I. Administration of Baptism.
As the act is a symbol, the correctness of its form is essential to the representation of the truth symbolized. The greatest care, therefore, should be used to bring out distinctly the symbol and fix all thought on that; any defect in the administration which mars the symbol is to be deprecated. The vital spiritual fact of regeneration, or a death to sin and the rising to a new life in Christ, is most vividly set forth before men by the impressiveness of the symbol when properly rendered.
Here I suggest: 1. Care should be taken that all necessary arrangements be made for the ordinance, in the preparation for the place for the baptism, and the appointment of judicious committees to attend the candidates. This should be done in ample season, so that there be no haste or confusion at the administration. The pastor should be promptly prepared for the service, using garments appropriate to baptizing, so as to be undisturbed by the water. 2. In administering, be deliberate in movement, leading the candidate slowly into the water with the solemnity becoming so holy an ordinance. Special care should be taken that the water be of such depth as to make immersion easy and effective. Pronounce the formula reverently, then immerse, taking care that the whole person is covered. Beyond the formula, it is often best to say nothing during the administration; the ordinance itself is speaking to the conscience and the heart in a voice more eloquent and impressive than human speech. 3. Above all, as you pray for wisdom and power in the right use of words to set forth regeneration by the sermon, so ask for wisdom and power in the use of the symbol to set forth that vital truth in the ordinance, and that Divine Helper whose presence you feel in the pulpit will be equally present with you in the baptismal act.
II. Administration of the Lord’s Supper.
In some churches it is customary to preach what is termed “an action sermon,” designed to bring vividly before the mind, just previous to the Supper, the events connected with the sufferings and death of our Lord; and it often proves a service of great power and value. With us the ordinance is more commonly preceded by a simple address designed to fix thought upon the great event symbolized. Whatever the method adopted, all subjects should be excluded which may divert the mind from the one great thought of the occasion. The Lord’s Table, therefore, is not the place to bring up items of business, or to reprove the church for special derelictions in duty, or even to consider plans for church work. The pastor is often tempted to use it for such purposes, because then the members are more generally together and are alone. But I think it is rarely done without loss, for in this sacred service the Lord designed that the thoughts of every soul should center on Him.
The necessary acts in their order are these: 1. Take the bread, give thanks, break, give to the disciples, pronouncing the words of institution. 2. Take the cup, pouring the wine, give thanks, give to the disciples, pronouncing the words of institution. The service is usually closed with singing, but whether it was originally a part of the Lord’s Supper, or only one of the hymns prescribed in the Passover service, we have no means of determining. The question is not important, but a closing hymn is certainly appropriate, and it is better to observe the custom. Observe the scriptural order of the acts carefully, for any deviation will divert attention and is always painful. In prayer avoid forms of expression that may convey false ideas of the ordinances. Thus, we sometimes hear: “Bless so much of this bread,” or “so much of this wine,” “as may be used,” as if blessing made a change in the elements, and the administrator feared too much would be changed and the blessed elements might thus be wasted. Such phrases, which have come down from the ages of superstition, are adapted to foster among the people false ideas of the ordinance. Do not talk much during the administration but leave silent moments in which each heart may commune with itself and with Christ. Too much talking is the common fault. When God is speaking through the symbol, let man keep silence. This will be the more obvious if we remember that the ordinance consists of two essential parts—the presentation of the symbols of Christ’s body and blood by the administration, and the act of partaking as the symbol of an inward act of faith on the part of the partaker. If the attention, therefore, is held by remarks of the administrator, the value of the ordinance may be lost to the participant from lack of opportunity for silent communion between his soul and Christ. Above all, enter yourself as fully as possible into the great idea of the ordinance, and use all means to fix thought on that to the exclusion of all else. Rightly administered, the Lord’s Supper is one of the mightiest forces God has given to inspire and purify the heart and elevate the life of the church.
SECTION VI.
THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL.
No pastor can be permanently successful if not in sympathy with the young. He must be the pastor of the children, accessible and attractive to youth, and must give a cordial recognition and a kindly word as he meets them. As an aid in this, make a register of their names and a careful study of their faces, so as readily to recognize them; and carry with you cards with Scripture mottoes or other little souvenirs of a pastor’s love and interest to leave with them. The most successful ministers of the present age are, as a rule, active Sunday-school workers. Of several eminent pastors it was written some years ago: “The venerable Dr. Tyng, as is well known, attributes his great success largely to his long-continued and unwearied personal attention to his Sunday-school. He is never absent from his home school. Rev. S. H. Tyng, Jr., uniformly conducts the closing exercises of his home school, and also the Friday-evening meetings of the teachers of all his four schools, thus by indirection reaching the twelve hundred children who in turn are taught by these teachers. Dr. Howard Crosby takes up the lesson on Wednesday evening, and preaches regularly to the children on Sunday afternoons. Dr. Richard Newton, who has an almost world-wide reputation as a children’s preacher, takes up the Sunday-school lesson at his weekly service, attends his teachers’ meeting, and preaches regularly to the children of the parish. Dr. John Hall goes each Sunday morning into his home school and believing in ‘hand-shaking as a means of grace,’ takes each teacher and scholar cordially by the hand. He lectures each Wednesday evening on the Sunday-school lesson to a well-filled church, the audience having long since outgrown the lecture-room. He conducts in person a monthly review in his home school, questioning each class on the lessons of the preceding month. He presides at the monthly or bi-monthly sociable of the teachers of his four schools and conducts on Saturday afternoon a ladies’ Bible class which the lecture-room is too small comfortably to hold.” These are, indeed, rare men, but they show the wonderful power that pastors may wield by sympathy with the young, and by wisely-directed Bible study among them. Indeed, the preparation of a Sunday-school sermon, by compelling simplicity of statement and aptness of illustration, is a valuable discipline for the preparation of ordinary services.
Hints.—1. In public address or prayer let your appreciation of the Sunday-school as a sphere of church work and religious power be always manifest. Make it prominent among the subjects of prayer both in the pulpit and in the prayer-room. Exhort and instruct the church respecting the necessity of securing for it cheerful, attractive rooms and an ample apparatus in music, library, papers, maps, etc. The interest and liberality of a congregation in this depend greatly on the interest manifested in the pulpit. 2. Use careful effort to form the adult members of the congregation into Bible classes, and thus connect them personally with the school. This can be done to a much larger extent than is supposed, and the results are of the highest value. It enlarges the biblical knowledge and enriches the experience of the adult part of the church. It brings to the school the moral support and influence of this class. It is a means of holding the young as they become men and women and preventing their abandonment of the school as having become too old for it. And it secures a permanent, living sympathy between the church and the school, thus avoiding that isolation of the school which, in many instances, makes it practically a separate interest outside of the church rather than within it. 3. The pastor should let his presence and personal influence be constantly felt in the school; but if he have two sermons on the Lord’s Day, he should neither superintend it nor, if possible to avoid, consent to take a class in it. It will exhaust him often before the second sermon, and in the end may destroy his nervous power. But he should be often present in the school, talk to it occasionally, and make the personal acquaintance of teachers and scholars, moving among them as a friend and helper. 4. The pastor should, if possible, meet the teachers weekly for instruction and counsel, carefully studying with them the lesson for the Lord’s Day. The teachers’ meeting will afford opportunity for the consideration, not of the lesson only, but also of all the interests of the school. As a preparation for this he should make himself familiar with the best methods of Sunday-school work, that he may wisely inspire and direct improvement. Or if it be thought that the helps for the study of the lesson given in papers accessible to the teachers are sufficient, the pastor’s instruction in the teachers’ meeting might take a wider range, embracing courses of lectures on the Christian Evidences, the Introduction to the Books of the Bible, the Scripture Doctrines, Sacred Geography, and kindred subjects. In this case the sphere of the meeting might be enlarged, making it also a normal class, in which the more advanced scholars, as well as the teachers, might be prepared for the teacher’s work. 5. Great care is to be exercised respecting the books introduced into the library; for, while much advance has been made in the style and adaptation of books for the young, there are many which are not merely trashy but are positively pernicious. The Sunday-school library is an instrument of great power in forming the tastes, the opinions, and the habits of the people, and it is of the utmost moment that the books be pure in doctrine and healthful in moral and religious tone. 6. The Sunday-school concert, in which the exercises are prepared chiefly by the school itself, will be of great value if wisely conducted; but care is needed to exclude exercises introduced for sensational effect which may not befit the Lord’s Day. Indeed, it is all-important that the exercise should not be degraded into a mere exhibition, awakening on the part of teachers and scholars only a desire to produce a popular sensation and draw the crowd, and on the part of the people a desire to be amused. The devotional spirit should always be dominant. But in addition to such exercises, it will be profitable to preach a sermon statedly—once a month, or at least once in three months—expressly to the Sunday-school, adapting the whole service to the young. It brings the pastor and school together publicly and directly and recognizes the relation of the pastor to it as its chief instructor and guide. But in the sermon, as in every Sunday-school address, he should be careful that in attempting to be simple he does not become childish; the former is necessary to success, the latter is a common and fatal mistake.