The Pastor: His Qualifications and Duties

by H. Harvey

2. Sustained interest. The interest should rise with the progress of the service, and find its highest point at the close; otherwise, the good impressions made in the earlier part are lost in the weariness and apathy of the later. Failure in sustaining interest to the end may result from several causes: (1.) Imperfect preparation, so that the matter of the service is commonplace and uninteresting. In this age of intense mental activity, a want of freshness, vigor, and variety of thought is at once felt by the people, and the attention is lost. (2.) Defective, monotonous delivery, which often destroys the force of the best thought. For this the only remedy is persistent training, taken, if possible, under a good elocutionist; and where such a defect exists, to apply this remedy seems clearly the imperative duty of a man whose success in his work depends on power in public speech. (3.) Wearisome protraction of the exercises. Few sermons hold the interest of a congregation beyond half an hour. The effect of the first thirty minutes is in most cases destroyed by seeking to force attention through another fifteen or twenty. (4.) Too great exhaustion of the physical and nervous force of the preacher before the service in preparing for it. The pastor should secure thorough rest of body and mind before the Lord’s Day services, so as to come to them fresh and strong. It is better to leave the sermons unfinished than to fail of this. Preserve at all hazards a high tone of physical vigor and a healthful, elastic nervous organism; otherwise, the speaking will lack force and magnetism, and the most able and elaborate sermon will fall flat and powerless. Some of the most successful preachers avoid all severe study on Saturday, making that a day of rest and recreation, that they may come to their Lord’s Day work with full nervous and physical vigor.

3. Religious impression. This is the chief design of religious worship, so far as it is intended to influence men; and however much an assembly may be interested in a preacher, the thoughtful and judicious always feel a painful lack if the service has not stirred their deeper religious nature. The pulpit may be able, eloquent, intellectually stimulating; but if it does not touch these inner springs of the soul, it has fatally failed, and the great object of public worship has not been secured.

I. Pulpit Decorum.

The spirit and bearing of a pastor in the pulpit have a marked influence on the tone of public worship. If he is devout and reverential, as conscious of being in the house of God and of bearing a message from God, his manner will inspire in the congregation a like reverence for the sacredness of worship. The whole service will receive tone from the spirit of its leader. Here I suggest: 1. A careless manner in the pulpit is to be avoided, either in the posture or movements of the body, or in handling the hymn-book and Bible when preparing for service; as also is the opposite fault of a manner studied and artificial, whose stiffness and formality repel sympathy and give an icy chill to worship. Against both of these faults a devout, reverential heart thoroughly pervaded by the spirit of worship will be the best safeguard. 2. In the pulpit the pastor should be, and should appear to be, absorbed in his work and his message; any act on his part which creates a doubt of this destroys the value of the service to the people, and is to be carefully avoided. Thus, if, before the opening of the service or during its progress, he is listlessly gazing around the congregation as if occupied in mentally commenting on them, or is engaged in conversation with some brother-minister seated with him, the impression is inevitable that the service does not absorb him, and his power with the people is weakened alike in his devotional exercises and in his preaching. 3. As far as possible, all arrangements should be previously made, so as to avoid, during the service, any necessity for consultations with officers of the church; and all notices to be given should be required to be handed in to the pastor before the services begin and should be reduced to the minimum in number and length. For any diversion of the attention from the service itself is ordinarily an evil.

In all this, however, it is evident that a devout, reverent spirit, thoroughly entering into the true idea of worship, is of far higher moment than any formal rules; for such a spirit will instinctively feel the proprieties of the sacred time and place and will perpetually seek to realize its own ideal of public service. Cowper has well said:[1]

“Would I describe a preacher, such as Paul,
Were he on earth, would hear, approve, and own,
Paul should himself direct me. I would trace
His master-strokes and draw from his design.
I would express him simple, grave, sincere;
In doctrine uncorrupt; in language plain,
And plain in manner; decent, solemn, chaste,
And natural in gesture; much impressed
Himself, as conscious of his awful charge,
And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds
May feel it too; affectionate in look
And tender in address, as well becomes
A messenger of grace to guilty men.”

II. The Service of Song.

This is one of the most difficult, as it is one of the most important, parts of public worship. Much diversity exists in the method of conducting it. Whether the singing should be congregational or restricted to a choir; whether, in the former case, it should be led by a choir or by a precentor; whether an instrument should be used or only human voices,—all these questions have been differently answered. My own observation is that the method adopted is of far less importance than the spirit with which the method is pursued. An inferior method carefully and enthusiastically pressed will give better results than the best method poorly followed. In singing, as in preaching, the men rather than the method determine its effectiveness, and in any church suffering from defective singing I should seek rather to infuse enthusiasm and the spirit of musical culture in the singers than to change hastily any method to which they had become accustomed.

Here, then, I suggest: 1. The pastor should feel and should manifest a hearty sympathy for the singers and an appreciation of their work; the lack of this is a frequent cause of discouragement and disorganization in choirs. He should consult with them in regard to the musical interests of the congregation, should recognize their work as an important service done to Christ and the church, should express, in public and private, his appreciation of whatever is excellent in their performances, and should use his pastoral influence to secure from the congregation the necessary means for such books and instruments as may be important to their success. A good choir, besides contributing the results of long previous training, spend much time each week in practice for the service of the Lord’s Day, and no true pastor should fail, or allow his congregation to fail, in an appropriate expression of appreciation of the work thus done. Such a spirit in pastor and people will seldom fail to secure a well-trained and enthusiastic choir and will make the service of song a power and a blessing in public worship. 2. In the selection of hymns special adaptation to the subject of the sermon is important chiefly in the one which follows it; the others, especially the first, while fittingly leading to the sermon, should be adapted to the purposes of general worship. When the singing is congregational, regard must be had to the tunes as well as to the hymns; for in most congregations the range of tunes in which the people can or will unite is comparatively narrow, and the best hymn will fail with an impracticable tune. The pastor, therefore, should carefully note the tunes which the congregation readily sing, and make his selection within this range. A few months’ observation, with careful noting of results, will enable him to select wisely. 3. Singing in public worship should be devotional. It is not a musical recreation nor an artistic musical display, but an act of worship offered to the Most High. The language of sacred song is often directly addressed to God in praise, thanksgiving, and prayer; it is, therefore, of doubtful propriety to call for singing, while a collection is taken up or business is transacted, merely to occupy the time. Nor should the preacher, during the singing, allow himself to be occupied in conversation, or in the study of his sermon; rather he should, if possible, himself participate devoutly with the congregation in this act or worship, and thus by his example recognize the devotional nature of the service.

III. Reading of the Scriptures.