A Competent Ministry to Be Procured

The remaining topic of discussion introduces us to a series of observations of a different character from those to which our attention has been thus fiir directed.

If what has been already suggested be true, it is truth of no small importance. If the pulpit has the inlluence which has been attributed to it; if by Divine appointment, it possesses constituent elements of influence which belong to no other institution; — if by a wise, diligent, and humble consecration of themselves to its appropriate services, those who occupy, may employ it in securing the noblest results ever effected through the instrumentality of creatures; there are obligations resting upon the Church of God, and upon the world, in relation to the Christian ministry, which have not always been appreciated, nor even duly considered. What obligations rest upon the ministry themselves, we have seen: — they are weighty beyond measure. Ministers are often tempted to shrink from the responsibility, and many a time feel that it is a burden too heavy to be borne. But are they alone in this responsibility? are there no corresponding obligations resting upon the Church, and the world around them? The people and the ministry are correlative terms; — they compose the entire population of Christian lands; nor is there any obligation resting upon the latter, without a correllative obligation on the former. What then are the ohUgations of the people, in view of the relation they hear to the Christian ministry?

The most general and comprehensive thought which suggests itself in reply to this inquiry, is, that the ministry must, from time to time, be supplied by the people themselves. We look over the earth, and see that it is most imperfectly supplied with ministers of the Gospel. Death is making perpetual inroads upon the number of living teachers: “the ’ fathers;’ — where are they? and the prophets, do they live forever?” In a little while the present generation of ministers will have passed away; nor will any be found to take their places, without suitable forethought, prayer, and effort, on the part of those to whom the duty of procuring this supply belongs. The all-wise and gracious God made provision for this supply under the Hebrew dispensation, by making the priesthood hereditary; but this law is no longer binding; the high privilege is now oflered to all the families in Christian lands, to aid in furnishing a perishing world with a competent supply of Christian ministers. No department of the Christian Church possesses this exclusive privilege; nor does the obligation rest exclusively on any one tribe, or family, or man. It is a common privilege, and a common duty; and becomes specific only as the thoughts, and prayers, and efforts of any particular community, or individual, are directed to this great object, or the providence of God imposes upon them peculiar obligations. But whose thoughts, and prayers, and efforts ought not to be directed towards it? Who shall ask to be released from the obligation of directing his inquiries, to a subject of such interest? I know not the church, nor the family, nor the man who can be released from this obligation.

It may not be unseasonable to enter here somewhat into detail, and specify those classes of persons, and those individuals, on whom this obligation is most sacredly imposed.

It rests, in the first place, on the Christian ministers themselves. That great law of the Jewish Church, that the priesthood should be hereditary, though abolished, is yet not without meaning. It is in some sort, the law of nature, that the child should follow the calling of his parent. He may be supposed to have facilities and a training for such a vocation which are peculiar, and such as are not enjoyed by other classes of men. To what extent the Christian ministry in other lands has been supplied from the families of Christian ministers, I am not extensively informed; the history of the American church abundantly indicates, that this has been one of the greatest sources of this supply. Let any man carefully inspect such a work as “Allen’s Biographical Dictionary of the Lives of Eminent Men in North America,” or the “American Quarterly Register,” and he will be both surprised and gratified to see, to what extent the Christian pulpit has been supplied from the families of ministers of the Gospel. Not far from seventy ministers in the American church can trace their lineage to the elder Edwards; he himself was the son of a clergyman; and his earliest known ancestor was a preacher of the Gospel, settled in London in the reign of Elizabeth. There are ministers now living among us, who can trace their genealogy to five, and some to six generations, in a direct, unbroken line, to the house of Levi. Others there are, who have been permitted to introduce, some two, some three, and some five of their sons, to the same sacred vocation with themselves. We should probably be not a little surprised by our inquiries into the lineal descent of the living ministry, to ascertain that such multitiulcs of them are the sons of those who themselves served at God’s altars. After some considerable research and correspondence on this subject, I have come to the conclusion that more than one-fifth part of all the ministers in the Presbyterian and Congregational churches in this land are of ministerial descent. Here then, this obligation, as it seems to me, primarily rests. Ministers of the Gospel have peculiar opportunities for meeting the claims of the world in this great article of its exigencies. From their birth, their sons should be devoted to God for the work of the ministry; for this great work they should be offered to him in holy baptism; for this they should be cared for, and educated, and become the subjects of earnest and ceaseless prayer. It is a great privilege, and wondrous mercy, when the Lord of the harvest condescends to accept the offering; the most faithful and devoted minister is not worthy of this high honor; while they from whom such an offering is not accepted, and whose prayers in this particular remain unanswered, and whose highest hopes for their sons are not realized, can only “lay their hand upon their mouth.” There is no breach of God’s covenant faithfulness in denying us this distinguished blessing: nor is it sovereignty merely that denies it; it is equity, it is justice; and we have only to bow to it in submission and silence.

It is no unimportant part of the official and pastoral supervision of ministers also, to look over the young men of their respective charges, and seek out, and direct, and encourage those who give evidence of piety and fitness for the work of the ministry. It was one of the indicaions of God’s presence with the people whom the writer of these pages has been permitted to serve in the Gospel, that for a series of years, not a few beloved youth among us were in constant training for this great work; and from year to year, went out from us to preach the everlasting Gospel. And it is among the indications of our mournful declension, that for a series of years last past, there has been but a solitary individual. Every church in the land ought to have at least one young man of their own number, who enjoys the benefit of their sympathy, their counsels, and their prayers; and who, under these delightful and covenanted influences, goes forth to proclaim the ‘’unsearchable riches of Christ.” That church cannot be in a healthful condition, which can find no individual of suitable character, for the ministry of the Gospel among them; or who if found, is suffered to languish through lack of their Christian sympathy.

But while this duty begins with those who minister in God’s sanctuary, it ends not there. There are not a few Christian families in every congregation, whom it becomes to devote some one, or more of their sons to the work of the ministry. This is the second great source of supply. Were all the sons of all the ministers in the land, to become ministers, the supply would still be inadequate. And where shall the great Head of the Church look for it, but to the families of his own people! The Bible defines who are the families of his own people: they are the families where both, or one of its united head, is the professed disciple of Jesus Christ. The believing husband may not say, the Saviour does not expect this offering from me, because he is associated with an unbelieving wife; nor may the believing wife say, he will not accept it from me, because she is associated with an unbelieving husband. Such is the bounty, the generosity of God’s love, that the covenant relation to him and his Church, of every such family, is decided by the believing, and not the unbelieving parent. This is a most wonderful and gracious arrangement, and so full of encouragement, that the believing parent cannot hope too much from God for his or her children. The irreligion that is in a family may throw obstacles not a few, to the religious culture of the rising generation; but because the religion that is there is of God’s planting, his faithfulness is pledged to sustain and give it influence. How certainly, and how much more does this obligation rest upon families whose hearts are bound together not only by the purest of all earthly love, but by the common bond of that love which is heaven-born and unearthly? He who “sets the solitary in families and makes their children like olive plants round about their table,” may peradventure claim some one of those he has given you for the ministry of his Son. It may be tha.t the “Lord hath need of him.” Is there not one among them all whom you can cheerfully consecrate to him for this self-denying and high service? and of whom you can say, with Hannah, when she stood praying in the temple, “He shall be lent to the Lord, as long as he liveth?” Are they more ambitious views that you are indulghig, and a more lofty station that you are looking for on behalf of the son of your vows? For one I cannot sympathize with you in such views. Had I a son, qualified for this high service, self-denying as I know it to be, I would rather see him an humble, and faithful minister of the ever blessed Gospel, than at the head of the bar, or the most distinguished professor of the healing art, or at the head of the most successful mercantile house in the land. It is incumbent on Christian fimilies deliberately to look at this grave subject. The Cliurcli of God is clear to him as the apple of his eye; yet how few are “there to miide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth: how few to take her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up!” God may not accept your offering; yet go, in the humility of faith, and in the strength of dependence on his grace, make the offering at his throne. Nor let your child long remain ignorant of these secret transactions between you and your Maker. Let him know that if he breaks away from God, and refuses to enter the ministry of his Son, he countervails your most ardent expectations and vows. Often remind him that he is “lent to the Lord;” educate him in his fear; and who shall say that he will not abundantly bless your offering, and in “filling his poor with bread” through your instrumentality, also fill your own heart with joy.