® j^NTS T° /A'N'ST^8 9 m m is> B ~V BY BEWP/T\IK tucker TPNNER ^ INDUSTRIAL STUDENT PRINTERS WILBERFORCE, OHIO. ^•^•1 HINTS TO MINISTERS * ESPECIALLY THOSE OF THIS (Jfrican Spiscopal (Jliurcli. BV BISHOP BENJAMIN TUCKER TANNER, DEAN OF PAYNE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AND PRESIDING BISHOP OF THE NINTH EPISCOPAL DISTRICT of tiip: African flSJeffyoclisl Spiscopal GHurcH- INDUSTRIAL STUDENT PRINTERS, WILBERFORCE, OHIO. TO BE COPYRIGHTED BY THE AUTHOR. Dedication. I DEDICATE THESE HINTS TO THE STUDENTS OF PAYNE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AND TO MY BROTHER PREACHERS OF THE AFRICAN METHO¬ DIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH BY WHOSE SIDE FOR MORE THAN TWO SCORE YEARS I HAVE ESSAYED TO PREACH THE GOSPEL BOTH IN THE LETTER AND IN THE SPIRIT OF THESE FEW HINTS. (3) Prater for ffye (Zlerg^ and People. "Almighty and everlasting God, who alone workest great marvels, send down upon our Bishops and Curates, and all congregations committed to their charge, the healthful Spirit of th}> grace; and that they may truly please thee, pour upon them the continual dew of thy blessing. Grant this, O I^ord, for the honor of our Advocate and Mediator Jesus Christ." —Old English Prayer Book : A.D. 1752. Preface. HE* "I thought it good to speak somewhat hereof, trust¬ ing that the pleasant contemplation of the thing itself shall make the (seeming) length of this preface (with its personal allusions) less tedious." —The Century : Eden's First Book on America. Preface * It has been our purpose for quite a year or more to put on paper the thoughts contained in these "Hints." Not however, until the last few weeks, has it been possible. We came home to rest, but a week sufficed ; and as if by inspiration, the thought came that at last, we might commence ; "the set time is come," and the result is what the reader will find if he be pleased to read. We are not aware that we have any special fitness for the task; and yet the plea we make is; We have given the Church forty years of unbroken service; eight years in purely pastoral work ; twenty years, editorial; and twelve as Bishop. All things be¬ ing equal, and crediting ourselves with average ability it will not in the least, savor of egotism, to conclude that we ought to have somewhat the requisites to write upon such a theme; at least, we have been blessed with such a career as would naturally give to him who prof¬ ited by it the requisite knowledge to write upon such. Whether we have really so profited by the opportun¬ ity thus given, others must decide. Secondly and lastly, we write these "Hints," for the reason that we have long since been persuaded, that the line of work upon which we are chiefly to rely, for whatever of lasting blessings God may have for the 9 '■ lO Id ints to Ministers Race or the Church, through our instrumentality, is upon the line of writing — the line of authorship, if we might presume to use so big a word. All men who have amounted to much or even a little in this world, have had as it were a guiding star— some omnipresent object, which has been their thought by day and dream by night. In the eyes of some it has been money ; in others, medicine ; in others art; in others yet, fame on any ground which providence might present. From the days of our bo3'hood our guiding star has been author¬ ship. Ah, the glory we have ever thought of writing a book! This it was, that gave to us light in darkness, and strength in weakness. Were we ever inclined to turn to the right or left as temptation presented itself to us, in our boyish days, when we blackened boots or dusted clothes, or shaved faces, the all conquering word of God to us was: " Do that, and the thing for which you have hoped, can never be. Walk by my side and I will bring it to pass. Stray off, and you are done for." We could wish that we could impress upon all, the truth that nothing pays half so well as fidelity to¬ ward God, and toward what the voice of destiny seems to say. Keep faith with Him, and he will make thy sun to shine more and more, unto the perfect day ; and bring thy highest ambition to pass. With such a revelation as has just been given and for the first time in all the years of our life, as might Hints to Ministers 11 be expected, we take to writing, such as it is, natural¬ ly and joyously; especially when it is done in the light of a faith that says: Some small portion of it, will sur¬ vive you — not all, for a goodly portion, like Paul's "wood, hay, and stubble," will be burned. It is in the light of all this, that we have written our "Hints," and whether well done or ill, others must decide. But such as it is, we send it forth with a prayer that comes welling up from our deepest nature. Unwilling to give the least expression as to the merits of these "Hints," the portion of them, at least, that we have written, we are altogether willing to speak of the lofty excellence of the writers whom we have quoted, and invite attention both to the men themselves and to what they have said, as bearing up¬ on the subject matter presented in our booklet. Our own words may be no more than chaff, but the words of the writers quoted are as the finest wheat; and for the richness and strength of what they say — if for nothing else, we commend these "Hints," to the prayerful perusal of those to whom they are dedicated. Brethren, read this booklet. It may possibly give you a ray of light here and there, that will abundant¬ ly repay you for the trouble. Forget the singer, if you please, but remember the song. We are brethren, we have had a common past, even as we have a common present, and are destined to 12 Hints to Ministers have a common future. We are each other's keeper. You are to guide me in the things I do not know or have not thought of. I atn similarly to guide you in the things you do not know—if I should happen to know them; and the things you have not thought of, if I should happen to think of them. "God has knit men together," says Redford, "so that all our life through we require each each other's help." God has blessed you, in that you know hundreds of things, of which I am ignorant. He has blessed me in that I possibly know a few things that you do not. We say with the proverbialist: "Thou shalt cast thy lot among us; We will all have one purse." "Be a frater conjuratuscries out Clarke in reference to these words of the Hebrew poet, "Be a frater conjuratus, a sworn brother and thou shalt have an equal share of all the spoil." Surely if sinners can see the benefit of having a community of interests, much more should the people who are rated as saints; for remember, brethren, it is only by a long pull,a strong pull and apull altogether, that we can thwart the devil, glorify God, save the Church, redeem the race and vindicate its right to share in the administration of the Lord's Estate. For this let us pray. For this let us live; or if need be, die. "Predications. "The most generally received notion of predication is that it consists in referring something to a class." —The Century: John Stuart Mill. DIVINE PREDICATION : Jesus. "Ye are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under the bushel, but on the stand : and it shineth unto all that are in the house. Even so let your light shine before men, that tliey may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." — Matt. 5 : 14-16. INSPIRED PREDICATIONS: Paui.. "I beseech you, therefore, be ye imitators of me." — 1 Cor. 4:16. "Be ye imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ." —-i Cor. 11:1. "Brethren, be ye imitators together of me and mark them which so walk even as ye have us for ensample." —Phil. 3:17. '13) 14 Hints to Ministers "The tilings which ye both learned, and received, and heard and saw in me, these things do." —Phil. 4:9. "And ye became imitators of us, and of the Lord." — 1 Thess. 1:6. "But be thou an ensample to them that believe-" —1 Tim. 4:12. "I11 all things showing thyself an ensample of good words." —Tit. 2:7. peter. "The elders therefore among you I exhort. Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising ilie oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according unto God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as lording over the charge alloted to you, but making j^ourselves ensamples to the flock." — 1 Peter 5: 1-3. john. "He that saitli he abideth in him, ought himself also, to walk even as he walked." — 1 John 2: 6. UNINSPIRED PREDICATIONS: Ecclesiastical. The preacher's "whole deportment should be seri¬ ous, solemn, and weight}'." —Discipline. "And what avails public preaching alone though one Mints to Ministers 15 could preach like angels? We must, yea, every trav¬ elling preacher must instruct the people from house to house. Till this be done, and in good earnest, the Methodists will be no better." —Discipline. " Our l'eligion is not deep, universal, uniform ; but superficial, partial, uneven. It will be so till we spend half as much time in thus visiting, as we do now in useless talking." —Discipline. "O Brethren if we could but set this work on foot in all our societies, and prosecute it zealousty, what glory would resound to God. If the common luke-warm- ness were banished, and every shop and every house busied in speaking of the word and works of God, surely God would dwell in our habitation and make us his delight." —Discipline. " . ... mercifully behold these thy servants . . . replenish them so with the truth of thy doctrines, atid adorn them with the innocency of life, that both by word and good example they may faithfully serve thee in this office." —Collect, Ordination of Deacons. "Will you apply all your diligence to frame and fashion your own lives (and the lives of your families,) 16 Mints to Ministers according to the doctrine of Christ; and to make both yourselves and them, as much as in you lieth, whole¬ some examples of the flock of Christ ? " —Ordination of Deacons. " . . . and that ye may so endeavor yourselves from time to time to sanctify the lives of you and yours, and to fashion them after the rule and doctrine of Christ, that ye may be wholesome and godly exam¬ ples and patterns for the people to follow." —Bishop's address : Ordination of Elders. "Will you be diligent to frame and fashion your¬ selves, and your families, according to the doctrine of Christ; and to make both yourselves and them, as much as in you lieth, wholesome examples and pat¬ terns of the flock of Christ ? " —Ordination of Elders. "Will you deny all ungodliness and wordly lusts, and live righteously, soberly, and godly in this present world, that you may show yourselves in all things an example oi good works unto others that the adversary may be ashamed, having nothing to say against you?" —Ordination of Bishops. "Most merciful Father, we beseech thee to send down upon this thy servant thv heavenly blessing, and so endue him with thy Holy Spirit that he may be to such as believe, a wholesome example in word, in Hints to Ministers 17 conversation, in love, in faith, in chastity, and in purity. " —The closing Prayer : Ordination of Bishops. individual,. "If the word and the conversation be frivolous ; as death and life are in the power of the tongue; then the minister who is the rattle-brain ot society is not likely to be the ornament of the church or the admi¬ ration of the world. Men will, and ought to, despise such. There may be a dignified youth as well as a dignified age. It is not necessary to have a formal and unnatural decorum, but it is necessary for those who speak on the high matters of religion to show that they live in that world of solemn realities of which they speak." — Rev. W. M. Statham. "Hast thou framed and fashioned thy life—thy life and the lives of those about thee—according to the doctrine of Christ? Hast thou and have they, been wholesome examples and patterns to the flock? An¬ swer this, thou teacher in Israel; answTer this, thou priest of the Most High God. Hast thou never brought scandal on the Church of Christ? Hast thou never by the evil deed of a moment, neutralised, dis¬ credited, held up to scorn and blasphemy, the teach¬ ing of months and years? What! do I wrong you, if only for a moment I entertain in my mind the possi- 18 Hints to Ministers bility of such an issue to your ministry ? Indeed I hope so—I believe so. Otherwise it were better for me—better far that m}r right hand were cut off, than that I should lay it on the head of such a one. It were better for him—a thousand times better that he should skulk home this night undercover of darkness, unordained, disgraced, cast helpless and hopeless on the sea ot life, to shape his course afresh, than that he should thus betray the Son of Man with a kiss. And yet such things have happened. Already in the few short years of my episcopate, I have seen the fall of one and another and another. This incumbent or that curate has brought blasphemy on the name of God, has scandalized the Church of Christ by intem¬ perance or even worse than intemperance. There¬ fore, I sa}r, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. Check the first risings of the evil passion in you. You, the ministers of Christ, are be¬ set with many and great perils by virtue of your very office. You enjoy confidences, you excite sympathies, you stir sensibilities, which may be most pure, most holy, most heavenly. But beware, beware. The op¬ portunity of boundless good is the opportunity of in¬ calculable evil. There is no fall so shocking, so terri¬ ble, as the fall of a minister of Christ." —Joseph Barber Lightfoot, Lord Bishop of Durham. introduction. "I begin with mentioning these things, because every liter¬ ary man will perceive the advantage of taking possession of this strong ground. By placing his foot here he is furnished with a kind of extrinsical evidence, the force of which none will deny."—Rev. Alexander Hill's Divinitv. PERSONALITY OF MAN. In Deuteronomy (6:5) we read: "And thou shalt love the L,ord thy God, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." In his comment on these words, Dr. W. L. Alexander says: — "The 'heart' is the inner nature of the man, including his intellectual, emotional and conative fac¬ ulties; the 'soul' is the personality, the entire self-con¬ sciousness; and the 'might' is the sum of the energies, bodily and mental." We read in the Second Book of Kings ( 23 : 25 ): "And like unto him there was no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the L,aw of Moses; neither after him arose there any other like him." "This triple enumeration," says Master Rawlinson, Canon of Canterbury, "is intended to include the 19 ' 2O Hirsts to Ministers whole moral and mental nature of man, all the ener¬ gies of his understanding, his will, and his physical vitality." Coming to the New Testament, that which first meets us on the line of our thought, is the indorsement Christ gives (Matt. 22 : 37) the words of Moses in an¬ swer to the question : " Master which is the great com¬ mandment in the law?" His reply was: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. " Upon these words I^ange says ; " The heart is the entire inner nature of man ; the soul then is rather the vitality of the heart animating the body ; the mind, its spiritual and intel¬ lectual part. " In Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians (5: 23) we read : " And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly ; and may your spirit and soul and body be pre¬ served entire, without blame at the coming of our I^ord Jesus Christ." Upon this statement the Rev. Dr. P. J. Gloag says: " The 'spirit' is the highest part of man, that which as¬ similates him to God ; renders him capable of religion, and susceptible of being acted upon by the Spirit of God. The 'soul' is the inferior part of his mental na¬ ture, the seat of the passions and desires, of the natural propensities. The 'body' is the corporeal frame." Hint® to Ministers 21 Body : Soul: Spirit — these, the personality or com¬ position of man—a very trinity, it would seem. Com¬ menting on this great truth, with the words of Paul especially in view, Robert Smith Chandlish says: "There according to a view of man's organization, or the constitution of his nature, these commonly re¬ ceived, spirit, soul, body, are specified as its constituent parts or elements. The spirit, or that higher principle of intelligence and thought peculiar to man alone in this world, to which we now usually restrict the name of mind or soul; the soul, or that lower principle of animal life,—with its instincts selfish and social, its power of voluntary motion, its strange incipient dawn of reasoning,—which, common alike to man and beast, is so great a mystery in both ; and the body, made to be the material organ and instrument of either princi¬ ple. the higher or the lower ; these three in one, this trinit}', is our present humanity." And Von Gerlach, * in John Peter Lange's work, is heard to speak in similar strain on the same great truth. "The spirit of man," he says, "is sanctified and kept, when God's Spirit dwells in it and rules it; the soul is sanctified, when the Divinely sanctified spirit controls it, when all its feelings, all its longings and strivings, however necessary to the maintenance in man of his proper life, and to the exertion thereby of an influence also on the world around, are yet perfectly subordinated to * Lang-e Vol. Thess. Fage 95-98 22 Hints to Ministers God and the spirit. The body is sanctified, when its instincts and wants are ruled and regulated by the spirit through the soul, and i t s members are made altogether instruments of holiness. It might seem as if in the sanctification of the spirit the sanc- tificationof the soul and the body were already includ¬ ed. But it is of importance that the latter also is men¬ tioned here and frequently, to guard us against the dangerous error, that possibly the spirit might serve God, whilst the soul and the body persist in serving sin." We have quoted this last singularly guarded passage, not because we understand fully the d i s- tinction which it seems to recognize between spirit and soul, and the same indeed may be largely said o f Dr. Chandlish's words; but for the counte¬ nance it gives of the theory we accept. The dis¬ tinction between spirit and body or soul and body, is at once understood by all; but not so the distinction between soul and spirit. Nor does reference to the definitions given these two words by the most approv¬ ed lexicographers greatly help us. Webster says: Spirit: " . . . The intelligent, immaterial and im¬ mortal part of man." Soul: " . . . The spiritual, rational and immortal part of man." The famed Century Dictionary says: Spirit: The principle of life conceived as a fragment of the divine essence breathed into man by God." Hints to Ministers 23 Soul: "... The moral and emotional part of man's nature ; the seat of the sentiments or feelings ; in distintion from the intellect." A reference to Adam Clarke is possibly as clear as any; and yet even with it before us, we haste to say, it is next to impossible to tell precisely and definitely, where the soul-part of man ends and the spirit-part begins ; nor is it neces¬ sary. Says this scholarly and astute commentator : "Some think that the Apostle alludes to the Pythago¬ rean and Platonic doctrine which was acknowledged among the Thessalonians. I should rather believe that man is a compound being, consisting, r) of a body, an organized system composed of bones, muscles, and nerves; of arteries, veins and a variety of other ves¬ sels, in which the blood and other fluids circulate ; 2) of a soul which is (the animal life principle) the seat of the affections and passions, and appetites ; 3) of spirit, (the rational soul ) the immortal principle which alone posseses the faculty of intelligence, un¬ derstanding, thinking and reasoning." Confessing again, our inability to fully appreciate the distinction which all these authorities essay to make, at least, to recognize; we gladly quote Lukwyn Williams where he says : "It is difficult to define with any precision the signification of each term used, and much unprofitable labor has been expended in the 2,A Hints to Ministers endeavors to limit their exact seuse. If the reader how¬ ever, is inclined to the thought that we are more than ordinarily dumb and ignorant, we invite him to formu¬ late the fullness of the information given by these masters and use the same for all it is worth as he wends his way through our little booklet, assured as we are, that it will greatly assist in the completer understand¬ ing of what we hope to be able to say. With such a confession as we have made, in mind, we may be asked, to what intent have we given the defi¬ nitions of these lexicographers and the argument of these theologians? Wherefore, our reference to them? Chiefly as we have alreadjr said in the case of Von Gerlach that, we might have as great show of author¬ ity as possible, for the view we take of man's person¬ ality, and the use we intend to make of it. The one fact seen and recognized by all is, that man is a sort of trinity or trichotomy in his personality; he has a body, a material being; he has a soul, the seat of emotion or affection—religion, we would make it, as that word is commonly understood ; he has a spirit, the seat of the intelligence. And this corresponds perfectly with the thought we have iu mind and the use we intend to make of it in these Hi?its to Ministers of our church ; especially to those of the Ninth Dis¬ trict, whose oversight for the present, has been given us. As an every day matter of fact the preacher's Hints to Ministers 25 point ot contact with his people are ; Material, or that that relates to his body * spiritual or that that relates to the intellect that dominates all; and the emotional or religious point of contact, all that that relates to the soul. This is fairly in keeping with what all the writ¬ ers referred to have said ; and because it is so, we hesi¬ tate not to accept it as authority for our position. And we beg further to say that whether or not it, agrees with the accepted theory of man's personality, it certainly agrees with that which is more than theory, a fact, and to be inferred from the revelation of both Testaments. We all know that the preacher has a body ; and we all as equally well know that he has an intellect or that which enables him "to keep knowledge on his lip and a soul, as it is most popularly termed, by which religion is received and exemplified. L,et then the words, just said, in the foregoing lines be regarded as an Introduction to the Hints we give to those who are wont to address us as "Father in God," and subscribe themselves as, "your son in the gospel." S^plcmcttorv. "What follows . . . is explanatory of what went before." —The Century : Warburton's Julian. As explanatory of the treatment of the subject in hand it will be seen in the following brief queries and answers: What are the Hints ? What the Range or Scope they shall take? What the Reason for them ? In answer to the first of these queries, we say: The Hints themselves will be to show the necessity of all preachers being examples to the people and the Church they serve. In other and more colloquial terms: Our Hints will be to show the necessity of preachers or ministers living the gospel they preach ; or in terms Scriptural and therefore the more effective, they will be to show that it is " required in stewards, that a man be found faithful." "What is chiefly re¬ quired of ministers," says Archdeacon Farrar, "is neither brilliancy nor eloquence, nor knowledge that is profound, nor success, but only fidelity." In answer to the second of these questions we say : The Range and Scope of our Hints will include ; 26) Hints to Ministers 27 man's entire being. Has he a body ? a soul ? a spirit ? Is he in some sort a trinity—certainly a trichotomy ? Then he is bound to make each division, or "person" to use the simile of the Confession as the same truth relates to God, manifest in all that is right and good and true, even as does the One Trinity above. The answer to the last query: What the Reason ? will be to show the innate helpfulness of the divine method of responding to the persistent effort of God, on the score of human salvation, I^astly we present an Appeal and a Final word. Th* EurcUn of our Hints: "For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye be bur¬ dened." —2 Corinth. 8 r 13. Authorized Version. Theburdenof our Hints is so plainlyforecast in the Predifcations givenv that' we-may say, what is said of the oft referred to words : "He may run that readeth," to wit, says one, "write it so plainly that every one passing by may be able to read quickly and easily." Kven so, have written all our predicators. What is more direct and easy of comprehension than the di¬ vine utterance of Jesus, given as our first Predication? Perfectly monosyllabic, it could be made to serve as a model to the urchins of our schools ; and the same is largely true of the inspired Indications of Paul, Peter and John. The longest word either has employed, as it relates to the matter in hand, is the word of our Hints : imitators, ensamples. As to the uninspired Predica¬ tions, whether ecclesiastical or individual, while many polysyllabic words are employed, yet is the construction exceedingly simple—written as they chiefly were, es¬ pecially those ecclesiatical, by Mr. Wesley, of whom it has been said, he "did not write for fame," but to 28 Hints to Ministers 29 ' 'benefit and instruct that numerous class of people who have a plain understanding, with plain common sense." The Burden of our Hints, is the necessity for Minis¬ ters of the gospel, being such ensamples of what is taught in Scripture, that they can insist upon the people imitating them—a Burden, possibly to some, like to that which Malachi brought, and of which Matthew Henry says : " The prophecy of this book is entitled, The Burden of the word of the Lord which intimates, (i) That it was of great weight and importance. (2) That it ought to be often repeated to them and by them. (3) That there were those to whom it was a burden and a reproach ; that they were weary of it, and found them¬ selves so aggrieved by it, that they were not able to bear it. (4) That to them it would prove a burden in¬ deed, to sink them to the lowest hell, unless they repented. (5) That to those who loved it and embraced it and bid it welcome, though it were a light burden as our Saviour calls it, yet it were a burden." To the end that the most lasting impression may be made, let us more closely scan the words of the Predi¬ cations given, with what has been thought of them and of the burden itself by the uninspired in general, and not have two individuals answer for all. We take first, of course, the Predication of Jesus to the first preachers of his word. That that serves us, are the words: "Even so let your light shine before men." 3O Hints to Ministers These words, together with those accompanying them and which have already been given, are symbolic, but none the less effective, but really the more. It is as though he had said : Ye are the light of the world — the true light. The men of the Jewish San- hedrin are all in darkness, as are the men of the Greek Areopagus, and the Roman Forum ; and having no light themselves, it is impossible for them to give it to others. Ye only have the light. Do not put it un¬ der a bushel. Let it be seen. Let it shine, that the world may not stumble nor fall, nor die, by reason of the awful darkness around it. As it relates to the inspired class and confining ourselves to the New Testament, we say : Two of the five Epistlers of the books of the New Covenant, Paul and Peter, in the most firm-footed way—we would say flat-footed, were it not slang—taking their cue from their Master, enjoin the absolute necessity of ministers or preachers setting a good example to their flocks. Two of them, James and Jude, nor can John be said to do much less, dwell upon the great value of examples, in general; the first of these, James, referring to the examples of suffering and of patience, as giv¬ en in the lives of the prophets; the later, Jude, holding up Sodom and Gomorrah as an example of God's judg¬ ment. The last of the class, John without making any direct individual or personal allusion aside from the Mints to Ministers 31 one general statement already given, makes the strength of his three brief epistles to rest upon the example of the faithful. As already given in our predications, Paul is heard to say (i Cor.4:16): "I beseech you, therefore, be ye imi¬ tators of me.'' Referring to these words, nothing could be more to the point, than what Matthew Henry says: "Ministers should so live that their people may take pattern from them, and live after their cop}'. They should guide them by their lives as well as their lips; go before them in their way to heaven , and not content themselves with pointing it out." Also we read (1 Cor. 11:1): "Be ye imitators of me even as I also am of Christ." As though Paul had said: I ask you to do no more than I do myself. I imitate Christ; and in view of the fact that I come to you instead of Christ, do as I do, and imitate me; and so be doubly taught, by my word and by my life. Albert Barnes would have Paul here say: "I make Christ my example. He is my model in all things; and if you follow him, and follow me as I follow him, you will not err. "Brethren, be ye imitators together of me . . .ev¬ en as ye have us for an example," is what the great Apostle said to Philippians, and is what he says to the people and preachers of today. The word ' 'ensample" here, "ye have us for an ensample," has the same 32 Mints to Ministers meaning as, sample or pattern. Every intelligent liouse-wife knows that a piece of "sample" goods, is the best on the counter. So here. The life of the minister must be a sample of the life he would have others live. In his life, the beauty of its figures, the strength of its texture, and the harmony of its colors, to speak allegorically, must all appear. Away with the heresy : "The preacher is not required to be bet¬ ter than other men." Whether better or worse, he of all men must live up to his profession, and for the reason , as Paul says , he must be a "sample " Chris¬ tian. On this point John Albert Bengel says : "Paul himself was an imitator of Christ; the Philippians were therefore to be imitators together with him." Rather, interporlates Meyers upon this remark, "together with these mentioned in the next clause, who already were imitating him properly." What is said to the Philippians in another place, is the broadest and most telling of all: "The things which ye both learned and received and heard and saw in me, these things do." We prefer to let others elucidate what is here so sweepingly declared, and of all who have spoken we know of none who has done it better, than William Burkett, late "Vicar and Lecturer of Dedham in Essex," whose broad scholarship, keen insight, and surprising thoughtfulness makes his Expository Notes, as has been well said, "both profitable and delightful." "Ob- Hints to Ministers 33 serve," says he,—and may his words sink deeply into all our hearts, "Observe with what great confidence and good assurance St. Paul here recommended his own practice and example to his people's attention : All those things which he had by his doctrine and life commended to them, were to be carefully observed and imitated by them. It is a blessed thing, when a people's eyes are taught by their minister's holiness of life, and their ears by the soundness of his doctrine. Our people have eyes to see how we walk, as well as ears to hear what we preach ; therefore it is a minis¬ ter's great duty, by strictness and gravity of deport¬ ment, to maintain his esteem in the consciences of his people, yet always tempering gravity with a conde¬ scending affability. That minister only can go off the stage with honour and comfort, who has left behind him the good seed of sound doctrine, and the good savour of an holy example." The remaining words of Paul to the church at Thes- salonica (i Thess. i: 6), to Timothy (i Tim. 4:12) and to Titus (Titus 2:7), are all in happy accord with what has already been said and given. As it relates to the people of Thessalonica, he insists that they shall imitate both him and his L,ord ; and Timothy must be an en- sample to them, and Titus likewise — to all them that believe, whether they be rich or poor, intelligent or ignorant, wise or foolish, to one and to all they must be 34 Hints to Ministers ensamples of christian living, to the end that the peo¬ ples of their flock, may be able to point to them with pride ; every mother be able to say : My son, be such a man as is our pastor ; every father able to say : My daughter, have the learning and the manners of our pastor. We come next to the inspired predication of Peter, that Peter of whom the late Bishop Lee (Protestant Episcopal Church) exclaimed : " What cause have we for gratitude to the Almighty for his grace manifested in the life and labors of this his servant," — that Peter of whom he also prayed: "O Almighty God, who by thy son Jesus Christ, didst give to thy Apostle Saint Peter many excellent gifts and commandest him earnestly to feed thy flock." What Peter said on that that is the burden of our hints is exceedingly full and pertinent. Read it as given in the Revised : "The eld¬ ers therefore among }'ou I exhort, who am a fellow- elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be re¬ vealed: Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but will¬ ingly, according unto God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as lording it over the charge alloted to you, but making yourselves ensamp¬ les to the flock" (i Peter 5 : 1-3). The touch stone of all that is here said, as it relates to our treatise, is : Hints to Ministers 35 "making yourselvesensamples to the flock.'' On these, words Dr. John Gill wisely remarks : "The Ethiopic version reads, to his own flock ; that is, the flock of God ; and the Vulgate Latin version adds, heartily, the meaning is that they should go before the flock, and set an example to believers . . . and be patterns of good works to them, and recommend the doctrines, they preach and the duties they urge, by their own lives and conversation ; and particularly should be en- samples to the saints, in liberality and beneficence, in lenity and gentleness, in meekness and humility, in op¬ position to the vices before warned against." Of what John says, L,uther has made the remark: "It is not Christ's walking on the sea, but His ordinary walk that we are called on to imitate." And what mighty Predications are those given as uninspired; whether they be ecclesiastical, or whether they be individual; and to which it is not necessary that we make any additional mention. Surveying all that has been said upon the necessity of preachers, obeying the gospel they preach, and by the spiritual teachers of the world, beginning with Je¬ sus Himself and embracing the inspired and the unin¬ spired, how pertinent become the words of the pro¬ phet: "For the word of the Lord was unto them pre¬ cept upon precept ; line upon line ; here a little there a little." What called forth these words from both the 36 Hints to Ministers lips and the pen of Isaiah ( 28 : 13) one can scarcely do more than surmise; for the introductory words found at the head of the chapter: "The prophet threatened Ephraim for their pride and drunkenness," stand for but little. Of this, however, we may be as¬ sured that the reference is to God's repeated calls up¬ on whatever line they may have been made ; and so, here. Who can but stand in awe, at God's repeated calls to his preachers, to be ensamples to those over whom he has made them to be overseers. And not what we denominate inspired calls, only, but unin¬ spired as well; for, are not both calls to duty, whether inspired, whether uninspired, the work of the Spirit? Hard, indeed, must be the heart, and set the ways of him who turns a deaf ear to all that has just been presented. Range or Scope of tfye Hints. "Expatiate free o'er all this scene of Man ; A mighty maze ! but not without a plan." —Pope's Essay on Man. Let us come to the Range or Scope of these de¬ mands for proper living upon the part of the Minis¬ try. It is scarcely necessary, that we say they in¬ clude the whole man, or wherever human influence may be felt. We inquire, therefore, more for the purpose of systematic thought in regard to it, than anything else. Intimation has already been given that man in general and preachers in particular, influ¬ ence the world in three distinct ways; to wit,the material or physical; intellectual or spiritual; the emotional or religious, which has its seat in the soul. Reduce all this to its lowest term, and we have the Body, the Intellect, and Spirit, as these terms are popularly used and understood. BODILY EXAMPLE. And first then, God's commands apply to the Body. Singularly enough the care of the Body is a matter of legislation on the part of God ; and logically it devolves upon preachers to lead off in showing '37) 3S Hints to Ministers what this legislation is; what are the divine require¬ ments in regard to the same. What has God to say of the body and how would he have us treat it? L,et it first be understood that the body is not us —is not the man. In the word of the critics, it is but the "material organ or instrument" of the real, ego\ or in the word of Scripture, it is but our "earthly tabernacle." But how it is to be treated or managed, is, as we have said, a thing of Divine legislation ; even as wras the tabernacle of old. And does not such leg¬ islation show us its real worth and dignity in the eyes of God?* It is, as David says in his last prayer ( Psl. 72 ): "For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth ; And the poor that hath no helper. He shall have pity on the poor and needy, And the souls of the needy he shall save. *That the body shares in the salvation wrought out by Christ, is clearly evident from the teaching' of Paul, who alone of all those moved by the Spirit dwells upon this fact. In full one half the epistles he wrote, the fact is made to appear, that the body has an interest in Christ's salvation, and by body, we mean flesh and blood, the constituents of the body ; for is it not as David says ? which we quote. "And precious shall their blood be in his sight." How true this is, let attention be given to what is said in the following: epistle to the Romans (6:6-12 8; 10-11-13-23. 12:1) to 1 Corinthians ^:i3-i5-i8-2o) to 11 Corinthians (4:105:10) to the Galations (6:17), to the Philippians ( 1:20 3;2i; to i Thessalonians (5 ; 53 ). And yet it is of sufficient importance to recognize the darkness in which all walk who essay to discuss these problems; for, as is elsewhere inti¬ mated, who can tell really where the body ends and the soul begins or the soul ends and the spirit begins ? Such a veritable unit is man, that we can do no more than simply recognise his seeming trinity. Hints to Ministers 39 He shall redeem their soul from oppression and vio¬ lence ; And precious shall their blood be in his sight." Referring to these words, and expressive of the esti¬ mate God puts upon the physical man, especially if he be a christian in life and principle, Adam Clarke, has the following most opportune remarks: "Because they are poor and uneducated, they are liable to be deceived: and because they are helpless, they are liable to oppression; but his equal justice shall duly consider these cases; and no man shall suf¬ fer because he is deceived, though the letter of the law may be against him ( but how much more so, when the letter of the law is in his favor, and yet he is con¬ demned and maltreated). If the blood or life of such a person shall have been spilt by the hand of violence, God shall seek it out, and visit it on the murderer, though he were the chief in the land. The murderer shall not be screened though he were of the blood royal, if he have willfully taken away the life of a man howsoever poor or despised he may be," God's laws in relation to the body which the preacher is bound to keep : What are they ? To know these laws and un¬ derstand their nature we choose to refer to what is particularly said whether found in the old Testament or in the New. We take what Moses required on the score of 40 Hints to Ministers bodily sanctity, to represent the Old ; and Paul, to represent the New. Approaching, however the doctrines or teachings of Moses or even of Paul, reference should first be made to the Decalogue, dealing as portions of it does, not only with the physical sanctity of God's people which now especially concerns us, but with that that relates to the soul and the spirit as well; and not especially for the Jews and the priests that descended from Levi, but for all, of every age and race who in any way minister or are ministered to at any altar of God. Exceedingly general are the requirements of this Decalogue. Sub¬ stantially, they are a postscript of all that relates to morals and religion in the Dispensations that were past ; a rescript of all that was then present; and a prescript of all that was to come. As might therefore be expected, it serves as an indicator of religion in general; of what man owes not only to his body but to his soul and his spirit; and should be presented first, of all that Scripture has to say. THE DECALOGUE. Thou shalt have none other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor the likeness of any form that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of Hints to Ministers 41 the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands, of them that love me and keep my com¬ mandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain ; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all work : but the seventh day is a sabbath unto the Lord thy God : in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger, that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Honour thy father and thy mother : that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt do no murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's. As has already been said, the above relates to and is the foundation of all that was preached in the Adamic, Noachic and Abramic Dispensations ; relates to and is the foundation of all that was to be preached in the 42 Hints to Ministers Dispensation both of Moses and of Christ. Pertaining to the great principles that underlie all true worship, the Decalogue has no more bearing upon one than upon another ; no more bearing upon the first than upon the last. The very life of all, it is and must ever continue to be in force. And so it addresses itself to all preach¬ ers of righteousness of today. They of all must be first, in giving its provisions exemplifications in their lives. Only Commandments V, VI. VII, VIII, and IX can be said in a way to relate to the body, the body as the means or instrument of their action ; and therefore under the head we are now considering, these are altogether worthy of closest and most conscientious scrutiny. COMMANDMENT V. "honour thy father and thy mother.' ' Who more than the preacher, can be expected to show forth the beauty and the excellence of filial piety, a thing Ptahhoteph, an Egyptian or Hamitic sage, is said to have "strictly inculcated," and upon which even Confucius the Shemitic heathen is said to have based his moral system ? O ye preachers, have we parents living, let us honour them with the honour due the relation we sustain to them ; and so be a goodly en- sample to our flock ! Remember the day when they provided for our wants, and now in happy turn let us provide for theirs. Hints to Ministers 43 COMMANDMENT VI. "THOU SHALL DO NO MURDER." By reference to what we are told in Matthew (5:21 -26), this command not only forbids murder, but also cruel thoughts and passionate words. "The root of bitterness," says Rawlinson, "whence murder springs, is some fierce passion or some inordinate desire." Also the same writer says: "The sixth command¬ ment, prohibits, not only violence to the body, but what is of far greater consequence—injury to the soul." Should not we preachers beware not only of murder in fact, especially, but, murder in itsincipieucy ? Ah, how much could be said on this score! Incipient murder : murder, to hide even a lesser crime — a murder how¬ ever, that is just as damnable in God's, sight, and just assurely to be punished as such, at the great Tribunal of God. "Rachel weeping for her children: she refuseth to be comforted for her children, because they are not." COMMANDMENT VII. "THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY." From the pens of the wise and good, much presents itself to us to say upon this commandment. Whole bushels of condemning words are at our disposal. We select the following from the pen of George Rawlin¬ son: "We are ready enough to speak with scorn of fallen women, to regard them as fallen forever, and 44 Hints to Ministers treat their sins as the one unpardonable offense ; but what of fallen men ? Is not their sin as irreversible? Is it not the same sin ? Is it not spoken of in the scrip¬ ture in the same way? Read Heb. 13:4, also, Revela¬ tion 21:8. And is it not as debasing, as deadening to the soul, as destructive of all true manliness, of all true chivalry, of all self respect ? Is it not ani- malizing to all who practice it ? O ye ministers of Je¬ sus, know that dogs are without ( Rev. 22: 15 ). COMMANDMENT VIII. "THOU SHALT NOT STEAL." We could wish for space to incorporate all that Thos. Watson has written upon this commandment ; but its length utterly forbids. But we say to our brother preachers, get his celebrated, "Body of Divinity," and read; nay study what he says on the Decalogue. For present use we simply give his opening words on this command : "As the holiness of God sets him against uncleanness, Command VII, so the justice of God sets him against rapine and robbery. Enumerating the sorts of thefts, these are, he says: " (4) The Church thief or pluralist, who holds several benefices, but seldom or never preaclieth to the people; he gets the golden fleece, but lets his flock starve, Ezek. 34: 2, 'Wo be to the sheperds of Israel,' ver. 8, 'They feed themselves and feed not my flock.' These ministers will be indicted for thieves at God's bar." Hints to IVLinisters <45 COMMANDMENT IX. "THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST THY NEIGHBOUR." As it relates to the bearing of this command, both the significance and importance of it, we can do no better than give the opening words of the same Thos. Watson in the treatment on the Decalogue already re¬ ferred to. " The tongue which at first was made to be an organ of God's praise, is now become an instrument of unrighteousness. This commandment binds the tongue to its good behaviour. God hath set two fences to keep in the tongue — the teeth and lips ; and this commandment is a third fence set about it, that it should not break forth into evil." But what more effective on this very point, than are the words to which all traveling preachers must listen, when re¬ ceived into conference ? Says the book of Discipline under the head of, Special Instructions : "Speak evil of no one, because your word especially doth eat as a canker. Keep your thoughts within your own breast until you come to the person concerned." Through with the law that is general in its nature and universal in its application, the famed Ten Com¬ mandments, for it is not our purpose to refer here to those commands in it which relate to the Soul or the Spirit, let us come to the special law of Moses, which 46 Hints to Ministers deals directly with the body, as it is the body with which we now have to do- In Leviticus (19 : 28), preeminently the book of the law, Moses is heard to command : "Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord." Upon the chapter whence this law is taken—a law Moses deemed it nec¬ essary to repeat upon a number of occasions, Marcus M. Kalisch has said: "This remarkable chapter is per¬ haps the most comprehensive, the most varied, and in some respects the most important of Leviticus, if not of the Pentateuch ; it was by the ancient Jews regarded as an epitome of the whole law . . . and it has at all times been looked upon as a counterpart of the Decalogue itself." As to this command which forbids treading on the dignity of the body in the interest of the dead,we can not do better than allow the law to speak for itself, not indeed in the light of old theories however true they may be supposed to be, but rather in the light of the fact that man's creation was hailed with a song, * and concerning which it is written : " For thou hast made him but little lower than God And crownest him with glory and honor." (Psl. 8:5.) * Referring' to man's creation, Frederick W. R. Untreit says ; "the lan¬ guage here soars to a most concise song of triumph, and we meet, for the first time, with the parallelism of members. " Says Lange : "(Gen. 1:17), In three parallel members, and therefore in the highest poetical form> does the narrative celebrate the creation of man. " Hints to Ministers 47 Such a being is not to allow liis body to be scarred and marked and scribbled upon. Its dignity is such that God Himself interposes by law, and forbids any and all such mutilations. How were the Jews im¬ pressed by this law, do you ask? Turn to Jeremiah (4i:i-7)aud read how even the bloody Ishmael, quite a thousand years after its delivery, slew three score and ten men whose chief offense doubtless was, that hav¬ ing put contempt upon this law of cutting, both as it relates to the hair and to the body, hesitated not to approach those in authority. It is however, in the light of Christianity and in the light of New Testament writings, we say, coupled with the universal practice of God's people, that the regal dignity of the human body is made to appear. For, is it not as Lightfoot argues, that sin of any and all kinds has become a thousand times more sinful in the light of Christ's sacrifice? And where the command of God not to despoil the body or allow it to be despoiled by whatsoever means is obeyed, and especially by those who are his representatives, the preachers, will this dignity appear in more than sunlight brilliancy. As already said, Paul is chosen as spokesman for the new and higher glory of the body in the new and high¬ er Dispensation. Nor is there need that we quote all that he says upon the subject of bodily purity. We should like very much to give the entire sixth chapter of his AS Hints to Ministers epistle to the Romans, or the entire sixth of I Cor- rinthians, if we only dared ; but ah, the length of either, to say nothing of both ! The salient verses of the sixth of Romans, however, we must give; and as we view it, they are ( 12-16 ): "L,et not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof : neither present your members unto sin, as instruments of unrighteousness; but present your¬ selves unto God, as alive from the dead, and vour members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants ye are whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" We can not forego allowing Burkitt, who says so many per¬ tinent things in his Notes, to be heard. "But why doth the apostle say," he asks, "Let not sin reign in your body, rather than in your soul ? Answer, Because sin and lusts do gratify the body exceedingly ; that is the sensual appetite, the brutish part of man ; and further, because they are acted and executed by the body or outward man, called therefore the deed of the body. . . O deplorable degradation, that man, who was created (in God's image and ) God's subject, is, by his shame- Plinths to Ministers -49 ful apostasy, become the vassal and slave of sin and Satan. .... Happy we (and happy the preacher), if by the help of the Holy Spirit, the sense of baptis¬ mal, sacramental, (and ordinational) engagements, we find sin dethroned in our mortal bodies, and its empire dissolved." Before coming to Paul's teachings to the Corinthians, let another word from him be heard in regard to the physical purity of the preacher, as the representative of his flock. It is taken from the same Roman epistle (i2 : i ): "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God which is your reason¬ able service." Brother preacher, let Daniel Whitby, who, for schol¬ arship had but few equals in his day, tell us about this "reasonable service "By sin reigning in our mortal bodies," he says, "and by obeying the motions of it in our inward actions, we being said to present' mem¬ bers of our bodies instruments of unrighteousness to sin,' the apostle here doth properly exhort us, 'present the same bodies now a living sacrifice,' in opposition to the legal sacrifices, which were first slain, and then offered up to God upon the altar, viz: by being now dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord: a holy sacrifice, as being consecrated to the service oi God, and ' having our fruit unto holiness,' as 50 Hints to Ministers the servants of God, especially those who are preachers, still have: and as the sacrifices offered to God were to be free from any spot and blemish, and so, holy; so are our bodies made a holy sacrifice, when they are kept' in sanctification and honor,' and free from all filthiness of flesh, and so a sacrifice acceptable and well pleasing to that God, who desired not the legal sacrifices nor delighted in burnt offerings." To pass over i Corinthians, sixth chapter, would be entirely inadmissable in any treatise dealing upon the bodily purity enjoined by Scripture ; especially the concluding verses of it, which are as follows : "All things are lawful for me ; but not all things are expe¬ dient. All things are lawful for me; but I will not be brought under the power of any. Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats ; but God shall bring to nought both it and them. But the body is not for fornication, but for the L,ord ; and the L,ord for the body : and God both raised the Lord, and will raise up us through his power. Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ, and make them members of a harlot? God forbid. Or know ye not that he that is joined to a harlot is one body? For, the twain, saith he, shall become one flesh. But he that is joined unto the I^ord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth Hints to Ministers 51 against his own body. Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have from God ? And ye are not your own ; for ye were bought with a price: glorify God, therefore, in your body." Nothing could possibly be stronger than the above. It is as death dealing shrapnel poured into the ranks of the unclean, whether physical, whether spiritual. Says the Venerable Archdeacon Farrar : "The apostle in this passage demolishes the sophistical arguments and excuses by which certain professed Christians at Corinth were disposed to defend the practice of forni¬ cation. It was said that matters relating to the bodily life were indifferent to the moral (and religious) welfare of men, that as an enlightened man will eat this food or that, irrespective of any superstitious prejudices, in as much as food and the digestive system are naturally in co-relation with each other, so he will satisfy the sensual appetites of his body in whatever way may be convenient and agreeable to him. Against this doctrine of deeds Paul here argues, not on grounds of asceticism, but on grounds which must be conceded as secure by the moral and especially by the Christian thinker." But mark the last verses, of the quotation above : "Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple 53 Hints to Ministers of God is holy; which temple ye are Ponder, upon this, 0 ye preachers of the living God. Ponder. Ponder. We gladly give place to a greater than we to speak of it: " God dwells in all believers, (especially in preachers)," says Rev. H. Bremner. "The temple at Jerusalem wTas Jehovah's dwelling place. There he had his Shechinah in the cloud above the mercy-seat and between the cherubim, and there he was wor¬ shipped. Kven so, the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. The Father and the Son make their abode with the man who loves and obeys the Son, and this is effected by the Spirit. This indwelling is the culmination of the work of grace within us. The heart must first be quickened, renewed, purified, ere the Holy Spirit can dwell in it. How wonderful a truth is this. God in me. (God in the preacher who lives the words he preaches). It is not the dream of the pantheist who calls me a spark from the eternal fire—God dwelling in me because I am only a mode of the one universal ex¬ istence. It is not the raving of the mystic, whose imagination has betrayed him into a hazy confusion of ideas regarding his relation to God. It is the utterance of sober truth. In the creature — the new creature — God the Creator makes his abode ; not, indeed, in the infirmity of his being as if our tiny vessels could con¬ tain the ocean, yet really. The little flower-cup has the sun dwelling in it all the day, though he dwells in Hints to Ministers 53 thousands beside ; and his presence is made known by the colour and fragrance and growth of the flower. The same Spirit of God who abides in the Church abides in every true member of it, and this abiding is revealed in the love shed abroad in the heart, in the odour that breathes through the life, and in the gracious bending of the nature to all that is righteous." All Christians, especially those who are His preach¬ ers, are His Temple; and if any of them destroy this temple, argues Paul, God will destroy him. Destroy the temple of God. Destroy its purity. Destroy its sanctity. Destroy its usefulness. But how ? I^et us speak of but one of the several ways bj^ which the temple of God, the body of His saints, may be des¬ troyed. We speak of the destruction of its holiness, the one thing of all. The holiness of the temple of God, our bodies, may be destroyed by not keeping them in good condition, even, for an illustration, as was kept the temple of old. Ah, the holiness of the olden temple! We are indebted to McClintoch for the following par¬ ticulars, bearing upon this subject: " The injunction" says this authority of L,ev. 19:3, "Ye shall reverence my sanctuary, laid the people under an obligation to maintain a solemn and holy behaviour when they came to worship in the temple. We have already seen that such as were ceremonially uuclean were forbiden to 54: Hints to Ministers enter the sacred court oil pain of death; but in the course of time there were several prohibitions enforced by the Sanhedrin which the law had not named. The following have been collected by L,ightfoot out of the Rabbinical writings (Temple Service, chapter ten): ( i ) ' No man might enter the mountain of the house with his staff.' (2) 'None might enter in thither with his shoes on his feet, though he might with his sandals.' ( 3 ) ' Nor might any man enter the mountain of the house with his scrip on.' (4) ' Nor might he come in with the dust on his feet, but he must wash or wipe them, and look to his feet when he enters into the house of God,' to remind him, perhaps, that he should then shake off all worldly thoughts and affections. ( 5) ' Nor with any money in his purse.' He might bring it in his hand, however; and in this way it was brought in for various purposes. If this had not been the case, it would seem strange that the cripple should have been placed at the gate of the Temple to ask alms of those who entered therein (see Acts 3:2). (6) 'None might spit in the Temple; if he were necessi¬ tated to spit, it must be done in some corner of his garment.' (7) ' He might not use any irreverent gesture, especially before the gate of Nicanor,' that being exactly in front of the Temple. (8) ' He might not make the mountain of the house a thorough- Hints to Ministers 55 fare,' for the purpose of reaching the place by a near¬ er way; for it was devoted to the purpose of religion. (9) 'He that went into the court must go leisurely and gravely into his place ; and there he must demean himself, as in the presence of the Lord God, in all reverence and fear. (10) 'He must worship standing, with his feet close to each other, his eyes directed to the ground, his hands upon his breast, with the right one above the left.' (See Luke 18:13). (n) ' No one, however wreary, might sit down in the court.' The only exception was in favor of the kings of the house of David. (12) ' None might pray with his head uncovered. And the wise men and their scholars never without a veil.' This custom is alluded to in 1 Cor. 11:4, where the apostle directs the men to reverse the practice adopted in the Jewish Temple. (13) 'Their bodily gesture in bowing before the Lord was either bending the knees, bowing the head, or falling prostrate on the ground.' (14) 'Having performed the service, and being about to retire, they might not turn their backs upon the altar.' They therefore went backwards till they were out of the court." The worldly and irreligious might pronounce much of this, and indeed all of it, superstition. Let it be so, but it none the less shows the respect and rever¬ ence in which this temple of God was held. If such 56 Hints to Minister® were the requirements of the type, what may we not say of the antitype; of the shadow, what of the substance; of dead rock and cedar, what of living blood—blood too that is precious in the eyes of the IvOrd. If we are to believe what Paul says, and look upon our bodies, as temples of God, surely we must concern ourselves about them, and mightily see to it, that we in no sense or degree destroy them. The olden temple was kept clean and pure. Says John Gill: "There were four and twenty porters to open and shut the doors of the mountain of the house or the Temple and the court of women in the day time; six on the east side, four on the north; four on the south; at Asuppim two and two, four in all; four on the west; and two at Parbar ; here they attended in the daytime, to keep the place pure and peaceable." Even so should it be with our bodies. In his ordinational sermon of 1881 and also of 1884 to the candidates before him the Lord Bishop of Durham addressed the words : "How shall you spend the few hours which remain?" At the same time he gave the answer : "How, but in cleansing and purifying these temples of the Holy Ghost." "Cleanliness—physical cleanliness—is next to Godliness," is a maxim than which none is more worthy to be observed; especially by those who are enjoined to be "ensamples to the flock." Call to mind how cleanly the priests of old were required to Hints to Ministers 57 keep themselves. Wash and be clean, may be said to have been the order of their lives. It should be so now with those who succeed them in the handling of things that are holy. And not for themselves personally, only, but for those of their family as well. Has the preacher a wife ? It is for her as well as for him, to be an ensample of cleanliness and good housewifery in general, to the flock. Has he children? the same rule applies to them. And it is for the preacher to see that this is done; for him to remember not only his piitna- cy according to both nature and revelation, but his or- dinatioual vows as well. Is he a Deacon, he cannot forget the answer he gave, when asked: "Will you ap¬ ply all your diligence to frame and fashion your own life and life of your family, according to the doctrine of Christ ?" "I will do so, the Lord being my helper." And the same if he be an Elder; and the same, infer- entially, if he be a Bishop. All, all are pledged to physical cleanliness to the end that the Holy Ghost will not be expected to dwell in a dirty house,—dirty spiritually, dirty physcially. By actual count the word, clean, with its varied modifications occurs in the Bible, no less than 221 times. And Oh, the train of blessing that follows even a life of physical cleanliness; chiefly the blessing of health! People seem to think, and among them too, 5S Mints to Ministers many preachers, that health is not a thing of law; that we can eat what we please and when ; dress as we like, warmly or indifferently; breathe and rebreathe over and over and over again the fetid and deadly atmos¬ phere of crowded assemblies — and yet, keep well. What if epidemics are afloat; unless forbidden by law, every Society that meets, must be attended ; every so¬ cial receive countenance. The result we all know. The death rate among our people is the highest of of any of all our cosmopolitan population. In the old Dispensation, the priest, in a very com¬ manding sense, was largely a health officer. If we are to believe Iyightfoot, the preacher is more. Says he : "This is the distinguishing character of the Christian ministry, as contrasted with other priesthoods, that it is charged with a direct care for the bodies as well as the souls of men." It has been well said: "God shall ruin the ruiner of his temple." Says Farrar: "St. Paul was, perhaps, think¬ ing of the penalty of death attached to any one who desecrated the temple at Jerusalem. An inscription on the Chel, or middle wall of partition, threatened death to any Gentile who set foot within the sacred enclosure." So much for the body and the ensample to be set by it before the people. soul example. We approach now the example to be set by the soul H ints to Ministers 59 of the preacher. "The soul," says the Century, "is man's moral and emotional part." Candlish speaks of it as having "instincts selfish and social," and refers to "its strange incipient dawn of reasoning." Von Gerlach has it possessed of "feeling and longings and strivings;" while Clarke makes it the seat "of the affections and passions." In all this we have full guarantee for referring to the soul as the seat of relig¬ ion; as that word, as well also as its connection with the soul, is commonly understood. In the great world of morals and emotions, the social world, the world of feeling and longing and striving, the world of affection—if we are not to make such a world the world of religion, then indeed are words and definitions to go for naught. But words and definitions do not go for naught, and we therefore conclude, that religion is a life that finds development in the soil of the soul. Let, therefore the Christian minister or preacher be an ensample to his flock in his religious life—show that the soil of his soul be "good ground". The Christian minister, we say ; for when we speak of religion, a word that is most general, we mean Christianity, which is a word most particular. It is the Christian religion that the Christian preacher is to exemplify ; the Christian religion in its two great phases; moral phase and the phase we technically call religion. The difference, do you ask? L,et even Matthew 60 Hints to Ministers Arnold reply : . . ."Thepassage," says he, "from mo¬ rality to religion is made when to riiorality is applied faith and emotion,"—that emotion, which is of the soul, as we have already seen. It is proper to say here that Christain morals, differ from the morals of any other religion embraced and practiced by man. Morals pertain to rules of right conduct, especially between man and man. But what is right among Christains or considered so, by them, may not be so considered by other religionists. The Mohammedan for instauce, considers polygamy right, and his Koran or Scripture justifies him in it.* Not so the Christian. In the eyes of the same Koran, it is required to literally cut off the hands of all who steal. Not so the Christian. In short Christian mo¬ rality is the' morality of Christ; and they who are his disciples, must keep his requirements. Who is a Platonist? The man who adheres to the philosophy of Plato. Who the Stoic? The man who adheres to Zeno- And so, of sects or religions. The Lutheran is one who embraces and practices the ten¬ ets of Luther. And so the Wesleyan adheres to the doctrine of Wesley ; and the Campbellite to those of Campbell. The principle is one and the samt. The man who embraces and practices the tenets of Christ is a Christian. "Ye are my friends, if ye do the *See Koran Pages 62, 291, 347. Hints to Ministers 61 things which I command you." But suppose the Platonist refuses to follow the words of Plato? And the Stoic the words of Zeno? Each then, must cease to call himself by his master's name. And so all the remainder. And so, of all. who call themselves by Christ's name, and yet refuse to do whatsoever He commands. It is, therefore, that the preacher must show in the life that he leads, what true discipkship meaus, by carrying out the Master's rules, whether moral, whether religious. Christian morality, what is it? Read, nay study the Decalogue of Old Testament. Read, nay study the Sermon on the Mount of the New Testament. It is in these two fundamental instruments, that the mo¬ rality of our religion, is to be found, the morality that chiefly concerns itself about our conduct toward our neighbor: and which all are bound to keep who would not blaspheme that worthy name by which we are called. But read at your leisure, the argument of Paul, as it pertains to preachers and the necessity they are under, of being ensa.mples of the gospel (See Rom. 2 : 17-29)- , And what is true of the moral phase of our faith, is equally true of the religious phase, the phase especial¬ ly that regulates our conduct, not entirely toward men, but toward God—religion as defiued by John Hen¬ ry Newman. "By religion," says he. "I mean the know- 62 Hints to Ministers ledge of God, of His will, and of our duty toward Him." Duty toward God. Precisely. Mistakes are made in concluding that he who performs his duty to¬ ward man, has met all the requirements of life; and not without explanation are we to accept the philoso¬ phy of Leigh Hunt who had Abou Ben Adhem who loved his brother man, to lead those who had loved God. Not so. Not so. God is as much a reality as man ; and the duties or debts we owe Him are just as real as those we owe man ; for do we not daily pray : "For¬ give us our debts"? As intimated, those we owe man may be character¬ ized as moral duties or debts ; those we owe God as religious. Of these, God also, is heard to say : "Pay me what thou owest." It is then for the preacher to be the most eminently religious man of his flock. He is to show his people how to be religious ; how to be dutiful; how to be praiseful; how to be faithful, or full of faith. Not simply to tell them ; but show them ; and he will find it to be infinitely more effective in the accomplishment of the work given him to do. It is the duty of man to love God. Let the preacher show by his life how this is done. How ? do you ask. The answer is plain and at hand : " If ye love me ye will keep my commandments" ( John 14: 15 ); and again, " If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love" (John 15 : 10). It is the duty of man to fear tiints to Ministers 63 God—not a slavish fear ; but the fear that is filial—the fear that a loving child has for a loving parent. Let the preacher show what this is. It is the duty of man to worship God. Let the preacher show how such requirements are met. " Teach these lessons to your people," says Bishop Lightfoot, "but learn them your¬ selves first. For their sakes, for your own sake, learn them." On all these lines, whether moral, or religious, we know of nothing better, than the General Rules, as found in our Book of Discipline, and which we here insert: First: By doing no harm ; by avoiding evil of every kind, especially that which is most generally practiced —such as: The taking the name of God in vain. The profaning the day ol the Lord, either by doing ordinary work therein, or by buying and selling. Drunkenness, or the drinking of spirituous liquors, unless in cases of necessity. The buying and selling of men, women, and chil¬ dren, with an intention to enslave them. Fighting, quarrelling brawling; brother going to law with brother ; returning evil for evil, or railing for railing; the using of many words in buying and sell¬ ing. The buying and selling goods that have not paid duty. 64: Hints to Ministers The giving or taking things on usury, that is, unlaw¬ ful interest. Uncharitable or unprofitable conversation, particu¬ larly speaking evil of magistrates or ministers. Doing to others as we would not they should do unto us. Doing what we know is not for the glory of God; as, The putting on of gold and costly apparel. The taking such diversions as cannot t