iru
, -
v
From fi\e Library of
G"Ke Reverend HugK MatKeson
LLB., D.D.
THE LIBRARY
of
VICTORIA UNIVERSITY
Toronto
Th. :
ANNEX
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International
{Theological library
EDITORS PREFACE.
THEOLOGY has made great and rapid advances in recent
years. New lines of investigation have been opened up,
fresh light has been cast upon many subjects of the deepest
interest, and the historical method has been applied with
important results. This has prepared the way for a Library
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It has also made it at once opportune and practicable now
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This Library is designed to cover the whole field of Chris
tian Theology. Each volume is to be complete in itself,
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The Library is intended to form a series of Text-Books
for Students of Theology.
The Authors, therefore, aim at conciseness and compact-
less of statement. At the same time, they have in view-
EDITORS PREFACE.
that large and increasing class of students, in other depart
ments of inquiry, who desire to have a systematic and thor
ough exposition of Theological Science. Technical matters
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text will be made as readable and attractive as possible.
The Library is international and interconfessional. It
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Its aim will be to give full and impartial statements both
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The Authors will be scholars of recognized reputation in
the several branches of study assigned to them. They will
be associated with each other and with the Editors in the
effort to provide a series of volumes which may adequately
represent the present condition of investigation, and indi
cate the way for further progress.
CHARLES A. BRIGGS.
STEWART D. F. SALMOND.
Theological Encyclopaedia. By CHARLES A. BRIGGS, D.D., Pro
fessor of Biblical Theology,
Union Theological Seminary,
New York.
An Introduction to the Litera- By S. R. DRIVER, D.D., Regius Pro-
ture of the Old Testament. fessor of Hebrew, and Canon of
Christ Church, Oxford. (Revised
and enlarged edition?)
The Stud/ of the Old Testa- By HERBERT EDWARD RYLE, D.D.,
President of Queen s College,
Cambridge, England.
Testament History. By HENRY PRESERVED SMITH, D.D.,
Professor of Biblical History,
Amherst College, Mass.
Contemporary History of the By FRANCIS BROWN, D.D.. Profes-
Old Testament. sor of Hebrew, Union Theologi
cal Seminary, New York.
icology of the Old Testa- By A. B. DAVIDSON, D.D., LL.D.,
Professor of Hebrew, New Col
lege, Edinburgh.
An Introduction to the Litera
ture of the New Testament.
Canon and Text of the New
Testament.
The Life of Christ.
A History of Christianity in
the Apostolic Age.
Contemporary History of the
New Testament.
Theology of the New Testa
ment.
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The Latin Church.
History of Christian Doctrine.
Christian Institutions.
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Rabbinical Literature.
By S. D. F. SALMOND, D.D., Prin
cipal of the Free Church College,
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By CASPAR RENE GREGORY, D.D.,
LL. D., Professor of New Testa
ment Exegesis in the University
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By WILLIAM SANUAY, D.D., LL.D.,
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vinity, and Canon of Christ
Church, Oxford.
By ARTHUR C. MCGIFFERT, D.D.,
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By FRANK C. PORTER, Ph.D., Pro
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By ROBERT RAINY, D.D., LL.D.,
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l!y ARCHIBALD ROBERTSON, D.D.,
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don.
By G. P. FISHER, D.D., LL.D., Pro
fessor of Ecclesiastical History,
Yale University, New Haven,
Conn. {Revised anJenlargededilion.}
By A. V. G. AI.I.EN. D.D., Profes
sor of Ecclesiastical History, P.
E. Divinity School, Cambridge,
Mass. (A~i>u> re adv.)
By ROBERT FLINT, D.D., LL.D.,
Professor of Divinity in the Uni
versity of Edinburgh.
By A. B. BRUCE, D.D., late Profess
or of New Testament Exegesis,
Free Church College, Glasgow.
(Revised and enlarged editinn.)
By WILLIAM N. CLARKE, D.D., Pro
fessor of Systematic Theology,
Hamilton Theological Seminary.
By NEWMAN SMYTH, D. D. , Pastor of
Congregational Church, New 1 hi
ve n . ( Revised and enlarged edition . )
By WASHINGTON GLADDEN, D. D.,
Pastor of Cong regational Church,
Columbus, Ohio. {Now ready.)
By JOHN WATSON, D.D., Pastor
Presbyterian Church, Liverpool.
By S. SCHECHTER, M.A. , Reader in
Talmudic in the University of
Cambridge, England.
INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY
HY
WASHINGTON GLADDEN D.D., LL.O.
AUTHOR OK "AI PLIKH CH KISTI A NITY," "\VIIO WKOTK THK IUHLE:
"RULING IDEAS OF THE PRESENT AGE," ETC.
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS
1898
I UNION
THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE I
EMMANUhL
COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS
SSnitorrsitg ^ress
JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
PREFACE.
THIS book is intended to cover the field of what is
known as Pastoral Theology. The technical phrase is not
well chosen : theology, in any proper sense of the word is
not connoted by it. It deals with the work of the Chris
tian pastor and the Christian church. Its subject is
applied Christianity. It is concerned with the ways and
means by which the truth of the Gospel of Christ is
brought to bear upon the lives of men, in the administra
tion of the local congregation. It seeks to show the
pastor how he may order his own life and the life of his
flock so that their joint service may be most effective in
extending the Kingdom of God upon earth. It is not
wholly a matter of methods and machinery, for the spirit
in which the work is done is the main concern; but it is a
study of the life of the church as it is manifested in the
community where it is planted.
The forms of this life greatly vary as civilization
changes. New occasions teach new duties. Ethical
standards are purified and elevated; the emphasis of the
teaching is altered; modes of address, methods of adminis
tration that once were effective are no longer practicable;
the work of the church must l>e adapted to the conditions
by which it is surrounded. This truth has been con
stantly in view in the preparation of this treatise. It is
the work of one who has l>een for many years an active
pastor; it has been written in such leisure as could l>e
snatched from the engrossing cares of a large congregation,
and it deals on every page with problems which have been
and are in this present age matters of immediate practical
v
vi PREFACE.
concern. It is therefore to be feared that on the scholastic
side it will be found less elaborate than many of the trea
tises which have preceded it. The history of pastoral
methods is a matter of interest, but that has been well told
and scarcely needs retelling; the scholarly pages of Jan
Jacob Van Oosterzee and Theodosius llarnack present
all that the student needs to know about the administra
tion of the churches in past generations. What has
seemed more important, in the preparation of this volume,
is the study of the life of the busy pastor at the end of the
nineteenth century, in the midst of the swift and turbu
lent intellectual and social movements now going forward ;
in a society partially or wholly democratized ; in the pres
ence of influences that are reshaping philosophies and in
stitutions; in the day when it seems to be a question
whether the religion of Christ represents an obsolescent
force, or is just about to take up the sceptre of universal
empire. That this is the day of opportunity and respon
sibility for the Christian church is the faith on which this
/
treatise is founded; and if this be true the need of dis
cerning this time is the deepest need of the Christian
pastor. The hope set before him is that the Church of
God will have a great deal more to do with the life of
coming generations than it has ever had to do with the
life of past generations, not as a political power, but as
an informing and inspiring influence. To lift up his
heart with this expectation and to help him to see some of
the ways in which it may be realized has been the motive
of this labor.
Tt needs not to be said that no man can fully understand
the life of the church in any country but his own. It is
only by inheritance of that life and lifelong identification
with its various fortunes that he gains the power of esti
mating its aims and criticising its practice. He can live
his life but once and therefore he cannot intimately know
the conditions and needs of the church in more than one
country. Such knowledge cannot be gained merely from
PREFACE. Vll
books. It follows that works on what is known as Pas
toral Theology must always reflect the life of the churches
out of whose experience they have grown. The flavor of
the soil is always in them. Systematic Theology, Biblical
Theology, Apologetics, Ethics are practically independent
of local influences, but Pastoral Theology never is. It
must be expected, therefore, that this volume, like those
of Harnack and Van Oosterzee and Fairbairn and Palmer
will show considerable local coloring ; if the book is alive
it will pulsate with the life from which it has sprung.
Between America and Great Britain there is so close a
relationship that the discussions of these pages will not, it
is hoped, be wholly unintelligible in the older country;
and where the conditions are dissimilar, comparison and
contrast may make them suggestive. Even to Chris
tians of the Continental churches the book may be of ser
vice as a somewhat imperfect picture of the Christian
activities of other lands.
For the free use of quotation which some of these chap
ters will show, the author has no apologies to make.
The questions under consideration are largely questions of
practical administration concerning which many men
know more than any man; and the readers of this volume
have a right to know something of the best that has been
said upon these themes by wise pastors and teachers of the
present generation.
To the younger men in the ministry and to those upon
its threshold this book is offered in the hope that they may
find in it some guidance in a calling whose brightest era
and whose most glorious triumphs are yet to come.
CoLtmnrs, OHIO,
March 17, 1898.
CHAPTER I.
PAGES
INTRODUCTORY 1-22
Pastoral J licology defined, 1. A Branch of Practical Theology, 1.
Relation to other branches, 1. To Church Polity, 2. To Liturgies, 2.
TQ JJomilctics, 2. To Christian Missions, .3. Includes Poimenics and
Catechetics, . 3. Excludes Ilomiletics and Liturgies, 3. Its theme con
notes a working church, 4. Change in the subject matter of the
science, 4. Earlier Treatises concerned with the work of the pastor, 4.
Later conception of the church as a working body, 8. The later con
ception the higher, 10. Historical outline, 10. Biblical conception of
Poimenics, 10. Patristic theories and treatises, 11. Mediaeval ideas,
12. Poimenics of the Reformation, 13. Of the Eighteenth Century, 13.
Of the Nineteenth Century, 14. Historical sketch of catechetics,
Apostolic times, 17. Among the Early Fathers, 18. In the Middle
Ages, 19. Among the Reformers, 19. In the Roman Catholic Church,
21. In various Christian bodies, 22.
CHAPTER II.
THE CHURCH 23-49
This discussion is concerned with the local congregation, 23. Lim
its of its membership, 23. Parish must not be too large for pastoral
oversight, 24. Must not be too large for efficient organization and
fellowship, 25. The edifice ethics of its architecture, 26. Location
of the edifice, 28. Constituency of the congregation, 29. No caste in
its assemblies, 30. All classes accessible, 31. Do the poor prefer to
worship by themselves i 32. The churches on trial upon this issue, 33.
Difficulty of maintaining Christian fellowship, 34. Significance and
value of it, 35. Exclusiveness not wholly the fault of one class, 36.
Relation of the Church to the Kingdom of God, 38. The Kingdom,
not the church, the inclusive term, 40. The need of specializing re
ligion in institutions of its own, 42. The church ancillary to the King
dom, 44. The end of the church the christianization of society, 46.
The church must _sjjxfi_society or lose its own life, 48.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III.
PAGES
Tin; PASTOR 50-65
Significance of the name, 50. Is the pastor a priest ? 52. Growth of
the sacerdotal idea, 54. Remnants of the idea iu reformed churches,
56. A spiritual priesthood, 59. The authority of the pastor, 61.
Democracy implies leadership, 62. Spiritual power is moral in
fluence, 64.
CHAPTER IV.
THE CALL TO THE PASTORATE 66-82
The Pastor is the minister of Christ, 66. Every good work a divine
vocation, 68. The inward call, 68. The outward call, 69. The Pas
tor s dual relation, 70. How shall the church find a minister, 71. The
system of patronage, 72. Qualifications of a pastor, 73. Methods of
calling a minister, 74. Preaching as a candidate, 75. The calling of
settled ministers to vacant churches, 76. May the minister seek a
church 1 78. One candidate at a time, 79. No candidates without good
and fresh credentials, 80. Must the call be unanimous ? 81. Definite
dealings with temporalities, 82.
CHAPTER V.
THE PASTOR IN HIS STUDY 83-106
The minister a student, 83. Other functions of the ministry, 84.
The prophet must be a student, 85. Language and inspiration, 86.
Art and inspiration, 88. The minister will continue the studies of the
professional school, 90. The history of doctrines, 91. Apologetic
studies, 92. Inductive study of hujaau nature, 93. Literature, 95.
The Bible, 97. The individual and the social order inseparable, 100.
The study of social science, 101. Mischief of separating individual in
terests from social interests, 103. A scientific sociology confirms the
Christian law, 104. The minister s study is his oratory, 105.
CHAPTER VI.
PULPIT AND ALTAR 107-171
Preaching the Pastor s chief function, 107. The message to the indi
vidual, 108. The C9nversion of men, 109. Preaching the Jaw, 110.
Preaching the gospel, 111. The Gospel of the Kingdom, 112. The
minister s relation to practical affairs, 114. Spiritual law in the natural
world, 116. Casuistry in the pulpit, 119. The evening service and
applied Christianity, 121. The .secularization of the pulpit, 123. Cur-
rent^ topics in the pulpit, 125. Historical studies, 125. The poets as
preachers, 126. Biographical studies, 127. The use of a text, 128.
May sermons lie repeated ! 132. The leader of worship, 134. Prepa
ration for public prayer, 135. The service of ong, 139. Hymnals,
140. Church tunes, 141. The organ, 142. Vocal leadership of the
congregation, 143. English choirs, 144. American choirs, 145.
CONTENTS. XI
PAOKS
Qhoir and congregation, 146. Liturgical enrichment of worship, 150.
Responsive reading, 152. Creeds and collects, 153. Devotional read
ing, 155. The administration of baptism, 157. The significance of
baptism, 159. Sponsors, 162. The Lord s Supper, 164. Preparatory
services, 164. Modes of administration, 166. Guarding the table, 167.
Reception of new members, 168. The ordinance of marriage, 170.
CHAPTER VII.
THE PASTOR AS FRIEND 172-203
The Pastor in general society, 172. Intercourse witli all classes, 173.
As confidential friend, 176. His personal ministry, 179. Dealing with
doubters, 180. Reclaiming wanderers, 184. Despondency and despair,
TS5. The visitation of the_sick, 186. The Lord s Supper in the sick
room, 189. Infectious diseases, 191. Burial services, 192. General
visitation, 195. Nature of pastoral calls, 197. Shall they be profes
sional 198. The opportunity of friendship, 199. Systematic visiting,
200. Value of such work, 202.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE CHURCH ORGANIZATION 204-219
Temporalities and spiritualities, 204. The business side of the
church, 205. Need of upright men for this service, 206. The christian-
ization of church business, 207. Assignment of sittings, 208. Keep
ing of church records, 209. The minister needs assistance, 209. Pas
tor and Preacher, 212. Church officers as leaders of work, 214. Or
ganism and mechanism, 215. The problem of organization, 217.
CHAPTER IX.
THE SUNDAY SCHOOI 220-238
The Sunday school a modern institution, 220. Robert Raikes, 221.
The Oxford movement, 222. The Sunday School and the Church, 223.
Best hour for the session, 224. Organization of the school, 225. The
pastoral work of the teacher, 226. The service of song, 227. Ojrder in
the school, 228. The Sunday school rooms, 229. Sjibjects to be
studied, 230. Qr.adation of the school, 232. Senior department, 233.
Work of this department, 234. The Higher Criticism and Sunday-
school teaching, 236. The Home Department, 238.
CHAPTER X.
THE MIDWEEK SERVICE 239-252
Need of a social meeting for worship, 239. Meetings for prayer, 240.
" Experience " meetings, 241. Social prayer, and its uses, 242. Uses
and abuses of public conference, 245. The work of the church the
theme of the service, 247. Leader of the meeting, 248. Topics, 248.
Familiar and conversational methods, 249. The singing, 250. The
question box, 252. A Social opportunity, 252.
Xll CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XI.
PAGES
PARISH EVANGELIZATION 253-270
For whom is the church responsible? 253. Whose servant is the
minister 1 254. Getting acquainted with the neglecters, 256. Their
number sometimes exaggerated, 256. Visitation by the church, 258.
Can the unchurched he brought to church? 259. Location of new en
terprises, 260. Church colonies, 262. Ineffectiveness of missions, 263.
College settlements and churches, 264. Strong churches in poor dis
tricts, 267. Street preaching, 268. The shepherding of the poor, 269.
CHAPTER XII.
THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE CHURCH 271-288
The Church a social fellowship, 271. Not a commune, 272. It har
monizes all types of character, 273. The opportunity of love, 274.
The mingling of the leaven, 276. Djfficulty of this task, 278. The
christianization of the church, 279. The fellowship of work, 280.
Neighborly relations, 281. Division of the parish into districts, 282.
Welcoming committees, 283. Social assemblies, 284. Fellowship
meetings, 285.
CHAPTER XIII.
WOMAN S WORK IN THE CHURCH 289-312
The place of wojnan in modern society, 289. Woman s work in the
Apostolic church, 291. In the post-apostolic church, 293. The Sisters
of Charity, 293. The revival of the order of deaconesses, 295. In the
Episcopal churches, 296. In the Methodist Episcopal Church, 297.
Deaconesses as pastor s assistants, 298. In the Church of Scotland,
299. The Kaiserswerth Institution, 302. Form of consecration, 304.
The deaconess home and the local church, 306. Women s associa
tions in the churches, 307. Their financial operations, 307. Church
of Scotland Woman s Guild, 309.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN. . . . 313-331
The German Christliche Jiinglingsvereiue, 313. Young Men s Chris
tian Association, 314. Young People s Societies of Christian En
deavor, 315. Epworth League and Baptist Young People s Union, 316.
The aims of these organizations, 3 1 8. The Endeavor movement and mu
nicipal reform, 319. Mission work, 320. Work in the local church, 321.
The Brotherhood of St. Andrew, 322. The Brotherhood of St. Andrew
and Philip, 325. Young Men s Leagues, 325. The Church of Scotland
Guild, 326. Prize Examinations and Competitions, 328. Free Church
of Scotland Guild, 329. German " Unions," 330. "Brother Houses,"
330.
CONTENTS. xiii
CHAPTER XV.
PAGES
THE PASTOR AND THE CHILDREN .332-361
The Snuday school arid the children, 332. Jimiyr Societies, 333.
The "Children s Hour, "334. The pastor s relation to the children, 334.
Catechists in the early church, 335. Decline of catechetical instruction,
337. Reasons why pastors should resume this work, 338. The rationale
of catechetics, 338. The basis of the instruction, 341. Classification of
catechumens, 342. Bishop Dupanloup s Treatise, 342. Catechetics
among the Lutherans, 349. Among other American Christians, 351.
The Church Porch. 353. Children s Day, 355. The baptized children,
355. The children in the Sunday service, 356. The Boys Brigade,
357.
CHAPTER XVI
MISSIONARY SOCIETIES AND Cm urn CONTKIBTTIOXS 362-377
The universality of Christianity, 302. < )ur debt to men in other lands,
363. The expansion of Christendom, 365. The new era of missions, 366.
Informing the church, 367. Woman s Mission Boards, 368. Methods
of awakening missionary interest, 370. Who shall present the work?
370. The development of benevolence, 371. Proportionate giving,
374. The mites of the many, 375. Methods of gathering the offerings,
376.
CHAPTER XVI I
REVIVALS AND REVIVALISM 378-400
Hebrew " revivals," 378. Was Pentecost a revival ? 379. The two
modes of extending the Kingdom, 381. The implications of revival
ism, 382. Chills and fever, 384. Christian nurture, 387. Christianity
as organic, 388. Converting agencies not superseded, 389. The omni
presence of the Spirit, 390. Seasons of refreshing, 392. Special evan
gelistic measures, 394. Professional evangelists, 397. How to secure
decision, 398. Lenten services, 399.
CHAPTER XVTTI
THE INSTITUTIONAL CIICRCH 401-414
Definition of the term, 401. Some Institutional Churches, 402.
Churches doing similar work, 405. Criticism of these methods, 407.
The fundamental principle all life is sacred, 409. Fruits of such
labors, 410. The ChurcK and the Social Settlement, 412. Coopera
tion of churches in this work, 413.
xiv CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIX
PAGES
ENLISTING THE MEMBERSHIP ............. 415-427
The church as a haven of rest, 415. The church as the servant of
Christ, 416. A ministering laity, 417. Informing the church about its
work, 419. The annual meeting of the church, 420. The church prob
lem of the unemployed, 422. Departments of work, 423. Ejilisting
the whole membership, 424. Conferences of leaders, 425. Unused
power iii the church, 426.
CHAPTER XX
COOPERATION WITH OTHER CIITRCHKS ......... 428-447
Christian unity, 428. Destructive competitions, 429. Endeavors
after Cooperation, 431. The basis of cooperation, 434. The division of
the field, 436. Canvassing the districts, 437. Difficulties of the work
in large cities, 439. Nature of cooperative work, 439. Provision of
safe places of resort, 440. Closing the drinking places on Sunday, 441.
Upholding the sacredness of law, 442. Unity found in local coopera
tion, 444. But one church in any community, 446.
CHAPTER XXI
THE CARE OF THE POOR ............... 448-475
Christian Charity in the Early Church, 448. Decay of this function,
449. Its assumption by the State, 451. The poor within the church,
452. Public charities, 455. The new charity, 458. Three classes of
charities, 460. The duty of the church as to public institutions, 461.
The duty of the church as to private charities, 462. The duty of the
church as to outside relief, 462. The stimulation of the State, 463.
Shall the churches undertake this work ? 467. The Buffalo experi
ment, 468. Difficulties of such cooperation, 472. The ministry of
discipline, 473.
INDEX 47
THE CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND THE
WORKING CHURCH
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
THE Christian Church and its Pastor form the subject of
tliis study. l>v the Church is meant the local congregation
of Christian believers. To the organization and work of
this congregation, under the leadership of its minister, our
inquiry will be addressed.
The field to be explored is that which is covered by the
branch of study commonly known as Pastoral Theology.
Pastoral Theology is a department of Practical Theology,
which Cave describes as "the science of the functions of
the Christian Church," 1 and which in the words of Ilagen-
bach, "embraces the theory of the ecclesiastical activities
(functions) as they proceed either from the church as a
whole, or from its individual members and representatives in
the name of the church." * Practical Theology is variously
divided. It includes : 1. Church Polity. 2. Theory of
Worship (Liturgies). 3. Theory of Preaching (Homi-
letics). 4. Theory of Teaching the Young (Catechetics).
5. Theory of the Care of Souls (Poimenics). G. Theory
of Pastoral Training (Pedagogics). 7. Theory of Missions
(Ilalieutics).
It is evident that all these topics are related more or less
closely to the life of the local church, and that most of them
are likely to come under consideration; but several of
1 Introduction to Tlieology, by Alfred Cave, p. 547.
2 Encykloi>iidie, 11" Aujt. s/421.
1
2 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
them will be treated incidentally, while others will form
the substance of our study.
The question of church polity, for example, is not before
us, except as its deeper spiritual implications may appear.
Whether there ought to be two or three orders of the min
istry, and whether the church should be presbyterially or
congregationally governed we shall not inquire. We are
interested rather in learning how existing organizations,
of all varieties, are employed, and may be more effectively
employed in extending the Kingdom of God. Certain
principles of church organization will, indeed, be assumed
in the discussion. Those theories of the church which at
tribute to the clergy a sacerdotal character are not accepted ;
all our reasonings about the relation of pastor and people
will proceed upon a different assumption. It is not pos
sible to discuss these relations without having some clear
idea of the powers and prerogatives of the Christian min
istry; but, for the purposes of this work, the Protestant
theory of the pastoral office will be taken for granted. We
may gather from the practice of the hierarchical churches
many useful hints respecting the administration of the par
ish ; but we do not consent to their claims for their clergy
of superhuman dignity and power.
In precisely the same way Liturgies will come under our
view, in its practical relation to the life of the church. The
question between written and extempore prayers we do not
raise ; we rather seek to know how worship is made helpf ul to
life. That view of the sacraments which regards them as
possessing an inherent and magical efficacy we shall not
follow ; but we have no controversy respecting the mode of
their administration ; we wish to know what is their true re
lation to the faith and the love of those who employ them.
The art of sermon making we do not specially study,
nor are we concerned with the preparatory disci})! ine by
which the minister is made ready for his work ; but we
find him at work in the parish, and discover that preach
ing is an essential part of his work ; the relation of this
work to the growth and fruitf ulness of the church we must
carefully consider.
INTKODUCTOilY 3
The theory and practice of foreign missions are also re
lated to our study but incidentally. The foreign mission
work is one of the channels through which the energies of
the church How out into the world ; and it is needful that
the church should comprehend the importance of this
work, and contribute money and men for its maintenance.
The local church is not fulfilling its function until its in
terest and co-operation in this work has been secured.
Two of the departments of Practical Theology named
above Catechetics and Poimenics come wholly within
the field of Pastoral Theology proper, and constitute the
larger portion of this field, as hitherto defined. The teach
ing and training of the young, and the care of souls, take
up most of the space in the standard books devoted to this
subject, after the chapters which treat of Ilomiletics
and Liturgies. The work of shepherding and training is
of the essence of Pastoral Theology, and will receive due
attention in the following pages.
It will be seen that the scope of this treatise is at some
points more restricted than that of most of the standard
works 011 Pastoral Theology. By a necessary specialization,
Homiletics and Liturgies have been excluded for separate
treatment in other volumes of the present series of text
books. Yet it is to these topics that the chief attention of
writers on Pastoral Theology has been given. In turning
from these great interests, to which Vinet l and Palmer 2
and Van Oosterzee 3 and Fairbairn 4 and Cannon 5 and
P>laikie J and Rothc " and Harms 8 and Cave !) and Shedd, 10
and many other great teachers, have devoted much pains-
1 Knj*. Trans., Ilomiletics, by A. Vinet.
- Pasloral-Tkeologie, by C. Palmer.
3 Practical Theology, a Manual fur TheuhHjic.nl Stmlcnts, by J. J. Van
Oosterzee.
4 Pastoral Theology, a Treatise on the Oj/ia untl Duties of the Christian
Pastor, by Patrick Fairbairn.
6 Lectures on Pastoral Theology, by James S. Cannon.
6 For the Gosjiei Ministry, by W. ( ,. Blaikie.
7 Theologische Encyclopadie, by II. Rothe.
8 Pastor al-TTieologie, by Clans Harms.
9 An Introduction to Theology : its Principles, its Branches, its Results, and
its Literature, by Alfred Cave.
10 Homiletics and Pastoral Theology, by W. G. T. Shedd.
4 CHRISTIAN PASTOlt AND WOIIK1XG- CJiTJKCH
taking thought, we leave behind us a most fruitful and at
tractive study. We are constrained to omit these subjects
by two considerations; first, that there seems to be less
need of dwelling upon topics which have been handled
with learning and skill by so many great teachers, and,
secondly, that other phases of the life of the church have
lately come into prominence, to which much less attention
has hitherto been given.
The theme of our investigation is the working church.
And it is evident that the working church as we now meet
with it in every considerable community of English speak
ing people, is a comparatively new thing under the sun.
For long periods and over wide spaces of Christendom the
ruling idea has been that Christian work is the function of
the ministry ; that the laity are the subjects of its gracious
operation. There is a text of Paul s which has been quite
too literally interpreted: " We are fellow workers with
God ; ye are God s husbandry, God s building." 1 It is
not indeed difficult to find evidence that in the Apostolic
churches the laity wrought actively with their leaders ; in
the Epistles to the Romans and to the Philippians there is
clear proof of this. But a day came when the church was
the clergy, and the function of the laity shrank into insig
nificance. And even after the Reformation, although in
Protestant churches the ministry was shorn of sacerdotal
functions, it still largely monopolized the work of the
church. For proof of this examine any of the classical
treatises on Practical or Pastoral Theology. The monu
mental work of Van Oosterzee, above cited, witli six hun
dred and twent} compactly printed octavo pages, gives to
the minister s call and Homiletics three hundred and forty-
two pages, to Liturgies one hundred pages, to Catechetics
sixty pages, to Poimenics fifty-seven pages. But Poi-
menics, as here treated, means only the work of the pastor
among his people. The only suggestion that the people
may be actively employed in the work of the church is
contained in a brief reference to the Sunday school, which
1 1 Cor. iii. 9.
INTRODUCTORY 5
occupies half a page. It is a book of marvellous learning
and admirable wisdom ; the extent of the author s reading
on this great theme is notable ; but the fact that it is a
large part of the pastors business to find work for the
members of his church, and to secure their general and
hearty co-operation with himself in teaching and shepherd
ing and saving men an,d women and children, does not
seem to have been brought home- to him. Van Oosterzee s
definition of Practical Theology is, " the science of labor
for the Kingdom of (Jod conceived of in its whole extent,
d.s f/ti$ /.s culled into t:.i-c i-citc />// the pastur and teacher of the
Christum Church in particular." 1 Dr. Philip Schal f -
divides Practical Theology into the following branches:
u l. Theory of the Christian Ministry -- The Minister an
Ambassador of Christ (prophet, priest, and king) ; 2. Ec-
clesiology or Ecclesiastic (Church Law and Church Pol
ity) The Minister as Ruler; 3. Liturgic -The Minister
in Worship (as priest); 4. Ilomiletic The Minister
as Preacher; 5. Catechetic The Minister as Teacher;
6. Poimenic The Minister as Pastor ; 7. Evangelistic
The Minister as Evangelist and Missionary/ lie adds:
u The duties of the laity should be considered in each
department." 3 This sentence recognizes the new condi
tions; but the fact remains that the whole study is con
ducted from the point of view of the minister. All these
branches of practical theology revolve about him. The
duties of tin; laity are incidental and secondarv. The need
of a readjustment is, however, admitted: " Heretofore this
department has been exclusively confined to clerical duties
and functions. But the recent development of the lav
energies in Protestant churches, especially in England and
America, requires an additional branch or a corresponding
enlargement of other branches. The Protestant doctrine
of the general priesthood of believers implies the co-oper
ation of the members of the congregation with the pastor
1 Practical Theology, p. 1.
2 Theological Propwdeutic : a General Introduction to the Study of Theology,
by Philip Scliaff.
8 Ibid., pp. 449, 450.
6 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
in all departments of Christian activity, especially in
church government, in the Sunday school, and in mission
work." !
The judicious and admirable treatise of Dr. Patrick
Fairbairn on Pastoral Theology cited above opens with
a statement which agrees with the new conditions. He
says : -
" The office of a Christian pastor obviously proceeds on
the assumption of a Christian membership or community as
the parties in respect to whom and among whom it is to be
exercised. It assumes that the flock of Christ are not a
mere aggregation of units, but have by divine ordination
a corporate existence, with interconnecting relationships,
mutual responsibilities, and common interests. It assumes,
further, that the church in this associated or corporate
respect has a distinct organization for the management of
its own affairs, in which the office of pastor occupies a
prominent place, having for its specific object the over
sight of particular communities, and the increase or mul
tiplication of these, according to the circumstances of
particular times and places." 2
Yet I do not find in this elaborate treatise any evi
dence that Dr. Fairbairn seriously contemplated any ex
tensive co-operation of the people with the pastor in the
work of the church. The concluding chapter, compris
ing five pages upon " Subsidiary Means and Agencies,"
just mentions the Sunday school as one of the interests
which should " receive the considerate attention, and,
when formed, the watchful superintendence of the pastor."
Prayer meetings meetings for prayer only the learned
author encourages the pastor to establish, " if he can only
find persons who have the requisite zeal and gifts for con
ducting them." As to fellowship meetings, known in
America as Prayer and Conference Meetings, "formed
with a view, not merely to engage in exercises of worship,
but also to interchange thoughts among the members on
matters pertaining to divine truth or religious experience,"
1 Ibid., p. 449.
a Pastoral Theoloyy, p. 1.
INTRODUCTORY 7
he remarks that they are " safe enough, probably, and im
proving, if the membership is small, and composed of
such as have much confidence and fellow feeling one with
another, so that they can really speak heart to heart ; but
when it is otherwise they are extremely apt to become
loquacious, disputative, and even to gender strifes. A
prudent pastor will therefore rarely intermeddle with
meetings of this description, and neither directly encourage
nor discountenance them." The care of the poor, Dr.
Fairbairn suggests, is now in the hands of agencies outside
the church; and the Christian pastor does not therefore
iind the Held which once he found for organized work
among the poor in his parish. But, he continues, "in the
present circumstances of our country it belongs more to the
province of a minister of the (iospel to concert, or lend
his countenance and support to those who may be con
certing, measures which have; for their object the reduc
tion of pauperism and other social evils; in particular the
repression of prostitution, and the diminution of that in
temperance which is a fountain of immeasurable disorders.
For this purpose he will readily co-operate in the efforts
made to curtail, in particular localities, the number of
public houses, to establish coffee rooms and places of
healthful refreshment and innocent resort, and to form
when they are obviously needed temperance societies.
For things of this description, lying outside, in a manner,
the pastoral sphere, yet pressing closely on its border, no
general rule can be prescribed, or any uniform practice
recommended. l It is not clear that Dr. Fairbairn ex
pected the pastor to enlist his people in any of these
outside activities ; if not, his scheme appears to make
very little provision of work of any kind for them. This
volume has been published since the deatli of its author,
in 1874, and presents undoubtedly the view of church
activities prevailing in Scotland during his lifetime.
A later volume, by Dr. W. (i. Blaikie, gives some clear
indications of the recent rapid development of the Chris
tian Church along these lines. It contains a chapter upon
l Ibid., pp. 348-350.
8 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
the " Organization of Work," in which the importance of
securing the co-operation, not merely of the officers, but
of the entire membership of the church, in its proper work,
is strongly argued. He says :
" It is evident from the New Testament that elders and
deacons, though the only persons who are said to have
been formally ordained, were not the only persons who
were allowed to labor in the church. The sixteenth
chapter of Romans contains the Apostles greeting to
many men and women who were laboring in the church
at Koine. There is no reason to suppose that all these
were expressly ordained. At the top of the list is Phebe,
a servant or deaconess of the church at Cenchrea, but of
whom we have no reason to believe that she was ordained.
Priscilla and Aquila, a married couple, come next, the
wife s name preceding the husband s. It is extremely
improbable that the long list of active men and women
that follows were persons who had all been ordained to
office. But all of them were actively using their abilities
for the advancement of the Kingdom, and in so doing
they were not only recognized but commended by the
Apostle. It follows that in every well equipped congre
gation, in addition to those expressly ordained, but under
their sanction and superintendence, there ought to be a
body of active workers engaged in the various operations
of Christian love and zeal which the circumstances call
for. In many such congregations we find a body of Sun
day school teachers, or of helpers in a children s church ;
a body of district visitors, a young men s association, a
missionary association, a school committee, and a mothers
meeting. It is right that all these should be recognized
and superintended by the office bearers. Their work
ought to be embraced in the prayers of the congregation,
and it ought to be made plain that they are not mere free
lances but that they labor under the warm wing and pa
ternal guidance of the church." 1
This brings clearly before us the newer conception of
1 For the Work of the Ministry, p. 219.
INTRODUCTORY
the church as a working body, 1 and of the minister as
the organizer and leader of its work. " In this matter,"
says Professor Willcox, "as in other features of church
life, there has been within the century an immense change.
The minister among the fathers, being superior in edu
cation to most of his flock, was accounted, as to church
work, their proxy. He was less like (Jeneral (Jrant,
directing the army, than like David, with sling and stone,
fighting the battle for them. The midweek meeting was
occupied with a lecture from the pastor. Sunday school
there was none. With no women s colleges or higher
seminaries, the sisters were not thought capable of giving
instruction. Societies of Christian Kndeavor and juvenile
mission bands are among later inventions and discoveries.
There were no young Christians in any considerable
numbers. When a young man joined the church of
Dr. Lyman Beecher, in Litchfield, Connecticut, early in
the century, so strange an event astonished all the western
section of that State." 2
Pastoral Theology, therefore, whether we consider it
as art or as science. 3 has greatly extended its Held within
the past generation. New occasions are constantly teach
ing the minister of Christ new duties ; his position in the
church has greatly changed, and the functions which he
is called to perform are quite unlike those which were
assigned to ministers in the first half of this ceiiturv.
The American college president of lifty years ago was
the principal teacher of his college ; to-day lie rarely en
gages in the work of teaching; his work is mainly that
of organization and administration. The change which
has taken place in the functions of the pastor is not so
radical, but it is considerable. The largest and most
difficult part of his work to-day consists in enlisting and
1 Abundant evidence, to which we shall have fre<|iieiit occasion to refer,
will lie found in the recent Year l>ooks of the Scott i.-h churches, to show
that these churches have fully comprehended the extent of their calling us
working organizations.
- Tin l ) <istor and Itis Flock, p. 77.
" ("eat 1 art apres la science, ou la science se rc solvant en art." Viiiet,
Th&logie I ustwale, p. 1.
10 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
directing the activities of his people. In all wise teaching
on this subject, the emphasis must now rest, not upon the
pastor, but upon the church.
We may perhaps assume that the conception which to
day prevails is the higher and truer conception of the life
of the church. Not in the primordial germ, but in the per
fected organism, do we seek for the true idea of any Chris
tian institution. Belief in the constant presence of the
Holy Spirit, who is guiding the church into all truth, who
is taking the things of Christ and making them plain unto
us, should assure us that the later phases of ecclesiastical
life are higher and more near to the divine purpose than
those of primitive days. The church, in its organic life,
must leave behind the rudiments and go on toward per
fection. 1 We do not, therefore, go back to the Apostolic
Church, nor to any of the past ages for our types ; but a
glance at the history of what we now know as Pastoral
Theology may indicate the lines upon which the church
has been moving forward.
The theocratic and sacerdotal conceptions of the Old
Testament left little room for that peculiar relation be
tween pastor and people which Pastoral Theology assumes.
The political heads of communities, such as the elders of
the congregation, or the judges said to have been appointed
by Moses at the suggestion of Jethro, 2 exercised more of
the true pastoral functions, probably, than did the priests
or the Levites. The conception of the ministers of religion
as sustaining a kind of pastoral relation occurs, however,
in some of the later prophets, in the Deutero-Isaiah, 3
and notably in Ezekiel. 4 Similar references in Jeremiah
apply perhaps indiscriminately to political and religious
leaders. 5 But the application by our Lord to himself, in
John xii., of the figure of the Good Shepherd, gave to the
Apostolic Church a conception which speedily bore fruit.
In Paul s beautiful address to the Ephesian elders, 6 and
notably in the Pastoral Epistles, are laid the foundations
1 Heb. vi. 1-3. 2 x xv jj;
3 Ch. Ivi. 11. * Ch. xxiv.
5 Ch. xxiii. 1-4. 6 Acts xx.
INTRODUCTORY 11
of Pastoral Theology. In most of the Epistles, indeed,
useful counsels are found concerning the proper consti
tution of the church, concerning the duties of pastors to
their Hocks, and of the members of the churches to their
leaders and to one another. Especially instructive are
those illustrations which Paul has given us in 1 Cor. xii.
and in Eph. iv., the full meaning of which is only be
ginning to dawn upon the churches.
Immediately following the times of the Apostles come
certain manuals and directories of worship, most complete
and authentic of which is the recently discovered Tcach-
iinj of the Tm:/ re A/w^tJi-x. The Apostolical Canons
and the A i>xlu] icul Constitutions undoubtedly embody
material which originated in that early period, and give
us, in some of their regulations, the conceptions of church
order and activity entertained by the successors of the
Apostles.
It was in this period that the sacerdotal view of the
clerical office began to be emphasized, and the hierarchical
organization of the church began to take definite form.
The term Pastor was first given to the chief officer of a
local congregation; then the name was applied to the
chief officer of a district or diocese including many con
gregations: and finally, in a still more comprehensive sense,
to the occupant of the See of Rome, who was styled Pastor
Pastorum. To these gradually enlarging conceptions of
the pastorate, the theories of pastoral care necessarily
adjusted themselves. To a primitive Congregational ist
Pastoral Theology was one thing; to a believer in the
Diocesan Episcopate it meant something more; and to the
believer in the Papacy it had still another meaning.
Accordingly the treatises dealing with this subject which
have appeared during the centuries have not been uniform
in scope and signification. The subject matter varies.
The treatise of Chrysostom, On. tjic Priesthood, 1 written
in the last year of the fourth century, rests on the sacer
dotal conception of the clerical office, and magnifies the
1 Tlfpl Itptaavv-ns, De Sacrrdotio, translated by W. R. W. Stephens, in
Schaff s edition of Chrysostom s Works.
12 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
pastoral function in accordance with that high theory.
About the same time appeared the treatise of Ambrose,
DC Ojficiis Clcricorum, and that of Ephraem Syrus, De
Sacerdotio. In the middle of the next century appeared
the book DC Pastorali Cura, the authorship of which was
ascribed to Leo the Great, and at the end of the sixth
century the Liber Pastor alls of Gregory the Great. All
these books take a high view of the pastoral functions.
The last named, which held the place of eminence as a
pastor s handbook for many centuries, which was trans
lated during its author s lifetime into the Greek, and later
into I^nglish, and which was enjoined upon the clergy of
the ancient church for constant use, speaks of the priest
as " ruler," and of his parishioners as " subjects." First,
it discusses the qualifications of a priest; then treats of
his manner of life in his pastorate, and finally gives spe
cific directions respecting the methods of instruction to be
followed in dealing with different classes.
The Middle Ages furnished comparatively few treatises
of this nature ; as the emphasis upon the sacramental func
tions of the church grew stronger, the need of the pastoral
function was minimized. Two notable treatises appeared,
however, in the middle centuries ; the first is that of the
illustrious Bernard of Clairvaux, Tractatus de Moribus et
Officiis Clericorum. It presents a glowing picture of the
true minister of Christ, and a stern denunciation of the
scandalous conduct of the unfaithful clerics of his time.
The second, which is like unto it, is by John Wiclif,
Tractatus dc Ojjicio Pastorali. The first part of this dis
courses of purity of life, and the second part of wholesome-
ness of doctrine.
For the most part, however, the care of souls through
out this period is largely identified with the administra
tion of the sacraments, including, of course, confession and
absolution. The manuals of the period lay great stress
upon celibacy, ecclesiastical vestments, and the recitation
of the divine offices.
The Protestant Reformation must needs have given a
great impulse to studies of this character. Luther wrote
INTRODUCTORY 13
no consecutive treatise upon Pastoral Theology ; but some
of his counsels were gathered by Conrad Porta in his
Pastorale, Luthcri. Zwingle s Vom Predigtamte and Der
Hirt, and portions of the fourth book of Calvin s Tnstitutio,
deal with various aspects of pastoral relation. From this
time forward the stream of this literature widens so rapidly
that we can only note a few of the more important treatises.
The Par cencsis ad Ecclesice Ministros of Joh. Val. Andrea,
the Pia Desideria of Spener, the Monita Pastor alia of A.
H. Francke are German treatises of the seventeenth cen
tury ; while the quaint Country Parson of George Herbert,
and the Reformed Pastor of Richard Baxter, appearing in
the same century in England, are among the most precious
gifts that the church has received since the days of the
Apostles.
In the eighteenth century we have the treatise in French
of P. Roques, Le Pasteur Evangelique, and in German the
Pastoral-theoloyie of J. F. von Mosheim, and the Bcitriiye
zur Pastor al-theologie of J. F. Jacobi ; along with one valu
able handbook, presenting the subject from the Roman
Catholic point of view, the Vorlesungen aus der Pastoral-
tlieologie of J. M. Sailer. The rationalism of the eighteenth
century tended to cheapen the estimate of the minister s
calling, and some of the treatises which appeared toward
the end of that century reduced pastoral theology to its
lowest terms. Against the unspiritual conceptions then
current, the passionate protest of J. G. Herder, in his
Zivfjlf Provincial-blatter an Predigcr, and his Brief c iilicr
das Studium der Theologie, was not altogether in vain.
Bishop Burnet s Discourse of the Pastoral Care, and
Girard s treatise entitled Pastoral Care, belong also to
this century ; and with them may be numbered Cotton
Mather s quaint Manuductio ad Ministerium, or The Angels
Preparing to Sound the Trumpets, which was republished
in England, with an equally quaint -introduction by John
Ryland, addressed "To the Gentlemen and other several
Christians in London and the Country who have the Cause
of Christ and the Honour of the Christian Ministry at
Heart."
14 CHRISTIAN PASTOll AND WORKING CHURCH
At the beginning of the present century, Friedrich
Schleiermacher gave to the general subject of Practical
Theology its first scientific exposition. In his Outlines
of Theological Study, he treated this branch of theology as
the culmination and crown of the theologic encyclopaedia.
The advent of the nineteenth century strikes the hour
of the utilities ; and the studies which bear directly upon
the activities of the church are exalted to a rank which has
not before been given them. Of this tendency of thought
Schleiermacher, who is pastor as well as professor, is the
protagonist. It is not, however, to be wholly a question
of utility, for Philip Marheinecke in his Entwurf dcr
praktische/i Theologie will have us consider it from the stand
point of speculative philosophy, and Glaus Harms in his
Pastorcd-theologie will enforce it upon us with the warmth
of a most fervid piety. Other German works of this cen
tury are Karl Immanuel Nitzsch s Praktische Theologie,
F. L. Steinmeyer s Beitrdge zur Praktischen Theologie, Theo-
dosius Harnack s Praktische Theologie, and Johann Tobias
Beck s Pastorallehren.
The French writer whose work on this subject has be
come a classic is Alexandre Rodolphe Vinet, the Lausanne
professor, whose Theologie pastorale, ou theorie du ministere
evangelique, has been translated into English and German.
The perspicuous style, the just discrimination and the evan
gelical spirit of Vinet are worthy of all praise. Vinet is at
the farthest remove from sacerdotalism ; the minister in his
view is a priest only as all believers are priests ; his author
ity is only that of knowledge and character. Supplemented
by his HomiUtique ou theorie de la predication, and his Hi s-
toire de la predication parmi les re formes de France au dix-
septiemc siecle, Viiiet s treatise covers the field of practical
theology.
Perhaps the most complete treatise on Practical Theology
which the present century has produced is that of Jan Ja
kob Van Oosterzee, Professor in the University of Utrecht.
Under the four divisions of Homiletics, Liturgies, Cate-
chetics, and Poimenics, this writer discusses exhaustively
the whole subject of pastoral activity. Van Oosterzee, as
INTRODUCTORY 15
the leader of the Evangelical party in the Church of Hol
land, occupies the standpoint of the conservative reformers,
investing the pastoral ollice with large dignity and author
ity, and yet emphasizing, at every point, the bond of a
common humanity which binds together pastor and people.
Of English treatises appearing during the nineteenth
century may be mentioned Tlie Bishopric of Souls, by R. W.
Evans; A Treatise on the Pastoral Office, by J. W. Burgon;
The Parish Pried, by J. J. Blunt; Pastor in I roc/tin, by
W. Walsham How; An Earnest Ministry the Want of the
Times, by John Angell James ; The Christian Ministry, by
Charles Bridges; Pastoral Theology, by Patrick Fairbairn ;
Fur the ll orl- of tin- Miiiixtri/* by \V . G. Blaikie; Homilctienl
and Po stored L> etc. res, by C. J . Ellicott ; Christus Co/isolator :
the Pulpit in Relation to Social Life, by Alexander McLeod;
The J lixfnrnl Oj/(>-c, by Ashton Oxendeii; and Letters to a
Young l. lcr<ji/in<i n. by J. C. Miller. An excellent volume,
compiled in England about the middle of the century and
entitled The Christ in n Instructor contains Herbert s Country
Parson; Jeremy Taylor s Advices to his Clergy; Bishop
Biirnet s Jiixroiirxc of the J <>stritl Care ; Bishop Sprat s
Discourse to his Clergy; Bishop Ball s Companion for Can
didates of Holy Onli fs ; Bisliop Gibson s Directions to his
clergy; Bishop Hort s Instructions; Bishop Wilson s J aro-
chalia ; a Pastoral Letter by Archbishop Ilowley, and a
Charge to the Clergy, by Bishop Kuye. One could hardly
desire a more comprehensive exhibition of the subject from
the point of view of the Anglican Church.
The vigorous development of the voluntary system of
church maintenance in the I nitcd States has naturally
resulted in a diligent cultivation of the whole Held of
practical religion and the literature of Pastoral Theology
is abundant. Especially during the present century have
the treatises upon the work of the ministry been greatly
multiplied. The Lectures o/i Homiletics and Preaching, and
on Paolir Prayer, by Ebenezer Porter, and the Lectures on
Pastoral Thcoloijy, by James S. Cannon, belong to the earlier
part of the century ; and to the latter half of it, the Pas
toral Theoloejy of Thomas Murphy, which presents the
16 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
subject from a Presbyterian point of view ; the Christian
Pastorate, by Daniel P. Kidder, which represents the con
ditions prevailing in the Methodist Episcopal Church, The
Pastor, by Gregory Thurston Bedell, which is calculated
for the latitude of the Protestant Episcopalians, The Office
and Work of the Christian Ministry, by James M. Iloppin,
in which a teacher in a Congregational Theological Semi
nary gives his view of the pastor s work. Familiar and
pithy counsels to young ministers are found in Samuel
Miller s Letters to a Student on Clerical Manners and Habits,
in Humphrey s Letters to a Son in the Ministry, and in
Francis Wayland s Letters on the Ministry of the Grospel.
TJic Homiletics and Pastoral Theology of W. G. T. Shedd
is a dignified treatise ; Enoch Pond s Lectures on Past
oral Theology are plain and practical ; Austin Phelps s The
Theory of Preaching is the fruitage of a fine nature ;
Franklin W. Fisk s Homiletics contains the harvest of a rich
experience, and G. B. Willcox s The Pastor in the Parish
presents its topic in the form of a conversation between
a teacher and his pupils. A foundation established in
the Theological Seminary at New Haven, in memory of
Lyman Beecher, has been built upon by successive lec
turers ; the first three volumes of this series, entitled
Yale Lectures on Preaching, are by Henry Ward Beecher;
other lectures have followed by Robert William Dale,
Nine Lectures on Preaching ; by John Hall, God s Word
TJirough Preaching; by Richard Salter Storrs, Preaching
without Notes; by William M. Taylor, The Ministry of the
Word; by Phillips Brooks, Lectures on Preaching; by
Howard Crosby, The Christian Preacher ; by Ezekiel G.
Robinson, Yale Lectures on Preaching ; by Matthew Samp
son, Lectures on Preaching ; by Nathaniel J. Burton, Yale
Lectures, Sermons, and Other Writings ; by James Stalker,
The Preacher and His Models; by R. F. Horton, Verbum
Dei; by John Watson, The Cure of Souls ; and by A. J. F.
Behrends, The Philosophy of Preaching. Most of these
volumes seem to put the emphasis upon homiletics ; but
the pastoral care is also considered in many of them. One
course of lectures on this foundation, by Washington
INTRODUCTORY 17
Gladden, entitled Tools and the Man; Property and In
dustry under the Christian Law, deals Avith the duty of
the pulpit with reference to industrial and social problems.
A compilation of Essays entitled Parish Problems, by the
writer last named, exhibits the field of pastoral theology
from the point of view of the co-operating church.
General Poimenics is sufficiently covered by the above
survey ; a little space may be given to the history of
Catechetics. The teaching to which this name is given
is alluded to, but not defined, in the New Testament; l oral
instruction seems to be implied; but there is no clear
discrimination between preaching and private teaching.
Apollos had been instructed " (/car^^/ieVo?) in the way
of the Lord,- before he came under the tuition of Aquila
and Priscilla : and Theophilus had received the same kind
of " instruction." 3 Naturally, all who sought to connect
themselves with the groups of disciples must have re
ceived, from intelligent and competent leaders, some such
tuition. There is, however, no clear trace of classes or
methods until the third or fourth century ; then we find
the converts organized for instruction ; and two classes
distinctly appear. First are the "Audientes," who are
receiving instruction in the rudiments of religious truth,
and who are permitted to be present in the church when
the Scriptures are read and the sermon is preached, but
who are excluded when the liturgical worship is in pro
gress. It is not in order for them to hear the Creed or
the Lord s Prayer in the church, or to witness the adminis
tration of the Lord s Supper. 4 After they have received
a proper amount of instruction they advance into the class
of " Competentes," and the Creed, the nature of the sacra
ments, and the penitential rites of the church, are ex
plained to them. This was the stage of preparation which
immediately preceded baptism ; it continued forty days,
during which a severely ascetic regimen was prescribed.
1 1 Cur. xiv. 19 ; Gal. vi. 6.
2 Acts xviii. 25.
3 Luke i. 4.
4 Const. Apost., viii. 5.
2
18 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
At the end of this time those who endured the ordeal
were admitted to baptism.
No distinct order of catechists appears during this pe
riod ; each pastor was charged with this function. It is
evident that the teaching was progressive, beginning with
the simplest truths of natural theology, and leading up to
Christian mysteries. It was, however, mainly intended
for adult converts, who sought preparation for admission
to the church ; the character which it has chiefly borne
in modern times, as that of instruction imparted to the
children of Christian families, was not then impressed
upon it.
The first writings which bear this name are the Cata-
O
chescs of Cyril of Jerusalem (/carT^^cret? <amb/i4eWz/),
which consist of addresses delivered during Lent to the
Catechumens. The Christian doctrines are carefully ex
pounded in these discourses, and much emphasis is laid
upon relics, exorcism, unction, and the adoration of the
cross. Discourses with a similar purpose are the ratio
Catechetica of Gregory Nyssen, and the Catecheses ad
Illuminandos of Chrysostom. The first treatise on theo
retical catechetics is that of Augustine, De Catechizandis
Itudibus, which begins with sacred history and proceeds
to the Christian doctrines. It is addressed to his friend
the Deacon Deogratias of Carthage. All these treatises
are intended for the instruction of adult candidates for
baptism.
As infant baptism became more and more prevalent, the
catechetical preparation for baptism necessarily fell into
desuetude ; the catachete was superseded by the priest.
" After the church had become established, and its increase
was obtained by the birth and baptism of children rather
than by conversions from heathendom, the idea of catechet
ical instruction passed from being that of a preparation
for baptism to being that of a culture of baptized children.
When confirmation became general, catechetical instruc
tion began to bear the same relation to it that it had
formerly done to baptism. In the missions to heathens
in the Middle Ages, it became usual to baptize converts
INTRODUCTORY 19
at once, and the ancient catechumenate fell into disuse.
Nor was great attention given to the catechising of bap
tized children in the Roman Church up to the time of
the Reformation: the confessional took the place of the
Catechism." 1 Nevertheless something was done through
all this period for the systematic instruction of the young;
Charlemagne, in one of his Capitularies, admonishes the
bishops that their priests must be required to attend to
this duty; and the names of Bruno, Bishop of Wiirzburg,
and Hugo of St. Victor, are to be mentioned as those who
were zealous for the restoration of catechetical instruction.
Chancellor John Gerson, of the University of Paris, was
the author of a tract DC Parcuiis od Cliristum TrultciuUs ;
but the subjects for which this instruction was intended
were young men rather than young children.
The Reformation brought about a great revival in the
religious training of children. The appeal to private;
judgment demanded an instructed judgment. Luther was
the leader in this enterprise; his Catechisms, Larger and
Smaller, which appeared in 1529, are still the standards of
the Lutheran Church in all parts of the world. The title
of the latter in 3rd edition is Enchiridion: Dcr Kli ine
Catechismus //</ die gcmeinc Pfi.irhcr u/id Pi cdi<j<-i\ 152!).
The Decalogue, the Creed, the Lord s Prayer, and
the Sacraments are the principal themes of Luther s
Catechisms.
Calvin also prepared a Catechism for the Church of
Geneva, which was published in 1537 under the title,
Instruction & Confession de Foy dont on use en rfiylise de
Geneve, in 1538 in Latin, revised 1545, and translated into
English in 1508. The themes of this Catechism are the
Decalogue, the Apostles Creed, and the Lord s Prayer;
after which follow brief chapters on the Bible and the
Sacraments.
One of the most influential of the Catechisms is that
known as the Heidelberg Catechism, which was published
in the city whose name it bears in 15G3. Its original Ger
man title is Catechismus, oder Christlicher Underricht wie
1 McCliutock aud Strong s Cyclopicdia, Art. Catechetics.
20 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
der in Kirchen und Schulen der Churfurstlichen Pfalz
getricbcn ivirdt, Gedruckt in der Churfurstlichen Stad
Heydclbery. The Catechism was mainly the work of the
famous Zachary Ursinus, aided by Caspar Olevianus, who
was then court preacher to the Elector of the Palatinate,
Frederick III. It was under the patronage of this Protes
tant prince that the work was undertaken ; a synod of the
superintendents of the Palatinate approved it in 15G2, and
it was at once by command of the Elector made the doc
trinal standard of the Reformed Church in his dominions.
The Synod of Dort adopted it in 1618 ; for the German
and Dutch Reformed Churches it has always been the
authoritative confession. The three parts into which the
instruction is divided are : 1. The Misery of Man ; 2. The
Redemption of Man ; 3. The Gratitude due from Man
to God, under which are included our moral obligations.
The Catechism of the English Church appears in the
Prayer Book of 1549 under the title Confirmation wherein
is contained a Catechism for Children. In its final revision
in 1661 it is entitled A Catechism. The language is evi
dently adapted to the use of young children. The fifty-
ninth canon of the English Church requires every parson,
vicar, or curate, upon every Sunday and holiday, before
evening prayer, for half an hour or more, to examine and
instruct the youth and ignorant persons of his parish in
this Catechism, commanding all fathers, mothers, masters,
and mistresses to bring their children or wards to this
service, and prescribing heavy penalties for the neglect
of this injunction, whether by priests or parishioners. The
letter of this law is not generally obeyed. The American
Episcopal Church also expressly requires of its ministers
regular and diligent instruction of the children of their
parishes in the truths of this Catechism.
The Presbyterian Catechisms are of later date ; the
Larger Catechism, prepared by the Westminster Assem
bly of Divines, was presented to the House of Commons
and printed by authority in October, 1647, and the Shorter
Catechism in November of the same year. These symbols
are fruits of the later Reformation. The Shorter Catechism
INTRODUCTORY 21
has been in universal use among Presbyterian churches,
and was formerly employed very largely for purposes of
instruction by Independents and Congregationalists in
England and America. Many volumes have been pub
lished in exposition of it ; those of Ashbel Green, Pater-
son, Vincent, Boyd, and Whyte are among the most
noted. 1
The revival of catechetical teaching in the Churches
of the Reformation reacted powerfully upon the Roman
Catholic Church. What may be regarded as one of the
first fruits of this activity is a little book published at
Mayence in 1550 with the imprint of John Schoeffer, son
of the partner of Gutenberg, entitled Brcvis Iiistitutio ad
Christianam Pietatem, sccundum Doctriii un Catholicam con-
tiiicns Explicationem Symboli Apostulici, Orationis Dominicce,
Salutationis Angelicce, Dcccm Preceptorum, Scptem Sacramcn-
toru/n. It was compiled for the use of the "* noble youth "
who were receiving instruction under Sebastian, Arch
bishop of Mayence. It is profusely illustrated with wood
cuts of the period, exhibiting the Creation of Eve, the
Salutation of Mary, the Birth of Jesus, the Crucifixion,
the Resurrection, the Ascension, and other Scriptural
events. It is written in Latin, and presents the chief
points of Catholic doctrine in a succinct and interesting
manner. The Catechisms of Canisius, the Jesuit, issued
in 1554 and 1550, exerted great influence throughout the
Roman Catholic Church as well as in Germany until
quite recent times. The Catechism of Bellarmine, pub
lished in 1003, was also much used. The Catechism of
the Diocese of Meaux, published by Bossuet in 101)8, and
addressed by him " Aux Cum, Vicuircs, aux Peres et aux
Mercs, ct a tons Ics Fiddles dc son Diocese," is one of the
most careful and systematic manuals of the Catholic
Church.
The standard Catechism of the Roman Church is the
Tridentlne Catechism, published in 1500, under the au
thority of Pius V. Each bishop is, however, allowed to pre
pare such manuals of instruction as he may deem necessary ;
1 See Catechisms of the Scottish Reformation, by Iloratius Bonar.
22 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
and in 1885, the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore
compiled a new Catechism of Christian Doctrine, which has
been commended to the faithful by the highest authorities
of the Church in the United States.
Many of the Protestant bodies have provided their
children with manuals of instruction. The Methodist
Episcopal Church in the United States has a series of these
catechisms, embodying the same questions and answers,
but extending the exposition so as to provide for a graded
system of teaching. The subjects of this threefold cate
chism are : God ; Creation ; The Fall ; Salvation ; The Means
of Grace ; God s Law ; Death, Judgment, and Eternity.
Socinian Catechisms were prepared by Schomann in
1574, by Faustus Socinus in 1618, and by Moscorovius
in 1609. The last named, known as the Racovian Cate
chism, was translated into English by Rees, and published
in London in 1818.
Christian bodies which adopt no theological symbols have
been furnished with catechisms by independent teachers.
The Baptist denomination was thus served by Benjamin
Beddome, whose Scriptural Exposition of the Baptist Cate
chism was issued in 1752 ; and even the Quakers have A
Catechism and Confession of Faith, which .was prepared
by Robert Barclay in 1673, and which declares upon its
title-page that it has been " Approved of and Agreed
unto by the General Assembly of the Patriarchs, Prophets,
and Apostles, CHRIST himself Chief Speaker in and among
them." The questions of this Catechism are in the words
of Mr. Barclay, but the answers are in the words of the
Scripture.
CHAPTER II
THE CHURCH
ALL Protestant denominations unite in giving to the
local congregation of Christian believers those who
worship in one place, and have an organization under
which the sacraments are administered to them by their
own olh ceis the name of church. I>y some of these
denominations the word is used also to designate larger
organizations, provincial or national ; but the Episcopalian,
the Presbyterian, the Methodist, and the Lutheran, as well
as the Congregationalist and the IJaptist, speak of the
permanent local assembly of disciples as a church. This
is the sense in which the word is always used in these
pages.
Into the question of the form of this organization we do
not go. The church may be organized with a vestry, a
session, a classis, an official board, a diaconate and pru
dential committee, or in any other manner which seems
good unto itself. Certain questions are, however, pertinent
and practical when we are considering the church as a
working body.
1. How large mav a church In; wisely permitted to
become? Is there any judicious limit to he placed upon
the membership of a church ? ( )bviously, much will depend
upon the nature of its pastorate. If the pastor is provided
with a large staff of assistants, the membership of the
church may be more safely multiplied. The work of
organization and supervision mav thus be extended to
large numbers, and a large body accumulates influence and
moves with power. Yet these gains are offset by serious
losses. The worshipping congregation cannot exceed a
certain limited number without putting upon the preacher
24 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
a strain which few are able to bear. Not many speakers
can effectively address more than two thousand people in
the best auditorium. Indeed the church audiences in
America which are regularly more numerous than this can
probably be counted on the fingers of one hand. Nothing
is more uniformly exaggerated than the size of church
audiences. And even if a larger audience could be
brought within the range of the preacher s voice, the
wisdom of attempting to care for so large a body of
communicants is not beyond disputation. A regular audi
ence of two thousand persons would imply a membership
of about the same number. The communicants who are
necessarily absent are usually about equal in number to
the non-communicants in attendance ; and a working
force of two thousand would be handled with considerable
difficulty by the most efficient pastoral staff. The per
centage of the unemployed in such a mass is likely to be
very large.
If a church employs but a single pastor, the policy of
gathering a huge membership is still more questionable.
A leader with even exceptional ability as an organizer
finds himself burdened by the care of more than a thousand
church members. The impossibility of maintaining any real
pastoral supervision of a larger number is obvious ; and
the difficulty of developing the social life of a congregation
which exceeds this limit is almost insuperable. There may
be circumstances under which a larger number can be
effectively employed in Christian service ; there may be
leaders to whom such a task is not impossible ; but as a
rule it may be questioned whether it is good economy to
gather churches of more than a thousand members. Gen
erally it will be expedient to colonize before the number
reaches that limit. The policy of concentration, which is
so successful in commercial enterprises, does not work so
well in ecclesiastical enterprises. Two churches of six or
seven hundred members each will generally accomplish
far more than one church of twelve or fourteen hundred
members.
in short, it may be said that the church membership
THE CHURCH 25
should not be so large but that some good measure of
acquaintance and friendship may be maintained among its
members, and between its members and their minister ;
nor so large but that they may be effeetively employed in
the work of the church. " When we are commanded,
says Baxter, "to take heed to all the flock, it is plainly
implied that flocks must be no greater, regularly and ordi
narily, than we are capable of overseeing or taking heed
of; that particular churches should be no greater, or
ministers no fewer, than may consist with taking heed to
till ; for (iod will not lay upon us natural impossibilities.
lie will not bind men on so strict account as we are bound,
to leap up to the moon, to touch the stars, to number the
sands of the sea. If it be the pastoral work to oversee
and take heed to all the flock, then surely there must be
such a proportion of pastors assigned to each flock, or
such a number of souls in the care of each pastor, as he is
able to take such heed to as is here required." l
The fellowship of the brotherhood is never to be lost
sight of. The organi/.ing principle of the Christian church
is such a union with Christ, the Head, as brings the mem
bers into vital relation with one another. "For even as we
have many members in one body, and all the members have
not the same otlice : so we, who are many, are one bodv in
Christ, and severally members one of another. - This surely
implies acquaintance and friendship. It is absurd to talk
of such relations as these among people who have not even
a speaking acquaintance with one another. The church
must not be so large as to defeat the very purpose of its
organization. And it is equally clear that it must not be
so large that no effective use can be made of its forces in
Christian work. It will be found that by far the greater
proportion of many large churches are merely "honorary
members," having no part in the activities of the church.
In the great cathedral churches, to each of which is
attached a large clerical staff, much good work is done:
and it is probable that large classes are reached and bene
fited by such services who would not be brought into close
1 Reformed Pastor, p. 103. 2 Horn. xii. 4, 5.
26 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
affiliation with smaller churches. So, too, in the great
institutional churches which will be discussed in a later
chapter, a certain kind of shepherding is effectively done.
For all such methods there is room in the Kingdom of God.
Yet it may still be maintained that the ideal Christian
church is a " household of faith," the members of which
are bound together by personal affection ; and that it is also
a working body whose function is best fulfilled when its
members are all actively enlisted in some kind of helpful
ministry ; and for this mutual fellowship and co-operation
the body must not be too large. It is a serious question
whether the passion for bigness which characterizes our
time has not increased the bulk of many of our churches
at the expense of their vitality.
2. Closely connected with this question of the extent of
the membership is the question of the nature of the edifice
which the church must provide for itself. There is no rea
son why the church building should not be a noble and at
tractive structure, if those who worship within it are able to
provide such an edifice, and pay for it. It is not seemly
that those who themselves dwell in palaces should offer to
the Lord a barn for his sanctuary. And yet it is easy to err
in this direction. The church may be solidly and beauti
fully built ; it ought to be comfortable and commodious
and bright and attractive ; but it ought not to have the
look of elegance or luxury. It should never be a building
whose exterior or interior would make upon any working
man the impression that the people worshipping in it were
too fine to associate with him. A dignified simplicity
should characterize all its features and appointments.
Many churches are as ostentatious of splendor, without
and within, as are the turnouts in which their worshippers
display themselves in the park. To every passer-by they
loudly proclaim, "It is not the elect, it is the elite, Avho
congregate here : Procul, procul este profani ! " Such
churches, and their entire administration, are a hideous
travesty of the religion of the Nazauene. A pastor who
had for several years been ministering to the flock that
worshipped in one of these splendid churches, once said to
THE CHURCH 27
the writer : " It would have been far better for the cause
of Christ if one hundred thousand dollars of the money
expended upon this church had been thrown into the
river ; there it would have done no harm, at least ; here it
is a positive hindrance to the progress of the Kingdom."
Money which is expended in such gorgeousness and show
is worse than wasted.
The ethics of church architecture needs to be studied
by Christian disciples everywhere. There is no virtue in
deformity and discomfort ; the ugliness of some of the old
meeting-houses is an abomination. lie who hath made
everything beautiful in its season is not honored by offer
ing him a building which offends the taste that bears wit
ness for him. But on the other hand, every Christian
congregation must bear in mind who is its Master, and
O O
who are his friends. the people in its neighborhood with
whom he is most closely identilird, and must seek to
administer all its affairs in such a way that they shall not
be repelled from its assemblies.
In churches whose chief function is that of teaching, it
would also seem to be reasonable to expect that much
regard would he paid to the properties of the church as an
auditorium. "How shall they hear without a preacher? "
is a question not much more pertinent than "How shall
they hear the preacher? It would be well if architects
could be impressed with the truth that all architectural
effects must be subordinated to the uses of the church as a
place of worship. The first problem to be solved is that
of bringing the whole congregation undo 1 the leader s eye,
and within easy range of his voice.
The newer conception of the church as a working body
calls also for an adaptation of the church building to the
purposes of work. In some portion of the edifice place
must be found for class rooms, social rooms, committee
rooms, and the other conveniences of a working organiza
tion. The arrangement of the structure will be determined
by the plans of the church ; in some places it would be
wise to undertake many more kinds of work than in others ;
and in every case the edifice should be built with an intel-
28 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
ligent regard for the future requirements of the church.
It is not sufficient to commission an architect to furnish
the design of a church edifice ; as well tell him to build
a factory without letting him know whether it was pro
posed to manufacture cotton goods or mowing machines or
writing paper. The church must carefully study its field,
and determine what kind of work it can wisely undertake ;
and must then adapt its building, as well as it can, to the
requirements of its work.
The location of the church is also a matter of great
importance. Many churches are wellnigh ruined by
placing them on noisy streets where the voice of the
preacher is often drowned by the din. It is well that the
church should be near some principal thoroughfare, near
enough to attract some portion of the throng ; it ought to
be easily accessible from all directions ; but it is not good
policy to push the church into the midst of the market
place. " Wisdom," according to the wise man, " crieth
aloud in the street ; she uttereth her voice in the broad
places ; she crieth at the head of the noisy streets ; " l
and there may be occasions for Wisdom to deport herself
after this manner ; but when she seeks to gather worship
pers into the sanctuary, she may well betake herself to
quieter regions. There is reason to believe that Wisdom
has often failed to make herself heard by reason of the
clatter of carts and the din of electric cars, and the clamor
of bands of Sabbath-breakers inarching by.
The question of economy must also be considered in this
connection. It is a question whether any church has a right
to expend hundreds of thousands of dollars upon a site for
its edifice, simply in order that it may occupy land upon
which fashion has put an exorbitant price, when land
equally serviceable can be obtained only one or two
squares away for one half or one quarter of the money.
The people who will worship on the most fashionable
avenue and will not worship on a street where the resi
dences are humbler, are people for whom we have no right
to spend the Lord s money. The more of them there are in
1 Prov. i. 20, 21, Marg.
THE CHURCH 29
any church, the poorer it will be in all the elements that go
to make up a true church of Christ.
In short, it needs to be said that this question of the
local habitation of the church is one that needs to be
treated with much more intelligence and conscience than
has sometimes been expended upon it. The life of the
church is powerfully affected for good or ill by the envi
ronment which it thus provides for itself: the question
whether pride shall be fostered or repressed ; whether the
church shall be brought near to the people who need it
most or separated from them; whether the standards to
which its life shall be conformed shall be the standards of
the world and the Mesh or the standards of the spirit;
whether the demands of style or the law of service shall
rule in its assemblies, will be answered in part, at least,
in the one sense or the other, by the joint efforts of the
architect and the building committee.
3. What has already been said respecting the size of
the membership and the construction of the ediiice has
suggested, in part, the answer to the question, What kind
of people should be gathered into the fellowship of any
given church? The answer is that the people who live in
the neighborhood should, ordinarily, form the membership
of the church ; and that they should be impartially gath
ered in. rich and poor, learned and unlearned, with no dis
tinction of caste or color. It is true that in large cities, with
present facilities of transportation, families and individuals
often travel considerable distances to worship in the
churches which they prefer. Sometimes thev are constrained
to do this by their attachment to old associations : thev have
changed their residence, but they cannot bear to separate
themselves from the fellowship in which they were reared,
or with which they have long been happilv connected.
Sometimes the pastor is one whose ministry is to them es
pecially stimulating and helpful, and thev are willing to
make large sacrifices for the sake of what he gives them.
It is not prudent, perhaps it is not desirable, to antagonize
such preferences. Doubtless the principle of spiritual
selection will determine, to a considerable extent, the mem-
30 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
bership of churches in all our larger communities. Proba
bly they will be more efficient and fruitful, if, as a rule,
those whose opinions and tastes are similar are united in
the same communion. Most city churches will be made up,
not only of those who are near, but of some also who are
afar off. But when the church itself considers the ques
tion of its own membership, and sends out its invitations,
it can have but one message : " Ho, every one that thirst-
eth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money ;
come ye, buy, and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and milk with
out money and without price." 1 " And the Spirit and the
bride say, Come. And he that heareth, let him say, Come.
And he that is athirst, let him come ; he that will, .let him
take of the water of life freely." 2 If those from afar
choose to come to its solemn feasts they must be hospitably
treated ; but those who are near must not be left in any
doubt as to the warmth of their welcome. The very first
problem for any church to solve is how to make the people
of its own neighborhood all the people understand
that its services are for them ; that its bell rings for them ;
that its doors open to them ; that its ushers are waiting
for them ; that its seats are for them to occupy ; that it
stands, as the representative of Christ, repeating to all
the people, with such powers of persuasion as it can com
mand, his gracious call : " Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 3 That
there should be any mistake about this, any possibility of
misconception, any misgiving in anybody s mind that this
church does not really mean this, that it wishes only for
the adhesion of those who belong to a certain social class,
or who can bring contributions to its coffers and social in
fluence to its assemblies, this is a thought not for one
moment to be entertained. What ! Can it be true that
there are churches bearing the name of Jesus Christ which
are understood to be churches for the " upper class," or
churches for the " lower class " ; churches in which con
siderations of wealth or rank or culture largely determine
the membership ? The sooner such churches are blotted
1 Isa. lv. 1. 2 Kev. xxii. 17. 8 Matt. xi. 28.
THE CHURCH 31
from existence, the sooner the Kingdom of God will
come.
It is true that in some neighborhoods the majority of
the residents belong to one class, and in others the majority
belong to another class ; such a geographical distribution
of wealth and poverty may be unfortunate, but it exists,
and we must make the best of it. It is therefore probable
that the social standing of the membership of some churches
will be different from that of others. But there are few
neighborhoods in which many poor people may not be
found, and few which are not accessible to some well to do
people ; and wherever the sentiment of the church heartily
favors it, the rich and the poor will be worshipping together.
The pastor of a church which lias lately moved to a rather
fashionable residence district in one of our fairest Western
cities, told the writer that his congregation contained a large
working-class element. These were serving-men and serving-
women in the households of the neighborhood, poor clerks
and shop girls living near, and others of the same social
class. Ordinarily these persons, if in church at all, would
be found worshipping in some small mission chapel on a side
stivct, probably at a distance from their place of residence :
but this church had somehow convinced them that there
was room for them in its assemblies. This is bv no means
an impossible task for men and women of good will ; and
no church has justilied its existence until it lias exhausted
its ingenuity and patience in seeking to accomplish it.
Not only will many working people be found scattered
through the districts where the more favored classes dwell,
but it is not seldom the case that sections inhabited by the
poor are closely contiguous to churches now frequented
by the rich. In multitudes of instances the most aristo
cratic churches are within easy reach of thousands of the
humblest people. If the worshippers in these churches
are all of one social class, the reasons for this are not topo
graphical, but purely moral. The only reason why the
poor are not there is that they are not wanted. If these
were Roman Catholic churches the poor would be found
in them. There is no cathedral on the continent of Europe
32 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
so splendid that the poor are not perfectly at home in it.
To say that the same thing cannot exist in Protestant
churches is to proclaim that Protestantism is a failure.
We often hear it said that persons of this class are offen
sive to the more refined by reason of their uncleanliness.
But a fastidiousness which cannot endure some discomfort
of this sort for an hour or two, once a week, for the sake
of the Kingdom of God, is not likely to achieve any im
portant victories in the Christian warfare. And nothing
would be more effective in improving the personal habits
of these people than bringing them into association every
week with those to whom such matters were a care. An
object lesson like this is the best way of teaching them
the important truth that cleanliness is next to godliness.
It is sometimes said that the poor prefer plainer churches ;
that they are more at home in them ; that they enjoy asso
ciation with those of their own class. Doubtless they
would not feel at home in churches that were ostentatiously
luxurious ; but we have already assumed that the Christian
church will not be built upon that plan. They can have
no distaste for a beautiful and comfortable interior. It
would not be pleasant for them to worship in churches
where most of the worshippers were richly and gaudily
dressed ; but few people of refinement are in the habit of
dressing for display when they go to church. The ordi
nary laws of good breeding require plain and inconspicuous
attire in the house of God. And as to the preference for
association with those of their own class, it is to be said
that very few working people would fail to respond to the
overtures of a genuine Christian courtesy. Condescension
or patronage the best of them do not want and will not
endure ; but a sincere interest in them and a real friend
ship for them will win their confidence, no matter how
large may be the possessions or how fine the culture of
those who proffer it. The Christian church is on trial
before this generation upon this very issue, whether there
exists within it a genuine brotherhood by which the bar
riers of social caste can be broken down. The separation
of classes threatens the disruption of existing society, and
THE CHURCH 33
the overturn of all our institutions. There appears to be
no agency by which this separation can be averted except
the Christian church. If the church is true to the prin
ciples of its Founder we may escape revolution, and go
forward with the processes of a healthy social evolution.
If the church, faithless to its trust, becomes the embodi
ment of that pride and exclusiveness which its Master
came to rebuke and destroy, the church, with the state,
will be revolutionized ; the ecclesiastical structures now
existing will be demolished, and the Kingdom of (iod
will be rebuilt on sure foundations. The question of the
social structure of the existing churches is one of great
moment to the churches themselves, and to society at
large. If the principle of Christian fraternity means any
thing, it is high time that we were beginning to compre
hend its meaning, and to give it full scope in our church
organizations. The questions about which we are forever
squabbling, whether our churches shall be governed by
bishops or elders, or committees of their own choosing;
whether the clergy shall be robed in one color or another ;
whether prayer shall be oral or written ; whether baptism
shall be with little water or with much ; whether we shall
sing psalms or hymns ; whether Moses wrote all the Penta
teuch or not, are of very small consequence compared
witli the question whether we are the disciples of the
Master who is shown us in the first seventeen verses of the
thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of John. If we arc. in
deed and in truth, learners in his school, followers of his
divine example, we shall find some way of administering
our churches so that those to whom he came to bring the
glad tidings shall feel at home in them.
The unitv of the church of Christ is something more
c/ O
than a voluntary association ; it is a vital, an organic unity.
"For in one Spirit," says Paul, "were we all baptized
into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or
free, and were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the
body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say,
Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, it is
not therefore not of the body. And if the ear shall say,
3
34 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body, it is not
therefore not of the body. If the whole body were an eye,
where were the hearing ? If the whole were hearing, where
were the smelling ? But now hath God set the members
each one of them in the body even as it pleased him.
And if they were all one member, where were the body ?
But now they are many members, but one body. And
the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee ;
or again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
Nay, much rather, those members of the body which seem
to be more feeble are necessary ; and those parts of the
body, which we think to be less honorable, upon these we
bestow more abundant honor, and our uncomely parts
have more abundant comeliness ; whereas our comely parts
have no need; but God tempered the body together,
giving more abundant honor to that part which lacked ;
that there should be no schism in the body, but that the
members should have the same care one for another.
And whether one member suffereth, all the members suffer
with it, or one member is honored, all the members rejoice
with it." 1 Here is the constitution of the Christian church ;
and a right understanding of this, and a hearty acceptance
of it, are a thousand times more important than all that is
involved in our disputes about polities and liturgies and
doctrines. The one damning heresy is the rejection of
this organic law of the church ; the one intolerable schism
is that by which Christ s poor are practically cut off from
the fellowship of their more prosperous neighbors.
It is true that it is becoming increasingly difficult to
realize the fellowship on which the Christian church is
founded. In all our larger cities the conventionalities of
society are so multiplied, and there are so many outside
interests that engross the time and thought of church
members, that it is hard to maintain any general acquaint
ance, even among those of the same class. But it must
not be admitted that this is impossible ; the maintenance
of this relation is essential to the development of the
Christian character. The kind of association which is
1 1 Cor. xii. 13-26.
THE CHURCH 35
furnished by a Christian church in which the rich and the
poor, the cultured and the uncultured, the old and the
young, meet together on a perfect equality, is a little dif
ferent from any other that we enjoy in this world ; and it is
the only environment in which some of the best fruits of
the spirit are likely to be cultivated. We do not find in
our philanthropic work, in our condescension to those who
are content to be our beneficiaries, still less in the super
ficial amenities of general society, the opportunity for the
kind of social commerce which the church affords to those
who intelligently accept its covenant and heartily endeavor
to realize the life which it implies. There is pertinence
in the counsel which bids us do good to all men as we
have opportunity, " especially toward them that are of the
household of the faith." l The absolute mutuality which
lies at the basis of that relation calls for the cultivation of
some of the highest Christian qualities.
All classes in the congregation need this discipline.
The capitalistic elements need to be brought, through the
church, into fraternal relations with the laboring classes,
and the laboring classes need it not less. The church
ought to be a constant and unfaltering witness to the
people of both these classes that they are members one
of another. The learning of this lesson is the beginning
and end of wisdom in the solution of what is known as
the social question; and where is this lesson to be learned
if not in the fellowship of the Christian church ? Neither
of these classes, it is to be feared, wishes to learn it ; both
of them shrink from association with each other; both of
them often seem to prefer to cherish the alienations and
animosities by which the bond of society is sorely strained
and often sundered. There are bright exceptions on both
sides, but this is the prevailing temper. It is here, if any
where, that the true priestly function comes into play,
the function of mediation. If we, as Christian disciples,
are made priests to God, it is for such work as this. The
church which does not see that this is its high calling at
this hour sadly fails to discern this time.
1 Gal. \i. 10.
36 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
Between the educated and the uneducated classes the
same work of reconciliation is called for. The conceit of
culture is often about as virulent and anti-social as the
pride of wealth. The fact that he can pronounce the
English language a little more accurately than his neigh
bor, or that he can interpret some literary allusion which
to the other has no meaning is, to many a man, good reason
why he should treat that other with indifference, if not
with contempt. The tendency is strong to erect these
barriers of caste and exclusiveness between those who
know a little more about certain things and those who
know a little less. Such tempers are fatal to the best
social construction. There will be diversities of knowl
edge in society ; the Christian theory is that men should
be united and not divided by these diversities.
" And what delights can equal those
That stir the spirit s inner deeps,
When one that loves, but knows not, reaps
A truth from one that loves and knows ? " x
If these precious fruits of the Christian discipline are
to be gathered in the church, it would seem clear that the
church must have all these classes in its membership.
No church should therefore be content for a day to be a
church of the rich or of the poor, of the educated or of
the uneducated. It is hard, no doubt, to prevent these
social stratifications ; the tendency is strong to bring the
church under the domination of aesthetic rather than of
ethical standards. The notion that we are to seek, in our
church relations, that which will minister to our culture
and gratify our tastes, and surround us with congenial
associations, is far too prevalent, even among our most
orthodox Christians. How many are there who do not
make these or similar considerations paramount when
they are selecting their places of worship?
It is not true, however, that the obstacles which hinder
the realization of the ideal of the church are all interposed
by the more fortunate classes. However the fact may be
explained, it is the fact that the spirit of exclusiveness and
1 Tennyson, In Memoriam, XLI.
THE CHURCH 37
alienation exists among the poorer classes, and is keep
ing a great many of them out of the church. The families
that tend to pauperism can usually be reached without
much difficulty; their children can be brought into the
Sunday school ; they themselves are willing, for reasons
that are usually too apparent, to maintain some sort of
connection with a charitable church. But among the self-
supporting working people the notion seems to be growing
that the churches are for the rich and cultivated people ; that
they are not in sympathy with the working classes ; that
they are the apologists and beneficiaries of monopoly.
This is by no means the universal fact; there are many
churches which are largely composed of working-men ;
and the sweeping condemnation of the churches as aristo
cratic and exclusive which we sometimes hear from work
ing people need not be admitted, though we may recognize
certain ominous tendencies in this direction. It is plain
that the alienation of the working people from the churches
is in part the result of a systematic and energetic effort to
separate them from the rest of the community and compact
them in a class by themselves in the warfare with capital,
or rather with the employing class. Industrial society is
at present on something like a war basis, and the leaders of
the labor army do not like to have their forces fraternize in
any way with the enemy. It appears to them, therefore,
good tactics to keep the working people out of all associa
tions in which kindlier relations might be cultivated ; and
many of the denunciations of the churches are prompted
by this policy. The aristocratic temper of the church is
not the real objection ; the more of real fraternity there
was in it, the less they would like it. It would not be true
to say that all labor leaders are governed by this purpose ;
perhaps it is not often consciously cherished ; but the obvi
ous logic of the maintenance of industrial society on a war
basis must lead them in this direction. Such, then, are ob
stacles to the fraternization of classes which are found in the
tempers of the less fortunate classes. There is just as much
human nature in the under crust of society as in the upper
crust. But it is the business of the Christian church to
38 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
break down all these obstacles, to bring these suspicious
and antipathetic people all together in one fellowship, and
teach them to respect one another and care for one another.
To this separation, quite as truly as to that of an older
day, we may apply Paul s words : " For he is our peace,
who made both one, and brake down the middle wall of
partition, . . . that he might create in himself of the twain
one new man, so making peace ; and might reconcile them
both in one body unto God through the cross, having slain
the enmity thereby." : The church that wrought this
reconciliation in the olden time between Jews and Gentiles
can do it to-day for capitalists and laborers, if it will only
hold fast by the truth on which it is founded. And in or
der that it may do the work for which it exists, it must
place itself firmly on this foundation.
It may thus be evident that the question of the consti
tution of the local church at the present day goes a great
deal deeper than our disputes about polity and dogma and
ceremonial. It is a question which strikes at the very
heart of the social order ; which challenges the principles
of our conduct as social beings. The first question for
any church to ask is, " Who is my neighbor ? " That
question must be answered in the Christian sense, and the
whole regimen of the church s life must be conformed to the
answer. If Christianity has a law for society, the church
must first of all learn that law and obey it.
The relation of the church to the Kingdom of God is a
matter concerning which it is necessary to have clear ideas.
To a considerable extent it is a question of words, but
there are, after all, important distinctions which we must
learn to make. In one of the most inspiring books 2 of this
generation, Dean Fremantle urges that the church is the
inclusive word ; that all departments of what is known as
secular life are in reality departments of church life ; that
" the church ( the fulness of Him that filleth all in all ) is
the whole community of Christian people in the whole range
of their life, and tends to embrace the whole world ; and
therefore that it cannot be adequately represented by com-
1 Eph. ii. 14-16. 2 The World as the Subject of Redemption.
THE CHURCH 39
nmnities organized for public worship and its accessories.
Why, then," he demands, " do we hear the words The
Church, or The Churches, applied solely to bodies or
ganized for public worship, doctrinal teaching, and a few
adjuncts of beneficence ? Why do historical writers con
stantly speak of acts that are those of the clergy alone as
acts of the Church ? Why do we find that, in nine cases
out of ten, when The Church is named, the clergy and
the worshipping body (most commonly the clergy alone) are
meant ? . . . Each of the rings or circles of human society,
the family, the communities which exist for the further
ance of science, of art, of social intercourse, of commerce,
as well as for public worship, are essentially religious so
cieties, and the Nation most of all. Why, then, are those
societies still spoken of as secular or worldly, instead of
the attempt being made to raise their spheres of action to
the dignity of church functions, and their leaders to that
of church ministers?" 1
The central idea for which this book contends the
sacredness of all life, the essential religiousness of every
kind of useful work is not to be gainsaid; it is indeed
part of the great constructive idea which is giving us all
our new departures in theology as well as in practical
Christian work. But it is a question whether the word
church has not become so thoroughly fixed in its mean
ing that it cannot be stretched to cover all that Dean
Fremantle tries to include under it. Will the old wine
skin hold the new wine ? Is it not better to keep the word
church for the "communities organized for public wor
ship and its accessories," and to apply to " the whole
community of Christian people, in all the range of their
life," Christ s own phrase, the Kingdom of (iod, or the
Kingdom of Heaven. It will be necessary, then, to show
that it is possible and greatly desirable to widen the scope
of the church, and make it touch the life of the people at
many more points than it has hitherto done; and it will
also be necessary to show that the church, so defined,
even when so enlarged, is subordinate, in all respects, to
1 Preface to the new edition, 1895.
40 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
the Kingdom of God ; that it is a part, and not the whole, of
that Kingdom.
It might be possible, following the suggestion of Dean
Fremaiitle, to include under the term church all the
spiritual and ethical interests of the community, and to
conceive of charity and education, and even of art, as
proper functions of the church ; but the function of civil
government involves methods and agencies that cannot
well be identified with the church in fact or in name.
Civil government must employ force, and the weapons of
the church are not carnal. The state does not lose its
divine character when it employs force ; the powers that
be are ordained of God, and they bear not the sword in
vain, 1 but the work to which the state is called is a differ
ent kind of work from that to which the church is ap
pointed, and it is essential to the effectiveness of each that
the two functions be separated. The state with its politi
cal and retributive functions is an integral part of the
Kingdom of God ; and the duties to which it summons us
are not less sacred than those to which the church calls us,
but they are duties of a different nature, and must not be
confused. So, at least, it seems to those of us who do not
live under religious establishments. The Kingdom of God
includes both state and church ; it is, indeed, " the whole
community of Christian people in the whole range of their
life " ; every part of that life is sacred, but there are some
parts of it which are not wisely considered as functions
of the church.
The church and its ministry are, then, a part, a vital part
of the Kingdom of God, but they do not constitute that
Kingdom. It is not the church and its righteousness that
we are bidden to seek first, but the Kingdom of God and
his righteousness. The church is auxiliary to the King
dom, it is one of the means by which the Kingdom is
brought in; but every Christian s first loyalty is to the
Kingdom, and not to the church. The church, in its best
estate, holds much the same relation to the Kingdom that
the political party, at its best estate, holds to the govern-
1 TJom. xiii. 1-6.
THE CHURCH 41
ment of the country ; it is an instrument which men em
ploy to secure the progress and the permanence of the
Kingdom. Better, perhaps, we may say that it is the
training school, ordained by God, in which men are fitted
for the life of the Kingdom. The usefulness of the church
is tested by observing the condition of the community in
which it stands. If the life of the community is healthily
affected by its presence its life is vindicated, otherwise it
lacks credentials. By its fruits in the civic community
its character must be judged. It is never an end in itself,
it is a means to an end. The city which John saw in his
vision, the New Jerusalem, which represents the perfected
society that is to fill the earth at the latter day, was a city
without a temple. All its life was sacred ; its home life,
its business life, its education, its art, its work, its play, were
all consecrated. Men had learned the meaning of that hard
saying, " Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do
all to the glory of God." l All work was done in the
spirit of prayer; all callings were sacred. That city is
coming down out of heaven from God even now; but it
comes without observation ; of its enduring temples one
living stone after another is silently descending to its
place, but long years are yet to pass before this process
will be consummated ; it is only in its idea, its promise,
its elemental forces, and in certain beautiful beginnings,
that this city is now here upon the earth ; the actual
society of the municipality or the commonwealth is yet a
long way from the millennial perfection. And yet this
promise, this ideal, is always before the mind of every
well instructed servant of Christ. What he is chiefly
working for and praying for is not the success of his
church, or his denomination, or any ecclesiasticism what
ever; it is the upbuilding of this Kingdom.
To this end the church is a divinely appointed means.
As things now are, the spiritual interests must, to a certain
extent, be specialized. In our northern climates the green
house and the nursery are important adjuncts of the garden
and the orchard. Yet it is not by what is grown in the
1 i Cor. x. 31.
42 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
greenhouse and the nursery that life is nourished, so much
as by that which is planted out in the open air and in the
broad fields. And the church, while the spiritual climate
remains what it is, serves the Kingdom of Heaven in the
same way; it affords a care and a culture in which the
beautiful growths of the Kingdom may be made ready for
planting out in the field of the world. 1
It is necessary that religion should be specialized in in
stitutions which are devoted to its interests. The problem
is to make all life religious ; but in order that it may be
come so, associations are needed whose function it shall
be to cultivate religious ideas and feelings.
Electricity, we are told, pervades the whole earth and
the whole atmosphere. It is everywhere about us ; per
haps the time may come when we can make this diffused
electricity do our chores and run our errands ; but for
the present we must have the power-house with the dyna
mos, where it is collected and concentrated and distributed
to the places where it is wanted. And, in like manner,
although the spirit of Christianity ought to pervade and to
some extent does pervade the whole of the society in which
we live, though the Kingdom of Heaven, like the hidden
leaven, is here, living and working upon the earth, yet
there is need that this influence be gathered up and con
centrated in institutions formed for this special purpose,
that its nature may be more distinctly seen, and its power
more wisely directed.
As we study the laws of life, we find the higher orders
of being distinguished by what the physiologists call an
increasing specialization of function. " In the progress
from the lower to the higher organisms," says Mr. Huxley,
" there is a gradual differentiation of organs and of func
tions. Each function is separated into many parts, which
are severally intrusted to distinct organs. To use the
striking phrase of Milne-Edwards, In passing from low
to high organisms there is a division of physiological
labor. " 2
1 I take the liberty of quoting here a few paragraphs from a small book of
my own, obscurely published, entitled The Church and the Kingdom.
2 Encyc. Brit., Art.
THE CHUJRCH 43
Thus in the lower orders of sentient creatures the ner
vous system is diffused through the living mass, or dis
tributed over its surface ; but as the creatures rise in the
scale, the nerves are gathered into knots or ganglions, and
their function is gradually separated until in the vertebrates,
and especially in man, you lind the brain, a great central
organ, safely housed in a strong cavity made for its pro
tection, whence it moves and directs the whole body. The
separation and specialization of the nervous function does
not make the human body as a whole less sensitive or less
responsive to nervous action than the bodies of the snails
and the worms : the contrary is the fact. By concentra
tion the nervous force is increased and intensified.
In the same manner, as society advances, the different
social functions are specialized; this is likely to be more
and more the case. And although religion ought to per
vade and govern the whole of society, just as the nervous
system pervades and governs the human body, yet religion,
for this very reason, needs to be specialized in institu
tions of its own, as the brain is specialized and localized
in the human body. It is thus that it gains power to move
and direct human society.
This illustration may suggest to us the relation between
the church and the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom
o o
of Heaven is the entire social organism in its ideal perfec
tion ; the church is one of the organs, the most central
and important of them all, having much the same rela
tion to Christian society that the brain lias to the body.
The body is not all brain, but the brain is the seat of
thought and feeling and motion. A body without a brain
could not be a very effective instrument of the mind ;
society, without those specialized religious functions which
are gathered up in the church, would not very readily re
ceive and incarnate and distribute the gifts of the Spirit
of God.
And yet the brain is of use only as it furnishes to all
the other organs and parts of the body feeling and motion.
It must make the eye sensitive to light, the tongue to
flavors, the ear to sound, the hands and feet to the volitions
44 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
of the will which set them in motion. The brain is in one
sense the master, in another sense the servant of the whole
body. It helps to co-ordinate all the physical powers, and
it supplies them all with the conditions by means of which
their work is done. Suppose that the brain undertook to
set up housekeeping on its own account ; to look out for it
self, and have little relation to the other parts of the body ;
to assume that the brain was the man, and that, so long as
the brain was well developed, it mattered little about the
other parts of the human economy. Is it not evident that
any separation of the brain from the rest of the body
would kill the brain as well as the rest of the body ? The
life and health of the brain are found only in ministering
to the whole body.
In the same way is the church related to all the other
parts of human society. Its life is in their life ; it cannot
live apart from them ; it lives by what it gives to them ; it
has neither meaning nor justification, except in what it
does to vitalize and spiritualize business and politics and
amusement and art and literature and education and
every other interest of society. The moment it draws
apart and tries to set up a snug little ecclesiasticism with
interests of its own, and a cultus all its own, and stan
dards and sentiments of its own, and enjoyments of its
own, the moment it begins to teach men to be religious
just for the sake of being religious, that moment it
becomes dead and accursed ; it is worse than useless ; it is a
bane and a blight to all the society in which it stands.
These illustrations may enable us to see what are the
true relations of the church to the Kingdom of God. And
they will point out two errors, of an exactly opposite
nature, both of which are too prevalent.
The first error is that of those to whom Christianity is
ehurchism ; those who separate the church from the rest
of the world, and give their whole time and strength to
exalting it, and building it up, caring little or nothing for
the other departments of life ; not wishing, or at any rate
not trying, to establish any vital relations between it and
those interests which men call secular. To these persons
THE CHURCH 45
the church is not a means to an end, but it is an end
in itself. The church is not the channel through which
the life of God flows into the world ; it is the reservoir
into which the tribute of the world is to How for the
honor of (Jod. Humanity exists for the church, not the
church for humanity. The great object is to make men
into good churchmen, not to train churchmen to be good
men.
The other error is that of those who think that, because;
it is the oilice of religion to mingle with and sanctify
every department of human life, therefore there is no
need that we should have any separate institutions of
religion. This is much as if one should say, " Because
we want the nervous influence diffused through every part
of the human body, therefore we do not want any brain."
Tliis does not appeal 1 to be good philosophy. Is there not
the same need of separate organs for the development and
manifestation of the spiritual life in the social organism,
that there is for the concentration and diffusion of nervous
influence in the physical organism? They are not wise
who disparage the function of the church, or imagine that
we are likely to outgrow it, as we go on toward social per
fection. We are just as likely to do without it as we are
likely, in our ascent toward intellectual perfection, to dis
pense with brains, and return to the condition of the oys
ter, with the nervous system diffused through the whole
molluscous mass.
This relation of the church to the Kingdom of God, as
that of a vital part of the whole, is often but dimly com
prehended. The stanch ecclesiastic- often maintains to
ward his church preciselv the same attitude that the
partisan maintains toward his partv. As the politician is
often willing to sacrifice the interests of the nation to the
success of his party, so the churchman often shows him
self more than willing to put the interests of the Kingdom
of Heaven in jeopardy for the aggrandizement of his sect.
Not until the idea more widelv prevails that every Chris
tian s first loyalty is due, not to the church, not to any
or all churches, but to the Kingdom of Heaven, and that
46 CHEISTIAN PASTOR AND WOKKING CHURCH
the churches are simply helps in the building of that King
dom, shall we see any rapid progress in the Christianiza-
tion of the world.
Those who have the care of churches find themselves,
therefore, included in a larger organism which claims their
constant interest. This is the community in which they
live, and the commonwealth of which they are citizens.
This larger society, with its government, its political
machinery, its industrial and commercial organizations,
its educational and charitable institutions, its groups of
artists and writers, its manifold social life, all this is the
field of their labor. What they are there, as a church, to
think of and work for, is nothing less than this, that
all this complex, highly organized life may be redeemed,
regenerated, sanctified. That is the ideal always before
their thought. Whatever kind of work will help toward
this consummation is lawful : that which does not clearly
tend in this direction is of small account. They pray,
every day, " Thy Kingdom come," and their labors must
tally with their prayers. What they do in and through
the church will be done with the Christianization of this
society constantly in view. If they should succeed in
building up their church in numbers, in wealth, in social
position ; if its individuals maintained a good degree of
personal integrity, and its families were nurtured in do
mestic purity, and if, at the same time, the community
round about them were steadily deteriorating ; if its poli
tics were becoming more corrupt ; if its laws were more
and more disregarded ; if its business methods were in
creasingly tricky ; if the chasm between employers and em-
plo} r ed were widening and deepening ; if its society were
sinking into profounder depths of vanity and frivolity;
if its amusements were degenerating from recreation to
ward dissipation, then the satisfaction with which these
churchmen recounted the details of their church work
should, it would seem, be greatly chastened by the spec
tacle of the sinking civilization round about them. It may
be questioned whether they ought to be very comfortable
in their own little sheepfold, with the flock ever so well
THE CHURCH 47
shepherded, if evil were raging and triumphing in the
community round about them.
In truth, however, it is hardly possible that they should
be able, by the most strenuous exertions, to maintain such
a contrast between their religious society and the rest of
the community. The ethical standards, the social senti
ments of the outride world will surely affect the congre
gation ; no separation between those within and those
without the fold can be secured which will prevent the
church life from being constantly and profoundly influ
enced by the thought and the life of the political and the
commercial and the industrial world round about. They
cannot save the church from decadence unless they can
save the community from deterioration. The churches
are, indeed, the salt of the earth ; but the salt is for the
preservation of society. The church is not in the world
to save itself, but to save the world ; and when it ex
hibits no power to regenerate the community in which it
stands, it is clear that the salt has lost its savor, and is
good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under
foot of men. " Ye are the light of the world," said the
Master to his disciples. But when no radiance streams out
through the windows of the church, lighting up the spaces
round about, it is to be feared that the light which is in it
is darkness. And how great is that darkness !
It is impossible, therefore, to segregate the church from
the community. The very function of the church is found
in its organic relation to the communitv. It is no more
possible to have a sound church in a decaying community
than it is to have pure air within our garden walls while
the surrounding region is infested with malaria. The
church must either be pouring a steady stream of saving
power into the community, or it will be receiving a steady
stream of poisonous and debilitating influences from the
community. The current will go one way or the other.
If the church is not to the community a savor of life unto
life, the community will be to the church a savor of death
unto death. Indeed, in spite of our best exertions, our
most vigorous churches do feel continually these deadly
48 CHRISTIAN PASTOE AND WORKING CHURCH
influences from the materialism of the outside world. It is
hard to hold up the standards of fidelity and honor before
the thought of the young men, when the methods of poli
tics and of business are generally disreputable ; when great
fortunes are made, if not by downright dishonesty, at least
by a cynical disregard of the rights of the weak; when
honor and humanity are sacrificed to greed ; when the
spoils of office are selfishly sought and corruptly distri
buted ; when the oath of office is lightly taken and appar
ently forgotten, when the sense of public duty is obscured
by party passion or personal ambition. Such methods are
by no means universal, but where they are more or less
common, and there is no effective public opinion to de
nounce and resist them, and those who practise them lose
no credit among their neighbors, but are pointed to as
the successful men of the community, the efforts of the
teacher and the preacher to make the young believe in
things honorable and true and of good report will be
laborious and often ineffectual.
If the church wishes to save itself from extinction, then,
it must send out its light and its truth into the community.
If it does not wish to be pulled down into the mire itself
it must lift up the community to a higher plane of thought
and action. It is childish to suppose that we can shut
ourselves within our little conventicles and sing and pray
and have a happy time all by ourselves, saving our own
souls, and letting the great roaring world outside go on its
way to destruction. Nor is it enough to go out now and
then, and pull a few of the passers-by into our conventicles
to save them. Such evangelism is utterly inadequate.
It misses the true function of the church by as much as
the sanitary engineer would miss the problem of curing a
malarious district, if he should try to catch the air in bas-
ketfuls and treat it with disinfectants.
If this truth is many times repeated, it is because it is
one of the things that most need to be said, and one of the
things most easily misconceived and most constantly forgot
ten. It is to be feared that the idea of the Church still gen
erally prevailing is that of an institution into which men
THE CHURCH 49
are withdrawn, as much as possible, from knowledge of or
contact with the world outside. ** Come out from among 1
them and be separate," is still the classical text. In many
churches there is a strong sentiment requiring the minister
to make but little reference in his teaching to the a if airs
of daily life. \Ve have enough of that," say these pious
folk, in our week-days ; when we come to church, we
want to stop thinking about this world and think about
heaven ; we want to sing hymns and pray, and be soothed
and comforted by purely spiritual ministrations." Whether
such people have been born again we may not venture to
judge, but it is certain that they have not seen the King
dom of (iod : that they would not know it if they should
see it ; that they do not even know where to look for it.
Of that great realm to which their superior loyalty is
due, which their Master bids them seek tirst, they in their
unctuous sentimentalism are utterly oblivious.
It scarcely needs to be said that the whole theory of
Pastoral Theology is revolutionized by this conception of
the relation of the church to the Kingdom. If the church
o
is an instrument, and not an end, a great many of the
theories and practices now prevailing will need to be
reconsidered.
CHAPTER III
THE PASTOR
THE names by which the minister is known among his
parishioners are somewhat significant. Rector and Domi
nie describe him as a ruler of his congregation j Parson
points him out as the Person, by eminence, of the com
munity; Elder represents him as proving a maturity
which in the primitive church may have belonged to
him ; Preacher, which appears to be the official title in the
Methodist Episcopal Church, misses that part of the min
ister s function with which we are concerned ; Father, the
familiar designation by which Roman Catholics address
their minister is affectionate, but somewhat lacking in
fitness when applied to one who knows only by observa
tion or by hearsay what the word means ; " Priest " they
used sometimes to call the New England minister ; but
that term was a stigma, invented by those who hated the
standing order ; the hiss of the sibilant with which it
closes is distinctly audible.
" St. Paul," says Bishop Burnet, " does also call church
men by the name of builders, and gives to the Apostles the
title of master-builders. This imports both hard and
patient labor, and likewise great care and exactness in it,
for want of which the building will be not only exposed to
the injuries of weather, but will quickly tumble down ;
and it gives us to understand that those who carry this
title ought to study well the great rule by which they
must carry on the interest of religion, so that they may
build up their people in their most holy faith so as to be
a building fitly framed together. They are also called
laborers in God s husbandry, laborers in his vineyard and
harvest, who are to sow, plant, and water, and cultivate
THE PASTOR 51
the soil of the church. This imports a continual return
of daily and hard labor, which requires both pain and dili
gence. They are also called soldiers, men that did war
and fight against the powers of darkness. The fatigue, the
dangers and difficulties, of that state of life are so well
understood that no application is necessary to make them
more sensible. 1 "
The name by which the New England minister wished
to be known, the official title by which he has always
been known, is, perhaps, the best name of all, the
Pastor. This is the name by which our Lord loved to
describe himself. " I am the Good Shepherd," he said ;
and in the new version we find a statement about his rela
tion to his flock which startles us by its boldness : " I am
the Good Shepherd; and 1 know mine own, and mine own
know me, even as the Father knoweth me, and I know
the Father."- The intimacy between Christ and his peo
ple, on the one hand, is the same kind of intimacy as that
between Christ and the Father, on the other. All that
this means we may not try to tell, but it must signify a
veiy near and dear relation between the shepherd and the
flock. If this term may be adopted by an under shepherd,
it must have a deep and tender signification.
" He calleth his own slice}) by name, and leadeth them
out. When he hath put forth all his own, he goeth
before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his
voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee
from him, for they know not the voice of strangers." 3
This is the parable which Jesus spake unto his disciples.
It is said that they did not understand it. It is to be
feared that it has been very imperfectly understood by
many who have come after them. The Master s words
suggest a close and sacred friendship between the shep
herd and his flock. He calls them, and they know his
voice. His relation to them is not merely that of teacher
with pupil nor of master with servant, but of friend with
friend. A large part of his work among them is to be
1 Of the Pastoral Care, in The Clergymen s Instructor, p. 92.
2 John x. 14, 15. 8 John x. 3-5.
52 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
wrought through familiar association and personal influ
ence. His chief function is that of teacher; but their
love for him becomes the solvent and the medium of the
truth which he imparts. " We can sum up the fundamen
tal idea of the ministry of the church at the present day in
the conception of the scriptural TTOL^IJV. Shepherd brings
out the idea of pre-eminence above the rest of the church,
the dignity of the position, but at the same time it brings
out also its aspect of duty, the obligation which he owes
to the church, and his responsibility to the Lord of the
Church ; moreover, both aspects, that of dignity and that
of duty, are seen united in the shepherd by the tenderest
bond, the bond of love or of mutual attachment. The
shepherd s dignity is not one of lordly command, but of
benevolent guidance ; the shepherd s duty is not one of
servile herding and hireling labor, but of cherishing and
tending." l
It has just been said that the title of priest was ill-
naturedly applied to the pastors of New England by those
who did not love them. The word imputed to them the
habit of assuming sacerdotal functions, the tendency to be
lords over God s heritage. Doubtless the imputation bore
some color of truth. The New England ministers at one
time had more power than was good for them, and they
were only men. There is no better opening for a pope
than the Congregational sj stem offers to a strong man in
a church composed of weak or ignorant members. Never
theless, the sacerdotal assumptions of these pastors were
openly at war with their own theory of the ministry. By
that theory the minister is the servant of his people ; from
them his office is derived ; he has no spiritual rights and
powers that are not shared by the humblest member of his
flock. Whatever of clerical authority or extra-human
agency the word " priest " connotes is foreign to that
conception of the ministry upon which the New England
churches were founded.
It is true, however, that some Christian ministers con-
1 Pastoral Theology of the New Testament, by J. T. Beck, D. D., Edin
burgh ed., Traus.
THE PASTOR 53
sider and describe themselves as priests ; it is the official
title of the second order of the Anglican Church ; Charles
Kingsley called himself a priest, and so do multitudes of
the best men in the same communion. The term implies
a distinction of functions and powers between the clergy
and the laity ; it involves questions with which we cannot
adequately deal.
Some of those who call themselves priests maintain, to
use the language of one of them, that "within the Apos
tolic Church all are priests. There is no sacerdotal caste,
as some opponents of Catholic doctrine have imagined the
church to create, performing religious offices for a secu
lar laity. The contrast between clergy and laity is that
between a higher and a lower degree in the priesthood.
This is implied in the ancient title of Ordination, and
of Holy Orders, which bear witness to the fact that the
difference between clergy and laity is one of function and
arrangement and mutual relations, not a difference of
fundamental opposites. If wilfully severed from the faith
ful laity, the clergy would have no right to act in the name
of Christ. Their priestly ministries are those of the whole
body, performed through them as its natural organs." l
This view differs widely from that which regards the
Christian minister as belonging to a separate caste. On
the other hand it differs not less widely from the theory
that the minister has no powers that do not belong to
his brethren, and that he owes his official function and
leadership to their choice. For the higher and lower
degree in the priesthood, to which this writer calls atten
tion, marks an indelible distinction between clergy and
laity, and supposes the former to be- invested with powers
which the latter may not exercise. This is a conception
which does not seem to have prevailed in the early church ;
as Dr. Hatch has shown, preaching, the exercise of disci
pline, and the administration of baptism and the Eucharist.
were all practised by laymen in the first two centuries. 2
These duties were usually performed by the president or
1 The. Faith of the Gospel, by Arthur .T:unos Mason, pp. 255, 256.
2 The Organization of the Early Churches, Lect. V.
54 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
leader of the congregation ; but when occasion demanded,
laymen also performed them. The assumption of the
priestly prerogative was a later development. Dr. Fair-
bairn points out this change : -
" In all that is said concerning the office, in the words
either of our Lord or of his apostles, not a hint is dropped
which would bespeak for the ministers of the Gospel the
character of a secret^loving, wonder-working priesthood.
And when, a few centuries after the gospel era, we light
upon descriptions which present them in such a character,
one cannot but be sensible of a huge discrepance between
them and the representations of Scripture. It seems as
if an essentially new office had come into being, rather than
the original office perpetuated with certain slight modifica
tions. Listen, for example, to Chrysostom s description of
what he calls the glory of the Christian priesthood : The
priesthood, indeed, is discharged upon earth, but it takes
rank with heavenly appointments, and deservedly does
so. For this office has been ordained not by a man, nor
by an angel, nor by an archangel, nor by any created
power, but by the Paraclete himself, who has laid hold on
men still abiding in the flesh to perpetuate the ministry
of angels. And therefore should the priest, as standing
in the heavenly regions amid those higher intelligences,
be as pure as they are. Terrible, indeed, yea, most awful,
were even the things which preceded the Gospel, such as
the bells, the pomegranates, the stones in the breastplate,
the mitre, etc., the holy of holies, the profound silence that
reigned within. But when the things belonging to the
gospel are considered, those others will be found little,
and so also what is said concerning the law, however truly
it may be spoken : " That which was glorious has no glory
by reason of that which excelleth." And when you see
the Lord that lias been slain, and now lies before you,
and the priest bending over the victim, and interceding,
and all dyed with that precious blood, do you still reckon
yourself to be with men and still standing on the earth?
Do you not rather feel transplanted into heaven, and,
casting aside all fleshly thoughts and feelings, dost thou
THE PASTOR 55
not with thy naked soul and thy pure mind behold the
things of heaven ? O the marvel ! O the philanthropy
of God! He who is seated above with the Father is at
that moment held by the hands of all, and to those that
are willing gives himself to be clasped and received; all
which they do through the eves <if faith ! He then refers
to the action of Klias on t arinel, dec-hiring that of the
Christian priest to be much greater, and he asks: k Who
that is not absolutely mad or beside himself could slight
so dreadful a mystery? Are yon ignorant that the soul
of man could never have borne the lire of such a sacrifice,
and that all should have utterly perished had there not
been the mighty help of the grace of (Jod? Such was
what constituted, in Chrvsostom s view, the peculiar glory
of the Christian ministry: and he proceeds in the same
magniloquent style to enlarge on the pre-eminent dignity
and power connected with it in its prerogative; to bind
and to loose souls, to forgive or retain sins, to purge men
through baptism and other rites from all stains of pollution
and send them pure and holv into the heavenly mansions.
All that is, of course, priestly work; work in which the
ot liciating minister has something to offer for the people,
and something bv virtue of his office to procure for them ;
benefits, indeed, so great, so wonderful, so incomparably pre
cious, that the typical ministrations of the old priesthood, and
the benefits accruing from them to the people, were com
pletely thrown into the shade. Now this is a view of pas
toral work on which New Testament Scripture is not only
silent, but against which it virtuallv protests. The ser
vice which it associates with the ministry of the gospel is
one that employs itself not with presenting a sacrifice for
men, but in persuading them to believe in a sacrifice already
offered, and through that promoting in them a work of
personal reconciliation with (iod, and growing meetness
for his presence and glory." 1
This extract clearly presents the contrast between the
sacerdotal theory of the ministry and the theory generally
accepted by the reformed Churches. Yet even in these
1 Pastoral Theology, pp. 47-49.
56 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
churches there are survivals of the sacerdotal principle, in the
belief that none but an ordained clergyman can administer
the sacraments or pronounce the benediction. Thus one
of the stanchest of the Puritans, Professor Austin Phelps,
in his lectures on the Theory of Preaching, recognizes
the benediction as a sacerdotal act, and urges its retention
on this ground. He says :
" It is the only act of clerical prerogative except the ad
ministration of the ordinances, in which the idea of clerical
mediatorship is retained. The sact rdotal theory of it does
no harm to either preacher or people. . . . Often the final
effect of song and sermon and rehearsal of God s word is
to excite a profound feeling of dependence, of which a
craving for the blessing of a man of God is the natural
sequence. The intervention of a solitary human voice
between the silent assembly and God, speaking in his
name, and pronouncing his blessing upon them, becomes a
relief to their wrought-up emotions. They feel the natural
ness of it. They volunteer to clothe it with the authority
of their own devotional desires. It is an act in which the
preacher is not as other men. He is invested by the wants
of the people with a mediatorial office. He is an intercessor
by divine appointment and by popular choice. The peo
ple will have it so. ... Time has indeed wrought revolu
tionary changes in the ancient theory of worship. We
will not ignore them. But it has not destro} T ed, nor essen
tially impaired that instinct of human nature which exalts
a teacher of religion above other men, and often invests his
service with a mediatorial significance. The one thing in
which our Congregational society recognizes that instinct
and in which the people, if left alone to follow their own
religious intuitions, will certainly obey it, is this act of
pastoral l>enediction. We are in no danger of an abuse
of it in the direction of sacerdotal arrogance. We cannot
afford to spare it. It is not wise to sacrifice it to eccle
siastical theory. Human nature craves it, and in some
form will have it. For the want of it and some things
kindred to it, Congregational and Presbyterian churches
are losing their hold upon certain materials in the con-
THE PASTOR 57
stituenev of churches which by hereditary affinities belong
to them." 1
This plea for a slight infusion of the sacerdotal element
coming out of the heart of independency, may be regarded
as significant. Some of the facts which it adduces are- indu
bitable, whatever may be the interpretation put upon them.
The craving of men for the intervention of some person
or power between themselves and (rod cannot be denied.
Just how far this craving is to be encouraged is a question
which the hierarchical churches commonly answer in one
way, and the reformed churches in another wav. The
fact that men want some kind of human mediatorship may
not be a conclusive reason for offering it to them. Is it
a natural or an artificial want? Does it grow out of a
true conception of the Father in heaven, or out of a
heathen conception of him?
Still, if it be true that the minister possesses anv media
torial function, even the slightest, lie ought to exercise it
to the fullest extent. J I his oil ice- empower him to bless
his parishioners, or to forgive their sins, or to offer sacri
fices for them, let him discharge, with all fidelity, the
duties of his office. If his ollice confer upon him no such
exclusive power, it is better not to go through the forms
of it, no matter how much the people may crave it, nor
how many of them mav go over to the hierarchical com
munions in search of it. An assumption, whether open or
covert, of powers that do not belong to him will not be
found, in the long run, to promote the influence of any
pastor.
So far as the form of the benediction is concerned, it
seems to be a slight matter, and yet it is not difficult to
preserve the dignified and beautiful ceremony without
employing language which implies sacerdotal functions.
The benediction may be a prayer, in which the preacher
identifies himself with the congregation. "The grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ be with us all " is a form of
words no less impressive or significant than that which
implies equality with the Apostles. It appears to answer
1 Op. cit., pp. 50i-:")04.
58 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
all the ends of reverence for which Professor Phelps is
pleading, while it avoids an assumption which, though it is
a little one, is repugnant to the feelings of some of the
ministers of Christ.
It will be said that the minister, in these acts which
have a sacerdotal color, is not speaking for himself ; that
he is the mouthpiece of the church ; that he is conveying
the grace which is committed to the whole church ; that
he should recognize himself only as the instrument or
channel through whom that grace is imparted. 1 That this
is the view taken by multitudes of devout men cannot be
denied. There are many who call themselves priests who
are as humble and self-distrustful as any men on earth.
It is not assumed, in this discussion, that the sacerdotal
theory is inconsistent with devoted and heroic Christian
service. The whole history of the Christian Church con
tradicts such an assumption. But it is important that
every pastor should have a clear understanding with him
self about the matter ; that he should know exactly what
his functions are, and that he should make his conduct con
form to his theory. And those of us who do accept the
reformed doctrine 2 can do no better than frankly and
fully to accept the logic of our theory and utterly to refuse
to take upon ourselves any prerogatives or privileges by
which we may seem to be separated from our brethren
in the churches. We are ministers of the churches, and
we are supposed to have enough knowledge of Latin to
know what the word " minister " means. For those who
adopt this theory, it is well to avoid, so far as they can
1 " Wo die Kirche aber ein solches Wort hat, da ist auch ihr Thim niclit
ein blosses Wiinschen und Beten, nicht ein Wunschsegen bloss, wie Luther
sagt, tsondern ein Thatsegen, sicli fruchtbar erweisend aii Jedem, der in sol
ches gottgeordnetes Verhliltniss tritt und den Segen desselben von Hertzen
ergreift." Harnack, d eschii-hte und Theorie der Predict und der Seel-
sorge, 512.
- " Le ministers ecclesiastique serait la consecration, faite sous certaines
conditions, de quelques membres du troupeau chretien a s occuper speciale-
ment, mais non a 1 exclusion d aucuns autres, de I administration du culte,
et de la conduite des ames. Une societc religieuse peut d ailleurs regler que
les solennite s qui la reunissent, seront preside es exclusivement par ces
hommes speciaux qu on appelle miuistres ou pasteurs." Vinet, The ologie
Pastorale, p. 41.
THE PASTOR 59
do so without rudeness, everything which implies minis
terial privilege. " Christianity," says a great authority,
"allows no place to a tribe of priests, ordained to direct
other men, as under religious pupilage, having exclusive
charge to supply men s needs, in respect to (rod and divine
things. While the Gospel removes whatever separates
men from God, it also calls men to fellowship with God
through Christ: it takes away, moreover, every barrier
which separates men from one another in respect of their
highest interests. All have the same High Priest and Me
diator through whom all, as reconciled and united to God,
have themselves become a sacerdotal and spiritual race ;
the same King, the same celestial .Master and readier,
through whom all have become wise unto God; the same
faith, the same hope, the same spirit, by which all are ani
mated ; the same oracle in the heart of all, the voice of
the Spirit proceeding from the Father, all citi/.ens of the
same celestial kingdom. There were here neither laics nor
ecclesiastics; but all, so far as they were Christians, were,
in their interior life and state, dead to whatever there was
in the world that was contrary to God, and were animated
bv the Spirit of God. \Vho might arrogate to himself,
what an inspired apostle durst not, to domineer over the
faith of Christians? The ot tice of teaching was not ex-
clusivelv conferred on one man or many ; but every believer
who might feel himself called might speak a word in the
assembled church for the common edification."
By our theory sacerdotal authority does not belong to us
as pastors. The kind of power to forgive sins which is
claimed by the priest under the Roman or the High Angli
can rite is not ours, nor anything akin to it. Nevertheless,
there is a certain priesthood which is shared bv all be
lievers. We are a kingdom of priests. The author of the
Epistle to the Hebrews shows that there is a higher priest
hood than that which is ol ticial or ecclesiastical ; a priest
hood like that of Melchisedec ; a priesthood whose basis is
high and benign character. Then: are priests who are made,
1 Xoander, AUgemeine Geschichte der christltchen lirliyion itnd Kirche, Vol.
I. p. 177.
60 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
" not after the law of a carnal commandment " (for so the
sacred writer characterizes the Levitical ecclesiasticism),
" but after the power of an endless life," the eternal life,
whose elements are righteousness and peace and joy in the
Holy Ghost. Every good man, in whom the life of God is
dwelling, through whom the love of God is manifested, is
in the Christian sense of the word a priest ; he has a work
of reconciliation to do; he is called to reconcile men to
themselves and to one another, and to God. Men are
often at war with themselves ; the law in the members
fights against the law in the mind ; there is need of the
communication to them of a larger life in which these con
tradictions and conflicts shall be reconciled. So also are
they at strife with one another, and the good offices of a days
man are needed to bring them together. So also are they
estranged from their Father in heaven, and in deepest need
of being led back to him in the ways of trustful reverence
and obedience. Here, now, is a work of mediation in
which men can help one another. It is for this work that
Christians are made priests unto God. But this is no
official function ; it is wrought by influences which are
purely spiritual ; it is the love of God, shed abroad in the
good man s heart, incarnated in his life, which gives him
the power to do this work.
There is also a Christian priesthood of sympathy. We
are permitted to bear one another s burdens both of sin and
of sorrow. The guilt of my sin no man can share, but the
misery of it, the shame of it, my brother may share. And
in all our cares and conflicts and woes the sympathy of
those in whom we love and confide is often a great allevia
tion. The best offices of the Roman confessional have
been wrought through this power of sympathy. When
the priest is a wise and large-hearted man, his words of
gentle consideration and firm counsel are often the very
words of life. But it is not the officialism of his counsel
that makes it efficacious : it is the truth and love of God
that are in it.
To this spiritual priesthood, this priesthood of Christly
character, the pastor is certainly called. The ministry of
THE PASTOR 61
reconciliation, the ministry of sympathy, will enlist his
highest powers. No matter what view he may take of his
ofHce, the real value of his service to his people will be
found in his personal and spiritual, rather than in his
formal and ecclesiastical relations to them. His usefulness
among them will be due not to any powers by which he is
elevated above them or separated from them, but to a char
acter which in the fullest sense he shares with them. Ib
is the servant of a Master whose work for his disciples
is done, not by being made unlike his brethren, but by
becoming identified with them. If the mind of C hrist
is in him, his word will be with power, no matter how
little claim lie may make to superior dignity. If that
character is wanting to him, the attribution of priestly
rank will not add anything essential to his influence. It
was said of our Master, that when he had finished his
Sermon on the Mount, the multitudes were astonished at
his teaching, for he taught them as one having author
ity, and not as the scribes." 1 The one thing that the
people knew about him was that he did not speak officially
there was no ecclesiastieism behind him to give weigh to
his words, and yet there was an authority in them which
they had never felt before. His ministry, in all its phases,
derived its elficacy, not from the law of a carnal command
ment, but from the power of an endless life. And the
ministry of every true pastor will draw its power from the
same souree.
This brings us to the consideration of the question of the
pastoral rule over the flock. What shall be said of his
governmental prerogatives? If he has no sacerdotal func
tions, can we affirm that he has no power as a ruler to
direct the conduct of those under his charge? Words of
the apostles are supposed to imply pastoral authority:
"Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit to
them; for they watch in behalf of your souls, as they that
shall give account." 2 " Likewise, ye younger, be subject
unto the elder." 3 Passages from the early Fathers bear
1 Matt. vii. 28, 2i>. - Ileh. xiii. 17.
3 1 1 et. v. 5.
62 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
the same significance. 1 But this does not necessarily im
ply anything more than that wholesome subordination
which is the condition of all concerted action. It does not
argue any hierarchical powers, pertaining to the ministry
as a separate and permanent order. The members of any
association owe to the officers, whom they have chosen to
take the direction of their affairs, respect and co-operation.
The subjection and submission enjoined in the passages
quoted above may mean no more than this. The words
of Jesus are not to be forgotten : " But be not ye called
Rabbi ; for one is your teacher, and all ye are brethren.
And call no man your father on the earth ; for one is your
Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters ;
for one is your Master, even the Christ. But he that is
greatest among you shall be your servant." 2 This seems
to point to a genuine democracy as the social foundation
of the church. But democracy is not anarchy ; it implies
order and subordination and leadership. And most of the
New Testament passages which refer to the government
of the church u agree in connoting primarily the idea of
presidency or leadership." 3 This is the very conception
of the pastorate which the present conditions are tending
to emphasize. For as a learning church needs a teacher,
and a feeding church needs a pastor, so a working church
needs a leader. It is not as a lord over God s heritage, but
as a wise organizer and guide of the working body that
the pastor is appointed to rule the church. The eiria-K OTTO?
was the superintendent or overseer of the early church ;
the same term had been employed by the Greeks to de
scribe officers of private associations and also of munici
palities ; the eViWoTrcH were persons to whom authority
had been delegated by the bodies over which they pre
sided. That the church must be to this extent an orderly
association ; that those who are called to the leadership
should be loyally followed by those who call them ; that
their administration should be firm and consistent and
fearless, and that the spirit and traditions of the organi-
1 Hatch s Organization of the Early Christian Churches, p. 113, note.
2 Matt, xxiii. 8-11. 3 Hatch, cit. sup.
THE PASTOR 63
zation should conspire to maintain this order, such is
the logic of all human co-operation. The pastor of a work
ing church is the leader, and he should take the lead, and
steadily maintain it. The initiative belongs t> him, and
the support of the church is due to him. If he is not
capable of such leadership, the church should not have
chosen him, and should now, as soon as it can salVlv and
kindly do so, replace him by one who can lead. 15 nt,
having chosen such a leader, the church owes him a prompt
and In-arty following. This is not to say that nothing
which he proposes is ever to be questioned or criticised ;
if lie is a wise pastor, he will welcome any ingenuous
criticisms ; but the fact remains that in any working or
ganization there must be trusted leadership and willing co
operation ; and those who are chosen as leaders must be able
to count on the harmonious co-working of all the rest.
Taking the lowest conception of the pastor s rank and
dignity, he is entitled, therefore, to a certain deference as
the one to whose hands the administration o.f the church
has in an especial degree been conlided. Jf his authority
is delegated, still it is delegated authority, and as such
ought to be respected.
Other theories of the office impute to the pastor a larger
power. Those who find in the Christian minister a sacer
dotal character are compelled, of course, to ascribe to him
a kind of authority altogether different from that of which
we have been speaking. Those who suppose that the
sacraments are necessarv to salvation, and that the minis
ter has the power to give or withhold the sacraments,
clothe him with a power which he is able to wield witli irre
sistible effect in the government of the church. To such
a priesthood the rule of the church must exclusively be
long; the laity are there not to rule, but to be ruled.
Hut even when sacerdotal powers are denied, there is
sometimes a conception of pastoral power which separates
the minister from his flock, and clothes him with essential
governmental rights and dignities. In all such cases,
however, the assumption of superiority may well be de
clined. The wise pastor will not, whatever may be his
64 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
theory of his office, undertake to overbear the judgment of
his parishioners by force of his prerogative. Even if he
suppose himself to belong to a different order from theirs,
his wisdom will be shown in understating that fact, and
in putting himself on a basis of equality with them. His
problem is to secure their co-operation with himself in
Christian labor. An arbitrary assertion of authority is not
the best method of accomplishing this. He must convince
their reason and get the consent of their judgment. His
authority must be confirmed by the methods of influence.
A familiar maxim declares that " governments derive
their just powers from the consent of the governed." The
accuracy of this proposition may be challenged. "Just
powers " are not the creation of majorities. But this much is
true that governments derive their effective powers from
the consent of the governed. Even the despotisms reign
by consent of their subjects. And it can be no otherwise
with the pastoral authority. It is only effective when it is
" broad based upon the people s will."
The day of absolutism in government has gone by. One
or two European rulers still continue to assert an unlim
ited prerogative, but the whole world listens with a smile
to their presumption, and knows that they will keep well
within the limit of the popular approval. Representative
legislatures, in almost all states, have assumed the chief
control of the national exchequer. The power of the purse
is in the hands of the people.
Even the papal government shows many signs of sen
sitiveness to popular opinion. The Pope is infallible
and supreme, by decree of the Vatican Council ; but the
present Pope, with these vastly reinforced prerogatives,
shows himself to be far more closely identified with the
people than any of his predecessors. Even to him it is
apparent that persuasion is stronger than coercion ; that
if he would keep his place at the head of the church he
must lead his flock, not drive them. That indeed would
seern to be the pastoral method. " He called his own sheep
by name, and leadeth them out. " There is a whip for the
horse, and a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool s
THE PASTOR 65
back, but sheep are not well shepherded by any of these
coercions.
Considerations of this nature are urged, with consider
able force, by one who lately adorned the episcopal office.
"We have no question," says Bishop Bedell, "of t/tc trutli of
the Divine appointment of our ministry, and that Christ li tin-
self dire eted the liK ilc i if its perpetuation l>y a tactual succes
sion unbroken from apostolic days. And inasmuch as it is
true it is to be inculcated. Judiciously taught it will ben
efit a congregation; and a right appreciation of it will also
increase our solemn sense of responsibility to God, and of
obligation to be faithful to souls whom he has committed to
our care. But, injudiciously obtruded, tenaciously insisted
on, forced upon unwilling ears, and presented in such a
manner as to lead our people to think that we feel our
selves elevated by divine intention beyond their reach
and beyond their sympathies, and, more especially, if the
cherishing of such an idea should separate us in the least
degree from perfect unity of feeling with the people of
our charge, this idea of clerical authority will annihilate
our power. While, then, theoretically, our divine appoint
ment is an element of power ; practically under prevailing
sentiments it will not be an element of influence. . . . Noth
ing remains from the conflicts of the clergy witli past
generations but clerical character. The clergy have no
spiritual power apart from their moral influence ; that
idea, although once maintained, has disappeared. They
have no sacramental miracle by which to enforce a tyranny
over conscience. That idea, once held, has been exploded.
Even their divine Ordination, their right as heavenly am
bassadors by virtue of office divinely bestowed (as I have
said) has been thrust out of sight by the hurry of new
and false ideas. So that, practically, nothing remains to
be a source of clerical influence in this age, except indi
vidual clerical character. Nor need we desire any other
influence." l Whatever may be said of the logic of this
argument, the practical wisdom of the conclusion cannot
be disputed.
1 The Pastor, pp. 24, 25.
CHAPTER IV
THE CALL TO THE PASTORATE
THE call to the work of the ministry, and the training
of the minister for his work, are subjects which do not
come within the scope of this treatise. It is necessary,
however, to refer in a general way to the nature of the
minister s call, because of the conceptions of his work
which grow out of it.
We have found reasons for denying to the pastor sacerdo
tal or hierarchical functions ; we regard him in one aspect
as the servant, and in another as the leader of the church,
as one who ministers to the people in holy things, and
who superintends and guides them in their work. There
is, however, a higher relation which must never be ob
scured. The pastor is not only the minister of the Church,
he is also, and first of all, the minister of Christ. In some
important sense he must derive his authority and power
from the Head of the church. Between these conceptions
confusion is apt to arise.
It may help us to solve this difficulty if we remember
that every man is called of God to holy and Christly ser
vice. Let us hear the judicious Fairbairn :
" It is a fundamental principle in Christianity that there
is nothing absolutely peculiar to any one who has a place
in the true church. Among its members there is room
only for relative distinctions, or for differences in degree,
not in kind. It is a consequence of the vital union of
true believers to Christ by virtue of which there belongs
to all the same spiritual standing, the same privileges
and prospects, and, as a matter of course, the same general
obligations of duty. If every sincere Christian can say,
THE CALL TO THE PASTORATE 67
I am one with Christ and have a personal interest in
all that is his, there can manifestly be no essential differ
ence between him and other believers ; and whatever may
distinguish any one in particular, either as regards the
call to work, or the capacity for work, in the Lord s ser
vice, it must in kind belong to the whole community of
the faithful, or else form but a subordinate characteristic.
The ministry itself in its distinctive prerogatives and func
tions is but the special embodiment and exhibition of those
which pertain inherently to the church as Christ s spirit
ual body. And the moment any one recognizes himself
to be a living member of this body, it thenceforth becomes,
not his right merely, but his bounden duty, to consider
what part of its collective responsibilities lies at his door,
or what part of its common vocation he should apply him
self in some specific manner to fulfil. . . . The church
collectively is the habitation of the Spirit ; so is the indi
vidual believer. The works, which, as a believer, he is
called to do in order to make his calling and election sure
must be works of God ; and for one and all of them he
needs the illuminating and strengthening agency of the
Holy Spirit. Xo Christian parent within the private
walks of domestic life can fulfil his obligations in regard
to the godly upbringing of his children ; no Christian
philanthropist, yearning over the miserable and degraded
multitudes around him, can discharge the labors of love
which the mercies of God in Christ impel him to under
take in tlieir behalf ; no solitary individual, even, warring
in his personal experiences with the solicitations of the
flesh and of the power of evil in the world, can resist,
and stand fast, and do the will of God, except by re
ceiving gifts of grace to qualify him for the work, and
to render the work itself serviceable to the end toward
which it is directed. In short, all who would serve their
generation according to the will of God must stand in
living connection with the heavenly world. Their call
ing as the Lord s servants warrants them to expect, and,
if they succeed in that calling, their success proves them
to have received, grace for spiritual work ; in which re-
08 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
spect, therefore, they are vessels of honor fitted for the
Master s use, and partakers of the blessing." 1
Is it not possible to go further than this, and say that
men are called of God not only to work which is dis
tinctively religious, but to all other kinds of honest and
beneficent work ? Is not every man who helps to increase
the sum total of human welfare a co-worker with God?
Has any man a right to engage in any kind of labor in any
other than a consecrated spirit ? Is the work of the min
istry distinguished in this respect from the work of the
teacher, or the artist, or the mechanic? "Whatsoever
ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord, and not unto
men, for ye serve the Lord Christ." This is the apostolic
conception. That every good man s work is a divine vo
cation is what he ought to believe. But the evidence that
God has called him to this work must be gathered from
various sources. It will not do for him to depend on
supposed intimations and impressions ; these are often mis
leading. A strong inclination to undertake the work is,
indeed, the primary indication of a divine call. Where
such an inclination to the work does not exist in the man s
heart, there is no evidence that God has called him to the
work.
But an inclination is not enough. There must be a
love of the work itself, not a hankering after its per
quisites, the position it offers, the gains and emoluments
it promises. In the case of the ministry there must be a
genuine passion for righteousness, and a strong desire to
lead men into the knowledge and the joy of the Lord,
and an unconquerable faith in the Kingdom that cannot
be moved.
There must also be a reasonable assurance on the part
of the candidate that lie possesses the qualifications of
body and mind and heart for which this work specially
calls. It is manifest that the mental and social equipment
for a salesman or a banker or a draughtsman would be dif
ferent from that required in a minister ; and a man ought
to be able to judge his own abilities, and to determine
1 Pastoral Theology, pp. 62-66.
THE CALL TO THE PASTORATE 69
whether he possesses a natural fitness for the work of the
ministry.
When any man can answer these questions satisfactorily,
what is sometimes described as the inward call may be
regarded as sufficient. l>ut in every vocation the inward
call must be corrected or confirmed by the outward call.
If a man thinks himself called to the vocation of a teacher
or an engineer, and, after his best exertions in this direc
tion, can get no one to employ him in his chosen work, it
is rational for him to conclude that he is mistaken in re
gard to the call. So if a man thinks himself called to
preach, and can find no one who wishes to hear him preach,
he ought to decide that the inward call was misunderstood.
o
Thus it is plain that, whatever a man s inward impulses
may be, he is compelled to test his inspirations by the
judgment of his fellow men. And the Christian Church
has wisely provided that this double test shall be applied.
No minister ought to undertake the work unless he be
lieves that he has a divine vocation; but he ought to sub
mit this conviction of his to the approval of his brethren.
Whether this approval is given by the church that calls
him, or by the presbytery, or by the conference, or by the
bishop, is a secondary matter ; it is well that other clear
and judicious minds should confirm his choice and send
him forth with their blessing into the work of the ministry.
Thus it is (dear that the minister is both the servant of
the church and the ambassador of Christ. This twofold
relation he must always recognize. He must preach the
preaching that (rod bids him, yet lie must wait upon the
church to do the work to which it has called him. It is
evident that, as the truth which he is to teach is divine
truth, he should expect to receive his message direct from
God, through prayer and meditation and the study of
eveiy word that proceedeth out of the month of God.
The prophets of all the ages have been men who spoke; the
word given them by God, whether men would hear or for
bear. The preacher who inquires only what his people
wish to hear, and adjusts his message to their demand, may
often prove a blind leader of the blind. The truth which
70 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
they need is often the very truth which they do not de
sire. As preacher, the final responsibility rests with him.
They have called him to be their teacher because they
credited him with ability to teach; if he does not bring
them a message from God, he is not faithful to the trust
which they have reposed in him. The physician who in
quires what is agreeable to his patient, rather than what
is good for him, is false to his profession. So the pastor
who is loyal to his flock will hearken most diligently for
the word that God may give him.
Still, the wise pastor will listen also to the voice of his
people. They, too, are the people of God ; many of them,
no doubt, are serious and consecrated men and women;
it is by their godly judgment that he has been put into the
pastorate ; God is speaking to them as well as to him ; and
sometimes they, or some of them, may hear the word not less
distinctly than he hears it. If those among them whom
he believes to be intelligent and devout should question his
message, it would not be a sufficient reason why he should
recall it, but it would be a good reason why lie should
carefully reconsider it. After all objections have been duly
weighed, he may still find that he cannot modify it, and
he must be faithful to the truth that God has given him.
But it will often be the case that the pastor will learn
much from those to whom he ministers. " Let him that is
taught," says Paul, " communicate unto him that teacheth
in all good things." 1
Such, then, is the nature of the relation between the
pastor and his people. He ought to be regarded by them
neither as a mere employee, nor yet as a master, but as
their spiritual guide and fellow helper in the Gospel. He
is their minister, but in a sense which they must never dis
regard he is the bond-servant of Another; it is because
they believed and wished him to be such that they laid
their hands upon him. This character they must respect
in him, so long as they believe him to possess it. If he is
not to them the mouthpiece of the Divine Wisdom, he is
not the man they want for their pastor ; if this is his high
1 Gal. vi. 6.
THK CALL TO THE PASTORATE 71
calling, they should listen to the truth he brings them, and
the demands lie makes upon them, never with abject and
unreasoning submission, always with wakeful and discrim
inating minds, but with docile tempers and readiness to
know and follow the truth.
The ideal relation between the pastor and his flock will
thus be seen to be founded upon their common relation to
the Head of the church. The minister and those to whom
he ministers all are called with a heavenly calling. All
of them are about their Father s business. The minister is
a servant of (rod ; so is the man who walks in the furrow
or pushes the plane : so is the woman u who sweeps a room
as for (rod s laws." All are in some true measure in
spired, but none is infallible ; each has need to correct,
by comparison with the truth given to others, his own
inspirations :
For all \ve have power to see is a straight staff bent in a pool." :
The refractions of our human imperfection make but
broken lights of our best intuitions. And therefore pastor
and people will dwell together in mutual confidence and
expectation, each waiting for any word that the other may
receive, all remembering that God is the author, not of
confusion, but of peace in all the churches of the saints;
and that all the messages which he has inspired must agree
with one another.
But how shall this relation between minister and people
be formed? Every chureh needs a pastor, and every min
ister wants a church. Sometimes the two are long sepa
rated. How can they wisely be brought together? How
shall the church find a minister, and the minister a church?
In most established churches this is not a practical ques
tion. As there are social systems under which a maiden
has little to say in the choice of her husband, so there are
ecclesiastical systems under which the church is furnished
with a pastor without asking its consent. Doubtless some
thing can be said in defence of both these dispensations ;
1 Tennyson, The Hit/her Pantheism.
72 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
we are not here disputing the validity of either. The
Anglican Church numbers more than eleven thousand par
ishes; for about a thousand of these the Crown provides
pastors ; twelve hundred or more look to bishops or arch
bishops for their leaders ; deans and chapters have the
choice in about eight hundred cases ; other dignitaries in
about eighteen hundred, colleges in seven hundred, and
private patrons in about six thousand. This last category
includes all parishes in which the owners of estates are
charged with the payment of the salaries of incumbents ;
to the proprietor belongs the right of nomination. Neither
the church, nor the bishop of the diocese, has much voice
in the matter ; the patron has it all his own way.
For a long time patronage prevailed also in the Church
of Scotland, though here some form of consulting the
people must be gone through with ; it was a dispute about
the force which should be allowed to the popular veto upon
the choice of the patron that led to the Disruption of 1843,
and the establishment of the Free Church. In 1874, pat
ronage was abolished in the Church of Scotland ; the people
now choose their own ministers under certain conditions.
In the Protestant Churches of Germany, Sweden, and
Denmark this right of patronage exists, subject to some
important modifications ; the consistory is generally allowed
some voice in the selection of the pastor.
In some of the Protestant churches of America provision
is made, by the polity of the church, for furnishing every
congregation with a minister. The Methodist Episcopal
Church puts the whole power into the hands of its bishops.
But even when the ecclesiastical rules are definite, the
principle of natural selection often proves too strong for
the church machinery, and the best pulpits are apt to be
filled by the choice of the congregation. It is a rule almost
universal in American Protestant churches that the local
church has the virtual control of its own pastorate. The
selection of a pastor then becomes an important practical
question, the most important question with which any
church has to deal. How shall the church find its pastor ?
It would seem reasonable, to begin with, that the church
THE CALL TO THE PASTORATE 73
should come to a good understanding with itself as to what
kind of man it wants for a pastor. Too much is generally
left, in such cases, to mere instinctive impressions and
attachments.
The first qualification commonly demanded is preaching
ability. And this, when rightly conceived, is indeed a
capital qualification. The church is yet, and probably will
always be, a teaching body; efficient and adequate pulpit
power is therefore always to be considered in calling a
pastor. It is only to be remembered that the main tiling
in a religious teacher is not elegance of manner or elocu
tionary brilliancy, but the power of conveying spiritual
truth to the minds and hearts of his hearers. The tempta
tion is strong to choose the man whose discourses cause his
hearers to exclaim, * k How fine! how eloquent!" instead of
the man whose sober words lead them to search their own
hearts, and stir them to new efforts and larger sacrifices.
The preacher who promises to (ill the pews and swell the
revenues is too apt to be chosen, without much reference
to his spiritual thoroughness. There is need of much seri
ous thought and prayer when the church is looking for
a preacher.
The social gifts of a pastor are also to be considered.
He ought to be a courteous and kindly man, with some
genius for friendship, with the power of drawing to him
self the old and the young, and the strangers within and
without the gates. The qualities which inspire not only
respect, but confidence and affection, are greatly to be
desired in a pastor.
It will be well also, if lie possess some good knowledge
of human nature, and something of that saving sense of
humor which serves as a lubricant of life s frictions.
It is involved in what has been said alrcadv. that, before
all things else, he must be a genuine Christian man. who
believes from his heart the word that he will preach, who
knows by heart the Master whom he seeks to commend,
and whose deepest purpose it is to seek first the Kingdom
of God and his righteousness.
But if this is a working church, one of the prime quali-
74 CHRISTIAN PASTOR ANT) WORKING CHURCH
fications of the pastor will be leadership. The question
whether he is a man who possesses the gift of organization,
and the power of enlisting others in the work of the church,
would seem to be very important. The relation of the
superintendent of a factory to the work of the factory is
not in all respects similar to the relation of a pastor to a
church ; but there is, after all, an important analogy. So
far as the church is to be considered as a working body,
the question about the pastor is simply, not how much nor
how good work he will do himself, but how much he will
get the church to do. And we have seen that the new and
higher conception of the church is that it is primarily a
working body ; that it is formed not mainly of those who
seek to be fed and ministered unto, but of those who are
working together to extend the Kingdom of God. The
church which has attained unto this conception of its own
vocation will emphasize in its choice of a pastor the func
tion of leadership.
Having determined what manner of man it would have
for its pastor, the church sets forth in search of him. In
some of our American communions at the present time,
there is no need that the church shall go far from its own
doors after a candidate. As soon as the vacancy in its
pastorate becomes known sometimes long before it is
known, even when it is first anticipated, the candidates
come flying as a cloud, and as the doves to its windows.
It is soon suffering from an embarrassment of riches.
And the need of a sober judgment and a firm will in
dealing with this problem must soon be manifest.
In independent churches a committee is generally formed
to whom the matter of procuring a candidate is intrusted ;
in other churches the permanent officers the session, or
the vestry, or the consistory, or the official board may
act for the church. It would seem to be wise, whenever
the rules of the church permit, that a special committee
for this purpose be carefully selected, representing all the
different elements of which the church is composed and
embodying in itself the best wisdom of the organization.
To the candidates brought to its notice the committee
THE CALL TO THE PASTORATE 75
should faithfully apply such standards as we have, just
been considering, and when the minister is found who
seems to promise a fair measure of conformity to them,
Ills name, with the facts which the committee has learned
about him, should be reported to the chuivh. It would
In; well, of course, if some or all of the committee could
first see him in some pulpit, and become acquainted with
him, that they may testify concerning him not from hear
say merely, but from personal knowledge.
The question whether the candidate should be invited
to preach in the church before the invitation is extended
to him is one to which it is not possible to give a positive
answer. If the candidate is a man well known in all the
churches, such an exhibition of himself seems quite super
fluous. Kven if he is not well known, the practice of
requiring him to preach before the church is often of doubt
ful expediency. The test is apt to be unfair. The better
preacher lie is, the less likely is he to be quite himself in
such an ordeal. The consciousness that he is on exhibi
tion is not conducive to the highest spiritual frame in the
best preacher. The knowledge that his own personal for
tunes are in any way affected by the work that he is doing
needs to be put far away from him. The church that
insists on hearing a candidate has, therefore, adopted a
method by which its own ends are apt to be defeated.
Still, it is possible for a good man to forget himself in
such an emergency, and there can be no doubt that many
happy pastorates have been initiated by this method.
"When one is professedly preaching to do good," says
Professor "NVillcox, "it must be an awkward matter to
preach for a position. But there are alleviations. You
are not mercenary in seeking a pulpit. You can honestly
say, I seek not yours, but you/ Then, too, it is as much
in the line of (iod s ordering that you should pi-each on
trial as that you should afterward preach as a pastor.
Therefore thoroughly prepare for the service, commend
yourself to God for his presence and his grace, and then,
as far as possible forgetting yourself, aim to benefit your
hearers. The best of them will be looking for a man who
76 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
hides behind his Master and throws his heart into his
message." 1 But it is safe to say that, on the whole, it is
not only less embarrassing for the minister, but wiser for
the church, if the whole matter be intrusted to a large and
judicious committee, upon whose report, without further
investigation, the church consents to act.
Should a vacant church, in any case, make overtures
to the minister of another church ? Here, also, it is not
wise to lay down hard and fast rules. Ordinarily, it is
not best to disturb with suggestions of removal a pastor
who is happily at work. Yet this cannot be erected into
a maxim. It may happen that a church in search of a
pastor will find in some comparatively obscure and unim
portant place a man to whom it can offer a far larger op
portunity ; and it cannot be wrong for the church to make
this offer. Paul may have been contentedly working at
Troas, but the vision of the man from Macedonia who
said, " Come over and help us," constrained him to arise
and depart. In such a case the voice of the people may
be the voice of God. When the Church of the Pilgrims
in Brooklyn found its present pastor comfortably settled
in his Massachusetts parish, it ought not to have been pre
cluded, by any notion of the exclusive right of a church
to its pastor, from calling him to the position which he
has filled for so many years with honor. No church pos
sesses any exclusive right to any minister. The interests
of the Kingdom of Heaven are paramount. Every man
ought to be in the place where, on the whole, his service
can be most effective. A vacant church may act, consci
entiously, on this principle, in calling to its service the
pastor of another church ; and it is fair to presume, when
such a call is given, that this motive has entered into the
transaction. It is true that churches, like individuals,
may act selfishly, that the main consideration may be the
social aggrandizement of the local church making the call ;
but that ought not to be assumed, nor charged without
abundant evidence.
Churches thus dispossessed of their pastors are apt to
1 The Pastor amidst his Flock, p. 24.
THE CALL TO THE PASTORATE 77
make complaints which imply a sweeping accusation against
all churches and all ministers. They say that the pastor
has been tolled away by the offer of a higher salary and
a more conspicuous position ; they resent this trespass on
their demesne, and denounce the perpetrators of it. All
this indicates not merely a bad temper, but a sad estimate
of the motives governing Christian people in their work.
If, indeed, their pastor is a man who can be induced to
to abandon the post of duty by sordid or selfish consider
ations, why should they wish to retain him? lias not
the church that drew away from them a false and fickle
shepherd done them the greatest possible service ? Their
pastor has gone from them either for selfish or for unself
ish reasons. If his reasons are unselfish, the} have no
right to complain ; if they are selfish, it is absurd for them
to complain.
It must, however, be said that the vacant church, which
thus seeks to remove from his field of labor a pastor in
active service, ought to be sure that it is acting consci
entiously in the matter. It must not assume that, because
its congregation is large and its position is more conspicu
ous, it offers necessarily a more important post of duty.
The work which this minister is performing may be so
fruitful, and his adaptation to it so peculiar, that any at
tempt to draw him away from it would be manifestly
wrong. Every church must proceed in this business with
a deep and prayerful sense of its responsibility, not for
its own welfare alone, but for the interests of its sister
church and of the Kingdom of I leaven. To build it
self up by pulling down other churches is not the prin
ciple on which it is founded. It is surely possible for a
Christian church to understand and observe, in its rela
tions with its sister churches, the law of Christ the Lord.
The question whether, in the formation of the pastoral
relation, the initiative should be taken by the church or
by the minister is one of some practical interest. Ordi
narily, it would appear, the church should be first to
act. Although to the church the feminine pronoun is
applied, custom seems to require that the proposition
78 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
should come from her and not from him. There is a
seeming indelicacy in the direct approach by a minister
to a church. The decisive action must be taken by the
church, and for this reason the overture should, ordinarily,
come from the church.
The normal condition of the minister s mind in this
matter would seem to be one of passivity. It is natural,
under the law of the Kingdom, for him to say, "I am
where I am, because God has placed me here ; I would
not have come hither unless there had seemed to be provi
dential leadings ; I ought to stay here until Providence
makes it clear that he wants me somewhere else. When
I am sure that he has called me to a more important or
more difficult work I will go." This is not always the
proper attitude of the minister s mind, for Providence may
have made it plain to him that he might probably do
better work elsewhere, before Providence has shown him
the opening. And therefore it may sometimes be his duty
to seek a change. The conditions of his health, or of that
of his family, may indicate the wisdom of such a change ;
he may have discovered that the peculiar kind of work
required in his present parish is work to which he is im
perfectly adapted ; he may know, by a careful study of his
own capabilities, that he could do more effective work in
a different field ; he may feel that the opportunity to
employ elsewhere the intellectual capital which he has
accumulated here, would set him free for other highly
important services which here he cannot render. And
therefore he may wisely desire a change, although he feels
that it would be unwise for him to abandon his present
work, and indelicate for him to offer his services to any
vacant church. It is this state of things which makes it
lawful and expedient to give to the vacant church the
right to open negotiations with the pastor in active ser
vice. Often it finds a man in precisely this state of mind,
and its inquiry opens to him a clear path of duty. But it
need not be laid down as a universal rule that the minister
must always wait until the church has spoken. " Should
one seek for a pulpit, or passively wait till Providence
THE CALL TO THE PASTOKATE 79
opens the way for it?" is a question which Professor Will-
cox puts into the mouth of a theological student. And
his answer is : " Faith is not inactive. Faith and works
belong together. But do not apply in person to a vacant
church. Commonly it would prejudice your case. Some
pastor or theological teacher can be found to introduce
you." l The customs of the churches being what they are,
this would seem to be the proper principle of action. The
minister who has determined that a change of parish would
be wise for him can usually, without any indelicacy, make
that decision known to a judicious friend, who will see
that his name is properly presented to vacant churches.
One rule is to be always observed, both by the vacant
church and by the ministerial candidate. No church
should enter into negotiations with a second candidate
while it has one before it whose case is not yet determined;
and no minister should permit himself to be considered as
a candidate by a church until he is positively assured that
that church is negotiating with no candidate with respect
to whom it has not reached a decision. The plainest dic
tates of good sense and Christian decency should enforce
upon every church the rule of one candidate at a time, and
should require every minister to see to it that the church
lives up to this rule. Nothing is more scandalous than that
a church should pass through its pulpit a line of candidates,
suspending judgment upon them until it lias heard a con
siderable number, and then picking and choosing among
them. Into such a competition no self-respecting minister
will consent to go. Out of such conflicts over candidates,
the bitterest and most disgraceful church quarrels often
arise. The church should permit but one name at a time to
be presented to it ; not until it has determined that it does
not want this man, should it open negotiations with any
other man, or permit him to appear in its pulpit as a pos
sible candidate. The condition into which churches are
sometimes thrown by long periods of candidating, and of
disputation over candidates is melancholy in the extreme.
The whole attitude of the congregation becomes critical
1 The Pastor amidst his Flock, p. 24.
80 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
and captious ; the people come to listen, not with devout
and receptive minds, but with itching ears ; sesthetical
standards replace spiritual standards ; the question, " How
much good can I find in this message ? " is overlaid by the
question, "How do I like this messenger?" Add to this
the disagreements and alienations which such strife in
volves, and a state of things is revealed which offers an
unpromising field to the wisest and most devoted pastor.
Yet it is quite possible that the experience of seeking a
minister should bind the church together in a closer fellow
ship, and deepen the sources of its spiritual power. Cases
are not unknown in which the church left vacant has come
together in a prayerful spirit, and has sought so earnestly
to be divinely guided in its search for a pastor that a new
baptism of love and gentle consideration has descended
upon it; all its deliberations have been full of harmony
and sweet reasonableness ; each has sought to conform his
choice to the will of the others, and to make the general
good rather than his personal preference the standard of
his judgment, and when the new pastor has come, he has
found a warm welcome from a united and happy church.
One word of caution is not superfluous. No church
should admit to its pulpit, no, not for a single service, a
man who does not come with the clearest and amplest and
most recent credentials of ministerial standing. However
it may be in other lands, it is true that in the United States
not a few ministerial vagrants are abroad, and many of
them are plausible villains, with smooth tongues and tak
ing ways, who are able to do incalculable injury to those
churches which harbor them even for a day. " These are
they that creep into houses and lead captive silly women,"
and no less silly men ; and the church that unwittingly
gives them a footing is apt to repent, at its leisure, of its
unwise hospitality. The pains that are taken by most
Christian communions to keep the lists of their ministers
clean, and to allow no discredited name upon them, are
not needless ; the purpose is to protect the churches against
adventurers. It is easy for any man who has a right to
the confidence of his brethren to bring clear and ample
THE CALL TO THE PASTORATE 81
evidence of the fact. The papers should be recent, .and
explicit; it would be better if testimony as to their genuine
ness should be furnished by some neighboring minister of
the same communion. Simple carelessness about this on
the part of church officials has resulted, not seldom, in the
blighting of characters, the blasting of lives, and the rend
ing of the church in twain. For it is a melancholy fact
that the most obvious scoundrel, if he be a fluent and in
sinuating person, is generally able to attach to himself
and to lead away a considerable portion of almost any
congregation. Important churches in the United States
have been divided by men whose proper place was the
penitentiary. It is a grave responsibility which is taken
by church officers who admit an unknown or doubtful
candidate to the pulpit of their church.
One or two other matters of practical interest should
be referred to. The question may arise whether a call
which is not unanimous should be accepted. The answer
of Professor Willcox is, on the whole, judicious : - That
depends. Ask several questions. How large is the mi
nority? Are they persons of weight or influence? Are
they obstinate or reasonable? Is their opposition based
on reasons that you can probably remove ? Seek candid
answers to these questions. Seek them not only from
your friends, but directly from the objectors themselves.
But avoid implying that you submit to the objectors the
decision of the matter. If you conclude to accept the
call, give your first attention, after settlement, to the mi
nority. As the foremost duty conciliate them. Many a
pastor soon has a united church split into factions. Muny
a pastor who begins his work with a divided church soon
lias them harmoniously united." l The only qualification
needful here is that the efforts at conciliation of the mi
nority, after settlement, should not be too demonstrative.
It is rather better to assume that there is no minority, and
to treat those who were supposed to constitute it with
the same consideration and courtesy that are offered to the
rest.
1 The Pastor amidst his Flock, p. 27.
82 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
Another question concerns the temporalities. The min
ister is a man amongst men, with what are known as secu
lar obligations and responsibilities, with physical needs, with
a family, presumably, to provide for, and it is one of the
prime necessities of his position that he meet all the just
demands of his neighbors, promptly and honestly. One
thing that cannot be tolerated in any minister of Christ
is financial looseness or irregularity. The minister who
is always in debt, and who leaves a legacy of unpaid
claims behind him in every parish is never able, by the elo
quence of the pulpit, to counteract the damage done by
his example. Therefore, as a matter of course, the min
ister must be enabled, by his people, to provide things
honest in the sight of all men. It is not necessary that
the stipend should be large, for the actual necessaries of
life cost but little ; but it is necessary on the part of the
minister that he should live within his income, be it larsre
O
or small, and it is necessary on the part of the people that
it be promptly paid. A fair and explicit understanding
on this matter between minister and people is advisable,
at the outset. The minister may wisely say, "I propose,
with the favor of God, to owe no man anything but love ;
therefore I hope that my people will not permit themselves
to be in any other kind of debt to me." It is generally
far easier for the church to meet engagements of this na
ture promptly than to bring up large arrearages ; to insist
upon a business-like policy is to lighten the burden of the
church. There is often a woful lack of common honesty
in the administration of church finances, and the influence
of the church is greatly impaired thereby. It is not well
that the minister should be burdened with the financial
administration ; the less he needs to know about it, the
better ; but, on the other hand, there are certain princi
ples of punctuality and probity which the church ought
to observe in all its business relations, and it is not to the
credit of the minister if these principles are violated. He
is bound to see that the administration of church affairs
conforms to the highest principles of morality.
CHAPTER V
THE PASTOR IN HIS STUDY
THE Christian minister is first of all a student. This
is, indeed, the primary designation of all followers of
Christ. Before they were called Christians at Antioch
they were called disciples in Jerusalem, in Capernaum, and
along the hanks of the Jordan. The great name of the
Founder of Christianity is Master, that is, Teacher ; and
the generic description of those who hear his name is dis
ciple, that is, student. "To this end have I been born,"
said the Christ, " and to this end have I come into the
world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Every
one that is of the truth heareth my voice."
When we are told by the Lord himself that the disciple
must le as his Master, it is involved in that saying that
the student must become a teacher ; it is for this that he
studies, that he may be qualified to teach. The Master
himself was a learner before he was a Teacher. As a
child he advanced in wisdom and in stature : " They found
him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers,
both hearing them and asking them questions." l And
his method throughout his earthly ministry was that of
the teacher. He "went about in all Galilee, teaching in
their synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the King
dom/ 2 And his great discourse was delivered after the
manner of an instructor rather than an orator; "when he
had sat down," - the posture of the teacher, "his dis
ciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and
taught them." And to those who had been sitting at his
feet lie said when he sent them forth, " Freely ye received,
freely give." 3 He who teaches must tirst be a student,
and he studies that he may teach.
1 Luke ii. 4G. 2 Mutt. iv. 23. 8 Matt. x. 8.
84 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
We need not forget that the Christian minister has
other functions than that of the didactic instructor. He
is, to begin with, to be a living illustration of the truth
which he teaches. Unless it can be said, with some good
measure of verity, of him as of his Master, " He is the
truth," his teaching will not be influential. He must
have digested and assimilated the vital word which he tries
to utter ; it must have become bone of his bone and
flesh of his flesh, else it will have but little power on his
lips.
There is also that great work of evangelism which is
sometimes distinguished from the work of teaching, and
there is a sense in which the distinction may be main
tained. Christ said, " Go ye therefore and make disciples
of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost ; teach
ing them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded
you." 1 Men were to be made disciples, and then to be
taught ; that is to say, they were first to be enlisted and
enrolled, and then instructed. In a certain large sense
this ought always to be true. The greater part of the in
struction which men receive follows rather than precedes
the date of their discipleship. They become disciples not
because they are fully instructed, but because they desire
instruction. The preaching which awakens in their minds
this desire is what we rightly call evangelistic preaching.
And yet there is, in these days, a great deal of the element
of teaching in the best of the evangelistic preaching. It
is difficult to separate, in fact, the function of the teacher
from that of the evangelist. It is unfortunate for both of
them when they are separated. The evangelist who does
not care to teach is apt to become a bad kind of sentimen
talist ; and the teacher who has no evangelistic fervor is
apt to degenerate into a critic or an essayist.
The minister, as we have seen, and shall further see,
is also a leader of men, an organizer and inspirer of spir
itual activities. And yet this is all to come as the result
of his teaching, because the truth which he has im-
1 Matt, xxviii. 19, 20.
THE PASTOR IN HIS STUDY 85
parted to his hearers has awakened in them the desire of
service, and has pointed out to them the work that needs
to be done. In order that this desire of theirs may be
sane and healthful, and in order that his leadership may
be wise and effective, there is need that he should be a
patient and faithful .student. The man of God who is
" furnished completely unto every good work " must be
a patient and thorough student. He must not only know
his books, he must know men; he must be familiar with
the experience of the world; he must be able to avoid,
in his leadership, the rocks and shoals on which many
generous enterprises have been wrecked. Thus it becomes
evident that before he can be a good leader he must be a
patient learner.
It may be said, however, that the function of the Chris
tian minister is mainly that of the prophet ; that his equip
ment for his task must come, not through study but through
inspiration ; that the truth which lie is to teach and the
wisdom by which lie is to guide will be given him directly
from heaven ; that the true Word of God which it is his
vocation to declare and incarnate is immediately communi
cated to those who have the spirit of faith; that there
fore study is superfluous ; that meditation and prayer are
the only true methods of preparation for the minister s
work. It is scarcely needful to confute this crude con
ception, but it may be well to give a little thought to the
necessary relation between study and inspiration. That
the relation has long been recognized among rational men
may be suggested by the fact that in the days when the
prophetic function was most exalted among the Hebrews
there were schools of the prophets. Even then some study
was deemed necessary to (it a man to be a prophet. If
it is the breath within the flute that makes the melody,
there is still need of much careful fashioning of the flute
before it receives the breath.
The fact of inspiration the immediate communication
of the truth and life of God to the soul of the preacher
is indeed the one great fact that none must miss. For
every preacher there is access to the very heart of the
86 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHUECH
spiritual reality. Prophets we must be, and not mere
reciters of traditions learned by rote. It is only when
" The finger of God, a flash of the Will that can,
Existent behind all laws," J
touches our lips that we speak with authority. A strong
statement of this need is found in Mr. Robert F. Morton s
Vcrbum Dei. The possibility of inspiration, the truth that
even in these days the Word of God is nigh to the mouth
and the heart of every devout man, the fact that the
preacher is not called merely to report what he has been
taught that some one once knew about God and his King
dom, but what he himself knows about it, all this is here
set forth most impressively. Whatever reservations one
may wish to make concerning some of these statements,
he will feel, as he reads these burning pages, that the
prophetic function is not wholly obsolete. And yet it will
also be clear that this mystic has not disregarded the in
tellectual discipline by which the prophet is prepared to
receive the message. Every page gives evidence of patient
and profound study. Language, philosophy, history, lit
erature, all have helped to furnish the transparent medium
through which the winged word flies to its mark. The
vivid metaphor, the felicitous phrase, the just discrimina
tion, the vital analogy, could not have been given to an
untrained mind. So it must always be. If the message
comes from God, the form which the message takes must
be largely determined by the dimensions and the furniture
of the mind through which it is communicated.
Language is the instrument by which the greater part
of the minister s work is done. If he has a message to
deliver, it will be conveyed in the forms of human speech.
The Word of God must reach the minds of men through
the language of men. All revelation, all inspiration, is
conditioned by this fact. There can be no more revela
tion than there is language to convey. A truth for which
no word-mould has been prepared is a truth that can
not be directly communicated. Every written or spoken
revelation consists of words ; and the words are manu-
1 Browning, Abt Vogler.
THE PASTOR IX IHS STUDY 87
factured by men. The relation of this fact to the theory
of an inerrant revelation ought to be well considered.
That a revelation absolutely without flaw could be given
through a medium so cloudy, by an instrument so inexact,
so full of imperfection, so constantly undergoing repair, as
human lan<mage is and must be, could be maintained by
o o /
no one who has the slightest acquaintance with philology.
The revelation may be sufficient for all the purposes of
the spiritual life, its very imperfection may adapt it to
our needs, but infallible it cannot be.
Nevertheless, this instrument of human language, intri
cate and complex in its structure, constantly changing in
its forms, growing as human experience grows, always ap
proaching that perfection which it can never reach, this
is the instrument by which the truth of God is conveyed
to the mind of man ; and it is also the instrument by
m -ans of which men communicate with one another. It
goes without saying that the better a man understands the
instrument, the more familiar he is with its structure and
its possibilities, the more perfectly he can convey his own
conceptions to the minds of other men. And it is not less
true that the Spirit of all truth can use the mind thus
trained and equipped to convey messages which could not
be given to minds less perfectly furnished. One of the first
tilings that Paul found to thank God for, when he began
to write his first letter to the Corinthians, was that they
had been enriched in ( hrist Jesus " in all utterance, and in
all knowledge." The enrichment of our utterance, the
improvement of all those faculties by which thought finds
expression, this must ever be a large part of the duty of
all who desire to be the messengers of (rod to men.
The fact of inspiration is, therefore, and must always be,
a very homely, familiar fact. It was so in the days of the
prophets and apostles, it Avill be so in the millennium, it
ought to be so now. The primary reason why more of the
Word of God has come to us through Isaiah and Paul than
through other men is that the minds of Isaiah and Paul
were better fitted to receive these sublime truths than the
minds of other men. This fitness may have been due in
88 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
part to providential causes, but it must have been largely
explained by the thoroughness with which they had pre
pared themselves for such mediumship.
The laws which govern the inspiration of the prophet
must be in many respects similar to those which govern
the inspiration of the artist. The artist must become
familiar with the forms by which beauty, the beauty of
which his art is the vehicle, finds its best expression.
Long and painful courses of discipline are needful in order
that he may gain the power of utterance. There is a lan
guage for him to learn, and the task is difficult and tedious.
We have been told that poets are born, not made ; but if
this implies that all their powers are the gift of nature,
and that none of them is due to training, it is far from the
truth. The poet, for his part, was first compelled to learn
the language in which he writes ; a great deal of patient
training was expended on him by his mother, and his nurse,
and all the household, before he was able to articulate the
simplest words of our common speech. Later he was led
by many tutors through the mysteries of alphabet and
spelling-book and grammar; there is no royal road even
for poets through these mysteries ; the knowledge must be
gained by toil. After the rudiments of the language have
been mastered, there is a great deal more for him to learn
of the idioms and forms by means of which the spirit of
beauty finds expression in language. And after the tech
nique of his art, so to speak, has thus been acquired, if he
is to be an interpreter of nature and of life and this, as
we are taught, is the poet s function there will be room
for long years of patient study of nature and of life before
he will be able to interpret them to any clear purpose.
Some men get this preliminary training more easily than
others do, get it, indeed, almost unconsciously, but
they must get it, before they can do genuine poetic work.
And it is when, with faculties thus trained, with tastes
thus purified, with vision thus sharpened, the poet stands
in the presence of nature or of life that his inspiration be
comes productive. The delight in beauty, the swift insight
into truth, have found a voice.
THE PASTOR IN HIS STUDY 89
True it is that all this study and discipline would be
worthless if through the forms thus furnished the spirit of
life did not breathe. The inspiration is the essential thing.
Life is diviner than form. Yet life is never formless. The
poet s power is not all the gift of nature. The old adage
is one of those vicious antitheses in which the tiling denied
O
is not less true than the tiling affirmed. The poet is horn
and made. His faculty is from nature, his facility is from
art. The tuneful breath is divine, but the instrument
through which it speaks is fashioned for its work by the
care and skill of man.
Of every kind of art this principle holds true. The
musician must prepare himself by the same kind of disci
pline. There is a certain manual facility which can be
gained only by the most patient toil. Abt Vogler is right
when he tells us by the lips of IJobert Browning that the
melodies and harmonies that flood his thought as he sits
improvising at the organ are not products of art; but if
art had not had the training of his fingers they would
never have found expression.
The principle is not different in the case of the minister,
even when we are thinking of his prophetic function.
Prophecy is the divine Word spoken by the human voice,
and the voice must be trained for speaking. Surely it
must be to him who has most carefully disciplined both
heart and mind by patient and long study of the truth
within his reach, that the larger truth, the unifying truth,
will be given, that the spirit of prophecy will be imparted
in largest measure. Inspiration is not caprice: it must
follow the law which conditions all divine intervention in
behalf of men. The gods help those who help themselves.
The grace of God is not given to relieve us from effort or
to discharge us from responsibility, but to supplement our
powers, and to stimulate our activity. Luther said that
prayer is study, and it is true, Irnc orrissc est bcnc stu-
duissc ; but it is not less true that study is prayer. The
diligent preparation of the mind for the heavenly gifts
is the indispensable condition of the bestowment of these
gifts.
90 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
The minister who has spent many years in the University
and the Theological School has evinced his conviction that
study is an essential part of the preparation for the work
of the ministry. Possibly, however, there may lurk in the
corner of some mind the notion that the period of prepara
tion is the period of study, and that the pastorate will be
devoted to other kinds of activity in which study will not
be an essential part. The conception was once quite preva
lent that when a man had passed through the professional
school his education was substantially finished. That, in
deed, has been, so far as the ministry is concerned, a pretty
general understanding. It has often been supposed that
the minister is taught in the theological school all that it
is needful or proper for him to know ; that it is rather
dangerous and even disloyal for him to venture beyond
the boundaries there prescribed for his thought; that one
of the chief functions of the theological seminary is to lead
the student all round the field of investigation, and show
him authoritatively the limitations thereof, and to say to
him, " Thus far shalt tliou. go and no farther." But this
phase of thought is becoming antiquated. Most of the
younger ministers know that the teachings of the theologi
cal institution are no more final than those of the academic
department ; that the function of the divinity school, like
that of every other school, is best fulfilled when it has
taught us how to study. In the theological college the
minister learns the use of the tools that he will be handling
all his life. lie is not to spend his life in rehearsing the
lessons that he learned there ; things new and old will
come forth every week from his treasury.
But if the divinity school is a place where we learn to
study, it would seem that the subjects of study, after the
work of the ministry is entered upon, would be likely to
be, to a considerable extent, the same as those which oc
cupied us in the preparatory period. We have not mas
tered those subjects ; we have been fairly introduced to
them ; we go on from the point at which the teachers
leave us in the paths into which they have led us ; we
proceed to build on the foundation which they have helped
THE PASTOIt IN HIS STUDY 91
us to lay. Whatever it was worth our while to study in
the days of preparation it will be worth our while to keep on
studying after our work is begun. If Hebrew and Greek
were wisely placed in the curriculum, the minister in his
study cannot afford to drop them. Of course his manner
of using these languages will be modified; he will not
necessarily continue to study them philologically, there
should, at any rate, be little need of studying them in this
way ; he will employ them rather as the instruments of
investigation; he will not study the ancient languages;
he will study history and archaeology and sacred litera
ture and theology by means of the ancient languages.
Other studies of the professional school will be treated
in the same manner. The author of the Epistle to the
Hebrews counsels those to whom he is writing to u leave
the word of the beginning of Christ behind them, and
press on to perfection. not laving over and over the
foundations, but going on to build on the foundations. 1 This
is the true method for the studious minister. The history
of doctrine, the history of philosophv, are full of instruc
tion; the light which they throw upon the evolution of
belief is profitable for guidance: some general knowledge
of the course which religious thought has followed, every
Christian teacher ought to have. Hut it may be ques
tioned whether the effort to trace the speculations of the
church through all their vagaries is altogether worth
while ; whether we have not expended upon the eluci
dation of these erratic and fruitless efforts after religious
certainty time that might have been more productively
employed. A great deal of wood, hav, stubble, has been
heaped together in past ages on the true foundation, and
the lire of criticism has alreadv consumed the larger part
of it : to what extent it is worth while for the working
pastor to reconstruct, from their ashes, these vanished
systems, is an open question. The thinking which has
advanced to some sure conclusion may be profitably stud
ied ; the thinking that conducts us into a ml <h sac or a
bottomless bog may be safely neglected. Even in the divin-
1 Heb. vi. 1, 2. K. V. Manj.
92 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
ity school these studies of morbid theology and abortive
philosophy might be wisely abbreviated ; outside the semi
nary, the busy pastor is not likely to pursue them. It
may sometimes be useful to know what not to believe, but
the proper nutriment of faith is not negations. The value
of contrast and comparison in elucidating truth is not to
be denied, yet in our efforts to reach certainty we may
easily spend too much time in the contemplation of what
we know to be uncertainties. A sermon by a profound
scholar was once preached in a New England church,
from the text, " Where sin abounded grace did much more
abound," and the preacher spent so much time in showing
how sin had abounded, through the centuries, and made
such an appalling picture of it, that he was by no means
able, in the few minutes devoted to the other phrase, to
counteract the impression ; so that his discourse, without
his intending it, exactly contradicted his text, and left his
hearers with the feeling that though grace had somewhat
abounded, sin did always and everywhere exceedingly
superabound. The laws of proportion must not be dis
obeyed ; they should govern our studies as well as our
speech; and they require that the great affirmations should
always prevail ; that life and not death should evidently
have the mastery ; that the things which cannot be shaken
should occupy the uppermost place in all our thinking.
Perhaps the same maxim will relegate studies of an
apologetic nature to a secondary place. If it is not wise
to fill our minds with the futile speculations of past centu
ries, it may not be wise to spend a great deal of time on
the doubts and denials of the present century. Too much
stress must not be laid on this admonition, for the present
difficulties of many minds in every intelligent congrega
tion must be met by the preacher, and if the preacher is
to meet them he must understand them. But when a man
begins to preach the Gospel the great underlying verities
of the Kingdom of Heaven ought to be settled in his mind
beyond questioning ; it should not be necessary for him to
keep convincing himself that they are true. That will
not be a fruitful ministry which is continually digging up
the germinal truth to see if it is alive.
THE PASTOR IN HIS STUDY 93
As to the directions which the minister s study should
take, it is possible to speak only in a general way. But
there are two main lines which he may profitably follow
in his studies. The problems about which his thought
will chiefly revolve are the problems of the soul and the
problems of society.
By problems of the soul are intended those which relate
to the fundamental facts of character, ethical and spir
itual, rather than ontological questions. The existence of
the spiritual realm and the main facts of that realm are
the postulates of the pastor s problems. That love and
not law is the heart of the universe ; that there is a con
scious God, our Father, who loves men and seeks their
welfare ; that between the spirit of man and the Spirit of
God there may be fellowship and communion, so that
light and help and peace and power can How from the
grace that abounds to the need that implores ; that man
is a free spirit whose choices determine his own destiny,
all this is assumed. Any man who is in doubt on any of
these propositions stultities himself by accepting the ollice
of a Christian pastor. His problem is not to assure him
self of these things, but to bring them home to the lives
of men.
This involves, first, a patient study of the facts of human
nature. The men and women and children of his parish
and his vicinage will be the principal objects of his study.
He is likely to find a great variety of types among them
and all sorts of tendencies; the laws of character are work
ing themselves out before his eyes ; he will see some sowing
to the flesh and reaping corruption, and others sowing to
the spirit and reaping life everlasting; retribution will
not be an obscure fact to a minister who keeps his eves
open; redemption should not he. A most fascinating
study is this to which his vocation calls him ; it uncov
ers many painful facts ; it raises many hard questions ;
but it is more interesting and more significant than any
other subject which can engage the human intellect. And
every minister can be and must be an original investiga
tor. Genuine laboratory work is demanded of him. He
94
must not get his knowledge of human nature wholly or
mainly from books, though books may greatly aid him in
interpreting his phenomena. What other careful observ
ers have seen will guide him in his search. But first-hand
knowledge is imperative. The people with whom he is
dealing will be apt to know whether he is speaking from
tradition or from observation ; he must be able to say,
" We speak that we do know, and testify that we have
seen."
The power of the teaching of Jesus lay, as a recent
writer has told us, in the appeal to life. Jesus taught
with authority, and not as the scribes, because he adhered
closely to the facts of nature and of human nature. More
than one hearer, like the woman at the well, cried out in
wonder, " He told me all that ever I did." It is not for
any of us to know as perfectly as he knew what was in
man, but it is possible for all of us to follow his method.
One large division of Christian theology is Anthropol
ogy, the doctrine of man. What is the ideal man ? What
are the elements of his constitution? What are the normal
and the abnormal tendencies of his nature? Has he any
verifiable relations to other powers above or beneath him?
If there are evidences of disease and disorder, what is the
probable outcome of these? Such are the primary ques
tions of the Christian thinker. Now it is obvious that the
truth about all this must be gathered by the study of human
nature. There is no other source of knowledge. If the
Bible gives us any information about this, it must be
simply a repetition of what is before our eyes, every day,
in living examples. The Bible may have something to
tell us about the remedy for the ills of human nature,
which we could not learn from the study of human nature
itself; but these ills themselves are part of our own ex
perience, and no other statement about man can possibly
outweigh in authority that which is based upon a broad
and careful induction of the facts of human nature. The
right way to study the geography of Bible lands is to ex
plore the lands themselves, and explain the references of
the Bible to them ; the right way to study the condition
THK PASTOR IN HIS STUDY 95
of the human race upon the earth is to investigate the
facts, and compare with them the statements of the Bible.
We shall liiul many statements in the Bible that will
throw miK-h light upon our investigations; but our doc
trine of man must rest, after all, oil facts which we ourselves
can verify.
It will be found, indeed, that the more careful our in
vestigations are, and the more complete our induction, the
more perfectly will the doctrine of Jesus respecting the
nature and needs of man be verified. The better we know
the facts of human nature as they are displayed before our
eyes, and as they report themselves in our own conscious
nesses, the more sure we shall be that He did indeed know
what was in man; that he spake as one having authority
the authority of perfect knowledge when he dis
coursed of the human soul and its problems. But it is
better, in our treatment of all this matter, to appeal as he
constantly did to life, and to bring confirmation for his
words from the experience of men.
It has been said that books may greatly help the min
ister in his study of anthropological and spiritual problems.
Books contain a record, more or less complete, of human
experience, a report upon the facts of life. Patrick Henry
said that experience was the only light by which his feet
were guided ; it may be doubted whether his words were
true of himself, and whether they have been true of any
great leader of men. There are other and diviner guides
pillars of fire by night, and of cloud by day. The ideals
that transcend experience, the intuitions that throw light
forward on our path are also to be trusted. But if experi
ence is not the only guide, it is a safe guide in many paths,
and the record of it which we tind in books is of the great
est value. Is it not true that for the minister more help is
to be found in literature proper than in science or philoso
phy? Matthew Arnold s familiar saying is to be remem
bered, that our understanding of life is enlarged and
purified by means of u getting to know on all the subjects
which most concern us, the l>est which has been thought
and said in the world, and through this knowledge turn-
96 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
ing a stream of fresh and free thought on all our stock
notions and habits." 1 The best that has been thought and
said in the world is to be found in books, in sermons and
essays, in history and biography, in fiction arid poetry.
Much of this literature is, of course, worthless ; all of it
must be studied with a discriminating mind ; but it should
not be difficult for the scribe instructed unto the kingdom
of heaven to select out of all that has been said in the world
something of the best, that it may turn " a stream of fresh
and free thought " upon the facts collected in his own
investigations. The great poets, the great novelists are
always dealing with these very facts and tendencies of
character; the essayists have left us the results of their
thinking on the same themes, and the preachers of many
generations are ready to show us how they have grappled
with the problems that are confronting us.
Best of all books for the pastor are the good biogra
phies. The good ones, mark ; there is nothing worse than
a bad one. Many successful pastors bear testimony that
they have found more stimulus in books of this class than
in any other kind of literature. Now, as always, life is
the light of men. The life of Christ, incarnated in the
lives of his bravest and best servants, is full of inspiration.
The lives of Clement of Alexandria, Athanasius, Savonarola,
Colet, Thomas More, Luther, Bernard of Clairvaux, Thomas
Arnold, Thomas Chalmers, Frederick Robertson, Charles
Kingsley, Norman McLeod, Frederick Denisoii Maurice,
Dorothy Pattison, Horace Bushnell, will always be found
profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness.
That studies of this nature will be most useful to the
working pastor is obvious enough. An artist perfects
himself in his art by making himself familiar with nature,
and with the best that has been done in his own depart
ment of art. The painter studies nature and the best
paintings ; the poet studies nature and the masterpieces
of literature ; the musician studies forms of natural melody
and the works of the best musicians. What they all crave
1 Culture and Anarchy. Preface, p. xi.
THE PASTOR IN HIS STUDY 97
is the power to convey the beauty of the world to other
minds, and they study the works and the words in which
this beauty has been expressed. Beneath all these arts
there are deep questions of philosophy, of metaphysics ;
the artist may be interested in these questions, but his
power and success as an artist depend in no great degree
upon his ability to answer them. Poetry rests on meta
physics, painting on perspective, music on mathematics,
but it is not by digging among these roots that a man be
comes an artist. Art is one tiling, philosophy is another
and perhaps a higher thing; but it is rather diilicult for
a man to excel in both.
Is there not, in this analogy, some instruction for min
isters ? Might not the minister have too much ambition
to be a philosopher, and too little care for the equipment
which shall lit him for his calling? It is not so much the
solution of the fundamental problems of existence as the
shaping of human character that is his proper task ; and
therefore the actual working of the spiritual laws in the
lives of men will be his chief concern, rather than the
ontological problems which underlie all existence. If this
is true, then literature, which deals directly with life, will
give him more practical help than philosophy, which deals
with origins.
All that has been said about the studies of the minister
has been intended to throw light upon the question re
specting his use of the Bible. That this book, above all
others, will be the subject of his study, needs scarcely to
be urged upon these pages. Anthropology does not depend
on it, but Soteriology does. No revelation was needed to
show that man is a sinner ; but a revelation is needed to
tell him of a Saviour. And no other book but the Bible
brings to him this clear knowledge. All that the min
ister knows about that Christ whose name lie bears, whose
gospel he proclaims, whose life he tries to exemplify, is
contained in this precious book. The Life whose appear
ance in the world nineteen centuries ago has revolution
ized history, and given us the date by which we reckon
the things of time, is described for us upon the pages of
98 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
this Book ; we read the record of the long ages of prepara
tion for him ; we are made familiar with the transcendent
facts of his birth and death and resurrection ; we hear the
very word of him who spake as never man spake ; we see
the marvellous growth, in the first century, of that King
dom of his which, in two more centuries, had overspread
a good part of the then known world. To kno\v all that
human language can tell him of this divine Life is the
minister s first task. The Book which puts this knowledge
within his reach is the one book of the world for him.
His reason, his imagination will be always under its spell.
What Lamartine says of the young Bossuet should be true
of every minister : -
" The Bible, and above all, the poetical portions of Holy
Writ, struck as if with lightning and dazzled the eyes of
the child ; he fancied he saw the living fire of Sinai, and
heard the voice of omnipotence reechoed by the rocks of
Horeb. His God was Jehovah ; his law-giver, Moses ;
his high priest, Aaron ; his poet, Isaiah, his country, Ju-
dea. The vivacity of his imagination, the poetical bent
of his genius, the analogy of his disposition to that of the
Orientals, the fervid nature of the people and ages de
scribed, the sublimity of the language, the everlasting
novelty of the history, the grandeur of the laws, the pierc
ing eloquence of the hymns, and, finally, the ancient, con
secrated, and traditionally reverential character of the Book,
transformed Bossuet at once into a biblical enthusiast.
The metal was malleable, the impression was received and
remained indelibly stamped. This child became a prophet ;
such he was born, such he was as he grew to manhood,
lived and died, the Bible transfused into a man." 1
The devotional reading of the Bible is, of course, the
first and most important use of it ; after this some critical
knowledge of it is needed ; but its use as the sword of the
Spirit is the great thing for the pastor to learn. " To be
able," says Dr. Blaikie, " to grasp the great purposes of
Divine revelation as a whole ; to see at the same time the
drift and bearing of its several parts ; to apprehend the
1 Quoted by Blaikie in For the Work of the Ministry, p. 77.
THE PASTOU IN HIS STTDV 99
great lessons of the various histories, biographies, and epis
tles, the parables, the sermons, the doctrinal statements,
the allegories, the lyrical allusions that make up Holy
Scripture ; to know where to find the most striking state
ments on any subject which Scripture embraces ; to make
one part throw light on another, and bring out the chief
lessons of the whole are attainments of inestimable value
to the preacher of the Word." 1
All this falls in with Matthew Arnold s true contention
that the Bible is literature and not science nor philosophy.
When it is so regarded and treated we get the best results
of our study. The questions of criticism, now so both-
debated, are of temporary interest; it is necessary for the
minister to have some knowledge of the matters in dis
pute ; but the staple truths with which he deals are not
touched by these discussions. The Bible, intelligently
studied, will throw just as much light on questions of
conduct, on the laws of the spiritual life, under the new
hypothesis as it has ever given us under the old hypothe
sis perhaps a little more. Some moral confusion may
be avoided by recognizing as altogether human certain
elements which were formerly supposed to be divine. It
is a great gain to be discharged from the task of defend
ing the historicity of certain narratives, and to be able
to give our whole attention to their moral and spiritual
values. The question whether Jonah was swallowed by a
fish or not can have no possible relation to the life of any
living man ; but the moral and spiritual questions which
the story so vividly brings before us are well worthy of
our attention. The date of the Book of Daniel is a matter
of curious interest; the character of Daniel is a theme
of profitable study. "The importance of Abraham and
Daniel does not lie," says a recent writer. " in their being
unique personages, but in their representing Hebrew ideals,
the highest life of Israel. Of the reality in this sense of
the patriarchal narratives there can be no doubt whatever.
They embody profoundly real experiences ; they were re
ceived into the traditions and literature of Israel because
l Fur t/tt \Vurk of the Ministry, ]>. 7 J.
100 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
they appealed to, influenced, and inspired generation after
generation of pious .Israelites. They maintained their
place through successive revisions of the Hebrew Bible ;
they have passed into the sacred literature of Christianity
and of Islam, because they have been recognized by men
of many races and of many periods as representative of
spiritual experience and fruitful of spiritual instruction.
Whatever view may be held as to the origin of Genesis,
its narratives are no longer mere histories of Bedouin
sheiks ; they stand as symbols and embodiment of what
is most permanent and universal in human nature." l
Such is the merest hint of the direction which the stud
ies of the minister may profitably take when he seeks to
comprehend the facts of the spiritual life. It is all summed
up by saying that the pastor s main interest is in charac
ter, and that the studies which fix his attention upon
character, the laws by which it is conditioned, the influ
ences by which it is affected, the motives by which it is
governed, the approaches by which it is brought into vital
communication with the unseen Helper are for him the
studies of supreme importance.
To the other great department of pastoral study, that
which relates to the problems of society, less space can
here be given. But it should be evident that no man can
be understood when he is studied by himself, because " no
man liveth unto himself." The individual can no more
be separated from his kind in our study of his spiritual
problems than a stamen can be separated from the rest of
the flower in our study of its nature, than a hand can
be separated from the rest of the body in our study of its
uses. It is in his social relations that the spiritual activi
ties of the man find exercise.
The individual and the society in which he lives are as
inseparable as the inside and the outside of a curve. But
it is necessary for us to study the areas on both sides of
the curve. The individual finds his perfection by seek
ing first the Kingdom of God. And the one sublime con-
1 Rev. W. II. Bennett, iu Faith and Criticism ; Essays by Congregation-
alists, p. 29.
THE PASTOR IX HIS STUDY 101
ception which must never depart from the mind of the
minister is the thought of the Kingdom of God, for whose
coining he daily prays. To comprehend this Kingdom;
to gain that anointing of the vision by which he shall be
able to discern it; to become sure that it is a present
reality; to understand the nature of the laws bv which it
is governed ; to trace the movements of those unseen
Powers that are working to establish it; to learn how to
help in extending its boundaries and in confirming its
dominion, this is a large part of the life work of the
Christian minister.
The question is sometimes raised whether the minister
should devote much time to the study of sociology. If
the relation of the individual to society is what we have
represented it to be, it would appear that studies of this
nature involve the very substance of the learning which
he must acquire. If the Kingdom of God is here in the
world, if it is not a remote possibility, but a present
fact, and if it is every man s iirst business to seek it, then
those studies which are called sociological must put the
minister in possession of the facts and laws of this king
dom. Here, as in the case of the individual soul, he will
find his induction confirming the teachings of Christ;
he will find obedience to the law of Christ bringing health
and peace and contentment and social welfare, and diso
bedience producing poverty and anarchy and social dis
integration. The kingdom of God is discerned not only
in the blessings which it brings, but in the woes which
are inherited by those who depart from its precepts.
And these are the facts which confront the minister on
every side. He ought to be familiar with them. They
are the voices with which God is speaking directly to him
and to the people of his generation. A thoroughly scien
tific sociology, a sociology which takes in all the facts
of the existing social order, which recogni/.es the fact of
human freedom, which includes the facts of historical
Christianity and studies the actual working in the world
of the Christian morality, will furnish a proof of the
truth of Christianity which no caviller can gainsay. Such
102 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
studies have a great apologetic value. They show that
Christianity has never yet been fairly tried anywhere in
the world; but they indicate by cumulative evidence
that the partial trials which have been made of it prove
it to be the only social rule that will bring peace and
good-will, with happiness and plenty. The minister who
does not know this is not thoroughly furnished for
his work as a Christian teacher. The fact is one that
vitally concerns his people ; it is the one fact which they
ought to recognize in all their conduct. The work of
the church, in its largest sense, is the enforcement of
this truth. The Christianization of society, in all its parts
and organs, is the high calling of the church. How any
minister can properly guide his people in this work with
out faithfully studying the conditions of the society in
the midst of which he is living it would be difficult to
explain.
Of course this study will involve some familiarity with
political and economic science, for the kingdom of heaven
rules in every department of society. But so far as politi
cal science is divorced from ethics and becomes a mere
consideration of expediencies, and so far as economics
confines itself merely to material interests, and leaves
out of sight the larger interests of humanity, the minister
of the Gospel has no concern with either of them. It is
a question whether sciences which undertake such a frac
tional investigation of human life have value for any one ;
but if any one can find profit in studying them let him
do so ; the Christian minister has other and more im
portant business. When he studies social questions, his
sole interest in them is found in their relation to the
facts of the spiritual realm. What he seeks to know
is the effect of social conditions upon character the
character of individuals and of the social organism. That
the character of every man is deeply and constantly af
fected by the society in the midst of which he lives, we
have seen already ; how can the minister of Christ, whose
high calling respects only the values of character, be
unmindful of those social forces which so powerfully
THE PASTOR IN HIS STUDY 103
tend to shape the characters of the men and women to
whom he ministers?
So long as the old individualistic philosophy prevails it
is possible to think of saving men as separate souls, with
out paying any regard to the social order. Hut as soon
as the conception of society as an organism enters the
mind, as soon as it becomes evident that we are indeed
members one of another, then the attempt to fence
off religion into a department by itself becomes manifestly
absurd. The question whether any individual is living
rightly, whether he is saved, in fact, can be an
swered only by considering how his life affects the society
in which he lives. If his life is a savor of death unto
death to those with whom he associates, it is idle to talk
of him as a "saved man. The distinctive quality of
the saved is their power of saving the society in which
they live. They are the salt of the earth. But in order
to know whether his life rightly affects the society in
which lie lives, we must have some clear conception of
what that society ought to be. The separation of spiritual
problems from social problems is, therefore, a most mis
chievous business ; it rends asunder what God has joined
together: it can only result in sterilizing religion and
in demoralizing society. That is a painful story which
tells us of the rise in the early church of those purely
theological distinctions by which this separation was
effected. A failure to comprehend the true doctrine of
the Incarnation lies at the root of it all. The faith for
which Athanasius stood against the world would never
have given room to this deadly heresy. We have no
time to study the origin of that " principle of dualism
which sanctioned the divorce between the human and
the divine, the secular and the religious, the body and
the spirit." But we shall find, if we look into the matter,
that, in the language of another, it u runs through all the
institutions of the Middle Ages, affecting not only the
religious experience, but the political and social life of
Christendom. As a theological principle it underlies as
ceticism in all its forms ; it creates and enforces the
104 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
distinction between sacred and profane things, holy days
and common days, between the clergy and the people,
the church and the world, the pope and the emperor, the
city of God and the city of man. As a theological princi
ple it reigned supreme from the time of Augustine till
the age of the Reformation." 1 If, since the Reformation,
its reign has not been unchallenged, it is still able to
affect very powerfully the thought and the conduct of
many of the stanchest of the Reformers. And it is not
difficult to see that the whole evangelistic work of the
church has been paralyzed by this unnatural bisection
of human life. No valuable work can be done for the
individual which does not keep constantly in mind his
social relations.
It may be said that the minister should study sociology,
indeed, but only Christian Sociology ; that he has no use
for merely scientific sociology. Here, again, the old dual
ism crops out. It is assumed that there is a sociology
which is scientific, which is anti-Christian or non-Christian.-
But sociology is the science of society. As such it ought
to be able to formulate for us the law of the best human
society. But it does so simply by collecting and com
paring all the facts and tendencies, and drawing from them
the proper inferences. Much social science, so-called, fails,
like many other attempts at science, of being truly scien
tific, because it either overlooks, or does not properly esti
mate some of the facts of the social order. Thus Mr. Kidd,
in his stimulating book on " Social Evolution " has pointed
out to the sociologists that they have wholly failed to make
due account of the one capital fact in the development of
Western Civilization. There may therefore be works treat
ing of social science which would not be profitable read
ing for any minister of the Gospel, because they either
carelessly or dogmatically exclude some of the ruling ideas
or elements of modern society. But the true objection
to these books is not that they are not Christian, but that
they are not scientific. The genuinely scientific sociology,
which includes all the ideas, influences, movements, by
1 77(e Continuity of Christian Thvwjht, by A. V. G. Allen, p. 145.
THE PASTOR IN HIS STUDY 105
which society is formed, and gives to each its proper
weight, must be the true sociology. If what is called
"Christian sociology" does less or more than this it is not
worth studying. The Christian student may, indeed, start
with the hypothesis that a complete induction will verifv
the Christian law, "Thou shall love the Lord thy <Jod
with all thy heart and thy neighbor as thyself." Hut his
study ought to be pursued in a purely scientific spirit, with
a determination to observe all the facts and to give them
their proper weight. Let us not be afraid to subject Chris
tianity to this test. It is simply the test of reality. If a
careful and thorough investigation of the facts of existing
society does not prove that the Kingdom of (Jod is here
in the world, does not clearly indicate that the law which
Christ has given us is the true law of human society, then
there is no good reason why any man should be a Christian.
But if these things are so, then there is a reason fur being
a Christian that no sane man can gainsay.
The minister s study is also his oratory. It is the secret
place where he communes, not only with those whom (Jod
has taught, but vs ith their Teacher. It is not neeessarv,
it is even a kind of impertinence, to dwell upon the im
portance of this secret communion. lie who is not 1 ullv
aware of it, not only has no right to preach the gospel, but
he is not likely to be convinced of its value bv anv word
of man. "It may, however," says Dr. Fairbairn, "be laid
down as a general principle, that the whole of a minister s
labors should be intermingled with meditation and prayer.
He should never be simplv a man of learning and study,
for this itself may become a snare to him: it may even
serve to stand between his soul and (Jod and nurse a spirit
of worldliness in one of its most refined and subtle forms.
If he be really a man of (Jod, experience will teach him
how much, even for success in study, he needs to be under
the habitual direction of (Jod s presence, and to have the
direction of his spirit. It will also teach him how little
he can prevail, with the most careful preparations and ac
tive diligence, in regard to the great ends of the ministry,
106 CHKISTIAN 1 ASTOll AND WORKING CHURCH
without the special aid of the Holy Spirit ; how, when left
to themselves, his most zealous efforts and best premeditated
discourses fall to the ground ; yea, and how often, amid
the comparatively great and orderly events of ministerial
employment, he will himself err in counsel and do that
which he shall have occasion to regret, unless he is guided
by a higher wisdom and sustained by a stronger arm than
his own. Continually, therefore, has the true pastor to
give himself to prayer ; his study should also be his pros-
euche in which he daily holds communion, not only with
the better spirits of the past and present through the
written page, but with the Father of Spirits in the secret
communications of his grace and love." 1
" La priere," says the French apostle, " est necessaire
pour nous maintenir au vrai point de vue des choses qui
nous echappe toujours ; pour gudrir les blessures de 1 a-
mour-propre et de la sensibilitd ; pour retremper le cou
rage ; pour preVenir 1 invasion toujours imminente de la
paresse, de la frivolite*, du relfichement, de 1 orgueil spirituel
ou eccle siastique, de la vanite* de pre dicateur, de la ja
lousie de metier. La priere ressemble a cet air si pur de
certaines iles de I oce an, oil aucune vermine ne peut vivre.
Nous devons nous entourer de cette atmosphere, comme le
plongeur s entoure de sa cloche avant de descendre dans
la mer." 2
1 Pastoral Theology, p. 101.
2 Vinet, The ologie Pastorale, p. 123.
CHAPTER VI
PULPIT A N D A L T A R
NOTHING which has been said in the preceding chapters
should be interpreted as a disparagement of the teaching
function of the Christian minister. This teaching, as we
have seen, differs from some other kinds of teaching in
being largely prophetic ; nevertheless it is teaching, the
impartation of vitalized truth. The minister has other
functions, as we have already seen, and shall hereafter
more clearly see. Some of these functions were but
slightly emphasized in the earlier treatises on Pastoral
Theology; the newer conception of the church in its rela
tion to the Kingdom brings them out in clearer light.
Nevertheless the first and highest function of the Christian
minister is that of preacher.
The minister s throne is his pulpit ; when he abdicates
that, to become an organizer of charities, or a purveyor
of amusements, or a gossip in parlors and street-cars, the
clerical profession will cease to hold the place which be
longs to it in the respect of men. A great many kinds of
work are now expected of the minister, and some of them
are of great importance ; but the minister makes a great
mistake who permits his pulpit work to take a secondary
place. Christ said that the one supreme purpose of his
mission to the world was that he might bear witness to
the truth ; and the same must always be the high calling
of the servant of Christ. To pour unto the minds of men
a steady stream of the truth which reveals the Kingdom of
God; to keep the realities of the moral order always be
fore their thought, this is his one great business. Men
are saved from being conformed to this world only when
they are transformed b// tin- rcnnvin;/ <>/ //"// />iin</*; and
it is the minister s chief business to keep their minds well
108 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
supplied with the truth by which this transformation is
wrought.
In pointing out the main lines which the minister will
follow in his studies, we have indicated the scope of his
work as a preacher. If the problems of the soul and the
problems of the social order are the themes of his study,
the interests of character, and the interests of the Kingdom
of God will be the topics of his discourse. Let all things,
said Paul, be done with a view to building. A symmet
rical and beautiful character is the temple of the Holy
Ghost ; a Christianized society is the city of God, the New
Jerusalem, which is to stand in the latter day upon the
earth. This temple and this city are the structures which
the minister of Christ is called to build.
Let us think, first, of his preaching as a message to the
individual. It used to be said that the chief end of preach
ing is the salvation of souls. If these terms are rightly
understood no fault can be found with them. A soul is a
man ; and there can be no question that a great many men
are in danger of being lost, and that all men are worth
saving. The preaching that saves manhood, that saves
it from being frittered awav in the frivolities of life ; from
/
being consumed by the canker of avarice ; from being
blasted by the mildew of idleness; from being wrecked on
the breakers of passion ; from being enervated by luxury ;
from being crippled by the creeping paralysis of doubt, is
a kind of preaching which the world will always need.
The meaning which we put into the phrase is thus a little
larger than that which once it carried ; for once it signi
fied very little more than getting men to a place of safety
after death. It is now pretty generally believed that if a
man is saved in this word from selfishness and animalism,
and hate, and pride, and all the other evils that are de
stroying his manhood, there is no need to be anxious about
his future welfare ; while any assurance of salvation in
another world that has no perceptible influence upon his
life in this world is probably delusive. The minister is
preaching, then, to save men, to save them from sin and
sorrow and shame ; to save them from losses that are
ITUMT AND ALTAI: loy
irreparable ; to save them for lives of honor and nobil
ity, and for the service of humanity. The longer any
earnest minister lives, the more deeply he will feel the
need of such preaching as this, the more earnestly he
will long for the power to speak the persuasive word which
shall turn men from the ways of death into the paths of
life.
No fault can be found, therefore, with the statement
that a large part of the preacher s work is the conversion
of men. That lias been the mission of preachers and
prophets from the beginning. In all the ages they have
been crying to purblind and deluded men, tk Turn ye, turn
ye, for why will ye die?" That many of the men whom
the preacher addresses from week to week are going in
wrong directions is a palpable fact; it is his business to
show them whither their steps are tending, and to persuade
them to turn. There are a great many people in all our
congregations for whom there is no salvation but in a
complete reversal of their general course of life ; and the
squeamishness which withholds from them this salutary
truth is worthy of the severest censure.
The value of what is called evangelistic preaching 1 is
O A O
therefore clear: and it would seem that any preacher,
whether he call himself orthodox or liberal, who expects
to serve the ends of character in the most effective way
will find that he must do a large amount of this kind of
preaching. The question of life or death with many a
man is simply whether he will break with his past life arid
take a fresh start; whether he will take steps which he
himself recognizes as revolutionary ; whether he will burn
his bridges, and so openly and manfully commit himself to
another way of life that there shall be no line of retreat
left open to him. No matter what the minister s theology
may be, he must face just such problems as this ; and he
will do well to make his preaching conform to obvious
psychological facts.
The old preachers used to make a distinction between
preaching the law and preaching the gospel. By the law
they generally meant the penalties of the law ; and by the
110 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
gospel the promises of escape from these penalties. The
matter does not shape itself in our minds exactly as it did
in theirs, for we have come to see that the spiritual laws
are natural laws ; that they are self-enforcing, and that
the only way to get their penalties remitted is to stop dis
obeying them. But Christianity is, as it has always been,
a law as well as a gospel ; and the importance of preaching
the law is not fully comprehended by some of our most
orthodox preachers.
Law connotes both precept and penalty. The Christian
precept, which is grounded in the nature of things, which
is, indeed, a clear induction from the facts of human ex
perience, is summed up in this sublime generalization :
" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and
soul and mind and strength, and thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself."
Thou shalt love thyself with a rational love ; with a love
that prompts thee to seek the completion and fulfilment of
the nature with which thy Maker has endowed thee ; with
a love that restrains thee from degrading and imbruting
thyself.
Thou shalt love thy neighbor with an equal love ; be
holding and honoring in him the same divine humanity
which is thine own birthright ; interfering in no way with
the development of his manhood, but helping him, with
all wise ministries, to become what God meant him to be.
Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, who is the Life of
all that lives, the Source of all love, and the Archetype of
all perfect ideals, with a supreme and perfect love.
This is the Christian law which the minister is to preach
with all good fidelity and patience, whether men will hear
or forbear. He is to apply this law intelligently and un
compromisingly to all the interests of life ; he is to show
men that this is indeed the way of life, and that there is
no other safe way. He will find that it is a very compre
hensive law ; he will slowly come to understand what the
Psalmist meant when he said, " Thy commandment is
exceeding broad."
The penalty of the law as well as its precept he is also
ITUTT AND ALTAR 111
to declare. As the law is grounded in the nature of things,
its penalties are natural. They are simply the fruit of our
own doings, the effects of causes which we ourselves
have set in motion. This is the fact which the preacher
has to emphasize. The old forensic conceptions still hold
sway over the majority of minds; the notion that penalty
is an arbitrary infliction which waits to be visited upon the
transgressor at some future assize, and that the judge who
inflicts it is clement, and may easily be persuaded to remit
it, this is the popular idea with respect to the punish
ment of sin. One great part of the duty of the Christian
teacher is to show men how immediate and inevitable are
the consequences of evil doing; how sure is the law of the
spiritual harvest, that he who sows to the flesh will reap
corruption.
Hut there is a gospel as well as a law to preach, a gospel
of forgiveness and salvation. That gospel is that there is
love as well as law in the universe, and that love is the
deepest fact in the universe, the foundation, indeed, of all
law. For while the retributions of natural law can never
be set aside, the infinite love is always seeking to restrain
the sinner from the ways of disobedience, to lead him into
the ways of life and peace, to re-enforce him in every struggle
to overcome the evil, to redeem him from the bondage of
corruption and to lead him into the glorious liberty of the
children of (iod. And there are also remedial forces which
the divine love knows how to use, by which the damage
wrought in our natures by sin may be repaired : a blessed
vis mrdicatrix, for the spiritual nature, as well as for the
physical, by which wounds may be healed and wasted
powers restored. How it is that this saving influence of
the divine love finds its way into human hearts and lives
is a mystery; all life is a mystery. Hut this is the one
fact that Jesus came into the world to bear witness to and
to make men believe, that their Father in heaven loves
them and knows how to help them in overcoming the evil ;
that he can help them when they have lost the power to
help themselves ; that where their sin has abounded his
grace can much more abound ; that there is hope for the
112 CHRISTIAN 1 ASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
degraded, succor for the tempted, life for the dying. This
gospel has been told in a great many ways ; it has often
been encumbered with all sorts of theological impedimenta ;
but the substance of it has been the message of all the great
preachers of all the ages, and the world needs it to-day
as much as ever it did. It is the men who have a gos
pel to preach, and who know how to strip it of its glosses
and its excrescences, and to bring the light and the joy and
the hope of it home to human hearts, whom the hungry
world hears to-day most gladly. A literary man of the
present day bears a striking testimony to this truth. " Much
Christian symbolism," he says, "is doubtless entirely fanci
ful; but the great central symbols are as exactly records of
fact as any proven scientific proposition. The dogma of
Conversion, the New Birth, for example, is no mere figure
of Mysticism, but a psychological fact daily illustrated in
the lives of thousands of persons. The change is not ne
cessarily brought about by confessedly religious agencies ;
most frequently it comes of the mysterious workings of
natural love, but by whatever chance influence it is set
in motion, the fact of its daily occurrence is undeniable. A
man is a brute to-day, and in a week s time, without any
apparent cause, he is seen to be undergoing a mystical
change ; a new light is in his face, and he is every way a
new creature. This is no invention of Christianity, but
simply a natural process which Christianity has included
in its body of spiritual doctrine. . . . What also is the
dogma that man cannot be saved of himself but a
o
recognition of the obvious fact that he did not make him
self, and the resulting doctrine of Grace but a more im
pressive way of stating man s entire dependence for his gifts
and his fortunes on a power beyond his own control?"
But the preacher has a message, not only for the individ
ual, but for the society in which he lives. The Gospel of
the Kingdom is also committed to him. The Gospel of
the Kingdom ! The breadth and length and depth and
height of it are yet but imperfectly measured. A glorious
gospel it is, though some have never heard it, that God is
1 The Religion of a Literary Man, by Richard Le Gallieniie, pp. 75-77.
PULPIT AND ALTAR
organizing on earth a divine society ; that the New Jerusa
lem, whose walls are salvation and whose gates are praise,
is rising here upon sure foundations ; that there is no need
to say Lo here, or Lo there, because the Kingdom of God
is among us ! The power to discern this Kingdom ; to
recognize the silent forces which are building it ; to inter
pret its legislation ; to identify himself with it, heart and
soul, is one of the characteristics of the scribe instructed
unto the Kingdom. One of the facts that he needs to get
most clearly fixed in his mind is that the Christ is rightly
named, that he is the King; that lie does give to human
society its law ; that it is only when men learn to conform
their political and industrial order to his teachings that
they find peace and welfare. Christianity is not merely
for Sundays and prayer-meetings, for closet and death-bed ;
it is for shop and office, for counting-room and factory,
for kitchen and drawing-room, for forum and council-
chamber. Unless it has the power to rule all these multi
farious affairs of men it is less than nothing and vanity;
the sooner the world is done with it, the better. The main
reason why it has failed, thus far, to gain the allegiance of
the whole world is that its adherents have contented them
selves with claiming for it only a secondary and remote
relation to human affairs. Grievously is Christianity dis
paraged when it is represented merely as a scheme for
getting human beings safely out of this world. When men
begin to comprehend that the law of love is not a senti
mental-maxim, but that it is what the apostle .lames has
named it, the Royal Law, the supreme regulative principle
of human society, and when they begin to make their
business and their politics conform to this law, they will
discover that Christianity is not a failure.
It is the business of the ministers and witnesses of Christ
in the world to lift np his law into its rightful regnancy,
and to preach the Gospel of his Kingdom. It is a Gospel,
the good news that the world needs to hear. The whole
creation groans and travails together until now, under the
burden of strife and confusion which it has heaped up for
itself through the long ages of greed and force and compe-
8
114 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
tition, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God,
for the day when it shall appear that men are of divine
origin, made to be ruled by a heavenly law ; and to this
groaning world the tidings of one who is able to compose
its strife and to hush its tumult ought to be welcome.
Doubtless it may be hard to make the multitude believe
the message, but that is no reason why the messenger
should hesitate to speak it. And no man can tell how soon
the day Avill come, when the meaning of it and the joy and
glory of it shall burst upon the world with convincing
power. For as the lightning cometh forth from the east,
and is seen even unto the west, so shall be the coming of
the Son of man.
Such is the substance of the twofold message which the
ministers of Christ are commissioned to deliver, the word
of salvation for the man, the gospel of the Kingdom of
God.
It would not be difficult to find, in the treatises upon
Pastoral Theology, statements of the relation of the pastor
and his message to the world outside the church which
would not agree with the foregoing. It may be well to
consider some of these statements. Vinet, in his classical
treatise, puts the question thus : -
" It remains to ask what, apart from his pastoral rela
tions, the pastor should be in his relations to general so
ciety. Does he belong only to his parish ? Does he belong
only to religion ? " In the light of all that has been con
tended for in this discussion we might answer at once,
that the pastor does not need to go outside of his pastoral
relations in order that he should be a very active force in
general society. If the church is one of the organs of the
social organism, vitally related to every part of it, then the
pastoral relations to general society are of the very closest
and most influential character. The question " Does he
belong only to his parish?" is much like the question,
" Does the finger belong only to the hand, and not to the
whole body?" Vinet is not wholly oblivious of this fact,
for he goes on : " It appears at first that, as religion adopts
the whole of human life in order to elevate it, the pastor
PULPIT AND ALTAR 115
who is the most perfect representative of religion ought,
in the same degree, to be representative of human life. . . .
We agree to all this, and we acknowledge that duties may
vary with times, but we must make the following reserva
tions. Religion is a specialty. It embraces everything,
but it is not everything; it is itself. To connect itself
usefully with the things of life it must separate itself from
them. Christianity has been in no haste to mix itself with
the leaven of the people, or, when it has done so, it lias
been dynamically, as a spirit. It should be the same with
every individual. He must be well rooted at the centre
to spread his shade over the circumference. Let the min
ister be first of all occupied with his own affairs ; let him
be solely a Christian, and a minister , as a consequence
his branches will spread out and his beneficent shade ex
tend itself over all the affairs of society." 1
In a later paragraph Vinet makes his meaning a little
clearer. " The minister may extend his ministry by con
ferring external advantages ; still when there are others
to do this, let him confine himself to his calling. He may
employ himself in agriculture when it is necessary, also
in schools and in religious music ; but before everything
he should be about his ministry. Nevertheless, when it
is his duty to act, as did Oberlin and Felix Neff, by all
means let him do it without hesitation. :
With this compare the quaint words of old George Her
bert: "The Country Parson is full of all knowledge.
They say it is an ill mason that refuseth any stone; and
there is no knowledge but in a skilful hand serves either
O
positively as it is, or else to illustrate some oilier knowl
edge. He condescends even to the knowledge of tillage
and pasturage, and makes great use of them in teaching,
because people by what they understand are best led to
what they understand not." 3
Two questions are here suggested. Whether a min
ister should make himself familiar witli j (radical affairs,
so that he may instruct his people and set them a good
1 The ulotjie Pastorale., pp. 169, 170. " //>/</., 170.
3 The Country Parson, chap. iii.
116 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
example in their trades and their domestic life, as Ober-
lin and Felix Neff did, is one question. Doubtless this
is one of the duties of many a missionary; and it may
easily be that practical skill of this kind would often add
to the influence of ministers on the frontiers, and in the
rural parishes. Nevertheless, the counsel of Vinet is sound,
as a general rule, that the minister had better not try to
be a jack at all trades ; his function is that of the spiritual
leader, and not the business counsellor.
What Herbert says respecting the value of such prac
tical knowledge for purposes of illustration is obvious
enough. Analogies are not always proofs, but they help
wonderfully to let in the light. None who sit at the feet
of the great Teacher will fail to understand this. The
common men who listened to Jesus were astonished at his
doctrine, because he showed them the truth of the spirit
mirrored in the life with which they were familiar. But
the minister s business is not only to find proofs of spiritual
law in the natural world, it is also his business to make
the spiritual law regnant in the natural world; to show
how all the realms of life must be brought under the domi
nation of the principles of Christianity ; and if this is his
task the kind of separation for which Vinet, in some of the
sentences above, seems to be pleading is not possible. And
yet what Vinet has said about specialization contains a
truth, as we have seen. 1 The confusion of the thought
arises from the failure to distinguish between specializa
tion and separation, in the inability to see that the special
ization of functions does not imply any separation of life,
but rather a vital union with each other of the parts thus
specialized. The organic conception of society clears up
all these confusions. One cannot, in these days, be " solely
a Christian and a minister," any more than the hand can
be solely a hand, or the eye solely an eye. The life of the
body is in all the organs of the body ; and each of them
ministers to all the rest, and finds its life and its health in
the life and health of the whole. All this, Vinet him
self did not fail to see, for in other sentences following
1 Chap. ii.
PULPIT AND ALTAR 117
those quoted he states with much clearness the essential
truths for which we are here contending. " In short," he
says, "let us not condemn beforehand all extension of the
ministry, nor undertake to define its limit; we think that,
when the times call for it, it is capable of an indefinite
extension; but these times have their signs which it is
necessary to attend to and understand." J And again, in a
student s report of a later lecture of Vinet appended to
Skinner s translation of the T/ti olot/ie J / xtom/c, is this
weighty counsel : "In a wider sense we may say that the
ology attracts all to itself, that it subordinates to itself all
the sciences, and receives from them their tribute 1 . And
without disputing as to the word theology/ consider that
there is not a development of the human mind which does
not either benefit or injure religion. As it borders on every
thing so everything borders on it. It must embrace all
life, under penalty, if it does not, of being banished from it.
This is true now more than ever. Our time, notwithstand
ing its chaotic aspects, is still a time of organization.
Piety only can ory/anze the world, taut to lie nr</<i nizt d the
world must be knov:n. Preaching, accordingly, that of the
world and of books, must undergo some modification. The
minister must know many things, not to be cumbered by
them, but to serve himself of them with reference to the
one thing needful. The more we sift evervthing. the more
O CT
we shall be able to bring into captivity every thought to
the obedience of Christ. The great awakenings have all
been promoted by science. The Reformers were the learned
men of their age. Unenlightened men have never suc
ceeded in anything. 2
Here, surely, is the gist of the whole matter. We need
ask for the pulpit no wider scope than that which Vinet
here concedes to it. We must not say that all truth comes
within the proper purview of the preacher. Then are
whole realms of science and art and industry and finance
with which he is not called directly to deal ; he is not
commissioned to investigate the properties and laws ol
1 Chap. ii. p. 173.
- Theoloqie Pastorale, Skinner s tr;iii>l;itiuii, p. 122.
118 CHRISTIAN PASTOIt AMD WORKING CHURCH
matter, nor to teach men how to plough or weave or build;
it is only when these interests and occupations come into
direct relation to the interests of character that he has any
concern with them. He has no call to instruct the manu
facturer as to what kind of machinery he shall put into his
mill ; but he has a very loud call to study the human rela
tions which exist between the manufacturer and his men,
because in these relations character is deeply affected on
both sides, and the interests of the Kingdom are vitally
concerned.
As emphasizing the prophetic remark of the French
teacher quoted above, respecting the extension of the min
istry for which the times may call, take these serious words
of one who lately fell, greatly lamented, upon the threshold
of his work as a teacher of teachers : " Industrial changes,
added to the change of population, have modified our social
customs, individual habits, ways of thought. The frame
work of society is subtly altered. Interests are isolated,
men have grown apart, a common feeling is lost, mutual
indifference succeeds, classes are strongly marked and
separated. The simple conditions of the past are gone;
relations grow strained ; new social problems arise ; ethical
questions become multiplied and complex. Differences in
thought and life growing out of differences of inheritance,
birth, training, and association are not lightly overcome.
Men misunderstand one another, and a common standard
is lost. . . . The church cannot remain untouched by these
changes all around her ; she must hear and heed the call
of each neAV occasion. If her members grow lethargic, it is
the pastor s task to awaken them, and set more clearly be
fore their eyes the duties of to-day. In each community,
along all lines of modern movement, in society, business,
politics, the highest Christian principle, as already under
stood, needs to be made effective and paramount by the
influence of an aroused, united church. Religious prob
lems, also more complex than in other days, demand for
their solution larger intelligence and charity, sympathy
and patience. The diverse elements in every church, all
ages and all classes, must be not simply harmonized, but
I ULI IT AM) AI/l AIi 110
iftod into some broader union, knit together as members
of one body, by diverse yet mutual service. Organization,
so potent a factor in all our work to-day, must be extended
here, and informed with life, until the church has brought
her special blessing near the whole community and home
to every heart. 1
Having thus determined what the general trend of the
minister s teaching must be, we may attend to certain prac
tical questions concerning his administration of the truth.
Whether and to what extent questions of casuistry
should be discussed in the pulpit is an interesting inquiry.
That the pulpit should clearly inculcate the principles of
good conduct is unquestioned. Let the business of your
sermons be," says Jeremy Taylor, "to preach holy life,
obedience, peace, love among neighbors, heart v love, to
love as the old Christians did and the new should; to do
hurt to no man, to do good to every man : for in these
things the honor of (iod consists, and the Kingdom of the
Lord .Jesus. "- But George Herbert counsels an applica
tion of the Christian law to life which is much more specific.
In his description of the Cot /if/ // J ni xou he savs : "He
greatly esteems also cases of conscience, wherein he is
much versed. And, indeed, herein is the greatest ability
of a parson, to lead his people exactly in the ways of truth,
so that they neither decline to the right hand nor to the
left. Neither, indeed, does he think these a slight thing.
For every one hath not digested when it is a sin to take
something for money lent, or when not; when it is fault to
discover another s fault, and when not ; when the affection
of the soul in desiring and procuring increase of means or
honor be a sin of covetousness, and when not ; when the
appetites of the body in eating, drinking, sleep and the
pleasure that comes from sleep lie sins of gluttony, drunk
enness, sloth, lust, and when not; and so in many cir
cumstances of action. Now if a shepherd know not which
grass will bane, and which not. how is he lit to be a shep
herd? Wherefore the parson hath thoroughly canvassed
1 Tlir t liristirtn Minixtri/, by Theodore C. IY:i-r, pp. :>l-34.
2 "Advice to Clergy," in The L /eryyman s Instructor, p. !t2.
120 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
all the particulars of human actions, at least all those
which he observe th are most incident to the parish." 1
Such a statement seems forcible, and yet it may be ques
tioned whether the Christian teacher would wisely under
take to discuss, with much fulness, the details of human
conduct. The New Testament method seems to be the
enforcement of general principles, rather than practical
rules. The Book of Leviticus in the New Testament, so
strongly desiderated by one strenuous character, does not
appear to have been written. It is, however, difficult to
enforce principles without giving some illustrations of their
working. The preacher must not be so abstract that no
body shall understand him. Sometimes it is clearly neces
sary to make a definite application of Christian principles
to the affairs of common life. Especially in these days,
when a new system of industry has completely revolu
tionized human relations, the bearing of the Christian law
upon the new conditions needs to be carefully explained.
The question as to the right division of the word of
truth between the interests that are more personal and
spiritual and those that are more public and social is some
times difficult. The pulpit that becomes nothing but a
platform for the discussion of sociological questions soon
loses its power ; the pulpit which reflects only a cloistered
piety is of little use in this generation. The problem is to
fuse a genuine faith with a broad philanthropy ; to keep
the people in the closest fellowship with God and with
their neighbors ; to fill the hours of the life that now is
with the power of an endless life. He who seeks to spirit
ualize the whole of life must have the power to bring
home to men the things of the spirit; and his ministry
must be one that shall make real to his people the power
of prayer, the reality of faith. How he shall order his
ministrations so that neither of these interests shall be
neglected is a serious problem for every minister. There
can be no hard and fast rule for this matter, but it may
sometimes be well to devote the morning services to themes
more closely relating to the personal life, and the even-
1 Country Parson, chap. v.
PULPIT AND ALTAR 121
ing to a wider application of Christian principles, or to
the discussion of subjects germane to the progress of the
kingdom of heaven.
In America, at least, the problem of the evening service
is one of considerable difficulty. In England and Scot
land the embarrassments seem to IK- less : the churches
there are fairly well attended at the second service. ( )n
the continent of Europe, many of the Protestant churches
appear to have abandoned the evening service: and the
tendency is strongly in this direction in America. In
most of our churches the service is thinly attended, and
the question of its maintenance weighs heavily on the
minds of the pastors. Where it has not been abandoned,
various devices have been resorted to for increasing the
congregation, praise services, musical services, spectacu
lar services with lanterns, and such like. ( hie despairing
pastor, of one of the larger cities, has lately grasped at tin-
device of employing young lady ushers as bait to catch the
young men. It would not be dilHcult to hit upon a less
objectionable method. If the great concern is to get the
young men into the church, a free luncheon with liquid
refreshments would be more effectual and less indecent.
It must be admitted that all the plans for increasing the
evening congregation which have the tendency to turn
the church into a place of amusement are of doubtful
utility. The churches cannot compete in the amusement
line with the Sunday theatres: and when the churches
admit that Sunday evening mav lie properlv devoted to
amusement, their congregations will resort to the theatres.
In all conscience it must be allowed that the people of our
cities the Christian people even have amusement
enough on the other six days, and are in no manifest need
of amusement on Sunday evenings. The attempt to make
the services attractive, therefore, in the sense of making
them amusing or diverting, is. to sav the least, a mistaken
policy. Nor is the plan of making them ^ ///*/ /"///// at
tractive anv more legitimate. The service ol the church
ought to be decorous and beautiful. " Ket the beauty ol
the Lord our God be upon us," is always an appropriate
122 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
prayer for the Lord s house. But the element of beauty is
always to be kept in strict subordination to the ethical and
spiritual elements ; it is not to the aesthetic nature that the
services of the church make their appeal ; and the moment
it becomes evident that pleasure, no matter of how refined
a sort, has been exalted in these services above serious
thought, the power and the glory of the church are gone.
It must be said, therefore, that the minister makes a
serious mistake who seeks to furnish men diversion on any
part of the Lord s day. The church may, under certain
circumstances, be called on other days of the week to be a
purveyor of amusement ; but the use of its Sunday ser
vices for this purpose is nothing less than the prostitution
of a high office.
There is no reason, however, why the evening service
may not be made deeply interesting, and, in a strong sense
of the word, attractive, without appealing to the love of
diversion. There are plenty of themes which the minis
ter, in his public teaching, can make interesting. Most
men are thoroughly interested in the social questions of
the day ; they are, indeed, the burning questions ; and all
these questions have, as we have seen, a spiritual side ;
character is profoundly affected by them ; the coming of
the kingdom of God depends upon the answer we give to
them. The discussion of these questions from this point
of view is, therefore, the minister s business. The applica
tion of the Christian law to the solution of these ques
tions is good work for Sunday evening ; and such work as
this will be found legitimately attractive, especially to
men, who are apt to be in a small minority in our Sunday
congregations. The labor question, in all its moral as
pects ; the questions of poverty and pauperism ; the treat
ment of the criminal classes ; the question of the public
health, especially as it relates to the welfare of the people
living in neglected districts ; the question of education,
with particular reference to its effects upon character ; the
relation of municipal government to public morality; the
ethical bearings of political measures and methods, all
such topics as these, if they are intelligently and temper-
PULIM1 AND ALTAR 123
ately treated, will appeal strongly to thoughtful men and
women.
Objection is sometimes made to the discussion of these
topics in the pulpit on the ground that they are men;
secularities. Two classes of people make these objections,
those who hold the old notion that religion is mainlv
concerned with another world, and those who do not wish
to know what are the applications of the Christian law to
the business of this life, because they fear that it would
interfere with their gains or pleasures. Such objections
constitute the strongest justification of this kind of preach
ing. The pulpit mav, indeed, be secularized; but it is
not secularized so much by the kind of topics treated as
by the manner of their treatment. Jesus dealt, in his
teaching, with many common things, seed-sowing, fish
ing, bread-making, but his teaching was not secularized
thereby. One can treat the doctrine of justification by
faith in such a way as thoroughly to secularize it ; it has
been so treated thousands of times in the pulpit; it has
been represented primarily as a commercial transaction;
the spiritual element has been virtually eliminated from it.
On the other hand, one can preach upon the wages ques
tion in such a way as thoroughly to spiritualize it ; the
divine elements entering into this relation may be so pre
sented that masters and men may see in it something sac
ramental. "The discussion of doctrine, the determining
of duty," says Dr. (ieorge Hodges, "mav be no more relig
ious than the transactions of the Stock Kxchange;the
distinction between the sacred and the secular does not
depend on the subjects that men talk about, nor on the
places where men meet to talk about them, nor on the
profession or the position of the debaters. An election is
not made sacred bv the fact that the people are voting for
a bishop, nor is it made secular bv the fact that the people
are voting for a congressman. A good many political
speeches have been really more religious than a good
many sermons." 1 It is of course the spiritual side of
all these questions that the minister is to present; he is
1 Christianity betiran Sundm/a, p. 174.
124 CHRISTIAN PASTOU AND WOKK1NG CHUKCH
to show how the Christian law bears upon these problems;
he is to indicate the way in which a Christian man will
act when confronted by them. The idea that the Chris
tian pulpit is secularized by such uses of it is a singular
misconception. " There is a social psychology," says
Vinet, as there is a social physiology. It forms part of
the domain which we have just opened to the preacher.
Nothing is more natural and more easy than to connect
all providential institutions with the idea of God; to
show, for example, that from the beginning of the Bible
and of the world, God was the Founder of society and of
civilization by the almost simultaneous institution of the
family, of the Word of law and of labor. These objects,
which are very much neglected, and which at the same
time give a sort of religious shock to the hearers, are
comprehended in the preceding one. In truth, institu
tions, manners, and, with them, industry, arts, civilization,
multiform developments, flow from human nature. All
truth leads to truth. Christ, without doubt, is the centre
of all truth ; but to show that Christ is the centre,
we must speak of the circle, and of the most remote
circumference." :
It is quite true that preaching of this kind makes some
unusual demands upon the intelligence of the minister.
To speak instructively upon topics of this nature requires
careful study and close observation. A minister may
easily lose the respect of thoughtful men by his treat
ment of such themes. There is good reason, therefore,
why much time should be given, in studies prepara
tory for the ministry, to subjects of this class. In many
of the theological seminaries they have recently been in
troduced, and the proportion of time given to them might
profitably be increased.
The relation of such discourses to the problem of the
evening service is the special point now under discussion ;
and the sum of what is to be said about it is this : that
the minister who deals with these themes wisely and intel
ligently, never forgetting his divine commission, always
1 TIomilcticK. part i., section i., chap. ii.
PULPIT AND ALTAR 12")
keeping the spiritual values and the laws of the Kingdom
of God clearly in view, will be obeying, in this, the com
mand to make good proof of his ministrv.
Events are frequently occurring the significance of
which may be profitably impressed upon the hearer. If
God is now in his world every day, the things that are
happening here should be of some importance to those
who witness them. There may easily lie a straining after
the novel and the sensational in such presentations, but
there; can be no worse sensationalism than that which is
often exhibited in the treatment of Scripture texts. The
sensationalism is not in the subject, it is in the mind of
the preacher. Regeneration may be treated in a perfectly
sensational fashion, and the financial panic mav furnish
the theme of a reverential and earnest sermon.
" Connecting general truths, savs \ inet, kk with certain
and well known facts is doubtless a means of reanimating
general truth, and, on the other hand, it is giving to parti
cular facts, which are, often misjudged or unobserved, the
form of instruction. If the preacher mav say God in
structs us bv events (God also preaches occasional ser
mons) why should he adopt the absurd inference that he
ought never to speak of events? Undoubtedly, indeed,
the substance of preaching is not that which is transient,
it is that which does not pass away; but this does not
imply that we deprive it of this character by using it to
connect with passing events truths which do not pass
away. The hearer brings into the temple all the small
money of his particular impressions that it may become
history. He who preaches in this manner, that is to say,
in the spirit which generalizes the particular, which eter
nizes the temporary, may discourse of circumstances. A\ e
forbid it to the man who only regards it as a means of
stimulating our dull curiosity."
Other lines of pulpit work may be found useful for
this purpose. History has fruitful lessons for the wise
preacher. The great events which have signalized the
presence in the world of that Power, not ourselves, that
1 Humili-tirs, p. S."> ; Skinner s translation.
126 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
makes for righteousness," may furnish good themes of
Sunday evening discourses. It is of great importance to
present, now and then, such careful pictures of the life of
those "good old times" to which pessimists are always
harking back, and of the people then called saints, as shall
make evident the progress of God s kingdom in the world.
The best course of lectures upon the Evidences of Chris
tianity that any minister could preach would be a course
which traced in outline the history of law and govern
ment, of family life, of social life, of industry and trade,
of language and literature, of philosophy and religion,
through the Christian era, showing, by representative
facts, picked up all along the ages, how the ethical stand
ards have been steadily but surely rising in all these
departments, and how very inferior, morally, were those
" good old times " to the times in which we live.
The preacher should lay hold on the help of the great
poets. It may be plausibly asserted .that the best theolo
gian of the nineteenth century is Alfred Tennyson. Brown
ing is a more subtle analyst of the soul, but his ethical
intuitions are less sure. Wordsworth may almost be called
the leader in this age of the intellectual movement which
has banished a dismal deism, and restored the living
God to his world. Lowell and Longfellow and Whittier
have all expressed, in words that will not die, many of the
deepest truths of the spiritual realm. Studies of these
and other poets who have made these greatest themes
their own, bringing out the testimony which they have
borne to the spiritual laws, and pointing out what may
appear to be marks of disproportion and defect in their
message as preachers may, with skilful handling, be very
instructive. A more impressive statement of the sublime
probability of the Incarnation it would be difficult to
find than some passages in Browning s " Saul," or the
closing words of " The Epistle of Karshish." The best
that man can say about immortality is said in Tennyson s
" Wages," while his poem " The Higher Pantheism " puts
into words that cannot be forgotten that truth of the
immanence of God which is leading in the new era.
IT LI IT AND ALTAI: 1:>7
Most fruitful of all these lines of study, as \ve have
seen already, is Biography. It is the living epistle that
has in it the power of God and the wisdom of (iod. Life
is the light of men ; it was in the beginning, is now, and
ever shall be. Careful studies of the great characters of
the Bible, male and female, putting each of them into his
environment and illustrating through them the laws <l
conduct and the rise of the ethical standards, will be
found profitable. Great historical personages, like Con-
stantiue and Ilildebrand and Savonarola and \Viclif and
lluss and Luther and Cromwell and Wesley and ( ban
ning, offer luminous lessons.
The legitimacy of such topics will be made manifest by
their proper treatment. If the ethical and spiritual pur
pose do but control the preacher, they will commend
themselves to the most devout of his hearers. A minister
whose main purpose is to amuse his audience would, of
course, make very unprofitable use of themes like these.
So would he make an unprofitable use of any proposition
of dogmatic theology. A man whose strongest motives
are artistic or literary might also present such subjects in
a way that would do little good. But the true preacher,
the man who is seeking in these events, these characters,
these testimonies of the spirit, for some word of (iod which
he can bring home to the hearts of his hearers, may make
them serve the highest purposes in a very effective way.
If all life is to be sanctified, such an ethical and spiritual
criticism of events, characters, creations of art, would
seem to be imperative. Discourses of this character dis
cover these essential spiritual truths in regions of life
where their presence had not been suspected by the aver
age hearer, and help him to understand how pervasive
and universal are the principles of Christianity.
These suggestions are offered, primarily, as bearing
upon the problem of the Sunday evening service. They
are not, indeed, limited in their application, but inasmuch
as the maintenance of this service has been found dilli-
cult, there may be more willingness to consider methods
of this nature in connection with it. In short, it may be
128 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
said that the modern minister, who will put his mind into
his work, can make his Sunday evening ministrations
interesting and attractive in the highest sense, without
worshipping the idols of the theatre, or pandering in the
least degree to the craving for diversion. It will take
work, hard work, to treat effectively such themes, but
such work greatly strengthens the preacher s influence
among thinking men. The only way to maintain the
pulpit in the rank and dignity that belong to it is to hold
it steadily to its own highest purpose.
A question of some practical importance relates to the
uniform use of a text from the Bible in pulpit discourse.
If the subject is some current event, or some modern
personality, shall a text of Scripture always be taken as
the foundation of the discourse ?
Most of the authorities in homiletics are emphatic in
saying that no minister should ever speak in the pulpit
without founding his remarks upon some passage of Holy
Writ. It is the minister s function, they say, to explain
and enforce the truth of the Bible ; the word which he
speaks has authority over men because it is not his word,
but the word of God; it is therefore a tactical blunder,
to say nothing worse, for him to divorce his message from
this source of authority, and give it in his own name.
" Preach the Word," it is said, is the minister s commis
sion ; and there is nothing for him to do as a public
teacher but to expound the truth of the Bible. There is
no need that he should exceed his commission. There is
truth enough in the Bible to cover every part of the realm
of human conduct; and the minister will never be at a
loss to find a text to fit any message which he is called
to deliver.
There is much force in these suggestions, and yet they
come a little short of the entire truth. The minister is
called to preach the Word of God, but we have no
warrant for identifying the Word of God with the Scrip
tures of the Old and New Testaments. These contain
a most precious portion of the Word of God, but by no
means the whole of it. Other words of God, of the very
PULPIT AND ALTAR 129
last importance, are found outside the Bible. Through
the whole course of history God has been revealing him
self to men ; he has never left himself without a witness
in the world ; and we do not well to ignore all these
manifold revelations. It is doubtless true that we can
generally find some passage of Scripture which we can
connect with the present revelation ; and a great deal
of ingenuity lias been exercised in making such adapta
tions. But it is a question whether this straining
after accommodations of biblical words to the events of
to-day adds any impressiveness to the teaching of Provi
dence, or any sanctity to the old Revelation. It is often
painfully evident that a text has been dragged in by the
hair of the head; that its relation to the discourse is of
the most artificial nature. The Bible is not honored
when it is treated in this way. Professor Phelps gives
several illustrations of this manner of using texts, some
of which he mildly approves. "Professor Park," lie tells
us, " once preached a sermon on the value of theological
seminaries upon the text, That the soul be without
knowledge, it is not good. .... From the text, Prove
all things, hold fast that which is good, the late Pro
fessor Edwards once preached a discourse on the state
of the Roman Catholic religion in Italy. On the follow
ing Sabbath, in the same pulpit, a sermon from the same
text was preached on education societies. Some years
ago, on the occasion of a famine in Ireland, a charitv
sermon was preached in Boston from the text, I saw
the tents of Cushan in affliction/ A Sabbath-school mis
sionary preached a discourse in Richmond, some years
ago, on the text, The field is the world. The object
of the sermon was to give some information respecting
the establishment of Sabbath-schools in Minnesota. The
result was the request for the sum of twenty-five dollars
for a Sabbath-school library." 1 Homiletical acrobatics of
this sort are at least of doubtful propriety. Nor does there
appear to be any good reason why. if there is a famine in
Ireland, and the minister thinks it good to speak about it,
1 The Tlieory of Preaching, lent. Lx.
9
130 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
he should not do so, without hunting up some Scripture
text, more or less pertinent, to tack his remarks upon.
The event is the proper text ; his business is to draw the
Word of God out of that, and bring it home to the hearts
of men.
If the examples of biblical preaching are consulted, they
will afford very little warrant for the modern theory that
a minister must always speak from a text of Scripture.
Several of Christ s discourses are reported, and not one of
them is founded on a text. In the most considerable and
formal of them he mentions several texts only to repeal
and set aside the maxims they contain. The teachings of
Christ were almost always founded on events which were
happening before his eyes ; on similitudes drawn from
facts and laws of nature ; on the circumstances of daily
life. The same thing is true of the preaching of the
apostles. Stephen s address before the Sanhedriii is a
re sume of Hebrew history, but it is not the exposition of
a text. Peter s sermon on the day of Pentecost is a recita
tion of current history, into which Scripture is woven for
illustrative purposes, but it is neither an expository nor
a topical sermon. We have several of Paul s discourses,
and none of them was preached from a biblical text. On
the Areopagus, before the Athenian philosophers, he took
for his text an inscription which he had just found on a
heathen altar. The modern homiletical rules are not
drawn from biblical models.
That the minister should speak God s word, and not
his own, seems to some persons to be an end of contro
versy on this question. But what minister, let us ask, for
a moment imagines that he has any word of his own to
speak ? Any teacher who should intimate that his doc
trine was his own peculiar possession, a nostrum of his
own concoction, would at once write himself down a char
latan. All truth is of God, and should be spoken rever
ently by those who fear him, and boldly by those who trust
in him. The fact that a preacher does not take a text
must not be considered as a sign that he does not wish and
intend to declare the truth of God.
PULPIT AND ALT A It 131
The homiletical teachers are not all agreed upon the
proposition that the Scripture text is indispensable. " I
do not," says the prince of them all, -regard the use
of a text as essential to pulpit discourse. What gives a
Christian character to a sermon is not the use of a text,
but the spirit of the preacher. A sermon inav be Chris
tian, edifying, instructing, without containing even one
passage of Holy Scripture. It maybe very biblical with
out a text, and with a text not biblical at all. A passage
of Scripture has a thousand times served as a passport for
ideas that were not in it; and we have seen preachers
amusing themselves, as it were, by prefixing to their com
position very strong biblical texts for the sake of the pleas
ure of emasculating them. We have witnessed a formal
immolation of the Divine Word. When the text is only
a deceptive signal, when a steeple surmounts a playhouse.
it would doubtless be better to remove the signal and
throw down the steeple." 1 And one of the great (ierman
writers. Klaus Harms, is even more positive: May we be
permitted to ask if preaching on texts is founded as much
in reason as on custom? May we venture to express the
opinion that the theme and the text approach each other
only in order to their mutual exclusion of each other;
that a theme docs not need a text, and that a text does
not need a theme? May we dare even to say that tin-
usage of preaching from a text has done injury, not only
to the perfection of preaching as an art, but to Christian
knowledge also, and what is yet more serious, to the
Christian life?" 2 Vinet, in commenting upon this passage
of Harms, is inclined to admit its truth. But such a
sweeping condemnation of the practice is quite as tar
from the truth as is the insistence upon it as in all cases
indispensable. For, after all is said, the Bible must In
to every preacher the Book of religion. All the central
facts and principles with which he deals are there, and
some of the most central of them are nowhere else. He
who is himself The Word is there revealed. His life and
1 Vinct s Homilftics, part i., sect, i., chap. iii.
2 Pastoraltheoloyie, vol. i., p. 65.
132 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
his words must be the one great theme of the preacher.
The exposition and enforcement of the truth as it is in
Jesus is his high calling. Most sermons of a devout and
studious minister are apt to grow directly out of some
portion of this written revelation. There need be no hard
and fast rule about it ; but this will be the natural con
sequence of the kind of stud}- and devotion required of
every faithful minister of Christ.
A practical question for the busy pastor of this genera
tion is whether or not sermons may be repeated. It has
been the custom of the great preachers to repeat the same
sermon very of ten. AVhitefield had comparatively few ser
mons ; Mr. Moody repeats the same wherever he goes ;
the same has been true of all the great evangelists ; and
when the polity provides for an itinerant ministry this is
undoubtedly the general rule. But the repetition of the
sermon to the same congregation presents a somewhat
different question. Even here, however, some great ex
amples warrant a judicious repetition, at sufficient intervals,
of sermons carefully prepared. " Dr. Chalmers," says
Bishop Carpenter, " was fond of preaching his old sermons.
He did so openly, giving notice of his intention ; but the
crowds still came to hear from his lips even sermons which
were in print." 1 Bishop Phillips Brooks often preached
old sermons, and the piles of manuscript and notes in the
closets of most of the great preachers would be found
bearing inscriptions of numerous dates and places. There
seems to be no good reason why a sermon, which embodies
important thought, which has cost the preacher many hours
of painful labor, and which embodies, perhaps, the reflec
tion and experience of a lifetime, should not be given
more than once to the same congregation. Congregations
are constantly changing, and many will hear it on the
second delivery who did not hear it on the first. And it
is safe to say that, after an interval of five years, not one
in one hundred of the regular congregation would clearly
recall even such sermons as those of Phillips Brooks. A
stranger hearing the preacher once would be more apt to
1 Lectures on Preaching, p. 9.
PULPIT AND ALTAI: 133
remember the text and some portions of the sermon ; those
who hear him regularly, and who are accustomed to his
modes of presentation, would be much less likely to retain
the form of the presentation definitely in their memory.
But it seems rather absurd to suppose that, even if the
sermon were remembered, no good could be derived from
it by the auditor who heard it the second time. Those
of us who possess the printed sermons of Robertson or
Brooks or Mo/.ley or Buslmell, are not, probably, con
tented with reading them once. Such sermons as Hrooks s
"The Light of the World," or "The Bread of Lite," as
O
Mozley s "The Unspoken Judgment of Mankind." or
"Our Duty to Equals," as Buslmell s " Unconscious Influ
ence," or "Every Man s Life a Plan of God," as Robert
son s "God s Revelation of Heaven, or " Elijah," -have
been read over by many of us, not once, but scores of
times; we have gone back to them, not because we had
forgotten them, but because we remembered them, and
desired to bring the truth which they contained once more
into vital relations to our own souls. If printed sermons
may be read many times over with profit by the most intel
ligent Christians, it is probable that a good sermon might
be preached more than once with no detriment to the
same congregation. The young woman \vho had " read
Browning once," and therefore did not care to read him
any more, is the type of a class who would be troubled
by hearing a second time a good sermon. It is often
true that a sermon live or ten years old contains a truth
which is specially pertinent to the congregation in its
present condition, more pertinent, perhaps, than when it
was first written. There are circumstances which make
it specially applicable at the present juncture. Possibly,
also, it is a truth which was given out at first with some
misgiving, but experience has strengthened the preacher s
hold upon it, and he will utter it the second time with far
more vigor and conviction than he was able to put into it
at the first delivery. It is also possible, very often, to
bring an old sermon down to date, as it were, by added
illustrations drawn from current events. While, therefore,
134 CHEISTIAX PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
the repetition of sermons may become the excuse of lazi
ness, yet it is not to be forbidden to the diligent and con
scientious pastor ; and in these days, when his burdens of
administration are so greatly increased, it may furnish him
at times a great and needed relief.
The pastor in the pulpit is the leader of the worship of
the congregation. Even when the worship is liturgical
the proper conduct of it largely depends upon his judg
ment and spirit. " If the officiating minister should go
through this department of his work in a dull and spirit
less style, like one treading the round of a prescribed
formalism, the performance is sure to repress and deaden
the devotional feelings of the people, rather than stir and
quicken them into lively exercise. Let the mode of con
ducting worship be what it may, if it is to be for a congre
gation of believers a worship in spirit and in truth, the
person who conducts it must himself enter into the spirit
of the service, uttering from his own heart what he would
have re-echoed from the hearts of others. And, obviously,
the more beaten the track that is to be followed, the more
familiar to all the specific forms of devotion, the greater
at once must be the need of a lively devotional sentiment
to inspirit them with life, and the difficulty also of express
ing it through the appointed channels." *
The need of entering the chancel or the pulpit in a
proper devotional temper must, then, be apparent to every
thoughtful minister. The people are there for worship;
this is the primary object of the assembly. He must keep
this truth steadily before their minds. They are some
times in the habit of calling themselves an " audience ; "
that is a word which he will not use in describing them.
They are not there to "hear" him, but to worship the
Father of spirits. Unless the service brings them into
this attitude it fails of its proper effect upon them. To
this end there is need, whatever the form of worship may
be, that the leader of the worship prepare his own mind
and heart for the service before him. The reading in
1 Fairbairn s Pustural Thcoluyij, pp. 307, . 508.
PULPIT AND ALT All 135
the last hour before the worship begins of some stirring
book of devotion, of some presentation of truth that
shall awaken the mind and quicken the pulses of the
heart, is a wholesome practice. It is not the hortatory
books that arc best, but those which kindle the emotions
by stimulating the thought. .V sermon of Phillips Brooks
or of Horace Bushnell is often better than any manual of
devotion. Nor is it needful to protract the reading.
When the spark kindles the mind, lay down the book,
and muse while the lire burns.
If the service is not liturgical, the question will arise
whether verbal preparation should be made for public
prayer. That some careful thought should be given to
tli is part of the service is evident. Vet it is dillicult to
lav down any rule of conduct. To some minds anv formal
preparation would be a fetter: to be in a praying frame is
enough. Others are undoubtedly helped by reflection
upon the substance if not the form of the petition. "For,
as the pastor, when going to conduct the services of the
sanctuary has to bear on his heart various interests and
relations, none of which should be overlooked or passed
lightly over, he both may and should have in his eve dis
tinct topics for notice in ] raver and [(articular trains of
thought to be pursued. Not otherwise will he be able to
give sufficient freshness and point to his supplications, or
present them in a form altogether appropriate to the occa
sion. Entirely unpremeditated prayers will usually par
take much of the character of unpremeditated discourses ;
they will consist chiefly of commonplaces which float much
upon the memory rather than of thoughts and feelings that
well up from the hidden man of the heart : and as they
have stirred no depths in the bosom of the speaker, so
they naturally awaken but a feeble response in the hearts
of the hearers. . . . Probably the more advisable course
for ministers of settled congregations will be to meditate,
rather than formally commit to writing, the chief prayers
they are going to offer in the public meetings for worship;
to think carefully over, occasionally also to note down, the
train of thought, or the special topics and petitions they
136 CHRISTIAN PASTOH AND WORKING CHURCH
mean to introduce, with such passages of Scripture as are
appropriate to the occasion. The mind will thus be kept
from wandering at large in the exercise, and yet will move
with more freedom than if it were trammelled by the for
mality of a written form ; will be able more readily to sur
render itself to the hallowed influence of the moment." 1
The minister must never forget that in the public wor
ship he is exercising, in a special manner, the priestly
function which belongs to all believers. He must be able,
by the exercise of a true sympathy, to put himself in the
places of those whom he is leading in worship, and to give
voice to their needs and their desires. Perhaps he knows
the real needs of some of those before him better than
they themselves know them ; perhaps he may be able, in
his prayer, to utter the word that shall reveal to them the
condition in which they are, the good which they ought
to crave. The words which follow, from the pen of a wise
and faithful pastor, show the nature of that priesthood of
sympathy exercised by the pastor in his prayers :
" We may derive materials for prayer from the lives of
our congregations, materials of inexhaustible variety.
There is always sin to be confessed, sorrow which God
alone can soothe and comfort, weakness that needs divine
support; and there is always happiness for which we
should offer thanksgiving. But we must be very indolent
or else we must be cursed with a dull and unsympathetic
nature if we are satisfied with a vague and general remem
brance of the sin, the sorrow, the weakness, the joy which
cloud or brighten the lives of our people. In our prepara
tion for our public prayers we should think of the people
one by one, and make all their trouble and their gladness
our own. There are the children, children whose faces
are pale from recent sickness or accident, or whose forms
are never robust, and whose spirits are never high ; chil
dren that are strong and healthy, with pure blood in their
veins, with sound limbs, and who an; always as happy as
birds in summer-time ; children that are wretched because
they have no kindness at home ; children that want to do
1 Fairhairn s I ustoml 7 lieolui/i/, pp. . 519, 320.
PULI IT AND ALT All loT
well, but who have inherited from their parents a tempera
ment which makes it hard for them to he gentle, obedi
ent, industrious, courageous, and kindly; and children to
whom with the earliest dawn of reason there came a purer
light from the presence of (Jod, and to whom it seems
natural and easy to he good.
" We should think of the young men and women, with
their ardor, their ambition, their vanity; their dreams of
the joy and glory that the opening years are to bring them ;
their generous impulses; the inconstancy in right-doing
which troubles and perplexes them; the disappointments
which have already imbittered the hearts of some and
made them imagine that for them life has no gladness left :
the consciousness of guilt which already rankles in the
hearts of others ; the frivolity, the sellishness, of which
some are the early victims; the hard light which some are
carrying on with temptations which are conquered but
not crushed; the doubts which are assaulting the faith of
others; the bright heaven of happiness in which some are
living, happiness which comes from the complete satisfac
tion of the strongest human affections: the still brighter
heaven which is shining around others who an- already
living in the light of (Jod.
-The enumeration, if I attempted to go through with
it, would occupv hours. We have to think oi aged people
who have outlived their generation, and whose strength is
gradually decaying, in lonely and desolate houses, un-
cheered by the presence of living affection and sanctified
by memories of the dead. We have to think of the men
and women whose children arc growing up about them,
and on whom the cares of life are resting heavily. \\ e
have to think of places which are vacant in sonic seats
because a boy is at college or has gone to sea. or has just
entered a house of business in a distant city, or because a
girl has been sent away to recover health under some
kindlier sky. There a;-e other places vacant for other
reasons. Those who once tilled them have forsaken and
forgotten the (4od of their fathers. We have to think of
families in the congregation whose fortunes have been
138 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
ruined, and of orphans and widows; and of the young
bride whose orange-flowers have hardly faded ; and of
the young mother whose heart is rilled all church time
with happy thoughts about her first-born at home." :
The pastor who can identify himself with the life of his
people after this manner, who can bear upon his heart
their burdens, and enter into their joys, will have no lack
of themes for his pastoral prayers. Only, this must be
handled with the utmost delicacy. Any definite allusions
to individuals in public prayer is of doubtful wisdom;
the petition must be one in which the persons prayed for
can heartily join, because it expresses the sense of their
need, but which does not embarrass them by calling the
attention of the congregation to them."
Above all we must remember, as taught by Van
Oosterzee, that "even the best precepts with regard to
liturgical matters and liturgical actions run the risk of
failing of their object, unless powerfully supported by the
liturgical personality. ... In the words of Goethe, say
what one will, everything turns in the long run upon the
person. The liturgist, too, not less than the homilete,
must be not merely a something, but also a some one ; no
speaking-trumpet merely of the Holy Ghost, but his in
spired mouth-piece and living organ. The claim of the per
sonality is just as little unlimited in the liturgical as in the
homiletic domain, but nevertheless real, and precisely from
the Evangelical-Reformed standpoint to be emphatically
maintained, in connection with the principle of freedom.
The one prays and thanks, consecrates and blesses in a
wholly different manner from another, and he is free to do
so, inasmuch as he is really a different man from his more
highly or less highly endowed brother. Here, too, the diver
sity of charism is unmistakable, harmless, yes even of
advantage to the unity, beauty, and growth of the whole
spiritual organism. In order to be a good liturgist the
first requisite is not brilliant talent, but the spiritual bent of
the heart, and the presence of a radically moral character." 2
1 Dale s Lectures on Prenr/timf, pp. 267-269.
2 Pmctii-cil Thfnlofi/i, p. 443.
PULPIT AND ALTAR 139
The pastor in his pulpit is the director of the worship of
the congregation, including its song. This part of the ser
vice should never be surrendered by him to the control of
irresponsible choirs and untutored music committees. The
service of song in the house of the Lord is an integral part
of the worship ; it should harmonize with all the other parts
of the service ; it should be made tributary to the general
effect of prayer and Scripture and sermon. The indepen
dent conduct of the music by organist or choirmaster, who,
in many cases, is utterly devoid of the sentiment or spirit of
worship, is a shocking anomaly. It is not too much to say
that the musical portion of the service in manv American
Protestant churches verges close on blasphemy. In many
congregations it is the first duty of the minister to instruct
his people in the first principles of Christian worship ; to
make it entirely clear to their minds that the church is no
place for the exhibition of vocal gymnastics; that Chris
tian song must never degenerate into a show, and that art
must always be subordinated to reverence.
There is need, no doubt, of judicious and considerate
treatment of this matter on the part of the minister, for in
many cases the tastes of the congregation have become so
vitiated and their standards so debased that it will be hard
for them to receive the truth. But if the minister will
begin with the oilicial members of his congregation, and
will seriously and kindly consider the whole subject with
them, pointing out the principles which must rule in all
worship, and the sacred and priestly character of those who
lead in every act of worship, lie will generally be able to
carrv them with him in his efforts to reform this portion of
the service.
The choice of the hymns rests with the pastor. It is a
matter of great importance. It is not to be assumed that
all the hymns in the best hymnal are fit to be sung; some of
them express a mawkish sentiment, and others a bad the
ology ; the minister must not ask his people to tell lies in
their songs. It is a question also whether the old style of
didactic hymns should be used in public worship. As a
rule the hymns should be worshipful ; praise, adoration,
140 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
aspiration, trust, contrition, supplication are the proper
voices of Christian song. Yet hymns of a meditative sort
may sometimes be used, and there are spirited work-songs
and battle-songs of the Church which are full of lyrical fire,
and readily lend themselves to the best purposes of congre
gational song.
The hymnals now in use are, as a rule, far better than
those of a former day ; most of the objectionable hymns
have been eliminated, and the tunes are, as a rule, dignified
and worshipful. But it must be admitted that many con
gregations of our American churches have become addicted
to a style of hymnody which is an offence against good
taste and good sense. Verbal jingles which are destitute
of all poetic character, and which often express an effusive
sentimentalism, are joined to melodic jingles which are
equally destitute of musical meaning ; and the result is a
series of combinations that tend to debilitate the mind and
pervert the sensibilities of those who use them. Such com
binations do not long endure ; the prattle of the rhymes
soon palls upon the sense, and the catchy melody becomes
dull and stale, and a new batch is soon called for, to give
place, in its turn, to something lighter and more worthless
still. But it is with hymnody of this sort precisely as it is
with flashy literature ; those who get a taste for it are apt
to think that anything of a higher order is stupid and un
profitable. The consequence is that when the hymnals
which try to confine themselves to hymns which are really
poetic, and to music which is not suitable for opera ~bouffe
or a cafe chantant, are introduced into the congregation, it
is difficult to secure for them a general and hearty accept
ance. There is much patient educational work to be done
along this line by intelligent pastors, in seeking to correct
the perversions of taste, and to elevate the standards of
psalmody in their congregations. The best hymns, when
they become familiar, will never grow stale or old, and the
best tunes are those that can no more be antiquated than
daisies or daily bread.
The pastor should know enough about music to be able
to select tunes which his congregation can and will sing.
PULPIT AND ALTAR 141
It is sometimes difficult to find in the liymnal provided for
him tlie hymn which he wants, adapted to a tune which the
congregation can use; hut such a combination justifies and
will reward a careful search. The adaptation of the hvmns
to the sermon and the other parts of the service should al
ways he carefully considered. The hymns which are sung
in the earlier portions of the service may he simplv wor
shipful ; but if any hymn follows the sermon, it ought, to
be in closest harmony with the thought which lias been
enforced.
As a rule our church hymnals are far too large. It is
quite impossible that a congregation should become famil
iar with twelve hundred or fifteen hundred hymns; it is
probable that the minister will use, out of such a book, not
more than one hundred and fifty hvmns. A carefully
sifted collection of three or four hundred hymns would be
better for any church than the hymnological libraries which
burden the hands and oppress the minds of most worship
pers. In the use of such a small collection the congrega
tion is more apt to become thoroughly familial 1 with some
of the best of the hymns and tunes, so as to sing them with
spirit and heartiness. The ideal church hymn-book is yet
to appear.
As to the tunes, that canon of judgment which tends to
prevail among recent scholarly writers upon psalmody, to
the effect that the church tune should always be a choral,
in common time, and with a plain and even movement,
leads in the ri< - ht direction, but o-oes too far. Such an
O O
excess of conservatism would not be salutary. The choral
is a good form of church tune, and may be used in America
much more freely than it has yet been; but other rhyth
mical forms are admissible ; and it is indeed desirable that
there should be a good degree of variety in the musical
service of the Lord s house. Such a spirited movement as
Lowell Mason s "Duke Street." such a flowing melody as
Mr. Bradbury s " Woodworth," such a ringing praise-song
as Giardini s " Italian Hymn." or even such an elaborate
composition as the setting which Mr. Dykes has given, in
Lux Benigna," to Newman s immortal hymn, may be
142 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
sung, under good leadership, with the greatest enjoyment,
by the average congregation.
The leadership of the congregation is, of course, the
main thing. If this leadership is intelligent, reverent,
and enthusiastic, the congregation can be made to render
the best music in the best manner. How to secure such
leadership in the service of song is the principal question.
Not indispensable, but highly important to the best
rendering of sacred song, is that " king of musical instru
ments, the organ." " There are not wanting," says Van
Oosterzee, " instances here and there of such harmonious
congregational singing that the absence of the organ, in
that case at least, is not felt ; while it is equally undeni
able that a defective, tasteless style of playing proves
more of a hindrance than a help to edification. Yet in by
far the larger number of places the singing is of such a
character that, in default of something better, a mediocre
leading with the organ is preferable to that which only
improperly bears the name of church song. . . . The
religious value of the organ in church depends mainly on
the hand to which it is intrusted. This remark will not
be without its value, if it only impresses on the liturgist
his duty of using every endeavor to secure that the organ
ist to be chosen for this purpose is in the fullest sense of
the word a Christian artist, who feels and understands
what he is playing, and shows that he is penetrated with
the desire to serve the Holy by means of the truly Beau
tiful. Sacred art must support the sacred Word, and
place its great power entirely and exclusively at the
service of the Most High; while the artist feels himself
not only the priest of art, but also the servant of the con
gregation. When the opposite is the case, the Puritan
polemic against the organ is still to a great extent justi
fied. It is what is too often forgotten not neces
sary that the organ should always be heard, and still
less that it should always be heard equally loud. Rather
would now and then, with sufficient vocal strength of
itself, a temporary silence of the instrument be desirable.
When, however, the organ is heard in the church, let
IMJ.LMT AM) ALTAR 143
it never give forth the note of false taste or of mere
worldly art." l
With the organist, or the choirmaster, or whoever is
employed to conduct the musical part of the service, the
minister should he in constant co-operation; there should
lx.% nt the outset, a clear understanding that all parts of
the worship are under the minister s direction, and that all
must he made to harmonize. When it is understood that
the ends of worship, rather than of art, are always to IK;
kept uppermost, many of the causes of contention among
church musicians will he eliminated. Among artists jeal
ousies are natural, for the a-sthetic judgment rules, and
the fundamental question is one of pleasure. I>ut among
worshippers such contentions at once appear to he gro
tesque. To strive for the privilege of prayer, or to
dispute ahout the highest seats at the altar of sacrifice
would he so manifestly incongruous that the dullest minds
would revolt from it. Make the singers understand that
they are there, not to exhibit their voices or to display the
results of their musical training, but to worship (iod, and
they will he ashamed to quarrel.
What the vocal leadership of the congregation shall he
is a question of some seriousness. The perfection of con
gregational worship is perhaps attained in those Knglish
Dissenting churches where the organ is the sole leader of
the voices, so far as can he seen by the casual visitor, and
where the whole congregation forms a great chorus, render
ing, with heartiness and precision, anthem and chant and
hymn. In these churches, however, a nucleus of trained
voices is usually clustered about the organ, who form an
invisible choir, and whose strong initiative carries the
congregation steadily along. In one of these churches we
are told that the Hallelujah Chorus," from "The Messiah"
is sometimes sung with line effect by the whole congrega
tion. In many of them, anthems of considerable intricacy
are rendered with no hesitation; voices all over the church
are heard joining in them. The use of the chant in these
congregations is almost universal ; the people have been
1 Practical T/tevloyy, p. 379.
144 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
accustomed to it from their childhood, and the musical
declamation is as natural to them as reading.
In most of the English Congregational churches there is,
however, a large choir in plain sight of the congregation,
and the leadership of the church song is committed to them.
In few cases do they undertake any performance of their
own; the anthems and the chants as well as the hymns
are all sung by the congregation, the choir serving only as
leaders of the song. This full, strong chorus, with such
other members of the congregation as wish to attend, meets
once a week for practice under the direction of the organ
ist. The ability to render the music of the church so accept
ably is in almost all cases the result of some painstaking
effort. In one church in London the regular choir, of fifty
or sixty members, is supported by a substitute choir of
about the same number. To one person in each part is
assigned the duty of filling up the ranks, at every service.
If, at five minutes before the beginning of the service, the
seats of the bass singers are not full, the gentleman in
charge of that part makes an immediate levy upon the
substitute bass singers already in the house, to fill the seats,
and so with each of the other parts ; thus each part is
always full of trained singers. Very little in the way of
fine artistic effects is attempted by these English choirs,
but they sing with great heartiness, and the congregation
is admirably led. English organists are also, as a rule,
expert leaders of congregational singing, and the congre
gation is made to feel the meaning of the words of the
hymn and to respond to the sentiment expressed.
In many of the state churches of England the vested
choirs, with boys upon the upper parts, perform the high
est style of music in a very admirable manner. So large
is the number of the English boys who thus receive a
thorough training in sacred music that male singers of
cultivation appear to be more numerous in that country
than female singers. At one of the triennial Hiindel
festivals at the Sydenham Palace, when nearly four thou
sand singers were present, the basses and tenors quite
outnumbered the sopranos and altos. This may be one
ITU-IT AND ALTAI: 145
reason why the men in any English congregation generally
join in the song, while in an American congregation the
reverse is the rule. The vested choirs, in the cathedrals,
and in the larger churches are, however, left to perform
most of the service. What is called a choral service is
not congregational worship; we find that, in far greater
perfection, in the Dissenting churches.
In America, however, the choir is often permitted to
have matters all its own way. In the majority of Ameri
can churches the choir is a quartette, and the congregation
takes but little part in the singing. Even the hymns are
sung by the people in the gallery, without much aid from
the pews. Quartette choirs, as a rule, disapprove of con
gregational singing, and make it difficult, if not impossible,
for the congregation to follow them in the hymns. And
the hymns are rendered in a manner so unintelligent and
perfunctory that no one cares to join in them. It would
be far better if churches employing choirs of this character
would abandon wholly the congregational hymns.
The purpose of the quartette choir is, almost always,
the artistic rendition of some highly elaborate and florid
musical composition. It is rare that a performance of this
nature awakens in any auditor a worshipful feeling. Pre
cisely the same emotions are excited as those which are
appealed to in the concert-room. Those who enjoy the
performance will be seen nodding one to another, at its
conclusion, as if to say: "Was not that a splendid exhibi
tion?" To any reverential person such a perversion of
the act of worship is little less than horrible. It is a
grave question whether the musical service, in very many
American churches, is not a savor of death unto death,
rather than of life unto life.
This must not be understood as a condemnation of the
employment of single voices or any combinations of voices
in worship. It is quite possible that a song or a prayer
should be rendered in church by one or more persons with
the true spirit of devotion, in such a manner that the
thought of the listeners should be iixed upon the theme,
and not upon the art of the performance. If many voices
10
14G CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
may worship God in song, so may a single voice. If the
pastor may lead the worship in prayer, so may the singer.
But in such case the singer must be a real worshipper.
The art of the rendition must be hidden in the sincerity of
the worship.
These elementary truths are well-nigh forgotten in many
of our fashionable churches. Music should be an aid to
devotion ; but many of those who most keenly enjoy it in
the concert-room or the drawing-room listen to the same
thing in church with pain.
The first thing to be desired in the church song is that
the whole congregation should heartily participate in it.
The full choral song admits of no efforts at display. The
vanity of the individual is merged in the voice of the mul
titude. When all the people thus praise God in the sanc
tuary it is possible that each should join with some real
uplifting of the heart. Yet even this service may be ren
dered with regard for beauty and fitness ; the congrega
tion may be taught to observe the sentiment of the hymn,
and properly to express it. The people will learn, if they
are taught, to sing with the spirit and with the understand
ing also. The organ and the leading choir can easily sug
gest to the people the subdued and tender expression of
the plaintive lines, and the accelerated time and accumu
lated power of the triumphant strains. Congregational
singing must not be considered good when everybody sings
all the time with all his might; there must be evidence
that the congregation is thinking of the words of the song
and is touched with their meaning. It is beautiful to see
how a congregation will learn to follow such intelligent
leadership, and will come, after a little, to make the words
of the hymn their own. The spiritual value of this part
of the service is thus indefinitely increased.
The chief use of the choir must be to lead the worship
of the congregation. It should be diligently impressed
upon the singers when they are called into this service,
that this is their main business. If they help the people
to praise God in song they will do well ; if they fail of
that they are worse than useless, no matter how artistic
PULPIT AND ALTAR 147
may be their own performance. To this end the hymns
must be studied and their meaning understood and felt by
the singeis in the gallery. The choir will sometimes say,
" Oh, that is Federal Street, or * Hursley, surely we
do not need to practise that old tune." But the question,
is not Avhether " that old tune " can be sung, it is whether the
hymn now set to the tune can be intelligently and feelingly
sung; whether its meaning can be conveyed in the use of
this old tune. The intelligent and reverential leadership
of the congregation is the first business of the choir. To
this end they ought to be intelligent and reverential per
sons, and the spirit of their leader ought to be so full of
intelligent reverence that the true nature of their work
should be constantly kept before them.
The best kind of choir to lead a congregation is, mani
festly, a large chorus. There maybe quartettes which can
lead congregations, but they are not numerous. There is
difficulty, however, in maintaining large choruses, because
members of the congregation who can sing are often, un
fortunately, slow to lend their services for the promotion
of the good of the church. Those who can sing or play
upon an instrument are apt to feel that if they render any
help in public worship they must be paid for it. The
prevalence of this feeling shows how this whole depart
ment of church life has been seculari/.ed. When music
touches the life of the church the standard suddenly falls.
Those who possess some little musical abilitv or training
are wont to say that they have paid much money for their
musical education, and that therefore they ought to receive
compensation for their services. But it is equally true
that the people who teach in the Sunday-schools, and \\lio
speak in the prayer-meetings have paid much money for
the education which qualities them to assist so efficiently
in the work of the church. In many of our congrega
tions there are many college graduates and professional
people whose education has cost them live times as much
as that of the singers and the players on instruments, and
who are yet rendering to the church, weekly, many hours
of uncompensated labor. There seems to be no good leu-
148 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
son why the musicians should make themselves exceptions
to the rule of willing service, which binds all the members
of the church together in unity. It is true, of course, that
some musicians recognize this principle, and give to the
churches to which they belong, a great deal of the most
valuable assistance. But the failure 011 the part of many
to comprehend the fact that musical gifts, like other gifts,
are subject to the law of consecration, makes it difficult,
in many congregations, to gather the singers in chorus
choirs.
The maintenance of artistic standards of judgment upon
the singing of choirs also strengthens the mercenary claim.
If the service is really a performance for the delectation
of an audience, perhaps the audience ought to pay the
performers. If the service is recognized as having another
and higher function, perhaps those who recognize their
Christian obligation would be more willing to assist in it.
The question whether the choir, however organized,
should be expected to render any music of their own, apart
from the leadership of the congregation, is answered in
one way, as has been said, by most of the Nonconformist
churches of England, and in another way by most of the
Anglican churches, and by the great majority of Protestant
churches in America. There is danger, no doubt, that
choirs, and especially quartettes, if they are permitted to
sing anthems or set pieces of their own, will embrace the
opportunity to make a great display of their own musical
powers, thus turning worship into mockery. But, on the
other hand, it is quite possible that the choir should be so
instructed and led as that it shall keep steadily in view its
true function as the leader of worship; and so that it shall
render dignified and inspiring music, not only with pro
priety, but with excellent effect. Choruses like Costa s
" The Lord is Good," or Mendelssohn s " He Watching over
Israel," or Sullivan s " O Taste and See," could not well
be sung by the ordinary American congregation ; but they
may be rendered by large choirs in such a way as to stir
the hearts of the worshippers, and to kindle the flame of
sacred love. Smaller combinations of voices, or single
PULPIT AND ALTAR 149
voices may serve in the same way. It is not true that the
singing of the congregation is the only kind of music to
be tolerated in church; the congregation may worship by
silently joining in the prayer or the thanksgiving or the
aspiration to which their leaders give voice in song. The
only thing to be insisted on is that the congregation shall
be able to recognize this as worship, and to feel that it is
worship.
If the choir is permitted to provide music of its own,
the leader of the worship should see that the anthems or
solos sung are of a character appropriate to public worship.
Much of the music printed for American choirs is too florid
and showy for the sanctuary. But it is possible to find
dignified and serious music for this purpose, and much
care should be exercised in this selection. Especially
should the minister take care that the service be not
marred by the introduction of choir pieces which, however
unobjectionable in themselves, are wholly out of harmony
with the occasion. The most grotesquely inappropriate
selections are often thrust into religious services by ambi
tious choir-leaders. Not one in ten of these worthies
exhibits the slightest sense of the fitness of things. Ib
is quite apt to sing a morning hymn at an evening service,
or to introduce, just before the sermon, such words as
these :
Saviour, again to thy dear name we raise
With one accord our parting hymn of praise ;
We ri.su to bless tliee, ere our worship cease.
And now departing, wait thy word oi peace."
Such a delicate suggestion to the minister that the congre
gation has finished its business and is going home that it
has no use for his sermon has been listened to by the
minister with snch equanimity as he could muster. On the
occasion of the celebration of the hundredth anniversary
of a church whose life had been especially harmonious, and
whose ministers, without exception, had been well beloved
and generously treated, the selection by the choir consisted
of the folio wine: words: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou
150 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent
unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children
together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her
wings, and ye would not. Henceforth your house is left
unto you desolate." The effect of such words upon intel
ligent and sensitive listeners may be imagined.
There are choir-leaders whose taste and judgment can
always be trusted. Happy is the pastor who has such a
helper by his side. But it is his duty to guard against
all such monstrous incongruities, and to see to it that
the whole service of the Lord s house is appropriate and
harmonious.
The question as to what is sometimes called "the en
richment of worship " is now discussed by non-liturgical
churches. That the forms of worship in some of the Re
formed churches, notably the Scotch and the Puritan
churches, both English and American, have been some
what bare and meagre can scarcely be denied. The reac
tion against a sacramental ritualism swept away even the
decencies of public worship. For a long time, in New
England, even the reading of the Scriptures was under
the ban ; that seemed, to these sturdy Protestants, a rag
of popery. In the diary of the Rev. Stephen Williams of
Longmeadow, Mass., under date of March 30, 1755, he
writes : " This day I began to read the Scriptures publicly
in the congregation. Wish and pray it may be service
able and a means to promote Scripture knowledge among
us." His biographer adds : " This was an innovation
which Stephen Williams had some difficulty in sustain
ing." J Many of the old New England town histories
record disputes upon this subject. It is a curious fact
that in their rebellion against the sacerdotal principle,
which lies at the foundation of the system with which
they had broken, these reformers gave to their minister,
under another form, a priestly character ; for the public
worship was almost wholly committed to him, and tran
sacted by him for them ; they took no part in it whatever
1 Longmeadow Centennial, p. 222.
PULPIT AND ALTAR 151
beyond the singing- of a psalm which ho "lined out" to
them. The present tendency is toward the restoration to
the people of the privilege then voluntarily relinquished
by them. As the Protestant church of to-day is seeking
to become a working church, so, and for kindred reasons,
it is seeking to be a worshipping church. It wishes to
take a larger part, audibly and openly, in the service of
the Lord s house. The changes in the order of worship
introduced or advocated are mainly, it not wholly, changes
in the direction of congregational worship.
The question whether these additions to the accus
tomed order shall be made by the ottieiating clergyman,
or whether the people of each communion, through their
wisest and most devout representatives, should set forth
some forms of praise and prayer for the guidance of their
congregations, has been discussed in some of the ecclesi
astical assemblies. One of the most distinguished and
broad-minded of the Congregational clergymen of New
England, in an address before 1 a church congress, said:
Here I am constrained to say and confess that worship
cannot do its whole good work as the vehicle of truth to
the mind, except as it is formulated and prescribed by
general authority, and is not left to the genius and piety
of the officiating minister, according as he may happen to
have the use of his genius or his piety at the moment.
As a minister in a non-liturgical communion I can say
this more easilv, perhaps, than some other ministers could,
and I do say it. There are extemporizing ministers whose
study of worship has been so complete, whose good sense
is so good, and whose natural gifts are so great, that they
accomplish a pretty complete liturgical sweep in their ser
vices; and when ministers do not accomplish much of a
sweep ever, as leaders of worship, but bear down habitu
ally and only on a few facts and doctrines lying near the
heart of Christianity, (Jod forbid I should deny them
access to (Jod, and their use as preachers of truth through
the worship they conduct. But, taking all things into
account, it seems to me clear that in the one respect of
truth conveyed, conveyed in its entirety, and conveyed
152 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
proportionately, a worship prescribed, or substantially pre
scribed, is not only valuable but indispensable. I contrib
ute that item towards the reunion of Christendom on the
point of worship." 1
There would be much dissent from the proposition to
formulate a uniform ritual for any of the non-liturgical
churches. Even if considerable freedom were allowed in
the use of it, the tendency to a monotonous and lifeless
repetition would be regarded by many as far outweighing
the gain that would be realized through a more complete
and comprehensive presentation of the truths on which
worship is founded. Christians of different temperament
and different training will answer this question differently.
Undoubtedly .a prescribed ritual avoids much irreverence
and many painfully arid performances ; but on the other
hand it sacrifices a spontaneity and timeliness which, in the
service of the preacher who has both the gift and the spirit
of prayer, are often very inspiring. But if no such com
plete ritual is furnished, it is surely lawful to add some
thing to the barrenness of the old Puritan ritual.
The responsive reading of portions of the Scripture is
now quite common in American churches, and when prop
erly conducted it is an excellent feature. The first re
quisite of success in this service is the selection of a
suitable manual of responsive readings. Not all Scripture
is suited to this use ; the historical, philosophical, and
didactic portions lend themselves but awkwardly to such
a service ; it is really only the poetry that ought to
be treated in this way. A few of the New Testament
passages, like the Beatitudes, and the Proem of John s
Gospel, and some portions of the epistles which approxi
mate to lyrical form maybe read responsively, though
even here the verses should be broken up into phrases
that are antiphonal or cumulative. But for the most part
it is the Psalms and the prophetic poems that are best
suited to responsive reading. These should always be
put for this purpose into the rhythmic form that belongs
1 Address of Rev. N. J. Burton, D.I)., Proceedings of the American Con
gress of Churches, 1885, p. 62.
PULPIT AND ALTAR 1~>3
to them. It is little less than absurd to adhere to the
verse divisions in the responsive reading of the Psalms.
The poetry is constructed for the very purpose of anti-
phonal expression; our verse divisions simply destroy its
artistic form. The parallelisms of these old lyrics, as we
find them arranged in the revised version, are better
adapted than anything else in literature to the responses
of a congregation.
The congregation should stand up to read : and tin-
leader should read with distinct but rapid enunciation, suf
fering no long pauses behveen the responses. There is no
room here for elocutionary effects: anything of that sort is
grotesque enough; but the reading should be full of spirit
and feeling, and the responsory character of it should
be so marked that it shall seem more like a chant than a
reading. Any painful attempt of the congregation to
speak in concert should be avoided: but on the other
hand the helter-skelter reading of many congregations is
not particularly inspiriting. If the parallelisms arc used,
and the leader sets the pace with a iirm, rapid, steady
tempo, the responses will naturally and almost inevitably
maintain a good measure of unity, and the rhythmic effect
will be marked and beautiful. In some congregations the
outpouring of the full heart in these reponsorv voices of
praise and hope and aspiration is more inspiring than
any other portion of the service.
The repetition of one of the ancient creeds the
Apostles or the Xicene by the congregation is also com
mon and altogether suitable, while the people of most
of our churches have learned to join with the minister
in the audible repetition of the Lord s Praver. Whether
the Decalogue should be employed liturgically is an open
question ; our Lord lias translated that law into a differ
ent language, and his rendering of it should he nearest
to our thought. The Beatitudes and the Lord s summary
of the Law might well take the place, in our congregational
worship, of the Ten Commandments. Some judicious se
lections might also l>e made from the Anglican P>ook
of Common Prayer; its General Confession, many of
154 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
its beautiful collects, and sometimes its majestic Litany
might be introduced into the service of our non-liturgical
churches. Language like this, which has been hallowed
by centuries of use, into which many generations of pray
ing men have poured their hearts, possesses a value which
no newly formed phrases could possibly contain. If the
enrichment of the non-liturgical ritual is sought, it is
in these sources that we shall be most likely to find it.
It is well to remember that not all the reformers sought
to banish from the sanctuary the hallowed forms of prayer
and praise. There was really, at the beginning of the
Reformation, a decided disposition to enlist the people,
as they had not before been enlisted, in the public worship
of the Lord s house. " The spirit of Protestantism," says
Dr. Samuel M. Hopkins, "requires that the people shall
take part in the public worship of God, and thus make it
common worship. The Romish church, during the
Middle Ages, resolved worship into a spectacle. The
great cathedrals were built for a dramatic religion, in
which the people could look on, while the priests went
through with the service of the mass ; down whose broad
naves, chanting and cross-bearing processions could move,
and through whose ogived arches the pealing tones of
the organ could resound. Throughout the whole the
people were only a body of spectators. This accorded
entirely with the spirit and policy of the Romish church.
Protestantism changed all that. It recognized the Chris
tian body as something more than a dumb and passive
laity. It recognized them as a holy priesthood, each
called to offer spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise
to God. The great reformers, therefore, all of them, pre
pared or made use of liturgies for the use of the wor
shippers. There was the Lord s Prayer and the Creed
always to be recited aloud by the people. There was the
general confession, which every one joined in repeat
ing, making it his own personal confession of sin. There
was the reading of the Decalogue, to which the people
responded, Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our
hearts to keep this law. There was the responsive read-
PUL1MT AND ALTAR 155
ing of the Psalter, an exercise to which it might seem
the most exaggerated Puritanism could make no objection.
All these features appear in tin- Xti-nslHir<j Litunji/ of .John
Calvin, in tlie tinxon Litunji/ drawn by Luther, in the
Liturgy of the J ulatinatc prepared l>y Melanchthoii and in
all the other forms of prayer that were the product
of the Reformation period." 1 The Lutheran Church
still employs a considerable liturgy; so also does the
Moravian. It is evident that a desire for the extension of
congregational worship is making itself felt in many of the
non-liturgical churches ; and this movement is, in reality,
very nearly the antithesis of the ritualistic tendency, which
in effect confines the audible worship to the priest and
the vested choir.
With the introduction of responsive readings, chants, and
creeds, it is evident that some reduction must needs be made
in other parts of the service; and it is probable that what
is known in the Reformed churches as the "long prayer"
might, in many cases, be usefully shortened. One cannot
have too much of the spirit of prayer, and the habit of
lingering long at the mercy seat must not be rudely cen
sured : but the physical and mental demands of the con
gregation must be considered, and it is doubtless true that
this prayer does often become a weariness to the flesh.
No rule as to length can be laid down ; but most of us
have attended services in which we have felt that a far
more devotional frame would have been maintained by the
congregation if the long prayer had not been half as long.
Whitefield cannot be suspected of undervaluing public
prayer, and his remark to a good minister, whose prayer
had been unduly protracted, may well be remembered :
"You prayed me into a good frame, and you prayed me
out of it."
One enrichment of the service is suggested with some
difhdence. If the song of the reverent singer may lift
our hearts to God, might not the simple and devout rrml-
ing of a sacred lyric sometimes have a devotional value?
The reading would convey the words more perfectly than
1 Proceedings of the American t ont/rcss of Chun-hex, 1885, pp. 75, 70.
156 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
the singing ordinarily does ; and the confession, the trust,
the hope, the aspiration expressed in such beautiful words
might help to kindle a worshipful feeling in the minds
of listeners. There are many hymns of the highest liter
ary merit, and the deepest spiritual insight, which cannot
well be sung ; might not a truly liturgical use be made of
them ? There are many other excellent hymns which the
hymnal of the worshipping congregation does not contain,
and which might be employed in this way. If, just before
the " long prayer," one or two of these sacred lyrics were
reverently read, not with elocutionary effect, but as if it
were a prayer, might this not be, in some cases, an inspir
ing introduction to the prayer about to follow? Nor
is it essential that these devotional excerpts should be
expressed in lyrical form. Words that contain the
heart of prayer, the spirit of devotion, may be found in
sermons and in contemplative writings. A beautiful col
lection of such meditations has been added to the devo
tional literature of the church by the blind preacher of
Edinburgh, the Rev. George Matheson, and there is many
an anthology of devout and uplifting thoughts, from which
selections might be made. These should always be very
brief, and should be manifestly joined by vital bonds with
the prayer which follows. It cannot be too strongly said
that this part of the service must be as far as possible
removed from everything that savors of the theatrical ; if
it is not essentially worship it can have no place in the
pulpit.
All this matter of the enrichment of public worship
needs to be wisely and firmly handled. Changes which
have no merit but novelty, and which are intended chiefly
as baits to draw auditors should be rigidly excluded ; only
those should be permitted which promise to assist in mak
ing the worship of the congregation more general, more
hearty, and more intelligent.
The pastor, as the leader of the worship of the congre
gation, must sometimes descend from the pulpit to the
altar. For even where nothing resembling that much dis-
PULPIT AND ALTAI! If) 7
puted piece of ecclesiastical furniture is visible in the
sanctuary, there are still services whose nature is sacra
mental, which cannot fitly be performed in the preacher s
desk. The administration of these sacraments is an
essential part of the pastor s duty.
Among the Protestant churches the only rites to which
the sacramental character attaches are Baptism and the
Lord s Supper. Respecting the nature of these sacra
ments, no extended discussion is here called for; we
assume their practice, and simply seek to know how the
pastor ought to regard and administer them. It is, how
ever, necessary to recall the conclusions of the third chap
ter of this treatise, and to remember that the Christian
pastor, in Protestant churches, in the administration of
these sacraments assumes no sacerdotal powers, and that
the sacraments themselves are not supposed by him to
possess any intrinsic or magical ef licacy. They are not
opera operate ; they are symbols of spiritual facts and
relations, beautiful symbols which may greatly aid in
impressing upon our minds these spiritual facts and in
leading us to enter joyfully into these spiritual relations.
The history of Baptism, beginning with the Day of
Pentecost and coming down through the first five centu
ries of the life of the Church is a striking illustration of
the growth of ritualistic elements. What Matthew Ar
nold calls the invasion of Aberglaube is here visibly set
forth. Originally administered in connection with im
mersion by the Apostles and their fellow-laborers, we see
Holy Baptism in the ancient Church already indicated by
names which testify of a high degree of appreciation, but
at the same time lend [no?] countenance to the supersti
tious view which we see beginning to make its appearance
already in the second and third centuries. Baptism was
very soon termed anointing, seal, illumination, salva
tion; also the spiritual gift, grace, the garb of immor
tality. In proportion as infant baptism became more
general, did also the notion gain ground that in baptism
one was cleansed from sin, whether hereditary or actual.
a consideration which led not a few to delay the reception
158 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
of baptism as long as possible. By preference was the
sacred action administered by the bishop, yet also by
presbyters and deacons, even, in case of necessity, by lay
men, a course which, among others, Tertullian and
Jerome declared to be admissible, provided it was per
formed in a becoming manner." 1
In the third century baptism began to be assigned to
special seasons and places; Easter and Pentecost were
supposed to be more appropriate than other times ; and
buildings were erected for this purpose. One by one the
various ceremonial appendages of the rite were added:
the eastward posture, the anointing, the consecration of
the water, the laying aside of the old garments, the impo
sition of hands, the white vestments of the candidates, the
burning tapers in their hands, the kiss of peace, the milk
and honey, the sal sapientice, and finally the administration
of the first communion.
All this involves a theory of the nature of baptism which
is still held in a large part of Christendom. It supposes a
transaction of great and vital importance ; it connotes a
belief that in the performance of the rite a spiritual change
is wrought upon the recipient. The phraseology of some
of the Protestant rituals expresses this belief, and the rite of
Exorcism, which is part of the baptismal service, not only
in the Roman Catholic church, but in some branches of
the Lutheran church, possesses a significance which cannot
be ignored.
The discussion of these questions does not come within
the scope of this treatise ; it is only necessary to admonish
the pastor that he must know what baptism means to him,
and that he must see to it that those who seek it for them
selves or for their children are instructed as to its mean
ing. The manner of administering the sacrament will be
affected by the belief on which it rests.
The Protestant pastors into whose hands this treatise
will fall will disagree respecting the mode and the subjects
1 Van Oosterzee s Practical Theology, p. 419. See also Christian Institu
tions, by A. V. G. Allen, in this-series, Stanley s Christian Institutions, and
Smith s Cyclopedia of Christian Antiquities, Art. Baptism.
1TLIMT AM) ALTAIl l. r >9
of baptism. By some of them tlie rite is believed to 1x3
confined to adult believers, and to In- administered to them
upon the confession of their own faith in Christ. I>\ others
it is believed to be intended for ehildivn as well as tor
adults. In either case the administration ought to be
performed in a reverent spirit, and with a dignified and
simple ritual. Never should it be disfigured by rude haste
or indecorous familiarities. A grave solemnity it always
is; and not only those who participate in it but all who
witness it should be made to take this view of it. When
baptism is administered by immersion, whether in the font
or at the river-side, great care should be taken to make
the rite impressive and beautiful. It is, in this observance,
the ratification of the covenant of the soul with God;
and the nature of the transaction should be kept clearly
in view.
In Psedobaptist churches baptism by sprinkling is usu
ally administered to adults, in the churches, in connection
with the solemn rite by which they are received into the
fellowship of the church. It is fitting that the candidate
should kneel when he receives baptism; women should lay
aside the covering of the head.
The administration of the sacrament to children raises
some questions respecting the significance of the rite,
which the pastor must settle before he can determine upon
the form of the observance. Bv most of the Reformers the
baptism of children is regarded as the seal of the covenant
made by God with believing parents. It is argued that
the performance of this rite is the outward fulfilment, on
the part of the parents, of their part of this covenant, and
that, if rightly done, it establishes a claim on their pail to
the bestowment of the grace of God upon their children.
If such is the nature of the observance, the words in which
the rite is administered, and the prayer by which it is fol
lowed will conform to this theory of it. If the church is
one of those which provides definite forms and rubrics for
the administration of baptism, the pastor has, indeed, no
choice respecting the phraseology which he will use; but
if considerable liberty of liturgical expression is allowed,
100 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
the pastor must have some clear idea of the nature of the
ordinance, and must make the administration express the
idea. The parents presenting the children should them
selves be carefully instructed respecting the meaning of
the rite, and a brief address to them, at the time of the
administration, should put this meaning into a form to
which they should be expected to signify their assent.
If the doctrine of the covenant is adopted by the liturgist,
let him express the covenant, in simple words, and call
upon the parents to accept it for themselves and for their
children.
There are those, however, by whom this sacrament of
baptism is not regarded as the seal of a covenant, but
rather as a solemn declaration of the fatherhood and the
redeeming love of God. This is the view so impressively
set forth by Frederick W. Robertson, in his instructions
to catechumens. 1 Baptism is not, according to this view,
a ceremony the observance of which entitles the parent
to claim for the child the saving grace of God ; it is rather
a solemn affirmation, made by the church, and assented to
by the parent, that the child belongs to God ; that God is
his Father, Christ his Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit his
Teacher and Inspirer. Baptism does not make him God s
child, any more than coronation makes a prince a king.
The prince was king the moment his father died ; corona
tion solemnly witnesses to a fact, but it does not create
the fact. So baptism testifies to the truth that this child
has a Father in heaven. Nothing whatever is done in
baptism by which the child s claim upon God s grace, or
the parent s claim in the child s behalf is established;
God s love and care are not conceived as conditioned upon
the observance of an outward rite ; but the rite expresses
the fatherly love of Him who said, " All souls are mine,"
and the redeeming grace of Him who said, " Of such is the
kingdom of heaven." If such is the view of the nature
of baptism, the words in which it is administered will ex
press this thought. The parents will understand that
they are joining in a solemn declaration that this child
1 Lift and Letters of F. \V. Robertson, vol. ii. p. 341, xc/j.
PULPIT AND ALTAR 101
belongs to God ; that the beginning of wisdom for him
must therefore be to know God and trust and serve him ;
and they should be made to promise that they will teach
the child, as soon as he can comprehend the meaning of
the words, whose child he is and what are his duties to his
Father in heaven.
The question whether baptism should ever be adminis
tered to the children of parents who are not members of
the church is answered, naturally, in different senses, 1>\-
the holders of these differing theories. Those who regard
baptism as the seal of a covenant made by believers with
God can see no propriety in administering it to the chil
dren of those vvho are not believers. l>v the assumption
such parents can neither exercise the faith nor make the
claim which gives the ordinance its validity. Dr. Van
Oosterzee is inclined to make an exception ; he says that
"no parents who are not yet members must be received at
the font, save under the express promise that they will at
once receive Christian instruction for themselves, in order
that they may be in a position duly to instruct and set an
example to their children." 1 Hut most pastors of Reformed
churches in which the doctrine of the covenant is made
the basis of infant baptism are inclined to say that the
parents must publicly accept the covenant for themselves
before they are permitted to claim it for their children.
If, however, the other theory is adopted, there seems to
be no conclusive reason why the children of parents who
are not believers should not be declared to be the children
of God, for such they are. If the parents wish this declara
tion to be made, publicly, in God s house, concerning their
children, it is not clear that they ought to he refused.
They ought, however, to be carefully instructed that this
baptism makes no particle of change in the condition of
their children ; that they are no more sure to go to heaven
when they die after than In-fore baptism: that, although
they are God s children, they may, unless they are properly
trained, grow up to be prodigal and rebellious children,
and may wander away into the far country and perish
1 Practical Theology, p. 422.
11
162 CHRISTIAN PASTOH AND WUJ IKING CHURCH
there. And they should be required to listen carefully
to the promise which the parents must make who present
their children for baptism, the promise that they will
teach the children to know their Father in heaven and
strive to lead them into his service. If they cannot con
scientiously make this promise, they ought not to offer
their children in baptism. If they can and will make it,
the privilege of dedicating their children to God should
not be denied them.
All this closely connects the parents with the rite of
infant baptism, and assumes that the sacrament can have
no validity unless they take part in it. The presentation
of the child by sponsors involves the doctrine of sacra
mental efficacy. If regeneration is effected by baptism, it
matters little who presents the child. Yet there was, no
doubt, a reason underlying the institution of sponsors.
The Church sought to enlarge the circle of those who
should hold themselves responsible for the training of
the child. The parental responsibility _ was assumed ;
the sponsors were called in to supplement the parental
function ; it was understood that in case of the death of
the parents the godfathers and godmothers were to assume
the spiritual care of the children. This obligation has
come to rest lightly on most of those who now assume it ;
yet there are conscientious souls to whom it is not desti
tute of meaning.
The precise terms of the baptismal formula should be
considered. Should it be, 4t I baptize thee in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost," - or
does the preposition "into" better express the real .mean
ing of the ordinance ? The first form seems to assume on
the part of the administrator some sacerdotal or ecclesias
tical authority. He is acting in the name and with the
power of God. The other form rather appears to comport
with those views of the ministry to which this treatise
adheres. The meaning is that baptism introduces the per
son receiving it into the name and family of God ; cere
monially confers on him the Christian name ; publicly
recognizes him as belono-incr to the household of faith.
PULl IT AND ALTAR 163
Whether baptism should be privately administered or
not is a question that often confronts the Christian minis
ter. No inflexible rule can be laid down : but it is evident
that, if the second theory of the rite is accepted, the public
administration is far more appropriate. The declaration
involved in the ordinance is made by the chun.-h: the min
ister is only the mouth-piece of the church, and it is lining
that it should be made in the sanctuary and in the presence
of the congregation. Moreover it is, as \ve shall >ee in a
later chapter, the formal initiation of the child into the
fellowship of the church. - Infant baptism," savs Dr.
Cannon, recognizes that infant church-membership which
is a great privilege ; its public administration, which con
nects it with the prayers of the church, for parents and their
children, shows that it is an invaluable privilege 1 ." 1
The final words of Dr. van ( )oster/.ee upon this subject
are full of the wisdom and gentleness of Christ: " Do not
always baptize at the close, but at least now and then at
the beginning of the service, while the attention is vet
fresh. Where local services admit of it, the mothers with
their little ones should enter only immediately before the
solemnity, during the reverent singing of the congregation.
Care should be taken that all the material here necessary
be in due order, and that the weak women be not kept
too long standing. . . . Do not delav to speak a word of
tenderness and love, when this is possible, in the families
after the baptism, and be on your guard against all that
may ever give rise to the impression that, in our estimation
the whole matter is only a less significant appendix to the
public service of the sanctuary. Accustom the congrega
tion, on the other hand, to think of baptism in immediate
connection with the confession later to be made, and con
stantly seek, above all. for the congregation and yourself,
the baptism of the Holy Ghost. In this way the fruit of
baptism will become from time to time more abundant for
family, congregation, and society, and the baptist be at the
same time one who prepares the way for the kingdom of
heaven." 2
1 Pastoral Theoloyy, p. 440. 2 Practical Theoloyy, p. 423.
104 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
The administration of the Lord s Supper is also a sacred
duty to which the pastor must give serious thought. Al
though among the Reformed churches generally neither this
sacrament nor the other is supposed to call for the service
of a priest, and although by many Protestants it is be
lieved that a layman may, with perfect propriety, adminis
ter the ordinance, when circumstances render it advisable,
yet the careful and reverent performance of it is esteemed
by all intelligent Christians to be a matter of great
importance.
The practice of the Reformed churches differs greatly
with respect to the frequency of this administration. The
Scotch churches formerly observed the sacrament but twice
a year; the Dutch churches observe it four times a year;
most Presbyterian and Congregational churches in America
six times a year ; some Protestant Episcopal churches cele
brate it monthly, and others weekly. The theories of the
sacramentalists naturally require the frequent observance ;
if the rite has efficacy in itself for the removal of sin and
the conveyance of grace, it cannot be too often celebrated.
But those who do not receive this theory must be governed
by considerations of expediency in determining the times of
its observance. The Scotch interval seems to be too long,
but the added seriousness and importance with which it in
vests the Supper is a great gain. It is certain that increas
ing the frequency of observance does not proportionately
enhance its value, and it is a question worth considering
by the American churches, whether the quarterly observ
ance of the Dutch would not be better, on the whole, than
the monthly or bi-monthly celebration.
Most Protestant churches provide some service of prepa
ration for the Supper. Sometimes, as among the Baptists,
it takes the form of a Covenant meeting in which the mem
bers participate, with confession and testimony and song
and prayer. Among the Scotch Presbyterians, the prepa
ration for the Supper is a great solemnity, occupying sev
eral days. With fasting and prayer, with much solemn
instruction and meditation, the communicants approach the
table. Presbyterians in America often devote considerable
PULPIT AND ALTAR 1G5
time to services of this nature. Manuals of instruction
prepared for their ministry lay much emphasis upon this
work of preparation. In the early part of the week pre
ceding the communion, the pastor is advised to call a
meeting of the church for prayer. Toward the end of
the week, generally on Friday afternoon or evening, a
more formal service is held, at which a discourse, having
distinct reference to the sacrament, is preached by the
Pastor.
This " Preparatory Lecture," or Sermon, is common to
many of the Reformed churches. The nature of this ad
dress will be suggested by the circumstances and the pres
ent condition of the church. The underlying thought must
be the Lord s gift of himself for us, the revelation of his
saving love in his great sacrifice. His identification of
himself with men in his life and death, and our salvation
through our voluntary identification of ourselves with him,
will be the central theme of all these services. Paul s words
convey the thought which should be uppermost: For the
love of Christ constraineth us : because we thus judge, that
one died for all, therefore all died ; and that he died for all
that they which live should no longer live unto themselves.
but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again."
But this thought admits of many practical applications to
the existing life of the church itself; and it is often very
serviceable when the members of the church are gathered
for this preparatory service, and few others are present, to
consider definitely what this principle of identification with
Christ involves with respect to the work in which the church
is engaged, and how they may best manifest their gratitude
for his great love, and show themselves to be identified with
him in thought and life. If the church is to undertake any
new service in behalf of the poor or the neglected, the
proper place to consider it is at the Lord s table, and at the
service of preparation for it.
In the Roman Catholic church, confession always pre
cedes the Eucharist; and the preparation is made in the
conversation between the penitent and the priest, and in
i 2 Cor. v. U, l.V
166 CHRISTIAN PASTOR ANI) WORKING CHURCH
the discipline enjoined at the confessional. The Lutheran
church also adheres to private confession, but considerably
modifies the Roman Catholic practice. Dr. Harnack ad
mits that confession is not enjoined by the Scriptures, but
maintains that it is of great practical value, especially
as a means of safeguarding the Lord s Supper. 1
The manner of the administration differs in Protestant
churches. Episcopalians and Methodists receive it kneel
ing at the altar ; in some churches large tables are sur
rounded with the communicants, and are cleared and filled
afresh until all have partaken ; and in many others the
elements are distributed by the officers of the church to the
communicants sitting in their pews. The form of the sac
rament is evidently not essential ; each of these methods
has a fitness and beauty of its own which endears it to
those who have become accustomed to it.
In the Dutch churches it has long been the practice for
the minister at the table to address a few questions to the
communicants, reverently standing, to which they make
audible response. Such a renewal of their confession of
loyalty to the Lord seems highly appropriate. After these
questions there were formerly added, in some parts of
Holland, the following beautiful words by the pastor:
"Now, beloved, if we are faithful, and will be faithful
with all our heart, although much weakness and sin still
cleave to us, contrary to our desire, the Lord is faithful,
who also will complete his work in us. He will bless and
strengthen us ; he will lift up his countenance upon us
and enlighten and sanctify us. He shall preserve our
whole being, spirit, soul, and body, unblamable unto his
appearing. Amen." 2
The address at the Communion service must not be
1<( Aber in der Absolution handelt der Trager des Amts weder als judex,
wie der romische Kirche lehrt, noch als frater, wic die Schweitzerischen be-
haupten, sondern als minister Dei, als Diener, Verwalter des neuestestament-
liclien Gnadenumts. Darum ist Absolution weder em richterliches Judiceren,
noch ein bruderliches Berathen ; sondern es ist ein Spenden und specielles
Applireren der Guade an den Einzelncn im Namen Gottes." (Geschichte und
Thforic der Predict und der Sfelsorge, p. 481.)
2 Van Oosterzee, Practical Theology, p. 426.
TULPIT AND ALTAR 167
extended ; a brief sermon, of not more than fifteen minutes
in length, may be the best preparation ; but all the exer
cises should be so ordered that the service shall not be
fatiguing. To append the Communion to a service of
ordinary length is not wise.
In most Protestant churches some form of invitation to
the table is generally given. Sometimes all members of
sister churches or of Evangelical churches, in crood and
o o
regular standing, are invited; sometimes the broader invi
tation is given to all disciples and followers of Jesus
Christ. It is not to be supposed that any form of words
will serve to bar from the table all unworthy persons; and
it may be wisest to throw upon the communicant himself
the entire responsibility of receiving or refusing the
Supper.
The pastor will often find among his people some who
hesitate to come to the table because of a conceived un-
worthiness. That blunt translation of Paul s words in the
Old Version, that "he that eateth and drinketh unworthily
eateth and drinketh damnation to himself," 1 lias terrified
many timid disciples. The pastor needs carefully to in
struct his people as to the force of that word unworthily,"
and that other word "damnation; " and should make them
understand that those who most deeply feel their own
umvorthiness are those who are most welcome at Christ s
table, if onlv they come with contrite hearts and sincere
desire to overcome; the evil.
The words of Paul just quoted have led, in some
churches, to a careful guarding of the sacrament from
unworthy communicants. In Holland the address pre
ceding communion is called "-fencing the tables," from
the fact that it is designed to warn away those who are
unfit to participate. The need of sincerity and seriousness
in this as in all other acts of worship is too evident to be
insisted on : and it is not unnatural that some exceptional
caution be enjoined on those who approach the Lord s
table; yet it may be questioned whether too much empha
sis has not been put on these admonitions. A supersti-
1 Cor. xi. 29.
168 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
tious fear of " eating and drinking condemnation," if not
damnation, keeps many humble and conscientious Chris
tians away from the table. The feeling is prevalent that
the rite is only for those whose sanctity is exceptional ;
those who most need its comfort often either deprive
themselves of the ordinance, or else draw near to the table
with so much doubt and fear that its benefits are lessened,
if not lost. All such stumbling-blocks the pastor must
seek to remove. In his preparatory services and in his
invitations to the Supper he must make it clear that the
sacrament is not for the sinless, but for all needy souls
who in true poverty of spirit are seeking to turn from
their evil ways and to receive the forgiveness of their sins.
Some churches require intending communicants to be
provided with tickets of admission to the sacrament. The
provision springs from the anxiety of the church to prevent
unworthy communication ; it is not so much the profana
tion of the Supper that is dreaded as the injury to the
unworthy communicant. The impossibility of exercising,
in such a case, any adequate judgment upon the characters
of communicants might, however, lead the church authori
ties to question the wisdom of such a course. The most
vigilant censorship will not shut out all the unworthy;
and it is at least an open question whether it is not better
to require every disciple to judge himself. This seems,
at any rate, to be the clear meaning of the apostolic
instruction. 1
One of the most solemn services of the altar to which
the pastor is called is the reception of new members to the
church. In some of the churches the rite of Confirmation
is carefully defined in rules and rubrics ; the minister s
duty is precisely laid down. The instruction of those who
are to be received into the communion of the church is
systematized and enjoined; of this we shall have more to
say in a subsequent chapter. Even in these churches,
however, much must be left to the discretion of the
pastor ; it will be his duty to bring home the obligation
of publicly confessing their Lord to the minds of many
1 1 Cor. xi. 28, 29.
PULI lT AND ALTAR 1G9
who have been consecrated to his service in their infancy,
and of many others who have not received such initiation
into the divine society.
In many of the Protestant churches the ritual of admis
sion is not elaborate, and the whole matter largelv depends
on the wisdom of the pastor. To him is chiefly committed
the question of the fitness of candidates; even where there
is a session or a consistory or a committee whose approval
must be secured, the pastor s recommendations are gener
ally influential.
If the form of admission includes the acceptance of a
creed it is manifestly the duty of the pastor to see that
the candidate understands the words to which he will give
his assent. There should be no concealment or evasion
here; the intellectual dishonesty of repeating phrases
which do not express the convictions of the candidate
should never be encouraged by the pastor. The wisdom
of employing theological creeds in the formularies of ad
mission to the church may well be questioned: but if his
church has established this condition, he can do nothing
other than conform to it.
Where no such theological expressions are required of
candidates there is still an important duty for the pastor
in bringing those who arc without into the communion of
the church. It is for him to set before them an open door,
and to speak the invitation so graciously that they shall be
constrained to come in. And the moment when he meets
on the threshold of the church these disciples who have
been won to confession through his ministry will be to
him and to them a moment of great seriousness. With
great dignity, with entire simplicity, with deep tendernes.-
of spirit the service ought to be conducted. The self-
dedication of the candidates is a solemn act. and its sig
nificance ought to appear. But it is also a joyful and
inspiring service to which thevaiv devoting themselves, and
the note of hope and exaltation must not le absent. Not
only for the candidates, but for the members of the house
hold of faith into which they are now entering, such a ser
vice outdit to be memorable and uplifting. Whether or not
O I <^
170 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
it shall be so will depend very largely upon the spirit of
the pastor.
One other service of a liturgical character the pastor is
often called to perform. Marriage is not, in the Protes
tant churches, a sacrament ; but it is a rite of great sacred-
ness, and it is entirely fitting that it should be performed
within the church. Wherever the covenant is conse
crated, however, its true character should not be lost
sight of. The State provides for civil marriage by magis
trates ; the fact that so few persons avail themselves of
this provision is proof that the sacredness of the act is still
deeply impressed upon the consciousness of the dwellers
in Christian lands. The great majority even of those who
have no connection with the churches desire that the cere
mony of marriage should be performed by a minister of
Christ and blessed by prayer. It is a choice which the
conduct of the officiating minister should abundantly con
firm. Let him see to it that the sacredness of the rite
be manifest to those who have thus invoked his service. 1
Let him make them feel, if they never felt it before, that
they are standing in the very presence of God, and speak
ing their vows directly to him ; that no act of their lives
can ever require deeper humility or greater conscientious
ness. Not seldom young men and women unknown to
him will come to him with the authorization of the State
in their hands, but with a very inadequate conception in
their minds of the importance of the business in which
they solicit his offices. It is a pitiful emergency which
he thus confronts ; it is not ordinarily advisable for him
to refuse to render the service which they request, nor is
it judicious for him to offer remonstrance or exhortation.
All that he can do is to fill the simple rite so full of its
true meaning that some sense of its vital significance may
dawn upon them, even in the moments while they are
standing before him. As he pronounces the solemn words
1 " Le ministrc doit bien se garder d aocomplir certains rites, tels que
bapteme et le mariage, d une maniere legere et trop commune. Ce qui
est nu acte jonrnalier ponr nous est toujours un acte soleiinel pour autres."
(Vinet, Thtfolofjie Pastorale, p. 211.)
PULPIT AND ALTAR 171
of the covenant, as he lifts up his voice in prayer, the truth
may be borne into their minds that the vows which they
are uttering must not be lightly spoken.
In all cases the marriage service, as the Christian min
ister performs it, ought to be one of the most impressive
and genuinely religious services in which he ever partici
pates ; the festivities with which it is apt to be surrounded
should never be permitted to encroach upon its sacred
character.
CHAPTER VII
THE PASTOR AS FKIEND
IN a previous chapter we have spoken of that priesthood
of sympathy which the pastor exercises through his iden
tification with his people. It is evident that the fulfil
ment of this relation is made possible only by a general
acquaintance with the community, and a more or less inti
mate friendship with the families and the individuals to
whom he is called to minister.
In the general social life of the neighborhood in which
he lives the pastor ought to mingle as freely as he can.
He will not be able to give nearly as much time to this
part of his work as he would like to give ; for his study
must not be neglected, and the administrative work, of
which we have yet to speak, must be carefully attended
to ; but he will understand the importance of knowing
his neighbors, and of being fully informed concerning the
general interests of the community in which he lives.
This is not to say that he will devote a very large part of
his time to what is technically known as " society," though
even into this, with due circumspection, he will find it to
his account to enter. The fashionable people are his
neighbors ; some of them may be his parishioners, and
he needs to know them. Their frivolities and dissipations
he need not countenance ; but a first-hand acquaintance
with them is indispensable. These people are not clean
gone astray ; many of them entertain serious aims ; some
of them are full of beneficent labors ; not only that he
may do them good, but that he may enlist them in the
work of the kingdom it is important that he should main
tain friendly relations with them. " Take an illustra
tion," says one writer, "from the society of the second
THK PASTOR AS FRIEND 178
century. It is said of St. Ignatius tluit lie longed to know
more Christians, and to give them an interest in each
other. This is a natural way in which we can contribute
our share to the drawing-rooms of our parish. We can
not collide the conversation if we tried, and it would per
haps savor of presumption if we could: lint we can often
throw a kindness into some sharp critic-ism that is going
on; we can go and talk with some one who seems shv or
neglected : we must not argue, Imt we mav (juietlv give
a practical reason for our faith when questions arise about
it; if \ve cannot conquer people bv the force of our intel
lect, we mav win them by unaffected humility; we need
not assert ourselves, our views, or our cause, but we mav
commend them by their effect on our own character. And
we shall often gain more than we give: we shall wear oil
the weariness of our parish work, and we shall humani/.e
our morning study ; we shall enlarge and enrich our own
mind by living in contact with those who set things from
another view-point and from a different training." 1
But it is more important that the pastor should make
himself thoroughly familiar with the industrial, the educa
tional, and the philanthropic circles, and that he should
have a good acquaintance with the busy life of the com
munity. He will have much to do with the proper devel
opment of this life. His task, as we have seen already and
shall hereafter more distinctly see. is the C liristianization of
all this manifold and multiform activity. But our thought
at present concerns only his relation to the individuals of
which these social groups are composed. He needs to
know something about the labor question: but most he
needs to know the men who are wrestling with this ques
tion. It is important to understand economic theories.
but it is more important to have some personal acquaint
ance with the human beings to whom these theories are
matters of life and death. It is precisely so with all these
social interests. Each has a theoretic side, and each has
a human side; and the minister needs to know what he
can of both. That his preaching will be more intelligent
l The Parish Priest in Town, pp. 36, ;57.
174 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
and more humane because of this knowledge is evident
enough ; but the point now before us is that he gains, by
such a familiarity with every-day affairs, opportunities of
friendship which will greatly add to the fruitfulness of his
ministry.
The minister ought to be one of the best known men in
his neighborhood; the men of business, the professional
men, the laboring men, the teachers, the pupils in the
schools ought to recognize him in the streets and exchange
with him a cordial greeting ; he ought to be the one man
in all the vicinage to whom the heart of any one in need
of a friend would instinctively turn. He is, by virtue of
his calling, nay, rather, by reason of the life that is in him,
the friend of all these people. The chief Pastor, when he
was here, was the people s friend. Everybody seems to
have known him ; nobody was afraid of him. Faber s
verses describe what was true of his life in the flesh :
" O see how Jesus trusts himself
Unto our childish love !
As though by his free ways with us
Our earnestness to prove.
" His sacred name a common word
On earth he loves to hear :
There is no majesty in him
That love may not come near."
He was the Friend of publicans and sinners, but he was
not less truly the Friend of rich men, and of little children.
It is the first business of the pastor to establish such
relations as these between himself and all the people of
his neighborhood. It is not merely to the members of his
own congregation that he will manifest this friendliness ;
if the mind that was in Christ is in him, no such exclusive
affection will be possible to him. To do good to all men
as he has opportunity will be the impulse of his love.
Such free and familiar intercourse with all classes of
people has not always been expected of the Christian
minister. Indeed, it has sometimes been supposed that
a somewhat careful reserve was most becoming in him.
THE J ASTOlt AS FRIEND 175
"The very question," says Van Oosterzee, "whether the
pastor ought to associate on terms of friendship with the
members of his congregation, is by no means answered by
all in the same sense. The Romish church permits this
only within great limitations. .1. B. Massilon, for instance,
in his Discours sur la manierc dontles Ecclcsiustiqucs iluicent
converter (tree Ics jicrxonm * d v iinnuli , would have the
priest, as a rule, associate only with priests; and cer
tainly it cannot be denied on the Protestant side that one
may as greatly err in this respect by the too milch as by
the too little. ! For priests, who recognize themselves as
belonging to a separate caste, this may be a good rule;
but not for those who regard themselves as possessing no
such dignity. Fven the parish priests of France and
German v, the best among them, have but lightly regarded
counsels of this kind, and have kept themselves in closest
friendship with the people to whom they ministered.
It is not by withdrawing from familiar intercourse with
the people that the minister best preserves the sanctity of
his character. The leaven must be mingled with the meal;
and the more thoroughly it is worked into it, the better
the results will be. And this means, among other things,
a close and familiar intercourse between those lives which
have received the divine influence in its fulness and those
which have not. The one task of the minister is to bring
the active goodness which exists in the hearts and lives of
his people into vital contact with the needs of the human
beings round about them. It is 1>\- this personal and prac
tical friendship of the members of the church with those
who are without that the work of evangelization is to be
carried on. And if the pastor wishes his people to do this
work he must show them how to do it. How the Christian
minister, in this generation, can hold himself aloof from
the people of his congregation and of his neighborhood,
or how he can maintain a kind of social distinction from
them, does not clearly appear.
And yet it is very important that his intercourse with
his neighbors be not of such a character as to undermine
1 Practical Theoloyy, p. 543.
170 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
his influence. He is not to assume any superiority over
them, but on the other hand he must beware how he lowers
his own standards of judgment or conduct in conformity to
theirs. It may not be necessary for him constantly to
rebuke the selfishness, the frivolity, the sordidness, the un-
charity which he encounters in his conversation with those
whom he meets ; these people are his friends, and it is of
the utmost importance that he should not forfeit their
friendship ; but it is possible for him to set forth, affirma
tively, in his own conversation and conduct, such an ideal
of character as shall awaken in them a desire for something
better. When he is in the company of those who are too
much given to frivolous amusement, he may lead the con
versation to more serious subjects to the great opportu
nities for unselfish service ; when he hears a word of
ungenerous criticism, he can reply to it with a charitable
judgment ; when he comes in contact with one who is being
consumed with covetousness or ambition he may gently
endeavor to turn his thought toward higher interests. One
may be in the closest friendship with the selfish and the
worldly and not be overborne by their selfishness and
worldliness. One must be in close friendship with them
in order to do them any good. " As thou didst send me
into the world," said the Master, " even so have I sent
them into the world." " They are not of the world, even as
I am not of the world." " I pray not that thou shouldest
take them from the world, but that thou shouldest keep
them from the evil." 1
When the pastor has succeeded in establishing between
himself and his neighbors and parishioners such relations
of friendship, great opportunities of helpful ministry will
come to him. As friend and counsellor and guide of
men, heavy responsibilities will be laid upon him. There
will be no confessional in which he will sit as the mouth
piece of God, to hear the word of the penitent and pro
nounce absolution, but if he is the kind of man that he
ought to be, a great many stories of doubt and perplexity
and sorrow and shame and despair are likely to be poured
1 John xvii.
THK PASTOR AS FRIEND 177
into his ears. The cure of souls is his high culling; it
invokes for him what tenderness, what dignity, what sym
pathetic insight, what sanity of judgment, what love for
men, what faith in God! His own personality will deter
mine very largely the nature of the conlidence reposed
in him. If he is weak and effusive and credulous, all
sorts of sentimentalists will burden him with their tales
of woe and entangle him in their trilling toils. There is
peril on this side, and he must be on his guard. Hut if
he is known to be a man of sober sense and tirm character,
the silly sort will not greatly affect him. He will not, if
he is as wise as Solomon was reputed to be, wholly escape
such confidants, but they will not seriously trouble him.
Above all tilings let him beware how he deals with
domestic difficulties. To take sides in a quarrel between
a husband and a wife is generally perilous business. It is
a good rule to hear nothing from either except in tin;
other s presence. In mauv cases probably in the great
majority of cases the right word for the minister to the
one who brings the complaint is a very linn and ener
getic injunction to go home, and never speak of it to any
mortal, but to settle the trouble without anv outside inter
ference. A minister may often say in such a case, with
all the authority and solemnity of the everlasting truth in
his utterance : " You two must live together. Von have
covenanted to do so before the eternal God, and you must
keep your covenant. Separation is not to be thought of.
You took each other for better or worse, and you must not
desert each other now. The problem for each of you is
to win and compel the respect, the affection, of the other.
You can do it if you try. You had better die than fail.
Go home and begin to-day." Such words as these have
put an end, more than once, to discords that would have
destroyed households and left children homeless.
There is, however, in every congregation, enough of
real trouble to tax the minister s resources of sympathy
and wisdom. I low much there is. in every community,
of anxiety and disappointment and heart-breaking sorrow
that never comes to the surface, of which the gossiping
178 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
world never knows anything at all ! A great deal of this
trouble comes to the minister; he must always be the
sharer of many burdens which are hidden from the public
gaze. This is just as it ought to be ; the pastor has as
little reason to complain of it as the doctor has to com
plain of a multitude of patients. But it is apt to be the
most exhaustive part of the pastor s work; the drafts
made upon his nervous energy through the appeal to his
sympathies are heavier than those which are due to his
studies. Every pastor must be ready for a great deal of
this kind of work, work that will make no noise in the
newspapers, and that will not greatly affect his clerical
reputation, but that will have its reward in the day when
he is received into the everlasting habitations.
Pastoral work rather tends, in these days, to take this
form, especially in the larger churches. There is less of
what is known as pastoral visiting ; but there is more of
demand upon the pastor for counsel and help in all sorts
of personal troubles. The pastor offers less of personal ser
vice than once he did, but he is called on for more. This
is partly because the sacerdotal character of the minister
is fading out, and the brotherly character is more strongly
accentuated. Formerly the pastor was expected to go
regularly to the homes of his parishioners, and there to
enter into religious conversation with every member of
the family, seeking to learn the secrets of the spiritual
history of each one, and offering such admonition as
seemed wise to him. There is less of this than once
there was ; some wise men think that there is less of it
now than there ought to be. The change has resulted
in part, no doubt, from an enlarged, perhaps an exagger
ated, sense of the sacredness of personality. Conscien
tious ministers often have scruples about thrusting their
counsel upon those who give no sign of desiring it, and
are more than doubtful about the utility of such a method
of family visitation as was formerly practised. Some of
us who were by no means indisposed, in our childhood,
to religious conversation, under proper conditions, do yet
vividly recall the repugnance with which the official visit
THE PASTOR AS KIMEND ITU
of the parson to the family was expected, and the annoy
ance with which we replied to his inquisition. Dr. Will-
cox is not far from the truth when he says to young
ministers: "In your labor with individuals, to draw them
to Christ, see each of them always alone. It is a griev
ance to any one to ask him to throw open to a group of
listeners his inmost life. Commonly he will decline. If
he does you will talk, not with, but only at him. You
will preach to him only the general counsel that never
comes home to us." 1 It is not clear that this can be
adopted as a universal rule: the pastor mav know of
familv circles into which he could safelv introduce the
most intimate conversation on religious themes. IJut it
is ordinarily far wiser to respect the natural reticence
which shrinks from the exposure of the secrets of the
soul. And it is probable that the pastor who \veiit about
among the homes of his people, questioning husbands and
wives, parents and children, brothel s and sisters as he
found them, in the family groups, would not lie so a] it
to attract to himself the confidence of those Mho really
need counsel as if he adopted a less aggressive method.
Pastoral visitation, as we shall presently see, may still
serve an excellent purpose; but. as affording an oppor
tunity for serious conversation upon the religious life, it
does not hold the same place that once it held in the
estimation of the wise pastor.
For the personal ministry which we are now considering,
other opportunities must be sought than those which are
afforded bv general pastoral visitation. Sometimes the
man can be found in his ollice or his place of business;
but care must IK? taken not to encroach upon time which
is occupied with necessary duties. Sometimes a walk or
a drive or a railway journey in company will bring the
opportunity; very often the pastor s study or his parlor
at home will furnish the place for such an interview. It
is always far Ix-tter, of course, that the confidence should
l>o sought by the parishioner; to open the way for this
and lead up to it is what the skilful pastor will seek to
1 The I ttstor amidst liis / /<><(, p. 41.
180 CHRISTIAN PASTOR, AND WORKING CHURCH
do. But it may sometimes be wise for him to invite such
confidences. He may have reason to believe that some
friend of his in the congregation is in a state of mind in
which a frank talk with his pastor would be welcome,
though he would shrink from proposing it. A cordial
invitation might bring him to the study or the parsonage.
The wise and faithful pastor is always seeking for such
opportunities of personal ministry to those who have
learned to confide in his friendship.
A confidential note will sometimes open the way for
sucli a conversation. There may be circumstances in
which the pastor could more easily and delicately invite
the confidence in this way. To find the occasion for the
first serious words is often difficult. But the pastor
should be sure that he possesses the entire respect and
confidence of the friend whom he thus addresses. It
is always better, when possible, that the communication
should be face to face, as a man speaketh with his friend.
The needs of the souls to whom the pastor seeks to
minister are many and various. No two cases are alike ;
each is a separate study. But one may think of types
which are always found in all our congregations.
The pastor is too apt to find among the members of his
church some who have ceased to take any active part in its
work, and some who have even lost their interest in spirit
ual things ; with such persons as these he should seek to
establish friendship, that he may, if possible, lead them
back to the ways of discipleship. The first thing is to win
their confidence ; then he may seek to learn the reasons of
their lack of service.
With some of these the chief difficulty will be found to
be intellectual. The} 7 have become entangled in doubts,
and either are, or suppose themselves to be, disabled for
Christian service. The problem of dealing with the doubter
is thus brought home to the pastor. In these latter days
it is a problem of large dimensions. The tremendous ad
vance of the physical sciences, the rise of the philosophy
of evolution, the prevalence of the methods of historical
criticism, have made necessary a restatement of many of
TIIK PASTOU AS FRIEND 181
the doctrines of religion, and have swept the foundations
from beneath the feet of multitudes who have not had time
to adjust themselves to these rapid movements of mind.
Many of these doubters, who have withdrawn from active
work in the church, are not really half so widely separated
from their brethren as they suppose themselves to be. The
things which they are inclined to deny are things which no
one wishes them to aih rm. The pastor finds, when he comes
to close quarters with their difficulties, that the stumbling-
blocks from which they have turned back are not really
there, that they were swept away long ago by the move
ments of Christian thought. One is often surprised to find
how ignorant men arc of what is going on around them,
how little aware they are of the progress of theological
science. The wise pastor is often able to give great relief
to burdened minds by showing them that the difficulties
which had troubled them do not exist.
Real difficulties there are, however, and they must 1x3
met with the utmost candor. Not seldom it will be easy
to show that they rest upon an unsound philosophy; that
what the doubters deny would lead, if they consistently
maintained it, to intellectual chaos. And it is generally
true that there are mysteries quite as profound in the sim
plest phenomena of life as any which theology presents.
Tennyson s lines are an adequate reply to many sceptical
suggestions :
" Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies ,
Hold you here, root and all. in niv hand.
Little flower but if I could understand
What you are, root and all. and all in all,
I should know what (lod and man is."
The pastor will often be aide to put into the hands of the
doubter some book that deals specifically and wisely with
his difficulties. Familiarity with literature of this kind is
highly important, and a judicious use of it : for much of
that which is employed is calculated to aggravate rather
than to relieve doubt. Certain counsels of Dr. van Oos-
terzee may well be pondered :
182 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
" The doubter may be led by means of tlie Scripture to
Christ, but also by faith in Christ to the just estimate of
the Scriptures ; and according to the apportionment of these
times, the last-mentioned way appears preferable in the
case of by far the greater number. From the mult a, there
fore, direct the attention to the multum ; from the circum
ference of the circle to its immovable centre. Learn to
comprehend and explain each of the parts in the light of
the whole ; the miracles of the prophets, from the idea
of the theocracy ; those of Jesus and the apostles, from
the whole divine plan of salvation ; those of creation in
connection with the idea of God. In the clearing up of
historic difficulties for persons of intelligence, frankly
surrender all that you cannot, with a good conscience,
maintain; but point out at the same time (in connection
with the details of the resurrection, e.g.) how many a de
tail less certain, or even for us irreconcilable with other
statements, detracts nothing whatever from the great fact
with which we have here exclusively to do. In the treat
ment of dogmatic questions, withdraw quickly (when
there is a divergency,) from the province of ecclesiastical
doctrine to that of the purer doctrine of Scripture, espe
cially of the New Testament, and show that, even though
very considerable difficulties attach to the acknowledg
ment of the truth, its consistent rejection leads to much
greater difficulties, nay, absurdities. Call attention to
the limitation of the intellect with regard to the how of
invisible things, but at the same time to the validity of the
grounds which compel us to believe in the that. Extol
the power and glory of faith, even according to the tes
timony of not a few unbelievers themselves ; and point
not less to the depths of denial and misery to which the
path of doubt must in the long run inevitably lead." :
This whole subject of the treatment of doubt belongs to
Apologetics, rather than to Pastoral Theology ; yet it is in
this sphere that the pastor is called to apply what he has
learned in many departments of study ; and a few simple
principles may be serviceable in this part of his work.
1 Practical Theology, pp. 570-571.
THE PASTOR AS FRIEND 183
1. Most of the intellectual difficulties which the pastor
will encounter at the present day arise from the assump
tion of the antecedent improbability of the miraculous.
Upon this it is well to say that while what is known as
the miraculous may be supernatural, it is not anti-nat
ural. It may be the revelation of a power which works
upon or within nature in a way that we do not understand;
it is not a violation of nature.
2. To one who objects to any religion in which the
supernatural is implied, it may be useful to put the ques
tion whether he believes in a supernatural God, and
whether if there be such a God it is possible for men to
have any relations with him. If religion consists in fel
lowship and communion with a supernatural divinity, it is
difficult to see how the element of the supernatural can be
wholly eliminated from it.
3. The proof of religion, so far as it is gained by or
dinary argumentation, must rest on probabilities; demon
strative proofs are out of the question. Respecting the
existence of God or the fact of a future life there can be
no mathematical certainty. .V preponderance of evidence
in support of the proposition may be shown nothing
more. But this is precisely the ground on which we rest
all our judgments of practical affairs ; we risk our lives,
our fortunes, our happiness upon such evidence.
4. The Christian religion is given to us not for specula
tive, but for practical purposes. There is only one test,
that is the test of life. It is not much less absurd to try
to determine its truth by simply arguing about it than it
would be to try to find out whether a peacli was good
without tasting it, or whether air would support life with
out breathing it. If any man willeth to do his will he
shall know of the doctrine." ! The first condition of intel
ligent inquiry is readiness to " <h> the truth." The man
who wishes light upon the deep things of God must put
himself in the position in which light can come to him.
This business of dealing with doubt is one of the most
delicate and difficult to which the minister is called ; it
184 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
requires a large equipment of knowledge, but more than
this it demands tact and sympathy and loving considera
tion. Doubtless there is much scepticism which is born
of ignorance and conceit and headiness, which vaunteth
itself and is puffed up, and assumes that whatsoever things
have been believed must be disputed, that this is the
beginning of wisdom. But even this distemper of mind is
to be dealt with patiently ; false logic and arrogant as
sumptions must be mercilessly exposed, yet always with
kindness. The most of those, however, who will make
known to the minister their doubts are honest doubters,
and a generous and patient treatment will lead them into
the truth. Such doubters must be admonished not to be
afraid of their doubts, but to face them, and grapple with
them fearlessly ; never to accept any sophistries for reason
ings ; and never to try to compel the mind to assent to a
statement because it is safer or more comfortable to believe
it. " Have it as a law," says Dr. Bushnell, " never to put
force upon the mind, or try to make it believe ; because it
spoils the mind s integrity, and when that is gone, what
power of advance in the truth is left? " 1
In short, it may be said that in his treatment of the
doubters in his congregation the pastor has a great op
portunity of extending his friendships. No greater service
can be rendered to any man than an honest and manly
effort to enable him to find the truth. And those who
have found their way, under his guidance, out of the wil
derness of doubt into the green pastures and beside the
still waters, are likely to cherish a deep and lasting affec
tion for the shepherd who has led them.
The pastor will find among his parishioners not a few
who have fallen out of the ways of active discipleship be
cause the views of the Christian life with which they set
out have not been verified in their experience. They
entertained rather fanciful notions of what it means to fol
low Christ. At the beginning of .the way there was a cer
tain exhilaration and fervor of spirit which on the dull
1 Si-rin<is on fJriny Subjects, p. 181. This whole sermou on "The Dis
solving of Doubts " is full of the ripest wisdom.
THK PASTOR AS F1UEND 185
levels of every day duty it is hard to sustain ; and when
that exalted mood was lost they thought their religious
life was gone, and relapsed into careless and undevout
ways. It is needful to bring these wanderers back into
the paths of service, and to sho\v them that a religion of
more sober color is quite as genuine and more serviceable.
In the last generation and probably in the former genera
tions, cases of religious despair were very common. Men
and women were not rare who had settled down upon the
conviction that they were lost souls : that for them there
could be no future but a certain fearful looking-for of
judgment. This state of mind was due in large measure
to the fatalistic theories with which theology had been
infested. A thoroughly conscientious person, working
strenuously upon the problems of personal salvation, and
failing to enter into those emotional experiences which he
often hears reported, might easily come to feel that the
reason of his failure was to be found in those inscrutable
decrees by which heaven is sealed to all but the elect.
When such an appalling conviction has been reached, it
must hold the mind fast in its palsying grasp : and the
offers of the gospel forever sound like a dismal mockery.
It is not many years since persons could be found in nearly
every congregation who had sunk into chronic hopelessness
through the operation of such causes. These things are
better understood in our day : the ethical element in the
ology lias supplanted mere force as a regulative principle ;
and the belief that the Judge of all the earth will do right
has quieted most of these despairing cries. Hut there are
still occasional cases of religious melancholy which require
to be wisely treated. In most of these cases, the trouble
is physical, and the sufferer must be gently but iirmly en
joined to lose no time in consulting a physician. The pas
tor mav himself have had experiences of depression arising
from purely physical causes, and may be able to convince
the victim of melancholia that he knows what he is saying.
The close relation of the body and the mind, and the fact
that mental suffering is often caused by physical maladies,
must always be kept before the thought of him who is
186 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
called to minister to minds diseased. The converse of all
this is, however, just as true. There are many physical
ailments whose source is in a troubled conscience or a
morbid fear. The pastor may often call to his aid the
medical man in dissolving doubt and despair ; but, on the
other hand, there are many sicknesses that the doctor with
his drugs can never cure, but that would be quickly put
to flight if the load of shame and remorse that are resting
upon the heart could be removed. The utmost wisdom is
needed in dealing with such cases ; the true priesthood of
the pastor is here called into exercise. If by gentle ques
tioning he can draw forth the rankling secret, and con
vince the troubled soul, by his own forgivingness, that
the Infinite Love is able to save to the uttermost all who
trust in him, he may prove to be the bringer of health and
peace. The cure of souls is a phrase with a deep and real
meaning.
The visitation of the sick is one of the constant labors
of the Christian pastor. In any considerable congregation
the weeks are few in which some service of this sort is not
laid upon him ; and the duty is one which taxes heavily
his wisdom and his strength.
It is impossible to give directions concerning this minis
tration which will be applicable in all cases. The pastor
of a village church of fifty families will be able to give far
more time and thought to each family than the pastor of
a city church with four or five hundred families can
possibly give. In the great congregations the limitations
of pastoral service are obvious. Nevertheless the pastor
will wish to see all members of his flock who are seriously
ill, and he will make the congregation understand that
this is his wish. Let him tell them, frequently and
emphatically, to send for him \vhen they need him ; to
have no more hesitation in sending for him than in send
ing for the physician. Let him make his people under
stand that the responsibility of calling him rests on them ;
that they must not expect him to know by intuition who
is sick ; that they must take pains to inform him. Parish-
THE PASTOR AS FRIEND 187
ioners are sometimes unreasonable in this matter; it is
difficult for them to understand that trouble which so
profoundly affects them should not be known to every
body; and in the distress and nervous disturbance which
the sickness brings not only to the invalid but to those
who are caring for him, it is easy to entertain unjust
suspicions of pastoral neglect. The pastor must guard
against this by establishing the rule that those who need
him must scud for him. Still, he need not refuse to <_;<
O
where he knows that there is trouble until he is sent for;
let him rather say to people : " I shall always try to visit
you when I know that you need me; but if I do not come
) ou must assume that 1 do not know, and that it is your
duty to let me know/
Much discretion must be exercised in the visitation of
the sick. In the iirst place the pastor should be careful
to co-operate in every possible way with the attending
physician, to whom belongs the chief responsibility, and
whose orders should be scrupulously respected. The phy
sician will know whether the patient should be allowed
to see any visitors ; and if this has been prohibited, no
question should be raised. It is not often that a pastor,
who has shown good sense in his manner of visitation,
will be forbidden the sick-room ; ordinarily his visit, if
properly timed, will aid the doctor; but there are times
when even this must be disallowed. The pastor should
be very careful about volunteering medical advice ; the
cases are rare in which he should venture any suggestion
which would have the effect to weaken the confidence of
the patient or his friends in the physician in charge.
In cases of serious illness, the visit should ordinarily be
very brief. Laving aside outer garments that are damp
or cold the pastor should quietly enter the room, and
always with a smile and a cheerful word. Nothing that
savors of officialism can be tolerated; he is not there as
a religious functionary, but as a friend. The case may be
critical, but it is not for him to manifest alarm or con
sternation even in the presence of Death. An unwonted
solemnity is never demanded in the sick chamber. If
CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
serious talk is necessary tlie tone of it should always be
gentle and unflurried.
A few pleasant and sympathetic words with the patient,
that will tend to calm his apprehensions and strengthen
his courage are generally all that are needed. It is not
wise, ordinarily, to attempt any keen inquisition into the
patient s spiritual condition ; the simple counsel to put
himself wholly into the keeping of the Infinite Care-taker,
and leave himself there, is generally the best that can be
said. If he wishes to talk, if he has questions to ask,
anxieties to confess, it may be wise to meet his wishes ;
possibly some word of comfort and assurance will be
spoken that will be more efficacious than much medicine.
But the conversation should not be protracted ; never let
the patient weary himself in the interview.
Whether prayer should be offered will depend on cir
cumstances. It is far better that it should be asked for
by the patient himself ; if the conversation opens the way
for that, it will be well. But often the request is not
made, more through diffidence or delicacy than unwilling
ness ; in some cases even when the sufferer is secretly
desiring it. The wise pastor can generally tell whether
such a service would be acceptable or not, and will know
when to propose it. In almost all cases it should be very
brief. A few verses from the Bible, and a prayer not
more than two or three minutes in length will generally
be more useful than any lengthened exercise.
" What we say to the sick," says Dr. Andrew Bonar,
"should be brief; and when we pray with the sick we
should be short in our prayers." 1
Some of the churches furnish to the pastor a liturgical
form for use in the sick-room, but the simpler and less
formal words that come from the heart of a sympathetic
friend will generally be more welcome than a prescribed
form of prayer.
"Any one desirous, as a matter of curiosity, to see a
complete rubric on the visitation of the sick, should get
hold of Dr. Stearne s Tractatus dc Visitatione Infirmorum,
1 Quoted iu Blaikie s For the Work of the Ministry, p. 261.
THE PASTOR AS FRItCNI) 189
as contained in the "Clergyman s Instructor." There he
will iind instructions, cut and dried, for all sorts of cases,
including that of criminals sentenced to be hanged. In
o o
the coldest and driest manner, he will iind topics sug
gested for conversation and prayer in such circumstances,
as if the whole of a clergyman s duty were exhausted in
saying the proper thing, and no consideration were to he
given to the tone and spirit in which it is said. The
visitation of the sick is of all duties that for which the
spirit of formality is most unsuitable, and where the speak
ing must be most thoroughly from the heart to the heart.
Vet a rubric like that to which we have referred might
not be without its use in the way of suggestion, it might
show the minister how great a variety of cases he is called
to deal with, and of what value it is for him to be pro
vided with manifold Scripture texts and references, sayings
and anecdotes of suffering Christians, counsels and encour
agements of well tried value, in order that to every sick
and sorrowing person he may be able to give his portion
of meat in due season." l
Whether the Lord s Supper should be administered at the
sick bed is a question to which theological controversy has
sometimes given point. " In itself," says Van Oosterzee,
" an affirmative answer to this question appears reasonable,
as also history speaks of blessed observances of the Supper
upon the bed of sickness and of death (Schleiermaeher,
Adolph Monod, and others). On the other hand, how
ever, it can hardly be denied that the desire for the Com
munion in the case supposed is sometimes connected with
a not purely evangelical conception with regard to the
sacramental eihcacy and significance of the sacred emblems,
and is to be but imperfectly harmonized with the view of
the Holy Supper as a social mod. Resides, it is difficult
to make a distinction by virtue of which we deny to some
what could be granted without much hesitation to others.
No wonder that in the age of the Reformation a Rullinger
should deem separate communion undesirable ; and that
later it should be opposed by those who in other respects
1 Blaikie s For the Work of the Ministry, p. 259.
190 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
readily acknowledged the beneficial psychological effect of
the sacred action for sick persons. It might also so easily
degenerate into a custom, observed even in the case of
those but little concerned, and lead to the Romish custom
of a viaticum. For all these reasons we would not will
ingly see private communion made the rule ; but only
conceded as a rare exception, when the pastor is convinced
on good grounds that it is desired without superstition, from
a right motive. In particular, from those confined to the
bed of sickness, who with sorrow have already been long
deprived of the sacred emblems, and earnestly desire them,
we need not continue arbitrarily to withhold them. In
that case, however, a little household congregation must be
assembled round the bed of sickness, and the necessities
of the poor remembered, while the pastor fulfils with
dignity and simplicity the task of the liturgist." l
The difficulties felt by the writer of this paragraph
would not, probably, occur to many Protestant pastors in
America. There is practically no danger whatever that
the Lord s Supper will be regarded superstitiously by our
sick parishioners ; and there are few cases in which its
administration is requested by sick persons from any other
than proper motives. Often it is a great solace to the
devout believer ; those who are drawing nigh to death find
their hopes strengthened by it; and it sometimes brings
to the troubled spirit the peace that passeth knowledge.
That the sacrament be administered at the sick bed in a
dignified and appropriate manner is worth some painstaking.
A few of the sacred vessels should be taken from the church
to the house ; the bread and wine should be properly pre
pared, and it will be well if one or more of the officers of
the church can assist the pastor in the administration. If
all things connected with the ordinance can be done
decently and in order, the effect upon the mind of the
recipient is likely to be more salutary. 2
1 Practical Theology, p. 558.
2 " II est legitime et parfaitement legal de dormer la cene aux malades chez
eux ; mais que ce soit avec solennite et qu il y ait communion, c est-a-dire,
non settlement des assistants mais des personues qui prennent la cene avec la
inalude." Viiiet, Theuloyie Pastorale, p. 213.
THE PASTOR AS FRIEND 191
Whether the pastor should reveal their true condition
to those who are drawing nigh to death is often a difficult
question. In cases not a few the physician s orders to the
contrary are explicit ; yet the pastor s responsibility in such
a case may be equal to that of the physician. When the
physician has distinctly declared that there is no hope of
recovery, the right of the patient to know that fact would
seem to be unquestionable. It may not be necessary that
he should know it; it may be best that he should not;
but in many cases it is evidently wrong that it should be
concealed from him. Respecting all this matter the pastor
is precisely as able to judge as is the physician ; and after
consultation with the family, he must take the responsi
bility. There are many kinds of preparation which the
dying man may wish to make for his departure; that right
should not be denied him. It is not, indeed, the salvation
of the soul that chieily calls for such a disclosure ; for the
repentance which can only be produced by the imminence
of death is of little avail ; but there are few rational human
beings who would not feel deeply wronged if a truth of so
much moment were concealed from them by those in whom
they had reason to confide.
What is the duty of the pastor with respect to the visita
tion of those who are sick with infectious diseases? His
obligation to his own household and his other parishioners
must indeed be well considered ; putting his own safety
out of the question, he must not wantonly expose others.
Yet there are other virtues besides caution. The Christian
pastor must not be a coward. He must take all necessary
precautions on behalf of others,- but he must not be afraid
to go where he is needed. The physician must go into all
these dangers, why should the minister be less courageous?
Indeed, the physician s experience is proof positive that the
danger of infection is, in many cases, greatly exaggerated.
"When," says Van Ooster/ee, kt in 1574, the question here
put was expressly deliberated at the Synod of Dort, the
answer was given that they should go, being called, and
even uncalled, insomuch as they know that there will be
need of them/ With what right shall the physician of souls
CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
withdraw from a task from which even the unbelieving
medical man does not too greatly shrink? Das Leben
ist der G liter hochstens nicht (Life is not the highest of
possessions), in the words of Schiller; and the propter vitam
vivendi pcrdere causas is certainly to be desired of no one
less than of the true shepherd of the flock. Considering
the brilliant example of believing courage and self-denial
on the part of Catholic priests, the Protestant clergy must
not remain taes^amek behind. The risk incurred on that
occasion finds its abundant compensation in the gratitude
of the flock, the approval of our own conscience, and the
ever renewed experience that the Lord supports his ser
vants in this school of exercise also, and often manifestly
preserves them. Of course, belief in his power and faith
fulness can release no one from the duty of taking those
measures of precaution prescribed under such circumstances
by experience and science." 1
No service more delicate or more difficult is required of
the pastor than that which he is called to render in the
burial of the dead. The Anglican church and some of the
o
other churches furnish a ritual to which the minister is
expected to adhere ; the solemn and beautiful service of
the English church leaves little to be desired in the way of
a dignified ceremonial. But many American pastors have
no such chart to guide them, and they find themselves
confronted with conditions and expectations which often
tax their wisdom.
Death knocks with equal punctuality at the doors of the
unchurched and of the devout ; and those who never seek
the churches, and who often rail at them, are always in
need, when death invades their dwellings, of the services
of a minister of the gospel. To this call the Christian
pastor will never turn a deaf ear ; whenever it is possible
he will gladly bear to those in trouble the words of conso
lation. In many of the rural communities a funeral ser
mon is expected ; and the successful " funeral preacher "
is the one who can most strongly appeal to the feelings of
1 Practical Theofaf/y, p. 559.
THE PASTOR AS FRIEND 193
the mourners, and elicit the most extravagant demonstra
tions of .sorrow. Against this tendency the wise pastor
will quietly set his face. Jle must not too rudely disregard \
the feelings of the afflicted, Imt with gentleness and kind- \
ness he must seek to lead them into better ways.
The funeral sermon may well be omitted, and the brief
address which takes its place should be full of the comfort
of the gospel. The one central truth that God is love ;
that even as we draw nearest to our own children and
yearn over them most tenderly when they are in the deep
est trouble, so our heavenly Father is nearest to us in the
day of our affliction; that while many things happen to us
which we can never explain, nothing can ever happen to
us that he will not overrule for our good, if we will but
trust in him, all this the minister must seek to make
these mourners see and understand. All this is the most
direct and certain inference from that doctrine of God
which Jesus has taught us. If we have such a Father in
heaven as our Lord sought to reveal to us, then there are
no sorrows that cannot be comforted, and no wounds that
cannot be healed.
Either in the sermon, or in the " remarks " which are
substituted for it, some biographical sketch, more or less
eulogistic, is generally expected of the minister. This,
too, is a custom which is best honored in the breach. The
minister may well make it a tixed rule to eschew all esti
mates of the character of the deceased. In many cases
the attempt to do this is embarrassing in the extreme; and
often the minister, who relies for the materials of such a
sketch upon the judgments of partial friends, finds after
wards that he has been whitening a sepulchre. The simple
annals of the life, the time and place of birth, the family
record, the date of death, may in all cases be simply stated
from memoranda furnished by the family; beyond this,
biography does not need to go at the funeral service.
Many wise pastors in these days are inclined to coiifine
themselves on these occasions to the reading of the Scrip
tures and prayer. It is becoming more and more common
for men and women of high character and eminent station
13
194 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
to give direction, before their death, that the burial service
shall be limited to these exercises. It is greatly to be
wished that all persons of sound mind would make the
same request.
It is, however, possible, to enlarge this simple ritual by
reading appropriate selections, not only from the Scriptures
of the Old and New Testaments, but also from the writ
ings of saints and prophets and psalmists of later times.
In the book of Scripture selections which the pastor uses
at funerals lie may insert loose leaves whereon he has
copied sentences and paragraphs gathered from many
sources, which are full of the light and hope and comfort
of the gospel. In the course of years this anthology of
consolation may become copious and rich ; the pastor has
become familiar with it ; he can tell by glancing over it
which of these gracious words will be most appropriate in
the case before him. Pastors who have followed this prac
tice for many years bear testimony to its usefulness. Such
words of life as may thus be gathered together, the utter
ances of men and women of strongest faith, of deepest
insight, are far better than any extemporaneous words
that the preacher would be likely to bring forth.
The service must not, however, be protracted. Seldom
should the whole exercise exceed half an hour. It is no
time for lengthened homilies and long-drawn-out petitions.
At the grave the service should be brief and simple.
The short committal service of the Anglican church,
which is almost identical with that employed in the Ger
man Lutheran churches, is always appropriate ; or a brief
prayer may be uttered, closing with the benediction. In
winter it is well for the minister to admonish the men
standing about the grave to remain covered during this
service ; that is not true respect for the dead which endan
gers the health of the living.
These times of affliction furnish the true pastor with a
precious opportunity. His wise and sympathetic friend
ship at such a time will never be forgotten. He often
gains, in these days, an influence that he could never
otherwise have won ; let him use it judiciously.
THE PASTOR AS FRIEND 195
The pastor who has proved his friendship for his people
will be welcome in their homes; and a most important part
of his pastoral service will be performed in the maintenance
of a fruitful personal and social relation between his own
family and the families of his Hock. In many large
churches the work of the study, the organization of the
parish, and the multitudinous public engagements make
it diilicult for the pastor to lind time for such pastoral
work as he wishes to do. That great change, to which
reference is made in the introductory chapter, which has
passed upon the church during the past twenty-five years
the change by which, in Dr. Parkhurst s happy phrase,
the church is no longer the pastor s Held, but the pastor s
force itself largely prevents the pastor from undertaking
the amount of pastoral visitation which was common in
former years. Sometimes, says a successful pastor,
"general parish oversight, through the network of socie
ties and organizations that fall to the minister to manage,
is supposed to take the place of visiting and personal
contact with individuals : but this does not meet the
necessities of the case. That general superintendency or
presidency of the parish and pastoral care are not the same
thing. The former has respect to the general life of the
community and is busy with the machinery, while the
latter has to do with internal states, conditions, and ten
dencies. It is possible and not uncommon to do much with
the former while doing little with the latter. There are
parishes where things are well organized, where there are
all sorts of activities and societies, but where there is no
proportionate apprehension of, and no proportionate pro
vision for, the real wants of individual men and women.
There may be a lively scene on the surface, but not much
going on beneath it. It is not easy, in the restlessness and
complexity of his public relations, for a minister to give
to this part of his work its proper place. Provision must
be made for this and the pastor must be helped. Demands
upon his time and attention multiply. In proportion to
the importance of his parish, to his personal influence, to
his capacity for business, the calls for public and outside
190 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
service are more frequent and urgent. There are meet
ings here, committees there, constitutions to be drawn up,
organizations to be kept running, records to be made ; but
shall he be absorbed in presiding, organizing, managing?
The danger is not new in our day. It showed itself in the
early Church, and the apostles met it by division of labor,
saying : It is not fit that we should forsake the word of
God and serve tables; search out suitable men for this
business, but we will continue steadfastly in prayer and in
the ministry of the word. As then, so now, much of the
detail of general parish work can be better devolved on
others, that the minister may be more free to teach pub
licly and from house to house, ministering the word in its
more spiritual application." 1
The question of finding time for the work of pastoral
visitation is one that burdens the mind of many a faithful
pastor. The need of thoroughly organizing his church for
work, that the powers and capabilities of these disciples
may be developed, and that his force may occupy and
cultivate its field, is always pressing upon his conscience ;
and the amount of administrative work thus required of
him, when added to the intellectual work which the pul
pit of this day demands, renders it simply impossible that
he should find very much time for social calls. Even if
the pastor has assistance, so that much of the detail of his
administration can be devolved on others, the general
superintendence of it, which rests with him, is no slight
care. In a church of fifty to a hundred families the pas
tor may easily become intimately acquainted with most of
his people, but when the number grows to three or four
hundred families, the task, under existing conditions, be
comes formidable.
One consideration must be borne in mind in estimating
the necessity for this kind of work ; the pastor of a work
ing church has many opportunities of becoming well ac
quainted with those of his people who are at work. With
them there are many conferences and consultations ; he is
with them every week, in the Sunday-schools, in the mis-
1 Rev. Lewellyn Pratt, in Parish Problems, p. 180.
THE PASTOR AS FRIEND 197
sions, in the Young People s Societies, in the Boys and
Girls Guilds, in the Sewing Schools, in all the active
ministries which the church is carrying forward. It is
not at all as once it was, when the people s only chance of
meeting their minister was when they confronted him in
the pews, at the Sunday services ; there is a fellowship of
work which brings pastor and people into frequent and
close association. The need of calling upon the people
in their homes to get acquainted with them is obviously
not what once it was. This applies, of course, only to
those members of the church who are at work ; but the
application should be distinctly brought before the minds
of all the people. Let them be told, from time to time,
that the fellowship of the church is largely a fellowship
of work, and that if they wish to become well acquainted
with their pastor or with their fellow-members, the best
way is to find some place in the active work of the
church.
Nevertheless, when all is said, there remains a large
opportunity and an urgent call for house to house visita
tion by the pastor. In some way he ought to arrange
the administrative work of his parish so that he may tind
some time to see his people in their homes. In most large
churches it will not be possible for the minister to make
his round of pastoral calls more than once in a year: some
times even this will overtax him ; but as much as this he
ought to strive for.
What should be the nature of these pastoral calls ?
Here, also, it is evident that changed conditions must
considerably modify our practice. The late Dr. William
M. Taylor, of New York, in a recital of his early experi
ence, brings before us the typical pastoral visit of the for
mer days. u I was first settled," lie says, " over a church
of about one hundred and eighty members, many of whom
resided in the village in which the place of worship was
situated, but a considerable number of whom were farmers,
scattered over an area of about six miles in length by about
two in breadth. I made my visits systematically, week by
week, taking the parish in manageable districts. At first
198 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
I was accompanied on each occasion by an elder. It was
expected that I should ask a few questions of the children,
assemble the members of the household, give a formal ad
dress, and then conclude with prayer. The presence of
the lay brother was a great embarrassment. I supposed
that because he was with me I should have a new address
in every house, and should have a prayer in every instance
perfectly distinct from any which I had formerly offered.
... So I went on from house to house, making a new
address in each, until, when it was toward evening, and I
had walked perhaps five or six miles and made ten or
twelve addresses, I was more dead than alive. You can
not wonder that, in these circumstances, pastoral visitation
became the bete noir of my life, and I positively hated it.
Thus prosecuted it was simply and only drudgery, and, so
far as I know, was not productive of any good result." l
It is evident that visitation of this type is no longer
called for in English-speaking parishes. And there is a
question whether the call of the minister should be re
garded in any sense as a professional call. Most of the
writers on pastoral care assume that it should have this
character ; that it should be well understood that the min
ister, in seeking the homes of his people, is engaged in his
professional duty. "The minister," says Dr. Blaikie,
" has come for the purpose of promoting the spiritual and
eternal welfare of the family, and therefore the sooner he
addresses himself to this errand the better. ... It is often
desirable for a minister, after a brief salutation and kindly
inquiry after the welfare of the household, to proceed at
once, like Abraham s servant at Padan Aram, to tell his
errand, to do what he has come to do. In speaking to the
household he may find a point of departure by saying why
he has come, adverting to the exceeding solemnity of
spiritual things and to the importance, not of a mere gen
eral, but of a special application of what is said from the
pulpit, so that no one may suffer the appeal to go past
him, or think he does right while lie fails personally to re
ceive the message of God. Something may be said appli-
1 The Ministry of the Word, p. 272.
THE PASTOR AS FRIEND 199
cable to the circumstances of the different portions of the
family, the parents, the children, older and younger, the
servants, when there are such. Of the children questions
may be asked, and are probably expected to be asked ; but
let this be done in the kindly manner of a friend, not in
the stern tone of a taskmaster. Generally, too, it will be
well to bear in mind that there is a tendency on the part
of people to think of ministers as beings awfully solemn,
with but little of human sympathy, men to be dreaded
as stern reprovers, instead of respected and loved as affec
tionate 1 and sympathetic guides. In pastoral visitation,
therefore, let there be shown a frankness, a cordiality, a
humility of spirit, a winning brotherly kindness that shall
dissipate such an impression and tend to gain the confi
dence of all." l But it is a serious question whether even
so much of formality and professionalism as is here de
scribed would not, in the majority of cases, effectually
counteract the best results of the pastor s call. Is not the
primary object of this house-to-house visitation the es
tablishment of friendly personal relations between himself
and the members of his flock, old and young? Is it not,
therefore, far better that the professional business of the
pastor should be subordinated, in these calls, to the pur
pose of putting himself on terms of cordial intimacy with
his people. The minister who is always preaching, who
never meets his parishioners without the; word of admoni
tion and exhortation upon his lips, is not certain to know
them very well, or to have the best influence over them.
Such unbending professionalism forces them into an un
natural attitude toward him : he never really knows them.
There is abundant justification, therefore, for the pas
toral call, considered simply as the endeavor of the pastor
to draw closer the bonds of personal friendship between
himself and the families of his congregation. Meeting
them thus, in their own homes, the circumstances of their
lives are better known to him, he more perfectly individu
alizes them, and every visit gives him a larger knowledge
of the manifold phases of human experience. If there are
1 For the Work of the Ministry, pp. 187, 188.
200 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
children in the household, the pastor learns their names
and fixes them in his memory. He finds them at their
lessons or their pastimes, and seeks to enter into their life,
speaking a hearty word of approval of their conduct, when
he knows that such a word is deserved. In these brief
social calls the pastor may be able to let the people see
that he is interested in all that concerns them ; that he
has been thinking about them, and studying their welfare ;
that he is rejoicing with them in their prosperity, or bear
ing their burdens with them ; that his deepest wish is to
be a trusted and a useful friend. If all this is in his heart,
they will be apt to find it out. The one thing needful for
them to know is that he loves them and wants to do them
good. The pastoral call that conveys this impression to
their minds is a thoroughly successful call, even though
there may have been no preaching nor even praying con
nected with it.
And yet it must not be inferred that religious conversa
tion should be avoided. The door will always be open for
that. The tone of the interview will be such as to make
that seem natural and fitting. The spirit of the whole
communication will be such as to invite questions or confi
dences of this nature. The pastor will be quick to seize
any intimation or suggestion of a wish to speak of the
higher themes, and will deftly lead the talk that way if
such a hint is dropped. The people will easily know that
if he refrains his lips from pressing these things upon
them, it is not because there is no interest in their spiritual
welfare. If such is the posture of his mind, it is altogether
likely that many opportunities for religious conversation
will occur in connection with these social calls, and that
the net spiritual result of the visitation will be far larger
than if, by a perfunctory professionalism, the subject of
religion were everywhere introduced by him.
Many pastors are accustomed to make a systematic divi
sion of their parish, and to announce, each Sunday, the
days on which they intend to visit certain streets. Some
inconvenience may thus be occasioned to parishioners, who
may wish to be away from home on the day designated,
THE PASTOR AS FRIEND 201
but the advantages of such a system are considerable. It
pledges the pastor to a definite task, which he might other
wise neglect or defer; and it gives those who wish to see
him due notice of his coming that they may, if possible, be
at home to receive him. "Moreover, says Dr. Taylor,
"the public announcement had this incidental advantage,
of which at first I had not thought, namely, that it stopped
at once all grumbling on the part of the unvisited. They
saw that I was steadily working week by week somewhere ;
it became a matter of interest to them to watch my prog
ress, and they looked with a certain strange eagerness for
the day when I should name the street in which they re
sided. I do not know that in the long run I actually did
much more pastoral work than I was doing before ; but I
accomplished it with more ease to myself and with far
more satisfaction to my people." 1
The value to the minister of such contact as this with
the people cannot be easily overstated. It keeps him in
vital relations with the people to whom he is sent to min
ister; it enables him more perfectly to get their point of
view. Sometimes his mind will be saddened by revela
tions of the shallowness and selfishness of those from whom
better things might have been expected ; but more often
he will be cheered and strengthened by discoveries of
fidelity and heroism in the lives of commonplace people.
The tendency of most studious men to a certain subtilty
and remoteness of discussion upon spiritual themes will
be arrested by the study of the intellectual processes of
the people in the pews, and the effect of this intercourse
will be to give the preaching a greater homeliness and
directness of presentation.
Here is a suggestion worth considering: I would make
one exception about the house-to-house visitation of the
town parish priest. It is sometimes good to throw himself
into one of his districts, pitch his cam]) there, and permeate
it with his presence. For a month lie brings his whole
influence to bear upon it, both getting hold singly of every
inhabitant and collecting all together in cottage or mis-
1 The Ministri/ of tin. Wvnl, ]>. 1^74.
202 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
sionary meetings." l The kind of visitation here contem
plated is, however, that of the whole population, rather
than that of the members of the congregation. But there
may be advantages in concentrating, after this manner, the
labors of the pastor among his own people.
It is doubtless well, as things now are, in most of our
city parishes, that the pastor should " lead about a wife "
with him in making these pastoral calls. The men of the
household are seldom at home in the daytime, and not
only for reasons of propriety, but also for the enhance
ment of the social value of the call, the minister may
often wisely claim the companionship of his wife. Her
tact and sympathy will be a great help to him in many
cases.
The testimony of leading pastors to the importance of
this kind of work is worth remembering. Dr. William
M. Taylor, in speaking to the students of the New Haven
Theological Seminary, said : " You will make a great mis
take if you undervalue the visitation of your people. The
pulpit is your throne, no doubt, but then a throne is
stable as it rests on the affections of the people, and to get
their affections you must visit them in their dwellings." 2
Dr. John Hall, addressing a similar audience, said : " Pains
should be taken that nothing prevents your pastoral visits.
It is very necessary for you to know the people in their
homes, and for the people to know you. The little chil
dren and the young people should know you. The men
should know you. Do not begrudge the time thus spent.
In freely conversing with humble people you will get
side lights or particular testimony that will make you a
stronger man and a better minister for many a day to
come." 3 Dr. Francis Wayland, speaking on this subject
to pastors, said : " If, at last, it be said that all this is
beneath the dignity of our profession, and that we cannot
expect an educated man to spend his time in visiting
mechanics in their shops, and in sitting down with women
1 The Parish Priest of the Town, p. 44.
2 The Ministry of the Word, p. 185.
3 Quoted in Parish Problems, p. 185.
THE PASTOR AS FRIEND 203
engaged in their domestic labor to converse with them on
the subject of religion, to this objection I have no reply
to offer. Let the objector present his case in its full force
to Him who on his journey to Galilee sat thus at the well
and held a memorable conversation with a woman of
Samaria/ 1 My heart does not upbraid me," said Dod-
dridge, " with having kept back anything that may be
profitable to my people. But I fear I have not followed
them sufficiently with domestic and personal exhorta
tions." 2 "Acquaint yourselves," said Matthew Henry,
"with the state of your people s souls, their tempta
tions, their infirmities. You will then know the better
how to preach to them." "I am too backward," said
John Rogers, of Dedham, to private visiting of neigh
bors at their houses, which neglect is very injurious ; for
from this cause their love to me cannot be as great as it
would be, nor am I so well acquainted with their particu
lar states and cannot therefore speak so fitly to them as I
might." 3 " The true portrait of a Christian pastor," says
the Rev. Charles Bridges, "is that of a parent walking
among his children, maintaining indeed the authority
and reverence, but carefully securing along with it the
love and confidence that belongs to this endearing rela
tion, lie is always to be found in his own house, or met
with among the folds of his flock, encouraging, warning,
directing, instructing, as a counsellor, ready to advise,
as a friend to aid, sympathize and console, with the
affection of a mother to lift up the weak, with the long-
suffering of a father to reprove, rebuke, and exhort. Such
a one. like Bishop Wilson in the Isle of Man, Oberlin in
the Ban de la Roche, or the Apostolical Pastor of the
High Alps, gradually bears down all opposition, really
lives in the hearts of his people, and will do more for
their temporal and spiritual welfare than men of the
most splendid talents and commanding eloquence. 4
1 Quoted in Puriali Problems, p. 1S5. - Orton s Life, p. 124.
8 Quoted in Bridges, The Christian Ministry, p. 315, n.
4 The Christian Ministry, p. 322.
THE CHURCH ORGANIZATION
EVERY church is organized. It is not an incoherent
mass of human beings, it is an orderly association of
Christian men and women. Organization, in the world
of mind, is the definition of functions. To organize a
O
church is to make definite arrangements for various kinds
of work, and to assign these to different individuals or
groups who shall be responsible for their performance.
Each of the officers of the church is charged with certain
duties, and these duties pertain to certain definite depart
ments of church work. There is thus a division of labor,
and intelligent co-operation among those whose efforts are
directed to the same result. In the humblest church,
with the simplest polity, some definition of functions is
required. There must be a clerk to keep the list of mem
bers and the record of proceedings, and a treasurer to
receive and disburse the funds, and a Sunday-school
superintendent, with his assistants, and generally deacons
or leaders to take charge of meetings and direct the work
of the church. Some intelligent arrangement and super
vision is necessary to the success of all social institutions.
The church has often a dual organization, one depart
ment devoted to temporal affairs, and another to spiritual
activities. Man is a spirit, but he has a body with material
needs which must be provided for ; and the church, like
wise, though it is a spiritual organization, has also a tem
poral side, for which some orderly provision must be
made. It has been found necessary, in the free commun
ions, to secure for the church a legal incorporation, that
the body so incorporated may hold and administer pro
perty, and receive and disburse funds. In some cases the
members of the church are members of this corporation,
THE CHURCH ORGANIZATION l>0o
and there is but one body, with two sets of functions ; in
other ciises nil those contributing to the support of the
church, whether communicants or not, are members of
the corporation, with power to vote for trustees and to
take part in all the iinancial work of the society, but not
to participate in the spiritual government of the church.
The wisdom of this dual organization is often questioned;
but it possesses certain obvious advantages. k * Every
church," says Professor Austin Abbott, " has two very
different kinds of business to attend to. Difference of
opinion exists as to whether they may best be administered
by the same persons, or by different sets of persons. In
some denominations one organization attends to both; in
others there is a separate organization for each. Some
persons think the pastor should have nothing to do with
the finances; others think it wrong to exclude him from
them. Without desiring here to discuss the question, it
is well to say that it appears to me that Providence, who
is wiser than all our ingenuitv, has so alloted the causes
of opinion and the dispositions of men that there are, and
for a long time to come are likely to be, many churches of
each kind, some of the one form and some of the other,
and some of a composite form, all engaged in the same
object, but in different methods, and thus enlisting diverse
gifts and aptitudes. Whether this be an advantage, as I
suppose, or not, the fact exists ; and the reader who would
understand parish business clearly should not fail to
observe the difference between the principles which govern
the two classes respectively; and even if his church is a
single organization, he will be repaid for noticing the
forms of organization in which these two classes of func
tions are separated." 1
If the church has a permanent abiding-place, it must
possess land on which its edifice shall stand, and the title
of this land must be secured and held. The building must
be erected, and kept in repair ; fuel and lights and water
must be furnished ; if it stands in a city it must bear
assessments for the paving and maintenance of streets and
1 Parish Problems, pp. 69, 70.
206 CHKIST1AN PASTOR AND WOKKING CHUIiCH
sewers ; the sexton who takes care of the building must
be paid for his services ; the minister and perhaps other
servants of the church who are spending their time in its
service must receive some remuneration; it is necessary
to collect the funds required for all these purposes and to
disburse them in a just and business-like manner; the
church, as an organization, is constantly entering into
contracts which must be intelligently made and faithfully
kept ; and this part of its work deserves the serious atten
tion of all its members. There is room here for the exer
cise of some of the best Christian virtues. The church
must provide things honest in the sight of all men ; its
business must be done with system and promptness ; honor,
fidelity, consideration for the rights of others must charac
terize all its transactions.
The men who are chosen to have the care of the tempo
ralities must be men of the utmost probity. The affairs
of the church should not be intrusted to men who are sus
pected of dishonesty or extortion in their own affairs. It
is a great scandal to put the finances of the church into the
hands of men w r ho do not possess the confidence of their
neighbors. They ought also to be men with high stand
ards of Christian propriety ; men who can feel the special
unfitness of sharp and shifty financiering in church admin
istration. They will be called on not merely to disburse
with care the funds collected, but also to collect the funds
of the church : the methods of raising the revenues will be
under their supervision ; and this is a matter concerning
which the church needs wise and high-minded leadership.
There is reason to fear that many churches are greatly
injured by the dubious methods employed in the raising
of their revenues. Ways and means that are positively
unchristian are often resorted to ; competition in its most
offensive forms is sometimes employed in the collection of
church funds. The annual sale of sittings in the church to
the highest bidder is a practice which violates the funda
mental principles of Christian fraternity. It offers place
and distinction in the church to the longest purses ; it says
to the man with a gold ring and goodly apparel, " You may
THE CHURCH ORGANIZATION 207
sit here, in the centre aisle, for you have the money to pay
for the best ; " but to the poor man in vile raiment it says,
"Stand out there in the vestibule, or sit here under the
gallery ; you must wait for your place till your betters
have chosen their seats." The sale of privilege in the
church for money is the essence of it; how this differs in
principle from the simony against which the curse of the
church has been pronounced from the apostolic days until
now, it is dillicult to explain. It is undoubtedly true that
largei 1 revenues can be raised by this method than by any
other, for there are multitudes who will pay well for con
spicuous sittings and whose contributions would be small
if they were compelled to take their chances with all the
rest. But a church which resorts to such methods for
raising money is not apt to receive the benedictions of
Christ s poor. By the very terms of its life they are
practically excluded; self-respecting people do not wish
to go where "the rich-man s aisle" and "the poor man s
corner " are easily pointed out.
The men who are chosen to manage the finances of the
church should be those to whom considerations of this
nature are intelligible, men who are not only capable
of skilfully conducting business affairs, but who are also
capable of comprehending the principles on which the
fellowship of the church is based. There is a loud call
just now for Christianizing all business relations; there
are those who believe that every department of human life
must be brought under the Christian law. It is difficult
to understand what our gospel means if it does not mean
all this. But if the business of the mart and the factory
are to be Christianized, the business of the church must
first be subdued to the obedience of the law of Christ. It
must be possible to raise the revenues of the church by
methods which do not involve any concessions to the pride
of riches or any false distinctions among men. The one
place in the world where money can buy no privileges
should be the place where men meet to worship God. To
manage the church finances with this end in view is the
task of those to whom this duty is intrusted. It calls,
208 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
therefore, for men of a lofty purpose and a genuine
consecration.
When the business of the church is conducted in this
manner reverently, conscientiously, and with a sincere
desire that the mind of Christ shall rule in all the tempo
ralities of the church, the work of this department is no
less genuine Christian work than is the conduct of the
prayer meeting or the teaching of the Sunday-school. It
is sometimes assumed that the business of the church is a
profane occupation ; that whatever has to do with money
must needs be of the earth, earthy ; that the trustees and
the treasurer, in their service of the church, are not, in
any proper sense, " Christian workers." But everything
depends on the spirit in which they do their work. They
may, indeed, manage these affairs in such a way that their
own selfishness shall be aggravated, and the life of the
church demoralized; but they may also put so much of
the spirit of Christ into the methods of church business
that it shall be a means of grace to them and to the whole
brotherhood. There can be no more fruitful Christian
work than this. A church that organizes its financial
affairs upon Christian principles, and puts them under
Christian leadership is doing as effective missionary
work as the church that plants missions or holds revival
services.
The assignment of the sittings in the church is part of
the business that greatly needs to be Christianized. In
some churches all sittings are absolutely free, and there is
no need of any distribution. For many reasons this plan
is to be preferred. To have no individual rights or reser
vations in the Lord s house, but to open the whole of it,
each Sabbath day, to all who come, is the simplest of all
arrangements. But there are many with whom the senti
ment of locality is strong ; who like to sit week by week
in the accustomed place, and to have their families with
them ; and there seems to be no violation of the principles
of equality and fraternity if temporary assignments of sit
tings are made to regular worshippers. It is only neces
sary that the method of selection be something other than
THE CHL UCH ORGANIZATION 209
commercial competition, and that frequent redistributions
take place, so that the most desirable places be not perma
nently monopolized. There appears no letter way than a
distribution of choices by lot at the beginning of each
year; the name first drawn taking the first choice, and so
on to the end of the list. Those who are last this year
may be first next year; and the favors are divided with
out partiality. When the poor widow who contributes but
five cents a week to the revenues of the church lias the
same opportunity of securing the best seat in the middle
aisle as the rich merchant who contributes ten dollars a
week, the opprobrium of ecclesiastical finance is practi
cally wiped out. The point is to bring the rich merchant
to accept this situation heartily; to be quite willing to take
his chance of a back seat under the gallery. And this is
by no means a visionary proposition; churches can be
found in which the Christian law governs even the dis
tribution of the pews. There are Christian disciples who
decline to take advantage, in their church relations, of the
power which their wealth would give them of securing for
themselves privilege and honor; who have learned to use
neither their freedom nor their power as occasions of the
flesh, but who know how by love to serve one another.
And when this spirit takes possession of the church and
rules in all its affairs, the Kingdom seems near at hand.
No more effectual work of grace could be desired in many
of our churches than would be signalized by the distribu
tion of the sittings of the church on Christian principles.
Such an exercise is nothing short of a means of grace to
those who enter upon it in the right spirit; and a revival
of religion, so called, no matter how fervid its manifesta
tions may be, is of small value unless it does result in
infusing a larger measure of unselfishness and kind con
sideration into the social relations of the members of the
church, and especially into the manner and spirit of their
association in the house of God.
The organization of the church on its financial side be
comes, therefore, a matter of deep and genuine concern to
the wise pastor. It is not a matter which lie can neglect
u
210 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
or ignore ; the spiritual life of the church is vitally affected
by the working out of these problems. The church can
not afford to intrust these interests to men who are simply
shrewd financiers, who will adopt in the transaction of
church business the methods of the street and the mart.
One large part of the mission of the church in this genera
tion is to show the world how business can be done on
Christian principles.
The records of the church must be kept with care ; the
register of baptisms, admissions, dismissions, deaths, should
be accurate; the minutes of all transactions should be
clear and full; and the history of the work of the church
should be faithfully preserved. The officer who has the
charge of this work bears different names in the different
forms of polity, but his service is always important.
In most of the larger Protestant churches the fact is
now recognized that the work of the ministry cannot be
adequately performed by a single man. The fact has long
been known in the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches;
the discovery has been tardily made by some of the other
communions. The preparation of two sermons a week,
with the wide reading and study which such a task im
plies, the visitation of the sick and the afflicted, the super
vision of all the departments of church work, the participa
tion in the social activities of the community, in all the
multiform public enterprises of philanthropy and reform
which demand no small share of his attention, all this is
more than any single man can do. That part of the cor
respondence of a pastor which grows out of his pastoral
relation, which is official rather than personal, is no
small burden. The number of letters that come to the
busy pastor of a prominent church asking advice, assist
ance, or sympathy is always veiy large. Riddles to solve,
wounds to salve, axes to grind, the postman brings him
every day. All these letters must be answered, and many
precious hours of every week are thus consumed. The
work of the faithful pastor is constantly increasing. His
congregation is growing, its work is widening, the organi
zations within the church are multiplying, calling upon
THE CHURCH ORGANIZATION 211
him for more and more attention ; the longer he lives in
the community, the more identified does he become with
all its public and social life, and the heavier are the drafts
upon him for service growing out of these relations. Add to
this that the intellectual demand upon his pulpit is heavier
every year, and the need of bringing a fresh, strong mes
sage to his people every Sunday increasingly urgent. It
seems inevitable that the successful pastor s work should
become more and more laborious and exacting; the very
sign of his success is the steady increase of his work. And
the peculiarity of the case is that so little of this burden
can be shifted to other shoulders. The successful merchant
or manufacturer or railway manager can relieve himself
of the larger part of his cares ; his work can be so divided
and systematized that he shall have only a general super
vision. Even the most successful professional man hands
over to subordinates the laborious details of his business,
and the great sculptor leaves most of the chiselling to
skilled workmen. But the nature of the pastor s work
is such that the greater part of it must be done by him
alone. Nobody can give him the slightest help in the
preparation of his sermons, and a large proportion of his
pastoral work is of a nature so personal that no one can
perform it for him. In spite of all that can be done for
his relief the faithful and successful pastor will find his
work growing heavier year by year.
Something can, however, be done to lighten his burden.
A competent and well-trained assistant mav take from his
hands a great many of the small details of administration.
The care of the Sunday-school; the supervision of the
young people s societies, and the boys and girls guilds ;
the preparation of children s concerts and praise services ;
the clerical work of writing notices and official letters, and
attending to the necessary printing, as well as considerable
portions of the pastoral work, can be delegated to a capable
assistant. The voting man who has been fitted for this
*/ o
kind of work may be able to do much that the pastor him
self could not do; he can give much personal attention to
the young men of the congregation ; he can develop in
212 CHK1STIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
many ways the activities of the children and the youth.
In the larger Episcopal churches the pastor s assistant has
always been a recognized necessity, and partly for this
reason the parochial work of the average Episcopal church
is apt to be better organized and more vigorously prose
cuted than that of other Protestant churches. The other
churches are, however, learning this wisdom. Any work
which involves the division and co-ordination of force must
have adequate superintendence ; it is bad economy to neg
lect the directing intelligence by which " the working in
due measure of each several part " shall be secured. The
first condition of this effective organization of the work of
a large church is the employment of one or more assist
ants to whom the pastor may delegate such duties as they
may be qualified to perform.
There might be, in many cases, a wise division of labor
along the line suggested by the early Puritan nomencla
ture. The English Congregational churches of the seven
teenth century were served by two ministers, one of whom
was called the Pastor, and the other the Teacher. This
division of functions was not very clearly made ; the Pas
tor was to "attend to exhortation," and the Teacher to
" attend to doctrine." The maintenance of this distinction
proved impracticable. 1 But it might be wise in these days
to commit to one man the responsibility for the pulpit
w r ork, and leave him free for this service, while intrusting
to another the chief care of the pastoral administration.
Neither of these would then be counted as the other s
assistant ; there would be no subordination, but each
would have a recognized and well defined office, and could
devote his whole time to his special work. The preacher,
with none of the cares of parish business on his hands, and
none of the burdens of pastoral service on his mind, could
give far more time and thought to his pulpit work ; and
the pastor, without the millstone of Sunday preparation
about his neck, could give to the Sunday-school, and the
mid-week service, and the young people s organizations,
1 TJislory of the Congregational Churches in the United States, by Williston
Walker, p. 220.
THE CHUItCH ORGANIZATION 213
and the missionary societies, and the church charities his
undivided attention, greatly increasing their efficiency.
For this pastoral service the church would not be likely to
choose a young man, hut one of experience and of well-
matured character. There are ministers who have unusual
gifts for work of this nature, as there are others whose
strength is in their pulpit work. If two with such com
plementary qualities could be brought together, the best
provision would seem to be made for the service of the
church.
One or two questions suggest themselves, however, when
such an arrangement is contemplated. The preacher who
came into no living contact with the life of his parish
would be apt to lack some of the elements of the best
teacher. A mere book-man could not give the people
what they need. It would be necessary, therefore, if such
a division of labor were proposed, that the preacher should
not be entirely withdrawn from association with the peo
ple. The care of the pastoral administration might be
lifted from his shoulders, but he should keep himself in
close touch with the people themselves, understanding
their problems, and sympathizing with them in their
sorrows.
It is not improbable, also, that the people would crave
the presence in their homes, in their times of sickness and
trouble, of the man whose words in the pulpit had been
their comfort and inspiration. Whether a large-hearted
preacher could easily free himself from the burdens of
pastoral service may be doubted. It must be admitted
that the division of the minister s work upon this line pre
sents some serious difficulties. Nevertheless, it is probable
that two men of fair common-sense and Christian temper
could divide the work of the church between them upon
a plan like this, neither being exclusively confined to
his own field, the pastor sometimes {(reaching, and the
preacher, in the pastor s absence, assuming the pastoral
care, but each holding himself responsible for a definite
part of the work of the church, and neither assuming the
pre-eminence. By such a plan vacations could be arranged
214 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
so that the church should never be left without a minister,
and the work might go on without interruption from one
year s end to another.
The pertinence of this discussion is seen when the ques
tion of the organization of the church is considered. For
such varied and organized activities as most churches now
propose, trained leadership is indispensable, more of such
leadership than one man can furnish. In some way the
executive force must be increased. The volunteer help
of members of the church is not sufficient; most of the
church officers are busy men, who cannot give to the tasks of
organization and leadership the time that they require.
In most Protestant churches there are, however, officers
who render valuable service. In Episcopal churches the
wardens and vestrymen ; in Methodist Episcopal churches
the stewards and class leaders ; in Presbyterian churches
the session, composed of the elders and deacons ; in Lu
theran churches the consistory; in the large group of
churches congregationally governed the deacons and the
prudential committee, assist in this work. They are not
only ecclesiastical officers whose function it is to rule, but
they are also, by virtue of their office, leaders in the organ
ized work of the church. The enterprising pastor often
seeks to assign each of these official members to the over
sight of some department of the work. Even if he has
an assistant to supervise the entire organization, it is well
to have a department chief for each branch of the church
work. Thus the pastor may wisely request one of his
staff of helpers to take special interest in the Sunday-
school work ; another to look after the interests of the
young people ; another to study the mid-week service with
a view to suggestions of improvement ; another to give
attention to the benevolent collections, and so forth. It is
well if the various church officials, the elders, wardens,
deacons, and the rest, can be made to feel that their prin
cipal concern should lie not so much with the government
of the church as with its labors.
That the church is an organism can scarcely be disputed.
Life never exists apart from organization. If the church
THE CHUKCH ORGANIZATION 215
is alive something closely akin to what we see in a living
body must appear in the relation of its parts and members.
This is the truth which is put with such marvellous power
in Paul s epistles. But there is a distinction just here
which \ve must learn to make. In a late essay are these
words :
" As the work of the Spirit is organic in the individual,
so is it in the Church. The Church is an organic unity.
It so organizes its individual members that the Church
becomes a co-operative society. The vision of the wheels
in the first chapter of the prophecy of Ezekiel may be
taken as a vision of the Church, the wheels being the
individual members carefully combined as a divine mech
anism, and intelligently directed by the living Spirit with
in. Not simply did the wheels move as he descended
among them ; they moved together. The idea in the
vision may be expressed in one word, as the co-operation
of the wheels with each other, and with the living God,
to whose power they were so completely submissive, and
of which they were so perfectly executive. The reason
for the organization of Christian activity thus stated is the
divine constitution of Christian life, and of the Christian
Church. We are under a spiritual constitution whose
supreme aim is the organization of life." 1
It is here assumed that the church is both an organism
and a mechanism. The conceptions are used interchange
ably. There is reason, doubtless, for this combination of
the two ideas. It expresses a fundamental fact. But if
the ideas are combined it is well that they be clearly dis
criminated, and not amalgamated. The church is an
organism, and it is also, to some extent, a mechanism; but
the organic fact is deepest, and to this the mechanical
process must always adjust itself. Its organization is due
to the unconscious and spontaneous action of the spiritual
life within; its mechanism is the result of the application
of human thought and volition to its processes of work.
Mechanism is the child of invention, of contrivance ;
1 Rev. G. R. Leavitt, in Discussions of the. Interdenominational Congress at
Cincinnati, p. 249.
216 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
organization is the fruit of that Spirit of Life who divid-
eth to each one severally as he will.
Now it is evident that we must have a certain amount of
mechanism in our church work. There must be wheels,
and wheels within wheels. The prophet saw this in his
vision long ago ; that was a prediction which reached far
into the future. The mind must work upon this problem,
inventing processes, devising methods. The failure to use
our minds in this way would result in fanaticism. There
is great need of the use of all the wits we possess in meet
ing the difficulties that confront us, and in adjusting our
forces to the work in hand. This is what we see in the
manifold activities of the modern church.
Yet there are those who greatly distrust this whole
tendency. The multiplication of agencies and methods
seems to them a dubious good. Faith in God is giving
place, they say, to faith in machinery. In the perfection
of methods the need of power is forgotten.
Beyond controversy danger lies in this neighborhood.
Yet the true wisdom co-ordinates these tendencies, always
keeping the vital energies supreme, and making the mechan
ism subservient to life. The problem is to comprehend the
adaptations which life produces and to shape our methods
in accordance with these. Methods we must have ; they
ought to be such methods as " the law of the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus " would naturally evolve ; and they who
have "the mind of the spirit" ought to be able to devise
them. The curse of all ecclesiasticisms has been the
swallowing up of life in what men call organization, which
is not truly organization, but mechanism. And this is the
danger against which, in this day, we must be constantly
on our guard. Yet we must not neglect to use the ne
cessary instrumentalities. No matter how numerous are
our wheels, if the Spirit of the Living Creature is in
them.
The church must be organized for the development of
its own life, that it " may grow up in all things unto
him which is the head, even Christ ; from whom all the
body, fitly framed and knit together through that which
TUE CHUKCH- U11GAN1ZATION 217
every joint supplieth, according to the working in due
measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the
body unto the building up of itself in love/ ] And
it must be organized also for effective ministry to the
needs of the community, needs that are manifold and
various and that require many forms of evangelistic and
philanthropic activity.
For a clear view of this problem of organization as it
presents itself to a laborer in a wide and fruitful iield,
the little book of Dean Gott, entitled The Pnrish Priest in
Town may be usefully studied. The organization of an
Anglican parish is here discussed with great particularity,
and useful hints may be found for pastors in every church.
As to the nature and extent of the work, his testimony
is impressive : tk The Parish Priest of the town has to
lay the Hand of his Lord personally on every man in his
crowded, ever-changing streets. The minimum population
of a town parish is fixed by the Ecclesiastical Commis
sioners at 4,000, but this gives only a shadow of the
difficulty. J have many streets where no family remains
a quarter of a year ; in these quarters the population is
quadrupled for practical purposes, and the unsettled con
dition of these people produces a like character of the
inner man. To tix the spiritual impression on so volatile
a subject needs new resources, of which George Herbert
never knew the want. To this ebbing and Mowing effect
of large wells of life in a town, you must add the lodging
houses where many hundreds spend a few weeks or nights,
in some of which one thousand men remain a little while
as straws in an eddy of the river. And you lirst begin
to l know what you have to do. The first thought is that
to do it is a sheer impossibilitv. The second thought
is that inspired couplet of St. Paul s,
By myself I can do nothing.
Through Christ I can do all things.
The third thought is that leading genius of man organi
zation. Was it not Professor Jardine who said, k The high-
1 Eph. iv. 16.
218 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
est exertion of genius, the uniting and concentrating
effort ? Into this teeming multitude, ever coming and
o o
going, diffuse yourself that you may concentrate yourself
through an army of church-workers, and unite them with
your parishioners and yourself in Christ." 1
This leader of Christian work counsels the pastor to
begin by gathering unofficially about him a few kindred
souls, to whom this work of the church will be, as it was
to the Master, meat and drink. A few such can be found
in every parish; and to confer and commune with them
respecting the work to be done, is the wise beginning.
The greatness of the task, and its urgency; the desola
tion and danger of the multitudes that are scattered
abroad, as sheep having no shepherd ; the call for
faithful, heroic, self-denying service, let the pastor and
those that are with him lay the burden of all this on their
hearts. It is not for him to make the work seem light
to those whom he calls about him. " The self-sacrifice of
this active Christianity is only an attraction, never a deter
rent ; you need not water it down or assure your would-
be Church worker that the task is easy and the difficulty
slight. The only helpers this will give you will be a
limp and sorry crew, like FalstafTs recruits. God s orders
to Gideon in the selection of his first army was an inspira
tion for all time : Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him
return, and depart early. Lay this to heart as a principle
of your work in this and other matters. True men and
women love trouble ; they believe in difficulty, for it calls
out their God-given qualities and prays for them to the
Almighty. In work they know that they increase their
talents by use ; and in the armies of heaven as well as of
earth, the post of danger is the post of honor." 2
Among the organizations named and described by this
parish leader are his Sunday-scJwol, which he divides into
three departments : the Infants, the Middle School, and
the Communicants, with each of which the pastor is
closely identified; his District visitors, respecting whom
he gives careful instruction, each of whom is to keep
1 The Parish Priest in Town, pp. 38, 39, 2 Ibid. p. 42.
THE CHURCH ORGANIZATION 219
a strict roll of all her families, and to report to her curate-
in-charge the names of any whom he ought to visit; and
all of whom are to meet once a month for prayer and
consultation with the minister; his T cnn// Think, a
department of his day-school and Sunday-school, ollicered
hy wise men and educating the young in honest thrift ;
his N///y//<// Cl txs, to the care of which he can assign
some who would not otherwise he church-workers; his
Athletic Clnls, under the direction of sound-hearted young
men, into which men and hoys may he gathered for
wholesome exercise ; his ttirls Friendly Society, and his
You/if/ Men s Fric/xt/t/ >SVvW//, and his Church of England
Temperance X^ /<7//. For the management of these various
organizations, the services of many church-members will
be required; and the task of the pastor is to get the
right men and women for each of these places, and to
keep them steadily and enthusiastically about their work.
In addition to this lie provides also for the opening of
Mission Chapels in neglected districts and for outdoor
preaching. It is a large conception of the work of the
parish which is thus brought before us; and it is one,
as we shall see, which underlies the activity of the church
at the present day.
The chapters which follow will be devoted to the
subsidiary organizations no\v existing in most working
churches. These methods of work are now vcrv numer
ous ; in the development of the life of the church its
functions have been highly specialized. Perhaps the
differentiation of ecclesiastical tissue has gone quite as far
as is wholesome ; we may be suffering, in some quarters,
from a surfeit of societies. It is not likely that all of
them will be mentioned in the pages which follow, but an
effort will l>e made to bring under consideration those
which are most important.
CHAPTER IX
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
ONE of the most important departments of the modern
church is the Sunday-school. In most of the excellent
treatises on practical theology to which reference has been
made in the preceding pages, the Sunday-school is virtu
ally an unknown quantity. The learned and admirable
Van Oosterzee, in his monumental work, devotes barely
half a page to the consideration of this institution. The
later Scotch writers on pastoral theology dispose of the
whole subject with a mere allusion. The Sunday-school
does not seem to them to constitute any essential part of
the Christian pastor s care. In the more recent year books
of the churches of Scotland we find evidence that the Sun
day-school interest is receiving careful attention. The
general assembly of the Kirk gives a large place in its
business arrangements to the Sunday-school reports ; and
the Free Church is not behind in its devotion to this cause.
In many of the presbyteries, Sabbath-school unions have
been formed to quicken and stimulate the interest of the
church in the spiritual care of the young. Schools have
in many cases been carefully graded, well-matured schemes
of Sunday-school lessons have been prepared and pub
lished, and many practical teachers of eminence are de
voting their time and thought to the development of this
work. It is evident that the next volume of pastoral
theology published in Scotland will need to take account
of the Sunday-school as one of the departments of church
work.
Henry Clay Trumbull, in his lectures on the Sunday-
school, traces this institution to the Jewish Synagogue,
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 221
and follows its history through seventeen centuries of
varying progress from the time of the rabbins to the time
of Wesley. But the modern institution known by this
name originated in Gloucester, England, in 1780. Robert
Raikes, the founder of the first Sunday-school, was not a
clergyman, but an active man of business, the editor and
proprietor of the " Gloucester Journal/ Perhaps his phil
anthropic efforts at prison reform had convinced him of the
need of beginning with the children. In the month of
July, 1780, he gathered into the rooms of a private house
in a manufacturing quarter of that city a number of the
poorer children of the neighborhood for instruction in read
ing and in the elementary truths of religion. " The chil
dren were to go soon after ten in the morning, and stay
till twelve. They were then to go home and stay till one,
and after reading a lesson they were to be conducted to
church. After church they were to be employed in re
peating the catechism till half-past five, and then to be
dismissed with the injunction to go home without making
a noise, and by no means to play in the street." The
teachers of this Sunday-school were four women, employed
by Raikes and paid at the rate of a shilling a day. From
this humble beginning has grown the modern Sunday-
school work.
" The school on Sunday," says Bishop Vincent, " by
which little children of the neglected English populations
were, one hundred years ago, taught lessons in spelling,
reading, and religious truth, has come to be a great and
powerful factor in our social and Christian life. A meas
ure of this success must be attributed to other ideas than
those embraced by Robert Raikes and his co-workers.
The school on Sunday in America at the present time is
a very different institution from that opened and sustained
by the Gloucester printer in 1780. It is more compre
hensive, and contains elements not dreamed of in the
scheme of Mr. Raikes. It retains the name and also the
domestic missionary feature of the Gloucester movement,
but this feature is only a small part of the modern Ameri
can Sunday-school. The tiny stream of laic, out-of-church,
222 CHRISTIAN PASTOE AND WORKING CHURCH
humanitarian effort that trickled from the humble foun
tain in Gloucester soon joined the swollen and rushing
flood that had broken loose from fountains of Christian
and churchly philanthropy in Oxford, nearly half a cen
tury before Raikes and his assistants began their work.
The latter effort was in behalf of neglected children. The
Oxford brotherhood did also teach children in street and
private dwelling, but they labored as well in behalf of
men and women in hospitals, prisons, and wretched homes ;
in behalf of tempted and doubting and godless young men
in Oxford University ; in behalf of all classes and all ages
everywhere ; and the key-note of all their work was Bible
study and holy living. The Oxford idea was broader,
more comprehensive, more radical, as it was earlier by
nearly fifty years than the Gloucester idea. Both, how
ever, developed a form of social, hand-to-hand, church ef
fort, to the end that children, and youth, and adults of all
grades of society might know the truth and live for God ;
and thus both Oxford and Gloucester unite in the best
Sunday-school thought of the present day. Those who
study the institution have discovered earlier and similar
endeavors in the same direction, and it is not difficult to
trace all the essentials of the best modern Sunday-school
work to apostolic and pre-Christian times. Whatever re
lations the Sunday-school may have sustained to the church
in the days of Charles Borromeo in Italy, of Robert Raikes
in England, of Francis Asbury or Isabella Graham in
America, it is a most gratifying fact that to-day it is,
especially in America, duly recognized as, in some very sig
nificant sense, a part of the church. It is held in build
ings provided by the church ; sustained by funds collected,
in one way or another, from the supporters of the church ;
organized and officered under the supervision and subject
to at least the veto of the church ; taught by members of
the church ; preached about, prayed for, and in many cases
reviewed and catechised by the pastor of the church ; sup
plying from its ranks a large proportion of the new con
verts, ministers, and missionaries of the church ; building
up by its patronage immense publishing interests, and con-
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 223
tributing to the large benevolences which are controlled
and directed by the church." 1
The Sunday-school was, at the beginning, an institution
separate from the church, and until recently, it has been
inclined in many places to maintain its independence of
the church ; but in later years it has become evident that
this separation could not continue. Nearly all the churches
have adopted the Sunday-school as a constituent part of
the church. The relation of the Sunday-school to the
church is well set forth by Bishop Vincent in the passage
following :
" There must be one and not two institutions, and that
one institution must be the church. And the church must
make her power a power of grace rather than of govern
ment felt in all that concerns the school. The pastor
must be recognized as the highest officer of the school,
relieved indeed from the responsibility for details of admin
istration, but present, as pastor, whenever possible ; sus
taining it, and identifying himself with it, and not merely
patronizing it with an air of superiority and condescension.
The superintendent and all other officers should perform
their duties in the interest of the church, and no thought
of rivalry, as between two institutions, should ever be al
lowed to enter the mind of a child in the school. The
teachers should be members of the church. They should,
at the time of their appointment, be publicly installed or
otherwise officially recognized before the whole congrega
tion. They should be thoroughly trained in the doctrines
and usages of the church they represent, and seek to pro
mote an acquaintance with and loyalty to the church on
the part of their pupils." 2
A few years ago many of the Sunday-schools in the
cities of the United States held two sessions, one at nine
o clock in the morning, and the other at two o clock in
the afternoon. Officers, teachers, and scholars were the
same at both sessions. The morning session was devoted
mainly to the study of the lesson ; the afternoon to more
general exercises. This double session is now generally
1 Parish Problems, pp. 361, 362. - Ibid. p. 364.
224 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
abandoned. It would be difficult to secure the attendance
of the same school twice every Sunday, and experience
has proved that it is far better to concentrate the effort
of the school upon a single service. At what hour the
session should be held is a question not easily answered.
In some churches the morning hour is best; in others
the school may fitly follow the forenoon service ; in others
still a separate session in the afternoon is undoubtedly
preferable. The morning session has its advantage in the
freshness with which pupils and teachers come to the
work ; one of its chief disadvantages is the difficulty
of securing the attendance of adults. The parents of the
children are busy in the early morning with household
cares, and the young men are not given to early rising
on Sunday morning. Many of the children are accus
tomed to go directly home after the Sunday-school session,
and few children are seen in the morning service.
When the school meets immediately after the morning
service many of the adults can be induced to remain and
take part in the Bible study. The children, also, are more
apt to attend the morning service. .
The disadvantage of connecting the two services, whether
the Sunday-school precede or follow the preaching service,
is the weariness caused by the double session; yet it is
easy to overstate this disadvantage. A brief intermission
may refresh those who pass from the one service to the
other, and the two hours and a half of varied and spirited
exercises are certainly much less fatiguing than the three
hours school session to which most of the children are
daily accustomed. And it is greatly to be desired both
that the adults should attend the Sunday-school, and that
the children should be present at the morning service
of the church. It is to be feared that in many modern
churches the attendance of children is rapidly diminishing.
The number of children visible in most American congre
gations is very small. The children are at Sunday-school
in the morning, but they never attend any other religious
service. The habit of church attendance is not formed ;
the time never comes when they are ready to begin ; as
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 225
soon as they deem themselves too old to .attend Sunday-
school, they are wholly outside of all religious influence.
Any adjustment of the Sunday-school session which would
help to retain the children in the church is greatly to be
preferred.
For the Sunday-school itself it is probable that the
afternoon hour is most favorable. There is time enough,
and the separation of the school from the other services
lends to it dignity and importance. But, considering
the interests of the church, and the future welfare of
the children, it is probable that the best hour for the
school is that which follows the morning service.
The officers of the Sunday-school should be chosen
by the church, although the privilege of nomination may
well be left to the teachers of the school. Kvery Sunday-
school needs one superintendent, from one to three
assistant superintendents, a secretary, a treasurer, and a
librarian. The superintendent ought to be a man of
good organizing ability, with sound judgment and abun
dant enthusiasm. The most important part of his work
is the selection of teachers, for the success of the school
depends almost wholly upon the ability of these teachers
to attract and hold the pupils committed to their care.
Here will always be found the pivotal point of the Sunday-
school work. Interesting general exercises, spirited sing
ing, a good library are all attractive, but nothing will
compensate for the lack of a tactful, resourceful, faithful
teacher. There is no other work within the reach of the
members of the church of more vital importance than
this. To gather a little group of IMTVS or girls and hold
their attention, week by week, to the great themes of
religion is a task which an angel might covet. No culture
can be too fine, no mental equipment too perfect for such
a task, since it is only the best educated minds who can
make the profoundest truths simple and interesting. It
will be found that the Sunday-school teachers whose
general knowledge of the subjects they are teaching is
already the broadest are those who will spend the most
time, week by week, in the preparation of their lessons.
15
220 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
Because they are now so well informed they know the
value and importance of fresh study. The teacher who
knows the least is apt to be the one who feels the least
need of diligent preparation to meet his class.
The intellectual equipment of the teacher is not, how
ever, all that he needs. He is the instructor of these
pupils, but he is also their pastor, the undershepherd by
whom they are to be led into the green pastures and
beside the still waters. The one thing needful is that
he should win the love of these young people. It is well
for him to remember that there is only one way to win
love, the way by which the divine Master won the
hearts of his disciples: "We love him because he first
loved us." No man or woman to whom a genuine affec
tion for boys and girls is not possible ought to under
take the work of a Sunday-school teacher. And this
affection must find constant expression in many practical
ways. The teacher will know his pupils in their homes,
and will often have them in his own home ; he will keep
a record of their birthda} T s and remember each with a
kind note or some slight token of remembrance ; he will
keep himself informed respecting their school work, their
companions, their occupations out of school ; he will
encourage them to confide in him, and suffer him to be
their counsellor and friend. Such a Sunday-school teacher
supplements in a most effective way the work of the
wise parent, and supplies in many cases the lack of
parental wisdom. It scarcely needs to be said that he
will take good care never to come between the parent
and the child, but always to reinforce parental authority,
and emphasize the honor which is the parent s due.
There is never any difficulty about maintaining the
numbers and the interest of Sunday-schools whose teachers
are of this character. The classes of such teachers never
dwindle ; if some pupils are removed by migration or death,
their places are quickly filled ; boys and girls are as sure
to find teachers of this quality as bees are to find sweet
clover. The great task of the superintendent is there
fore to secure, for all his classes, teachers of this kind,
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 227
intelligent, studious, apt to teach, and, above all, with
a genius for friendship, and a power of binding young
hearts to themselves with the cords of a lifelong affection.
Such teachers are not so plenty as they might be ; it
is to be feared that the superintendent will often be
compelled to accept some who do not answer all these
requirements. But it is well for him to know what
lie wants, and to hold steadily before the eyes of all
his teachers this hio-h ideal. If he knows how to kindle
O
in their hearts the love which is the fulfilling of all
holy law, he possesses the one supreme qualification of
the perfect superintendent.
If he can sing well he possesses another. It is not
essential that the superintendent should be a singer; he
mav tind some one who can perform this service for him ;
but if the gift of musical leadership does belong to him
he can make excellent use of it. The singing of the
Sunday-school ought to be an inspiring and elevating
exercise. To this end the words and the tunes sung must
be poetry and music, not sentimental doggerel and rhyth
mical ding-dong. The kind of trash which the children
in many Sunday-schools are condemned to sing can have
no wholesome effect upon their minds or their hearts.
The effusive silliness of the verses is often repulsive to
the mind of an intelligent child, and the manner in which
words which represent great thoughts, and which should
always be reverently uttered, are caught up, and tossed
into the air, and pitched about in the shuttlecock and
battledore movement of these fantastic Sunday-school
hymns, is enough to make fools laugh and the judicious
grieve. Yet so long have our Sunday-schools been fed
on this kind of musical provender that it is dil licult to
introduce anything of a higher nature. The boy who
has been reading penny-dreadfuls for a few years is not
interested in good books.
Still more diflicult is it to find leaders of Sunday-school
music who will try to teach the children the more digni
fied hymns. Yet when a leader of intelligence and
enthusiasm for good words and good music takes up this
228 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WOKKING OHUKCJH
task with a hearty good-will, the school will learn the
nobler songs and will sing them with spirit. It is worth
something to be able to teach two or three hundred boys
and girls to sing Cas wall s "When morning gilds the
skies," to Barnby s beautiful setting, or Bonar s " Upward
when the stars are burning," to Calkin s lovely melody,
or Miss Procter s " The shadows of the evening hours,"
to Hiles s noble tune " St. Leonard." These words a
child may be exhorted to heed and ponder and remember ;
their beauty will steal into his heart, and abide there ;
and it will always be linked with music that can never
grow stale or old.
All the general services of the Sunday-school ought to
be spirited and hearty, but they should also be dignified.
Bishop Vincent rightly protests against calling them pre
liminary services : they are worship, he insists, and the
spirit of worship ought to pervade them all. The singing,
the responsive reading, the prayers in concert should be
full of genuine praise and devotion. Nor should disorder
or levity be tolerated by the superintendent during these
services. It is sometimes supposed that inattention and
irreverence are unavoidable concomitants of Sunday-school
exercises ; that the same pupils who on the week-days are
quiet and decorous in the presence of their teachers, must
be allowed on Sundays, in the house of God, to behave
like heathen. It is not possible, it is sometimes said, to
enforce upon children in the Sunday-schools the discipline
of the day schools ; if they are disposed to be turbulent
and disrespectful we must simply endure it. All this is
a grave mistake. The one thing that should not be
tolerated in a Sunday-school is disorder. Nor is there any
difficulty in the case. A superintendent who demands it
can secure it. There are mission schools, drawn from the
slums, in which the children s behavior in the hour of
worship leaves nothing to be desired; and this has been
secured without any approach to coercion, by simply en
forcing upon the minds of the children the truth that
worship is a sacred thing, and that irreverence is an abomi
nation. Children can understand this, and the rudest of
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 229
them can be made to respect the sacred exercise. Mis
behavior in the Sunday-school is sometimes tolerated be
cause superintendents fear that by the enforcement of
order they will drive children from the school. It is bet
ter, they say, that the children should come, even if they
do misbehave ; they may get some good out of the ser
vice ; we must not drive them into the street. But this is
sophistry. It is far better that the children should be in
the street than that they should be behaving riotously in
the Lord s house. The lesson of irreverence, of disrespect
for sacred places and sacred services which many of them
are learning in the Sunday-school, is one of the worst
lessons they could learn. It is doubtful whether any in
fluence exerted upon them by rude companions outside
could be more injurious than the formation of this habit.
A Sunday-school of one hundred members in which rever
ence and decorum are secured, is likely to do far more
good than a Sunday-school of two hundred members in
which the superintendent is constantly begging for silence,
and in which the voice of prayer is heard with difficulty
because of the whispering and tittering of the pupils.
This is no plea for a stupid and formal Sunday-school
service, it ought to be as bright and cheery as a June
day ; and when the conversational and teaching period
arrives, there is plenty of room for the natural vivacity of
children, which no wise teacher will try to repress. Hut
in the public worship of the school, and in all the exercises
in which the superintendent is leading, reverence and
respect should be insisted on.
The usefulness of the Sunday-school may be greatly in
creased by the provision of proper rooms for its exercises.
The importance of separating the primary department from
the rest of the school has long been recognized ; the exer
cises adapted to the youngest children are such as cannot
well be carried forward in a room where classes are study
ing the lesson together. But the modern Sunday-school
building undertakes to give, so far as possible, to each
class the same seclusion; and the opportunity of the
teacher is <_rreatlv enlarged lv this device. One teacher
230 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
can more easily instruct a class of twenty or thirty pupils
in a small class-room than a class of four or five when the
groups are huddled together within the same enclosure. A
great economy of teaching force is thus secured ; and since
the one difficult thing is the supply of proper teachers, this
arrangement is highly serviceable to the interests of the
school. The school should be brought together for the
opening and closing exercises, but the classes may then be
permitted to retire to their rooms for the study of the
lesson. Maps, blackboards, diagrams, and the like can
there be introduced in class work ; and if the teacher
wishes to have a serious word with the class, or a few
moments of prayer with them, the pupils are neither em
barrassed nor distracted by the observation of others.
The question concerning the subjects to be taught in the
Sunday-school has attracted much attention of late. There
can be no doubt that the Bible must be the central, if not
the sole subject of Sunday-school study. Various substi
tutes for it have been sought in the schools of some of the
churches which claim to be progressive, but it is doubtful
whether any of them have proved to be satisfactory. To
one school belonging to an Ethical Society the Bible was
restored, after a period of banishment, and the pupils were
told that it had been brought back because it was, above
all other books in the world, the book of conduct ; that the
main interest of the book was in righteousness ; and that,
therefore, although the standards of conduct followed by
its characters were not always perfect, the study of it must
be of the highest value to any man who wished to know
how to live.
There is not, however, much question among modern
Protestant Christians as to the place which the Bible
should occupy in Sunday-school instruction. But there is
some difference of opinion as to the way in which the
Bible should be taught. A large proportion of the Evan
gelical Christians of the United States and the United
Kingdom have been studying, for many years, the Inter
national Series of Lessons, prepared by a committee in
which several denominations are represented. By this
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 231
scheme it is proposed that the entire Bible shall be covered
about once in seven years, Old Testament and New Testa
ment lessons alternating. In the preparation of lesson
helps and commentaries much money has been invested,
and a vast literature has been created ; the forms and
appliances of intelligent study have been greatly multi
plied. The study of the same lesson in all the schools of
a town or city gives an opportunity for union meetings
of teachers, and strengthens, to some extent, the bonds of
Christian fellowship. All these are gains, and it may be
that they are important enough to outweigh all the losses
which the system involves. Of these the chief is the de
sultory and disconnected character of the course. The
classes that go skipping back and forth from the Old Testa
ment to the New. and ranging up and down the centuries
with no sense of the historic continuity of the events
with which they are dealing, are liable to find themselves
in a state of intellectual confusion with respect to Bibli
cal matters out of which it is not easy to extricate them.
Teachers of general history in the high schools have great
trouble in disentangling the ideas of Sunday-school pupils
with respect to the events of Old Testament history.
It is probable that the worthy gentlemen who prepare
these courses are not altogether clear in their own minds
as to the genetic relations of that history. Perhaps it is
not possible, in the present condition of Biblical science,
to arrange a satisfactory programme for the study of the
history of Israel. In that case it would be better to aban
don the attempt to cover the entire Old Testament with
this scheme of study, and be content with the selection of
typical events and characters.
Another serious objection to the International Lessons
is in the fact that the school adopting them is likely to be
hindered from undertaking the gradation of its pupils, and
the prosecution of a systematic course of study. It would
seem that the Sunday-school ought to offer to all those
who attend upon its instruction the chance of accomplish
ing some definite thing. When a bov has been a member
of a Sunday-school for ten or tifteen years, he ought to
232 CHRISTIAN PASTOli AND WORKING CHURCH
have something to show for it. He ought not to be
compelled to say that he has been present Sunday after
Sunday, going through the routine of Bible study, and
receiving more or less of good impressions, but that he
does not know what he has studied or what he has learned.
He ought to have some reason for believing that he has
been making progress ; that in this study, as in every
other, he has been rising from the primary to the higher
grades, leaving the rudiments behind and going on
toward perfection of knowledge. If every Sunday-school
were graded in such a manner that each grade should be
studying some definite part of the Bible, with the expec
tation of being advanced to the grade next higher when it
had completed this study, an incentive which is now lack
ing would be offered to intelligent pupils. Thus the
primary grade should be confined to the simplest record
of the Life of Christ ; the first intermediate grade might
complete the story of his life, getting a clear and connected
notion of the order in which the events follow each other;
the second intermediate grade might take up his teachings,
including his parables and his discourses ; the third might
study the planting and training of the Apostolic Church ;
the fourth, the epistles ; the fifth, some outline of Old
Testament history and biography, and the sixth the prophe
cies and the Psalms. This arrangement is a mere sugges
tion ; objections to it could, no doubt, be pointed out, and a
wiser course selected ; it is only given as an illustration
of what might be attempted in the way of systematic study.
Many pupils would, of course, do their work very imper
fectly ; but the faithful teacher would try to secure the
performance of it by all the pupils, and those who have
some intellectual seriousness would have the satisfaction
of knowing that they had accomplished it. It would not
be wise for the teachers to remain, as in the day schools,
year after year in the same grades, receiving new pupils
from time to time and sending them forward when the
work was finished ; it would be far better for the teacher
to begin with the class in the first intermediate grade and
go on with the class through the course ; and the ques-
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 233
tion of promotion should be largely left to the decision of
the teacher. The personal friendship of teacher and pupil
is of far more consequence than the diameter of the in
struction; and while something might be gained in the
expertness of teaching by having the teachers remain, as
in the day schools, in the same grade, far more would be
lost in the way of personal influence.
Such a scheme could be introduced only with great dif
ficulty and at considerable expense by a single school ; for
it would involve an elaborate arrangement of lessons, and
much expense in the publication of them. But if a num
ber of schools should unite in the plan the literature could
be printed without much difficulty. A beginning has been
made in this direction by one organization : and inductive
studies in the Life of Christ, the History of the Apostolic
Church, and the Old Testament History have been pro
vided. But the studies need to be more carefully sul>-
divided, and a clear division established between different
grades, with the lines of promotion open from the one
grade to the other.
Connected with the ordinary Sunday-school organization
it would be well to have a Senior Department, into which
young men and women should pass on completing the
lower course, and which in its methods of instruction
should have the same relation to the Sunday-school that
the college has to the grammar school. One reason whv
the young men and women so generally disappear from the
Sunday-school as they approach maturity, is that the Sun
day-school is, traditionally and by the terms of our common
speech concerning it, a child s affair. That character has
been fastened upon it, and it is impossible to change the
impression. The attempt has been made to counteract
this idea by calling it a Bible School "; but the device
has not been successful. It is true that we have " Bible
(/lasses " connected with the Sunday-school, hut they are
still part of the Sunday-school, and the badge of puerility
somehow attaches to them. The suggestion of Bishop
Vincent that a separate department be formed, to be called
"The Assembly or "The Institute." in which the vounir
234 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
men and women should be grouped for work of a some
what different order from that of the Sunday-school is
well worth considering. " The High School Department,"
might be an appropriate name. Into this, young people
of sixteen years of age and over should be admitted on
their completion of the work in the lower grades. " Lec
tures and outlines," says Bishop Vincent, " should take
the place of mere drills ; individual statements by teach
ers and pupils, instead of simultaneous responses. A
higher class of music may be rendered, doctrinal discussions
conducted, responsive readings introduced, and the methods
of the College rather than those of the primary or inter
mediate school should control the hour." 1
Much depends on a name, the adoption of some such
title as has been suggested would go far to disarm the dis
like of heady adolescence to the Sunday-school. It might
not be necessary to separate this u Assembly," or " Insti
tute " from the rest of the school ; the young men and
women might be willing to meet with the rest for some
portion of the opening worship, if they could then go away
into a room by themselves and prosecute their studies in
their own way.
Such a group of students should have its own organiza
tion, with president, secretary, and executive committee ;
it might hold social meetings from time to time ; it might
undertake certain philanthropic or missionary enterprises.
"Its existence being guaranteed," says Bishop Vincent,
" it becomes the meeting point for the younger and older
people of the church. It remains with them as an incen
tive. It gains a firm grip upon the young people, and
prevents their early escape from the juvenile and too often
puerile influences of the so-called Sunday-school." 2
The need of some such device as this to check the
hegira of the young men and women from our Sunday-
schools and from our churches will not be disputed by
any intelligent pastor. Whether this is the best method
that can be devised, we need not dispute; the sugges-
1 The Modern Sunday School, p. 224, seq.
2 Op. cit.
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 235
tion will have served its purpose if it leads to something
better.
Bishop Vincent assumes that the Assembly thus consti
tuted will study the ordinary Sunday-school lesson. Here,
however, it is impossible to follow him, for we have
already provided for a graded school in which there is
to be no uniform lesson. This Assembly should have
wide range in its course of study. It may take up the
history of the church, following the Apostolic period; it
may study the history of doctrine; it may study Christian
biography, Missions, reforms as promoted by the Gospel,
any subject which is vitally related to the progress of the
Kingdom of God, and which the leader can make intelli
gible and fruitful. Here doubtless we come upon the crux
of the whole experiment. How to find your leader this
is the difficulty. Yet it ought not to be impossible to
secure, in many congregations, a man or a woman to whom
a task of this nature would not be impossible, who could
succeed in organizing and directing the work of an assem
bly of young people in such a way as to make it in the
highest degree stimulating and profitable to all its mem
bers. It would be important that the co-operation of the
members themselves should be enlisted; subjects should
be assigned at every session for investigation and report
at subsequent sessions; and freedom of inquiry should be
encouraged.
It has become evident to many careful observers that
some important changes must be made in the Sunday-
school administration, in order that the bovs and girls,
from the ages of fourteen or fifteen upward, may be kept
in the school. The great majority of these drop out of it
just at the time when they most need its invigorating and
restraining influences. Is not the failure of the school to
appeal to their higher intelligence and their self-respect
responsible for this, at least in part? Would not such an
arrangement as Bishop Vincent has outlined help to hold
many of them in the places where sanctifying influences
might reach them, and to lead them, in due season, into
the active fellowship of the church /
236 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
There is reason to fear that one cause of the somewhat
diminished influence of the Sunday-school may be found
in the uncertain handling of the Bible to which recent crit
icism has given rise. The faith of many in the inerrancy
of the Scriptures has been shaken ; they may know but
little of what the critics have proven, but they know, in a
general way, that the scholars of this generation do not
use the language respecting the Sacred Book to which,
from their childhood, they have been accustomed. And
many of them have shrunk from informing themselves,
feeling that the admission of such an inquiry to their own
minds involves a kind of disloyalty. It is not too much
to say that the majority of Sunday-school teachers are
uncertain as to what they should say about the Bible. If
their views are challenged they are likely to re-affirm with
some heat the old theories, because they know not what
else to affirm. Now it is manifest that teaching of this
nature cannot be effective. The first thing that the teacher
of the Bible needs to do is to get a clear notion of what
the Bible is. And it should not be feared that the truth
about the Bible is going to do any harm. That a con
siderable modification must be made in the theories of
inspiration and revelation which were current fifty years
ago is not to be denied; and the sooner Sunday-school
teachers adjust themselves to the facts of the case, the
better it will be for them and for all concerned. The
words of the pastor of an English Congregational church,
uttered in a recent newspaper discussion, are words of
wisdom :
" Are the teachers to go on repeating ideas which the
progress of scientific research and Biblical criticism have
rendered untenable, or are they to have their instructions
in the light of the new knowledge acquired in our own
generation? The former course can only end in disaster
to the faith of the children. The latter, as the honest and
straightforward course, will have, I believe, only happy re
sults. There are those who would banish Genesis from the
Sunday-school. But it is just on subjects connected with
the Genesis records that the faith of young people will be
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 237
soonest and most sorely tried when they mingle with the
world. It is in Genesis also that some of the most beauti
ful, su^yestive, and attractive stories for children are con-
* O ~
tained. (treat will be the loss to the Sunday-school that
displaces (ienesis. Nor do I fear that any damage would
be caused, I think rather great good would accrue, by a
faithful and honest interpretation of these sublimely simple
records. Let the teacher of boys from ten to fourteen
years of age go over the lirst chapter of Genesis, and give
side by side with it the geological story of Creation; let
him show that the earth has been made to tell its own
story of how it was built up ; let him also show that Gene
sis has much to tell on the spiritual side of things of which
the rocks say nothing, and I believe he will make the old
record live anew to his charges, and will put into their
minds and hearts ideas by which infidelity will be rendered
powerless. In the same way let the story of the Tempta
tion and the Fall be honestly interpreted. Let the chil
dren know that the serpent was not a literal serpent; that
the whole record is parabolic and full of intense interest,
a mirror, indeed, of every child s and of every man s
experience when he falls into temptation. The treatment
of these records in the lio-ht of modern knowledge would,
O O
I believe, imbue young minds with a deepened sense of
the preciousness and never-fading interest of the Bible;
and the impressions received in the Sunday-school would
not have to be revised in the presence of the sceptic, but
would victoriously withstand his assaults."
Indeed it is evident that the Sunday-school is the very
place where our children ought to be receiving instruction,
not only out of the Bible but concerning the Bible, which
would equip them to resist the attacks of a blatant infi
delity. Instead of this it is to be feared that the Sunday-
school, in most cases, is giving them ideas about the Bible
which cannot be defended, and is leaving them in an in
tellectual position in which they are sure to find, whenever
they are led to examine the whole question for themselves,
that they have been either ignorantly or insincerely dealt
with. It is a grave responsibility which the Sunday-school
238 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
teacher takes, who sends his pupils out into the world with
such a mental outfit as this.
The Home Department of the Sunday-school is an in
stitution which has proved its usefulness in some American
churches. The plan involves the enlistment of those in
dividuals and families that are unable to attend the regular
sessions of the Sunday-school in the systematic and con
secutive study of the Bible, in connection with the Sunday-
school. A superintendent of the Home Department is
appointed, several visitors are chosen, and the congregation
is canvassed, soliciting the signatures of those who are
willing to engage in this study, and leaving with them the
lesson-helps for the month, with blank reports on which
they may credit themselves with the weekly study of the
Sunday-school lesson. These reports are collected quarterly,
and new supplies of the lesson helps are left by the visitors.
Monthly meetings of the members of this department, for
the review of the lesson, are also held at the residences of
the members. Considerable interest in Bible study has
been awakened by this method ; and it results not seldom
in bringing recruits into the Bible classes connected with
the Sunday-school. Those who have undertaken the study
by themselves have often found the need of assistance, and
they wish to avail themselves of the light which is always
thrown upon the study by the conversations and discus
sions of a class.
Here, again, much depends upon the services of a com
petent and faithful superintendent. One who has both tact
and patience can succeed in securing the co-operation of
many in this work. But without great thoroughness and
perseverance the interest is not likely to be maintained.
CHAPTER X
THE MIDWEEK SERVICE
MOST of the Roman Catholic and Episcopal churches
provide for certain week-day services. In the cathedrals
and in some of the larger churches morning and evening
praver is offered every day in the year, and the fasts and
festival days of the Christian year are also observed.
"Worshippers have thus an opportunity of meeting in the
sacred place at stated times during the week for prayer and
praise. The attendance upon these week-day services is
often very small ; but no one who has been in the habit of
attending them can doubt that they are highly valued by
the faithful few who avail themselves of the opportunity.
Few Protestant churches, except those of the Episcopal
communion, undertake to sustain daily public worship, but
some kind of midweek service is maintained by most of the
American churches called Evangelical. These services are
sometimes drearily perfunctory, and sometimes sentimen
tally effusive, and there are those who counsel their aban
donment. There is no necessity, however, that they should
be formal and frigid ; and no necessity that they should be
emotionally extravagant: it is the pastor s business to see
that they are not. When they are what they ought to be,
they serve an important purpose in the life of the church.
The type to which they ought to conform is that of a free
and informal conference of the members upon the life of
the Christian and the work of the church. The demand is
not supplied by a lecture from the pastor; what is wanted
is that the people themselves should be trained to think
and to express their thoughts on the great themes of the
spiritual life. It is well, also, to connect with these devo
tional meetings consultations about the various charitable
240 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
enterprises -of the church, so that prayer and study may
bear fruit in service, and so that work may be informed by
study and consecrated by prayer. There is no need to
search history for a warrant for such services ; it is possible
that nothing closely resembling- the best prayer-meeting of
the present day can be found in the apostolic churches or
in the church of the Middle Ages. It may well be that
social conditions in the earlier days did not warrant this
kind of conference. If existing social conditions warrant
it and call for it, that is enough. It is to be hoped that we
may learn to use many instrumentalities that the early
Fathers never dreamed of. The life of the church may be
left to develop the forms which are most serviceable.
The early prayer-meetings in the Evangelical churches
of America were simply meetings for prayer. The min
ister generally presided, and sometimes read and ex
pounded a portion of Scripture ; one or two hymns were
sung, and then those laymen offered prayer, and those
only, who were called on by the minister. Meetings
substantially of this type have largely prevailed in the
Presbyterian church, and sometimes they have been full
of the spirit of devotion. " Of the prayer-meeting proper,"
says Dr. Blaikie, " we have had more characteristic samples
among us of late years in connection with the revival of
religion. Such meetings are really for prayer ; many
Christian friends take part and the prayers are like arrows
from the bow of the mighty, jets of petition darting up
to heaven. Intercession is a prominent and very blessed
feature of such meetings, as it ought to be of all prayer-
meetings. Intercession revives and expands the heart,
and tends to deepen the spirit out of which it springs.
It is a favored congregation that can keep up such a
meeting, leaving to the minister the duty of simply guid
ing the proceedings and drawing out the gifts and graces
of his people." l And yet there is probably much truth
in these words from the same page of the same book :
" In many cases the true conception of a prayer-meeting
has not been realized. The meeting so described is gen-
1 The Work of the Ministry, p. 210.
THE MIDWEEK SERVICE 241
erally little else than a diluted edition of a pulpit service.
It may be doubted whether the meeting, as it is often
conducted, has in it the elements of permanent vigor.
It is a kind of cross between the college lecture, the
prayer-meeting proper and the pulpit service without
what is most valuable in any. It is better, if possible,
to keep these separate and let each possess its character
istic features."
In the non-Episcopal churches of America at the present
time, the " conference has largely supplanted the prayer
in these services. There is far more of speaking than of
praying. In the Methodist churches, generally, this speak
ing takes the form of personal vt testimony." The speaker
undertakes to give some brief account of his own religious
experience, of the gains and losses, the victories and
defeats of his personal life. Such a recital, if modestly
and honestly made, by persons who are living serious
lives, might often have great value ; but it is greatly to
be feared that those whose lives are most serious are
least inclined to give absolutely truthful reports of their
own spiritual states ; and of that which is most intimate
and most vital, it is hardly possible to tell the story. The
danger is that " experience meetings " will degenerate into
a recital of well-worn phrases which represent no real
facts of the inner life. The mischief of such insincerity
must be very great. When one who has scarcely thought
of spiritual things during the week his mind having
been wholly absorbed in the pleasures and strifes of the
world goes into the weekly meeting and fluently ex
presses his deep interest in the great things of the
Kingdom, and testifies that he is making steady progress
in the religions life, the injury to his own character
must be deep, and the effect upon the minds of those
who know him well, most unhappy. To this insincerity
the cut-and-dried experience-meeting affords a strong
temptation. Every one is expected to give some account
of his own spiritual condition, and no one likes to give
a discouraging report. It is too easy to assume a virtue
1 Ib ul., p. ill).
10
242 CHRISTIAN TASTOll AND WORKING CHURCH
which one does not possess, and to avow an interest which
is optative rather than actual.
On the other hand, the speaking in many of the other
prayer-meeting conferences largely takes the form of dis
cussion, sometimes of debate, and the pure intellectuality
of the performance affords little nutriment to the spiritual
affections. We find the speakers wrestling with subjects
to which they have not given much attention, and on
which they are not prepared to throw a great deal of
light, and the net result of the conference is intellectual
confusion rather than spiritual refreshment. How to
escape cant and insincerity on the one side, and the diy
bones of theological or philosophical argument on the
other, is the problem of the conduct of the modern prayer-
meeting.
To begin with, it may be said that nothing is more
to be desired than that the modern American prayer-
meeting should recover something of the character which
it has lost as a meeting for prayer. It is quite true that
public prayer, like every kind of public utterance, may
become insincere and formal ; and as such it is more
abominable than any other kind of speech. On the other
hand, it is the highest form of expression of which the
human mind is capable ; and its exercise may well be
cultivated in the assemblies of the saints. The sincere
outpouring of an honest soul before God, in confession,
supplication, intercession, communion, should, in the very
nature of the case, have more inspiration in it for those
who join in the prayer than any other possible communi
cation between human minds. Such an act of prayer
brings man at once into fellowship with his Father above
him and with his brother by his side ; it expresses the
heart of both the great commandments of the law.
The utility and even the propriety of social prayer are
often questioned. What our Lord says in the sixth chap
ter of Matthew about the hypocrites who pray in the syna
gogues and on the corners of the streets is quoted in support
of the position that we ought not to pray in public. But
when these words of his are compared with his other
THE MIDWEEK SERVICE 243
commands, and with his own example, it becomes evident
that it is not social prayer, but ostentatious praying that
he is condemning. It is upon those who pray in the pub
lic places " that they may be seen of men " that he is visit
ing his censure. " They receive their reward," he says.
They are seen of men. They get all that they are praying
for. Their real prayer is not addressed to (iod in heaven
but to men standing by. Its burden is : " Look at me.
See h<>\v devoted I am. Listen to the sonorous solemnity
of my tones and the well-feigned fervor of my utterances.
And men do look and listen, and the hypocrite gets his
reward. From such a horrible profanation of prayer our
Lord bids his disciples to flee. If you are tempted to any
such display of yourself, then hasten to the inner chamber,
and shut the door, and pray to your Father in secret. The
spirit of humility rather than the spirit of ostentation is
the spirit of prayer. You must keep yourself out of sight
when you pray. If you cannot do that when you pray in
public, do not pray in public. If you cannot pray in a
social meeting without thinking all the while of the figure
y<>n are making, then by no means pray in a social meeting.
But if you can forget yourself in your identification with
your fellows, if your sympathy with man and your fel
lowship with God, rather than your own egotism, can find
expression in your prayers, then the act of social prayer
is the highest act you can perform. When you have thus
merged your own personality in the large benevolence
of your wishes, you have, in effect, obeyed the command
which bids you keep yourself out of sight when you
pray.
It is a singular misconception which leads men to ques
tion the propriety of social prayer. What are the words
of the model that our Lord gives us in the same conversa
tion ? u Our Father which art in heaven." The whole
prayer is in the plural number. Its primary use must l>e
social. It is not adapted to the use of a solitary worshipper.
One man alone can no more rightly pray that prayer than
one violin alone can play Beethoven s Ninth Symphony.
As no man could be a Christian alone, or <n> to heaven
244 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
alone, so no man can be always solitary in this greatest of
all the exercises of human speech. There are uses, indeed,
for private prayer, and times when we should literally
enter into the inner chamber and shut the door ; but the
highest form of prayer is social and not solitaiy. Even in
the secret place we must perfectly identify ourselves with
our fellows, else there is no meaning in our petitions. The
kind of prayer that isolates a man from his kind brings no
blessing. There is absolutely no spiritual good that we
ask for that can be ours to have and hold ; if we receive
any gift it is that we may minister the same one to another
as good stewards of the manifold gifts of God. And since
this is so, it is manifest that when two or three are gath
ered together, and the social bond is clearly emphasized,
we ought to find the spirit of true prayer more evidently
present. " Our Father," we say, and the meaning of
brotherhood becomes more clear; and as we try to put
ourselves in one another s places, and to covet the best
gifts for others as well as for ourselves, we are able to
offer the fervent, energetic prayer of the loving soul. By
loving our brother whom we do see, we draw nigh to God
whom we cannot see. If something of the true signifi
cance of social prayer could only be conveyed into the
minds of the worshippers in our midweek assemblies, we
might hope that they would spend more of their time in
that direct speech with God which brings to all who enter
into the meaning of it the largest spiritual gains.
The fashion of " sentence prayers," in which, while the
whole congregation sits with bowed heads, one after an
other lifts up a voluntary ejaculation, mentioning some
one object of desire, has come into use in some of our
prayer-meetings. It is ungracious to criticise any such
practice, and doubtless it may sometimes be helpful to de
votion ; but the impression made by this exercise on many
minds is not always pleasant. The fragmentary character
of the petitions, and the lack of reflection that they are
apt to reveal, often make themselves too evident. It is
well, indeed, that the prayers should be generally brief,
and that each petitioner should concentrate his desire upon
THE MIDWEEK SERVICE 245
some one thing which seems to him, at that moment, the
one thing needful. And it is usually far better that the
prayers should he voluntary than that they should be
called forth by the leader, so that no man shall pray un
less some desire is burning in his heart which he wishes to
pour out before (iod.
Of the speaking of the conference-meeting what shall
be said? There are critics of this service who point out
the fact that the speaking is often the reverse of edifying.
They say that the time is apt to be monopolized by igno
rant, effusive, opinionated persons, who have no wisdom to
impart and no inspiration to convey; that they only suc
ceed in gratifying their own vanity or in confirming their
own delusions, while they irritate and disgust the sensible
people who listen to them. Or, in many cases, the service
fails of its usefulness by the aridity of its exercises ; no
body has anything to say; and after a series of long and
dreary pauses, broken mainly by the vain exhortations of
the leader who tries to stir up the saints to some utter
ance of the faith that is in them, the meeting comes to a
close in a shamefaced way, and the brethren and sisters
separate with thankfulness that one more midweek ser
vice is at an end. These complaints and criticisms are
often too well founded. And there is plausibility in the
suggestion that only those persons should be expected
to speak on religious subjects who have qualified them
selves to speak intelligently, and who have something
important to say.
Vet there is another aspect of this question which must
not be lost sight of. The use of expression in the develop
ment of the spiritual life must be well considered. There
is meaning in the many commands of the Master and his
apostles which place such emphasis upon the confession of
the lips. It may be said that one does not really know
anything until he has clearly expressed it. The teacher
requires the pupil to express what lie is trying to learn,
not for the teacher s information, but for the confirmation
of the scholar s own knowledge. It is this principle which
is involved in the calls to testimony which disciples always
246 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
hear. To afford them an opportunity to speak of what
they have seen and felt, and to give utterance to those
conceptions of the Christian life which are shaping them
selves in their minds is the primary business of the mid
week conference. It seems to be, indeed, a natural thing
for one who is enlisted in this discipleship, and is trying to
learn by heart the word of his Master, to give expression to
his thoughts and purposes.
" The evident fact is that a true inward experience, or
discovery of God in the heart, is itself an impulse also of
self-manifestation, as all love and gratitude are wants to
speak and declare itself, and will as naturally do it, when
it is born, as a child will utter its first cry. And exactly
this is what David means ; namely, that he had been obliged
to speak, and was never able to shut up the fire burning in
his spirit, from the first moment when it was kindled. He
speaks as one who could not find how to suppress the
joy that filled his heart, but must needs break loose in a
testimony for God. And so it is in all cases the instinct
of a new heart, in its experience of God, to acknowledge
him. No one ever thinks it a matter of delicacy, or genu
ine modesty, to entirely suppress any reasonable joy; least
of all, any fit testimony of gratitude toward a deliverer
and for a deliverance. In such a case no one ever asks,
what is the use ? where is the propriety ? for it is the
simple instinct of his nature to speak, and he speaks.
" Thus, if one of you had been rescued, in a shipwreck
on a foreign shore, by some common sailor who had risked
his life to save you, and you should discover him across
the street in some great city, you would rush to his side,
seize his hand, and begin at once, with a choking utterance,
to testify your gratitude to him for so great a deliverance.
Or, if you should pass restrainedly on, making no sign,
pretending to yourself that you might be wanting in deli
cacy or modesty to publish your private feelings by any
such eager acknowledgment of your deliverer, or that you
ought first to be more sure of the genuineness of your grati
tude, what opinion must we have, in such a case, of your
heartlessness and falseness to nature ? In the same simple
THE MIDWEEK SERVICE 247
way, all ambition apart, all conceit of self forgot, all arti
ficial and mock modesty excluded, it will be the instinct
of every one that loves (rod to acknowledge him. He will
say with our Psalmist, on another occasion, * Come and
hear, all ye that fear (Jod, and I will declare what he has
done for my soul. Verily God hath heard me, he hath
attended to the voice of my prayer/ 1
While, therefore, the bald recital of personal spiritual
experiences may not be the best exercise for a social re
ligious meeting, the themes of conversation ought to be
such as shall connect themselves clearly and consciously
with the religious experience of those who speak. The
main thing is to get from them a clear expression of truths
which they have veritied. The leader should be wise to
encourage always this kind of utterance. Let every man
remember the words of the Master: "We speak that we
do know and testify that we have seen. Let those who
speak be kindly admonished to keep within their own
knowledge ; to avoid speculations and hypotheses ; to bring
forth the truths which they have either verified or are try
ing to verify. truths which have been vitalized by ex
periment in their daily lives. It is not always necessary
to give the process of verification ; what is wanted is the
results. The men and women who are fighting the hard
o o
battles of life and working out its problems can often
greatly aid one another by giving the clear issues of their
serious thinking, while at the same time they strengthen
their own hold on spiritual realities. And specific- testimony
to truths verified in the experience is a different thing from
the general report of spiritual conditions and tendencies to
which experience meetings are mainly addicted.
The life of the Christian is the first great theme of the
midweek service ; the second, which is like unto it, is the
work of the church. The service mav frequently take on
a very practical character. The various enterprises in
which the church is engaged should often come before it
for study and consultation. Those who have the imme
diate charge of the work under consideration should be
1 Biishnell s Sermons for the New Life, pp. 384-5.
248 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
present, and their report should be heard respecting the
progress of the work, its difficulties and its hopeful feat
ures. The problem is to bring all these tasks to the altar,
and let them feel the glow of its consecrating flame. It is
not chiefly about methods that the meeting should be inter
ested, it is rather about the work in its larger relations, and
the motives that should govern it and the spirit in which
it should be pursued. The inquiry here is, what is God s
part in this work, and how would he have us co-operate
with him ? The machinery is a matter of importance, but
the main question before these social meetings is the sup
ply of motive power. Thus the Sunday-school, the Parish
Missions, the Young People s Organizations, the Mission
ary Societies, the Brotherhoods, all features of the organ
ized work of the church should occasionally be taken up
for study and prayer at the midweek service. Such a cus
tom helps to clear the meeting of the charge of dealing
wholly with abstractions and sentimentalisms, and brings
prayer and work into closer relations.
To the question who shall lead the midweek service the
answer is, the pastor, unless there is a more skilful leader.
If there is a capable assistant on whom many of the pas
toral duties devolve, this service would naturally come to
him. The man who leads the meeting ought to be a well
equipped man, ready, prompt, resourceful, enthusiastic,
with an abundance of tact and good-nature. He should
also be one who knows the work of the church thoroughly,
and knows the people ; else he may fail to guide the con
versation into safe channels.
It is well that the subject of the meeting should be
announced on the preceding Sunday ; and it may some
times be advisable to have a series of related topics ar
ranged for several successive weeks and printed for the
use of the members. To secure a prompt and coherent
treatment of the theme under consideration, some pains
may well be taken. Good prayer-meetings are not apt to
grow spontaneously; they need planting and watering and
diligent cultivation. The leader should study his theme
and take some measures to get it before the minds of those
THK MIDWKKK RKRVN K 249
who will be present. A careful analysis of the subject into
sub-topics or questions might be made ; and a postal card
or note, with one of these questions clearly stated, might
be sent early in the week to each of several persons who
are likely to be in attendance. This brings a specific
inquiry before the mind of each of these persons, and is
likely to secure some consideration of the subject before
the meeting. The leader need make no reference in the
meeting to this distribution of questions, but his opening
of the subject would naturally follow the outline he had
made, and might leave these questions open for consider
ation. This would prevent the leader, also, from exhaust
ing the subject in his opening, a vice to which leaders
are addicted. The chief business of the one who conducts
such a service is to ask questions or throw out suggestions
which others may seize and utilize. At the close of the
meeting he may profitably gather up the ravelled ends and
enforce the salient truths in a brief address.
One advantage of this method of distributing the themes
through the mails is that the 1 church directory may be
freely used, and those who are wont to be silent or who
are habitually absent mav thus from time to time be re
minded of the service and invited to participate in it.
As to the mode of conducting the service a few sug
gestions may be quoted from Parish Problems:
The meeting ought to be so free and so familiar that
one sitting in his seat might ask a question or drop a re
mark without rising. Sometimes a thought comes that
could be expressed in a sentence. It seems hardlv worth
while to get up to say it; the uprising and downsitting
make it sound affectedly sententious. Vet ii would be
spoken very naturally by one sitting still, if that were the
usual practice, and might have a good deal more in it than
many long speeches.
" I remember a former parishioner of mine, a man of
exceeding diffidence, who never made a speech in his life,
in prayer-meeting or anywhere else, but whose daily life
and conversation were both of them with grace seasoned
with salt. We had a habit in our prayer-meeting of
250 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
talking pretty familiarly ; and although he did not often
speak, when he did he usually said something. One
evening we had the parable of the great supper and the
wedding garment, and the fact came out that the master
of the feast furnished the guests with garment. " And
is it not so with our Master? " asked somebody. " Does
he not clothe us with the robe of his righteousness ? "
" He does," I answered. " But we must put it on, must
we not ? " asked my friend. Nine words ! but nothing
was left to be said on that subject.
" Now, if we can attain unto a measure of freedom in
our prayer-meetings which shall admit of such pithy
questions and observations, I am persuaded that their
interest and value would be very greatly increased. Our
Christian women might, in such a condition of things,
open their mouths now and then, greatly to the profiting
of the rest of us. One step in this direction is easily
taken, and that is the repetition of texts of Scripture in
the pauses of the meeting by old and young, male and
female. The subject is known beforehand, and those who
come should be requested to bring in their memory verses
of Scripture which illustrate it, and recite them as they
find room for them during the evening. Sometimes these
well-chosen words will go home to the hearts of hearers
with great power. Verses of hymns, or short and perti
nent extracts from the writings of good men, might be
repeated in the same way with profit." l
The singing is an important part of this social service.
The hymns may be somewhat less dignified and stately
than those of the church service, but the jingling doggerel
which greatly prevails in our American churches is not to
be encouraged. All that was said in the last chapter
about the Sunday school music is equally applicable to
the music in these meetings for social worship. The
vulgarization of the tastes and the depravation of the
sentiments of worshippers through the use of sensational
and sentimental prayer-meeting hymns and tunes has been
a grave injury to religion in America. It is not necessary
1 Parish Problems, pp. 264-5.
THE MIDWEEK SERVICE 251
to submit to this infliction. Prayer-meeting hymnals can
be found containing easy melodies and familiar hymns,
which are at the same time good music and good poetry.
It is well to have much singing in the social meeting,
provided the singing can be at once musical and worship
ful. The praise, the confession, the aspiration, the hope,
the desire which find voice in the hymns, may afford a
beautiful expression of the devotional feeling which the
prayer-meeting should call forth. The leader of the sing
ing ought to be one who can feel the meaning of the
hymns he is singing, and can help those who sing with
him to feel it also. The leader of the meeting ought to
know the hymn-book so well that he can quickly call for
the hymn which best expresses the thought or the feeling
which is uppermost at any moment. When any kindling
word has been spoken or any fervent wish has found
utterance in prayer, it will be a happy inspiration which
calls upon the whole assembly to respond to it in the
words of an appropriate song. In all this there should be
no more formality than is necessary; the hymn may be
announced by its number only, and no prelude is needed.
A single verse or two verses are often better than the
whole hymn.
The suppression of long harangues and prolix prayers
is a problem for the pastor. Many social meetings are
made wearisome by those to whom the gift of continuance
has been unduly vouchsafed. Those who have not had
large experience in public speech are often unaware of the
rapidity with which time passes while they are standing
up to speak. The ordinary man to whom three or five
minutes is assigned for speech on any subject is apt to
use up most of it in getting ready to begin. I5y kindly
admonition the pastor can usually guard against this
fault; if there be any who are so obtuse that they offend
in this way without being aware of it, a frank and friendly
word from him in private will usually correct the error.
Some of our brisk prayer-meeting conductors establish
a three-minute rule, and introduce a call-bell to admonish
the speaker that lu s time has expired ; but such methods
252 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHUUCH
savor too much of the auction-room. It is better to as
sume that the proprieties of the occasion will be observed
by Christian brethren who meet for social worship.
" Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty," and
if there is also love and consideration and courtesy, the
spirit of the assembly is likely to prevent those who fre
quent it from imposing upon its patience.
A question box is sometimes introduced, with great
profit, into the midweek service. Difficulties and problems
of the Christian life which are burdening the minds of
members of the church are thus brought to light, and
cleared up, stumbling-blocks are taken out of the way and
troubled souls are comforted. The pastor thus gains some
valuable knowledge of the mental processes of some of
his parishioners, and is guided somewhat in his public
teaching. The questions should, however, be collected a
week before they are answered, that the pastor may have
time to prepare judicious answers. And the right of re
jecting any questions which do not seem to him suitable
for public discussion should be clearly reserved by him.
It is well to make this midweek service a social oppor
tunity for the members of the church. Its devotional
character will not be marred by using it for the promotion
of acquaintance and fellowship. Sometimes the pastor
may announce that he will be present in the room assigned
to the service, or in an adjoining room, for a quarter of an
hour or half an hour before the meeting, to receive any
who may wish to speak with him, and he may also en
courage all those who attend the meeting to tarry after its
close for fraternal greetings. Such a kindly interchange
of words of goodwill may do much to strengthen the
bond of brotherhood.
CHAPTER XI
PAR I S H K VANGELIZATION
THE minister is commonly supposed to be the pastor of
the church; the head of a body, lesser or greater, of com
municants ; the shepherd of a Hock which gathers in a
certain sheepfold. The members of his church, the fam
ilies also, to some extent, to which these members belong,
the individuals and families which have sittings in his
church and are considered as belonging to his congrega
tion, the children of his Sunday-school all these are
supposed to be under his care. Here is a small select
community for which he considers himself responsible. Is
this the extent of his responsibility? Is his shepherding
well done when these are all housed and fed?
Such is apt to be the habitual feeling of the minister.
He has no such theory of his function, but it is easy for
him to settle down upon some such assumption. Our
postulates are generally implicit. It is well for us to have
an understanding with ourselves at the outset which will
prevent the surreptitious entrance of any notion of this
order. The minister needs first of all to know whose
servant he is: the pastor ought to have clear ideas about
the number of his Mock and the extent of their pasturage.
That corporate communitv with which we have been
dealing, the local congregation, is generally quite inclined
to take a narrow view of the pastor s responsibilities. lie
is tJii-ir minister, the people say. They have hired him,
and they expect him to devote his time and strength to
them. If there are any individuals or households within
reach who can be brought within their fold, that, of course,
is his business, but here his obligation ends. There is
complaint of ministers, sometimes, on the part of their
254 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
congregations, because they do too much " outside work."
The church seems to think that it has a fair monopoly of
all the minister s production.
That the pastor owes to the people who have committed
themselves to his care faithful instruction and patient
edification cannot be gainsaid. He is to minister to the
church in holy things, bringing to them out of his treasure
things new and old. But there is a little higher concep
tion of the work of the minister than that which regards
him as a hired man whose duty is wholly owed to the
people who pay him his wage. He is, to begin with, the
minister of Christ ; he must regard himself as sent to all
those to whom Christ would be ministering if he were
dwelling in that community. And he may sometimes
recall those words of the Good Shepherd, " Other sheep I
have which are not of this fold ; them also must I bring,
and they shall hear my voice." 1 Nor can he well forget
those other tender words, " I was not sent but unto the
lost sheep of the house of Israel." 2 He is, indeed, the min
ister of this particular church ; but if the church is Christ s
church there can be nothing exclusive in its ministry.
The church is Christ s representative ; and the servant
whom it employs is employed to do Christ s work. That
the church should ever conceive of itself as a close corpor
ation, organized to promote the welfare and happiness of
its own members, is an indication of the melancholy truth
that the church itself often needs to be christianized.
" The church is, in a word," says Mr. Herbert Stead, " the
body of Christ. The redemptive and mediatorial purpose
incarnate in him is incorporated in it. He came expressly
to establish and extend the kingdom. The church lives
expressly for the same end. As thou didst send me into
the world, even so sent I them into the world ; and the
same voice has said, The Son of Man came to seek and to
save that which is lost. The later record runs, The
Father hath sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
This, then, is the avowed vocation of the church. Here all
the characteristics we have noticed are focussed. The
1 John. x. 16. 2 Matt, xv. 24.
PAUISH EVANGELIZATION 255
church is the organized Saviour. It is (iod s implement
for overtly and directly bringing over the world into the
realm of saving health. It is to search for the lost. It is
to save them. It is to make them whole. It is to inte
grate humanity." i
All this is of the rudiments, but there is reason to fear
that it is not well understood. How long must we wait
for the church to be christianized? If we could conceive
the church to be in the truest sense Christian, then it, like
its Master, must say, kk I came not to be ministered unto,
but to minister, and to give mv life as a ransom for many." 2
And it is a large part of the pastor s duty to bring the
church into the realization of its high calling as a repre
sentative of Christ, as the hodv of which he is the head,
thinking his thoughts after him. tilled with his spirit, and
doing his work. When the church so conceives of its
function, its feeling about its minister will undergo a
change. The people will still say " He is our minister ;"
but they will not mean by that, ours to care exclusively
for our organization or for our households, but ours to help
us in our proper work of doing good to all men as we
have opportunity. I low many churches there are which
still have need to learn the primary lesson of the kingdom,
that to look out and not in, and to lend a hand, is as truly
the law of the corporate life of the church as it is the
law of the spiritual life of an individual! And how great
would be the gains of some of our churches if they could
only see that the church which is always finding its own
life by that act loses it: while the church which loses its
life for Christ s sake finds it.
Kvery pastor finds himself, then, in the midst of a com
munity, in which are considerable numbers of people who
are not connected with his congregation, nor with any
other Christian congregation. The outside heathen, the
neglecters, the non-church-going classes these are round
about him : and, whatever mav be the expectations of his
church, he lias certainly some relation to these people, and
some obligation concerning them. lie may safely assume
1 Faith and Criticism, p. 33:2. - Mark x. 45.
25(3 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
that all the people within reach of his church, who are not
under anybody else s pastoral care, are under his pastoral
care so long at any rate as they have not made it mani
fest to him in any way that they do not wish to be cared for
by him. This may, in some cases, seem to put a tremen
dous burden upon him; doubtless it will; but no pastor
will be willing to admit that there are any human beings
within the reach of his church for whom no representative
of Christ deems himself responsible.
If there are other churches and pastors in the vicinity,
some part of the responsibility for these unchurched mul
titudes undoubtedly belongs to them, and the pastor will
be wise if he shall persuade them to share it with him.
If they will divide the district with him, setting off to him
a certain territory, his burden will be lightened.
His first duty to the parish thus put under his special
care is to get acquainted with it. The problem of " reach
ing the masses," as it is called, now confronts him. That
phrase is one which always has an unpleasant sound ; it
should always be confined within quotation marks. It is
to be hoped that the wise pastor will never try to " reach
the masses." One reason of church neglect is that men
have been thought of and talked of too much as " masses."
They are inclined to resent that phraseology and all that
it implies. They are not to be blamed. Most of us know
that we are not " masses " and we do not wish to be con
sidered as such. Every human being greatly prefers to be
regarded as a person, with a name and an individuality of
his own. If the men, women, and children dwelling in the
territory for which the pastor has now become responsible,
shall present themselves before his thought as individuals,
rather than as " masses," he will be much more likely to
" reach " them.
He is likely to over-estimate, somewhat, the extent of the
absolute neglect within his parish. The great majority of
the families in the worst districts of our American cities,
will claim to be connected with some church. Three
Christian ministers of different denominations, canvassed
together very carefully a large district in an American
PARISH EVANGELIZATION 257
city, inhabited by the lower middle, and well-to-do work
ing classes, and only about twelve per cent, of that popu
lation would confess that they were outside the churches.
It is probable that less than twenty-live per cent, of the
population of any city east of the Mississippi would make
that admission. This shows, if it is true, that the aliena
tion of the multitudes from the churches is not so hopeless
as it is often supposed to be. For even if the relation of
many of these people to the churches is very slight indeed,
the fact that they are inclined to claim such relation indi
cates that there is in their hearts no inveterate hostility to
the churches.
That the relation of many of these people to the churches
is very slight indeed, the minister will soon discover. Many
of them are connected only through their children, who
attend some mission Sunday-school. Even those working
men whose complaint of the church is most bitter, are
thus, very commonly, connected with the churches. The
children of these men are apt to be found in Sunday-
school; the mother, probably, does not feel quite willing
to be wholly separated from the oflices and influences of
the church. People of whom he lias never heard are often
reported to a city pastor as saying that they attend his
church ; he need not always on this account accuse him
self of pastoral neglect; probably these are people who
once in a while come in to an evening service ; who like
his church better than any other, and would call on him if
there were a funeral in the familv. The number of these
semi-attached persons is very large much larger, prol>-
ably, than the number of those who announce themselves
as non-church-goers. And the great majority of them may
be regarded as practically outside the churches as lost
sheep of the house of Israel.
The minister s first problem is to get acquainted witli
this unchurched contingent. JJy this is not meant that he
must personally visit all these families ; though that, if
he can find time to do it, would be most productive labor.
There is nothing which Christian ministers need more
than just such intimate, personal acquaintance with the
17
258 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
people who do not come to church. The minister ought
to be able to see life from their point of view ; to learn,
by actual contact with their minds, what are their mental
habits and tendencies. If, however, the church is doing
the work which it ought to do in this field, the minister
will have all that he can do to care for those who are thus
brought in ; and the work of visitation and invitation
should, in large churches, be assumed by the church. It
is the minister s task to see that the work is done. Nor
can it well be delegated to city missionaries and paid
visitors. The real significance of the work is lost when it
is thus performed by proxy. It must always be essentially
a labor of love, and love-making is not well done by
proxy. It is only when a genuine Christian friendship
is expressed in such a call that it can be other than
impertinent.
The minister ought to see to it then that the non-church
goers in the vicinity of his church those for whom he
has become responsible have the Christian greetings of
the church extended to them from time to time. It is not
necessary to persecute them with attentions, and those
who continue to decline the invitation should be passed
by ; it is only necessary that all the people of the vicinage
should be kept aware of the fact that a Christian church
is there, that it has not forgotten them, and that it wishes
to share its best gifts witli them.
For many reasons it is vastly better that this work of
visitation should be done by the co-operation of all the
churches in the neighborhood; as it was recently done,
for example, by the churches of the east end of Pittsburg.
There have been many such examples. Then the visitors
of each church, instead of seeking to gather into its own
fold all those in its territory who have no church home,
find out the denominational preference of each family
called upon, and gain its consent to report its name to the
pastor of the nearest church of that denomination. The
effect of such a co-operative work is good in every way ; it
is a demonstration of Christian unity worth more than
weeks of talk in union meetings ; and it is much more
PARISH EVANGELIZATION 259
effective, because the denominational preferences of these
outsiders count for much ; and the family is more likely
to accept the invitation of the minister with which it is
thus put in communication than that of the church of
which it has no knowledge, or against which it may have
some prejudice.
It lias been assumed that these people may be and
ought to be brought into the churches. But this assump
tion will be challenged. It is impossible, it will be said,
to prevail upon them to come into the churches; they
will not come to us ; we must go to them. Other agencies
outside the church must be provided for the evangelization
of these people. We must go down among them and
plant mission churches, mission schools, homes, refuges,
and all such saving agencies. These people are afraid of
our churches. The churches are, in fact, too line for
them. They would not feel at home worshipping with us,
nor we with them. The social stratification is a fact, and
it is foolish to try to evade it. You must adjust yourself
to the situation.
All this is urged by the people who have sold their
down-town churches and gone up to worship on the aven
ues, urged with the emphasis of conviction. Some of us
have listened well but we are not yet convinced. To say
that we do not feel the force of this reasoning would be
inaccurate. We feel it as keenly as we feel the force of
the east wind in April. We feel the weight of it as we
feel the weight of a muggy atmosphere in the dog-days.
But we cannot aver that our faith is strengthened or our
O
hope invigorated by it. It is not necessary to speak dis
respectfully about mission schools, or mission churches.
Many good people are engaged in such enterprises, and it
would be highly uncharitable to censure them. But there
are vigorous churches which have never yet found it wise
to propose the establishment of what are commonly known
as missions. These churches are engaged in planting
Christian institutions; but they are not missions, in name
or in fact. They are founding Sunday-schools in suitable
localities, but these are not mission Sunday-schools ; care
CHK1ST1AN PASTOR AND WOKKING CHURCH
has l>eeii taken to avoid calling them by that name or
giving them that character ; the expectation is that they
will become churches.
In the first place, these churches do not go into the
heart of an} degraded district to find a site for their
Christian enterprises. It seems to them wiser to select
a place near the border of such a district, at a mediating
point between the more fortunate and the less fortunate
classes. If the church is to do this work of mediation, it
is important that its purpose should be distinctly signal
ized by the selection of its site. If it goes up on the
avenue and purchases a very expensive location, that is a
distinct advertisement of the kind of church it intends to
be. It will be perfectly true of the church which stands
on this ground, that the people in the tenement houses
will not feel at home in it. If, on the other hand, a site
is chosen in the midst of the squalor and filth of some
poverty-stricken district, everybody knows that this can
only be a mission ; that self-support is not looked for ;
that it is a purely gratuitous ministration on the part of
certain rich Christians to the spiritual needs of this neg
lected neighborhood; and if there are any thoroughly
self-respecting poor people in that precinct, they will be
inclined to keep away from it.
A chapel built on the edge of such a district, but just
outside it, appeals quite as strongly to the poorest people
in it as if it stood in the midst of them, perhaps more
strongly. They would willingly walk a few squares
further for the sake of worshipping in a more decent place.
Very few of them expect to remain in this squalor ; they
do not regard it as their natural habitat, and they are more
than willing to be reminded once a week that their inter
ests do not all centre here. If the chapel can draw the
people out of the slums a few times every week, into
cleaner neighborhood and better air, it will do them a
good service. They will go back to that dirt every time
a little more unwillingly. And there is no serious diffi
culty in inducing the people of these districts to come to
tfhe churches which stand near them but not in them. It
PARISH EVANGELIZATION 261
is usually a matter of a few furlongs or even rods ; the
squalid areas are generally in surprisingly close neighbor
hood to the abodes of comfort.
When the chapel or church is thus located, when it
stands as the mediator between the rich and the poor,
reaching one hand to the people who dwell in the respect
able residence streets, and the other toward those who hive
in the tenement houses, its character and work are at once
determined. It must not be a " mission " ; the eleemosynary
features of its work cannot be thrust into the foreground;
it must be a people s church, a church for all sorts and
conditions of men, where the rich and poor meet together,
confessing the Lord who is the Maker of them all. It
hopes to draw into its fellowship enough of the dwellers
in the respectable streets to give it the needful financial
strength, and enough of trained intelligence to give it wise
guidance, and enough of the surrounding poverty and need
to give it a good tield for work within its own congregation,
or at any rate within those circles which will open directly
out of its own congregation. This plan has been kept
distinctly in mind by some churches, in their evangelistic
work, and experience has justified it. The Sunday-schools
thus started have become churches ; they are not rich man s
churches, and can never be; they are people s churches;
and that is the only kind of church which has any right to
exist. All classes come together in them and learn in
them the lessons of mutual respect and of self-respect.
Poor people who are not paupers have exactly the same
rights in them as their more fortunate neighbors erijov ;
the poorest prefer to belong to churches, membership in
which is not a badge of mendicancy.
It may be said that there are areas of poverty in some of
our cities so large that it would be hopeless to try to draw
the people away from them; that churches and chapels
must be established in them: and that these must needs
have the character, if not the name of missions. The
geographical statement may be true, but the ecclesiastical
inference does not follow. It is not necessarv that chapels
or churches thus located should be missions. They may
262 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
be colonies. It is possible for members of Christian
churches to be actuated by motives not less Christian than
those which have inspired the founders of the college and
university settlements. It is possible for Christians of
wealth and education to care enough for the welfare of
the people of the neglected districts to be willing to go
and live among them. Of course, this would mean that
the sanitary conditions of those districts would be sharply
looked after, for it would not be right for the well-to-do
Christians to take their families into these precincts unless
they were made habitable ; and thus their very advent
would bring saving health to their new neighbors.
The churches thus formed by colonies in the neglected
districts would differ widely from what are now known as
mission churches. The edifices would doubtless be plain,
but they would be tasteful and comfortable ; the minister
would be a man of intelligence ; the services would be de
corous and orderly. But the important feature would be
the footing of neighborliness upon which the worshippers
and the w r orkers would stand together. The leaders in tins
enterprise, the teachers in this Sunday-school, would not
be hired men and women sent down here to perform a
certain work of charity; nor would they be occasional
visitants, letting themselves down, as it were, once or
twice a week, out of some higher realm of social life, to
minister to the poor, whose coming was felt to be an act of
condescension ; they would be neighbors and acquaintan
ces, whom the poor people met every day upon the
street, and with whom they were identified in many other
things besides the religious services. The social contact
of these classes with each other could not but be of great
benefit to both of them. Gentleness and refinement would
be taught in the only way in which they can be taught ;
and respect for labor and sympathy for the laborer would
become something more than a sentiment. What oppor
tunities, too, of genuine charity would come daily to these
Christians, through their close acquaintance with their
needy brethren ! And how beautifully would the bonds
of social peace be woven by such organizations as these I
PARISH EVANGELIZATION 263
If there had been as many as twenty such churches,
planted by Christian colonies, in the poorer wards of
New York, how different would be the social conditions
of that great city ! ( )ne such colony would be a far better
safeguard against anarchy than one hundred policemen.
This, then, is the shape which we could wish to see our
Christian work taking in the cities. Xo one ought to
speak disrespectfully of missions; but they seem to be an
impotent device. It is clear that they cannot meet the
demand. Their work, at best, is sketchy and superficial;
they "heal the hurt of the daughter of my people" very
slightly.
A few years ago the present writer walked through
some of the worst parts of Hast London, in company with
an alderman of the London ( ounty Council, who is also pas
tor of a Congregational church in one of the working-class
districts of the metropolis. This pastor was thoroughly
informed respecting the social and religious conditions of
the great city, and his comments on what appeared were
full of instruction. In the course of the walk we came
upon a mission chapel, planted by another Congregational
church, in one of the worst corners of that section. "See,"
said the pastor, -here is Doctor Blank s mission. Can
you not perceive, by the very look of it, that it has very
little relation to the life of these people? One does not
wish to say a word against such a work as this : these
people are trying to do good here: but the sum of what
they accomplish is infinitesimal. They come down lie re
once or twice a week; they are here for an hour or two at
a time; they sing and preach and pray; their services
make a little emotional ripple in the lives of these people,
and then they go awav. Some thoughts of a better life,
some wishes for strength and purity are awakened in the
hearts of those who hear, but how can such feeble impulses
struggle into life in such an environment? You might as
well plant a violet between these curbstones. The girls
in that Sunday-school sleep, most of them, in apartments,
where from half a dozen to a do/en people are huddled
promiscuously together, male and female, married and un-
264 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
married. They know nothing about privacy ; modesty is
an unknown word and an impossible conception. How
can you teach such people in Sunday-school how to be
good? How much can an agency like this do to lessen
or purify the deep and dismal flood of vulgarity and
brutality and vice and crime which sweeps forever
through these streets ? " The pastor must not be held
responsible for all the language of this report, but this
is the substance of what he said. As we walked on,
we soon came to another building, in the same neighbor
hood, of which much is known, and concerning which no
such doubtful verdict could be spoken. That was Toynbee
Hall, the first of the university settlements. Toynbee
Hall may not be an ideal institution ; doubtless its meth
ods might be in many ways improved ; but this must be
said of it, that it has made a perceptible change in the
face of the neighborhood in which it stands. There are a
great many homes in that neighborhood which are cleaner
and happier because of it ; the gracious and kindly com
panionship of Mr. and Mrs. Barnett and the young gentle
men who live here with them, has done a great deal to
sweeten the atmosphere of Whitechapel.
There are quite a number of colonies like this in other
parts of London, and in several of our American cities,
whose influence upon the vicinage has been quite percepti
ble. But these college settlements are lacking, after all,
in the finest and strongest influence. They are mainly
composed of young men or women, who live all together in
one house, and who are manifestly only sojourners in the
neighborhood ; they are here to stay for a little while, but
not to live. Their life is club life, and not family life.
It is far closer to the life of the neighborhood than that of
the workers in the average mission, but the relation of
these individuals to the people round about them is felt
to be but temporary. Besides, these are young people,
with but limited experience of life, and there is much in
the daily history of many of these families into which they
cannot enter. We know how heartily and heroically they
have thrown themselves into the work, especially the
PARISH EVANGELIZATION 265
young women ; but there are many things which an ex
perienced matron could do for these mothers and these
children which a young girl could not undertake. And a
group of families, living in such a neighborhood, would
affect the life of the neighborhood in many ways far more
directly and beneficently than the best regulated club
could possibly do.
All this will seem quixotic and chimerical to many.
They will not be able to conceive of the possibility of such
devotion. u How," they will ask, "could you expect in
telligent and cultivated families to exile themselves,
socially, after this manner? It is all very well for young
and unmarried people to go away and live in such places
for a few months or years, but to ask families to take up
their residence there is a very different thing. Could you
expect well-bred fathers and mothers to deprive their chil
dren as well as themselves of the advantages of refined
society ? "
To all this it may be answered that it is, indeed, diffi
cult to say just how much you can expect in the way of
sacrifice of good Christians in these days; yet it does not
appear that this is, after all, such a very heroic adven
ture. It is no more than we expect of every missionary
who cfoes to Calcutta or Hongf-konff; indeed most of these
O O O
foreign missionaries would be glad if their exile was no
more absolute, and the discomforts and dangers of their
lives were no greater than a residence in the Eleventh
Ward of New York or the North End of Boston would
require of them. These colonists in the destitute districts
of our American cities would not, in fact be, wholly cut
off from intercourse with their fellow men : they could
easily keep themselves in touch with all that was really
helpful in the life of the city. If the colony consisted of
a dozen or twenty families of the class supposed, they
would have among themselves some excellent society.
Doubtless their life would be far simpler than if they
lived on the avenues ; would that be. to intelligent fathers
and mothers, a real objection? Would not release from
the extravagances and artificialities of city life be a great
266 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
gain to them and to their children ? Suppose that these
families were compelled, by such a change of their en
vironment, to live a little more within themselves to
get a little better acquainted with one another, would
that be an unmitigated misfortune ? On the whole, there
is some reason to say that, looking at the matter from the
view-point of the family s highest good, the sacrifices in
volved in such an enterprise are not without their
compensations.
At any rate, it is not easy to discover any other ade
quate solution of the problem of city evangelization than
this plan of colonization, or something which involves the
same principle. These neglected districts are what they
are to-day because the churches have deserted them. That
was a great crime treachery to Christ and his gospel.
There is only one way to atone for it. The people who
have abandoned these districts must go back and occupy
them. If this involves some sacrifice, we must not won
der ; but we need not be so faithless as to think that none
can be found to make the sacrifice. We may trust that
there is enough of Christly love and consecrated purpose
in the church to do this work, if the thought of the people
can only be turned toward it.
These suggestions as to the extension of the work of the
church to the districts for whose evangelization it holds
itself responsible are offered with some confidence. It is
true that they involve a considerable revision of current
habits of thought and current evangelistic methods, but
this may be the first requisite of successful evangelism.
The full and frank recognition of the clear implications of
the Christian law is not readily yielded. The church has
been trying, too long, to apply the Sermon on the Mount
in a narrow and partial way to the problems before it. It
has not been willing to go after the lost sheep into the
wilderness ; it has preferred to send delegates. It has a
great deal to learn of the very rudiments of its high
calling.
Without resorting either to colonization or the planting
of Christian institutions which shall be self-sustaining
PARISH EVANGELIZATION 267
rathe i than eleemosynary, the church may often do much
within its own gates for the evangelization of its neighbor
hood. Many churches attended mainly by the well-to-do
classes are in close proximity to districts inhabited by the
very poor. It is true that the stampede of the churches
from these districts where poverty and sorrow and spirit
ual need abound has, of late years, presented to the angels
a melancholy spectacle ; but there are still many churches
whose location would enable them to enter in an effective
wav upon the work of evangelization. There is a large
population within easy reach of them in the alleys and the
upper stories of the business blocks. These people can be
brought into the churches if they are wanted there. Some
effort wiil be needed, no doubt, to convince them that they
are wanted, but not more than would be needed to estab
lish and maintain a separate building for their use. Says
Bishop Hurst :
"The drift of the city churches is always toward the
cleaner, less parked, and less commercial parts of the city.
All through this century the attraction in New York lias
been northward. When the strong church moves away, a
weak one is left behind. It seems to need but little care.
A scanty allowance is left for it. So much is needed for
the new church elsewhere, and it must be so line, that the
old church soon heroines a mere skeleton. Little the
people think that for the power to build the new the
obligation is due to the old!
u In Rome it is never thought of, that, because St.
Peter s has to be reached by a bridge, and to reach the
bridge one must go through dark and filthy streets, there
fore St. Peter s must not be thought of as a sanctuary.
The mere fact that it is St. Peter s makes it an attraction.
In Vienna, St. Stephen s is in the midst of darker and more
repellent streets ; yet it is never urged against it that
it is too far down town, and not in the West End. In
Berlin and in Paris the same rule applies. St. Paul s in
London, is surrounded still, as centuries ago, by small
shops, while the city stages and cabs run around it, and
make a perpetual din on every side. Vet people go from
268 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
palace and noble residence far away to get to that beauti
ful temple. St. Margaret s and Westminster are by no
means in the midst of fine residences. Yet all these places
are visited by the people of every class. Why should we
cry that the churches must follow the people ? " 1
The assumption that poor people cannot be enticed into
a comfortable and pleasant place of public worship is one
that needs to be challenged. It is to be feared that the
unwillingness is largely imputed to them by those who
in their hearts would rather not have them come. That
is a strange sight, which is frequently seen in England,
of ministers and evangelists standing on the front steps
of churches and preaching to a little group of Avayfarers
gathered about them in the street. Why are these listen
ers afraid or disinclined to cross the threshold? If bar
riers are there which they cannot cross, is it not the first
business of the church to tear them down ?
The whole enterprise of street preaching, as carried on
by organized bands of Christian church-members, appears
to be a sad confession of failure on the part of the church.
So far as these services are intended to bring people into
the churches they may have some value ; but the impres
sion which they make upon the casual listener does not
usually convey this as the primary intention. They are
rather an attempt to reach with the Gospel those between
whom and the churches there is a great gulf fixed. It is
possible that some hearts are touched by these street
sermons, but how superficial and fleeting are their influ
ence ! What these poor people need above everything
else is friendship the kind of friendship which the
church, in the ideal of its Founder, undertakes to provide.
It is not truth, it is not even Gospel truth, ever so patheti
cally uttered, it is love that is the fulfilling of the law.
What these people want is love, and such social relations
with their Christian neighbors as shall allow the expression
of this love. To be preached to is not the thing they are
hungry for, but to be known and cared for. And there
fore the church which stands near to a neighborhood where
1 National Peri/sand Opportunities, p. 107.
PARISH EVANGELIZATION 209
numbers of such people live has a great opportunity. Its
work cannot be done by sending bands of its young people
about to stand on the corners of the streets and speak and
sing to those who are passing, but rather by sending its
best and its bravest out two by two into the streets and
the highways, the attics and the cellars to constrain them
to come into its own sanctuary, and by providing such a
welcome for them that when they do come in they shall
feel themselves to be among friends. Doubtless special
services of one kind or another will need to be arranged
for them ; and many new measures adopted for their
instruction and edification : the church will need to exer
cise all its invention upon this problem of manifesting its
fellowship to those 1 whom Christ reckons as the least of
these [his] brethren."
The families thus gathered into the Sunday-school or
the church need careful shepherding, and it is far better
that it should be done by members of the church, in an
unofficial way, than by paid visitors. The pastor may
wisely assign to each of the women of the church who
will undertake the- cart 1 , two or three of these families as
her special charge. She should be instructed to call on
them not as a committee or a delegate, but as a Christian
friend, desirous of making their acquaintance and of enter
ing into relations of Christian friendship with them. She
must not go as an almoner of charity, searching out their
penury and offering assistance ; that, in most cases, is the
very thing to be avoided. When she becomes the Lady
Bountiful, and they the pensioners upon her bountv. the
relation is apt to be vitiated. She must rather seek to
preserve between herself and them the friendship which
rests on mutual respect. If relief is needed she had better
see that it reaches them through some other channel. If
she can become a trusted friend, giving them at all times
counsel and sympathy, aiding them in securing employ
ment and in helping themselves, winning their confidence,
and stimulating their self-respect and independence, the
service that she will render them will be one of the high
est value. Work of this kind is proposed by the charity
270 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
organization societies, and much, good work of this kind
is, undoubtedly, done by them : but it is above all things
important that the Christian churches should count it
their chief work a work of which no other organization
can possibly relieve them.
CHAPTER XII
THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE CHURCH
IN our study of the constitution of the church we have
found that it is, primarily, a social organization, and that
the bond which holds it together must be the mutual love
of its members. The fundamental law of the church as a
social organization is well expressed by the apostle Paul
in these words: kt iS ow we that are strong ought to hear
the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is
good, unto edifying. For Christ also pleased not him
self. . . . Wherefore receive ye one another, even as
Christ also received you, to the glory of God. 1
This is the paraphrase and the amplification of the new
commandment of Christ tk that ye love one another as
I have loved you. - If the doctrine of justification by
faith is, theologically, articulus slant is rcl cadcntis ecclesicc,
it is no less true that of Christian society the only sure
foundation is Christ s law of brotherhood. When this
law is disregarded or set at nought in the practical work
ing of the body, it ceases to be a Christian church. It
may be a school of sound theology; it may be a popular
preaching place ; it may be a place of polite resort : but
it is not any longer a church of Christ.
If Paul s statement is true, the church relation implies
acquaintance and friendship on the part of the members of
the church. " Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ
also received you, to the glory of God. 3 This word
"receive" means much. Undoubtedly its connotation is
social. It signifies more than merely standing up before the
communion table when new membei-s are admitted ; more
1 Rom. xv. 1, 2, 3, & 7. 2 John xv. 12. 3 Rom. xv. 7.
272 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHUKCH
than sitting together once a week, beneath the same church
roof ; more than having a speaking acquaintance with
members of the church. The primary sense of the word
here translated " receive," is to take another by the hand and
draw him toward yourself ; and the definitions of the word
are these : " To take to one s company, intercourse, house ;
to receive to oneself ; to admit to one s society and fellow
ship ; to receive and treat with kindness." 1 This, then, is
the duty which Paul commands the Roman Christians to
practise toward one another. In the church he expects
that there will be friendship and social intercourse among
the members ; the church is to be a genuine sodality.
Various social organizations exist at the present day, some
open, others secret, whose members are bound together by
vows of fellowship and fraternity. But none of these
contemplate a closer fellowship, a more hearty fraternity
than Christ designed to be the bond of union among the
members of his church. This view of the relationship of
church members may seem to some extravagant and vi
sionary. Be this as it may, it is the view which Christ
and all his apostles held and enforced by precept and by
practice ; it is the only view to which any countenance is
given in the New Testament.
It may be said that this implies a sort of communistic or
agrarian equality and that this is contrary to the teachings
of Christianity. It is true that the New Testament does not
teach state socialism, as that term is commonly understood,
nor does it encourage communism. Even the first chapters
of the Acts of the Apostles, if rightly interpreted, do not
sanction the abolition of private property, and the establish
ment of communistic societies. The family is exalted in
the New Testament ; Christianity glorifies and establishes
the family ; the preservation of the family as a social unit
requires the accumulation of private property; and the
existence of private property involves disparity of con
ditions. If industry and traffic are free to all, there will
be inequality in men s estates. The inequality in men s
temporal conditions results largely from differences in
1 Robinson s Greek Lexicon of the New Testament.
THE SOCIAL LIFE OK THE CHURCH 27-3
their natural powers and capacities. Christianity does not
change these natural capacities, and does not, of course,
change the results that flow from them. It does not make
all men alike either in gifts or in possessions. The Chris
tian morality assumes that there will be rich and poor,
strong and weak, coarse and line, fast and slow, all living
together in the same society ; it does not undertake to
abolish such distinctions, but only to establish a law by
which all these sorts of people shall form one harmonious
society. The good maestro does not desire to have the
instruments of the orchestra all violins or French horns ;
neither does he wisli to have them all play the same part ;
the silver bugle, and the brass ophicleide, and the wooden
bassoon ; the stringed instruments and the reed instru
ments, and the instruments of percussion, lie wants
them all, as many kinds of voices as he can get; and then
lie will divide up among them as many melodies as can
be made to harmonize. What is essential is that all the
instruments shall be in tune, and that they shall be played
in time, and with a distinct appreciation on the part of
each musician of the part which he is called to deliver,
as well as of the complete harmony of which his part is one
harmonious strain. So in the Christian society Christ
wants all varieties of condition and of capacity, so that the
whole body, " fitly framed and knit together through that
which every joint supplieth, according to the working in
due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of
the body unto the building up of itself in love. *
The church is to be an organism, not a mass of inde
pendent atoms. The members of the church have the
same relation to each other that the parts of an organized
body have to each other, a vital relation, a formative
relation. Take the parts of the tree, leaves, bark, branches,
roots whence do they derive the life by which they live ?
From the sun, the air, the soil. l>ut it is not true that
each individual leaf, branch, rootlet, seeks its own nourish
ment supplies itself with life from sunshine and soil and
atmosphere and permits the rest of the tree to provide
1 Eph. iv. 1C.
18
274 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
for itself. The roots, drawing up from the earth its moist-
ture and its life-giving juices, partake of the nourishment
they thus draw from the soil, and at the same time convey
it through the woody veins of the trunk and the branches
to all parts of the tree ; the leaves drinking in the sun
shine, send its vitalizing currents back along the same
channels to the roots again ; so that every leaf, and every
branch, and every cell of tissue, and every rootlet under
ground is busy in ministering to the health and growth of
every other part of the organism ; all are working together
for the upbuilding of the body in love. The roots under
ground may be soiled and scraggy, without form or come
liness, but they have an equal part in the work of vegeta
tion ; and they are not forgotten or neglected by the gay
leaves overhead; for draughts of nectar that the golden
sunshine brews are sent to them every hour to cheer them
in their lowly toil. A partnership of life, a vital unity,
binds all parts of the tree together.
The relation which the members of the church sustain
to each other is like unto this. The members of the church
are not only united by an individual faith to Christ the
living head, from whom all their life flows ; but they are
united to each other in a living fellowship, and as every
man has received the gift, they are to minister of the same
one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of
God.
Love is the essence of Christianity. Not love for those
nearest us, for our family, or our social circle, but love for
all who are made in God s image. My neighbor may be
coarse, hard-hearted, stupid, but he is a child of God, and
therefore my brother, and I must love him, and do him
good as I have opportunity. And this love must be some
thing more than a vapory sentiment ; it must be a practical
power issuing from my life and reaching his life, " As I
have loved you, so ought ye to love one another," 1 said the
Master. If the cherishing of loving sentiments had been
all that was necessary, he might have remained on his
throne among the angels ; he needed not to take on him-
1 John xv. 12.
THE SOCIAL LIFE OP THE CHURCH 27/>
self the form of a servant. To love our neighbor as Christ
loved us, means more than to feel kindly toward him ; it
means that \ve should take pains, and make sacrifices to do
him good. It is not possible, of course, that we should
manifest in this practical way our Christian love for all
the individuals in the world, or even to all within the
community in which we live. But, in order that we may
be fully exercised in loving our neighbors, the Christian
church has been organized.
Into this church, the local church, all sorts and condi
tions of people ought to be gathered. Each local church
should be, so far as it is possible, an epitome of the univer
sal church. And that, in its Founder s conception, is not
a theoretical or a sentimental, but a practical and real
brotherhood, in which the rich and the poor meet to
gether, learning how, in all their relations with one another,
to put the Golden Mule into constant practice.
It is necessary to the perfection of individual character
that there should be in the church not only diversities of
gifts, but diversities of culture and diversities of condition,
and that thus we should be practised in our relations to all
kinds of people. We need to know how to bear ourselves
discreetly, lovingly, helpfully, not only toward those of our
own station in life, but toward those higher than ourselves
and those lower. A Christian who only knows how to live
in fellowship with one grade or caste in society is like a
gardener whose sole recommendation consists in the ability
to raise Japan lilies, or like a woman who thinks she is
fitted to be a housewife because she knows how to make
dainties for the table and parlor decorations. The garde
ner who is fitted for his calling must have knowledge of
the habits and needs of all sorts of plants ; and the skil
ful housewife must be practiced in other branches of her
art than those which relate wholly to luxury and ornament.
So the Christian must have intimate knowledge of all kinds
of people ; of their ways of thinking and living ; ample
acquaintance with all departments of Christian household
work. What we should all desiderate as Christians is large
ness of sympathy ; breadth of view ; power to enter into
276 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
the experiences of all our fellows, and to bear their burdens
upon our feeling. Our Master was equally at home in the
hovels of the poor and in the palaces of rich Pharisees. So
shall we be if we are like him.
It is by this close relation of personal friendship, and by
this alone, that the Christian church can be built up and
the principles of the Gospel be made to prevail. The
religion of Christ cannot be propagated in any other wa} r .
It is only by the contact of mind with mind, of heart with
heart, of life with life, that its virtues and graces are repro
duced and multiplied.
The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman
hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened.
But in order that the whole may be leavened, the whole
must be brought together in one compact body. From one
life to another the sacred influences of love must flow, and
it is only when men are brought near enough together so
that their lives touch each other that the influence can be
communicated.
Courtesy, for example, is one of the Christian graces. It
is a fruit which the religion of Christ will always bear when
it gets its growth in the human soul. But there are many
Christians in whom this grace is not yet perfectly devel
oped. This is the part of their character which needs
culture. How are they ever to gain this culture if they are
excluded from polite society? The spirit of God does
develop this grace, but only under favorable conditions.
The sunshine wakes to life the germ that is in the seed ;
but it will not make it grow through an asphalt pavement.
And it will be difficult for those who were born and bred
in rude society to acquire the graces of true courtesy if
they are shut out from the circles in which courtesy is the
law if all their associations are with the uncivil. They
never can become refined except by association with men
and women who are refined. If those who lead gentle lives
hold themselves aloof from those who lead rude lives, there
can be little growth of refinement in society. But when
all classes of people are brought together in the church,
the expectation is that the principles of the divine life will
THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE CHURCH 277
be communicated from one to another; that the gentleness
and the unselfishness and the grace which iind expression
in ideal Christian lives, will pervade the whole society and
prevail at length over the roughness and barbarism of the
woods. This expectation is always realized when Chris
tians recognize the duty of using their social influence and
their social opportunities unseliishly ; of consecrating to
God not only their money and their talents, but their social
life.
What is true of courtesy is true of every other high
quality. Knowledge is a Christian grace that will scarcely
be communicated in any other way. Many of our neigh
bors are ignorant and dull-witted. Those who are intelli-
"gent and cultivated, by their loving and helpful intercourse
with them, may not only impart to them much information,
but, what is better, the contact of their minds with minds
better trained will quicken and awaken their intelligence,
and inspire them with a desire to know. So with patience ;
so with charitableness of judgment; so with self-denying
beneficence. They are all best learned from the lives of
those who practise them ; and it is hardly possible to learn
them in any other way.
Here, then, are the two main reasons why the members
of the same church should establish and maintain close and
friendly social relations - iirst, because each individual
needs, for the perfection of his Christian character, to learn
to rule himself by the law of love in his intercourse with
all kinds of people, those above him and those below him ;
and secondly, because it is only by the loving contact of
mind with mind and heart witli heart that the Christian
virtues can be reproduced and propagated.
Such associations as these are, no doubt, repulsive to the
feelings of refined and cultured persons. They do not like
to meet and mingle with such people, even if they are their
Christian brethren. Their persons are uncouth ; their
dress offends the taste ; their manners are awkward and
constrained; their views are narrow; their tempers are
often sullen ; it is hard to get at them, to establish any
points of sympathy or understanding with them. It seems
278 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
hard and disagreeable, no doubt. But the disciples of the
Nazarene should bear in mind that it is enough for them to
be as their Master. We know that if he were here in the
flesh, lie would gladly receive us to his society ; would
walk with us and talk with us ; would sit down with us in
our homes ; would admit us to the closest friendship. Yet
we are not so vain as not to be aware that such association
with us would offend his tastes let us speak reverently.
For we must not forget that his perceptions of beauty of
conduct and character are far keener than ours ; and that
it pains him more than it can pain us to witness such un-
gainliness of soul and body as that from which we are wont
to shrink. He could not have been the Saviour of the world
if he had suffered himself to be governed by his {.esthetic
feelings, instead of his benevolent feelings. If we would
be disciples of his we must take up this cross and follow
him.
But would it not be very difficult, it may be asked, to
put this principle of the text into practice ? It would be
difficult. It is commonly difficult to do right. It is diffi
cult for some to speak the truth ; it is difficult for others
to judge their neighbors charitably ; it is difficult for others
to be honest, and for others to consecrate their property
to Christ ; but the fact that a duty is difficult hardly ex
cuses us from its performance. The more arduous the
work the greater the reward for doing it.
But would not this make a complete overturning in all
our social customs ? Possibly : but may it not be that
society needs a complete overturning? The law of what
is called society is, for the greater part, the law of self-
pleasing. Not benevolence, but taste, is the arbiter of its
affairs. The question is not in social circles and social as
semblies, How can I do the most good how can I confer
the most happiness? but rather, Plow can I gratify my
own tastes most thoroughly ? As our civilization advances,
this becomes more and more the principle on which society
in some of its circles is organized. And this is not Chris
tianity ; it is heathenism ; it is paganism ; a refined and
elegant variety, no doubt, but still paganism; and the
THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE CHURCH 279
religion of the meek and lowly Nazarene has no more
powerful foe. Nothing needs christianizing more than
what is called, by a polite euphemism, Christian society.
The thorough application of the Christian law to the social
intercourse of neighbors, of members of the same church,
would work a marvellous transformation.
We sometimes hear it said that the christianization of
the church is a visionary enterprise. In great ecclesiasti
cal assemblies the suggestion that party spirit be laid
aside, and that, instead of trying to overpower one an
other, the representatives of the churches seek to please
one another, and to prefer one another in honor, is received
with a significant silence. And the proposition to introduce
the Christian law of social intercourse into the church is
likely to be viewed in many quarters as an impracticable
innovation. Yet, so long as we call ourselves Christians,
and accept the man of Nazareth as our Master, we ought,
manifestly, to recognize the duty of making some attempts
in this direction. Any church which will throw itself
heartily into the enterprise of realizing the life of Christ
in its fellowship w r ill find that it is an easy and delightful
thing to do. The difficulty of which we have spoken is
mainly the difficulty of overcoming the disinclination
of making the attempt. Like many other services from
which we shrink, the thorough performance of it brings
an abundant reward. That which is drudgery in the an
ticipation often becomes a delight when we do it with all
our hearts.
If the social life of the Church is to be christianized, it
is needful not only that the Christian spirit dwell in the
hearts of the pastor and the members, but that methods
and opportunities be provided for the manifestation of it.
Much could be done freely and spontaneously by the
members in their intercourse with one another, and this
will be the best fruit of the Christian spirit. For such
manifestations of Christian kindness and neighborliness
no rule can be given; those who practise them are a law
unto themselves. Hut while it is true, on the one hand,
that the spirit will make forms for itself, it is equally
280 CHRISTIAN PASTOE AND WORKING CHURCH
true, on the other hand, that the provision of beautiful
and appropriate forms gives the spirit freer utterance. It
is part of our work to " make channels for the streams of
love." And the Christian church ought to be so organized
that its members should have ample opportunities of be
coming acquainted with one another, and of manifesting
the unity of the spirit.
It is true, however, that the best fellowship of the ideal
church will be the fellowship of work. Those who are
engaged in the various activities of the church are inevi
tably brought into close relations. It will be well for the
pastor always to keep this fact before the people. Let
him say, very often, from the pulpit ; " This is a working
church ; we are trying to carry on a number of kinds of
religious and charitable work ; and those of you who wish
to extend your acquaintance will do well to enlist in some
of these enterprises." In truth the friendships that are
formed among those who are partners in a common labor
and sharers of an unselfish purpose, are worth far more
than those whose only motive is social enjoyment. Fellow-
soldiers or fellow-workers in the hospital are united by a
stronger bond than that which joins members of the same
social club. And because the pastor knows that this is
true his first and strongest effort will be put forth to bring
as many as he can of the members of his church into the
fellowship of Christian labor. Those who are taking an
active part in the Sunday-school, in the mid-week service,
in the sewing-school, in the charitable visitation, in the
guilds and brotherhoods, will find in their work a comrade
ship that will go far to satisfy their social needs. In order
that this may be, however, the social side of all these de
partments of labor should be developed, and those who are
co-operating in them should cultivate the bond of brother
hood. In their consultations about their mutual work and
in all their association, they should seek to be helpers of
one another, and sharers of one another s burdens and joys.
If there are any among them that are timid and unpractised
in social intercourse, special kindness should be shown to
them. Christian disciples who are thus engaged together
THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE CHUUCH 281
in the labors of the church may often be quite; as service
able to those with whom they work as to those for whom
they work.
But, in addition to the fellowship of work, the church
should make opportunities for fellowship in social pleas
ures. "Let each one of us please his neighbor, for that
which is good, unto edifying. 1 One important way of
doin<> - cfood to our neighbors is by invin< - them social
O O O i/ O O
pleasure, and this is a method which eyery Christian church
should learn and practise.
It is highly important, to begin with, that methods should
be devised of promoting acquaintance among church mem
bers. In small churches this task is not dil licult ; there
are many churches in which it is not impossible for every
member to know every other. But in large churches in
the cities, where the membership is scattered over a wide
territory and where the social engagements are many, this
problem becomes somewhat difficult. It is neyer solved
with entire satisfaction to the faithful pastor, but a warm
heart and a resolute purpose can accomplish much. There
are many churches in which it seems almost a physical
impossibility that acquaintance should be universal; but
it is possible to provide that no household and no indi
vidual shall be left friendless; that every one shall have
ample opportunities of Christian fellowship. If no one
can know all his brethren, each one may know many, and
may find in the social life which the church provides the
supply of his highest wants.
Those church members who reside in the same neighbor
hood ought to be able to maintain some neighborly relations.
To this end pains should be taken to inform those who live
in any given neighborhood when a family living in their
vicinity is added to the congregation. In some churches
it is customary, when individuals or households are received
into the church, to name the place of their residence, that
those who live nearest them may be able to discharge their
neighborly obligations. It is well for the pastor to have; a
supply of cards printed in blank, on which he may inscribe
1 Horn. xv. 2.
282 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
the name and residence of every new member, inclosing
them to those who can most conveniently call, and inviting
them to manifest to the new-comers the fellowship of the
church.
For many reasons it is better that the people themselves
should do this work than that it should be done by the
pastor. The pastor s call is perfunctory. He goes be
cause it is his duty to go. It is well if he has the grace
to conceal this disagreeable fact; but many of those on
whom he calls must be aware that it is an official service,
and does not possess any social significance. A friendly
call from one of the members of the church living in the
neighborhood might wear a different look. It would
almost uniformly be accepted as an act of friendship; it
would manifest the fellowship of the church more clearly
than a call from the pastor.
It is desirable that the social ties which bind members
to the church be as strong as those which bind them to
their pastor. Those who join the church, and not the
pastor, should be received by the church at least as
heartily as by the pastor. Pastors come and go, but the
church abides ; and it is of the utmost importance that the
attachment of each member be fastened upon the church,
and not merely upon its minister. 1
There are, doubtless, congregations in which such a
recognition of the fraternal relations of members would
not be possible; in which the members would resent the
suggestion that they owe any courtesies to one another
because they belong to the same church and live in the
same neighborhood ; in which the barriers of social reserve
are far too high and strong to admit of any genuine brother
hood; but these churches greatly need to consider the
charter of their existence and their right to bear the name
of Christ.
, In churches which recognize a fraternal relation among
their members, and desire to promote and strengthen it, a
convenient device is the division of the parish into a num
ber of well-defined geographical districts, each of which
1 Parish Problems, p. 233.
THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE CHURCH
should l>e placed in charge of ;i pastoral committee, con
sisting perhaps of one gentleman and three ladies. The
directory of the church should be printed, with the boun
daries of each district distinctly defined, and the names
and residences of families and individuals residing within
o
tin 1 district brought together. The members of the con
gregation can thus see at a glance who their neighbors are,
and when 1 they live; and they can, if they desire, show
themselves neighborly to those within their reach. The
pastoral committee should visit every family in its district
at least once a year, and should report to the pastor any
changes of residence in the district, and any removals from
it, with the names of new-comers within their territory
who are attending the church.
Such a division of the parish into geographical districts,
with a pastoral committee in charge of each, is a con
venient arrangement for many purposes. It is necessary
to canvass the parish from time to time for various objects;
this machinery provides a wav whereby every family can
be expeditiously and surely reached. In some churches
the benevolent collections are thus taken with but little
labor. Cottage meetings and neighborhood sociables may
also be held occasionally in the several districts under the
direction of the pastoral committees.
The chief value of the geographical division is, how
ever, the aid which it affords in the cultivation of church
fellowship by grouping the members of the congregation.
By means of such a system, it is possible for those belong
ing to the same church to fulfil their fraternal obligations
to one another, and to foster that sentiment and spirit of
brotherhood on which the usefulness of the church so
largely depends. 1
In the city churches it is often difficult to make the
acquaintance of those who have become regular attendants
upon the Sunday services. In such churches it is well to
appoint a welcome committee, whose duty it shall be to
watch for such regular comers, to express to them the
hospitality of the church, to obtain their names and
1 Paris/i Problems, p. 23">.
284 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AM) WORKING CHURCH
addresses, and, if they are willing, to present them to the
pastor. Another simple device is to place in the pews
occasionally plain cards on which any persons who know
that they are not known, and who wish to be considered as
members of the congregation, should be desired to write
their names, with their places of residence, dropping the
cards into the collection baskets. The pastor is thus
directed to the homes of strangers who desire his acquaint
ance, and he may bring them to the notice of the pastoral
committee.
It is important, however, that frequent meetings for
the promotion of acquaintance be held in the social rooms
of the church itself meetings to which the whole congre
gation should be invited. To this end it is necessary that
the church should be provided with social rooms, apart
ments adapted to social intercourse. The parlors of the
church are an essential part of its outfit for Christian work,
and the social meetings held in them, with which no
religious exercises are connected, are to be reckoned as a
means of grace.
These church sociables have frequently been made the
subject of caustic comment, and there is no doubt but that
serious abuses have been connected with them ; neverthe
less they should serve an important purpose in the develop
ment of the social life of the church. In some cases they
have been almost wholly devoted to diversions of some
nature ; long programmes of musical and elocutionary per
formance, and various amusements are provided; thus the
entire evening is occupied and very little opportunity is
given for the promotion of acquaintance. The primary
object of the church sociable is not, however, recreation,
but sociability, and its exercises should be so ordered as
to give ample time for conversation. A little music or a
brief recitation or two to enliven the occasion may be
allowed, but this part of the exercise should not be pro
tracted. Some light refreshments may be served, but this
also should be a subordinate feature, and the entertain
ment should always be plain and inexpensive. It is better
that it should be gratuitously served. The purpose of the
THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE CHl UCH ^85
sociable can only be to afford an opportunity for free and
friendly conversation among members of the same congre
gation. They have come together to recognize the bond
that unites them, and to receive one another even as Christ
also has received them to the glory of God. Here they
are neither rich nor poor, learned nor ignorant; they are
brethren in Christ Jesus. It is not the place for friends
and cronies to gather into congenial groups; it is the place
to remember the solemn covenant of mutual help and
sympathy which was uttered or implied when they entered
into the fellowship of the church.
Much depends on the spirit of the pastor. If he is a
man of genuine friendliness, and if he is fully possessed
with the truth that the church must be a brotherhood, his
enthusiasm is likely to be contagious and the spirit of
good-will and cordiality will prevail in these social assem
blies. When the leaders of the congregation, the men and
women of wealth and social standing take up this purpose
heartily and devote themselves to seeking out those whom
they do not know, and those who are likely to be neglected,
manifesting to them a true Christian courtesy, the effect
upon the life of the church is often very salutary. There
are churches in which the prosperous and the cultured
members have learned to use their power and prestige in
such a way as to draw the membership into the most
fraternal relations. No spectacle can be more grateful to
the faithful pastor than that which he sometimes witnesses
in these social meetings, when with no sign of patronage
or condescension on the one hand, or of sycophancy on
the other, the rich and the poor meet together as Christian
brethren. It is doubtful whether any service which the
church roof shelters has a deeper significance than this,
or helps more effectually to bring to earth the kingdom of
heaven.
The kind of social assembly which we have been con
sidering is intended for the whole congregation. But
there seems to be a place for a meeting, partly religious
and partly social, to which none but communicants in the
church shall be invited, and which shall be wholly devoted
286 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
to strengthening the tie that binds the believers into one
household of faith and one brotherhood of love. Assem
blies of this description, sometimes called fellowship meet
ings, are held in some churches. They may well be called
on the Monday evening following every communion, that
there may be opportunity for the members of the church
to meet any who may have been received into the church
on the preceding day. It is often the case that members
thus received have no early opportunity of making the
acquaintance of those with whom they enter into covenant ;
and the solemn words that are spoken by both parties to
this covenant appear to be nothing better than mockery,
unless some way is provided by which the friendship thus
promised may have a chance to begin its life in a mutual
acquaintance. In some churches the pastor, on behalf of
the church, extends to the candidates the right hand of
fellowship ; but it is well if the members are permitted to
express their greetings in their own way.
If it be found inexpedient to devote a whole evening to
this purpose, it may be practicable to give to it half of the
hour of the mid-week service in the week following the
Sacrament. But if the church can be brought to consider
the matter, it will not grudge a whole evening, once in
two months, for the cementing of its own unity; for the
more perfect realization of that communion of saints which
its creed so clearly affirms, but which its practice so
imperfectly illustrates.
The conduct of this meeting should be altogether
informal. It will be well to spend a little time in song
and prayer at the beginning ; and if there are members of
the church who can be trusted to speak judiciously and
heartily and briefly of the friendships which the church
fosters and consecrates, of the benefits and joys of Chris
tian fraternity, a few words from them may be helpful and
welcome.
Then an opportunity should be offered for conversation.
This intercourse of the fellowship meeting will naturally
be somewhat less hilarious than that of the sociable ; the
voices will be keyed to a lower pitch; the talk will be in
THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE CHURCH 287
a gentler strain; but it ought to be cordial and unreserved.
No introductions should be required or tolerated; people
who have said to each other what all these have said before
the communion-table do not require the formality of an
introduction. Let every one speak first to those whom he
does not know, if any such there be, and then to those
with whom he is least intimately acquainted; let him
reserve his intercourse with familiar friends for other occa
sions. The themes of conversation cannot be prescribed;
lint the natural drift of the talk in such a meeting would
be, it would seem, toward the more serious topics; toward
the life and the work which the church is seeking to pro
mote. After half an hour spent in these familiar greet
ings and communings, the assembly may again be called
to order, and with a few words of prayer and song, may
be dismissed.
Such a meeting will be of no profit it will be postively
mischievous unless there be in the church a genuine and
hearty fellowship which seeks expression. To call together
people who really care very little for one another, who do
not prize the friendships into which the church introduces
them, who are haughty or supercilious or indifferent toward
their fellow-members in the church, and to turn them loose
upon one another in the fashion here suggested, would
result in nothing but injury. Doubtless there are such in
all our churches. Perhaps there are many churches in
which the number of these is so large that no such method
as this could be profitably introduced. But it is certainly
true of most of our churches that there is no lack of a
real friendship; the only failure is in a proper expression
of the brotherly interest and good-will that are in the
hearts of the multitude. How often a better acquaintance
shows us tender sympathy and self-denying generosity
where we had thought were nothing but indifference and
exclusiveness ! The great majority of our reputable neigh
bors are far kinder than we think them; the lack which
we deplore is not in the feeling so much as in its expres
sion. In the church, more than anywhere else, this is
true. Our modern life, in our cities and larger towns, is
288 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AXD WORKING CHURCH
so intense that the opportunities are few for the cultiva
tion of friendships beyond a very narrow circle. And if
some simple ways can be devised in which the people of
the churches can be brought together and encouraged to
express their sympathies and their good wishes, great
benefits will result to those who give as well as to those
who receive these overtures of kindness.
It is well to have a short fellowship meeting at the end
of every mid-week service. The people should be encour
aged to tarry for ten minutes or so after the close of this
service, for handshaking and the interchange of friendly
words. The more opportunities of this sort they enjoy,
the less likely are they to indulge in bickerings and
jealousies. One of the deepest needs of our large churches
is a more perfect union. It is needed to consolidate the
church for work ; it is needed to develop and express those
Christian sentiments of good-will which are the only
enduring cement of society in these turbulent and ominous
times. Assemblies of this nature, which are intended to
bring all the members of the church, rich and poor, old
and young, together on an equal footing, and to cultivate
and manifest a genuine Christian brotherhood, have an
influence that reaches far beyond the confines of the
church. 1
1 Parish Problems, p. 269-271.
CHAPTER XIII
WOMAN S WORK IN THE CHURCH
THE place of \voman in the modern Church is not that
which she occupied in the Apostolic Church or in any of
the centuries preceding the Reformation. It is equally
true that the place of woman in the state, in the com
munity, and eyen in the family, is unlike that to which
she was confined in the days of Paul the Apostle. From
a position of subjection she has passed to one of social
equality. The natural laws are not repealed, and the
relation of woman to man will always he what nature has
ordained that it shall be; but the race has come to under
stand that differences of function and endowment among
human beings do not necessarily signify superiority or
inferiority, and that, since we must all stand before the
judgment seat of God, there ought to be no lordship or
vassalage among us. In the days when brute force was
the arbiter of all disputes, the position of woman in society
was necessarily that of an inferior; but as spiritual yalues
have asserted themselves, the ground of this subordination
has disappeared. That the emancipation and elevation of
woman are chiefly due to Christianity cannot be gainsaid.
It would be strange indeed if the Church of Christ should
deny to woman the honor of which his gospel has made
her worthy. For what else has she been lifted up and
dignified if not that she should occupy that social position
for which she has been fitted?
If, therefore, the entire relation of woman to thf society
in which she liyes is different now from what it was in the
time of Paul, we need not be surprised to find her relation
to the Church correspondingly changed. Paul s injunc
tions to women to refrain from public speech and to main
tain a strict reserve in public places were wholly justified
19
290 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
by the social conditions then prevailing. He simpl}- for
bade Avomen to put themselves in an equivocal attitude
before the community to adopt a line of conduct which
would have brought scandal upon the Church. It would
have been indecorous for a woman to appear in a public
assembly with an unveiled face; Paul disallowed this as
expressly as he condemned public teaching, and for the
same reason. The social conditions have changed; it is
no longer proof of a lack of modesty if a woman shows her
face or opens her lips in a public assembly, and therefore
the admonitions of Paul are no longer pertinent. There
seems to be no longer any good reason why women may
not do any kind of work in the Church that they are fitted
to do. The time has come of which the apostle s words
were only a prediction: "There can be neither Jew nor
Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be
neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ
Jesus." 1 Whether women will, in any considerable num
bers, undertake the work of the regular ministry may be
doubted. In those communions which have opened the
pastoral office to them they do not seem to be eager to
assume it. But the fields of labor that are opened to them
in connection with the work of the local church are wide
and fruitful. Their influence in its councils everywhere
is pervasive and commanding. They compose about two-
thirds of the membership of our American Protestant
churches and a far larger proportion of the active laborers
in these churches. There is no longer any need to claim
for woman a place of influence and power in the Christian
Church.
The prudential maxims of the Apostle Paul, cautioning
women against bringing scandal upon the Church by a
violent departure from social customs, are not, however,
the only Biblical references to woman in connection with
the work of the Church. In the Jewish dispensation
prophetesses were recognized, and among the Christians
the active service of women is often mentioned with
praise.
l Gal. iii. 28.
WOMAN S WORK IN THE CHURCH 291
"Our Lord found among women the most ardent and
faithful disciples, and the most efficient in ministering to
His wants. The Son of God, in becoming Incarnate, was
born of a woman. Thus was conferred upon womanhood
the highest honor and a transcendent glory. She whom
all men should call blessed, she who was so highly
favored, is properly the type of what woman in Christ
should seek to become. No privilege could In- greater
than to belong to that sex, upon which the mother of our
Lord conferred such distinction. Observe the confidence
our Lord reposed in women and the fidelity of their minis
trations. The names of the Marys and others are as
imperishable as those of the Apostles. As often remarked,
holy women were last at the Cross and first at the sepul
chre on Easter morning. Holy women were part of the
Church which waited for the promise of the Father, the
coming of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. 1 The gifts of
the Spirit descended upon women, and not upon men only.
They equally shared in the Church s Baptism and Eucha-
ristic Feast. They were ministered unto, and themselves
fulfilled a ministry. It was the widows of the Hellenic
portion of the church at Jerusalem that gave occasion to
the appointment of the Seven Deacons. 2 And that there
were deaconesses in the Apostolic Church is scarcely more
doubtful than that there were deacons. St. Paul says,
writing to the Romans, I commend unto you Phebe, our
sister, which is a servant (Greek, a deaconess) of the
church which is at Cenchrea. 3 She was evidently a per
son of much consideration. St. Paul recommends her at
greater length than any others: that ye receive her in the
Lord as become th saints, and that ye assist her in whatso
ever business she hath need of you, for she hath been a
snccourer of many and of me also. In St. Paul s iirst
Epistle to Timothy 4 a literal translation of the Greek would
seem to show, and in this agree the best ancient and
modern interpreters that where we read of the wives of
deacons, the meaning is really female deacons. Even so
1 Acts i. 14. - Acts vi. 1.
3 Rom. xvi. 1. 4 1 Tim. iii. 11.
202 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
must the women deaconesses le grave, not slanderers,
sol>er, faithful in all things."" 1
Precisely what were the official functions of these women
named l>y Paul is not so clear. His counsels against the
public teaching of women are not inconsistent with the
supposition that women may have been employed by the
Church in the quiet ministries of charity. But in addition
to those who may have been officially related to the
Church, quite a number of others are mentioned about
whom no such suggestion is made, and whose efficient
service in the work of the Church is recorded with high
approval. Dorcas was a woman well beloved in the com
munity where she lived, "for the good works and alms
deeds that she did ; " 2 Priscilla, 3 the wife of Aquila, seems
to have had equal part with her husband in training for
his ministry the eloquent A polios, ranking thus among
the earliest of the instructors in divinity; there was a
Mary 4 in Rome, who as Paul testifies, bestowed much
labor on him ; " Tryphena and Tryphosa who labor in the
Lord," and "the beloved Persis who labored much in the
Lord," 5 are also gratefully remembered by him; Euodias
and Syntyche, who appear to have been zealous workers,
receive a message from him, and there is also a general
reference, in the letter to the Philippians, to " those women
who labored with me in the gospel." 6 Nor should it be
forgotten that the first Christian church in Europe was
gathered by a woman who opened her house (after the
Lord had opened her heart) to Paul and his companions
on their first visit to Philippi." None of these appear to
have been deaconesses or official women; but they were
bearing their part, evidently an important part, in the work
of the Church. In spite of the unfavorable social condi
tions, the Church found employment for its devout women.
It would appear from Paul s testimony that the unofficial
women those whose service was voluntary had quite
1 The lit. Rev. Johu F. Spaulding in The Best Mode of Working a Parish,
p. 187-189.
2 Acts ix. 26. s Acts xviii. 24-27. * Rom. xvi. 6.
6 Rom. xvi. 10. 6 Phil. iv. 2, 3. ^ Acts xvi. 11-15.
WOMAN S WORK IN THE CHURCH 203
as much to do with the life of the Apostolic Church as
those who were supposed to have belonged to an order of
the ministry.
In the post-Apostolic Church the existence of an order
of deaconesses is unquestioned. The names of many of
them are mentioned by the early fathers, and their duties
are defined in the primitive legislation. They assisted
the deacons in ministrations to the poor, and acted as
ushers for their own sex in public assemblies. Women
and girls who were candidates for baptism were instructed
by them in the baptismal answers, and robed by them in
white for the solemn sacrament. The a<j(ipac, or love-
feasts, were also provided by the deaconesses. In the
times of persecution it was part of their duty to visit the
women prisoners, and to show hospitality to fugitives of
their own sex. At iirst they were ordained to office pre
cisely as men were ordained, by prayer and the laying on
of hands; but later, the tactual imposition was reserved
for the male clergy, and the deaconesses were conse
crated by prayer alone. Up to the fourth century, only
those could thus be set apart who were either maidens, or
widows who had been married but once, and they must be
at least sixty years of age; after the council of Chalcedon
the age was fixed at forty. This order of Church servants
lingered in the Latin Church through the sixth centurv,
and in the Greek until the twelfth. The name is still
given in the Roman Church to the women in monasteries
who have the care of the altar.
Although the order of deaconesses has disappeared
from the Church of Rome, the work to which the name
was once given has had a beautiful development. The
order known in France as the "Daughters of Charity/
and in most English-speaking countries as the "Gray
Sisters or the "Sisters of Charity," but whose official
designation is "The Daughters of Christian Love," is one
of the most notable and illustrious fruits of the Christian
spirit in modern times. The order was founded in Paris
in 1U17 by St. Vincent de Paul and Madame Louise
Morillac le Gras. It began with a little group of fifteen
294 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
women who were associated for the purpose of visiting
and caring for the sick. Original!}" they seem to have
been connected with a parish, and many of them were
married women; but the work rapidly spread to other
parishes and cities, and the need of some organization
of the work became apparent. The good woman who was
St. Vincent s coadjutor in the beginning was left a widow
in 1625, and she at once signified her purpose of devoting
her life to this work. Her duty to her family held her
back, however, from undertaking the care of contagious
cases, and the founder discovered that none but unmarried
women or childless widows could render the service re
quired. In 1633 the order was established by the Arch
bishop of Paris ; and in 1668 it was officially acknowledged
and endorsed by Pope Clement IX. The rule of the order
has not been changed from the beginning; there seems to
be no provision for amending it, nor has there appeared
any serious need of amendment. The vows are not per
petual; a five-years probation is required before the vow
can be taken, but it is annually renewed. The constitu
tion appoints a superior for every congregation, to be
elected triennially by the members : she may be re-elected
once, but no oftener. She is aided in the administration
by an assistant, a treasurer, and a dispensiere or steward.
The superior of the congregation is under the authority of
the superior general of the order; the sisters of the con
gregation are pledged to obey their superior. Their rule
requires them to rise daily at four o clock ; to pray twice a
day; to live abstemiously; never to take wine except
when they are ill; never to refuse to nurse the sick, even
in the most loathsome and dangerous cases; never to
stand in awe of death; always to remember that in nurs
ing the sick they are nursing Christ, whose servants
they are. They are to have no intimacies or special friend
ships; one sister is not allowed to kiss another, except
as a sign of reconciliation, and the manner of this rite is
prescribed. They are warned against feeling greater in
terest in one patient than in another: their service must
be, like the sunshine and the rain of heaven, an equal
WOMAN S WORK IN THE CHUKCH 295
bounty to the agreeable and the disagreeable, the just and
the unjust.
Before the death of St. Vincent the order which he
founded had spread through many lands ; it now numbers
many thousands ; the messengers whom it has sent forth
are found in every city in Christendom, and on every
battlefield ; and wherever the dark wings of the pestilence
are spread, there are they, ministering in Christ s name.
Before the spectacle which they present, ancient bigotry
and religious rancor often stand dumb or open their
mouths with praise and blessing; it is a hopeless blind
ness of soul which refuses to recognize the mind of Christ
in the work of the Sisters of Charity.
In some of the Protestant churches serious attempts
have been made to revive the ancient order of deaconesses,
which, in the growth of monasticism, disappeared from the
life of the Church. Speaking of the Episcopal churches,
Bishop Spaulding says:
The attempted restoration of this Order in the reformed
Catholic Church is more than justified. Indeed, this is
the imperative duty of every branch of the Church which
claims the Bible as interpreted by the Church in the past
ages as its rule of faith and practice. And the success
of every effort in this direction is only what might be
expected. The inference cannot be set aside, that it is
the will of Christ that His Church should be served by
the ministry of Deaconesses or Sisters, as well as of
Deacons and other Orders. And now that the work
which the Church is called to do is pressed upon us, and
we are working up to a sense of its magnitude and of the
need of more laborers, and the faithful arc everywhere
searching for the best instrumentalities and methods, by
the study of Holy Scripture and the example of the primi
tive ages of Faith and of most successful labor, there can
hardly be a doubt that we shall soon have the primitive
Diaconate revived and restored among us ; we shall have
Deaconesses under this or some other name, as that of
Sisters, successfully laboring in every Parish, in the schools
of the Church, and in hospitals, homes and asylums, for
296 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
all classes of the afflicted. We shall have teaching Dea
conesses or Sisters for our Parish schools, which will by
and by be seen to be necessary, not for a salary, but with
the assurance of the Church s support and care through
life. We shall have Deaconesses or Sisters regularly
employed in winning to Christ both men and women,
and imparting primary instruction and ministering to the
sick and needy under the care and maintenance of the
Church. The sanction given to this office and work of
women in the Church of England, and by the General
Convention of the American Church, is one of the most
hopeful of the signs of the times. It gives us hope that
the thorough working out of a principle of the Gospel so
generally recognized, cannot be long delayed." 1
The canons of the Protestant Episcopal church in the
United States now make full provision for the employment
of deaconesses. Any bishop of the church is authorized
to appoint to the office unmarried women of devout char
acter and proved fitness. The candidate must be at least
twenty-five years of age and must present to the bishop
testimonials showing that she has spent at least two years
in preparation for the work, and that she possesses such
characteristics as would fit her for the service contem
plated. The duty of a deaconess, in the words of the
canon, is " to assist the minister in the care of the poor
and the sick, the religious training of the young and
others, and the work of moral reformation." It is also
provided that 110 woman shall accept work in a diocese
without the written permission of the bishop, nor in a
parish without like authority from the rector. The vows
of these deaconesses are not perpetual ; they may at any
time resign the office to the bishop of the diocese ; but
they may not resume the office thus laid down, unless, in
the judgment of the bishop receiving the resignation,
" there be weighty cause for such reappointment." The
canon also provides that no woman shall exercise this
office until she has been set apart by an appropriate reli
gious service the form of which is left to the discretion
1 The ttest Mode of Wnrkiiifj <i Paris/,, pp. 191, 192.
WOMAN S WORK IN THE CHURCH 297
of the bishop. In some dioceses the solemnity is similar
to that of the early Church, involving not only pnryer but
the laying on of hands. These deaconesses serve as assist
ants in parishes, as teachers of kindergartens, as Bible
readers, as workers in missions and hospitals, and as visit
ors and nurses among the poor and the sick. In some of
the larger parishes several are employed, and the revival
of this ancient order of servants of the Chuivh is meeting
with much favor.
The Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States
has also entered this field and is cultivating it with much
enthusiasm. The Woman s Home Missionary Sorietv of
this church has under its care eighteen " homes," in differ
ent parts of the country, to which more than one hundred
trained deaconesses are attached ; and there are three or
four such homes, under independent boards of manage
ment, employing a considerable number of women. The
principal training school is at Washington. It would
appear that the chief work of the deaconesses in this church
is that generally known as city mission work. The head
of the training school thus describes it:
Take the work of the deaconess; what is her employ
ment? She visits from house to house where the masses
are, by whom the church so sadly and so wrongly is re
garded as a social club, which has no interest in them nor
to them. She opens industrial schools for the ignorant
and helpless ones for whom the word home has no associa
tions and who have never experienced the joy and blessed
ness of the family. She gathers the children of the
foreigners into kindergartens, where, along the avenues of
the eye, the ear, the touch, mercy and grace shall find
their way to the heart and mind. She enters the dwellings
of the poor and sick where suffering is unmitigated by
the soft hand of love. She comforts and befriends the
victims of the vices and sins of men. She consoles and
counsels the deserted and bereaved. She searches out tin-
widow and orphan and aids them with her sympathy and
charity. She brightens with her presence the cots ot the
hospital wards and directs the asylums for the orphan and
298 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
the aged. She soothes the last hours of the dying with
helpful messages from the Holy Word."
It would appear from the reports that most of the
deaconess homes connected with this church are of the
nature of settlements or city mission stations, and that the
deaconesses having their headquarters in these homes are
engaged, somewhat independently, in the prosecution of
such evangelistic and philanthropic work as is described
above. There are occasional references to co-operation
with pastors, but for the most part it is the "Deaconess
Home " and not the church which is regarded as the centre
of the work.
In some of the other American Protestant churches the
name of deaconess is given to women whose service among
their own sex corresponds to that of the Congregational
deacons ; they are members of the church, chosen to have
a certain oversight of its charitable work ; the care of the
poor and the sick is committed to them, but they have
received no special training for the work, nor do they de
vote their lives to it. The meaning of the term as thus
employed is set forth by a Congregational pastor in the
following paragraphs :
" No workers in a church can do more to increase its
usefulness than a band of properly qualified deaconesses.
Shall they be elected as other officers? or shall they be
selected by the pastor as his especial helpers in pastoral
work ? The writer of this paper prefers the latter method.
The pastor selects such a number and such persons as the
circumstances of the church make expedient. The whole
parish is divided into districts. Each district has a dea
coness whose duty it is to keep watch over all the persons
in that district. If any need the pastor she informs him ;
if any are liable to be neglected, she asks others to call
and extend friendly courtesies ; if any are poor, and need
assistance, they are reported to the proper officers ; if any
strangers come into her district, she takes care that they
are invited to attend church. These are what may be
called the social and temporal duties of the deaconesses.
Then follow the spiritual duties. They keep watch over all
WOMAN S WORK IN THE CHURCH 209
their district, and if any need especial care they go to them,
and either help them or direct them to the proper ones to
give help. They visit young converts ; they talk with the
unconverted, they look after the sick, and if need be pray
with them ; they act for the pastor in all possible ways.
They have a monthly or weekly meeting with the pastor,
at which the results of their calling and various observa
tions are reported, and they give to him usually the most
reliable information he obtains concerning the condition
of the parish. Where the proper women are secured for
this work, no people in the parish are likely to be neg
lected. All are called upon, and the pastor is kept in
formed as he could not be if dependent on his own
resources alone.
" The women chosen for this service should never be of
the goody goody kind, and seldom past middle age.
They should be selected for their social position and social
gifts, as well as for their spirituality. Sociability, social
position, intelligence, and spirituality are essential to the
successful deaconess. These qualifications are far more
likely to be secured when the pastor carefully chooses his
helpers than when they are selected by vote of the
church." l
The Church of Scotland has undertaken to restore the
order of deaconesses. In the report for 1895 of the Com
mittee on Christian Life and Work is the following
statement :
"Oui Church, following the Scriptures and the example
of the early Christians, has found a name and place in her
ranks for women of culture and refinement \vho wish to
devote their whole time and skill to the service of the Lord
Jesus Christ in His Church. Having this ideal, the order
of the Diaconate is one that is certain to attract to itself
many ardent and sympathetic natures who are longing to
give themselves entirely to work among the needy and
troubled and suffering, and who are not prevented from
doing so by family ties and duties or by other circum
stances. We know how the poor and friendless in their
1 The Rev. A. II. Bradford in 1 nrislt PrMoim, pp. 285, l>Sfi.
300 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
distress turn naturally to the parish church and minister as
their home and counsellor; and in the more crowded
centres of population, and even in rural districts, where
the conditions under which the out-workers and farm
workers toil are unfavorable to virtue, it is of immense
consequence to have the help of a thoroughly trained and
well-educated and devoted Christian lady." 1
Some of the women thus set apart for service are at
work in foreign mission fields, some in connection with
city missions, but the most of them are in the employ of
large city churches, working under the direction of the
church session. A Deaconess House has been established,
in which a thorough training is given to those who wish
to devote their lives to this work. A recent report of the
Deaconess Superintendent thus sets forth the purpose of
the institution :
u The object of the Home is twofold : 1st, that of receiv
ing women, who, coming to it with pure and holy motives,
are able to make Christian work the chief object of their
life. These, after fulfilling the condition laid down by
the Assembly, namely, that of having been trained for
two years in the Home (or of having been known as active
workers elsewhere for seven years), may, if they desire it,
be set apart as Deaconesses. If they remain in the Home,
they will then be expected to go to any part of Scotland
where they may be required, and to work there under the
minister and kirk- session of the parish. Some may wish
to be Deaconesses living not in the Institution, but in
their own homes, and these will be set apart by the kirk-
session of their own parishes with consent of their pres
bytery. 2d, that of receiving as residents for instruction
and training in various methods of Christian work ladies
who, while they do not wish to be Deaconesses, desire
to be competent Christian workers. Experience indeed
teaches at home, but it is often with many blunders and
much loss of time and usefulness, whereas if methods
which have been tried and proved are learned, they can be
carried away and adapted in the smaller particulars to
local requirements." 2
1 Page 577. 2 Year-Book for 1890, p. 34.
WOMANS WORK IN THH CHTKCH
The instruction in this institution includes classes in
Scriptural knowledge and the art of teaching, courses of
Bible readings by neighboring ministers, lectures on mis
sions to the heathen, on the qualifications of church work
ers, on sick-room cookery and the care of the sick, on
literature for church workers, on the district visitor as an
evangelist, and various similar lines of training.
The deaconesses thus prepared are set apart by a solemn
service, prescribed by the General Assembly. A sermon
is preached on the occasion and the following questions art-
proposed to the candidate :
"1. Do you desire to be set apart as a Deaconess, and as
such to serve the Lord Jesus Christ in the Church, which
is His body ?
" Ans. I do.
" 2. Do you promise, as a Deaconess of the Church of
Scotland, to work in connection with that Church, subject
to its courts, and in particular to the Kirk-Session of the
parish in which you are to work?
" Ans. I do.
" 3. Do you humbly engage, in the strength and grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master, faithfully
and prayerfully to discharge the duties of this office?
t. A us. I do." l
After silent prayer by the congregation, and a consecrat
ing prayer by the minister, the candidate is declared to be
a deaconess of the Church of Scotland. It will be seen
that the Church esteems the restoration of this ancient
order of the ministry as no light thing, and invests it with
dignity and honor.
The close connection of these Scotch deaconesses with
the work of the local church is emphasized in all their
training. They nre not independent laborers, nor is there
any organization to which they belong which prosecutes
its work upon lines of its own choosing ; they are strictly
subordinate to the ecclesiastical authorities. They are to
be helpers of the church, sharers in its ministry, messengers
of its goodwill. They are to furnish a channel of cora-
1 The Place and Power of Woman, p. 11.
302 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND AVORKING CHURCH
munication between the church and the needy poor to
whom it is sent with help and consolation. In this respect
their work is probably wiser and more effective than that
of certain orders in this country whose relation to the
church is but slight, whose ministry is not known in the
community as representing the church, and whose service
has little if any tendency to draw the poor into the fellow
ship of the church.
The effective beginning of this modern movement toward
the enlistment of women as oi ficial servants of the church
may be traced to a little town on the banks of the Rhine,
where, in 1830, Pastor Fliedner, of the Lutheran Church,
opened his little parish hospital and called for help in min
istering to the sick. This was the first training school for
nurses in modern times. A picture in the little gate-house
of the parsonage-garden where Fliedner began his work
bears the inscription : " The kingdom of heaven is like to
a grain of mustard-seed.* The Scripture has been abun
dantly fulfilled. The grain of mustard seed has not merely
become a tree, it has multiplied to many trees ; the birds of
the air on many shores are lodging in the branches thereof.
When Pastor Fliedner assumed charge of the little
parish of KaisersAverth in 1822, destitution had overtaken
the community through the failure of a velvet manufactory
in which nearly all his small flock had earned their liveli
hood. His people were starving, and he was compelled to
go forth into Holland and England to collect funds for
their relief. His observations in those countries quickened
his philanthropic impulses, and he came home with a pur
pose to do something for the relief of his fellow-men. The
first call came from the Prison Society of Diisseldorf, six
miles distant, in a proposition to provide an asylum for
discharged female prisoners, where they could be sheltered
and trained for usefulness. It was a great undertaking
for a parish with such narrow means, but the brave pastor,
whose wife most heartily supported him, opened a summer-
house in his garden, and bade the prisoners welcome.
Shortly after, a house was hired for the asylum, and the
summer-house was used for a knitting-school for poor
WOMAN S WORK IN THE CHURCH 303
children, which soon took on some of the characteristics of
a kindergarten. It was a curious combination of philan
thropies, but resolute hearts were in the work and it greatly
prospered. Many prisoners were reformed and little
children were made happy and wise under the tuition of
the faithful pastor and his wife.
And now another human need appealed to them. There
were many sick, and a hospital was demanded. One house
only in Kaiserswerth was available for such a purpose; its
price, in American money, was sixteen hundred dollars;
the penniless pastor bought it, and before the year was
gone paid for it also. Two friends, single women, volun
teered to be the nurses in this hospital: Oct. 13, 1830, the
maidens took possession of the house; they had for furni
ture a table, a few chairs with half-broken backs, a small
set of crippled knives and forks, and a heterogeneous collec
tion of rickety bedsteads. Thus, u with great gladness and
thanksgiving," began the Deaconess House at Kaiserswerth.
To-day the little hamlet is one of the centres of the philan
thropic work of the world. Besides the principal hospital,
now containing two hundred and twenty beds, there is a
hospital for disabled deaconesses, a Magdalen home, a large
kindergarten, a training-school for teachers, an orphanage,
a holiday house for retired deaconesses, an old ladies home,
and a great many shops and buildings in which the indus
trial work of the mission is carried on. This is the seed-
plot. But how wide has been the planting. To all parts
of the world the work has spread. Fliedner was called to
other countries to establish branches of his hospital train
ing-schools, and the women who have been fitted for ser
vice in Kaiserswerth have found their way into many
lands.
With two of his deaconesses, Fliedner came early to a
German church in Philadelphia. Others have followed,
and Kaiserswerth now has six branch training-schools in
the Lutheran churches of the United States. In Jerusa
lem, in Constantinople, in Alexandria, Beirut, Smyrna
and many other places the indefatigable founder built
hospitals, boarding schools and orphanages. Since Kaisers-
304 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
werth was instituted, ten thousand four hundred deacon
esses have been ordained in the German Protestant Church,
and they are found to-day at work in three thousand
six hundred and forty different places.
The course in the training school at Kaiserswerth covers
three years. There are two classes one for nurses, the
other for teachers. In certain rudiments of service all are
trained. Every one must know how to do general house
work to cook, to wash and iron, to sew, for these
homely services may be required of any deaconess. After
these primary lessons the course divides, and those who
are to become nurses are specially trained in the hospital
while the teaching sisters receive the instruction that fits
them for their work. All these sisters also are set apart
to their work by a solemn service of consecration. 1
1 The form of consecration as used at Dresden is as follows :
"LlTURGIE BEI ElNSEGNUNG VON DlAKONISSEX. LlED. ANSPRACHE.
"Nach der Ansprache legen die Eiuzusegnenden ihr Gelobniss in die
Hand des Geistlicheii ab.
" P. Kniet nieder und bittet um den Segen. Die Eiuzusegnenden beten :
Gott sei uns gniidig und barmherzig, und gebe uns seineu gottlichen Segeu !
Er lasse iibcr uns sein Antlitz leuchteu, dass wir auf Erden erkennen seine
Wege. Es segue uus Gott, unser Gott, und geb uns semen Friedeu. Amen.
" P. Es segne euch der dreieiuige Gott, Gott der Vater, Sohn, uud heiliger
Geist.
" Schw. Amen.
" P. Friede sei mit Schw. N. N.
" Schw. Friede sei mit ihr.
" P. Er sende ihr Hilfe vom Heiligthum.
" Schw. Und starke sie aus Zion.
" P. Der Herr unser Gott sei ihr freundlich uud fordre das Werk ihre
Haude bei uns.
" Schw. Ja, das Werk ihre Ilande wolle er fordern.
" P. Amen ! In Jesu Namen.
" Schw. Amen.
" Hierauf giebt der Geistliche jeder der Scliwestern eiuen Gedenkspruch und
betet iiber ihuen : Ewiger Gott, Vater misers Herr Jesu Christi, du Schiipfer
des Mamies und des Weibes, der du Mirjarn und Debora und Hauna und
llulda mit dem heiligen Geiste erfiillt und es nicht versclimaht hast, deinen
eingebornen Sohn von einem Weibe geboren werden zu lassen; der du auch
in der Hiitte des Zeugnisses und im Tempel Wachterinnen deiner heiligeu
Pforten envahlen hast; siehe doch nun auf diese Magde, die (dir) zum
Dienst verordnet werden, und gieb ihnen deinen werthen heiligen Geist,
und reinige sie von aller Beneckung des Fleisches uud Geistes, auf dass sie
wurdiglich vollstrecken das ihnen aufgetragne Werk zu deiner Ehre und zum
WOMAN S WOUK IN THK CHUHCH 305
The Kaiserswerth deaconesses are assigned to their
work by the parent institution ; they are always under
marching orders, and they receive no remuneration from
those who employ them. Hospitals which accept their
services as nurses pay the mother-house " at Kaisers
werth, or the branch house from which they go forth, a
small annual sum ; the dressmaking department furnishes
each deaconess with the simple garments needful, and a
small yearly allowance for pocket money. Food and
shelter are furnished them in the hospital or the parish
where the work is done. When they are disabled a home
awaits them in the parent institution.
The vow of the Kaiserswerth deaconess is not perpetual ;
a probation of from six months to three years is required
of each one, and during this period she is constantly
admonished that unless she is assured of her calling it is
better for her to withdraw. When, at length, the pledge
of service is made, it amounts to no more than this, that
she will be obedient to the rules of the association while
she remains in it. and will suffer no entangling alliances
to hinder her in her work. The deaconesses are not shut
off from intercourse with their kindred; considerable
liberty of action is left them. Of course no vow of celi
bacy is required or permitted. A sister cannot marry and
remain in the sisterhood. But she is at liberty to leave
the community at any time, and a subsequent marriage is
no reproach. The vow signifies only this, that while the
sister is a member of the community she must live accord
ing to its rules.
This recent development of the trained activities of
women in the Christian Church possesses great signiii-
cance. As will be seen, it has largely taken place outside
the local congregation. So far as the work of nursing the
sick is concerned, preparation for it must, of course, be
made in connection with hospitals ; and it is in the hos-
Lohe deines Cliristus, mit wclchein dir Khre, mid Anbetun^ mit heiligem
Geist von Ewigkcit zn Ewigkeit. Amen. Vatcr Unscr, etc.
" P. Schlussvotum.
" Schw. Amen! " Quoted in UHi/iot/itctt Sucni, Vol. xxviii., p. . ).
L O
8(Jt) CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
pitals that most of the charitable nursing must be done.
The work of teaching, and visiting the poor and church-
less might, however, be largely done in connection with
the local congregation. It is only as the work of the
deaconess is turned in this direction that it comes strictly
within the view of this treatise. What the deaconess is
trained to do in pastoral work as a helper and leader in
the Christian service of the congregation chiefly con
cerns us. It is evident that the " Lehrschwestern " of the
Kaiserswerth Institution are prepared for such service.
The evident purpose is that they shall bring to the pastors
to whom they report, a reinforcement of strength and skill
by which the church will be enabled to do its work more
efficiently. It is not only by what they themselves will
do, but by what they will stir up other members of the
church to do that the church will be profited. They will
assist in opening communication between the church and
the needy and the neglected round about it, and will
strengthen its hold upon their confidence and affection.
Such, as we have seen, is the design of those who are
foremost in promoting the training of deaconesses in the
Church of Scotland, and in the Protestant Episcopal
Church of the United States. The assistance thus fur
nished to the local church in the prosecution of its proper
mission may be of great value.
In cases where the aim seems to be to establish religious
or philanthropic centres separate from the churches, to do
the work which it is assumed the churches cannot do,
there is some reason for hesitation in our commendation
of it. If deaconess homes are calculated to supersede the
churches, or to afford the churches an excuse for neglect
ing the work which properly belongs to them, their utility
will be doubtful. The church ought to be the centre of
all evangelical and charitable operations : and the multi
plication of agencies which intercept its lines of influence
is to be regretted. The deaconess home ought to be in
every case closely connected with some church : it ought
to be evident to the whole community that its gracious
influences proceed directly from the church ; and its
WOMAN S WORK IN THE CHURCH 307
gospel invitations should draw men into the fellowship of
the church. It is to be hoped that as the movements for
the establishment of this agency, now largely tentative,
are better matured, the connection between the work of
the deaconesses and the work of the parishes will be closer
and more vital.
In most American Protestant churches the work of the
women is well organized. In many churches will be
found an association, variously named, whose function is
parti} social and partly financial. Its work consists in
promoting the fellowship of the church and in increasing
its necessary funds.
.Much can be done by the women of the church to
strengthen the bonds of fellowship. Indeed it may be
said that most of what is done for the promotion of better
acquaintance and the development of fraternal feeling
must be done by them. They have not only the leisure
for this work but the tact and the experience which fit
them for it. If the women of any congregation are so
minded they may establish a condition of things which
will make the pastor s work easy and delightful. If every
new family finds a cordial welcome and a prompt intro
duction to congenial friends; if social opportunities are
so arranged and improved that those who ought to know
one another are brought together pleasantly and fre
quently, a social atmosphere will be created which will be
favorable to the growth and fruitfulness of the church.
On the Women s Society of the church the responsibility
for this work mainly rests.
The financial operations of these societies have attracted
criticism. The various methods employed by them in
raising funds are often censured as undignified and dis
graceful. The suppers, the festivals, the ba/aars and sales
to which they resort are often stigmatized as unworthy
devices for the procurement of the necessary revenues of
the church. It is not improbable that indecorous conduct
may sometimes mar these festivities: the same might be
said of prayer-meetings. If the stale joke of the news
papers were well founded, that the charges made on
308 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
these occasions are exorbitant, that would be good
ground for censure. But the truth is that the good
women usually err in the other direction, giving their
customers more in return for their money than they could
obtain elsewhere. The charge that they interfere with
trade by selling goods below the market price might more
easily be proven against them.
It may be said that any such commercial expedient to
raise the funds for the support of the church is to be con
demned, since the amount necessary ought to be freely
contributed. That this is the ideal method will not be
disputed; but our ideals are not easily realized, and the
friendly enterprises of the women s societies often afford
a substantial assistance to those who have the charge of
building or furnishing churches and of maintaining wor
ship in them. It is, indeed, often possible for good women
to give of their handiwork more value than they could
give in current funds ; and the provision for turning these
offerings into money seems to involve no essential impro
priety. In the olden time, we are told, "all the women
that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, and
brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of
purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen. And all the
women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun goat s
hair. And the rulers brought onyx stones, and stones to
be set, for the ephod, and for the breastplate ; and spices
and oil for the light, and for the anointing oil, and for the
sweet incense. The children of Israel brought a willing
offering unto the Lord, every man and woman, whose
heart made them willing to bring of all manner of work,
which the Lord had commanded to be made by the hand
of Moses." 1 It is not clear that the contributions of handi
work to a modern church bazaar differ essentially from this
ancient donation.
It may sometimes be true that enterprises of this nature
give rise to jealousies and ill-tempers among the partici
pants; any close association of human beings is liable to
result in this way. But, on the other hand, it is quite
1 Ex. xxxv. 25-29.
WOMAN S wonic IN THE CHUIICH 309
possible that the association for such purposes should l>e a
means of grace to those who engage in it. There is no
better place to learn to behave unselfishly and generously,
to consider one another, to prefer one another in honor.
Churches do sometimes make great gains of Christian char
acter in the loving co-operation of these enterprises.
The social advantages of these events are also consider
able. They bring together those who would not otherwise
meet; they enlist all the women of the church in a com
mon enterprise; and if care be taken to make each one
feel that her assistance is valued, the tie that binds the
members to the church and to one another may be greatly
strengthened.
In most churches a Women s Missionary Society will
be found, sometimes both a foreign and a home missionary
society; and many churches, in addition to these, have
room for a Young Women s Missionary Society, and a
Children s Band. Of these missionary organizations we
shall speak in a subsequent chapter: they are mentioned
here in order that attention may be called to the multiplic
ity of women s societies within the church, and to the
need of co-ordinating them. This is the task which has
been undertaken by the Women s Guild of the Church of
Scotland. This (mild is a national organization, but its
purpose is to develop and also to unify the work of the
women in the local parishes. It aims to establish a Branch
Guild in every congregation, and this is not an additional
society, but a consolidation of all the societies. Each of
the different organizations for woman s work is regarded
as a section of this Guild; and one of the aims of its
promoters is to enlist everv woman of the church in the
work of one or more of these sections. In the reports
which the Branch Guilds make to the National Guild,
fourteen different sections are specified, as follows: Visiting
the sick and poor; hospitality to the lowly; entertainment
for the people; mothers meeting workers; workers at
home for missions; members of Dorcas society; fellow-
workers union; mothers union; Sabbath-school teach
ing; magazine and tract distributing; church music;
310 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
temperance society; Bible class; collectors. Each of
these sections, it would seem, should be under the care of
some capable leader or committee ; the work of the Guild
should be to get every woman or girl in the church to
choose some one or more of these kinds of work and report
to the leader of the section. All these sections constitute
the Branch Guild, and the workers meet together from time
to time, to exchange experiences and to report progress.
The rules for the members of the Guild are as follows :
" The members of this Guild are united together with
the view of deepening and strengthening their own religious
life and of promoting good works ; and they resolve
" 1.. To give service to the Lord Jesus Christ as workers
in his Church, or as receiving guidance and instruction
with a view to work in future.
" 2. To meet together at such times as may be agreed
upon.
" 3. To read a portion of Scripture and pray in private
every day, and to go to church as regularly as possible.
" 4. In private prayer to pray often for the furtherance
and success of the work undertaken by the Church of
Christ, especially by the Church of Scotland.
"5. To pray for other members of the Guild on Sunday
morning, and on that day also to pray for a blessing on
all the good works done in this parish, on the parish min
ister, and on all the workers." 1
The little Handbook from which these rules are copied
gives also under the title "What is the Woman s Guild?"
a clear statement of the purposes of the organization :
"1. It is not a Young Woman s Guild. It is therefore,
even in this respect, not parallel with the Girls Friendly
Society and the Young Women s Christian Association.
It is an attempt to band together all the women in a con
gregation, so that they may be helpful to each other. It
proposes to make all workers acquainted with each other,
and with each other s work, and through this acquaintance,
and the sympathy resulting from it, to strengthen their
hands and increase their power to work.
1 Handbook, p. 4.
WOMAN S WORK IN THE CHURCH 311
"2. It is a union within the Church. The Christian
Church has lost much by so many of its meniters going
outside of it for companionship in work, and for Christian
fellowship. This scheme by no means proposes that mem
bers of the Church of Scotland shall not be members of
their non-ecclesiastical societies, but it reminds them that
they have a primary duty within their own church. The
Guild can reach, and ought to reach, every adherent of
every congregation, so that, for example, domestic ser
vants and young women in shops, if they be sitters in a
church, shall have associates, advisers, and guides of their
own sex in the congregation to which they belong. This
is a part of the communion to which all are solemnly
pledged at the Lord s table. As it is through working
together that people come to know each other best, the
Guild is
" 8. A Union of Workers. It has been found that poor
and rich rejoice when it is put in their power to do some
thing; and rich and poor can be allied in working for mis
sions in connection with the congregation, or in some of
the many branches of congregational activity. A union
for work in Christ s cause ought surely to be a part of
congregational life.
"4. It is a union whose members may do good to others.
The ultimate question is not " What will the Guild do for
me? but What will the Guild enable me to do for
others?
" Therefore we may sum up by saying, -
"1. A branch of the Woman s Guild in any parish or
congregation ought to be a union of all women, old and
young, who are engaged in the service of Christ in con
nection with the Church, or who desire to give help to any
practical Christian work in the parish, as well as all who
are receiving Christian teaching , and looking forward to
Christian service.
" 2. Each member should take part in at least one of
the sections of the parish work, as for example, the
Dorcas Society, the Tract Distributors, the Mission Work-
Party, the Sabbath-school Teachers, the Choir; and those
312 CH1USTIAN PASTOK AND WORKING CHURCH
sections should be entered on one roll of the Guild. One
great object of the Guild is to make every worker acquainted
with all that the others are doing, so that joint meetings,
at which the work is reported on and encouraged, may be
attended by all. At those meetings all who are interested
in the work are welcome ; and they soon choose the work
with which they specially desire to be connected. Those
who are but beginning, or who wish to begin, and those
lately come as strangers, are also welcomed ; for thus they
put themselves under good influences." 1
Of these Branch Guilds there were reported, in the year
1895, no less than 337, with a membership of 24,924, and
a sum of 4,372 had been raised by these branches for
church purposes during that year. It is clear that the
ancient Church of Scotland has here discovered a most
valuable agency. For the development and co-ordination
of the activities of its women, the Guild furnishes an
admirable plan. Its suggestion may well be adopted by
many other Protestant churches. The scheme would need
to be modified to suit the conditions of some of our
American churches, but the method is clearly applicable
everywhere. It is not essential that a national or denomi
national organization for this purpose should be formed:
each congregation could unite its own agencies after this
manner without connecting itself with other congregations
similarly organized. The union of the Branch Guilds in a
national or denominational association would, no doubt,
add something of enthusiasm to the movement; but on the
other hand it would call for another annual convention;
and in America the plague of the conventions is becoming
nearly as formidable as the plague of the frogs was in
ancient Egypt. If, indeed, the numerous denominational
societies of women could be consolidated in one Woman s
Guild for each denomination, so that one annual meeting
might serve the purposes of all, that would be a con
summation on which many devout wishes could well be
expended. The Free Church of Scotland and the United
Presbyterian Church have also large guilds.
1 Handbook, p. 1-3.
CHAPTER XIV
THE YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN
IT is barely half a century since the young people of < un-
American Protestant churches first began to be organized
for Christian work. Nineteen centuries ago the promise
was recalled of a day when the Spirit should be poured
from on high upon the whole Church, and when the young
men should see visions 1 presumably visions of work to
be done, for these are the visions which the Spirit most
often vouchsafes. The apostle John, in his old age, wrote
to young men because they were strong; 2 his purpose must
have been to enlist their strength in the service of the
Church. By those who reflected that the apostolic band
were probably all young men, it might have been conjec
tured that what has been termed u the young-man-power "
could be used with great effect in the work of the Church.
But this hint was tardily taken by most of the organi/ed
ecclesiasticisms, and but little provision was made for tin-
co-operation of the young men and women in Christian
work.
In Germany, after the Napoleonic wars, when the people
in the bitterness of their poverty began to turn to God,
and when that great deepening of spiritual experience took
place out of which have grown so many of the best fruits
of modern German civilization, there sprang up in many
parishes ChristlirJic Jiinglingsrcreinc Christian Young
Men s Associations. These were generally groups of
young men, belonging to some parish, who came together
for prayer, for Bible study, and for mutual help in the
Christian life. Doubtless we may find in these associa
tions some reverberations of Fichte s epoch-making book,
1 Acts ii. 17. - 1 John ii. 14.
314 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
The Way to the Blessed Life. These German Vereine were
not, however, widely influential ; the enlistment of the
young in Christian activity was barely begun in them.
In 1844 the first Youiiff Men s Christian Association
o
was organized in London by George Williams, lately
knighted by the Queen in recognition of this great service
to religion. The association from the beginning was
undenominational; the young men met first for prayer
and Bible study; soon the reading room, the library, and
courses of popular lectures became a necessity, and the
Young Men s Christian Association developed into a sanc
tified club, offering an inexpensive and safe resort to the
homeless, and providing social opportunities for the young
men who were united in Christian work. The gymnasium,
the amusement room, the bowling alley, the swimming
bath, and many appliances for physical culture are now
generally furnished to members. Educational classes in
great variety are also offered at merely nominal cost;
courses of lectures are provided for the winter evenings
and employment bureaux assist the workless to find occu
pation. The strictly religious work of the association has
been less emphasized of late than the social and educational
features; but special religious services for young men are
held every week ; Bible classes are taught, and groups of
young men go forth from the association rooms to perform
evangelistic and charitable work in the community.
The development of this arm of the church has been
phenomenal; between five and six thousand associations
now exist, distributed over the known world.
The Young Women s Christian Associations have had
a later and much less extensive development; they under
take to perform for young women a service similar to that
which the other associations perform for young men.
Both these institutions, however, do their work outside
the lines of the local congregation. They depend upon
the churches for their support, and they are, to some
extent, feeders of the churches; but they are not under
parish control, and no organization connected with them
takes any part in parish work. They furnish a splendid
THE YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN 315
illustration of what can IK; accomplished by the conse
crated energies of young men and women ; Init they do not
help to solve the prohlem of the local ehureli, save as they
perform some portion of the work whieli the church would
otherwise be required to undertake. If, for example, a
well-equipped building of the Young Men s Christian
Association stands in ch.se proximity to smnc down-town
church, it is manifest that this church may be released
from undertaking the kind of work for the young men of
the neighborhood which might, in the absence of the asso
ciation, be expected of it. The reading room, the educa
tional classes, the pleasant Sunday afternoon service, are
all furnished by the association, and it would be poor
economy and worse comity for the church to duplicate
them. To some extent, therefore, these associations do
relieve those churches which are their neighbors from their
responsibilities. In another way, also, the life of the
parish is affected by the existence of these institutions.
The work of the Young Men s Christian Association must
be done bv the young men who are members of the
churches; and the pastor will regard this as one of the
fields in which his force is employed, and will gladlv sur
render such of his young men as may be needed to this
important work. It is one of the cases in which the
Church, for Christ s sake, loses its life that it may keep it
unto life eternal.
But there are other organizations of young people which
are vitally connected with the local congregation and do
the chief part of their work within it. and for its benefit.
For the past thirty years in America organizations of the
young people have existed in many churches, the purpose
of which was the cultivation of the religious life of their
members and the improvement of their minds, as well as
the provision of wholesome social recreation for them.
But a great impetus was given to the movement when, in
iNSl, a young Congregational pastor of Portland, Maine,
called his young men and women together and submitted
to them the constitution of a Young People s Society of
Christian Endeavor. This constitution, substantially as
310 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
then submitted, has been adopted by more than twenty-
five thousand societies in all parts of the world, represent
ing at least thirty different denominations, and including
more than two and a half million members. To this must
be added the Epworth League of the Methodist Episcopal
Churches, with eighteen thousand chapters and nearly a
million members, and the Baptist Young People s Union,
with a large membership. These last-named organizations
are offshoots of the Society of Christian Endeavor. Such
a growth, in sixteen years, is perhaps unparalleled in the
annals of evangelical Christianity.
The young people, after long obscurity, have thus sud
denly blazed forth like the lightning from one end of the
heaven to the other ; they are very much in evidence ; the
air resounds with their marching cries, and the streets are
gay with their badges and banners. Yet this is not a
centralized organization. There is a "United Society of
Christian Endeavor," consisting of one trustee from each of
several religious denominations, but it is only a bureau
of information. There is no central authority or board
of control. The great Christian Endeavor conventions
attempt no legislation ; they are simply religious meetings.
Every local society is independent; its membership is
drawn from its own congregation, and it is subject to the
control of the authorities of that congregation. In the
words of its founder : " The Society of Christian Endeavor
is a purely religious organization, though there may be
social features, literary features, and musical features con
nected with it. In fact, the society is meant to do any
thing that the Church wishes to have it do. The scope of
its energies is almost limitless. It may relieve the desti
tute, visit the sick, furnish flowers for the pulpit, replenish
the missionary treasuries, build up the Sunday-school,
awaken an interest in the temperance cause, preach a
White Cross crusade. The inspiration for all these manj-
fold forms of service comes from the weekly prayer-meet
ing, which is always a vital matter in a Christian Endeavor
Society. The prayer-meeting pledge, while no uniformity
of language is insisted upon, binds the young disciple to
THE YOUNG MKN AM) \VO.MKN 317
daily private devotions, to loyal support of his own church,
and to attendance and participation in the weekly prayer-
meeting, unless prevented by a re-.ison which he can con
scientiously give to his Master. This, perhaps, is the most
vital and important thing in the society. It has rejuve
nated and revived the young people s prayer-meeting 1 in
* i. i/ O
all parts of the world and has poured new life into the
other services of the Church. The monthly consecration
meeting, at which the roll is called and the members
answer to their names, is also a very serious and important
meeting, and shows who are faithful to their covenant
vows."
As an illustration of the breadth of the field occupied by
this society, the following paragraph may be cited: "One
society kept the church alive for months while its pastor
was sick; another has given two hundred dollars a year to
foreign missions, and supports a girl in Syria; another has
sent two foreign missionaries; another has two young men
studying for the ministry; another has sent two mission
aries to Africa: another is educating a Japanese girl;
another has organized thirteen other Christian Endeavor
Societies in eighteen months; another, in Bombay, supports
twelve missionary enterprises in that citv; another, in
Mexico, has fourteen members studying for the ministry;
another sent one hundred and fourteen sacks of Hour to
the Russians; another has built a new church and helped
erect a school for colored girls; another has bought a
horse fora home missionary; another sent members to sing
and pray at the poorhouse every week ; another supports
three native preachers in China. .Japan, and India; another
is runninsr iive Sabbath-schools, and has starved a saloon-
O
keeper to death; another reports thirty conversions in one
year; another is lighting race-track gambling; another
sends iifty periodicals a week to missionaries in the West;
another has live young women employed as city mission
aries; another has established two branch Sunday-schools;
another runs a fresh-air home." l
This may seem to indicate that the society travels far
1 Triuin jtlta of tin CVoss, p. ;WJ.
318 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
beyond the boundaries of the parish, but if it does so, it is
only because the lield of the Church is the world, and the
society is helping the Church to occupy its field. And it
ought to be strongly affirmed that in the conception of
those who have had most to do with the leadership of the
movement, the entire subordination of the local society to
the church with which it is connected has always been
kept in view. The pastor and the church officers are
ex oj/icio members of the society, and their counsel and
approval must be sought in any work undertaken by the
society. It is not improbable that these groups of young
people sometimes become rash and headstrong, and that
they occasionally manifest some lack of respect for the
authorities of the church, and some disposition to carry on
their work without much regard for the wishes of the
older members; but when this spirit takes possession of
them they are departing from the counsels of their leaders
and from the spirit and the letter of their own constitution.
The impulse which has been given to the religious
activity of the young people of the churches by this organi
zation is one of the notable events of recent histor} r . It
is not too much to say that the rise of the Society of
Christian Endeavor has made even skeptics see that it is
hazardous to count Christianity among the spent forces of
modern civilization. Certainly there is no lack of youth
ful vigor and consecrated purpose in the Church of Christ
to-day. There is power here with which a prodigious
amount of work can be done if it is only wisely directed.
It is a great thing to have made this truth clear to the
apprehension of believers and unbelievers. In the days
when men are talking about the decadence of faith, here
is a demonstration of religious enthusiasm scarcely paral
leled since the Crusades.
All that is needed is that this enthusiasm be husbanded
and rightly guided. These young people know their
power ; they must be shown how to use it. The problem
now is to find for them the right things to do, things
which they can do ; and to let them see that they are pro
ducing results. Hitherto they have lacked definite pur-
THE YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN 319
poses. Some of the societies, as we have seen, have found
work to do, and have rejoiced in the things accomplished;
but with many of them success lias consisted in holding
meetings, in getting a large number to take part in the
meetings, in increasing the number of members and in
holding enthusiastic conventions. And it must lie admitted
that a strung tendency to the spectacular has been devel
oped. There are many members of these societies to
whom the holding of a great convention seems the greatest
thing in the world. The fact that meetings and conven
tions are only devices for the generation of j tower, and
that they are woi-se than useless unless the power there
gem-rated is employed in producing some useful changes
in the lives of men and in the social order, is a fact not
so fully impressed as it ought to l>e upon the minds of
many of these zealous young disciples. It is evident that
those who have the movement in charge have felt the
force of these considerations, and that they have been
casting about them for methods of utilizing the force they
have evoked. This will be their most dilHcult problem.
The suggestion has been heard that the moral power of
the Endeavor movement be turned toward the work of
municipal reform. Here is a great field, and the young
people might cultivate it with excellent results, if their
efforts could be well directed. But it is plain that they
ought not to undertake any political campaigning; and
that any efforts of theirs in the direction of law enforce
ment would be injudicious. What they can do is to pre
pare themselves by thorough study of municipal problems
to act intelligently when the leadership shall fall into their
hands. The older young men might join the Good Gov
ernment Clubs and the Municipal Leagues, and the socie
ties might form themselves into associations for the
investigation of civic problems and civic conditions. To
study, patiently and thoroughly, the methods of doing the
public business; to make themselves thoroughly familiar
with the details of the administration of the municipality
in which they live; to cultivate the habit of careful judi
cial examination into such affairs, so that they miirht be
320 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
conscious of having a well-formed opinion upon public
questions this would be a most useful exercise for these
young men and women. The one thing needful in all our
communities is sound and strong public opinion ; and the
presence in the community of a large body of intelligent
young men and women who had taken pains to obtain
accurate information upon municipal questions would
powerfully tend to create such a public opinion. Many
persons might object to their meddling with municipal
government; but nobody can object to their learning all
they can about the existing methods of government, and
telling what they know, provided they always talk
temperately.
There is also a vast work of political education to be
done for the foreign-born populations of the American cities.
It is a mistake to regard all these people as vicious and
depraved; many of them are capable of unselfish action,
but most of them are wofully ignorant of the first prin
ciples of civil government, and all of them are in danger
of being led astray by demagogues. To the tender
mercies of the most unscrupulous politicians Americans
are in the habit of consigning them ; if they vote unwisely
who can blame them? The presence in all our popula
tions of a vast mass of such ignorant voters imposes a
heavy responsibility on all good citizens. In some way
these people must be reached and instructed. The politi
cal education of these multitudes is a duty only less
pressing than their spiritual evangelization. And it can
be done only by going among them, and establishing friendly
relations with them and winning their confidence. It will
require a vast amount of hand-to-hand work in the slums
of the cities. The Good Government Clubs are organized
to do this very work, and the Good Government Clubs
ought to get from the young men of the Christian Endeavor
societies large reinforcements of trustworthy and steadfast
workers.
The enlistment of the Endeavor societies in mission
work, at home and abroad, is a proposition which involves
fewer difficulties. There is no reason why these young
THK VOl NC; MKN AND WOMEN 321
people, under the direction of their pastors and the officers
of their churches, should not do efficient work in estab
lishing and maintaining Sunday-schools, and sewing-
schools, and kindergartens, and coffee-houses, and all
manner of instrumentalities for the enlightenment and
evangelization of the needy of their own community. If
their hearts are on tire with the purpose to serve, they will
find leaders and counsellors. And there is ample room
for all their energy in the great mission enterprises by
which the Church seeks to carry the gospel to the far-off
lands. All that is needed to kindle the missionary enthu
siasm of these young people to a white heat is to acquaint
them with the facts. Let them see what the work is and
what the encouragements are and they will give to the
cause a full measure of devotion.
To these wide lields outside the parishes to which they
belong their thoughts may well be directed; but after all
there is much work waiting for them within the precincts
of these parishes of which the}- should not be suffered to
lose sight. In the Sunday-schools, the Mid-week Services,
the Boys Brigades, the Girls Guilds, the Flower Com
mittees, the singing services, the missionary and charitable
work of the church, there is a great deal of work to be
done, and the young people of the Endeavor societies
ought to be made to feel that it is for them a point of
honor to see to it that no vacancy lie permitted to exist in
any of these forms of service. The commission of the
risen Lord required the disciples to preach his gospel
among all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.^ This is
where we must always begin at home. The church
whose home work is thoroughly done can send out a more
efficient band of laborers to the fields outside.
The day will come perhaps it has already risen when
the interest of these young people will be more surely
maintained by getting them employed in some definite
work, and making them see that they are succeeding in
it, than by some of the methods now chiefly relied on.
The pledge is not amiss; the thing which it promises is
1 Luke xxiv. 4".
21
322 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
not unreasonable, and no faithful young disciple needs to
shrink from making the promise ; but the official surveil
lance of the members, to see whether or not they are keep
ing the pledge, and to call them to account if they do not
keep it, is of doubtful wisdom. The kind of fidelity
which is produced by this device will not prove to be the
highest. The motive to which these methods appeal is far
from being the noblest. The society would better depend
for its success upon the enthusiasm for some good work
which it can inspire in its members, than upon the disci
pline which it can exercise over them. It is failing, to
day, to secure the co-operation of a large number of the
best and strongest young people in our churches, of
those whose intelligence and conscientiousness it greatly
needs, because it insists on these mild forms of cen
sorship.
Doubtless, if these methods prove to be unwise, they
will, in time, be modified. And there is every reason to
hope that this great movement of the young people will
go forward with increasing power, and that all the
churches of all the lands will be vitalized by its influence.
The subject is one which the wise pastor needs to study
carefully, that he may know how to keep alive this gener
ous enthusiasm, and how to direct it so that it shall
accomplish for the church and through the church the
greatest amount of good.
In the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United
States the impulse to consecrated activity has taken form
in the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. The society is now
about thirteen years of age, and it reports about fourteen
hundred chapters, representing as many local parishes.
The purpose of the Brotherhood is set forth in its consti
tution :
" The sole object of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew is
the spread of Christ s Kingdom among young men, and to
this end every man desiring to become a member thereof
must pledge himself to obey the rules of the Brotherhood
so long as he shall be a member. These rules are two:
The rule of Prayer and the rule of Service. The rule of
THI-: YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN 323
Prayer is to pray daily for the spread of Christ s Kingdom
among- young men and for God s blessing upon the labors
of the Brotherhood. The rule of Service is to make an
earnest effort each week to bring at least one young man
within hearing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as set forth
in the services of the church and in young men s Bible
classes. Any organization of young men, in any parish,
mission, or educational institution of the Protestant Epis
copal Church, effected under this name, and with the
approval of the rector or minister in charge, for this object,
and whose members so pledge themselves, is entitled to
become a Chapter of the Brotherhood, and, as such, to
representation in its conventions unless such approval be
withdrawn. No man shall l>c an active member of a
Chapter who is not baptized, and no member shall be
elected presiding oih cer or delegate to the convention who
is not also a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal
Church."
This Brotherhood has already taken a large place in
the life of the Episcopal Church in America. Its conven
tions bring together a large number of vigorous young
men, and these meetings have been full of fervor and
resolute purpose. We lind here the same; spirit that ani
mates the legions of Christian Endeavor, and although
the numbers are comparatively small, the intelligence and
force of the assemblies are of a high order. It is remark
able, indeed, to witness the large variety of characters in
these conventions. A recent newspaper report gives a
graphic picture of the constituency of one of them:
"The convention included men engaged in almost every
honest occupation. Some of them could have designed a
house and drawn plans for it; others could have built it,
painted it, or furnished it. There were men in every
line of skilled labor needed to build a railroad track,
bridges, rolling-stock, and all; and others who could have
manned and managed the road, from brakeman to president.
There were men who as lawyers could try cases, and others
who as judges could decide them. There were men who
could edit a paper or write a book; several reporters;
324 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
others who could set the type, feed the press, make the
paper stock, or turn patterns for the machinery. There
were enough farmers to make quite a village ; teachers and
students enough to start several schools and colleges;
doctors enough for a hospital ; and as many clergymen as
there are in the diocese of Virginia. Some of the men
could design a piece of cloth, others could weave it, and
others could make the garment. There were men who
could survey a field and others who could plough it.
There were men who could build ships and men who could
sail them; men who could build engines and men who
could run them ; men who could manage a business, keep
the books, buy goods or sell them ; men who spend most
of their time on the road as salesmen, and men who sit in
offices and keep the travellers busy. There were coach
men, telegraphers, artists, postmen, plumbers, mill-workers,
barbers, blacksmiths, miners, scientists and merchants in
almost every line of business. They all stood together as
citizens of one Kingdom."
One striking feature of these conventions is the " Quiet
Day " with which they begin. The delegates assemble at
their place of meeting the day before the business of the
convention is opened, and spend the whole day together,
for the greater part in silence, receiving together the
Communion in the morning; reading the Bible and devo
tional books ; joining in the Litany ; but devoting most of
the time to meditation and silent prayer. "Just before
the close," says one, "we were asked to repeat or read
aloud any texts peculiarly dear to each one or especially
applicable to the day. How quickly they came, those
blessed words, so full of joy, encouragement and hope!
The men s voices, as they read, now from one part of the
church, now from another, indicated how deep were the
impressions the quiet communion of the day had made.
It closed, outwardly, with evening prayer at half-past
four, but who can tell when it really closed?"
If, as seems evident, the spirit of the St. Andrew s
Brotherhood finds expression in services of this nature, we
may readily credit the statement of a leading journal of
THE YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN 325
the Church, that it is "by far the most important of all
the voluntary agencies organized to serve the Church and
to extend the Kingdom." It will be seen that this
Brotherhood, like the Society of Christian Kndeavor,
proposes to devote all its energies to the work of strength
ening the local church. It puts its forces under the
leadership of the rector of the church, and seeks to co
operate with him. Its first and most constant aim is to
bring young men under the influence of the Church. It
is a recruiting agency, sending out its trained helpers to do
the work of gospel ministration for the church to which
they belong. It seeks to express the hospitality of the
church to all who approach its threshold; it undertakes
mission services, under the rector s guidance, but its main
business is bringing people to church. To make the
acquaintance of young men who are not church-goers, to
gain their confidence, and then to give them a cordial invi
tation to attend public worship this is the simple service
in which these Brothers of St. Andrew are most frequently
engaged. The first work of St. Andrew the Apostle (John
i. 40-42) is that to which they give their best energies.
How effective such service may be, when a huge body of
manly young men heartily engage in it, many pastors of
this church have had occasion to learn.
The St. Andrew s Brotherhood is confined in its mem
bership to the Protestant Episcopal Church; but its spirit
is not sectarian, and one of the three prayers printed on
the membership card is a prayer for the unity of the
Church.
There is a similar society the Brotherhood of Andrew
and Philip, which is interdenominational, and chapters
of which are found in various Protestant churches in
America.
In some of these churches Young Men s Leagues have
been formed with the special design of improving the
Sunday evening services. Co-operating with the pastor,
they arrange for the enlargement of the choir, the prepa
ration of good music, and the printing and distribution
of the order of service, with hymns and responsive read-
326 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
ings ; and they constitute themselves a committee of invi
tation to bring into the house of worship those who would
not otherwise attend. In these and many other ways the
newly awakened zeal of the Christian young men of
America finds expression in the life of the churches.
On the other side of the ocean one of the significant
movements for the development of the religious life of the
young appears in the Guilds which have been formed in
several of the Protestant churches. Of these the Church
of Scotland presents one of the most perfect examples, and
a somewhat careful account of this organization will be
instructive. It is a national organization, conterminous
with the Church of Scotland, and under the charge of the
General Assembly s Committee on Christian Life and
Work. In the language of its official manifesto, "the
Guild aims at having in every parish a union of young
men, either in the form of a society or a Bible class, which
will be a centre toward which young men may be attracted,
and which will exert a healthy Christian influence upon
all who connect themselves with it. It desires to have all
these different societies united into one large Union or
Guild, through the existence of which individual societies
may be strengthened, new societies formed, combined
efforts made for the welfare of young men, and a system
of communication provided whereby members leaving one
district for another may be introduced into another asso
ciation similar to that which they have left."
Great liberty is therefore left to the local organization.
Any congregation may associate its young men by anv
method which it prefers ; any local organization which has
for its object " to serve the Lord Jesus Christ by promot
ing the spiritual and intellectual life of young men, and
by encouraging them to undertake works of Christian
usefulness," may be represented in the National Guild.
The Parent Society furnishes to each Branch which wishes
to be affiliated, a schedule for the return of particulars
respecting its name and form and the kind of work it is
doing. The local Branches are supposed, also, to be
divided into several sections, each of which is engaged in
THE YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN 327
some kind of work, and the return provides for the speci
fication of the number enlisted in the work of each section,
naming, in the example now in view, the Fellowship
Section, the Literary Section, the Bible Class Section, the
Sabbath School Association Section, the Psalmody Section,
the White Cross Section, the Athletic Section, the Tem
perance Section. This return is to be signed by the
Secretary of the Branch and countersigned by the parish
minister, who thus becomes responsible for the accuracy of
the return. The tabulated returns show a wide variety of
Christian work among the young men of the Scottish
congregations.
There is an annual meeting of the National Guild, in
which each Branch Guild maybe represented; and local
Councils have also been organized, in which neighboring
Guilds come together for mutual assistance and encourage
ment. The Central Committee of Management and Refer
ence is constituted in part by the Assembly s Committee
on Christian Life and Work, in part by the representatives
of the local Councils, and in part by election at the annual
meeting. The Guild has now been in existence for sixteen
years, and it reports 670 Branches, representing every
Presbytery, with a total membership of about 25,000. So
far as it is possible to judge from the representations on
paper, this is an admirable scheme for developing the
interest of the young men of the congregations and unit
ing them in active Christian work. It will be seen that
this Society, like the Christian Endeavor Society and the
St. Andrew s Brotherhood, concentrates its interest upon
the local congregation. The Young Men s Guild of the
Church of Scotland is supporting one Foreign Mission in
India; with this exception its energies are devoted to
strengthening the work of the home churches. The mem-
1)0 rs meet and consult in the national union and in the
provincial councils chiefly as to the methods which they
may employ in making broader and more fruitful the work
of the individual churches to which they belong. The
Branch Guild thus becomes in every parish an organized
pastor s assistant; it ought to be possible for him to use it
328 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
with great effect in prosecuting the entire work of which
he has the oversight.
A system of Daily Bible Readings is also prepared and
furnished to all members, by which they are encouraged
and aided in the regular private reading of the Bible and
in intercessory prayer for one another, and an almanac,
combining with these Bible Readings a goodly number of
well-chosen devotional excerpts for each month, in prose
and verse, is furnished for threepence.
One of the most interesting features connected with this
work is a series of prize examinations and essay competi
tions, in which the Young Men s Guild and the Women s
Guild unite. These examinations are conducted in two
departments, one of Biblical Study and one of Literature ;
and text books are provided for the preliminary studies.
In each of the departments the examinations are arranged
under three grades ; the highest candidate in the highest
grade receives a gold medal with a money prize of <5; in
the second grade a silver medal with a money prize of the
same value ; in the first grade a bronze medal with a money
prize of <3. Those who stand second and third in the
three grades receive prizes of a little less value.
In each of these grades the subject for Biblical study
prescribed for 1895 included nine chapters in the Acts of
the Apostles, beginning with the eighth; and portions of
one of three books, The Old Testament and its Contents,
Landmarks of Church History, and a handbook on Our
Lord s Teaching. The questions set for the examination
of that year in all the grades of each department are printed
in the Report of the Committee on Christian Life and
Work, with the comments of the examiners. In the
examinations last reported, which were held at 87 different
centres, 563 candidates competed, of whom 238 were
young men and 325 young women; of these 512 took the
Biblical examination and 51 the Literary examination.
Prizes were awarded to 98 contestants and certificates to
314. The names of all who obtained testimonials of any
sort are printed in the report. The efficiency of this
method of stimulating the study of the Bible and of good
literature must be evident.
THE YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN 329
111 the Free Church of Scotland, the Committee on the
Welfare of the Youth has been carrying on for a still
longer period this system of instruction, and examinations
are held in several hundreds of centres, while the number
of registered candidates for examination runs up into the
thousands. The subjects of examination, as named in a
late report, have been the Lives of St. Paul, David,
Moses, and Solomon; the Hooks of Zechariah, Kings, St.
Mark, St. Luke, and the Acts of the Apostles; the Taber
nacle; the Story of the New Testament; the Confession
of Faith; the Larger, Shorter, Constitutional and Free
Church Catechisms; Scottish Church History; the Sacra
ments; Horm Fni liint ; Whately s Erii^ncc.^ and the
I ili/t itti ti Progress. " Xothing." said the Committee, "had
been more encouraging than the assurances received from
many parents that they never saw so much enthusiasm in
their homes as this scheme had awakened over Bible and
ecclesiastical studies." It is doubtful whether any meas
ures for the Christian education of the youth have ever
been undertaken by any American church, which are
worthy to be compared with those which have been suc
cessfully prosecuted by the two great Presbyterian churches
of Scotland.
Not only in the Free Church of Scotland, hut also in
others of the Reformed churches of Great Britain, the
Guilds have come to be an important factor of the life of
the Church. Thus the movement among the voung people
of America, which has so largely taken an undenomina
tional form, has gone forward on the other side of the sea
mainly under denominational guidance. The Society of
Christian Endeavor has, however, a considerable member
ship in England.
The Methodist Epworth League and the Young People s
Baptist Union of America more closely resemble the Scot
tish Guilds. The organization of the latter is more com
pact and the guidance is more positive and authoritative;
but the strong influence in behalf of Christian unitv which
the Endeavor Society exerts, is necessarilv wauling. The
Scottish Guilds are not, however, hostile to interdeiiomi-
330 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHU11CH
national fellowship, and the ninth article of the Constitu
tion of the Church of Scotland Guild provides that " while
the Union proposes primarily to foster the life of the
young men of the Church of Scotland, it shall, in all cases,
be open to those belonging to other churches ; and when
ever, from special circumstances, an undenominational
association is found to be more desirable, it may be put in
correspondence with the Church of Scotland Union."
Reference was made in the early part of the chapter to
certain beginnings of organized Christian work among
young men in Germany. Of recent years, this work has
been greatly developed. At the present time about a
thousand " Unions " of Christian young men exist in
Germany. They are not called "Christian Associations,"
nor do they follow altogether the lines of work taken up
by the organizations which bear this name, but they are
probably well adapted to the conditions of the young men
of Germany. The organization of such a Union is gen
erally undertaken by the pastor of the church, and he is
apt to be its leader and presiding officer. Sometimes two
or three evenings of each week are given to the work, and
a membership fee of from six to twelve cents a month is
required. The under limit of age is generally eighteen.
Intellectual, social, and religious culture are the objects
which these young men set before themselves. Bible
study with the pastor as teacher is common ; meetings for
the discussion of religious questions are often held. The
provision of suitable rooms in which homeless young men
may spend their Sundays and their leisure is one of their
enterprises. Organized work among soldiers, and pris
oners, and certain classes of working men is undertaken by
most of these Unions.
An organization of young men as deacons or brothers,
corresponding, to some extent, with the Kaisers werth
work among women, has also been formed in Germany.
" Brother Houses " have been established in many towns
and cities, the inmates of which are enlisted in charitable
and Christian work. The candidate for admission to one
of these homes must be between twenty and thirty years
THE YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN 331
of age, in sound health, unmarried, and not intending
marriage. A thorough course of training is prescribed,
which usually occupies three years. Agriculture, horti
culture, the management of cattle and various kinds of
handicraft are taught. Vocal music is made a leading
feature of the instruction. No vow is assumed; continu
ance in the work is entirely voluntary. The work of these
"Brothers" is done among the poor children who are
gathered into schools and houses of refuge; in Orphan
Houses, and hospitals for the sick and the unfortunate; in
houses of correction, in prisons, and especially in those
Arbeitercolonien, or temporary homes which the German
government provides for the unemployed. Nearly thirty
institutions of this character are now enumerated, the
heads of which, in nearly all cases, are pastors. A Con
ference of these Brother Houses and Seminaries meets
statedly for discussion and comparison of experiences. 1
1 Christian Life, in Germany, by E. F. Williams, pp. 252-259.
CHAPTER XV
THE PASTOR AND THE CHILDKEN
THE Sunday-school is the instrumentality employed by
the modern Protestant church for the training of its chil
dren. Though originally intended for the ragged urchins
of the streets, it has been gradually transformed into an
agency which the church employs for the instruction of
the young who belong to its own communion. Mission
schools still perpetuate the type of Robert Raikes, but
when we speak of Sunday-schools in America we usually
think of the children of our own families, gathered on
Sunday morning or Sunday afternoon in the sanctuaries
where their fathers and mothers worship, to be taught the
rudiments of religious truth and to be guided into the way
of life. When the Sunday-school is what it ought to be,
it may seem that no other agency for this purpose should
be needed by the church. The multiplication of organiza
tions which practically cover the same ground ought to be
avoided. In view of the multiform activities of the modern
church, the need of organization is evident enough, but
there may easily be too much of a good thing; and of
nothing is this more probably true than of the tendency to
organization. Many societies are organized to death,
There are so many wheels within wheels, and there is such
a complicated machinery that power enough to keep it all
moving is not easily generated.
It is at least an open question whether some of the
organizations which have taken up the work belonging
to the Sunday-school are not superfluous. The Young
People s Societies, now so powerful a factor in the life of
the Church, have sought to extend their methods to the
children: and we have Junior Endeavor Societies and
THK PASTOR AND THK CHILDREN 333
Junior Epworth Leagues, and Boys Branches in the Young
Men s Christian Associations, and Boys Departments in
the Great Brotherhoods, and various such associations of
children within the Church. Doubtless much faithful work
is done in these departments and no little good accom
plished ; but might it not be better, on the whole, if this
work were concentrated upon the Sunday-school, in
increasing its efficiency, and in developing the different
lines of its work? Can we conceive of a better or more
lasting influence upon boys and girls than that which is
exerted by the faithful Sunday-school teacher? Is there
any better kind of association than that which naturally
grows out of a well-shepherded Sunday-school class? The
boys and girls under fifteen years of age are not old
enough to be employed in any evangelistic work; and the
wisdom of calling on them for public utterance is greatly
to be questioned. Instruction they need, and free conver
sation with judicious friends on the themes of religion
should not be denied them ; but services of public speech
in which they are expected to have the chief part are of
doubtful usefulness. Besides, these boys and girls ought
to spend most of their time at home ; and the number of
outside engagements for them should be sparingly in
creased. They are busy with their school duties, and
their out-door sports ought not to be curtailed; too many
social obligations are not good for them. With the deep
est gratitude to those who seek the welfare of our boys
and girls through these junior societies, we may fairly
question whether there is not danger in carrying work of
this kind too far.
Another consideration lends weight to those already
suggested. There ought to be a closer bond in most of
our churches between the pastor and the children, and
therefore the pastor ought to have frequent and regular
opportunities of meeting them for purposes of instruction.
The Junior Societies cannot do the pastor s work. They
ought not, therefore, to take the time which the pastor
could mi in- profitably use. If the children s time is apt to
be crowded, it is better that the hours which they may
334 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
profitably give to church instruction, outside the Sunday-
school, should be occupied by the pastor. That many
pastors do not seek this opportunity, and have never valued
it, is true ; nevertheless, the obligation rests on all pastors,
and careful reflection upon what is involved in it would
be salutary for most of them.
In some of the Protestant churches the " Children s
Hour" has become an institution. In this exercise the
pastor meets the children regularly sometimes once a
week, immediately after the dismissal of the Friday after
noon session of the public school, and leads them in acts
of public worship, giving them some incidental instruction.
The nature of this service has, however, generally been
emotional and hortatory rather than didactic ; the children
have been entertained by lively songs and interesting
stories more than they have been instructed. Such a
meeting, which keeps the pastor in touch witli the children,
may be very useful ; but it does not quite answer the
demand that the pastor shall be, in a special sense, the
teacher of the children committed to his care. The Great
Teacher, in his last commission to the chief of the apostles,
laid it upon him, as the test of his affection and loyalty,
that he should feed the lambs of the flock. 1 The lambs
were mentioned before the sheep. The true shepherd s
first care must be for the lambs. He must not only help
to fold them, he must feed them. Is not this duty sadly
neglected by most Protestant pastors in this day of grace ?
Some of us, whose best days are past, must look back with
keen regret upon the years behind us, because we have so
imperfectly kept this part of our charge. It is true that
the single pastor of a large Protestant church finds him
self heavily burdened. To prepare two weekly sermons,
and arrange for the mid-week service ; to supervise all the
organizations which his parish comprises ; to visit the sick
and the strangers ; to respond to the numerous calls for
charitable and public service, is more than any man can
do ; but would it not have been better for some of us if
we had sacrificed so me of these other interests or de-
1 John xxi. 15.
THE PASTOR AND THE CHILDREN 335
voted to them a smaller portion of our time and care in
order that we might have found more hours for the
children of our churches?
The canons of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the
United States require that the rector shall meet the children
of his parish at least once a month for catechetical instruc
tion ; but the pastors of most of our Protestant churches
are under no such rule, and it is probable that the large pro
portion of them have no regular methods of meeting and
teaching the children. But it must be acknowledged that
the difficulties in the way of performing this duty arc many
and serious. Not to speak of the preoccupation of the
pastor with other interests and labors, the disinclination
of the children to attend such services, and the unwilling
ness of the parents to co-operate with the pastor in securing
their attendance must also be taken into the account.
Many a faithful pastor who has desired to gather the chil
dren of his church about him for instruction, and who has
besought the parents to aid him in this endeavor, has been
disheartened to find that but a handful out of the whole
number responded to his call. It must be admitted that
comparatively few parents have any adequate sense of the
importance to their children of such instruction, and so
long as this is the case, the opportunity of the pastor will be
greatly limited. In this fact there is, however, all the more
reason why he should throw himself into the enterprise with
all the strength he possesses, that the indifference of the
parents may be overcome, and the sentiment of the home
made more favorable to the undertaking.
The work of catechizing the children is no novelty in
the Christian Church. From the earliest years the candi
dates for baptism were prepared by careful instruction, and
the office of the catechist was recognized as one of great
importance.
"We accordingly see particular Catechists make their
appearance so early as the second half of the second cen
tury, while the Missa catechumenorum becomes constantly
more and more sharply separated from the Missa fidelium.
From the Const it utiones Apostolicae, composed in great
836 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
part during the second half of the third century, we become
acquainted with the main substance of that instruction, as
well as the earliest precepts concerning its duration and
conduct. While the duration of the catechumenate varied
in different lands, we see, from the time of the third cen
tury, the catechumens themselves divided into three dif
ferent classes. The first, that of the hearers (Audientes),
who in the public service might only attend the reading of
the Scripture and the preaching of the word. The second,
that of the kneeling ones (Genu flectentes), who might in
this posture attend at the prayers which were offered on
their behalf. Finally, that of the candidates for baptism
(Competentes), who were already waiting to receive that
baptism for which they were now adjudged fit. In the
instruction of these classes a regular ascent was observed,
by virtue of which much remained concealed from the
beginners, which was communicated to those farther ad
vanced. Only when the disciplina arcani was unveiled
for them, was also that which is necessary communicated
to them with regard to the Creeds, the Lord s Prayer, the
Church Prayers of believers, and the Sacraments : not in
writing, but in order that they might preserve them upon
the tables of their hearts." x
It is true that many of these catechumens were adult
persons, converts to Christianity, who needed to be in
structed before they were received into the church ; but
the same instruction was required by baptized children and
young persons when they were prepared for church mem
bership.
"A glance into an ancient catcchumenium, or sacred
schoolroom, will show the nature and aptness and power of
the system proposed. Baptized children, and candidates
for baptism, young or old, if old enough to be instructed,
compose the audience. The instructor corresponds to our
Sabbath-school superintendent, or Bible-class teacher.
Sometimes, however, he is what the ancient Church styled
a deacon, presbyter, or even bishop. Possibly the class is
special, being made up of rustic women and girls of low
1 Van Oosterzee, Practical Theology, p. 454.
THE PASTOR AND THE CHILDREN 337
intelligence, when the teacher is a deaconess. The topics
are the simplest in a course of sacred instruction, varying
and progressive with the attainments of the class. Cle
mens lioinanus, possibly contemporary with the apostles,
in an apocryphal, though very early epistle, is represented
as comparing the Church to a ship. In it he says, the
bishop is the pilot, the presbyters are the mariners, the
deacons are the chief oarsmen, and the eatechists are those
who give information about the voyage, take fare, and
admit passengers. So they prepare the catechumens to
make the voyage of life successfully. Such acatechist was
the great Origen at Alexandria, when only eighteen years
of age. v l
The practice of catechetical instruction, not only for
adult converts but also for children, declined after the
early centuries. The sacramental theories overbore the
catechesis. The minister was a priest and the communica
tion of the sacramental "-race larm-lv displaced the necessity
O O i/ A /
for the more laborious work of teaching and training.
Through all the pre-Reformation period, although there
were many strenuous calls for the restoration of this ser
vice, but little was done. Iut the dawn of the Reforma
tion witnessed a great revival of the work of the catechist.
All the great Reformers recognized its importance ; the
two catechisms of Luther, the Genevan catechism, the
Heidelberg catechism, the catechism of Zurich, and the
Anglican catechism, are landmarks of the Reformation.
O
The Longer and Shorter catechisms of the Westminster
o
Assembly, came later. In this activity of teaching pro
duced by the Reformation the Roman Catholic church also
shared; Erasmus made a great preparation for it in his
Exposition of the Decalogue and the Lord s Prayer; and
the catechisms of Canisius and Bellarmine, and later, those
of Malines and of Trent, furnished material which that
Church has used with all diligence in the subsequent cen
turies. At the present time the fidelity and thoroughness
with which Roman Catholic children are taught by their
pastors the doctrines of their Church utterly put to shame
1 Tht Church and Her Children, by William Harrows, j. 324.
338 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
the negligence of the descendants of the Reformers. It
can no. longer be said that sacramentalism paralyzes the
teaching power of that Church. Roman Catholic children,
as a rule, are far better instructed with respect to the doc
trines of their church than most Protestant children are ;
they know what they believe, and they know why they
believe it ; they can give a reason for the faith that is in them.
It is time that the Reformed Churches, whose system rests
on instruction, had taken up the weapons which have been
thrown away, and had returned to that work of training
the young, without which all their splendid machinery of
parochial and missionary organization will produce little
else but noise.
There are special reasons also, growing out of the intel
lectual conditions of this time, why pastors should take
this charge upon them. It is a time of transition in theo
logical opinion ; the great philosophical conceptions which
underlie the theory of evolution enter into all our theologi
cal thinking and modify many of the statements of doctrine
with which we have become familiar. Perhaps one reason
why the careful instruction of the young has been omitted
is that the ancient catechisms no longer represent the best
thought of the church, and the pastor is not able to see how
he can adjust his teaching to these formularies. Doubtless
his task will be made much heavier by this circumstance.
But there never was a time when the children of our
churches so much needed the instruction of their pastors.
Comparatively few of the laity are competent to guide the
children through the rapids and the shallows of modern
thought. It may even be necessary for the pastor to con
fess, on many points, his own ignorance. But there is
certainly still remaining a body of elementary truths which
can be clearly and cogently taught ; and it is the pastor s
task to select those which are vital and fundamental, and
to fasten them in the minds of the children of his charge.
The fundamental presupposition of the catechetical
teaching is well stated in the words of Van Oosterzee :
" In every human being there is present in principle a
natural gift for the formation of a Christian-religious
THE PASTOR AND THE CHILDREN : .: . .
character. This gift, however, needs calling forth, devel
oping, and guidance, if he is to be trained to become, in
harmony with that for which he was designed, a subject of
the kingdom of God." l How far the work of instructing
the young may have been obstructed by the prevalence of
a theology which denied this presupposition it would be
interesting to inquire. kk Till about a hundred years ago,
says Bishop Huntington, "theology and the pulpit in the
Eastern States insisted aloud that mankind are accursed
absolutely, universally, totally, by reason of the lirst trans
gression. That was believed. I heard it preached through
all my childhood with learning, logic, and as much picto
rial luridness as the preacher s imagination could supply."
To one with such a belief about human nature, what mo
tive could there be to undertake the work of Christian
instruction? A theory of this kind is as fatal to all effort
toward the training of the character of children as is the
baldest sacramentalism. It is not to be disputed that
those holding such theories have done good work in train
ing children, but this was because their piety set at nought
their logic.
" A natural gift for the formation of a Christian charac
ter," but a gift to be called forth, developed, guided; this
is what we see in every child that comes to us for instruc
tion. There is already something of Christ in the nature
of the child. If all tilings were created through Him, and
in Him find their rationale, then He must surely be re
vealed in the heart of a little child. The Christ who is
immanent in the whole of creation is not absent from the
lives of little children. The Christ there enshrined may
be obscured by many inherited tendencies to evil ; it is
for us to discover the divine lineaments and by God s
grace cause that to become clear which now is dim.
What, however, must be least of all overlooked is this,
that, contemplated in the light of the Gospel, this religious
constitution is, after all, a Christian constitution ; one, in
other words, endowed with a natural affinity for the things
of the kingdom of heaven. And so it must be ; for the
1 Practical Theology, p. 407.
340 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
image of God, after which man was created, is primarily
110 other than he, who is himself the radiance of God s
glory, the final aim in the whole natural and moral crea
tion, the great centre, in a word, of the whole divine plan
of the world. This is the profound significance of the
doctrine of the Logos Spermaticos, either hinted at or more
distinctly uttered by Justin Martyr and the Alexandrine
School ; this the truth of the anima naturaliter Christiana^
pleaded by Tertullian with so much warmth. The being
man is in its profoundest depths only the basis for becom
ing Christian : he who becomes not this, becomes not man
in the noblest sense of the word, and can much less remain
so ; for the higher capacity dies out, and he sinks back to the
level of stone, or plant, or animal, which has been trained,
but in no degree humanized, because only the homo Chris-
tianus may be called the true homo. It is folly to seek
the man beyond the Christian, or in principle to place the
man above the Christian ; because this very Christianity,
of definitely divine origin, is at the same time the acme
of manhood.
" Nothing can thus be of greater importance or of more
glorious nature than to lead a soul to Christ, that is, to
the final aim of its life. Such special guidance is, how
ever, actually necessary for every one ; for it is otherwise
in the kingdom of nature from what it is in the kingdom
of grace. The sunflower of itself finds the sun, but the
conducting of the soul to Christ is something more than an
unconscious and unchosen process of nature. The im
planted power is nowhere brought to maturity without
exercise and training ; least of all in the highest domain
of life. No isolated human being can, without the in
fluence of others, attain the main end of life even in things
temporal ; and if man is it may here safely be further
presupposed constituted not merely for occupying a
place in the household, in the state, in society, but also in
the kingdom of heaven, never will he be numbered among
the citizens of the kingdom of God, so long as he has not
found a pedagogue to Christ." a
1 Van Oosterzcc, Practical Theology, p. 468.
THE PASTOR AND THE CHILDREN 341
Such is the ratioimk of the great work to which the pastor
is called when he gathers the children of his church about
him and seeks to lead them into the true and living way.
The place to which he invites them should he a cheerful
place, and all the surroundings should he as attractive as
they can be made. The pastor should have two or three
judicious helpers, to take the names of those present, to
distribute singing books and leaflets, to see that the class
is compactly seated, and that none st niggle away into the
corners of the room, and to assist in the singing.
Let him endeavor, in bis manner, to preserve the. happy
medium between a cold formality and an effusive famil
iarity. The children should not be fro/.en, but on the other
hand thev ought never to lose sight of the truth that they
are in a sacred place on serious business.
As to the basis of the instruction it is not easy to give
advice. The question is settled for Anglicans whose cate
chism is prescribed bv canonical law. and for Presbyteri
ans, to whom the Westminster Shorter Catechism is the
standard, and for Lutherans, and for the Reformed Church,
and perhaps for the .Methodist Episcopal church as well.
Whether these church catechisms are adequate for the
present purpose of the pastor who wishes to impart to his
children the elementary truths of the Gospel of Christ each
must determine for himself. It is at least doubtful
whether some of them can ever be used with success in
the instruction of young children. Other simple manuals
of catechetical instruction may be found ; but it may be
well for the pastor, if the discipline of bis church will per
mit him to do so, to select his own line of teaching and
prepare with care his own outlines. Statements of truth
which he has made his own by study and prayer, be will
be able to communicate more readily than those which be
has learned by rote.
A simple beginning can he made with the Lord s Prayer,
the Apostles Creed, the Beatitudes, and the First Chapter
of the Gospel of John. Hut some definite and compre
hensive condensation of Biblical History will need to fol
low; and the preparation of this will call forth the best
342 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
judgment of the pastor. An example of such a course may
be found in Bishop Dupanloup s lectures on The Ministry
of CatechisiiKj. l Some modification would need to be
made in two or three of his topics, to adapt the course to
the uses of a Protestant teacher; but for the most part it
will be found to answer his purpose remarkably well.
If the pastor is to continue this work, year after year,
it is evident that his teaching must provide for the
advancement of his pupils; and it will be necessary to
separate them into classes. Perhaps the course should not
continue more than two or three years ; when pupils have
passed through it they should be released from attendance,
and some appropriate public service in the church itself
should signalize their accomplishment of this part of their
Christian education.
How often these classes should meet is a question that
each pastor should settle for himself. It would be better
that the lessons should be given only during a portion of
the year, perhaps through the autumn and the winter.
If the lessons could be as frequent as once a week, the
interest would be more easily maintained ; but three classes
a week would tax the pastor s strength, and it might be
difficult to secure the attendance of the pupils. With
respect to all these details the pastor must judge for him
self; only let him not be afraid to make large demands
both upon himself and upon his pupils. If he shall con
stantly assume that it is a great and important business,
for which lesser interests must give way, many difficulties
will disappear.
Any pastor who contemplates this task would do well to
make himself familiar with the volume of Bishop Dupanloup
on The Ministry of Catechising, to which reference has
already been made. Allowance will need to be made for
theological divergencies. Many of the things emphasized
in this instruction will seem trivial to a Protestant pastor,
but the spirit of the book is of the highest. The impor
tance of the work will be borne in upon the mind of the
candid reader and most of the practical suggestions as to
1 Page 284, seq.
THE PASTOR AND THE CHILDREN 343
the conduct of it will commend themselves to his judg
ment. This good and great prelate, who in his earlier life
was the Catechist of the Church of the Madeleine in Paris,
declared that no work of his life had l>een so delightful or
so fruitful as this work with the children. His office as
the children s pastor was more significant and more influ
ential than his office as the Bishop of Orleans. "Si vous
me permettrez ici, messieurs, un souvenir personnel, je vous
dirai, en toute simplicity, c est aux cateehismes (pie je dnis
tout. Pour moi, ah! (pie les enfants qui out e"t<5 mon
premier amour et le premier devouement de ma vie en
soient aussi le dernier." 1 Bishop Dupanloup delights to
recall his great predecessors in the work of teaching the
young; he reminds us that some of the most famous men
of the Church have devoted themselves to this service; he
tells us how Gerson, the great Chancellor of the Univer
sity of Paris, gave the ripest years of his life to the cate
chisms for children in the Church of St. Paul at Lyons,
"and such was his respect for them, and his confidence in
the innocence of their age and the power of their prayers,
that, feeling his last hour to he near, lie desired to have
them all around him, on his death-bed, and asked them to
commend to God His poor servant, Jean ( lei-son; " how
the great Archbishop Bellarrnine of Capua "went into the
different parishes and himself held the catechism for the
children in the presence of the Cures;" how Ignatius
Loyola began the labor of his life as the General of his
order by conducting the catechism in Rome; how Francis
Xavier, and Francois de Sales, and Vincent de Paul and
many others of the most renowned and beloved of Roman
Catholic teachers and prelates had l>een distinguished for
their success as teachers of children.
Bishop Dupanloup lays great stress at the beginning on
the truth that the work of the catechist is not instruction
merely, that it is education ; not simply the impartation of
well-ordered knowledge, but above all the training of
character. Instruction must indeed l>e careful and precise
and thorough. And this, he insists, will require much
1 See The Ministry of Catechising, Book I., Discourse X.
344 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
labor on the part of the catechist. His chapter on this
subject is exceedingly suggestive :
" It is impossible to give a good Catechetical Instruction
without having prepared it with the greatest care. For
my own part, gentlemen, it would be infinitely easier for
me to preach a sermon or a prone without preparation. A
good Catechetical Instruction demands of the most skil
ful, four, five, or six hours of preparation. I have some
times had two or three days of continuous work, sometimes
a whole week, in preparation for certain very difficult or
very special Instructions.
"I shall perhaps astonish you, gentlemen, when I tell
you that I wrote out all the Catechetical Instructions, not
only those which I gave myself, but also those of my col
leagues ; I have them still, written by my own hand, each
of fifteen or twenty pages, and that for four years : all the
Instructions on dogma, on morals, then those on the
Sacraments, and on Sacrifice.
" I wrote out also all my Homilies, all the little sermons
which I used at the Catechism. I ought to add that I did
not say them, nor know them, by heart, except sometimes
the Homilies and sermons on the festivals. I do not pre
tend, gentlemen, to set myself as a model. I only tell you
simply what I did. But what I do maintain is, that if an
Instruction is not properly prepared, it runs a great risk
of being vague, wordy, and wearisome." 1
The Bishop means that he did not use his manuscript in
the class, nor did he commit it to memory, but that he
wrote out the lesson, so that every point might be perfectly
clear in his own mind, and then made himself so familiar
with it that he could speak promptly and clearly on every
point. Other admonitions of his are pertinent :
" I may add that brevity is above all necessary in the
Instructions given to children, for, as Fe ne lon says, their
mind is like a vase with a very small opening, which can
only be filled drop by drop. If the Instruction is to be of
use to them, they must be told a very few things at a time.
Believe me, said S. Francois de Sales to the Bishop of
1 The Ministry of Catechising, pp. 144, 145.
THE PASTOR AND THE CHILDREN 345
Belley, I tell you this from experience, from long expe
rience: the more you say, the less they will retain; the
less you say, the more they will profit; by dint of burden
ing your hearers memory, you break it down, just as
lamps are extinguished if we put too much oil in them,
or as plants are suffocated if we water them too much.
Indifferent preachers are acceptable, provided they are
short, and excellent ones are a burden if they are too
long. We may say the same of Catechists : and for this
reason the Council of Trent, in the decree which binds all
pastors to instruct the people, recommends brevity and
also simplicity of language: Cam brccitate ct facilitate
sermonis.
"In the first place the Instruction ought to be well
divided. This is the important point, gentlemen, if you
would be short, be clear, be interesting, and be sound.
You should begin by recapitulating clearly and briefly the
subject and the divisions of the last Instruction. Then
give out, with the same clearness, and very slowly, the
subject of the new Instruction; then point out very dis
tinctly the divisions into two, three, or four heads, gen
erally in the form of questions; for instance, you are
giving an Instruction on grace, you can give the children
these five questions :
"(1) Can any one be converted and obtain his salvation
without grace?
"(2) Has every one sufficient grace to convert him and
to enable him to obtain salvation?
u (8) With grace, is it easy to be converted and to
obtain salvation?
"(4) Can any one resist grace?
"(5) Is it a very grievous thing to resist grace?
"Questions presented in this way are very much easier
caught by the children, going straight to their understand
ing, than if put in an abstract form: such as, In the first
place, we will speak of the necessity of grace, A;e. ; in tin-
second, of the sufficiency of grace, &c. But in whatever
form you put it, the division must be simple and clear,
and given out so slowly that the children may be able to
346 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
write it out correctly, as from dictation. Otherwise you
put these young intellects to the torture; they wish to
follow you and they cannot; soon they no longer know
where they are, they understand nothing that is said to
them, and in despair they will sometimes even shed tears.
I remember once that one of my colleagues had forgotten
to give out the division of his Instruction ; the children,
who were taking notes, were so disheartened that I saw one
of them dissolved in tears. I immediately let the Catechist
know ; he gave out his division, and as they came to under
stand, their faces lighted up again with joy.
"The Instruction must be perfectly clear both as to
groundwork and in every detail. You will allow me to
remind you, gentlemen, of the precept of Quintilian,
Non ut intelligere possit, sed ne omnino non intelligere non
possit, curandum. 1 It is not only necessary that the
child understands, but that it shall not be possible for him
not to understand. There are three very efficacious ways
of doing this :
"I. Things must be told simply; as they are, not
labored nor exaggerated; one does sometimes exaggerate
with children, but it. is wrong, it only troubles them and
puts a strain on their minds.
"II. Things must be said in their most natural, most
suitable order, nothing brusque or forced, nothing contra
dictory; above all, avoid the confusion of digressive
phrases or parentheses. Nearly all young Catechists are
apt to fall into this fault.
"III. The greater number are unfortunately lavish in
useless words ; they do not know how to cut short a sen
tence, or how to abridge it, and hence we have lengthi-
ness, redundance, and confused expressions." 2
From all this it will be evident that this master cate-
chist does not undervalue the importance of clear and
definite instruction. But, after all, the emphasis of his
lectures rests on the spiritual more than on the intellectual
results. The children are to be skilfully taught, but only
that they may be formed after the mind of Christ and filled
1 Quint, lib. vii. c. ii. 2 Pages 146, 147.
THE PASTOll AND THE CHILDREN 347
with his spirit. And the one supreme qualification of the
catechist is a genuine affection for the children. He must
love them, and they must know it.
" But, you will perhaps ask me how to make them feel
this? Ah, gentlemen, this is something which cannot be
defined. I can only tell you simply this, that when I was
a Catechist 1 made it to be felt. How? I know not.
But we felt it ourselves, we loved these young souls for
God s sake, we tried to love God in them; and God
deigned to bless this devotion of our hearts.
" But it is not a question of myself here. One word of
S. Augustine says it all, and with sovereign authority:
Ama, ct fac quod r/.s. Love, love! and all which you
believe impossible will be easy to you. S. Augustine
says again: Da ainaidciii ct sent it quod dico. In the
work of souls the heart and love are the spirit and the
life: Spiritus ct vita. Da amantem, da sitientem, da csu-
ricntem. Love the precious souls of these children! Be
hungry and thirsty for their happiness, for their eternal
beauty, for their salvation. Then you will understand all
things, and you will make all things to be understood;
for it is the Divine Unction which is love, which teaches
everything: Unctio docct umnia. "" l
Here, beyond all controversy, is the sovereign qualifica
tion of the good shepherd of the children. And this
whole treatise is surcharged with this pure passion. Let
the Protestant pastor sit at the feet of this Catholic bishop
and learn from him to estimate the debt of love that he
owes to the children of his congregation. Bishop Dupanloup
makes much of the idea that the Catechism, by which he
means not the book but the act of catechizing or the class
at work, must have the essential characteristics of a
family. "In a family," he says, "no doubt children are
taught, but still more they are advised, they are exhorted,
they are encouraged, they are blamed, they arc rewarded,
they are loved, and they are made to love goodness. And
all this comes from the spirit of the fa/nil //; that is to say,
on the one hand authority and devotion, with every shade
1 Pages 10, 11.
348 CHRISTIAN PASTOR. AND WORKING CHURCH
and every form of tenderness and zeal; and on the other
respect, docility and confidence with every shade also of
filial love and gratitude." 1 Something like this is what
Catechisms and Catechists ought to he; and when this
spirit pervades all the communications between the pastor
and the children, great results are sure to follow. The
good Bishop records the fact that at his meetings with the
children in the Madeleine, large numbers of their parents
came with them, so that galleries had to be added to the
chapel for their accommodation. Thus the hearts of the
parents were turned to the children and the hearts of
the children to the parents by the faithful ministry of the
pastor of the church. To strengthen the family bond,
now, in so many households, sorely strained by the world-
liness of parents and recklessness of children, no better
measure could be devised than the faithful instruction of
the children of the church by their pastor in the truths of
the Christian religion.
One feature of this exercise of Catechist Dupanloup in
the Madeleine we should find it extremely difficult to
reproduce in many of the American Protestant churches.
He tells us that during the time of his service in that
church, Paris was filled with refugees, patricians and
plebeians, from all countries, all of whom were wont to
gather in his chapel, " poor children, rich and even royal
children; children who, coming to the Catechism, came
out of the most miserable quarters of Paris or from the
most brilliant dwellings of the rich; children, moreover,
whose parents belonged to all the most contrary shades of
political parties which then divided France ; well all
had but one heart and one soul; all these differences, all
these divisions, disappeared; all these children, gathered
together in the Chapel of St. Hyacinthe, filled with the
same thoughts and the same desires, sharing in the same
instructions, the same fetes, preparing together for the
same great action." Of royalties he mentions the young
Queen of Portugal, who came with her mother-in-law, the
Empress of Brazil ; her royal Highness the Princess
1 Page 58.
THE PASTOR AND THK CHILDREN 349
Clementine; the pious Queen Marie Amelie and her
worthy daughter, the Queen of the Belgians; and with
these, boys of high degree who have since Income such
distinguished men as General Foy, M. de Yillele, M.
Casimir-Perier, and M. de Polignac. The kind of equality
which such a case connotes is not easily secured in all the
Protestant churches of democratic commonwealths.
Much is made in these Roman Catholic " Catechisms "
of the devotional exercises, especially of the singing. The
choir is present, to lead the children in hymns adapted to
the service. The length of the sitting will astonish most
Protestant pastors. Not less than two hours, this Cate-
chist testilies, should be given to the lesson. It is not
probable that such a burden as this would be borne by the
children of American Protestants. Nor is it clear that so
much time could be usefully given to the exercise. One
hour would be ample for ordinary lessons. Would that
the kindling enthusiasm of this great prelate for the work
of training the young might be caught by many pastors in
all branches of the Christian church! We may differ with
him widely with respect to many of the doctrines taught,
but in his tender love for children and his burning desire
to lead them early into the ways of life, he is a bright
example to us all.
One, at least, of the Protestant churches, that which
l>ears the name of the Great Reformer, maintains, with
increasing vigor, the catechetical practice. The Smaller
Catechism written by Luther himself is still universally
employed in the instruction of children; the Lutherans are
divided into many schools, and the eonllirts of opinion
among them are intense; but in this they all agree;
Luther s Catechism forms the groundwork of instruction
in all their synods. And the thorough teaching of all the
bapti/ed children is rigidly insisted on. As a rule, it may
l)e said that no one is confirmed in the Lutheran church
until lie has given evidence of careful instruction in the
doctrines of the Catechism. It is supposed that children
ought to pass through a course of weekly lessons, covering
at least two years.
350 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
It is true that not all this work is done by the pastors
of the churches. Many of the Lutheran churches, in
America as well as in Europe, support parochial day-
schools, and in these the catechism or the Bible history is
a daily exercise. Many Lutheran children are thus under
daily religious instruction for several years. The teacher
in such a school must be a qualified catechist. The
opportunities enjoyed by Lutheran children for full relig
ious instruction are thus unexampled among American
Protestants ; the Church of England da} -schools undertake
a similar work. But this drill in the day-school, under
the hired schoolmaster is, after all, a very different thing
from that pastoral care of the children of which we have
been speaking. An excellent thing it is, no doubt; but
it does not answer the highest purpose. The children
instructed in these congregational schools are not brought
into intimate relations with the pastor until just before
the time of confirmation, when he always meets them for
a brief course of instruction, which amounts to a review of
the work they have done in the day-school. Even this is
more than most of our Protestant pastors can boast of;
but it is not the kind of relation described by Bishop
Dupanloup.
Many of the Lutheran churches in America, however,
maintain no parochial schools, and in these the full labor
of catechetical instruction falls on the pastor. And no
small labor it is. For a period of at least two years he
meets the children of his charge as often as once a week,
and often twice a week, requiring them to memorize the
words of the catechism, and taking infinite pains to explain
to them its meaning. A very large percentage of the
children of the congregation attend punctually upon this
instruction; it is a cardinal point of the Lutheran disci
pline. Some small children, who live at too great a dis
tance from the church, receive instruction at home, and
others, whose occupations are such that they cannot
attend the pastor s class, are sometimes excused ; but it is
a point that the pastor does not readily yield; and the
sentiment in Lutheran families is very strong in favor of
THE PASTOR AND THE CHILDREN 351
the maintenance of the catechetical instruction. A vast
amount of labor is thus entailed upon the pastor, but it is
labor which, if rightly performed, Ix ars abundant fruit.
That it may be done in a manner so dry and perfunctory
that it shall be a burden to both teacher and taught is
evident enough ; but if the love to which the good Bishop
Dupanloup ascribes such power be the heart of it all, the
pastor s opportunity of forming the minds and shaping
the characters of the children is one that an angel might
covet.
We are told that a conviction of the value of catechetics
has recently been strengthening in the minds of Lutheran
Christians, and that the practice was never so universal or
so enthusiastically pursued as it is to-day. A few years
ago there was a disposition in some synods to relax this
demand, and to rely more upon the revivalistic methods ;
but that tendency seems to have spent its force, and the
Church, in all its branches, has returned with new ardor to
the work of teaching and training the children, putting its
chief reliance upon this method of propagating the gospel.
So strong is the faith of the Lutherans in the efficacy of
this method, that even their city mission work takes this
form. If a new church enterprise is to be started in a
city, the missionary generally begins by opening a school
and teaching the children.
It is a notable fact that the growth of the Lutheran
church in America, during the last decade, was more rapid
than that of any other Christian body the percentage of
growth was larger. That this is due in part to the large
German and Scandinavian immigration is undoubtedly
true; but it is also due, in large measure, as intelligent
Lutherans believe, to the revived interest in the work of
catechetical instruction of the young.
It must not be inferred that there are no Protestant
pastors in other denominations who are aware of the impor
tance of this duty. Here and there, in all the churches,
are those who give much thought and labor to the children
of their charge. In his little book on Tltc Working
Church, the Rev. Charles F. Thwing, speaking of the
852 CHRISTIAN PASTOU AND WORKING CHURCH
tendency of boys and girls between the ages of ten and
sixteen to drop away from the churches, thus testifies :
" I write out of my own experience when I say that a
special class should be formed of those young Christians,
and that special instruction and guidance should be given
them. This instruction and guidance should be committed
to one most able to give it. This one may be the pastor
or it may not be. If it is not he, he should discover some
other person qualified to perform this duty. I think I may
say he will usually find that it is wise to intrust this labor
to other hands ; and yet these other hands he may think it
well specially to train for this important service. This
instruction should consist of a systematic presentation of
the great truths of Christ. It should be systematic, tak
ing up in order the central doctrines and themes of the
Bible. It should be, it must be, to secure favorable
results, attractive, attractive in the person of the teacher
and attractive in its methods. It should be thorough; for
children will receive and appreciate, be it properly illus
trated, Christian teaching far more profound than is com
monly credited to them. Such a class should meet on
some week-day, after the exercises of the public school,
and should be held each week for certain periods of each
year.
" With the methods and the results of such teaching, I
am already somewhat acquainted. Year by year I have
seen a class of boys and girls grow from a membership of
forty to a membership of three hundred. I have seen
these boys and girls listening intently to the presentation
of the historic facts and truths of the Bible. I have seen
this class made so attractive that scores of children would
run from the public school-room in order to lose no moment
of the short hour. I have seen this interest aroused and
maintained by the power of a strong and living personality
rather than by extraneous aids. I know this teaching to
be systematic and thorough. I have seen examination
papers in writing of these boys and girls that were a
wonder in their revelation of the appreciation of the nature
and duties of the Christian life. I have been made glad in
THE PASTOR AND THE CHILDREN 353
receiving many of those thus trained into the membership
of the Church, and have daily rejoiced in beholding the
good confessions they witnessed at home and school." 1
The opinion here incidentally expressed that the pastor
might better entrust this work to some one else may well
l>e reconsidered. It is doubtful whether the pastor can
afford to surrender this opportunity. If he is not litted
for this work, he ought to lose no time in seeking the
necessary qualifications. The knowledge which this work
will give him of the thoughts of the children, the friend
ships which it will enable him to form with the boys and
tnrls of his Hock, arc worth more to him as a pastor than
O L
almost any other experience of his life. Not the least
valuable result of such a service is its effect upon the char
acter of the pastor himself. The call to sincerity, sim
plicity and lidelity which these young lives continually
address to him is one that he must hear. He cannot feed
these lambs unless he abides in the love of the Good
Shepherd.
One American pastor has provided for the children of
his charge an association which he describes as the Church
Porch. Its design as he describes it, k * is not simplv to
convey instruction, but to bring the children into an
organization which has no more completeness in itself than
has the porch of an ecclesiastical building. It is a passage
way into a larger and complete? relationship. And he
thus outlines its method:
"In the one direction it will be connected with the
family; in the other, with the church a link between the
two. It will have as its honorary officers the pastor and
deacons of the church; as its executive, young men and
women of such an age as to have sufficient ripeness <.f
judgment to know how to act with wisdom and discretion.
The adult Christian fellowship of the church will be at the
back of it, encouraging the attendance of their children
upon its meetings, regularly and conscientiously, for to
develop character is one of the great aims. The Church
Porch will provide some simple words, which are of the
1 Tht Working Cfnirch, j>j>. 44-47.
354 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
nature of a confession of discipleship to the great Head of
the Church. It will so conduct its meetings as that the
youngest may take some part. It will so organize itself
as that the members shall have mutual care one of another.
It will provide meetings for social intercourse as well as
for devotional, thus recognizing the good of all innocent
recreation. It will provide for the daily home reading by
its members of wisely selected Scriptures. It will have
some such graduation in membership as shall allow the
more developed to assume responsibility, and put them
selves one step nearer to full membership of the Christian
church. Of course, organization is not everything, nor
the principal thing. We cannot do much without it, but
the most ideally perfect organization in the world must
depend for its reputation upon those who use it. It will
be urged as an objection by some who have had little or
no experience in these matters, that it is requiring too
much to ask a child to sign such a simple pledge as this :
Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for strength, I purpose
to try to do whatever He would like to have me do. I will
pray to Him, and read the Bible every day, and henceforth
I will try to be His disciple. Analyze it, and what do
we find? Nothing at all inconsistent with that which is
possible to the youngest disciple. A child can trust; a
child can try; a child can pray; a child can read the
Bible ; a child can be a disciple a learner. It is that
from its constitution. Children like to be members of
societies, and they are generally more faithful to their
duties than are adults. They grow into right thoughts
and right feelings, just as their seniors do, by right
deeds." 1
The pastor s work of instruction and personal influence
might be carried on in connection with such an organiza
tion of the children. But the organization must not take
the place of that work. The pastor should be jealous of
anything which stands in the way of that intimate asso
ciation with his children which the work of systematic
instruction implies and requires.
1 Rev. Ueuen Thomas, in Parish Problems, pp. 213, 214.
THE PASTOR AND THK CHILDKEN
Most American churches now observe the second Sun
day in June as Children s Day. On that day the Sunday-
schools are gathered in the place of public worship made
beautiful with flowers, and the exercises are ordered for
the benefit of the children. Songs and recitations in which
they participate, and an appropriate sermon or address by
the pastor make the service of special interest to tin-
youngest of the Hock. In churches which practise infant
baptism, the little ones are often presented on Children s
Sunday; and it is the custom of some pastors to give to
each baptized child, on the festival which follows his
twelfth birthday, a IJible, in the name of the church, thus
reminding him that the church has not forgotten the con
secrating rite and still holds him in its fellowship.
In the churches in which this rite is observed, the
status of the baptized children is often a subject of inquiry.
The theological and ecclesiastical questions here involved
do not come within the purview of this essay; but it is,
nevertheless, important that the pastor and the church
should have some theory about the relation of these children
to the church: the kind of pastoral care exercised over
them will be determined, to a considerable extent, by this
theory. There seems to be no other reasonable view of
the case than to regard these children as members of the
church, not vet enjoying all its rights and privileges,
but members still, and entitled to the care and love of the
whole household of faith. The children of a family are
not less truly members of the family than are the adults;
and their sense of proprietorship in all the belongings of
the home is always keen, ft should not be otherwise in
the church ; and the administration of its services should
l>e such as to cultivate in the children this sense of iden
tification with its life. The time will come when they
will come forward and assume for themselves the respon
sibilities of membership: but before that day. and while
they are receiving preparation for the active labors of the
church, the recognition of the fact that they are not aliens
and strangers, but fellow-citizens with the saints and of
the household of love, ought to be kept clearly before their
minds.
35b CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
Whether any portion of the Sunday morning service
should he specially devoted to the children is a question of
some importance. Some American pastors address a short
sermon five or six minutes in length to the children
in the congregation. Others decline to interject this
exercise into the services, on the ground that their unity
is impaired, and their best effect lost, when a portion of
the congregation is singled out for separate instruction.
It is a matter concerning which every man has a right to
be fully persuaded in his own mind. Some pastors may
succeed with the method and others may fail. It should
be remembered, however, that when no special words are
addressed to the children, there will often be, in an ordi
nary discourse, portions, longer or shorter, which even
young children will perfectly understand. Every pastor
who watches the effect of his teachings upon the children
will often find them grasping with perfect intelligence
many statements that were not intended for them. If
the truth is made simple and clear, as it always ought to
be, some good part of every sermon will find its way into
the minds of the children of six or seven years of age.
The ability of children to understand such matters is gen
erally under-estimated.
Even, therefore, though there may be no special address
to the children, there are many reasons why they should
be present, from their earliest years, in the morning ser
vice. The absence from the great majority of the Ameri
can churches of the children of the congregation is becoming
an alarming fact. It is often assumed that the Sunday-
school is the children s service, and that attendance upon
that should release them from the public worship of the
sanctuary. Children would in this way rarely form the
habit of church-going in their later years. The time
never comes when they are willing to begin. They have
no taste for such employments. They prefer to spend the
Sunday as they have always done, reading or riding or
visiting Habit, in matters of this nature, is nearly every
thing ; and if the habit of church-going is ever formed it
must be formed in childhood. And the plea, generally
THE PASTOR AND THE CHILDREN 357
heard, that the children cannot understand the service
and are not profited by it, must not be allowed. The
Scripture readings are, for the most part, perfectly intelli
gible to them ; the hymns and the prayers are not beyond
their comprehension; and much tit the service will often
be level to their understanding. This is a matter concern
ing -which the wise pastor must bear faithful testimony.
He must not quietly suffer the children of his church to
fall away from its fellowship. He must convince their
parents that the public worship of the Lord s house is for
the young as well as for the old, and that if the one or the
other must be foregone, the children had far better be
taken from the Sunday-school and brought into the
church.
The close of this chapter appears to be the appropriate
place to refer to an organization which is attracting much
attention on both sides of the sea at the present time, and
which is known as the Hoys Brigade. It had its origin
in Glasgow, Scotland, where the lirst company was organ
ized in iSS-j, by a gentleman active in Christian work,
who Avas a member of the Lanark Rifles. Like Robert
Raikes, Mr. Smith began with ragged boys in the street,
but his scheme proved popular among the boys of the
church, and the movement soon spread to other churches.
Companies were formed in great numbers and men of
standing and influence soon were found among the enthu
siastic promoters of the enterprise. The late Professor
Ilenrv Driiinmond was one of its leaders. It is said thai
more than fifty thousand boys an- now organized in fifteen
hundred companies, in the Tinted Kingdom, the l. nited
States, Canada, Australia. New Zealand, and other parts
of the world. From the Manual of the American branch
of the organization the following explanation is taken:
" Brietlv stated, it is a world wide movement among
young men and boys for the advancement of the kingdom of
Christ. The Brigade consists of local companies of twelve
to fortv vouth, between the ages of 1:2 and :21 years, the
onlv condition of membership being attendance at some
local Sunday-school and subscription to tin- following
358 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WOKKING CHURCH
pledge: I promise and pledge, that I will not use tobacco
nor intoxicating liquors in any form ; that I will not use
profane, vulgar nor indecent language; that I will obey
faithfully all the company rules, and that I will, at all
times, set an example of good conduct to my comrades and
other boys.
"The company must be attached to some Christian
organization which will supervise its civil and religious
affairs. The distinctive feature of the movement is that
all meetings of the company are conducted under military
regulations and discipline. The required meetings are:
1. Some weekly religious exercise; either a Bible drill,
prayer-meeting or Sunday school. 2. A weekly military
drill, conducted strictly according to infantry tactics of
the United States Army.
"The military features have been found to possess
surprising attractions for boys who would otherwise drift
away from church fellowship. They also furnish excellent
physical training and have many advantages which need
only to be tested to be proved. Bear in mind, however,
that they are but a means to an end: that is to promote
habits of obedience, reverence, discipline, self-respect, and
all that tends toward a true Christian manliness."
In the third article of the constitution, relating to
agencies, it is provided that religious exercises shall be
employed " as a means of rendering the boys familiar with
the Bible, and acquainted with its truths ; " that patriotic
studies shall be introduced, by which loyalty and good
citizenship shall be inculcated; that provision shall be
made for such physical-culture exercises as may be adapted
to the age of the members, and calculated to develop a
perfect body and a perfect manhood; and that military
organization and drill shall be used as a means of securing
the interest of the members, banding them together in the
work of the Brigade and promoting such habits as it is
designed to form. Strict obedience and discipline are
always to be enforced. One of the rules requires that
every member shall attend Sunday-school at least once
every Sabbath. The Company Council consists of the
THE PASTOR AND THE CHILDREN 350
pastor and the three ranking commissioned officers and
three members appointed annually by the Christian organi
zation with which the company is connected. The entire
power of governing the company is entrusted to this
Council, which admits and discharges members, appoints
officers, enacts by-laws and controls the company s funds.
It is thus evident that the purpose is to put every com
pany of the Boys Brigade under the care of the church to
which it belongs and under the immediate supervision of
the pastor. The commanding officers of these companies
are a 1 \vays men usually young men. It is clear, at a
glance, that everything will depend on the tact and char
acter of these commanding officers. If the right man can
be found for captain, such a company may become a strong
influence for good over the lives of the boys belonging
to it,
The military drill and discipline is, in itself, an excel
lent regimen for boys. The physical benefits are consider
able: the carriage of the bovs who have been for some
time under the drill is almost always perceptibly improved;
they stand erect and step more firmly and manifest an
increase of physical vigor. The moral gains of the drill
and the discipline are also important. The habits of obe
dience and subordination which are thus formed become,
to some good degree, automatic. Boys obey their parents
and their teachers more promptly: it becomes evident to
them that obedience is manlv. The organization also
inculcates and even enforces respect for religion; the
primary and indispensable condition of membership in the
Brigade is membership in that Sunday-school from which
the bov is often so strongly inclined to slip away. To be
associated with a military organization of bovs who are all
members of the Sunday-school puts that institution at once
upon a different footing in all his thoughts about it. The
Biblical study and the religious exercises with which the
meetings of the company must always begin, are a constant
witness to him of the importance of an interest which the
boy between twelve and twenty is too much inclined to
undervalue. And the pledge to avoid the use of tobacco
360 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
and intoxicating liquor, and to keep his lips clean from
profanity and indecenc} r , is one in the keeping of which
there is safety and honor.
All these gains are manifest. Over against them we
must set a possible injury to which some good men and
women are inclined to attribute great importance. It is
said that the organization fosters the military spirit; that
it will fill the hearts of the boys with the passions of war;
that it is not the right kind of a regimen for disciples of
the Prince of Peace. In the days when all good men are
seeking to exterminate from human hearts the love of
carnage and to lead the nations onward in the paths of
peace, it is not good, say these critics, to set our Christian
children to learn the arts of war.
To all this the reply of those who are most active in
promoting the organization is that the Boys Brigades are
practically having no such effect; that the drill is really
no more than a good gymnastic exercise ; that so much is
made of the Christian features of the organization that the
sentiments and passions of warfare find no place in the
boys 1 hearts. The ideas which prevail are thus set forth
in the Manual :
" It is consistently military and for two reasons. First,
for the purpose of system and thorough organization.
Second, if boys are taught military tactics at all it is worth
while to teach them correctly and completely. But mark
this and forever remember, that the Boys Brigade is
above all for spiritual conquest; its object is to advance
Christ s kingdom among boys. It will not and must not
be done with the sword. But just as the boy Jesus
learned to ply the hammer and saw and chisel of his
father s craft, and thus was trained in reverence, obe
dience and self-respect, so may our boys through military
drill and Bible drill and patriotic study learn habits of
self-restraint; learn that victories over self are those that
shine in everlasting records ; learn that to fight for Jesus
means to fight for the poor and the weak and disabled;
learn that the reveille for which they must prepare is that
which will sound on the resurrection morn, when shoulder
THE PASTOR AND THE CHILDREN 361
to shoulder youth and old age shall inarch to their eternal
reward.
On the whole there is good reason to hope that the
dangers against which the protest is lifted up are not
serious, and that the organization will prove to he a strong
agency for training in Christian manliness the hoys of
Christendom.
CHAPTER XVI
MISSIONARY SOCIETIES AND CHUECH CONTRIBUTIONS
THE relation of the church to the work of missions
to the christianization not merely of its own parish and
of its own community, but of the whole world is a
subject concerning which most churches need admonition.
The development in this generation of the working church
has somewhat withdrawn the attention of many zealous
Christians from the field of the world. The work at
home is so manifold and so urgent that they find neither
time nor resources for enterprises at a distance. Never
theless, the very note of Christianity is universality. The
Christian law was not, in terms, a new commandment
when Christ gave it utterance ; the identical phrases are
in the Mosaic legislation ; what he did was to give a new
definition to the word " neighbor." The Jew believed that
he ought to love his neighbor as himself : the obscuration
of his ethics was revealed in the lawyer s question, " Who,
then, is my neighbor ? " Christ s answer was the parable
of the Good Samaritan, which teaches us that our neighbor
may be one of another nationality, another color, one
joined to us by no ties of race or kinship, one dwelling on
a distant shore and speaking an unknown tongue. My
neighbor is any human being whom I may reach and help.
The ethnic morality is superseded by the law of universal
love. And it is essential to the development of the Chris
tian life in the individual that this love shall have its
constant opportunity. Works of love that call forth good
will and helpfulness toward all sorts and conditions of
men in every part of the world furnish the element in
which Christianity lives and has its being. The attempt
to shut it in, to erect or maintain limitations beyond which
SOCIETIES AND CHURCH CONTRIBUTIONS 363
its impulse shall not travel is fatal to its existence. It is
no more true that there are geographical boundaries which
love does not cross, than it is true that there are physical
limitations to space which thought cannot pass beyond.
The country of goodwill has no frontiers.
Since this is the nature of Christian love, it is plain
that the missionary impulse must always exist where the
spirit of Christ abides; and that a church of Jesus Christ
which lias no interests beyond its own immediate precinct
is a moral anomaly. True is it that the needs which are
nearest most strongly appeal to us, and that the benevo
lence which spends all its energies upon those on the
other side of the sea, and has no sympathy for those on
the other side of the street is a spurious variety. Begin
ning at Jerusalem, the apostles preached the good tidings
in many lands. But the charity which begins at home
and stays there is no less defective than that which travels
abroad and neglects its nearest neighbors.
The Christian churches, in all the vital parts of Chris
tendom, are profoundly interested, in these days, not only
in their neighbors who live in the next ward, but in their
neighbors who live on the other side of the world. We
know a great deal and care a great deal about people who
have very little knowledge of us. The people of Africa,
of Armenia, of China, of India, are the objects of our dis
interested regard. We are not always thinking of how we
may establish relations of tralhc with them and make their
industries serve our interests; we are often thinking of
what we can do to enlarge and brighten their lives. It is
not that we believe that they are all doomed to endless woe
unless they hear our gospel ; our faith in (Jod is stronger
than this. Nor is it that we regard their beliefs as wholly
false and pernicious ; we recognize in many of them great
elements of universal truth. But we can see that while
some of them may be able to impart to us much that may
profit us, the substance of the truth as it is in Jesus is
something far better than any of them has yet attained
unto ; and because this truth is ours, and they need it, we
cannot rest until we have shared it with them. We know
364 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
that the Gospel of Christ, with all that it implies, would
wonderfully brighten the lives of any people that would
receive it. We know that it would greatly alleviate human
suffering. How vast and overshadowing are the woes of
the lands unvisited by the messengers of the blessed Christ
it is difficult to realize. China is by some persons supposed
to be a highly civilized nation, and it is urged that China
needs none of our religion ; but any one who will acquaint
himself with the condition of medical science in that coun
try, and learn how many suffer and die from remediable
maladies, may be willing to admit that the disciples of him
who healed the sick and cleansed the lepers and opened
the eyes of the blind could do much to lighten the woes
and to lengthen the lives of these helpless people. This,
indeed, is what Christian missionaries are actually doing
in every part of the world to-day, not by miracle, but by
the intervention of an intelligence consecrated to the ser
vice of mankind. One missionary in China treated more
than fifty-three thousand patients, and organized agencies
by which at least one million received scientific medical
care. When we think of the sightless eyes that have been
opened, of the millions that have been delivered from pain
and misery, of the blessed relief given by anaesthetics to
those in agony, of the lives that have been lengthened and
the hearts that have been comforted by these services of
love, we shall feel that the work of Christian missions
must have a deep significance to every one who wishes well
to his fellow men. Add to this what has been done to
lift women in all the pagan lands from their degradation,
and to point out the way of their deliverance from the
thraldom of the dark generations, and we shall see that
the enterprise of Christian missions, considered merely
from a philanthropic point of view, is entitled to serious
consideration.
It would be strange, therefore, if the Christian love
which is pouring itself out in such a wealth of philanthropic
service, should overlook these great opportunities of minis
tering to the wants and sorrows of men in other lands.
For it is not difficult to see that the source of many of these
SOCIKT1KS AND CIII. KCII COXTUIHUTIONS
physical ills must he sought in the darkened minds of the
people, and that the Light of the World is the only sovereign
reined} . The enterprise of Christian missions has often
been rested on a hase too narrow to support it and has been
commended by arguments which contradicted its message,
but it is a sure and divine impulse that linds expression
through it, and one can hardly conceive that with the en
larging conceptions of the (Jospel of the Son of (Jod, there
should be in the hearts of his disciples any diminution of
love for their brethren in other lands who need the light
and hope which are their precious heritage. * I-Yeelv ve
received, freely give, l is a maxim not likely to lose its
force as the centuries pass.
It is a great part of the pastor s work to organize the
missionary zeal and activity of his congregation. He needs
to be intelligent respecting this work, to have a rational
theory about it ; to comprehend the fact that it is an essen
tial element in the life of his church; to be able to deal
effectually with the stock objections of the caviller: to
have the power of enlisting all classes in his congregation
in this great enterprise. For one thing, he must be able to
recognize what a modern writer has called the recent vast
political expansion of Christendom.- Within the lifetime
of many now living, by far the greater part of the known
world has passed under the power of nations nominally
Christian. Africa, not long ago. was no man s land ; the
present generation has seen its territory parcelled out
among the great Christian powers. Out of ll."> 14. ."><()
square miles, only one-tenth remains unappropriated : out
of a population of 1:30,000.000, all but 2<>,<MMU.)00, are liv
ing under the sway of some European government. Turkey
claims the overlordship of about S, 000. 000 of these, but
England is the real ruler of most of the African territory
that Turkey claims. Even in Asia half the land and one-
third of the people are under the rule of Christian powers.
"Everywhere, in every continent, you shall lind Christen
dom in such marvellous ascendency that it is not only domi-
1 Matt. x. 8.
2 Modern Missions in the East, by E. A. Lawrence, p. 307.
366 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
nating, but swiftly and surely assimilating every country
and every people under the sun, with the solitary exception
of China. At a rough estimate, we may say that Christen
dom includes within its dominion about two-thirds of the
land of the earth and 800,000,000 of the 1,500,000,000 of its
population." l
The industrial expansion of Christendom, as the same
writer shows us, is not less marvellous. More and more
the markets of the world are rilled with the machinery and
the wares produced by Christian nations : the industries
of Europe and America are pushing their conquests in every
quarter of the globe. The science of the Western world
is also steadily prevailing against the superstition of the
East ; where light is, darkness cannot be.
It is this tremendous advance of the physical and intel
lectual forces of Christendom which makes the problem of
Christian missions so urgent. It is a time for Christian
statesmanship. A certain supremacy has already been
won for nominal Christianity. The immense vigor of the
Christian civilization compared with the civilizations that
have been produced by other faiths, is thus demonstrated.
But the triumph is full of peril. The vast multitudes
whicli have been brought under Christian rule need to know
something more of the power of Christ than the soldier or
the civil servant or the trader is likely to teach them. A
Christianity which is merely official or nominal may easily
become a snare to them. The form of Christianity with
out the power thereof bewilders and burdens them. The
very fact of the political supremacy of Christendom creates,
therefore, an obligation weightier and more imperative than
the Church has ever before been called to bear. With
these tremendous considerations every pastor ought to be
familiar. The work of Christian missions is not done ;
it is hardly begun. The phases which the work will
assume, the enthusiasms which it will arouse, we may
partly conjecture. Doubtless we are likely to need a large
revision of ideas and methods ; but the one fact to be kept
in view is that the political and industrial and intellectual
1 Modern Missions in the East, p. 309.
SOCIETIES AND CHURCH CONTRIBUTIONS 3G7
expansion of Christendom must be the forerunners of u
spiritual expansion not less significant. First that which
is natural ; afterward that which is spiritual. The foun
dations of the New Jerusalem arc laid; the Church is
called to complete the superstructure. The Christian
pastor of to-day must learn how to bring home to the
hearts of his people the significance of the movements now
going forward in all the earth. It is his task to make
them see that the time in which they are living is one of
mighty significance ; that the business of Christian missions
is connected in the most vital manner with the political and
social changes which are taking place ; and that the sub
ject is one concerning which they cannot afford to be
ignorant. The enlargement of the knowledge of the
Church is the one thing needful. Men are not likely to
take a deep interest in subjects of which they know little
or nothing. And this subject of missions in other lands is
one of which the majority of church members will have no
knowledge unless considerable pains be taken to give
them information. The needs of their own neighborhood
are before their eyes every day; the conditions of their
own country they have some knowledge of ; but the suffer
ings and miseries of their neighbors on the other side of
the world they do not see, nor are they aware of the work
that has been done in these fields and of the promising
nature of the beginnings that have been made. To spread
this information, to arrest and hold the attention of the
church to the subject of missions is the first thing to do.
Some stated meeting, held as often as once a month, should
furnish this information in such a form that the people
will eagerlv receive it. It is not best tot-all it a "monthly
concert ;" that name is seriously discredited. Nor should
it ever be confined to work in foreign lands. But if every
church could have a monthly meeting at which the prog
ress of the kingdom in the whole world should be reported,
taking up the salient events of current religious history
at home and abroad, pointing out the hopeful and dis
couraging features ; the gains and losses ; the fields where
. the struggle is fiercest and the reinforcements most needed,
368 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
and making it plain that the battle is one all along the
line, it would appear that this meeting might be made one
of great interest and power. " If I heard," said President
Edwards, " the least hint of anything that happened, in
any part of the world, having a favorable aspect on the
interests of Christ s kingdom, my soul eagerly catched at
it." That is but the normal feeling of every genuine
Christian disciple. How can any man keep praying daily
for scores of years, " Thy kingdom come," and not be alive
to signs of its coming ? The preparation for such a meet
ing as is here suggested would require, on the part of
somebody, much work, at least at the outset. The field of
the world should be divided, and the different portions
assigned to competent persons, each of whom should be on
the outlook for the epochal movements going on within
his territory. After this educational process has been
vigorously carried forward for a year or two, there may be
need of forming organizations for the more effective pro
motion of missionary interests. But the organization may
well be deferred until the interest has been created.
Is it well to divide the missionary interests of the con
gregation along the line of sex ? Such seems at present
to be the tendency. At any rate, we have women s
missionary organizations everywhere ; whether there are
societies of this nature exclusively for men may be ques
tioned. It seems to be supposed that men can obtain all
the information and impulse that they will need in the
general meeting of the church.
The women s missionary societies in the churches, are,
of course, intended to be auxiliary to the Woman s Mission
Hoard of the denomination to which the church belongs.
These Women s Boards have been organized, within the
last generation, in nearly all the national churches of
America ; and the officers of the missionary societies have
given the movement much encouragement. The Mission
Boards and Societies, having been originally composed of
men, and women having no representation in them, it was
natural that the women, as they came to take a larger part
in the life of the church, should wish to have organizations
SOCIETIES AND CHUUCH CONTRIBUTIONS 309
of their own whose operations they might control. The
Women s Boards came into existence as the expression of
the growing consciousness of influence and power on the
part of the women of the churches. The fact that a dual
organization of the missionary forces provided two collect
ing agencies for the same cause, and made sure of two
collections in a year instead of one was calculated to
commend the scheme to the officers of the Missionary
Societies. If Women s Boards exist, the women of the
congregations must he separately organized for the purpose
of sustaining them. The scheme has its advantages, and
doubtless much missionary zeal has been evoked, and much
administrative efficiency developed in its operation. But
there are unfavorable indications. The fact that in every
church there is a Woman s Missionary Societv, and no
Man s Missionary Society makes upon the wayfaring man
and the average boy the impression that missions are the
special interest of women : that men are connected with
them mainly through their wives. That this impression
has grown very rapidly during the past twenty-five years
can scarcely be doubted. And while the amount of money
raised by the Women s Boards has been considerable, it
may be questioned whether the aggregate amount has not
been diminished by this process. It would be interesting
to know how many men decline or neglect to make con
tributions to the work of missions, on the plea that their
wives have already contributed, through the Woman s
Society. When it comes to this, the collections are apt to
fall off, for the wife, with cash resources that are generally
limited, will not be able to represent the family so liberally
in the collection as the husband could do. And it may
also be questioned whether one effect of the separate
organization for women has not been greatly to reduce the
interest of the Church at large in the general church meet
ings for missions. On the whole, therefore, it is not clear
that the separation of the sexes in the work of missions is
working well. And there are those who strongly believe that
it would be far better to consolidate the Mission Boards
giving the women a representation in the official member-
24
370 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
ship of the Church Board, permitting them to hold a
certain number of secretaryships and other offices, and
uniting instead of dividing the sexes in the work of
evangelizing the world. There are those who think that
a serious loss of moral power results from this separation ;
that neither the Men s Boards nor the Women s Boards
are so well managed as a consolidated Board would be ;
and that the missionary interest in the local church would
be far stronger and more productive if the men and women
were working together, and there were one treasury instead
of two.
When the organization of mission work in the local
church is contemplated this question must be met. It is
not often wise violently to oppose existing methods of
administration ; and it may seem best to maintain for the
time a separate missionary society for women ; but it is
certainly important that the co-operation of the sexes in
the work carried on by the congregation should in some
way be secured.
With respect to the methods of disseminating informa
tion and awaking interest, there is need of the constant
exercise of invention on the part of the pastor and those
associated with him in the work. No method should be
worked after it has lost its efficiency ; new forms of pres
entation, new ways of combining the forces of the church
must be devised every year. Life is always taking on
new forms. " The usual prayer-meeting," " the usual
missionary meeting," are phrases which must not be
heard too often from the pulpit. Let the people learn to
expect something unusual something fresh and vital.
Should the annual presentation of the various mission
ary societies to the congregation be made by the represen
tatives of those societies when that is possible, or by the
pastor of the church ? No universal rule can be given.
Probably it is better, in most cases, to combine the two
methods. The representative of the society possesses a
certain skill in marshalling the facts which is not wholly
offset by the prejudice against him in the minds of his
hearers, growing out of their knowledge that lie is a
SOCIETIES AND CHUIlCH CONTRIBUTIONS 371
special pleader. He may very often speak more convinc
ingly than the pastor could do, and his service is not to
be uniformly refused. The occasional visit to the congre
gation of those who are in constant communication with
the field, and who are familiar with all its needs, is un
doubtedly desirable. On the other hand, the pastor can
often present these causes far more effectively than any
official representative could do. He knows his own con
gregation, and can judge what kind of information they
need, and what manner of appeal will be most effective.
He has no professional or personal interest in any of these
causes: his representations will not be discredited by any
such suspicion. If the people have the confidence in him
that they ought to have, his word will go farther with
them than the word of any stranger could go. And. more
than all, if he studies the subject carefully, his treatment
will be sure to have a freshness and vitality that the
appeal of the professional advocate is apt to lack. It is
difficult for anv man to speak daily on a single theme and
preserve the appearance of spontaneity and the accent of
conviction. It will be found that those churches, as a
rule, are the largest contributors to missionary causes, in
which the pastors frequently, if not uniformly, present
the causes to their congregations.
With respect to the development of the spirit and habit
of benevolence in the congregation, much might be said-
The pastor will need to give to the subject no little careful
study. It is a hard lesson for the average Anglo-Saxon
of this generation to learn that it is more blessed to give
than to receive, but this of all truths is the one he needs
to lay to heart. The pastor must endeavor to make it
plain to his people that it is of the nature of all genuine
Christian experience that giving and receiving are correla
tives ; that each is the condition of the other: that no
Christian can live without giving, any more than he can
live without receiving. When this is said, the word give
must be used in a large and comprehensive meaning. The
Christian is a giver in many ways, on many sides, through
many channels of gracious ministry. It is not always that
372 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
his giving takes the form of material aid, though this is
an expression that it must often take in a world where
there are so many hungry mouths, and so many tireless
hearths, and so many naked and shivering limbs. The
first if not the deepest needs of our fellow-men are bodily
needs ; and these must often be supplied before we can
bestow any higher gift upon them. A great part of the
ministry of Christ was directed to the physical wants of
men, and none of us is likely to give more wisely than he
gave. Besides, and this is the truth which the faithful
pastor must not fail to enforce, it is an essential condition
of profitable giving, so far as the giver is concerned, that
he should bestow that which he highly values. The use
fulness of the gift ought to be as great to the one who
imparts it as to the one who receives it, though in a differ
ent way ; and this cannot be unless the giver parts with
something that he prizes. A man whose main interest is
in material things can hardly be said to be a giver at all
unless he gives money, or that which costs money. For
him, at any rate, this exercise is indispensable. His spirit
ual life will shrivel if he deny to love this outlet. No
matter how constant or how fervent may be his prayers,
no matter how diligent may be his endeavors to do good
in other ways, if the man whose energies are devoted to
the accumulation of wealth does not give money or money s
worth freely his spiritual life will soon be a withered and
blasted thing. The pastor must not tell his people that it
is a sin for a Christian to have money or to desire money,
or to bend his powers to the acquisition of money ; but he
must warn them that the Christian whose heart is set on
getting must train himself to be a liberal donor also or he
will lose his soul. What he freely receives he must freely
give or his gain will be his ruin.
And yet the pastor must not fail to remind his people
that money wrongfully obtained can never be sanctified by
giving part of it away. The consecrated purpose must
govern the winning as well as the bestowing of wealth.
Money that lias been gained in extortion, in grinding the
face of the poor, by the unmerciful treatment of rivals in
SOCIETIES AND CHl KCH OUNTllIHCTIOXR 373
trade, by corrupting officers of the government, is not the
Lord s money and the Lord wants none of it: the Chris
tian pastor must beware ho\v he soils his hands with the
rewards of iniquity. The church might better close its
doors and the missionary societies call home their evange
lists, than that the testimony of the church against iniquity
should be withheld. There are those in many of our
modern churches who ought to hear the prophet s bitter
words: "Your new moons and your appointed feasts my
soul hateth: they are a trouble to me: I am \vearv to bear
them. And when ye spread forth your hands I will hide
mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many p ravers I
will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you,
make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from
In 1 fore mine eyes; cease to do evil: learn to do well; seek
judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless,
plead for the widow." It is not these who should be
admonished that they can only save their souls by be ing-
generous with their money; something more radical than
liberality is required of them. I>ut those who have striven
to avoid dishonesty and extortion in the acquisition of
their fortunes, are often absorbed in the mere eagerness of
the pursuit, and their hearts are hardened and their
standards lowered by the greed of acquisition. It is to
these that such admonitions as were referred to should be
addressed. It is they who need to cultivate the grace of
giving that the injurious effects of their daily habits may
be counteracted.
And it is not the rich and prosperous alone, not alone
those whose hearts are set on great accumulations who
need this kind of discipline: those whose gains are small,
and who are not ambitious of great financial success will
find it useful for them to impart that which it is hard for
them to get and not easy for them to spare. The Item-fit
that comes from making pecuniary sacrifices for worthy
objects is a Item-lit that the poorest members ol the church
cannot alford to forgo. Those who can give but little
often resolve to give nothing, and thus they themselves
1 Isa. i. 14-17.
374 CHK1ST1AN I ASTOK AND WOKKLNG CHUKCH
are heavy losers. They are willing to do good, so far as
they can, in other ways; but they excuse themselves
from charitable offerings. Everything else but their pos
sessions and gains they consecrate to the Lord: these are
so small, they say, that they are hardly worth consecrat
ing. So there is one corner of their lives in which selfish
ness is intrenched and the result is a defective character.
The pastor must seek to make all his people feel that
none of them can be so poor as not to need, for his own
soul s sake, to be on all sides of his nature and out of
every one of his resources, a charitable giver.
In developing the charitable gifts of the church, two
facts are to be borne in mind. The first is that, in most
congregations, much the largest part of the offering ought
to come from a comparatively small number. The ine
qualities of condition are such in most of our churches
that the few are abundantly able to give much more than
the many can give. If the benevolent gifts of the church
are what they ought to be, there must be a few large
contributions. A man whose income is twenty thousand
dollars a year ought to give more than ten times as much
as the man who has but two thousand; his surplus, above
all that could be regarded as the necessaries of life, is
vastly greater. Accordingly all plans for the raising of
money which propose to find a certain number of persons
in the church, each of whom shall give the same amount,
are likely to be impracticable because of their injustice.
Sometimes it is said: "Are there not one hundred mem
bers who will give five dollars apiece? To which, in
many cases, the reply should be made : " If this money is
to be raised, according to the gospel rule, which requires
every one to give as he has prospered, it would probably
require some such division as this : that one shall give one
hundred dollars, and two fifty each, and three twenty-five
each, and ten ten each, and seventy-five one dollar each."
The application of this principle, that those whose surplus
is large should expect to contribute much more, in propor
tion to their incomes, than those whose surplus is small,
should be faithfully made by the Christian pastor.
SOCIETIES AND CHURCH CONTRIBUTIONS 375
The other fact is that everybody ought to give some
thing. The diligent, persistent effort to secure from every
ineinl)er of the church, rich or pool , old or voung, male or
female, some offering for every cause is the pastor s clear
obligation. Most of our 1 rotcstaiit churches fail in this
respect. A very large proportion of the members of Un
church hold themselves excused from contributing either
to the current expenses of the church, or to its missionarv
funds. Even \vhen a church is to be built, the proportion
of the names of the membership found on the subscription
list is apt to be very small. Against this teiidencv an
organized and patient effort should be directed. Those
who can give but little ought not to be permitted to lose
the reward of the giver. It is essential to their growth in
grace that they exercise themselves in this grace also.
And the aggregate of these small offerings would be con
siderable. We want, for all our charities, larger gifts
from those who are able to give liberally, but we want
also the small gifts which might be bestowed by those who
are now giving nothing. Manv an enterprise now languish
ing would lind its resources abundant if these gifts could
IK secured. The mites of the million would furnish to
our benevolent operations a motive power which we can
not afford to lose. Consider how great are the resources
of the Roman Catholic Church, drawn very largely from
the wages of dav laborers and servant-maids. These rills,
if we can combine them, will cause the stream of our
charities to flow with an ample ll 1.
These considerations will enable us to deal with the
question of systematic and proportionate giving. That
the pastor should seek to guide his people towards some
intelligent and systematic use of their income, in the way
of benevolent contributions, is reasonable, (living is an
important part of Christian service, and it ought to be
done thoughtfully, not from erratic impulse, but from
sol>er reason. That the giver should carefully consider
how large a portion of his income he can set apart for gifts
to missionary and charitable purposes, and that lie should
endeavor sacredly to devote to these purposes the money
376 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
thus set apart, is good doctrine which the pastor may
wisely enforce. But the giving should be proportionate
to ability and not according to any fixed percentage. The
doctrine of the tithe is not applicable to Christian giving.
There are those who ought not to give so much as a tenth
of their income to such purposes ; and there are those who
ought, perhaps, to give nine-tenths of it. Insistence upon
the tithe is apt to obscure the Christian principle : " Every
man according to his several ability." The Jewish rule is
not the Christian rule, and should not be appealed to in
Christian instruction.
The methods of gathering these offerings of the church
greatly vary. In some congregations the plate or basket
collections for each cause are relied on, notice of the col
lection being given on the previous Sunday. In such
cases only a portion of the congregation is offered the
opportunity of contributing, for a large percentage of the
members will be absent on any given Sunday. In some
churches collections for benevolent purposes are taken
every Sunday, and either a certain number of Sundays are
set apart to each object, or else the entire amount collected
is divided periodically, according to some ratio agreed
upon, among the several objects to which the church con
tributes. This plan is practicable in the churches which
do not need to take collections for their own current
expenses. It would, doubtless, be far better if the entire
revenues of the church could be provided by other means,
so that the church collections might be wholly given to
the purposes of benevolence.
By some churches the attempt is made to secure, at the
beginning of the year, pledges to each of the causes to be
presented to the church. The pledge card is returned to
the clerk of the church, who keeps an account with each
member pledging, and a duplicate is retained by the mem
ber to keep him in mind of his promise. In some churches,
the parish is geographically divided into districts, and
collectors are sent to every parishioner s house to receive
the offerings of the inmates. In some churches the mails
are used to remind the members of the coming offering.
SOCIETIES AND CHUIICH CONTRIBUTIONS 877
In an envelope, addressed to each person or each family,
are enclosed a smaller envelope and any leaflet or other
literature illustrating the object for which the offering is
taken. A printed note from the pastor should also be
enclosed, making further explanation and requesting that
the gift l>e enclosed in the small envelope, scaled, and
brought or sent to the church on the next Sunday. This
method renders it tolerably sure that every one will have
an opportunity of making an offering.
Every church must determine for itself what method
it will employ in gathering its benevolent offerings, but
the subject is one that should not be too lightly disposed
of. Much depends on the adoption of the best method,
and the best is not likely to be the easiest. The church
ought to be willing to take pains and trouble in putting
the opportunity of giving before every one of its members.
And the pastor should feel that it rests with him to secure
the adoption of plans bv which this work will be done,
and to (ill the whole enterprise with his own courage and
enthusiasm.
CHAPTER XVII
REVIVALS AND REVIVALISM
A QUESTION which must deeply affect the welfare and
even the character of the local church respects the method
on which it will chiefly rely for the increase of its mem
bership. Two principal methods may be said to be in use
among Protestant churches that of catechetical instruc
tion, of which the Lutheran Church gives us perhaps the
strongest example, and that of revivalism, on which several
other churches mainly depend. Both methods have been
traced back to the beginnings of Christianity and even to
the ancient Judaism. No less an authority than Matthew
Arnold tells us that we may read in the Old Testament of
a great "religious revival in Hebrew religion, under
Samson and Samuel, and how by degrees Judaism grew in
spirituality, and the age of ecstasy and the Witch of
Endor gave place to the prophets of the eighth century,
conscious of a real inner call."
So, too, under Hezekiah, and under Josiah, and in the
time of Ezra, religious movements occurred which are
described by the same writer as religious revivals. 1 It will
be observed, however, that these were events which occurred
at long intervals. There appears to be no provision in the
Hebrew scheme of religion for a revival every winter.
When by the invasion of luxury, or formality, or heathen
ism, the heart of the Church had grown cold, and its altars
were neglected and its rites corrupted, there sometimes
came to the people an influence that aroused them from
their degeneracy and led them back to their allegiance to
the God of their fathers. It might be some national dis
aster, it might be the voice of a prophet or the decree of
a godly king that awakened them ; but the revival, in all
1 See God and The Bible, chap, iv., sec. iii.
UKVFVALS AND HKVIVALISM 379
these cases, consisted in the recognition by the whole
people that they had departed from the service of the
living (rod, and that they ought to forsake their idolatries
and return to Him. It was not an effort, on the part of
the Church, to increase its membership, by calling in those
who were without its pale; it was a reformation of the
Church itself.
The remarkable event which took place at .Jerusalem on
the dav of Pentecost is often called a revival. Hut this
was the result of the enforcement by the word of the
apostles and the spirit of (lod, upon the minds of a great
multitude of people, of the truth that Jesus of Nazareth,
whom they had cruciiied, was the Messiah for whom they
had so loiiyf been waiting. Most of these men and women
o o
had known .Jesus and had been inclined to believe on him
and follow him. His blameless life and his marvellous
teachings had appealed to their reason and their affection:
probably thev had been in the multitude that led him in
triumph into Jerusalem from the Mount of ( Hives, shouting,
"Hosanna, Hlessed is he that cometh in the name of the
Lord!" This enthusiasm of theirs was sincere enough;
like the two disciples that were walking to Kmmaus, they
were trusting that it was he who should redeem Israel.
But when Jesus suffered himself to be apprehended by
the Sanhedrin, and, when, unresistingly, he was led away
from Pilate to be crncitied, their faith in him was gone;
he could be nothing but an impostor. The testimony of
the apostles at Pentecost, uncoil tradictecl by the authorities,
that he had risen from the dead and ascended into heaven,
with the full revelation of the fact that his was a spiritual
and not a temporal kingdom, thre\v a new light upon
his character: and with bitter contrition the multitude
accepted as their Lord and King him whom upon the
cross, in their unspiritual blindness, they had denied and
forsaken.
Hut the psychological experience of these thousands on
the day of Pentecost must have been altogether ditl crent
from that of those who are appealed to in a modern revival
meeting. These were not irreligious men; the record
380 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
distinctly says that they were "devout men." They were
not men who hud rejected a King whom they knew to be
divine, because of a moral unwillingness on their part to
submit their lives to his gentle reign. They had turned
away from him sadly, and no doubt resentfully, because
he did not till their conception of Messiahship. He had
not proved to be the kind of Deliverer for whom they had
been taught to look. It was necessary that their intel
lectual conception of the Christ should be transformed.
This was what happened at Pentecost. The fact of the
resurrection convinced them that Jesus of Nazareth was
the Messiah. Probably no fact less significant would have
changed their minds. When they were once assured that
this Jesus was their long-expected Deliverer, they were
willing at once to be baptized into his name.
This is not the condition of the multitude that listens
to the revivalist s appeals in a Christian church of the
nineteenth century. There is no uncertainty in their
minds respecting the character of Christ; most of them
believe all that the preacher believes concerning him ; they
refuse to accept Christ as Lord because they do not wish
to follow him in the ways of consecrated service. The
revival which brought the three thousand at Jerusalem to
acknowledge Jesus Christ as the true Messiah involved a
very different intellectual and spiritual process from that
which is described as conversion in modern evangelical
churches. It is not, therefore, legitimate to argue from
Pentecost to a modern revival of religion. The two
events are not of the same nature. And it is doubtful
whether any close analogies can be found in Biblical his
tory for that which is best known, in modern Christen
dom, as a revival.
This is not, however, decisive as against the modern
revival. The Church has developed many new methods ;
life will create its own forms ; the anxiety of the apologists
to trace all good institutions back to apostolic or patri
archal models is quite superfluous. The modern revival
may not have been known to Hezekiah or Ezra, to Peter
or Paul, and may still be a very good thing. The ques-
REVIVALS AND UKVIVALISM ". x l
tion is not whether it is old, but whether it is good. And,
to put the case more precisely, the real question is whether
the Church should mainly depend for its growth upon
revival methods, or upon the method of instruction and
nurture. In his treatise on Christian Nurture Dr. Hushnell
thus states the case :
"There are t\vo principal modes by which the kingdom
of God among men may be, and is to be extended. One
is by the process of conversion, and the other by that of
family propagation; one by gaining over to the side of
faith and piety, the other by the populating force of faith
and piety themselves. The former is the grand idea that
has taken possession of the churches of our times, they
are going to convert the world. They have taken hold of
the promise, which so many of the prophets have given
out, of a time when the reign of Christ shall be universal,
extending to all nations and peoples; and the expectation
is that, by preaching Christ to all the nations, they will
finally convert them and bring them over into the gospel
fold. Meantime very much less, or almost nothing, is
made of the other method, vi/.., that of Christian popu
lation. Indeed, as we are now looking at religion, or
religious character and experience, we can hardly find a
place for any such thought as a possible reproduction thus
of parental character and grace in children. They must
come in by choice, on their o\vn account: they must be
converted over from an outside life that has grown to
maturity in sin. Are they not individuals? and how are
they to be initiated into any good by inheritance and before
choice? It is as if thev were all so main" Melchisedecs in
their religious nature, only not righteous at all, without
father, without mother, without descent. Descent brings
them nothing. Horn of faith, and bosomed in it, and
nurtured by it. still there is yet to be no faith begotten in
them, nor so much as a contagion even of faith to be
caught in their garments. What I propose, at the present
time, is to restore, if possible, a juster impression of this
great subject; to show that conversion over to the Church
is not the only way of increase; that (Jod ordains a law of
882 CHRISTIAN PASTOK AND WORKING CHUKCH
population in it as truly as he does in an earthly kingdom,
or colony, and by this increase from within, quite as much
as by conversion from without, designs to give it, finally,
the complete dominion promised." 1
In the book from which these words are taken, this
great teacher sought to turn the thought of the Church
away from her almost exclusive trust in revivalistic
methods, which, as it seemed to him, were greatly weaken
ing her life, toward the less demonstrative ways of Chris
tian education, not only in the Church, but also and more
especially in the home. The fact was pointed out that the
Church, in many of its branches, had come to rely, almost
wholly, on the revival system, for the replenishment of its
membership and the invigoration of its life. Additions
to its numbers, except as the fruit of revivals, there were,
in these denominations, almost none: between these peri
odic awakenings the stream of its activities flowed slug
gishly: the converting grace was only looked for in the
revival season. This complete reliance upon revivalism
had led to the practical abandonment of the quieter
methods. Children were trained for Christian discipleship
neither in the Church nor in the home, nor was it expected
that they would be quietly led into the ways of Christian
service : they were to be swept into the Church on some
flood of excitement in the time of a revival. The manner
in which the conduct of Christian parents is affected by
this expectation is described by Dr. Bushnell :
" They believe in what are called revivals of religion,
and have a great opinion of them as being, in a very
special sense, the converting times of the gospel. They
bring up their children, therefore, not for conversion
exactly, but, what is less dogmatic and formal, for the
converting times. And this they think is even more
evangelical and spiritual because it is more practical;
though, in fact, much looser, and connected commonly
with even greater defections from parental duty and fidel
ity. To bring up a family for revivals of religion requires,
alas! about the smallest possible amount of consistency
1 Christian Nurture, pp. 195-197.
REVIVALS AND REVIVALISM
and Christian assiduity. No matter what opinion may be
held of such times, or of their inherent value and propriety
as pertaining to the genuine economy of the gospel, any
one can see that Christian parents may very easily roll off
a great part of their responsibilities, and comfort them
selves in utter vanity and worldliness of life, by just hold
ing it as a principal hope for their children, that they are
to be finally taken up and rescued from sin by revivals of
religion. As it costs much to be steadily and uniformly
spiritual, how agreeable the hope that gales of the Spirit
will come to make amends for their conscious defections!
If they do not maintain the unworldly and heavenly spirit,
so as to make it the element of life in their house, (iod
will some time have his day of power in the community,
and they piously hope that their children will then be con
verted to Christ. So they fall into a key of expectation
that permits, for the present, modes of life and conduct
which they cannot quite approve. They go after the
world with an eagerness which they expect by and by to
check, or possibly, for the time, to repent of. The family
prayers grow cold and formal, and are often intermitted.
The tempers are earthly, coarse, violent. Discipline is
ministered in anger, not in love. The children are lec
tured, scolded, scorched by fiery words. The plans are all
for money, show, position, not for the more sacred and
higher interests of character. The conversation is unchari
table, harsh, malignant, an effusion of spleen, a tirade, a
taking down of supposed worth and character by low
imputations and carping criticisms. In this kind of ele
ment the children are to have their growth and nurture,
but the parents piously hope that there will some time IKJ
a revival of religion, and that so God will mercifully make
up what they conceive to be only the natural infirmitv of
their lives. Finally the hoped-for dav arrives, and there
begins to be a remarkable and strange piety in the house.
The father chokes almost in his prayer, showing that he
really prays with a meaning! The mother, conscious that
things have not been going rightly with the children, and
seeing many frightful signs of their certain ruin at hand,
CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
warns them, even weeping, of the impending dangers by
which she is so greatly distressed on their account; add
ing also bitter confessions of fault in herself. The chil
dren stare, of course, not knowing what strange thing has
come! They cannot be unaffected; perhaps they seem to
be converted, perhaps not. In many cases it makes little
difference which ; for if all this new piety in the house is
to burn out in a few days, and the old regimen of woiidli-
ness and sin to return, it will be wonderful if they are not
converted back again to be only just as neglectful, in the
matter of Christian living, as they were brought up to be.
Any scheme of nurture that brings up children thus for
revivals of religion is a virtual abuse and cruelty. And it
is none the less cruel that some pious-looking pretexts are
cunningly blended with it. Instead of that steady, forma
tive, new-creating power that ought to be exerted by holi
ness in the house, it looks to campaigns of force that really
dispense with holiness, and it results that all the best ends
of Christian nurture are practically lost." 1
It must be admitted that this picture is quite too real
istic; and that, under the prevalence of the revival system,
the normal methods of Christian nurture have been sadly
neglected, both in the Church and in the home. The
effect, both upon the Church and upon the home, of this
too exclusive reliance upon the revival system, has un
doubtedly been disastrous. The life of many of the
churches has thus come to be a constant succession of
floods and droughts, of chills and fever. Between stagna
tion and excitement they are all the while vibrating.
Sometimes they are on the heights of religious faith and
fervor; oftener they are in the depths of discouragement
and fruitlessness. The influence affecting them appears
to be malarial. The periodicity of heats and rigors is not
a sign of health.
Yet this is the state of things for which, in many
churches, systematic provision is made. It seems to be
expected that the church will either be on the heights or
in the depths. There is a certain time of year when it is
1 Pages 77-79.
REVIVALS AND REVIVALISM 385
on the pinnacle of emotional excitement, when its assem
blies are scenes of the most boisterous enthusiasm; when
the cries and shouts and passionate appeals of its wor
shippers evince a perfervid zeal; and there are other times
much more extended and continuous, it must be admitted
- when the flame of holy love burns low in the candle
stick; when there is only a small attendance upon public
worship; when the earnestness of prayer and exhortation
appears to be simulated or forced rather than spontaneous,
pumped up, as it were, out of a dry well; and when the
most frequent word of the prayer-room is a word of cen
sure or complaint because of the coldness of the times.
These reactions are part of the history of a good many
Christian churches, indeed they may be said to consti
tute their history. It is easy to see that the one of these
conditions is the natural consequence of the other. It is
no more strange nor unaccountable than sleep following
muscular exhaustion, or low tide following high tide.
Just as long as men live in bodies and in their present
environment so long will abnormal excitement on any sub
ject be followed by unwonted indifference to that subject;
and excessive exertion on behalf of it give place to undue
neglect. The law of stimulants is well known. When
any organism is whipped up to unnatural activitv, it will
inevitably flag when the goad ceases to be applied. This
law holds good of a religious society as well as of a
human body.
When the drunkard is in the depression following his
debauch, he is not apt to seek the right remedy. If he
would content himself with nourishing and stimulating
food and soothing potions by which he might gradually
regain steadiness of nerve and strength of body, it would
be well with him. But this he does not choose to do.
To regain the safe 1 levels of sobriety and health is not
what occurs to him ; he wants to go back to those giddy
heights of inebriated hilarity from which he plunged into
this abyss. He will return to his cups. That is his
notion of the proper remedy fur his dismal condition.
And there is something very like unto this in the experi-
386 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
ence of some of our churches. During the long period
when the church is in the depths, and the air of the
prayer-meeting is full of jeremiades, and the mourners are
going about the streets, there is not much thought of try
ing to rise to a condition of moderate activity, a condition
that can be sustained; of taking a pace that can be held,
and holding it; the only thought is of climbing to the
heights again, of getting another start in that break-neck
gait which must end in collapse and prostration.
So long as the churches of this country are subject to
malarial influences of this kind, their usefulness will be
limited. It is highly desirable that a conception of the
religious life which is much less hysterical and emotional
should prevail in many sections of the Church.
Doubtless, these churches may often feel that their life
is far less vigorous and fruitful than it ought to be. If
they are not in the depths, they know that they are far
below the level of earnest fidelity and consecrated zeal on
which they ought to be living. How to get out of their
present low condition into a safer and healthier and hap
pier one is a problem that often confronts them. They
ought not be content to stay where they are ; if their faith
is feeble and their life is low and their gains are few, they
ought to bestir themselves: but how shall they escape,
and whither? A man who awakes in the morning and
finds the mercury in his house down to freezing point,
does not wish to live in this temperature ; he cannot. But
what shall he do to raise it? He might set the house on
fire : that would accomplish the result, but it might not be
the best way. Another way would be to build good fires
in the fire-places and keep them burning steadily. Prob
ably that would make the house comfortable after a little.
This method might not be so expeditious or so exciting
as the other, but on the whole it would be more judicious.
And it would seem that there must be a better method of
delivering a church from a condition of low tempera
ture than by applying to it the torch of high-pressure
revivalism.
But not only is the life of the Church unhealthily affected
REVIVALS AND REVIVALISM 387
by a too exclusive reliance upon the rcvivalistic methods,
there is also, as has been suggested, a serious loss in the
neglect of those quieter methods of nurture and training,
out of which such important gains might come. That
chapter of Dr. Bushnell s from which ([notations have
already been made is entitled "The Out-Populating
Power of the Christian Stock." His argument is that if
the Church simply luil<l* it* own, its growth will be rapid,
even phenomenal. If the children of Christian families
are kept in the Church and trained for ellicient service, if
the organic life of the Church is as vigorous as it ought to
be, its own law of natural increase will speedily put it in
possession of the world.
"In this view it is to be expected, as the life of Chris
tian pietv becomes more extended in the earth, and the
spirit of (iod obtains a living power, in the successive
generations, more and more complete, that linallv the race
itself will be so thorough! v regenerated as to have a Lrenu-
o .. o o
inely populating power in faith and godliness. I>y a kind
of ante-natal and post-natal nurture combined, the new
born generations will be started into Christian pietv, and
the world itself over- populated and taken possession of
by a truly sanctified stock. This I conceive to be the
expectation of Christianity. Not that the bad heritage of
depravity will cease, but that the second Adam will get
into power with the iirst. and be entered seminally into
the same great process of propagated life. And this ful
fils that primal desire of the world s Creator and Father,
of which the prophet speaks k That he might have a
godly seed/ " !
It may be objected that piety is a matter of individual
choice. The answer is that the same is true of sin.
"Many of us have no difficulty in saying that mankind are
born sinners. Thev may just as truly and properly be
born saints it requires the self-active power to lie just as
far developed to commit sin as it does to choose obedi
ence." 2 The organic tendency to holiness may be as posi
tive as the organic tendency to evil. And the Scriptures
1 Christian Nurture, p. 205. - Ibid., p. 107.
388 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AM) WORKING CHURCH
everywhere assume that this mighty force of heredity will
be employed by the Church in transmitting the forces of
righteousness. It is needful, indeed, that the Church and
the Christian home shall be ready to take the children,
thus predisposed to the acceptance of Christ, and give
them a godly nurture, surrounding them with the influ
ences which shall cherish and not extinguish the good
tendencies which they have inherited, and lead them
toward the voluntary choice of Christ and his service.
This expectation rests upon the doctrine of the Immanent
Christ. " What higher ground of supernaturalism can be
taken," demands this prophet, "than that which supposes
a capacity in the Incarnate Word and sanctified Spirit to
penetrate our fallen nature, at a point so deep as to cover
the whole spread of the fall, and be a grace of life, travel
ling outward from the earliest, most latent germs of our
human development." 1 If the saving grace of God does
enter thus into the very sources of our life, and is to be
found working there to regenerate and sanctify, there is
surely great hope for us, when we seek to work out our
own salvation, and to guide the children committed to
our charge into the ways of life. The Church thus sanc
tified in its life and entering with intelligent purpose into
the great plans of God for its redemption would become
"the great populating motherhood of the world/ 2
The manner in which this may come to pass is outlined
in a luminous passage of the volume under our considera
tion. In a regenerated society the tides of health and
physical vigor will be stronger than elsewhere. The
debilitating effects of vice and extravagance will be
minimized, and the energies of life Avill be reinforced.
Physical vigor will give the mastery of the physical con
ditions of life, and " the wealth accruing is power in every
direction, power in production, enterprise, education,
colonization, influence, and consequent popular increase." 3
Intellectual development is the natural fruit of such con
ditions ; for the great thoughts of God which the Christian
1 Christian Nurture, p. 205.
2 Ibid., p. 206. 3 Ibid., p. 211.
REVIVALS AND REVIVALISM 389
faith makes familiar not only purify the heart but stimu
late the reasoning powers and give wings to the imagina
tion. Thus the great fact of the expansion of ( hristendom,
to which reference was made in a former chapter, is seen
to be the natural outcome of the principle of life which
Christianity communicates. It is in the nature of the
leaven to leaven the whole lump. "These great popula
tions of Christendom, what are they doing but throwing 1
out their colonies on every side, and populating themselves,
if I may so speak, into the possession of all countries and
climes? I>v this doom of increase, the stone that w;is cut
out without hands shows itself to be a very peculiar stone,
namely, a growing stone, that is fast becoming ;i great
mountain, and preparing, as the vision shows, to till the
whole earth." J
This does not mean that we have no evangelistic work
to do; it only means that we are not to under-estimate the
natural fruits of Christian nurture, and the gains that
must come to us from simply recognizing the normal la\v
of increase. In a high and true sense we may expect to
see the principle of natural selection working to secure
the triumph of Christianity. That, in fact, is what we do
see, in the marvellous progress of Christian civili/ation.
If the significance of these great truths could oiilv be
apprehended by the churches, it is probable that we should
see some wonderful gains in the next century. If the
churches were all to put their chief reliance on methods
less dramatic and spectacular, but more in harmony with
all the great economies of nature, there is reason to
believe that such an accession of strength would come to
them as would make the promise of the speedy triumph of
the kingdom far easier to believe.
It will be said, however, that the revival system is so
thoroughly intrenched in the churches which have employed
it that it will be next to impossible to supplant it. .More
over, it will be urged, it is even securing a strong footing
in some of the sacerdotal churches: the High Anglicans
are resorting to "missions," and the 1 aulist Fathers among
1 Christian Nurture, \>. 213.
390 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
the Roman Catholics undertake a service not dissimilar
to that of the travelling evangelists of the Protestant
churches. All these things show, it will be argued, that
revival measures meet a recognized need of the Church,
and that some provision must be made for work of this
kind in connection with the churches. If the Church
must cherish and nurture its own children, it has also a
message for those who are without its pale. Its commis
sion is "Go and preach!" Not only to those of its own
household, but to those who are in the highways and hedges
it is sent, with the good tidings. It must be not only a
teaching but a converting Church. And in order that it
may do this work efficiently, it must learn how to concen
trate its energies upon it, and to marshal in forces for its
accomplishment.
In all this is truth which must not be forgotten. The
work that is done through what are known as revival
measures is work that cannot be left undone. The two
kinds of activity which we are considering must go on
together. The question before us is really one of propor
tion. The converting agencies cannot be neglected; the
question is whether they shall have the relative importance
now often given to them, and whether the work of church
and household nurture should not have the highest place.
Is the church which makes the latter a secondary interest
likely to preserve its spiritual health? The Anglican
churches, which have long relied almost exclusively upon
the intensive method, have lately been constrained to take
up the work of the "missioner, " and to organize a vigorous
campaign of evangelization. They have felt the deficiency
of their method, and are seeking to supply it. Would
not the same wisdom compel the churches which have
been resting wholly on the revival .-system to revise their
programme and devote themselves with equal zeal to the
work of teaching and training?
The idea which underlies revivalism is that of a certain
fluctuation in the movements of spiritual influence. It is
supposed that the converting grace of God is sometimes
present in the community in far greater fulness than at
REVIVALS AND REVIVALISM 391
other times; that he is sometimes ready and sometimes
reluctant to aid us in our efforts to bring men to a knowl
edge of the truth. Concerning all this we hear many
statements which evince crude notions of the divine good
ness. It is necessary for the faithful pastor to disahuse
the minds of his people of such quaint superstitions. Let
him not hesitate to preach, with all positiveness, the doc
trine of the divine omnipresence. And let him make it
clear that omnipresence is a spiritual fact not less than a
physical fact. That (.rod s power is everywhere in Nature
men easily Ix lieve; but it is more difficult for some to
comprehend that as a Spirit he is no less pervasive and
constant in his operations. They would never think of
praying that God would come to the scene of their daily
labor and give cohesion to the particles of matter or
chemical affinity to its atoms, or actinic force to the rays
of the sun; they would never he heard lamenting that the
law of gravitation had ceased to operate in the city of
their residence, or praying that the power of God, as
manifested in gravitation, might he displayed in their
neighborhood as wonderfully as it had been displayed in
other neighborhoods: yet they do often lament that the
spiritual influences of God have departed, and pray that
they may be restored. It might be supposed that no such
conception could occupy the minds of Christian disciples,
but it will be found that notions of this kind do prevail to
a considerable extent. To remove this misconception is
part of the duty of the Christian teacher. He must make
it clear that no such literal separation of God s spirit from
man can be conceived of. It can be no more true that his
spirit is withdrawn from human lives, than that his power
is withdrawn from the natural systems by which our
bodies are sustained. God is not less constant in his
ministrations to the souls of men than to their bodies.
The doctrine of his omnipresence is sadly mutilated when
we make it apply only to physical nature and exclude it
from the spiritual world.
When, therefore, we hear the prophet saying, "Seek ye
the Lord while he may be found, call ye niton him while
392 CHRISTIAN PASTOH AND WORKING CHURCH
he is near," 1 we must be ready at once to admit that these
words are not to be taken as literal statements of his
relation to us. Yet there is a truth of experience to which
these words conform. Like many other words of Scripture
and of common speech, they put the subjective for the
objective. We speak of a room as cheerful, meaning that
we are cheerful while we occupy it. We talk of a dizzy
height, attributing to the place our sensations. And thus
it often happens that, so far as our consciousness is con
cerned, God is nearer to us at some times than at other
times.
There may be various reasons for this. The environ
ment, the spiritual atmosphere, may be clearer at some
times than at others. The hills of the distant horizon
seem much nearer on one day than on another. Some
times clouds hide them from our sight: sometimes in the
autumn haze they are very dim; we can hardly tell
whether they are mountains or clouds : sometimes in the
clear air of a winter morning they appear to draw near:
we can almost individualize the trees in the horizon line.
It is undeniable that our personal experience of the divine
presence is subject to variations not unlike these. There
are hours and days when our sense of his existence and
of our relation to him is comparatively dim and unreal:
and there are hours and days when the thought of him
impresses us, and when all things remind us of him.
This is not because he is really nearer at one time than
at another, but because something in ourselves or in our
surroundings renders communication with him more
direct at some times than at others. The earth is nearer
to the sun when it is winter in the northern hemisphere
than when it is summer, but it seems farther off, because
the rays of the sun strike it obliquely in the winter and
directly in the summer. And in like manner there are
times when the plane of our lives is turned away from the
Sun of Righteousness, so that we do not receive the direct
rays of his light and love ; and other times when our lives
are turned toward him and our atmosphere is as full of his
1 Isa. lv. f>.
REVIVALS AND REVIVALISM 393
influence as is the air in June of the sun s life-giving
power. It is very important that we should know that
these vicissitudes in our experience are not due to any
fitfulness of the (Jiver of all good: with him "there can
be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning." 1
liut it is also reasonable that we should make the most of
the flood-tides of our experience. If, in some hours or
seasons, we are more conscious than at others of the
presence of the divine influence in our lives, it is then
that we should press into the audience chamber and make
known to him our requests.
Sometimes the social conditions are such that there is
unusual readiness on the part of those not known as dis
ciples to consider the claims of (tod upon their lives. It
is not necessary to enter into any discussion of the causes
which produce these social conditions. Doubtless thev
are much less recondite than they are sometimes supposed
to be. Hut no matter what may be the causes, the effects
are notable, and they ought to be wisely used. The sun
is no nearer in June than in December, but June and not
January is harvest time.
"Seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord " -
will come, therefore, to every faithful church. It will not
be true of any church which sets before itself the true
ideal of life and work that its activities will alwavs move
upon one dead level. While it goes about its work cheer
fully and patiently, seasons of unwonted interest and
enjoyment will supervene; truth will be borne in upon
the minds of disciples with unwonted power: they will
feel new delight in their devotions and new y.eal in their
labors: their hearts will burn within them as they journey
in the common paths of dailv experience and the quicken
ing influence of the divine Spirit will be felt in all their
assemblies. Such times of refreshing do come to all
faithful companies of Christian laborers: there are hours
when the Kingdom of (iod seems to be very near to them.
Such visitations as these, which occur to those who are
patiently doing their Master s work, differ widely from the
1 .laini-i i. 17 - An- iii. I .i.
394 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
custom-made excitements into which some disciples are
wont periodically to lash themselves. When they come
we may well regard them as seasons for renewing our
vigilance and increasing our diligence. How to use such
seasons wisely, when they come, is one of the practical
questions that test the judgment of the Christian minister.
"The church," says a wise pastor, "should welcome these
periodic revival occasions when they come naturally, as
affording it a special opportunity for its proper work.
Sometimes, indeed, these occasions have been abused by
ignorant and unwise leaders. Sometimes they have used
exaggerated statements of doctrines or gross sensationalism
to stampede men into the kingdom of heaven under a
panic of fear or through the common impulse of the crowd.
The result is an explosion of passional excitement rather
than a genuine arousing of the religious nature. And the
reaction that follows such a spurious work brings a deep
distaste for religion and a greater unwillingness to listen
to its appeals and engage in its duties. We need to be on
our guard against any such misuse of the opportunity." 1
As a rule it will be well, when such tides of religious
feeling sweep through the congregation, to keep the ordi
nary activities of the church moving steadily forward,
without any great change in methods. Some greater
frequency of public services may be advisable, but even
here moderation is wise. It is not good to permit the
impression to obtain that this new earnestness is the effect
of some special measures employed, or inseparable from
them. It ought to be evident that the heightened relig
ious feeling can find ample expression in the ordinary
services of the church, and in the common round of daily
duties. In his work on the Theory of Preaching, Professor
Austin Phelps gives useful counsel on this subject:
" The tendency of popular religious excitement to morbid
growths is proportioned to the insignificance of the execu
tive action to which it is directed. Neither nature nor
grace in normal action fosters profound agitations of con
science about petty things. Make such things the centre
1 Rev. C. H. Richards, in Parish Problems, pp. 312, 313.
REVIVALS AND REVIVALISM 395
of intense convictions of conscience, and you inevitably
create religious distortions. The prick of a needle in the
spinal marrow may make a child a hunchback for life. So
let an awakened conscience be penetrated deeply concern
ing action which is not significant of character, and its
working becomes diseased. The penetration results in
ulceration. Therefore it is always the aim of a wise
preacher in a revival to guide the current, and, still more
carefully, a torrent of quickened emotion, as soon as pos
sible into the even tenor of life s ordinary duties. The
specialty of a revival of religion in itself is not a desirable
thing. The sooner it ceases to be exceptional, and flows
into life s common channel of interests, the better. Relig
ions excitement has no value any further than it can be
utilized in the sanctifying of common life. All conver
sions, until they receive the test of real life, are of the
nature of death-bed repentance in this respect, that they
have not been subjected to the divinely appointed disci
pline of religious character. Hence it is seldom, if ever,
wise to suspend for any long time the common routine of
life, because of the presence of the Holy Ghost in regener
ating power. We can devise no better means of moral
discipline. We dislocate the divine plan, if we displace
that in the attempt to improve upon it." 1
Professor Phelps calls attention also to the fact that the
machinery of the revival, the anxious seat, the inquiry
meeting, the rising for prayer, the public confession, the
street singing, are apt to absorb the popular thought. For
this reason it is highly important that special instrumen
talities of all sorts be sparingly employed. The tendeiicv
is strong to identify the spiritual influences with the
methods used in giving them effect. The saeramentalism
which attributes spiritual effects to physical causes is not
confined to the sacerdotal systems. Precisely the same
thing widely prevails in the churches which depend on the
revival system. The use of certain expedients comes to be
regarded as indispensable to the action of the converting
grace of God. Intelligent pastors have testified that the
306 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
piety of a candidate for membership in their churches was
greatly discredited in the opinion of the church if he did
not come in by way of the " anxious seat " or the " mourner s
bench. To go through these particular motions seems to
many disciples almost the sine qua non of conversion.
The outward act is in their minds as much an opus operatum
as is the administration of the sacrament in the mind of a
Roman Catholic. When things have come to this pass
the abolition of the usage is the only way of safety. A
distinguished American revivalist of a former generation,
the Rev. Dr. Kirk, speaks thus of the evils which may
spring from emphasizing mere methods:
" Inquirers easily substitute the mechanical act for the
spiritual step that leads to the Saviour. I have known
leaders to become so earnest in urging to this bodily
exercise, that it seemed to me certain that some of those
thus urged would lose sight of the spiritual objects which
are the only real magnet to draw the life into new chan
nels, while their attention was engrossed with the outward.
And when they yield to this urgency there is some danger
they may substitute the outward act for the faith which
saves, depending on the measure instead of Christ. The
leader is often placed in a very undesirable position. He
has undertaken a public contest with the inquirers ; and I
have seen one become angry because he was foiled in it.
This can be avoided, however, by simply making the
offer, and not undertaking to urge the step. The inquirer
sometimes is hardened by his resistance to the minister;
so that he more easily resists the Spirit of God. His
success in the contest with God s servant emboldens him.
The attention of the Church becomes diverted from the
mercy-seat, to watch the success of this measure, with
mixed emotions of true zeal, curiosity, and a party
spirit." 1
The first condition of healthy growth in a season of this
kind is entire freedom from all these mechanical devices.
"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Ste
reotyped methods are not the sign of his presence. His
1 Tlie Supernatural Factor in Revivals, p. 1 J .).
11KVIVALS AM) KKV1VALIS.M
manifestation will be as free and various as is the reve
lation of the spirit, of l>eauty in the natural world.
Whether the assistance of a professional evangelist
should he called in is a question on which wise pastors
differ. The fresh voice and the new way of presenting
the truth are sometimes effectual : undoubtedly the evan
gelist may reach some whom the pastor has failed to
influence. There are evangelists so sane and prudent
that they might be safely trusted in any congregation.
But, as a rule, it is better for the pastor to keep the work
in his own bauds. The different methods of presentation
ma} be helpful to some, but they will be distracting to
others, and doctrinal difficulties are often suggested by the
homiletical divergence of the evangelist from the pastor.
There are few evangelists who do not introduce more or
less of revivalistic machinery; and the increase of this is
always to be deprecated. The presence of the evangelist
is itself something exceptional: the tendency will be strong
to identify the unusual interest with him, and to imagine
that when he departs the work is at an end. On the
whole, therefore, the results are apt to be better if the
pastor goes quietlv forward with his work, making no
more changes than he must in the ordinary appointments
of the church, and turning the rising current of faith and
love into the regular channels of church service. The
only purpose of such a revival, so far as the church is
concerned, is to replenish all its normal activities.
In services which are chiefly intended for the conver
sion of men, it is usually assumed that some method
should be employed to secure the decision of those to
whom the invitation of the gospel is addressed, and to
obtain the confession of their purpose to begin the life of a
disciple. The duty of some public expression of this
purpose is often enforced by our Lord and his apostles:
and it seems rational that some wav should be devised of
ascertaining whether those who hear the appeal of the
preacher are inclined to respond to it. There is sometimes
a singular lack of definiteness and practicality in our
evangelistic efforts: we fire into the flock and make no
398 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
effort to ascertain whether any shot has taken effect. In
special evangelistic services an attempt is made to supply
this deficiency. Sometimes those who are inclined to
accept the gospel offer are asked to stand up in the con
gregation, or to raise their hands: sometimes they are
invited to remain, after the public service, for conversa
tion with the minister: sometimes, as we have seen, they
are called forward to kneel at the altar of the church.
No method can be prescribed for the accomplishment of
this purpose, and it is not necessary that any of those
ordinarily employed should be unqualifiedly condemned.
The character of the congregation appealed to, and the
usage of the church will largely determine the method.
One or two cautions are needful. The appeal should
never be made in such a way as to embarrass those who
for any reason may not wish to respond to it, or to put
them in a false position. When a minister asks all who
are already Christians to rise and remain standing, and
then asks those who wish to become Christians to rise with
them, attention is sharply called to the few who remain
sitting. They are put in the attitude of saying that they
do not wish to become the disciples of Christ. This may
not at all represent their real feeling. They simply do
not wish to express their desire publicly; and they may
have good reasons for this hesitation. Any method of
calling for public expression which embarrasses those who
do not answer to the call is always to be avoided. It is
better to say, " If there are any who would like to make
known their desire to be Christians, let them rise."
There are always some who are touched by the appeal
and inclined to commit themselves, but who shrink at the
outset from any such public proclamation of their purpose
as is involved in standing up in the congregation. Some
zealous evangelists insist that such scruples should not be
respected, and that those who cannot accept this invitation
are not to be regarded as sincere in their purpose. But
he who does not quench the smoking flax is ready to
recognize the most timid and halting resolution. And it
is well, if such confessions are called for, to provide some
REVIVALS AND REVIVALISM 899
moans l>y which every one who desires to do so may
signify his wish to begin a better life. A simple device is
the distribution of plain cards to all members of the con
gregation. The cards may be handed to them as they
come in. At the close of the service, the minister may
ask all those who are present to write their names upon
the cards: those who are already members of the church
to signify that fact by a cross under the name; those who
are not, but who are willing to enter the way of the dis
ciple, to write under the name the word "Yes," adding
their address if they would like to receive a call from him.
Upon the cards thus collected he may find the names of
some who have accepted the gospel invitation and with
whom lie may put himself in communication. All this
is done with the utmost decorum; there is no invasion of
any personality; there is no excitement: the choice is
quietly made and registered and the iirst step is taken in
the Christian way.
The pastor should also invite any who may wish to
speak with him to tarry after the service: and he will do
well to appoint an hour during the day when those who
desire conversation with him may call upon him.
Respecting all these matters of detail it must be said,
however, that they must never be stereotyped, and that
the pastor must exercise his own judgment freely in adapt
ing his methods to the needs of his congregation.
It has been assumed, in this discussion, that "times of
refreshing " would come to the faithful church: and that
it is the duty of the church to expect them, and be ready
to make the most of them when they come, but not to
attempt, by any artificial means, to work them up. Hut
may it not be well to devote certain portions of every year
to special services? The Roman Catholic and Anglican
churches observe the Lenten season in this manner; there
are then daily services in the churches, social engage
ments are fewer than is usual, and the interests of the
religious life are made the uppermost subject of thought.
Is not this observance, on the whole, a salutary one? Is
it not well to concentrate our thought and desire, in this
CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
manner, upon the things that so deeply concern our peace?
Might not all the churches appropriately choose this
season, or some portion of it, for daily service? There
seems to be some tendency in this direction, and it may
well be encouraged. A period favorable to special relig
ious services, says an experienced pastor, "is the Lenten
season, when abstention from gayety and pleasure on the
part of a large portion of the Christians would induce
social quiet and thoughtfulness, which is peculiarly suited
to the introduction of religious themes. The attention of
men is more readily arrested then : there are fewer diver
sions to distract their thoughts when once turned to these
momentous questions, and the sacred and touching events
in the life of our Saviour which are associated with the
observance of this season make it a particularly fitting and
impressive time for evangelistic meetings. The very days
speak of penitence, of consecration, and of grateful devo
tion to Christ." 1 If such meetings should result in the
deepening of the life of the church, conversions would
surely be the fruit of them.
1 Rev. Charles H. Richards, in Parish Problems, p. 314.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE INSTITUTIONAL CHniCH
Tui: adjective which stands at the head of this chapter
is neither apt nor convenient ; its significance docs not
appear; but it has been applied to a type of religions organ
ization which is becoming 1 frequent, and there seems to be
no other term to take its place. The church which is
described as institutional " is one which adds to the ordi-
narv features of church life a number of appliances not
commonly regarded as ecclesiastical, such as gymnasia,
reading rooms, amusement rooms, and class rooms for in
struction in science or literature or music or art or useful
industries. The distinction is not easily applied, for many
churches that do not claim the name have some such fea
tures in their work : indeed there are few vigorous
churches in the larger towns and cities which do not
employ some of the methods indicated above. It is true,
however, that quite a number of churches in America have
recently made extensive provision for the introduction of
these methods : and it is to those churches which put a
strong emphasis upon instrumentalities of this nature that
the term w institutional " is familiarly applied. " It relates."
says one authority, "to that form of citv mission work
which adds certain appliances to the ordinary functions of
the local church, that adapt the church work better to the
youth of the neighborhood and the families of working men.
The building is an e very-day house. The work is social
and educational, and helpful to the poor: it is diverting,
amusing, as well as keenly evangelistic. Its evening ser
vices are so manipulated as to reach the classes to which
the church ministers. It is a church in which the versa-
20
402 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
tility of the pastor and his associates, and their knack at
catching the crowd count for more than in staid family
churches, where good preaching, systematic edification, and
certain routine pastoral activities are most in demand." l
It must be said, however, that sensational preaching is
not a peculiarity of this type of church : churches which
admit no novelties of method are quite as apt to resort to
this. The pastors of the churches best known as " insti
tutional " in the United States are not, as a rule, sensa
tional preachers : most of them are as dignified and
decorous in their pulpit work as any one could desire.
A brief description of the kinds of work attempted by
these churches will bring the matter clearly into view.
The Berkeley Temple, of Boston, under Congregational
auspices, was one of the first churches to undertake what
is known as institutional work, and its methods are thus
described :
" It started out with the idea of evangelizing the non-
church-going community, rather than merely edifying the
habitual church-goer, and in place of the ordinary rou
tine of parochial visitation, and occasional special services
to reach the impenitent, the pastoral force was to be first
of all evangelistic in its methods of work.
" The building itself was made an open-door church,
with daily ministrations ; a business house, in spiritual
business. The attention of non-church-going people was
attracted at once by popular lectures and concerts. By a
Dorcastry Superintendent, three hundred young women
were gathered, for whom reading rooms were opened, and
twenty evening classes. Young men s reading rooms,
gymnasium, lyceum work, and evening classes were opened,
a Boys Brigade organized ; a sewing school and a kinder
garten provided ; and thirty-seven gatherings, comprising
from eight to twelve thousand people every week, have
utilized the Berkeley Temple building. There is a relief
department for the poor, rescue work for fallen women,
and a temperance guild of two hundred reformed men.
" It is in its new environment one of the most highly
1 Triumphs of the Cross, p. 540.
THE INSTITUTIONAL CHUUCH 403
organized and efficient institutions ; fully armed at every
point, and intensely alive spiritually. In seven years the
church membership has increased from three hundred to
more than a thousand/ l
Students from neighboring theological seminaries have
taken large part in the work of this church. With such
assistance it has been found possible to establish an " In-
stitute of Applied Christianity," with a well organized
teaching force and a regular course of studv.
Grace Church, or The Temple, in Philadelphia, is a
Baptist institution of far larger ambitions. This church,
beginning in a small mission, in the outskirts of the city,
has taken on one kind of work after another until its scope
is now wider than that of any other similar organization.
The membership of the church is now about twenty-five
hundred, with regular congregations of from four to five
thousand, of whom many hundreds are devoting much of
their leisure time to charitable and evangelistic work.
One striking outcome of this work is a college thus de
scribed by the pastor :
" Beginning with seven young men who wished to study
for the ministry, these attracted others, and the new class
still others. Teachers were added as the need developed.
New studies were introduced, as demanded, until now a
full College Corporation, chartered by the State and inde
pendent of the church, gives instruction directly and in
directly to about thirty-live hundred students. The courses
include a full college course, a college preparatory and
business courses, a professional course, a School of Christian
Religion, a musical department, a special department in
practical instruction connected with mechanics, household
science, and the useful arts. The new building just dedi
cated, together with the halls in different parts of the city of
Philadelphia, have been so arranged as to take six thousand
students at the opening of the fall term. These students
are from all classes of society, but most largely from the
working classes, who would have no opportunity to secure
such instruction unless permitted to study in their spare
1 Triumphs of tin C ruas, pp. 5. 5C, 537.
404 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
hours and to go for recitation at the hours most convenient
for them, day or evening." l
Another remarkable outgrowth of this work is the Hos
pital, located in a neighborhood where no provision had
been made for the care of the sick. It began with four
beds, and the number has increased to twenty-one, now
housed with a dispensary in a building owned by the church.
These beds are usually full the year round with accident
cases ; sometimes the dispensary and the yard adjoining
are crowded with afflicted persons waiting for medical or
surgical assistance. The church regards this part of its
work as only just begun, and looks for a larger building
and a work of medical visitation which shall cover the
entire city.
Of organizations connected with this church there are
mentioned seven Christian Endeavor Societies, the Boys
Brigade, the Young Women s Christian Association, the
Young Men s Association, the Business Men s Union,
the Ladies Aid Society, the College Athletic Associa
tion, the Great Chorus, the King s Daughters and King s
Sons, the Gymnasium, the Sunday Schools, the Sanitarium,
the Society for furnishing work for the homeless poor, the
Home for Young Women, the Girls Lamp and Lilies Bene
volent Society, the Young Men s Congress, and the Literary
Societies. The seven reading rooms are said to be over-full
in the evenings. There are four assistant pastors besides
the dean of the college and the hospital chaplain. Eighteen
deacons divide among them the parochial charities. The
field covered by this single church of Jesus Christ is ex
ceeding broad.
The Jersey City Tabernacle is located in a very unprom
ising section of that city. The licensed saloons in the
vicinity number about three hundred to the square mile,
and there are unnumbered groceries where liquor is sold,
and a full supply of houses of prostitution, pooling shops
and gambling places. On one side of the Tabernacle, in
its immediate neighborhood, is the Canal Boat Basin, with
a shifting population of extremely low character ; docks,
1 Triumphs of the Cross, pp. 534, 535.
THK INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH 405
freight yards and factories form the environment in other
directions.
The first addition to the appliances of this church was a
bowling alley : this proved so useful that the wisdom of
providing wholesome amusements for the people of the
vicinity was justified. A People s Palace has been built
adjoining the church, in which are billiard tables, a room
for dramatic entertainments, a swimming tank, and a gvm-
nasium. More than a score of indoor games of various
kinds attract the boys, and there is a four-acre lot adjoining
for out-door sports. There are lecture courses, popular
entertainments, an employment bureau, a Chautauqua
circle, a Christian Endeavor Society, and a cooking class
and a dressmaking class for the girls. Six hundred boys
are attached to the Tabernacle : there is a Hoys Brigade
and a carpenters shop. 1
The churches thus described are known as " institu
tional ;" others, bearing the same designation, and doing
the same kind of work, are found in Cleveland, Detroit,
.Milwaukee, and several other American cities. Other
churches, not thus designated, are performing the same
kind of work. The largest and richest Episcopal church in
America, Trinity Parish, in New York, with eight chapels,
a total membership of 6488 communicants, and 4^77 pupils
in its Sunday-schools, includes in its machinery of service
relief societies, employment bureaux, industrial training
schools, a number of societies for men. and clubs for all
ages. Its educational equipment comprises ten day and
night schools with 104-> scholars and lo/>7 pupils in the
industrial schools.
(irace Church in the same city, to which an endowment
of $350,000 has been given bv a benevolent parishioner,
divides its work into twelve departments : The Religious
Instruction of the Young, having eleven hundred in the
Sunday-schools; Missions at Home and Abroad: Indus
trial Education, with six hundred pupils: Industrial
Employment : The Care of the Sick and Needy; The Care
of Little Children: The Visitation of Neighborhoods;
1 Tin Triu?nj>lis i if the Cross, p. 525.
406 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
The Visitation of Prisoners ; The Promotion of Temper
ance ; Fresh Air Work, benefiting eight thousand recipi
ents ; Libraries and Reading Rooms, and Friendly Societies
and Brotherhoods. The work of these departments is
divided between thirty-five organizations."
St. Bartholomew s Church in New York has a Men s
Club, with a membership of three hundred; a Girls Club,
which assists young women to find employment, and whose
membership, limited to five hundred, is always full, with
candidates in waiting; and a Boys Club, with a cadet
corps, a drum and fife corps, a gymnastic class, and classes
for typewriting, mechanical drawing and bookkeeping. A
tailor-shop in which women make over or repair old gar
ments, a cooking class for married women, a sewing school
with five hundred pupils, and several kindergartens are also
included among the departments of church work. The St.
Bartholomew clinic has treated more than six thousand sur
gical cases in a year and made more than three thousand
medical visits, and a night dispensary for eye, ear, nose and
throat disorders has given free treatment to eighteen hun
dred patients. A novel institution connected with this
church is the loan bureau, with a capital of $25,000, Avhich
has aided during one year 768 families by small loans upon
chattel mortgages. The loan is for one year, and is paid
in monthly instalments. The purpose is to deliver those
in distress from the pow r er of the extortioner. The annual
disbursements of this church are about $200,000.
St. George s Church, now far down town, with 3185
communicants on its registry and 1124 families of 5372
individuals in its parish, has a parish house with a free
library, a fine gymnasium, industrial schools for boys and
girls, a free trade-school, with five departments, a Men s
Club, a Boys Battalion, an Employment Society, an Ath
letic Club, with sections devoted to base ball, bicycling,
croquet and tennis ; legal, medical relief, and sanitary
bureaux, and an extensive kindergarten work. The sea
side cottage charity, and the poor relief are also important
departments.
These sketches of some of the more important Ameri-
THE INSTITUTIONAL CHTltCH 407
can churches now devoting 1 their energies to this kind of
work will serve to indicate the nature of the development
which is now taking place in this field. The list might be
greatly extended. In England, both in the national church
and in the dissenting churches, methods of this nature are
extensively employed. It is needless to say that the classi
cal treatises on pastoral theology do not contemplate the
existence of such functions as these modern churches are
exercising. Many things which churches in the cities are
now attempting would have been thought, a few veai-s ago,
to be utterlv beyond the ecclesiastical pale. Kven now
there are many who sharply question the legitimacy of
these methods, maintaining that the line between the
secular and the sacred should be clearly drawn, and that
the church should confine itself to purely spiritual func
tions. The question which is raised by this new departure
in church activities is one that demands careful con
sideration.
It should be at once admitted, that if these new measures
have the effect to diminish the spiritual power of the church,
they are by that fact condemned. If libraries and gym
nasiums and bowling alleys and educational classes and
men s and boys clubs are inconsistent with or hostile to
spiritual life and activity they must not be encouraged. It
is not, however, usually believed that these things are es
sentially opposed to spiritual culture: it is only contended
that they are distinct from it, and cannot be usefully com
bined with it. The assumption is that they belong to a
different department of life and should be kept separate
from our religious activities. That Christian men should
belong to an organization outside the church for the pro
motion of studies or recreations, would be deemed entirely
proper: what is questioned is the incorporation of such
interests in the life of the church. The effect of this, it is
argued, can only be the "secularization" of the church,
and the weakening of its religions influence.
The first answer to this criticism must be found in an
appeal to the facts. Is it true that the religious life of the
churches adopting these measures has been preceptibly
408 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AXD WORKING CHURCH
weakened ? The testimony seems to be clear that such is
not the case. The preaching of most of these pulpits is
said to be exceptionally faithful in its presentation of
spiritual truths ; the percentage of additions to these
churches by conversion is far larger than is the average in
the other churches of the country. It appears, therefore,
that the proximity of the gymnasium and the amusement
room to the prayer-meeting room has not reduced the
attendance in the latter place, nor the interest of its
services, but has rather augmented them.
If these diversions were suffered to become substitutes
for Christian activity their influence would be evil ; but
if they are made tributary to the life of the spirit they may
be beneficial. If it is possible for us, whether we eat or
drink or whatever we do, to do all to the glory of God, it
must be possible to use all wholesome means of education
and recreation in building up his kingdom.
So far as the strictly philanthropic work of the institu
tional church is concerned, there would probably be little
dispute about its legitimacy. The question arises respect
ing the educational and recreative features of the work.
It is to these that the taint of secularity is supposed to
attach. But it is evident that a church situated as is the
Jersey City Tabernacle or St. George s Church in New
York could hardly devise a wiser philanthropy than that
which offers to young men and boys wholesome diver
sions in safe places. If recreation is a normal need of
human beings, and if the church finds thousands of its
neighbors going down to ruin before its eyes because there
is no recreation within their reach that is not full of deadly
poison, the instincts of Christian love would prompt the
church to supply this normal need. To save a soul from
death, even by means of a gymnasium or a bowling alley,
is not a secular proceeding. The church that is too dainty-
fingered to use such means for the rescue of the youth
from the ways of destruction, has not learned how to
be all things to all men that it may by all means save
some.
But the philosophy of this movement goes deeper. It
THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH 409
rests upon the truth that Christ has redeemed the whole
world, that it all belongs to him its industries, its pleas
ures, its arts, its social institutions and that it is the duty
of the Church to claim it all for him and use it in his
honor. The conventional distinction between the sacred
and the secular it abolishes. It places the emphasis not
upon the form of the service, but upon the spirit in which it
is administered. It sees many a religious rite performed
in a temper which is too manifestly irreligious: and it
beholds the divineness of love displayed in homely tasks
and simple pleasures. All work, all study, all social ser
vice, rightly performed, are sacred. If the ploughing of the
wicked is sin, the ploughing of the righteous is holiness, and
for the same reason. The sanctiiication of all life is tin-
great business of the Church ; and the demonstration that
useful studies and wholesome pleasures are essentially relig
ious is one of the highest services that she can render to
the present generation.
In the presence of this conviction the common objections
to the programme of the institutional churches are at once
ruled out. It has been said concerning one of these
churches: "The gymnasium has its place in this plan
because physical health and strength are sacred possessions,
gifts which God wishes and works to bestow on all his
children. It is because this church aims to be a co-worker
with God that it furnishes the gymnasium. The recreation
rooms and the clubs for outdoor sports are furnished for
the same reason, because in God s plan rest must alternate
with work and recreation follow mental strain. This is
not a secular provision ; it is part of the divine order, and
the church recognizes and treats it as such."
The pastor of one of these churches 1 tears this testi
mony: "Great fear has been expressed by timid souls,
lest the adoption of the bowling alley, the billiard table,
the dramatic entertainment, the gymnasium, and the swim
ming tank, should detract from the spiritual, but experience
proves that, on the contrary, all these legitimate sports
predispose young people in favor of religion and help
mightily to build up the church.
410 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
" The improvement in the manners and morals of the
attendants is pleasing to contemplate. Boisterous behav
ior, profanity, betting, and all manner of ungentlemanly
conduct are strictly prohibited, and this gentle constraint
is not without its refining effect. Men who are compelled
to be polite two or three hours every evening acquire a
certain polish in the course of time, which is gratifying to
themselves and their friends. This polishing process is
one of the conspicuous peculiarities of our institution.
" Blessed familiarities are formed between Christians
and those not Christians, which under other circumstances
would be impossible. You must know men before you can
expect to lead them, and when you once gain their good
will it is astonishing how easily many of them can be led.
" The congregation of the Tabernacle is peculiar for its
proportion of young men. It is not an uncommon sight to
see as many as three hundred young men present on
Sabbath evenings in an audience of fourteen hundred. The
young men s Bible class always impresses the stranger,
and in the Sunday-school contrary to the general rule
the male element predominates. Conversions are frequent,
and almost all who come into the church come on con
fession of faith.
" The present clerk of the church is a young man who
seldom frequented God s house, but his love for billiards
and bowling brought him into the outer court of our
peculiar temple, and thence he naturally drifted into the
holiest of all. Throughout our entire institution the
current makes strongly towards the Cross, and above
all else we place the regeneration of the individual by
the pow r of God. This genial, broad-gauge, common-
sense religion is very attractive to young people, and
if the Master were here to-day we believe He would be
in the van of the present forward movement of His
Church." i
Another pastor, after a comprehensive sketch of the
work of his church, draws the following conclusions : "It
appears that the church which honestly tries to adapt these
1 Rev. J. L. Scudder, in The Triumphs of the Cross, pp. 522, 523.
THE INSTITUTIONAL, CHURCH 411
secular means to a spiritual end accomplishes three things
which add much to the solution of the vexed problem of
evangelizing the masses. First : It attracts to itself a large
number of people who, under ordinary conditions of our
church life, would not be brought within the influence of
the gospel. This has invariably been the ease whenever
the experiment has been tried in this country. Secondly :
It confers an actual blessing on the objects of its minis
tration, and so fulfils the law of Christ. Such a church
puts its warm hand, athrill with the heart-beats of the
Saviour, into the hand of the distressed, the tempted, the
fallen ; and leads them out into a large place. It mav be
said that this is the duty of the individual Christian, and
so it is : but it is also the duty of the church as a church.
For, thirdlv, in attending to this duty as an organization
it will make that impression upon the community without
which it must inevitably become effete. It might often
i O
seem, to a superficial critic, that there was a larger outlay
of time and energy in this kind of work than the results
would justify. The mathematical Christian who is forever
trying to solve the arithmetic of the Trinity, or presuming
to demonstrate the results of church work in terms of the
addition table or by the rule of three, might be disappointed
with his figuring. The true value of such a work lies not
in the material, or even in the spiritual help which may
have been given to a few individuals: it lies rather in that
indefinite yet potent influence, which like a subtle fragrance
pervades the surrounding community, and counteracts the
malaria of scorn and doubt which threatens the religious
life of our times." 1
The only comment which these words call for is the
query whether it is not an error to use the word secular in
this connection. The maintenance of the distinction im
plied is rather apt to vitiate, to some extent, the whole-
work. Just so far as these new features of the church life
are treated as mere expedients or baits will their efficiency
be impaired. If they are not sacred in themselves let the
church have nothing to do with them. If they are, let her
1 Rev. C. A. Dickinson, in Amlover /iVr/-,Vol. xii. pp. 369, . 570.
412 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND AVORKING CHURCH
not apologize for them, but honor them. They are not
merely means of getting people under religious influences,
they are means of grace, every one of them helps to a
godly life just as truly as is the prayer meeting itself.
The essential thing is that those who are brought into these
churches should understand that these things in which they
take pleasure are the good things of God, and are provided as
such by his people ; that they ought to be received with
thanksgiving ; that the sense of his presence should be with
true disciples, not only when they are in the devotional meet
ing, but also in the recreation room. This clear recogni
tion of the essential sacredness of all honest work, of all
wholesome diversion, of all pure social enjoyment should
vitalize and consecrate all the work of these churches.
There is reason to hope that work of this nature will
greatly increase in the near future. The fields are white
for such harvesting. It would be well if in every large
city we could have many churches employed in work like
this. As has been remarked in a former chapter, the
Christian church which will devote itself unitedly and
courageously to work like this, can accomplish far more
than the average College Settlement. The Christian men
and women of mature wisdom and ripened character who
form the membership of the churches ought to be able to
give to the ignorant and the needy more effective help than
could be given by young volunteers, just out of college.
If the church could so organize its work as to bring its own
membership into helpful relations with the needy multitude
round about, it might look for large results. The great
advantage of these methods is that they put the church into
direct communication with those to whom it is sent with
its message.
It is true, however, that work of the kind under con
sideration cannot be done by all churches. There are
many, in country districts, and in small villages, in which
such methods would be impracticable. Not a few city
churches are in neighborhoods where agencies of this nature
are not called for. A church, as has been before remarked,
which lias for its near neighbor a well-equipped Young
THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH
Men s Christian Association, scarcely needs to open a gym
nasium or a reading room, or educational classes for young
men. It might, perhaps, tind a field of labor aiuoi
women. ,.
One of the difficulties in the way of the prose
such work is its expeiisiveness. Huildings, well adapted
for all these various uses, are costly: if they are opened
every dav the expense of warming, lighting. ;l nd caring
them is considerable : and the staff of pastors and helpe:
must be much larger than in an ordinary church. AIM
usually it will be true that the churches which are properly
located for service of this kind have not many of the rich
in their membership. One solution of this difficulty i
found in the generous support by churches in the mo,
prosperous districts of those which are properly located
undertake this work. In the words of a city pastor :
-Some churches, because of their location and environ
ment, cannot directly reach many of this class, but this
makes them no less responsible for the solution of our prol
lem The very fact that they are thus situated impli
that God has so prospered then, as to make it incumben
upon them to maintain a double work. -that in their ,
Held, and some aggressive work among the mass
where.
It is in this cooperation of the uptown and down-t<
churches that the ideal church of the future is to be re a
ized; and when it appears it will be an Institutional
Church, that is, a church with several pastors and
salaried workers, and many well-organized department,
work. It is impossible for one man to discharge i
factory manner the multiform duties of a city pastora
There are differences of administration, and dive,,
operation, and there should be workers of differing
carry them on. The aggregate salaries need not mm
exceed the salary of the star preacher ; and a cm re
worked in this way, by men and women of
ability, will show results that will far exceed any wh,
can come from mere brilliant preaching.
i Th> Andonr Iticitic, V..1. xii. p. %:>.
414 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
The social influence of churches of this nature can
scarcely be computed. More than any other agency at
work in the community they tend to break down the bar
riers which keep social classes apart, and to cultivate that
goodwill which is the only adequate social bond.
CHAPTER XIX
ENLISTINCt Till-: MEMBERSHIP
THE rapid survey which we have taken of the varied
activities of the working Chureh at the end of the nine
teenth century makes it clear that in a church fully organ
ized enough work will he found to employ all the members.
The too frequent conception of the church as a safe refuge
into which weary wayfarers turn for rest and refreshment,
does not harmonize with the view of its functions which
we have entertained. That the Church may be a haven
of rest for troubled souls is not to be disputed, but the
rest will be gained in other ways than those in which men
are wont to seek it. "Not as the world givetli " does our
Master give his peace. His own rest and refreshment
were found in his ministry of love. While his disciples
were gone away into the city to buy food, and he sat,
weary, by the well at Sychar, his fatigue was forgotten in
his faithful service of the needs of a sinful soul. " I have
meat to eat that ye know not of," ] he said to his wonder
ing disciples, as they returned and pressed him to partake
of the needed food. And the fundamental truth respect
ing his service is that it reverses, in many respects, the
common conception of welfare. The laws of the spiritual
realm are, in their primary statement, antithetical to those
of the physical realm, though there is a higher unity in
which both cohere. Of the things of the spirit it is
always true that the more one gives away the more one
has left. The economic principles which govern material
exchanges are utterly inapplicable to the spiritual relations
of men. And the same thing is true of the conceptions ot
labor and rest as applied to the Christian service. The
John iv. :!:>.
410 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
time may come when the disciples of Christ will rest from
their labors, but in this world the law is that they shall
rest in their labors. What is the word of the Master
himself to the weary and heavy laden ? " Take my yoke
upon you, and learn of me, and ye shall find rest unto your
souls. " l
It is this conception of the essential nature of the Chris
tian life which is beginning to find expression in the
organized activities of the Christian Church. The idea is
still very imperfectly comprehended by the great multi
tude of communicants: the notion still prevails, both
within and without the Church, that it is mainly an
Ark of Safety rather than an army of occupation. Four
persons out of every five of those who are invited into the
Church fellowship will be heard answering, for substance,
"What will it profit me?" The idea that men come into
the Church simply and solely to secure some benefit for
themselves is almost universal. It is a great reproach
against the Church of Jesus Christ that such an impression
should still prevail. "Come thou with us and we will
do thee good " 2 is not the invitation upon which the
Church should put the chief emphasis. The followers of
Him who came not to be ministered unto but to minister,
must not reverse the order of his kingdom in- their mes
sage to the world. It is enough for the disciple that he
be as his Master. Not to be saved, but to serve, is the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus. The sneer of the
on-lookers when Jesus hung upon the cross embodied
the profoundest truth of his gospel: "He saved others,
himself he cannot save." 3 It was because he did not save
himself that he was able to save others.
After this great truth the Church, in these latter days,
seems to be dubiously reaching forth. The meaning of its
mission in the world is dimly borne into its thought. It
begins to get some glimpses of the kind of work that it is
called to do, as the body of Christ, as his representative
in the world.
It is not, indeed, a new conception that the Church is
1 Matt. xi. 29. 2 Num. x. 29. 3 Matt, xxvii. 42.
ENLISTING THE MEMBERSHIP 417
called to minister in Christ s mime, and to give its life for
men; but this conception has generally been coupled,
avowedly or tacitly, with the theory that the Church,
thus commissioned, is the clergy. That such is the func
tion of all those who are entrusted with the olh cial ministry
of the gospel has always been understood. Their first
business, as all men know, is not to save themselves, but
to save others. But those theories of the Church which
separate the clergy from the laity have resulted in prac
tically surrendering to the clergy this highest form of
service. The high calling of the clergy is to save others;
that of the laity is to be saved. Such is the steady impli
cation of sacerdotalism. And although the Reformed
Churches have repudiated the sacerdotal theories, they
have by no means rid themselves of all their implications.
The notion that the people are in the Church to be taught
and fed and strengthened and comforted and inspired and
led to heaven, and that the minister is among them to do
this work for them, has been the prevailing notion, to
which all the treatises on pastoral theology are clear wit
nesses. It is probable that the very name of pastor,
which those at the furthest remove from sacerdotalism have
usually bestowed upon their ministers, has suggested limi
tations which do not belong to the ministerial relation.
All analogies fail at some points; and the minister must
be something other than a shepherd, and the members of
the Church something more than sheep. This is the mis
conception which we constantly encounter, in all our
dealings with the people of our churches. What is more
common than to see the people in the pews on a Sunday
morning, apparently settling themselves in an attitude
wholly passive and negative to await the operation of the
minister upon their minds. It is much as if they were
folding their arms and saying: "He is going to try to do
us a little good; let us see how his enterprise will prosper.
If he succeeds, he will be only an unprofitable servant: if
he fails, we shall have good reason to find fault." This
is hardly a caricature of the mood in which many congre
gations weekly present themselves lie fore the pulpit. To
27
418 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
drive all these misconceptions from the minds of his people
is one of the first duties of the Christian minister. Line
upon line, precept upon precept, let him instruct them
that the call to service is addressed not only to the man in
the pulpit, but to all the men and women in the pews;
that it is the whole Church and not merely its office-bearers
who are to be witnesses for Christ and laborers together
with him; that the duty of ministering to those who are
without rests upon the laity as well as upon the clergy;
that the injunction to do good to all men as we have
opportunity, and especially to those of the household of
faith, 1 is addressed by the apostle to the people, and not
to their pastors. And it will be the minister s constant
endeavor to secure from each member of his flock, even
the feeblest, some co-operation in the work to which the
Church is called.
The extent and the urgency of this work he ought to
keep before their minds. The relation of the church to
the community in which it stands ; its function as teacher,
inspirer, healer, light-bearer, leader of the people ; its duty
to do for the people round about, rich and poor, high and
low, believing and unbelieving, the work that Christ would
be doing if he were there, is the truth which he must con
stantly urge upon the consciences of his people. The pos
sibility and the duty of some active participation in this
work by every one that has named the name of Christ
by the children of the fold, even, and by the invalids at
home must be faithfully enforced.
We are sometimes inclined to say that it would be
better for all our churches if they could be sifted, as
Gideon s army was sifted; if the faint-hearted and the
ease-loving and the worldly-minded could all be sent to
the rear, and only the brave and the faithful were left in
the ranks. But this is the counsel of unwisdom. These
timid and indifferent people in the church are worth sav
ing; and the only way to save them is to set them to
work. Even if the service which they undertake is but
slight, it will be good for them to feel that they are iden-
1 Gal. vi. 10.
110
ENLISTING THE MEMBERSHIP
tified with the lite of the church, a.ul have a right to
count themselves not merely as passengers but as helpers.
In order to secure this co-operation ,,f all, the hrst
to be done is to keep the members of the church we!
informed respecting the work in band 1 be pulpit
announcements from Sunday to Sunday will convey i
of this information; but it is not judicious to devote mil
of the time of the morning service to the discussion ot tli
details of these various enterprises: and it is
desirable that some means of communication be esl
between the members of the congregation by which all
news of the church work ran be conveyed
printed calendar of services and engagements for t
with the standing list of the officers and the working
organizations of the church, distributed at the .loons
the church at every service, answers this purpose,
a calendar may be sufficiently large to admit, every week-
brief notes about the various enterprises, and reminders
the obligation of the members to support them. In a cit }
church where the membership is scattered, and the
culty of maintaining social intercourse among the membe
i, serious, such a method of communication is valuab
Some churches maintain a monthly periodical, somewhat
more pretentious, in which the work of the church i
reported and discussed. If judiciously edited, sucl
newspaper may be a great aid to the pastor. It, however,
the labor of editing it is wholly thrown upon him, t
burden, in many cases, will be too heavy.
The mid-week service, as has alrea.lv been suggest
may be utilized in reporting tbe progress of the
the church. A definite scbedule might be arrang
which brief reports from one or two departments
secured at each weekly meeting. Or it might k- preferrc
that an occasional mid-week service should be wh<
set apart for the hearing of such reports from all depar
ments. The idea that tbe church is a working body, e
sacred in definite enterprises, aud interested in tbe progress
of these enterprises, would thus be steadily kept in view
The annual meeting of the church should be
420 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
devoted to reports from all departments of the church.
It should be made the duty of the head of each of these
departments to prepare and present a clear and condensed
account of the work done during the year in his depart
ment, with intelligent criticisms and suggestions. Fol
lowing these reports of the heads of departments should he
the pastor s report, covering the whole field, pointing out
the encouraging and the discouraging features of the
work, emphasizing the points that need to be especially
considered, and making any suggestions that may seem
wise to him respecting enlargements or modifications of
method. These reports should in all cases be written;
after the meeting they should be recorded in a book kept
for the purpose, so that a complete history of the work of
the church should be written from year to year.
The meeting at which the work of the year is thus com
prehensively reviewed should be treated by the pastor and
the officers of the church as the most important meeting
of the year. Notice of it should be given two or three
weeks beforehand, and the members should be admonished
to arrange their business so that they may be in attendance.
It should be made very clear by the pastor that their
presence at this meeting is expected of all who are not
sick or necessarily absent from the city; that no social
engagement and no business engagement should be per
mitted to take precedence of this, and that the ordinary
excuses for absence will not be accepted.
In churches congregationally governed, the duty of all
the members to attend the annual meeting, and take part
in the choice of the leaders of the work for the coming year
is obvious enough. Even in these churches, however,
this business is apt to be left to a few. But when the
annual meeting is made the great event of the church
year, and the work of the year is clearly presented in brief
and Avell-digested reports, it takes on a new significance,
and the appeal to the members to attend and participate
is more likely to be heeded.
There is no reason however, why churches under an
episcopal or a presbyterian government should not have
ENLISTING THE MEMBERSHIP 4l>l
such annual assemblies of the whole meml>ership to hear
the recital of what has l>een done during the year, and to
listen to the proposals which may be made by the proper
officers of new work for the coming year. If the church
is a working body, it would seem to be highly important
that an annual review of what has been accomplished
should in some way be brought to tin- attention <if every
member of the church. With nothing short of this
should the pastor be for one moment content. The
presence of a small minority of the members at this impor
tant meeting should be to him an intolerable neglect, and
he should set himself, with all good-natured determination,
to overcome it. Once a year, if no oftener, the fact that
the church is a working bodv ought to be brought home
O i/ O o
to the comprehension of every member thereof.
It is sometimes assumed that the printing, in a church
year-book, of the reports of all the departments of the
church, for distribution among the members, will answer
the same pin-pose. But this is hardly sufficient. The
printed report can be easily laid aside; there is reason to
fear that not half the members receiving it would read it;
and the reading, in any case, would not have the same
effect upon the mind that would be produced by the oral
presentation, in the assembled congregation, of these
recitals of faithful service.
Nor is the plan adopted by some churches of providing
an annual supper for the members, in connection with
which these matters shall be considered, in all respects
advisable. The festivities would interfere, to a consider
able extent, with the business; and it is not well to give
the impression that this meeting is in any sense a festivity.
It is a business meeting; and those who attend it should
be expected to give their minds strictly to business. To
allure them with the promise of a good time and some
thing to eat is to touch the wrong chord. This meeting
means service and sacrifice, if it means anything; and we
do not well when we assume that there are many meml>ers
of our churches who can never be enlisted in anything
that involves service and sacrifice.
422 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
By such measures as have been suggested, the work of
the church may be kept before the minds of its members.
This is the first consideration. Those who come into its
communion must be constantly advised and reminded of
the fact that it is a working body ; that it is seeking to
follow him who said, " My Father worketh hitherto, and I
work." 1 In this very matter many churches fail. A
considerable number of their members are at work, but
there are also large numbers who are doing nothing, and
no means are taken to bring the work of the church directly
before the minds of those who are living in idleness.
But it is not enough that information should be freely
afforded to all the members. Vigorous measures should
be taken to enlist every one of them in some department of
the work. The problem of the unemployed is quite as
serious in the church as it is in society. The number of
those church members who, from one year s end to another,
never lift a finger in any effort to promote the enterprises
in which the church is engaged, is, in most,, churches, far
too large. We must not, indeed, assume that those
church members who are never known to take part in the
organized activities of the churches to which they belong,
are all fruitless Christians. Some of them may be bringing
forth good fruit in their homes, and in their business
relations, and in their daily association with their fellow-
men. The inspiration which they receive in the public
services of the church may greatly influence their con
duct. But it would seem to be true that even these, if
they were a little more conscientious, would feel that they
owed some service to the church whose covenant they have
taken upon themselves, that they must not be wholly
negligent of the opportunities of associated work which
the church offers them. And every pastor should set it
before him as the end of his leadership, to get every mem
ber of his church definitely and consciously pledged to
some kind of service in connection with the work of the
organization. There is work enough to do; the fields are
white for the harvest; and the problem is to assign every
one his work.
l John v. 17.
ENLISTING THE MEMBERSHIP 423
In every church a goodly number of the memters are
now employed. They are teaching in the Sunday-schools,
or working in the Women s Aid Societies, or the Mis
sionary Societies, or the Young People s Associations, or
the Guilds, or the Brotherhoods; many individuals are
engaged in several different departments of work. To
reach those not thus employed is the business in hand. It
can only be done by systematic and patient effort.
It is quite probable that there are many persons in the
communion who would not feel competent to undertake
any kind of work now organized. If so, some new depart
ments must at once be formed. It is possible, surelv, to
provide some kind of work in which every one may be a
helper.
There ought, for example, to be a very large force of
visitors of the poor in every considerable city church; and
any one should be invited to take part in this visitation
who would be willing to take the oversight of a single
poor family.
There should be a largo committee on fellowship also;
and those who would consent to make a few calls upon
new members of the church living in their neighborhood
should l>e assigned to this committee.
The committee on church and Sunday-school attendance
should lie larger still; scores or oven hundreds of the
members of a largo church could belong to it; all those
who would engage to invite to church or Sunday-school
those having no church home might be members of this
committee. There might be committees on flowers and
decorations, and committees on visiting and reading to
the sick and the aged: and collecting committees for the
church offerings; and manv others which the circum
stances of each congregation would readily suggest. Now
let the pastor sot to work to assign everv one of his mem-
lx>rs, bv their own consent, to some one ot these various
departments of work. Cards mav be prepared, on which
these departments are named, and these may be placed in
the hands of all the members, with the request, that each
one mark those kinds of service in which he is willing to
424 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
engage, and return the card, with his signature, to the
pastor. The names thus gathered in may be given to the
leader in charge of each department, who should be
responsible for putting himself in communication with his
volunteers and assigning to them their special tasks.
This will do for a beginning; but it will need to be
followed up. Many will fail to respond ; they should be
visited and kindly pressed into undertaking something in
the way of definite Christian service. "No unemployed
members " should be the motto of every church. By
diligence, by patience, by persistence, the expectation
should be established that every person coming into the
church should find, at once, some post -of service. Every
candidate presenting himself for admission to the church
should be requested to assign himself, at once, to some
department of the work of the church.
To bring about such a state of things in some churches
would seem to be a herculean undertaking. So large is
the number of those to whom church-membership has
never brought a suggestion of responsibility or actual
service, and to whom it has always seemed that they were
fulfilling all righteousness, if they folded their hands, and
absorbed what they could, and found fault with those who
bore the burden and heat of the day, that the attempt
to enlist the whole membership of every church in some
kind of Christian service may even appear to many a
quixotic proposition. But it will be far better to aim at
this than at any lower mark. The admission ought never
to be made that any person can belong to a church with
out having some active part in its labor. That a pupil
should be admitted to a school without any definite under
standing that he should become actively interested in its
studies, or that a soldier should be enlisted in an army
without being required to perform any service, would
seem an irrational proceeding; is it any less anomalous
that men and women should be received into the member
ship of a Christian church and permitted to live and die in
its communion without becoming responsible for any por
tion of the work which that church is organized to per-
ENLISTING THE MEMBERSHIP 425
form ? The clear and emphatic statement of this principle,
from time to time, will carry conviction to the minds of
those who hear it. It is so manifestly true that they can
not deny it. And when, without passion or accusation, it
is firmly insisted on as the only rational theory of church
membership, most of the members of the church will
accept the situation and seek to be counted as having some
part in the work. A thorough-going policy of this nature
will commend itself to the reason of every intelligent
person; it is more reasonable and more feasible than tin-
policy which expects all the \vork of the church to be
done by one-third or one-half of the membership, while
the rest are permitted to be merelv nominal or honorary
members. Doubtless we often fail in our church work
because we do not ask enough of our church-members.
But it must not be forgotten that when we ask service of
all, we must provide forms of service in which all can
engage. All cannot talk in the prayer-meeting or teach
in the Sunday-school; but some simple kinds of work can
be devised in which the humblest and the youngest and
the busiest can take part.
The leaders who have the charge of the several depart
ments thus organized, should be expected to have frequent
meetings of those enlisted tinder them, that progress may
be reported and counsel and encouragement given to the
workers. A roll of all engaged in each department
should be kept and called at every meeting. The visitors
of the poor, for example, should meet frequently, to
exchange experiences and make return to the committee
in charge of the work done. The large committee on
church attendance should be brought together occasionally,
and each member of the committee should be expected to
report in person or bv letter how many invitations he had
given and with what success. The committee on fellow
ship should meet to exchange information about removals,
and to learn what their leader or the pastor may have to
tell them respecting new comers. It \\ill be useless to
provide these different departments of work, unless those
who are assigned to them are made to led that something
426 CHRISTIAN PASTOR A!ND WORKING CHURCH
definite is being done in every one of them, and that the
work which they do will be recognized. The responsibility
of the head of every department for keeping his forces
together and securing some contribution of help from every
one of them should be insisted on. No such plan can be
made to work unless the pastor can succeed in finding
men and women for these positions who will take time
and trouble in securing the co-operation of those who have
enlisted under them. It is at this point, no doubt, that
the chief difficulty will be encountered. Not a few of
those to whom this leadership is entrusted will be found
careless and neglectful. Much of the work will be indif
ferently done. Perfection is never quite attainable in this
world. But it is worth while to aim at securing the
co-operation of the whole membership in the work of the
church, even though the aim may not be completely
realized. It is the only ideal upon which any pastor can
wisely fix his thought. To keep the proposition clearly
before the minds of his people, that, as every one has
received the gifts of grace, even so they must minister the
same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold
gifts of God, would be, to some thoughtless and irrespon
sible souls, a most wholesome dispensation of saving
truth.
The amount of unused power in most of our churches is
not often estimated by those who are responsible for the
care of them. The neglect exists, and we fall into the
way of condoning it, and do not take pains to find out
how serious it is. One investigation, made a few years
ago by a pastor in Ohio, showed that of thirty churches
investigated, only about half the members were present in
the church on a pleasant Sunday morning, and only about
twenty-two per cent, at the mid-week service. Here are
his reflections :
" It is a sad comment on the spiritual life of our churches
that out of thirty thousand members only six thousand
should be present at the prayer-meeting on a given week,
and twenty-four thousand absent. Is there no waste of
that power which resides in numbers ? If there were four
ENLISTING THE MEMBERSHIP 427
times as many present, the service would do good to four
times as many, and vastly more than four times as much
good could 1x3 done, because the meeting would be vastly
better. If a given number of Christians do a certain
amount of good, manifestly twice as many of the same
sort would accomplish twice as much. lint this is not all.
The Word says that one shall chase a thousand and two
put not two thousand, but ten thousand to flight. l
There is a cumulative power in numbers greater than the
numerical increase. Two hundred Christians ought to lie
able to accomplish far more than twice as much as one
hundred, and Avill if they properly co-operate. If half of
our church-membership does nothing, far more than half
of the possible power is lost. If four out of live do
nothing, possibly ninety-nine one-hundredths of the power
is wasted. The secret of the fact that possible power
increases more rapidly than numbers lies in organization,
the value of which in Christian work the churches and
denominations are barely beginning to learn."-
1 Deut. xxxii. 30.
2 Kcv. Josiah Strong, I). I)., in 1 itris/t I 3 rM<m*, p. . 348.
CHAPTER XX
CO-OPERATION WITH OTHER CHURCHES
THE unity of Christendom is a problem to which the
great ecclesiasticisms have lately been addressing them
selves with unusual seriousness and insistence. It seems
to be felt, on all sides, that something must be done about
it. Discussion of the various propositions for organic
unity, from that of the Vatican to that of the Congrega
tional Council, is quite aside from the purpose of the
present treatise. Yet no working church can study its
responsibilities and prepare to take its place in the field of
the world and its part in the service of the kingdom, with
out being confronted, at once, with serious difficulties that
grow out of this lack of unity. Indeed, it is the develop
ment of the working church which has forced this problem
upon the attention of Christendom. So long as each local
church was content with sheltering and shepherding such
as were born within its fold, or came of their own accord
into it, this question was largely in abeyance. But as
soon as it was discovered that there were large regions
lying unevangelized, and that the churches must go out
with their gospel into these waste places, the evils of
schism began to manifest themselves. In almost every
city in the land the collisions and confusions arising from
this source are shameful, and the waste of resources thus
entailed is little less than criminal. Any church sending
out its visitors into a neglected district, to invite the
children into its Sunday-school, is apt to find that a neigh
bor church has been over the ground just before it; and
the children, thus solicited, manifest a lively interest in
finding out which of the Sunday-schools is offering the
largest inducements. Multitudes of these children are
nMU KRATION WITH OTHKU CHURCHKS 4 29
thus continually <lru\vu away from one school to another
by what they regard as superior attractions; there is no
stability in their church relations, and small possibility of
making uny permanent impression on their characters.
When any church, after carefully studying the neglected
districts of its own city, plants a chapel in sonic promising
Held, it may confidently expect that before the paint is
dry upon the walls of the new building, another, like unto
it, will be rising on the next square, to contest with it the
occupancy of its field, and to divide with it a constituency
which is not large enough to support one enterprise. If
this competitor is backed by large revenues, and aggres
sive workers, it is possible that it mav absorb the attend
ance, and leave the original occupant of the field to
struggle and starve and finally perish. Such things are
constantly occurring. The principle of the survival of
the strongest is allowed free play among church organiza
tions in the cities. Mr. Fiske says that civili/ation largely
consists in setting metes and bounds to this force of
natural selection; in replacing the animal competitions bv
sympathy and consideration and good-will. lie calls this
"casting off the brute inheritance/ This stage of civili
zation has not yet overtaken our contending ecclesiasticisms.
Dragons of tin 1 prime
That t;m- each other in their slime"
were not more ready to devour each other than are the
Christian churches, so called, planted for sectarian pur
poses, in the growing districts of American cities. It is a
striking illustration of the adage that corporations have no
souls. The impersonal society which we call a church
dues not consider itself bound by the law of love in its
relations to similar bodies round about it. There are
casuists who maintain that it cannot be: that any social
organization, as such, must look out for its own interests,
with no regard for the interests of its neighbors. The
ethical soundness of this proposition may well be ques
tioned. Through the acceptance of some such doctrine,
the strife of classes and all the woes that threaten the
430 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
social order have crept into our modern world. It is,
however, the principle which is tacitly assumed by most
of the sectarian propagandists. Led by such a maxim,
those who are zealous for denominational aggrandizement
fling themselves into competitions which must result in
great waste of energy and in the destruction of vast amounts
of capital. It would be uncharitable to say that the delib
erate intent of those who engage in these competitions
is to destroy one another s property; probably they often
silence the voice of conscience with the plea that the
growth of the neighborhood will soon develop support for
all the competing churches; but in four cases out of five
this expectation would be proved, by any serious investi
gation, to have slight foundations ; and the fact would
plainly appear that the multiplication of churches in the
neighborhood must mean the death of some of them, and
the annihilation of the capital invested in them. Such a
contingency cannot be remote from the thought of any
intelligent person carefully considering the situation. If
it is recognized by any of these zealous sectarians, they
are at least fain to hope that their enterprise will survive
in the struggle. None of them would think of applying
the torch of the incendiary to the edifices erected by their
"sister" churches; but they adopt a policy which will
quite as effectually, if a little less suddenly, wipe out the
value of their neighbor s property.
The mere question of material economy is, therefore,
a serious one. No man knows how many hundred thou
sand dollars worth of buildings have been rendered worth
less by these sectarian competitions; and even when the
edifices have not been abandoned, the enormous over-
supply of church accommodation, in the competitive
neighborhoods, signifies the unprofitable investment of
large amounts of capital, from which no adequate return
will ever come, and which should have been productively
employed elsewhere in aiding the progress of the kingdom
of heaven.
Such are the conditions which every working church
must face when it sets forth, at the command of its Lord,
CO-OPERATION WITH OTHER CHURCHES 431
to occupy the field into which, in the exercise of its )>est
wisdom, it believes itself to be sent. It is ;i situation
which no body of sincere believers, to whom the welfare
of Christ s kingdom is dearer than the prosperity of any
sect, can contemplate without a sinking of the heart.
Was this any part of the calamity which our Lord foresaw
when he said, "A man s foes shall be thev of his own
household?" 1 Can anything be more melancholy than
this fratricidal strife of men who sing so blithely, in their
union meetings, -
o *
We are not divided,
All one body \vt- :
One in lioj>c and doctrine,
One in charity ! "
For the waste of the Lord s money to which we have
alluded is not the only loss involved. The whole message
of the Church is enfeebled and perverted. The pushing
rivalry, so patent to all observers, impresses those to whom
the invitations are spoken with the egoism of the whole
proceeding. It becomes too evident that these eager can
vassers are working to save the Church, more than to
make the Church the saviour of men. " The competition
of churches," says one, "which is so mournfully common,
almost universal, is sufficient evidence to the world that
the churches are sellish; that they seek attendants in
exactly the same spirit that a business house seeks cus
tomers. And, of course, men who care nothing for the
Church cannot be induced to attend for the sake of the
Church. When we really convince men that we seek not
theirs but them, and that we seek them for their own
sakes, not ours, we shall have far more influence with
them.
What shall the church do when it finds itself face to
face with these conditions? It ought to seek, by every
means in its power, to secure some kind of understanding
or agreement with the churches round about, by which
competition shall be as far as possible suppressed, and the
principle of co-operation substituted therefor. In the day
1 Matt. x. 36.
432 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
when the wastefulness of a wholly selfish competition is
fully recognized by political economists, and when it has
become evident, even in the material world, that it is
better to unite than to contend, it would seem that the pos
sibility of securing some kind of co-operative arrangement
among Christian churches ought not to be despaired of.
Asa beginning, it might be well to propose a convention
of all the churches of the town or municipality, for the
sole purpose of studying together their common field of
labor. A friendly conference of this nature, even if it
were pledged beforehand to pass no votes and take no
action, might prove to be useful. It would necessarily
emphasize the fact that the field was common to the
churches thus conferring; the obligations of comity would
be suggested and emphasized by the existence of the con
ference. Some churches, doubtless, would be reluctant
to enter into it for this very reason; for there are still
some who are shy of any proposition that looks toward
unity some, because they are so fully convinced that
theirs is the only possible form of church order, and others,
because they think that the existing " cut-throat competi
tion " of the sects is the best regimen for the kingdom of
heaven. But it should not be difficult to answer these
objections and bring the various churches together, by
their representatives, to consider the condition of the field
which they are occupying together to learn what their
neighbors are doing, and what is left undone ; to investi
gate the hindrances to the progress of the kingdom; to
secure careful reports upon the state of the most neglected
neighborhoods; to study the relation of the churches to
the working people and the unchurched classes generally;
to look into the condition of the foreign -born populations ;
to find out whether or not the laws and ordinances of the
town or city are enforced by the proper authorities, and
if not, why not; to learn what is being done for the poor
by public and voluntary agencies, and whether and to
what extent this work of outdoor relief is tending to the
pauperization of the recipients ; and to consider any other
matter of this nature which may be of interest to the
CO-OPERATION WITH OTHER CHUUCHUS
Christian people of the community. The purpose of this
conference would thus be purely educational. Work of
this kind is by no means superfluous. Clear information
respecting the social and religious conditions of the com
munities in which they are at work is one of the tilings
most needed by all working churches. Far too often they
keep working away, year after year, with little knowledge
of what needs to be done, or of what others arc doing.
An intelligent survey of the entire Held for which t hex-
are jointly and severally responsible, would be full of
instruction for them.
Such a conference, in which each church should l>e
represented by its pastor and two or three delegates, culls
for no elaborate organization. A well-chosen Business
Committee of three or live members furnishes all the
machinery needed. The duly of this committee should l>e
to decide upon the topic for each meeting, to secure the
opening paper or address, which should be limited to half
an hour, and to engage one of the churches for the meet
ing. The pastor of the church in xvhich the meeting is
held should be the chairman of the meeting. The paper
of the evening should be open for discussion, in speeches
of limited length, and should be prepared xvith a view to
its publication in the local newspapers. Careful studies,
not too long, of the religious or social conditions of the
community, are available "news/ which any enterprising
journal would gladly print. The conference would thus
assist in enlightening the whole community respecting its
own social needs, and could be an effective means of
creating an intelligent and wholesome public opinion.
There is good reason to Ix lieve that a few meetings of
this nature would convince the churches taking part in
them that they ought to devise some method of practical
co-operation. Such an association as this would be likely
to deepen, in the hearts of all sincere disciples, the feeling
of their common interests and aims, and would strengthen
the craving for fellowship in work xvhich must spring in
the heart of all who have learned of Christ. Kvidenee of
wasted resources and conflicting labors must needs appear
28
434 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
in abundance to those engaged in such studies; and
doubtless large tracts of heathenism, practically untouched
by all these striving bands of sectaries, would be brought
to light. The need of a more comprehensive and a
more rational policy of evangelization would be strongly
emphasized.
The first question respecting the active co-operation of
the Christian churches of the local community in their
common work would have respect to the basis of such
organization. What churches shall be invited or admitted ?
What shall be the doctrinal foundation of such an effort?
To some persons this is a paramount consideration. They
are not willing to unite in Christian work of any kind
with those whose beliefs are unsound. The Roman Catholic
church, in its strenuous testimony to the unity of the
church, and its unflinching assertion that there can be no
unity which is not based upon acceptance of the supreme
authority of the Bishop of Rome, refuses, as a matter of
course, to take part in any association by which the recog
nition of other Christian bodies as churches is even im
plied. Many high Anglicans, with a different standard
of regularity, adopt a similar practical rule. Some of
the Reformed bodies have hitherto held so strongly to
the vital importance of certain tenets of orthodoxy that
they could not co-operate with any who did not hold these
doctrines. Various attempts have been made to find a
doctrinal basis on which Christians of different names,
residing in the same neighborhood, might unite in Chris
tian work. The creed of the Evangelical Alliance was
long supposed to be a statement broad enough for all prac
tical purposes. This creed contained the doctrine of the
Trinity and what are known among the Reformed churches
as the doctrines of grace, including the expiatory atone
ment, and the need of regeneration; it asserted also the
everlasting punishment of those dying in impenitence. By
this creed, many of those who " profess and call themselves
Christians " were excluded from fellowship in Christian
work; and while a goodly number of the denominations
were able to range themselves under the banner of the
CO-01 ERATION WITH OTHER CHURCHES 435
Evangelical Alliance, its definitions of doctrine served to
divide rather than to unite the followers of Christ. The
Apostles Creed has often been proposed as a basis of
fellowship for local organizations, but even this [troves to
be a stumbling-block to some whose co-operation is greatly
to be desired.
These unsuccessful endeavors after unity have raised
the question whether, in the local community, any dog
matic basis is essential to the co-operation of Christians.
Doubtless when the great denominations negotiate respect
ing organic union, it is necessary that they should conn
to some definite understanding about doctrines. But when
neighboring churches come together to consider the work
lying at their doors, and to agree upon some plan by
which this work may be carried forward without waste or
friction, is it really important that a doctrinal platform
should be agreed upon before they set to work / May they
not "receive one another, as servants of the same Master,
and agree to waive doctrinal differences?
There is, however, one important affirmation, which
Christian churches, engaged in avowedly religious work,
should always utter and maintain. They are Christian
churches; and the very principle of their organization is
loyalty to Jesus Christ. No co-operation of Christian
churches is to be desired, in which this principle is disal
lowed. Christian churches may unite, for various social
and ethical purposes, with organizations that are not Chris
tian; but when, as churches, they meet to form a union
of churches, the organic idea of the Christian church
cannot be ignored. All organizations taking part in such
a union must be those that "hold to the Head." Accept
ance of the lordship and leadership of Jesus Christ is the
only bond of union between Christian believers: but this
and this alone is essential to useful Christian fellowship.
Those who can answer the Master s question, " Whom
say ye that I am ?" as Peter answered it, "Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God," may surely 1x3 recog
nized as Christians. Further inquiry into the philosophi
cal distinctions which they are in the habit of making
436 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
respecting the essentials of divinity and humanity may be
forgone. His own apostles were by no means clear
respecting the essential nature of our Lord, while they
companied with him in the flesh; such as those whom he
chose to be always with him here, and for whom he prayed
that they might be with him forever, are not to be set
aside by us as unworthy of our fellowship. Loyalty to
him, the acceptance of him as Master, a true discipleship
this is the only condition on which we need to insist
when we come together as Christian neighbors to form
plans for the better prosecution of our common work.
Doubtless the first thing to be done by such an organi
zation of the churches would be to divide the field among
themselves, so that each church should have some definite
territory for whose evangelization it should be held respon
sible. These districts should be assigned with consider
able care, so that each church would find opportunity of
work among the poor and the neglected. To assign to
each church a district contiguous to its own edifice would
not be wise, for some of the churches are located in neigh
borhoods where there are few of the necessitous and
unchurched, and other churches have almost no other kind
of neighbors. The aim should be to distribute the work
as fairly as possible, considering the ability of the several
churches.
Nor should any church be given exclusive charge, for
evangelistic purposes, of the territory thus entrusted to it.
For within this territory, wherever it might be, would be
found many families connected with other churches, and
the right of these churches to care for their own members
could not be disputed. The duty of the occupying church
would be to find, by a careful canvass, those families in
the district which had no connection with any church,
and to be responsible for the care of them. Many families
would be found, in such a canvass, which had formerly
been communicants in some church, but, for some reason,
had lost connection with it. The visitors should be
instructed to send the names of such families to the pastor
of the nearest church of the denomination to which the
CO-OPERATION WITH OTHER CHURCHES 437
wanderers were formerly attached. Others, though never
communicants, would have decided preferences among the
churches, and the aim should Ix; to put tlu-se also into
communication with the churches which they prefer.
Those having neither relationships nor preferences else
where should be cordially welcomed to the services of the
church giving the invitation.
When the canvass of the district is made in this spirit
and with these purposes, the people receiving the invita
tion will get a new impression of the meaning of Christian
evangelization. It will l>e evident that the visiting church
is not working exclusively for its own aggrandizenienl :
that it considers the interests of the kingdom of heaven
as paramount, and the interests of its own organization as
secondary. "When the invitation is given in the name of
all the churches," says Dr. Strong, "it is manifest that
they are co-operating instead of competing, and the invi
tation which is seen to he unselfish is much more effec
tive. Such oneness of spirit and effort has an influence
which thrice the effort without co-operation cannot have;
not simply because organization always economizes force,
but because such oneness is the convincing evidence of
the divine origin and character of the Christian religion
which the world lacks. Christ prayed that his followers
might l>e one, that the world iniyht kuuw that the Fal!-r
sent In in." 1
The churches thus co-operating should have regular
meetings at which each church should report the results
of its canvass, and for this purpose uniform blanks should
be provided for the visitors, showing the mnnlier of
families called upon by each one. the number attending
other churches, the number attending no church, the
number gathered into the inviting church and its Sunday-
school, and the names and addresses of the families reported
to the pastors of other churches. These reports should
be summarized and reported to the union, and the returns,
when compiled, would furnish a complete religious census
of the town or city.
The attempt is sometimes made to form an alliance of
438 CHRISTIAN PASTOR, AND WORKING CHURCH
all the churches, and perform this work of visitation by
means of a general committee or superintendent represent
ing all, who shall subdivide the whole field and assign the
visitoi-s, selecting them from all the churches. But it is
doubtful whether this plan would be generally found prac
ticable. It is better to assign to each church a definite
territory for its care, providing it with the blanks for its
report to the union, indicating, in a general way, the
method by which its work should be done, and leaving it
free to work out its problem with its own resources. It
should also be understood that the responsibility of initiat
ing any new religious enterprise Sunday-school or chapel
service in the district thus assigned should belong to the
church having the care of it; and that no other church
should enter the district for such a purpose without con
sultation with the church in charge. Upon this principle
of comity much stress should be laid. In the meetings of
the union the scandalous and disastrous results of multi
plying organizations for purely sectarian purposes should
often be held up to reprobation, and the need of adhering
to some such rule of good-neighborhood should be empha
sized. If some consultation with other churches and
some consideration of the interests of the kingdom must
precede the attempt of any sect to establish a new enter
prise, many grievous offences against prudence and charity
would be avoided. Most of the organizations that have
been thrust into fields where they were not needed were
the fruit of a heedless sectarian impulse ; if their projec
tors had been called to justify them before the bar of
reason, they would have been put to shame.
The church receiving the charge of such a district
should be expected to canvass it frequently, certainly as
often as once a year. Necessitous families will be found
which ought to be visited very frequently; these, how
ever, should be placed under the care of the visitors of the
poor. Families which are known to be in attendance upon
other churches need not be called upon a second time;
those wanderers reported to other pastors should be seen
again, to make sure that they have been properly folded ;
CO-OPERATION WITH OTHER CHURCHES 430
and those who still remain unshepherded should ]>e kindly
entreated, until they make it evident that the friendly
overtures of the visitors are no longer welcome. 1
By measures of co-operation of some sueh character the
churches of most towns and cities could make sure that
no classes and no districts were neglected, hut that the
invitations of the gospel had l>een carried to the whole
community. There would he difficulty, no doubt, in
adapting a plan like this to such a metropolis as London,
or even to a city like Glasgow or New York or Chicago.
In cities of one or two hundred thousand people the plan
might he adopted, and more easily in lesser communities.
It would, however, he practicable in the great cities to
select certain large districts or sections, and group the
churches within them for this co-operative work. This
geographical division of a great city should include locali
ties inhabited by the less fortunate as well as the more
fortunate classes, and should not be so large that the
workers could not conveniently meet and co-operate. A
plan like this was recently adopted at the Hast Hud of
Pittsburgh, Pa., with the best results. The churches of
that vicinity were brought into the most cordial fraternal
relations, the life of all of them was greatlv enriched and
stimulated, and the effect of this co-operation upon the
community at large was manifest.
It is clear that churches thus associated may find other
work in which they can unite besides the visitation of
the unchurched. Their joint study of their common field
will reveal to them a great number of interests which need
their care, and in which they may usefully co-operate.
Ilere, however, there will be need of great wisdom and
moderation. Christian people are by no means of one
mind respecting the things that ought to be done. When
practical measures are proposed, great differences ol opinion
immediatelv appear. Respecting the evils arising from the
use of intoxicating liquors, for example, there is not much
difference of opinion; and the wish to do something for
the removal of these evils would be practically unanimous.
1 Srr ( MlilJ). i.\.
440 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
But when the ways and means were considered, the unanim
ity would vanish. The sectarianism of the advocates of
temperance is not less virulent than the ecclesiastical
variety. Some would be inclined to insist upon measures
which others would deem quixotic; it is not unusual for
zealous partisans of one method to denounce those who
favor other methods as foes of the cause and " friends of
the rum interest." The existence of great differences of
opinion must be clearly and frankly recognized at the out
set, and the question must be raised whether any line
of policy can be found in which all can heartily co-operate.
Here is a great opportunity for these Christians to take a
few lessons in tolerance and sweet reasonableness. It is
quite worth while to learn that although it is impossible
for two to walk together all the way except they be agreed,
it is still often possible for those who have different ends
in view to go together a good part of the way. "If in
anything," says Paul, "ye are otherwise minded, even this
shall God reveal unto you: only, whereunto we have
already attained, by that same rule let us walk." 1 "Let
us go together as far as we can," must be the motto of
these co-operating churches. It must be understood at
the outset that there will be many practical matters in
which they cannot co-operate; the problem is to find the
things in which they can heartily work together. And,
in this bitterly controverted field of temperance, there will
be some useful things which these churches can unite
to do.
It is probable, for example, that they could unite to
provide safe places of resort and refreshment, to counter
act the attractions of the drinking-places. Recent careful
investigations show the great need of some such provision.
A good part of the patronage of the saloons and public-
houses is due to the desire for society and for a comfort
able place to sit and chat and read the evening newspaper.
Such places of resort, with none but "temperance drinks,"
are provided in great numbers in British cities, but in
America there are few of them. It is probable that the
i Phil. iii. 15, 16.
COOPERATION WITH OTHER CHURCHES 441
opening of such places in our American cities would prove
an effective temperance measure. They should never l>e
offered as charities, and it would be a mistake to connect
with them any kind of religious exercises; they ought to
be simply and frankly places of decent resort for every
body; and they ought to be managed in such a way as to
IK self-supporting. The relation of the associated churches
to such an enterprise would be simply that of promoter
and patron; through a competent committee, they might
secure the formation of a company which would undertake
the business, and they could lend to it their moral support.
That the united churches of any town or city could. ly
their hearty advocacy, set such an enterprise on foot is
scarce! v to be doubted; and it would appear that until
something of the kind is done, they ought not to be ton
severe in their censure of those who resort to the only
warm and bright places they can lind to spend their winter
evenings in, nor to those who furnish such places for the
comfort and entertainment of their fellow-men. Much of
what passes for zealous temperance sentiment, when
viewed from the standpoint of the man in the street, savors
quite too much of the spirit of the dog in the mangel .
Our appeal to the habitue of the saloon will be much
more cogent when we have furnished him with something
better to take its place; and our political agitation for the
closing of the saloon will be greatly strengthened by the
same provision.
The associated churches could also, in all probability,
unite in the demand for the closing of the drinking-places
on Sunday. That the open saloon is far more injurious to
the community on Sunday than on any other day of the
week is matter of demonstration. When the saloons arc
open, the arrests on Sunday and Sunday night are more
numerous than on other davs; the cost to the community
of the maintenance of the peace on this dav of rest is
heavier than on other days, and the loss to the families of
bread-winners of the means of livelihood, with their con
sequent pauperization, is far more serious on Sunday than
on any other day. It is, therefore, the simple right of
442 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
the community, for its own protection, to insist upon the
closing of the drinking-places on the day of rest; and the
churches, resting their demand on no theological assump
tions, but simply on the general welfare, which they are
interested in promoting, may join in enforcing this demand.
A steady and resolute insistence upon a principle so clear,
in which all the Christian churches of the community
united, could not fail to have great influence in forming
the public opinion by which this policy would be made
effectual.
In another testimony, of the greatest value, these asso
ciated churches may be able to unite. That is the testi
mony to the sacredness of law. The stability of all free
governments rests upon the obedience of the people, and
especially of the magistrates, to the laws enacted for their
government. Liberty is the child of law; where there is
no restraint of human passion, and no rational establish
ment of social order, there is no freedom for any ; the only
rule is the power of the strongest. That the laws which
undertake to secure the liberties of men are entitled to the
respect of all is, therefore, the fundamental principle of
civilized society. Even though they may be imperfect, it
is better to bear with their imperfection until they can be
lawfully amended, than to ignore and disobey them.
The notion that every citizen may judge for himself
what laws are beneficent, and may set aside those which
are displeasing to himself, braving the censure and retri
bution of the constituted authorities, is a most pernicious
and abominable conceit; albeit we find it, now and then,
advocated in newspapers, and avowed in public speeches.
Still less is it to be conceded that a public officer, sworn,
in the very terms of his oath of office, to support and
administer the laws, should pick and choose among these
laws, selecting those which he will enforce, and tacitly
permitting those which are displeasing to himself to be
dishonored. That some such policy as this has become
traditional in some American municipalities there is reason
to fear.
What can be done to check the spread of this political
CO-OPE RATION WITH OTHER CHURCHES 443
leprosy? It would si-em that the Christian churches of
every community, whose duty it is to enforce the funda
mental principles of morality, might unite in a resolute
demand for obedience to the laws of the land, especially
on the part of those who have sworn to honor and admin
ister them. When they sec; the laws openly disol>eyed,
and those who are charged with the duty of enforcing
them plainly conniving at the disobedience, and even
enriching themselves by corruptly granting immunity to
the law-breakers, it is their duty to raise their united
voices in condemnation of the shameful intidelitv. It is
not their duty to organize volunteer detective or prosecut
ing agencies for the performance of the work thus neglected
by the officials, but it is their duty, as the witnesses for
righteousness, to condemn, in no ambiguous terms, the
most grievous unrighteousness existing among them.
The function of the old prophets must belong to somebody
in this generation, and to whom has it descended, if not
to the teachers of religion? Doubtless the obligation to
declare the truth respecting all these matters which con
cern the existence of societv rests on the occupant of every
pulpit; but the united voice of all the churches, clearly
and strongly testifying upon such an issue, would exert
an influence stronger than that of the single and separate
pulpits. Such a testimony, faithfully spoken, again and
again, must produce a wholesome change in public opinion
with respect to this crying evil. It is a testimony which
no man can gainsay. The reason of it is self-evident to
all who have reflected upon the nature of civil society.
And the associated churches, by simply declaring the
whole counsel of (iod with respect to this great interest of
law, would perform for the community a service ol the
highest value.
To the churches of the community thus associated, and
seeking for objects to which they might devote their
united energies, other opportunities of co-operation than
those mentioned would undoubtedly appear. To one of
the most important of these we shall devote the conclud
ing chapter. The determination to attempt nothing in
444 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
which they could not heartily unite to be content with
undertaking only such labors as they could hope to carry
through with entire success would result in a conscious
ness of power which would greatly add to the hopefulness
and courage of every member of the organization. And
doubtless the word of the Master would be fulfilled to his
Church thus united : " Because thou hast been faithful in
a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things;
enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
It is even possible that churches thus seriously endeav
oring to find common ground 011 which they could stand,
and objects in which they could combine their efforts,
would come to realize their essential unity. It might, by
and by, be evident that here was truly but one Church ;
that the associated congregations of any town or city really
constituted the Church of that town or city; that there
could be but one Church of Jesus Christ in any commun
ity, and that, in their common loyalty to him, and their
consistent endeavors to work together with him and for
him, the unity of the Church had been realized. It is
here, if anywhere, that Christian unity will be achieved.
Neighboring congregations of believers, whose principle of
organization is simple loyalty to Jesus Christ, may grow
together. It is possible that such associations should come
into such close and helpful relations that their union
would mean more to them than any denominational bond
could mean ; and that they would finally stand together as
one Church, together contending for the faith once deliv
ered to the saints, and lifting up a united front against
the powers of evil. Nothing seems to be wanting to this
but the recognition of the importance of co-operation, and
the willingness to co-operate. There do not appear to be
any theoretical obstacles to some measure of co-operation.
Roman Catholics may be willing to stand with us on
some platforms, and to recognize the fact that they are
our brethren. Every overture from that direction should
be cordially welcomed ; it must be that in certain matters
they will be willing to unite with us. In the preface to
his Reformed Pastor, so devout an Evangelical and so
COOPERATION WITH OTHHIl CIirUCIIKS 445
sturdy a Protestant as Richard Baxter thus sets forth his
own feeling respecting the co-operation of Christians of
different beliefs:
"The thing I desire is this: (1) That we might all
consider how far we may hold communion together even
in the same congregations, notwithstanding our different
opinions; and to agree not to withdraw when it may
possibly be avoided. (^) Hut when it cannot, that yet
we may consult how far we may hold communion in dis
tinct congregations; and to avoid that no further than is
of mere necessity. And (3), and principally, to consult and
agree upon certain rules for the management of our differ
ences in such manner as may be least to the disadvantage
of the common Christian truths which are acknowledged by
us all. Thus far would I seek peace with Arminians,
Antinomians, Anabaptists, or any that hold the founda
tion. Yea, and in the two last I would not refuse to con
sult an accommodation with moderate Papists themselves,
if their principles were not against such consultations and
accommodations; and 1 should judge it a course which
God will better approve of, than to proceed by carnal con
trivances to undermine their adversaries, or by cruel mur
ders to root them out. which are their ordinary courses.
I remember that godly, orthodox, peaceable man. Bishop
I ssher (lately deceased), tells us in his sermon at \Vansted,
for the unity of the Church, that he made a motion to the
Papist priests in Ireland; that localise it was ignorance of
the common principles that was likely to IK- the undoing
of the common people more than the holding of the points
which we differ in, therefore both parties should agree to
teach them some catechism containing those common
principles of religion which are acknowledged by us all.
But jealousies and carnal counsels would not allow them
to hearken to the motion."
Such jealousies and carnal counsels have, indeed, for
long centuries, been building barriers between the disciples
of a common Lord: but the day must come when these
obstructions will be swept away, and when the determina
tion to study the things that make for unity will U-
446 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
stronger than the selfish passions that foster schism. And
this, let us repeat, is likely to come to pass as the result
of the efforts of local churches to come to an understand
ing respecting the work lying before them in their several
communities. Therefore it is a matter which directly and
vitally concerns the pastor of the local church, and those
who are laboring with him. It is in the administration of
these local churches that the practical solution of this
problem will be found.
The principle which underlies the whole matter is the
principle which is revolutionizing modern sociology and
economics, the conception of society as an organism. If
this is true of all society it is even more vitally true of
Christian society. If it illustrates the relations of the
members of churches to the churches, it illustrates also the
relation of groups of Christians to the Christian commun
ity. " Many members but one body " is as true of the
Church of Jesus Christ in any town or city as it is of the
individual members of any given church. These separated
congregations are not normally separate, and cannot be if
the life of Christ is in them. They are members one of
another. There can be no fulness or perfection of life
in any of them unless each is ministering to all and all are
ministering to each. The churches of any one denomina
tion may be like the fingers of one hand ; but that hand
draws its life-blood from the body of Christ and must be
the servant of the body. The independency of the local
church is a doctrine which must not be too strongly
asserted. Indeed, even those to whom it is a cardinal
principle make haste to declare that it must never be dis
sociated from the other principle, equally fundamental, of
the fellowship of the churches. If a certain measure of
autonomy be granted to each congregation, it is only that
the freedom thus conceded may be used in a loving co
operation with all who follow the same Master. And this
principle of the fellowship of the churches is one to which
no denominational limits can be set. It is not merely the
churches of the same denomination which are members
one of another. It is not their acceptance of the creed of
COOPERATION WITH OTHER CHURCHES 447
a denomination, or tlicir utterance of some "consensus of
doctrine," or their observance of certain common usages
that makes them one, it is the life of Christ that is in
them. Brandies of the same tree have no need of a con
fession of faith to consummate and manifest their unity.
And all true churches of Jesus Christ, living so near to
one another that they can l>e affected l>y one another s
life, must feel themselves to be one, and must realize
more and more fullv, as his life is perfected in them, how
unnatural and even suicidal is the attempt to maintain
separate interests, and the refusal to be helpers of one
another s faith and love.
There is reason to hope that this conception of Christian
society as an organism will give us, during the century
which is now approaching, some precious fruitage. Tin 1
old individualism has done its disintegrating work in
ecclesiastical as well as in civil society. It was a neces
sary reaction against the hierarchical despotisms by which
not only the local congregation was robl>ed of the precious
right of "home rule," but the individual layman was
reduced to a cipher, the clergy being the only significant
figures. But the force of this protest has gone quite far
enough. Those local churches which have most completely
won their autonomy may well be the first to show how
free they arc to seek the unity of the spirit in the bonds of
peace, and how many and precious are the interests which
churches of differing creeds and rites may combine to
serve. That the spiritual unity of Christian believers is a
sublime reality, the churches of the next century ought to
make manifest.
CHAPTER XXI
THE CARE OF THE POOR
IT might almost be said that the Christian church was
organized for the care of the poor. The version of the
first Beatitude found in Luke s Gospel, "Blessed are ye
poor, for yours is the kingdom of God," 1 was rightly
supposed, in the earliest times, to refer primarily to those
who were not rich in this world s goods. The first assem
blies of the saints were largely composed of the needy and
the destitute. "Hearken, my beloved brethren," cries the
Apostle James : " did not God choose them that are poor
as to the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom
which he promised to them that love him ? " 2 The first
ecclesiastical act of the first church in Jerusalem was the
appointment of seven deacons to receive and disburse the
contributions for the relief of the poor. From time imme
morial the administration of the Lord s Supper has been
regarded as incomplete unless accompanied by a contribu
tion for the relief of the poor. The most striking feature
of the development of the early Church was its thorough
and systematic ministration to the needy and the suffering.
The learned treatise of Dr. Uhlhorn on Christian Charity
in the Early Church is a most inspiring relation. It is,
therefore, somewhat singular that we find in some recent
treatises on pastoral theology scarcely a word respecting
this most important duty. The elaborate work of Dr. J.
S. Cannon, an honored American professor of pastoral
theology does not allude to this as one of the functions of
the church. The only reference to the poor which a some
what cursory examination of the stately volume has dis
closed is the following, in a chapter on " Pastoral Duties " :
" In his visitations let him not pass by the habitations of the
1 Luke vi. 20. 2 j ames ;; 5.
THE CARE OF THE POOR
449
poor nor consider any family too mean and insignificant
to be attended to. The gospel must lw preached to the
poor. " Condescend, says Paul, to men of low estate.
The Master regarded the poor in his ministry; their souls
are precious. It is certain that if any gospel minister can
fill the place of worship with the poorer class of people, he
will soon find those of a higher class falling into Ins society,
for it is only among the poor that the pride of wealth can
he variously displayed. The Methodists now, in mos
places, begin to afford illustrations of this tact. Hie rich
in society are joining them, and producing a change
among them/ 1 The naivete of this reasoning is notable;
but we lind no hint of any obligation <>n the part ot the
Church toward the needy of its neighborhood; the poor
here referred to are evidently not those who need ass
ance. Vet this cannot have been due to any lark <.i sym-
pathv with the poor on the part of this godly teacher. In
the biographical sketch of him which introduces
lectures, mention is specially made of his benevolence
the poor, who never went empty from his door,
facts are indicated by the silence of this book: first, that
the congregations to which the young men instructed by
these lectures were intending to minister contained
necessitous persons; and secondly, that it was not regarded
as a special duty of these congregations to seek out and
relieve the wants of the poor living in their neighborhood.
Until these inferences, which seem to reflect some\\
seriously upon the benevolence of the churches, may be in
part explained by the fact that when these lectures were
delivered, nearly half a century ago. the number .
poor needing assistance was comparatively small in mo;
American communities. The eleemosynary service
church to its own members must needs have been a sub-
ordinate portion of its work. Probably this work
done with kindness and fidelity: Imt it did not occi
the good professor to refer to it as a department .
activity.
Even in the prosperous American commm
l Ltctiins on Pastoral ThtuhxjiJ, ]>. 550.
29
450 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
years ago the Master s word must, however, have been
verified : u For ye have the poor always with you, and when
soever ye will ye can do them good." l In the vicinity of
every church, if not in its membership, there must have
been those who needed the love and care of the Church.
The fact that they were not in its membership is a fact for
which, perhaps, explanation will be required when the
Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the angels
with him. But, if they were not in its membership, why
did it not charge itself with the duty of seeking them out
and relieving their necessities? Probably because this
work had been taken out of its hands, and entrusted to
other agencies. A remark of the judicious Fairbairn, who
himself finds need in his excellent volume for no more
than a page of discussion upon this subject, will throw
light upon the question :
" Passing now to the other branch of subsidiary means,
that relating to social economics, a pretty large field till
lately lay open here for parish ministers in connection with
the management of the poor, calling for the exercise of
discretion, sagacity and good feeling. It was in this field
that Dr. Chalmers won for himself his first claim to dis
tinction as a philanthropist; and to the discussion of topics
connected with it one of his most elaborate works is
devoted his Parish Economics. The work may still be
read with interest and profit, as it is pregnant with views
and principles which admit of a certain application in
every age; but as a guide-book for pastors in a specific
department of official duty, it may justly be said to be
antiquated. This whole branch of social economics is now
directed ~by an agency of its own, in ivhich ministers of the
Gfospel* whether of the Established Church or not, have but a
subordinate part to perform. But, of course, it will never
cease to be their duty to interest themselves in the state of
the poor, and to be forward in devising liberal things in
those more peculiar cases of want and distress which from
time to time occur, and for which a legal machinery affords
no adequate source of relief." 2
1 Mark xiv. 7. 2 Pastoral Theology, p. 349.
THE CARE OF THE POOR 451
The care of the poor, which was once the exclusive
function of the Church, has been relinquished, in most
Christian countries, to the state or the municipality. We
have here a notable fact of modern civili/ation, and one
upon which not a little serious thought ought to be ex
pended by the Church of this generation. Whether this
result is one upon which we may congratulate ourselves is
not altogether clear. It is, indeed, a great triumph of
Christianity that that "fund of altruistic feeling" which it
has contributed to modern civili/ation has so influenced
the whole community as to impel the state to take up this
work of charitable relief. That " All-of-us," in our corpo
rate capacity, should be compassionate enough to wish to
provide for the wants of the needv is matter for profound
thankfulness. But it is not yet clear that civil society is
fully equipped for the performance of the whole of this
work, nor that the Church has done well in relinquishing
it. For the most part, it must be admitted that much of
the work is badly done by the civil authorities; that those
most needy are apt to be least cared for, and that those to
whom the aid of the state is injurious rather than helpful
get the lion s share of its dispensation. That the Church
has been stripped of a large part of its power by its sur
render of the charge committed to it by its Master is also
manifest. If its influence in civil society has been weak
ened; if suspicions have arisen that it has become too
closely identified with the more fortunate classes; if the
problem of reaching the masses " has come to be discussed
in its councils in a somewhat despairing tone, these facts
are to be largely explained by its practical abandonment
of the field into which it was sent by its Master. It is
time, let us urge, for a great revision of the relation of the
Christian Church to the poor living in its neighborhood, -
and for deep searching* of heart on the part of Christian
disciples, with respect to the meaning of the commission
under which they are serving. Has the parable of the
Judgment no relation to the present conditions of the
Christian Church?
In the study of this question, we are first reminded of
452 CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND WORKING CHURCH
the truth that every church ought to have, in its own
membership, those for whom its compassionate offices will
be needed. 1 The constitution of the church implies such
a condition of things. Not only will it include those of
the lower classes, it will also rejoice to find among its
members those to whose needs it may minister in Christ s
name. Some of these have been overtaken by sickness or
m 
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