SQLite format 3@  ii!%%atableTopicsTopicsCREATE TABLE Topics (Title NVARCHAR(100), Notes TEXT)7}01 - Conditions and Problems{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}{\s2 heading 2;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\lang1033\kern E00 - SCM - Preparation For Chr EMtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue255;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\lang1033\kerning32\b\f0\fs32 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \pard\nowidctlpar\kerning0\b0\f1\fs24 PRESENT-DAY CONDITIONS \par Edited hy (lie Executive Committee of Hie Theological College \par Department of the Student Christian Movement oj \par Great /Britain ami Ireland \par \par LONDON \par STUDENT CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT \par 22, WARWICK LANE, E.G. \par \par PRINTED BY GILBERT AND KIVINGTON LTD. \par ST. JOHN S HOUSE, CLKRKENWELL, E.C. \par \par PREFACE \par \par THE purpose and distinctive character of this book will become evident through a study of the opening and closing chapters. It owes its conception, on the one hand, to the conviction that the Church is confronted to-day with an almost unparalleled opportunity and responsibility; and, on the other hand, to the faith that God is providentially preparing the colleges of the world to aid in the fulfilment of the task awaiting our generation. The character and significance of the responsibilities which appear, in the providence of God, to have been imposed upon the Church at the present time, are indicated in the opening chapter. Succeeding papers deal with some aspects of the preparation needed for a ministry that must be fulfilled under such conditions. The final chapter attempts to show the contribution which the Student Christian Movement is seeking to make to the faithful carrying out of the great work that lies before the Church. Whether there is a direct and providential relation between the duties to which the Church in the present age is summoned, and the Movement which is taking such a vigorous hold of the Colleges of the world, each must judge for himself. But to us, at least, the ideals and activities of the Student Christian Movement have given a new outlook upon life and a new inspiration in living. \par \par We offer this book to the students in Theological Colleges, with the hope and prayer that it maypromote a clearer understanding of the mind and will of Christ for our generation; and that it may help to \par \par vi PREFACE \par \par unite all those who look forward to the sacred calling of the Ministry, not, indeed, in closer outward eccle siastical bonds that is a matter beyond our province, but in the sympathy which springs from common devotion to a great cause. We venture also to think that the thoughts expressed in these pages may perhaps be of service to others outside the Theological Colleges who are concerned with the problems confronting the Church in the immediate future. \par \par Our warmest thanks are due to those who, in the midst of heavy demands upon their time and strength, have generously given their help in the production of this book. While we are responsible for the gener al form of the book, we do not stand committed to every opinion contained in it; nor, of course, is any contributor responsible for more than his own contribution. \par \par F. LENWOOD, Mansfield College, Oxford. \par W. F. LOFTHOUSE, Handsworth College, Birmingham. \par N. MELDRUM, Edinburgh University. \par J. H. OLDHAM, New College, Edinburgh, \par j. W. ROBERTS, Bala College. \par W. S. SENIOR, St. Aidan s College, Birkenhead. \par MALCOLM SPENCER, Mansfield College, Oxford. \par TISSINGTON T ATLOW, Trinity College, Dublin. \par E. S. WOODS, Ridley Hall, Cambridge. \par \par Executive Committee, Theological College Depart \par ment of the Student Christian Movement of \par Great Britain and Ireland, 1905-6. \par \par \pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\kerning32\b\f0\fs32 Contenido\par \pard\nowidctlpar\kerning0\b0\f1\fs24\par \pard\lang3082\f0 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY\tab 1\par CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS\tab 3\par THK REV. D. S. CAIRXS, M.A.\tab 3\par II THE TRAINING OF THE INTEL LECT\tab 25\par THK VKRY RKV. J. H. BKKXARD, D.D, D.C.I,.\tab 25\par III CHARACTER\tab 34\par THE REV. H. GRESFORD JONES, M.A.\tab 34\par IV THE CARE OF THE INNER LIFE\tab 41\par ROBERT E. SPEER, M.A.\tab 41\par V. THE BIBLE IN ITS RELATION TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD\tab 59\par THE REV. A. E. GARVIE, M.A, D.D.\tab 59\par VI THE OPPORTUNITY AND THE PREPARATION OF THE PREACHER\tab 74\par THE REV. \\V. P. PATERSON, D.D.\tab 74\par VII WORK IN GREAT CITIES\tab 90\par THE REV. H. S. WOOLLCOMBE, M.A.\tab 90\par VIII WORK ABROAD\tab 101\par THE REV. W. H. FIXDLAY, M.A.\tab 101\par IX THE HOME MINISTRY AND FOREIGN MISSIONS\tab 113\par THE RKV. W. D. MACKENZIE, D.D.\tab 113\par THE STUDENT CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT\tab 124\par THE REV. J. H. OUJHAM, M.A.\tab 124\par \lang1033\f1\par \par formatted by David Cox (c) 2008\par {\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "mailto:dcox@davidcox.com.mx" }}{\fldrslt{\cf1\ul dcox@davidcox.com.mx}}}\cf0\ulnone\f1\fs24\par \cf2\lang1034\expndtw-7\f2\fs23\par } ing32\b\f0\fs32 CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS \par \pard\nowidctlpar\kerning0\b0\f1\fs24\par \pard\keepn\s2\sb240\sa60\b\i\f0\fs28 THK REV. D. S. CAIRXS, M.A. \par \pard\nowidctlpar\b0\i0\f1\fs24\par \par THERE are two kinds of knowledge which are essential for success in the work of the ministry. \par \par The clergyman or minister must, on the one hand, have a wide and deep knowledge of his great theme; and, on the other, he must have a sympathetic understanding of the minds of those to whom it is his mission to preach it, some knowledge not only of the minds of individual hearers, but of the Time Spirit, and of the Social conditions which are at once its product and its expression. The New Testament exemplifies both these kinds of knowledge in the most remarkable way. \par \par Nothing need be said here of the former of these, it shines on every page. But think of the variety as well as of the unity of the New Testament. Consider the difference between St. Mark and St. John, between the Corinthian Epistles and the Book of the Revelation. \par \par That difference is, no doubt, in part due to the varying individuality of the writers, but every careful student knows that it is also in very great measure due to the varying mind and case of the community for which the apostolic writer is labouring. Each of them thinks and prays his way into the inner mind and life of those to whom he is preaching, or for whom he is writing, \par \par 4 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par and this diagnosis of the existing situation conditions his whole way of dealing with it. It is quite unquestionable that behind the entire labour of the Apostles there lay a very sympathetic and searching study of the conditions under which in the Providence of God their ministry had to be accomplished; and that which was necessary for them is certainly necessary also for us Hence the aim of every theological student who will be in earnest with his great calling and theme should be to acquire, along with the knowledge of the separate spheres of his science, some living understanding of the world-life of his time, some idea of the way in which the great historic currents and tides are flowing, some grasp of the forces, intellectual, economic and spiritual, which are shaping the life of his age. It is with the view of affording some preliminary suggestions towards such a study that the following chapter is written. Nothing more than the barest outline is here possible as an introduction to what will follow from those who are experts in the themes of which they treat. In the course of this survey we shall consider the Intellectual, the Missionary, and the Social problems, and we shall, I believe, find that in each of these spheres the Church is face to face with a great peril and a great opportunity. \par \par I \par \par Foremost among the conditions under which our work must be accomplished I would put the Intellectual Unrest of the present age. This, I think, deserves the first place because, as Comte has said, everything in the life of an age rests in the last issue on ideas. \par \par The determining thing in the life of a man is the way \par \par CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS 5 \par \par in which he conceives his calling, the thing which he is here in the world to do. The same is true of the great aggregate that we call \ldblquote the life of an age,\rdblquote and hence the critical importance of the widespread intellectual unrest of the time. It is easy either to under estimate that unrest, or to exaggerate it to ourselves. \par \par On the one hand, the student will make a great mistake if he expects to find, when he first takes up the work of the ministry, that the majority of his congregation are deeply concerned with intellectual doubt at all, or desire him to spend much time in demolishing Materialism or the Tubingen theory lie will still find great multitudes apparently untroubled by doubt, whose difficulties are almost entirely of a practical character. But, on the other hand, we have to think of the typical congregation not only as it is at this precise moment, but as what it is in process of be coming; and, further, we have to remember that the unrest and uncertainty of the age does not manifest itself in conscious unbelief alone, but in a secular and indifferent temper as well. \par \par Take the former point first. The religious unrest which is so marked in the literature, philosophy and theology of the age, and of which the spiritual biography of the time bears such abounding witness, is rapidly becoming popularized. At present there are a few in almost every congregation who are either slightly touched by it, or who, under its influence, are lapsing from Christian communion. They are, as yet, relatively very few, but their number is likely to increase unless the ministry is awake to the situation. The spread of cheap literature and the influence of the Press are certain to diffuse the spirit of doubt much more widely \par \par 6 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par as the years go on. The immense sale of the productions of the Rationalist Free Press is an augury of what is at hand The literature of unbelief will be cheapened as its public grows, and this again will increase its circulation. The greatest danger of all is that the negative movement in religion and the revolutionary movement in society should join forces, and that the latter should put its resources of propaganda at the disposal of the former. \par \par But the influence of the Time Spirit is, in the second place, mediate as well as direct. Even in the more highly educated classes this is the case. Here and there, alike in the lower and higher classes, we come upon those who have given up all belief in the super natural, and who are prepared to give their reasons for doing so; but, in the main, this spirit shows itself rather in what seems like indifference, and in a highly critical attitude to Churches and the ordinary forms of religious life. There is a very large class of educated men and women to-day who either believe without conviction, or whose belief is in a very limited creed, and who, in either case, are out of sympathy with the organized Christianity around them. \par \par The sources of this temper are manifold, but one potent influence is the general state of the religious thought of the time, and the prevailing uncertainty with regard to truths on which our fathers and theirs were prepared to stake their lives without hesitation. \par \par It is true that in this temper of indifference and criticism there are other elements than the intellectual factor, and that in these other elements we must often include what the Apostle sternly and sadly calls \ldblquote all that is of the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and \par \par CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS 7 \par \par the pride of life.\rdblquote Yet, in summing up our diagnosis of the Doubt of our age, we shall go far astray if we treat it in the same fashion as our forefathers were in the habit of treating the \ldblquote infidelity \ldblquote of theirs, as being in the main simply an intellectual pretext for a moral revolt from the truth of Christianity. It is something nobler than this, complex though its origin may be. It is of a very different intellectual quality, and of a very different moral temper from the \ldblquote infidelity\rdblquote of the eighteenth century. Its representatives have taught our age some of its greatest and most deeply needed lessons, they have brought out elements in the New Testament that the Church had ignored, and their private and public lives have often given professing Christians reason for shame and self-examination. It is, in fact, impossible for any candid and well-informed mind to rest content with the summary explanation which has just been mentioned. We must look at modern doubt as forming part of a great context of thought. It is one of the consequences of the opening of a new and wonderful chapter of human achievement, it is due in large measure to the introduction of an immense scientific knowledge into human life, and to its manifold actions and reactions on the spiritual life of man. It is little wonder if men, being what they are, have been dazzled and confused in the commotion of such discoveries, and if sometimes men of naturally noble temper, even \ldblquote minds naturally Christian,\rdblquote have been \ldblquote perplexed in the extreme\rdblquote in matters of faith. \par \par Now the attitude of the Christian ministry to the entire problem depends on whether this estimate of modern doubt is correct or not. If it is incorrect, we have simply to get up the case for Christianity, and with \par \par 8 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par it to beat down the opposing party with little respect or sympathy; but if it is correct, then we must deal with modern doubt as the Apostles dealt with the thought of their time; mastering it, showing where the Gospel meets and transcends it, endeavouring in all things to do justice to what is right and true in it, a nd yet showing where it stops short while the Gospel goes on. \par \par In what has been said we have considered the doubt of the age as something existing outside the student him self. But with many the case is otherwise. It has sometimes been said that students tend to lose their early zeal in our theological colleges; that there, indeed, they often lose their faith instead of being confirmed in it. Without admitting the general justice of this verdict one may point out that, in the nature of the case!, it is in the theological college that the student is brought into contact, often for the first time, with the intellectual side of spiritual problems. It is his duty there to add to his faith knowledge, and in the process his faith inevitably runs risks that it was comparatively free from before he entered it. He meets there, he ought to meet there, with all the disintegrating influences of modern thought as well as with the positive and constructive influences of Christian theology. Hence it often happ"ens that a man has his hardest inner conflicts to face during these years of training. In such a case he ought to take this most trying experience as part of his training appointed for him by God, and face it with prayer and courage, and also with the most resolute industry. If ever it has been the duty of a theological student to work hard, it is his duty to-day. \par \par Religious certainty, worthy of the name, can only come \par \par CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS 9 \par \par through unflinching honest#y and unflinching labour of mind and heart. \par \par It is necessary that men should realize that we have before us a time of infinite danger, one of the most critical epochs of history, and yet one fraught with immense possibilities of good. We have to win firm land from the tempestuous waters, foothold for our selves, but not for ourselves alone. I do not say that every man is called to such work. There are those who can reach and maintain a living faith without any prolonged intellectual toil, or th$e harassing pain of doubt. Such men are designed by God for other work than the task of meeting the intellectual doubts of others, and it is not their wisdom to go seeking difficulties with a view to answer them. But there are others in whose minds questionings rise inevitably, and it is to these that the counsel may be given that they flinch from no toil, nor hardship, nor inward suffering in their quest, but that they labour, and pray, and keep their intellectual honour clear. It is a thought that may w%ell nerve the student that in this he is labouring, not for himself alone, but for a great host outside that have not his present advantages, his teachers, his precious years of seclusion, his freedom. Who are \ldblquote those conscripts on whom your lot has fallen \ldblquote ? Workmen in factories, face to face with blatant unbelief; careworn men of business, who in its pressure have no time to deal with the deeper questions for themselves; women who have not had the training to grapple with the questio&ns that yet arise in their minds and bring torture with them. If the student realized all that will await him when his time for going out into the world shall have come, he would shrink from no ordeal or toil to win \par \par io PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par a living faith. It is far better that he should face these \ldblquote obstinate questionings\rdblquote now, and answer them aye or no, than that afterwards, when he is out in the pressure of practical life, when at every turn h'e is called to speak and act as a believing man, he should be haunted by them, and should have a spectre of doubt dwelling in his study, following him to the pulpit, standing beside him at the death-bed. He should look upon the scrutinies and investigations of the theological class-room in the same spirit as he regards matters of personal duty and honour. He must be prepared in such a quest to discard allpremature solutions, and sometimes to remain in doubt on matters on which his heart yearns for convict(ion. \par \par One of the noblest Christian teachers of our age has spoken grave words of counsel on this subject, which we all need to lay to heart. \ldblquote It is from the credulity of Christians,\rdblquote said Dr. Hort, that the Christian faith suffers most in days of debate; and it is well when any who might have helpfully maintained its cause among their neighbours, had they not been disabled by too facile acquiescence, are impelled to plunge into the deep anew. There is not, indeed, and canno)t be, any security that they will emerge upon the Christian side: in human minds truth does not always win a present victory, even when it is faithfully pursued. But whatever be the present result to them selves or to others through them, it is not possible that they, or that any, should fall out of the keeping of Him Who appointed the trial; and to the Church any partial loss that may arise is outweighed by the gain from those whose faith has come to rest upon a firmer foundation. Truth cannot be said to* prevail where it \par \par CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS 1 1 \par \par is assented to on irrelevant or insufficient grounds, and the surest way to evoke its power is to encourage the strenuous confronting of it with personal life and knowledge.\rdblquote (The Way, the Truth, and the Life. \par \par Introd, page 36.), Such an honest and courageous investigation will entail privation and toil on him who undertakes it. It will call upon him for all the reserves of endurance and moral force that he possesse+s; nay, it will certainly call for more. But if on these grounds he shrinks from it, why did he ever contemplate the work of the ministry? above all, why did he contemplate it to-day? \par \par I shall fail in the aim of this chapter if I do not bring out that we are living in a time of crisis, a time fraught with peril and with opportunity of an unusual kind, and that our work calls for strenuous toil and for unflinching courage on the part of those who are to be the spiritual leaders of the coming gen,eration. The time of seclusion that our theological discipline affords is the eve of one of the great battles of humanity, a severe and solemn hour on which momentous issues hang. \par \par It is impossible here, in this chapter, and it would be unnecessary, to give detailed suggestions as to the lines of study that are likely to be most fruitful to the student who is engaged in such an investigation. But in view of what has now to be said on the other conditions under which our ministry has to be accom- plished, one such suggestion must be made. The whole course of modern thought has been such as to recall theology to the Personality of Jesus. The central battle of Faith is no longer about the Mass, or Justification by Faith, or any other doctrine, \par \par 1 2 PREP A RA TION FOR THE CHRIS TIA N MINIS TR Y \par \par however important and true it may be, relating to the application of the Christian salvation. It rages round the question of the very nature of that salvation. \par \par The central i.ssue to-day is, \ldblquote What think ye of Christ?\rdblquote The battle has reached its agony round the standard. Was He simply the greatest of all human Interpreters of the spiritual order of the world, or was He \ldblquote God manifest in the flesh?\rdblquote Here is the storm-centre of the immense tumult of modern thought, and the true student will make for that issue, and hold tenaciously to it, until he has reached a conviction upon it of which he can say, that he does not merely possess it, but t/hat it possesses him. \par \par The inevitable effect of this re-emergence of the Personality of Jesus as the central interest in theology has been to give a new prominence to those great elemental spiritual principles which lie at the foundations of His life and teaching: the Fatherhood of God, His own enduring place as the Sole Mediator of the Filial life to mankind, and the Kingdom of God as Chief-Good and World-Goal. That Character stands so intimately related to these principles that if they are un0true it ceases to be ideal, because based upon a radically false view 7 of the world. Conversely, if the Character is perfect, the principles must be true. They are the spiritual postulates of the Life of Jesus, and therefore, as He loses or gains in our spirits, so do these vast and luminous Ideas sink beneath the tempestuous flood, or rise glorious and serene from the stormy waters to be the light of all our day. It is impossible here to develop this line of thought further or to expound the ideas in de1tail. That one which pre\par \par CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS 13 \par \par supposes and completes the others, and which has most immediate bearing on the further course of our argument, the idea of the Kingdom of God, will be dealt with in a later chapter.* I refer to it here, and to the positive theological result of the great controversy with the Doubt of the age, simply to show that there is a deep and vital connection bet\\veen the Intellectual and the Practical world-problem, and that if the student 2faces the former as he should, he will not emerge from the labour of thought spiritually the same man or a poorer man than when he entered it, but with a new hope in his heart, a new clue to the great world-labyrinth, a new and grander outlook upon the ways of God with men. \par \par In passing from the consideration of the intellectual unrest of the time to the other conditions under which the work of the ministry has to be carried out, we shall assume the truth of the principles to which we have just 3referred. They carry us out at once into the great world-field. \par \par II \par \par We shall take nozc, fur convenience, that group of conditions presented by the new Relations between the Higher and the Loiver Races of mankind. During the last century and a half these relations have undergone an immense transformation. If we take the world-map of a hundred and fifty years ago, and compare it with the world-map of to-day, we shall see that in the middle of the eighteenth century, Asia, with the exc4eption of a comparatively small part of India, and of the north-eastern region, was independent of Western \par * Pp. 103-129. \par \par \par 14 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par sway. The same might be said of nearly the whole of Africa. The Austral continent and islands were practically unknown, and a few millions of European colonists and planters sparsely occupied the southern half, and the eastern region of the northern half, of the Continent of America. The steamship, the telegr5aph, and the railway were as yet unknown. We look out upon a very different world to-day. If we turn to the modern world-map, what do we find? Northern Asia from the Urals to the Pacific is Russian territory. \par \par Jiritain and France between them share the dominion of Southern Asia from the neighbourhood of the Persian Gulf to the Pacific. The central zone of Asia from the Hindoo Koosh to the Yellow Sea has only at the last moment been saved from a like domination by the Europeanizing of Japan. The6 sway of the Austral continent and archipelagoes has passed to the Western races. The entire African continent has been partitioned, and throughout the two Americas, the sway of the more advanced races is now unbroken from Green land and the Yukon to the Horn. \par \par Here is a gigantic world - event or rather an immense historical process whose importance it is hardly possible to over-estimate. The movement has had two phases which have been partly coincident and partly successive. First came the str7uggle for the temperate zones, which were seized by the stronger races with the intention of colonizing them. Next came the struggle for the Control of the Tropics. We are here mainly concerned with this latter struggle and its consequences. Its results have been the bringing of immense numbers of the tropical and sub-tropical races under the control of the Western peoples, and \par \par CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS 15 \par \par the raising of new problems of far-reaching importance, on whose right solutio8n the whole future of the world depends. The root motive which has impelled this immense process is economic. It is the wish to secure the control of the incalculable latent wealth of the tropical zones. Other motives have contributed, but this has been the dominant force which has precipitated the West upon the East and South. Now the first period of that movement has been approximately completed. \par \par These regions have largely passed beneath the foreign flag. The second period is rapidly followi9ng. The communication between the stronger and the weaker races is becoming daily more intimate. Every year the railheads are creeping through the forests and over the morasses. The great tropical lakes and rivers are furrowed by new keels. The Zambesi Falls are spanned at last. The wires from the North are drawing near the wires from the South; new cables are being laid on the ocean floor; the speed and size of the great liners increases year by year by leaps and bounds. \par \par And what concerns us :here most of all, in ever-increasing numbers the adventurous youth of the North and West is pouring into these new lands. The forces which have produced this state of things are certain to go on operating for ages to come, gradually drawing the peoples into ever closer and closer contact. Moreover it must also be realized that this contact is irrevocable. \par \par Vestigia nulla retrorsum. A particularly well-informed and clear-headed writer has judged the situation in the following terms: The completi;on of this world process is a specially great and fateful event, because it closes a page for ever. The conditions that are now vanishing can never recur. The uncivilized and semi\par \par 16 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par civilized races cannot relapse into their former isolation. In passing under the influence of civilized Powers they have indeed given to the world a new kind of unity. They have become in a new sense economic factors in its progress, and they must affect more powerching and person of Jesus, and to consider how in this dim nascent world of the future, that Kingdom is to be realized. \par \par If the Church of Christ is not awakened to the realities of the situation, what we have before us is not a Kingdom of God, but a Kingdom of the Devil. \par \par It is strange that men are so blind to the sinister possibilities of the future. We tacitly assume that this closer contact of the lower and higher races can \par \par CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS 17 \par \par only b?e for good, because the higher must needs raise the lower. Is that so certain? Has the acquisition of the huge Congo basin by King Leopold raised the moral tone of Belgium, purified its public life, given it a higher moral status in the civilized world? Has it spread increased happiness and culture and virtue amid the swarming myriads of the African tropics? What have we to say of our own opium wars; of our West African rum trade? What has America to-day to say of its Black Belt? It has cost her dear alre@ady in money, in blood, and in the taint of moral disease that very nearly paralyzed her giant strength. Had it not been for the drastic regimen of Civil War, how sinister would have been the omens for that mighty Common wealth! Imagine a United States with slavery regnant from Manhattan to the Golden Gate!\par \par \par The higher races may raise the lower. Yes, but it is also true that the lower may drag the higher down. \par \par Rome conquered the East, and, no doubt, exerted there a great civiliAzing power. But, Christianity apart, GraecoRoman civilization failed to regenerate the Orient, and in the process Rome lost her own liberties, and \ldblquote the Orontes,\rdblquote as Martial tells us, \ldblquote poured its scum into the Tiber.\rdblquote The higher race can only lift the lower and escape being dragged down by the lower when it has reached a stage of spiritual development that makes it fit for the task. Has the world of Christendom reached that stage? Everything depends on that. If it hBas, all may yet be well. If it has not, we may be on the eve of one of the most tragic ages of Time. The evil may come through the direct contagion of the lower morality. No one who knows anything of the manifold temptations which lie in the way of those who live \par c \par \par IS PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par among the lower races will think lightly of this peril. \par \par But the indirect danger is even greater. No lesson of history is clearer than this, that the tyrant natiCon loses its own liberties, and through its wiong towards others becomes first base, and then weak in itself. Authority may ennoble a character, but if misused it inevitably and terribly degrades it. Now here are the plain facts of the situation The Western races have at last won control of the tropical zones. They have at last got within sight of the treasures in the soil, and beneath the soil, that have lured them to enterprises so gigantic. \par \par But climatic conditions make it impossible for theD white man himself adequately to exploit these riches. \par \par The indigenous races cannot be driven from the tropical zones as they have been driven from the temperate. Their labour is a vital necessity, and their comparative weakness in intellectual and organizing power puts them within the hands of the encroaching races. Immense latent wealth for the winning, a malarial climate, a subject population: such are the conditions abroad. It does not surely need any great foresight to see what these may mEean. At home, moreover, the power of wealth has been enormously increased within these past years, owing to the immense aggregations of capital in individual hands. 1 he endeavour will undoubtedly be made to exploit the lower races, nay, as we have seen, it has already been repeatedly attempted, and is even now being carried out. Slavery is only one form of that evil, forced labour is another, the rum trade is another, the Congo iniquities another, the opium wars another still. \par \par There is somethFing common to all these enormities; it is the treatment of the native as a mere instrument of \par \par \par \par CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS It; \par \par another\rquote s lust or gain. Reference has already been made to the apparently insoluble problem that the Black Belt presents in the United States of to-day. \par \par But, if Mr. Bryce\rquote s forecast is even approximately correct, in the world-commonwealth of the future we shall have the same conditions repeated on an immensely vaster scale. GUnder the new conditions of intercommunication and closeness of intercourse, what the Black Belt has been, and is, in the United States, that the tropical and sub-tropical peoples may be in the world-commonwealth of the future. It is as if, in one of our great modern cities, a vilely insanitary slum quarter had suddenly approached the West End. \par \par Now there is no radical solution of this problem but one. For the spiritual health of mankind there must be no slums in the City of God. The better spiHrit of Christendom must be aroused to insist that the lower races shall not be treated as mere instruments of the avarice and lust and pride of the stronger, but that they shall be governed with a constant view to their own interest, as wards of the stronger races, pending the time of their majority and enfranchisement. Here, too, the idea of the Kingdom of God must be the regulative principle of the Church. \par \par The very purpose of the existence of that Church is that it may hold up this ideal of Ia spiritual world commonwealth before the eyes of men, and that it may use all its resources to secure that the mighty powers of the State shall not be perverted to the base uses of avarice and tyranny, but used to lay the foundations of a nobler order in time to be. \par \par But no disinterestedness and wisdom of Government can radically solve the race problem. What, for \par \par 2 o PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par instance, can even the British Government in India, which is probJably the noblest form of that higher type of treatment of the native population that exists, do the actual regeneration of the Hindu peoples? \par \par indeed an old world,\rdblquote says Mommsen of the days of the death of the Roman Republic, \ldblquote and even the richly gifted patriotism of Caesar could not make it young again. 7 Nor can any Government, however enlightened, make any people young again. Only the Gospel can do that. And so by this road of thought perhaps novel to some, we come roundK to the old idea of the Evangelization of the World. The sociological argument for foreign missions is not the main argument for them. The main argument for them is tl old argument that their principle is essential to Christianity It is involved in the very nature of the Gospel, of the Church, and of the Kingdom of God. But none the less it is worth while to point out that failure here means not only the loss of heathendom, but eventually the lapse and wreck of the higher civilization itself. \par \par LFor I return to this, that the only radical cure for the impending evils is the removal of that great mass of Heathendom which, whether as Tyrant or as Victim has been and will always be a peril to the higher life c mankind. We know that there was a time when that Heathendom sat in the seat of power, and strove to crush the new religion by torture and death. Now the positions are reversed: the peril remains, though I comes in a different fashion. It is a new peril because of the new economic conditions. \Mpar \par But the evangelization of the world is only the beginning of the problem. Beyond it there lies the task of the Christianizing of the entire civilization \par \par CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS 21 \par \par of the evangelized peoples. All around the nascent Christian communities there still lies a vast heathen environment, which is ever calling them back into its vortex; a world of custom, institution and law, alien throughout to the genius of the new religion. \par \par Hence, out of the work oNf Christian missions there inevitably arises the necessity of creating a new environment. The missionary aims first of all at \ldblquote the conversion of sinners and the edification of saints in their most holy faith,\rdblquote but the very endeavour to realize this primary aim leads him to take up a certain attitude to polygamy, to slavery, to drink, to tribal warfare, and so on. Schools and technical institutes rise beside the churches, and in a thousand ways the endeavour is made to promote a type ofO civilization in which the Christian character can find itself able to breathe and attain strength. Practically all our great Missions have passed into this stage. The process has its obvious dangers, and, so far as the direct labours of the missionary are concerned, its obvious limits. There is always the risk of compromising primary interests for the sake of what, in a sense, are secondary. But the risk is inevitable, however it may be abated by states manship and understanding of human nature; and in oPur different mission-fields it is being faced in a greater or less degree according to the circumstances. The Christian missionary has discovered that in the mere endeavour to develop the character of his converts, to keep them from relapse into heathendom, and to nurture their children in the Faith, he has to work towards a new civilization. Behind the evangelization of the world there lies a vast enterprise which aims at nothing less than the creation of new spiritual \par \par 22 PREPARATION FOR THE QCHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par provinces in a world-wide Kingdom of God. On the far horizon of all missionary endeavour there rises the vision of new peoples, free, vigorous and noble, partaking in the glorious life of the Kingdom of God. \ldblquote The nations of them that are saved shall walk there.\rdblquote But the very magnitude of such an ideal must needs remind us that the task is far beyond the power put forth, as yet, in this direction by the Christian Church. That it is beyond its latent resouRrces I do not believe. That the pressure of the dangers that have already been indicated will force it to undertake the enterprise on a far grander scale, seems to me to be involved in the very necessities of the case. \par \par The responsibility which this imposes on the Christian Ministry is tremendous. The whole future of civilization depends on the imbuing of Christendom with just those ideas, of the sacredness of human personality as such, which are the product of Christianity alone; the ideas whiSch are begotten by a belief in a common Father, in the death of Christ for every man, and in a future world-wide Kingdom of God. That these principles, with their result in a true estimate of the sacredness of personality, are at the present moment being flouted and ignored in the treatment of the backward peoples, is flagrantly clear. That their victory will mean an immense extension of Missionary enterprise, must be equally plain. \par \par The danger from Heathendom as Tyrant moved the Church to mighTty labours and martyr endurance in its heroic age. Will the danger from Heathendom as Victim of Christendom in like manner rouse it to an enterprise as noble in the coming days? It is as \par \par CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS 23 \par \par true now as it was then, that the whole spiritual life of humanity is at stake on the issue. \par \par Had the present survey of the world-field been written three years ago, it would have been sufficient to have paused here, with the coming danger to the higher life ofU the world from Heathenism as the Prey of the Western races. But within that period the memorable events in the Farthest East have revealed possibilities hitherto undreamed of, and opened a new chapter in the history of humanity. The rise of Japan has laid, a sudden arrest on the encroaching Western tide, and the huge population of China, representing a fifth of the human race, has been suddenly brought under new influences. The phenomenon is so new and startling that as yet it is utterly impossible to foVrecast the future, and all the attempts that have been made in this direction are crude and premature. One thing may be said with some confidence in the light of what has been written above, and in the light of what has happened during these memorable years, namely, that it is well for Russia that she has been flung back from her career of conquest and encroachment on the Chinese Empire. Who can contemplate unmoved the prospect of hundreds of millions of the human race passing under the sway of the Grand WDukes, and the effete system that they represent, with all its wide spread tyranny, inefficiency and corruption? Not only for the conquered, but for the conquering power, such an issue would have been fraught with appalling consequences. But is Japan ready for her task? What use will she make of the immense resources of wealth and power and fame that \par \par 24 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par apparently lie in her hand? We cannot say. It is not the first time that a non-Christian poXwer has armed itself with the terrible weapons of Western civilization, and the history of the Ottoman Power in Europe is not one to encourage optimism. One thing, at least, is clear. The outlook for the world would have been incomparably brighter to-day, had but the cause of Christian missions triumphed in Japan, and had the Spirit of which the missionary movement is one expression dominated the policy of the Western nations in their earlier dealings with China. History has already justified the accusingY Spirit of Jesus, which is the higher conscience of Christendom. The \ldblquote Yellow Peril \ldblquote is in part the creation of a bad conscience. Such moral forebodings, none the less, have a way of coming true. There is a prophetic element in them; and that the situation has sinister elements in it, it is impossible to deny. But how vast are the new opportunities as well!\par \par It is a matter of life or death for Japan to develop her commerce, and \ldblquote one of the subtlest of all students oZf Modern Japan points out that here, in this industrial development, in all probability lies the force that must disintegrate the ancient religion which has given the people, its extraordinary solidarity and magnificent self devotion in its hour of trial. If Japan can be kept from drifting into religious anarchy and secularism, if she can be won for Christianity, Christ will hold the keys of the Orient. The opportunity is one that stirs the heart and dilates the mind. Never, perhaps, has the Christian Chu[rch had its like since Boniface preached the Gospel in the German forests or Augustine landed in Thanet to evangelize the Island Empire of the West. \par * Lafcadio Hearn, /rt/rt;/. \par \par CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS 25 \par \par III \par \par We pass now to consider the question of the Social and Economic conditions under which the work of the ministry must be accomplished. We have seen that the work of the ministry has to be carried out in an age of intellectual unrest. When we turn to the social \sphere we find a like commotion. Here too we are living in a time of transition. History shows us that in the life of human societies periods of stable order endure for long spaces of time, and that the old is as a rule transformed into the new through an age of transition. Thus we have the successive periods of the Roman Empire, the Feudal System, the period of Absolute Monarchy, and the Democratic age; and in the Economic sphere we have the regime of Slave Labour, followed by that of Serfage, and that a]gain by the Wage Labour of our own day. Between these epochs come times of criticism and unrest, during which men are found, as it were, \ldblquote Wandering between two worlds, one dead, The other, powerless to be born.\rdblquote \par \par \par We are living at present in the age of Democracy in politics and Competitive Individualism in industrial matters, but there are many signs that the competitive order is in process of modification. Fifty years ago it was generally believed that the last word o^f wisdom in matters of industry and commerce was the removal of all restraints that hampered the free play of self-interest. \par \par The greatest happiness of the greatest number, it was believed, would best be assured by allowing each individual to seek his own interest, and the function of the State was limited to the preservation of social \par \par 26 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par order, the holding of the industrial ring, and the taking action that the rules of the game sho_uld be observed. \par \par Under this system of free competition immense achievements have been effected. The occupation of virgin continents, the exploitation of the hidden riches of the earth, the rise of great industries, the development of the means of communication, the creation of new means of livelihood, and the enormous expansion of the population of the industrial countries that has followed this increase of wealth, are all so many indications of the practical value of liberty. \par \par But `as the system developed there went with these triumphs other and sinister results. The system, it was found, bore hardly on the labouring classes, subjecting them not only to poverty, but to unwholesome conditions of life, to excessive labour, and to a dreary monotony of toil. Along with this discovery there went the extension of their political power, and so by degrees the authority of the State has more and more been called in to regulate the stress of competition. \par \par The economic structure hasa thus become unstable, for that this process has reached its term, no one believes. The age of pure competition is obviously past, for no one wishes to go back to the pre-Shaftesbury period; but how far the tendency to State intervention may go, there are few bold enough to say. We have, of course, an active Socialist party among us, but they cannot be said, as yet, to have captured the judgment of the nation, whatever they may ultimately succeed in doing. But while the nation thus stands between these twbo extremes, unwilling to go on to the one and unable to go back to the other, the problem of excessive poverty becomes more and more pressing. \par \par \par CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS 27 \par \par Professor Huxley has summed up the state of matters with his accustomed trenchancy. He wrote as follows seventeen years ago: u Any one who is acquainted with the state of the population of all great industrial centres, whether in this or in other countries, is aware that amidst a large and increasing body of cthat population there reigns supreme... that condition which the French call la miscre, a word for which I do not think that there is any exact English equivalent. It is a condition in which the food, warmth, and clothing, which are necessary for the mere maintenance of the functions of the body in their normal state cannot be obtained; in which men, women, and children are forced to crowd into dens where decency is abolished, and the most ordinary conditions of healthful existence are impossible of attaidnment; in which the pleasures within reach are reduced to brutality and drunkenness; in which the pains accumulate at compound interest in the shape of starvation, disease, stunted development, and moral degradation; in which the prospect of even steady and honest industry is a life of unsuccessful battling with hunger, rounded with a pauper\rquote s grave. When the organization of society, instead of mitigating this tendency, tends to continue and intensify it; when a given social order plainly makes fore evil and not for good, men naturally enough begin to think it high time to try a fresh experiment. I take it to be a mere plain fact, that throughout industrial Europe there is not a single large manu facturing city which is free from a vast mass of people whose condition is exactly that described, and from a still greater mass, who, living just on the edge of the social swamp, are liable to be precipitated \par \par 28 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par into it.\rdblquote It will be nfoticed that Professor Huxley speaks here of two classes. The former class are in the abyss, the latter are just on the edge of it, and liable at any moment to fall into it. It is difficult to generalize with accuracy from the data which we possess, but for our typical great cities the best recent investigations put \ldblquote people of the abyss\rdblquote at a tenth, and the people on or below \ldblquote the hunger line\rdblquote at about a quarter of the entire population. \par \par There are still sgome among us who think that with this state of things the Church has nothing to do, except to inculcate charity upon its members. They believe that to go beyond this is to mix up the sacred and the secular. They think that the only true remedy for the social evils of the time is to preach the Gospel to the slum. Convert the dweller there, they say, and you have carried the citadel. \ldblquote The soul of all improvement is the improvement of the soul.\rdblquote The sinful human spirit will make a hell ohn earth of the most admirably built and the most perfectly sanitary dwelling, nay, of the palace itself. The regenerated soul will find a heaven below in the meanest cottage. In such reasoning there is a strange mixture of truth and falsehood. All that it argues regarding the necessity of bringing the Gospel to the individual is absolutely true, and especially at the present time it needs to be said. I hold that nothing can be clearer than this, that the world cannot be regenerated from the outside. \par i \par The mere transformation of social conditions taken by itself cannot solve the problem. But why should we make an absolutely false antithesis of the kind at all? \par \par With what consistency can we practise even alms giving towards the poor on such a basis as this? How, \par \par CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS 29 \par \par again, can we defend the Miracles of our Lord? Were they not on this theory perplexing secularities on the part of Jesus? But, it is said, these were wrought as signs of His powjer to save the soul. Is not the retort to that obvious? \ldblquote Would that the Body of Christ to-day showed like signs of vitality, for then indeed we could believe.\rdblquote \par \par \par The truth is that this whole way of thinking is due to failure to realize the actual facts, and to an imperfect grasp of the influence of social conditions upon the body, and, through the body, upon the soul. Leaving the question of the adult dweller in the slum upon one side, take the case of the child broughtk up there. \par \par Imagine, for instance, the consequences of its being brought up through the years of childhood and adolescence in a house of one room. Imagine the effect of incessant familiarity with the sights and sounds of a crowded tenement of a crowded court in a crowded street of an East End, \ldblquote oaths, filth, and monstrous blasphemies.\rdblquote Imagine work hard to be got, and precarious and monotonous when attained. Imagine the utter absence of privacy and comfort when the day\rquolte s work is done, and the gin-shop lights are flaring at the street corner. Imagine these conditions working through generations on the souls of those exposed to them. Take the product of three gene rations of this way of life. How much remaining moral nature is there likely to be in him, to which the evangelist can make his appeal? True, the soul is still there, but how terribly deep it must lie buried. We are sometimes apt to forget that the Gospel can only make its appeal when there is a certain measumre of moral preparation in the man who hears it. That is \par \par 30 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par why God delayed so long to send His Son. That is why the minister finds that as a rule the satisfactory people come out of satisfactory homes. We are apt also to forget the enormous influence of other social conditions in modifying the personalities of those who live under them. It is quite true, as has been said above, that there is always room left for freedom. Yet to a very large enxtent the soul is plastic to the environment, and it is upon this basal fact above all that the social mission of the Church depends. \par \par On this fact we who believe in that mission stake our entire case. If we are wrong in this belief, then that mission is a delusion, and the sooner it is exposed the better. If we are right, then the Church must take up the Social Question with a thoroughness which it has never yet shown. Not by one whit would we have the evangelizing side of the work of the Churoch weakened. \par \par We would have it increase in zeal and power. It is indispensable and fundamental. But if the view which I have urged is correct; then it needs to be supple mented by a new and profound concern regarding the environment, regarding social arrangements and institutions, regarding the Christianizing of the conditions under which men live. \par \par But is the basal principle true? We can bring the matter to an issue by a crucial case. Take the question of Slavery. If individualists phad the courage of their convictions, they ought here to say that with Slavery as an institution the Church had nothing to do, that its true function was to preach the Gospel to master and slave alike, and that the acceptance of that Gospel by both would so transform the whole situation that nothing else would be needful. In so arguing they might plead \par \par CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS 31 \par \par the Apostolic example with much superficial force. But few to-day will have the courage to say that thisq would exhaust the Christian\rquote s duty, or adequately interpret the mind of Christ. Evangelicalism has often been accused of narrow individualism, but it should never be forgotten that in England at least, it was Evangelicalism that overthrew the enemy, just as it was an Evangelical who led the battle for the Factory Acts. The basal fact from which the Abolitionists argued was that the institution of slavery was morally ruinous to master and slave alike, that the social environment in a slave country rwas ruinous to the maturing of a noble type of human character, that it fostered cruelty, subservience, and widespread immorality, and that it must at all costs be torn up by the roots. From the letter of Scripture they appealed to its spirit. They were able to show that the whole spirit of the New Testament was hostile to the institution, and that the Apostles tolerated it only because its attempted extirpation would have produced a social convulsion worse than the disease; that what in the Apostles day swas a right course, in ours was a treason to the spirit of Jesus. I suppose that there are few, if any, among the readers of this volume who will question the soundness of their contention. Yet what was it that lay at the foundation of their attitude to Slavery? Was it not precisely the principle for which we are contending, that social environment conditions moral and spiritual character in the most far-reaching and vital fashion? We do not say that it absolutely determines character. We know that there twere devout and saintly men among both the oppressing and the enslaved classes. But looking at the broad consequences of the institution, we know \par \par 32 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par also that it was the prolific mother of vice and degradation, and abominable inhumanity. \par \par From this crucial instance of the truth of the principle, then, we turn anew to that which in our day is known by pre-eminence as \ldblquote the social problem.\rdblquote \par \par What ought tou be the attitude of the Christianity of our country to this problem of excessive poverty? \par \par What is at stake here, it must be repeated, is not simply human happiness and material comfort. This is a false issue which is sometimes raised to the obscuration of the far graver reality. No, what we are concerned with is primarily the moral consequences of these social conditions, the withering of womanly purity, and manly courage, and heavenly faith, the martydom of the souls as well as of the bodies vof children. What concerns us is not only the deaths from starvation, and the crowded workhouses and hospitals, and the sunless and monotonous lives of millions; it is the great army of lost human souls, the gambler, the criminal, the drunkard, the tens of thousands of prostitutes upon the streets of London. \par \par The Church which is indifferent to this state of things is no true Body of Christ. Were our Lord among us here, it is incredible that He would view with apathy the existence of this dense wdark mass of moral decay and human misery in the very heart of our society. It has been described by one who has a right to speak as \ldblquote a stain upon our modern civilization.\rdblquote It is far worse than a stain. If the spirit of Jesus prevailed among us, a moral force of social regeneration would arise from it which would find the situation intolerable. What is wanted is a higher conscience in the Church, and, instead of the present apathy, \ldblquote a sensibility of principle, a chastity ofx honour that feels the stain like a wound.\rdblquote \par \par CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS 33 \par \par \par Having thus, as I believe, established the position that the Church has to do with social questions, we come now, in closing, to ask what the Christian Church and Ministry can do towards the practical solution of the problem. \par \par First, I think that we ought to frame some Ideal of Christian society and of Christian industry. That cannot be different from the Ideal that determines the worky of the missionary. The Ideal that hovers before the mind of the missionary is not simply of a multitude of converted individuals realizing their calling in a world of heathen institutions and heathen civilization, a world of polygamy and tribal warfare and the despotic rule of brute force. It is, as we have seen, the ideal of a Kingdom of God, a world in which all have been evangelized, and in which all shall grow up in a society in which the mind of Christ shall be realized in every great historic instiztution: in the family, and in the school, and in the State, and in all the policy of the state towards other states, in the nascent Common wealth of Humanity. Nothing short of this, surely, can be our Ideal in all our thought of the work of the Church at home. Our Ideal here also is the Kingdom of God. In the light of this Ideal must we view the problems of the \ldblquote submerged tenth,\rdblquote of intemperance, of the \ldblquote social evil/ of gambling, and of war. We have to conceive an Order in wh{ich all these things shall have utterly disappeared, and to labour and pray and fight our way towards it, in the clear consciousness that it is towards this that God is working, with all the vast resources of His wisdom and in the might of His love. This realizing of the Ideal in thought and imagination is the first necessity of the time. Much of the present \par D \par \par 34 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par weakness and division of the Church is due to its forgetfulness of the King|dom of God. The first step to better things is the realizing of our task in all its magnitude and grandeur. Now, in the light of that Ideal, there is very much in our entire industrial system that is out of accord with the spirit of Jesus. Socialism is at its strongest in its criticism of the present system. I do not see that it is possible to contest its contention that there is something alien to the genius of Christianity in the entire competitive organization of industry, and that the co-operative ide}al is more in accordance with the spirit of our Master. But when the conclusion is pressed upon us that we should at once set about the political and social and legislative task of realizing the co-operative commonwealth, we must, I believe, pause and ask other questions. St. Paul, I believe, hated Slavery with all his soul, detected in it something alien to the spirit of Jesus, and sighed for the day when it should have disappeared. But he knew that the endeavour to launch the Church into such an enter p~rise would have done more harm than good. The world as yet was not morally ready for that great enterprise. St. Paul combined the most daring idealism with the most practical statesmanship. Similar, I believe, to his, ought the attitude of the Church to be to all wholesale legislative schemes for the immediate realization of the Ideal. The practical problem is one of resolute but wise and patient amelioration of existing social conditions towards the coming Kingdom of God. \par \par But, secondly, within these limits, set by human evil and immaturity, much may surely be done. Nay, the case is stronger by far. Something must be done. Even on the most conservative view of the present indus\par \par CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS 35 \par \par trial regime much may be done to create an environment of Christian charity, within the environment of the state, which can counteract the degrading influences of excessive poverty. The magnificent enterprises of the great social settlements of the Salvation Army, of the strenuous and noble life of Dr. Barnardo, and the labours of the innumerable churches that have set their hands to this work, together with the great movements for Temperance, Popular Education, Purity, and the Advancement of Women, are indications of how much may be done without raising any gravely debatable questions. There is here a great and as yet only most imperfectly cultivated field of aggressive enterprise. When we look at the statistics of such work, it is true that it seems large, but when we view it relatively to the actually existing misery and degradation it seems deplorably small. One of the sanest and most moderate of Socialists has compared the work of charity to \ldblquote the taking of a few bucketsful of dirty water out of the Thames at Battersea, and, after laboriously trying to purify it, returning it again at London Bridge.\rdblquote That estimate, I think, is much too pessimistic, but it has a statistical basis, as Giffen\rquote s estimate of \ldblquote live millions whose condition is a stain on our civilization \ldblquote clearly shows. The true course is not to despair of philanthropy, and still less of the Christian conscience. What has been done shows what may yet be done. \par \par But, thirdly, difficult and entangled as the question of legislative dealing with the problem of excessive poverty may be, it is one, I believe, that the Christian conscience and intelligence must face. We may believe most thoroughly that legislation alone will never solve \par \par 36 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par the question, that Socialism is at present impracticable, but it is true, none the less, that much may be done by wisely directed municipal and national activity to remove the \ldblquote stain,\rdblquote or rather to heal the wound. \par \par We are all proud of Lord Shaftesbury\rquote s great career. \par \par We believe that the principle he stood for, that the State should have a conscience and a heart, is a sound one. We believe, further, as has been said above, that social environment has an influence not only on the bodies but on the souls of men. It follows inevitably from these principles that social legislation lies within the sphere of the Christian interest. This in principle can hardly be questioned by any one who admits that the legislative abolition of slavery or the social legislation\rdblquote inspired by Lord Shaftesbury were Christian interests, for it can hardly be maintained that the precise limit of our duty in the matter has now been attained, and that the legislative status quo is the culmination of Christian wisdom. It does not take much foresight to see that here there are storms ahead for the Christian Church. Into the difficulties of this part of the subject it is not possible to enter here. \par \par But it is as clear as day to my mind that we are here, in this Social region, as in the other two spheres of Intellectual difficulty and Race movement, in a time of transition and crisis, fraught as such times always are with immense possibilities of good and evil. \par \par Whether the good or the evil will prevail depends very largely on those men who are at present students in our theological colleges. \par \par There are dangers ahead of us from more sources than one, but one is so grave and so obvious that it deserves special reference. Any one who has read \par \par CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS 37 \par \par the writings of the great ethical teachers of the last generation men like Mazzini, Carlyle, Mill, Ruskin, and others knows that with one consent they harp on the social question. The deep interest of the rising generation in these matters is indeed largely due to the cumulative influence of these teachers. \par \par One of the reasons, I believe, of the armed neutrality with which these men regarded the official Church was its dulness of sympathy, its want of strength and courage in dealing with such questions. Had the Churches of the Victorian period had a richer and more generous ethical and social standard, we should have had less unbelief, and less alienation from the Churches of \ldblquote minds naturally Christian.\rdblquote We now see that in these matters those teachers were really standing for Christian ideas and values, and that all they contended for is really contained in the Christian Ideal. Now one of the greatest dangers of the coming period is that the same thing may be repeated amid the incomparably wider public of to-day. If the churches do not stand for Christian principles and Christian values, if they do not lead the conscience of the nation in the matter, but lag behind it, then the work that should have been done by them will pass to other hands. One of the great perils that lie before us, it appears to me, is the coalescence of the Unbelief of the time with the Social Revolution. The history of the German Social Democracy is full of the most sinister warning on this point, of which we have had some slight and shrill indication already in the propaganda of the Clarion. It is a fatal and heart breaking situation when a Church fails to keep the lead in moral questions. All things are then at cross \par \par 3 8 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par purposes. Minds naturally Christian are flung into unbelief, the Church becomes a barrier to progress instead of its driving power, and, on the other hand, the free-lance grapples in vain with tasks that need that weight of organization and discipline which the Church possesses. In such epochs the masses are sometimes lost for whole generations to the cause of Him Who died for them. Are we not witnessing something of this kind in the Russia of to-day? Germany had its own version of the same mournful history in the last generation, and to-day Hermann cries out in anguish that the Arbeiter class is outside of Christianity. \par \par France has taught us the same lesson, and has taught it after such a terrific fashion that her story stands alone. Modern history in fact thunders the warning at us from all quarters of the horizon, that, in the long run the power of the Christian Church depends, not upon its wealth or its social and political status, but upon the force and breadth with which it presents the whole mind and heart of Christ to the age, on the largeness and nobility of its conception of the Kingdom of God. \par \par We have thus very briefly and imperfectly surveyed the great world-field, \ldblquote swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,\rdblquote the chaos of beliefs, the new perils that have come in the train of the Western invasion of the tropical and sub-tropical zones, and the social anarchy at home. To many it appears as if the outlook were gloomy indeed. The dangers assuredly are great and threatening, and it is not surprising that amid the immense confusions, and the sinister omens, many should be losing heart and hope. \par \par \par CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS 39 \par \par But if the dangers are great, so is the opportunity. \par \par We may be on the eve of one of the most tragic ages of time, but we may be in the heart of the morning of one of the grandest days of humanity. All depends on whether the Christian Church will prove equal to the Divine call. In the great enterprises and struggles, taxing heart and brain, that lie before that Church, it is hardly possible to over-estimate the importance of the work of the Ministry. For that work the years of preparation are of critical importance. \par \par They are the hours of vigil before the battle. Privileged and fortunate is he who has been called to such labours in our generation, and happy is he who uses these hours aright! It is no dull and easy time that lies before him, it is one of the great crises of human life and of Divine Providence, \ldblquote An awful moment to which Heaven joined Great issues, good or bad for human kind.\rdblquote \par \par \par When we view the great course of history from the human standpoint alone, we may well quail at the magnitude of the calls upon us and the poverty of our moral and intellectual resources. But when we rise to the Divine standpoint, and see in the fluctuations of thought and the convulsions of society and the immense movements of the peoples, the march of the Divine Purpose, we rise above our self-despair. The task which the Divine Purpose has set us, the Divine Grace can enable us to fulfil. The burden of the Kingdom can be borne by God alone. It is our part to fulfil our vocation and to leave the rest to Him. \par \par \par \par \par \pard\cf1\lang1034\expndtw-7\f2\fs23\par } sa60\kerning0\i\fs28 THK VKRY RKV. J. H. BKKXARD, D.D, D.C.I,. \par \pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\kerning32\i0\f1\fs24\par \pard\nowidctlpar\kerning0\b0\par THERE is a famous saying of Neander\rquote s which ought to be placed in the forefront of a chapter upon the training of the intellect as part of the needful preparation for the work of the Christian Ministry. \par \par Pectus facit theologum; \ldblquote it is the heart which makes the theologian.\rdblquote If a man take up this profession with out a sense of vocation, without a conviction that God is the Master of his life, and that the opportunities of his education are the calling of a Divine voice, his equipment for his office is incomplete indeed. He will lack the most essential of all qualifications for understanding the Divine message and for interpreting it to others. \par \par But the spiritual discipline of a student of Divinity is considered in other parts of this book; and it will be taken for granted in what follows here that it has not been forgotten or ignored. \par \par Spiritual discipline is necessary, but it is not by itself a sufficient preparation: and Neander did not mean to suggest that intellectual training is of no importance. \par \par Next to the capacity for spiritual discernment, the noblest endowment of man is the intellectual faculty, and part of our business in the world no matter what our station may be is to develop this to the utmost of \par \par 44 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par our opportunity. And in no profession is the value of a trained intellect more conspicuously evident than in the profession of a clergyman, who has to do with the deepest mysteries of life and who is perpetually called upon to discuss problems which from age to age have vexed the wisest of mankind. Every clergyman cannot be a theologian, a doctor ecclesiae; that is plain enough. Yet every clergyman has perforce to handle great subjects, and he will inevitably make bad mistakes however sincere and godly a man he may be if his intellectual faculties have not received a suitable education. What kind of education will help him most? That is the question before us. \par \par There is a tendency at present to encourage boys to begin at an early age the special studies which bear directly upon the profession that they have chosen, and to cut as short as possible the ordinary discipline of School and University. Specialization in study is often forced upon young men before they are fit for it, and the consequence is that they grow up with contracted intellectual sympathies and without the capacity for taking an interest in anything outside the sphere of their own special employment. To begin to study medicine or law before the mind has been trained to appreciate the value of science, the meaning of evidence, or the larger interests of mankind, is not the way to become a physician or a lawyer of the highest type. And a similar remark may be made as to the study of theology. To study the criticism of the New Testament before the student has a competent knowledge of Greek; to study Old Testament history before he has learnt anything about the methods of historical science; to study Christian Apologetics before he is acquainted \par \par THE TRAINING OF THE INTELLECT 45 \par \par with the first principles of philosophy; to apply him self to the controversies which distract Christendom before he has mastered the rudiments of logic; such an education will not produce the most useful type of clergyman. To begin to specialize too early is a very bad beginning. And, therefore, it may be said that no preliminary education is of greater importance for the aspirant to the ranks of the Christian Ministry than the ordinary education of School and University. \par \par Here the foundations are laid, broad and deep, upon which the superstructure may afterwards be raised with security. \par \par There is another reason why the discipline of common life in school and college is particularly valuable for one who intends to be a clergyman. A clergyman has to do not only, or chiefly, with books; he har, to do with human beings, and it is of the utmost importance that he should be able to sympathize with their opinions, their prejudices, their methods of reasoning. During the most receptive years of life it is, then, desirable that he should be brought up among laymen who have no intention of offering themselves for ordination, in order that he may be familiar with their habits of thought. The clerical prig is a very mischievous person, and if a candidate for orders have any inclination to priggishness, it is wholesome for him that it should be suppressed by the outspoken comments of his lay companions, before it becomes a menace to his usefulness. To withdraw a young man from the free life of a University and to confine him to a narrow circle of companions who think on most subjects as he does, is not the way to bring out what ever is best in him. It tends to produce the seminary \par \par 46 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par type of mind, and to fix prejudices and preconceptions on grave subjects before the intellect has been trained adequately to deal with them. Admirable as is the work done at many Theological Colleges, their best friends do not claim for them that their advantages compensate for lack of University training. Their discipline is an invaluable sometimes a necessary supplement to the discipline of a University, but for this it cannot be substituted without loss. We must recognize indeed that for many men poverty is an effectual bar to a University career, and in their case all that can be done is to enlarge the curriculum of their Theological College as far as possible. But the ideal education of a student of Divinity presupposes the wider teaching of the University as well as the more special discipline of the Theological College. \par \par Our first point, then, is that the future clergyman should be educated in the company of men who are to follow other professions until he arrives, say, at the age of one-and-twenty. His thoughts will, naturally, be directed to subjects which will engage his attention in after life; but he can hardly go wrong if he studies anything seriously. To know one subject well, what ever it be, is to understand what knowledge means, and that is an equipment for life of inestimable value. It saves a man from being the natural prey of the quack or the amateur, who are quite as troublesome in the region of theology as they are in law or in medicine. \par \par A man who has no exact knowledge of anything can never understand why the pronouncements of Mr. A. \par \par upon a theological question are not equal in weight to those of Mr. B. Mr. A. may be a mere charlatan, and Mr. B. may be a scholar of European reputation who \par \par THE TRAINING OF THE INTELLECT 47 \par \par has made a special study of the point at issue; but the distinction is not easy to bring home to people who know nothing of the severity of scientific method and who have not learnt the value of accuracy of statement. \par \par If, then, a man can take up an honour course at the University, by all means let him do so, even if it involves a little delay in the course of his theological studies. It does not greatly matter, in regard to the development of his intellect, what the subject is in which he seeks a degree in honours. He will learn much from any subject, provided that he masters it. \par \par We may select as an illustration the study of physical science. This is not usually undertaken as a preparatory discipline by candidates for the sacred ministry, nor would it be practicable to introduce scientific courses into the curriculum of a Theological College. Yet unless our clergy cultivate the scientific habit of mind the habit of stating facts with precision and of weighing evidence with impartiality, they cannot expect to maintain their position as instructors of the nation. No doubt this scientific temper may be fostered by the study of history or of archaeology, as well as by the study of what is popularly called \ldblquote science\rdblquote ; but the rigidity of the methods of proof adopted by mathematicians and physicists is unparalleled in other departments. It is unnecessary to point out how great an advantage a clergyman has, in dealing with the scepticism which shelters itself under the protection of science, if he is, himself, qualified to speak with the authority of knowledge on scientific subjects. Of course, few clergymen can hope to attain anything like a sufficient mastery of science to entitle them to speak with this authority. There are just a \par \par 48 PREP A RA TION FOR THE CHRIS TIA N MINIS TR Y \par \par few men in the clerical world whose names are not unknown in the republic of science, and the Faith has no defenders more powerful than they; but their position is exceptional, and an ordinary man cannot hope to reach it. Yet even a smattering of science is a good thing if it teach a clergyman the unfathomable depths of our ignorance of the natural order, and so teach him to speak with due modesty of the physical laws by which the universe is controlled and guided by its Creator. A little knowledge is not always dangerous, although the proverb asserts that it is. It becomes dangerous only when its owner fails to appreciate the scantiness of its measure. No sermons are more pitiful or more mischievous than those in which a young clergyman, secure in the vantage ground of the pulpit, descants on the blunders and mistakes, as he deems them, of contemporary science. Science makes mistakes, without doubt, as it struggles towards the light; but a master of science, rather than an unskilled tyro, is needed to expose them. And even a little knowledge will teach this to any one who has tried to learn the facts for himself at first hand. No man has truly learnt the meaning of Christ\rquote s claim to be the Truth, who does not recognize that all truth comes, at last, from Him, and that we Christians must be ready to find a place in our theological systems for every fact about nature which science reveals. Science, on the other hand, goes beyond its legitimate province when it attempts to provide the ultimate interpretation of the facts which it has gathered; that is the province of philosophy, and here, at least, a clergyman should not find himself in a strange country. \par \par The study of science is useful, but the study of \par \par THE TRAINING OF THE INTELLECT \par \par \par 49 \par \par \par philosophy is all but essential; and no candidate for the sacred ministry can be counted as fully equipped for his high office if he do not know something at least of the answers which the great masters of human thought have given to the great problems of life and being. \par \par Philosophy takes its facts from every quarter, and its function is to co-ordinate them. It welcomes the facts of spiritual experience as well as the data of the physical laboratory, and it endeavours to supply the unifying principle which renders them both intelligible. \par \par Here we come to the starting point of all theology, and the path by which we reach it is one which needs to be traversed again and again in thought until its windings and slippery places have become quite familiar, if we are to pursue our journey onward with any prospect of reaching our goal. In other words, no training is more wholesome for the theologian than the severe discipline of Metaphysic. Its advantages are obvious, but I may rehearse some of them for the sake of clearness. \par \par The discipline of mental philosophy will teach the student, better than any other study can do, what are the really great issues in religious controversy, and what the things are for which it is worth while to contend. We can hardly imagine a philosopher disputing about the trivialities which often occupy so large a place in the minds of sincerely religious men. \par \par A man who has thought long and seriously over such great matters as the Immortality of the Soul, the dignity of the Moral Law, the Efficacy of Prayer, the Being and Personality of God, is immune from the infection of that miserable party spirit which is peculiarly out of place in the ministry of Christian service. \par \par Again, our student will thus learn the lesson of \par E \par \par \par 5 o PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par tolerance in the best way. The study of philosophy will not suggest to him that it is indifferent what men believe, but it will demonstrate to him that from the same premises men may, in all sincerity, reach discordant conclusions. However wrong-headed he may think those who differ from him to be, he is not likely to accuse them of being bad-hearted, if he has learnt his lesson truly. For in the department of philosophical literature, no index expurgatorius can be tolerated. If we wish to get at the truth in these high regions of speculation, we shall read Kant as well as Plato, Spencer as well as Hegel, Butler as well as Aristotle. And the odium theol gicnm of the schools does not thrive where the soil is thus treated. \par \par For one whose ministerial work is to lie in Eastern lands where religions of hoary antiquity occupy the best thoughts of men, there is no more useful propaedeutic (as the Germans call it) than a wide education of this kind, which will enable him to compare intelligently the rival claims of conflicting creeds. He will begin his great task prepared to recognize what ever is good and of God even in the religions of heathendom, while he will have learnt that the secret of the ages has been revealed once for all in the Incar nation. To study the science of comparative religion will but bring out into sharper relief the paramount and all-embracing claims of Jesus Christ. \par \par And for those who are to stay at home, whose thoughts will never be exercised upon the intricacies of Eastern theosophy, a philosophical training will be of inestimable service as an introduction to the study of Christian doctrine. This is a study which is not popular in English-speaking countries at this moment, \par \par THE TRAINING OF THE INTELLECT \par \par \par 51 \par \par \par because the best intellect of the Church is otherwise engaged in the discussion of problems suggested by Bible study. Criticism has taken the place of theology to a large extent; and until some better understanding has been reached as to the solidity of the conclusions which Biblical scholars have made public, it is inevitable that the study of dogma should be neglected. \par \par But it is well for those who are at the beginning of their ministry to remember that nothing can permanently displace dogmatic theology from the thoughts of Christian men, standing as it does for the systematization and co-ordination of their gravest beliefs. And here, if anywhere, the student who has clarified and sharpened his intellect by an examination of the lofty themes of philosophy will find that this preparatory discipline has given him an important advantage, when it comes to be his duty to expound the Creeds of Christendom. \par \par We have seen, then, that the examination or defence of the Creed cannot be undertaken with safety by any one who is entirely devoid of the scientific spirit or without a philosophical training. But \\^\\Q foundations of the Creed are to be found in Holy Scripture, and something must now be said as to the best way in which to prepare oneself for the study of the Bible itself. \par \par We must begin at the beginning, and this means that we ought to be able to read the Bible in the languages in which its books were originally written. Perhaps, to prescribe the study of Hebrew for every clergyman would be a counsel of perfection, not easily to be obeyed. But, at any rate, it is- obvious that the more a man knows of the genius of the Greek language the \par \par 52 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par better he is likely to understand the New Testament. \par \par And even if Greek has formed no part of his school education as sometimes happens in the case of men to whom the vocation to the sacred ministries of the Gospel has come when school days are nearly over he need not despair. A great deal can be done by an industrious man in two or three years, if he set his mind to it. And the inevitable drudgery will be richly repaid in after life, when the clergyman finds himself able to consult the Gospels and Epistles in Greek as readily as in English. Thus will he be saved the purchase of many commentaries, for he can go straight to the fountain-head of the stream of doctrine. \par \par Here, then, is a simple counsel, of which, it would be difficult to exaggerate the importance: Learn the Greek language, and then pursue unceasingly and systematically the study of the New Testament in Greek. Nothing should supersede this or take its place; no discipline is more bracing than the study of the Gospels and Epistles with no other aid than that of a concordance and lexicon. Commentaries are not to be despised, but two cautions as to their use should be observed. \par \par First, it is easy to rely too much on commentaries. \par \par They should not be consulted until every effort has been made to reach independently the meaning of the passage under consideration. When that has been done they are valuable as a check upon our blunders, or as an aid to our ignorance; but to study commentaries is not the same thing as to study the Bible for oneself. \par \par And, secondly, the student should be careful to use only the best commentaries. A second-rate commentary \par \par THE TRAINING OF THE INTELLECT 53 \par \par \par or a partisan commentary is a dangerous companion. \par \par It may lead us astray, and then there is a difficulty in getting on the right track again. A young man should not buy commentaries without deliberation, or before he has taken the best advice at his disposal the advice, that is, of scholars who are in a position to distinguish between this book and that. There is no scries of commentaries on the books of the Bible which is entirely satisfactory in all its parts, and it is better to procure single volumes by the best divines of our own day. It would be invidious here, perhaps, to mention names; but the point which I wish to press is that the mental effort requisite to follow the line of thought of a really great commentator is in itself a whole some discipline. It is not good always to be fed with a spoon. \par \par Next to the study of the Bible in its original languages, the most important pre-requisite to the understanding of it is that it be read consecutively in large sections a book at a time, rather than a chapter at a time. It is not necessary to disclaim any thought of depreciating the value of detailed study of verses and isolated sentences; every one who has read the Bible for his soul\rquote s health knows how sacred is the message which a single phrase may yield up to a careful reader, and what has already been said about the use of concordance and lexicon will, I hope, suggest that even the study of the words used by the sacred writers has a value all its own. But we are now considering Bible reading from the point of view of the student of Christian doctrine and Christian history, and if it is to be profitable, in this regard, the books of Scripture must be studied separately, systematically, and so far as is \par \par 54 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par possible in chronological sequence. We all know the importance of the literary context in determining the meaning of a verse; we must learn also the importance of the historical context in helping us to estimate the message of a book, and to understand it as a whole. \par \par This is often a difficult matter to determine in the case of the books of the Old Testament, but it has received much earnest study of recent years, and a good deal of information has been collected in the various Introductions which critical scholars have published. A general knowledge of Hebrew history is often lacking in persons to whom the details are tolerably familiar; but it is necessary to acquire this larger view of God\rquote s dealings with Israel if we are to profit to the full by the wonderful phrases in which these Divine acts are interpreted by the seers and saints of the Old Covenant. \par \par We do not read the Bible to the best advantage unless we read it as a national literature, no less than as a collection of sacred \ldblquote texts.\rdblquote \par \par \par The study of history is always a bracing and instructive discipline, and it should be said, in passing, that Christian history must not be neglected by the student even in the interests of Jewish history, for the progress of the world is guided no less now than in the days of the Hebrew prophets by an ever-watchful Providence; but upon this I must not enlarge. \par \par Enough to say that the intellect should be trained to recognize the hand of God in the great historical movements of all ages and not only in the days that are past. History is one, and its focus is the Incarnation. \par \par That is a principle which should govern the thoughts of every student of the Old Testament as of the New. \par \par Much remains to be said, but it is time to bring this \par \par THE TRAINING OF THE INTELLECT 55 \par \par chapter to a close. And I would end by suggesting the paramount importance to all Biblical students of cultivating a receptive temper as they read. What I mean is this. The Bible contains the record of a revelation of God to man; so much all Christians believe, however they may differ in its interpretation. \par \par But if it contains the record of revelation, it must have some message for us which we could not reason out for ourselves. \ldblquote What would be the meaning of a revelation \ldblquote the question is De Quincey\rquote s \ldblquote which revealed nothing? \ldblquote And, therefore, in reading the Bible, we must expect, as we read, to receive from it more than we bring to it. We must read it as those who are willing to learn from its pages, even if the message they bring seem distasteful and unwelcome. The intellect of the student of the Bible must be trained to expect surprises. He must read, not as one who knows already all that the Bible has to teach him, but as one who recognizes that there are many things in it which he has never yet appreciated. Hard it is to read the Bible in this fashion. Our natural tendency is to seek from it the confirmation of our existing beliefs whether self-taught or picked up from our relatives and our friends. But to read the Bible in such a way is virtually to deny that it has anything still to teach us. And the training of the scholar\rquote s intellect is not accomplished until he has learnt that, as in nature, so in Holy Scripture, much yet remains to be discovered; that he must approach both as a disciple, not as a master, if he is to receive the message they have for him; and that the highest Christian temper is that of a humility which is always eager to learn. \par \par \par \par \pard\cf1\lang1034\expndtw-7\f2\fs23\par } 7}01 - Conditions and Problems{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}{\s2 heading 2;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\lang1033\kern E00 - SCM - Preparation For Christian Ministry{\r 0Y02 - The Training Of The Intellect{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}{\s2 heading 2;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\lang1033\kerning32\b\f0\fs32 II THE TRAINING OF THE INTELLECT \par \pard\keepn\s2\sb240\pard\keepn\s2\sb240\sa60\kerning0\i\fs28 THE REV. H. GRESFORD JONES, M.A. \par \par \pard\nowidctlpar\b0\i0\f1\fs24 THE only thing in the world,\rdblquote said the late A. Professor Davidson, \ldblquote that has power to move others is reality, conviction, personal character, and all our efforts will bear little fruit unless this personal character be behind them.\rdblquote Such words belong to the permanent truth of things; yet they seem to be the special experience of the age in which we live. So much that once magnified the pastoral office is gone. \par \par Reverence for authority, position, office, is gone. But reverence remains, and will always remain, for that rare character which may in any true sense be called \ldblquote saintly.\rdblquote This it is that in every nation, and in every age, appeals to the deepest sense of truth in human nature. It is something at once perfectly real, and irresistibly beautiful; and it is the touch of Divineness in it that is everywhere the argument for the religion of Jesus Christ. \par \par Over the whole earth at this moment there seems written the one word \ldblquote opportunity.\rdblquote Yet if the doors are to be entered and the posts filled with permanent gain to the Kingdom of God they must be entered and filled by the right men. Opportunity cries for character: the character that will last, the character \par \par 60 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par that will lead, the character that will attract, the character that will build. And inasmuch as such character is capable of human attainment, it must be our constant ambition and labour to make it our own. \par \par It is at once the dignity and the difficulty of a clergyman\rquote s life that makes the acquirement of character for him, of all men, a lifelong quest. \ldblquote Have always printed in your remembrance,\rdblquote says our Anglican Ordinal, \ldblquote how great a treasure is committed to your charge. For they are the sheep of Christ which He bought with His death and for whom He shed His blood. Wherefore consider the end of your ministry toward the children of God... \par \par and see that you never cease your labour... until you have done all that lieth in you... to bring all such as are committed to your charge unto agreement in the faith and knowledge of God, and to ripeness and perfectness of age in Christ.\rdblquote The clergyman is to be \ldblquote instant in season and out of season\rdblquote in a work which aims at nothing lower than \ldblquote the perfecting of saints \ldblquote and the \ldblquote building up of the body of Christ.\rdblquote Yet, as the dignity is great, so also is the difficulty of his work. He is as a knight staking his all upon an encounter with a weapon of such delicate workman ship that it is ever ready to break in his hand. George Herbert speaks of spiritual pride and impurity of heart as the two peculiar temptations of the unmarried parson; love of ease as that specially of the married man; and happy he who, from his own experience, can gainsay his words. \ldblquote Original concupiscence is,\rdblquote he says, \ldblquote such an active thing by reason of continual inward and outward temptations, that it is ever attempting or doing one mischief or \par \par CHARACTER 61 \par \par another. Ambition or untimely desire of promotion to a higher state or place, under colour of accommodation or necessary provision, is a common temptation to men of any eminency. These and many other spiritual wickednesses in high places doth the parson fear, or experiment, or both.\rdblquote The character that can withstand such encounters and attain to such ends will need some makimr. \par \par \par I \par \par Christian \ldblquote character\rdblquote means nothing less than the \ldblquote impression\rdblquote upon man of the beauty and strength of Jesus Christ. The word ^apa/cr^p is used once only in the New Testament (Heb_1:3), but there so majestically that it sets out for us an infinite ideal. As Christ is the effulgence of His Father\rquote s glory and the expression of His essence, so are we in our turn to reflect the radiance of Christ and to be to all men an expression of what He is. The word suggests the bright impression of newly-stamped gold. It implies in our Christian use of it that change of outlook and that moulding of thought and habit and taste and activity which is the outcome of union with Christ and of fellow-suffering with Him. Character is essentially objective. It is the reception by man of the impress of God. Character is the divine calmness or strength or purity or compassion absorbed by a life that has been much with Christ, until it becomes the outstanding beauty and expression of that life itself. And Christ intended it to be so. \ldblquote He ordained twelve that they should be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach.\rdblquote \ldblquote Here we possess,\rdblquote says \par \par 62 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par Dean Vaughan, \ldblquote the simple yet splendid summary of the whole letter and spirit of ministry. Here is the very point and essence of it all the twofold object of ordination. And the first half of the ministerial life is that we should be with Him. For these first apostles day after day was spent in listening to His gracious words, in witnessing His beneficent acts, in learning more and more, half unconsciously, of his character above all, in that delightful co-existence which even between earthly friends is the charm of loving, and which in their case added to the human joy of loving the unspeakable attraction of an unfathomable loveliness.\rdblquote And, by the Holy Spirit\rquote s aid, this is still possible through Sacrament and Prayer and Scripture even for ourselves. The bold words of Erasmus about the four Gospels contain no real exaggeration. \ldblquote These writings bring back to you the living image of that most holy mind, the very Christ Himself, speaking, healing, dying, rising in fact, so entirely present that you would see less of Him if you beheld Him with your eyes.\rdblquote Christ still ordains us \ldblquote that we should be with Him.\rdblquote And it is in proportion as we discharge this first claim upon our ministry and breathe His air and inhale His life that we receive our character, which is the evidence of this one thing, that we have been \ldblquote with Him.\rdblquote \ldblquote From the earliest days the passion for Christ\rquote s Person had been the unfailing characteristic of a living Christianity. The beautiful legend that the heart of Ignatius, when recovered after his martyrdom, was found to be inscribed with the name of Christ is true to the spirit of the Faith as it has existed from the first.\rdblquote \par \par \par The most beautiful character is still that which \par \par CHARACTER 63 \par \par catches the flame of the love of Christ and the sense of complete indebtedness to His Cross. \par \par II \par \par But character of the sort we mean, and which we so much need to-day, requires something more. \par \par To attain to communion with God at all with our present limitations is no easy thing; and to attain to the habitual \ldblquote practice of the Presence of God \ldblquote is harder far. The Problem of Evil never ceases to perplex us. We are an enigma to none so much as to ourselves; and often, when by God\rquote s grace we seem to have climbed up into heaven, some other force seems to plunge us down into hell. The craving for God the soul\rquote s natural hunger seems replaced at whiles by that terrible \ldblquote Optarc non esse Deum\rdblquote Like John Bunyan, we feel ourselves \ldblquote as with a tempest driven away from God,\rdblquote and in these hurricanes of the soul a man will cry aloud in bitter pain: \ldblquote I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me, for I delight in the law of God, after the inward man, but I see another law 7 in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. O wretched man that I am. \par \par Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? \ldblquote It does not surprise us to find the author of such words speaking equally strongly of his own personal measures for self-defence, inrwiria^w /JLOV TO aw/ua KOI SovXaywyco. This body of mine, this physical side of me that is so troublesome, I beat it black and blue, and treat it as a slave, lest, having preached to others, I myself the preacher and therefore the rightful leader should be a castaway. Or, again, \par \par 64 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par \par et? rrjv VTrafcorjv rov Xplorov. My own envious and bitter and impure thoughts, they must be tamed and humbled and subdued to the obedience of Christ Himself. Or this, in which he seems to sum up all his policy for himself: \ldblquote I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward man.\rdblquote UO-KW. It is a memorable saying. \par \par It is the root of our words \ldblquote ascetic,\rdblquote \ldblquote asceticism.\rdblquote \par \par The idea is that of a man in training. \ldblquote Let St. Paul teach us,\rdblquote says Dean Vaughan, in another place, \ldblquote what Christian asceticism is and is not... Many suppose me, he says, to preach a gospel adverse to severe discipline a gospel not many stages removed from the frightful doctrine, Continue in sin that grace may abound. It is not true. I myself also, though appearances may be against it, am in training, am under discipline, am living by rule and measure, am anything but pleasing myself, each day and each hour of my life. \par \par I am an ascetic; but let me tell you why -namely, because I have a hope: and let me tell you how namely, in keeping my conscience always void of offence toward God and toward men. \par \par And if our character is to be preserved, it will require some similar exercise. Self-discipline is at once the preservation of strong character, and the means of its application to the usual situations of life. It is the embodiment of Christ\rquote s own Spirit in duty, habit, principle. \par \par Never was such asceticism called for more supremely than to-day. We need men fired above all with the imagination of a world won for Christ: but the men capable of such great and lasting achievement will be men holding themselves under discipline, with minds alert and passions under control, willing to \ldblquote endure \par \par CHARACTER ^ \par \par hardness,\rdblquote to repress appetite, bear disappointment, control time and speech and sleep men who will \ldblquote suffer fools gladly,\rdblquote and meet difficulties with a smile, in a word, true Christian ascetics after the pattern of St. Paul true masters of themselves and therefore free for the boundless activities of Christ. \par \par It is in the common things of each day that such self-discipline will tell. \par \par (a) Time. It has been said that \ldblquote the greater a man is, the more methodical and consistent he will be in the usual situations of life; one whose conduct can be calculated and whose character relied on.\rdblquote In nothing is this more true than in the almost mechanical way in which he will regulate his time. Of Sir George Grey it is written that \ldblquote he disciplined the hours and bent them to his purposes.\rdblquote \ldblquote The first instrument of a holy life,\rdblquote said Jeremy Taylor, \ldblquote is the control of time.\rdblquote \par \par We must fight for this all through our lives. Bishop Wilberforce, in one of his ordination addresses, declares, \ldblquote We must not blink the fact that for many reasons idleness is quite sure to prove one of our besetting temptations.\rdblquote And our own bitter experience must confirm his words. Our time is our own. \par \par While there is so much that we may do, there is so much that we may without self-condemnation post pone. Our time is not our own. We can scarcely count on freedom from interruption, even when we can bear such disturbance least. And the programme of our day, that was laid out so carefully in the early morning, looks often sadly disfigured before the fall of night. We, too, must \ldblquote discipline the hours.\rdblquote W\rquote T e must watch the beginning of each separate compartment of the day: first, and always supreme, our hour for rising \par \par 66 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par in the morning for private prayer; our sitting down at our study table after breakfast; our uprising for the work of the afternoon; and last, as the key to so much of the rest, our hour for retirement at night. \par \par For in the fight for character the night needs special watching: and we shall do well to note Mr. Gladstone\rquote s plan, in his Psalter, of labelling special Psalms \ldblquote for the discipline of the night.\rdblquote \par \par (b) Money. -In an age of softness and extravagance, such as the present, some deliberate control of expenditure would in any case appear to be an obvious Christian duty. It is, however, when we soberly consider all the new wealth in relation to all the new opportunities that we realize that money has become one of the most effective ways for advancing the Kingdom of Heaven, and if we preachers are to rise to the greatness of our responsibility, and to direct to God\rquote s purposes these latent energies of His Church, we must be examples in the matter of money ourselves. \par \par Our money is our other self. Herein are revealed our true affections. And if rules for expenditure are not easy to find, Christ has set plain before all men an infinite example of giving to look up to; a boundless ambition to forward; a new principle to live by. Few things will better help us to keep our \ldblquote conscience void of offence toward man and toward God \ldblquote than to settle all accounts punctually, and every year to plan out our income with a view to the highest possible proportion in \ldblquote Giving.\rdblquote \par \par \par (c) Meat and Drink -If we are to be ready to buy up the opportunity before us, we must study simplicity in meat and drink. We clergy are marked men, and a habit of self-pleasing or fussiness in our food, whether \par \par CHARACTER 6? \par \par at home or abroad, will terribly damage our influence. \par \par Professor Harnack, in a passage quoted by the Bishop of Liverpool in his primary charge, says plainly, \ldblquote I entertain no doubt that the time will come when the world will tolerate a life of luxury among those who are charged with the care of souls as little as it tolerates priestly government.\rdblquote Those who practise fasting, however slightly, will be the first to admit the spiritual gain. \ldblquote O how fearful it is,\rdblquote says Father John of Cronstadt, \ldblquote to use food and drink for amusement, and to eat and drink in excess. A full stomach makes a man lose faith and the fear of God, and makes him unfeeling in prayer, thanks giving, and praise to God.\rdblquote The Christian ministry would gain influence in an age of luxury by a more general practice of the Apostolic custom of occasional fasting. \par \par (d) Speech. Dr. Alexander Whyte says that we should all read every month Bishop Butler\rquote s sermon \ldblquote Upon the Government of the Tongue.\rdblquote Every younger minister should at least read Dr. Whyte\rquote s own discourse on \ldblquote Talkative.\rdblquote For we of all men have doubtless oftenest cause to admit that \ldblquote in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin.\rdblquote Among the precious gifts of God is that of Humour. Humour will often be found in the same character with Seriousness, for each grasps the true proportion of things. \par \par Humour will illuminate expression and sometimes break down useless conventionalities. But humour, when it turns to flippancy (our too common ministerial sin), may poison reverence and dissipate the only spirit in which we may draw near to the Unseen. Control of speech is in all ways binding upon us. Control of \par \par 68 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par speech may save us many a heart-ache and others many a pain. So frequently \ldblquote tout comprendre, c est tout pardonner.\rdblquote Control of speech may in fact be the very crowning of character, for \ldblquote if any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body.\rdblquote \par \par (e) Control of Thought. It is well to remember that though we cannot prevent thoughts from presenting themselves, yet we retain the power of thinking of something else. It is through \ldblquote change of thought,\rdblquote from the lower to the higher, that we can in some way attain to control of thought, and control of thought we must fight for as those who fight for their very life. \ldblquote One fact discovered by modern psychology,\rdblquote says Dr. Horton, \ldblquote is the enormous power of mind and thought to make a character, to build a soul; what a man thinks, he becomes.\rdblquote There is no mistaking the tremendous significance of this solemn fact. Enough for us in our too frequent humiliation that \ldblquote the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds... bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ,\rdblquote and that we can pray to Him \ldblquote unto Whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from Whom no secrets are hid,\rdblquote to \ldblquote cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of His Holy Spirit.\rdblquote \par \par \par It has been said that three tokens of genius are extraordinary understanding, extraordinary conduct, extraordinary exertion; and that three things which improve genius are proper exertion, frequent exertion, successful exertion. Genius and character are different things. Genius is a gift: character is a growth. Yet \par \par CHARACTER 6 \par \par if ever the \ldblquote cost of character\rdblquote surprises us, let us remember that \par \ldblquote nil nisi magno Vita labore dedit mortalibus \ldblquote ; and that if character is to be improved there must be that same proper exertion, frequent exertion, successful exertion. \par \par \ldblquote The heights by great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight; But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night.\rdblquote Sloth is a crime in one who has promised to labour all the days of his life. \par \par It is not, however, the necessity for self-devotion, but the honour of it that will inspire us to the end. It is when there rise up before our imagination the great tasks of life, the unlimited calls of \ldblquote the Kingdom the things that can be done in our own lifetime and by ourselves, that the desire to have a share in such enterprise becomes the dominant ambition of our hearts. \par \par It is when we see all things from the standpoint of a Divine Imperialism, and grasp the extraordinary demands upon our own generation, that we see the nobility and importance of our own section of the work and the necessity for every Christian life to be keyed up to great achievements. Then it is that we make the discovery of St. Augustine, \ldblquote The things which I feared to lose I now rejoiced to cast away.\rdblquote \par \par And we find that the passion to extend Christ\rquote s Kingdom is quite enough to detach life from interests which are non-essential and to turn self-sacrifice into \par \par 70 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par a coveted honour. \ldblquote Non te frangant labores quos assumpsisti propter ME.\rdblquote \par Who is sufficient for these things? \par \par Our sufficiency is of Him Who \ldblquote hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of self discipline \ldblquote ; of Him Who said, \ldblquote Ye have not chosen ME, but I have chosen you and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.\rdblquote \par \par \par \pard\cf1\lang1034\expndtw-7\f2\fs23\par } QEm03 - character{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}{\s2 heading 2;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\lang1033\kerning32\b\f0\fs32 III CHARACTER \par \erator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\lang1033\kerning32\b\f0\fs32 IV THE CARE OF THE INNER LIFE \par \pard\keepn\s2\sb240\sa60\kerning0\i\fs28 ROBERT E. SPEER, M.A. \par \par \pard\nowidctlpar\b0\i0\f1\fs24\par A STRONG teacher recently declared a man\rquote s character to be a mere by-product of his life. \par \par His life\rquote s real end, he held, was service. He would become a right man as he put himself to right use. \par \par This was a wise and warrantable counsel to good people who needed to be kept in mind of the duty of hard work for others. And it does, of course, embody a real truth for every one. What we do helps to make us what we are. We mould thus our character within. \par \par But the larger truth is that our characters determine our services. We do what we do because we are what we are. Our Lord suggested the broader principle when He said, \ldblquote The hireling fleeth because he is a hireling.\rdblquote His fleeing did not make him a hireling. \par \par It revealed him as one. A lie does not make a man a liar who was not one before. It simply expresses existing character. Our works and words are simply the utterances of the life within. \par \par \ldblquote But,\rdblquote men ask, \ldblquote is not this life what it is, in dependently of my choice? I feel a measure of power over my deeds, but I am what I am. If my spiritual service is determined by my spiritual life, is it within my control? Can life be cultivated? \ldblquote There is \par \par 74 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par nothing else that can be cultivated, We understand well the need and method of physical culture, and by a score of disciplines we make the living body strong, bend it to the skill of different achievements, and by action lift it to the capacity of larger action. We can do this with it because it is alive. And our educational processes scheme for the enlargement and strengthening of the mind. We draw it through a long training because we want to exercise its power, and because we know that we can do this with it as a living thing. \par \par The spiritual life is capable of the same treatment. \par \par The fact that its beginning is a trifle more miraculous, that many sacred mysteries enshroud it, does not forbid our confidence that it may be developed and bred to even larger strength and fruitfulness. If it were not that so many men think that the spiritual life must be left to itself and its own unordered development, it would be superfluous to urge here what is so obvious from the analogy of all the life we know, and so commonplace in the New Testament. There spiritual growth is everywhere assumed. Our Lord was unable to say many things to His disciples in their immaturity. \par \par The time would come when those things would be made known to them. Almost all the Christians began as little children; but as children they were to grow in knowledge, in grace, in power, in the realization of Christ. And they were to look forward, after a long cultivation of the spiritual life, to the time when \ldblquote we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the know ledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.\rdblquote \par \par \par The right answer to \ldblquote Can we? \ldblquote is \ldblquote We must.\rdblquote \par \par The New Testament assumes the nourishment and \par \par THE CARE OF THE INNER LIFE 75 \par \par cultivation of the spiritual life as a fundamental Christian duty: \ldblquote Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, so neither can ye except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in Me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit, for apart from Me ye can do nothing.\rdblquote \ldblquote He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father; so He that eateth Me, he also shall live because of Me.\rdblquote The spiritual life cannot be maintained unfed, any better than other life. And St. Paul regards the neglect of its development as a shameful thing in Christians. He laments the necessity of dealing with the Corinthians as babes instead of men. \ldblquote Brethren, be not children in mind.\rdblquote Pie exhorts the Philippians to follow him as he presses unceasingly forward in his own life. And this temper of the early Christians found strong expression in the Epistle to the Hebrews: \ldblquote Wherefore let us cease to speak of the first principles of Christ, and press on unto perfection.\rdblquote \par \par If the spiritual life is not nourished and developed, it will stagnate and decline. That is just what happens in many Christian workers. And it is a pathetic sight to see a man halted in his growth. Yet it is almost as common as it is pathetic. The man has no more range to his life this year than a year ago; his visions are no richer, or ampler; his perceptions no bolder or more precise; his imaginations no more courageous; his memory no fuller, his affections no more sensitive and generous, his grip no firmer, his action no more authoritative. The man had a friend, and a year ago they stood side by side. But now his \par \par 76 P RE PARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR Y \par \par friend moves in a different orbit from his. He has been lifted, enlarged by slow accretions, his unassertive sovereignty of superior soul gives him an unsought mastery. The year\rquote s growth has made of him a more massive and influential man than his friend. But the difference was not in their assets, but in the handling of them. The superior servant traded with his pounds and became fit to rule. And in moral things the fit to rule, rule. It is true that many men try to be leaders or to retain positions of leadership whose life is stationary or stale. They use the advanced vocabulary, and with no enlarged life corresponding to it. But men always detect the chasm between vocabulary and life. \par \par No cleverness will avail to conceal long a man\rquote s real spiritual character. If we do not grow, we shall die, and death is the one thing which cannot be concealed. \par \par Christian preachers sometimes fret at the popular demand that they should be better than other men. \par \par But the popular demand is entirely right. Morally, of course, there is no obligation resting upon the Christian minister to be honest and pure, to keep the Ten Commandments and to obey the law, that does not rest upon every man. Christian preachers are not bound to be better men than other men ought to be. \par \par But they assuredly must be better men than other men are. And woe to the minister who is surpassed in goodness by other men in his community, who perhaps even deny his religion. He may assert the authority of his theology. This may relieve his conscience. It will do him all the more harm on that account, and it will be futile in convincing others. Our Lord said, \ldblquote Follow Me.\rdblquote He urged the faultlessness of His life, the beneficence of His works, the consistency of His \par \par THE CARE OF THE INNER LIFE 77 \par \par character, as credentials of His mission. The Christian attitude has ever been that of Christ. If we cannot surpass by our lives the lives of men who do not have our motives and resources, our doctrine is doomed. \par \par The contact of Christianity with the Asiatic religions has intensified this necessity. For herein is one of the chief differentiating characteristics of Christianity as compared with the Asiatic religions. In them no moral necessity connects the doctrine and the life. \par \par Their holy men see no incongruity in a moral practice which contradicts their ethical theory. Christianity will not meet and supplant these religions, absorbing their truth and destroying their error, on the ground of its superior theology or science, or by any theoretic statement. It will vanquish them as a superior moral force, a living power; by its freedom from pollution, its fulness of purity, its ability to lift life to truth, its intolerance of moral contradiction, its vital veracity. \par \par And these demand incarnation to-day. If Christian preachers do not embody their gospel, they will never get it accepted in Asia, and they will see it abandoned at home, where the influence of the heathen world is penetrating in every sphere. \par \par It has recently been urged in an influential journal, that the transfer of emphasis, in Christian apologetics, from the external evidences and from the doctrinal authority to the spiritual fruits and especially to the inner reality of the Christian life, has made the case of Christianity much more difficult. In the old days, it is said, men argued in behalf of Christianity on objective grounds, and there were not always at hand to their opponents any tests they might apply. But now when men offer the Christian life as a Divine inward possession, \par \par 78 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par as the evidence of Christianity, the world asks, \ldblquote Where is it? Do you have it? Step before us here and let us examine you.\rdblquote But this is nothing new. Christianity has always offered just this evidence. It would have got no footing and made no headway whatever in the world if there had not been this reality in it. The theory of Divine life in the soul would have got nowhere if there had not been men who could bear personal living witness to it. And Christian preachers now are defective advocates of the Christian faith if they are not also personal witnesses to its reality. \par \par There are some who reply that the ability to have such an experience as this is temperamental, and that men without active spiritual imagination must be content to say that other Christian men have been able to bear such testimony, but as for them they can only hold Christianity on its objective evidences plus the peace of heart which comes from honestly trying to do the will of God. I personally hold to an interpretation of the Christian life which is open to the charge of mysticism because it tries to do justice to its supernatural character; but all that is urged in this chapter is that those who represent Christianity must be men who have experienced it, and who, though they know that they only faintly understand it or have attained to its power and ideals, still follow after; and that in such men is a life which finds real, if faulty, expression in service and use, and that derives its power from sources unseen and Divine. And this life of living contact with God in Christ, of fellowship with the unseen realities, and of human helpfulness, can be nourished and maintained, or it can be stunted and extinguished. \par \par THE CARE OF THE INNER LIFE 79 \par \par \par Let us consider its helps and hindrances; ways in which it can be fed and strengthened, and dangers which threaten it. \par \par I \par HELPS \par \par 1. The first thing in life is truth. It helps a man, to get this principle clearly grasped. There are many who deny it. They hold that self-preservation, for example, is above truth. A man would be justified in lying to save life. But truth is inviolable. God can not lie, and what He cannot do, He cannot authorize any man to do. The harder and stiffer a man\rquote s view of the holy inviolability of truth, the more real and genuine will his spiritual life be. Men cannot play with unveracity, even in theory, without feeling its corrupting influence on their souls. The spiritual life is truth in the inward parts, and the more truth is loved and reverenced, the more all shadow of falsehood is hated and abhorred, the nearer will the soul draw to God, and to His Son, the Truth. \par \par 2. The possession of Christ as a living reality. He was such a living reality, of course, to the men who lived with Him during His earthly life, and He so continued after His death and resurrection. But to no one of them was He more real than to St. Paul, who had not known Him after the flesh. He may be as real to us. To many he has been. Two suggestions may suffice here: (a) Christ can be made more real to us by thinking upon His life and ways while here. We shall become more sensible of Him if we will recall more constantly what He did and said in His incarnate \par \par 8o PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par life. It was for this that our imagination was given to us. It is the faculty, not of deception, but of spiritual realization. As Mr. Ruskin says in Modern Painters, \ldblquote What are the legitimate uses of the imagination; that is to say, of the power of perceiving with the mind things which cannot be perceived by the senses?... \par \par It is given us that we may imagine the cloud of witnesses in heaven and earth and sea as if they were present the souls of the righteous waiting for us; that we may conceive the great army of the inhabitants of heaven, and discover among them those whom we most desire to be with for ever; that we may be able to vision forth the ministry of our God beside us, and see the chariots of fire on the mountains that gird us round; but, above all, to call up the scenes and facts in which we are commanded to believe, and be present, as if in the body, at every recorded event of the history of the Redeemer.\rdblquote \par \par \par If we use our imaginations in this way, we shall find Christ becoming an actual living power. But (b] He is more than a person in history to be imaginatively reconstructed. The wonderful thing about Christ is the ever fresh moral power which flows out from Him as a scrutiny and challenge to men. And if we submit ourselves to this, and live our lives under this scrutiny and challenge, the rectifications of thought and act which will be daily required of us will feed the consciousness of Christ\rquote s living presence. Remembering Jesus Christ, as the God that He was in man, as the man that He is in God, will give Him as a constant Friend to us, to whom He has been given as Saviour and Lord. \par \par 3. The one book which preserves for us all \par \par THE CARE OF THE INNER LIFE 81 \par \par certainly know of the life and words of Christ is the Bible. It alone gives the spiritual imagination the material it needs to work upon. And it is itself an indispensable spiritual food. After all has been said that needs to be said about its resemblance to other books, and the duty of studying it as we study other books, it yet remains to be said that it is not like other books, and that we are to study it as we study no other book. It is unlike other books, not in degree but in kind. It is the record of a revelation. But it is more. \par \par It is a revelation. This is a fact to which millions of witnesses can be called. Men have met God in it. \par \par And apart from all theory, it is simple observation that spiritual life and growth are dependent for Christians upon Bible study. Professor Coe, in Education in Morals and Religion, speaks slightingly of devotional Bible study; but his view is unscientific. Such study and its results are a reality of experience. We know what we have found here. \ldblquote On most occasions of very sharp pressure or trial,\rdblquote said Mr. Gladstone, some word of Scripture has come home to me as if borne on angels wings.\rdblquote No other book has spoken so to human souls. For many of us the spiritual life has gone up and down in direct connection with the practice or neglect of Bible study. \par \par We should acquire the practice as a fixed habit in our student d ays. \par \par 4. Prayer is a power in the spiritual life in proportion as we grasp its whole reality. It is a reality in its influence in achieving results. The clamour in our day about the fixed order of nature should not mislead us here. As Huxley confessed in one of his letters to * See Morley\rquote s Life of W. E. Gladstone, vol. 1. p. 201. \par \par \par 82 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par Kingsley, \ldblquote Not that I mean for a moment to say that prayer is illogical. For  if the whole universe is ruled by fixed laws, it is as logically absurd for me to ask you to answer this letter as to ask the Almighty to alter the weather.\rdblquote We should use prayer as a force, as it was meant to be used. Only when we have not denied its reality in this regard, can we use it in its full influence as a spiritual exercise. There are two American books which I would venture to suggest, dealing with prayer in its full significance: Phelps The Still Hour* and Trumbull\rquote s Prayer, I ts Nature and Scope. With many of us prayer is a weird country, because, when we think of it, figures like George M tiller rise before us. But this is not the only type of the man of prayer. Stone wall Jackson and Chinese Gordon were as truly men of prayer. \ldblquote I think,\rdblquote to quote only a few scattered passages from Gordon\rquote s Letters to Jus Sister \ldblquote that the study of Scripture, the avoidance of scandal or picking to pieces, the visiting of the sick, with earnest prayer, woul d tend towards the perfecting of a Christian. I believe the deadness in some of the clergy is owing, partly, to not reading the Scriptures; secondly, to not meditating over them; thirdly, to not praying sufficiently; fourthly, to being taken up with religious secular work... The prayers of the patriarchs were most simple they took God at His word, that is all. \par \par I like much this style of prayer, and recommend it to you.\rdblquote \par \par \par Without prayer the spiritual life will be stifl ed. In it the solitary soul shall be confirmed in God, even as Napier wrote in his Sonnet, * Student Christian Movement, 22, Warwick Lane, E.G. (6&lt;/, post free). \par \par \par THE] CARE OF THE IXNER LIFE 83 \par \par \ldblquote O weary soul! that yet with willing feet \par Wouldst tread o er many a hard and rugged way In uncomplaining toil, and never stay \par Until within His courts thine eyes should meet The splendour of His lo^k to thee be sweet \par That kindly word He spoke. Unto Me pray, Not as the hypocrite in blaze of day, In public paths or in the open street, But in thy closet kneeling, there within \par Unto Me make thy prayer, to Me thy moan; And I will hear in heaven, where I abide. \par \par Lo I I will bring thee cleansing for thy sin, Yea, we together shall abide alone, Shut thou thy door Heaven\rquote s gate will open wide.;J \par \par It is just the lack of such prayer that accounts for the deficient moral reserve of most Christian ministers. \par \par They create no sense of surplus power. The reticent fountains of inexhaustible resource and boundless endurance have never been unsealed in the secret silence of the life of prayer. \par \par 5. And the life of prayer opens up the life of love to JHCII. And love is the enriching and expansion of life. \par \par The spiritual life is the love of God shed abroad in the heart, and issuing in such love of man as grows by its own utterance. There is a spiritual life, doubtless, which is capable of esoteric seclusion; but the real life is an overflowing, unconfinable thing, and it grows by loving. In the spiritual life we have a right and duty to cultivate the sense of friendship with God. \par \par Men may still become friends of Christ, and walk with Him in daily fellowship of friendship-love. And the very conception of such love and its practice by us among men will help our spiritual life. Such a conception makes us greater and more than we were. And \par \par 84 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par all pure human fellowships, especially with widely varying types of men, with the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the mechanic, the artisan, the successful man, the derelict, reveal to us so much wider aspects of human need, so much ampler grace of God in Christ, so much more capacity for life in ourselves, so much richer life in God available for us. \par \par 6. The spiritual life is an intellectual life. This statement has its limitations. All that is meant here is that we make our contributions to it, not through the will alone, nor through the attitude of character, the bent of soul, we call faith, but by common intellectual processes, our reading and our thoughts. There are classes of books which do damage and no good to the soul. They poison its air, and defile its walls with pictures which it is easier to hang than to tear down. \par \par Whatever hurts the soul impairs the spiritual life. \par \par And hurting souls, one\rquote s own or other men s, is a murderous thing. The only man who will not hurt other souls is the man who has not hurt his own. \par \par And the man who would be a good minister of Christ and the souls of men will bar out the kind of books and pictures which defile. It is argued by some men that such knowledge, acquired from books or from life, is necessary to the man who would help men. Know ledge is power, it is urged. And only he can help men who has himself been helped, and can know what it is with which they contend. This is devil\rquote s doctrine as though no man could put out a fire in his neighbour\rquote s house who had not first committed arson in his own; as though no doctor could set a broken arm who had not first deliberately fractured his own. If God cannot get his men unscarred, He will make even their scars a \par \par 7HE CARE OF THE INNER LIFE 85 \par \par source of strength to them; but innocence is more powerful than corroded knowledge; ignorance of evil is a liberty which the man of poisoned memory would rebuy with his hand or eye; familiarity with sin taints life\rquote s beauty, poisons its noblest fellowships, and takes away what it can never restore. The purer men\rquote s hearts, the ampler their strength for all service, whether of body or of soul. \par \par What books will most help the spiritual life, what books will hinder it, are not the same with all men. \par \par And students know enough about these things, or have information sufficiently accessible, to make it needless to deal with them here. But the spiritual value of missionary biography deserves to be suggested. Pre scribed courses of devotional reading are likely to over look this, and no devotional books can give more practical spiritual help. Take, for example, the following sentences from the journals of David Living stone, \ldblquote I would venture everything for Christ. Pity I have so little to give.\rdblquote \par \par \par \ldblquote Anywhere, if it is only forward. My life may be spent as profitably as a pioneer as in any other way.\rdblquote \par \par \par \ldblquote I do not mention these privations as if I considered them to be sacrifices; for I think that the word ought never to be applied to anything we can do for Him Who came down from heaven and died for us.\rdblquote \par \par \par Or the following from the life of Bishop Patteson, of Melanesia, \ldblquote I mean that the right use of any great event in one\rquote s life, as I take it, is not to concentrate feeling so much on it, as earnestness of purpose, prayer for grace \par \par 86 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par and for increase of simplicity, and honesty, and purity \par of heart.\rdblquote \par \par \par \ldblquote If God, of His great mercy, lead me m His way, to me there is little worth living for but the going onward with His blessed work. Of course it is wrong to risk one\rquote s life, but to carry one\rquote s life in one\rquote s hand is what other soldiers, besides those of the Cross, do \par habitually.\rdblquote \par \par \par By our reading and our conversation our thoughts are shaped, and these are the food of the spiritual life. \par \par St. Paul clearly saw this, and his rule for the spiritual life was a rule of thought: \ldblquote Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honourable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.\rdblquote Is this the law of our thought, or do we fall below both this and Marcus Aurelius high principled counsel? \ldblquote Accustom yourself to think upon nothing but what you would freely reveal, if the question were put to you; so that if your soul were laid open, there would appear nothing but what was sincere, good-natured, and public-spirited, not so much as one voluptuous or luxurious fancy, nothing of hatred, envy, or unreasonable suspicion, nor aught else that you could not bring to the light without blushing.\rdblquote This is a central question in a man\rquote s honest study of his soul. His hands may be clean. \par \par Shall he not then ascend unto the hill of the Lord? \par \par Nay, but is his heart pure? That was the question that concerned our Lord. Whither do the unexpressed desires, the desires that never escape into act, the imaginations that are never released in speech \par \par THE CARE OF THE INNER LIFE 87 \par \par whither do these turn? If they do not flee from evil, why do we need to look further for the reason for the fogs that hang damp and depressing across the soul? or the clouds that fleck its sunshine, or the weights that cumber its freedom, or the constraints that strangle its power? If we will only think as Paul entreats us to think, we shall never speak otherwise, and such thoughts and speech will deliver the spiritual life of most of its foes, and the subtle, noxious influences which undermine it. \par \par A simple, practical way to set about the subjugation of the mind to this law is to think and speak more about our Lord. There are days when we never mention His name except in our prayers, when we do not commend Him to another, or speak lovingly of His grace and beauty to a friend. And we do not do this, not merely because we hesitate to speak of Him, but because we have not thought about Him ourselves. It would enlarge His place in our life if we thought about Him more, recalled His words and looks, and meditated upon His love. And it would confirm the enlargement if we should speak of Him to others. There are conversations we might easily and warrantably turn thither. And there are hours of freedom in each week, when our minds usually go vagrant nowhither, when they might be fixed upon Him. If we loved Him better, we should think more of Him. If we thought more of Him, we should love Him better. \par \par The devotional use in meditation and prayer of hymns is a real help to the spiritual life. No better illustration can be offered than George Croly\rquote s noble verses, \par \par 88 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par \ldblquote Spirit of God! descend upon my heart; \par \par Wean it from earth, through all its pulses move; Stoop to my weakness, mighty as Thou art, And make me love Thee as I ought to love. \par \par \ldblquote I ask no dream, no prophet-ecstasies; \par \par No sudden rending of the veil of clay; No angel-visitant, no opening skies; \par \par But take the dimness of my soul away. \par \par \ldblquote Teach me to feel that Thou art a lways nigh; \par \par Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear; To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh; \par \par Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.\rdblquote \par \par \par Single lines of this hymn will furnish subject for meditation for an hour, \ldblquote Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.\rdblquote \par \par u To do Thy will the habit of my heart.\rdblquote \par \par \par We need the exercise of meditation. Life is too irritated and busy. We do not sit still. Th!e spiritual life thrives in the midst of duty, however turbulent the surroundings, but it does not thrive in a self-created turmoil, a restless maelstrom of the soul\rquote s hurryings, striking in and down. Men should sit down in deliberate silence from time to time and be still, think about the movings of God in their own lives, and in human history and in present politics, and be thankful for all His love and power. \par \par Thoughts of gratitude have, as St. Paul clearly discovered, a distinct valu"e as influences deepening the spiritual life. The late William Henry Green, the ablest Hebrew scholar in America, and a man of the richest and most modest piety, was especially fond of the truth which he would bring out in connection with \par \par THE CARE OF THE INNER LIFE 89 \par \par his own translation of the last verse of the Fiftieth Psalm, \ldblquote Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me, and prepareth a way that I may show him the salvation of God.\rdblquote The therapeutic value of happiness# in physical health is no more real than the quickening, ennobling value of praise in the health of the soul. Each day let a man remember what he should thank God for, and let him take time to thank Him. All such practice deepens our consciousness of God, ever real, the most real of all realities, but hidden to us by the shams and shadows that clamour for His place. \par \par 7:77/6 inner life needs the checking and the invigoratiou of work and outer duty. This rectifies its standards. \par \par The p$rivate cultivation of the spiritual life is not its only nurture. Without the secret nourishment it will weaken and wane, but with it alone it will be inaccurate and infirm. One cause of religious weakness is often a subjective spirituality, which forgets the wholesome moralities which govern men in common life. The correction is found in the subjection of life to common fidelity. One of the most beautiful things in the life and Epistles of St. Paul is his unceasing exaltation of the fundamental moral vir%tues. He sees in the practice of the homely virtues a great spiritual test. If men are not patient and loving and faithful in their relations with others, and in their homes, what reality can there be in the inner spiritual life? And the practice of the homely virtues is not only a great spiritual test, it is also a great spiritual exercise. The soul grows strong just as the body grows by work, and some of its work must be on the stuff of which common life is made. This is the reason why the spiritual lif&e of mothers is often so \par \par 90 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par superior to the spiritual life of ministers and priests, and carries with it so superior an air of reality. The spiritual life artificially grown in fictitious surroundings cannot stand or serve with the life grown among the facts of duty and work. Routine toil which falls to us in the will of God, the pressure of detailed cares, the rush of responsibilities which will not wait to be leisurely met, the call of distr'acting voices all about us these things are often offered as excuse for the neglect of the spiritual life. They are nothing of the kind. They are the very conditions favourable to its true growth. And their great value to many men lies in their frustrating for them the ambition of spiritual character as a selfish attainment, at the same time that they give them spiritual character as the unconscious crown of an unselfish life of fidelity. Mabel Earle has written out this truth, \ldblquote One prayed in v(ain to paint the vision blest Which shone upon his heart by night and day; But homely duties in his dwelling pressed, And hungry hearrs that would not turn away, And cares that still his eager hands bade stay. \par \par The canvas never knew the pictured Face, But year by year while yet the vision shone, An angel near him, wondering, bent to trace On his own life the Master\rquote s image grown, And unto men made known.\rdblquote \par \par \par We so often think that our spiritual life is dependent )upon its conditions. If we were placed as some other man is, if we had what he has, if only to-morrow would come, with different associations then we might hope for a spiritual life denied us now. God is no such blunderer. He knows what we need, and He is subjecting each to \par \par THE CARE OF THE INNER LIFE 91 \par \par \ldblquote The machinery just meant, To give the soul its bent, Try it and turn it forth sufficiently impressed. \par \par It is a help to recognize that the circumstances and eq*uipments of our lives are directly ordered for us, and that in these we must and can attain our life, and live it in its fulness. \par \par 8. Lastly, habit runs its rule through the spiritual life, and the cultivation of the spiritual life is just the cultivation of the habits under which the soul should live to be its best and do its most. The beauty of our Lord\rquote s life was the perfection of its habits of holiness. \par \par And this is what Christianity is a way, a habit. Thus the prophet for+esaw it, \ldblquote There shall be a way,\rdblquote a habit, and it shall be the habit of holiness. Thus the early Christians conceived it. Christianity to them was a new habit, a way, and its great Apostle both supported and exemplified it by fearlessly challenging men to study and follow his own \ldblquote ways which be in Christ.\rdblquote \par \par And nothing is secure until it is thus solidified into habit. Our spiritual life is beyond vicissitude, above the harassment of petty trial and provoc,ation, strong for all it needs to bear in the conflict of true souls with the spiritual forces of darkness, when it has become set in the ways of the mind of Christ. It is here that the cultivation of the spiritual life is seen as a simply practical thing. We can acquire habits of Bible study and prayer, of thoughts of Christ and of loyalty to truth, of friendship and lowly mindedness. Each of us will have his own method, but the principle will be the same, and the blessed end will be likeness to Christ a-nd richer service of mankind. \par \par \par 92 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par II \par \par PERILS \par \par But there are perils of the spiritual life in itself and in its expressions in service, which assail it with subtle and deadly skill. And there is no escape from these. \par \par We cannot elude them by any horizontal movement. \par \par The monks thought that by going off to different places and hiding in caves and cells they might escape from the perils of life, but. the scheme failed, for the simple reason that they carried their life with them. The perils of the spiritual life do not lie in external surroundings, but in the recesses of men\rquote s souls, in the nature of life itself. St. Anthony was not delivered from vile visions by taking up his abode beyond human life. He had eyes in his soul that saw as clearly as any physical eyes could have seen. We cannot get away from the perils of life by any movement east or west, or north or south. \par \par And just /as there is no escape from the perils of life horizontally, there is no escape vertically. To be sure, a man escapes from certain types of temptation, but a deliverance from these perils only discloses another set of perils more subtle than those with which he had to deal before. He was first waging a bludgeon warfare. \par \par He had exchanged that for warfare with the broad sword; but now he finds that he must fight at even a quicker pace still, and with a rapier. To be sure, he has a larger force wi0th which to confront these new perils; he is in every way in a better position to face life\rquote s battle, but the fact that he has got past certain old temptations is no assurance that he will not have to face on a new battlefield a more agile and cunning \par \par THE CARE OF THE INNER LIFE \par \par \par 93 \par \par \par foe. The higher Christian life lifts us past certain perils, but after all it has only lifted us past them to bring us near them again. We are above them, but on a precipice1\rquote s edge. And as we stand near this great declivity every day, it is easy for a man to fall back into the moral morass once more. I had a friend in the ministry. He was known to be, and I think he was, a man of especially deep and genuine religious earnestness; but he fell into the hell of an adulterer\rquote s life. He is a renegade upon the face of the earth to-day. None of the old men who knew him know where he lives. Friends behind him in the place where he was once known and loved have only a f2eeling of great shame at his life. He was walking, as he thought, in a forgiven life, and it was only a step between that and dismal ruin. The spiritual sensitiveness of the higher life needs to be bound with a ceaseless vigilance to the iron moralities. \par \par But it is not of this, but of the new and finer perils of the advanced Christian life, the life of highest ideals and most sensitive conscience, that we are thinking. \par \par In one of his letters to the Duchess of Sutherland, Mr. Gladston3e says: \ldblquote There is one proposition which the experience of life has burned into my soul. It is the fear that my religion shall kill my morality. Every day of my life in thousands of different ways, some great, some small, all of them subtle, I am tempted to that great sin.\rdblquote And this is the great peril with which we are confronted in our lives. We have to face the peril of not lifting our life to the level of our Christian theory. \par \par After all, we will preach no more gospel tha4n we are living. Thring held that it was not what we say or what we do that God uses, but what we are; and what \par \par 94 PR EPA RA TION FOR THE CHRIS TIA N MINIS TR Y \par \par we say and do only as it gives real expression to what we are. It is not the Christian theory which we hold that will influence men unless that theory is embodied in our life, or unless we are conscientiously striving to yield ourselves wholly to Christ for the perfecting of our character. \par \par The perils which threa5ten our inner life are subtle and insidious. Every man who has analyzed his own spiritual experience has felt them. Those of which I would speak can perhaps be arranged in pairs, one danger threatening us on each side. \par \par i. First, the perils of negligence and over-pressure. \par \par On the one hand, there is the possibility of a man\rquote s neglecting the great opportunities of spiritual service and duty that are opening before him in the world. In spite of the example and appeal of Him Who 6said, \ldblquote I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work,\rdblquote \par Whom the zeal of His Father\rquote s house ate up, no fire burns in our souls; we do not know what it is to be eaten up by the zeal of our Father\rquote s house, or to do His works while the day lasts, knowing that the night is coming when no man shall work any more. You remember the passage in Professor Huxley\rquote s letter to his friend, Sir John Donnelly, after the deat7h of Chinese Gordon. He speaks of his admiration of Gordon, and then goes on to say: \ldblquote I imagine that the manner of his death was not unwelcome to himself. Better wear out than rust out, and better break than wear out.\rdblquote Well, that is an exaggerated way of putting it, but few of us are likely to be led astray by such counsel resulting in a life that breaks for Christ. Our fires are not hot enough to burn us out. \par \par \par THE CARE OF THE INNER LIFE 95 \par \par This is one per8il. But we are saved from negligence at the risk of falling into the contrary error. \par \par We busy ourselves about our Master\rquote s business and we forget our Master\rquote s children. We are impatient if they come to sec us. We have no time for friendship, nor any time for prayer. We escape on one side only to fall into another peril on the other. A man told me a little while ago of having called, in Washington, on one of the well-known cabinet ministers there, one of the most busy and influenti9al men in the cabinet. After finishing his business, my friend arose to go, and the man said, \ldblquote No, please don t go. Sit down and talk awhile. I am always ahead of my work. I am glad to have the chance to talk with a friend.\rdblquote So my friend sat down and talked with this man who was always ahead of his work. After all, the only work is the giving out of life. Running the wheels is not work; dealing with the routine of our business is not work; dictating thousands of letters a year is not w:ork. The only work a man does is in the giving out of his life upon other lives. We may live more true life in an hour than in six months. Let us pray to be saved on the one side from sloth, and on the other side from not having time to live and love. \par \par 2. /;/ the second place, there are the perils of pride and self -contempt. On the one hand, there is the pride of achievement that turns into conceit. There is the pride in one\rquote s own success that fills one with jealous envy of the success ;of others. Is there one of us who has not felt it? Yet what matter, if the work is done? Remember how Whittier puts it in \ldblquote My Triumph \ldblquote\par \par 96 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par \ldblquote Let the thick curtain fall, I better know than all How little I have gained, How vast the unattained. \par \par \ldblquote Others shall sing the song, Others shall right the wrong, Finish what I begin, And all I fail of, win. \par \par \ldblquote What matter, I or they? <\par \par Mine or another\rquote s day? \par \par So the right word be said And life the sweeter made. \par \par \ldblquote King, bells in far-off steeples, The joy of unborn peoples. \par \par Sound, trumpets far-off blown, Your triumph is my own.\rdblquote \par \par \par It is very foolish, but very natural and easy, for us to fall into the folly and sin of pride. It may be that it takes no other form than that we have been thinking of ourselves, of how well we are doing, how well we have d=one. \par \par Or we escape this peril by swinging to the other extreme and poison our lives with the sin of self contempt. We cringe and dishonour our Master and our Gospel. We do not feel in its real greatness what has been given us to do. We fail to see the glory and dignity of one individual character. Each of us is a man. A man is bigger than a world. It is good to recall Dickens declaration that no man is able to accomplish anything in this world who does not believe that the work he has been give>n to do is the greatest work to be done in the world. But our sense of proportion is too good. We fail to estimate as we should the \par \par THE CARE OF THE INNER LIFE y7 \par \par immense significance of our life and work. There never has been or will be a greater than ours. If we can feel that, without pride, we can work omnipotently for we shall work with Him Who died for each of us alone, as worth each by himself that great sacrifice. \par \par 3. In the third place, there are the penis of unbe?lief and over-belief, so to speak. On the one hand, we are fearful of doing anything because we cannot achieve the results. How weak and helpless we come to be in the presence of God. After all, no man does anything All any man does is just to make it possible for God to do something. We will not speak to the man by our side in the car. W\rquote T hat can a word of ours do? \par \par Nothing; but God can take that word of ours and send with it the transforming power of His life into the other soul. \par@ \par But, on the other hand, we are saved from this peril of distrust by simply laying it all on God. There is a sense in which God has to do it all. There is a sense in which I am to do it all. There is a sense in which I can rely on Christ to bear the burden, and there is a sense in which I have got to bear it after Him. With no agony I may quietly leave it all to Christ, and I must leave it all to Him in any case, but He can do it as He would, only when I fill up the measure of His sufferings and knAow in my longing for other souls the meaning of the fellowship of His Cross. \par \par 4. In the fourth place there are the perils of reticence and self-concealment. This is one of the great dangers of modern men. We hide ourselves, we will not\rdblquote let ourselves go, we suppress our emotions. In one of our large cities not long ago, one of the leading ministers \par \par 98 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par said, \ldblquote The saddest thing about the religious life of this cityB is that there is not a minister in it who can shed a tear when he preaches or prays.\rdblquote He did not mean to approve gushing sentiment. He simply meant to recall the fact that when Jesus Christ drew near the city He wept, and that St. Paul tells us that his eyes were again and again stained with tears, and that there is no power where there is no such sympathy. \par \par Many a man shuts himself in simply because he is anxious to preserve his own personality. He is too proud to expose it. He doesC not propose to make a fool of himself. We are subject, all of us, to this peril of reticence, of being afraid, and we never shall have power until we conquer and escape from it so as to be free workmen of God. \par \par And yet there is the contrary peril, of a man\rquote s pouring out his soul as a fool, when it is like spreading out his pearls before swine. That is just as much a peril as the one on the other side. There are men who have no power over us because they are too common and cheap. We feelD no deeps in them. We want to know that the man who is offering himself to us in sympathy has more in him that he can offer to us. We want to feel the mystery of reserve knowledge and power in him. St. Paul was what we want our teachers to be. \par \par There was no reticence about him, but there were all the time the great depths that no man had plumbed, the great shadows through which no man flung light. \par \par Probably we have never heard any man speak to our souls who did not at the same time lEay open his life to us and make us feel that there were depths of life there that we had not sounded and could never sound. It will require God\rquote s grace to save us alike from the peril \par \par THE CARE OF THE INNER LIFE 99 \par \par of selfish reticence and from the peril of the shameful exposure of our souls. \par \par 5. Last of all, there are the penis of introspection and blindness. One of the great difficulties with earnest men is the digging down to the roots of their own souls. Now ifF I think altogether of myself, my own shortcomings, my own sins, I simply intensify the difficulties that trouble me. If, on the other hand, I think of the beauty, grace and tenderness of Christ, I shall become like Him. If we dwell on God\rquote s affection and sympathy, we shall become more like God. I trospection, in the sense of self-regard, is simply a poisonous miasma. \ldblquote Think about yourself,\rdblquote says Kingsley, \ldblquote about what you want, what you like, what respect people oughGt to pay to you, and then to you nothing will be clean, you will spoil everything you touch, you will make sin and misery for yourself and of everything which God sends you. You will be as wretched as you choose on earth or in heaven either.\rdblquote Hundreds of good men create their own misery by such self-regard, by soul-questionings which end where they began, by a self-consciousness which results in an inbreeding of the soul to sterility. \par \par And yet, if we neglect all self-judgment, we fallH into the peril of foolish shallowness, the vain superficiality which springs from being blind to what we really are and how unlike Christ we are. If a man does not again and again check himself against Christ, he cannot know what his life is, detect its insincerities and shortcomings, and become a man of reality. We need to be saved alike from not seeing ourselves at all, and from seeing nothing but ourselves. It is right to look upon our own life long enough to see how shameful it is, and it is \par \pIar ioo PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par wrong then not to look thence and thereafter to the perfect life and the ready help of the strong Son of God. \par \par There are other helps and there are other dangers, but this will suffice. There are things that hinder and hurt the spiritual life which each knows for him self, habits, indulgences, tastes, which cumber and impede in the race that we run. All these must be stripped off by earnest and honest men. The hireling and the hypocrite Jwill keep them. But the true men who would be prophets of God in the new day will purge their lives relentlessly of everything that might obscure their vision of God, or impair their message to their generation. \par \par But the last word is not a word about our activity in the shaping of our life. There is a greater word than this. There is One Who loves us more than we love ourselves, and Who understands us more perfectly than we understand ourselves, Whose men we are, Who, when we have found our perKils and done our best to vanquish them, when we have learned the conditions of growth and set earnestly about fulfilling them, takes upon Himself the cleansing and perfecting of our life. \par \par He will complete that which He has begun. He is at work in us, and He will give us by His grace that for which we long. He is the Father\rquote s ideal for all His sons, and thither even now we may come; even as sometimes in one of the gospel hymns we sing, \ldblquote Out of my bondage, sorrow and night, JesLus, I come, Jesus, I come; Into Thy freedom, gladness and light, Jesus, I come to Thee, \par \par THE CARE OF THE INNER LIFE 101 \par \par Out of my sickness into Thy health, Out of my want and into Thy wealth, Out of my sin and into Thyself, Jesus, I come to Thee. \par \par Out of my shameful failure and loss, Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come; Into the glorious gain of Thy cross, Jesus, I come to Thee. 5 \par \par And that, I suppose, is the deeper word, the true word; not our struggling, but Christ\rquote s saving; not our battle, but Christ\rquote s keeping. Out of ourselves, our shameful failure, our folly, our sin, we may pass into Him, pure, perfect, secure out of our best and most successful experiences, into the perfect and complete activities of God. For herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, and the Saviour of the world, Life within our life. \par \par \par \par \par \pard\cf1\lang1034\expndtw-7\f2\fs23\par }  -04 - The Care Of The Inner Life{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}{\s2 heading 2;}} {\*\genOsa60\kerning0\i\fs28 THE REV. A. E. GARVIE, M.A, D.D. \par \pard\nowidctlpar\b0\i0\f1\fs24 I \par THE KINGDOM AS MUSTARD SEED AND AS LEAVEN \par \par \par (0 (^)^ E *\rdblquote ^ e questions which is being most *&lt;-/ eagerly discussed by interpreters of the New Testament is the conception of the Kingdom of God in the teaching of Jesus. Is the Kingdom present or future; is the representation of it by Jesus ethical or eschatological? Hctrnack, for instance, rinds in the words of Jesus proofs of an ePthical conception; Loisy insists that the representation is eschatological. If we regard Jesus as only a man of His own age and people, we shall incline to agree with Loisy; but if we recognize in Him a moral insight and a spiritual discernment that make Him contemporary with every age, and adaptable to every people, because possessing the secret of the infinite and eternal God, we shall find no difficulty in Harnack\rquote s view. There is a group of parables dealing with the Mystery of the Kingdom whichQ more than justifies the ethical interpretation, and that interpretation is confirmed by the history of the Christian Church. The dominion of God in the \par \par io6 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRIS TIAN MINJSTR V \par \par grace and truth of Jesus Christ has come on earth not in one decisive crisis, but in a continuous progress, of the two aspects of which, the expansive and the pervasive, the two parables of the mustard-seed and the leaven may be regarded as prophetic (Mat_13:31-33). It is the nature of Rthe Kingdom of God to spread, and wherever it spreads, to change that which it touches. \par \par It claims all mankind for its realm, and it changes the whole manhood of men by its rule. It grows at the same time in extension and in comprehension; it expands everywhere as the mustard-seed, and it transforms everything as the leaven. No race is unreceptive of, or unresponsive to, the message of the Kingdom, and no interest, pursuit, relation, or institution of men is incapable of transformation by the iSnfluence of the Kingdom. This is the mystery, hidden when Jesus spoke, being more and more laid bare in Christian history - - the universality and supremacy of the Kingdom. \par \par (2) With these two aspects of the Kingdom we may connect two of the enterprises to which the Christian Church is to-day imperatively summoned. On the one hand, the expansion of the Kingdom is being sought by missionary effort; and, on the other hand, the pervasion of the Kingdom is being striven for in social service. \par T \par The invention of the means of rapid locomotion, the exploration of distant and unknown lands, the expansion of a world-wide commerce, the zeal of colonization these have set before the Christian Churches an open door for the evangelization of all mankind. To preach the Gospel in every tongue within one generation is a proposal seriously intended and soberly advocated. Not in any previous age have all the \par \par THE BIBLE TN ITS RELA TION TO THE KINGDOM 107 \par \par external circumstances ofU mankind offered so great an opportunity to the Christian Church for the delivery of its message and the discharge of its mission; and, therefore, never has there rested upon it so great an obligation to realize the possibility and fulfil the promise of the Kingdom of God as universal. In no previous age, it can be asserted confidently, has the Social Problem arrested so much attention. Plato\rquote s Republic and More\rquote s Utopia are proofs that men have in other ages recognized the evils of society Vand desired their removal: but never before was the interest in the subject so extended or so intense. The revolution in the methods of industry and commerce which took place during last century has resulted in changes in all social relations, which, if not wisely and righteously directed and controlled, are full of peril and injury to the highest interests of the race. Modern society needs a moral organization which will avert the dangers which its economic organization has introduced. The need of the hoWur is a potent and efficient organizing moral principle which wall bring a cosmos out of the chaos which now threatens. Where can we look for such a principle except we find it in the ideal of the Kingdom of God as morally pervading, and thus transforming, all social relationships? Here, too, the age offers the Church a great opportunity and lays upon it as great an obligation. \par \par (3) The opportunity imposes an obligation; but the obligation does not depend on the opportunity. It is a permanent nXecessity of the Kingdom of God that it should expand and transform. It belongs to its essence that it should spread as the mustard-plant, and change as the leaven. It is imperative that this truth should \par \par 1 08 PREP A RA TION FOR THE CHRIS TIA N MINIS TR Y \par \par be fully and thoroughly recognized. That the Kingdom is universally expansive results from its nature as the Kingdom of God. It is the religious good of Divine grace, forgiving, cleansing, and renewing sinful mankind that it offersY. It is the moral task of human faith, hope, love, uniting men to God, and to one another, to which it calls. Jesus the Christ in Whom the Kingdom was incarnated, through Whom it is communicated, by Whom it will be consummated, reveals the reality of God as the Father Who saves, and realizes the ideal of man as the child surrendered to God. He thus meets a universal need, as He offers a universal good, and calls to a universal task. There is nothing local or temporary in His mission or His message; for thZe God He brings and makes known to men is the Father Who is in all, through all, and over all. It is a degradation of Christ as Mediator, because a limitation of the revelation and redemption offered in Him, to acquiesce in anything less than the world-wide spread of His Gospel. But this Kingdom is destined for, because adapted to, not only a universal expansion, but also an absolute transformation of the whole manhood of all mankind. \par \par The Christian salvation is a new creation, the old things h[aving passed away, all things having become new. \par \par Having captured the capital of the human soul, its relation to God, the Kingdom must gradually subjugate even its most outlying provinces. Economic conditions and social relations, because they affect helpfully or hurtfully the life of God in the soul of man, because they result from the exercise of man\rquote s will in obedience to, or defiance of God\rquote s purpose, cannot be excluded from the pervasive influence of the Gospel. To deny that \this Kingdom has to do with Economics and Politics, \par \par THE BIBLE IN ITS RELA TION TO THE KINGDOM 109 \par \par as well as Ethics, is to deny the supreme sovereignty of God as Redeemer over the whole life of man. \par \par (4) The enthusiasm and the energy necessary for the discharge of the task set to the Christian Churches to-day, cannot be evoked or sustained unless it becomes the dominating conviction of every Christian man, that the Christian salvation cannot by necessity, of its very nat]ure, be limited in its scope or partial in its effect. The significance and the value which any believer assigns to Jesus Christ are to be measured by his interest in and effort for the Kingdom of God. \par \par Does he say that he does not believe in foreign missions? Then he confesses that he does not believe as fully and thoroughly as he ought in Jesus Christ, Who is nothing less than the Saviour and Lord of mankind. \par \par No man has a right to rejoice in a salvation which he would in his inter^est and effort deliberately restrict. \par \par He is saved that he may love his neighbour as himself, that is, that he may as earnestly desire, and as strenuously work for, his neighbour\rquote s salvation as his own. \par \par And according to the definition of Christ, Christian neighbourhood is universal; and the duty of neighbourliness is dependent only on the need of, and the power to give, help. Again, does any man say that he thinks the Church should confine itself to preaching the Gospel, and _should not concern itself with the Social Problem? Then he proves that he has not thoroughly understood or fully prized Jesus Christ, to Whom no thing that is human is alien, Who suffers in, with, and for all human want and woe, and Whose salvation is intended to remove all wrong, and make men good in every relation. The Gospel cannot address itself to a fragment of manhood; it has an application to the \par \par no PREPARATION FOR THE CHRIS TIA N MINIS TR Y \par \par entire man. What every Christian `man needs to recognize and realize is that he lessens the meaning and lowers the worth of Jesus Christ as his own Saviour and Lord by any indifference to or indolence in the task of the Kingdom, expansive and pervasive; that he can enter into the fulness of the blessing which is in the grace of Christ only as he believes in, and lives for, the universality and supremacy of the Kingdom of God. \par \par II \par \par THE CHURCH AS THE STEWARD OF THE KINGDOM \par \par (i) This is the purpose of Christiaan life to make the gracious purpose of God in Christ Jesus world wide and world-ruling. This is not the task of the individual Christian only, for it is too great in its entirety and completeness for his resources and efforts; it is the common vocation of the Christian Church, for it alone can command the numerous and varied forces that the enterprise demands. This function of the Christian Church seems to be indicated in the saying of Jesus regarding the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven (Mat_16:19); as theb steward of a household, charged with the management of its affairs, carried the keys. \par \par The binding and the loosing spoken of in the next verse does not refer so much to admission or exclusion from the fellowship of the Church, as to the general administration of the concerns of the Kingdom, the policy for its advancement which shall be approved and accepted, or condemned and rejected. It does not seem necessary to limit the scope of the words on Our Lord\rquote s lips by Rabbinic usage; teachicng is included in the work of \par \par THE IUKLE IN ITS RE LA T1ON TO THE KINGDOM 1 1 1 \par \par the Church for the Kingdom, but the task is wider than that of the scribe. The Apostolic Church has sometimes been blamed for allowing the conception of the Kingdom to fall into the background, at least in its ethical sense, and for giving attention only to its eschatological reference. But what we have to ask is, not what became of the term in the Apostolic Church, but did it recognize the ideal realityd? What did the Church do to spread the Gospel, and by its spread to change the world? As the religious good of the grace of God offered to faith, and as the moral task of love for God and man, the Kingdom of God was fully recognized in the Apostolic Church; and its missionary enterprise on the one hand, and its social influence on the other, show that both the universality and the supremacy of this ideal reality were implicitly felt, if not always explicitly asserted. The Kingdom through the Apostolic Chuerch was both mustard-seed in its expansion and leaven in its influence. \par \par (2) It is of primary importance for the Christian Church to realize its subordination to, and its responsibility for, the Kingdom of God. The Church as an organized society is not an end in itself, but is a means towards an end beyond itself. It does not exist merely to nourish and foster the spiritual life of its members, but to exercise that spiritual life in the stewardship of the Kingdom. \par \par The witness of thef Gospel \\$ one of its functions, but this witness cannot be confined to those who already are within the Christian community, but must be extended to all to whom the knowledge of the Christian salvation has not yet come. The children of Christian homes, as well as the members of the Christian Church, \par \par 1 1 2 PR EPA RA TION FOR THE CHRIS TIA N MINIS TR Y \par \par need constant teaching of the truth as it is in Jesus; and the Christian Church, therefore, for its own continuance, ever needs theg preaching of the Gospel within its own borders; but if it restricts itself to this self-edification, it falls beneath the height of its vocation to preach the Gospel to every creature. \par \par The worship of God as the Father of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is a necessary element in its life; but the name which is to be hallowed is the name of the God and Father of all; and worship of that name is a hollow mockery unless the name is faithfully being so made known as to become holy unto all mankihnd. \par \par The witness welcomed, and the worship offered must lead to the work done. But this work, if limited to the defence and advancement of the interests and ambitions of any ecclesiastical organization, is not worthy of the Church, which exists not for itself but for the Kingdom. \par \par Gracious and generous sympathy with, service of, and sacrifice for, the coming of God\rquote s Kingdom on the earth in the knowledge of and submission to God as Father by all men, and the doing of God\rquotie s will on earth in all human relations, efforts, and institutions, as that will is done in Heaven: this is the work of the Christian Church if ii is to prove itself to be, as its Founder intended, the steward of the kingdom bearing the keys. \par \par (3) If we compare this ideal with the reality as we know it, must we not confess that the Christian churches around us are either ignorant of, or indifferent to, their vocation? The secondary place in the interest and the effort of most churches given toj the spread of the Gospel unto the ends of the earth, and to the change of human society by Christian influence, so that misery may be relieved, wrongs righted, and justice and \par \par THE RIRLE IN ITS RE LA TTON TO THE KTKGDOM u 3 \par \par righteousness established, shows that first things are not put first. Questions of creed, and ritual, and polity have, in the history of the Church, too often been put in the forefront, while the true calling of the Church was being forgotten. If dogmatic, liturkgical, and ecclesiastical controversies are not quite so prominent or deemed so important in our age as in former ages, yet the Churches are too busy with their own concerns; splendid architecture, eloquent preaching, elaborate worship, complex organizations, make a demand on the resources of many churches, which leaves very little sympathy and generosity to spare for the essential functions of the Church. While one recognizes grate fully the enthusiasm and the energy which are being displayed in many chulrches, one cannot but ask oneself whether it is always well and wisely directed. To keep the church as an organisation going seems so to exhaust the available energy, that missionary enterprise and social endeavour are \ldblquote cribbed, cabin d, and confined\rdblquote by lack of resources. If the churches spent less on themselves, not only would the work of the kingdom in these two directions be better supported, but the larger purpose would kindle a more fervent enthusiasm and a more strenuous energym than can possibly spring from that present narrowed ambition to get on as churches or even merely to keep things going. There are some who hold aloof, because doubtful whether the churches are the most fit and worthy agency for the Kingdom, who would then be won; there are resources of wealth and labour now withheld that would then be freely given. \par \par (4) How are these defects to be removed? It is not only more spiritual life that is needed in the whole \par I \par \par \par T 14 PREPARA riOnN FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR Y \par \par membership of the Church, but also spiritual life more wisely and fitly guided. Must it not be admitted that many churches are not as diligent in the business of the Kingdom as they might be, because they are not as fervent in spirit as they would be if the Christian Gospel meant all to them that it is intended to mean to all men. If the vision of Christ in His grace and glory were clearer, and the communion with Him in His tenderness and helpfulness were closer, othen submission to His will to make the whole world a new Divine creation would be more whole-hearted and single-minded, and fulfilment of that will in the work of the Kingdom would be more abundant and constant. \par \par No artificial stimulants such as occasional missions and conventions can sufficiently evoke and sustain this fuller, stronger life; it must be constantly fed and fostered by such a presentation of the Gospel as will make Christ as Saviour and Lord intensely real, supremely precious, apnd absolutely dominant. The \ldblquote holy enthusiasm \ldblquote of Pentecost followed, and resulted from\rdblquote the certainty of the Risen Lord given to the company of believers; the Church of to-day will also gain more of the Spirit as it knows more of Christ. \par \par But this \ldblquote holy enthusiasm \ldblquote needs to be directed and controlled, that it may not be wasted in emotion, but may work in the tasks of the Kingdom. Hence what has already been insisted on, must again be repeateqd, that missionary enterprise and social service must be known and felt to be so dear to the heart of Jesus Christ, so essentially belonging to His purpose, that devotion to these causes will be seen to be inseparable from fidelity to Him, and service of them a satisfaction rendered to Him. All Christians must be led to see \par \par THE BIliLE IN ITS RET. A TTON TO THE KINGDOM 115 \par \par both what Christ is to those who trust Him, and what He Himself most cares for, and desires those who love Him rmost to care for, even the universality and the supremacy of the Kingdom of His Father. \par \par \par Ill \par \par THE MINISTER AS THE OVERSEER OF THE CHURCH \par \par (i) For the condition of the churches the ministry cannot but be held responsible. It is true, and should net in individual cases be forgotten, that the members of the church are not often in relation to their minister as clay in the hands of the potter. There are men in the Christian ministry whose enthusiasm and energy do not avasil against the indifference and negligence of their churches in regard to foreign missions and social service. There are others who do not lead their churches in these enterprises, but follow sometimes very reluctantly the lead of some devoted and active members. But, as a rule, the church is as the minister is. If he cannot effectively influence all his members, he will draw to his church those who cherish the ideal which he does. If a man so preaches Christ as to bring his hearers into living contact witth Him, so that they discover for themselves how much Christ means and is worth to all mankind, he is nourishing a Christian enthusiasm and energy which cannot desire or purpose less than that the Kingdom should spread to all lands, and should grow in influence in every land until the transformation of human society according to the gracious purpose of God shall be accomplished. The extension and the influence of the \par \par 1 16 PREPARA T10N FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR V \par \par Kingdom will necessuarily have so prominent a place in his work as in his witness, that indifference or negligence in these matters will be without the excuse of ignorance; and must be blamed as a wilful hostility to the ends of the Kingdom. Such opposition may be met with; but if a man will persevere, if he will take care that his advocacy of these causes is never unnecessarily offensive even to the prejudiced, but always persuasive even for those who are reluctant to be convinced, in due time he will reap if he faint not. vThe truly Christian mind and the tenderly Christian heart cannot but respond to so genuinely and intensely Christian an appeal. \par \par (2) The Christian ministry must be led to realize its responsibility in these matters. If it is not helping, it is hindering the progress of the Kingdom; for in the ministry is concentrated the function of the Church as the steward of the Kingdom. As appointed of God to be the overseers of the flock, \ldblquote the Church of God which He purchased with His own blood w\ldblquote (Acts xx. \par \par 28 ^, Christian ministers can do more than the members can to advance or retard the great Christian enterprises at home and abroad. It is not their official position, nor is it their ecclesiastical authority that gives them this importance to the Kingdom of God; it is their personal character, experience, influence. It is not as any sacerdotal order administering any sacramental grace that we are at present concerned with the Christian ministry. Whether this conception bex true or false, it is unnecessary for us here to inquire. At least it is not assumed in the argument here submitted. \par \par The Christian minister is here regarded as the teacher and leader, the guide and guard of the members of the \par \par THE BIBLE IN ITS RELA TION TO THE KINGDOM 1 17 \par \par church. His is a representative position; he gives him self altogether to the work that belongs distinctively to the Christian Church. Others may engage in that work along with their earthly calling; iyt is the sole and constant earthly calling of the minister. His is a personal authority; it is in so far as in his own experience he has realized the religious good of the Kingdom of God, and in his own character he has realized its moral task, that he can commend the grace of God to others, and command the duty for man. His is a vicarious experience, because he lives in his relation to God not as an individual believer only, but that to him may be given, and through him may be imparted to others, the manzifold grace of God to the Christian community. \par \par H is is a typical character, because he, as he is faithful to his vocation, exhibits those graces and virtues that make beautiful the bride of Christ, the Christian Church. \par \par His is the effective influence for the Kingdom only as the ideal of the Kingdom is realized in him. \par \par (3) The discipline and the development of the Christian personality of the minister is the essential, permanent condition of his worthy fulfilment of his {vocation, and in the preparation for the Christian ministry, that ought to be fully recognized. It is to be feared that the education of the ministry, as indeed all education, tends to be too predominantly, if not exclusively, intellectual. The distinction between knowledge of religion and religious knowledge is too often ignored the former may involve only an intellectual process; the latter includes, as well as the content of the mind, the consequent disposition of the heart and direction of the will; i|t embraces grace appropriated by faith, and energetic in love, as well as the truth which the mind \par \par 1 1 8 PREP A RA TION FOR THE CHRIS TIA N MINIS TR), apprehends. As the minister has found his preparation to be so largely intellectual, he is in danger of giving to his ministry the same character. Scholarship and thought are valued as the most important elements in preaching. I should be the last man to depreciate the value of intellectual equipment for the Christian ministry, as with the advan}cement in education and the diffusion of literature, it is becoming ever more important. Yet it must not be too exclusively prominent. \par \par The emotions and the volitions of the Christian minister are essential elements in his spiritual power; he must feel intensely and exercise his will vigorously, as well as employ his mind variedly, if his whole personality is to tell in his work. The heart must be captured and the will conquered by Christ, as well as the mind convinced, if the influence for Chr~ist is to be all that it can and ought to be. There are men whom intense emotion can move more than conclusive argument, and there are men who submit to a dominant will who cannot follow a line of reasoning. And even those who respond to the appeal made to their intellect are receptive of the influence of the personality in its feeling and willing. The eloquence that commands men is never merely intellectual it is always personal, It is the man that makes the message live. \par \par (4) If this be so, and there can be little doubt or question that it is so, the Christian minister must cultivate his affections and his desires as carefully as his convictions according to the Christian pattern. The heart must be kept in the love of Christ, and the will be bent to the law of Christ, as the mind is learning the truth of Christ. The Christian minister, just because \par \par THE BIBLE IN ITS RELA TION TO THE KINGDOM 119 \par \par his outer life is so filled with interests and efforts that belong to the Church of Christ, must ever be on his guard against what is always a threatening danger, that his own inner life should become empty of the ideals and the aspirations of the kingdom of God. \par \par Official piety may become not the support but the obstacle to personal goodness and godliness. The Christian minister runs a greater risk than do any other men of studying the Scriptures and theology, of preparing prayers and sermons professionally, as necessary for the discharge of the duties of his office, and not as essential to his own personal experience, character, and influence as a Christian. When a man is engaged in the Christian ministry this danger is in some degree lessened by the intimate and valuable contact and communion he has with Christian men and women at seasons when their Christian faith means more to them than it usually does. The student for the ministry is, while at college, necessarily engaged in intellectual efforts and separated from these larger experiences of the pastorate, and for him there is greater peril of his engaging in his studies as a necessary professional preparation, having for him no personal significance and value as a Christian man. It does happen that a young man entering on his studies with fervent zeal, although he may not falter in his purpose, yet in the course of them loses some of his passionate enthusiasm, by allowing their intellectual interest to become too predominant, instead of finding in them, as I shall endeavour to show he may find, a means of grace whereby he shall grow in Christian manhood, and so become increasingly conformed to the image of Christ. \par \par \par 1 20 PREP A RA T1ON FOR THE CHRIS T1A N MINIS TR Y \par \par IV \par \par THE BIBLE MAKING WISE UNTO SALVATION \par \par (i) For the student of theology, preparing for the ministry of the Christian Church, if he is to escape this peril which his surroundings and employments involve, it is of primary importance, nay, absolute necessity, that he should nourish and foster his own inner life, which may be languishing and decaying, even while he is engaged in the study of those things which are fitted to minister to its health and strength. His efficiency as a Christian minister will depend, not primarily on these acquirements to which he is diligently applying his time and toil, but on the Christian experience he is gaining, the Christian character he is forming, the Christian influence these and these alone can give him. The failure of some gifted students to fulfil the promise they gave at college is in not a few cases to be traced to this cause. The personality was not so fully and thoroughly Christian as to give to their talents their full effect in the work of the Christian ministry. This is equally true of the more restricted function of the ministry to which attention is here confined, the missionary enterprise and social ser vice of the Church. The argument which in the previous pages has been developed cannot be merely intellectually apprehended, it must be personally appreciated and appropriated. It is in the measure in which the inner life is disciplined and developed that the Kingdom will be recognized and realized as by its very nature expansive as the mustard-seed and pervasive as the leaven; that the Church will be seen clearly and fully revealed in \par \par THE BIBLE IN ITS RE LA TION TO THE KINGDOM 121 \par \par its high and holy calling as the steward of this Kingdom, destined to universality and supremacy; and that the Ministry will present itself without any disguise to the convictions and the aspirations of him who is preparing for it, not as a profession or office, but as a vocation from God Himself to oversee the work of the Church by fullest consecration to its sacred functions. To teach and lead the church in these two enterprises, the minister must, in student days, prepare himself by the culture of his spiritual nature. \par \par (2) The means of this culture to which our thoughts must now be turned is the study of the Holy Scriptures. \par \par The purpose of the Bible is practical; its aim is to make him who reads it, understands it, and makes his own the truth it teaches, \ldblquote wise unto salvation through taith which is in Christ Jesus\rdblquote (2Ti_3:15). \par \par It is not science, or history, or theology, that it is concerned with, but God and the soul, man\rquote s sin and God\rquote s salvation. The chief end of revelation is redemption, as the late Dr. Bruce sought to prove in a book that was a pioneer at the time of publication. We do not then turn away from its main purpose when we study the Bible, that we may find Christ in it as the Saviour and the Lord; Christ Himself told His opponents that in the Scriptures they might find the testimony to Him through Whom alone they could attain the eternal life which they were seeking. The wisdom unto salvation the Bible imparts is the faith in Christ Jesus. There is a two-fold danger in the study of the Bible that the student for the ministry must guard against; this personal study for his own growth in the wisdom that is unto salvation must neither on the one hand be superseded by the literary, historical, \par \par \par \par T22 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par and theological study which belongs to his intellectual equipment for his vocation, nor on the other hand be separated from that study. Because he is reading portions of the Bible in the original tongues in the class or for examinations he must not suppose that he need not, as other Christians do, read the Bible for his own personal instruction and inspiration. The knowledge of the class and for the -examination is different in kind and aim from the experimental know ledge each Christian needs. The other error is, how ever, to be equally avoided, that in this experimental method of study the student may ignore or neglect the methods he has been taught in these other studies. \par \par If he has learned that the allegorical method of interpretation is not correct, and does not yield the true meaning of Scripture, it will not be for his profit to indulge in it when he reads the Bible for himself for its devotional uses. \par \par (3) This double peril must be looked at a little more closely; and we must ask ourselves how it is to be avoided. The literary, historical, and theological interest of the study of the Bible is in itself so great that it may be enthusiastically pursued, while its constant personal reference may be ignored and neglected. A man may be engaged with the Bible as a grammarian, critic, theologian; and it may fail to speak to him, as a sinner, of the Saviour. Even the student for the minis try may be so absorbed in those secondary interests as to lose sight for a time of this primary purpose. As he is studying the Bible, he may deceive himself that he is doing all he needs to do for his own inner life. This peril can be avoided only by a strong, steadfast intention in all study of the Bible, without neglect of these \par \par THE BIBLE IN ITS RELA TION TO THE KINGDOM 1 23 \par \par secondary interests, to keep in the forefront this primary purpose; and as the end of the Bible is to minister to the spiritual life, by this course of action, no violence will be done to any of the legitimate methods of studying the Bible. In addition to this, it seems desirable that the student should read some portion of the Bible solely for his own spiritual nurture, not to investigate any literary, historical, theological problems. As his mind must not be as a house divided against itself, he cannot read ignoring the results of modern scholarship, as does the man who is ignorant of these things. He will read for edification with the guidance that this new knowledge, as far as he has it, can give to him. It is not necessary for his profit that he should divest him self of the intellectual equipment he has gained; for Christ as Saviour and Lord is in the Bible even as the Higher Criticism investigates its problems. It is possible to be both critical and evangelical; to be free of all prejudice in favour of traditional views, and yet full of assurance regarding the eternal verities of the Christian faith. Yet in this devotional reading there should be a different emphasis; it is not the intellectual interest that should here be pursued, it is the spiritual aspirations for which satisfaction should be sought. \par \par (4) To apply these general considerations to our special purpose. A literary, historical, and theological study of the Bible will yield a massive and impressive argument for the universality and the supremacy of the Kingdom of God. In the teaching of the prophets and the apostles as well as of Christ Himself there are evidences of a wider spiritual horizon than one nation, of a confident expectation of a world-wide spread of the \par \par 1 24 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR Y \par \par knowledge of God. The history of the Jewish and the Christian Church alike is the condemnation of any attempt to restrict the purpose of God. The provisions of the law, the denunciations and the counsels of the prophets, the moral ideal of Christ, the moral precepts and practices of the Apostolic Church, all prove that religion is intended to influence the whole life of man, and therefore society as well as individuals. And the student for the ministry, who desires to be \ldblquote furnished completely unto every good work,\rdblquote will not neglect to inform himself as thoroughly as he can regarding the teaching of the Bible on these questions, in order that when he begins to teach others, he may be able to present \ldblquote the whole counsel of God.\rdblquote But he wants, as fitted for the Christian ministry by his larger, richer, stronger Christian manhood, more than this intellectual apprehension of the duty of foreign missions and social service; he wants a more personal appreciation and appropriation; he wants a personal enthusiasm for, and energy in, these great causes. For that he must go to the very centre of the Christian revelation. For while all that the Bible has to teach on these matters should be recognized as imposing a personal obligation on him, that obligation will be vitally and vigorously realized only as the love of Christ constraineth. To play his part worthily as a leader in the Church in these enterprises, he must himself be glowing with zeal, and steadfast in devotion, for the universality and supremacy of the Kingdom of God; and the Scripture argument, cogent and extensive as it is, will have its full convincing power only as the infinite worth and the eternal significance of Christ is experimentally, personally realized. \par \par \par V THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE FOR MUTUAL EDIFICATION \par \par (i) Regarding the method of this devotional study of the Bible, some remarks which may, it is hoped, prove helpful are here added. The student of the ministry will not neglect the reading of the Bible by himself both regularly and systematically; that should belong to the culture of the devout life, even as does prayer at the beginning and the close of each day. But for the ends in view it seems desirable that a good deal more than this should be done. As in his intellectual development the student is stimulated by his intercourse with his fellows, so should he be in the culture of his spiritual nature. This may be offered as the first reason for what may be called the corporate, as distinguished from the private, devotional study of the Bible in the theological college. All the members of this community are not equally endowed with moral insight, spiritual discernment, religious fervour, and they may supply these several deficiencies by imparting to one another in Christian fellowship their individual excellences. There are distinct types of character and experience, and while isolation aggravates the difference into a disproportionate peculiarity, intercourse, without suppressing variety, promotes more harmonious and symmetrical moral and spiritual development. There can be no doubt that in the theological college many students pass through a painful and perilous transition from a faith not adequately informed to a faith in harmony with intelligence; and the change often appears for \par \par 126 PRRPARA TYaV FOR THE CHRISTIAN MTNISTR Y \par \par a time as if it were a loss of faith altogether. The more mature students, who have passed through this phase of their development, can be very helpful to those who are just entering on it, or passing through it. It can be confidently said that a student who has fought his doubts and won his beliefs cannot desire a larger opportunity for the exercise of his Christian influence than is afforded him by Christian fellowship with less mature fellow-students in this devotional study of the Scriptures. \par \par (2) There are dangers in the ambitions and rivalries of the class and the examination, which can beprevented most effectively by this Christian fellowship. \par \par In the ordinary work of the college the pre-eminence is given to intellectual ability, and while that, be it said to the credit of students as I have known them, generally evokes a generous admiration on the part of their less gifted fellow-students, yet where the mental power is more prominent than brotherly affection and helpful service towards others, it is sometimes aprovocation of feelings of envy and even resentment. \par \par The conceit that sometimes accompanies cleverness does harm to the common life of a college which can be undone only by the gracious spirit, stimulated by a united culture of the inner life. For the ordinary work of the college, again, the good man who is not also clever, does not get his full opportunity of contributing the invaluable element to its common life that it is his to give. To sanctity as well as ability there should be in the theological college an open door for service of the brotherhood. Meetings for the devotional study of the Bible allow the spiritual man to exercise to the full his legitimate and desirable influence. The predomi\par \par THE BIBLE IN ITS RELA TION TO THE KINGDOM 127 \par \par nance of the intellectual interest in the study of the Bible has already been indicated as a danger in theo logical education. The devotional use of the Bible, not by the students individually, but even still more corporately, is necessary, if their intercourse with one another is to stimulate not a one-sided mental, but an all-round personal, development in Christian truth and grace. The association of so many young, fresh minds and hearts with one another, if it is to yield the utmost possible benefit to all, must not be left on the lower levels of life, but must be raised to the highest possible, so that the consecration of a tender, helpful, holy Christian fellowship may rest on all the other interests and pursuits which make the common life of the college so influential for the personal development of all who within it are brought into mutual contact. \par \par (3) But a wider consideration may be offered as a third reason for a corporate study of the Bible devotionally in the theological college; these colleges should cherish the worthy aspiration to be to the other colleges what the minister aims at being to the members of his church, a teacher and a leader in spiritual things. \par \par The studies in these colleges so absorb interest and effort that there is a very great danger of the neglect of all higher concerns. Some of these studies are even of such a kind as to make doubt easy and faith difficult. \par \par There is no necessary antagonism between science and religion, and yet the habit of mind that results from an exclusively scientific discipline of the intellect is not favourable to an apprehension and appreciation of the spiritual realities that are the objects of the Christian faith. The movement, which has rapidly spread throughout the civilized world, to unite for Christian \par \par 1 28 PREP A RA TION FOR THE CHRfS TTA N MINTS TR I \par \par fellowship the students in colleges and universities, is one the significance of which cannot be expressed, nor the value estimated. The effort to stimulate and sustain the study of the Bible by those who are engaged in literary, historical, philosophical, scientific, technical studies, which are ever tending to claim too exclusive an attention, is one that should have the most cordial sympathy and most strenuous support of those who profess that they so prize the Bible as to desire to devote their lives to its interpretation and application to the needs and the dangers of their age. It is most desirable, therefore, that the theological colleges should take their proper place and play their fit part in this movement to win and hold for Christ and His Church those who in future days are likely to exercise the strongest influence on the culture and progress of mankind. If those who can give most time and toil to the intellectual study of the Bible, by neglect depreciate its devotional use, how shall that use be effectively commended to those whose intellectual pursuits tend to lead them away from the Bible? How potent their influence if, on the contrary, they should ever clearly show that they use and prize the Bible as a channel of divine truth and grace. \par \par (4) It is becoming more and more evident that in the colleges and universities of the world are being taught and trained the coming teachers and leaders of man kind. There are many intellectual perplexities and practical difficulties which only well-disciplined and fully developed minds can deal with. In the solution of the greatest and deepest problems of mankind moral insight and spiritual discernment are indispensable. \par \par As the Christian man believes that it is in the Kingdom \par \par THE BIBLE IN ITS RELA TION TO THE KINGDOM 129 \par \par of God, extending throughout and transforming the world, that the problem of the ages can be finally solved, he must intensely desire and strenuously strive that these future guides of the course of human history may be inspired with the wisdom and righteousness they need by the Spirit of God in the truth and grace of Jesus Christ. To those amongthese coming teachers and leaders who have dedicated themselves to the Christian ministry, there is in their years of preparation given a double opportunity not only to fit themselves by their own spiritual as well as intellectual development for the most effective fulfilment of their influential vocation, but to carry on the culture of their own inner life in such a way as to encourage and help those who are preparing for other vocations so to develop them selves morally and spiritually that they too, in carrying on their calling, shall be servants of the Kingdom in its universality as destined for all mankind, and supremacy as potent to transform the whole manhood of each man. Thus alone can the missionary and social enterprise of the churches of Christ flourish, and not languish; for thus alone can the Kingdom expand as the mustard-seed, and influence as the leaven; thus alone can the Church of Christ prove itself faithful in, and worthy of, its stewardship of the Kingdom; thus alone can the ministry fulfil its high and holy vocation of oversight by teaching and leadership in the Church of Christ. Will you, my younger brethren, suffer this word of exhortation from an older brother in this sacred vocation? Study the Scriptures, \ldblquote which are able to make you wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus; that as men of God ye may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. \par \par \par \par \par \pard\cf1\lang1034\expndtw-7\f2\fs23\par } \\<5Q05 - The Bible In Relation Kingdom God{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}{\s2 heading 2;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\lang1033\kerning32\b\f0\fs32 V. THE BIBLE IN ITS RELATION TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD \par \pard\keepn\s2\sb240\NE PREPARATION OF THE PREACHER \par \pard\keepn\s2\sb240\sa60\kerning0\i\fs28 THE REV. \\V. P. PATERSON, D.D. \par \pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\kerning32\i0\f1\fs24 I \par \pard\nowidctlpar\kerning0\b0\par THE PREACHER\rquote S OPPORTUNITY \par \par WHEN the preacher considers his office, he has all reason to rejoice with trembling. Eor preaching is subject to the law corrnptio optimi pcssima. \par \par There have been times when it has exemplified the irresistible force which human speech can exert, and other times when it has touched the lowest depths of futility to which human speech can descend. \par \par There have been at least four periods in which preaching has been an extraordinary power. The conversion of the ancient world to the Christian faith was due in large measure to the labours of the fervid preachers who bore the name of prophets. In the Middle Ages there were preachers who could persuade nations to abandon their heathenism, rouse Christendom to undertake an enterprise like the Crusades, and awaken the indifferent multitude by the breath of religious and moral revival. The Reformation was the result of preaching. It was the principal instrument by which the Reformers coped with the power of \par \par i 3 4 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par the Roman Church, and it proved strong enough to throw off the yoke of a spiritual despotism, to alter the ancestral faith and to modify the national character of great peoples, and to let loose in the world a new set of noble enthusiasms. And, finally, the Wesleyan movement may be cited as an illustration of the power of preaching to stir a nation\rquote s heart to its depths, and to rejuvenate its religious and moral life. Measured by achievements such as these, the nineteenth century would at most be described as a silver age. It has indeed left us not a few monuments of the power of the pulpit. During the first half of the bygone century the evangelical pulpit was a potent factor which, in Germany as well as in Britain, worked successfully for definite conversions, fostered a strenuous type of Christian character, and sustained a school of piety which made a rich contribution to the philanthropic energies of the age. During the latter half it had vitality enough to create the Salvation Army and the Keswick School. \par \par In England the High Church pulpit became in time more widely influential, and engendered a spirit of worship and a passion for service for which all must hold the Church of England in reverence. It has also to be remembered that the Foreign Mission movement that Christian undertaking which goes farthest to redeem from commonplaceness the religious history of the century owed its marvellous expansion in the main to the instruction and the persuasion which emanated from a sympathetic pulpit. On the other hand, there were evidences of weakness which forbid us to rank the century with the golden ages. The pulpit, as such, did not enjoy great prestige, nor was it commonly regarded as producing results at all commensurate with \par \par THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE PREACHER 135 \par \par the volume of its, weekly utterances. Not a little preaching was regarded as a penance, and as just endurable; much was liked or admired and forthwith forgotten; some part did genuine work in comforting the sorrowing, in awakening the irreligious, and in guiding the energies of Christian people into spheres of Christlike service. Where it somewhat seriously failed was in the work of making Christian ideals operative, or even familiar in the realm of business, while it must also be said to have failed so to reach the national mind and conscience as appreciably to influence the course of public events. \par \par When we turn from the recent past to the present, and to the nearing future, we naturally ask what are the prospects of the pulpit? Is the silver age to continue, and if not, is a golden or a leaden age to follow? \par \par I shall begin by discussing certain conditions of our time which might be adduced as favouring the pessimistic alternative. \par \par \par (i) To begin with, there is some reason for believing that with the extension of the habit of reading the taste for public speaking of every kind, including preaching, will continue to diminish. When we have accustomed ourselves to collect most of our information, and to form most of our impressions through the eye, there often ensues a disinclination to acquire, and even a disability to profit by, the hearing of the ear. But while it is probable that there are many scholars who do not really enjoy a spoken discourse, it is still more probable that the average man or woman, whose life is largely spent in observing and listening, will continue \par \par T 36 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINIS TR V \par \par to feel a peculiar pleasure in the instruction which is conveyed by the medium of the living voice. In other obvious ways the growth of reading seems to threaten the position of the speaker. On the one hand it would seem that the accomplishment of reading is largely used for the consumption of the lightest, the brightest, or the most exciting of literature, with the result that the mind suffers from a kind of debauchery, and be comes incapable even of giving its attention to any thing more grave and substantial. And one can quite well understand that the effect of the reading referred to is that our essayists and historians are little read, and that novelists like Scott and Thackeray are found to be tedious. But I doubt if the religious message of the preacher will be equally exposed to neglect. It comes too closely home to man in his deepest interests to be readily ignored; and it may well be expected to be the more impressive by reason of its contrast with the slightness and frivolity of the intellectual interests of average minds. Or again, if a more sanguine view be taken of the outcome of universal education, we may discover a serious menace in the fact that, owing to the multiplication of a good and cheap literature, almost any subject will be found better treated in easily accessible books than in any spoken address. It is, however, just possible that the production and reproduction of masses of good literature will create such a sense of bewilderment in the ordinary mind that there will be an unexpected future in store for the lecturer who can give effective guidance through the labyrinths, and reflect upon what he conveys to others the charm of a personality which bears the mark of his special type of culture. And most particularly does this hold of the \par \par THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE PREACHER 137 \par \par preacher. It is one of the paradoxes of human nature that men are really interested in religion, but will hardly read religious books: and consequently we may believe that no speaker is surer of a hearing in the future than the man who has assimilated the best that has been thought and said on religion, and who can utter himself with clearness and power. \par \par (2) In the next place it might seem that the pulpit will continue to suffer from the fact that its message \par O \par \par lacks the interest of novelty. In the epochs of power that have been referred to the preachers were pioneers. \par \par In the Apostolic age the evangelist was a man readily listened to as the bearer of a recent accredited message from God. At the Reformation the preacher, though not professing to declare new truths, made the light again to shine which for centuries had been hidden under a bushel. In the brilliant century which we have left behind us the charm of novelty passed to others. \par \par Men of science became prophets with fresh announcements as to the ways of the Creator in the making of the world and the origins of human history; political thinkers saw visions and dreamed dreams of perfected societies; while the pulpit seemed to go on repeating doctrines that had been stereotyped for centuries, and which had been so often heard that to the hearers the words had lost their original soul of meaning. And it must be granted that, while there has been novelty enough during the last hundred years in theology, this has not been greatly reproduced in the pulpit, and has affected the pulpit chiefly by making its teaching more vague instead of more instructive. At the same time it might with force be replied that truth is not bound to be novel \par \par 138 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR Y \par \par \ldblquote As if religion were intended For nothing else but to be mended. \par \par And it may also be pointed out that, as every generation begins afresh with its inheritance of sinful tendency and spiritual blindness, there is novelty enough for it in the Christian Gospel concerning God and man, and the salvation which is in Christ. It may indeed be taken as extremely probable that, owing to a law of fashion which operates even in the highest realms of experience, the excitement caused by the discoveries of science will abate, the fever of political life will subside, and the general mind will again confess that there is nothing of so abiding importance as God and salvation and destiny, and that the essence of a faith which is twenty centuries old is still the freshest thing in the world. I say the essence of the old Gospel, because history seems to show that while Christianity has once and again convulsed and captured the world, it has never been by a slavish reproduction of the message that had worked with the same power in any earlier period. Apostolic Christianity contains, of course, permanent truth; and the principles of Protestantism are deeply imbedded in the Christian revelation; but it is a tolerably safe prediction that in the next classic period of the Church\rquote s history there will be as distinctive an individuality, in respect both of doctrinal message and of ethical and social ideals, as we associate with the age of the Reformation. \par \par B \par \par From criticism and reply let us now turn to consider some of the considerations which favour the optimistic view of the future of the pulpit. And in the \par \par THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE PREACHER 139 \par \par first place I would affirm, paradoxical as it sounds, that there is something promising in the fact that the Church is face to face with so much hostility and indifference. It is a faithful saying that man\rquote s extremity is God\rquote s opportunity, and in the measure in which the forces antagonistic to Christianity increase in volume and strength, we may expect to see a counter-rally of Christian faith and spiritual power. \par \par It is a historical fact that the great ages of preaching have been those in which the Church has had a battle to fight against heavy odds; and the heavier the odds the more courageously and effectively did she wield the weapons of the Spirit. And in the circumstances of our time, perplexing and depressing as they are, we simply discover a new combination of the same hostile forces which in earlier periods marshalled themselves against Christianity, and in challenging it contributed to prove its invincibility. Let us look at this in a little more detail. \par \par (i) At the present day the Church is confronted by a widespread apostasy from the Christian faith. Even when we have consented, as Christian charity dictates, to comprehend under the Christian name all who claim the title, there remains a large and increasing body which repudiates the most fundamental ideas of the Christian religion. Among men of culture the reasons are mainly intellectual, and have their roots partly in a superficial philosophy, partly in a misunderstanding of Christianity. Equally serious is an anti-Christian movement which is largely the outcome of the antagonism of classes and masses. Very decidedly on the Continent, and of late in our own country as well, the attempt has been made to persuade the working\par \par T40 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR V \par \par classes that Christianity is hostile to their interests. \par \par It is valued by their oppressors, they arc told, because it inculcates a servile morality, and persuades them by delusive promises to be patient and submissive when they ought to be up and claiming their rights. It is, therefore, quite possible, in view of the attitude of many of the leaders of labour, and also of the gregariousness of the multitude, that we may come to witness a mass-movement of a radically infidel kind. \par \par I do not, indeed, believe that any civilized people, as such, will break with the Christian faith the Christian conception of God is at once too convincing and comforting to lose its hold, while Christ having once been made known to the nations cannot cease to be loved, but even on the worst supposition, the situation will not be so dark and difficult as one through which the Church has already victoriously passed. In the Roman Empire it suffered the extremity of hostility. \par \par The multitude shouted for the blood of the despisers of their gods; thinkers as acute as any modern sceptics sought to overwhelm the new faith with argument and ridicule; while the State tried to stamp it out in the interests of social order; and yet within three centuries it compelled recognition as the religion of an empire which was nearly co-extensive with civilization. In the light of this it may well be expected that, in the measure in which the new apostasy may develop, the challenge will evoke a new revelation of the vitality of Christian faith as an offensive and a defensive force. \par \par (2) Alongside of the conscious breach with the Christian view of the world there exists an enormous volume of religious indifference. There is a non-religious stag nation which is a much larger, and represents a more \par \par THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE PREACHER 141 \par \par formidable fact, than anti-religious aggression. This spirit of indifference permeates all classes of society as the result mainly of the increase and diffusion of wealth but it is specially associated with the vast wageearning populations which, as the result of the industrial revolution, have accumulated in the great commercial and industrial centres. The rapid growth and the geographical displacement of these masses of people involved a change of environment, and also an emancipation from ancestral traditions and habits, with which the Church found it difficult to cope effectively; and so in the heart of Christendom there have come to exist large masses to whom religion means nothing, and another section which has practically relapsed into savagery without even the compensation of regaining the consolations of savage superstition. But here again history comes in to enforce the duty of optimism. It was in similar conditions, and working upon similar material, that the preachers of earlier periods found their inspiring opportunity, and recorded some of the most signal triumphs of their office. It was the ignorant and neglected multitude of the mediaeval towns whom preaching friars thrilled with their message from Christ by the mouth of such as Francis of Assisi; it was the undisciplined mobs of the eighteenth century who sup plied Wesley and his associates with the typical congregations that received from their lips the gospel of the grace of God. And is there less receptiveness in our modern city multitude such as in idle hours throngs the streets in aimless parade and gathers in its tens of thousands to the popular concert or the athletic spectacle? It is probably capable, if maddened by hunger or fear, of the most awful excesses, but in \par \par 142 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR Y \par \par normal conditions it is good-humoured, generous in its instincts, bent on fair play, quick to be interested, willing to be pleased. The modern multitude of course contains many Christian people of an average kind, and as a whole it is willing to be instructed in religion if it can be made interesting, and to throng in its gregarious fashion to hear any one who has touched its imagination and who can illuminate its mind or thrill its heart. With audiences such as that waiting eagerly for the speaker who can appoint them a trysting-place, and speak to them to the purpose when they assemble, it is probably true that there never was such an opportunity before for the preacher, and there is reason to hope that God will raise them up with an endowment both of faith and speech that will be adequate to the opportunity. \par \par C \par \par I have said that, even, if there should be a great increase of apostasy and indifference, there would be ground for hopefulness in the worsening of the conditions, since they would constitute a challenge of a kind which the God of history has never yet failed to take up through prophets whom He called and guided. \par \par It remains to glance at some positive considerations which improve the prospects of the future influence of Christian preaching. \par \par (i) In the first place it is to be expected that preaching will be more and more confined to men with a special endowment and a thoroughly efficient equipment. Owing to the division of labour, we have be come somewhat impatient of whatever is not first-rate after its kind; and I take it that there will be in\par \par THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE PREACHER 143 \par \par creasing insistence on the reasonable demand that those who preach shall have the qualification of preeminent piety and earnestness, or of pre-eminent teaching and persuasive power, or preferably a combination of both. On the other hand, the teaching ministry will doubtless increasingly become an uncomfortable sphere for intellectual and spiritual mediocrity. \par \par In the course of the extended application of the principle of the division of labour to the work of the Church a large proportion of those who now engage in preaching would be profitably confined to a large extent to visiting and to the organization of Christian enterprises. With a sifting process thus applied to the ranks of the preachers, arrangements would naturally be made to utilize their special powers by finding for them vaster congregations, and the greater expectancy with which their ministrations would be awaited would reap the promise made to them who hunger and thirst. \par (2) An augmentation of the power of the pulpit may also be expected from the increasing tendency of preaching to work towards palpable and practical ends. \par \par The task of the preacher, as of the orator in general, is to persuade; and according to the tradition of the Protestant pulpit, the object was somewhat exclusively conceived to be to persuade men to embrace Christ with a saving faith, and to follow after sanctification in dependence on the Holy Spirit. But while under a powerful ministry such preaching produced in many cases striking and far-reaching results, in others it merely produced a similitude of conversion and holiness, while in the hands of less gifted and saintly men the general evangelical message often produced no spiritual results at all. The type of ministry which makes a \par \par 1 44 PREP A RA TION FOR THE CHRIS TIA N MINIS TR Y \par \par definite call to service, which points out clearly some useful thing that can be done, commonly produces an astonishingly hearty response. Of this there is abundant evidence in the extraordinary generosity evoked by the appeals of the modern pulpit for the means to restore and build churches, in the ease with which committees are got for congregational schemes, and in a zealous development of Foreign Mission work, which might seem disproportionate to the living faith of our age. In particular the success of the Salvation Army, and the deep respect which it has evoked in the nation at large, is in no small measure due to the fact that it creates a type of Christianity which preserves and nurtures its converts in a strong organization and bodies itself forth in manifold forms of beneficent activity. And this practical bent, which the pulpit will certainly preserve, must make strongly for the increase of its power. In view of the conditions that have already been adverted to, there will be ample scope for the special gift of the evangelist and the apologist; but the main body of preachers will have as a dominant note the attractive call to tangible and practicable service by taking part in the work of the manifold agencies by which the Church, in a fuller imitation of the many-sided work of its Master, will seek to realize on earth the all-comprehensive Kingdom of God. \par (3) A further advantage of the preacher of the new age is that his personal convictions will count for more. The hearers will be more certain of his sincerity. \par \par In former times it was understood to be his duty to preach the orthodox doctrines of his Church, and his message was to some extent discounted, as we inevitably discount the obligatory and conventional deliverance; \par \par \par THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE PREACHER 145 \par \par but now that formulae are relaxing, and even rigid for mulae are understood to leave the preacher free to put in the forefront the message which has been made clear est in his own mind and experience, the preacher who is conspicuously honest as well as able probably receives a docile and trustful hearing beyond that given to his equals of an earlier day. On the other hand, just when there has taken place unsettlement as to the ultimate authority in religion when the infallibility of the Church has become unbelievable, and there is a growing conviction that the standard is not the Bible as such, but rather the Gospel which is collected from the Bible, men are recognizing with eagerness the authority of the message which, resting upon the recorded revelation of God in Christ, comes to them mediated through the mind of one who combines an interesting and a strong individuality with a hidden life in the Holy Ghost. \par \par II \par \par THE PREACHER\rquote S PREPARATION \par \par The tradition of the great Protestant churches, both Lutheran and Reformed, prescribes a liberal education as the foundation of the training of the preacher. And on a superficial view the curriculum which is provided in the Faculty of Arts, as it is termed in Scotland, seems to be very ill-fitted to promote the business in hand. It is not immediately obvious why an attempt should be made in the name of Christianity to imbue the Christian student with the spirit of a pagan civilization and literature, to carry him through \par L \par \par \par 1 46 PR EPA RA TION FOR THE CHRIS TIAN MINISTR Y \par \par philosophical disciplines in which he is introduced to great thinkers who have taught doctrines subversive of all religion, and to make him acquainted with sciences in which some of the most venerated names are associated with a violent agnostic propaganda. There are, how ever, good grounds for this arrangement. In the first place a liberal education has the effect of developing a mental elasticity, and of forming acquisitive intellectual habits, for which we look in vain under any merely technical training. We may also say that as the recognized departments of an Arts curriculum classical literature, philosophy, arid science represent successive stages in the history of the race, it is desirable that they should be, to some extent, recapitulated in the culture of the man who is to make a real impression on the heirs of all the ages. Moreover the history of preaching gives support to the traditional estimate of the value of a broad basis of humanistic culture. Chrysostom and Augustine devoted many years to classical literature and philosophy before they were called to the Christian pulpit; many of the Reformers followed in their footsteps; and the best eloquence of the Anglican pulpit has owed much to a profound classical training which not only purified the literary taste, but furnished the mind with noble and elevating thoughts. \par \par Instead of disparaging secular learning, the Church of the future will rather encourage preachers to become, not merely religious teachers, but also specialists in some selected department of secular knowledge. They will, as heretofore, be expected to know a little about everything which has engaged the interest of the human mind, but they may also be expected to have expert \par \par THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE PREACHER 147 \par \par knowledge in one or other of the fields which verge upon the province of religion. The principal group would be the philosophical, the scientific, the sociological or politico-economic, and the literary. The stock of knowledge common to all students may be diminished in quantity, but this would be in line with the aspirations of many of our best educationists who desire less superficies and more depth in the studies of the Arts curriculum. The advantage to the preacher of having expert knowledge in one or other of the departments mentioned is twofold. There are tales of country ministers who filled empty churches by meeting their parishioners and beating them at their rustic sports, and the work of some ministers in philosophy and science has been seen to inspire a similar reverence. \par \par It is a more respectable and weighty consideration that men are needed who can deal, in the light of adequate first-hand information, with the contradictions of the faith which come from the side of philosophy or science; and also men who are able to give a reasoned judgment upon the relations between economic and social science on the one hand, and Christian ideals on the other. \par \par But while the Church may be expected to raise, rather than to lower, its standard of general ministerial culture, it will probably be wise enough to recognize that there is room, and also ample need, for preachers with a different equipment and preparation. The primitive Church owed an almost equal debt to Paul, the theologian, and to the Galilean fishermen; but the successors of the fishermen have not been too eagerly looked for, or too wisely utilized. It may well be that one of the great religious forces of the future will \par \par 1 4 8 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINIS TR Y \par \par be the unlettered preacher who, out of the depths of a rich Christian experience, speaks with elemental power and fire, and whose life is visibly cast in the mould of a self-impoverishing devotion and love. For the training of such exceptional instruments God may be trusted to make, in His providence, the needed exceptional \par provision. \par \par Passing to the consideration of the Divinity curriculum, we find that its adequacy as a preparation for the preaching office is seriously questioned from different points of view. In properly equipped seminaries it is spread over three or four years, and the attempt is made to give a grounding in the four main divisions of Theology viz. Biblical Science, Ecclesiastical History, Systematic Theology, and Practical Theology. According to one set of critics the results of these studies are not of sufficient value to the preacher in his life-work to justify the expenditure on them of so much time and labour. Another set declare that the period is all too short on the scientific side, and that there are many theological disciplines of recent origin which receive insufficient attention, even if they are not completely crowded out by the subjects anciently in possession. \par \par There is probably a truth underlying both views, which may be expressed by saying that the course of general theological study is too long, and that the course of specialized study is too short. The tradition of the Scottish Presbyterian Church, and of others which work on similar lines, is certainly right in insisting that all students shall acquire a general know ledge of the three great divisions of theology, and that they shall journey in company up to a certain point of \par \par THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE PREACHER 149 \par \par attainment. The mistake that is made is that they continue to travel together to the close of a hard and fast curriculum. At the end of the second year of study at the latest, classification should take place, and there should follow a differentiation of studies, dictated by ability and taste, which would extend over at least two additional years. The obvious division is into intending scholars and preachers. At this point the scholars would select the department in which they intended to specialize, and would be encouraged and enabled, after completing their studies in their own college, to continue them up to the level of mastership in other schools of sacred learning at home or abroad. \par \par As to the provision for scholars, indeed, there is no great room for complaint, in view of the existence of scholarships or fellowships in connection with the larger colleges, and the effective use that is made of them. Those, on the other hand, who intend the ordinary ministry ought at this stage to be relieved of merely linguistic and critical work, and during the next two years should concentrate their attention to a large extent upon Practical Theology, and especially on the business of collecting material for their preaching, and learning how to handle it. It seems also reasonable that the man who at this stage discovers unusual powers of speech should be encouraged and enabled, as much as the pure scholar, to devote an additional year or years to the cultivation of his powers by making a more profound acquaintance with his art, not only by study of the great preachers of the past, but also by sitting at the feet of living masters. \par \par The Church of Rome, it is understood, thinks that the training can hardly be protracted or thorough \par \par 1 50 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINIS TR Y \par \par enough, when it discovers gifted men of the sort that are required for the higher departments of the Church\rquote s work. \par \par Fastening our attention now on those intending the ordinary ministry, I would first speak of the duty of preparing for preaching by the collection of the appropriate material. The student who has resolved to become a preacher cannot too soon adopt a good system of collecting and arranging material which will strengthen, illuminate, or beautify his message. When he reflects that during a normal ministry he will have to deliver sermons and addresses running, it may be, into thousands, he has good reason to set about making a provision which will insure him against intellectual bankruptcy, with the accompanying humiliation and self-distrust. Any one who hears or studies the sermons of many preachers must be struck with the fact that there is little evidence in them that the preachers hand on anything (except the spirit of culture) which they acquired in their liberal studies at the University, and not very much more evidence that they profited by class lectures in Divinity. Nothing, indeed, is more undesirable than a parade of college learning, but many a minister has reason to wish that he had kept his eye on the requirements of the pulpit from the beginning of his college course, and formed the habit of embodying in some useful system of common place books whatever fact or thought or suggested reflection had impressed him as in any way suited to the purposes of the pulpit. Some professors of divinity suppose, and with a show of reason, that their former students would preach to greater edification if they condescended to believe that a good deal of the subject\par \par THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE PREACHER 151 \par \par matter of their lectures is capable of being adapted to homiletical use. \par \par In specializing for the preaching office, the student has to seek to possess himself of a body knowledge concerning two great themes the revelation of God in Christ, and the needs and capacities of man. For both the primary source is the Bible, and we shall first briefly consider its importance for each of these heads of spiritual knowledge. \par \par For the knowledge of God, of Whom and for Whom the preacher has to speak, the unique manual is of course the Scriptures. No doubt there is a self-revelation of God which covers a vastly larger field than the section of history which is mirrored in the Scriptures, but it would not be easy to show that any addition has been made to the Biblical doctrine of God, except that the modern view of the universe has given a more impressive meaning to His attributes of infinitude. Nor is it at all certain that we should have known much about God apart from the record of His historical acts which is preserved in the Bible. It was only in the revelation which culminated in the God-man, and in the accompanying interpretation of the facts by prophets and apostles, that the face of the living God became clearly visible through the clouds, that His love became believable, and that His purpose was disclosed in the matter of the salvation of individual men and the guidance of human history to the goal of the Kingdom of God. For the knowledge of human nature in its most vital aspects, the Scriptures are also our capital source. They do not indeed anticipate a scientific psychology, but they analyze the spiritual condition of man with penetrating insight; and while with remorseless \par \par 1 52 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINIS TR Y \par \par fidelity they expose the weakness and degradation to which man is subject as the servant of sin, they proclaim with no less convincing assurance the splendid dignity which appertains to him as bearing the image of God. For these and other reasons the study of the contents of the Bible cannot be too thorough and sustained. \par \par One form of studying it which has signal advantages is to read it in daily portions from cover to cover without extraneous aids leaving it to make its own impression on the mind and heart, and treasuring the responses which it evokes as a precious kind of private wealth. \par \par The second form of study is to master the best of the books which have gathered up the results of biblical science. These fall into two groups, distinguished as Biblical History proper and Biblical Theology. The former group includes the History of Israel, the Life of Christ, and the History of the Apostolic Age. Most of this material is of the utmost value, since the events recorded were in a peculiar sense \ldblquote full of God,\rdblquote while it possesses the movement and colour which are so necessary to render instruction interesting to the popular mind. Of at least equal importance is the mastery of the greater treatises on Biblical Theology the comparatively modern science which has under taken to expound, without doctrinal bias, the religious and ethical teaching which is found in the successive strata of the O.T. literature, and which in the N.T. expands into a variety of types of Christian doctrine. It is now 7 somewhat generally held that it is Biblical Theology, rather than confessional and polemical Divinity, which should serve the preacher as his storehouse of religious ideas, and as his model of literary expression. The reasons are that \par \par THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE PREACHER 153 \par \par in Biblical Theology doctrine is discovered in closer union with religion than is the case in Dogmatic Theology, and also that in Biblical Theology religious and moral truths are conceived under more popular forms, and expressed in literary rather than in scientific language. At the same time the claim of Biblical Theology to form the staple, or at least the basis, of the ordinary sermon is by no means universally recognized. \par \par Many an inferior preacher who thinks himself obliged to search in a somewhat empty mind for an original idea for a discourse ought to remember that much of our best preaching is expository, and that with the addition of some imagination and application many a chapter of a manual of Biblical Theology could be developed into a luminous and powerful sermon. \par \par We may now briefly consider subsidiary sources of our knowledge of God and man and first of God, and the ways of God in His dealings with men. \par \par (i) History continues to be a vehicle of divine self revelation. The old Protestant pulpit, at least as represented in Scotland, proceeded on the belief that the history of the nations and of the Church is a divine Scripture which can be so interpreted as to reveal the attributes and to disclose the purposes of God. Every important national event had its divine meaning, whether as a judgment upon wickedness, or as a signal exhibition of divine grace, which it was the duty of the preacher to interpret to the congregation. The claim to enter thus particularly into the counsels of the Ruler of history has now been generally abandoned by the pulpit, and there are few who would venture to say that God executes judgments of a kind where there is no causal connection between the sin and its consequences. \par \par \par 1 54 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINIS TR Y \par \par At the same time it can only be in ignorance that it is affirmed that history throws no light upon the character and the operations of God. When we study the matter on the large scale, nothing is so certain as that God maketh righteousness to exalt a nation, and that in moral corruption and religious backsliding there lie the seeds of weakness, deterioration, and destruction. \par \par In particular if one will study with something of prophetic insight the history of the Christian Church, he will discover therein certain notable principles of the actings of God which are profitable in part for our warning, in part for our encouragement and consolation. \par \par The line of historical reading which is of the greatest utility in this connection, and that in respect of the inner life of the preacher as well as of his public work, is the study of the biographies of notable and saintly men and women. Such biographies, in so far as they enable us to see into the inner life of the saints, greatly increase our knowledge of God by revealing Him as a practical force in human experience. They also supply the best material at the disposal of the preacher for the illustration of the graces of the Christian character, and the enforcement of the duties of the Christian life. It is a sound rule that a minister should always have in hand the reading of some biography that will humble and inspire him. \par \par What a man can learn of God in the events and experiences of his own life is a further aspect of the subject, the importance of which is vast, but which the reader may best be left to develop in self examination. \par \par (2) The preacher\rquote s knowledge of human nature \par \par THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE PREACHER 155 \par \par should be augmented from many sources and first from masterpieces of literature. The task undertaken by the greatest dramatists and novelists is mainly an extension of the work done in the Bible in explaining man to himself. Here, as there, man is displayed in his greatness and his littleness, the governing maxims of human conduct are analyzed, the play of the passions is investigated, and the strange variety of characters resulting from the diverse blending of the elements of good and evil is reproduced in life-like portraiture. It may also be observed that many of the greatest books in literature are directly concerned with subjects which enter deeply into the Christian faith. The quest of the chief good, human depravity, heredity, repentance, conversion, the forgiveness of injuries, are among the topics with which it is easy to link the name of some immortal drama or novel; and while this fact reminds the preacher of the deep and perennial interest which attaches to his larger themes, it also emphasizes the importance of a line of study which will enrich his knowledge of the nature of man with the results of the intuitions of genius. \par \par Did space permit, much could also be said of the value of the study of history in this connection, for history is a revelation, not only of God, but also of human nature in its broadest and most constant features. It has not only the secondary use to the preacher of supplying infinite variety of illustration, but also the more important function of laying bare the motives by which masses of men are habitually swayed, and of informing us of the causes and watch words which can call forth their latent capacity of enthusiasm and self-sacrifice. It may be sufficient to \par \par i 5 6 PREP A RA TION FOR THE CHRIS 77 A N MINIS TR Y \par \par add that, at a time when the pulpit is increasingly occupied with the social aspects of Christianity, it is the duty of the preacher to acquaint himself fully with what history has to say as to the past experience of mankind in grappling with social problems. \par \par It is also desirable to have an extensive knowledge of human nature gained at first hand through intimate intercourse with our fellow-men. The complaint is sometimes heard that ministers have no knowledge of the world a complaint to which little importance need be attached when it means, as it often does, that in their teaching they ought to be more compromising towards the very defective moral code which the world finds to be practicable. It does, however, seem to be true that there is a large body of ministers whose ideas of the world of men in which they live are very remote from the reality. The sons of ministers, and also many of those who proceed directly through school and college to the pulpit, often fail to realize that the community is anything more than an aggregate of congregations, and that church-going, even with a piece of congregational work thrown in, does not bulk very largely for ordinary people in the perspective of the week. It is undoubtedly in this regard an enormous advantage to have been engaged in some secular occupation before undergoing the preparation for the ministry, and it may, I think, also be observed that those ministers who have served for a time in the colonial field usually understand the layman\rquote s mind and ideals better than the home-staying preacher. How ever this may be, one of the special opportunities of college life is that it makes it comparatively easy to form the habit of getting into intimate relations with \par \par THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE PREACHER 157 \par \par other men, of seeing into their perplexities, of under standing their temptations, and of rendering sympathetic service. Nor would it be easy to exaggerate the value of getting into touch, during the formative and impressionable period of early manhood, with the working classes and with the poor, for which ample opportunity can commonly be found in connection with a University Mission or Settlement. It is the privilege of the ministry to be outside of class distinctions, but practically we come in later life to look at things very much through middle-class eyes, and to be dominated by middle-class maxims; and it is therefore of paramount importance that those who have been brought up in a higher social stratum than this should make a deliberate and sustained attempt to understand the point of view of the working man, and the specific difference of the operations of his mind and of his conscience. Visiting and conversation, where the visitor has the rare gift that is required, throw much light on the matter. But one could wish that there were intending preachers who thought it as material as that scholars should undertake post-graduate study, that they should devote a couple of years to the study of the class which constitutes the great body of our population, and that by sharing in their conditions of life, joining in some humble form of work, and associating with them in their corporate life. We properly cite Paul as an argument for a learned ministry, but we have still something to learn from Paul the tent-maker. \par \par Specialization for the ministry of preaching further implies that far more attention should be given than has hitherto been customary to the study of the speaker\rquote s art. It is a curious circumstance that while oratory \par \par 158 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par is perhaps the most difficult of the arts, it is also the one which it is hardly attempted seriously to teach, except as regards the externals of elocution. This is, no doubt, largely due to the fact that it is held, with the sanction of many high authorities, that a man who is thoroughly in earnest has nothing to gain, and may lose much in persuasiveness, by any evidence of the employment of art. But what actually happens is that every speaker, whether earnest or not, comes to frame empirically a system of rhetoric of his own which includes a conception of the aim of preaching, the topics to be handled, and the means of persuasion; and this home-made system of rhetoric is often a very crude and imperfect one which would be greatly improved by comparing it with the valuable treatises which give the results of the best thinking, ancient or modern, on the subject. The preacher can glean a great deal of valuable theory from Aristotle\rquote s Rhetoric, after which he should study one or more modern books, such as those of Campbell and Whately. From this he should proceed to a thorough study of one or more of the modern treatises on Homiletics, which are to be found either in separate form or as a subdivision of Practical Theology. The general homiletical axioms, the purpose of the sermon, the various kinds, the suitable topics, the modes of treatment, the structure, and what may be called the stages in the life-history of a sermon from its first inception to its delivery, are among the subjects with which the preacher (whether he follow the recognized rules or not) should be at least as familiar as is any other skilled labourer with the rules of his craft. The study of theory should, of course, be accompanied by a careful analysis and criticism of great \par \par THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE PREACHER 159 \par \par sermons. Many ministers boast that they never read sermons and one must, so far, respect this, as it may be due to a fear of impairing one\rquote s own individuality, or of being tempted to plagiarism; but we should be very much surprised if, to take a parallel case, an architect gloried in never looking at any work but his own, were it even a Cologne Cathedral, or if a painter professed ignorance of the work both of the old masters and of his own contemporaries. It is possible to exaggerate the importance of mere theory. Cicero thought that the majority of speakers learned less from the theory of the schools of rhetoric than from hearing good examples of eloquence; but surely common sense dictates that the preacher, if he finds rhetoric and homiletics of no great profit, should at least sit at the feet of ancient and modern masters of their sacred craft and try to realize the truth and beauty of their work and understand the secrets of their power. \par \par It is also evident that theory should be accompanied by practice. The man who is looking forward to preaching as the main business of his life cannot too assiduously cultivate his powers of expression. Of this there is a very practical recognition in the existence of literary, debating, and theological societies in close association with college life. At this period it is very desirable to endeavour to acquire the power of speaking with equal lucidity and effectiveness to audiences of widely different composition and charac ter. It is a rather painful consideration that, as the outcome of an academic training, many men find themselves apprehending things in modes of thought, and expressing their thoughts through the medium of a vocabulary, which make it difficult to render \par \par 1 60 PREP A RA TION FOR THE CHRIS TIAN MINISTR Y \par \par themselves intelligible to the common people. It is therefore an admirable exercise, apart from its higher utilities, for a student of divinity to take one of his elaborate sermons and reproduce its substance in simple Saxon at a mission meeting, or to transform a profound essay in Apologetics into an address with which he would combat an infidel lecturer at a casual gathering on a Sunday afternoon in a public park. \par \par It remains to speak of the part of the preacher\rquote s preparation which consists in the cultivation of his own spiritual life. This one is loth to discuss under the point of view of utility; and the division of labour carried out in this book happily renders it unnecessary. \par \par It may be sufficient to remark that if, as Cicero says, no one can be a consummate orator who is not a good man, this applies with tenfold force to preaching. The unseen background of the preacher\rquote s work is beautifully suggested in the text which says of our Master, that \ldblquote in the day time He was teaching in the temple, and at night He went out, and abode in the mount that is called the Mount of Olives.\rdblquote (Luk_21:37.), \par \par \par \par \pard\cf1\lang1034\expndtw-7\f2\fs23\par } 09506 - The Opportunity Preparation Preacher{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}{\s2 heading 2;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\lang1033\kerning32\b\f0\fs32 VI THE OPPORTUNITY AND TH \sa60\kerning0\i\fs28 THE REV. H. S. WOOLLCOMBE, M.A. \par \pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\kerning32\i0\f1\fs24\par \pard\nowidctlpar\kerning0\b0\par IN writing an article on such a subject as the preparation for the Christian ministry, it is almost impossible not to write from an individual point of view. A man\rquote s opinion must be the results of his own experience in his own branch of the Christian Church amongst the particular class where he has been called to work. And the writer of this paper wishes to say at the outset, that he is thinking of preparation for the ministry of the Church of England and of that ministry mainly in its relation to the working classes of our great towns, though he hopes that a few of the suggestions given below may also be found useful to a wider circle of readers. To attempt to discuss the question in its widest bearings would be impossible for one whose ministerial life has not been of more than ten years duration, and those ten years spent in the heart of the great wor king-class city called East London, first in a parish, and then in an institution definitely connected with the Church of England. \par \par Many illustrations of the work of the minister of the Gospel have been used, perhaps none more illuminating than that given on the shores of the Galilean \par \par 1 64 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRIS TI AN MINIS TR Y \par \par lake by the Great Master Himself \ldblquote a sower went forth to sow.\rdblquote A sower of seed has two main responsibilities: he must ta ke care, firstly, that the seed is properly sown; and, secondly, that that seed has a real chance of growth and development in view of the harvest. Here, under a simple illustration, are the two parts of a minister\rquote s work the presenting to people the Christian faith, i.e. Christ Himself, in such a way as to lead them to accept Him as their Guide and Saviour, and then the taking care that this implanted faith has a real chance of growing and bearing fruit unto life eternal. \par \par What, then, are the problems which lie before the young sower as he stands ready and eager to begin sowing the seed of eternal life? This is the important question. Once understand what is the kind of work the minister will be required to do, and we shall not have far to look for the best means of preparation. \par \par In answering this question, we realize at once a contrast between the lives of most of those who enter the Christian ministry, and the lives of those who are commonly called \ldblquote the working classes.\rdblquote \par \par \par There is, to begin with, \ldblquote the lack of tradition.\rdblquote \par \par Most of us have been steeped in tradition from our youth up. We learnt the first dim glimmer of the glory of the Christian Faith at our mother\rquote s knee. We went to church or chapel on Sunday as a matter of course, in the same way that we went to bed or ate our regular meals; the Bible and the Bible stories were as much a part of our regular education as the A, B, C \par or the rule of three. But when we come to live in a city like East London, we find, to quote the words of a well-known East London Church leader, \ldblquote a city \par \par \par \par WORK IN GREAT CITIES 165 \par \par without tradition.\rdblquote Except in a comparatively few families, there is no tradition of Christian worship or Christian fellowship, although there is, undoubtedly, mixed with a certain amount of opposition in certain quarters, a deep-seated respect for religion, and a belief that religion is somehow or other the right thing, though it may not definitely concern themselves. \par \par After four years regular visiting of the wards of the London Hospital, it is sad to reflect how comparatively few members of a Christian congregation one discovers; and yet very few of the men appear to disbelieve in the Christian faith, or to be unwilling to listen to the teaching and claims of Christ, particularly if that teaching is given by one whom they have already learned to know. In this last condition lies the main answer to the whole problem. The working man in East London is essentially suspicious (is it much wonder that he is?); he wants to know what the young man, who seems so anxious to make his acquaintance and be his friend, is \ldblquote gettin at.\rdblquote The barrier of suspicion must be removed, and a tie of mutual sympathy established before there is much chance of sowing the seed. \par \par This might be illustrated repeatedly from the history of the Oxford House. A young man comes down from Oxford burning with anxiety to impart some of his knowledge to his less fortunate brothers, and is often disappointed that a class cannot always be found ready to his hand. He has to go into one of the men\rquote s clubs and make friends with some of the members before he has a chance of gathering a class around him. But when once these friends are made, it is not long before they are ready and anxious to \par \par 1 66 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par receive what he is ready and eager to give them. \par \par Work in East London means \ldblquote making bricks without the straw.\rdblquote The straw must first be gathered before the bricks can be begun, i.e. the men must first be known and made friends with, before a class of any kind can be successfully started. \par \par Knowledge of men, then, is one of the first requisites of the Christian minister, and chiefly of course the knowledge of that particular class with whom he may be called to deal. Is not the great weakness of so many of the clergy and ministers, that they have had so little opportunity of really getting to know and understand the working classes? They come down amongst them stamped with a certain social position, often, alas! accompanied by a sort of professional manner, which serves as a fatal bar to any real friend ship. Our first effort must be to make friends, to get past the barrier of social, educational or professional position, and learn to know our parishioners as brothers. \par \par Here comes in the benefit of working-men\rquote s clubs. \par \par They are schools of mutual knowledge, gardens which bear the fruit of lasting friendship in spite of differences of class and social position; and, whether connected with a parish or University settlement, they provide the means by which the young layman or cleric can meet the working man in a perfectly natural manner as man with man, and have been repeatedly the means of mutual understanding, and ultimately of the closest friendship. Oftentimes these clubs are criticized because they do not lead of themselves to any definitely religious results. But why should they be expected to do so? They are the meeting-ground \par \par WORK IN GREAT CITIES 167 \par \par of the settlement worker, or cleric, and his poorer neighbours, and it is on the use that he makes of that meeting-place that any religious result really depends. \par \par In the same way much of our parochial visitation, i.e. the visitation of those that are whole (for of course the visitation of the sick is a different matter) must be looked on rather as a means of mutual knowledge than an opportunity for definitely preaching the Gospel. \par \par It is certain that much of the dislike of ordinary parochial visitation lies in the fact that young clergy mistake its real aim. They feel, and feel rightly, that there is something unreal in paying a visit to a comparative stranger and forcing the conversation into a religious channel just for the sake of saying something clerical; and hence they shrink from what appears to them to be unnatural, and therefore unreal work; and the better and the more genuine the man, the more he will shrink from it. \par \par But surely visiting, and in particular that from house to house, ought to be a perfectly natural meeting place between the minister and his people. His aim is to make them trust him and be ready to listen to him. This they will not in most cases do till they know him. The visiting, like the working-man\rquote s club, is to be the school of mutual knowledge, and is therefore of the greatest possible value as a means of breaking up the fallow ground, and so preparing the way for the sowing of the seed. \par \par \ldblquote These men like your visits,\rdblquote said a workman to a young London parson; \ldblquote and do you know why? \par \par They say you are unlike other parsons, you don t shove religion down their throats every time you speak to them.\rdblquote Many and many a shy man has been brought \par \par 1 68 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR Y \par \par to a Bible-class, or led to send for the parson in sickness, because he has first got to know him as a man and a friend, rather than a professional visitor. \par \par Of course, this view of visiting needs to be qualified. \par \par Every true minister of Christ should be ready to speak a word for his Master. That is his business, quite apart from every other consideration. But it is well to be patient about it, particularly with the more difficult and unapproachable people. An over-hasty or tactless remark will often do more harm than good. \par \par Prayer to the Holy Spirit for guidance, and a real love of souls, will enable a man to know when to be silent and when to speak. \par \par Look on your visiting, then, as the most valuable part of your work. Don t be distressed if you seem, after an afternoon\rquote s steady work, to have said nothing religious, to have led no one nearer to God only to have given a cheery smile to this one, brought laughter into the face of some worried and anxious mother, and a. little ray of hope to that poor disheartened workman, who is seeking fruitlessly for work. Done nothing!\par \par If your heart has been full of love and you are in living touch with Christ yourself, you have opened a way into the hearts of those poor folk, who would have closed up like limpets, if you had donned a professional manner and talked religion merely to satisfy your conscience rather than because you had something to say, and an opportunity for saying it. The mere fact of your loving interest in them and their troubles has been to them, though perhaps unconsciously, a dim revelation of the living Christ, Who went about the world winning men by doing good, and has sent us all to do the same. We have all to try and learn a little \par \par JJ- ORA IN GREAT CITIES 169 \par \par sanctified common sense, and such common sense is often learned by taking what opportunities there are in clubs and settlements for getting into friendly relation with working-class people, and getting to know and to love them before we are sent to deal with them professionally. This will save us from many foolish mistakes, and should at any rate prevent us donning that most terrible of all clerical failings, the \ldblquote clerical manner.\rdblquote \par \par \par So far, we have spoken rather of the breaking up of the ground in preparation for the sowing rather than of the sowing itself. How shall we actually sow the seed? How shall we teach these men and women of Christ, and make them Christians? \par \par Here, again, knowledge of the ground on which we sow is a most important requisite. Your visits to the club and the house help you, not only because they remove barriers between you and your people, but because they help you to know the best way in which to help them; and that way we should remember is not necessarily the same way or the same method that would help us. \par \par It may be that you appreciate a scholarly discourse written in bea!utiful English, and read without any undue fervour or emotion; but you must not be surprised that, generally speaking, working people do not appreciate k reading from a book.\rdblquote To them it seems unreal and loses its directness of appeal; and though there may be the deepest thought and greatest zeal for souls behind that quiet scholarly preacher, he misses his mark, because he fails to understand the peculiarities of his congregation. They like, or in other words understand, the simple \ldblquote "preaching from \par \par T 70 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR Y \par \par the heart,\rdblquote as they call it themselves. And there is not the slightest doubt that one of the greatest needs of clergy who wish to work among working-class people, is to learn to preach extempore sermons sermons which shall be perfectly simple, driving home some one point again and again in different ways, illustrated and lightened by anecdote and touches of humour, which help more than anything else to open the #hearts of the people and enable them to remember the message \par given. \par \par Learn to speak is one of the best pieces of advice for the future minister of the Gospel, and one not always easy to follow. The preaching of sermons \ldblquote for practice \ldblquote (like the still more terrible visiting and talking religion for practice) will not do very much good. Perhaps the best of all ways which ought to be adopted and made compulsory in all ministerial training colleges is to join a debating so$ciety, and so to learn to get one\rquote s \ldblquote speaking-legs.\rdblquote \par \par \par Each man has of course his particular gift, and the \ldblquote gift of the gab\rdblquote belongs to one and not to another. \par \par And it is not always the parson with the glib tongue who does the most good, but often the reverse. Yet every one of us who is hoping to be a minister of the Gospel should strive to learn as far as he can, both by study and practice, that art which has been ordained by God %as one of the great means of winning men to Christ, the art of preaching. No one would complain of a man who is not an orator, for oratory is a gift. But we have a right to complain of men who enter the ministry and who because, as they say, \ldblquote they cannot speak or preach,\rdblquote never take the trouble to learn. Every zealous man will do his very best to sharpen this particular \par \par WORK IN GREAT CITIES 171 \par \par weapon before he has to use it, though it may be at the cost of tho&se who have to listen to his maiden efforts. \par \par What to preach about is an even bigger question than how to preach, and here it is impossible to do more than give a few hints. \par \par Firstly, we need to adopt the method of the greatest of all Christ\rquote s missionaries, St. Paul. We do not want merely to stir people up to be moral; we want to attach our moral exhortation to some definite religious truth, to plant in the hearts of our congregation seed-thoughts which will stay and bring for'th the fruit of good living. \par \par It is a striking fact, as Mr. Booth points out in his book on the Religions Influences of London, that the Christian bodies who seem to have the most permanent religious influence on the people are those bodies, whether Anglican, Nonconformist or Roman Catholic, who impart to their people definite and clear, even if narrow, teaching on matters of Christian doctrine. \par \par This should not surprise those who believe that it was the Master Himself Who said, \ldb(lquote Go ye, and teach all nations.\rdblquote \par \par \par It is hardly necessary, therefore, to say that the careful study of Christian truth, the filling of the mind with stores of Christian doctrine, is a matter of the very first importance in the preparation of a Christian minister. Doctrinal preaching need never be dull provided we endeavour, firstly, to be simple, and, secondly, to be attractive. Simplicity can never come except by a thorough grasp of the subject we have in hand, and the mai)n secret of an attractive preacher is a sympathetic knowledge of those he has to teach, a knowledge which will supply him with a fund of practical and homely illustrations, which will convert \par \par 172 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par what might be dry and dull statements of fact into inspiring messages instinct with life and truth. In this connection it is well to remember that very much of the unbelief of to-day among the working classes is due to lack of teaching. The Christiani*ty which is attacked in the parks is not always the Christianity of Christ, but more often some false idea of that teaching which no educated Christian man would think of holding. \par \par The best defence that the young minister can make for the faith which he believes is plainly and simply to teach the truth, striving to illuminate that truth by the truest of all sermons a genuine Christian life. And again and again he will discover that the so-called unbeliever has been disbelieving, not Christianit+y, but some teaching which can be shown at once to be not only different from, but even opposed to, that of Christ Himself. \par \par But it is time to leave the first division of our subject, the planting of the seed, and to turn to the second, the development of the seed when sown. And here we must touch first on the religious and then on the social question. \par \par Firstly, as regards the religious aspect of the matter, our object must be not only to collect together a certain body of people who, call themselves Christians and members of a Christian congregation, but to train them so that they become living members of the great Church of Christ. Our object here is not so much to make men ready to listen to us as we preach and pray, ready to take our advice and to help us with funds to carry on our work, but rather to lead men to think and pray themselves^ to train their consciences to guide them into the right path, and to get them to take their share \par \par WORK IN GREAT CITIES 173 \par \p-ar in the work of Christ. The whole object, for example, of our services should be to train people to use their own religious faculties, and, by use, to develop and strengthen them, rather than to lead them to admire our own. No service, however beautiful, can really train men to be better Christians unless they are helped to think themselves of spiritual things, to use the power of prayer and praise, to get face to face with God, and learn to talk to God \ldblquote as a man talketh with his friend.\rdb.lquote \par \par In a word, all church services should be schools for training and developing the religious faculties of the \par \par congregation. \par \par \par If our services are to be true schools, they must be schools rather than cramming establishments. If we are dealing, as most of us are in working-class districts, with people who have in the main ceased to exercise their religious faculties and have had little religious instruction, we must begin with the lowest rung of the ladder, with/ perfectly simple services in which our people can really take a share, before we endeavour, as of course we must, to lead them to something higher. \par \par A service which may be admirably suited to the spiritually educated, brought up in the traditions of Christian worship, may be utterly unsuited to the spiritually ignorant. Here, again, the young minister wants the knowledge of his people of which so much has been said, and he might well add to this a study of various forms of Christian worship, e0ven those unsuited to his own taste, which, if they are attracting the people, may be providing, even along with much that is unwise and harmful, something that is really meeting a religious need. \par \par One more point on the religious side. We must \par \par 174 PREPARA T1ON FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR Y \par \par teach our people that a true member of a Church, a living limb of Christ\rquote s body, must be an active limb, a \ldblquote living member.\rdblquote We ministers have all been far too 1ready to take too great a share in the Church\rquote s work certainly this is so in the Church of England and this has not only meant a weakness to the Church in a loss of workers, but has been the greatest source of weakness to the members of the Church themselves, whose spiritual muscles have gone slack through want of exercise. We shall never make keen Christians unless we teach that to be a Christian is to become a \ldblquote partner in the greatest of all concerns,\rdblquote for the conduct of whic2h every Christian man, woman and child has a real and actual responsibility. Each must add to the Church\rquote s power by prayer, to the Church\rquote s purse by alms, to the Church\rquote s work by action and living service; each must claim a share in that work not merely as a matter of duty, but as a matter of right. \par \par About the only definite piece of advice given to Christian workers by Mr. Booth in his rather depressing book quoted above, is this: to go to the working man, not with the mess3age of what the Christian Church can do for him, but rather of what he can do for the Christian Church. \par \par We ministers want to get hold of St. Paul\rquote s idea of the Body of Christ which he taught the Corinthians, and not only to teach our people the idea, but make the actual fact possible by earnest endeavours to give every member of our Church, however poor and humble, some share in the work, not of our, but of their Church. \par \par And now, before closing, we must turn to a subject whi4ch may seem, and is certainly thought by some, \par \par WORK IN GREAT CITIES 175 \par \par to have very little to do with the ministerial life the social problems of our great towns. \par \par Most of us are probably aware of the attack which has lately been made on Christianity by a well-known journalist, whose writings are widely read among working men, particularly in the North of England. \par \par His main attack on the Christian position is by a use of the ancient weapon of determinism. He 5attacks the freedom of the human will, and defends the morally weak by the plea that their weakness is due, not to themselves, but to the forces which alone make or mar them, the forces of environment and surroundings. \par \par This, of course, is not the place to argue out the question of the freedom of the human will. Our duty is to remember that, as in all \ldblquote heresies,\rdblquote so in this, there is a half-truth, and a very important one. \par \par Though it is wrong to say \ldblquote th6at a man\rquote s life consisteth in the abundance of the things which he possesseth; \ldblquote though the history of the human race shows us that good surroundings do not necessarily make a good man, and that a good man often has the power of transforming bad surroundings; yet it is also abundantly true that bad surroundings do mar character, and are fruitful sources of evil living. Body and spirit are inextricably mingled together; and though we may feel, and feel rightly, that the latter is the more 7important, yet we must not forget our duty to the former, and that often the best, and sometimes the only, way to reach the spirit is through the means of the body. \par \par It is unfortunately true, that although the Christian Church has been the great inspirer of social work in the past, at the present time there are numbers of \par \par 1 76 PREPARA T10N FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR Y \par \par Christian men and women who will not face their responsibility with regard to the great social evils of t8he day, often no doubt from mere thoughtlessness, sometimes for more unworthy reasons. When we think of the degradation which is bound to follow, and does follow, such evils as overcrowding, insanitary dwellings, the traffic in intoxicating drink, the sweating system, want of employment, and one might mention many others, it is certainly amazing that a genuine Christian, who is by his Christian profession a believer in progress, who prays repeatedly, \ldblquote Thy kingdom come,\rdblquote does not see t9hat one of the main reasons of our kick of progress is the existence of these social evils, and that therefore a Christian, above every one else, is bound to be a zealous social reformer. \par \par This does not mean, far from it, that he is to degrade the Christian Church by becoming a party politician. The Christian is to be above party politics, and should strive to inspire all parties rather than attach himself to any one in particular. The settlement of social questions is delayed again and again b:y party warfare. They ought not to be party questions at all. Each party should help and not hinder the other in finding an ultimate solution. Whatever proposal is before the country should be examined by all good men on its merits, quite apart from party politics. If it is a step in the wrong direction, then it must be attacked. If, however, it is a step, how ever small, in the right direction, then we should back it up. The duty of a Christian minister is to teach people that the aim of a Christian is t;o separate him self, as far as is possible, from all class or party prejudice, to do his best to give every man the oppor\par \par WORK IN GREAT CITIES 177 \par \par tunity of rising to the highest of which he is capable, and to make this possible by throwing all his influence as a minister, a citizen, and a worker on the side of social reform. \par \par Needless to say, then, a Christian minister should be a student of social subjects, and endeavour to get at least a rough idea of the various solutso as to make our work more effective. \par \par Let us take a few examples. There is riot the slightest doubt that great harm has been done to the poor by thoughtless charity. So much is this the case, that an East-End doctor, who was not particularly friendly to religious work, said that \ldblquote he dreaded a religious revival, for it meant more charity, and therefore a \par N \par \par \par i;8 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par lessening of the people\rquote s independence and? strength of character.\rdblquote There is an element of truth even in such a strong statement as this. The distribution of relief is a terribly difficult question, needing careful consideration. The easiest thing is to give a dole.^ But to do so often hinders rather than helps the recipient, training him to become that worst of all things, a \ldblquote cadger,\rdblquote or parasite on society. \par \par A minister needs training in the scientific principles of relief, and might do well to attach him@self to an office of the Charity Organization Society. He may not find their methods perfect few methods are; but at least he will learn that true charity is charity given after careful inquiry and consideration. Its aim is not to relieve the sorrows of the giver, but rather to heal the sufferings of the recipient. One day we may hope that the whole method of charitable relief may in some way be almost entirely separated from the work of the clergy. It certainly \ldblquote is one of the great hindrances tAo effective work. \par \par Again, the minister and his fellow-workers should be, and often are, in daily contact with the poor in their own homes, and it requires little imagination to under stand what an immense amount of good might be done if those workers knew something of sanitary law, and were in touch with the sanitary officials of the district, to whom they could send reports of insanitary dwellings or of overcrowding. A little knowledge of medicine or of domestic economy, or, at any rate, the eBncouragement of such knowledge in the lady visitors, might be the means of saving many a little child\rquote s life, and bringing health into a sickly home. \par \par Lastly, no one with any real knowledge of a working\par \par WORK IN GREAT CITIES I?9 \par \par class district can fail to perceive the tremendous need there is of supplying the working classes with some place of social intercourse other than the public-house, and some form of interest and excitement other than drink and gambling. HereC, naturally, come in the clubs, of which mention has been made, which are now found to be almost a necessity in every well-worked church or mission. Yet, here again, the management requires careful study and thought. It is perfectly easy for a club of boys and men, even under the shadow 7 of a church or chapel, to become a centre of evil rather than good, if an experienced man is not at the head, ready and watchful to check any sign of evil. \par \par The minister of religion has indeed to be a many sidDed person, and therefore he should seek a many sided preparation. He will need, of course, the preparation of his own heart and soul; but it does not come within the scope of this paper to speak of that. \par \par He will need, too, as we have said, to study human nature, to consider the best means of helping it, or that part of it which he has been sent to help. And he will, or certainly ought to, remember that man is made up of body and soul, and that both must be helped if the man is to reach his full development, the measure of the fulness of the stature of Christ. \par \ldblquote Who is sufficient for these things? \ldblquote will be his cry, and the answer will come back the only one that can satisfy \ldblquote Our sufficiency is of God.\rdblquote But \ldblquote God helps those who help themselves.\rdblquote He indeed gives us our weapons of war; it is for us to sharpen them, and, above all, learn ho\\v to use them. \par \par \par \par \par \pard\cf1\lang1034\expndtw-7\f2\fs23\par } SqE07 - Work In Great Cities{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}{\s2 heading 2;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\lang1033\kerning32\b\f0\fs32 VII WORK IN GREAT CITIES \par \pard\keepn\s2\sb240 G\fs28 THE REV. W. H. FIXDLAY, M.A. \par \pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\kerning32\i0\f1\fs24\par \pard\nowidctlpar\kerning0\b0\par CHRIST, to Whose ministry the reader of this book believes himself called, is the Saviour of the world. \ldblquote Feed My sheep,\rdblquote He says, and adds, \ldblquote Other sheep I have which are not of this fold.\rdblquote It is a question that should be early and seriously faced by every one who contemplates the ministry, whether it is at home or abroad that the Master dHesigns him to minister. Too often that question is begged. Too often the sense of a call to the ministry is shaped by our conventional ideas of a minister\rquote s life and work as it has been before our eyes in the home churches; and it is to that kind of position and that range of usefulness that we conceive ourselves called of God. If the call is to be as sacred and compelling as a call to the ministry should be, it must be heard in terms transcending the embodied and familiar; it must be a transactionI between Christ and the soul \ldblquote Follow thou Me,\rdblquote \par \ldblquote Feed My sheep,\rdblquote \ldblquote Drink of the cup that I drink of.\rdblquote \par \par And if we thus come face to face with Christ, to take service with Him and receive from His own lips our commission, it is obviously possible ought we not to say probable? that the commission may be, \ldblquote Go to seek and save My other sheep. \par \par \par 1 84 PREP A RA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINIS TR Y \par \par EverJy theological student, then, is bound to face the question of missionary service; how is he to ascertain whether or not Christ calls him to it? Personal preferences the attraction or repulsion of this kind of work or that - must obviously not be permitted to decide a question which is essentially one of loyalty to Christ. How is it to be decided? Not by any one infallible rule; for God has many ways of indicating to us His will, ways varying with our tem perament, the keenness of our spiritual senses, theK needs of our spiritual education. For some He hedges the way by circumstance so that no choice is left; to some He gives clear inward monition; some He sets at cross roads and lays it upon them to weigh and judge which road is theirs; some He bids leave the choice to those who have a right to direct them. One thing is certain, that neither supposed inward monition nor apparent compulsion of circumstances can by itself be held to be an infallible index of the will of God for us. It has happened before nowL that the clearest inward call (as it seemed) to the mission-field has been frustrated by an accident that compelled the would-be missionary to spend his years in England. It has happened, on the other hand, that apparently insuperable obstacles to foreign service have been only a challenge given by Providence to faith and zeal, a barrier to be leaped, not a hedge to mark the way. On the whole, external indications the authority or advice of those who can judge where we are most needed and best fitted to Mserve, the wishes of parent?, a medical verdict, providential events beyond our control are safer and more satisfactory guides to a decision than any predi lections we form ourselves or any supposed inward call \par \par WORK ABROAD 185 \par \par or prohibition. And among such external considerations there are certain broad facts of the world\rquote s condition to-day which, as between home work and foreign, point to the latter as the sphere intended by God for all who have the physical and other qualNifications to enter it. The work of evangelizing the heathen is so many centuries in arrears, the need abroad is to-day so much vaster, both extensively and intensively, than the need at home, while so many of those called to the ministry are imperatively hindered from going abroad, that every one not so hindered should recognize a strong probability that Christ calls him to that service. The attitude of mind in which, to-day at any rate, the question should be approached is not, \ldblquote Is there any Oreason why I should be a missionary? \ldblquote but \ldblquote Is there any unanswerable reason why I must stay at home? \ldblquote To treat the work at home as the normal fulfilment of a call to the ministry and the work abroad as the exceptional, for which a special call and special justification is needed, is a positive inversion of the order dictated whether by the obvious condition of the world to-day or by the pattern and doctrine of the New Testament. \par \par The question therefore of offerinPg for missionary service is one that should have the serious and prayerful consideration of every theological student. He should be on his guard against too easily persuading himself either that a personal leaning to work at home is a call of God in that direction, or that his circumstances or his lack of the necessary qualifications require him to stay at home. The only attitude of spirit in which we can be sure of right guidance in this momen tous choice is that of absolute loyalty to Christ, of \par \Qpar 1 86 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par readiness to be used wherever God can best use us for His Kingdom. \par \par Two special cases relating to the \ldblquote missionary call \ldblquote deserve a word. It sometimes happens that an ardent longing for missionary service is completely frustrated. \par \par Family circumstances absolutely hinder, or those entitled to pronounce declare the candidate disqualified. \par \par In such a case, what is God\rquote s meaning in permittinRg or inspiring the strong impulse towards the mission-field that impression of soul which has all the marks of a call? Must it be held a delusion to be repressed and, as soon as may be, forgotten? By no means. If God has thus stamped the heathen world on a man\rquote s heart, and yet forbids him to go abroad, it is that from this country he may minister to the heathen world, and serve the missionary cause in some of the thousand ways in which it must be promoted at home if it is to prosper abroad. The impSress of God is sacred, and if one may not fulfil His call in the flesh, one must needs fulfil it in the spirit. Any one thus hindered must reckon himself as one of the missionary brother hood, and must make it an unceasing and prominent might I not say, pre-eminent? aim of his service to Christ to extend and deepen the missionary spirit in the Church at home. Happily such an aim involves no unfaithfulness to the immediate claims of the work of the home ministry; for the highest Christian philosophy teacheTs that home Christians and home churches can receive no greater blessing than the quickening in them of the missionary spirit. At the time of the South African War I read a calculation in a newspaper that for every Englishman marching and fighting on the field there were at least five men at home wholly \par \par WORK ABROAD 187 \par \par occupied with the war, not merely interested in it and paying their taxes to support it, but utterly given up to it, inasmuch as their daily employment was to createU the conditions which made it possible for the sixth man to march and fight yonder. And if the missionary force at the front is to carry on the campaign with freedom and vigour, there must be in intimate alliance and co-operation with it, a much more numerous force at home, of those who are devoting their best powers to the creation of the conditions, and the provision of the resources, necessary for triumph abroad. \par \par A second case which deserves a separate word is that of the man who says, \ldbVlquote I am free to go abroad, and, as far as I can judge, I might be useful there. But I have no sense of a call/ I have never felt drawn to the mission-field; indeed service at home distinctly attracts me. Ought I to offer for foreign service? \ldblquote To such a question I should answer, \ldblquote There is strong reason why you should put yourself into the hands of God and His Church to be sent to the foreign field if He so decides. The absence of a conscious call is of no moment; it may be the resWult of temperament. \par \par There are scores of men doing fine service on the mission-field to-day, who went out without the impulse and the enthusiasm of a sense of compelling vocation. \par \par The conditions of work abroad are such that those qualified for it will always be the few; if you should prove to be one of them, and Providence has left you free to go, that is very strong evidence of Christ\rquote s intention for you.\rdblquote \par \par \par It is by freedom to go and fitness to go Xthat Christ fills in men\rquote s names in His marching orders, whether or not He also speaks a message in the ear of the soul. \par \par \par i88 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par I have said that outward indications of the linger of Providence give safer guidance than a supposed inward call. If this is true as to the choice between missionary work in general and work at home, it is more emphatically true in relation to the choice of a particular mission field. A man may easily becomeY more interested in, and feel more drawn to, one field than another; but let him beware of supposing that such interest and inclination constitute a specific call of God, such as warrants him in saying, \ldblquote That field for me, or none.\rdblquote No limit can be set to the methods of the Divine dealing with men, and there may be instances where God calls man or woman to a geographically or racially defined task, and where the definiteness and persistence of the inward propulsion give a determinatioZn that overcomes all obstacles. But remembering how the voices of our own heart, or even of our own fancy, can feign and mingle with the voice of the Spirit of God, there is strong a, piiori ground for distrusting a supposed Divine call bidding us carry the Gospel, say, to the Chinaman, but not to the Negro; or to India, but not to Japan. It may be that the recognition of the missionary call came in connection with an address about a particular land, or through reading of the needs of some one people; or [that accidents of friendship or association have given one field a more prominent and vivid place in one\rquote s mind than others; and the sense of the call to heathen lands naturally expresses itself in terms of that particular sphere. Yet I know instances in which men\rquote s hearts were set (by Divine prompting, as they thought) on India, but Providence sent them to China or to Africa; and to-day they are enthusiastic for the field they are labouring in, and are thankful that the desire of their stud\ent days was thwarted. My strong \par \par WORK ABROAD 189 \par \par advice to the missionary student who feels himself drawn to a particular field is: \ldblquote Study other fields, give them their chance of taking hold on you; remember that though Christ will send you to some one land and people, He wants you to have a heart big enough to hold all lands and all peoples. Use your student days to go with Him, in study and sympathy, all the world over, and especially to those lands and peoples where n]atural inclination would not take you.\rdblquote If the labourers were to-day plenteous for the plenteous harvest, all might have free choice where to work; but so long as it is true that \ldblquote the labourers are few,\rdblquote each must be ready to go wheresoever at the moment his sickle is most needed. \par \par The subject of this chapter is Preparation for Foreign Missionary Work; and if I have dwelt at such length upon the missionary call, it is because preparation of the will and of the spir^it, well-considered and well established harmony of our purpose with Christ\rquote s purpose for us, is the mo3t essential preparation of all. \par \par To enter upon the missionary calling is a very serious matter. Sound and strong must be the bark in which a man puts forth on that great untried ocean. Many of the feelings which help to send men and women to the mission-field are like the sparking plug which is useful to start the motor, but it is not meant to be its permanent driving force. The romanc_e and halo of the missionary story, emotional impulses of compassion, glowing visions of great ideals: these are innocent or even noble influences in making a missionary; but they will not improbably die down in the hard work of a mission-station. To make and keep a man amissionary at heart, nothing is to be ultimately and \par \par IQO PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR Y \par \par permanently relied on but devotion to Christ well grounded, whole-hearted, absolute loyalty to His purpose, and pass`ion that the travail of His soul may be satisfied. In this bottom a man may venture anywhere; and it is of the utmost moment that before he puts out into the deep he should be sure of this spiritual preparation, without which all other fitness will never make him a missionary. \par \par What further preparation may be made before the field is reached, is a question not so easy to answer as it might seem to be. The student, as soon as the great question of foreign versus home is settled, and he is designaated, whether by a compelling inner voice or by the choice of others, for the mission-field, naturally desires at once to set about the preparations for the new life that lies before him. May not the college years of preparation for the ministry be also years of preparation for the specially difficult and wholly unfamiliar work of the foreign field? \par \par The question is obvious, and gains support from the common testimony of missionaries that, as they look back on their first years of service on thbe field, they see that during that period they were still bungling learners of their work. Might not much of that long apprentice ship have been saved, it is natural to ask, by a year or two of wisely directed preparation before leaving this country? The answer, however, is not so obvious or easy as the question. Some preliminary considerations will clear the way for it. \par \par i. Stripped of the glamour of sentiment, the question of home preparation for the mission-field is the same as the question cof specializing for any of the professions; and the principle insisted on by all wise teachers that \par \par WORK ABROAD 191 \par \par such specializing must not begin too soon, applies at least as strongly here as elsewhere. General preparation for the Christian ministry must on no account be sacrificed to special preparation for the mission-field. \par \par For proficiency in any profession, a strong foundation of general culture, and a thorough training of the general faculties are important. Andd in the ministerial profession, the missionary needs, at least as much as the home minister, that solid Biblical and theological equipment, that training in thought and expression, that general development of the intellectual faculties, which it is the aim of theological colleges to impart. \par \par To suppose that the missionary-designate might forego a year or two of that discipline in order to \ldblquote specialize for the mission field \ldblquote would be a grave error. All that is essential fore the education of a home minister is essential too for the missionary, and will in the long run be found to be of more importance than even the most important of the special attainments required in the missionary calling. \par \par 2. Whatever preparations for foreign work are made at home will not annul, but only somewhat abridge, the apprenticeship period abroad. Swimming cannot be learnt except in the water, because water and dry land are such different elements, and all the conditions of motion are fso diverse in one and the other. It is for the same reason that one can learn to be a missionary only on the mission-field. One must be in actual contact with the people, must breathe the atmosphere, and be immersed in the daily details of the new life, to learn the calling. In the professions in which the special studies required for admission include a theoretical and a practical side, it is generally recognized that \par \par 192 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR Y \par \par the practical studgies in the laboratory or the workshop must begin, if not coincidently with the theoretical, yet very early in the scheme of specialized study. The mission-field itself is the would-be missionary\rquote s work shop; and any preparations for missionary service that he may make at home, even under the most favourable circumstances, will carry him but a short way along the inevitable apprenticeship stage of his journey. \par \par 3. Hence the question of home preparation for the mission-field narrows itselfh down to the question, what part of the theoretical training of the missionary (the practical training can only take place on the field) may with advantage be pursued at home, and without sacrifice of that general training for the Christian ministry, which is all-important? In the present situation of most missionary societies and missionary candidates, hard facts give an instant answer to the question so put. The mission-field to-day is so urgently calling for men, that the cases are rare indeed in whichi a society can delay the appointment of men whose general theological equipment is complete, in order to give them the opportunity of special studies for the mission-field. \par \par 4. Even in the rare case in which the missionary candidate, his general theological equipment completed, is free to spend a year or two in special preparation, the question still arises whether that preparation could not be carried on more profitably on the field than at home. \par \par At home the conditions of study, cljimatic and other, may be in some ways more favourable than on a mission-station, and there is not the risk of the preparation period being curtailed under the pressure of those emergencies that are ever arising on mission-stations. \par \par \par WORK ABROAD 193 \par \par But, on the other hand, it may be roughly reckoned that twelve months spent on the mission-field, in the combined theoretical and practical preparation that is possible there, is worth at least three years of theoretical study away kfrom the surroundings and the conditions in which the study is to be applied. \par \par 5. Supposing, however, that after he has finished his theological course the candidate is compelled, by family or other circumstances, to linger at home awhile, he may certainly use the time of waiting to the advantage of his future work. In addition to such preparation as I shall suggest later for candidates engaged in their theological course, he will do well to read all he can of the history, geography, social conldition, and literature of the people to whom he is going; or, if not yet designated to a particular mission-field, to read as broadly as he can in comparative religion, ethnology and travels, and in the history of missionary work in various lands. If his designation is fixed, he may even begin the study of the religion and the language of the people to whom he is going. But, for a reason which will be given immediately, in all such home study, copiousness and variety of reading should be aimed at rather tmhan minute and rigid acquisition of knowledge; and the study of the present-day religion and language of the people should be undertaken only under the guidance of a missionary experienced in them, or, as regards the language, of a native of the country. There is a serious danger in the attempt to acquire living languages, and to master living religions, elsewhere than among the people who speak and profess them. In the case of the language, the attempt to acquire it from books alone will almost certainlyn ingrain faults of \par O \par \par \par i 9 4 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MIN1STR Y \par \par pronunciation and bookishness of style that may take years to correct; and book-study of a foreign religion, even in the works of the \ldblquote best authorities,\rdblquote will inevitably implant a rigid, systematized conception of something that in reality is infinitely various and flexible, full of change and inconsistency. Botany may as safely be studied in text-books and plates alone, or physioloogy in a museum, as a living religion or a living language away from its own environment. The difficulty is not merely that so much of what is essential cannot be learnt at all from books, but that so much of what is learnt it will afterwards be necessary and very hard to unlearn. The religion and the language of the people, so far from being the first, should be the last branches of specialized study to which the missionary candidate should apply himself; and only then, as I have intimated above, under expperienced and judicious missionary guidance. \par \par 6. These observations, will, I trust, have made it clear within what limits the possibility of home preparation for the foreign field must be explored. The inquiry must plainly be: What preparations can the missionary student make concurrently with his general educational and theological course? Can his studies in that course be so shaped as to begin to make of him a missionary as well as a minister? And in the spare time that even the severest collqege curriculum allows, are there any pursuits open to him which, while yielding the needed change and recreation from his main studies, will help to fit him for the foreign field? \par \par Both these questions may be answered in the affirmative. There is much preparation that can be made; not so much, perhaps, as the ardent candidate \par \par WORK ABROAD 195 \par \par would like to make, and not, perhaps, in the directions that would best satisfy him, but yet much that when he reaches the field her will have great cause to be thankful for. \par \par I will first enumerate some humble and prosaic accomplishments which are yet by no means to be despised. One or other of them may not be needed in some missionary spheres; but the majority of missionaries will find use for all of them sooner or later in their career; and there will be few missionaries who do not need most of them. They are matters not commonly found in the curriculum of a theological college; but most candidates will be able to give asttention to them in the interstices of their theological training, and a few hours spent on some of these subjects before leaving the home land will save many weary hours, and much sense of disability, in later years. \par \par (a] Wisely guided study of the conditions of health for Europeans in tropical countries, or under the primitive conditions of most missionary residence, is of the first importance. The missionary should also be qualified to render \ldblquote first aid to the wounded.\rdblquote t\par \par \par (b] Every out-going missionary ought to be able to play hymn tunes on the harmonium or American organ. \par \par Ear for music or no, this is an attainment within every one\rquote s reach; and rare is the missionary career in which it is not, sooner or later, of appreciable value. \par \par (c] Enough should be learnt of the principles and practice of book-keeping to enable the missionary to keep and handle accounts correctly and easily. He will spare himself, his colleagues and his ucommittee much worry and embarrassment by proficiency in this. \par \par \par 1 96 PR EPA RA TION FOR T\}IE CHRIS TIA N MINIS TR Y \par \par (d\} If he can learn to ride on horseback before going out, so much the better. \par \par (Y) He should know how to correct proofs for the press. \par \par (/) Any skill in the handling of tools that he can obtain, and any knowledge of plan-drawing, building construction, preparing estimates, and so forth, is likely to be of service. \par \par (g) Skill inv photography will be helpful in maintaining the interest of his supporters at home. \par \par (/i) If India is his destination, it will be cause for future thankfulness if he can begin, before going out, the study of Sanskrit. Sanskrit being a dead language, the objection taken above to the attempt to acquire living languages away from their habitat does not apply. A knowledge of Sanskrit even an elementary knowledge is of much value to the Indian missionary. If he has got over the initial drudgery of twhe study before leaving this country, there is fair likelihood of his making headway with it in India; but if he has not made a start at home, the chances are that, in the stress of actual mission work, he will never begin it. \par \par 7. Passing from these accessories of equipment, it remains to consider what the missionary student can do, under the conditions of his prescribed theological course, to master the principles, practise the attitude of mind, acquire the knowledge, which w 7 ill send him tox the mission-field prepared to begin his real preparation there on right lines. I have insisted, and still insist, that however desirable this preliminary equipment may be, general educational discipline and the necessities of general ministerial preparation must not be sacrificed to it. But cannot the student utilize \par \par WORK ABROAD 197 \par \par these prescribed studies to the advantage of his missionary preparation? Certainly he can. \par \par This chapter is not addressed to the professorsy who frame the curricula and write the text-books for theo logical colleges; if it were, one might have modifications to suggest in the current processes of theological training such as would not only furnish the missionary candidate with the prolegomena of his special preparation, but would give the home minister a larger and more vigorous grasp of the truth he has to expound and enforce in the Church at home. The universal note has riot hitherto been pervasive in Protestant theology. I do not mean that zthe universality of the Gospel, the propriety and necessity of world-evangelization has been denied or ignored. But the sense of other races and other thoughts than ours, of phenomena, human and divine, other than those manifested within Christendom, has not been pervadingly present with our thinkers. The traditions of ministerial training derive from days when the missionary spirit did not transfuse the thought of the Church. Hence divinity curricula have had in view the problems and conditions of Britis{h Christianity or, at widest, of Christendom alone. The field to be explored, the qualifications to be acquired, the ideals to be aimed at, the human nature to be studied, the errors to be combated, the problems to be solved, have been those of our own race and ancestry. The day of the larger out look will come, and the home churches will profit as greatly as the mission-field when all the studies of our theological colleges are adjusted to the world horizon. \par \par Meanwhile the missionary student m|ay cultivate for \par \par 198 PREPARA TIGN FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINIS TR Y \par \par himself the sense of the world-horizon, and thereby, even under present conditions, make all his studies helpful toward the special needs of his future work. \par \par His Biblical studies may so contribute; for the Bible is the standard authority on the science of Missions, and, both in the Old Testament and the New, is full or the instruction which conditions all successful missionary service. The Divine dealing wit}h other races, the Divine attitude to false and imperfect religions, the relation of successive dispensations in the world\rquote s history all this will teach the intending missionary how to regard the past of heathendom, how to address himself to its present, how to shape his hopes for its future. Whether he is gazing at Isaiah\rquote s visions of the world that is to be, or listening to St. Paul\rquote s missionary preaching, or reading his expositions of \ldblquote the mystery of Christ... that the G~entiles are fellow-heirs and fellow-members of the body and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus,\rdblquote he can learn from his Biblical studies better than anywhere else in what spirit and attitude to approach the task that lies before him. \par \par His studies in theology will be broader based and loftier built, will lift him higher towards that ever unattainable \ldblquote knowledge of God,\rdblquote if he carries into them the sense of the relations with God, through all the ages, of other races most diverse from his own, of their thoughts about God, of God\rquote s thoughts about them. It was not as he studied \ldblquote the law and the prophets \ldblquote of his own ancestral faith that St. Paul was rapt to ecstasy of adoration concerning \ldblquote the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God,\rdblquote but while he mused on the revelation that \par \par WORK ABROAD 199 \par \par had come to him of the Divine relation to Jew and Gentile severally, and of the working out of the Divine purpose for the whole race; and it is the privilege of the missionary to approximate to this experience as he explores the works and ways of God not in one sphere only or down one line of history, but among strange types of mankind and through mys terious dispensations. The day will come also when the would-be missionary will need to relate the religious conceptions that he finds in heathendom to the doc trines he has studied at college; he must therefore cultivate, as he studies, the sense that the doctrines and the heresies of modern and ancient Christendom are not the only thoughts that men have conceived and are conceiving, on the great themes of God and man, of the life that is and that was and that is to come, of destiny and duty. He must keep his ears open for other voices than those of his text-books. \par \par He must be on his guard against the tendency to a rigid, formulated, thing-by-itself theological system such as will be incapable of colloquy with the theologies of the living religions. He may not, most probably will not, have time to study these alien theologies in his college days; but he may catch glimpses down vistas of non-Christian religious thought that he will some day have to follow in all their windings. He can at least take care not to wall round his domain so that intercommunication with the regions beyond shall be impossible; he will draw his map of truth and knowledge so large that there shall be room to \ldblquote place\rdblquote in it the thoughts and ways of men which he has still to explore. \par \par In a word, the outgoing missionary needs to carry \par \par 200 PREPARA T1ON FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR Y \par \par with him, not a God of the English, who is to supplant rival gods of the heathen, but a God Who is already theirs as truly as He is ours; and his business at college will be, not to master a rounded and finished system of theology-for-English-Christians, but to learn the rudiments of a theology-for-the-world. \par \par The study of Church history with the world-horizon is equally fruitful in preparation for the mission field. Church history, so far as it relates to the great conflict of Christianity with non-Christian religions, is often written and read as if it dealt with past and gone matters of no living interest. It is the history, written in time of peace, of a war long over. The missionary candidate, however, has to read it as the story of the early campaigns of a war still in progress a war in which he is under orders for the front; and he will find it full of lessons in strategy and tactics. The study of ecclesiastical history is as vitally important to the missionary candidate as the study of military history to the army officer. Among the most serious problems that tax the wisdom of missionaries are those that relate to the influence of pagan faiths and practices on young Christian communities, and to the permissible limits of variation and adaptation in Christian creed and rule and character; the problems of church government under conditions wholly diverse from those of Western Christianity; all the questions that surround the nurture and training, the idiosyncrasies, ailments and potentialities, of infant churches. On all thesesubjects the history of the early Christian centuries, studied not as the record of a dead past, but as the guide to a living present, is invaluable to the intending missionary. \par \par He learns how to estimate success and failure, how to \par \par WORK ABROAD \par \par \par 201 \par \par \par avoid futile endeavours and escape needless disappointments: he learns to be patient and take long views, to discern the coming of the Kingdom in spite of appearances; above all he learns to recognize the relation of the human and the Divine in missionary operations. \par \par However remotely some of his college studies may seem to bear on the special needs of his future work, all that he reads of the spread of Christianity in Europe will be full of living instruction for the spread of Christianity in Asia or Africa or the Islands of the sea. \par \par The same line of recommendation applies to the missionary candidate\rquote s study of such subjects as ethics, psychology, sociology, and so forth. In all- of them the general foundations of knowledge which the college curriculum lays, and the general mental discipline which it imparts, are as indispensable to the missionary as to the home minister; but the missionary student may also turn them to special profit for his future needs by co-ordinating where he can the types of intellect and morals, for example, that his text-books subsume, with the strange and varied types of which he gets glimpses in the thought and life of other lands. \par \par The missionary candidate will, I fear, be disappointed by this sketch of the method and degree of preparation for service that it is possible to effect on this side of the water. He would naturally like to be achieving some tangible, concrete equipment, such as a mastery of the language or the religion of the people to whom he is going. He would like to curtail, by some measurable attainment, the apprenticeship stage on the field itself, which he has heard so many missionaries groan over. \par \par \par 202 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR Y \par \par To exhort him to cultivate the sense of a world-horizon, to practise a certain attitude of mind in his studies, seems vague and unsubstantial advice. Yet I beg the intending missionary to believe that the most valuable preparation he can make in the homeland is to learn the right attitude and spirit in which to go out to his work. Stores of information have their value, though of the information laboriously acquired at home about the field some will be found misleading and much useless; but breadth of view, balance of judgment, the elasticity of mind that is not disconcerted by novel problems, and conditions: these are of the essence of missionary qualification, and they are attainments that may be acquired in all the studies of the college course. \par \par Is not the missionary student, then, to do any special reading with a view to his missionary service? Certainly he should; all that I have written concerning his attitude to his college curriculum implies that, alongside of the prescribed studies, he will be reading all he can of other races. Comparative religions, (especially living religions) ethnology, philology, missionary history, travels the more he is able to read on these subjects the better. But I do not attempt to suggest any course of such reading; for it should be wide and varied, rather than minute and systematized. It should be pursued with the view not so much of storing the memory with information, as of broadening the mind by contemplation of the infinitely various panorama of human conditions. If the candidate is designated to a particular field, he should certainly, if he has opportunity, study the history, geography, politics and economics of the field. But it would be a great mistake for him to confine his \par \par WORK ABROAD 203 \par \par missionary reading to that field: let him the rather, because his horizon will shortly be contracted to one land and people, use to the utmost the opportunity he now has of a wide and comprehensive survey of mankind. \par \par The sum of the whole matter is that it is of a hundredfold more importance what the missionary is, when he goes to the mission-field, than what he takes with him, whether of mental or material possessions. A bodily frame of balanced vigour and endurance, a mind that, while holding firm the great verities of the faith, has exercised itself in such wide and various observation of men and things that it is flexible, sympathetic, adaptable to the most novel conditions, and a spirit utterly loyal to Christ, ever humbly ready to do \ldblquote the service that His will appoints \ldblquote : these constitute the essentials of home preparation for the mission-field. \par \par \par \par \par \pard\cf1\lang1034\expndtw-7\f2\fs23\par } A QA08 - Work Abroad{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}{\s2 heading 2;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\lang1033\kerning32\b\f0\fs32 VIII WORK ABROAD \par \f1\fs24\par \pard\keepn\s2\sb240\sa60\kerning0\i\f0Ffs32 IX THE HOME MINISTRY AND FOREIGN MISSIONS \par \pard\nowidctlpar\kerning0\b0\f1\fs24\par \pard\keepn\s2\sb240\sa60\b\i\f0\fs28 THE RKV. W. D. MACKENZIE, D.D. \par \pard\nowidctlpar\b0\i0\f1\fs24\par \par IT is not easy for the present writer to deal with this subject without being both frank and personal. \par \par Perhaps the chief value of anything he has to say rnay arise from his o\\vn experience. For one thing, it is just my personal experience which makes it difficult for me to advise others; for my own interest in foreign missions began in the fact that I was born on the mission-field, the son of missionaries, and that ere I was ten years of age I already had been drawn into the active work of teaching. This teaching was simple enough. It consisted in helping native boys of twenty years old or upwards to read a simple lesson-book and to take their first steps in the reading of the New Testament. It was with a glow of surprise and delight that I heard my father many years afterwards say that the first of those whom his little son had taught was now one of the most successful and intrepid native evangelists. The fact that I did not become a missionary is due to various personal causes and conditions; but it has enabled me in the home-field to look from a peculiar point of view upon the whole matter. \par \par \par 208 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINIS TR Y \par \par I \par \par In the first place there came to the present writer by a kind of birthright the instinct for regarding the whole world, rather than any portion of it, as the field of Christian service. The famous words of the great evangelist, \ldblquote The world is my parish,\rdblquote are words which ought to be to-day in the heart of every Christian minister. All the nations of the world and the remotest corners of the earth have within the last fifty years been drawn together in a marvellous way. A survey of the world is possible to almost every one every day as he opens his morning newspaper. Races that were far apart are drawn into the closest sympathy by commerce and political relationship. The standards of education that have been attained by European races are spreading over the world. New cords of sympathy are binding the hearts of the nations, and mankind is becoming indeed one people, realizing its common interests, and facing, as we hope, a common destiny. \par \par The very phrase \ldblquote going abroad \ldblquote is changing its meaning by subtle gradations. As travel increases the formidable elements which belonged to it of old are gradually disappearing. When multitudes of people cross oceans and continents every year and throw themselves into foreign lands among people speaking other languages than their own, and when they do this not only on business but for the mere pleasure of doing it, they are changing the meaning both of the word and of the fact \ldblquote abroad.\rdblquote The student in modern colleges and universities is beginning to feel as if his education were not complete unless, during his vacations or at the close of his course, he is able to pass into other lands \par \par THE HOME M1NISTR Y AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 209 \par \par and study under the guidance of those who belong to another people than his own. What we see growing up before us and within us is a new racial consciousness, a wonderful feeling for humanity as a whole. \par \par The interpretation of this new attitude of the human spirit lies surely before every Christian minister as a part of his task. The statesman and the economist, the literary man culling the flowers from every climate of thought and feeling, the traveller moving from country to country in search of health or knowledge or amusement, are all, in a manner, creating and interpreting this sentiment. But the Christian thinker and teacher has it as one of his sublime tasks to see deeply into the meaning of the old new fact and to make that meaning felt wherever he is at work. Manifestly this must lead to an enrichment of his Christian consciousness. \par \par But in saying this last word we have passed over to the spiritual, the religious side of things. The Christian minister, in realizing the unity of the races, must inevitably realize the unity of the Church\rquote s task in different lands. Haunted and weakened by a sense of the divisions in the Church of Christ, the rivalries and animosities of its more widely separated sections, he is yet compelled by his very calling to think of Christianity as a whole, and in its bearing upon the world, as that is now presented to his view. He must undoubtedly look upon the Church and its task, and especially upon his own task as a minister of the Church, in relation to his own particular portion of that great body of Christ. \par \par But, as he does so, he will realize that the Church is now a pervading presence throughout the world, and that his own portion of it is doing but one part of the \par \par 210 PREPARA T1ON FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR Y \par \par whole work which the Spirit of God is doing for man kind. He will be compelled, as he ponders this matter, to realize that \ldblquote home minister\rdblquote and \ldblquote foreign missionary\rdblquote are gradually losing their distinction, just as the phrase \ldblquote abroad\rdblquote is being re-interpreted for the general mind of civilized peoples. There is no real distinction between the functions of the man who declares the Gospel and guides the Church in one land and those which the same man would exercise in another land. The differences are merely relative to those differences of language and climate and social manner and custom which are destined to grow less and less obtrusive as time goes on. Moreover, he will recognize the fact that the phrases \ldblquote Christian land \ldblquote and \ldblquote heathen land\rdblquote are beginning to lose their meaning. \par \par They shade into one another. No longer can we speak bluntly of certain countries as being Christian while we call others un-Christian. The world has been, during the past year, studying Russia and Japan as they stand face to face. Some good people were pained for a while to think that a heathen country was in the_ very act of conquering and triumphing over a Christian country. But as the two nations have faced each other in battle on sea and land, the question has become a very real one in many minds as to which country is the more Christian, judging by the spirit and conduct of those who have represented them in actual warfare. \par \par The Japanese army has had hundreds of thousands of New Testaments and other Christian books circulated through it by earnest Japanese workers. It would be hard to prove that Russia as a whole, judged as a nation, is at this moment more Christian than Japan. \par \par The fact is that so-called Christian lands are only \par \par THE HOME MINIS TR Y AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 2 1 1 \par \par partially Christianized, even at the best, and that practically all so-called heathen lands are to-day also partially Christianized, in however small a degree. \par \par The Christian minister will, therefore, as he thinks of each and every land, increasingly realize that he belongs to the Church of Christ which is present in all lands, that he is one of a mighty army of men and women who are serving his Lord under every climate. \par \par The more this simple and grand fact is pondered and taken to one\rquote s heart, the more does it thrill one with a great joy, with a profound sense of the glory of Christ, and with an invincible faith in the coming conquest of the world to His worship. Moreover, as the number of what we call foreign missionaries increases, so does every intelligent Christian minister find himself connected by personalities of acquaintanceship and friend ship with people all over the world who are his fellow ministers. His school and college mates, the fellow members of his own church, perhaps, are now in China or in India, while he works in Europe or America. \par \par He must have something of a narrow heart and mind if his thought does not often go out to them and embrace them with affection in the sense of a common faith and in the glorious fellowship of a common service. \par \par II \par \par If this sublime vision, of the whole Church of Christ working upon and redeeming the whole world, is to be no fading impulse, but a lasting inspiration, it will have to be retained by conscious determination and pains taking method. The Christian minister will find it necessary to take various definite and even common\par \par 2 1 2 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRIS TIA N MINIS TR Y \par \par place steps to keep this picture before his eyes and this passion in his heart. Let me name some of these in as simple and modest a manner as possible. \par \par In the first place, the man who desires as a minister to realize the full meaning of the ministry of Christ will do well to give foreign missions, as such, a place in his own prayers and in the making of his own pecuniary gifts. It is surely not necessary to dwell on this at length; and yet let me say a word or two, lest some should think these efforts less important or more easy than they really are. It will be the duty of the minister both to lead his people in prayer for the extension of the church, and to give them opportunity for subscribing to foreign missionary societies. Need I say that much of the health of his church in these matters, as in all others, will depend upon his private and personal habits, upon his own living example? Now we, who believe in prayer, believe in it both as a means for calling down the blessing of God on others and for enabling us to realize more vividly the reality of the eternal kingdom. It is as we kneel and pray for the men we know and the fields all over the world in which we are interested, that both they have received blessing, and we ourselves have entered into the meaning of that blessing. The minister who does not pray in his own heart and solitude for the world\rquote s salvation can hardly claim to realize either what the world or its salvation fully means. And again, it is a matter of everyday experience that nothing stimulates personal interest more than personal giving. This is true, as we all know, of the people in our churches. Let them only be drawn to make contribution to some cause, arid it at once stands in a new relation to their whole \par \par THE HOME MINTS TR Y AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 2 1 3 \par \par thought and feeling. The man who will begin, even as a theological student, both to pray and to give for the cause of foreign missions will find himself drawn into a deeper and a wider interest in them, into a more powerful conviction of their necessity and their glory. \par \par But this will lead on, in the next place, and most naturally, to the habit of reading and studying the history and nature of what we call foreign missionary work. After all, we must remember that this is but part of the general history of the Church, and that it ought to be, for us who live to-day, its most fascinating section. \par \par The romance of Christianity has not faded. To-day it is the First Century in many lands, and the old problems are being studied and worked out before our very eyes. \par \par The ever-living Spirit of God, Who inspired the ancient Church, is working His own moral and social miracles as powerfully and as gloriously as ever. He is producing personalities no less striking than those of the early Fathers, demanding sacrifices no less complete, urging to martyrdoms no less terrific. The mighty work is going on before us with its power to stir the blood and confirm the faith of us all. Every minister of the Gospel ought to become familiar by constant reading with the progress of the Church to-day, with the conquest which his Christ is making among the hearts of men. In the theological school with which I am connected it is required that each professor be responsible for some one of the great missionary fields of the world; that he shall keep himself up in the progress of the Gospel within that field; and that he shall offer brief courses of ten or fifteen lectures to the students, who, on the other hand, are urged to select these \par courses as part of their curriculum. In this way I \par \par \par 2T4 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par emphasis is laid upon the point I am now urging, that every minister should get into the habit of reading and thinking definitely and directly of individual mission-fields. The relative literature to-day abounds. \par \par Whether you think of Africa or India, of China or Japan, of South America or the South Seas, the articles and books which are constantly appearing, and which are within the reach of nearly every minister, are in numerable. Moreover, they are fascinating. They take us into the heart of strange civilizations, and reveal to us the religious life, the political institutions, the social conditions of the various races. Books and articles in all manner of periodicals describe the progress of the Gospel among these races. It is a good thing that a man should begin to read this literature while he is yet a student, and that his mind should have early given to it a bias of interest and habit of attention toward this theme. \par \par And this leads me to note one of the most powerful ways which can be employed for sustaining a living interest in this vast and divine work. Nearly every minister has it within his power to become personally acquainted with a large number of missionaries. Apart altogether from my special acquaintance with South African missionaries I am able to count among my acquaintances literally scores of missionaries in other parts of the world. These I have heard and met at missionary conventions. Or I have come in contact with them during their visits to the churches in cities in which I have lived. This is no peculiar or unusual experience. \par \par It is within the reach of every man who will deliberately seek it, for his own sake and for the sake of his work. \par \par And here let it be said once more that there are no more \par \par THE HOME MINIS TR Y A ND FOREIGN MISSIONS 2 1 5 \par \par interesting men to be met by us than these heralds of the Cross in heathen lands. It is with me a firm conviction that the average missionary is, in discipline of mind and culture of spirit, above the average home minister. The reasons for this are natural and numerous. \par \par For one thing, nearly every missionary has been compelled to master at least one language other than his own, and many missionaries have mastered more than one. Moreover, his work makes him a teacher and an administrator on a large scale. He is face to face with a much larger parish, with more complex problems than those which the minister of a home parish ordinarily has to face. Going out after a complete curriculum in the home-land he finds himself entering on a further stage of personal education, one which calls for the strenuous exertion of all his powers. No one can meet these men in private and personal intercourse without finding himself possessed of a life-long interest in their work on those distant fields. He will naturally look for their reports in the missionary magazines. Everything they say and do will be more vivid and real, and the wonder and power of the missionary life will come home to him with a distinctness and impressiveness which otherwise it could not have. \par \par This implies, of course, that every home minister will desire to read at least one periodical which issues from the foreign missionary Committee or Board of his own Church. \par \par Ill \par One of the hardest problems which every earnest minister has to face is that of maintaining the interest \par \par 216 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par of his people in foreign missions. The man who has endeavoured to carry out for himself the suggestions which have been sketched above, will be impelled to seek in every way to infuse missionary enthusiasm into his own congregation. One cannot but be amused to think of the innumerable and sometimes even petty plans which have been employed by enthusiastic ministers for this purpose. I have a deep distrust of all merely mechanical devices and superficial attractions for drawing men to the church or for interesting them in its fundamental work. The methods which in the end build up the strong church and create in it the great enthusiasm are quiet and slow. They alone build up a habit, they alone give a permanent character; and they do this by awakening deep convictions and encouraging constant practical efforts. \par \par In the first place, the minister will naturally ask himself whether he ought to preach about missions. \par \par Some have been in the habit of giving to their people a monthly missionary sermon; and this is, no doubt, a wise plan. But it is not easy to carry this on inde finitely unless the preacher is himself constantly in touch with an ever-enlarging missionary field. He will find that it does not in the end produce the conviction he desires, simply to hammer away at the principles of missions, nor to indulge in constant exhortations. He will find it necessary to be varied in his method. But if he will only take as much trouble with this as with other portions of his ministry, he will have his reward. \par \par The field of missionary biography is very large, and it is fascinating. Some men can handle biographical sermons with great skill, and they will find that this tends to create and sustain a sense of the reality and \par \par THE HOME MINISTRY AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 217 \par \par the glory of missionary labour in the hearts of their people. \par \par Others attach great importance to what is called the missionary prayer-meeting, and in a large number of churches one prayer-meeting in each month is given to this subject. The sad fact is, that in perhaps a majority of churches this is the meeting which is most poorly attended. Somehow or another, the announcement that it is \ldblquote missionary night\rdblquote seems to afford an excuse for many regular attendants to be absent. Here again, of course, some ministers make a great success of the missionary prayer-meeting by the manner in which they handle it. Not content with a dry reading of reports, they take the trouble to make the topic for the evening definite and interesting. There is no reason, in the nature of the case, why this should not be the most popular week-night service in every church in a Christian land. \par \par Here I may be allowed once more to refer to personal experience. Having tried these various methods and having learned to attach real value to the use of missionary biographies in the pulpit, I have yet found by far the most fruitful method to be that of treating the missionary field as part of the total experience of the Church, to which continuous reference must be made, and from which continuous illustration may be drawn. In the sermon of any Sunday, in the address of any prayer-meeting, and also in prayer, the minister can naturally, enthusiastically, and wisely keep the mind of his people in touch with the foreign missionary work; so that they will come to feel that it is no mere special subject forced upon their attention, and which they must make an effort to understand, but \par \par 218 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par that it is part of the experience of the Church and the world to-day, and that it belongs as much to the atmosphere of their life as a congregation, as the story of the New Testament. This habit of continual reference will itself grow out of those attitudes of mind and methods of study which I have described above. Professor Lindsay, in his book on The Christian Ministry in the Early Church has shown how constantly the experience of the mission-field throws light upon the growth of Christian institutions and customs in the first century of our era. That which is a marked feature of his book can be likewise a living part of the life work of every preacher. Week by week he can make his congregation feel that they are in living touch with the Christians of heathen lands, and with those who have gone forth to bring them to Christ. \par \par There is one portion of the minister\rquote s work which too many of us have neglected, but which must be counted as of the utmost importance. This is the duty of winning young men for the ministry of Christ both at home and abroad. The man who believes in his ministry, whose joy is found in its life, knows that the Church cannot possibly grow unless young men are constantly coming forward to undertake this task. \par \par One finds that the motives are many and mixed which, on the one hand prevent young men from entering the ministry, and on the other prevent their ministers from urging them to do so. Not only does the great variety of professions in our day present many strong pleas for devotion to other high and noble callings, but the very nature of the ministry itself seems to suffer by contrast with these. For a man who is sensitive and conscientious knows how great are the responsibilities \par \par THE HOME MINISTRY AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 219 \par \par assumed by the minister of Christ; and from these he shrinks. He finds that to \ldblquote decide for the ministry,\rdblquote as the phrase goes, seems to put him in a class by himself, and he finds himself thereafter treated in a way in which men destined to secular callings do not treat each other. At once the mind of the young man becomes busied with the possibilities of good which he can do to his fellow-men in other callings, and he asks himself whether a Christian layman may not be more influential in many directions than an ordained minister; whether he will not live a freer life, a more natural life, as a layman than as a clergyman. Before all such arguments the only real force that can prevail is the conviction of the peculiar nature and the immeasurable value of the Gospel of Christ, and hence of the life which is given entirely to its proclamation. Without depreciating in the least the values of other professions, the Christian man may well look upon the life that is given to the service of the pulpit as one containing an intensity of value which is unique. Without any conceit nay rather in the utmost humility the man who yields himself to the call of God\rquote s Spirit and decides to be a preacher of Christ may feel in his heart, and say with his lips, that he has obeyed \ldblquote the call of the Highest \ldblquote ; that to him there does seem no greater service which he can render to man than to help in lifting all the professions and all aspects of social life into the light of the Spirit of God. \par \par But we are dealing here rather with the duties of those who already are in the ministry, and one must acknowledge that there is much to say for the modern hesitancy to urge young men to enter upon this calling. \par \par For he who is in the ministry knows its limitations as \par \par 220 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR Y \par \par well as its powers, its sorrows as well as its joys, its responsibilities and dangers as well as its emancipations and triumphs. He hesitates to use his influence over another and a younger mind in the solemn matter of deciding its life work. The one consideration which can lead him to undertake this duty faithfully and constantly must be drawn from the importance of the calling itself and from the fact that in our day young men do feel these difficulties about it. In selecting and advising those whom he would wish to enter the ministry, the faithful pastor must select the ablest and seek to discourage those whose qualifications would manifestly be insufficient for the severe demands of this career. \par \par But we have to deal here specially with the arguments for the foreign missionary field. Shall the minister who sees how great is the need at home of the very ablest and most consecrated men urge such to devote themselves to the foreign field? Here, again, I may be forgiven a personal reference. From the Institution with which I am connected there have gone out during the last three or four years some of its most powerful minds and brilliant scholars to foreign missionary work. I was recently asked by one of the leaders of a great missionary Board whether we in any way grudged these men, whether as an Institution we felt it to be a loss that they should go abroad instead of staying on the home field, soon to assume the positions of responsibility for which their abilities and spirit manifestly would destine them. I replied with out hesitation that I knew of no one of our professors who cherished the least desire to withhold such gifts from the foreign missionary field. We count it as one \par \par THE HOME MINIS TR Y AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 22 1 \par \par of the highest honours of such a theological institution that it should be represented among heathen lands by its noblest sons. So ought, I believe, the minister of every parish to feel: so ought he to cherish in his heart and mind the glory of the whole Church and the need of the whole world, that he is willing to see even the best of his flock go into distant places to preach Christ. \par \par A number of years ago the Church Missionary Society undertook to send out a very large number of missionaries for whose salaries it had no provision in sight. The leaders of that great Society pressed on with unabated faith, and they discovered that the best way for securing a large income was to persuade individual congregations to assume the responsibility of maintaining individual missionaries on the foreign field. \par \par This plan has been worked by them with the highest success. Three or four years ago it was adopted by the great American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions, and they are continually extending this plan, especially among the Congregational churches with which that Board is most closely affiliated. They have found that churches in all parts of the country respond with delight to the suggestion that they should raise annually the salary of one missionary, who usually becomes a member of their church and whose name is printed on all their official documents, along with that of their home minister, as their own missionary in foreign fields. The missionary corresponds with that church, and, when on furlough, counts it his joy to be among them and to become known to them as one of themselves. This method of connecting foreign stations with definite parishes in the home-land by \par \par 222 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par \par threads of generosity and prayer has resulted in a great increase of interest in the foreign missionary work. It emphasizes the unity of the life of the Church in all parts of the world. It broadens the outlook of all the congregation. They have a new kind of interest in missionary work, and a new stimulus towards its support. It gradually comes to appear, as it ought always to be, a natural part of their undertakings as a church. \par \par If these and other methods be employed by the ministers on the home fields, they will find not only that their own interest in this great enterprise is kept continually alive, but that the interest of their people can be awakened to a very high degree. The reflex blessings on the home Church are great, as many can testify who have found that to fill their congregation with an enthusiasm for foreign missionary work has been the means of opening the hearts of the people to the preaching of the Gospel and to the influences of the Spirit of God. \par \par IV \par \par It remains to say but a word, and in that word I must return to the starting-point. In those who are most earnest about the pursuit of the Christian life, there is a great hunger for a faith so strong, so full of joy, that it amounts to an absolute assurance of a personal salvation which is final and complete. As long as this desire is merely individual it cannot be completely fulfilled. Professor A. B. Davidson, in describing the growth of prophetism in Israel, and especially that movement by which religion passed \par \par THE HOME MINIS TR Y AND FOREIGN MISSIONS 223 \par \par from a merely national to an individual form, says, \ldblquote Individualism is universalism. The individual is of no nation.\rdblquote This witness is as true, as it is for some, no doubt, startling. Those who realize that God strips the individual of all accident, and deals with him as he is in his own personal character, realize also most clearly that God stands in the same relation to all individuals throughout the world. But to us the Gospel of Christ comes with a slightly different emphasis upon this very fact. In the glorious word, \ldblquote Whosoever will,\rdblquote which evangelists have so rightly used, and with such power, throughout the history of evangelism, the universalism of the Gospel is first of all asserted. God is no respecter of persons. His Son died for a world of human beings. His purpose is to redeem mankind. His personal call is going out to every one of His creatures. It is when we realize this most strongly, that in our hearts we have the courage to say \ldblquote I will \ldblquote ; and it is in that very act, taking to the individual self the grace of God which is offered to every self, that we reach the firmest ground of personal assurance. But evidently in this very act, in which a man puts his trust in God finally and takes the love of God to himself most humbly, he has included others. \par \par His individuality does not stand alone even for his own eyes. The \ldblquote Whosoever will \ldblquote with which God challenges him prevents him from ever being able to consider his own salvation as summing up God\rquote s purpose. Nay, rather, God\rquote s purpose with him is bound up with His purpose concerning a multitude of brethren. Now, in proclaiming the Gospel in his own parish, a minister of to-day ought, I most deeply hold, so to present the Gospel that this its double aspect \par \par 224 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRIS TIAN MINISTR Y \par \par shall carry all convincing power to the hearts of his people. It is with their eyes upon the world that the individual members of his congregation will learn to obey in their individual lives the great call from the Cross and the Throne. But this universality of the Gospel is an empty form a mere logical presupposition for individual faith unless that individual faith makes it real by individual effort. The man who accepts the Gospel on this ground can only save his sincerity and make the ground real for himself by doing something for all those others to whom it is also offered, to whom it must become real through his agency. \par \par His will to accept must rest on, and it must adopt, God\rquote s will to save others. Universal proclamation of His Gospel is a command of Christ which is not arbitrary. It arises out of the very nature of that Gospel and the very experience which His disciples have received. And no Christian people have under stood this glorious life nor received all its meaning who do not feel that in accepting its benefits for themselves they stand inwardly committed to proclaim it and to share those blessings with all others whom, directly or indirectly, they can reach. \par \par When all those in preparation for the ministry seek even in their theological curriculum to look thus upon their career, and thus to link the home with the foreign fields, and the universal Gospel with individual faith, there will arise an enthusiasm for the spread of Christianity mightier than anything we have seen resistless and triumphant. \par \par \par \par \par \par \pard\cf1\lang2058\f2\fs23\par } | m10 - The Student Christian Movement{\rtf1\ansi\anЃv -M09 - The Home Ministry Foreign Missions{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}{\s2 heading 2;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\lang1033\kerning32\b\f0\sicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}{\f1\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Georgia;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}{\s2 heading 2;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\lang1033\kerning32\b\f0\fs32 THE STUDENT CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT\par \pard\keepn\s2\sb240\sa60\kerning0\i\fs28 THE REV. J. H. OUJHAM, M.A. \par \pard\nowidctlpar\b0\i0\f1\fs24\par \par \pard\keepn\s1\sb240\sa60\kerning32\b\par \pard\nowidctlpar\kerning0\b0 IF the ideas which have inspired the making of this book, and which are set forth in the opening chapter, are a true reading of history, the Church of to-day is confronted with a task of unparalleled and overwhelming magnitude. As the preceding chapters have sought to show, the greatness of this task demands, from all who would enter the sacred ranks of the Ministry, the most thorough and strenuous preparation, and the consecration of every gift of body, mind, and spirit to the fulfilment of the high responsibility which God in the workings of His providence has laid upon the Church of Christ at the present time. It is history through its slow but irresistible development that has laid upon us this gigantic responsibility from which we cannot escape. Can we find in the same history any thing to nerve us for the struggle, any encouragement to believe that God will give grace for the fulfilment of this great duty? We believe that we can find much, the resources furnished by the discoveries of science, the accessibility of the world, the ease with which ideas can be communicated, the tendencies of theological thought, the general movement towards unity among \par \par 228 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR Y \par \par Christians, and the willingness to overlook lesser points of difference in the face of the urgent duty of service. \par \par But we wish to speak here of another sign in history, even though it be a cloud as small as a man\rquote s hand, that as truly as any other seems to be rich with promise and inspiration. It is that young men and women have seen visions and have begun to dream dreams. The great movements which have ended by changing the face of society have commonly had their birth in the secret workings of the human spirit. \par \ldblquote The idea is the mother of the fact, and gradually fashions the world to its own image.\rdblquote The vision is often the pledge of its own fulfilment, the desire the first step towards its own realization. Is it a matter of small consequence that an enthusiasm for the realization of the ideals which we are considering is stirring the Universities and Colleges of the world? Is it not possible that the Student Christian Movement stand in a providential relation to the great tasks which have been laid upon the Church, and that in virtue of that relation it has an important function to serve in aiding the preparation of those who look forward to entering the ministry at the present day? In order to answer these questions let us examine the strength, character and aims of this Movement. \par \par The World\rquote s Student Christian Federation has now a membership of 103, 000 students and professors. \par \par There are organized national Movements in America and Canada, Great Britain and Ireland, France, Hol land Belgium and Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, India and Ceylon, China and Korea, Japan, Australasia, and South Africa; while the Federation is influencing students \par \par THE STUDENT CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT 229 \par \par nearly forty different countries. Over 200 secretaries, all university men, most of them graduates and salaried, are giving their time to the work. Twenty periodicals are issued by the different national Movements, and at least 450 books and pamphlets have been published, all bearing upon the promotion of Christian life and work among and by students. \par \par In Great Britain twelve years ago there were Christian Unions in twenty universities and colleges. In 1893 these were united in a national organization. \par \par There are now 120 Christian Unions in the various universities and colleges of the United Kingdom, with a membership of about 4, 500 students, apart from the forty-one theological colleges which are affiliated to the Movement. The work demands the time of seven secretaries, all graduates, giving their whole time to the service of the Movement. We shall consider, first of all, the activities of the movement in universities and in colleges other than theological. \par \par The first aim of each Christian Union is to lead students to become disciples of Jesus Christ. Loyalty to Christ has been the key-note of the Movement from the beginning. The British Movement has adopted as a basis of membership the following declaration: \ldblquote I \par desire in joining this Union to declare my faith in Jesus Christ as my Saviour, my Lord and my God.\rdblquote This basis is not theological but personal. It is simple and comprehensive, yet Christian and aggressive. It makes the foundation of the Movement loyalty to Jesus Christ. The aim of the Movement is to persuade students to acknowledge His lordship and supremacy. \par \par By means of special evangelistic services, and through the work of the travelling secretaries, it is sought to \par \par 2 3 o PREP A RA TION FO R THE CHRIS T1A N MINTS TR Y \par \par keep steadily before students the claims of Christ upon their allegiance. Most important of all, a constant effort is made to impress upon Christian students their responsibility to their fellow- students, and to remind them that personal influence is the most powerful in fluence in the world, while university life with its free social intercourse, its intimate friendships, its spirit of inquiry and susceptibility to all impressions, offers a unique opportunity for the exercise of such influence. \par \par It is not possible to state the results of such work by means of statistics, but there has been abundant evidence that they have been real. And apart from those who through work of this kind have been definitely and manifestly led to become disciples of Christ, there have been hundreds of others whom the Christian Union, by the mere fact of its existence, and by the help and stimulus and companionships it has afforded, has kept from the temptations of university life, and has sent out into the world clearly committed to the Christian cause and firmly rooted in Christian principles. \par \par A second distinctive aim of the Movement is to impress upon students the importance of forming regular habits of prayer and study of the Bible. \par \par Emphasis is laid upon the duty of setting apart a fixed time each day, at the beginning if possible, for communion with God. The leaders of the Movement have been possessed from its beginning with the conviction that prayer is the great secret of the Chris tian\rquote s strength, the chief means of the advancement of the Kingdom of God. They regard the remarkable development of the Movement as being from first to last an answer to prayer. And hence at all the Conferences of the Movement, in the addresses of the travel\par \par THE STUDENT CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT 231 \par \par ling secretaries, in the magazine and other publications of the Movement, the duty and the privilege of prayer is a subject that always holds a prominent place. \par \par Along with this recognition of the supreme importance of prayer the Movement has realized that, as Professor Garvie has shown in a previous chapter of this book, the Bible is the chief source of our knowledge of Christ, and that the inspiration which comes from a first-hand knowledge of its teaching is the primary condition of effective service. Hence one of the most characteristic and largely developed parts of its work has been to promote regular, systematic, intelligent study of the Bible in the colleges. There are now 58, 000 students enrolled in Bible-classes and Bible Circles connected with the various national Movements; ten years ago there were less than 11, 000. In the British universities and colleges about 3, 500 students meet regularly in Circles for the study of the Bible. A considerable number of text-books have been issued as aids in such study, some of which have reached an edition of 10, 000 copies. The far-reaching significance of this work is obvious. In spite of many attacks upon the Bible it is being more widely read and studied in the colleges than ever. At the formative period of their lives men are learning to understand and to love the book in which they find Jesus Christ. \par \par But the aims and methods of which we have been speaking are not an end in themselves. They are dominated, inspired, and transfigured by a still larger purpose. An apprehension of the great need of the world and of the critical nature of the present opportunity, and a conviction that in the colleges of the world are to be found the men and women who can \par \par 2 j2 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR Y \par \par answer to the call of the hour, has been from the first the controlling motive of the Movement. It has been dominated throughout by the missionary outlook. \par \par The British Movement had its birth in an outburst of missionary enthusiasm. The first conference of British students was summoned in 1893 by the Student Volunteer Missionary Union, a union of those who have declared it to be their \ldblquote purpose, if God permit, to become foreign missionaries; \ldblquote and it was at this Conference that the larger and wider organization was formed, now known as the Student Christian Movement. The Student Volunteer Missionary Union still retains its place as a separate but integral part of the larger Movement. Since its inception in 1892, 2, 500 students in Great Britain and Ireland have enrolled themselves as members, and of these 1, 100 are already at work in non-Christian countries. From North America, during the last fifteen years, 2, 400 Student Volunteers have gone out to the mission-field. The Movement has not only kept the appeal for personal consecration to the great task of world-evangelization in the forefront of its work; it has recognized that if this task is to be accomplished the Church as a whole must possess an intelligent knowledge of its difficulties, its problems, its progress, and its needs. It has there foreset itself to promote an intelligent knowledge of missionary work among all students, whether they are likely to go abroad or to stay at home. In sixty-two universities and colleges in Great Britain there are Bands meeting regularly for the study of foreign missions. There are over 1, 600 students engaged in such systematic study. The Movement has published a series of Text-books and Outline Studies on various \par \par THE STUDENT CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT 233 \par \par fields and aspects of missionary work, with references to appropriate literature. These have had an extensive circulation outside the colleges, and it is generally recognized that the educational policy of the Student Volunteer Missionary Union has given a new impulse to the intelligent study of missions in the Church as a whole. \par \par A profound realization of the needs of non-Christian countries could not but lead to a fuller recognition of the immense problems which the Church must face at home. The Movement has during the past few years become more and more alive to the significance of the Social Problem. It has not been possible to start a Union of those who purpose to dedicate their lives to social service, similar to the Student Volunteer Missionary Union, on account of the obvious difficulty of finding a sufficiently definite basis of membership. But the Movement is seeking to give the duty of Christianizing social relationships at home a place in its activities side by side with the duty of evangelizing the world. It has organized in the colleges Bands for the study of social problems similar to those for missionary study. It has issued literature dealing with the study of social questions. At its Conferences, and in the meetings of individual Christian Unions, the appeal for social service occupies a prominent place. The message which the Movement endeavours to proclaim in the colleges is that the Church is confronted with a twofold task, of the utmost constraint and urgency in both its aspects, and calling by its magnitude and complexity for whole-hearted dedication and unflinching service. \par \par It is, perhaps, when we consider the international \par \par 234 PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY \par  \par character and relationship of the Student Movement that its importance and possibilities are most clearly apparent. We find a great network of organization, uniting the colleges of the world in a vast brotherhood, and providing channels for the transmission of spiritual forces. Christian students throughout the world have been brought into touch with one another. The strong are able to help the weak. Impulses, ideas, aspirations, spiritual energies can make their influence deeply felt in other countries besides the one in which they have had their birth. The history of the Federation has already shown that these things are not possibilities but facts. The British Movement owes its strength, its thorough organization, and its comprehensive aims in very large measure to help given by the American Movement, especially in the early days. The majority of the Continental Movements were started as the result of inspiration received from Great Britain, either through visits from representatives of the British Movement, or through the presence of their own students at British Conferences. The Australasian national Movement which now has upwards of 1, 700 members, was organized by Mr. Mott, the General Secretary of the Federation, in one of his tours round the world. Little groups of Protestant Christian students in such countries as Russia, Spain, and Italy, have received much encouragement in their difficult work by being enabled to attend the Conferences of more fully developed Movements. A short time ago a representative of the British Movement had the opportunity of addressing about a thousand students, Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Jews, in Budapesth. \par \par These are but a few instances of the opportunities of \par \par THE STUDENT CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT 235 \par \par far-reaching influence which this international organ ization affords. \par \par Each national Movement has a clearly marked individuality of its own. Each is especially strong on some particular side of its work. The Federation makes it possible that such special gifts should minister to the good of the whole. The American Movement offers a constant example and stimulus to the other Movements in the emphasis which it lays upon direct evangelistic work among students, and the success which has attended its work in this direction. \par \par The British Movement has been especially successful in its work among women students, and has been the means of initiating important work among the women students on the Continent. The Dutch Movement has been characterized by a deep conviction of the importance of Christianizing public life and public policy; one of the most effective addresses ever given at a British Conference was delivered upon this subject by one of the leaders of the Dutch Movement. The German Movement lays special emphasis upon the importance of deep personal piety, and has developed an important work among schoolboys. Through the interchange of literature, through the visits of the General Secretary, and especially through the biennial Conference of the Federation, at which the official representatives of the Movements of all countries come into contact with one another, the ideals, the aims, and the methods of work of each Movement become an example, inspiration, and stimulus to the rest. The intimate relations fostered by the Federation between the various Movements ensure that the broad and statesmanlike aims and methods which characterize \par \par 236 PREP A RA TI0^ 7 FOR THE CHRISTIAN MIN1STR Y \par \par the Movement as a whole, the note of personal loyalty to Christ, the emphasis on the importance of personal work among individuals, the prominent place assigned to the study of the Bible, the broad outlook upon the needs of the world and of modern life, the earnest appeal for personal dedication to the tasks awaiting our generation, are constantly kept before the minds of the leaders of the work in all countries. \par \par It is important, also, to bear in mind the direct relation which the Student Movement bears to the great problem of world-evangelization. It is a Movement which includes within its influence the students of the East as well as of the West. Some of the most successful meetings held by Mr. Mott in his tours round the world have been held in India, China, and Japan. A considerable number of men, who have been leaders in the student work in America, Great Britain, and the Continent, have gone out to work in the great university centres in Eastern lands. But far the most important result is that independent national Movements have now been formed in India and Ceylon, China and Korea, and Japan. The great ideals which are the inspiration of this whole Movement are working as a living force among the students of the East. \par \par The next biennial Conference of the Federation will be held in Japan, and representatives of the Western Movements will travel thither to give and to receive counsel and inspiration. The Movement is no longer a movement of the West with its eyes directed east ward; it is a world-wide movement addressing itself to the fulfilment of a world-wide enterprise. It is almost impossible to exaggerate the significance of this close contact between East and West. We cannot \par \par THE STUDENT CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT 237 \par \par measure the explosive force of an idea, the transforming influence of an ideal. What if the ambitions that dominate this Movement should take a firm root in the colleges of the East? What if this Christian comradeship should help to mould men who will become apostles to their own people, and to strengthen them in their great battle for the faith? No one can calculate the issues involved in this association of the students of East and West in a great Christian brother hood united in a desire to advance the Kingdom of God.* \par \par In a Movement of the character that has been described it is obvious that theological students must have a place. If there is any force in the facts that have been adduced, it is clear that this Movement is a remarkable evidence of the working of God\rquote s hand in history. It represents a widespread and divinely inspired uprising of Christian students throughout the world to face the responsibilities which have been providentially laid upon our generation. In such a Movement students who are preparing for the Christian ministry must have an important share. Their lives have already been dedicated to the service of the ideals for which the Movement stands. In so far as their energies are being devoted to the realization of these ideals they are already sharing in its work and life. \par \par * Those who desire fuller information regarding the Student Christian Movement are referred to The Student Christian Movement (3^.), The Rise and Progress of the Student Christian Movement (reprinted from the University Review, 3^.), and especially to the Report of the Conference of the Worlds Student Christian Federation at Zeist (is.), all obtainable fiom the offices of the Student Christian Movement, 22, Warwick Lane, London, E.C. \par \par \par 2 3 8 PREP A RA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR Y \par \par Theological students are, moreover, the natural leaders of the Movement. Their special training is calculated to enable them to express religious feeling and aspiration in the most adequate and accurate forms, to distinguish the essential from the accidental in Christian experience, to understand the ways in which religious forces influence the world. If the fresh and vigorous energies of this Movement are to be directed into the most fruitful channels, if its abounding life is to express itself in the highest and truest forms, it must look for help and leadership to the theological colleges. \par \par What concerns us more directly in this chapter, however, is the question how this Movement can be of service to theological students in preparation for the Christian ministry. And I would say, in the first place, speaking from experience and with the deepest conviction, that it maybe the source of endless inspiration. \par \par It is an immense privilege to be allowed to live in one of the creative epochs of the world, in times that are alive with large ambitions and stirring hopes. And have we not here a Movement of striking extent and vitality, characterized beyond everything else by eager ambition and magnificent hopefulness? However immature may be many of its ideas, however far it may fall short in practice of its lofty ideals, can those ideals themselves fail to inspire us by their grandeur, their comprehensiveness, their very audacity? The secret of an effective ministry is inspiration. In future years amid the restricted interests of a country parish, under the crushing weight of the problems of our great cities, or in the isolation and immensity of the mission field, will it not mean much to us to have caught a \par \par THE STUDENT CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT 239 \par \par glimpse at the outset of our ministry of a glorious vision, to have belonged to a great brotherhood that dreamt of a regenerated world? Surely association during our student days with men of all races and of different theologies in common aspirations and common devotion to a tremendous but infinitely inspiring ideal must leave a mark upon our ministry that can never be effaced. \par \par The Student Christian Movement offers us, in the second place, the opportunity of coming into intimate relations with Christian students who are not students of theology. What theological student has not felt the peculiar temptations arising from the nature of his study? The duty of analyzing and testing our religious experience, the critical, minute, and specialized investigation of the sources of our faith, the endeavour to relate religious facts and experiences to the whole of know ledge, the assimilation of religious truth too rapidly to allow us to translate it into living practical experience how imperceptibly yet surely all these things hypnotize us into imagining that religion is a problem rather than a life. Deliverance, as we know, is to be found in practical Christian work. But practical work, especially in our large cities, often seems only to give rise to new and more serious problems. Is there not much to be gained from coming into close and intimate contact with men who have seldom thought of religion as a problem, but who know and experience it as a life, and who are in the freshness of the enthusiasm awakened by an apprehension of the grace of Christ? \par \par Nothing can be more important for our ministry than that we should be acquainted with the workings and power of the Gospel, that we should have known it as \par \par 240 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR Y \par \par a living force touching lives to finer issues and calling forth eager devotion, high resolves, and consecrated ambitions. There are special opportunities for learning this in contact with the stirring life of the Student Christian Movement. \par \par There is another temptation peculiar to the life of a theological student from which this Movement gives us the opportunity of escape. Provincialism is often regarded as a characteristic quality of the clerical mind. Perhaps the charge is not wholly without foundation. Both the training and the duties of the ministry tend to foster such a spirit. The very fact that our primary duty is the communication of positive truth is apt to lead us in the interests of our practical work to a hasty and imperfect synthesis; we have no time to endeavour to disentangle the essential from the accidental, for our work refuses to wait. The isolation of a minister in a country parish, the parochial outlook which prevails there, the deferential acknowledgment of him as an authority in both spiritual and other matters, all foster a provincial temper and contract the vision. But the most serious danger is found in the isolated life of a theological college. There our only companionship is with men who share in all important particulars the same point of view. One of the reasons why the college has a separate existence is that it may inculcate that particular view of Christian truth which is regarded as most adequate by the branch of the Church with which it is connected. When other views are presented it is in order that they may be shown to be mistaken. From this inevitable limitation of view which theological colleges, from their very nature, foster, the Student Movement, through its catholic and universal \par \par THE STUDENT CHRTSTIAN MOVEMENT 241 \par \par brotherhood, offers us deliverance. It does not overlook the important differences that divide Christians from one another. It does not aim at a union that should ignore or obliterate them. But it affords to men of all types of thought and temper an opportunity of coming to under stand one another, and of realizing their brotherhood in the presence of a large opportunity and a constraining duty. The responsibility is so tremendous that nothing short of the resources of the whole Christian Church can avail to meet it. However desirable it may be that each branch of the Church should address itself to the fulfilment of this common responsibility along the lines which it judges to be most in accordance with Divine truth, it can be nothing but sheer gain that each should realize how many other and kindred forces are working towards the same end. It is an experience of the highest educational value to be brought into contact with strenuous, devoted, effective, Christian effort proceeding along different lines from those to which we have been accustomed; to waken to the discovery that the missionary operations of our own branch of the Church are reaching only a little corner of the big world, and that the vastly bigger share of the work is being done by others. It is a gain to come into personal contact with men who remind us that the great task of world-evangelization is not, as we are occasionally inclined to think, a purely British enterprise, but that the American and Continental peoples whom they represent are co-operating in the great endeavour. It gives us a new idea of the size of the world and the exceeding grandeur of Christ\rquote s Kingdom. \par \par Can this Movement not render a real service to us in our preparation for the ministry in so far as it brings \par \par 242 PREP A RA T10N FOR THE CHRIS TIAN MINIS TR Y \par \par the theological colleges of Great Britain into touch with one another, furnishes the opportunity of more intimate knowledge by each of the others, and introduces them into a brotherhood of the colleges of the world? It will give us a broad and comprehensive outlook, a conception of the magnificent immensity of the Kingdom of God, that cannot fail to illuminate, enrich, and inspire our ministry. \par \par This Movement comes to us moreover with an appeal for personal consecration, self-discipline, and self sacrifice. To live in a time when men\rquote s hearts are being stirred by high ideals and the call of advance is being sounded, is a great privilege. It is also a great responsibility. The opportunities and responsibilities which the march of history has created, and the movement in the colleges in response to them, are a Divine call to every one who aspires to the Christian ministry. \par \par They call us to be worthy of the occasion. The fact that our generation has become conscious of a colossal task awaiting it calls for the consecration of every faculty which we possess. It demands the laborious training of the mind, the rigorous discipline of the will, the careful cultivation of habits of personal religion, which have been set f orth in preceding chapters of this book. Absolute dedication is required of us, and absolute dedication means the dedication of all our powers. The ideal which the Student Movement sets before itself is to maintain the broadest outlook upon life, and at the same time to assert uncompromisingly the duty of entire loyalty to Christ. One reason, perhaps, why our consecration is often so imperfect, is that our imagination has never been touched by an appeal sufficiently impressive and heroic to lift us above  \par \par THE STUDENT CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT 243 \par \par convention and routine. Such an appeal is made unceasingly by the Person and teaching of Christ. But it is through history and in society that the voice of Christ often reaches us, and that His demands are interpreted to us. The great ideals of which the Student Movement has caught a glimpse, and the eager responses which they have called forth in the colleges of the world, are an appeal for a more complete, sincere, and intelligent dedication of  our lives to Christ. \par \par In the emphasis which it has laid upon prayer, in the demonstration which it has itself been of the power of prayer, and in its insistence upon the importance of the study of the Bible, the Movement has been of help to many theological students. The prominent place which these have in the Movement has already been pointed out. The remarkable success of its efforts to promote systematic and intelligent study of the Bible can teach us a great deal regarding an important bran ch of the work of the Church, which, if certain theories regarding the Bible spread among the masses, may in the future require more attention and thought than has hitherto been given it. Much that is useful may be learned from the methods pursued in college Bible Circles, and from the carefully prepared text books issued by the Movement; still more from the visible demonstration of the interest which the Bible is able to awaken, and of the results to which its study leads. We who are so often compelled t o approach the Bible in a critical spirit and view it as a collection of historical documents will gain fresh inspiration as we see it working in the colleges as a living force and furnishing day by day nourishment for the human spirit. \par \par \par 244 \par \par \par PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN M TNISTRY \par \par One of the most practical ways in which the Movement can aid theological students in their preparation for the ministry is in the study of foreign missions and of social problems. It is a matter for surprise and regret that in most theological colleges no direct instruction is given regarding the nature and problems of the two supremely important tasks which confront the Church of to-day. Signs are not wanting in many quarters that this is an omission which is receiving serious attention and which will be remedied. In the meantime this vastly important equipment for the modern ministry must be sought largely by voluntary effort. Nothing can be of more importance to those who look forward to foreign missionary work or social service than that during their college course they should lay the foundations of a knowledge of the problems with which they will have to deal. Valuable suggestions with regard to such special preparation are given in the chapters on Work Abroad and Work in Great Cities. But it is no less essential that the larger number who will be engaged in the regular pastoral work of the ministry should possess an intimate acquaintance with the nature of the tasks which the Church as a whole is called to solve. It cannot be doubted that the home ministry holds the key to the solution of the missionary problem. It is the clergy and ministers at home who can educate the conscience of the people, who can raise up the army of workers needed for this great enterprise, and who can secure the necessary funds for their support. And is there not an urgent need for work of this kind if the tasks in question are to be taken seriously by the Church at all? \ldblquote vSo long as the evangelization of the world is \par \par THE STUDENT CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT 245 \par \par reckoned as one of a hundred objects of charity so long as the Missionary Society with its thousands or more agents of all kinds, with hundreds of schools, and with hospitals and dispensaries in many lands, is put, in regard to subscriptions, on a level with one local school or hospital so long as church decoration and music absorb funds for which missions languish in vain so long as the minister requires a l deputation to teach his congregation what he ought to teach them himself so long will the leadership required from the home ministry be regarded as conspicious by its absence.\rdblquote * It would be idle to deny that the attitude Mr. Eugene Stock here condemns is one widely prevalent in the Church. It is an attitude that must be made to disappear if w 7 e desire to see our ideals realized. There is laid upon the Christian ministry at the present day the great responsibility of making the Christian Church realize the magnitude and urgency of the great tasks with which it has been providentially confronted. If we are to fulfil that duty we must receive adequate preparation. In other words, the study of missions and of social problems must form part of our theological training. It is exceedingly difficult amid the multitudinous distractions of a minister\rquote s life to lay the foundations of a new branch of knowledge; it is not so difficult to keep up our reading on a subject the out lines of which we have already mastered. f The duty of \par * From the Introduction to Mr. J. R. Mott\rquote s 77/6 Home Ministry and Modern Missions (Hodder and Stoughton, $s. 6&lt;). \par \par Those who desire to serve the foreign missionary cause, although they cannot go abroad, will find this book of great service. \par \par t Cf. James Talks to Teachers on Psychology, p. 167, \ldblquote Few men ever do acquaint themselves with the principles of a new science \par \par 246 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR Y \par \par studying the problems of missions and of our great cities is imposed upon us by the ideals which we have set before us. It is here that the Student Movement can render important service. Through the accumulation of experience it can give valuable advice regarding the most helpful methods of study. Through its carefully prepared text-books it is able to make such study easier, more definite, more interesting, more rewarding. Its thorough work in this department is a distinct contribution to the solution of the great problems we have been discussing. \par \par What, then, are the practical issues of all that has been said? We see a widespread uprising of Christian students in response to the demands which God is making upon our generation. In such a movement we all desire to have a share. Our share as students consists in striving with all our power to bring the life of our College into harmony as far as possible with the ideals at which it aims. Each college has a spirit, a tone, an atmosphere, a tradition, which the students do a great deal to create, and which, in turn, leaves its impress upon those who come under its influence. Every effort to make the ideals of the Movement a living force in college is a participation in its work and life. Our personal life in college is inevitably moulding the lives of others. Let us therefore allow ourselves to become wholly possessed by these ideals. \par \par It may be that the college conducts a mission or settlement among the poor. Let us see that it obtains the loyal support of the students, and that the methods of \par after even twenty-five. If you do not study political economy in College, it is a thousand to one that its main conceptions will remain unknown to vou through life.\rdblquote \par \par \par \par THE STUDENT CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT 247 \par \par work adopted are the most intelligent, comprehensive, and educative possible. Efforts are made by the college to promote missionary interest in the Church by preaching, pleading a missionary scheme, or undertaking a \ldblquote Campaign \ldblquote among Christian Endeavour Societies. \par \par Let us see that such efforts are organized with thoroughness and care, and that the standards of work are the highest possible. In some colleges regular meetings are held, weekly or monthly, for purposes of discussion, or to listen to addresses. Let us make sure that the arrangement of the programme is not left to chance, but that the really important aspects of the present opportunity and the responsibility of the ministry are kept before the attention of the college. In many colleges the students meet regularly for united prayer. \par \par Let us do our utmost to save these meetings from coldness and formalism, and make them occasions of earnest, importunate, prevailing intercession. The study of foreign missions and of social problems is of the first importance if the aims of the Student Movement are to be attained. Let us take time and pains to make the study of these questions in our colleges as thorough, interesting, and useful as possible. \par \par Some of these suggestions may at first sight appear trivial. Nothing is trivial in relation to the circumstances which we are considering. The smallest influence exerted in a theological college will multiply itself a thousandfold. The lines which a man\rquote s ministry will follow are largely determined by the ideals which he forms during his time of preparation. Freshmen rapidly adapt themselves to the atmosphere which they find existing in the college when they enter. It is the little things that count. Everything that we can do to \par \par 248 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHR1STIA N MINISTR Y \par \par raise even in an almost imperceptible degree the ideals of our college life, to introduce a broader outlook, to quicken aspiration, to deepen the sense of responsibility, to create a spirit of prayer, is helping to mould the future ministry of our Church. The ideals of the ministry will ultimately become the ideals of the Church. \par \par It is doubtful whether at any time in our future ministry we shall be placed in a position where personal influence and faithfulness in little things will count for more than during the years that we are at college. We have the opportunity during this time of multiplying our life. \par \par To be the means of inspiring with higher ideals some of the men, abler it may be than ourselves, whom we meet with day by day, may count for more than all that we can personally achieve in our future career. \par \par The carrying out of the suggestions that have just been made is a real and valuable participation in the life and work of the Student Christian Movement. \par \par But the great privilege which this Movement brings us is that it enables us to work out our ideals not in isolation, but under the inspiration and stimulus of a great brotherhood striving for the same ends. If we are to enjoy this inspiration, if we are to profit by the education which contact with men of varied types and nationalities, who are nevertheless possessed by the same ideals as ourselves, affords, it is essential that we should keep in close touch with the Movement as a whole. The great opportunity for doing this is furnished by the Summer Conferences of the Movement. It should be the aim of every one to attend at least one of these Conferences during his college course. Other methods of keeping in touch with the Movement, such as the study of its magazine and publications, and \par \par THE STUDENT CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT 249 \par \p ar arranging for visits to the college by its secretaries, will naturally suggest themselves.* These may seem small matters, but they are important, just as the wire which establishes connection with an electric supply is important. They will bring us into living contact with spiritual forces which, as this chapter has been an attempt to show, may powerfully influence and greatly enrich our ministry. \par \par It is exactly a hundred years since the famous \ldblquote Hay stack \ldblquote meeting in A!merica which led to such momentous and far-reaching results. In 1806 Samuel J. Mills began his studies at Williams College, Massachusetts. The burden of the heathen world lay heavily upon his heart. \par \par He felt constrained to communicate his feelings to some of his fellow-students, and he invited two or three to accompany him into the fields. They were compelled by a thunderstorm to take shelter by the side of a stack of hay. There they spent some hours in prayer and fasting. Mills urged that they" should form themselves into a society to carry the Gospel to the heathen, declaring with burning enthusiasm, \ldblquote We can, if we will.\rdblquote To this meeting may be traced directly the formation of the American Board of Foreign Missions, and in large measure the rise of the missionary movement on the American continent. Now, after the lapse of a century, the duty which this small band of students apprehended with amazing faith and insight looms immeasurably larger and clearer upon our horizon. #The call which came to them through the quiet whisper of the Spirit in their hearts is being sounded in our ears by the loud voice of God in history. \par \par * A leaflet on The Student Christian Movement and Us relation to Theological Colleges (free) may be obtained from the offices. \par \par \par 250 PREPARA TION FOR THE CHRISTIAN MINISTR Y \par \par The inexorable march of events has imposed upon us larger and more urgent obligations. Seldom, if ever, in its history has the Church been confron$ted with a weightier responsibility and a grander opportunity. \par \par Will she prove faithful to it? That, as we were reminded in the opening paper, is the burning vital question. \par \par Is it too much to say that the answer lies with us more than with any other class in the community? \par \par Should not the glorious opportunity that meets us on the threshold of the ministry surprise and provoke us to a new and unreserved devotion? Shall we not allow it to lift us into a life of large ideals% and ambitions, in which all that is small, narrow, personal, parochial is swept away? Shall we not pray that every desire may vanish from our ministry save that our life shall count for the utmost in the great battle that lies before mankind? Shall we not all stand together as closely as we can, praying for one another and helping one another to press towards our goal? \par \par And as we thus unitedly confront the tasks that lie before our generation, what better motto can we take than that of the Haystack band\rdblquote We can, if we will \ldblquote ? Only let us place beside it also this: \ldblquote Yet I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me, and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.\rdblquote \par \par \par \par PRINTED BY GILBERT AND RIVINGTON LD, ST. JOHN\rquote S HOUSE, CLERKENWELL, E.G. \par \par \par \par \par \par \pard\cf1\lang1034\expndtw-7\f2\fs23\par }