The Questions of the Ordinal

Every Christian is called and expected to be a witness (Acts i. 8), but not every one is called to the ministry. The questions put to the Deacons and Priests at their Ordination show with clearness what is the view of the ministry held by our Church. They should be studied with all possible attention, their order and character carefully observed, and the searching nature of the inquiries earnestly pondered.

SECTION 1. THE DIVINE CALL.

The question is plain:

* Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this Office and Ministration, to serve God for the promoting of His glory, and the edifying of His people? ’

The true note is struck at the outset. A Divine call is imperative.

I. Its Necessity.

What are we to understand by a Divine call to the ministry? A friend of mine who has to interview candidates for the ministry once told me that many of the men who came before him were quite unable to adduce any definite proofs of a call from above. Indeed, they were without an idea on the subject, hopelessly confused about any such thing. And yet all true ministry must commence here. The call must come from God and not from man. It must be in some way the immediate

appeal of God to the soul; ‘Son, go work to-day in My

in vineyard.’ This call will not be primarily through the Church or the Bishop, but is the internal work of the Holy Spirit. And as such it will be an ’ effectual call ‘; such a man will inevitably reach the ministry.

Why do we insist on this necessity of a Divine call? Scripture is full of it. Old Testament prophets were all called of God, as we see from the stories of Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and others. The New Testament Apostles were similarly called of God; the Twelve, St. Paul (Gal. i. 1), and Timothy. Of the ministry we may say what is recorded of the Aaronic priesthood.” And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God.’ (Heb. v. 14). The very nature of the case suggests the same thing. The minister is called an ’ ambassador.’ He is said to have ’ received ’ his ministry, and to have it ’ committed ’ to him. Human governments illustrate this principle. A man must be called to his office. And if it should be argued that the Bible illustrations are special cases, it may be replied that Church History bears testimony to the same profound principle. If we think of men like Ambrose, Augustine, Luther, Latimer, Knox, Wesley, Whitefield, and many others, we cannot help being conscious of the working of Divine grace. God never calls without equipping, and the very fact of equipment proves the call. The Lord ascended to give gifts, and He still bestows the varied gifts of ministry (Eph. iv. 11).

II. Its Proofs.

How may a man tell whether he has received a call from above? The call may be proved in various ways; there is no precise law of detail or method, but a few marks may be confidently stated.

1. An intense desire. This may come early in life, or after conversion, or after confirmation, or at some still later time. But it will come. It will not be an unreason ing desire, but full of serious and earnest thought. It will be a disinterested desire, and motives will be pure and true.

And it will be a persistent desire. It will come again and again. The man will say, ‘I ought, I want; and please God, I will.’ Dr. Forsyth has put this point finely from his own personal experience: —

‘It has been said by one who is fond of the truth as it is in paradox, that nobody ought to enter the ministry who can by any means keep out of it. And nobody should encourage an other to enter it if he can possibly dissuade him. If the impulse is strong and steady enough to survive all the cold water that can be thrown on it, there is some reason to think that it may be the first stage of a call. So it has been said, Now, without going all the length of the paradox, I think the longer we live in contact with the matter the more truth we feel to be in it. For instance, if a man comes up to us for an entrance examination in which he fails, and if he accepts one rebuff it much eases my mind. For I then feel that he has made good proof that the rejection was right.’

2. Converging circumstances. These are different in different cases. Sometimes they may be expressed in the desire and prayer of our parents. At other times we may see the hand of God in the provision of means and the opportunity for training. But whatever they may be, and however they may reveal themselves, circumstances will converge and indicate the will of God.

3. Some indications of qualifications. There ought to be physical qualifications. A minister must be prepared to ’ endure hardness.’ A serious defect in the voice, or some pronounced bodily infirmity, may well make a man question seriously whether God is calling him to the ministry. It may be going too far to insist on the old Aaronic requirement of absence of physical blemish, as is done, we believe, in the Church of Rome to-day, but the underlying general principle is sound, whatever may be the precise personal application. Intellectual qualifications will necessarily be included. A man ought to have brains for the ministry, some mental aptitude, and no looseness of intellectual machinery. Greatest of all are the moral qualifications; steadfastness of character, stability, self-control, and some concentration of purpose.

These are the qualifications essential to ministerial life, and the man who is really called of God must not be known to have failed in every other calling.

4. Approval of those around. The opinion of wise friends will be valuable on this point. Not merely the opinion of mother and sisters, nor necessarily of the opposite sex at all, but the judgment of men friends and acquaintances who really know us, fellows of our school days, men of our University and College. And not least of all, the opinion of the best men of the Church which we attend and where we are known. * A good report of them that are without ’ will be a further qualification to support the idea of a Divine call.

5. A measure of blessing on our work. If we have not already done something for our Master it is hardly likely that we are being called to the ministry. We ought to have endeavoured to win someone for Christ, or to have tried to help some weak young Christian to a firmer footing in discipleship.

When these five characteristics exist; desire to enter the ministry, providential circumstances pointing in that direction, some evidence of qualifications, the approving judgment of those we can trust, and some experience of Christian work, we may ’ assuredly gather ’ that God is calling us to preach the Gospel.

III. Its Assurance.

1 Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost... I trust sol

Mark the confidence of this answer. There is no doubt in the man’s mind. He has faced the situation, and he can speak forth because of his knowledge of the Holy Ghost in his life.

But mark also the humility. ‘I trust so.3 His confidence is not baseless, but founded on a genuine Christian hopefulness and humility. He does not venture to say 1 1 know,’ because he might possibly be mistaking the Divine Voice and Providence. But in the true spirit of

Christian trust and self -distrust he responds to the inquiry, ‘I trust so, and waits to obtain further verification in actual experience.

This is the Divine call, and it is the foundation of all else. Let us face it before we enter the ministry lest we find out our mistake afterwards. Is it not terrible to think of any man daring to respond to this solemn inquiry, into which the Holy Ghost is actually brought, without possessing that spiritual experience which alone can warrant the reply? Who shall dare to say ‘I trust so ’ unless he has such definite personal dealings with God the Holy Ghost as will enable him to feel sure that he is in the pathway of God’s will? The personal experience of the Holy Ghost is at once the most solemn and the most blessed reality of the Christian life.

SECTION 2. THE CHURCH COMMISSION.

The Divine call settled, it follows next that we become assured as to the place wherein we are to exercise our ministry. And so Question 2 naturally follows the first.

* Do you think that you are truly called, according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the due order of this Realm, to the Ministry of the Church? ’

I. The First Proof (Divine).

( Do you think that you are truly called, according to :the will of our Lord Jesus Christ? ‘Once again, at the isk of repetition, the spiritual element is emphasized by .other reference to a Divine call. Let us, following ihis plan of repetition, briefly recall the aspects of ’ the ill of our Lord Jesus Christ ’ in regard to the ministry.

1. The will of Christ may be deduced from Holy Scriprure. In the various elements of the ministry and its iurpose of ’ serving God for the promoting of His glory nd the edifying of His people ’ we learn ’ what the will

the Lord is.’

2. The will of our Lord Jesus Christ may be learnt from personal providences in life. As we review our pathway we should be able to see ’ all things working together for good ’ in relation to our entrance upon the ministry.

3. The will of our Lord Jesus Christ may be gathered from the marks of personal fitness we possess. Body, mind, and soul should combine to prove that we are ready for this * office and ministration.’

4. The will of our Lord Jesus Christ may be deduced from a consideration of our spiritual experience. The witness of the Spirit within, and our knowledge of and fellowship in things spiritual, ought to bear their culminating testimony to the other lines of evidence of a Divine call.

Let us therefore face this afresh and make sure of our call to the ministry of the Church ’ according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ.’

II. The Second Proof (Ecclesiastical).

We are expected to know and confirm our belief in a call to the specific ministry of the Church of England. ‘According to... the due order of this Realm, ‘Realm’ and * Church ’ were two aspects of the national Christian life in the sixteenth century. Convocation represented the clergy and Parliament the laity, and the Church and Realm were thus coterminous, though looked at from different points of view. It was thus that the Article could say, ‘The Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this Realm of England,’ meaning thereby the Church of the entire nation. But what is the * due order of this Realm ‘? It has several bearings in relation to modern life, and it is essential for a clergyman to know what is implied.

1. The ’ due order ’ must be related first of all to Holy Scripture. Article VI is the sheet-anchor of the Church of England in this respect, and indicates quite plainly that Holy Scripture is our supreme authority in all Church matters. Articles XIX and XX point in the same direction, and show that the Church is subordinate to the

Word of God. So that ’ the due order of this Realm ’ will mean first and foremost a general agreement with Scripture in regard to the fundamentals of the faith. The doctrines of God, of Christ, of the Holy Spirit, and the various aspects of the Divine Redemptive Person and Work of our Lord, as taught by the Church, will be accepted because they ’ may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture.’ And as with the Church in general, so with the Ministry in particular, we must believe that the ’ due order of this Realm ’ is Scriptural. The ministry of the New Testament, as we know, is that of a presbyterate, and * the Ministry of the Church ’ will necessarily be the same if it is ’ according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ,’ and on the basis of Article VI.

2. The ’ due order of this Realm ’ must also be con sidered in relation to the Church of Rome. The repudiation of Roman supremacy in the sixteenth century carried with it consequences which last until the present day, and our Prayer Book and Articles enshrine for us what is up to the present, and will be apparently for a long time to come, the permanent position of our Church in relation to Rome. Both in doctrine and discipline the Church of England stands committed to a particular position which necessitates an attitude of definite opposition to Rome. This is not stated for the purpose of mere controversy, but for the sake of that clearness as to our position which it is incumbent on every true English Churchman and clergyman to know, emphasize, and maintain. The history of three and a half centuries, and the attitude of the Church of Rome to-day, leave us no alternative but to insist with all possible definiteness and force on the spiritual validity and the ecclesiastical value of the Church of England.

3. The ’ due order of this Realm ’ has also an important bearing on the Nonconformity and Dissent of our land, and there is scarcely any point on which Churchmen need to be more accurately informed in order to avoid two extremes which are rife in the present day. Our safe and sure ground will be to consider certain facts of history if we are to form a right judgment on this important and complex matter.

(a) We cannot fail to note the fellowship at the Reformation between our own Reformers and the non-Episcopal Reformers of Germany, Switzerland and Scotland. Cranmer, Ridley, Parker, and Jewel, to whom we owe all that is best in Anglican theology, were in constant and close association with foreign Reformers, while the influence of the Confessions of Augsburg and Wirtemburg on our Articles, as seen in their phraseology to this day (Articles XIX, etc), bears the same testimony.

(b) Nor can we omit a reference to the action of the Church authorities against the Elizabethan Puritans, which led so high an authority as Bishop Creighton to say of the Elizabethan Church that —

‘It tended to lose the appearance of a free and self-governing body, and seemed to be an instrument of the policy of the State. Its pleadings and its arguments lost half their weight because they were backed by coercive authority. The dangerous formula, “Obey the law,” was introduced into the settlement of questions which concerned the relations of the individual conscience and God.’ *

(c) This spirit inevitably led to reprisals, and when the Puritans obtained the upper hand they made short work of the convictions even of moderate Churchmen. ‘The Presbyterians had now succeeded the Laudians, and their intolerance was as great as those whom they had supplanted.’ 2

(d) Then again, when Charles II succeeded to the throne, a Church reaction took place, with the result that what in Elizabeth’s day had only been Nonconformity within the Church, became Dissent outside the Church, with a gulf made impassable by persecution and oppression.

(e) And the action of the Church in the eighteenth century is not to be overlooked. No one doubts that

1 Lectures and Addresses.

2 Butler’s Life and Letters of Archbishop Leighton, p. 192.

John Wesley never wished or intended to leave the Church of England, but was really compelled to do so by the attitude adopted by the authorities of the Church of that day. As the Church Quarterly Review has truly said: —

‘We are not prepared to defend either the spiritual life of the Church of England in the eighteenth century, or the spiritual self-assertion of the Wesleyan movement. Schism means sin in the past and needs penitence and reparation in the future.’

(/) While, therefore, in view of all these facts we are careful about our use of the term ’ schism ’ when Dissent is being considered, it will not prevent us from maintaining a firm adherence to our own position as Churchmen as that which is the most Scriptural, most historical, most useful form of Church government and life. The strongest Protestantism against Rome and the warmest sympathies with the spiritual teaching of Evangelical Nonconformity, are not incompatible with the firmest convictions and the most loyal devotion as Evangelical Churchmen. ‘Are you a Churchman? ’ a well known man was asked. ‘Yes, was the reply, ‘I am a Churchman definitely, but not exclusively.’ 2

4. The ’ due order of this Realm ’ must also be con sidered in relation to what are called Church parties. There have been such ever since the Reformation, and their existence has been found quite compatible with true Churchrnanship. While thoroughly agreed in substance, they have differed in outlook and emphasis, and thus, though diverse they were not divergent in view. Such men as Cranmer, Ridley, Hooper, Latimer, Jewel, Parker, Hooker, represented different types of Churchmanship, while heartily at one on the great fundamentals of faith and life. This diversity of view has been seen at all periods since those days, and men like Andrewes, Jeremy Taylor, Ussher, Barrow, Tillotson, and later on, Venn, Newton, Simeon, Coleridge, Kingsley, Hare, Arnold,

1 July, 1908, p. 279.

2 A further and fuller statement of what seems to the writer the true attitude of Church to Dissent may be seen in his Manual, The Catholic Faith, pp. 361-9.

Whately, Burgon, and many more, have represented various phases of thought while heartily agreed on the essentials of true Churchmanship. And this is as natural as it is welcome, for no one could wish to have absolute unanimity of thought and entire agreement of practice in so wide, varied, and complex a community as the Church of England.

But of course such diversities must have their limits, and while we may have our preference in this or that direction, the great principle of loyalty to the Prayer Book and Articles should be the dominant factor. By loyalty we mean an honest and true adherence to the doctrines and practices of the Prayer Book and Articles in the light of their emphasis at the Reformation, and of the subsequent history of the Church of England in relation to Rome and in relation to our national life. Granted this, and then our differences of thought and life will be productive of nothing but good.

The fact is that a man can belong quite definitely and acceptably to a Church party without being a partizan. The so-called ’ non-party ‘Churchman is as a rule either a molluscous individual of no service to himself or to others, or else he turns out to be as definitely a party man as any one else. Party without partizanship should be the motto of all loyal Churchman. Preferences but not exclusions should be our aim and ideal.

As we review the consideration of ’ the due order of this Realm ’ in relation to Scripture, to Rome, to Dissent, and to Church parties, we cannot help seeing the true meaning and real force of the Prayer Book phrase; ’ sober, peaceable, and truly conscientious sons of the Church of England. There is such a thing as a definite Anglican tradition, which has been maintained amid all differences since the Reformation, and to this we shall find it our wisdom to adhere, whatever particular tint our Church manship may take. And true Churchmanship will always be characterized by these three elements.

1 For a further treatment of the attitude to take to Church parties, perhaps I may refer to The Catholic Faith, pp. 369-373.

1. Definite Convictions. The mind must be made up on certain matters, and our position held with tenacity. Such subjects as the Deity of Christ, the Personality and Divinity of the Holy Spirit, the Redemptive Work of Christ, should be settled, never to be re-opened. It is only by definite convictions that any Churchmanship worthy of the name can live and work.

2. Wide Sympathies. While definite we must not be narrow; although possessing preferences we must make room for other outlooks. While our convictions are part of ourselves and are founded firmly on the Rock of Ages, our sympathies should be as wide as they can be. It is the ’ intensive ’ man who can safely be ’ extensive,’ it is only the shallow man who is in danger of losing every thing definite by extending his sympathies.

3. Genuine Spirituality. This will give warmth to our convictions and strength to our sympathies. The men to be feared and avoided are (1) the man of convictions only, who is narrow, cold, hard and perhaps bitter, without the warmth of spiritual experience: and (2) the man of genial indifference to settled doctrine, and of easy-going acceptance of all types of thought and effort, without the safeguard that comes from a true spiritual life. But when convictions, sympathies, and spirituality meet and blend in reality and proportion, we have the true Churchman contemplated by our Prayer Book.

SECTION 3. THE BELIEF OF THE SCRIPTUEES.

The first question refers to the Source, the second to the Sphere, and the third which follows, appropriately deals with the Message. There are two questions about the Scriptures: (1) Its place in the Minister’s life. (2) His use of it in his work. ‘No other Church requires this from Deacons and Priests, only from Bishops, because no such commission was given to Deacons and Priests.’ l It is of the utmost importance that our attention should

1 Burnet, quoted by Bishop Diggle, Addresses on the Ordinal, p. 17.

be directed to this first question on the Holy Scriptures, for it is vital to all else.

* Do you unfeignedly believe all the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testament? ’

I. The Church’s View of Holy Scripture.

In order that we may appreciate properly the force of this question put at a solemn moment to the one about to become a minister, we must inquire generally what the Church of England holds as to the place and power of Holy Scripture.

1. It teaches the Supreme Authority of Scripture in all matters of faith and practice. Of the two characteristics of the Reformation, one was the appeal to Scripture. We see this in Articles VI, XX, XXI, and many others. As Article VI says: ‘Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or to be thought requisite or necessary to salvation, Article XX says: ‘It is not lawful for the Church to ordain anything that is contrary to God’s Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another.’ Article XXI, speaking of General Councils, says, * things ordained by them as necessary to salvation have neither strength nor authority, unless it may be declared that they be taken out of Holy Scripture/

2. It teaches the Spiritual Sufficiency of Scripture. This second characteristic of the Reformation was the insistence on Religion as personal and as not necessarily mediated through an institution, or a man. The title of Article VI shows this clearly.” Of the Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation.’

So that according to the Church of England, Scripture is (a) the Source of Doctrine, (b) the Spring of Duty, (c) the Final Court of Appeal.

3. The Authority and Sufficiency of Scripture were based on the conviction of its possession of a Divine

Revelation guarded by Inspiration. This Revelation meant that God had spoken, and that His will had been made known and could be understood and followed in Holy Scripture. Inspiration was never defined or described (beyond the phrase, ‘God’s Word written, Article XX), but was assumed, taken for granted. It is sometimes said that the Church of England lays down no theory of Inspiration. True, but why is this? Because Inspiration was presupposed. The Church in the sixteenth century was not engaged on the proof of Divine Inspiration. That was not a question in dispute, and being everywhere allowed, it was assumed and taken for granted. What the Church of England was doing was to assert that these Divinely inspired Scriptures were the supreme authority for Christian men and Churches. The use of Scripture, and the reference to it as authoritative, showed that the Church believed the Scriptures revealed the presence of the Spirit of God as the Spirit of Truth (‘Thy Word is truth,’ John xvii. 17), and the Spirit of Holiness (* Thy Word is very pure,’ Psa. cxix. 140). Revelation and Inspiration are best proved by the Gospel contained in Scripture, as it affects in transforming power our lives and the lives of others. It is the uniqueness of Scripture which is the great thing, its authoritativeness for life as a revelation from God. And whatever may be our precise theory of Inspiration, we shall be well advised if we adopt none that tends to diminish our reverence for the Bible as the work and instrument of the Holy Spirit. ‘The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.’ We are on a sure foundation when we accept, without attempting to explain, the two statements of God’s Word: ‘All Scripture is God-breathed ’ (or, ‘Every Scripture is God-breathed,’ 2 Tim. iii. 16), and ‘Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost ’ (2 Pet. i. 21).

II. The Ministerial Attitude to Holy Scripture.

1. The question is definite. * Do you unfeignedly believe all the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New

Testament? ‘That is, are we prepared to accept their truth and acknowledge their authority. It should never be forgotten, amid all the critical controversies of to-day, that the fundamental question is as to the historical trustworthiness of Holy Scripture. It is not a question of any precise theory of Inspiration, but whether the account given in the Old and New Testament of God’s revelation of Himself can be relied upon for its historical trustworthiness. Some words of a modern scholar are worth quoting on this: —

* What is of vital concern to the Christian Church is not questions of literary analysis or minor points of literary history and criticism, but whether the story of Israel’s history from the call of Abraham down to the preaching and writing of the last Apostle is, as to all its essential and characteristic features, correct; whether, in particular, what it tells us of the part God took in it, is as objectively true as what it tells us of the part men took in it. We need not be troubled if an inaccuracy be found here and another there, whether of thought, or sentiment, or date, or name, or number, or any other subject; for neither a nation’s nor an individual’s whole history can be discredited because mistakes may have crept into the literature by means of which its life has found expression, and through which later generations have to learn what it was. What the Christian Church needs to be on its guard against, is the acceptance of a reconstruction of the history of Israel which eliminates the special Divine acts, revelations, and inspiration, whose purpose was the reconciliation of God and man; in a word, all that has constituted, and still constitutes, its distinctive value.’ 1

The minister must be clear here, or else he had better not think of the ministry. Error on this point is fatal to usefulness and power. ‘How canst thou go, seeing thou hast no tidings ready.’

2. The question is searching. ‘Do you unfeignedly believe? ‘This is a call for sincerity, and if a man lacks that, he lacks the essential of all ministry. Sincerity leads inevitabty to reverence, and no one will ever use the Bible aright unless he is reverent to it. All Bible problems should be approached from the point of view

1 Principal Simon, Some Bible Problems, p. 284.

of spiritual religion. Literary study alone is useless. And reverence in turn will lead to spiritual power.

3. The question is to be answered without any hesitation or qualification. * I do.’ It is a confession of personal experience. The difference between the ‘I trust so ’ of the first answer, and the ‘I think so ’ of the second is profoundly significant. It means that the man knows by experience what the Scriptures are. The response, * I do,’ expresses at once his confidence, his conviction, and his courage.

From all this we see that our attitude to Scripture determines all else. It comes in at every point. The Bible must be our Fount of Doctrine. Its Authority must be our deciding factor. The Life of the Bible must be our ideal, and the Grace of the Bible our dynamic. Indeed, the first and most natural view of everything in the ministry ought to have a close relation to the Bible.

And this will of course mean a first-hand experience of the Bible as the Word of God. The mind must be saturated with its truth, the heart inspired by its love, the conscience made sensitive to its law, and the will submissive to its grace. Then, then only, then always, will our life be fragrant and our ministry fruitful to the glory of God.

NOTE. — It will be observed that the second question in the Ordering of Priests differs fundamentally from the above question about belief in the Canonical Scriptures. That question having been asked of the Deacon is not needed again, and so the Priest is questioned as to his belief in the sufficiency of Scripture for saving doctrine, and his determination to preach and teach for salvation only what he finds therein.

* Are you persuaded that the Holy Scriptures contain sufficiently all Doctrine required of necessity for eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ? and are you determined, out of the said Scriptures, to instruct the people committed to your charge, and to teach nothing, as required of necessity to eternal salvation, but that which you shall be persuaded may be concluded and proved by the Scripture? ’

It ought to be obvious that this question cannot possibly be regarded as an equivalent for that discussed above. It does not call for separate treatment here because it is implied in the following question from the Ordering of Deacons, and is also emphasized quite fully in the long exhortation in the Ordering of Priests which is to come before us in due course.

SECTION 4. THE USE OF THE SCRIPTURES.

From the minister’s own personal attitude to Holy Scripture we naturally pass to the consideration of his use of Scripture in ministerial life and work.

* Will you diligently read the same unto the people assembled in the Church where you shall be appointed to serve? ’

I. The Place of Scripture in the Church of England.

There is no Church in Christendom which uses so much of Scripture or gives it so prominent a place in its services.

1. In the Articles it is the supreme standard of doctrine and the final court of appeal.

2. In the Lessons, Epistles, and Gospels it is used daily and weekly for instruction.

3. In the Psalms it is employed for worship daily through the month.

4 In the Prayers, the substance of the petitions is often verbally identical with, or evidently based on, Holy Scripture.

5. In the Ordination Services special prominence is given to the Bible by the presentation of a Testament to the Deacon and a Bible to the Priest with the words, ‘Take thou authority to read the Gospel in the Church of God.’ * Take thou authority to preach the Word of God.’ We have only to compare, or, rather, contrast these with the words spoken in pre-Reformation times as (not the Bible, but) the sacramental vessels were given with the words, ‘Take thou authority to offer sacrifice to God, to celebrate the Mass for the living and for the dead.’ Our Ordinal by this significant change lays the chief emphasis on our work as Ministers of the Word.’

II. The Ministerial Use of Scripture.

1. The Reading of the Lessons. The value of this part of the Service cannot well be over-estimated. Let us make the most of it and do our best to make the ’ hearing of His most holy Word ’ the means of grace it is intended to be.

2. Preaching. As the Bible is necessarily the source of our sermons, so it should be their substance and their inspiration. We are to ’ preach the word ‘; we are to be 4 faithful dispensers of the Word ‘; our work is primarily a * ministry of the Word.’ If our sermons are not Biblical they cannot properly be Christian; the Bible must enter into every part of our preaching work.

3. Teaching. In the various methods of instruction employed by all Churches; Bible classes, Sunday schools, day schools, church services, the teaching must be above all things Biblical. Our people need to be ’ built up in their most holy faith,’ and this faith is drawn primarily and pre-eminently from the Word of God. No Church that is worthy of the name dare neglect the teaching of the Bible, or fail to give it a prominent place.

4. The clergyman is pastor as well as preacher, shepherd as well as teacher, and the Bible must be as prominent in this as in other spheres of his work. It is only ’ by the ministry of God’s Word ’ that he is able to dispense the benefit of absolution ’ together with ‘.gliostly counsel and advice.’ It is only by ’ the wholesome medicine of the Gospel ’ that he will be able to heal the spiritual diseases of his people. For the weary, the sorrowing, the despondent, the hardened, the fearing, the despairing, the Bible will naturally and necessarily be the minister’s vade mecum, his indispensable help. And the more he studies it with this practical pastoral end in view, the more effective and the more blessed will be his ministry. Our minds and hearts should be so stored and saturated with the Bible that the Scripture view of things should instinctively be the first that occurs to us. No time is too long, no trouble too great, that is spent with the Bible in relation to pastoral preaching, teaching, and service.

III. The Secret of Ministerial Use of Scripture.

The minister must know his Bible, and his knowledge will be threefold; Intellectual, Devotional, Homiletical.

1. He must first master its contents. Whatever may be his methods of study he must know the contents of his Bible. To this end a few suggestions may perhaps be given.

(a) Let us study the Bible itself first and chiefly, instead of what is said about it. Dr. Campbell Morgan recently said that the weakness of Free Church preaching to- day is its uncertainty, the absence of any clear note, and he attributes this to the lack of Bible Study.

‘I feel very strongly that a great deal of this is due to their almost total neglect of study, prayerful study, of the Bible. Many have been so busy dealing with it as literature that they have entirely neglected its spiritual note. They can read it in Greek and Hebrew, but scores of them leave their theological college utterly unable to pass the simplest examination in the Bible. Many a humble old woman in their Church knows her Bible far better.’

Is not this equally true of the Church of England? Are there not many who could give the arguments, pro and con, as to the criticism of Deuteronomy, the unity of Isaiah, and the Apostolicity of the Fourth Gospel, who would find it difficult to pass an examination on the actual contents of Deuteronomy, Isaiah, and St. John? While we do not fail to make ourselves acquainted with all the modern scholarship within our reach, we must first of all make ourselves acquainted with the actual contents of the Bible. And another thing follows.

(b) Let us study the books as they are, before we concern ourselves with their real or supposed sources. To resolve a book into its sources is perfectly legitimate, but it is not everything, and it is not the primary thing.

Let us suppose that we were sure of the sources or strata of Genesis, or the Synoptic Gospels, it would still be true that the sources were fragments and not the full form. But it is the present form of these books that has given, and still gives them their unique power. Besides, no analysis of sources is likely to be final, but at most ‘only inferential, and meanwhile, our work calls for the definite constant use of these books for spiritual, pastoral purposes.

2. He must then consider how to apply the Bible to his own life. The Bible is not only to be mastered, it is to be assimilated. Meditation has been defined as ’ attention with intention,’ and the Word of God is to be a mirror in which we view ourselves (Jas. i. 23-25); the water which cleanses (Eph. v. 26); and the food which strengthens our spiritual life (1 Pet. ii. 2; Heb. v. 12-14; Psa. xix. 10). The message of the Bible must come home first of all to our own hearts if it is to be of use to others. ‘What saith my Lord to His servant? ’ (Josh. v. 14); ‘What wilt Thou have me to do? ’ (Acts ix. 6), must be our constant, personal, definite inquiries.

3. He must then use the Bible, thus mastered and assimilated, in his ministerial work. For preaching, teaching and pastoral needs the Word of God is all important. All Scripture ’ is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness ’ (2 Tim. iii. 16). And it is just at this point that we see the force of studying and using the Book with a belief and confidence in the great truth of its contents. To be able to prove that three sources exist in Genesis, or two in St. Mark, is one thing, but to argue that these sources when analysed are contradictory is quite another. We ought to be able to assume in our ministerial use of the Bible that the history as a whole is correct, and that the Scripture account is a trustworthy record of Divine revelation. It is difficult to imagine ordinary men believing the truth of the Bible if it is proved inaccurate on matters of fact. The question at once arises whether inspiration is compatible with frequent inaccuracy or frequent incom-W.M. 9 petency. In all this we must be genuine, open-eyed students, determined to discover and possess the truth, not followers of any fashion in scholarship, whether ancient or modern. We must call no man Master, but determine to go our way and settle these things for ourselves. We may depend upon one thing, that any view of the Bible which cannot be proved and taught, is pretty certain to be wrong, or at any rate so doubtful as to be practically useless for pastoral work. Sir William Robertson Nicoll once remarked of Old Testament questions that ordinary hearers cannot be expected to follow the intricate process of historical criticism, and that therefore in our preaching we must take the Old Testament as it is, or leave it alone. Some of us have not hesitated to draw the conclusion from these words that if new views of the Old or New Testament cannot be taught they cannot be right, and that if they are right they can be, and ought to be taught. In the work of the ministry the Bible ought to be the light (Psa. cxix. 105), the hammer (Jer. xxiii. 29), the fire (Jer. xxiii. 29), and the sword (Eph. vi. 17). Like David in regard to Goliath’s sword, we ought to say concerning the Bible, ‘There is none like it, give it to me.f

4. This threefold attitude of Scripture: intellectual knowledge, devotional experience, and ministerial use, will be at once the cause and the effect of a convinced and ever-deepening belief in the Scriptures as the Word of God. We shall believe in its power over men as we experience its power over ourselves, and we shall be convinced of its sufficiency for all ministerial needs without resorting to any methods of service in which the Bible finds little or no place. And so the minister will be * mighty in the Scriptures,’ and will find in them the supreme secret of ministerial joy and power.

The answer to this fourth inquiry on the Scriptures needs special attention. The first three answers were the expressions of our inmost convictions. ‘I trust so, * I think so,’ ‘I do.J But this is a deliberate promise, * I

1 Index to Expositor’s Bible, Introductory Essay, will,5 and, as such, it must be carried out. Promises are intended to be fulfilled. Each day we must do something in regard to the intellectual knowledge, the devotional application, and the pastoral use of Scripture. Each day we must unite with these three methods the exercise of prayer for light, guidance, and blessing. ‘We will give ourselves to the ministry of the word and prayer ’ (Acts vi. 5), for it is only in this firm and constant waiting on God in His Word and prayer that we shall wax riper in our service and be * throughly furnished unto all good works.’

SECTION 5. THE WORK.

After the consideration of the Minister’s relation to God, to the Church, to the Holy Scriptures, the thought of his work naturally follows.

* It appertained in the Office of a Deacon, in the Church where he shall be appointed to serve, to assist the Priest in Divine Service, and specially when he ministereth the Holy Communion, and to help him in the distribution thereof, and to read Holy Scriptures and Homilies in the Church; and to instruct the youth in the Catechism; in the absence of the Priest to baptize infants, and to preach, if he be admitted thereto by the Bishop. And furthermore, it is his office, where provision is so made, to search for the sick, poor, and impotent people of the Parish, to intimate their estates, names, and places where they dwell, unto the Curate, that by his exhortation they may be relieved with the alms of the Parishioners or others. Will you do this gladly and willingly?

*I will so do, by the help of God.’

As we ponder these various statements, we shall see something of what the Church considers to be the work of a Deacon.

I. Strenuous Service.

The fulness and variety of the description show the character of his work. The very word * deacon ’ teaches the same idea. It comes from £<Wo>, to pursue, and suggests the eager pursuit, the faithful following up of our work.

1. It will not be a light and easy service. There will be plenty of work, and work, too, which will put a heavy strain on mind and body. If a man imagines that he will have ’ an easy time ’ by entering the ministry he will find himself very much mistaken. The calls upon his time, the pressure upon his strength, the demand upon his intellect, and not least of all, the drain upon his sympathies, will soon show him what is meant by the Church of Eng land diaconate.

2. And yet the service of the ministry is one of the most searching tests of character, because our time is our own in the sense that unlike men in professional or business life we are not subject to particular hours of duty which must be observed. A clergyman can easily fritter away his time between breakfast and lunch, and find by one o’clock very little done.2 It is essential for a man to make some definite rules for the use of his time, and keep to them. Thus, the avoidance of the newspapers and the easy chair until after lunch would often prove a help to genuine work between nine and one. But whether morning, afternoon, or evening, it still remains true that the very fact of the clergyman having the control of so much of his own time offers a real temptation to waste it, and thereby to do himself and his ministry great and lasting harm. From the earliest days of our ministry, and indeed, before we enter it, we shall do well to form the habit of regularity and method in the employment of our time, or else our freedom may prove a spiritual snare to us.

3. Another difficulty and temptation will be found in the multifariousness of ministerial duties. So many things will arise that seem to clamour to be done that a man may utilize all his time and find nothing at the end to show

1 Trench, New Testament Synonyms, p. 3; Drury, The Prison Ministry of St. Paul, p. 112, note.

2 Since the above lines were written, Sir W. Robertson Nicoll’s fine lecture, entitled Mr. Fritterday, has appeared in the British Weekly for June 29 and July 6, 1911.

for his efforts. A man can easily be busy and yet not industrious. The minister must soon learn to say ‘NO ’ to requests for his services and to demands on his time. He will have to limit his work and determine to do only those things that are nearest to and most directly in line with his sphere. Our Churches to-day are suffering from over-organization, and if they would do less they would accomplish more, less of the indirect and more of the direct, less of the secular and more of the spiritual. In view of all the varied organizations of a parish nowadays, one is tempted to say to a man when he is seeking a curacy, ‘Beware of any advertisement which speaks of a “well-organized parish.” There is no problem to-day more pressing on the ministry, senior and junior, than the best disposal of our time in order to accomplish the greatest possible work of the right kind, that which will be spiritually productive.

II. Subordinate Service.

The words * assist the Priest,” help, and ’ in the ab sence of the Priest,’ show that the Deacon’s work is primarily that of an assistant to the clergyman in charge of the parish. This at once raises the problem of the relation between the two men, and the present question naturally looks at it from the side of the Deacon as the subordinate worker.

1. He should render a loyal service. The Deacon will probably find that some of the people will show their preference for him in unwise ways, and may even go so far as to constitute themselves into something like a Curate’s party. If he detects this he must show his disapproval in every possible way, and meanwhile maintain a loyalty to his senior officer which will enable them to work together heartily and happily. If a Curate is in close touch with his Vicar he need not trouble about what others may say and do.

2. He should take care that his is a co-operating service. By this is meant that he should so arrange his work that it is not independent of the other work of the parish. Of course circumstances vary, and sometimes a Vicar hands over a work to the Curate and gives him a perfectly free hand to do as he feels best. At other times a Curate is at work in direct and immediate association with the Vicar. But there are few parishes in which a Curate does not find himself responsible for a certain department or district, and in such cases he will be well advised if he does not initiate any new work without first consulting the Vicar. The parish is really an unit, and the work in each section should bear some relation to that of the whole. For this reason it is also useful, and, indeed essential, to consult the Vicar with the view of considering the bearing of the proposed new departure on the work of the parish in general. My own strong preference in parish work was to give a colleague a free hand to do the work of his particular district in his own way, only asking him to take counsel with me when he felt impelled to adopt some new method, or initiate some fresh department of work. With this spirit of co-operation between seniors and juniors the work will go on happily and successfully day by day. 3. And all through his term of service the Deacon should render a sympathetic service. The younger minister cannot at once realize the strain of responsibility on the older man, and for this reason the fellowship of the junior worker should be as readily offered to as it should be warmly appreciated by the senior clergyman. The Curate should beware of any severance of heart between him and his Vicar. It may be that the scholarship of the older man has become rusty, and it may also be that his parochial methods are not as modern as they might be, and the younger man may feel tempted to think slightingly of such lack of adaptation to modern needs. But he should endeavour to resist such a temptation, and to remember that ’ not even the youngest of us is infallible,’ and that allowance must be made for age, circumstances, and associations. Of course, if from any reason the Curate should find himself unable to respect the character of the Vicar, he should endeavour to make a change as soon as possible, but while he is in the parish he should resolutely refuse to allow anything to sever heart from heart in two workers so inevitably and closely associated in the work of God.

III. Spiritual Service.

A careful study of the statement of the Ordinal indicates quite clearly the character of the work. It is primarily and fundamentally spiritual. The Deacon is to assist in Divine Service, to help at Holy Communion, to read the Holy Scriptures and Homilies in Church, to instruct the youth in the Catechism, to baptize, and to preach. His paramount duties are therefore spiritual, and this element must ever predominate. The salvation of the sinner and the edification of the believer must be always in view. He is ordained to minister to a Church, not a Concert Room or a Club. First things are put first, and this is ever the great characteristic of the Ordinal. Secondary things do not appear, and since this is so, no pressure of modern life ought to crowd out these primary spiritual realities for which the clergyman is ordained. The ministry of the Prayer Book, following closely that of the New Testament, is a spiritual ministry, and nothing must ever be allowed to set this aside.

IV. Social Service.

It is not to be supposed that what has been said about spiritual work excludes the true idea of social service. On the contrary, the spiritual may, and must, be expressed in the social. And so it is said to be of the office of the Deacon (doubtless following the example of Acts vi) * to search for the sick, poor, and impotent people of the parish, to intimate their estates, names, and places where they dwell, unto the Curate, that by his exhortation they may be relieved with the alms of the parishioners, or others, Christianity appeals to the whole man, and from the very first the care of the poor, the sick, and the aged has been part of Christian work. In the Incarnation the human body has been raised to its proper position and we are now enabled to understand what it means to ’ glorify God in our body ’ (1 Cor. vi. 20). And yet even this work is not merely social, but in strict subordination to the spiritual. The clergyman is not a relieving officer, and the Church is not a dispensary or a club. Salvation by club is no salvation at all. Whatever social efforts are attached to a Church must be the outcome of the spiritual efforts. All clergymen of the largest experience tell us that ‘Through the Club to the Church ’ is an utter failure, while ‘From the Church to the Club 5 is a true, legitimate, and necessary way of expressing and cultivating the social aspect of Christianity. As my friend Mr. Watts-Ditchfield once said, “the converted men in the Church create and maintain the true atmosphere for the club.” A thoughtful writer has penetrated to the heart of this problem when he says that the weakness of the Church often lies in the fact that it does not and can not deepen the shallow lives of men: —

* It is not deepening a man to keep him out of bad company; to keep him out of the public-house is something; but it is only an arrest, the avoidance of a further shallowing. It is good so far as it goes; still, the idea is not to keep a man on a level of life in which you happen to find him, but to get him on to another level altogether, and so to influence him that, of himself, he shall mount higher and yet higher. The end is not attained if the man is not quickened.’ 1

V. Satisfying Service.

Mark the inquiry. ‘Will you do this gladly and willingly? ‘And the answer. ‘I will so do, by the help of God.’

1. The Ministry will be a glad service. This is a simple but searching test of the quality of our ministry. Are we enjoying it? Are we glad in it? We may be tired in it, but we ought not to be tired of it. There is no ser vice on earth in which there is so much deep gladness.

2. The ministry will be a witting service. Not forced labour, but spontaneous service out of a ready mind and

1 Rev. Arthur Hoyle in the Methodist Eecordrr,Noveinber, 1910.

willing heart. The moment the foot begins to drag and the service becomes a burden, it is a call to inquire as to our spiritual, or our mental, or, most likely of all, our bodily health.

3. And the ministry will be a trustful service. ‘By the help of God.’ Herein lies the supreme secret; ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.’ And hence, too, is the fearless response; ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.’ In the face of all the problems, the demands, the temptations, the disappointments, the weariness, the failures, the word rings out beyond all question, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee.’ And the heart responds as it rests on the Word of our Heavenly Father; ‘With God all things are possible.’ * All things are possible to him that belie veth.’

SECTION 6. THE PERSONAL LIFE.

After the official duties comes the consideration of personal life. Character is the true source of service, and duties can only be efficiently performed by one whose life is true. ‘They made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.’ Let us ponder carefully this question.

* Will you apply all your diligence to frame and fashion your own lives, and the lives of your families, according to the doctrine of Christ; and to make both yourselves and them, as much as in you lieth, wholesome examples of the flock of Christ? ’

I. The Call.

‘Wholesome examples.’ This is the object set before the minister.

1. Consider the ’ wholesome examples ’ in relation to personal life. On the publication of the first volume of Dr. Temple’s Rugby Sermons, some one said to him, ‘They will stir people strongly.’ ‘No,’ said Temple, ’ written sermons seldom do. It is the man behind the sermon that stirs, This is the case in every department of ministerial life and activity. It is ’ the man behind ’ that tells. What, then, is the life of the true minister of Christ?

(a) It should be marked by Sincerity. In everything said and done he should be straight and true. In the matter and manner of his sermons, in the substance and form of his teaching, in the conduct and guidance of parochial affairs, his life should be consistent. Not ability, but reality is what people earnestly desire and rightly demand.

(6) It should be marked by Seriousness. As we have seen, one of the key words of the Pastoral Epistles is “grave” (o-ejAvos), and it is the more striking in that it is pressed upon young men. But can we expect gravity from young men? Yes, if we remember that gravity is not gloom, and that brightness is not lightness. The minister is rightly expected to take a serious view of life and not to allow himself to degenerate into a reputation for lightness, still less for flippancy.

2. Consider the ’ wholesome examples ’ in relation to home life. While primarily the question refers to the influence of the man on those around him in the endeavour to make them examples, we may fairly widen the thought and dwell upon the man’s own personal character in connexion with his home life. A bachelor Curate, living in lodgings, has a special opportunity for making or marring his reputation. In his use of time, in the regularity of his meal hours, and generally in his thought for his landlady, he can do much to glorify God and recommend his Master’s service. It is not at all surprising to find the impressions of the Curate that leak out in the parish from what is known of his life in his lodgings. It is a true test of a man to find out how he lives in the privacy of his rooms and in the secrecy of his chamber. How does he spend his time between breakfast and lunch? What about his afternoons? What are the books which are found about in his rooms? Does he pay his landlady regularly? Does his room reek with stale tobacco smoke?

These may seem small in themselves, but * straws show which way the wind blows/

And when he is a Vicar and has a house of his own; when, moreover, he is married and a family is growing up around him, the call to be ’ wholesome examples ’ is even more pressing. The Vicarage will often give the tone to the parish. The affairs of the Vicarage will be known in the parish. People will become aware whether tradesmen’s bills are paid, whether servants are fairly treated, whether the children are well disciplined, whether the Vicar’s wife is concerned for the welfare of the parish, and above all, whether the man who preaches such eloquent and able sermons is able to ’ show piety at home, It is one of the saddest and most deplorable things when a clergyman’s house gets a reputation for the very opposite of these things. It is all the more terrible when the clergyman happens to preach the highest spiritual doctrine, and even dismisses his choir for being unspiritual and unconverted, and yet fails again and again to pay his debts to tradesmen in the parish. Who can wonder that spiritual religion is repellent in that parish by reason of the ’ wriwholesome example ’ of that clergyman? And this is no fancy picture. Men soon take the measure of their clergy. Truth will out, and the average judgment of a congregation respecting the clergyman can usually be trusted with unerring certainty. A layman once judged a clergyman by a single test only; whether he would be the sort of man to send for when one is on a deathbed. A very fair, a very true, and a very searching test. ‘Wholesome examples of the flock of Christ.’ This, and this above all, is the secret of ministerial blessing and power over men.

II. The Effort.

How is the call to be met, and the ideal realized? Only by dint of definite effort. The question suggests this.

1. There must be genuine effort. ‘Frame and fashion, This means work, and work which will not be done at once.

2. There must be constant effort. ‘Will you apply all your diligence? ‘The clergyman will need all his powers to accomplish this end, and he must never be off duty. Bishop Wilberforce acutely says: —

‘Let there be no intervals of conscious self-allowance, no earthly parentheses in our ministerial life.’ *

The saddest of sad experiences is the case of those clergymen who fall after years of untarnished reputation. For a long time they have laboured with outward and apparent acceptance, but all the while they have been indulging some secret sin, or doubtful habit which has at length made its appearance in the life. Like those at Sardis they have a name that they live and yet are dead (Rev. iii. 1). They are like the fungus in the tree which makes no apparent difference until it falls off in the autumn and reveals the real change effected. A man is used of God in preaching and working, and then at the close of a long ministry he is found guilty of some sin which necessitates instant resignation, and a retirement into permanent obscurity until at length we read the bare announcement of his death, and we wonder what might have been if only he had been true to the end. This again is no mere imagination, for there are cases such as this known to many. I remember reading in the Church Times a brief but poignant article entitled c In Memory.’ It began: —

‘A few days ago there passed to his account a priest who must be nameless, and he died in greatest destitution and want. He was a man who, with others, had defiled the Church he served by language and actions unspeakable; after his ejection from the living and degradation from his Office he went lower and lower in the social scale until, just lately, he was found utterly destitute and incapable in a common lodging house, whence he was removed to the workhouse infirmary, and there he died. God grant to us that he has not lived and died in vain.’

Truly, truly, we are not safe until the last. There 1 Addresses to Candidates for Ordination, p. 222.

is a way to Hell, says Bunyan, even from the gate of Heaven. * He that endure th to the end, the same shall be saved.’ * Hold fast that which them hast, that no man take thy crown.’

III. The Standard.

It is time to ask how this ’ wholesome example ’ may be realized. And one answer is ’ according to the doctrine of Christ.’ We must live our life in constant view of Holy Scripture. The Word of God is to be the ’ discerner,’ the ’ critic,’ the criterion of our inner life (Heb. iv. 12). We must submit ourselves to it as to a search-light, as to a probing instrument, as to a plumbline. If our life does not ring true to Scripture it means that there is a flaw in the metal. No lower test will suffice. Our own view may easily be partial. ‘I know nothing against myself, yet am I not hereby justified.’ And the view of others will not always and necessarily be correct and complete. ‘In Thy light shall we see light,’ and it may be said without hesitation and without qualification that the man who allows himself to be tested and searched and guided day by day by the unerring word of God will never backslide in any degree whatever. On the other hand, if our lives are not lived ever in the light of Holy Scripture, * according to the doctrine of Christ,’ and in face of the mirror of truth (Jas. i. 23-25), it is impossible to say how far a man may not go from the path of rectitude and holiness.

IV. The Secret.

But this reference to Holy Scripture inevitably suggests something more. The question is answered by a resolution and an expression of trust. ‘I will so do, the Lord being my helper.’ And we must endeavour to discover the secret of its realization.

1. Scripture finds its fullest power over the life only when we are in fellowship with Christ. The Persian parable tells of the clay being asked how it was that it was the possessor of such fragrance, and replying, ‘I have been living near a rose.’ Henry Drummond tells of a young girl of exquisite beauty of character, and when after her death they opened a locket, expecting to find the portrait of some loved one, they saw nothing but the words, ‘Whom having not seen, ye love.’ This was the secret of her loveliness of spirit. It is there and thus that we shall assimilate such a spirit that we shall never fail to be ’ wholesome examples of the flock of Christ.’

2. And this fellowship comes in a simple way. The trustful resolution, ‘I will so do, the Lord being my helper,’ becomes possible in the twofold method of prayer and meditation. In prayer we speak to God; in the Bible God speaks to us. And prayer is the response of the soul to the Bible as the Word of God. Private prayer, regular private prayer, definite regular private prayer, is the one prime secret of holy living. There is a profound truth in these words (are they Oliver Wendell Holmes’ or Thackeray’s?);

* If you go into a minister’s study and find that there is a bare place on the carpet in front of his chair, get him to pray for you; but if you find the bare place in front of his looking-glass you pray for him.’

The story is familiar, but well worth recalling, of Dean Hook of Chichester, that when a workman was going up a ladder early one morning at the Deanery, he saw through a window the Dean even then in his study and at prayer, and this made a deep and lasting impression on the man. Be it ours to ’ pray, always pray,’ and then will assuredly come holiness of heart, acuteness of mind, insight of soul, resoluteness of will, and winsomeness of life.

NOTE. — In the Ordering of Priests there is a special question dealing with the place of Prayer and Holy Scripture in the personal life of the clergyman, but as this subject is briefly considered above, and will be dealt with more fully inTconnexion with the Exhortation in the Ordering of Priests, it has not seemed necessary to treat it separately here,

SECTION 7. OBEDIENCE TO LAWFUL AUTHORITY.

The seventh question in the Ordering of Deacons and the last question in the Ordering of Priests are almost identical in terms, and refer to the minister’s loyal acceptance of the Church of England as found and received. The inquiry is not so personal and spiritual as others, but it is none the less valuable and necessary. Independence of authority is a characteristic of to-day, and it is well that we should be reminded of the need of obedience. It is of course implied that our obedience is always subject to the Word and Law of God.

* Will you reverently obey * Will you reverently your Ordinary, and other obey your Ordinary, and chief j Ministers of the other chief Ministers, unto Church, and them to whom whom is committed the the charge and govern- charge and governmentment over you is com- over you; following with mitted, following with a a glad mind and will their glad mind and will their godly admonitions, and subgodly admonitions? ’ mitting yourselves to their

I godly judgments? ’

I. Our Church Authorities.

1. First come the Creeds of the Church Universal. They represent the belief of the whole Church and come to us with all the weight that rightly attaches to so universal a testimony. In the sixteenth century the truths of these Creeds were put in the forefront of the Articles to show the continued adherence of the Church of England to these fundamental realities.

2. Then come the Articles of the Church as national. These represent the distinctive position of our Church on those points on which its mind is declared, and with special reference to the circumstances of the sixteenth century. As the Articles have still to be accepted by every Ordinand, and by every clergyman on entering a new benefice, their authority is unquestioned.

l%3. Then follow the Rubrics which represent the detailed instructions as to the conduct” of Divine Worship by the clergy of the Church. These call for obedience to their plain grammatical meaning, with as close adherence as possible to their instructions.

There is practically no difficulty in regard to these three as the Sources of our Church Authority. The difficulties commence when we proceed to our next point.

II. The Interpretation of our Authorities.

What is to be done, if for any reason we cannot agree as to the meaning of Creeds, or Articles, or Rubrics?

1. The first reference is to the ‘Ordinary, which is usually interpreted to mean the Bishop of the Diocese, or else the immediate superior officer for the time being. To him is to be referred any question touching the true interpretation of the Rubrics.

2. The next reference is to ’ other chief Ministers of the Church,’ by which is probably to be understood the Archbishop, according to the provision made in the prefatory address, ‘Concerning the Service of the Church.’

‘And forasmuch as nothing can be so plainly set forth, but doubts may arise in the use and practice of the same; to appease all such diversity (if any arise) and for the resolution of all doubts, concerning the manner how to understand, do, and execute the things contained in this Book; the parties that so doubt, or diversely take any thing, shall alway resort to the Bishop of the Diocese, who by his discretion shall take order for the quieting and appeasing of the same; so that the same order be not contrary to any thing contained in this Book. And if the Bishop of the Diocese be in doubt, then he may send for the resolution thereof to the Archbishop.’

3. But as things stand at present in the Church of England, there is an appeal, if necessary, even from the Archbishop, because the highest legal authority does not reside in the Bishops. The Church being established, and Parliament still being supposed theoretically to represent the lay element, the Supreme Court of Appeal in all causes Ecclesiastical is the King in Council, the King being supreme in all matters ecclesiastical as well as civil. This appeal to the King is not Erastian, as though the State is to dominate the Church, for it is well known that the Supreme Governorship by the King was not made with reference to his position as Head of the State, but as to his character as Chief Layman of the Church. The supremacy of the King was intended to safeguard the Church against a clerical supremacy.

Now this is the threefold provision in the English Church at present for the interpretation of authorities, and it is not too much to say that no man ought to be ordained unless he is prepared to obey the authority as thus constituted. He may object to the jurisdiction, and may wish and endeavour to get it altered, but mean while he should obey it. It surely signifies the possession of a somewhat curious conscience for a man to be ordained who knows that these are the authorities and who yet is determined to disregard and disobey them.

4. But we are sometimes told that there is an appeal from the Church National to the Church Catholic. It would be extremely helpful to know precisely what this means and how it may be applied. Article XXXIV. is very plain as to the authority of National Churches: —

‘Every particular or national Church hath authority to ordain, change, and abolish, ceremonies or rites of the Church ordained only by man’s authority, so that all things be done to edifying.’

It is difficult to see what there can be of appeal beyond this. Besides, to what authority in the Church Catholic can we appeal? And on what subjects has the Church Catholic really made its voice heard and its mind known? Is there anything truly Catholic apart from the great Creeds of Christendom? Article XXXIV. says quite definitely that

‘It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one, or utterly like; for at all times they have been divers, and may be changed according to the diversities of countries, times, and men’s manners, so that nothing be ordained against God’s Word.’

This question of the relation of National Churches to the W.M. 10

Church Universal needs the most careful and thorough definition by those who advocate it, for most men find no satisfaction in such an argument owing to the absence of any declaration beyond the Creeds as to what is truly Catholic or Universal. The impossibility of the position was clearly seen at the recent Royal Commission when Lord Halifax was asked by the late Bishop of Oxford to give a clear distinction between what the Church of England could and could not alter. The reply had reference to Communion only in one kind, and to Reservation for the Sick. But this does not carry us far, or give us the help we need. The inability of so representative a man to give a satisfactory answer tells its own story. Meanwhile we retain our definite, clear, Anglican position, as stated above, until it is altered by lawful authority.

III. Some Practical Illustrations.

By way of example, it seems worth while to consider the practical working out of some of the problems associated with ecclesiastical discipline and obedience, as they are found to-day.

1. The Use of the Athanasian Creed. It is well known that many Churchmen are of opinion that this Symbol is unsuited to general use as a Creed. We find as the result that in many Churches it is never used, while in others it is only used on the rarest occasions. And yet the Rubric is quite clear, ordering its use on thirteen occasions in the Christian Year. What then ought we to do? Is it not our duty to obey the Rubric until the law is altered? This would seem to be the wisest, and indeed the only right course. There are very many Churchmen who would welcome relief with gratitude and heartiness, for they do not think it is possible for so highly technical a document to be recited by ordinary congregations without serious misconception. But mean while, however difficult and trying it may be, loyalty seems to suggest an observance of the Rubric as it stands, while using every lawful method to obtain an alteration.

2. The Ornaments Rubric (as it is called) is a still more difficult and thorny problem. There is no need to enter into the controversy on the subject. For our present purpose, using the question as an illustration, it will suffice to say that, whether rightly or wrongly, the present law of the Church of England, as declared by the Privy Council, is that the Vestments supposed to be authorized by this Rubric are illegal. This is the law, whether we like or dislike it, and what we ought to do is to obey it. We may object to it, may disbelieve its accuracy, but there it is. We may endeavour to get the law altered and use every effort in our power to accomplish this end, but meantime the law stands and ought to be obeyed. Unless there is obedience to constituted authorities it is difficult to see how clergy can possibly enjoin obedience on their flocks.

3. The Use of Incense and of Reservation. This is another illustration of the same great principle of obedience. Some years ago a number of Churchmen who were dissatisfied with what they regarded as the ’ secular ‘Court of Appeal, the Privy Council, appealed to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, on the principle of the Preface in the Prayer Book already mentioned, for a Hearing on these two subjects of Incense and Reservation. The Archbishops decided in both cases against the use of Incense and the practice of Reservation as contrary to the mind of the Church of England. But the Judgment or Opinion of the Archbishops has not been obeyed by the very men who invoked it, and who may almost be said to have clamoured for it. And yet it was a ’ spiritual ‘Court, and ought to have possessed the highest sanction for those who would not accept the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Surely the duty of all Churchmen is clear. ‘We ought to obey, or else leave the Church, or at least the ministry. It is a striking fact that not a single instance can be found in the Church of England of Vestments, Lights, or Incense, from 1559 to the rise of the Tract arian Movement. If facts mean anything, the mind of the Church is clear,

4. The Use of the Prayer Book of 1549 is another case in point. There are Churchmen who advocate this and who even do more, practise some of its methods and observances. And yet the law is clear, and the clergyman on ordination, or presentation to a benefice, solemnly promises to use the Prayer Book as it now stands ’ and none other except it be ordained by lawful authority.’ And inasmuch as no lawful authority has authorized another book, our duty is as clear as daylight; it is loyal obedience.

5. The Eastward Position at Holy Communion may be cited as yet another illustration of the principle for which we are contending. It is well known that up to sixty years ago the position of the celebrant was invariably the North side, or North end, and that do other was known. But with the Oxford Movement came the use of the Eastward Position, and at length the question was tested before Archbishop Benson in the Lincoln Judgment. His decision on this point was that the Eastward Position was not illegal so long as the manual acts were visible.

Now I am not called upon to discuss the legality of the Archbishop’s Court, or the character of his decision. Nor am I necessarily concerned with the ratification of the Archbishop’s Judgment by the Privy Council. What I feel constrained to emphasize is that whether North or East the Rubric is clear, the Manual Acts must be performed ’ before,’ i.e. in sight of the people. This dominates the situation, and no man can be a loyal Church man who does not carry out this order. If a man thinks that by taking the Eastward Position and holding the elements over his head or shoulder in order that the people may see the Manual Acts, I can but wonder whether our Reformers and Revisers ever meant that to be the interpretation of the Rubric. And if the Celebrant turns to face North, as I have seen a Bishop do, at the prayer of Consecration, it is a position which is not found on any view of the Rubric, and is of course an actual surrender of the Eastward Position. The great thing is to be assured of the true meaning of the Rubric and obey it scrupulously, and ’ before the people ’ is absolutely clear, as Archbishop Benson pointed out in his Judgment. These five controversial questions will suffice to show the great importance of the present question of obedience to lawful authority. To those over us is committed charge and government, and we are required to face the question of their ’ godly admonitions, and ’ godly judgments.’

IV. True Churchmanship.

What then is our duty in view of all these considerations? In what way can we really show ourselves to be £ sober, peaceful, and truly conscientious sons of the Church of England? ‘By obedience such as the question describes and expects. It ought to be reverent (’ reverently obey ‘); glad (’ a glad mind ‘); thorough (‘I will endeavour myself ‘); and trustful obedience (’ the Lord being my helper ‘). In these suggestions we see how obedience to Church Authority is lifted up into the spiritual realm and made part of our spiritual life. When this is realized there will be no serious difficulty, because obedience to ecclesiastical authority will form part of that spiritual experience which is the joy of * conscientious sons of the Church of England.’

SECTION 8. CONTROVERSY.

The preceding questions cover all that are asked of Deacons, but there are two other questions in the Ordering of Priests which need special attention. These are in some respects unique in interest and importance. The fourth in the Ordering of Priests is as follows: —

Will you be ready with all faithful diligence, to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God’s Word; and to use both public and private monitions and exhortations, as well to the sick as to the whole, within your Cures, as need shall require, and occasion shall be given?

I. The Necessity for Controversy.

The appeal to ’ banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines ’ is a call for controversy. We are not to seek it, and yet it will often be found to be a duty. We shall doubtless shrink from it as trying to the flesh, and yet we must not be afraid of it. St. Paul doubtless felt it to be one of the most testing times of his life to stand up against St. Peter at Antioch, and yet he did it. But we have to take care that we are not mere controversialists, for this type of man is one of the most unlovely, unspiritual, and objectionable of beings. We must not wage war for the love of it, but if we find it necessary to wage it, we must do so in love.

II. The Aspects of Controversy.

Let us not think that ’ controversy ’ means nothing else than opposition to Roman Catholicism. It means very much more than that. ‘Erroneous and strange doctrines ’ are of several sorts, and we must ’ be ready ’ to meet them all to the best of our ability.

1. One controversy will be on the Deity of Christ. Whether we have to deal with Unitarianism or Scepticism, the Godhead of our Blessed Lord will call for a defence and an advocacy which cannot be other than controversial. And in the endeavour to * banish strange and erroneous doctrines ’ on this point we are fighting for the very existence of our Christianity.

2. The Atonement of Christ will also be to the forefront. And this especially, because of the controversies about sin. Sin and Redemption go together, and a denial of one will often mean a denial of the other. The facts of Sin and Atonement will need emphasis, and the views of modern thinkers will have to be faced, and since Christianity is pre-eminently the religion of Redemption, it will not be long before we are engaged in the work of ’ banishing erroneous and strange doctrines? on these vital and fundamental questions of our faith.

3. The Divine Authority of Scripture will inevitably occupy our attention. Rationalism of various kinds makes this the centre of attack, and we shall be compelled to take up an attitude against the foe of truth. Since we believe (on any theory) in a unique element in Scripture which gives it its authority, we must of necessity be prepared for warfare against those who, if allowed freedom to spread their views unchecked, would certainly injure the faith and life of unins true ted believers.

4. The Supreme Authority of Scripture will also engage our efforts in another direction. Roman Catholicism meets us here, and in our insistence on the truths of Articles VI., XX., and XXI., we shall inevitably fall foul of opponents and be compelled to engage in controversy. Indeed, it may be truly said that practically all differences are somehow concerned with the position and character of Scripture. From the days of Celsus downwards the strongest opposition has been directed against Holy Scripture, as containing the substance of Christian belief, and whether we like it or not we shall have to ’ contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints ’ (Jude 3).

5. And we shall pretty certainly have to face the practical question of the soul’s direct relation to God, From two quite different quarters this truth is being assailed. Rome interposes the priest and the Church, and says that it is through the Church to Christ. We, maintaining the same position as our Reformers, urge that it is through Christ to the Church, and that no human intermediary can ever be allowed to come between the direct approach of the spirit to God. Justified by faith the soul enters into the Holiest, abides there, rejoices in the presence of God, and receives the grace of God for daily living. Anything that interferes with this is an ’ erroneous and strange doctrine ’ which must be * banished and driven away.’

But in the present day a very serious attack is made on this position by a form of intellectual scepticism which tells us that knowledge of, and fellowship with Christ is impossible because we know little or nothing of

Him as an Historic Figure. And thus by destroying the supernatural element in Christianity, by removing from us the unique Personality of Christ, the souls of men are bereft of all that peace, and grace, and love which Christian experience through the ages has known and valued and spread. Such a view robs the soul of rest and hope, cutting at the very vitals of faith and godliness. It is due no doubt to the overwhelming, and, it must be added, over-weening influence of critical studies which tend to dissolve everything that cannot be vindicated at the bar of reason and physical science. But there are deeper things in life than reason and science, and the heart will soon know its own bitterness if they take away the Lord. Such a view is easily discussed and accepted by philosophers in College rooms where they are surrounded by all the privileges, associations, and atmosphere that centuries of Christian munificence and ethics have made possible. But if such barren and deadening doctrines were to be proclaimed among the slums of our large cities and in the haunts of vice and crime, their utter futility would soon be seen. And all this must mean controversy, and the determination and readiness ’ with all faithful diligence to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines.’

III. The Standard of Controversy.

These doctrines are described in one simple and pregnant phrase, ’ contrary to God’s Word.’ There is our perfect and constant standard of truth. The Pastoral Epistles frequently remind us of teaching which is ’ contrary to healthful doctrine.’ Isaiah appeals to the law and to the testimony (ch. viii. 20). St. Paul speaks of doctrine which is ’ according to godliness.’ And the prophets were always asking, ‘What saith the Lord? ’

1. This means that the Scriptures must be known by us. Ignorance of Scripture will do more than anything else to play into the hands of opponents, and knowledge of Scripture will be our most powerful weapon against every form of error.

2. This means, too, that the Scriptures must be preached. Teaching and preaching the truth of Holy Scripture is our paramount duty. Like Philip with the Eunuch, we should be ready to take up Scripture at any point and preach Jesus as the Saviour and Friend of man.

3. But most of all this means that the Scriptures must be lived. Our lives must ’ express the Holy Gospel we profess.’ The man who preaches by his life will perhaps do more in that way than in any other to safeguard his people against error. And our teaching and preaching must be positive as well as negative. As Spurgeon once said, laying down the straight stick of truth is the best way of showing the crookedness of error. No knowledge of Scripture can be too great, too minute, too thorough, for use in our necessary but difficult work of 6 banishing and driving away all erroneous and strange doctrines.’

A thoughtful writer has called attention to the solemn fact that the people of God are being attacked along three lines: sceptical, heretical, and fanatical. The sceptic endeavours to make us disbelieve the Divine authority of the Bible, to question God’s love, and even His very existence. Then comes the heretic with his new doctrines, apparently supported with scattered passages from the Bible. He will tell us how we have been mistaken, and how God is revealing Himself to progressive minds in other ways. Last of all comes the fanatic, who does not doubt God’s Word as the sceptic does, or attempt to elicit from it any new Gospel as the heretic does, but who pushes everything beyond the bounds of Scriptural authority and the limits of sober reason. Many good people are thus on the verge of a dangerous fanaticism, who are not in any way tempted to scepticism and heresy. How, then, are God’s people to meet these errors? Against the sceptic, we ministers must teach them to hold fast to the absolute authority and Divine inspiration of Scripture. Against the heretic,

154 fTHE QUESTIONS OF THE ORDINAL

we must insist upon the whole of Scripture in its various parts and progressive teaching. And against the fanatic, we must walk with God in the Spirit, and thus be able to discern between the true and the false. The closer we keep to the Word of God in spiritual study and practical earnest meditation, the more thoroughly we shall be kept alive to these various errors, and have the spiritual perception to detect them, and the spiritual power to defeat them. Every error comes in some way or other from a neglect of God’s Word, and every safeguard against error comes from the closest adherence thereto.

IV. The Spirit of Controversy.

1. The ’ faithful diligence’ with which this work is to be carried out shows the importance placed upon it by our Church. It is a necessary work, a hard work, and therefore one that requires the best of our powers. It takes ’ diligence ’ to ’ banish and drive away.5 Such work is not to be done without very definite and sustained effort.

2. Another thing is very marked in this question. There is an evident and close connexion between ’ banishing and driving away all erroneous and strange doctrines ’ and the general pastoral care. After the reference to error come the words, ‘And to use both public and private monitions and exhortations, as well to the sick as to the whole, within your Cures, as need shall require, and occasion shall be given.’ This means that the care of the sheep is the paramount consideration, and must ever be the object of the shepherd. He does not wish to win any mere gladiatorial victory, but he desires so to fight and strive that his sheep may be protected and guarded. Or t6 change the figure, he must be careful that his flock enter no poisonous pastures, and to do this he must lead them in the green pastures of Divine truth. If this positive spiritual view and purpose of controversy is ever kept in mind, the work of the shepherd will go forward with ever-increasing blessing.

3. And this will mean ’ speaking (or living) the truth in love ’ (Eph. iv. 15). We shall endeavour to see the truth for which our opponents think they are contending, and we shall conduct our controversies in faith and love. Not victory, but edification will be our aim, and in meekness we shall endeavour to instruct those who ’ oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will ’ (2 Tim. ii. 25, 26).

4. And so we shall ever keep in mind the great truth of ‘Principles not Party.’ Whatever be our party we must never be partizan. No man worthy of the name of man can ever submit himself wholly to his party, how ever much he may be in general hearty sympathy with its principles. ‘My party right or wrong ’ is as vicious in religion as it is in politics. We must carefully distinguish between a partizan, an advocate, and a judge. It is never seemly for a Christian man to be a partizan, for in a partizan the great and important faculty of judgment is really not exercised. He has committed himself to a certain line and is content to insist only on considerations which support his own opinion without any regard for evidence which is not in harmony with it. He may often have to be an advocate, but this will never mean making out the worse case to be the better, or even making the most of the evidence on his side to the ignoring of all on the opposite. But his chief and most noble function will be that of judgment, gathering up all the available facts and factors bearing on the subject, giving all a patient hearing and then out of full knowledge, balanced judgment, true experience, producing his decision. Let us endeavour in our controversy in all the ’ monitions and exhortations ’ needed in our ministry to act the part of the judge. This is our high vocation, and everything we do should be actuated by this thought. ‘Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus ’ (Col. iii. 17).

5. And it follows that in our work we shall emphasize principles and not attack men. Our opponent may be charming and our own side may repel, but in either case, in both cases, we are concerned for truth, and truth at all costs, under all circumstances.

And so the supreme need is for Consecrated Controversy. The one great object is to know the truth, and to get it known, loved, and lived. And if our life is lived in the atmosphere and under the control of the Spirit of Christ we shall be at once fearless, loving, and righteous in our necessary warfare for Christ, His cause, and His Church. And then, neither we nor our people will be

* carried away with every blast of vain doctrine,’ but

* established in the truth of God’s Holy Gospel.’

SECTION 9. MAINTAINING PEACE.

The contrast between this and the question last con sidered is striking. The minister is to be ready to wage war, and yet to maintain peace. It is something like the twofold statement of the Gospel concerning our Lord’s mission: ‘Peace on earth; ’ ( Not peace but a sword.’ The question is peculiar to the Church of England and to the Ordering of Priests and Bishops.

* Will you maintain and set forwards, as much as lieth in you, quietness, peace, and love, among all Christian people, and especially among them that are or shall be committed to your charge? ’

I. The Ideals.

6 Quietness, peace, and love, among all Christian people, and especially among ’ our own flock are to be maintained and set forward. The value of these things lies in their being an illustration of Christ-likeness. Their glory consists in their being an exemplification of the e new ’ commandment of our Lord, and the ’ brotherlove ’ of the Epistles. The ’ newness ’ quite evidently lay in the new objects of affection consequent on the new relationship to ’ one another ’ in Christ (John xiii. 34, 35). And the prominence given in the New Testament to brotherlove, not brotherly love (love because, not as brethren), is another proof of the new Christian grace. ‘See how these Christians love one another.’ And the power of these things is seen in the blessing that inevitably attends Christian unity, wherever it is realized and manifested. ‘Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” For there the Lord commanded the blessing ’ (Psa. cxxxiii. 1, 3). The opposite is always fatal to Christian life and work. Unity brings power; disunion produces weakness. It was with a sure spiritual insight that our Reformers included this question among those for use at Ordination. There is scarcely any part of a clergyman’s work which is so fruitful in spiritual results as the endeavour to ’ maintain and set forwards... quietness, peace, and love.’

II. The Methods of Realization.

1. The clergyman’s first work will be among his own people, and he will do his utmost to prevent or remove friction, jealousy, and misunderstandings in the Church of which he is the minister. If any ’ root of bitterness ’ should spring up between members of a congregation, and especially between Communicants, the results may easily prove heart-breaking to the minister. It is no wonder that St. Paul urges Christians to show zeal in keeping the e unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace ’ (Eph. iv. 3). If Satan can but drive in a wedge of discord between two members or two sections of a congregation, his work there can be left to produce its own dire results of spiritual barrenness.

2. The clergyman will also be able to do not a little to ’ maintain and set forwards... quietness, peace, and love ’ among the various classes connected with his Church and parish. Political feeling often runs high, and it will be the clergyman’s bounden duty to avoid all parties and emphasize in every possible way the great principles of Christianity which are equally applicable to both political sides. It is for him to proclaim principles and not the political applications which those principles involve. Social feeling also tends to become acute as between rich and poor, a tendency that has become accentuated by that unfortunate phrase, ’ the classes and the masses.5 To the clergyman these distinctions will have to be faced with the greatest possible care. There are rich and rich, and there are poor and poor. There are godly rich and godless poor, and there are godly poor and godless rich. Let the clergyman take care to show that Liberals should believe in the existence of conscientious Conservatives, and Conservatives in conscientious Liberals; that the rich have duties as well as privileges, and that the poor have their responsibilities as well as their disadvantages. Without pandering to the rich or truckling to the poor, without taking sides with Liberalism or Conservatism, the clergyman can still hold firmly his own political, social, and economic principles, and bring to bear what he believes to be the truth on the consciences of his people. He can do much, perhaps more than most people, to ’ maintain and set forwards quietness, peace and love ’ among men and women of varied social grades and political principles.

3. The relations of Church and Dissent will provide yet another opportunity for fulfilling the requirement of this part of the Ordination Service. The clergyman should make friends as far as possible with the non-Church people of his parish, including the Roman Catholics if he is allowed to do so. It is one of the finest features of College life that men of different and differing views and Churches meet and live together, and there is no reason why parochial life should be inferior in this respect to the College. The clergyman should also endeavour to discover why certain people are Nonconformists or Dissenters, or Roman Catholics, and by large-hearted sympathy to enter into their position. He may be sure that while he holds his own principles firmly he need have no fear as to the results of ’ maintaining and setting forwards quietness,peace and love among ’ the Christian people of various Churches in his parish. The clergyman has an unique opportunity of doing the work of a peacemaker, and he will lose much if he fails to respond to it.

4. Nor may we leave out of this account the thorny question of Church parties. The question in the Ordinal has a definite bearing on this aspect of life. As we have already seen, a man can be definitely attached to a party without being a partizan, and he will not fail to remember the varied aspects of true Churchmanship which have characterized our Communion for the last three hundred and fifty years. The secret of * maintaining and setting forward peace ’ among Churchmen is the careful and constant distinction between principles and sympathies. Let the principles be firmly fixed on the unmistakable rock of Divine truth, but let the sympathies go out as widely as possible to all who are endeavouring to live and labour for Christ. Never shall I forget the words of the saintly and noble Bishop Whipple of Minnesota, the Apostle of the Red Indians, as I heard them in Exeter Hall on a memorable occasion. ‘For thirty years I have tried to see the face of Christ in those who have differed from me.’

III. The Eequmments.

What sort of man must he be who is to ’ maintain and set forwards quietness, peace, and love ‘?

1. He must be filled with the Spirit of Truth. Unity must be based on Truth. Anything else will prove disastrous. First righteousness, then peace (Isa. ix. 7); first pure, then peaceable (Jas. iii. 17). As it has been well put, we must not work for compromise at the expense of truth, but for comprehension within the truth. ‘In things essential unity, in things doubtful liberty, in all things charity.’ Yes, but beneath all things fidelity.

2. He must be filled with the Spirit of Love. Love to Christ elicits and compels love to man. ‘He who loveth God must love his brother also ’ (1 John iv. 21). Love will express itself in sympathy, for we shall be keen-sighted enough to see things from his standpoint. And Love will show itself in tenderness. Nor will true Love ever mean weakness, for the stronger the convictions the greater the love. It is just because we are so convinced of our own position that we can love others with a pure heart fervently.

3. And he must be filled with the Spirit of Wisdom. Truth united with Love will lead to the threefold qualifications of Wisdom, Perception, and Tact. We shall ’ perceive and know what things we ought to do,’ and we shall have ’ grace and power faithfully (and wisely) to perform the same.’ Love is not blind, but keen and far-sighted, and when love is guided by truth, and truth is inspired by love, the result is a spiritual wisdom which is from above, and will do God’s work in God’s way.

But we must go still deeper.

IV. The Secret.

How can this threefold spirit become ours? It can only come from a deep, true, full, spiritual life. There must be a rich experience of Christ and a real fellowship with Him. It is only as the soul draws ’ nearer still and nearer ’ to Him Who is ’ the Lord of Peace ’ that the work of ingeminating peace can be done. It is only as ’ the Spirit of Jesus ’ possesses us that we bring fruit forth, the fruit which is * love, joy, and peace,’ and produce ’ the peaceable fruits of righteousness.’ And in the same way it will only be by a similar work of grace in the hearts of others that they will be drawn nearer together and help to bring that day when the reign of everlasting peace will commence. It has often been pointed out that when the tide is out there are little pools of water here and there on the shore, separated from each other by vast stretches of sand, and it is only when the great tide rolls in and submerges them all in its vast embrace that they become one and are united. So must it be, so will it be with our severances of heart, * our unhappy divisions, ’ the great tide of God’s love will flow deeper and fuller into each and all of our lives, and in the ocean of that love we realize the Divine ideal of love, joy, peace for evermore.