There are many persons whose gifts qualify them for usefulness in the occasional or the stated preaching of the Word, but whose age or attainments or needs do not make it expedient to ordain them. To such it is usual to give a license, authorizing them to preach either within the bounds of the church, or, more widely, wherever Providence may open the door. This confers no authority to administer ordinances; the only ministerial function it authorizes is that of preaching and conducting public worship. Here I suggest: 1. It is evident that such a license should be given only with wise discrimination. A man of unsound judgment, of defective knowledge of the Scriptures, or of doubtful moral and religious character should never be accredited as a preacher of the Gospel, however strong may be his personal impressions of duty or attractive his address in the eyes of the multitude. In the end he will be likely to injure rather than aid the cause of religion. The want of caution in hastily or thoughtlessly granting a license has often resulted in introducing to the sacred office men whose career has been calamitous to themselves and to the churches. 2. No man should, ordinarily, venture to preach without a license or some form of authorization from the church. Every Christian, it is true, is required, in his sphere, to publish the Gospel; but this surely does not empower him to assume the office of the public ministry. A call from God in the soul of the man is, it may be admitted, the matter of prime moment in a call to preach; but an inward impression of duty to preach certainly gives no right to the ministerial function, unless it be confirmed by the church, the Divinely-constituted judge of qualification. To enter on the public work of the ministry self-moved and self-appointed has no warrant in Scripture or in reason and is an act of assumption and disorder which can only result in evil. 3. Churches and pastors, while using a wise discretion, should carefully seek out and develop ministerial gifts. Much power doubtless remains latent which with proper care might be developed and utilized in ministerial work. Many a Christian life now left undeveloped, might be greatly enlarged by being thus placed in its true sphere of activity; and many a waste place within the bounds of our churches, under the culture of a licentiate, might be made to glow with spiritual life and beauty. It is surely one of the highest duties of a church to recognize and make effective the gifts Christ has bestowed on it; and among these none are of greater moment than the gift of ministerial power.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] New version.
[2] Cowper Task, book ii.
SECTION XVII.
PASTORAL STUDY.
Study is an oft-repeated injunction on the Christian ministry: “Meditate upon these things: give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all” (1 Tim. iv. 15); “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim. ii. 15). The reasons for this are obvious. Knowledge is everywhere power. The ministry, from their position, are the natural leaders in religious thought. To command respect, they must be men of mental grasp and activity, and must be in advance of the thinking of those around them. Besides, no other profession is so heavily tasked for brain exertion. The Senate, the Bar, and the Platform only occasionally demand the highest efforts of the intellect. But the pulpit requires weekly its elaborate sermons. They must have freshness, originality, force, or the pastor loses his hold on the people. And this exhaustive drain on his resources continues steadily year after year. No man can meet such demands without constant, earnest study. He must be ever growing. His mental processes must be ceaselessly active, pushing into new realms of investigation, gathering new materials for thought, increasing his discipline, and making him a broader, richer, deeper man.
In the life of a pastor two extremes are to be avoided. On the one hand, he is not to be a mere book-worm, secluded in his study, with no practical, living contact and sympathy with life around him. Some ministers of large literary culture have been comparatively useless from want of living connection between their thinking and the real needs of the busy actual world in which they lived. On the other hand, a minister may not be a mere desultory man, a gossip from house to house, occupied with newspapers and magazines, skimming the surface of popular thinking in ephemeral books that may attract his fancy, but neglecting the severer processes of self-culture essential to mental growth. Instability in the pastoral office is often a result of this. Freshness, originality in thought and expression, is lost, and the people, weary of repetitions and empty platitudes, cease to respect and love the pulpit. The grand object to be sought, then, is to combine the student and the pastor—a mind growing in knowledge and power by habitual work in the study and growing in executive ability and social force by constant activity in the church and contact with the people. To secure this there must be a system—a system wisely formed and steadily pursued. What shall this system be? In answering this I propose to pursue two lines of suggestion—the method of study and the subjects of study.
First, the Method.
1. Be a student everywhere. The pastor’s business is to deal with the human mind and the actual experiences of men; he should, therefore, go through the world with his eyes and ears open, thoroughly studying men and life around him. In the street, in society, in the social meeting, the mind is to be ceaselessly at work, observing character, studying phases of experience and life, and gathering materials for mental work. Many of the best trains of thought, most interesting views of Scripture, and most effective illustrations will be suggested in conversations and in the prayer-room. No man can afford to lose these; for, springing as they do from direct contact with the people, such trains of thought are most likely to meet the wants of the congregation and deal with the questions most vital to them. The studious pastor who preserves these texts and thoughts and illustrations as they occur will be surprised to find how rapidly they accumulate, and how fresh and rich they often render his thinking and instruction.