," in the plain things of the home, +the business, the handicraft, the social circle. Or it may be about the +mighty claims of the Missionary cause, about the strangely forgotten +fact that the Christian Church exists mainly in order to evangelize the +non-Christian world. Or it may be about the principles and duties of +Church membership and Christian ordinances; the true nature of worship; +the sacred duty of united worship; the call to hallow the Lord's Day; +the precious benefits of the Sacraments of Christ, explained with the +holy reverence and equally holy simplicity and moderation of the +Catechism and the Articles. + +NEED FOR SUCH WORK. + +I need not fill my pages with numberless details. For my plea is that we +should rather hold ourselves ready for the natural rise of such or such +topics, and for a clear instructive word in season upon them, than that +we should propose a theme and deliver a discourse. But I cannot too +earnestly remind my Brethren how great _the need_ of instruction is +among many of our kindly neighbours, even among our neighbours who go +regularly to Church and are constantly to be seen at the Table of the +Lord. + +CHRIST "A BLESSED ANGEL." + +Let me take one pre-eminent subject as my illustration: the +foundation-truth of the Godhead of our Blessed Redeemer. Are you at all +aware how widely spread is ignorance and error on that subject, far +beyond the limits of the "Unitarian"[17] community? I remember a +pastoral visit long ago to a slowly dying parishioner, a labouring man +somewhat stricken in years, who had been a church-goer, though not a +communicant. I soon fell into a conversation with my friend which took a +sort of catechetical shape; my aim was to see where the soul's hopes for +eternity really rested. Who and What was JESUS, whose name I know he +humbly reverenced? Was He a good Man? Yes. But anything more? There was +a long hesitation, and then the dear man expressed a faltering +persuasion that the Lord could not be less than "a blessed angel." That +case, I am well convinced, is very much more representative than some of +us may think. At a recent Church Congress I heard some remarks in just +this direction from Bishop Walsham How, who speaks from a large pastoral +experience; his anxiety about the immense extent of popular ignorance or +misbelief about the Saviour's Person was at least as great as mine. + +[17] A term which I use under protest. If a Unitarian means a believer +in the Unity of the Godhead, every orthodox Christian is a true +Unitarian. Only, he is a Trinitarian also, from another side. I may +venture to refer on this subject to a small book of my own, _Outlines of +Christian Doctrine_, p. 20. + +"ALL MY SUFFERMENT HERE." + +And so too is ignorance and misbelief about the work of His Cross, and +of His Holy Spirit. "I hope I shall have all my sufferment here," said +one poor invalid to me in old days, speaking indeed from a very +comfortless bed, in the slow pains of a dire disease. She had been long +within sound of clear, bright Christian teaching. But deep in the soul, +unmoved and ah, so difficult to dislodge, lay that notion of an atoning +value in our own pains which is a radical contradiction to the glorious +paradox of the perfect and unique work of Calvary:-- + + "Thy pains, not mine, O Christ, + Upon the shameful tree + Have paid the law's full price, + And purchased peace for me. + + "Thy Cross, not mine, O Christ, + Has borne the awful load + Of sins that none in heaven + Or earth could bear but God."[18] + +[18] Bonar, _Hymns of Faith and Hope_ (First Series). + +THE TRUTH OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. + +As regards the Person and the Work of the blessed Spirit, great and +general is the oblivion, and manifold are the mistakes. I fear that even +in the best instructed congregations, under the clearest public +teaching, there are all too many who, practically, "have not so much as +heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." [Acts xix. 2.] The belief in His +glorious Personality is faint and vague. The confusion of His Presence +and Power with our "better feelings" is very, very common. The solemn +questions which the Scripture bids us put to ourselves, [Rom. viii. +9.] whether _or not_ we "have the Spirit of Christ"--not merely "a +Christian spirit" in the sense of tone and temper, but the Holy Ghost, +proceeding from the Son, and uniting the true believer to Him--are +little understood, and rarely used upon the man by himself. And the very +thought of such a presence and such a power of the Lord the Life-Giver +as shall "_fill us with_ the Spirit" [Eph. v. 18.] is not yet existent, +I fear, in the minds of many even earnest Christians. + +Here are fields, large and fruitful, for the teaching visitor's +cultivation. And so are the other possible subjects indicated above; +such as the claims of the Lord upon our personal consistency in little +things; His solemn call to all His people to be, directly or indirectly, +the evangelists of the world; and the nature of His blessed sacramental +Institutions. + +THE TRUTH OF THE SACRAMENTS. + +On that last subject it is not my intention to enter at any length. But +a few words I may take this occasion to say, and I will assume that I +am speaking to a younger Brother who in the main agrees with me in what +are commonly called Evangelical Church principles. Let me first then +counsel you to take care that no one shall be able, lawfully, to charge +you with making light of the Sacraments,[19] or with leaving uncertain +your belief as to their divine purpose and function. A ministry which is +silent about them, and indistinct in its teaching on them, cannot in +this respect be fully true to either the Prayer Book or the Bible. Let +your instructions on this great subject, in public and in private, be +definite, reverent, and full of thankfulness and praise for those great +gifts of God. Then on the other hand, do not, if I may speak freely, +while with all respect, think to honour the Sacraments by exaggeration, +by speaking more of them than of that far greater thing, the blessed +Grace of God in Christ, of which they are the "sure _witnesses_ and +effectual _signs_."[20] If I do not mistake, one of the most prevalent +tendencies of current thought in the Church now is the tendency to +invert, in a certain way, the relations between Sacrament and Grace; to +develop a doctrine of the Sacrament such that the doctrine of Grace can +be seen only, as it were, through it. And the result is, very often, so +at least it seems to me to be, a very poor and attenuated presentation +of the glorious things said in Scripture about "the grace of God which +bringeth salvation," [Tit. ii. 11.] and about the work of pure and +simple, but mysteriously mighty, faith in our appropriation of Christ's +merits and our reception of Christ's living power by the Holy Ghost. Let +no such inversion mark your teaching. And if I may give one further +suggestion, I would say, remind yourself frequently of the very words of +the Prayer Book (including the Catechism) and the Articles on these +great subjects. And inform yourself to some extent, at first hand, of +the views of the men who cast our Services and our Articles into their +practically present shape; the views of Cranmer, of Ridley, of Jewell, +and, just after them, of Hooker; not forgetting one great foreign +theologian, Henry Bullinger, who exercised a special influence on the +English divines of Edward and Elizabeth's time in the matter of +sacramental doctrine.[21] You will find in him a full measure of holy +reverence, and at the same time a luminous clearness and definiteness of +exposition. The central idea of his teaching is the idea of the Covenant +Seal, the "instrument" of solemn, valid, legal "conveyance." + +[19] I mean of course Baptism and the Supper of the Lord, which _alone_ +the Church of England recognizes as Christian Sacraments, _Sacramenta +Evangelica_, "Sacraments of the Gospel" (see Art. xxv., par. 2). + +[20] _Certa testimonia, efficacia signa_ (Art. xxv.). It is worth the +while to point out that a "_sign_" is "_effectual_" when it _effectually +does the work of a sign_, not some quite different work. A seal is an +effectual seal, not because, conceivably, its matter could be used as a +powerful medicine, but because, _attached to its document_, it +effectually seals the document's validity. A seal is in this respect a +special sort of "effectual sign." And so are the Sacraments. + +[21] See the Parker Society's collection of authors for Bullinger's +_Decades_, or Doctrinal Sermons; officially recognized as a body of +divinity by the Church of England in Elizabeth's reign. + +MISTAKES ABOUT CHURCH DOCTRINE. + +While on the subject of Church Doctrine, I may go a little further, and +remind you how very likely you are to discover in your rounds many +mistakes about both the doctrine and the government of the Church of +England. I have had considerable experience of such questions in the way +of private pastoral ministry; I have found pious dissenters, or +church-people whom they had influenced, fully persuaded that the Church +of England teaches unconditional regeneration in the hour of Baptism, +that she teaches at least a near approach to Transubstantiation, that +she entrusts to her priests the power of conferring or withholding the +divine forgiveness, and that, officially and in set terms, she +"unchurches" all communities not episcopally organized.[22] It is well +to be quite sure that these beliefs about the Church are mistakes, +provably such, in the light of the Prayer Book and Articles, and of +history. It has been my happiness to bring some such questioners as I +have described to "sincere and conscientious communion with" the Church +of England, in a loyalty which leaves ample room for loving sympathy +with all true Christians. And the chief means has been the production of +proof that the Church herself, as distinguished from particular teachers +and leaders in the Church, does not teach the tenets alleged. + +[22] As regards the Scottish and Continental Protestant Churches it is +not too much to say that, with the very rarest exceptions, English +Church writers _of all schools_ regarded them as "Sister Churches of the +Reformation"--_till about 1830_. + +DEFECTIVE VIEWS OF SIN. + +But to come back to matters more primary than even these; I must remind +my younger Brother that there is, all around him, in the average circles +of even church-going people, a sorrowfully faint insight into the +sinfulness of SIN; into the terrible realities of its _guilt_ before God +(a point too often absent from even earnest modern teaching), and of its +_power_; yes, and into its true _nature_, as it comes out, not in +outbursts of word or deed, or in practices which public opinion +condemns, but in imagination, in desire, in tone. It may surprise us +(when we think how very elementary are the spiritual principles +involved), but I fear it is a fact, that sin is regarded by vast numbers +of church-people (I am not thinking at all of "the lapsed masses" now) +as a matter of little importance if it does not come out in some very +positive form. Multitudes among us are quite insensible to the spiritual +penetration of the law of God, and have never given a thought to the +question of a heart-surrender to His will in everything, and the sin of +merely withholding that surrender. + +Then, to take another primary subject of a different class; there is a +wide and general ignorance of the great lines of Christian Evidence, and +a large open door accordingly for the active attacks of shallow, or +subtle, unbelief. Few have ever been taught in any definite way the +supreme significance in this respect of the fact of the Lord's +Resurrection, and its mighty walls of proof; and the reasons for our +belief that the Bible is indeed not of man but of God; the witness of +history to prophecy; and so on. + +LET US DROP SEEDS OF TEACHING. + +I owe an almost apology for this long talk about subjects of doctrine, +and practice, and evidence. But I have kept all along the purpose of +this chapter in view. I wish to remind my Brethren how very much they +may do, in the course of visitation, to _drop seeds_ of fact, of truth, +of principle, in careful, thoughtful words, the product of private +reading and reflection, called out by some natural occasion. +Undoubtedly, the subjects I have outlined are themes for the pulpit, and +for the Bible class, as well as for the visit. But my feeling is that +the visit gives opportunities quite of its own for didactic work. We +ought to be "natural" everywhere; but we are sometimes suspected, or +imagined, to be less so in public than in private; and besides, in +private we give and take; we are open to question and answer; and this +may give quite special advantage to the word spoken, quietly and +pleasantly, but pointedly, in the pastoral interview. + +"PURCHASE THE OPPORTUNITY." + +"The priest's lips should keep knowledge." [Mal. ii. 7.] The Clergyman +should be ready everywhere to be the teacher on the great subjects which +he is supposed to make his own. He will never intrude instruction, or +parade it; but he will everywhere be on the watch for the occasion for +it, [Greek: exagorazomenos ton kairon], "purchasing the opportunity," +[Eph. v. 10.] at the cost of care. + +VISITATION OF THE SICK. + +And here I may come again to that important branch of visitation, the +visitation of the sick. The Church, as we well know, provides a Form of +Visitation; most helpful and suggestive in its principles and outline +for all. But it is, as you are aware, _imposed_ by the Canon (lxvii.) +only on such Clergymen (very scarce personages) as have no licence to +preach. As a fact, we Presbyters are left to our own discretion in this +sacred part of our work; and that discretion we should seek prayerfully +to cultivate. How different are the circumstances in each one of an +average series of sick-visits! As I write the words, such a series from +my own past days rises up before me; and I transcribe a few +recollections from the book of memory. + +A SERIES OF VISITS. + +W.S. is a retired tradesman, a thoughtful and rather reticent man; +brought up a Socinian, and professedly such still. I am trying to lay +siege to him, not without merciful tokens of hope from the Lord. And the +simple plan is, not to open the controversy between Socinus and +Scripture, but to arrange that each visit shall have its short Scripture +reading, its friendly talk, and its prayer, all bearing mainly on the +deadliness of sin and the wonder and glory of salvation. I happen to +know that the married daughter of W.S., a very intelligent woman, was +brought from heresy to a divine Saviour's feet by means of a sermon, not +on Christ's Godhead, but on the sinfulness of sin. + +T.H. is a sturdy old blacksmith, old enough to have been bred in the +infidel school of Carlile (quite another person than Carlyle), and +steeped in old-fashioned Chartism. He always has the newspaper on his +now helpless knees, never the Bible; but he almost always has some Bible +difficulty ready for me. It is pleasant to be able this afternoon to +show him, holding the page up before his eyes, that his last +stumbling-block is one of his own (or his friends') bold invention. He +meets civility always civilly, and never resents a natural transition +from the last bit of politics to the Gospel. But it is a hard, sad case. +The Lord only knows how the apparently motionless conscience fares. + +T.G. is a fine, manly artizan, a coach-painter, scarcely yet in middle +life; lately the somewhat bitter and very self-satisfied critic of his +good and devoted wife's simple faith. I have had rather discouraging +talks with T.G. before to-day; but now he is very ill, and a few Sunday +afternoons ago he sent across the road for the Curate, who to his own +solemn joy found him broken down in unmistakable conviction of sin, +asking what he must do to be saved. It is a blessed thing to visit him +now, for already the rays of the eternal sun are shining between the +clouds of a deeply genuine repentance; and the visitor's task is +plain,-- + + "To teach him all the mercy, while he shows him all the sin." + +Soon it will be my happiness, I hope, to administer to him, as a +penitent believer, with his now happy wife and a faithful friend, the +precious Communion; and I look forward to see him depart in due time in +the peace of God, to be with Christ, for whom already he has learnt to +testify. + +Then comes another visit, to one of our "bettermost" neighbours; this +door bears, or ought to bear, the proverbial brass knocker. But be the +door what it may be, there is great need and great mercy inside it. The +dear man, W.T., lately in active professional life in the home +civil-service, is sinking under the most agonizing of human maladies, +and it is very near the close; this is the second visit to-day, in his +urgent need. But, blessed be God, grace, once absent, has found its way +through the terrible obstacle of pain, and his scarcely articulate +utterance--intelligible to his visitor only because now so +familiar--speaks of the joy and rest of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of +the sufferer's longing for the salvation of another soul, a soul very +dear to him.[23] + +[23] Wonderful to say (it is to me very wonderful), I have known more +than one bright conversion take place amidst the untold pangs of such an +illness. + +Such visits tell upon the heart, and upon the head, and perhaps the +round among the suffering has been long enough to-day. To-morrow we will +try to get a quiet half-hour with W.R., a shopkeeper, sinking in +consumption; a man of no common natural refinement and thoughtfulness, +but long troubled with that sort of scepticism which is generated (who +knows in how many cases?) by the mysteries, not of God's revelation, but +of His providence. For him, too, the visitor's business is to lay a +gentle siege, "here a little, and there a little," trying never to lose +patience with objections and difficulties, but rather to sympathize with +them _as to their pains_, and then to suggest the answer in Jesus +Christ. And oh joy, the Lord is finding the way in, through His Word, +and the clouds are passing away from the man's mind, and soul, and +forehead, as he is getting to "know WHOM he believes."[24] + +[24] I possess a beautiful little Bible given me by dear W.R., who has +now been many years with Christ. Such a gift is a very sacred treasure +to a Pastor. + +Then we can walk round the corner--how the beloved streets and lanes +rise up in memory before me as I write!--to see J.F., a young printer, +dying in the brightest joy and peace, won from carelessness to a solid +faith by the work and witness of earnest dissenting Christians, but glad +and thankful to receive the Communion of the Lord from his dear Vicar, +or his Vicar's son. And then five minutes' walk takes us to a tiny alley +in the denser part of the widespread parish, where a poor life-long +cripple, W.G., lies day and year upon his _little_ bed--little, because +though the head is full-sized, and the brain within it is an adult +brain, the body has never grown since childhood. Here is a case for +steady sympathy, and also for gentle and steady aiming at instruction as +well as comfort. And then, not far off, we will take the privilege of a +quiet visit to an aged Christian woman, J.N. In long past years loving +saints found her pining in extreme poverty, and sunk in a dull, +despairing indifference. Now it is a great spiritual help to sit in her +little attic beside her, and draw her on to speak (she is no loquacious +person by nature, and needs drawing on) about the needs of the soul, and +the glorious fulness of the Son of God. She is no common Christian; not +only in life but in thought this appears. At the time of her conversion, +she could not read a letter. Since then, she has repeatedly read with +great spiritual insight and enjoyment Archbishop Leighton's Commentary +on St Peter. Here is a room in which the visitor learns quite as much as +he teaches. And so he does in a still smaller and much darker room, +three minutes' distant from J.N.'s. There lies blind R.W., in his strong +days the head-servant of an old farmer of our village, and to all +appearance as little capable of spiritual interests as the animals he +fed. But on his sick-bed, the comfortless couch of many declining years, +a loving visitor, a devoted lady-worker, has found him out, and the Lord +has found him out through her. He never knew A from B in his life, and +never will. But do you want proof of the power of grace to quicken mind, +as well as to convert soul? Come with me up the stairs into dear old +R.W.'s darksome room, and in the course of our talk you shall hear his +quavering voice saying things, quite humbly and naturally, about the +glory of his Saviour, and the way of salvation, and the joy and peace of +his heart in God, which are not only loving ascriptions but clear and +sound divinity. It is good to be with him. + +I have spoken mainly, though not only, of cases of warm interest and +encouragement. Of course there are sorrowful and heart-trying visits to +the sick. One such, to poor old T.H., I have described. And we might see +the much older A.C., a woman of near ninety years, who seems +impenetrable to the true light, though grateful and kindly towards the +visitor; and B.F., older still, ninety-six, so vain of her age that it +is difficult to get her off the beloved theme; and J.G., a steady, +self-righteous man; and C.W., clever, and disposed to scoff; and T.B., +known to be leading a very evil life, civil, but immovable. + +RESOLVE TO BE A VISITOR. + +The work is very various, very interesting, and full of the call for +"long patience," while full, too, of blessed encouragements and +surprises. But "the time would fail me." Ah, let me not close without +saying to my younger Brother how deeply humbling to me are the memories +of those pastoral days, and humbling above all as I look back and wish +now, in vain for ever, that I had _visited more_, among both the sick +and the whole. "Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, O Lord"; "To +Thee only it appertaineth to forgive sins." + +My dear younger Brother, resolve that by the grace of God you will be a +visitor, whatever else you are, or are not. And be a visitor who +respects his neighbours, who feels with them, whose heart lives with +them, and who on the other hand watches over his call to instruct them, +to clear up and deepen their thoughts of self, and God, and life, and +death, and salvation, and duty, and eternity. + +A CONVERSION AT EIGHTY-SIX. + +"Go, labour on; spend and be spent." There is a sure reward, seen or not +seen as yet; and often the most unlikely quarter shall prove the quarter +of blessing, and the last shall be first. One recollection, drawn out +of my earliest childhood, shall close this wandering talk. It is of dear +old Mrs E., then aged quite eighty-six. She must have been born under +the rule of King George the Second. A farmer's widow, she had been +absolutely and perfectly respectable all her life, and was entirely +satisfied with her state and her prospects for the next world. My dear +Father, and his devoted Curate of those days, the Rev. W.D., not seldom +saw her, but without leaving any apparent impression on her conscience. +At last that conscience woke. The Curate read a chapter, in her hearing, +to her pious invalid daughter, who had sought her mother's conversion +for years in prayer, and had _lived_ true Christianity all the while in +her mother's home. And on a sudden, something in that chapter (it was +the third of Romans) said to the old lady, "You have lived eighty years +in the world, and never done a single thing for the love of God." The +conviction was tremendous in its depth and quality, and it lasted long. +But a very bright light followed, and shone with holy fulness through +what proved to be several remaining years of beautiful old age. She +rejoiced in her adorable Saviour with joy unspeakable, a joy meanwhile +perfectly sober and full of the good fruits of loving righteousness. She +died at last, singing, or rather musically murmuring, _Rock of +Ages_.[25] And my recollection, across seven-and-forty years, is of that +dear old lady of the past, sitting upright in her parlour, as my Mother +led me in to see her, and wearing a look upon her face which I can only +now describe as a remembered ray of light. + +[25] My dear Father, many years ago, published a full narrative of Mrs +E.'s last days, in a little volume of pastoral recollections, _Pardon +and Peace_. + + + "_I love, I love my Master; + I will not go out free; + For He is my Redeemer, + He paid the price for me._ + + "_I would not leave His service, + It is so sweet and blest, + And in the weariest moments + He gives the truest rest._" + + MISS F.R. HAVERGAL. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +_THE CLERGYMAN AND THE PRAYER BOOK._ + + + _Dear pages of ancestral prayer, + Illumined all with Scripture gold, + In you we seem the faith to share + Of saints and seers of old. + + Whene'er in worship's blissful hour + The Pastor lends your heart a voice, + Let his own spirit feel your power, + And answer, and rejoice._ + + +In the present chapter I deal a little with the spirit and work of the +Clergyman in his ministration of the ordered Services of the Church, +reserving the work of the Pulpit for later treatment. + +THE PRAYER BOOK NOT PERFECT BUT INESTIMABLE. + +Let me begin by a brief reminder of the greatness of the spiritual +treasure which we possess in the Book by which we minister. How shall I +speak of it as I would? "The Prayer Book isn't inspired, I know," said +an old coast-guardsman some years ago to a friend of mine, "but, sure +and certain, _'tis as bad as inspired_!" "I find the Liturgy," said +another veteran, Charles Simeon, "as superior to all modern compositions +as the work of a philosopher on any deep subject is to that of a +schoolboy who understands scarcely anything about it." "All that the +Church of England needs to make her the glory of all Churches," said +Simeon's friend, the late Rev. William Marsh, "is the spirit of her own +services." + +I am not so blind as to maintain that our Book is ideally perfect, and +that its every sentence is infallible. It is not quite literally "as bad +as inspired." After using it in ministration for nearly five-and-twenty +years I own to the wish that here and there the wording, or the +arrangement, or the rubrical direction, had been otherwise in some +detail, perhaps in some important detail. I do certainly wish very +earnestly indeed that the Revisers of 1661-2 had expressed themselves +more happily in that Rubric about "Ornaments" which within recent years +has proved--little as they expected it, or intended it, to do so--such a +fertile field of discord. But for all this, my five-and-twenty years' +ministerial use of the Prayer Book has only deepened my sense of its +inestimable general value and greatness. + +If a temperate and equitable revision were possible at the present time +I should welcome the prospect on most accounts. But it seems to me +plain that it is _not_ at present possible. And meanwhile I thank God +from my inmost heart for the actual Prayer Book as a whole. + +Let me point out a very few of the claims of the Book on our love and +gratitude; and now specially in view of what we may sometimes hear said +about it by Christians not of our own Church. + +i. Observe its profound and searching _spirituality_. It is quite true +that in a certain sense the Book takes all who use it for granted; it +assumes them to be worshippers in spirit and in truth; it does not pray +for them, or lead them in public worship to pray for themselves, as for +those who do not know and love God, who have not come to Christ. But +then what form of public, common prayer can well do this? And meantime +the Book does, especially in the service of the Communion, and +particularly in that too often omitted part of it, the "longer +Exhortation," beginning _Dearly beloved in the Lord_, throw the +worshipper back upon himself for self-examination. This is just the +method of St Paul in his addresses to the Christian community. He +writes to all as "saints," "faithful," "elect," "sanctified." What does +he mean? Does he mean that those glorious terms are satisfied by the +fact that all have been baptized, or even that all are communicants at +the sacred Table? Not at all. He takes all for granted as being what +they profess to be, when he greets the community. [Rom. viii. 9; 1 Cor. +xvi. 22; 2 Cor. xiii. 5; Gal. v. 6.] But he says also, "If any man have +not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His"; "If any man love not the +Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema"; "Examine yourselves, whether ye +be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not that Jesus Christ is +in you--except ye be [Greek: adokimoi], counterfeits?" "In Jesus Christ +neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith +which worketh by love." Such sentences throw a flood of holy and +searching light on the sense in which St Paul "took them all for +granted." And the Prayer Book is in true harmony with both parts of the +Apostle's method. + +WHAT IT TAKES FOR GRANTED IN THE WORSHIPPER. + +And then, think what the Book _does_ thus searchingly and helpfully +"take for granted." It assumes a deep sense of sin, such a sense as is +indeed "grievous unto us." It takes for granted our deep desire both for +pardon and for spiritual victory. It assumes our desire to be "kept this +day without sin"; to "follow the only God with pure hearts and minds"; +to "be continually given to all good works"; to "be enabled by the Lord +to live according to His will"; to have "all our doings ordered by His +governance"; to have "such love to Him poured into our hearts that we +may love Him above all things." It assumes our desire to "read, mark, +learn, and inwardly digest all the Holy Scriptures." It assumes our +readiness to "suffer on earth for the testimony of the truth, looking up +steadfastly to heaven, and by faith beholding the glory that shall be +revealed." It assumes our adoring devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ, and +that we present "ourselves, our souls and bodies, a reasonable, holy, +and living sacrifice," to our God. + +I heard a few years ago of a remarkable case of secession from the +Church of England. A thoughtful and conscientious man left us because, +as he said, he could no longer seem to concur in such words of intense +spiritual reality and surrender _while he did not fully mean them_. On +his principles, I fear there ought to be a large exodus from our Church. +But that is not the fault of the Church, or of the Church's Book. It is +the fault of the worshippers, and it is a solemn call to us not so much +to criticize the Liturgy as to "examine _ourselves_." + +THE PRAYER BOOK AS A WEAPON. + +In this connexion I am reminded of a characteristic saying of an +honoured friend of mine, now at rest with the Lord after a long and +faithful ministry. He was one of those men who instinctively speak +strongly, perhaps sometimes roughly; but such roughness is often useful. +"The Prayer Book," said he, "is always handy to throw at people's +heads"; figuratively, of course, not literally. He slung it out in +vigorous quotations from his pulpit, point blank at the unreality, and +formalism, and pharisaism, and love of this present evil world, which +too often underlies the most precise "churchmanship" and the most +punctual church-going. + +My old friend's strong word may carry a suggestion to some of my younger +Brethren; though I would advise their deferring a _projectile_ use of +the Book till they are seniors in the Church. But the youngest Minister +of Christ, in all loving modesty, may reach many a conscience (beginning +with his own) by well-timed words from the Prayer Book, showing what the +Book takes for granted in the worshipper. + +SCRIPTURALITY OF THE BOOK. + +ii. Next I point to the abundant and loyal _Scripturality_ of the Prayer +Book. I venture to say that no Service Book in the world is quite like +ours in this. This characteristic lies on the surface; in the wealth of +Scripture poured out in every service before the people; Psalms, +Lessons, Canticles, Epistle, Gospel, Introductory Sentences, Decalogue, +Comfortable Words. At the Font, in the Marriage Ordinance, at the Grave, +it is still the same; Scripture, in our mother tongue, full and free, +runs everywhere. And below the surface it is the same. Take almost any +set of responses, or any single prayer, and see the strong warp of the +Bible in it all. + +*"THE PREFACE" ON THE BIBLE. + +And then go for a moment from the Services to the Preface of the Book, +and see what the Fathers of our English Liturgy thought and intended +about the place of the Holy Scriptures in worship. I hope my Brethren +have all read that "Preface" with care; I mean, of course, the whole +length of introductory matter which precedes the Tables of Lessons; +nothing of it later than 1662, most of it (indeed all but the first +section, written by Sanderson) dating in substance from 1549.[26] I hope +it has all been read by you; but I am not quite certain of it, so little +attention is at present called to those important and authoritative +statements of principle. But however well you may already know them, +they will repay another reading; and so you will be reminded again that +the really first thought in the minds of the men who gave us our Prayer +Book in English was to let "_the Word of God_ have free course and be +glorified" in all the worship of the people. [2 Thess. iii. 1.] Those +men were learned in the past, and they reverenced history and +continuity. But they reverenced still more the heavenly Word, and where +they found the ample reading and hearing of it impeded by even +immemorial usage, the usage had to give way, without reserve, to the +Bible. + +[26] I do not forget that some modifications in detail, as to the +Lectionary, are quite recent. + +Yes, the Prayer Book is, whatever else it is, searchingly, overflowingly +Scriptural; full of the Bible, full of Christ. Let us drink its +principles and its manner in, that they may come out in our life and our +preaching. + +And now for a few simple practical suggestions on our ministerial use of +the Book. + +USE THE BOOK WITH DILIGENCE. + +i. First, I would entreat my younger Brother to resolve in the Lord's +name that his own use of the Prayer Book in his ministration be to him a +thing of sacred importance and personal reality. We _need_ to form such +a resolve deliberately, and to watch and pray over it. Do we not know +what strong temptations lie in the other direction? We have to use these +forms over and over again; before many years are over perhaps we could +"take" a whole service, except the appointed Scriptures, without looking +at the book: is it not too easy under such conditions to read as those +who read not, and to pray as those who pray not? And all too often the +Clergyman, younger or older, allows himself almost consciously, almost +on principle, to form an inadequate estimate of his Prayer-Book work. +Perhaps he regards the prayers as in such a sense "the voice of the +Church" that he is willing to be little more than a machine through +which the Church offers them. Or perhaps on the other hand he lets +himself forget their immense importance, under a strong, and just, sense +of the sacred importance of the Sermon. He is alive and awake in the +pulpit, and seeks his Lord's presence there, and realizes it as sought; +but in the desk--he goes by himself, and much of his precious time there +is spent in thought which wanders to the ends of the earth while his +voice does its decent but somnambulatory part alone. + +*USE IT WITH LIVING REALITY. + +I can only appeal with all my heart to my younger Brother not to let it +be thus with him. And the only effective recipe against the trouble is +faith, exercised in prayer and watching, with a full recollection of the +urgent importance of the matter. For indeed it _is_ all-important that +the servant of God should be "given wholly to" his work, at the reading +desk, at the lectern, at the Table, at the Font. + +PRAY THE PRAYERS. + +It is easy to say, as it is often said, that we "must not preach the +prayers," must not obtrude our personality in leading the devotions of +the congregation; that our part is to be regular and audible, and +otherwise to "efface ourselves." Most certainly we ought not to _preach_ +the prayers, in public any more than in private. But then, we ought to +_pray_ them. Most certainly we ought not to obtrude our personality upon +the thought of the worshippers. But then, we ought to serve them with +our personality, and we can best do this, surely, by a spirit and a +manner which is unmistakably that of the fellow-worshipper, who feels +_himself_ to be in the presence of the King, and knows that the +petitions and the promises are for him at least a holy reality. I am +perfectly well aware that it is not _easy_ to steer between a more or +less mechanical manner and a demonstrative one, and that perhaps of two +evils the former is the less. But I am sure it is _possible_ to steer +the right line, by using sanctified common-sense, and asking for a +little candid counsel from those who hear us, and above all by being +what we seek to seem--true worshippers, spiritually awake and humbly +reverent. + +As long as man is man, so long will the law of sympathy hold good. And +by that law it is certain that the way to promote, so far as we can, a +spirit and tone of true worship in our people is to possess--and to +show--that spirit ourselves, as we lead, and also join, their worship. +Never declaim the prayers, but always pray them, from the soul and with +the voice. + +"GIVE ATTENDANCE TO THE READING" OF THE LESSONS. + +ii. I spoke just now of what we should do at the lectern. Let me +earnestly press upon my Brethren the great duty of rightly reading the +Lessons. Do you want to carry out the will and purpose of the Church of +England? As we have seen, that purpose is above everything to glorify +the Word of God. See then that the Lesson, as read by you, is as +audible, as intelligible, as impressive as you can make it. Take care +beforehand that you understand its points, its arguments, its emphasis. +Take counsel with yourself, and perhaps with others, about ways and +means for bringing these things out in your public reading. Remember +that for very many of your people (I fear I am right in saying so) the +Church Lessons are the most solid pieces of Scripture they ever hear, +or ever read. Many years ago it was not uncommonly said that in "these +days of universal reading" we might perhaps abbreviate our Church +Lessons. But since that time it has been more fully and sadly realized, +by very many of us at least, that universal reading does not mean +universal Bible reading by any means, but much rather universal +newspaper and novel reading. The heavenly Book is _terribly unfamiliar_ +to multitudes of churchgoers, as you will find, if you ask, when you go +about your parish; of this we have already thought. Therefore, make all +you can of the reading of the Lessons in public worship. [Greek: +Proseche te anagnosei], says the Apostle to Timothy, "Give attention to +the reading" [1 Tim. iv. 13.]; does he not mean, be diligent in reading +the Scripture to the people? The precept is as much as ever in point in +our day. + +OPPORTUNITIES OFFERED BY THE OCCASIONAL SERVICES. + +iii. As regards the occasional services, Public and Private Baptism, +Marriage, Burial, I would earnestly counsel my Brother to put +personality into his reading in them all, in the moderate sense +indicated above. The fact that such occasions are necessarily more or +less _special_ in their interest for some at least of those present +should never be forgotten; bring the power of a sympathetic interest and +earnestness to bear upon it. In administering Public Baptism I have +often realized this to a very peculiar degree. Who can feel the least +fondness for little children, and have the slightest insight into a +parent's heart, and not do so? Our service is undoubtedly long; very +long indeed when accompanied by a chorus of perhaps several little +crying voices. But let the servant of God "be in it," and he will find +himself much more touched than troubled by the babies' lamentations as +he speaks to the sponsors about the young helpless souls, and turns to +the Lord of all grace to dedicate them to Him and to invoke His blessing +on them for time and eternity, and then applies the watery Seal of all +the promises to their small foreheads. I have always found it very hard +to get through that service with a perfectly steady voice; and after +all, why should we be so careful to do so? + +_Private_ Baptism is indeed a special occasion. There are reasons, no +doubt, why it must not be too readily administered; in some parishes +parents, for one reason or another, too often try to secure "a +christening" in private, on insufficient grounds, with no intention of a +public dedication afterwards. But when the case is clear, and you are at +the little suffering one's side, perhaps with a distressed mother close +beside it and you, see to it that you so minister the rite, so read the +few precious words, as both to sympathize and to teach. Let me add that +Private Baptism often brings the Clergyman into a house where religion +is utterly neglected; and the opportunity may be a priceless one, if the +power of love and spiritual reality is with you in the work. + +And when you officiate at a Wedding, different as the conditions are +from those just remembered, still do not forget that for at least some +there present the hour is a deeply moving one. And is not the Marriage +Service a noble one to read, to interpret, with its peculiar mingling of +immemorial and archaic simplicity with a searching depth of scriptural +exhortation, and a bright wealth of divine benedictions? Throw the +power of a true man's solemnized sympathy into your reading of that +service. + +PROBLEMS CONNECTED WITH THE USE OF THE BURIAL SERVICE. + +Of the ritual of the Grave I hardly need to speak. I know only too well +that there are funerals and funerals. There are occasions of unrelieved +sadness. There are occasions when the Minister's heart is chilled by a +manifest and utter indifference. But the saddest, dreariest of burials +is an opportunity for the Lord. Whether or no you see your way to give +an address, let it be seen that you are dealing with God in the prayers, +and read the Lessons "as one that pleadeth with men." + +A brief word in passing on the problem raised by some of the phrases of +our Burial Service. Let me call attention to the studied generality of +the words, _In sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal +life_. Before 1662 this ran "in sure ... hope _of resurrection_, etc.," +which, as you will observe, expressly applied the "hope" to _that_ case +of burial; the change was evidently made on purpose to relieve +conscience in the matter. Then remember that the whole service is +constructed, like all our services, for the member of the Christian +community taken on his profession; and that assumption, unless flagrant +facts withstand it, is to be made, in public ordinance, as much at the +grave as elsewhere. And do not forget that _hope_, be it ever so +"trembling," is _never_ forbidden at a grave-side. I am no advocate of +what is called "the larger hope"; I dare not be. But I am deeply +convinced that mercies of the Lord, in cases quite beyond our possible +knowledge, are experienced in the very act of departure. + + "Betwixt the stirrup and the ground + Mercy I sought, mercy I found." + +That instance has many parallels; and God only knows their limits. Never +should we say, whatever we may awfully fear, that such and such a soul +is _to our knowledge_ lost. + +As regards the practical management of extreme cases, the young +Clergyman will of course act altogether under his Incumbent. And the +young Incumbent will remember that he can have recourse to his Bishop +for counsel. + +THE HOLY COMMUNION. + +iv. Let me say one special word on our administration of the precious +ritual of the Table of the Lord. I am not attempting here any +discussion of its doctrinal aspects in detail. For myself, as I have +said elsewhere, I make no secret of long-settled "Evangelical" +convictions. I regard the Holy Eucharist as above all things else the +Lord's way of sealing to His true Israel the unutterable benefits of the +New and Everlasting Covenant, rather than an occasion on which He +infuses into them His glorified Manhood. His sacred Body and Blood are, +for me, the Body and the Blood _as they were_, once for all, at Calvary, +and as they are not therefore literally now; and my participation in +them is accordingly my participation in the virtues of the Atoning +Sacrifice, there once and for ever wrought and offered. But this is by +the way. I speak now of our spirit and manner in the administration, in +respect of some principles which are little if at all affected, it seems +to me, by even grave differences of doctrinal theory. Alas, at the +present day it is too often the case that the communicant is fairly +bewildered by the varieties of Communion ritual, or by the complications +of it. Ought this to be so, on _any_ theory of the Eucharist? Did I for +one believe our adorable and beloved LORD to be locally present (I use +the words not technically but practically) on the Holy Table as nowhere +else here on earth, I think that all my instinct would go towards a +reverence whose depth was manifested not by an elaborate ceremonial but +by the most solemn possible simplicity of act. A ritual whose details +must be matter of careful practice, and which suggests almost the need +of a Spanish master-of-the-ceremonies--ought _that_ to be the natural +effect of an, as it were, invisible Presence? + +SIMPLICITY AND REVERENCE. + +But probably I write for readers whose inclinations or risks lie little +in that direction. And for them I say, let your administration of the +blessed Communion always combine a manifest reverence and a restful +simplicity. The Lord _is_ there, the Master of His own Table, the Prince +of His own Covenant, ready to give His people His royal Seal by your +hands. And His people are there, to have their sacred interview with +Him. Do not obstruct their view, their colloquy; humbly aid it. Be their +servant, as in HIS presence; obtrude yourself as little as you possibly +can. + +ADDRESSES ON THE PRAYER BOOK. + +As I draw the chapter to a close, I make one practical recommendation to +my younger Brethren. It is, to do what they can to interest their people +in the Prayer Book, and to promote its intelligent use, by taking what +opportunities they can to talk to them about it. Many a private occasion +for this will no doubt present itself. But if now and then a simple +lecture on the history of the Prayer Book can be given, and if possible +well illustrated, it will be very useful; and so will be a series of +week-night devotional addresses on the teaching of the Prayer Book. And +let not the need of plain matter-of-fact explanation of obsolete terms +and technical phrases be forgotten on such occasions. Of course the +Curate will carefully consult his Incumbent on the whole matter. But few +of my elder Brethren will not feel with me that such "talks upon the +Prayer Book," carefully considered and conducted, whether by Incumbent +or by Curate, may be of the greatest use, under our Master's blessing. + +"MORE CEREMONIAL, LESS WORSHIP." + +One last word, and I have done with these suggestions. An English Bishop +once told me that he had lately met a gentleman who, after ten years' +residence abroad, returned to England, and to his place as a worshipper +in our Churches. "Do you remark particularly any change or advance in +what you see there?" "I observe on the one hand much more ceremonial, on +the other hand, apparently, much less worship. Fewer kneel, fewer +respond, fewer around me seem devoutly attentive." Less worship! Is it +so indeed? Let the very opposite be the case, so far as our influence +and teaching can have effect, with our fathers' Prayer Book in our +hands, and in our hearts. + + + "_Lo, God is here; Him day and night + Th' united quires of angels sing; + To Him, enthron'd above all height, + Heaven's hosts their noblest praises bring; + Disdain not, Lord, our meaner song, + Who praise Thee with a stammering tongue. + + "Being of beings, may our praise + Thy courts with grateful fragrance fill; + Still may we stand before Thy face, + Still hear and do Thy sovereign will; + To Thee may all our thoughts arise, + Ceaseless, accepted sacrifice._" + + J. WESLEY, from TERSTEEGEN + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +_PREACHING_ (i.). + + + _Earthen vessels, frail and slight, + Yet the golden Lamp we bear; + Master, break us, that the light + So may fire the murky air; + Skill and wisdom none we claim, + Only seek to lift Thy Name._ + + +I have on purpose reserved the subject of Preaching for our closing +pages. Preaching is, from many points of view, the goal and summing up +of all other parts and works of the Ministry. What we have said already +about the Clergyman's life and labour, in secret, in society, in the +parish; what we have said about his study and use of the Book of Common +Prayer; all, so far as it has been true, ought to contribute its +suggestions as we approach this great theme. + +THE PULPIT THE CENTRAL POINT. + +For, indeed, "the Pulpit" (I use the word in its widest application, +wide enough to cover the mission-room desk, or the preaching place in +the open air) is no mere isolated item in the midst of other matters +which call for a Clergyman's attention. If the man is working, and +ordering his work, aright, the Pulpit will not be a something which has +to be taken by the way, a link in a long chain in which committees, +clubs, and social gatherings, and the like, are other and co-ordinate +links. It will be a sacred central point, the living heart of the busy +life, to which everything will bear relation. To the Pulpit everything +will somehow converge, and from the Pulpit everything will be +influenced. As the Pastor moves about amongst his people, he will be +gathering incessantly, from all parochial places and seasons, material +which will tell upon his sermons; he will be getting to know his +people's minds and lives with an intimacy which will give his preaching +to them a point which otherwise it could not have. And when he stands in +the Pulpit, this continually accumulating knowledge will come out, not +indeed in the way of diluting or distorting his Gospel, but so as to +give its eternal and holy message a point and closeness of application +which will ensure its "coming home," as God gives the blessing. + +TEMPTATIONS TO FORGET THIS. + +It needs thought and care to keep the parish and the sermon thus _en +rapport_. But such thought and care is infinitely well worth taking. +The Clergyman who longs to be useful for his Lord in the highest degree +he can be, cannot possibly think lightly of his sermons. Yet he may be +tempted, half unconsciously, to treat them too lightly in practices, +particularly if he is beset with a consciousness that he is not "a born +preacher," or if he stands in the opposite danger of having a "fatal" +facility of speech. Let the Clergyman only remember that his sermon, his +public delivery of instruction, of exhortation, in the Lord's name, is +not to be an exhibition of his own powers of thought or utterance, but a +faithful message-bearing to his own flock, in the light of what he knows +of Christ and the Word on the one side, and of the needs of the flock on +the other, and he will find a most useful encouragement, or a most +useful corrective, as the need may be. "O my Lord, I am not eloquent," +[Exod. iv. 10.] will be no disheartening thought, as he carries to the +pulpit the ever-growing weight of pastoral experience, all giving point +and freshness to the unalterable message. And the secret temptation to +think the sermon a light thing because mere words come easy, will be +powerfully counteracted in the other case not only by contact with the +realities of life in the daily work, but by remembering that the sermon +will have to do with not an abstract audience but _these particular_ +souls and lives thus laid on the man's conscience and affections. + +THE PASTOR PREACHES TO THOSE PARTICULAR HEARERS. + +Let me repeat it as earnestly as I can. The sermon, if it is to be what +it should be, should be affected at every point by the facts of the +preacher's own inner life, and by those of his intercourse with his +people. Those facts must, of course, be thoughtfully weighed and +handled. The tact which is so important in a Pastor, and which is best +learned and developed in the school of Christ's love, will see +instinctively how to apply in preaching the experience gained in prayer, +in conversation, in every branch of ministering life. We shall remember +that indefinite harm, not good, may be done when a man, particularly a +young man, unwisely preaches what may fairly seem to be personalities; I +have known some sad instances in point here. But taking that for +granted, assuming the good sense and sympathy of the preacher, I am +quite sure that the most eloquent sermon, adapted to _any_ audience, is +far less likely to be blessed and used by our Lord than the sermon which +is penetrated with the Pastor's personal intimacy with _that particular_ +audience, and which goes therefore straight from him to them. + +It has been well said that preaching may be described as "truth through +personality"; not merely the presentation somehow of so many facts and +thoughts, but the presentation of them through the medium of a living +man, who brings into the pulpit his heart, his character, his +experience, and so gives out his message. We may add to this suggestive +dictum that the true pastoral sermon is also "truth _to_ personalities"; +the living man's delivery of the message to living men and women whose +life, more or less, he knows. And so it presupposes some real amount of +pastoral intercourse, intelligently brought to bear on pulpit work. + +PREPARE SERMON IN THE PARISH. + +I linger a little over these thoughts, though they are little more than +introductory. For experience tells me how easily, in these days, the +Clergyman is tempted to dislocate his "parish work" from his sermons, to +the great loss of one or both parts of his duty. And if once he begins +to think of his sermons as a thing really apart, which must be got +through somehow, but rather as a mere duty than as a vital ministerial +function, the results will be sad for the sermons. So I lay stress on +the thought that the sermon-preparation ought to go on not only in the +study, over the Word, but in the parish, over the hearers of it. The +more constantly this is recollected, and put in practice, the less fear +will there be that the sermon will be a weariness either to people or to +preacher. + +"LABOUR IN THE WORD." + +But let me, however, entreat my younger Brother, by any and every means, +to watch and pray against a slack or low view of his function as a +preacher. From very many quarters at the present day we are invited to +slight our sermon-labour. Sometimes it is "work," organization, +committees, which is set against the sermon; sometimes it is the +reading-desk and the Communion Table--the liturgical functions of the +Ministry. Let pastoral activities and holy rites alike have ample place +in our thoughts and work; but for Christ's sake, my Brother in the +ministry of the Word and Sacraments, do not forget the Word. A Christian +Church where preaching sinks to a low ebb, where the labour of public +teaching and exhortation is neglected, in favour either of machinery or +ritual, cannot possibly--I dare to say it deliberately--be in a truly +healthy state now, and most assuredly is not laying up health and +strength for years to come. For the very life of our flocks, and of our +Church, and for the dear glory of our Master, let us "labour in the Word +and teaching." [1 Tim. v. 17.] + +"LITHO SERMONS." + +Is it necessary, in the case of any reader of these pages, that I should +not only appeal thus in general, but add one special entreaty--always to +preach _your own_ sermons? Probably it is not necessary; but it may be +"safe" [Phil. iii. 2.] nevertheless. Not long ago I was distressed to +read, in the advertisement columns of an excellent Church newspaper, a +conspicuous announcement of a series of "_litho sermons_," that is, I +suppose, sermons so printed as to look like manuscript. If such +literature has a sale, it is a miserable fact. Can these discourses +possibly be either written by a "man of the Spirit," or used by such a +man? I say, No. The production of them (in order to be lithographed), +and the use of them in their "litho" state, are untruthful acts, +untruthful in the very sanctuary of truth. The Lord pardon--and the Lord +forbid! + +Better the most stammering and incoherent utterances of a man who loves +the Lord, and the Word, and the flock, and who in Christ's Name does his +best, than the unhallowed, and usually, I think, vapid glibness of such +acted as well as spoken falsehoods.[27] And surely, the more the +Clergyman keeps his pulpit and his parish in living relation, the less +will he be tempted, be it ever so remotely, by any exigencies, to dream +of expedients such as these. + +[27] I am far from saying that the preacher should never get help from +other men's sermons. This may be done honestly and usefully, in many +ways. But to let another man's sermon pass as one's own is a sin. + +"DR SOUTH IN THE AFTERNOON." + +Quite conceivably, there may be rare occasions when another man's sermon +may be rightly used by you. But then, of course, you will do it +honestly and above-board, telling your people whose it is. In Addison's +_Sir Roger de Coverley_ there is a pleasant scene, where the venerable +Knight asks the Parson who the preacher for next Sunday is to be. "The +Bishop of St Asaph in the morning," replies the good man, "and Dr South +in the afternoon."[28] That is, he was about to read, openly and +honestly, a sermon of Beveridge's, and then a sermon of South's; +neither, certainly, in lithograph. I do not say he did the best for his +people in so doing; most certainly he could not "speak home" to the +details of their village life, and its temptations, if he spoke only in +the phrase of the two classical pulpit-masters. That _rapport_ of parish +and pulpit of which I have spoken could not have been much felt, at +least on that coming Sunday. But the good Parson was honest, however. +The practice of which I speak is not honest. + +[28] "He then shewed us his list of preachers for the whole year, where +I saw with a great deal of pleasure Archbishop Tillotson, Bishop +Sanderson, Dr Barrow, Dr Calamy, with several living authors." +(_Spectator_, No. 106, July 2nd, 1711.) Calamy by the way was a +Presbyterian, made one of the King's chaplains at the Restoration. + +WE MUST PREACH ATTRACTIVELY. + +Let me come now to a closer view of the preacher's work, and I will be +as practical as possible. I have besought my Brother to let nothing +tempt him to push his preaching into a neglectful corner. Let me now +beseech him to remember that he must not only be a diligent preacher, +but do his very best to commend his preaching to his people,--to be, in +a right sense, _attractive_. + +I deliberately say, attractive. That word, of course, suggests some very +undesirable applications. It is only too possible to aim at +attractiveness by bad methods. We may tone down the Gospel-message, +leaving out unpopular and man-humbling truths, and try to "attract" +people so. We may strive to "attract" them to hear us by doubtful +external accessories (of very different kinds), which, after all, will +rather attract attention--for a season--to themselves, than to the +message, and the Lord. But none the less it is every Clergyman's plain +duty to make his preaching, so far as he can, lawfully attractive. It is +his duty to see that he preaches Christ Crucified; and "the offence of +the Cross" [Gal. v. 11.] will always occur, sooner or later, in such +preaching; but it is his duty to see that there is no other "offence" in +it, so far as he can help it. If he so speaks of sin, and righteousness, +and judgment, that the unregenerate heart does not like it, though the +preacher has spoken wisely and in love, that is not the preacher's +fault. If he has so magnified Christ, and the glory and fulness of His +salvation, that it sounds like exaggeration to the unspiritual hearer, +though the words have been said in all reverent reality, that is not the +preacher's fault. But it _is_ his fault if he has repelled his hearers +from his message by what is not the message, but his own setting of it; +his spirit, manner, his delivery, his neglect of some plain precautions +against prejudice and weariness. Of a few such precautions I come now to +speak; and first, of what I may call the most external amongst them. + +NEEDFUL AND NEEDLESS OFFENCES. + +Beginning, then, with physical precautions against needless "offences," +[Greek: skandala], in our preaching I say first, let us do our best to +be _audible_. + +AUDIBILITY: MEANS TO IT. + +The word sounds almost amusingly commonplace. But it must be said. Many +more of us Clergymen than know it, or think about it, are not audible. +The lack of training for the bodily work of the pulpit, in our Church, +is serious; far more is done in this way among our Nonconformist +brethren.[29] And accordingly there are numbers of young English +Clergymen who read and speak without a thought of methodical audibility. +They do not articulate distinctly. They do not remember that the _pace_ +and _force_ of utterance, fit for a private room, are quite unfit for a +large building. They do not know, perhaps, how extremely important is +the articulation of consonants, and of final syllables of words, and of +closing words in a sentence. They do not know that a certain equability +(not monotony) of voice is necessary, if the utterance is to "carry" to +the end of a long church, or a church of many pillars. + +[29] Let me cordially commend the Rev. J.P. Sandlands' book, _The Voice +and Public Speaking_. Mr Sandlands has done, and is doing, admirable +work as an oral teacher of clerical elocution, in the intervals of his +parochial labours. + +PLEASANT AUDIBILITY. + +Or again, they do not know, or do not remember, that audibility is not +secured by mere loudness and bigness of voice, nor again by raising the +voice to a high pitch. "People tell you to speak up," said that +excellent elocutionist, Mr Simeon; "but I say, speak down," down as +regards the musical scale. Again, the larger the building the more +accentuated must be the articulation, and the more limited the variation +of pitch; but too often this is not thought of by the preacher. + +Further, it has to be remembered, but it is frequently forgotten, that +the audibility we should aim at is a pleasant and attractive audibility. +It is a great thing to be easily heard; which of us does not know the +combined physical and mental labour of listening to a sermon, or a +speech, which only reaches us indistinctly? But it is a greater thing to +be pleasantly heard; heard so that the listener finds nothing to tire +and repel in the utterance. Here, of course, different voices give very +different advantages; but there are some common secrets, so to speak, +which all--who will make a sacred business of it--may profitably and +effectively use. Above all, there is the secret of quiet naturalness; +the watchful avoidance (do not forget this) of tricks and mannerisms in +delivery;[30] the watchful cultivation of the sort of utterance which we +should use in an earnest conversation on grave subjects, with only such +differences as are suggested by _the size_ of the place in which we +speak. Of some other "common secrets" I shall speak when I come to the +question of style and phrase. + +[30] I have known a sermon which in matter and style were really +excellent made, to some hearers at least, almost unendurable by the +accident that the preacher had got the habit of (needlessly) _clearing +his throat_ at the end of almost every sentence. + +FIND A CANDID FRIEND. + +How shall we best work upon such hints? Very largely, by the use of the +plainest common-sense and every-day observation on our own part. But +largely also by trying to find some friend, equally kind and candid, who +will help us "to hear ourselves as others hear us." For myself, after +twenty-five years, I welcome more and more gratefully every such +criticism as the occasion presents itself. Let the Curate ask his Vicar +to tell him without mercy if his utterance, his articulation, is clear; +if his manner is natural; if his preaching is or is not easy to listen +to in these respects. And let friend ask friend; let pastor ask +parishioner; let husband ask wife! + +GOOD ENGLISH. + +There are other directions in which we must cultivate attractiveness. +There is English style. Here, again, gifts differ widely in detail, yet +there are common secrets open to common use. It is open to every one to +avoid, on the one hand, an ambitious, long-worded style; on the other, a +style which many young men of our time are in more danger of +patronizing--the slovenly, shapeless style, in which the Queen's English +is very "freely handled," and into which the broken English of an +ever-growing _slang_ not seldom makes its way. These defects have only +to be recognized, surely, to be avoided, by keeping our eyes open as we +read and our ears as we hear, and by remembering that the sacred message +of the King, while it is too great to be tricked out with false +rhetoric, is also too great to be slighted, not to say insulted, by a +really careless phraseology. + +A GOOD STYLE IS A PRACTICAL POWER. + +Pains will be needed, of course, as we pursue the object of a good +style. We must watch and think. We must read and observe good models, +the written words of men who have proved themselves powerful preachers +to the people, and indeed of men generally who are known masters of +English. We shall have, again, to consult candid friends. But my point +is, that all this is abundantly worth our while. A neat, straight, +well-worded sentence is not a mere literary luxury. It is a practical +power. It is far easier to listen to than a careless, formless sentence +is, and it is far easier to remember. The truth which it conveys is much +more likely, therefore, to find its way securely into the mind, and to +lie there ready for the vivifying touch of the Spirit of God. + +I emphasize this matter of style, for in many quarters it is much +neglected, and some of my younger Brethren do, if I mistake not, +entertain the thought that the simplicity of the Gospel is best set +forth, and God most honoured, where plans and methods of language are +neglected. To speak about "a good style" to those who think so, may seem +perhaps little else than a recommendation to bid for human applause in +the line of literature. But my intention is far enough from this. Mere +literary ambition, the quest of the glory of self in this as in every +other line, is a forbidden thing to the true bondservant of the Lord. +But it is by no means forbidden him, for his Lord's sake, to aim at +clearness, point, force of expression, that the message may be the +better taken in. God is as little glorified by a bad style as by a bad +voice, or bad handwriting, or bad reasoning. And by a good style I mean +not a style polished and elaborated to please fastidious tastes (the +best taste, by the way, is best pleased with correct simplicity), but a +style which shall be both pure and plain in word and phrase, +"understandable of the people" yet such as not to vex those who care for +their native tongue, and just enough formed and pointed to make +attention pleasant to the ear. For average audiences, I know no style +more perfectly answering my idea than that of Mr Spurgeon,[31] in his +printed sermons of recent years. And I happen to know that Mr Spurgeon +has always taken great and systematic pains with his English. + +[31] Since these words were written this great Christian and preacher +has passed away to his Master's presence. + +FRENCH HEARERS OF ENGLISH. + +Some preachers need much more than others a hint to keep their sentences +_straight_, and to avoid the tangle of parentheses, long or short. Here, +again, Mr Spurgeon gives me an admirable illustration. His sentences, +never thin or weak in matter, are always straight. If any of my younger +Brethren are tempted, as I confess I am, in the digressive direction, I +would recommend them (if they usually preach without writing) to _write_ +a sermon now and then, and rigorously to exclude, or re-write, all +sentences which transgress. It occurred to me recently, when acting as a +summer chaplain in Switzerland, to find the benefit of a different +corrective. On one particular Sunday I had among my hearers in the +morning a French Presbyterian, in the afternoon a French Roman Catholic, +each understanding a little English; and in each case I had special +reasons for hope and longing that the sermon might bring some spiritual +help. Instinctively, I avoided every expression which could in the least +complicate my English and thus obscure the message to my foreign +friends. And so thankful was I for the pruning of periods that resulted, +that I am much disposed, in all future preaching, to put mentally +before me those same two hearers. + +"WRITTEN OR EXTEMPORE?" + +On that great question, Shall I preach from writing, or not? I say very +little. Speaking quite generally, and thinking now only of the regular +church congregation, not of the mission-room or open air, I would advise +my younger Brethren to write for some while, but usually with an +ultimate view to speech without writing. No hard rule can be laid down. +One man is so gifted that from the first he can express himself +correctly and well without any manuscript before him. Another finds, all +his life through, that he speaks best, and his people listen best, when +he reads (vividly and naturally) from his prayerfully-prepared +manuscript. But on the whole, I repeat it, writing is the best +discipline for a man in his early days of Ministry, while beyond doubt +the freely-spoken sermon, like the freely-spoken speech, (carefully +enough prepared as to matter and order,) is usually best to listen to, +and therefore should be the preacher's goal. Some men write their +sermons and then learn them by heart for delivery. For myself, I own +this would be a severe ordeal to nerve; and in very few cases, if I am +right, does it produce a perfectly natural effect. Not long ago, if not +now, it was a frequent custom in Scotland; and one amusing story comes +to my mind. A good minister, known to a near relative of mine, always +thus "mandated" his sermon, and punctually delivered it word for word. +One day a tremendous hailstorm assailed the church windows, and not only +did his parishioners fail to hear him, but literally he lost the sound +of his own voice. Yet he _dared not stop_, lest memory should play him +false; and when the storm ceased, "I found myself," he said, "with some +surprise, in a quite distant part of the sermon." + +ORDER AND DIVISION. + +Another important aid to attractiveness is order and division, simply +and sensibly managed. Nothing is much more repellent, at least to modern +hearers, than an excess of arrangement; headings and subdivisions +overdone. But nothing is more helpful to attention than a simple, +natural, luminous division, present in the preacher's mind, announced to +the audience, and faithfully carried out. Remember this, among many +other things, in the choosing of the text; _ceteris paribus_, that text +is best which best lends itself to natural division. + +PAINS AND FAITH. + +There are many other points, more or less of the exterior kind, so to +speak, which concern the attractiveness of our preaching. There is the +question of length, which can only be settled by careful and prayerful +consideration of special circumstances, with recollection of the general +principles that the morning sermon should be short compared with that of +the evening, and that he who would reach the hearts of the poor must not +give them "sermonettes," but sermons. There is the question of action, a +large subject. All that I can say is, that _some_ action is almost +always a help to attention, but that it proves the very opposite as soon +as it seems uneasy, or a mannerism. + +I have yet to deal with some thoughts about the preacher's message, and +the inmost secrets of his power. Meanwhile, may our Lord and Master +enable us so to "labour in the Word" that we shall think no means too +humble which will really help us to make His message plain, and no +dependence on Him too absolute for the longed-for spiritual results. + + "_Would I describe a preacher, such as Paul, + Were he on earth, would hear, approve, and own, + Paul should himself direct me. I would trace + His master-strokes, and draw from his design. + I would express him simple, grave, sincere, + In doctrine uncorrupt; in language plain, + And plain in manner; decent, solemn, chaste, + And natural in gesture; much impress'd + Himself, as conscious of his awful charge, + And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds + May feel it too; affectionate in look, + And tender in address, as well becomes + A messenger of grace to guilty men._" + + COWPER. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +_PREACHING_ (ii.). + + + _For Thy sake, beloved Lord, + I will labour in Thy Word; + On the knees, in patient prayer; + At the desk, with studious care; + In the pulpit, seeking still + There to utter all Thy will._ + + +I pursue the subject of attractive preaching, taking still the word +attractive in its worthiest sense, and again laying stress on the +_necessity_ of attractiveness of the right sort. We have looked a little +already at some of the external requisites to this end; now let us +approach some which have to do with matter more than manner. + +CONSIDERATENESS. + +On the way, I pause to say a word in general on one of the reasons why +we should do our best to speak so that our hearers shall care to hear. +The supreme reason is manifest; it is the glory of our Master and the +good of souls. For His sake, and for the flock's sake, we long and must +strive to speak so as to draw their attention to His message and to +Himself. But subordinate to this great motive, and in fullest harmony +with it, there is another; and this is a motive which, once clearly +apprehended, will affect not our preaching only, but all parts of our +ministry--our conduct of public worship, our pastoral visitation, our +whole intercourse with our neighbours. I mean, the simple motive of a +loyal and faithful _considerateness for others_, as we are on the one +hand Christian men and English gentlemen, and on the other hand +servants, not masters, of the Church and parish. Possibly this aspect of +the Pastor's public and official ministry may not have presented itself +distinctively as yet to my younger Brother; but it cannot be recognized +and acted upon too early. Some things in our clerical position and +functions tend in their own nature to make us forget it, if we are not +definitely awake to it beforehand. In some respects the Clergyman, even +the youngest Curate, has dangerous opportunities for _in_ considerate +public action. Take the management of divine Service in illustration. In +his manner of reading, his tone, his pace, the Clergyman may allow +himself, only too easily, to think of himself alone. In the +reading-desk, or at the Table of the Lord, he may consult only his own +likes and dislikes in attitude, gesture, and air. But if so, he is +greatly failing in the homely duty of loyal considerateness. What will +be most for the happiness and edification of the congregation? What will +least disturb and most assist true devotion? How shall the Minister best +secure that the worshippers shall remember the Master and not be +uncomfortably conscious of the servant? The answers to such questions +will of course vary considerably under varying conditions; but it is +_the principle_ of the questions which I press home. Our office, and the +common consent and usage of the Christian people, give us a position of +independence in such matters which has its advantages, but also its very +great risks; and it is for us accordingly to handle that independence +with the utmost possible _considerateness_. + +This thought was much upon my own mind lately during the interesting +experiences of a Continental summer chaplaincy, to which I referred in +the last chapter. As usual in a health resort abroad, the English +residents represented many different shades of Church opinion and +practice. By the convictions of many long years, I am an Evangelical +Churchman, in the well-understood sense of the term; and of those +convictions I am not at all ashamed. My manner of conducting public +worship, especially in the Communion Office, would probably make it +plain at once to most worshippers where I stand as a Churchman. But that +does not mean, I trust, that I am to allow myself to be inconsiderate of +the feelings of others in the matter; and on the occasions referred to +it was my earnest and anxious aim to remember this with regard to +worshippers, and particularly communicants, whose beliefs, or however +whose sympathies, were what is called "higher" than my own. On their +account I sought to make it plain that no rubrical direction was +neglectfully treated by me, and that reverence of manner and action was +a sacred thing in my eyes--a reverence not elaborated, but attentive. I +hope I should have been reverently careful whatever the composition of +the congregation was; but under the circumstances the duty of this +obvious sort of ministerial _considerateness_ was laid on my heart with +special weight. That duty bears in many directions. It is, I venture to +say, inconsiderate, on the one hand, when the Clergyman conducts the +services of the Church with a disturbing artificiality of performance. +It is inconsiderate, on the other hand, when he conducts them with any, +even the least, real slovenliness and inattention. + +TEMPTATIONS TO FORGET IT. + +But if all this is true of the desk and of the blessed Table, it is true +also, and in a high degree, of the pulpit. Singularly independent, up to +a certain point, is the position of the preacher. He chooses his own +text; he assigns himself (at least in theory) his own length of +discourse; he is entitled, under the aegis of the law of the land, to +speak on to the end without interruption; he is bound, within the limits +of a sanctified common-sense, to speak with the authority of his +commission. Here are powerful temptations to an inconsiderate man, +perhaps especially to an inconsiderate young man, to show much +inconsideration. And therefore, here is a pre-eminent occasion for the +true Pastor, who thinks, prays, loves, and is humble, to practise the +beautiful opposite. Shall you and I seek grace to do so? + +RESPECT ELDER HEARERS. + +Put yourself often, my dear Brother, while I do the same, into the +position--which we once occupied always, and often do still--of the +hearer. You, the Curate, or the young Incumbent, have recently come into +the parish, and you are full of a young man's energy and enterprize, and +a little infected perhaps with a common and natural belief of your time +of life, but a belief not quite true to facts, that the world is made +for young men. And among your hearers, week by week, as you preach from +that pulpit, sit men and women who were working, and thinking, and +perhaps believing, literally long before you were born. Put yourself in +their place. Into many of their experiences, and their sympathies born +of experience, you cannot possibly enter personally. You cannot _feel +personally_ how this or that innovation of language or manner, this or +that too crude statement of your message, this or that baldly new and +perhaps by no means true theory, aired as if it were all obvious and of +course, must look and sound to them. You cannot _feel_ it all; but you +can think about it. Perhaps these are educated and refined people, and +accustomed all their lives to value clear thought and pure diction, in +any case accustomed to carefulness in the matter and manner of the +sermon. You cannot enter into all their mental habits in your own mental +workings; but you can take account of them, and in a loyal and +thoughtful _considerateness_ you can remember them in practice, and +honestly aim so to prepare and to preach as to conciliate the thoughtful +and the elders. + +Such considerateness will not mean the stifling of prayerful conviction, +or the failure to be faithful as the messenger of the Lord. But it will +mean a severity upon yourself as regards the tone and spirit of your +thoughts, and also as the manner of your utterance. You will take pains, +even at a heavy cost to self (and such costs are always gains in the +end), so to minister as to attract the attention of the flock, not to +yourself, but to your blessed Master and His Word; preaching "not +yourself, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and _yourself their servant_ for +Jesus' sake." [2 Cor. iv. 5.] + +With this aim of Attractiveness, then, in our minds, and with this +motive of Considerateness beside it, let us come to some thoughts in +detail about the matter of preaching. + +And here first I must bring in another word to meet the word +"attractive." That word is "faithful." + +WRONG KINDS OF ATTRACTIVENESS. + +As a matter of most obvious fact (we noticed it in the previous +chapter), there is a false and useless attractiveness, as well as a +true. There is the poor and miserable attractiveness--it draws a certain +class of modern hearers--of mere brevity; the "ten-minute sermon." There +are no doubt exceptional occasions when ten minutes, or even five, may +be the right limit to our utterance; but there is something wrong with +both sermon and audience if in the regular ministration of God's holy +Word the preacher must at once begin to stop. There is again the +specious and spurious attractiveness of excitement and froth of manner, +or of a merely emotional appeal to perhaps not the deepest emotions, an +attraction which has little in it of that divine magnet which draws the +will and lifts the soul in regenerate faith and surrender. There is the +attraction, tempting, but futile for the true purposes of the pulpit, +of the sermon which is after all only a lecture, or a leading article; +full of the topics of the day, of the hour; full perhaps of some +celebrated name just immortalized by death[32]; but not full of the +eternal message for which the pulpit exists. Most certainly there is no +divine rule which excludes from the sermon all allusions to politics, to +society, to science, to great men; but there _is_ a divine rule, running +through the whole precept and example of the New Testament, which keeps +such things always subordinate to the supreme work of preaching Jesus +Christ. + +[32] "I went longing to hear about Christ, and it was only Newman from +beginning to end." This was the actual lament of an anxious soul, one +Sunday in 1890. + +FAITHFULNESS. + +Across all our thoughts how to secure attractiveness, as a co-ordinate +line which fixes attention to the true point, runs the word +"Faithfulness." The preacher is to be attractive while faithful, +faithful while attractive. And he is to be attractive not for the sake +of so being, but in order that he may win an entrance for the words of +faithfulness, to his Master's praise. + +WE ARE MESSENGERS. + +Yes, this is what we are to be as preachers. We are to seek "mercy of +the Lord to be faithful." [1 Cor. vii. 25.] We are not popular leaders, +looking for a cry, or passing one on. We are not speculative thinkers, +feeling out a philosophy, communicating our guesses at truth to a +company of friends who happen to be interested in the investigation. We +are "messengers, watchmen, and stewards of the Lord." We are in +commissioned charge of a divine, authentic, and unalterable message. We +are the expounders of a "Word which liveth and abideth for ever," [1 +Pet. i. 23.] a Word which man is always trying to judge and to +disparage, but which will judge man at the last day. [Joh. xii. 48.] We +are the bondservants of an absolute Master, who is at once our Sender +and our Message, and who overhears our every word in its delivery. + +It is a grave mistake, as we saw in our last chapter, to think that +faithfulness means a repellent utterance of "the faithful Word." [Tit. +i. 9.] But it is at least an equal mistake to think that attractiveness +means a modification of that Word, which to the end of our world's day +will still be a "folly" and a "stumbling-block," [1 Cor. i. 23.] in +some respects, to the unconverted soul, and will always have its +searching point and edge for the converted soul also. + +But this consideration here is only by the way. I return from it to the +matter of a right and faithful attractiveness and some of its higher +conditions. + +SECRETS FOR TRUE ATTRACTIVENESS. + +"_Preach the Gospel--earnestly, interestingly, fully._" Such, I believe, +is the prescription given, by the great preacher whom I cited in the +last chapter, to the Pastor who would fill his church, and keep it full. +In the first instance, no doubt, Mr Spurgeon gives it as a prescription +to the Nonconformist Pastor; but it is quite as much to the purpose for +the Conformist, so far as he is a Minister of the Word.[33] What I have +to say in these present pages shall run on the lines of that sentence of +good counsel. + +[33] And let it never be forgotten that this is his _primary_ function +in the mind of the Church of England. See the Priest's Ordination, +particularly its Exhortations, its Commission, and its final Collect. + +"PREACH THE GOSPEL." + +i. "_Preach the Gospel_," that is to say Jesus Christ, in His Person, +His Work, His Offices, His Teaching, all applied to the souls and lives +of men. Would you truly and permanently attract, with an attraction +which God will bless? Let that be your first condition. I do not dilate +upon it here, but with all the earnestness possible I lay it upon my +younger Brother's heart as we pass on. Preach the Gospel, that is to say +the Lord, in all He is for man as man is a sinner, a mortal, a mourner, +a worker. Do not let Christ be one subject among others. As little can +the sun be one among the planets. He is _the_ Subject; all others get +their reality and importance for us preachers by their relation to Him. +In particular I venture to say, do not let occasional, temporal, local +topics, even very important ones, dislodge Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ +of the whole Bible, from His royal place in your preaching; and do not +forget continually (though not monotonously) to keep to the front the +fact that He is _the sinner's Saviour_. More will be said later about +that point of view, but I state it at once. Speak indeed of Christ as +Exemplar, Ideal, Friend, Man of Men; but do not let your brethren forget +that, "_first of all, Christ died for our sins_, according to the +Scriptures," [1 Cor. xv. 3.] and that His primary practical relation to +us is always that of Saviour to sinner. That truth is not altogether in +fashion now. But it is eternal; it is deep as the human soul, and as the +Law of God, and as such it is a mighty condition to attractiveness, +wisely and truly handled. It corresponds to the inmost facts of the +hearers' being, whether they are aware of it yet or not; and is there +not here the most powerful of magnets, at least _in posse_? + +"PREACH IT EARNESTLY." + +ii. "Preach the Gospel _earnestly_." This does not mean necessarily +with vehemence, or even with fervour, of manner. Some men's delivery is +fervent, or even vehement, in the most natural way possible; and let +such men preach so, if they will do it thoughtfully and to the purpose. +But the slightest artificial cultivation of such qualities, or of the +semblance of them, is a great practical mistake. And earnestness is at +once a wider and a simpler matter all the while. The man who preaches +earnestly is the man who is altogether in earnest, and speaks out his +conviction and his purpose. + +*PREACH IT AS A WITNESS. + +He is the man who has the Lord's message deep in his own soul, and is +conscious of its vast importance for the souls of others. He is the man +who does not merely discuss, or explain, or even expound, however +soundly and luminously, but whose words--well chosen, well weighed, well +ordered--are _also_ the living words of one who "testifieth that he hath +seen." [Joh. iii. 11.] Yes, the essence of the right sort of earnestness +is the witness-character of the preacher. What is a witness? One who has +personal knowledge of the matter of his words [2 Tim. i. 12.]--"_I know +whom I have believed._" Is there not a great need at this time, in our +dear Church, of more such witness-preaching? I do not mean preaching +that advertises the preacher as a remarkable Christian, certainly not +preaching that puts for one moment our "testimony" on a level with the +infallible Word once written. But I do mean the preaching which, by one +of the surest laws of our nature, attracts attention to that Word in a +living way by the preacher's manifest confession that its message is a +mighty reality and certainty to himself. + +Some years ago I heard an account of the peculiarly impressive preaching +of a young Mission-clergyman. It was described to me as remarkable not +for energy of manner, or warmth of diction, but for the impression left +on all hearers that the truths handled by the man were for himself +absolute and present facts. He stated them with a directness and +quietness which was emphatically matter-_of-fact_. This sort of +preaching is earnest indeed. + +"PREACH IT INTERESTINGLY." + +iii. "Preach the Gospel _interestingly_." How shall we secure this? Some +recipes for interest are familiar. There is the method of illustration; +there is the method of anecdote: both excellent, and almost +indispensable. Only, they are methods which have their risks, and must +be used with care. Illustrations are apt to overwhelm the thing +illustrated, the moment much detail is allowed; and they are apt to go +on three feet, or even upon one, instead of upon four; and they may be +drawn from quarters too remote to strike the hearers with effect. +Anecdotes have the same risks; and, besides, they need, if they are to +be used aright, to be carefully sifted and verified. I say this not to +disparage what in some preachers' hands is a most powerful and also a +most delicate weapon; yet the caution is certainly needed, especially by +younger men. + +INTEREST OF EXPLANATION. + +But the surest secrets of interesting preaching lie deeper than anecdote +and illustration. One of them, a very simple one to state, is clearness +of thought, and of the expression and explanation of thought. I entreat +my Brother to be an _explanatory_ preacher, by which I mean, not that he +should treat his _brethren_ as if they were his _children_ (unless +indeed it is a children's sermon), but that he should handle familiar +religious terms with the resolve to make them _live and speak_ to the +ordinary hearer. Nothing is more opiate-like than a sentence which is +unreal to the hearer because it is mere phraseology. Nothing can be made +more interesting than familiar phraseology (supposing it to be true and +important) so treated as to speak its meaning out fresh and living in +modern ears. + +INTEREST OF EXPOSITION. + +Another deep and unfailing secret of interest, so that it be used +intelligently and prayerfully, is close akin to this last. It lies in +the right sort of _expository_ preaching. I have in my mind such +exposition as will be found in Dr Vaughan's sermons on the Philippian +Epistle. The charm and power of those sermons lie, I know, very much in +the extraordinary excellence, the _curiosa simplicitas_, of their +literary style, so unpretentious and so masterly. But it lies also in +the fact that the preacher takes us over a familiar Scripture passage, +verse by verse, phrase by phrase, and translates it into the dialect of +present circumstances. Let me heartily commend this sort of preaching +from my own parochial experience in past days. In a congregation +consisting chiefly of the poor, I found that the most intelligent and +sustained interest was excited by a series of Sunday evening sermons on +a selected chapter or paragraph, in which the aim was first to +paraphrase the sacred phrases, as it were, into modern shapes, and then +at the close to enforce some main message of the portion. The method is +as old as the Homilies of Chrysostom, and older. + +INTEREST OF PRACTICALITY. + +Another secret of interest, permanent and effectual, is _practicality_ +in preaching. I protest, whenever I can, and I hope to do so to the +last, against the common but unhappy fallacy of an outcry against +doctrine: "_Give us not a creed, but a life_." The whole New Testament, +the whole Bible, protests against such a sentence. There, a divine creed +is always seen as necessary for a divine life. Supernatural facts, +livingly apprehended, are necessary for supernatural peace and power in +this formidable natural world. But then, on the other side, it is a +fallacy almost as fatal to preach the supernatural fact and truth +without a constant and practical application of them to the crude and +stern realities of life. A young pastoral preacher was once, in my +hearing, warmly and lovingly thanked for his pulpit-work, on the eve of +his quitting his Curacy; and the point on which his humble friends dwelt +was that he had always preached Christ, _and_ always showed them how to +make use of His presence and power in the actual circumstances of their +lives. Eloquent words, aye and true words, spoken _in vacuo_, will be +dull to most hearers; eternal truths laid alongside the weekday work and +temptation will always be interesting. + +"PREACH THE GOSPEL FULLY." + +iv. "Preach the Gospel _fully_." Here is our great Nonconformist's last +adverb, in his recipe for attractive preaching. Its point is not so +obvious perhaps as that of the other words, but it is nobly true. "The +Gospel" is, as I have said, and as we know, nothing less than Jesus +Christ the Lord, in His whole harmonious glory of Person, Work, and +Word. It is deeply true that in that mighty and manifold theme there are +points which must be always prominent and ruling; and most surely the +man-humbling and soul-blessing truths of the Atoning Sacrifice are such +points. "First of all" (we have recalled that all-significant sentence +already), "first of all, Christ died for our sins." [1 Cor. xv. 3.] Alas +for the Church, for the congregation, for the pulpit, where that is +forgotten, obscured, or put into a secondary, or perhaps a tertiary +place! One thing is certain; that pulpit cannot be bearing its right +witness meanwhile to the "exceeding sinfulness" of sin--not merely the +deformity of sin, but the awful evil and condemnable guilt of sin. [SN: +Rom. vii. 13.] But then it is a thing to be regretted (and corrected) +when the Pastor's preaching is _always and only_ concerned with the +urgent need, and wonderful provision, for the pardon and acceptance of +the believing sinner. I dare to say it is impossible that such preaching +should be permanently, or even long, interesting and attractive, and +this because of the nature of the case. + +*PREACH PARDON, BUT MORE ALSO. + +Man's fallen and sinful soul needs pardon unspeakably, and always, but +it needs it as a means to an end; and that end is nearness to God, +conformity to Him, power to do His blessed will as His servant for ever. +For this same great end the soul needs, even in the range of truths +which are of the order of means, to learn more than the glorious +_rudiments_ of forgiveness. It needs to know something of the heavenly +Offices of the once Crucified One: His Mediation, Suretyship, and +Intercession; His Priesthood; His Royalty; His Headship. In Him lie +stored the divine treasures with which our _whole_ extent of need is to +be met. And the preacher who would permanently attract his people, by +bringing out of his storehouse things eternally old and new, must seek +and pray to preach Christ fully. + +CHRIST FOR US AND IN US. + +To some devoted men it seems impossible not to be always preaching the +glory of "Christ _for_ us"; others can never leave the precious theme of +"Christ _in_ us." But if they are not missioners, but pastors, they will +assuredly find that a _permanent_ attraction can only be secured by +doing what the Word of God does--setting forth _both_ glorious sets of +truths in fulness, in harmony, and in application to the realities of +sin and of life. + +So we have thought awhile about attractive preaching. Need I say again +what the sort of attractiveness is which I have in view? It is indeed, +on the surface, attraction to the church, attraction to the sermon; but +its whole inner purpose is an attraction which neither church nor sermon +can in the least degree cause, but which the Eternal Spirit, sovereign +and loving, can cause through them--an attraction to Jesus Christ, in +true repentance, living faith, genuine surrender, and patient, happy +service. + + + "_Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim, + And publish abroad His wonderful Name; + The Name all victorious of Jesus extol, + His kingdom is glorious and rules over all._ + + "_Then let us adore and give Him His right, + All glory and power, all wisdom and might, + All honour and blessing with angels above, + And thanks never ceasing, and infinite love._" + + C. WESLEY. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +_PREACHING_ (iii.). + + + _Eternal Fulness, overflow to me + Till I, Thy vessel, overflow for Thee; + For sure the streams that make Thy garden grow + Are never fed but by an overflow: + Not till Thy prophets with Thyself run o'er + Are Israel's watercourses full once more._ + + +Again I treat of the sermon. We have looked, my younger Brother and I, +at some main secrets and prescriptions for attractive preaching. What +shall I more say on the subject of the pulpit? In the first place I will +offer a few miscellaneous suggestions, and then come in closing to the +deepest theme of the whole matter--Spiritual Power in Preaching. + +NOTES FOR A SERMON-LECTURE. + +I address myself to write, soon after delivering to my students, in the +library adjoining my study, a lecture on Preaching. Let me call it +rather, a talk on Sermons, which is a term less grandiose and much more +true; for in fact the discourse has been a most informal series of +remarks and suggestions on topics suggested by a collection of sermons +written for me, and which I now came to give back, annotated, to their +writers. It occurs to me to offer my kind reader a written version of +some of these remarks just made _viva voce_ to my friends. They happen +to touch on a variety of points which are not unimportant in themselves +and also typical of very many more. + +For the purposes of the lecture, they have been divided between matters +of form and matters of substance; and I report them, or rather some of +them, in that order. + +I. _Remarks on Diction, Style, etc._ + +(_a_) Take care to "pull the sentences together," to avoid loose and +redundant phrases and words. Why write "_grief and sorrow_," "_fatigued +and tired out_," "_attacks and assaults_"? A subtle intellect may see +distinctions here, but it is too much for me, and, I am sure, for most +plain people in church. + +(_b_) Respect the Queen's English. "_The one_ who lives a Christian +life" is scarcely English; say "the man," not "the one." "_Like_ Adam +and Eve walked in Paradise"! This is a serious, though common, piece of +bad grammar. Say, "_Like Adam_, when he walked," but "_As_ Adam +_walked_." + +(_c_) Remember that the genius of English eschews a large use of +_connecting words_, particularly in spoken discourse. Not often is a +sentence the better for an "_and_" at the beginning. Many a +"_therefore_" and "_because_" are well away, if you would speak with +freedom and vigour. + +AVOID RHETORICAL DICTION. + +(_d_) Avoid altogether such touches of expression as characterise verse, +or rhetorical prose. I find in one sermon the sentence, "_Think you_ St +Paul trembled at the prospect?" Please re-write this, and say, "_Do you +think_ St Paul was afraid?" For you certainly would not say, speaking +however gravely, to your friend, "Think you that we shall have a fine +day to-morrow?" Rhetorical phrases rarely give an impression of +practical reality. + +(_e_) Do not speak in the pulpit as if you were writing notes for an +edition of the Epistles. What does the labourer (and what do many +hearers more highly educated than he) think when you say, on Rom. v. 1, +that "_weighty manuscript authority gives another reading_"? And what +does he think you mean when you talk about "_Sheol_"? By the way, when +you quote Scripture in the pulpit, passingly, to a general +congregation, I would advise you to quote not the Revised Version, but +the Authorized, which will surely be "_the_ English Bible" for many long +days yet. Unless you have before you some special difference between the +two Versions, on which you can _stop to speak explicitly_, quote the +familiar (and inimitable) diction of 1611. + +PREACH WHAT CAN BE REPORTED. + +(_f_) Prepare your sermon, and preach it, so that it shall be _easy to +report_. One sermon here before me would be as hard as possible to +retail at home. It is on Rom. v. 1, and it says some excellent things +upon it. But it brings in holiness of heart where the text speaks only +of acceptance of person, and it mingles the two topics so ingeniously +together that the impression is seriously complicated. Think of the +pious daughter yonder in church, going home to her infirm old mother, +and trying to answer the question, "What did the gentleman preach about +to-night?" Let us do our best to preach sermons which are not only +sound, but portable. + +(_g_) Take care to keep the sermon in _tune with the text_. Here is a +manuscript on Psal. v. 12, a verse of exultant joy; but the last +passage of the sermon, the passage which ought to concentrate the whole +message, is full of solemn _warning_. Warn by all means; do not forget +to sound the watchman's trumpet. [Ezek. xxxiii.] But sound it in the +right place. + +CUT THE PREFACE SHORT. + +(_h_) Here is a sermon sadly spoiled by a _long introduction_. It tells +us much about the circumstances of the inspired writer, but so as to +throw little light on the message of the text. Here is another, on the +wonderfully definite hope of blessedness after death given us in Phil. +i. 21. This also is ruined by its introduction, which truly begins _ab +ovo_, discussing the genesis of man's belief in immortality! That +preface would leave, in the actual delivery of the sermon, about five +minutes for the handling of the precious words, "To depart and to be +with Christ, which is far better." Generally, be shy of much +introduction and preface in the pulpit. I do not mean that we are never +to elucidate connexions and contexts. But, remember limits. Your minutes +are few, ah, so few, for such a Message,--Christ Jesus in His fulness, +for man's need in its depth. Pass quickly through the porch into that +Church. + +BE ACCURATE IN STATEMENT. + +(_i_) When you refer to _Scripture facts_, be accurate; a slip-shod +habit there may fatally prejudice a not quite friendly hearer who knows +something of the Bible; and it will certainly do no good to _any_ +hearer. Here is a sermon on Phil. i. 21, and it speaks of St Paul as +writing to Philippi from his "_dark cell_." But St Luke says that he was +"in his own hired house," [Acts xxviii. 30.] or at worst, "his own hired +rooms." Here again I read of David as returning to "Jerusalem, _the city +of his fathers_." But his fathers had lived and died at Bethlehem; and +Jerusalem was in heathen hands till David himself took it! + +2. _Remarks on Points in the Substance of the Sermons._ + +(_a_) Are you quite sure that the Patriarchs had no anticipation of a +life eternal? Many lecturers, and many editors, now say so. But the +Epistle to the Hebrews says that "they desired a better country, that is +an heavenly" [Heb. xi. 16.]; and that is better evidence for this +purpose than any inferences (or beliefs) of modern "scholarship." True, +the old saints say little explicitly about their hope. But many things +lie deep in a man's faith, and in his experience too, about which, for +various reasons, he may say very little. + +REVELATION WAS NOT INTUITION. + +(_b_) I do not like this sentence, which says that the later Prophets +had a "_fuller perception_ of" the eternal future than their +predecessors. Not that I blame the phrase in itself; but I dislike its +associations. There runs a strong drift in modern theology, as we all +know, towards the explanation of Scripture by "perception" rather than +by revelation. "The Lord appeared unto me"; "The Lord spake unto me"; +say the Prophets, and they appeal occasionally to supernatural +attestation of their assertions. But the modern expository savant, wiser +to be sure than the Prophet, assures us that they arrived at their +messages by observation, by meditation, by development of thought and +character, and practically by nothing different from these things. +Accordingly, their "inspiration" was strictly speaking the same in kind +as that of a Chrysostom, or a Luther, or a Shakespeare. Do not you say +so, or imply that it is so. Do not go for mere company's sake with the +current of naturalistic thought. Sure I am that you are most unlikely, +if you do, to be the instrument of _super_natural _effects_ in your +preaching. + +"WHAT IS JUSTIFICATION?" + +(_c_) "What is Justification? It is, _the making man just_." Is it +indeed? I should read that sentence with alarm, if I did not know the +writer! Its sentiment is practically Roman Catholic. Moreover, it puts a +meaning on the word in question, contradicted by the common usages of +language; an important consideration when we study a Scriptural +theological term. When I "justify my opinion" I do not _make it right_, +but vindicate it as already right. When the Hebrew judge "justified the +righteous," [Deut. xxv. 1] he did not improve him, but pronounced him +satisfactory to the law. And when God, for Christ's sake, justifies you +who believe in Jesus, He does not in that act make you good; He +pronounces you, for His Son's sake, to be satisfactory to His Law, for +purposes of your personal acceptance. + +"WHY DOES FAITH JUSTIFY?" + +(_d_) "Why has faith such power to justify? Because, _carried out to its +fullest extent, it implies assimilation_ to its Object." Here again I +should be alarmed, if I did not know the writer's general convictions, +which are sound enough. But this particular sentence again is in full +harmony with Romanist doctrine. And, as a fact, with the Bible open, and +with usages of common language before us, it can easily be exposed as a +confusion of words and thought. Faith, carried out ever so fully, is +just faith still; personal reliance, personal confidence on God in His +Word. That reliance is His appointed (and divinely natural) way for our +reception of Jesus Christ. For our Justification, it receives Christ in +His merits; it does _that_, and that only, and always. For our +Sanctification, it receives Christ in His inward power, by the Holy +Ghost. But faith is just faith, to the end. + +(_e_) "We are not _forced_ to receive salvation." Most true. "He +enforceth not the will." But do not forget on the other hand to magnify +the necessity of grace, "preventing grace," [Act. x.] that is to say, +God Himself "working in us _to will_" to receive our salvation. The two +sides of truth are both divine. [Phil. ii. 13.] Do not neglect either, +whether you can harmonize them or not here below. + + * * * * * + +END OF THE LECTURE. + +Such are some specimens of a Saturday morning's talk in our library. +They are taken, just as they come, from notes constructed after the +study of a set of some twenty sermons, written, and then commented upon, +without the slightest thought that any public or permanent use would be +made of the materials thus given. But perhaps the remarks may be in +point to some of my readers all the more because of the unstudied nature +of the materials. + +Let me say, before I quite leave this part of my subject, that adverse +criticism was by no means my only work this morning in the lecture-room. +It was my happiness, on the other hand, to commend thankfully many a +clear setting of living truth, and many a sentence of forcible point and +of true beauty, happy omens for future years, in which, if it please +God, "the torch shall be carried on," bright and clear, when we elders +shall be heard no more.[34] + +[34] Ungracious as it may seem, I must betray one less pleasant +confidence of such occasions. Sometimes I have had to note in sermon +MSS. a strange neglect of punctuation, and, here and there, a little +aberration from received usages of spelling! No Clergyman ought to think +such matters beneath his notice. His people, some, if not many of them, +will from time to time receive letters or other written messages from +him; these ought to be unmistakably the writing of the educated +gentleman. Is it too much to say also that _the handwriting_ ought to be +clear and easy? It is distressing, certainly to one who has many letters +to read daily, to see how _rare_ such handwriting is now. + +"MY CASES OF OLD SERMONS." + +But now let me return from this discursive report of a sermon-lecture to +some more central thoughts about the Preaching of the Word. Sacred, +solemn theme! I was made to realize its character in a peculiar way +quite lately, when reading a heart-searching and most instructive essay, +by the Rev. R. Glover, Vicar of St Luke's, West Holloway, entitled, _My +Cases of Old Sermons_.[35] The essay was simply an experienced +preacher's review of many years of pulpit labour, in the light of the +collected and ordered manuscripts which silently represented it. The +writer had much to say, to my great profit, about his methods of +preparation and delivery, and about the pains taken to distribute the +choice of texts widely and impartially over the field of Scripture. +Then he went on to speak of the ascertained spiritual history of some of +those many sermons; the messages to souls which in this or that instance +they had carried; the savour of life unto life, or perhaps, alas, of +death unto death, which had to his knowledge breathed from them. The +impressions left on my mind were, above all others, two; first, the call +to thorough diligence in preparation, if the preacher is to give his +account with joy; and then, the indescribable solemnity and greatness of +the work of a true pastor-preacher. + +[35] In _The Churchman_ of August, 1891. + +*BE A PREACHER INDEED. + +I may seem to reiterate too much, but I _must_ say again, with new +emphasis, to my younger Brother, resolve to be a preacher indeed, by the +grace of God. Do not let secondary things, however good, distort your +attention from that supremely sacred commission, "Preach the Word; be +instant, in season, out of season[36] [2 Tim. iv. 2.]; reprove, rebuke, +exhort, with all long-suffering and doctrine. _For_," the Apostle +significantly proceeds, "the time will come when they will not endure +sound doctrine." Therefore, an age impatient of thorough Scriptural +preaching is the very age in which to seek, in wisdom and courage, to +make much of it. Do not let organization spoil your preaching-work. Do +not let current events spoil it. Do not let elaboration of ritual spoil +it. Do not let organist and choir rule over you, and claim for music the +precious moments called for by the Word. + +[36] That is, irrespective of _your own_ convenience. + + * * * * * + +"THE DIRECTORY." + +Let me present to my reader, in this last chapter, an extract from an +old book which however may be new to him. The book is not one which as a +whole I greatly love; how could I? It is that sternly-imposed substitute +for the Book of Common Prayer, commonly known as the Parliamentary +Directory of 1645; the exact title is, _A Directory for the Publique +Worship of God in the Three Kingdomes_.[37] Its associations are +altogether with an unhappy time, in which it was a seriously penal +offence, at least in theory, to use the Prayer Book even at a sick +friend's bedside. Yet great men of God had a hand in the making of the +Directory; and their words are well worth the reading. In particular, I +find in the volume one passage, full of golden wisdom, a precious +message to all Christian preachers. It is the section which I now quote +exactly as it first appeared, and which is entitled + +[37] It is printed in W.K. Clay's _Book of Common Prayer Illustrated_. +Parker, 1841. + +"OF THE PREACHING OF THE WORD. + +*THE DIRECTORY ON PREACHING. + +"Preaching of the Word, being the power of God unto Salvation, and one +of the greatest and most excellent Works belonging to the Ministry of +the Gospell, should bee so performed, that the Workman need not bee +ashamed, but may save himself, and those that heare him. + +"It is presupposed (according to the Rules for Ordination) that the +Minister of Christ is in some good measure gifted for so weighty a +service, by his skill in the Originall Languages, and in such Arts and +Sciences as are handmaids unto Divinity, by his knowledge in the whole +Body of Theology, but most of all in the holy Scriptures, having his +senses and heart exercised in them above the common sort of Beleevers; +and by the illumination of Gods Spirit, and other gifts of edification, +which (together with reading and studying of the Word) he ought still to +seek by Prayer, and an humble heart, resolving to admit and receive any +truth not yet attained, when ever God shall make it known unto him. All +which hee is to make use of, and improve, in his private preparations, +before hee deliver in publike what he hath provided. + +CHOICE OF THE TEXT. + +"Ordinarily, the subject of his Sermon is to be some Text of Scripture, +holding forth some principle or head of Religion; or suitable to some +speciall occasion emergent; or hee may goe on in some Chapter, Psalme, +or Booke of the holy Scripture, as hee shall see fit. + +"Let the Introduction to his Text be brief and perspicuous, drawn from +the Text itself, or context, or some parallel place, or generall +sentence of Scripture. + +"If the Text be long (as in Histories and Parables it sometimes must be) +let him give a briefe summe of it; if short, a Paraphrase thereof, if +need be: In both, looking diligently to the scope of the Text, and +pointing at the chief heads and grounds of Doctrine, which he is to +raise from it. + +HOW THE TEXT IS TO BE HANDLED. + +"In Analysing and dividing his Text, he is to regard more the order of +matter, then of words; and neither to burden the memory of the hearers +in the beginning with too many members of Division, nor to trouble their +minds with obscure terms of Art. + +"In raising Doctrines from the Text, his care ought to bee, First, that +the matter be the truth of God. Secondly, that it be a truth contained +in or grounded on that Text, that the hearers may discern how God +teacheth it from thence. Thirdly, that he chiefly insist upon those +Doctrines which are principally intended, and make most for the +edification of the hearers. + +"The Doctrine is to be expressed in plaine termes; or if any thing in it +need explication, is to bee opened, and the consequence also from the +Text cleared. The parallel places of Scripture confirming the Doctrine +are rather to bee plaine and pertinent, then many, and (if need bee) +somewhat insisted upon, and applyed to the purpose in hand. + +"The Arguments or Reasons are to bee solid; and, as much as may bee, +convincing. The illustrations, of what kind soever, ought to bee full of +light, and such as may convey the truth into the Hearers heart with +spirituall delight. + +"If any doubt, obvious from Scripture, Reason, or Prejudice of the +Hearers, seem to arise, it is very requisite to remove it, by +reconciling the seeming differences, answering the reasons, and +discovering and taking away the causes of prejudice and mistake. +Otherwise, it is not fit to detain the hearers with propounding or +answering vaine or wicked Cavils, which as they are endlesse, so the +propounding and answering of them doth more hinder than promote +edification. + +"Hee is not to rest in generall Doctrine, although never so much cleared +and confirmed, but to bring it home to speciall use, by application to +his hearers: Which albeit it prove a worke of great difficulty to +himselfe, requiring much prudence, zeale, and meditation, and to the +naturall and corrupt man will bee very unpleasant; yet hee is to +endeavour to perform it in such a manner that his auditors may feele +the Word of God to be quick and powerfull, and a discerner of the +thoughts and intents of the heart; and that if any unbeleever or +ignorant person bee present, hee may have the secrets of his heart made +manifest, and give glory to God. + +HOW THE MESSAGE IS TO BE APPLIED. + +"In the Use of Instruction or information in the knowledge of some +truth, which is a consequence from his Doctrine, he may (when +convenient) confirm it by a few firm arguments from the Text in hand, +and other places in Scripture, or from the nature of that Common place +in Divinity, whereof that truth is a branch. + +"In Confutation of false Doctrines, he is neither to raise an old +Heresie from the grave, nor to mention a blasphemous opinion +unnecessarily; but if the people be in danger of an errour, he is to +confute it soundly, and endeavour to satisfie their judgements and +consciences against all objections. + +"In exhorting to Duties, he is, as he seeth cause, to teach also the +meanes that help to the performance of them. + +"In Dehortation, Reprehension, and publique Admonition (which require +speciall wisdome) let him, as there shall be cause, not only discover +the nature and greatnesse of the sin, with the misery attending it, but +also shew the danger his hearers are in to be overtaken and surprised by +it, together with the remedies and best way to avoyd it. + +"In applying Comfort, whether generall against all tentations, or +particular against some speciall troubles or terrours, he is carefully +to answer such objections, as a troubled heart and afflicted spirit may +suggest to the contrary. + +"It is also sometimes requisite to give some Notes of tryal (which is +very profitable, especially when performed by able and experienced +Ministers, with circumspection and prudence, and the Signes cleerely +grounded on the Holy Scripture) whereby the Hearers may be able to +examine themselves, whether they have attained those Graces, and +performed those duties to which he Exhorteth, or be guilty of the sin +Reprehended, and in danger of the judgments Threatened, or are such to +whom the Consolations propounded doe belong; that accordingly they may +be quickened and excited to Duty, humbled for their Wants and Sins, +affected with their Danger, and strengthened with Comfort, as their +condition upon examination shall require. + +"And, as he needeth not alwayes to prosecute every Doctrine which lies +in his Text, so is he wisely to make choice of such Uses, as by his +residence and conversing with his flocke, he findeth most needfull and +seasonable: and, amongst these, such as may most draw their soules to +Christ, the Fountaine of light, holinesse and comfort. + +"This method is not prescribed as necessary for every man, or upon every +Text; but only recommended, as being found by experience to be very much +blessed of God, and very helpful for the people's understandings and +memories. + +IN WHAT SPIRIT THE PREACHER IS TO WORK. + +"But the Servant of Christ, whatever his Method be, is to perform his +whole Ministery; + +"1. _Painfully_, not doing the work of the Lord negligently. + +"2. _Plainly_, that the meanest may understand, delivering the truth, +not in the entising words of mans wisdome, but in demonstration of the +Spirit and of power, least the Crosse of Christ should be made of none +effect: abstaining also from an unprofitable use of unknown Tongues, +strange phrases, and cadences of sounds and words, sparingly citing +sentences of Ecclesiasticall, or other humane Writers, ancient or +moderne, be they never so elegant. + +"3. _Faithfully_, looking at the honour of Christ, the conversion, +edification and salvation of the people, not at his own gains or glory: +keeping nothing back which may promote those holy ends, giving to every +one his own portion, and bearing indifferent respect unto all, without +neglecting the meanest, or sparing the greatest in their sins. + +"4. _Wisely_, framing all his Doctrines, Exhortations, and especially +his Reproofs, in such a manner as may be most likely to prevaile, +shewing all due respect to each mans person and place, and not mixing +his own passion or bitternesse. + +"5. _Gravely_, as becometh the Word of God, shunning all such gesture, +voice and expressions as may occasion the corruptions of men to despise +him and his Ministry. + +"6. _With loving affection_, that the people may see all coming from his +Godly zeale, and hearty desire to doe them good. And + +DOCTRINE AND LIFE. + +"7. _As taught of God_, and perswaded in his own heart, that all that he +teacheth, is the truth of Christ; and walking before his flock as an +example to them in it; earnestly, both in private and publique, +recommending his labours to the blessing of God, and watchfully looking +to himselfe and the flock whereof the Lord hath made him overseer. So +shall the Doctrine of truth be preserved uncorrupt, many soules +converted, and built up, and himselfe receive manifold comforts of his +labours even in this life, and afterward the Crown of Glory laid up for +him in the world to come. + +"Where there are more Ministers in a Congregation than one, and they of +different guifts, each may more especially apply himselfe to Doctrine or +Exhortation, according to the guift wherein he most excelleth, and as +they agree between themselves." + +SPIRITUAL POWER IN PREACHING. + +I have little to say after the recitation of this passage of pregnant +and solemn counsel. That little shall be given to a supreme aspect of +the whole subject; I mean, Spiritual Power in Preaching. Who that knows +the Lord, and contemplates the preacher's work, does not long for +Spiritual Power? By that longing he means no ambitious wish to be +remarkable, nor any unwholesome craving to be a leader in scenes of +religious excitement. He means the deep desire to be an effectual +messenger of his Master; to be the living channel of the Holy Spirit's +energy in His converting, sanctifying, strengthening, perfecting work. +He knows that it is possible to be truly orthodox, and yet not to be +this; to be eloquent, to be impressive, to be impassioned, and yet not +to be this; to be unimpeachably truthful, reasonable, intellectually +convincing, and yet all the while not to be this. How shall he be a +vehicle of spiritual power? + +THE OPEN SECRET. + +The Scriptural answer is very simple, but it goes deep. If a man would +have spiritual power with men, and prevail, he must be real with his +Lord. What he says, he must first know, he must first live. As regards +HIM who is at once his Master and his Gospel, he must indeed "_know_ +whom he has believed," [2 Tim. i. 10.] and, in calm but entire +simplicity, "_submit himself_ under His hands." Granted a true creed, +and a humble faith in its Subject, he must, in quiet reality, "yield +himself unto God," if he would be used by Him. Observe the Apostle's +phrase; "Yield yourselves," [Greek: parastesate heautous]: not, "yield +to God" (though that is implied), but, "yield _yourselves_, hand +yourselves over, to God," as you would hand over a tool, a weapon [Rom. +vi. 13.]. And another aspect of the same thing appears in the same +Apostle's later words: "_If a man_ _purge himself_ of these, he _shall +be a vessel_ unto honour, sanctified (to), and meet for, the Master's +use," [Greek: hegiasmenon euchreston to Despote]. [2 Tim. ii. 21.] + +The deepest secret of spiritual power, in God's sense of the phrase, +lies there. Let the man be watchful over his Scriptural creed, and let +him discipline his life, and let him toil in his study, and among his +people. None of these things can be spared; they are all vital. But the +central secret, which they as it were enclose and protect, lies in the +words _Surrender in faith_. And the Christian man's heart must be its +own inquisitor, before God, in the inquiry after the point, or points, +where you, where I, need to make that surrender for ourselves. + +In the void thus left, in the chasm thus cut deep into our ambitions, +into our self-love, the mighty Spirit in His tranquil fulness will +spring up. And then, whether we know it or not, we Ministers of the Word +shall assuredly be vehicles of spiritual power, to our Lord's praise. + + * * * * * + +FAREWELL. + +So let me close these fragmentary words spoken "to my younger Brethren." +May God's mercy be upon the writer. Upon the readers, whom he loves in +the Lord, may grace and peace come every hour and day, in secret, in +society, in holy ministration of Word and Ordinance. And in due time, +when they are no longer juniors but, if the Lord will, veterans and +leaders in the work, may they in turn pass on the message to those who +follow, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. + + + "CHRISTIANITY is so great and surprising in its nature that, in + preaching it to others, I have no encouragement but in the + belief of a continued divine operation. It is no difficult + thing to change a man's opinions. It is no difficult thing to + attach a man to my person and notions. It is no difficult thing + to convert a proud man to spiritual pride, or a passionate man + to passionate zeal for some religious party. But to bring a man + to love God, to love the law of God while it condemns him, to + loathe himself before God, to tread the earth under his feet, + to hunger and thirst after God in Christ, and after the mind + that was in Christ, this is impossible. But God has said it + shall be done; and bids me go forth and preach, that by me, as + His instrument, He may effect these great ends; and therefore I + go." + + CECIL. + + + + +FORDINGTON PULPIT: + +A PREACHER'S WEEKDAY THOUGHTS, + +_Written, in 1878, in the Church of the Author's Baptism, and where he +first Ministered as his Father's Curate._ + + + Many voices yester-even + Made these walls and arches ring + With their high-sung hopes of Heaven, + And the glories of its King; + Now my footfall sounds alone + On the aisle's long path of stone, + Save that yonder from the loft, + With a solemn tone and soft, + Beating on with muffled shock, + Conscience-waking, speaks the clock. + Holy scene, and dear as holy, + Let me ponder thee this hour, + Not in aimless melancholy, + But in quest of Heaven-given power; + Seeking here to win anew + Contrite love and purpose true; + Near the Font whose dew-drops cold + Fell upon my brow of old, + Near the well-remember'd seat + Set beside my Mother's feet; + Near the Table where I bent + At that earliest Sacrament. + Let me, through this narrow door, + Climb the Pulpit's steps once more. + Blessed place! the Master's Word, + Child and man, I hence have heard; + Awful place! for hence, in turn, + I have taught, so slow to learn. + To the silence now to hearken + Here I mount and stand alone, + While the spaces round me darken + And the Church is all my own; + While the sun's last glories fall + From the window of the tower, + Tracing slow their parting hour + On the stones of floor and wall. + Seems a secret Voice to thrill + All the dusky air so still; + Turns a soul-compelling gaze + On me from the sunset haze: + Sure the eternal Shepherd's hand + Beckons me awhile apart, + Bids me in His presence stand + While He looks me through the heart. + Sinful preacher, ask again + In this nearness of thy Lord, + How to HIM has rung thy strain, + When it seem'd to speak His Word. + 'Midst thy brethren's listening numbers + Hast thou felt, with heart sincere, + How, in thought that never slumbers, + This great Listener stood more near?-- + Listening to His own high Name + Spoken by His creature's breath; + How from out the Heavens He came, + How He pour'd His soul in death, + How He triumph'd o'er the grave, + How He lives on high to save, + How He yet again shall come, + Lord of glory and of doom. + Has He found thy message true? + Truth, and truly spoken too? + Utter'd with a purpose whole, + From a self-forgetful soul, + Bent on nothing save the fame + Of the dear redeeming Name, + And the pardon, life, and bliss + Of the souls He bought for His? + Think!--But ah, from thoughts like these + Hasten, sinner, to thy knees. + +_Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, La., London and Aylesbury._ + + + * * * * * + + +_BY THE SAME AUTHOR._ + + THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 7s. 6d. + + COLOSSIAN STUDIES. Crown 8vo., cloth, 5s. + + TO MY YOUNGER BRETHREN ON PASTORAL LIFE AND WORK. 5s. + + OUTLINES OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 2s. 6d. (In the _Theological + Educator_ Series.) + + VENI CREATOR: THOUGHTS ON THE HOLY SPIRIT OF PROMISE. Third + Edition. Crown 8vo, 5s., cloth. + + LIFE IN CHRIST AND FOR CHRIST. 32mo, 1s., cloth. + + "NEED AND FULNESS." 1s., cloth. + + "PATIENCE AND COMFORT." 1s., cloth. + + THOUGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SANCTITY. 1s., cloth. 30th Thousand. + + THOUGHTS ON UNION WITH CHRIST. 1s., cloth. 22nd Thousand. + + THOUGHTS ON THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 1s., cloth. 12th Thousand. + + SECRET PRAYER. 1s., cloth, 11th Thousand. + + "AT THE HOLY COMMUNION." Thoughts for Preparation and + Communion. 1s., cloth. + + "THE PLEDGE OF HIS LOVE." Thoughts on the Lord's Supper, 1s., + cloth. + + THE NEW BIRTH. A Brief Enquiry and Statement. 2d. + + THE CLEANSING BLOOD. A Study of 1 John i. 7. 2d. + + JUSTIFYING RIGHTEOUSNESS. 4d. + + THE CHRISTIAN AND THE WORLD. 2d. + + THE NET AND THE DELIVERANCE. 1d. + + A MORNING ACT OF FAITH. 3d. per dozen. + + THE CHRISTIAN'S OWN CALENDAR OF PERSONAL AND FAMILY EVENTS. + 1s. 6d. With an Introduction by Rev. H.C.G. MOULE. + + PRAYERS FOR THE HOME. 2s. 6d. + + THE CHRISTIAN'S VICTORY OVER SIN. 2d. + + "GRACE AND GODLINESS." Chapters on Ephesians. 2s. 6d. + + "CHRIST IS ALL." Sermons. 2s. 6d. + + COMMENTARIES ON THE ROMANS (3s. 6d.); EPHESIANS (2s. 6d.); + PHILIPPIANS (2s. 6d.); COLOSSIANS (2s. 6d.) in the + _Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges_; and on the + PHILIPPIANS in the _Cambridge Greek Testament_. Also on the + ROMANS in the _Expositor's Bible_ (7s. 6d.). + + "BETWEEN MY LORD AND ME." A Card containing Morning and + Evening Acts of Faith and Devotion. 2d. + + CHARLES SIMEON. (In _English Leaders of Religion_.) 2s. 6d. + + BISHOP RIDLEY ON THE LORD'S SUPPER. 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