Epilogue

There can be no doubt that the ministerial market, if the expression may be allowed, is overcrowded. Serious inconvenience arises from this fact. The applications wliicb ministers make to one another for introductions to vacant pulpits are not only excessively numerous but often most embarrassing. There is, of course, a disposition to be kind to worthy men, and not seldom this disposition sets aside the discrimination which ought to be exercised in relation to the merits of the applicant and the special necessities of the position to which he wishes to be introduced. The difficulty is much increased by the fact that the applicants are men of excellent character, of good attainments, and of unquestionable orthodoxy: the one thing which is wanting is puljoit efficiency. In many cases the defect in this particular is most obvious. I know men whose moral reputation is above suspicion, whose scholarship is sound, and whose doctrine is unexceptionable, men who have college certificates and even university honours, who find it extremely difficult to obtain a livelihood in the ministry. How so? Simply because they can do nearly everything except jpreach. In conversation they have no difficulty in maintaining their ground; in point of information they are decidedly above the average; in manners they, are fit for the best society;

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292 Ad Clei’um: Advices to a Young Preacher.

yet as preachers of the gospel they are utterly incompetent. In looking at such cases we must come back to our old doctrine, viz., ministers cannot be made. Let colleges exist for purposes of scholarship, let theology even be taught to all who wish to study that greatest of the sciences, let a special effort be made by the establishment of evening classes for teaching scholars to read the Scriptures in the original languages,; — do everything that is possible for the extension of biblical study; but do not continue to multiply a class of able and worthy men having no adaptation to the public work of the ministry. To teach a man that he is a minister, simply because he has completed a prescribed curriculum, is to put him into an altogether false position. He is not a minister because of that; he may be a scholar, a theologian, a critic, but it does not follow that he is a minister. Adaptation to the ministry is quite a distinct question. Every Christian should study theology; the study of theology should not be a merely professional exercise; ever]) Christian too should make it his special business, so far as possible, to acquire a knowledge of Greek and Hebrew: then, when the highest education has been made available to the whole church, let those men who have the gift of preaching give public utterance to Divine truth. My call is not for a learned ministry but for a learned church. Of course there are diflSculties in the way of such extension of education as is proposed: there will be just complaints of want of time, and in some cases want of capacity; but these do not touch the main question at all. Pojndarise, not professionalise, theological education; as in classics or mathematics, let the doors be thrown open to all, and when it is made clear that certain men can excel in this depart-Exnlogue. 293

ment or that, let an inner circle be established, and the highest advantages be offered to such as have fully shown claim to the most advanced culture which the resources of the church can furnish. To my own mind it is perfectly clear that a considerable proportion of the young men who during the last five and twenty years have undergone preparation for the ministry would to-day have been doing much more good had they never aspired to the pulpit. At the same time it is equally clear that most of them were patient and successful students, and well deserved every commendation and honour accorded to them. The mistake was, in my judgment, to encourage the idea that they were ministers, and to set them apart as members of a distinct professional class. In addition to its being a mistake, it inflicted considerable injury upon the men themselves: if they had entered college to become scholars, critics, and theologians, the end would have been answered; but inasmuch as they claimed to be ministers, they were compelled to bear the stigma of failure where they might have enjoyed the honour of success. To this there is an obvious answer. The students could not afford the time if they were not by study qualifying themselves to obtain a livelihood by preaching. There is force in the answer; yet instead of putting an end to the difficulty, it rather suggests a further inquiry. Can any other method than that of the ordinary collegiate system be adopted for the extension of theological knowledge and of accurate biblical learning? The university lists clearly show that degrees and honours have been attained by means of private study. Is it not possible then, to encourage private study in theology and related subjects, and to give such recognition of results as shall remove all doubt of the competency of the student? I venture to think that it is quite possible, and possible in this way: let an unsectarian theological council be established, and let all men of all churches, who wish to be examined in any given number of subjects, present themselves for examination at such times as the council may appoint; and in the event of their satisfying the examiners, let them be certificated accordingly. Suppose that such a man as Dea.n Alfoed should consent to conduct the examination in the Greek Testament, and should certify that the student had creditably answered all the questions proposed, would not such a certificate carry with it the highest scholastic and social value? So with such a man as Dean Stanley and the Old Testament; so with Henry EoGERS and Butler’s Analogy; and so with other competent examiners in various subjects. The council should, of course, be thoroughly unsectarian; no questions need be asked as to. the denominationalism of the candidates for examination; even the names of the candidates need not be known until the result was declared; the whole process would have reference exclusively to the merits of the papers returned to the examiners.

To the establishment of such a council it may be objected, that in private study young men lose the advantage of conversational teaching, of stimulus, of the discipline of criticism and comparison, enjoyed by those who study in company. True: yet as it is not proposed to compel them to study in solitude, this objection does not apply. In some cases solitary study would of course be inevitable; but in others, by far the most numerous, existing college systems could be adapted to meet them. Evening classes might be established; small companies of young men might engage the assistance of competent teachers to assist them in special difficulties,, — in these ways the objection might be met to a large degree and if it can be shown that the proposed examination has great counterbalancing advantages the objection will be removed altogether. Let it be known that twice a year a Theological Council will be held in London for the purpose of examining members of all Christian denominations who wish to have their knowledge of given subjects tested, and the probable consequence would be an instant and powerful stimulus to theological study. The unsectarianism of the council, its indisputable competency, its perfect impartiality, would secure for it profound and universal confidence. Six months beforehand, or twelve, the council might publish the list of subjects for the next examination: for example — in Hebrew, a historical or prophetical book (to be named); in Greek, the Gospel by Luke and the Epistle to the Romans; in theology, six subjects, with text books, to be named; and the same with moral philosophy and ecclesiastical history. Students would thus have something before them worth striving for, and by the time they attained it they would have had opportunity of knowing themselves and forming a tolerably sound judgment as to their fitness for the Christian ministry. For the education of joreachers, special provision should be made. Their preparations should be superintended by men who themselves excel in preaching, and who are enthusiastic in their convictions respecting the power of the Christian pulpit. Even though an orator cannot reduce to rules the passion which gives him supremacy in the pulpit, he can by that very passion arouse and encourage those who have latent power of public address. The students should be made to feel that their teacher illustrates in his own ministry the grandeur of the vocation to which they have committed themselves. What if their teacher be languid in his appreciation of the pulpit? What if he be a preacher from whose ministry the public have withdrawn? What if he be not a preacher at all, but a layman who could not interest an audience for ten minutes? It is not at all to the point to reply that he is a scholar, a man of taste, and a good judge of literature. Granted that he is all that, what does it prove if he is not a preacher? This kind of service would not be tolerated in any other line of life; why should it be tolerated in the highest of all? Because a man is an excellent judge of leather, and has correct information as to the anatomy of the human foot, is he therefore qualified to teach the art of shoemaking? If a man never played a tune on a piano, would you send a scholar to him to learn the use of that instrument because the man had a fine ear for music and had written some excellent tunes? It does not follow that Shakspeare was an actor, any more than that Garrick was an author. I hold that essay writing and sermon preaching are totally distinct; that literature and oratory are not identical; and that it is as awkward for an orator to consider his oratory a qualifica- )ion for teaching literature, as it is for a scholar to consider his scholarship a qualification for

teaching men how to preach. He can listen to their essays with a critical ear, he can correct their style, he can give direction to their courses of thinking; but all this does not touch the one question of preaching with earnestness, with power, and with success. It will not do to say that good scholarship, sound theology, competent criticism, are to be considered before preaching. I say notking about their comparative merits; I have to deal with the one fact that students are being sent forth to preach. It is as preachers that they seek to engage the confidence and support of the cburcbes; it is hj preaching that they have to maintain themselves j and if they fail in preaching they miss the end at wbicb they aimed in offering themselves as candidates for the Christian ministry.

Turning from this point, wbicb I cannot but regard as of growing importance, I may relieve you by indulging in a little speculation. Tbe time will come when Sunday services will be modelled upon a new and better basis. Tbe minister will have to preach less and to preach better. There will be one service in the day, — beginning say at twelve o’clock, and continuing about two hours; in the evening, parents will have time to teach their children; and those members of the household who could not go out in the morning will have opportunity of going to special services here and there in the evening, and it will be matter of surprise if any be present in the evening who attended service in the morning. It is better to have one well prepared and thoroughly appreciated service, than to drag through two services with the heaviness of indifference. Those who have been at service in the morning will be doing work in the evening. Their children will be instructed, the poor and ignorant will be gathered together, and taught the way of truth, and wherever Christian teaching is needed it will be eagerly and gladly supplied. Tbe idea of a man bearing two sermons on one day will be considered either a punishment or a waste of time; and the days that are now passing over us will be laughed at for their oddities, or pitied for their endurances. I know of no body of men so hardly worked as the Nonconformist ministers of England. The lawyers are hardly worked, but they are helped by the variety of their labours, whereas the ministers are depressed by the monotony of their engagements. It is easy enough to reply that no monotony ought to be felt in Christian service; but human nature is not to be put off or satisfied with a remark which is not sanctioned either by piety or common sense.

It is to me a pleasant conviction that no office is to be compared, for interest, reality, and importance, with the office of the Christian ministry. I have followed the course of many men with most anxious watchfulness, — the lawyer, the statesman, the physician, the dramatist, the poet; and it is the sober conviction of my mind that not one of them is to be compared with the earnest, intelligent, and powerful preacher of Jesus Christ. Having regard to the scope, the urgency, and the far reaching results of our ministry, we may truly exclaim, ‘’’all things are ours.’’ The statesman operates within very narrow limits, so does the lawyer, so does the physician; and whatever there may be of depth, vitality, and inspiration, in the highest intellectual activities, is all at the service of the interpreter of God and the Christian teacher of man. I magnify mine office! Get a low notion of your work, and your soul will go down, you will not bring to bear upon it your passion and your strength; have a high notion of it, if you would work with enthusiasm and success. You must pray to be saved from the service of the mere letter; it is drudgery, it is bondage, it is pain. Preaching should be as natural and as easy as healthy breathing. There is no occasion for it to be a toil. It should be the expression of the heart’s best life, — not the effort of a pump, but the blessing of rich and genial rain. Men talk of making sermons and getting off sermons and begging sermons, — flee from such men as from enemies! Let your acquaintance with the holy word be accurate and profound; let the word of God dwell in you richly; be careful and constant in your study of human nature j live not in the clouds, but in the common experience of the world; rely upon the inspiration of the Holy Ghost; and never submit to the servility of making pretty sentences and preparing for pampered seatholders packets of fancy confectionery. What some ministers will have to answer for in this particular! Many a sin will be found in well trimmed rhetoric, in neat couplets, in stanzas forced in for ejffect, and in perorations intended to elevate the speaker rather than advance the truth. The heart is deceitful above all things! How we catch at any text on which we can show our cleverness! How we cheer ourselves with the anticipated effect of this happy allusion or that telling illustration! How we turn some sentences to please the chief subscriber, and give emphasis to some doctrine we care nothing about, just to keep the old man in the great pew in tolerable sympathy with our ministry! How often our prayers are mere investments, and our tears the price of popularity! Our ministry should be in spirit and in truth, but how often is it formal and practically false! “Many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ,” We are abaslied and utterly confounded when we read what was done by the mighty men of old who led the cause of Grod and suffered for it even unto death. They ^’’subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens; they had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonments; they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the edge of the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented.’’^ And are we the self-seeking successors of such men, writing pretty sermons and fattening ourselves with luxury? We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but

not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; for Thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter,” Are we worthy successors of those princes of God? If we speak of having in any degree been inconvenienced in the discharge of our ministry, how instantly are we rebuked by the testimony of Paul — “in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft; of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one; thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watcliings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness, — even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place,” What is our lot to this experience of pain and sorrow and loss! In the hearing of such heroic words, we feel as if we aggravate our sin by professing to be ministers of Jesus Christ, so poor is our service, so faint our devotions, so deep our self-indulgence. God be merciful unto us sinners! Enter not into judgment with Thy servants, 0 Lord t

My brother, we have now had long converse with each other. Month by month, for two years, I have spoken to you such things as were intended to stimulate, instruct, cheer, and bless you. On some occasions, I have used great plainness of speech; on others, I have taken the liberty of teaching by exaggeration, thereby saying many things which are to be interpreted with charity and applied with discrimination. We part now. ‘’What is writ is writ; would it were worthier’! Be assured that wherein I have spoken harshly, I have felt the smart of the scourge myself; wherein I have yielded to humour, I have not been unmindful of the reality and sadness of human life; and wherein I have extolled my office, I have desired to magnify only the grace of God. For the present, let us say farewell. When you want to know what I have to say that is intended to help you, read “Springdale Abbey’’ and ‘’Ad Clerum”; in these two books I have exhausted all that is at present in my mind upon church questions, general oratory, pulpit preparation, and ministerial work. I commend you to

Grod and to the word of His grace. “That good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us/^ Be steadfast in God.” I charge thee, therefore, before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom, preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsufifering and doctrine, — watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry ‘’; and in the solemn end, when the full light shineth, and we see things as they really are, thou shalt have the abiding honour which cometh from God.