1^5:1 .::xt>:' ^ 06ICAL The Past 912. ^^"^ ^^dridge, -or ar>^ ^. school "^ ^"d the sund ay ^ WILLIAM E. HATCHER. The Pastor AND THE Sunday School Sunday School Board Seminary Lectures course no. 1 DELIVERED AT SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, LOUISVILLE, KY., FEB., 1902 ^ WILLIAM E. HATCHER, D.D. PRESIDENT BOARD OF TRUSTEES RICHMOND COLLEGE Sunday School Board Southern Baptist Convention Nashville, Tennessee ^^^^ Copyrighted 1902. Sunday School Board Southern Baptist Convention. PREFACE. It is with the utmost diffidence that I consent to the pubHcation of these lectures on the Rela- tion of the Pastor to the Sunday-school. They were not prepared with reference to publication and do not seem to me to possess a merit which entitles them to a formal presentation to the pub- lic. But I have felt that I ought not to refuse to place them in the hands of the Sunday-school Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. It was through its generous provision the arrange- ment for their delivery was made and it has hon- ored me with an earnest request for the manu- scripts, insisting that their plea for higher pas- toral efficiency in the Sunday-school will be of value to the young ministers of our country. If they shall serve to heighten the sense of obligation in our pastors to the Sunday-school it will be an ample compensation for the labor expended in their preparation. There is a reminiscent strain in some of the lectures which I fear will strike some as personal in an unseemly degree. The forbearing reader will not forget that forty-three years of my life were spent in the pastorate, and it was hardly avoidable that my experiences should intrude 4 PREFACE. themselves into some of my utterances. Possi- bly even these personal incidents may hold a bit of comfort for the tried and overtaxed pastors. I invoke a Father's smile upon every one who takes up this little volume and glances over its pages. William E. Hatcher. Richmond, Va., April 9, 1902. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Preface. MGE INTRODUCTION. By President E. Y. Mullins 7 Lectures. 1. The Pastor at the Door 17 2. The Pastor on the Inside 45 3. The Pastor Abroad ^^ 4. The Pulpit and the Sunday-school lOi 5. The Pastor and the Garner 135 Appendix— Historical 173 Illustrations. 1. Portrait of the Author Frontispiece 2. Norton Hall in Seminary Group of Buildings. ..Opposite 17 3. The Seminary Faculty " 45 4. The Chapel in Norton Hall " 77 5. Seminary Library Building " loi 6. The Seminary's Home when at Greenville, S. C. " 135 7. The Seminary Faculty, 1863 *' i73 I s s \a e d \i n d e r tKe Constance PollocK PviblisHin^ Fvind, given MarcK 8, 1902 by P. D. PollocK. LL.D. President Mercer University, Macon, Ga. Book Number One INTRODUCTION. The writer lays claim to no superior wisdom or insight in Sunday-school problems. Still less does he set himself up as critic of his brethren. But it will be conceded by thoughtful readers that there is not an adequate appreciation of the Sunday-school on the part of many pastors. There is a conventional recognition of it as a le- gitimate part of the machinery of the kingdom, a useful instrument of spiritual power. What is needed is that this instrument should be under- stood and thoroughly utilized, that a keen edge should be put upon it, and that in the hands of trained workmen it should cut the material for the Lord's house. There was one fact of supreme significance in the early life of Jesus, his experience in the tem- ple at Jerusalem. Jewish parents felt in duty bound to introduce their children to all the relig- ious privileges at the age of twelve or thereabouts. To their minds this was the spiritual birthright of the child. The splendid outward appointments of the temple would make a powerful appeal to the religious life of the boy. It was unpardon- able in them to neglect this duty of introducing the child to the temple worship. We know the 8 INTRODUCTION. effect of this contact with the temple upon the mind of the boy Jesus. His whole nature re- sponded in a rapture of spirit so profound and engrossing that even his parents were for the time forgotten. This result seemed inevitable. For he himself was the interpretation of that temple ritual. He was to be the priest and the victim, and in a real sense the temple itself, as he afterwards declared in reference to the resurrec- tion of the body. Each feature of the temple worship pointed to him. As a boy even, there nmst have been deep movings of his spirit under the influence of his first contact with the house of God. No one can estimate the value in the spiritual development of Jesus of this first visit to Jerusalem. Now, is not something like this the spiritual birthright of every child born in a Christian fam- ily ? Was the Jew's view of his duty to his child on a higher plane than that of the Christian par- ent? Baptists refuse stubbornly to baptize babes unconscious of the meaning of the act. They steadfastly refuse to allow any other individual, be he parent or guardian, to perform any religious aci as a substitute for the free and voluntary act of the child himself. May they never abate the strenuousness of their plea for Hberty and spir- ituality in this high and true sense. But does not the very ardor of our defense of the child's birthright as a free individual, answerable spirit- INTRODUCTION. ually to God alone, impose upon us a correspond- ing duty, viz., that we shall environ the free spirit of the child, at the earliest stage of its susceptibil- ity, with those transforming forces which are cal- culated to awaken it into spiritual life? Shall its unregenerated nature be permitted to issue forth upon its earthly career without this supreme privilege ? Shall we carry the child to the temple or not? Shall we rob the boy of his spiritual birthright? Shall we confront his free young spirit with the sublimest object of reverence and service which ever appealed to human spirits, Jesus Christ, the divine Son and Revealer of the eternal Father? To accomplish this adequately is not the work of a day. We have no elaborate temple ritual now. Our appeal must be to intel- ligence, conscience and will, by the truth, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Parent, teacher and pastor must become allies in this holy war. The Sunday-school must more and more prove a factor of power in the pastor's work. Another consideration arises here. Revival work seems to be approaching a new stage. We hear it said that the great revivals are a thing of the past. In his later years Mr. Moody's work was less with the unsaved and more with the Christians than in his earlier life. The great emotional experiences of past generations in times of revival seem no longer possible. Now in the view of this writer revivals can never cease so 10 INTRODUCTION. long as there are sinners to be saved and saints to be renewed. But they may change somewhat in many of their features. All signs seem to point to the conclusion that instruction is des- tined to play a relatively larger part in them than formerly. Emotion there will be both deep and true, though possibly less demonstrative. The evangelistic appeal which shall be full-orbed with power will reach the will through the intellect, the emotions and the conscience. The spread of general education has created a condition which will more and more make instruction necessary. There is nothing new in this, save as a matter of proportion. Here again is seen the strategic value of the Sunday-school. Already in many churches the Sunday-school is the chief and al- most only hope for church growth. But whether iti the family church, or the church among the masses of the great city, or the country church, the Sunday-school will remain the most hopeful field of evangelistic endeavor. There are two suggestive facts brought to light in recent times which bear in an interesting way on what has been said. These facts have been discovered by careful observation of what is going on in the religious world, and accurate statistics which have been gathered by competent students of the subject. One of these facts -is that a rapidly increasing percentage of all the con- versions which are taking place under the influ- INTRODUCTION. tl ence of modern preaching is from the scholars of the Sunday - schools. Twenty-three years ago, one writer says, forty per cent of the conversions in a year were before the age of fifteen, and eighty per cent before the age of eighteen. In a more recent study it was found that at least eighty per cent occurred before the age of fifteen. These conclusions are based on a study of several groups of conversions numbering one thousand conver- sions in each group, gathered from various quar- ters. These facts alone tell a story full of inter- est and significance to every earnest pastor. The other fact that is of even more interest is that the period when the mind of the child is most responsive to religious impressions is just before or about the time of adolescence, say from the ages of eleven to fourteen. An intellectual and a spiritual crisis takes place about the same time with the physical. A new world opens then to th.e growing spirit of the boy and girl. This above all others is the time that is critical. In- fluences for good or evil now invade the child's mind with peculiar power. It is not when the pulsing life is hidden in the twig of the tree in the early springtime, nor when the fruit is well formed and on the way to maturity that heat and cold affect it most. It is at the point between these stages, when the bud is about to burst into blossom, that frost bites and sunshine warms with greatest power. And so it is in the develop- 12 INTRODUCTION. ment of human character. The beginning of the period of transition from childhood to manhood and womanhood is the critical moment. Here again we have fresh instance of the marvelous wisdom of the Bible and of the Jews who were from the beginning nurtured in its teachings. To expose the expanding spirit of the twelve-year- old boy to the powerful impression and appeal of the stately temple worship, and to the religious environment of Jerusalem, upon the occasion of a great feast, was a crowning parental service. Another fact to be noted in this connection shows the darker side of the picture. Many pas- tors in recent years have had occasion to note the early appearance of skepticism among the young of their flock, especially in communities where public or other school advantages are good. A bright and magnetic but unbelieving teacher in a day school can, in a thousand ways, inject the poison of doubt into the minds of boys and girls, and often this is without conscious effort to do so. Moreover, the light literature of the day in the form of periodicals and novels, while often ele- vating in tone, is also too frequently of the oppo- site type. The educated boy and girl is sure to run the gauntlet of such books and periodicals. One of the best possible means of counteracting this influence is the Sunday-school. If the writer may be permitted to bear witness to a personal experience, he would say that, all INTRODUCTION. I3 things considered, the most fruitful year in fifteen of his pastoral effort was most intimately con- nected with the Sunday-school. This came about in a most direct and simple way. Prior to a series of meetings, in which the pastor did the preaching, the matter of prayer and effort for the conver- sion of Sunday-school scholars was first laid be- fore the superintendent and teachers. The teach- ers were requested to furnish complete lists of their classes, with brief remarks after each name indicating whether converted or unconvert- ed, and any other points of interest. These were carefully gone over and the facts classified. At the next prayer-meeting these were set forth in connection with an earnest appeal to parents on behalf of their children. A holy conspiracy of parents, teachers and pastor was entered into with a view to seeking, in all wise and practicable ways, the salvation of the young of the church and Sunday-school. During that winter about fifty of them were baptized, and among these were some of the most interesting and striking child conversions I have ever known. In the pastoral training class which was formed opportunity was afforded for noting not only the religious growth of these young converts, but the various forms of skepticism which had already begun to assail many of them prior to their conversion. This experience and others similar to it impressed most profoundly upon the writer's mind the supreme 14 INTRODUCTION. value of the work our Sunday-schools are doing, and the prime necessity of providing instruction upon the subject, in some form, in our theological seminaries. This latter desire took the form of a suggestion regarding a lecture course on the Sunday-school in the Southern Baptist Theolog- ical Seminary. It was heartily endorsed by our Faculty and enlisted promptly the interest and co-operation of Rev. J. M. Frost, D. D., Corre- sponding Secretary of the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, as well as of the Board itself. It is due to this co-operation of the Sunday School Board, and by the means of an annual gift from them, that the Seminary is able to offer its students courses of lectures from year to year on the Sunday-school. At this point it is fitting to remark that the Sunday-school idea is not a new one in the South- ern Baptist Theological Seminary. It is not suffi- ciently well known that Broadus, Manly and Wil- liams, in the earliest years of the Seminary, were earnest advocates and prime movers in the Sun- day-school enterprise among Southern Baptists. C. J. Elford, the layman is one whose name should stand side by side with the three others named as co-worker in establishing the Sunday- school movement. I was about to say these were the men who fathered the enterprise, but in view of the tact and skill, and gentleness and pa- tience, the perseverance and the faith of these INTRODUCTION. I5 men in caring- for the feeble life of the infant in the days of its swaddling clothes, it would be more accurate to say they were the men who mothered the enterprise. But it is not my pur- pose to trace this early history here. Another hand will attend to that task. It is true, however, that interest in the Sunday-school and practical effort for it in various forms have from the begin- ning attended the life of the Seminary. In Louisville it has done, through students and fac- ulty, a notable work in city missions, chiefly through the agency of a wide system of Sunday- schools. It is a happy circumstance that three of our educational institutions have co-operated with the Sunday School Board in inaugurating the first course of lectures. The Seminary in inviting the co-operation of the Board in the undertaking and furnishing the platform and student body; the Board in its generous contribution to defray the expenses and in the publication of the lectures; Richmond College in supplying the first lecturer in the distinguished chairman of its Board of Trustees, Rev. W. E. Hatcher, D. D., LL.D. ; and Mercer University by means of a gift from its honored President, P. D. Pollock, LL.D., which is to be held as a publication fund and whose first use will be the printing In book form of Dr. Hatcher's lectures. It is in the highest degree fitting that this combination of forces should take l6 INTRODUCTION. place when its object is remembered. That ob- ject is to win the position of supreme strategic importance in our holy war. It is to establish an impregnable fortress of spiritual power in the Mount Defiance of the child heart and life. As to the lectures themselves it is needless for me to speak. The lecturer is too well known to require any Introduction, least of all from this writer. His gifts are too generally recognized to need any characterization. The reader is doubt- less already eager to pass from this introduction, as from a light first course to the feast itself. Dr. Hatcher did not discuss the mechanics, but rather the dynamics of the Sunday-school. The man who approaches these lectures in the hope of find- ing hints as to the latest blackboard device, or kindergarten method for conducting Sunday- schools will be disappointed. But he who seeks instruction and Inspiration, he who would gain a central vantage ground of great elevation for surveying all the kingdom of childhood and the glory thereof, under the leadership of a great mind, a great heart, and a rarely gifted pen, will not be disappointed. In a career so long and use- ful as that of even Dr. Hatcher, it Is a question whether he has ever rendered a higher service to his generation than in this course of lectures. E. Y. MULLINS. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky. THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL LECTURE I. THE PASTOR AT THE DOOR. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I am not insensible to the honor and responsi- bility of this hour. To me it seems beyond all possibility that I can meet the expectations which President Mullins' too favorable introduction must awaken. It is, however, in my heart to use this occasion to the glory of Him in whose name I am to speak. The spectacle of this noble audience affects me profoundly. Such an array of culture, piety and Christian leadership inspires while it oppresses me. If I could only give what my auditors so well deserve, my lectures would merit enshrine- ment in the annals of immortal truth. It is, I confess, with a blush that I appear on this platform with a manuscript in hand. It is an outrage upon my own record, and a dangerous example for this community, and my comfort is that my own awkward manipulation of this for- midable document may prove an example for warning, and not for imitation. I pledge myself l8 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. that my sympathetic eyes will often break from their confinement, and beam forth with affection for my audience, conveying them a reminder now and then at least that we are fellow-citizens of the same world, and that our alienation is not for- ever. However hard you may find it to hear me, I will find it easy to compassionate you in your labor to hear. I meet you with a theme which seems restrict- ed, and concerning which little has been said. The partial study which I have given to it has surprised me, forcing upon me the conviction that an adequate discussion of the Relation the Pas- tor and the Sunday-school ought to bring great and far-reaching changes in the tone and govern- ment of our schools. It will be an honor and a joy if my lectures shall even in a preliminary de- gree compel more earnest inquiry on the subject. It is my wish to deliver my messages to you in a flee colloquial style, without formality and with my heart open to any inquiry or to any criticism which may be fraternally offered during or after their presentation. As we are to be associated in the study of this matter for some days, I ask that we may form a brotherhood and work to- gether. For full forty years my eyes have watched the movements of the Christian world, and I have hailed with bounding heart every sign of prog- ress. As you may well imagine my fondest THE PASTOR AT THE DOOR. I9 thoughts have clustered around the Baptists — the people with whom my convictions have given me a lifelong identification, and it is in no spirit of narrowness that I add that my closest and strong- est attention has been fixed upon the Baptists of the South. It has been with them that I have been associated in the most affectionate denomi- national affinity. It is no empty compliment to say that during these fleeting years our people have made extraordinary advancement. They have improved in almost every direction, and it would be perfectly safe to declare that they have shown their highest progress in the elevation and improvement of their ministry. It is simple jus- tice to declare that the preachers of to-day strike me as far more efficient than were the ministry of forty years ago. Our men are far more gen- erously cultivated, more exact in their knowl- edge of the Scriptures, more skilled in the homi- letical art, more systematic in their pastoral meth- ods, and more steady and vital in their activities. This is not said from any want of grateful appre- ciation of the men who were in active service in the early days of my ministry. Far be the thought from me. Princely and eloquent many of them were, and they would have ranked high in any age or country. Nor must my judgment, thus candidly expressed, be taken to mean that in the ministry of to-day we have all that we actu- ally need. This I do not believe. 20 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. I suppose that we must have some great men, men full of inspiration and leadership, men of im- perial eloquence, and men of genius which makes them citizens of the world. But God is strangely economical in the creation of great men. Some one has said that he makes only one great man in a century. Professor H. H. Harris was accus- tomed to say that the Lord did not give to our denomination many men of extraordinary power ; the Baptists had little need of exceptionally great men, and really had no places for them. I give it as my deliberate judgment that the supreme need of this generation — a need to be felt equally in all coming generations — is the right kind of pastors ; men who combine culture and gumption; men who can preach in terse and living words the gospel of the Son of God ; men who are magnetic in their energies and hopes, who know the way to do things, who can dis- cover ministers and missionaries, who love chil- dren, who can get along with crooked and mel- ancholy people, who are brave enough to be gentle and pure enough to be trusted. This is the crying necessity of our churches, and it is a thing for which we ought to send a prevailing cry up to the Lord of the harvest. While we have not yet such pastors as we ouglit to have, we have better pas- tors than ever before, I suppose, in the history of Christ's cause on the earth. On one point in the ministerial outfit of the THE PASTOR AT THE DOOR. 21 day I feel constrained to be openly critical. It does really appear that our ministers are strange- ly belated in the matter of discovering their rela- tions to the Sunday - school work of their churches. If these lectures accomplish nothing else I feel confident that they will unfold one need — one distinct, grievous and injurious lack in our denominational equipment. It is no pessi- mistic deliverance when I declare that many of our ministers, valuable in other respects, are lost in our Sunday-schools. They are aliens in their houses ; they are destitute of fitness for service in one of the most important phases of Christian evangelization. Their commission does not seem to include any specific instruction as to the duty which belongs to them in connection with the teaching of the Scriptures to the people. This is not universally true — it may not be generally true, but I am sure that a candid study of the sit- uation would reveal the fact that the average pas- tor cuts an insignificant figure in the Sunday- school, and that his withdrawal or death would prove a slight appreciable loss to the school. Little wonder is it that our churches do not seem to expect much in this respect from the pas- tors. It is to be feared that their experiences have constrained them to think of the pastor as something quite distinctly apart from the Bible school. Hence we find that when the question of a new pastor is engaging the thoughts of a church, 22 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. inquiries abound, but rarely one of them touches the fitness of the man for leadership in the Sun- day-school. His record is overhauled with un- sparing candor as to his appearance, voice, expe- rience, preaching ability, his wife, his health, his business habits and his social qualities, but when do we hear earnest questions as to his skill as a Sunday-school leader? It is not too much to say that little emphasis has ever been placed on the relation which a pas- tor ought to bear to the department of Biblical instruction in our church work. This fact may well bring us to sober meditation. It is not unreasonable to suppose that it was a knowledge of this weak point in our denomina- tional equipment which led to the inauguration of this course of Sunday-school lectures, and especially to the selection of the subject for the particular series of lectures which begins this day. The present theme is peculiar, and is rendered the more difficult by reason of the fact that there is no literature on the subject which is helpful in the present discussions. Nor does it open any field for philosophical speculation, nor for high learn- ing — a fortunate fact for the lecturer — nor yet for swelling strains of eloquence. What is really called for is a serious and candid discussion of a duty, apparently little understood, often disre- garded, and which yet touches the very chords of life in our churches. If one of our leading THE PASTOR AT THE DOOR. 23 American universities has felt it worth while to open its halls for a series of Sunday-school lec- tures, surely it can not be inappropriate here in our beloved Southern Baptist Theological Semi- nary to give free discussion to any phase of the vast Sunday-school enterprise. No apology is offered for beginning this course of lectures with the proposition that a minister who can not thoroughly identify himself with his Sunday-school ought not to be a pastor. Unfit- ness for service in this cardinal branch of Chris- tian activity amounts to a disability. To be use- less in that department of church work which has to do with the study of the Scriptures and with the salvation of the young is to offer an over- whelming argument against one's worthiness of a pastoral charge. If this statement is justified then it must at once become a question of trans- cendent importance as to what a minister is to be and what he is to do in the Sunday-school. Now, it is readily granted that the Lord calls men of widely variant gifts into the ministry, among whom are some evidently not intended for the pastorate. Perhaps we may take this for granted more readily because it relieves us of all temptation to suspect that they have not been called at all, since they indicate such a total lack of adaptation to the pastoral life. But when a man allows himself to be selected as a pastor of a church and actually enters upon the duties of 24 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. the position, he practically avows his purpose to do the full task of a pastor. The doctrine of a plurality of elders has re- ceived scant recognition at the hands of Baptists. We sometimes have an approximation to the idea of this doctrine in what is known as the as- sistant pastor, who usually amounts to little more than a cheap device for cultivating the pomp and pride of the chief, and the emptiness and wretch- edness of the subordinate. The ideal pastorate is one man for one church — one man — one man, one whole man for one church, and every member of that church ardently and intelligently support- ing the pastor in all his varied and onerous du- ties. In this arrangement, so beautiful and inti- mate, there is the best provision for the happiness and usefulness of the pastor, and the unity, fel- lowship and progress of the church. In sight of this sacred relationship between the church and pastor, we would outrage every senti- ment of order, completeness and power if we were to seek to eliminate the pastor from the Sunday-school. The bare suggestion implies a wrong to the church, and yet it is surprising to observe the inadequate and unsatisfactory views which prevail on this subject. Many ministers openly depreciate or wantonly ignore their rela- tion to the Sunday-school. It is a trying, though possibly a necessary task to mention some of the THE PASTOR AT THE DOOR. 2$ methods by which pastors would legislate them- selves out of the Sunday-school. There be some who with frigid languor would tell us that they have no turn for the Sunday- school. They insist that they find themselves awkward and uncomfortable in the school, and they might with mournful candor testify that their presence is a confusion and hindrance to the school itself. But it ought not to be so. There is something startling in the simple declaration that a pastor feels himself ill at ease in connec- tion with any part of his church work, and most of all in work connected with the religious in- struction of the young. The confession is rank testimony against any minister. If he is con- firmed in this feeling then he is fatally disquali- fied for the pastoral office. Of course young ministers always feel the em- barrassment of the novice at the beginning, but they have to learn by experience. By entering warmly into the life of the school a young pastor will quickly become a living factor in its work. It does not take an earnest and flexible man long to catch the way of things and of passing from the state of a novice to that of an expert, though for that matter he will need to be on the alert and ready to learn as long as he lives. I mention with regret another class of minis- ters who seek to escape the duties which they owe to the Sunday-school by affecting to be above the 26 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. grade of service which is done in the school. They actually characterize the business done in the Sunday-school as of an inferior quality — as some- thing beneath them, fit only for more ordinary mortals. This wanton depreciation of this fea- ture of Christian activity is culpable indeed, and stamps the shame of incompetency upon those who are guilty of it. No work can outrank the instruction of the young in the doctrines of the Word of God. A plea heard too often, and by some with en- tirely too much sympathy, is that the participation in the exercises of the Sunday-school makes too severe a draught upon the nervous vitality of the minister. It is not denied that men who stand before congregations to preach the Word need to have ample nervous resources at command when they enter the pulpit. But it is after all a groundless plea that a minister's natural fresh- ness is so far expended in the Sunday-school as to unfit him for the sermon. At least it ought not to be true and will not be true if the man enters with ease and zest into his part. As a fact the strain is far greater upon the offi- cer or teacher than it needs to be on the minister. We know, too, that nervous vigor is just as neces- sary to effective listening as it is to effective speaking. The plea that would excuse the minis- ter from the school would as effectually excuse the officer and teacher from the sermon. When THE PASTOR AT THE DOOR. 27 ministers are fully alive to their opportunities and escape from thoughts of themselves they will cease to complain of the fatigues of the Sunday- school. Indeed, there is inherent exhilaration in fellowship with ardent Bible students, and the young life in a Sunday-school ought to be the fountain at which the soul of the pastor would ever rejoice to drink. Some pastors complain that there is no place for them in the Sunday-school. They insist that they are omitted from the organization, and that they feel as if they were intruders. As well may an overseer make complaint that there is no place for him in the field where the laborers are en- gaged. His place is always at the head. Now it may chance that in some cases the pastor may be put at disadvantage by the imperfection of the make-up of the school. But be it remembered that where this is the case it does not constitute a reason for the pastor's retirement, but it sug- gests that he must in a discreet way effect such changes as will secure his rights and authority. But let me say a special word to the country pastor. For him I cherish a reverential affection. He stands at the fountain whence flows the pur- est material that goes to make up our Christian civilization, and which is largely the conservative force in our city churches. It is too easy for the country pastor to persuade himself that he being present but seldom, and then under disadvan- 28 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. tages, ought to be relieved from duty in the Sun- day-school. Above all others he ought to be a living and animating force in his little school. As a rule he deals with a school which is maintained under difficulties, and which has little either in resources or generous competition to keep ft afloat. Ah, the coming of the pastor ought to be the sunlight of heaven to that school. The smile on his face, the cordial handshake, his buoyant words, his whole personality, next to the unction of the Holy Spirit ought to constitute the crown- ing glory of the school. These simple reflections lead us up to the central thought of this lecture — the imperial rank of the Sunday-school in the community of Christian enterprises. It does not comport with the scope of these lectures to attempt any history; we must restrict ourselves to the living problem embodied in the subject assigned for this special course of lec- tures. At the same time it is proper to remind you that the custom as well as the duty of teach- ing the Scriptures has always been observed. From the earliest stages of their national and re- ligious life the ancient people of God were care- ful to instruct their children in the matters of the law. This they did for their own children and quite often for their neighbor's children. The synagogue was in no small degree a school where the old Scriptures were read, discussed and stud- ied. Throughout the centuries, even the darkest THE PASTOR AT THE DOOR. 29 of those which fall within the Christian dispensa- tion, there has burned in devout souls a love for the word of the Lord, and much work was done here and there, sometimes in organized form, often by strong individual lovers of the truth, unaided by mortal friend, and while much of this could find no place in history the proof is abun- dant that the gospel teacher has ever been abroad. All honor to those who in dark times, when it was a civil crime to have a Bible, and when to teach it to others was at the peril of life, fearless- ly sought to teach the Scriptures of God to the people. They were the pioneers of the Sunday- school, and we have come into the harvest the seeds of which they planted long ago. In many respects the Sunday-school is a mod- ern institution. It is a vast improvement on the past and is one of the phenomenal products of Christianity, worthy of universal recognition as the most flexible, adaptable, far-reaching institu- tions ever yet devised for the conversion of this world. It came into existence without flourish of trumpets, gained admission into the Christian heart of the world, and has received a welcome from every creed and sect. It wears about it the loftiest dignities and yet comes with a smile for every child and a message of peace for every in- quirer after the way of life. It is not an easy task to estimate the value of 30 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. the Sunday-school. It is a school with a single text-book, and that the word of God, and this in- vests it with an interest all its own. It has calmly chosen the entire human family as its constituen- cy, and is enrolling its students by the million. It has a place for the little ones — the precious little toddlers as they emerge from the nursery ; it has grades of instruction suited to youth, at its most receptive and growthful stage — it provides for the advanced students, those who study critically as well as devoutly. Indeed, it is essentially a university, including its long line of primary and intermediate studies as well as its advanced courses for those who are capable of taking them. One point of view which reveals to the Sun- day-school to us in its lofty rank is gained when v/e fix our eyes on those who are in the lead of it. What royal friends and supporters it has — min- isters, scholars, eminent teachers from colleges and universities, men of every noble profession, men of great affairs, men of wealth and power in the large walks of trade and finance, and better yet, women chosen of God and in living fellow- ship with his Son Jesus Christ, millions of them, whose perpetual joy is the study of the words which God hath spoken unto us. If we are known by the company we keep, then what a noble enterprise the Sunday-school is as it is judged by its peerless friends. I stand uncovered too before the achievements THE PASTOR AT THE DOOR. 3I of the Sunday-school. What mammoth organi- zations it has called into existence to do its bidding and minister to its wants. It has created a literature of its own and is fast learn- ing how to appropriate to itself all true litera- ture. It has a kinship for all noble things, and draws from every quarter, material for its own advancement. Itself a peerless educational power, it infuses its broadening educational spirit into other things. No statistician will ever be able to count up its contributions to the kingdom of heaven. Well, may our churches pay grateful court to this mighty arm of their strength for accessions through its gracious agency. It is glorious to see its lovers surging through the streets of our cities and along the rural highways on Sunday, as on light feet they trip eagerly away to their schools. It is even better to think of the count- less thousands which year by year are escorted to the gates of the Celestial Kingdom and intro- duced into the Master's presence by this benign Christian force. Ah, it is ravishing to think of the armies upon armies of the young who have gone to heaven shouting the Redeemer's praises as they went. They were the fruits of the Sun- day-school, and yet the schools, like the orchards of God, are bearing twelve manner of fruit every month. It is never wise to compare invidiously the sev- 32 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. eral organized movements for bringing in the reign of the Son of God on earth. They are born of the same spirit, woven into essential unity, and merely parts of machinery used to carry forward the kingdom of God in its resistless strides to- wards the millenial glory. I make no compari- son now, but I do desire to unveil the real atti- tude and province of the Sunday-school. It is not enough to say that it does its work at the bottom — much of it is foundation work and large- ly done out of sight. This is true, and glorious- ly true. But more than this is true. The Sun- day-school is the only means we have for holding our people to the study of the Bible all the time, particularly for its study in company, and under the best attainable helps. It is the unrivaled training school for Christian works. It opens a field for employing and exalting the culture, intel- ligence and influence of our people. It is a liv- ing, throbbing, unanswerable argument in favor of the Book of Revelation, and the value of the salvation through Jesus Christ. If the Sunday-school holds the superior rank here distinctly claimed for it, we must feel more deeply than ever that the Christian minister ought to be intimately associated with it. This infer- ence is simply irresistible. If his hand is off here its grasp must be feeble elsewhere and every- where. If he is lost here nothing else can save him. To be a nonentity at the point where the THE PASTOR AT THE DOOR. 33 word of God Is at stake, is to be a feeble and un- located entity at otlier points. His business is with the Bible and with the people, and it ought to be with the people in their handling of the Bible. As a teacher he is needed to explain the Bible ; as a preacher he is to proclaim it ; as a leader he is to commend it ; as an overseer he is to see that it is rightly taught ; as a shepherd he is to see that the bread of life is well served to his flock ; as a servant he is to help those who are engaged in teaching the truth of God. There is no point in the Sunday-school at which the pastor is not use- ful and necessary. It is utterly impossible for me to express my sense of the sanctity and strength of that tie which ought to exist between a pastor and his Sunday-school. It is not enough for him to be a factor in the school, but a con- trolling and energizing factor as will be made to appear in the next lecture. Now, for every position of duty there must be special preparation. No man Is fitted to dis- charge the governmental or didactic functions of a pastor until he has been ripely and adequately trained for it. Hence we may rightly challenge the pastor at the door of the Sunday-school and ask to examine his credentials. Before he enters let him approve himself worthy of a place in the school. He has no right to go blundering Into the school. If he goes in, it must not be as a raw recruit, but as the chief actor of the occasion. 34 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. I. It is fortunate for a pastor to have experi- mental preparation. We know that it is a com- mon maxim of business men that a man in order to reach the highest efficiency, ought to start at the bottom, The papers made mention lately of the fact that the son of one of the millionaires of New York decided to enter into business with his father. He had already finished in one of the leading universities of New England and had given several years to social dissipation, but when he determined to be a business master he began at a servant's place. He needed to know the busi- ness from the bottom to the top, and he had to understand the bottom before he knew what to do at the top. He who would reign must first serve. I am convinced that our ministerial students are too hasty in seeking to do ministerial labors. It is a grave mistake. It has been my earnest policy in dealing with ministerial students when they first enter college to place them in Bible classes in the Sunday-school. This not more for the instruction they gain than for the experience in the management of a Bible class, which they get in that way. It is worth much to see things from a scholar's point of view, and he who gets this experience has won an excellent point in education for the pastorate. Fortunate indeed is the young minister whose life commenced in the Sunday-school and who THE PASTOR AT THE DOOR. 35 passed from the infant class up through the sev- eral grades of the school. On every point in a Sunday-school the pastor ought to be a master. So far as the school is a piece of machinery he ought to know every wheel, pulley and band. So far as the school is a busi- ness body, he ought to know its outer and inner life, its organization, its methods and its financial management. So far as the school is an institu- tion he ought to know its history, its strength, its purposes and its equipment. So far as it is an as- sociation he ought to know its members, its spirit, its resources and its dangers. So far as it is a school he ought to know its teaching force, its ever recurring wants and its sources of supply. In a word, the pastor ought to know more about the school than any one else or all others put to- gether. Now, to some these things come naturally and almost at once, but not to many this way ; others acquire rapidly and speedily adjust themselves to new situations, and others yet have to come to the throne slowly and by stopping many times along the way to pray for help, but in all cases they are the better fitted by the actual contacts and experiences in previous Sunday-school work. It strengthens a school wonderfully to have a pastor who really knows all about it, who can bridge a turbid stream, who can heal a breach, wrest victory from a scene of confusion and 36 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. make things go. What a charm a man like that will throw over a school ! How ill temper, de- spondency and discontent will dissolve before him! Then, too, how inexpressibly sweet is this sense of mastery to the pastor. That subtle sense of superiority will not inflate him with pride, but it will gird him for the emergencies and be his support when there is no one to sustain him. 2. You must allow me to put here a distinct plea for generous culture as a valuable adjunct to a pastor's outfit. I set up no claim that an education simply will make a pastor — as a fact it sometimes unmakes him, or rather renders his making forever impossible. Culture is not a substitute for common sense. Mother wit is al- ways at a premium in this world. Nor do I in- tend for you to infer that I think no man can be a good pastor without the learning of the schools. This is not true to the facts, but as a rule you may put it down that the man who wan- tonly rejects liberal learning is not the man who succeeds without higher learning; it is rather the brother who longed for the learning but missed the opportunity to get it. As a ruh the man who attempts to slur over his duties in school will treat his pastoral work, and his wife (that he will be sure to get In quick time) in the same way. Nor can I allow you to suspect that I am exalting culture at the expense of other things. A min- ister may be a scholar and yet not a pastor. Least THE PASTOR AT THE DOOR 37 of all would I be willing for you to get the im- pression that a man may substitute a shallow and pretentious learning in the place of the true and ample preparation for which I do most fervently plead. Away with your fussy pedantry, your rattling stock of quotations from Ruskin, Browning or Tennyson, whose works you have really never read, your parade of Biblical lore, your attempts to cover your emptiness of thought by telling what somebody else said, or by flutter- ing out your own feathery and flighty produc- tions. Cheapness in the ministry is a stab at the Son of God. I spurn and trample in the dirt the mere parade of learning under the name of preaching. But after all, common people have a deal more of penetration and judicial sense than half-edu- cated and half-hearted ministers ever suspected. They love a scholar, provided he is richly human. They will die for the man who when brought to the test knows. They will hang on the brother who has command of his resources ; they honor the full mind, and almost worship a scholar who is open, free hearted and at home with them. To them the men of culture are high priests of wis- dom, and they bow at their feet most reverently. It makes a common mind throb with new aspira- tions to touch a great man, and it pleases him unto pride for him to get a bit of knowledge straight from the fountain of intellectual power, and to 38 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. feel that there are stores more of the same sort where that came from. By the way, it always adds immeasurably to the satisfaction of hearing something racy and clear on a vexed question, to know where it came from. To get the fruit of some original thinking out of men is to feel the very joy of life. I have seen plain men, men who did not read but thought earnestly, brighten into intoxication when they had moments of fel- lowship with the men of learning. There must be in a minister a good foundation on which others may build their respect for him. You may plead as much as you choose as to what is due a pastor, but after all that deep regard, that willingness to follow him as a teacher and a leader must come far more from his personality than from his office. That is a cruel situation which can not endure long where a people have to stick to a man on account of his office rather than because of their living persuasion that he is in truth the man for the office. Ministers have not learned adequately to sympathize with their churches in their efforts to love them when they can not respect them. I rode some time ago with a warm-hearted deacon at the hour of twilight. He was taking me to his home for the night, and was all aflame with the dedication of the new house of worship which was coming on the next day. His tongue ran freely, but it carried holy freight, loving trib- THE PASTOR AT THE DOOR. 39 utes to his brethren of the church, gratitude for outsiders who had been nobly generous in build- ing the new church, some sacred boasting of the Sunday-school, its fine faithful teachers and the good scholars. It was a stream of honest joy which poured from his soul, and he knew not what a fine light he flung upon himself by the magnanimous tone in which he praised others. He had an eye for the good, and he anointed me with the oil of his own great nature. ''Yes," he said, rather haltingly in answer to my question, "we have a lovely young pastor." There he held up as if his mind was about to suffer a conges- tion of conflicting thoughts. He added with mingled sincerity and compassion that the brother was trying to be faithful, and then in the most wholesom.e sc rrow, with a purely unpremeditated candor, he said almost convulsively, ''But isn't it a pity, brother, that he entered the ministry be- fore he was ready?" He spoke the truth I knew, for I knew the young man. It was no secret that he had flanked the steep places at the academy, had jumped the examinations at the college, had wasted his sub- stance, if not with riotous living, in writing to the ends of the earth in quest of a place, and had suffered an acute attack of the matrimonial men- ingitis at the seminary, and had lifted himself into this his first pastorate by the use of recom- mendations which he had solicited and was now 40 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. dimly perceiving that he was paying the penalty of his own folly. As I observed him the next day I fixed my eyes upon his brow and it lacked those delicate traceries of care and study which are the best credentials of a young minister. His manner bespoke a courage which in his deeper conscious- ness he did not feel, and was suggestive of bra- vado rather than bravery. During the parts which he took, and he took several, he tripped on two pronunciations, gave old grammar several digs in her lacerated sides, said an impossible and preposterous thing during the reading of the Bible, about what it was in the original, and said it as if he had traveled extensively in that distant country and knew all about it. There was an evident effort on his part to impress the congre- gation with the belief that he knew. Alas, and tides of woe, it was plain as noon that he did not know, and that those country folks who knew next to nothing about barber shops nor the newest styles in neckties did know that he did not know what he was talking about. These country folks are a sight, I tell you. They can sample a man relentlessly, reduce him to his orighial elements, which in some cases are about all the originality which men of his type have, and weigh and label the ingredients at their market value. He who accounts country people fools fools only himself. You ought not to need to be told that nowhere THE PASTOR AT THE DOOR. 4I on earth does the ripened culture of the pastor appear to greater advantage than it does in the Sunday-school, and that for manifest reasons. There it comes home to its own. It enters into communion with the highest intellectual and spir- itual forces of the church. There it finds its hap- piest sphere in the discussions of the more intri- cate and least understood problems of Biblical study. There questions of history, philology, exegesis, psychology, biology, and even of casuistry inevitably arise, and happy indeed is that pastor who rises to the emergency. It un- folds his powers at new points, and what out- spoken cheer will he receive from the honest Bible students who are enriched by his learning, his wisdom and his piety. No, I have not said that a pastor must be a man of enlarged scholarship. I grieve to think that some churches are too intellectually drowsy to have a man of that sort, and I know that plain men of keen discernment and close walk with God often make efficient pastors. But I repeat and repeat that the pastor who is below the best standards of his people can not do the best work. 3. But we must hold the pastor at the door yet a little longer. At any rate we must see that he is brushed and shaped to the point of being pre- sentable. It is no common event when the King's messenger comes. Hearts beat him a welcome, eyes fairly devour him, and he must pass muster 42 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. with the men, which is not easy, with the women, and this is hard, and with the children who are the real things of the occasion, and are, as we know, the keenest critics. It is not descending from the greater to the less to say that a pastor must be persona grata to his constituents. Some attractions nature may deny, and art may fail to supply, and which even grace may not provide, but he must in his very look and mien command respect. I speak not of dress, that is a matter of detail and I must not touch it, except to say that there are features in a pastor's outfit which he must well consider. Let not a young man become conspicuously or prematurely clerical in his garb, and yet he must be far away from what is slouchy or eccentric. His coat will not offend by its age or plainness provided it is clean, and even a patch will be ornamental if del- icately done. The worst thing that can get on a minister's coat is a debt, and that dress suits the pastor best which is so complete that it escapes observation. One article of dress a minister must never fail to wear every day in the week, a good name. There must be no stain on his reputation, no questionable wrangles, no complaints as to his business conduct, no hint as to his lack of energy and heart in his work, no habit which incurs the censure of the best people in his charge. It takes very little to dim the luster of a pastor's THE PASTOR AT THE DOOR. 43 honor as he enters the Sunday-school; let him see there is nothing. Akin to this and as important is a strong and commanding bearing. Let his countenance beam, let smiles radiate his whole visage, and let him be open to every sign of welcome or of want. But let him not forget that he is the King's messen- ger. He must support a gracious dignity, carry an open hand, and blend a lofty seriousness with his friendly joy. See that he is free from noise, from flippant jests, frivolous pranks or ridicu- lous devices for pleasing the people. Oh, he may be bright — must be, indeed — and may make the room vibrant with his own exuberant and exult- ant spirit; but he must not forget that he is the man of God. I would urge a pastor never to dash Into the school simply becaues it is expected ; that will do no good, but often will expose him to the pity if not the contempt of the people. So would I sug- gest that he should not stay out of the school on the ground that he has no message for the school. It may be that his best contribution at some times will be simply himself — his warm, word- less, loving self. The sight of a good pastor is edifying. At the same time a pastor ought to be like a father traveling in a far country, seeing the sights and gathering its treasures to bring home to his children. He ought to be a magazine of power; he must go laden with hidden manna, 44 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. charged to the Ups with grace to communicate. When he goes this way you need not fear for the result. There will be comfort in his voice, gentle rebuke in his glance, converting power in his hand - grasp, salvation in his walk. And if he is ready, pure in heart, modest and blameless in his bearing, full of culture and throbbing with heavenly love ; if he really is, why throw open the door and let him go in. Yes, I say let him in; open the door. But hold ! Recall him a moment and remind him that if he goes in it is only as the herald of the Prince of Peace. As he enters let him shout, crying as he goes: Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. THE PASTOR ON THE INSIDE. 45 LECTURE II. THE PASTOR ON THE INSIDE. In order to the pastor's efficiency in the Sun- day-school, it is absolutely necessary that there shall be a clear apprehension of his rightful place. It must be understood distinctly and generally what part he is to play in this department of Christian work. This is indispensably necessary, both for the pastor and for the people. It is a la- mentable admission, exacted by many unde- niable facts, that many ministers in entering the pastoral relation have no consciousness of any vital relationship which they sustain to the school. They treat it as a subordinate affair, claiming no special attention at their hands, and seem to feel that they can wantonly neglect it without the least infraction of duty on their part. If they appear in the school it is. purely incidental, if, indeed, some of them do not regard it as only ornamental. It has to be admitted that many schools justify this indifference on the pastor's part. He is treated as practically a nonentity, as a man with- out a local habitation or a name, and, at best, simply a clean and well groomed stranger (possi- bly in some cases not always that), who is brought forward at the proper stage of the pro- ceedings to entertain the children with a vivid 46 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. story, though it often comes to pass that the story is either over-vivid or not vivid at all. There be schools uncounted which have never dreamed of the actual worth of a living pastor, intimately identified with the instruction and life of the school. We may well understand that where a pastor is unacquainted with his duties to the school, and the school has never been brought to understand what invaluable service he might ren- der, there must inevitably be loss and injury to the cause of Christ. It will be the earnest pur- pose of this lecture, in every paragraph, every sentence and every word, to impress upon this audience the solemnity and immeasurable value of the pastor's work in the Sunday-school. Let us in the outset fix clearly in our minds the relation which the Sunday-school bears to the church. It is the creature, and not the creator, of the church, and must always be subordinate to the church. It is true, of course, that Sunday- schools have often existed which were not organ- ized under the authority of the churches. They were called into existence by the zeal of a few faithful Christian laborers, and in many cases these schools have led finally to the establishment of churches. It is pleasant to know that the church of Christ has a flexibility and adaptation which can not interfere with ardent individual or united effort for advancing the gospel, even though it may not always be under the explicit THE PASTOR ON THE INSIDE. 47 order and action of the church. But after all, the normal relation of the Sunday-school to the church is that of a child to its mother, or, as al- ready said, that of a creature to the creator. It can hardly be necessary to remind you of what is the scriptural relation of the pastor to the church. This relation is double, being at once one of authority and one of service. The pastor is the overseer of the church, and at the same time its minister. It will appear later that these two apparently diverse and even hostile phases of pas- toral relation are inherently harmonious and com- plimentary, but let it be borne in mind that or- ganically the pastor is the head of the church, and this, of course, marks him as the head and leader of all the enterprises of the church. No matter in which field the laborers are engaged, the pastor is the overseer. Inasmuch, then, as the pastor is the ruler of the church, and as the Sun- day-school is simply one form of the activity of the church, he is therefore the lawful head of the Sunday-school. Let this statem.ent be under- stood and always remembered. It is a truth which needs to be clearly enunciated, thoroughly understood and cheerfully recognized in every Sunday-school. Now, this statement is made with unqualified boldness, and it must remain unqualified. At the same time it often comes to pass that a crude understanding of a statement, absolutely correct, 48 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. almost amounts to an error. Let not young min- isters be misled by this deliverance on pastoral authority. In the practical management of our Christian work it is not always possible to have the ideal and the actual travel together. The material which constitutes our churches is often raw, inflexible and sadly warped with prejudice. If an ardent and inexperienced young man should undertake, in the face of the ignorance and the miseducation of his people, to conduct his church according to an ideal, making no allowance for the aggressive infirmities of human nature, he would find himself plunged into an ocean of troubles. Every pastor does well to cherish the loftiest ideals, and then he will do even better if he will supply himself with a good installment of gump- tion and patience in handling the material with which he has to do the Lord's work. His office does invest him with authority, but that fact will give him very little power so long as he fails to understand the source, the nature and the meas- ure of that authority. The fact that the pastor receives his office by the voluntary action of the church imparts a pecu- liar delicacy and sensitiveness to the position. The selection involves an endorsement of his character, a recognition of his worth, and a desire for his servicer. It invites in the most impressive manner his confidence and gratitude. At the same time he ought to understand that his elec- THE PASTOR ON THE INSIDE. 49 tion came about because of certain services which he is expected to render and to render in a way that will be acceptable. There may be peculiar views of pastoral duties in that church — views which he has not met elsewhere and which he pos- sibly does not approve. If this be true, then he ought not to enter the position without a thor- oughly harmonious agreement that there is to be some change in these views, or else he is sacredly and to the highest point of honor and faithful- ness committed to be regulated by these views. It is a curb on the restless independence of young men to know that the church which calls them also reserves the power to sit in judgment upon them after they come, and to discharge them if they do not meet the demands of the situ- ation. It is at best a lesson in humility to be the pastor of a Baptist church. Many young ministers have inquired how it was that I retained my pastorate in the city of Richmond for twenty-six years, and I dare say when they looked at me or heard me their question had a great deal more meaning in it than ap- peared on its surface, and it is no wonder that they should have asked. Whatever motive may have prompted the question, the answer has al- ways been that my people allowed me to stay, partly because they were a little afraid of me and partly because I was exceedingly afraid of them. It amounts to no mean part of an education 50 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. for US to be able to study things in their relations to each other. It is in the understanding of these relations and the proper observance of the obliga- tions which they impose that is hidden the secret of all success and happiness. It is well for us to understand that the most of life is wrapped up not in our individuality but in our relationship. Our chief joys, as well as our impartations of power, are transmitted to us along the ties which bind us to others. There is always complexity, liability to friction and pos- sible discord in every relation of life. To ascer- tain the exact meaning of these relations and to know how to observe the • requirements which they involve are among the highest actions of which we are capable. I find that some young ministers think it one of the simplest and most unembarrassing things in the world to love to dis- traction a lovely maiden, and to them there is no complexity, only sunlight and bliss and heaven in it all. But let one of these sons of infatuation turn after the exchange of sentiment and confec- tions has turned into an actual case of matrimony, with all the legal economics, physiological, bio- logical, domestic, co-operative, indispensable, in- comprehensible and ever-recurring consequences which always follow an event like that, and the probability is that twenty years hence the brother will look back not with regret but with a humili- ating conviction that he knew very little of what THE PASTOR ON THE INSIDE. 5I he was doing when he became drawn into the charming entanglements of the past. And so it is with the young minister. He sighs for a pas- torate, and feels that all the complexities of life would instantly disappear if he could go to the post office and find a call. God be with him when the happy call comes in ! But how little he can ever dream of what is to be drawn out of that relationship into which he enters when he becomes a pastor. He may think he is ready, he will find afterwards that he is never ready. If partly ready to-day he will not be ready for to-morrow, and if he fancies he is ready for to-morrow, to- morrow will burst upon him with new issues, new strains, new complexities, new sorrows and new joys. How will it be possible to impress that young man with the holy fear which he ought to have in entering that office. Who is to teach him the mystery of that contradictory life he is to lead, teach him that he is to be a master and a slave, a ruler and a servant? How can he do it? While the pastor is an overseer he is also dis- tinctly defined in the Word of God as a servant, and if he be truly a man of God he must know himself in both of these relations ; he must under- stand when he is to rule and when he is to serve ; he must be a prince in service and a brother in the exercise of authority. I mark it as an excellent rule that the pastor 52 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. shall chiefly magnify his position as a servant, and that his church shall, with equal cordiality, magnify his authority as a bishop. So long as this is faithfully done you may be sure that peace and happiness will abound in the church. But if there be those who desire a method for bringing friction and strife, all they have to do is to reverse this order. Let the pastor shrink from the thought of service and stickle continually for his authority, and let the people deny him his power as a ruler and exact from him relentlessly the drudgeries of a servant, and there can be no prog- ress or prosperity in that church. This infringe- ment of the divine idea of a pastor's relation will inevitably precipitate confusion and hostility, and when this begins the pastor would do well to se- lect at once the text for his farewell sermon. Hu- man nature is a precarious and sensitive quanti- ty which grace does not wholly heal at once, and if the pastor is to succeed it must be by veiling rather than brandishing his authority, and by be- ing always ready to do his full part as a servant. Now, in full harmony with what has been said, I desire to declare in the strongest possible terms my conviction that a pastor must be the sovereign of his people. He is to be the governing and reg- ulative factor in every department of his church. He must carry in his soul a strong sense of lead- ership, and must know the time and the manner in which his mastery is to be asserted. Of course THE PASTOR ON THE INSIDE. 53 there are offensive ways in which pastors may assert their power, and when it is done their au- thority dies in the very act of its unwarranted as- sertion. But I have a great conviction that there is a large sphere in the pastorate for the exercise of a genuine sovereignty, and concerning this I have some important things to say. It ought to be one of the profoundest studies of every pastor to ascertain what is the nature of that power which the Word of God associates with the pas- toral office, when it tells us that the pastor is an overseer, and it is in this investigation that this lecture is designed to afford him some help. I hope I may be pardoned for the apparent overcandor of declaring that in my judgment there is a woeful measure of mutual misappre- hension as to the relationships of the pastor and the church. Truly, the subject needs a far deeper study than it has usually received. Indeed this relationship is absolutely unique; it is a sui generis in' the family of relationship and can hardly be compared to any other without being misunderstood. As I stand before you I find myself cut in twain by the conviction on the one side of the immeasurable importance of the proposition I am about to submit, and by the dread on the other hand that it will be misapprehended and hurt- fully used by others. Every office has a distinct rank which renders it subservient to what is 54 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. above and distinctively authoritative to what is below. It provides for no special courtesy to- ward inferiors, voices no personal appeals and the officer claims as much authority the morning he enters his office as he ever does afterwards. Some of our ministers have exactly this view of the authority of the pastor and it is simply ruin- ous to success. To begin with, the authority of the pastor is largely an attainment, an achievement, indeed, won after they become pastors, not by a vote, but by the wisdom and faithfulness which they dis- play in the exercise of their pastoral office. Even when they come to a new pastorate equipped by the experience gained elsewhere they will find that a mere assumption of the office does not in- vest them with the best pastoral authority. It does something more than merely put them on trial, but they had as well understand that they are on trial, and it is an experiment as to whether their temper, bearing and methods of administration will command that ripened confi- dence on the part of their people, which after all is the final basis for pastoral authority. On the other hand the church holds sway over the pastor. It holds his fate in its hands, and with the beginning of every pastorate there is another experiment, to test the church in the management of its servant. It has to be deter- mined by actual experience whether the church THE PASTOR ON THE INSIDE. 55 is a good master, whether it takes care of its serv- ant, whether it has compassion for him, whether it will commend him when he does well, whether it will clothe him with the honors that belong to the faithful. There are refinements and courte- sies which the church must have or it will never make its pastor happy. And when these are duly exercised the church will rarely sound the note of authority. It will hide its power in its cheer- ful and affectionate submission to the pastor's leadership. It seems absolutely necessary that these things should be said as a preface to the plea which here- with follows for the sovereignty of the pastor. For one thing, a pastor ought to reign by right of his proficiency. He ought to be the life center of the school. Not that it is insisted that a pas- tor must be more richly endowed intellectually or be more scholarly than any member of his church. This is fortunate, when it is true ; but unfortunately it is not always true, and not nec- essary that it should be true. It often comes to pass that ministers become acceptable pastors of their intellectual superiors, but there is a sense in which the pastor must be superior to any one or to all together in his school. He must know more about the work than any one else in the church knows, and in that ripened knowledge, ever at the command of his people, will dwell one secret of his sovereignty. The man who knows $6 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. more than we do about the matter in hand is al- ways our master, and the authority of superior knowledge and discriminating judgment is far greater than mere official authority. The public press announced some time ago that Emperor William of Germany was requested to visit the Department of Naval Architecture. The architects and constructors had some newly- finished battleships which they desired to expose for his admiration, and also some schemes for new battleships which they thought the Emperor would be glad to examine. The Emperor quiet- ly and with manifest interest allowed himself to be taken through the department and to have the experts give their explanations as to the ships already built or to be built. When the exhibition ended the Emperor, to the surprise of all, ascend- ed to an elevated platform and delivered a lec- ture on Naval Architecture, dealing with the latest ideas and inventions in the naval world; gave his views as to the placing of the guns, and other details of a battleship in a manner so intel- ligent, exact and exhaustive that his audience was filled with surprise and admiration. They found him a teacher where they had expected to treat him as a scholar. The crown of Germany imparts tremendous authority to the Emperor, and yet that revelation made in the Naval Depart- ment that day of his ripened naval culture in- spired among the experts of the department far THE PASTOR ON THE INSIDE. 57 more reverence than the splendors of his crown. He was a double sovereign — by right of his crown, and by the yet higher right of his intel- lectual and scholarly superiority. I said just now in substance that there was no conflict between authority and service ; let me go further and say that the road to sovereignty is the way of service. That cook who understands better how to brown the roast or bake the cake or season the jelly or set the table, than the lady of the house, will be the empress of the kitchen and the ruler in the dining room. There was a hint a little while before the martyrdom of our good President at Buffalo that while he always con- ferred with his Cabinet and sought the counsel of other wise men, he was not quite willing to venture a final decision until he had talked with his Private Secretary. That young man, so alert, so vigilant, so thoroughly posted, ever ready to do the bidding of his chief, by his very faithful- ness had become the ruler of the President. It was faithful service which gave him the mastery, and if a report can be trusted, his efficiency has already enthroned him in the confidence of the young ruler of our nation, and he is still master as he serves. The pastor who talks about the authority of his office will find that his authority is largely a figment, a dreamy, unsubstantial thing which will fail him at the crisis. 58 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. The misfortune of some pastors is that they imagine that their authority inheres in their office. They seem to believe that when the Holy Spirit characterized the shepherd of the flock as an over- seer that he identified with that position a power •which thev have a perfect right to claim simply on the ground that they hold the office. This is a grievous and in many cases an incurable mis- take. We need never expect to impress upon in- telligent Christian people the idea that they are to 'submit absolutely to the authority of a man simply because he is in the pastoral office of their church. They can not distinguish so sharply be- tween the man and the office. You can not make them believe it is their duty to follow the wrong man simply because he is in the office. They will look at the man. If he be notably unsuited for the position his office can not condone his unfit- ness nor sanctify his character; if he be seriously astray in fundamental Christian doctrine they will not and ought not to follow him ; if he is lacking in sobriety, courtesy and dignity, he need not hope to command their loyalty; if he be stupid or obstinate or unreasonable, he can not exercise effectually his pastoral functions. It is only where there is a congruity between the man and the office — where the man fits the office and knows where his authority comes in— will the church recognize his leadership. Of course, in looking at the subject from the THE PASTOR ON THE INSIDE. 59 Other standpoint, we would dwell upon the im- perfections of all ministers and the consequent necessity for forbearance and conciliation on the part of the church. This in the nature of the case is necessary if any pastor and church are ever to get along harmoniously together. But the present contention is in favor of the pastoral sovereignty, and it is impossible to be too em- phatic and exacting in dealing with the pastor to demand that he shall show himself worthy of the pastoral office before he can begin to exercise the authority of a pastor. But if he gives his life for the sheep, if he is crucified on the uplifted cross, he will draw all men unto him. The pastor must also be a sovereign in doc- trine. I must not claim infallibility for a Baptist pastor, though if he be a true man I should have to honor him as far more infallible than the Pope of Rome. The Pope declares things are true be- cause he says they are true, but the true minister of Christ says the things because they are true. It is a fitting thing that a teacher should be called a master, not simply because he has to rule his students, but by reason of his superior knowledge he dominates them. The pastor is the true mas- ter of the Sunday-school. He ought to be in a large measure the court of final appeal in doctri- nal controversies and authority on disputed points. His people must know in their hearts 6o THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. that he knows more than they know, and when he says that he does not knov\^, it ought as a rule to be understood that either it is because the ques- tion is outside of his province, or it is something which can not be known. He must be mighty in the Scriptures, apt to teach, and always acces- sible to his people. Not that he poses as an iner- rant teacher, nor that he seeks to repress inquiry in others, but simply that his people are impressed with his wisdom as a teacher. This will make him their sovereign in doctrine. The pastor, above all things, must reign with- out a rival in the hearts of his people ; they must believe in him through and through. Not that they are to be his noisy flatterers, or that they are to weary others with his unmeasured praises. But he is to be enthroned in their affections and live in their love. Above all, he ought to com- mand the boundless confidence and unfeigned love of the children. With this grasp upon his flock a pastor can do anything. It will not be possible for him to meddle in the little squabbles of the school, nor to be fretted by the little fric- tions that now and then must inevitably come. He will not be electioneering in a clandestine way for a candidate for the superintendency nor be scheming to get teachers in or out. His feet will press the mountain tops, and it will be only in the exercise of that sovereignty which wisdom, skill, service and affection always give that he will THE PASTOR ON THE INSIDE, 6l launch the machinery of the school. A man like that can choose the officers and teachers, and do anything demanded by the good of the school, and none will dare or wish to contest his right. If he reign in the hearts of his people he can easi- ly direct their lives. But remember that after all, the pastor's part is informal and undefined. You can not write rules to regulate a pastor's activity in the school ; his duties are born of every passing incident and are perpetually new. He is not to be the superin- tendent, though he may be if necessary, and some- times may well act as superintendent on given occasions, to add new dignity and zest to the school. His place is not that of a teacher, though he ought to be capable of the best possible teach- ing, ought sometimes to act as a substitute, and wherever practicable ought to be the teacher of the teachers. He does not belong to the school as a scholar, but he ought sometimes to sit down with the class and ask and answer questions just as the scholars do. While he really belongs to none of these places it is of great worth for him and the school to show that he could fill any of them. In this wealth of his equipment, his versa- tility and matured judgment, still resides much of his authority. After all it is the pastor's personality, enriched with wisdom, refined by experience and charged with holy sympathy, quick to detect new situa- 62 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. tions and alert in action, which renders him un- speakably valuable to the school. Far better, as a rule, for him to have no specified duties, but let him be there in perfect plumb with the occasion, and ready to enter each door of opportunity as it opens before him. I would not have you think of the pastor as the awkward and clumsy hand-shaker. It is try- ing to note the ponderous and embarrassing man- ner in which untrained pastors seek to make themselves agreeable. Not that we ought to dis- parage the efforts of a pastor to come in contact with his own, but a pastor's heart must be full of his work, and that will tell him what to do. Nor ought we to think of the pastor as the un- failing speechmaker, gravely introduced by the superintendent and coming forth with his meas- ured tones and his stiffly told anecdotes. It is dangerous for a pastor to set himself to doing things merely for the sake of taking part, for thereby he becomes a spectacle and often a terror. Woe to the preacher who thinks that he is fulfill- ing his destiny when dealing out an exciting story or when trying to provoke the children to senseless merriment ! Oh, he may tell a story, by all means let him do it, when the story has sense and fitness and humor; let him bring the laugh if it is serious and reverential. But it is supremely important that a pastor should under- stand that if he is to speak to the children he THE PASTOR ON THE INSIDE, 63 must give them something ripe and rich. They are the best auditors, and what they hear they never forget. Give them that which it is well for them to remember, or give them nothing. But let him be at home in the school. One morning the superintendent will claim him and get strength by counsel and fellowship with him ; the next morning some overtaxed teacher, ready to collapse with despair, will ask to bathe in his love, to breathe in his hopefulness and to lean on his faith; the next, there will be strangers com- ing in who will be gladdened by his greeting, and will tell far and wide how kind and cordial he was and of the bright and helpful things he said ; the next, it will be a fine boy or cheery girl who has during the week trusted the Saviour and de- sires to tell the grateful secret into the pastor's ear ; the next it will be a dead teacher or a dead scholar whose sorrowful loss will suggest ten- der words of remembrance and sympathy; the next — well, each day will have its commissions for the pastor, whose ear is ever open to the call of duty. You must bear in mind that the theme is "The Pastor on the Inside." That, by all means, is the place for the pastor — on the inside, and in the very heart of its activities. Instead of declaring that it is his imperative duty to be there, I feel constrained to say that it will be his pleasure and his habit to be there. His absence is out of all 64 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. propriety, a blow at the school, a reflection upon Biblical study, and a bad example for everybody. It is a waste of an opportunity, the cruel sacrifice of a privilege, and a signal proof that he does not know his own business. This lecture deals with a class of men of whom it would be impossible to think as capable of be- ing seriously delinquent — men who find it impos- sible to turn their backs upon the Bible school of the church. Assuming, then, that the pastor rec- ognizes his place as on the inside of the school, a few suggestions are submitted for his consid- eration. I. First of all, it is suggested that the pastor ought to be in the school at the beginning. This is said in no arbitrary or exacting spirit, but from a conviction as to the inherent propriety of things. The presence of the pastor at the opening of the school has a strong significance. It is an unut- tered declaration of his sympathy with the object for which his people have assembled. It places the stamp of his official iufluence upon the school. It answers all questions as to bis sentiment and attitude as a pastor, and presents his entire per- sonality as a support and an inspiration for the school. It is an incarnate argument in favor of punctuality. The tap of the bell ought never to fail to penetrate his ear. Indeed, it is a clever and handsome thing- on his part to appear on the scene in advance of the THE PASTOR ON THE INSIDE. 65 Opening. It gives him time to welcome the early comers and to bestow upon them a happy Lord's Day greeting. The prospect of a choice bit of conversation with the pastor will be sufficient to attract some to the school ahead of time, and truly there can not be a more cheery and exalting exercise for a great hearted pastor than to be in place to welcome the little ones, those sweet har- bingers of heavenly light, who flit into the school as soon as they can get their breakfast, and, in- deed, some of them who, in their eagerness, bound away to their school before the morning meal is spread. Many of us know how it thrusts the heart of a child into its little throat to see the pastor waiting for him, to receive at his hands a thrilling handshake, and to catch from his lips words which put the whole being to burning — words which may speedily fade from the pastor's memory, but which he will be slow to forget — words which some of them, amid the strifes of later years, will recall with flowing tears ; words which likely enough will cheer some of them in their dying hour, and who can tell but that these words will be uttered again on the day of final accounts? All of us must feel instinctively that the Sunday morning is a delightful time for the pastor to meet his people and to welcome them as they come into God's house for the purpose of studying God's Word. It is not too much to claim that the pastor's 66 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. presence at the opening of the school carries a meaning richer and more instructive than it can possibly mean if he casually drops in at a later time. This only presents him as a caller, and in- dicates no bond between him and the school ; but his coming in at the beginning links him vvith the entire occasion. It matters little whether he shall take any part in the opening exercises or not, though sometimes he ought, and in his ardor he often will. But even though he remain absolute- ly silent, the fact that he is there, and there at the beginning, will be a contribution of vitality and sanction to the school, the value of which we can never adequately appreciate. Any right minded superintendent will hail the pastor's presence with untold enthusiasm, and will feel inherently strengthened by his presence. It will be to that arduous and oft discouraged officer a genuine refreshment to have the pastor at his side ; it will rob him of every sense of iso- lation and neglect, and will make every part of the machinery run with increased grace and speed. The faithful attendance of the pastor will be an unfailing argument on the tongue of the superintendent as he goes forth during the v/eek to implore the undivided co-operation of the church. The pastor will be an unanswerable ar- gument in favor of others coming. The sight of the pastor will not be lost upon the teachers; their hearts will brighten at his THE PASTOR ON THE INSIDE. 6/ coming. To some of them, trembling with a sense of overbearing responsibility, almost ready to sink in despair, and longing for sympathy, the pastor's voice will charm away their depres- sion and the magnetism of his soul will transfuse them with hope and strength for their task. Though they may not touch his hand or ask him a question, the simple assurance that he Is in easy reach and full of the Lord's Spirit will be like a heavenly anointment for these anxious teachers. Let not the pastor go like a scourged vassal to the Sunday-school, going chiefly to silence criti cism or merely because his absence may be used against him. If he be in such a mood as that, there will be one thing worse than his absence, and that will be his presence. It ought to be his very nature to be there. He ought to be borne to the place by a swell of holy solicitude con- cerning those who are to study and teach the Word of God. He ought to go because he has not strength to stay away, because his soul is al- ready there, and because his children will need him in studying the messages of love and salva- tion which have been brought to them from their Father. I count it not a small thing that the pastor's appearance in the Sunday-school shall be just ex- actly right. It must not be a race with him to get there ; he must not come in a sweat or a fret. Let his face be as fresh as the light of a spring 68 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. morning, glinted with spiritual joy, and so mel- lowed and beautified by love that all eyes shall kindle as they look upon him. I knew a pastor once who had the homely custom of filling his pockets with nuts and confections, and of scatter- ing them among the little ones as they came in and went out. That was a kindness well meant, and who knows but that the smile of God was upon this simple deed of the pastor ? But I fancy that that was a custom which we by no means need to imitate. The pastor can do better than that, and yet in that crude type of zeal, that prim- itive and yet constructive effort to build up the school, there was something which every pastor ought not to fail to imitate. Only he can bring better things — reverence, trust, peace, wisdom, joy and worship, and dispense these to all who come that day within the circle of his power. It is not, of course, rigidly maintained that a pastor is to be in the school during every minute of its progress. He may be free to stay or go, and will do that which in his judgment will min- ister most largely to the general good. But there never can come a time during the session of a Sunday-school when it is not desirable for the pastor to be there. Let him be there beside the superintendent, steadfastly sustaining him, kindly directing him at the various turns in the affairs of the day, and ever ready to speak the word or THE PASTOR ON THE INSIDE. 69 do the deed which the passing moment may sug- gest. I have sometimes thought that a pastor ought always to be on the platform during the closing exercises. It gives completeness to the occa- sion for him, as the head of the church, to be there to hear the report, join the song, lead the prayer and speak the word of salvation. It hurts nothing at all if a few minutes before the bene- diction he quietly slips from the platform and re- tires to his office, or it may be to the neighboring grove, it will not be misunderstood. That the people will note with unfeigned reverence — will think of him in his anxious concern about his sermon, and silent prayers will attend him as he goes to mature his preparation for the pulpit. 2. Somewhat ought to be said concerning the pastor's public utterances before the school. By all means, he ought to be sensitively alive to the fact that in the Sunday-school he has his most impressible and promising audience, and that what he speaks is of transcendent importance. Let him speak with the well-grounded assurance that somebody will remember his words, if they are wisely and fitly chosen. Without going into detail, we may perhaps agree that there ought to be no fixed arrangements as to when the pastor is to speak, or as to what his topics are to be. He is the lord of the program, and it is with him, and not with the superintendent, to decide as to 70 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. what and when his public utterances are to be. Naturally there will be a time in the order of ex- ercises for him, and usually that will prove to be the proper time, but if he is the right man he will be master of all times and able readily to recog- nize the best time. There will be times when he ought to speak concerning some phase of the morning lesson, but this ought never to be under- stood as a regular order. In fact, it will natural- ly occur to you that a pastor ought never to touch the lesson unless it contains some view of truth which has caused division of sentiment in the school, or which possesses extraordinary interest. Unless he has some view of the lesson to present which was not brought out in the class discus- sions let him by all means omit all reference to the lesson. He must not thresh over old straw, but if he speaks at all, let him bring something fresh and something adapted to the peculiar con- ditions of that day. We may well declare hostility against the pas- tor as a mere lecturer to the school. It has come to pass, alas, too often, that pastors, either from mistaken convictions of duty or from an effort to make a display of their learning, have greatly afflicted their schools by their prolonged and sap- less addresses. What the pastor says ought to be brief, well considered, tersely put, and uttered with glow and passion. There ought to be a ceaseless variety in the pastor's addresses, and THE PASTOR ON THE INSIDE. 71 when he opens his mouth there ought to be an instant hush in eager expectation of something good to come. It is no common honor to speak to Bible students and pastors ought to learn how to do it well. Above all, they ought to have the gumption and grace to know how to speak ac- ceptably to children. A pastor can afford to study closely for five years in order to catch the art of speaking seriously and effectively to chil- dren. This is one of the highest of all pastoral accomplishments. There is no end to the pointed and telling things which a studious pastor may gather for his school. Almost every session will bring its own lesson and give the living pastor a straight road to the hearts of the people. It is often pardon- able in a pastor for being silent, but it is never pardonable for him to be dull or pointless, or reckless, or frivolous in what he says. If he is in living unity with Christ he will generally have things to say, things born of or fitted to the oc- casion, and yet born from above, and which will come to the souls of the people with the reviving breath of the Holy Spirit. 3. There is a practical business view of the pastor's presence in the Sunday-school. It is not the purpose of these lectures to degrade the pas- tor to the world of detail, and yet there are some things of a business sort which must inevitably command his attention. A pastor ought to be in 72 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. sight of the officers of the school, who, in a great many cases, need the restraint and refinement of his presence. It is quite often that the officers of the school, perched as they are upon the plat- form, sometimes worried by the disorder or mis- management of the school, become too curt, too positive, too overbearing in their treatment of others. A pastor must see, without seeming to see, and correct irregularities like this. Some- times he can rectify them by a look or a hint, but now and then more decided measures will be necessary, and he must have wisdom for the hour. He, too, must live in sight of the teachers, know every one of them by name, and know where they are weak and where they are strong ; know when changes ought to be made, and then, with a craft almost divine, he must provide for every emer- gency, and that, too, if possible, in a noiseless way and through regular official channels. He may detect wrongs in administration or perils at their birth, and must have a genius for correc- tion. He, too, must know the library, see how it is managed, see what books are bought, see hov^^ they are handled, and see that the children are well treated when they take the books out or bring them back. Think not that there is degradation in the re- quirement that the pastor is to be the master of de- tails. Every leader must be an inspector. It is named as the mark of every great military leader THE PASTOR ON THE INSIDE. 73 that his eye is everywhere. He knows every corps, every division, every regiment, every company, every officer, and well nigh every man. He knows the camps, the cooks, the rations, the guns, the tents, the roads, the hospitals, the supplies and the needs. This touch of omniscience, this ubiquity, this emerging at the moment for action is a part of his outfit, or rather of his inward fit- ness. This gives him elevation of view, an atti- tude for superintendence, the place of guardian- ship, and the rank of leadership. The lesson of the day for Baptists to learn is the doctrine of pastoral sovereignty. The cry which rings farthest and pierces most deeply is the cry for leaders, and those who cry not simply do not know their need. Beneath this clamor for masterful men we must breed a strong- er faith. Churches must cry for faith, this time faith in their pastors and faith on the part of min- isters in their churches. Until this comes to a church there can be no pastoral confidence and leadership. But this faith is not to come more from the Lord than from the character of the minister. The Lord will work no wonders to make honest men believe blindly in pastors who have no energy, no progress, no courage and no power of initiative. The trouble is that even when the pastor has these things he Is such a novelty, such an original wonder, that the people fear to trust him. They wear him out with mis- 74 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. trust before they come to trust him. Here we may pray with soul and mind — that God will send leaders and prophets for the people and that he will give the churches the grace to receive and follow them. Now, all this lies far out of the sphere of a stupid, clumsy-headed pastor, whose heart can not enter into the spiritual life and movement of the school. Of course that man who thinks chief- ly of his bread, or his place, or of how little he can do and yet stay, is not fit — what ! to be a pas- tor? Why, of course not, and not fit to carry a gospel commission, and we have a perfect right to doubt whether he has one. But we are dealing with the pastor, the real, living, God-made pas- tor, the man with the shepherd's voice and the shepherd's crook, the man whose eye is every- where and whose love, atmospheric, pervasive and constructive, fills the entire place. He is the man who has a place on the inside. He belongs there. He is the sovereign of that realm, and the longer he stays the stronger and sweeter will be his sway. He lives not for this world, and yet his Father sees that all of these things shall be added unto him, and as he does his Father's will he has free access to his Father's store - house. I wonder whether we have yet seen the perfect pastor. I fear that he has not reached our borders nor settled among us. Not that I dis- parage the noble dead and not that I cast a shad- THE PASTOR ON THE INSIDE. 75 ow on the skilled and consecrated men who are yet living. The office is lofty, and its duties touch the Lord on one side and the redeemed upon the earth on the other. I confess that I was always ashamed of my do- ings as a pastor — it was always so far below the standard. I was ashamed that I did so little — did that little so imperfectly — did so much to discredit the little done — had motives so mixed, had sermons meanly made and stupidly preached, made visits so unmeaning and purposeless, played with my studies, drooped in my prayers, had so little fruit, harvested that so languidly, loved my people so little, and gave them so little reason for loving me, frittered away my time and lost chances all the way. When I closed my pastoral life, I writhed to think that the church was not better and that I was to blame. There were heights of service in the pastorate I missed for not being more faithful, and I almost envied — perhaps did— my brother pastors who outstripped me in toils and upward struggles. But I gave them honor, and waved my admiring greetings up to them. But friends think not my tongue is evil — I would not speak ill of my fellow pastors — that choice brotherhood of undershepherds, but I tell you out of my heart that I have not yet seen one of these men treading the white level of table lands in the mountains of the Lord. They ^6 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. climbed well, passed many in their heroic climb, looked beautiful in the upper lights, but not one topped the mountain. Its heights are still un- tracked — no feet have pressed it yet except those of the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. I almost quiver with the masterful hope that if I could enter the lists again, I v/ould touch the radiant crown of the mount of the Faithful. But no ; it is not for me. They give no second trials. But young man, yonder is the mountain, yonder the winding track, yonder the climbers, go in, go in with flying feet and in the name of the Lord, and you may be the first to see the sun set from the mountain top. THE PASTOR ABROAD. 77 LECTURE III. THE PASTOR ABROAD. One has not far to travel before he will en- counter variant opinions as to the central point of a pastor's power. There are some who always put the emphasis chiefly upon the sermon, maintaining that if a man will hide himself in his study during the week, devote himself to reading and study and then emerge on Sunday morning from his retreat ladened with a rich and thrilling sermon, or, in the case of a city pastor, with two sermons, that that will entirely fulfill the law. He who maintains this view would transmute the minister into a recluse, and release and even exile himself from social contact with his congregation. It is proper to say that this view is held chiefly by ministers who shrink from commingling with the people, or who, under the guise of great studiousness, would hide their aversion to the pastoral visit. They receive the sympathy of some persons who fail to see any benefit in house to house work, and who think of the minister not as a friend and counselor, but simply as a preacher. There are many others who underscore the value of the personal touch. With them the sermon is the incident and the visit is the event 78 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. of the ministry. This view is held by some ministers who are intellectually indolent, or who find it more agreeable to mix socially with their people than to give themselves faithfully to the study of the Word. In every church there are found some who think of the pastor chiefly as a companion. They delight to have him as a guest in their homes, to sit at their boards and to entertain them with spicy and cheerful conver- sation. For instruction and edification they care little, but upon the pastor, who often crosses their threshold and is conspicuous in their social functions, they set a very high value. With them the pastor is acceptable just in proportion to his sociability. I need not say that, as is usual with all extreme views, both of these positions, as to the pre-emi- nent duty of the pastor to his people, are unsatis- factory. The history of the Christian ministry abundantly attests the truth that the pastor who hides from his people, broods over his books and preaches profound and hard wrought sermons, and does only that, is doomed to failure. He may possibly gather about him a small coterie of intellectual and cultivated hearers, who may ex- alt him into a hero, but he will inevitably prove to be an alien among the common people. There is not one minister In a thousand who can hold his church with no tie to bind his people to him THE PASTOR ABROAD. 79 except the messages which he delivers from the pulpit. So, on the other hand, the man who is for- ever afloat, who accounts his visits as the whole duty of his life, and who seeks to divert attention from the poverty of his preaching by his inde- fatigable activities and his continuous visibility, will not endure long. If his people are either moderately sensible or intelligently spiritual they will soon detect the emptiness of his pulpit per- formances and inexorably demand something more substantial and nutritious. Indeed, the sermon and the visit ought never to be put at variance. They are twins, inherent- ly congenial and complementary one of the other. The strong sermon is not born of alienation from the people, and the visit, when made reasonably, has nothing in it to rob the sermon of its sweet- ness or its power. Indeed, the sermon Itself will give dignity and relish to the visit, and the visit will gather spoils and treasures for the sermon. The sermon and the visit are the two bonds which bind the pastor and his people together, neither of which is sufficiently strong of itself to preserve the union, but both of them, when hon- est and sympathetic, will create a tie which noth- ing on earth can break. As the next lecture will have to do with the pulpit, the present lecture must concern itself with the pastoral visit. 80 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. And you will permit me here and now to pro- claim my unfeigned respect for what is commonly called the pastoral visit. I believe thoroughly in its value, its reasonableness and its necessity. Not that we ought to endorse all of the cruel and senseless exactions which some churches make upon their pastors, not that we are to respect the shallow and superficial methods which some pas- tors adopt in order to make a show of their in- dustry in this respect, and not that we are to feel other than quenchless contempt for those who seek to win reputation by exaggerated reports of visits made only for the sake of counting, and in no respect worthy of being counted. The pastoral visit must be conscientious, purposeful, charged with holy courtesy, and made in the fear of the Lord. The seminal thought in the visit is personal contact. It brings the pastor face to face with one or more of his people, and always for a pur- pose. Even when it is largely for acquaintance- ship, it must have in it, not too conspicuous, the religious element. It is always good and useful, though it has no other distinct intent except to express a pastor's gracious love. Many a time a visit must go loaded with compassion and con- solation, for it goes to the house of sorrow and seeks to heal the broken hearted. It must not be too dainty nor fastidious, for it has to enter rude houses without carpet or ornament or warmth, THE PASTOR ABROAD. 8l and has often to stand by the unmade bed and hold the withered hand and carry away the dust of the floor gathered as it bent in prayer. The pastoral visit received unnumbered en- dorsements in the life of the Lord Jesus. He visited the degraded and ostracized, and carried them salvation ; he talked forgivingly to the wom- an that was a sinner, and that other woman at the well; he broke bread with Simon the leper and Levi the publican; he visited Lazarus and the sisters in the days of their joy, and shared their hospitality, and afterwards was there again when death had done its work ; there to preach the doc- trine of the resurrection and the life. It is enough to fill us with horror to hear some stupid and half-hearted ministers speak contemptuously of the pastoral visit. I recall an incident which took place in the life of that match- less pulpit orator. Dr. Richard Fuller, of Balti- more, who for many years was the pride and ad- miration of Southern Baptists. He was once in conversation with a young pastor who spoke dis- paragingly of the pastoral visit. He said that his church exacted it at his hands, declared his un- willingness to mix with the people, and appealed to Dr. Fuller for justification of his course. The Doctor reddened with indignation, and said with undisguised severity: "Young man, I do not say that it will be necessary for you to visit your peo- ple — possibly you may have genius and eloquence 82 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. enough to bind them to you without the visit, but I declare to you that if I were to cease my work in the homes of my people I could not hold my pastorate for two years." This was the ut- terance of a man who was the prince of the Amer- ican pulpit, and who yet felt that an essential part of his work was to enter the homes and deal face to face with the people. Not that he gave all of his time to this, nor so wasted his vital forces as to cripple him in the pulpit, but he made the ser- mon and the visit too, each in its due proportion, and in a time and way that each helped the other. If a pastor loves his people warmly and truly, the visit will take care of itself. Sometimes it will take the form of a note; sometimes it will be a request to call on the pastor ; sometimes it will be a delightful chat on the highway or in the street ; sometimes it will be a talk after the service, at the foot of the pulpit or out at the carriage in the grove ; sometimes it will be a letter when one or the other is away from home — as for that, loving hearts always know how to get together. I had the pleasure one Sunday morning of riding in an open carriage with Charles H. Spur- geon, the pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle of London. It was after he had preached to his great congregation, and our way lay along Clap- ham Road, along the sidewalks of which streamed hundreds and hundreds of those who belonged to Mr. Spurgeon's church. It seemed THE PASTOR ABROAD. 83 to me that he knew every one of them, and he had a bow, a wave of his hand, and often joyous, open laughter for every group, and apparently for every individual. Many he called by name, many he greeted with his hat off ; to some he threw out a few words of kindly greeting, and now and then the carriage halted or crept slowly to allow him a handshake or a brief interchange of affec- tionate salutations. It seemed to me he paia a hundred essential visits that day. I wondered how many remembered that morning afterwards, when the news came that their great hearted pas- tor was dead. Spurgeon was too great not to believe in the pastoral visit. May I not tell another incident connected with Spurgeon's pastoral spirit? We were riding one stormy evening through the country, some miles away from London, on our way to the home of one of Spurgeon's most admiring friends. It was near nightfall and the weather was exceed- ingly rough. Mr. Spurgeon told his friend that one of his members lived off the road some dis- tance and was sick and had sent a request to see him. His friend almost severely opposed the idea of the visit, pleading the lateness of the hour, the suffering of the horses and the discomfort of the driver. Spurgeon made three distinct ap- peals to his friend to take him to see his sick brother, and failing in all, he threw open the car- riage door, asked the driver if he was willing to 84 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. face the storm in order that he might pay the visit, and won the driver's consent, and, over the protest of his host, went nearly three miles out of his way in the beating rain to see his suffering brother. I never doubted after that Spurgeon's power. It was in the boundless affection which he had for his people. Pastors come and pastors go, but it is only the visiting pastor who stays. I salute the pastoral visit. It is an embassy of good will, a love breeder, a complaint extinguish- er, a heart cheerer, a sermon maker and a soul winner. A pastor's value is largely the product of growth. I know that many are fascinated with the sensation of a new pastorate. There are un- questionably advantages which are the heritage of the newcomer. He has a certain amount of fixed capital, though not always well fixed and sometimes inflexibly fixed, in the way of sermons ; he has experience, which is always valuable, and there is always an impulsive enthusiasm which goes out to greet the coming man. His own nov- elty and the curiosity of the community will float him for a season, and great crowds and charming compliments often gild a pastor's beginning with apparent success. But after all, that does not amount to much. The excitement which attends his arrival is necessarily capricious and can not be trusted for the future. In a little while this popular enthusiasm will vanish away and things THE PASTOR ABROAD. 85 must settle down to their natural level. He must reach a time when he will get a rational view of the situation, when his work in its plainness, its drawbacks and its depressions will stand out be- fore him, and when he feels that he is to watch for souls as one who gives account. If he is a thoroughly conscientious and devoted man he will feel that he needs something better than his old sermons or his former reputation to mould him into his new relation with his people. Right- ly enough he may search for hearts by his ser- mon, and if he preaches a living gospel which he himself is living, he will set souls on fire and draw them to himself. But no preacher need ever hope to discover the wants of his church by simply using the pul- pit for his observatory. He may ascend the mountain and glow with transfiguration glory, but he can not linger on the mountain top. The multitude can not attend him there. He must descend to the plane where the masses of the peo- ple toil and suffer and cry for comfort. It is at the bottom that he is to do his healing. The sor- rowful and the lost are in the depths and he must go down and link himself to them before he can ever lift them up. I lay it down as an undeniable proposition, that a minister will be effective in pastoral service just in proportion to his identi- fication with his people. As already indicated, the new comer, with his best sermons, thrilling 86 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. Stories and beaming optimism as to the future, may create a stir for a season, but all this must fade and die. Flippant, assuming men, telling of the great things they have done and of the greater tilings they expect to do, may possibly deceive the very elect for a while, but their subsequent con- duct will help the elect to come back to their senses. Men of this type are of little worth. What is needed is the true man, the man who has broken with folly and ambition, whose hfe is hid with Christ in God, whose reigning purpose is to serve others, who has a good understanding with his Master, and who has a message for his people — that is the man which our churches need to secure as a pastor. He is no morning cloud, glowing fitfully in the sunlight and then dissolv- ing from view. He grows stronger with his church the longer he stays. He does better v/ork the second year than the first, the second five than the first five, and into the last year of his pasto- rate is gathered the wealth of all preceding years. His field never gives out, he never lacks for texts and has little use for old sermons. His thought is upon his work and his eye wanders not away in quest of other fields. His soul is married to his people, and there he will stay until God as- signs him to another charge, or calls him to his crown. If this be true, then the pastor is the man who stays, stays long enough to measure his field, to THE PASTOR ABROAD. 87 know the inner life of his members, to be ac- quainted with the children, to have such an in- telligent view of his work that he knows where he is needed and what he is needed for, and to know the face of a stranger when he comes in sight. This is the man of this lecture — the sought for of the ages, the desired of all churches, a great- hearted man of God, out on his rounds and at his business. It is hardly necessary to point out what that man will be worth to the Sunday-school. Not that he is specifically a Sunday-school missionary, or that he is incessantly harping on the duty of attending the Sunday-school. All that you need to do with him is to open his gate and let him go out, and the results will be seen along his path. If he enters a family his talk and his prayers will exalt the Word of God in the view of that family. He will make the Bible shine with divine radiance as he unfolds its doctrines. He will make the father and mother realize the unspeakable im- portance of studying the Word of God, studying it with each other, studying it with their children at home, studying it with their brethren. Not by stormy frowns nor slashing criticisms will he seek to drive his people into the Sunday-school, but he will charm them and draw them to the school by the magnetism of his love. A man with his temper and grace will invest the Sun- day-school with attractions which will draw both 88 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. young and old. Out of the fountain of his own experience will he ever draw material for restrain- ing the tempted, recovering the wayward and of winning the stranger. His life will be an em- bodied argument in favor of studying the Word of God. In the light of what we have said we may study yet more fully the pastor's power in social life, and more especially as it is exerted for the advancement of the Sunday-school. I. We may first study the motive which must control the 'pastor in his attempt to advance the influence and prosperity of the Sunday-school. Human actions are always more or less compli- cated, being the resultant of many conscious, and likely enough many more unconscious, influences ; but we know that behind every human act there is one motive — one sovereign, overmastering motive. This master-passion may be waited upon by many subordinates, and between them all there may be kinship and concurrence which bring the final result. Upon no man do more motives necessarily play than upon a Christian minister, and when he goes forth in the walks of life, bent on multipling the numbers of those who are to engage in the study of the Word of God, he will find that he is the subject of many second- ary motives. It is not intended here to repudi- ate incidental influences nor to deny the lawful- ness or the safety of resorting to minor motives, THE PASTOR ABROAD. 89 not wrong in themselves, for accomplishing good ends, but we can not disguise the fact that dan- gers lie along this way for every active and enter- prising pastor. It is of the utmost import that he shall not work any motive for more than it is worth. We do not denounce outright the pastor's ap- peal to the pride of his church as a motive for en- tering into Christian service. He may unfold to his laggard members the actual situation of the church, the unquestioned superiority of neigh- boring Sunday-schools, the devoted loyalty of other denominations to their work, and the glo- rious success which would crown the church if all would fall in and do their part. He may ex- plain to them the depression under which he is made to suffer by the languor and apathy of his people, and call their attention to the higher rank which other churches maintain and the nobler respect which they command by a fidelity which his own congregation does not exhibit. There is a margin, a lawful margin, for this appeal to the pride of the church, and it ought to gather additional strength when the fact is brought out that the distinctive principles for which Baptists stand committed are put in peril by the culpable indifference and the worldliness of Baptist peo- ple. At the same time there is danger in playing upon motives of a questionable nature. The ap- peal to rivalry is always dangerous, and when go THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. overworked, as it is likely to be, inevitably works damage to the truth. The pastor may also innocently resort to the social appeal. There is great power in this with certain classes of people. When they hear of genial and charming society in the school, of the choice fellowship of the young people, and of the delightful friendships which grow out of their commingling, he plays upon a powerful chord. Nor is there essential harm in it. Our Lord him- self recognized the social instinct as a force in his kingdom, and sought to sanctify it to the upbuild- ing of the truth. Surely we need not fear to fol- low our Lord in anything. At the same time, there must be limits upon this very rational ap- peal. We know that the social spirit of young people is arbitrary and moody; they usually like those that they are expected not to like, and are stubborn beyond measure in recoiling from those whom we take special pains to show them that they ought to love and associate with. When we bring persons into our schools with the promise that they will find delightful society, we neces- sarily run the risk of undertaking to blend into social intimacy those who are essentially uncon- genial. Too often new comers in pursuit of society become chagrined and embittered by be- ing thrown with those with whom they can never coalesce. In our day it is quite a fashion to stake much THE PASTOR ABROAD. 9I on the beautiful arrangements for our Sunday- schools. Magnificent school-rooms, with beau- tiful windows, elegant furniture and painted walls, are the order of the times. These things are entirely proper, and, incidentally, they may be used as attractions, but no Sunday-school can ever be built up on the mere architectural beau- ties of the house. As a rule, the larger schools are found in the plainest buildings, and those who have spent great sums of money with the idea that handsome buildings will draw great crowds have been fatally mistaken. It is not the house which makes the school. Sunday-school enthusiasts are also exceed- ingly fertile in devices for pleasing the children. There must be appeals to their eye, their ear, their imagination and their heart, and many schools seem bent upon making spectacles of themselves. They accumulate great libraries, give evening en- tertainments, provide picnics, excursions, clubs, games and sometimes other and far more ques- tionable things, as means of building up the school. These things are not necessarily hurtful — indeed, in many cases they are manifestly ad- vantageous and do sometimes attract new mate- rial in the school. That they always succeed is not true, as Sunday-school people well know. These things come to the children as subsidies — come with contaminating power, and serve to transform the children into tramps, who flit from 92 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. school to school in quest of richer luxuries or more sensational entertainments. These be samples merely of the things which pastors are prompted to employ in the struggle to improve and enlarge their schools. It is to be regretted that not a few of our ministers are wanting in discrimination ; they know not how to weigh and measure things, and ofttimes they use secondary and even unworthy motives in order to crowd their schools with new scholars. Happy, indeed, is that pastor who can separate between what is fundamental and what is inci- dental ; who can rank things at their real worth, and who, discarding sensations and overworked amusements, appeals primarily and habitually to the best that is in human nature. There is in reality but one commanding motive to be used in building up the Sunday-school, and that is that the school js for the definite and ex- alted purpose of studying the Word of God. As that is the cardinal purpose for which the school has been established, that, to a very large extent, should be the ever-present reason for seeking to bring others into it. If they come for any other reason they will speedily become discontented, and all the struggle to bring them in will come at last to nought. It ought to be laid down as a great and reg- nant principle that the aggressive efforts to en- large the Sunday-school shall be exactly in accord- THE PASTOR ABROAD. 93 ance with the reason for establishing the school. Of course, there is danger that some will be led by these remarks to take a view too narrow and severe, and to feel that efforts made for the en- largement of the Sunday-school must be invested with a funereal solemnity and with a grimness most repulsive to the young. That which it is here intended shall be urged with all intensity is that true godliness, good sense and sober judg- ment shall sit in council when the methods for building up the Sunday-school are to be under debate. Let the study of the Scriptures stand forth as the supreme duty of the people, and let it be so wrought into them that it will become a living conviction that the Sunday-school is in- tended for the study of the Word of God. 2. It must not be expected that a discussion of methods will find a place in this lecture. Indeed, let us remember that a true and living motive will always become the creator of its own meth- ods. People who are mechanical in their Chris- tian work are always eager to secure programs, schedules and elaborate schemes which they sup- pose can be used to bring the richest results. But they are mistaken. Fill the man of God with a tremendous purpose and nerve him with a living motive, and you can leave the method to take care of itself. Real earnestness invariably works itself out, and when it is intelligent usually hits upon that method which is the best adapted to the 94 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. exact situation. And yet you may always count upon a pastor to adopt ways and methods essen- tially his own, and with which he feels that he can work with the greatest success. ( I ) For one thing, an efficient pastor will throw himself in contact with his people, always selecting the best time for his work, and then touching the hearts of his people by the vigor and tenderness with which he pleads, that the people of his charge will become students of the Word of God. He will not be overbearing, nor fight physical or moral impossibilities, but he will press forward the great work. He will rest not day nor night until he shall bring his church in its great totality to the devout and joyful study of the Word of God. The spirit of the true pastor is always to work from the center; he builds up from the in- side, observing the apostolic order of beginning at Jerusalem. He will toil to increase the effi- ciency of the offxcers of the school ; he will devote himself to the quickening and enlargement of his teachers ; he will toil steadily to gather his own people into the Sunday-school, and, so far as pos- sible, will see that every child in his congregation, as well as the grown people, is identified with the school. Not that this is to be done in a moment of raving enthusiasm. He must make no break- neck round to drum up scholars. He must not believe that it is by jerks and spurts that God's kingdom advances on the earth. He must be a THE PASTOR ABROAD. 95 man of dignity, order and seriousness; a model of Christian dignity, the beauty of whose Hfe will be an example for the community. This is steady year after year work, but the pastor must go on with the task, never thinking for a moment that anything has been done so long as anything re- mains to be done. (2) There is one better thing for a pastor to do than work, and that is to organize and inspire his church to work, and after all, that is work, and really the best kind of work. There can be no more stupid zeal than the dogged and wast- ing spirit of that pastor who undertakes to do it all himself. He wrongs others far more than himself by such disastrous folly. An aggressive pastor will manage to keep his people on fire. They will count it their meat and drink to do what he commands, and if he works wisely he will soon bring his people to be the best cham- pions of the Sunday-school. It was said of a cer- tain Baptist Church that no new family could slip into the community ever so quietly and get its furniture in order before some representative of that church would be there in the interest of the Sunday-school. It was declared, perhaps face- tiously, that no wagon loaded with furniture could appear on any street in the neighborhood of that church without being followed by some member of the church, who had already sent an- 96 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. Other member post haste to notify the pastor that there were new prizes in sight. The methods of increasing- the school can not be discussed here except in their ethical aspects. It is hardly necessary to say that one of the worst perils of a school comes through the efforts to advance it. Many schools seem to imagine that the excellence of the Sunday-school amply jus- tifies almost any expedients for adding to its numbers. It is a fact beyond all contradiction that many of our schools have been corrupted and cursed in their very lives by their unsavory trickeries in canvassing. This will not do. No school can afford to bribe children to come to the Sunday-school for its instructions — the bribe will discount fatally the instruction. Of course I see that there must be a margin for charity in building up our schools. A treasury in the school for quietly helping the poor children to get necessary clothes is allow- able, but it ought to have nO' name, no public notices and no advertisements that will reveal to the community a fountain to which all may freely go. In many places it will not take long for the children of the neighborhood to find the way to that fountain. It is strange how hard it is to give charity in the Sunday-school and ever afterwards to be able to confer any spiritual blessings upon the object of the charity. After all some of the most efiicient agents for THE PASTOR ABROAD. 97 the upbuilding of the school arc the children them- selves. When they are charged with the true Sunday-school spirit and instructed and delicately stimulated by the pastor to bring in others they make a sort of angelic legion in the service of their Lord. They do not need rewards, and yet, as the anniversary or celebration of the school comes around there is no danger of spoiling them by the presentation of a book in grateful recog- nition of their services. They will cherish a lit- tle Bible or book as a remembrance of happy service done for the Master. The glory of service in the Sunday-school is its spontaneity, its voluntariness, and this is the spirit which no one can so effectually breathe and cherish in children as a wise and great souled pastor. In the light of what has been said we can think of the pastor abroad as a commander, visiting his fortresses and examining the garrisons, vis- iting the outposts where the most exacting serv- ice is required, visiting the pioneers, the sappers and the miners to see that they are on duty and to cheer them to be faithful. Soldiers are always more careful when they are expecting their com- mander, and always feel strengthened when they have seen him in their midst and have received his courageous orders. The pastor must exercise a leadership which in extent covers the whole 7 98 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. field of his labor and descends as far as possible to every detail of his work. There is deadly mildew in the subsidiary taint. The scent of the loaves and fishes is a de- basing aroma in any community. When once a school resorts to the selfish appeal for the im- provement of its own life it has sown seeds v/hose obnoxious fruits will never be exter- minated. I do not plead for the exclusion of rewards and honors, though I dread even them — dread them when they are given not as baits to newcomers, but as gracious testimonials to the children for unusual efforts. There is in some schools the power to sanctify the secondary ap- peal and make it a means of grace. I knew a school which offered a prize in gold to the one who brought in the largest number of scholars during the year. It was won for many successive years by the same man, a workman in a railroad shop. He was a poor man, with stint- ed income, had a family and rented his house, and not robust. He always appeared at the an- niversary and claimed his five dollar piece. Ah, hear the rest, it is good to tell. He held that money as an extra kindness from the Lord, too sacred in his view for common use, and always at the moment of receiving it he publicly donated to some benevolent or missionary object. It was his artful method of sanctifying the reward system in the school, and it extinguished the very THE PASTOR ABROAD. QQ temptation to seek to build up the school by self- ish appeals. His example was a divine con- tagion. There are some Christian organizations whose views as to their duty as propagandists lead them to play upon the baser motives. They put honest people at disadvantage by methods which they in conscience can not employ. They buy our own before our eyes and carry them off. Truly a cut- ting piece of trickery which we can not imitate though we have the refreshing right to despise it. We may also with aggressive jealousy seek to guard our young from the contaminating power of the selfish appeal. Here is one of the most dangerous evils against which some churches have to fight, for while it puts an enemy in front of us to be fought it exposes us to his potent insinuations. It takes the ringing honesty of a pastor to keep his people honest along this track of peril. It is one of the charms of existence that inter- esting objects have the power of multiplying their attractions by turning various sides to us. The mountain, the landscape or the masterpiece do not confine us to one point of observation. Every angle of vision reveals new beauties. I account the Christian pastor as one of the most interesting and impressive objects upon which mankind are called to look. A man with God's commission written in living letters upon his soul, separated from common things except so far as they nerve lOO THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. him for his task, and living avowedly the life he lives at the command of Christ the Son of God. From many standpoints he comes in sight, and see him where we may he is a striking figure among men. Look at him as he enters his office, — not to contend in the traffic of men — not for money, but to ponder the word of God and fill his mouth with a message of life for men. See him as he shuts his door, shutting the world out and himself in with God that he may seek instruction concerning the business committed to his hands. Mark him as he ascends his pulpit, laden with his message, tense with anxiety, and yet full of modest courage. But nowhere is the pastor more pleasant to behold than when we catch sight of him as, quit- ting his closet, dropping book and pen, parting from family and company, he sallies forth to see the people. As the King's messenger he goes, and he makes us think of him who received sin- ners and ate with them, of whom it was said that the common people heard him gladly. Let him go in clouds or when the sky is blue, let him cross stream and mountain, enter hut and mansion, meet great and small, old and young, good and bad. Sorrow and sin may meet him on the way and cry for pity and fill his face with weeping as he goes, but stop him not, cheer him on, at- tend him with love and hope, for doubtless he shall come again in joy, bringing his sheaves with him. THE PULl'lT AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 101 LECTURE IV. THE PULPIT AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. A hopeful feature of the present time is the earnest intelligence with which our leaders dis- cuss living problems. They have learned to in- spect actual situations with skillful scrutiny, and to determine on the needed treatment. This power of adjustment is essential wisdom and is to be urgently sought after by those who com- mand our Christian movements. It is often charged that in this, as in some other respects, the children of this world are wiser in their genera- tion than the children of light. Christian men are possibly wiser in other generations than are the children of the world, but that will not do. We are expected by our Lord to be wiser in our own generation, this very time, than any other people on the earth. There is at this time at least one problem be- fore the Christian world which it has not solved, and does not seem to know how to solve. I can not contend that it is a new perplexity, for that would not be true, but it is safe to say that it was never so acute and bewildering as it now is. I refer to the question as to how the material han- dled in our Sunday-schools is to be successfully transferred into the place for congregational wor- 102 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. ship. The Sunday-school and the congregation are two distinct assembUes, as of course to some extent they must always necessarily be, but not to the extent of practical alienation, which now al- most exists. The portentous fact, so apparent almost everywhere, is that the bulk of the chil- dren seen in the Sunday-schools are absent from the congregation. Not only is this true, but of late more marked than ever before. Many of the older scholars, some of the teachers, and now and then some of the officers of the school are ob- served to abscond just as the people are assem- bling for worship. A certain fastidious and nerv- ous class of our Sunday workers hesitate not to declare that they can not endure the wear and tear of both services, and with no apparent com- punction they choose the Sunday-school and omit the sermon. What is yet more serious, if possible, is the fact that the scores of children who come to the school scamper away in uproarious glee from the place where the minister is to preach and the church is to worship. This bare statement, with no tinge of exag- geration, is amply enough to arrest attention. It unveils a condition distressing in itself and stead- ily growing. It casts a shadow over the church, depopulates the congregation and forces us to ask what is to be the source from which we are to draw our congregations in the future? If I may not safely say that the Sunday-school has been THE PULPIT AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. I03 exalted into a rival of the church, with its organ- ized worship, it has at least become a substitute for it. It almost tempts us to frame a new defi- nition of the Sunday-school as an institution whose tendency, if not its purpose, is fa train the children to neglect public worship. I am re- minded of the old time quadrangular two-story houses of worship which were formerly erected in our towns with a room for the children in the cellar, and a far better place for the congrega- tion above, but with no possible way of passing from the Sunday-school room into the audience chamber without first going out and taking a look at the infatuating world. Those old struc- tures always had a suggestion that public worship was far above the children's heads and that they were not expected to have anything to do with it. It becomes us in treating this subject to be perfectly frank and fair. There are things to be taken into account on both sides. For one thing, we must not ignore the argu- ment of the overstrain. If we are appalled by the fact that so many of our children entirely neglect worship, we must not forget that in former times other children by being imprisoned in both services contracted an aversion to the place of worship which they could never con- quer. The two services usually cover about three hours, without any appreciable interval. W^ I04 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. know that the little children are naturally eager to reach the Sunday-school, often coming before the exercises begin, sometimes without breakfast. They join joyously in the opening services, then pass into their classes, go through the lessons, and as a rule return to the final exercises of the school. Now to hurry them into the place of worship without relaxation, without even a whiff of fresh air, and confine them through a length- ened schedule of services far too grave and ad- vanced for them, and to forbid them a nap, a whisper, a cup of cold water or even a ginger snap is a tax upon human nature which it will not always willingly endure. And yet it is possible that these prolonged exercises may be made agreeable and profitable to children, provided the effort is faithfully sus- tained by the parents and leaders of the school. We know that the primary departments of our day schools in many cases cover three hours, and in factories and other places where children are employed the hours of labor comprise most of the entire day, and that, too, in uncomfortable rooms and with little change of position or work. This view of the matter is not to be ignored in the study of the problem in hand. It argues some- thing wrong somewhere when religion comes to be regarded as a hardship. Another view of the subject must be consid- ered. The popular notion of worship is inade- THE PULPIT AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. lOg quate. We have no right to restrict our concep- tion of worship to any single place or situation. Wherever there is a devout soul freighted with tributes of gratitude or adoration for God, it may present it at any time or place. True worship is unconfined and pleasing to the Lord no matter when it comes. Besides, we ought to be outright in our advo- cacy of worship in the Sunday-school. It should be plainly presented to the children as the per- vasive life and atmosphere of the occasion. They ought to understand that when they sing the Sun- day-school song that is worship ; when the Word of God is read that is worship ; when prayer is offered that is worship; when the offering is made that is worship; when the lesson is taught and received that is worship, and that even the benediction is worship. It is not to be supposed that the children can not learn to worship, or can not render acceptable worship without at- tending the great congregation. We must give the little ones the credit for worship, though they may do nothing but shout their noisy hosannas to the Son of David, and that in a way that may shock the prim and mumbling formalists. And yet after these concessions we are face to face with the burning issue. We can not sur- render the idea that the children ought to wor- ship with the grown up people. The separation is unnatural. They need their sobering and en- I06 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. lightening presence. They need to form the habit of coming with the church to the throne of grace. The fact that Jesus went to worship when he was twelve, and had to go many miles on foot for that purpose is in itself a lesson on this sub- ject which we can not forget. Then, too, we know too well that if the children grow up in the neglect of public worship it will be next to impos- sible ever to train them to take it up afterwards. It is of paramount importance that children be taught to go to the house of the Lord when they are young. There is nothing else that we can rightly put as a substitute for that. Then what can we do to meet the danger which con- fronts us? The effort of this lecture will be to assist in answering this almost unanswerable question. I. It has been hinted that one way of simpli- fying the situation would be to abolish the Sun- day-school. This has indeed been gravely advo- cated in some quarters. It has been strongly maintained that the evil wrought by the Sunday- school in practically divorcing the young from the sermon, with its attendant services, greatly overbalances any benefits which the school alone can possibly confer. To many devout and con- scientious friends of God it has come as an alter- native as to whether it is better to have the chil- dren in the school and out of the congregational worship, or to have them in the worship and out THE PULPIT AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. I07 of the school. If this becomes the issue and it is found that there can be no reconciUation between the two, then we may feel quite assured that not a few godly, home-loving, worshipful people will surrender the school. Indeed, there are some who already have made their final choice, which has resulted in a withdrawal of their children from the Sunday-school with the conviction that they must have them with them at public wor- ship. This view of the subject has not been intro- duced for approval, nor yet for unlimited censure. It is rather mentioned as a symptom of the grav- ity of the problem under consideration. It has become necessary to deal with the question as to whether, in order to bring up our children to at- tend public worship, we will have to abolish the Sunday-school. I do not stay to express an opinion, much less to build an argument, in favor of the Sunday- school. For missionary purposes as well as for the instruction of the children of the ignorant In our churches, we must have the Sunday-school. Indeed, with the best instruction that our Chris- tian homes can give their children, there is an evident need for the supplemental and more or- derly instruction which is found in the school. The way to meet the emergency which we are discussing is not found in the destruction of the school. Soniething must be done, but that thing I08 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. we all agree is not the sweeping out of existence of the most potent method of evangelization yet produced by the wisdom of the Christian world. 2. In some parts of the world it has been at- tempted to dispose of the difficulty by changing the order of things — putting the Sunday-school after the congregational meeting instead of before it. The argument has seemed to be that by plac- ing the graver, more ponderous service first the children might be induced to participate in both. But the facts do not sustain the contention. Where this reverse in the order of the two serv- ices has been introduced, practically the same re- sult follows as before. The children cut the public worship and come only in time for the Sunday-school, and the older people, just as be- fore, attend the congregation worship and fly at the coming of the children. Spurgeon, who was more wonderful as a pas- tor than a preacher, had a room adjacent to his tabernacle in which the children met in a service corresponding to the usual congregational wor- ship, with the difference that the exercises were shaped to the capacity of the children, and of course were shorter. This might be wisely adopted in other places provided there is a suffi- cient number of children to constitute an audi- ence, and provided also suitable accommodations can be secured for that purpose^ and provided yet further that ministers can be secured who are THE PULPIT AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. IO9 fitted for such services, a thing which seems to be rarely true of our ministers. But if this arrangement could be adopted everywhere, it would be defective in one most important particular. If separate worship was adopted it would practically alienate the children from the church in its worship. This would be a mistake whose disastrous effects could hardly be overestimated. Everything ought to be done to honor the church, and the children ought to consider it an honor and a privilege to go into the house of God and worship with the people of God. It is fatally unfortunate for children to imbibe the notion that they are Sunday-school children and not church going children. This will serve to weaken the tie which binds them to the church, and when they grow up and cease to attend Sun- day-school they will have nothing left to hold them from drifting. They ought to be imbued with reverence for the church, as a creation of Christ, designed to be the home of his children. As already hinted, we may be sure that if we allow children to form the habit of absence from the worship of the church they will gradually form associations and find pleasures which will after awhile militate against all efforts to bring them to the place of worship. It is a ruinous blunder to allow the wicked one to have the first chance, to take possession of the young heart, to sow the no THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. seeds of evil first, and to give the gospel only the second chance for winning the soul. 3. How, then, can we hope to improve the present condition of things? A few things we may answer affirmatively in favor of lessening if not of removing^ the difficulties. (i) There must be adequate and proper in- struction at home. In no scheme looking to the welfare of children can we leave the home out of the account. It is certain that the Lord will never regard with grace any effort for the thor- ough Christian development of children which overlooks the part that the home is to play in it. It is to be gravely apprehended that one incidental and unintended result of the Sunday-school move- ment has been in numberless cases to weaken the religious power of the family. This has not arisen from any collision as to the doctrines taught, or as to the methods pursued in the home and the school. It grows out of the fact that in the nature of the case there comes divided instruc- tion and divided authority. This must tell in many ways. Another serious aspect of the case is that chil- dren have their religious privileges at one hour and the parents at another. It is one of the alarming sights of the Christian Sabbath to see fathers and mothers moving quietly to the house of God while their children are dashing home- ward from the school. This is inherently incon- THE PULPIT AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. Ill gruous and unnatural, and must tell unfavorably on the cause of Christ in the future. It is a sor- rowful picture and should stir every thoughtful mind with concern. Christian parents often sep- arate from their children on the Lord's day at the breakfast table, or even before, and never really meet them again until they meet at dinner. This separation is deplorable and ought to be broken up ; it bodes no good for the church nor for the children. I abhor the role of the alarmist and yet it seems to me that there is of late an evident re- laxation of parental authority in the religious training of children. It is to be feared that fa- thers and mothers need to be reminded again of their inborn, untransferable responsibility for the religious character of their children. It is their work to see to their instruction, to form their habits of study, and to determine the manner in which they spend the Lord's day. Do I go too far in the intimation that there is a looseness and recklessness in the handling of children which did not once exist among godly parents ? A danger- ous liberty is granted to children which often re- sults in their alienation from the house of God. It is growing to be a trivial fault in many quar- ters for boys and girls to stay away from the house of the Lord. They easily learn to think that it is a trick of smartness not to go to church, and parents let them have their way. fl2 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. But who is to bring the reformation? Who is to reorganize Christian families, teach fathers that they are the reHgious heads of their famihes, teach them what instructions they must give their children within their own gates, teach them that if their children go to the Sunday-school to study the Scriptures that they ought to go with them, teach them that they are the spiritual custodians of their children and are required to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? It sheds a new dignity upon the ministerial office for the pastor to know that he has this noble serv- ice to render to the families of his charge, and let him not shrink from his duty. The pastor who establishes families in the faith of God and stimulates them to mould their children for the duties of citizens and for Christian living does the highest type of service for his Lord and Master. When that happy era of godliness and fidelity has begun in our families, one of its highest re- sults will be attendance upon public worship. The sharpest part of the battle is to be fought within the family gate, and when won there, there will be easy victory everywhere else. But what a conflict is to be waged in many homes. If there is trouble with Christian families about their chil- dren attending the house of God, what is to be done about the Christless families? In many cases the fathers and mothers do not go to the worship or teach their children to go; often, in- THE PULPIT AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. II3 deed, they allow and even require them not to go. What a fearful perplexity is this! Who can meet it? Nobody, it seems to me, except the pastor. (2) But to this family influence must be add- ed the best organized sentiment and co-opera- tion of the Sunday-school. It is to be regretted that there be many yet who do not understand the relation between the church and the Sunday- school, and some insist on believing that they are absolutely separate and ought to be kept apart. In not a few cases the trouble Is with the church. It stiffly separates itself from the school, and often by its offensive legislation, and yet oftener by a policy of non-support, criticism and antago- nism, it engenders strife and bitterness in the school. By all means the church ought to be the mother, the pride, the lover, the support and joy of the school. There ought not to be a breath of jealousy or contention between the two. Indeed, it ought always to be apparent, and always cor- dially agreed that the church is the Sunday-school and the Sunday-school the church, and they are knit in inseparable union by the ties which bind the mother and her child together. It has to be confessed that the attitude of the Sunday-school toward the church is not always becoming. Where the more progressive and self-assertive portion of the church is engaged in the Sunday-school it frequently happens that the 114 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. school assumes a superior and contemptuous at- titude towards the church. Now and then nar- row and sensitive men get the headship of the Sunday-school and they come to cross terms with the church. They do things without the consent of the church, interfere with the established cus- toms and services of the church, and allow and even encourage the school in its discourtesies to- wards the church. No man who is capable of fostering distrust or contention between the church and the Sunday-school is worthy of any position in the school or anywhere else. He is an enemy to good order and a breeder of family strife. It is to be deplored, too, that sometimes this spirit of resentment, of ill will towards the church appears among the teachers, and by their indiscre- tion the spirit is made to descend and spread among the children. This is simply horrible. How can we ever expect a child to grow up to be a loyal and happy member of the church if in its youth it is allowed to breathe an atmosphere which is hostile to the church. It must be added that often in those cases where there are no open ruptures there is apathy between the school and the church. We have seen one-sided men who could see no part that they as superintendents ought to play towards the church. They simply left the church out — they ignored it, and so far as they were concerned a stranger would not know THE PULPIT AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. II5 theie was a church in the case. It is a pity and a curse for any church to have in charge of its school men of this stubborn and inflexible stupid- ity — men who think that they are to run the school and the pastor is to run the church, and they must stand on the frigid edges of courtesy towards each other. Here again comes in the pastor. He must come in everywhere, for he is needed at all points, and must be in command on all occasions. When he arrives at the throne of his mastery, when he real- ly becomes the pastor, in the richest sense of lead- ership, then he can sweep away this friction be- tween the school and the church. He will see that no man becomes a superintendent who is more of a Sunday-school man than he is a church man, or who is a Sunday-school man at all ex- cept so far as he is a church man. Nor will he allow any measure to be incorporated into the policy of the school that is in the least unfriendly to the authority or the honor of the church. He must see that the church is treated respectfully. This statement is made with full knowledge of the fact that in some cases all of the best elements of the church are found in the school, and that only the jagged and unprogressive fragments stand apart from the school and seek to retard its ad- vancement. This is deplorable enough and hard to bear. An obstructive and worthless knot of church members who hinder the work of the Sun- Il6 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. day-school is a hideous thing to contend with, and much worse to try to love. And yet we must guard our ideal of the gospel church, stand things which we can not at once correct and wait for another generation composed of those who have been trained in the school, and who will know its needs and will see that they are regarded. Whether elected formally or not by the church a superintendent ought to think of himself dis- tinctively as a servant of the church, and meet every duty with a heart full of affection and loy- alty for the church. This we feel is the only thing to be done. The church is not a saving in- stitution nor are all who come into it saved, as we know too well, but after all the church is a creation of grace, its picture hangs in the gallery of gospel history, and it has a transcendent and sublime mission on earth, While marked by hu- man imperfections the church wears about it the lineaments of divine wisdom. It deserves the love of every friend of Christ. It is the organized testimony of the community in favor of Christ, the family room in the kingdom of God, and the most powerful organization for bringing the world to the feet of the conquering Son of God. That is the best pastor who can most closely and effectively impress his people with their duty to Christ and his church. He often finds it an arduous task. The Sunday-school is one phase of church THE PULPIT AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. II7 activity, perhaps the most effective of all, for it deals with the inestimably important work of teaching the Scriptures to the people. But this is a department of Christian labor which we must not think of apart from the church itself. It must be done in full accordance with the prin- ciples on which the church is established. It must be done with the distinct purpose of first bringing the people to a saving knowledge of the gospel and then of leading them into the fellow- ship and service of the church. To this teachers should devote their best thought. They must build towards the church, build with direct refer- ence to its strength, unity and efficiency, other- wise we may feel sure in advance that their labors will not bring satisfactory or permanent results. No Sunday-school which lacks reverence and obe- dience to the church deserves support. It deserves correction and reformation. It must be saved if possible, not, however, at the expense but for the sake of the church. It is a matter of the profound- est consideration that we shall have the church properly presented to the people — to all, old and young. They need to know its history and to cherish its honor. They must know of the divin- ity of its origin, its authority, its pre-eminence in rank, and its great and gracious part in the econ- omy of God's kingdom. The young ought to be taught to revere the church, to maintain its doc- trines, its enterprises and its fellowship. Il8 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. Its laws and ordinances must be explained, not in a fierce and controversial temper, but so- berly and clearly. These are things which the children can be made to understand, and if bright- ly unfolded to them they will be deeply interest- ed. So, too, the young will prove responsive to instruction as to missions, charities and church support provided they have good teaching. All of these things will increase the esteem of the young people for the church. They will awaken in their warm souls a zeal at once sincere, pliable and always at command. At no point can a pastor put in his energy to better advantage than right here. And you may rest assured that where this is done it will tell. Labor spent upon the old goes for little. From them we may not expect marked changes in their character or in their forms of activity. They are fixed and their diay is past. But when once we can organize and stimulate the youthful forces of the church there is life, fresh, aggressive, courageous life, and it will carry forward the church in every holy direction and enterprise. With this spirit in the church there will be no tempestuous revivals, no unhallowed devices for forcing results, and no overstrainng methods for working up shallow successes. In a church of this character there will be a charm which will hold the young and bring others. There is a moral majesty and magnetism in a body of young people who are un- THE PULPIT AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. II9 Stained with the world, linked together for high purposes, and animated by the love of Christ. This is what every living, growing, staying pas- tor will have in his church if you give him time. (3) We need most urgently to clarify the young people's views of worship. Perhaps I ought to say first of all on this point, that we need to clarify the views of our churches as to the re- lation of our young to congregational worship. To a stranger entering some of our places of worship it would appear that the church had no thought as to the worship of the young. They are not counted in. They are not treated as wor- shippers. They are often pushed out and back for the accommodation of older people until they are grouped far from the pulpit. Some times they are absolutely hustled out of the house in case of crowds, as if they were of no importance and had no rights nor duties, and as if it was the royal proof of gallantry to give seats to late com- ing women even though it involved the making heathen of the children. They are given no rec- ognition, have no place they can call their own, no hymn books are furnished them, nothing done to Interest them In the worship, and if they for the lack of something else to do, whisper or prank or scuffle with each other, they are dealt with as offenders, branded as ' outlaws and threatened with punishment at home or at the hands of the law, and even at the bar of God. Oh, Christian 120 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. men, the worst heathen on the earth could not treat their children with more barbarous cruelty. Few of them would turn their temples into places for crippling the religious feelings and convic- tions of the young. Naturally enough children in hundreds of com- munities regard churches as no suitable places for them. They are not in good standing with the old people ; some of the crusty brethren pray at the young rather than for them, and scowl at them as if they were jail birds and felons. The only recognition accorded them by some pastors is on occasions of misdemeanor, and then only in the way of rebuke. "The disorder of the boys" is a changeless theme in some churches. Who made them so? Answer, will you? It can not be surprising that the most dismal spot on the earth to some young people is the house of wor- ship, and the hour for that service is the most joyless of all the week. It is heartrending to reflect that at the point where most of all, the young most need to bask in the courtesy, affec- tion and encouragement of the church, they often receive the most stinging neglect if not the most severe and caustic criticism. Little wonder that they accumulate an almost murderous hostility towards the ushers and others who seem to con- spire to accomplish their degradation. Nor must we wonder that a pastor under such conditions becomes in their eyes the embodiment of enmity THE PULPIT AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 121 and ill-will on the earth. It is enough to fill us with anguish to think of uncounted thousands of our boys, and our girls as well, who have been alienated from the church and religion forever by this stern and unsympathetic treatment. I have seen some churches in which Christ seemed never to enter, and they were churches which made no provision for the comfort and worship of the children. For my part I would not favor the at- tendance upon the services of worship by children under such circumstances as described above. There can hardly be but one result, and that of aversion, deep-seated and fixed against every- thing that bears the imprint of the church. Sure- ly we have no right while making the house of God the gate of heaven for the strong to trans- form it into a Bridge of Sighs for the weak and young. We ought either to keep them away from the house of God or else strive to make the place in some way acceptable and profitable to them. Children ought not to be forced to go to church simply to be overlooked, imprisoned or rebuked. It is time for us to overhaul things and see what can be done. We may be sure that changes may be introduced which, while in no degree low- ermg the dignity of the service, will afford the younger people the opportunity of taking some part. I do not raise the issue as to the capacity of 122 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. children for worship. Indeed, we must readily admit that there are heights and depths in wor- ship which children may not reach. Worship is a rare and unworldly thing; too lofty and spirit- ual for many to attain. It is a difficult thing to worship. The Son of God represents his Fa- ther as abroad in an earnest search for those who worship in spirit and in truth. Even the most cultivated and the most experienced of worship- pers are often oppressed with the sense of the insufficiency of their worship, and we need not be startled if the young stumble and blunder when they attempt to worship. What do they know about worship? How can they know un- less some man teach them? Not that we may hope to teach them everything, that they will be- come experts in worship, or that after we do our utmost we will have no more to correct or con- demn In their services. But we may give them some essential hint, may flash into their impressible young hearts some light under which they may get a glimpse of the mercy seat where Jesus answers prayer. We may bring to them some vision of the won- derful grace of God which may call forth from them some ejaculation of praise and gratitude. We may kindle in them some desire to express in outward form their obligation to the Lord, and lead them to bring something, small It may be, and brought possibly with mingled reverence and THE PULPIT AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. I23 amusement. to the altar, and yet that will be wor- ship, we may hope, pleasing in the eye of the gra- cious Father. Then, too, we ought to study more honestly the forms and exercises of worship in their adap- tation to children. Of course they may be inat- tentive and dull of comprehension, and may lose much of what we tell them, and yet it may put a spark of holy fire on the altar of their hearts, may touch their reverence or at least may set their thoughts to running in the upward direction. That will be something for a child. Now, some deadly literalist will possibly assail me with the question as to the capacity of uncon- v^erted people to worship, particularly of children. If it will quiet them I will tell them plainly that I do not know what to say. I can not invade the domain of God's secret dealings with souls. That is out of sight and I must not tug at the curtain to peep through. " I know something, however, about conversion, that it is a visible thing, subject to the scrutiny of my senses, and concerning some features of it we may claim to be capable of ex- pressing an opinion. But of that other, far more fundamental change, God's part, which we call regeneration, and which from my heart I believe in, I do not dare to speak. That is beyond me, and the Lord Jesus has served notice that we must keep our hands off. It looks vulgar and impertinent for men to be blustering around when /124 THE ^ASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHO'.'M.. children are seeking to worship to ask whether they have been converted. That is a qu'^'^ttan for the casuists, and let them be at their fight when they will. For my life I can not begin to tell whether the children that thronged around Jesus that day in the temple were converted or not. That question was not started by Christ, though there were some fearfully sour and querulous people pres- ent who were openly suspicious of the children; saw only disorder in their conduct and for the first, and I dare say the only time In their life, prayed to Jesus, besought Jesus that he wou ' --"all up the noisy set, box their ears and force them to shut their rattling little throats. Indeed, I can not dare to describe the measure of the light which those children had. It is outside of my in- formation. I am sure that they were limited and imperfect in every particular. Ever so much ig- norance and impulsiveness must have mingled with an outburst. They seemed to have only one sentence to say ; it was the sum total of their formula of worship. They leaped and ran and surged about the Lord and cried with all the power of their little voices, Hosanna to the Son of David. The Master failed to deliver a dis- course that day on the difference between regen- eration and conversion or to define the relation between conversion and salvation. These are questions for profound Investigation at the propel. THE PULPIT AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. I25 time, but they were not discussed then and are not to be treated in this lecture. All I know is that those heartless grumblers about the conduct of the children received no strain of sympathy from the Lord Jesus. He did give them a little much needed instruction concerning the Bible in which they claimed to be so well versed. He took them back into the Old Testament and showed them that the Lord God had made an ordinance to the effect that out of babes and suck- lings should come acceptable praise to God. Do you ask what that meant? I bid you go to the word itself and find out. It is enough for me that Jesus Christ openly and in the face of criti- cism accepted the tribute of worship which the little children brought him in the temple and in the light of that fact I believe in, and feel it my solemn and glorious privilege to advocate on all occasions, our duty to teach the children to join heartily in the worship of God. This I have al- ways done as a pastor, and from this no frigid theological hair-splitter shall drive me. From this platform to-day I wave my love and fellowship to Christian teachers and ministers in all the world who love and cheer the little ones that believe, and who seek to uphold them in their effort to shout their praises into the ear of Jesus. May the condescending Father catch every whis- pering prayer of children, every song which rises from their bounding hearts, and every deed of 126 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. worship they do and blend them into one child- chorus for the worship of God upon the earth. Friends, for once be gracious and let one ten- der reminiscence from my pastoral life, now closed forever I suppose, break into the current of this lecture. It was my honor, rarest among the few that ever came, that for twenty-six years to the day I was pastor of a church which gave the children a distinct and respectful recognition. During much of the time they thronged the front and corner pews of my church and were nearest me when I prayed or spoke. In the hand of each of them was placed a copy of the hymns, tunes were chosen which they could sing, and for that matter in a little while they could sing almost anything. They followed the reading of the Scripture lessons with thoughtful attention, many of them having their own Bibles, and truly they were among my best listeners. Oh, they were worshippers, reverential, still before God, earnest in prayer, ready with their offerings and eager to honor the Lord. Hundreds of them are on the earth to-day, forward in service, matured worshippers, rearing godly families and helping to bring in the reign of Christ and some of them worshipping in the temple above. That body of young Christians was my happi- ness ; those precious lads, never absent from their meeting without cause ; they had no engagements, no journeys to make, no doubts to disturb them. THE PULPIT AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. \T] and they were a constant contribution of hope and strength to my ministry. They actually filled me with awe at times by their sincerity, their god- ly fear and their readiness to do whatever was imposed upon them. (4) It remains to speak of the sermon. We ought to resent any attempt to eliminate the sermon from the congregational worship. The ritualist is continually crowding it out, run- ning a service so tedious and exhausting that be- fore the sermon comes to its opportunity the peo- ple and the reader have spent their strength, and the only merit of the sermon is its brevity. There is of late a war cry heard in the land against the sermon, but godly people will not heed it. The noisy champion for short sermons is often the man who is short on brains and piety, too. The pastor who seeks fame chiefly in the short- ness of his sermons panders to a worthless ele- ment in his church. It is well to fix in our minds the functions of the sermon. It is the animating factor in the service. It is bringing the Word of God into living contact with the human soul, and that through the spirit of one who rests on that Word. The sermon touches every point of human life — it quickens the intellectual forces, it kindles holy flames in the imagination, it calls into play the reason and judgment, it imparts new vigor to faith, it radiates the soul with hope, it lights up 128 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. the future with the promises of God, it awakens new sentiments of fellowship and helpfulness towards our brethren, and turns our souls with unutterable pity for those who have never found the way. A good sermon warmly delivered will make any Christian a better man and a more dauntless friend of Jesus. It is the pastor who is to furnish this sermon. It must be good ; a dull and empty sermon is giv- ing a stone in the place of bread, and a wanton fraud practiced upon God's elect. If God calls a man to preach he calls him to preach; that is not all that is included in the call, but it must include that, and that is the biggest part of it. A sermon must be home-made, well made, heart-born and heaven-born, or else it is not a worthy response to the commission to preach which comes from God. It is a reasonable demand that every sermon shall have something in it which appeals to chil- dren, or otherwise it is seriously defective. If it does not give to every one his portion in due sea- son, it falls on that very class which stands in most urgent need of help. It ought to be a sleep- destroying experience for any preacher to find that his sermons do not interest children; that they tease and fret their mothers to allow them to go home when he is to preach. He has much reason for pulling himself to pieces to see what is the matter, and then to consider whether he is worthy of being built over. THE PULPIT AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. I29 The contention is not in favor of special ser- mons, made and advertised as being specifically for children. That may be allowable at times, though I should advise at rare intervals. The too frequent resort to sermons intended for chil- dren will suggest that on other occasions they are excused. It is not the sermon which masses children together and gives them undue promi- nence, which is most likely to leave upon them a lasting impression. The most effective sermon for children is apt to be the sermon which im- presses most profoundly the general audience. Children are imitative and they are affected by what affects others ; indeed, they are often moved through the emotion of others. Their attention to a sermon is always aroused by the open-eyed listening of others. They hear with most interest when they discover that their fathers and mothers are giving close and eager attention. But you must not infer that my partial dis- couragement of the special sermon is designed to exclude from the pulpit all marked recognition of the children. The plea is that sermons de- signed exclusively for the children are not nec- essary in order to command their attention. It is not so much what the preacher says as it is the way in which he says it that determines whether he will be heard by the children. If he. supports the oratorical and high roller style, the children will look but they will not listen. If his language 130 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. is ponderous, encumbered with superlatives and derivatives, the children will recall the diction- ary class, feel annoyed, and presently court sleep. It is the straight talker, the man who uses short words, puts big thoughts into concrete shapes, talks rather than speaks, who carries a sympa- thetic quiver in his voice and whose eye sees peo- ple and sparkles at the sight that the young will be glad to hear. We must demand of children an attention which is founded on a sense of duty. They will hear if you please them, not otherwise. It is the clever device of some shrev\^d minis- ters, sometimes worthy of imitation, to vvcave into the sermon some incident or thought for the small folks of the congregation. It may be done with excellent effect, though it may crash into the homiletical structure of the sermon. It adds much to the interest of such things Vvdien they are wrought into a sermon to introduce them by saying in substance at least : "This is put in here for the children in the congregation whose faces and eyes always help me in my preaching." We .utterly deceive ourselves in giving as a reason for keeping children from the assembly for worship that they can not take in the sermon. That is true enough; they can not receive the sermon as a vv^hole. They ought not to be expect- ed to appropriate a sermon; the grown people can not do that. I heard Joseph Parker say once in his temple in London, in one of his Thursday THE PULPIT AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. I3I noon lectures, that no man ought to be discour- aged because he could not take in and digest an entire sermon — that he might as well imagine that he could enter a well-supplied restaurant and consume its total contents. This is eminent- ly true of children, and we are unreasonable in demanding this at their hands. If they get even a fragment that will tell; in many cases be enough. It will be a seed dropped in virgin soil. It will have a long time to grow. Nor need we be seriously discouraged because children will not be patient and attentive listeners. They can not listen, in which respect they are im- ages of their fathers and mothers in a multitude of cases. But it is hardly too much to say that a boy will get more, retain more at least, than old people, even when he does not listen and when they do. I have sometimes said that children can absorb more than they hear, and it is true beyond a doubt that they can fidget, whisper, gaze around, pinch and scratch each other and indulge many sly smiles, and yet carry away a deal of the sermon. They catch the truth on the fly. It is a valuable custom of some parents and teachers to evoke from the young a statement of what they hear from the pulpit. The pastor may also adopt with advantage this catechetical meth- od wdth the young. But let me make haste to re- mind you that this is a thing which may be over- worked or worked injuriously. It ought never 132 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. to be done In a bantering, quizzing way, as if the object was to entangle and humiliate the chil- dren. It is not to be done against the wish of the children nor in the presence of strangers, nor followed by censures for not knowing. Easily enough we may in this way intimidate the little ones, cause them to think that it is a trap to en- snare them and thus incHne them to keep out of danger, even if they have to stay from church. I recall that once I preached on Sunday morning on the Christian armor, and gave each piece of the armor and defined the purpose of each of these parts. That afternoon at the Boys' Society, which was one of the established organizations of the church for over twenty-five years, I ques- tioned the boys as to the armor. It was grat- ifying to find that many of them could name every part and state what it was intended to rep- resent. They had not expected to be examined, they were not boys of unusual intelligence and their average age was probably not over twelve. But they had been trained to attend public wor- ship and knew how to listen. It is not only pos- sible to lead the young to worship by gentle and loving means, it is easy to do it, and there is noth- ing in the province of a pastor's work more worthy of his most strenuous efforts. I speak in favor of the children when I plead for the short sermon, though I am not unmindful of the fact that the plea will win for me boundless THE PULPIT AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. I33 popularity with almost everybody, excepting a few preachers. But I am not championing ser- monettes — rattling little dribbles, with nothing in them, catch-penny devices for pleasing weak peo- ple, but sermons running from thirty to forty minutes. It takes immense work to make a ser- mon of that length ; it is easy enough to turn out sermons by the dozen running fifty and sixty minutes in length. But to study a subject to its core, dig up everything about it down to its roots, and subject the result to a discriminating study, picking out the salient points, adopting only what is essential to the discussion, putting it in strong and vital words, having as your governing prin- ciple in its delivery the application of its doctrines straight home to all hearts, that is no light task, but that is the preaching that will so impress the people that it will make children listen. A ser- mon like that ought not to be long. As a fact people can not long endure a compact, intense, burning sermon — it wears them out. Deep im- pressions must be made quickly or not at all. Of all things religion is the most absorbing and its strain is too intense to stand a continued excite- ment. Besides, there is a recoil from long ser- mons even among devout people. The first time that I ever attended the Southern Baptist Con- vention I sat next to the late Dr. Robert Ryland during the delivery of the introductory sermon, and as we went out I asked him how he liked the 134 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. sermon. "I liked the first forty-five minutes very well/' was the Doctor's reply, "but did not listen to the last hour of it." That was more candor than we might expect from many, but as a fact not many have capacity for more than forty min- utes of compact public speech. The preacher must be compassionate to the young. A young preacher said lately in expla- nation of a long sermon that when he got inter- ested in his sermon he took no note of time. It is quite certain that his people took note of the time rather than of the sermon. The young are full of spirit, tingHng with vitality; confinement soon becomes intolerable to them, and they re- quire change of order or they rebel. Yes, they can dance all night, but they have their intervals of rest, have time for strolls and chats, are under a spell of infatuation, and have the supper as a variation and refreshment. We must take the young as they are, not as they ought to be ; not as you are ; not as they will be, but as they are. The sermon must be made with our face turned to God and yet in sight of the people. It must be fitted to them and have nothing in its form or length that will provoke the hearer. Unless the preacher is identified with the hearer he will not be able to determine what his message to him should be. THE TASTOR AND THE GARNER. I35 LECTURE V. THE PASTOR AND THE GARNER. After all that has been said I would not have you place any exaggerated estimate upon the Sunday-school . Nakedly considered it is simply a method — an employment of Christian forces to bring on the kingdom of God. In some eyes it is the substance of the whole matter, the one thing for which all other things were made, and for whose promotion all other things are to be pressed into service. We should resent all attempts to push the Sunday-school into exclusive prefer- ence, as if it was the only way of saving the world. It has been declared in a previous lecture that the Christian judgment of the age evidently concurs in the opinion that the churches of Christ have hit upon no other method of evangelization so wise, effective and far-reaching as the Sun- day-school. But after all it is only a means to an end. It need not be said that it is not always pos- sible to concentrate our full Christian force into any one enterprise. The Sunday-school Itself while the most popular of our schemes of activity, does not always command the completest co-op- eration. It is to be deplored that in our extremi- ties we sometimes resort to expedients, unsancti- 136 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. fied and hurtful. It is to be feared that the power of this ni.agnificent agency is curtailed by the very means adopted to advance it. It is not easy to maintain the tide of enthu- siasm in the Sunday-school. There must come seasons of depression, when the love of all will wax cold, and the temptation to play new forces grows strong, forces not holy nor safe, and forces which bring confusion and strain. We know^ that wherever there is complexity of influences there is perii, and in the event there are mixed methods, and as a consequence open antagonism, the danger increases. It must occur to us that every school needs a harmonizing and hallowing force, some one to exorcise hostile elements, to reconcile con- flicting influences, and to breathe into all the gracious temper of Christ. This demand, al- ways present, and often urgent, may be met in part by conservative and sweetly reasonable peo- ple, but by far the most efficient force for this purpose, the one which the Lord authoritatively gives, is the pastor. You can not always define the measure of in- dividual force in concerted movements. There are many phases in those gracious activities wdiich help on the work of salvation. One sow- eth and another reapeth. Some get in their work at one point, and others come in at points quite distinct and apart. Then there is a curious twist- THE PASTOR AND THE GARNER. I37 ing and interlacing of human labors often eluding observation, strands of Christian force which blend to bring the final result. If any one of us, with our imperfect knowledge, should attempt to make a list of those who participated in our con- version, or who have been of vital service to us in our spiritual struggles since, we would probably fall far short of honoring some vvho were of great- est help to us. Often the most effectual support that we derive from others comes to us uncon- sciously, as, indeed, it comes from them in the same way. But I venture to say that in an analy- sis of the influences which work for good in a Sunday-school we would always find traces of pastoral sympathy in every case. The true man cf God throws the spell of his character over all and is helpful at every point. He lingers around the gate to cheer those who are going. That is the post where you may meet the true shepherd. It is a great attainment to become able to esti- mate the value of things. When we learn to weigh things at their real worth, we have en- tered the road to wisdom. This is true in every- thing, but nowhere is it more necessary than w^hen we come to estimate the several forces which play the masterful parts in securing the salvation of men. We must recognize all good agencies and accord them their merited rank. Of the divinely established powers which con- verge to the saving of men, we must place the 138 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. family very high. It is hard to make our home influence holy and salutary. That has to be an everyday matter, and it is difficult to behave so well seven days in the week as to convince our children that we are the friends of God and of righteousness. It is agonizing to reflect upon the deadly consequences which come to a family in which the gospel is discounted by those who claim to believe it. But happily it is possible for families to be holy and walk in the fear of the Lord. In all the ages some have been blameless before God, and the testimony of a household like that is, in the long run, well nigh irresistible. Let us honor the family. It is the first invention of God for our race. A well ordered house is a saving institution, and faithful parents v/ould save their children though there was no church and no ministry. But remember that the God who founded the family ordained the ministry. Even in the most godly household there is a place, a duty, a necessity for a pastor. Nor would I underrate the teacher. The Sun- day-school teacher is one of the most significant and attractive products of the Christianity of our times. The fact that men and women for a life- time will give themselves to the teaching of the Scriptures, without compensation, greatly to their inconvenience, often in connection with refrac- tory, unappreciative children, and often without the sight of helpful results to keep them up, is a THE PASTOR AND THE GARNER. I39 sublime and fascinating fact. It kindles the soul with new enthusiasm for the human race and tells me of the ultimate victory of the truth. Of course there are teachers and teachers — none perfect, many grievously feeble and failing in many things, but after all I rise up, full of ad- miration, to praise and honor the Sunday-school teacher. He is a student of the word of Life; he has a call to teach and knows it; he feels that he is identified with the destiny of those whom he teaches and has the care of his little flock heavy on his heart. They that be wise, that is, they that be teachers, shall win souls, shall turn m.any to righteousness and shine as stars in the firmament forever and ever. But after these cordial admissions we must hold to the fundamental fact that the minister is the appointed leader and teacher of God's people. If he is what he ought to be, what a true minis- ter always is, he will have more to do with the spiritual enlightenment and development of the people of his charge than the teacher. He will be more skilled and will be at it seven days in the week. This must be so. For to this end has God counted him vv-orthy, putting him in the min- istry, and in his pastoral office he finds the best opportunity for giving proof of his calling. It remains for us in this closing lecture in the series to study the work of the pastor in harvest- ing the fruit of the Sunday-school. What part 140 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. has he in that holy struggle to save the child which has already begun, as we may hope, in the family, and has been taken up and carried for- ward by the teacher. Let us be quick to insist that the pastor is not to consider his task as simply supplemental, something to be taken up as it drops from other hands. It is of the utmost importance that he shall begin at the beginning — shall weave his life into the life of the children, know them there, at their homes, attach himself to the young people in their Sunday-school stud- ies and be with them in every step of their ad- vance. So far as it is possible he ought to be linked into the life of every scholar in his school. He may deem this as too exacting. But he must know that Christ our Lord was pre-emi- nently a believer in the value of personal con- tact. Most of his converts were won in a hand- to-hand fight. Let the pastor understand that he is to save by his touch or not at all. Perhaps I ought to say here, for lack of a bet- ter place, that you must not infer from my con- stant references to children that I consider the Sunday-school as a place only for children. I adhere to the definition of the Sunday-school as the church engaged in teaching and studying the Scriptures. Into this organization all classes ought to come. It is the place for all, and has employment and blessings for all. At the same time I must think constantly of THE PASTOR AND THE GARNER. I4I the Sunday-school as the place where the young are brought to study the Bible. Here the gospel is brought to the people at the same time that the people are brought to the gospel. Here is the salvation of God commenced and carried on. I must invite you to study the pastor's part in gathering the spiritual fruit as grown in the Sun- day-school. I. The pastor must fully recognize his obliga- tion to be intimately associated with the conver- sion of his young people. He must be there on that gracious occasion; his absence may prove a calamity to him, a loss to the convert and a peril to the church. Think not that I plead for a mechanical or per- functory handling of the young as if the pastor had authority to thrust himself into the life of the soul and dictate the duty of conversion. Dead be the thought of a compulsory repentance. I al- most shudder when I think of the rudeness with which some ministers invade the freedom of the children and seek to extort confession of a faith which they are afraid to avow. There is one point at which the soul must be free to make its religious choice. It can hear argument, suffer appeal, and feel the pressure of entreaty, but be- yond that it must be left to Itself. Not father nor mother can safely invade the sanctity of the child's will when it is wrestling with the supreme choice of its being. It must be left alone with 142 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. its pleading Redeemer and settle the issue for itself, otherwise its decision will not be whole and complete. At that point the pastor is much needed and he himself needs wisdom from above. Not to drive nor insist, but gently to show the way. Complaint is sometimes made in times of re- vival that parents hold their children back. It is common to hear them denounced for treach- ery to their children because they do not join more decidedly in the effort to bring them to the open act of religions profession. Now, it is to be regretted that often ungodly parents, and souk • times professedly Christian parents, antagonize movements for the conversion of their children. If they are actuated by a real opposition to the conversion of their children then they are verily guilty ^ and they put the souls of their children in jeopardy. At the same time I desire to say here, with an emphasis which no word nor tone nor underscore can ever fully express, my unmeasured respect for the caution and solicitude with which Christian parents observe the attempts which are made to precipitate their children into professions of re- ligion. There is something most affecting in their concern. It must touch any soul to mark with what sensitive and discriminating solicitude they hover about their little ones at such times. Not THE PASTOR AND THE GARNER. I43 that they are unwilling to see their children enter the service of Christ — that is their burning desire, but they are filled with dread lest undue, unnat- ural stress they act rashly and in ignorance. I revere their cautious spirit. They are wise cus- todians of the children that God has given them.. They are justly fearful lest their precious ones commit a blunder, the effect of which may bligfVi their subsequent lives. To interpret their con- duct into a disregard for the welfare of their children is to inflict upon them a deadly cruelty. When I recall the way in which I have seen the young handled by sensational teachers and yet more by impulsive and overstraining evange- lists, I have justified parents in their inexpressible dread lest their children should be hastened into unthinking action. It is a pity that there should be any occasion for this extreme caution on the part of parents; it shows a lack of faith, not in God, but in the methods and judgment of those who sometimes conduct our evangelistic meetings. From this abnormal dread and anxiety par- ents ought to be guarded. They need to have relief from the nightmare which comes to so many with the annual revival. Vv^here can relief be found? It ought to be furnished by the pastor. He ought to be a man worthy of boundless trust in his methods of dealing with the children. Ke ought to command the unquestioning confidence of his congregation. Parents ought to feel that 144 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. they entrust their children to him without mis- giving, and his decisions ought to have the force of authority with them, simply on the ground that what he says is backed by a record which inspires unlimited trust. That ought to be the feeling of the teachers also — that of perfect trust in the wisdom and faithfulness of the pastor. When they are as- sured that he lives near the throne and has an eye for the highest good of the people, then teach- ers will ever be quick to bring their scholars un- der his control. A man of this type will attract all classes of inquirers. Anxious souls will pur- sue him to his study, visit him at his home, or even rush to him on the street when they feel the need of his help. Too much can not be said as to the supreme rank of a pastor as the guide of his people. They must know him. Of all on earth they ought to look most eagerly to him. In hours of sorrow and necessity they ought to turn as by instinct to him. It is only when this ripened confidence exists that a pastor can do his best work. Jealousy is a virtue which by being misplaced becomes an excrescense and deformity. Jeal- ousy is an attribute of God and always asserts itself when he is superseded in the affections of his people. It is that characteristic which makes us contend for our rightful place in the heart. A true pastor will be jealous, obstinately and THE PASTOR AND THE GARNER. I45 inexorably jealous, whenever he sees another coming in between himself and his people. Not that he will be worried by the vulgar dread of displacement, but by the sense of the sacredness of his relationship and the feeling that no one must be allowed to v/eaken the grasp which he lias upon his flock. Least of all will he willingly let another take his place at that interesting cri- sis in the lives of his young people when they are making the passage from, the darkness of unbe- lief into the glorious light and liberty of the king- dom of God. That is a point at v/hich he must be present, and he must allow no intruder to dis- lodge him. That is a time when the shepherd must trust no one — his own hand must hold and his own bosom must shelter the lambs, and if he is already entrenched in the hearts of his young cople, they will go to no other. No spurious magnetism wdll draw them away from him; no substitute will be tolerated and a stranger's voice they will not hear. Others may hit them with ":-;e arrovv^s of convictions, but when they fall they ill cry like lambs for the shepherd. That is a vital hour in the pastor's career as a "oul-saver. He will not ^:hrov\^ away his right or is opportunit3^ He will surrender his convert- ig power to no mortal. He knov/s too well that The loses touch with his own at a moment like ■^•at he will not recover it. If they become in- fatuated wdth another as the chief agent in their 146 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. conversion they will feel that their best friend is gone when the evangelist departs. He will carry away with him the gratitude, confidence and af- fection which belongs rightly to the pastor. This is not intended to put the brand of rejec- tion upon the revivalist. He has his place, though he often displays an astounding genius for not finding it, especially if he is a professional. For my part I would welcome the help of any man who has converting power, provided the power is from above, and justifies itself in the stable quality of its fruit, and provided further that the man's zeal is not the mere push and au- dacity of the campaigner. If he has a heaven- born enthusiasm for souls he is worthy. The true evangelist after all is the pastor. He is on the side of the church, not studying what he will pluck from the church by the meeting, but what the church will reap as the fruit of the work which he does. When the harvest is ripe it may be well to send out and summon a brother pastor to sound the gospel trumpet, to stimulate the activities of the church and to divide the burdens of the work, but in the division of labor see that the pastor stands closest to the gate of the king- dom to look after those who are going in. Most important work is needed there, and the pastor is the man to do it. This is no plea for narrow- ness, no play upon the suspicions of weak pas- tors and no attempt to weaken the minister who THE PASTOR AND THE GARNER. I47 comes to assist. It is a call for the Tightness of things, for faithfulness at the vital point, and for the observance of the unities of a pastor's power. Years ago I went to aid a brother in a revival meeting. He was a stranger to me, a scholar of high repute, an author and a princely gentleman. It was a terror to me to preach in his presence ; a feeling immensely increased by his telling me privately, after hearing several of my sermons that my way of preaching was not adapted to the times and would not interest the class of people to whom I was preaching. His words cut me low, as I had nothing else to preach, and I think that I would have asked for my discharge but for the fact that Sunday was at hand and it was out that I was to preach. In a spirit almost as much of despair as of confidence — the two seemed in a wrestle with each other — I selected for my Sun- day sermons topics which carried us far into the heart of the gospel. I had to fall back out of the realm of human sympathy to the shelter of the Rock in a weary land. That day the old gospel got in its work. The sword of the Spirit was unsheathed, and the slain of the Lord were many. That week saw wonderful sights. Day after day the noon inquirer's room was thronged. Alas, the pastor never entered that room, and T, a wanton intruder, spent the week In doing what he ought never to have allowed an outsider 148 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. to do. I confess that my heart went not to him as a pastor. He seemed to me an uncentered man, confused as to his duty at such a time, and faihng at a stage in his work where no man could afford to fail. Of course he ought to have been there; possibly I ought not to have been there unless he needed my aid, and yet it seemed impos- sible to urge him to be there lest he would not know what to do. Afterwards I learned that he baptized some, but not a few of the young people could not cross the chasm which separated them from the pastor and went unbaptized. They had no pastor, except in name, which is worse than having none, in fact. In cases of extraordinary services where the pastor has ministerial aid and where there are many turning to the Lord, the pastor ought to be master of the inquirer's room and use the visitor only so far as it seems best. The reins of pas- toral authority ought never to drop out the pas- tor's hands from the beginning to the end of the meeting. Of course this order of things must not be overworked in the presence of the people, and yet all ought to be conscious of the order. Pastors are often weakened in their grasp by the swell of revival influences in the church, but it ought not to be so. Perhaps you are appalled by the strenuous and almost radical insistence with which I empha- size the rank and authority of the pastor. The THE PASTOR AND THE GARNER. I49 plea is greatly needed, and I only lament that I can not make it many times stronger. The weak point in the running gear of our churches is the pastoral tie. That is weak, liable to snap, easily knotted and not much at best in many cases. It is time that churches had higher conceptions of the pastor's place, and that they would hold minis- ters to their legitimate places. It would mark a new era in pastoral history if we could hear of a few holy and faithful churches courteously Invit- ing their pastors to resign, not about their salaries nor their debts nor their absences, but because they seem to have no gift for leading the young people to Christ. Of course that is a matter not for precipitate action, but where the pastor is manifestly devoid of such power he ought to give place for another. It is to be feared that some pastors will writhe under these suggestions and feel that the require- ment is placed too high. Let him not believe it. He has placed himself. Pastors are God's men, chosen for saving the lost, and if they have no genius for it, why, v/hat is the matter? What can they do about it? They need not trust to novelties or social amenities to bring the change. The trouble is deeper, and they must get the peo- ple to believe in them before they can ever bring them to believe in eternal things. The people must see a preacher in his every- day clothes. His Wednesday walk must be with 150 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. God. He is to stand the jibes of the foolish and the shafts of the adversary. His life must be so high that it will overtop the clouds — so high that no earthly darts can reach it — so high that the light of heaven v^ill crown it — so high that bad people will wish they are good when they see him. All he will have to do with his light will be to let it shine. To that light many will come out of the darkness and find the way. He is the man who will do to be the inquirer's teach- er and the convert's guide. 2. But we come to the second aspect of the present theme, exceeding in rank if possible that which has gone before, that is, the pastor is to establish the newly saved soul in the Christian life. We can never cease to wonder at the grace displayed in our conversion ; that is an experience perennially fresh and gladsome. It is not strange that so many linger there in holy astonishment at the mercy which saved them. And yet that is no place to stop, it is the beginning and not the end. There is yet more to be done. The work which follows conversion is not less essential than that which led up to conversion. It is harrowing in- deed to observe the apathy and heartlessness with which young Christians are treated. Too often have I seen them slighted and forgotten by churches and pastors, too. Let us set down in order some attentions that THE PASTOR AND THE GARNER. I51 young people need when they first espouse the cause of Christ. ( I ) The pastor must have a bright affectionate faith in the young convert. Much has been said in advocacy of the doctrine that the parent can beheve for the child. There is a subtle gracious sense in which it seems that faith is almost catch- ing ; loving mothers almost seem to have the pow- er of impartation, and yet it is not safe to say, not true to say that one can believe for another in any saving sense. But there is the more practicable privilege of believing in the child, in its sincer- ity, its capacity to apprehend spiritual things.„ and in its true faith in the Son of God. I al- most think of faith in the conversion of people as a specific grace. It is a fruit of the highest spiritual life. While we ought not to assume that one can believe for another, I have often seen the deadly effect of mistrust and opposition on the faith of young converts. Our unbelief can do much t(? repress and enfeeble the faith of the newly saved Some of us can recall the chill and blight which fell on us in our early religious experiences when doubt was cast upon our conversion. The as- persion of our faith went far towards its destruc- tion. It is a wretched moment in the life of a sincere youth to be suspected of ignorance or insincerity. Many a young soul quivering with religious hope and joy has been smitten to the 152 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. earth by the feehng that they were not trusted by others. There can be no graver wrong done a child than to discredit its faith. And yet par- ents sometimes do this. Alas, I have seen pas- tors do it. On the other hand there is a constructive and edifying power in faith. To know that the godly believe in us is strength. I can not forget that some years ago I accompanied a young minister to his church meeting in the country. It was a double service, with dinner between, and quite a company of the neighborhood people were on hand. At the close of the afternoon service I in- vited confessions of Christ. As I descended from the stand to the floor a suspiciously diminutive boy came forth to meet me, and with flowing tears took my hand and stood silently before me. The scene was touching, and yet the smallness of the boy excited a doubt which could be read on the face of the congregation. Just then a gentleman rose in the re^r of the house, came up the aisle and stopped near the lad and myself. Turning to the audience he said : "My friends, this is a mighty little boy to be pro- fessing religion, and I expect you think he doesn't know what he is about. But let me tell you that this is my boy and I believe in him as much as I believe anybody in this church. I know him and know he is in earnest." Then bending down he kissed the little fellow and took him in his arms. THE PASTOR AND THE GARNER. I53 The benediction of that loving act lingers with n:t yet. The father's faith in the child helped its own. All pastors of wide observation and ripe re- ligious experiences must believe in the conversion of children. They are in earnest, and if well managed rarely make a mistake in their religious professions. It is a source of health and strength to the young convert to feel assured that he has the confidence of his pastor. This he ought to have and the pastor ought to see that he feels it. Nor does this complete the pastor's part; he must go further and build up in his people like faith in the piety of children. Without this in a church young people ought not to come into it. (2) The pastor must create some bond between the newly converted and the church. Of course this lecture does not plead for the precipitate re- ception of children into church membership. There ought to be abundant caution, full inquiry and special instruction. But the young ought not to be marked off into a class, as if they were doubtful, and ought not to be kept separate from the rest. Nor ought their treatment in any re- spect be made peculiar except in its great tender- ness. I have seen the examination of children by deacons made far more rigid than was the case with older people. Sometimes there have been enforced delays in receiving children on no other ground than that of age. 154 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. The story is told that Jacob Knapp, once a suc- cessful evangelist, made a parable. He said that one bitter winter morning a shepherd waked up to find a snowstorm raging. He called his man John and told him to go to the sheepfold and see how the sheep were faring. When John re- turned the shepherd asked if there were any new lambs. He replied that there were quite a num- ber of them, and when further asked what he did with them he said that the strong ones he brought to the house, made them beds of straw in the cel- lar, gave them milk and made them comfortable. But he added that there were several weak and sickly lambs, and those he flung out on a snow- bank and left them there, but if he found the next morning that they were still living he would bring them in and feed them. The young convert needs shelter and nourish- ment and needs it at once. He ought to be brought into the church and afforded its comforts and supports. Nor is this all. The young Chris- tian must have fellowship; he does not know what it is, and does not know that he wants it, but the longing for it is deep in his soul. This is one of the primal evidences of regeneration. It is of the greatest moment that this spiritual clam- or shall be regarded. It is a cry for contact with the friends of Christ, and in it is the safety of the convert. Here is a duty of far-reaching signifi- cance for the pastor. First of all the child must THE PASTOR AND THE GARNER. I55 feel that it is knit into the Hfe of the pastor and that in him there is a congenial and sympathetic spirit. Happy the convert that knows the way to the pastor's heart. But of course it is a physical impossibility for the pastor to give to the young that measure of company that they need; he must stand to them as a counselor rather than a companion. But he must provide the fellowship. This he can do by arousing in his people an interest in the young convert. They must furnish the comradeship and the protective sympathy so much needed. It is a sign of spiritual sovereignty in any pastor that he can train his mature people to be the tact- ful guardians and guides of the young, and to have so much of system and faithfulness that no one will be overlooked. When this spirit is once awakened in a church it is easy to keep it alive. Once started, this passion for guardianship will grow into a grace and the church will be full of nursing fathers and mothers, full of loving sis- ters and brothers and full of the atmosphere of fellowship. A church with that helpful temper will be a glorious home for the young. It will be hard for the world to corrupt them or the devil to destroy those who have the protective compan- ionship of such people. Sometime ago, in one of our larger Southern Baptist churches, a small boy appeared before the church asking for baptism. After examina- 156 THE PASTOR AND THS SUNDAY-SCHOOL. tion he was accepted for membership, and the pas- tor made reference to his youth and smallness of stature, and expressed the hope that he might be at home in the church. Just then the oldest mem- ber of the church- left his seat quite far back in the room and appeared at the pastor's side and asked that he m.ight speak. "My little brother," he said, addressing the lad, "you will be the youngest member of this church, and I am the oldest, and I propose that we be partners. Both of us are weak — I from age and you from youth. Both of us need help ; you must help me and I will try to help you." The incident was simple enough, but it thrilled the little believer with a wondrous sense of fel- lowship, and as he took the old man's outstretched hand his eyes were full of tears. Oh, our little ones need v/elcomes like that; pastors must see that they get them. It is specially desirable to associate young converts with each other. They are of the same class, in a vital sense, and can often cheer and console each other. Their experiences are fresh, capricious, fluctuating, and call for constant coun- sel and explanation. Some years ago I was called out to assist a 3'Oung man in special meetings in his little church in the country. In advance of the meeting the earnest young fellow had scoured the neighborhood, going among the rich and poor, praying at every house, telling of the com- THE PASTOR AND THE GARNER. I57 ing meeting and brightly entreating everybody to come. You do not wonder that the hand of the Lord was with us. Converting power broke forth at the first service and the tide of salvation rolled its gracious billows over the entire com- munity. One day we were receiving the con- verts for baptism, a multitude of them. Among those who came was a gentleman far advanced in life, and as I approached him I saw a lad stand* ing by him. He had come to unite with the church also. After action had been taken in the old man's case I asked his age and he tremblingly replied that he was "a little past eighty-four." Turning to the boy I inquired for his age, and he told me that he was ten. I simply said: ''Here they are; one ten, the other eighty- four; just sev- enty-four years difference; they have met at the cross and are starting in company in the race for the crown." I shook hands with them together and wished them a happy meeting at the end of the race. A few mornings after we met at the stream for the baptism, and as we were entering the water the old man asked that the boy should attend him. They went in together, and the old brother receiving baptism first and the assistants in the stream offered to lead him out. "No, no," he said, "let me wait for my little brother; we start- ed together and will stick to each other as long as possible." He said to me rather sadly that he 158 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. would soon fall by the way, but that maybe his notice of the little lad might strengthen him a lit- tle after he was gone, and my heart grew warmer towards the venerable convert, because of his de- sire to cheer the child in his start for the kingdom of heaven. Three years afterwards I was summoned back to the community to conduct the funeral service of this fine old gentleman who had finished his course with joy. In my address I related the above facts and remarked that of the two one had finished his earthly work and gone to meet the Redeemer, and asked if any one knew what became of the boy. "Here I am," said the little fellow, as he rose to his feet far back in the house, and at my invitation, in the presence of hundreds, he came forward, renewed his declaration of pur- pose to persevere unto the end. It is pleasant to think of the sweet spirit of comradeship in that aged disciple. He had a heart to help the little ones, and that marked him as a child of grace. (3) It largely falls upon the pastor to clarify the experiences of the young. It must be admit- ted that the first experiences of the convert are flickering and vacillating. They are novel, tran- sient and often clouded with doubt. It is awkward to be a Christian at first; It Is like being in a new world and in entirely new re- lations with everybody. An exceeding sensitive- ness of conscience marks the first days of conver- THE PASTOR AND THE GARNER. 1 59 sion and the slightest deviation from the sup- posed path of duty plunges the soul into despair. There is a frightful fluctuation of feeling, and every change brings apprehension. The mind is whipped about in the sea of doubt; old habits, now seem to be very sinful, return with an almost resistless authority; the joys of one moment darken the next into sorrows unmixed, and at times every sense of salvation vanishes, leaving only the sense of failure and despair. Who can imagine the struggles of a young con- vert at such a time ! How he pines unconsciously for comfort, not knowing that there is comfort and yet dumbly longing for it. I love to think of the matchless opportunity the pastor has with the young. Blessed indeed is the man who meets the occasion and administers the needed medicine. Be charitable if now and then my own life has broken too rudely into these lectures. They take me over the rugged track of my early spiritual youth, and sometimes tempt me to reveal some blotted page in my life. Here is a crude bit of convert trial. Some days after my open ac- knowledgment of my faith, being a rustic lad, I was sent to mill. My bag was on the horse's back and I was on the bag and went jogging over the hills to the mill. As I was on the way a fearful darkness enshrouded my mind and heart. The fear that I had made a wreck of it, that my pro- fession was a blunder, and that I had not really l60 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. received salvation overpowered me. Every ves- tige of hope fled from me and a more desolate youth could not have been found on the earth. In that frame I reached my destination. A se- rious young man emerged from the mill, spoke pleasantly and took the bag, and I Vx^ent out to tie my horse. Upon entering the mill T felt ashamed to face the miller lest he should read in my countenance that I was a hypocrite^ but he met me with warming courtesy, and began to speak of my conversion with many expressions of pleasure. It was too much for me; I could not carry what seemed to me a guilty secret. I told him that I was no Christian, that I had dis- covered my deception and that it v\^as over with me, though I hoped that I might yet find the way. For my life I can recall no word he said, but I remember how tender he was, how reverentially he spoke of the Saviour, and before I knew it he had my feet upon the Rock again and my heart glowing Vvdth hope and peace. Surely you would have thought that the plain miller had the pastor's art had you seen hov>^ wonderfully he scattered my fears and cleared my sky. I dare say he was born for that sort of work, for that same young man, young no longer now, is the Rev. Dr. C. C. Meador, of Washington City. He did for one what all young converts need to have done, and what pastors ought to feel that they were or- dained of God to do. THE PASTOR AND THE GARNER. l6l That is a critical period in the history of young Christians when they are passing out of the infan- tile state of the spiritual life. It is a transition from a life of impulse to principle, from sentiment to conviction, and it involves endless conflicts, set- backs and perplexities. It is a lonesome part of the pilgrim road and no company is quite so ele- vating and edifying as a good and appreciative pastor. (4) There, too, is the fundamentally important matter of indoctrination. It is not necessary in order to their piety or growth that children should understand the entire round of Christian doctrine, or even those distinctive doctrines which the Bap- tists hold. Some things may safely wait. The task of indoctrination is not the work of a day, but of years, and has to be done personally and from the pulpit, and it must proceed regularly from year to year. At the same time it ought to be understood that while the young can not be made proficient in Baptist doctrine at once they ought not to be left in absolute darkness. They ought to know something; ought not to join the church without an explanation ; they ought to know that Baptists exist, and have some easy instruction as to the faith of Baptists and why they believe as they do and why it is so important that their views should be maintained. They ought also to un- derstand what it means to unite with a church; l62 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. what the church is for ; what good there is in the church for them and what they are expected to be to the church. These things need to be heard in the public ministrations, and so far as practicable they should be gone over by the pastor face to face with the young of his charge. In addition to this it lies within the sphere of the pastor to school the young of his membership in the duties of the religious life, the prayer, the reading of the Scriptures privately and devotionally, giving to the Lord and living a godly life in this evil and wicked world. (5) Possibly the highest function of the pastor in his relation to the new people brought into the fellowship of the church remains to be mentioned. I refer to the task of arousing and educating in the young Christian the sense of responsibility. The early experiences of young Christians are inward and personal ; they are simply the feelings which they have concerning themselves. Before conversion they are asking what they must do to be saved, and after conversion they are dwelling on what the Lord has done for them. They do not escape from a sense of themselves; they are the centers of their own thoughts. This is nat- ural and allowable at first, but this must not con- tinue. It will inflict weakness and injury. They must enlarge their scope. They must flee from themselves and take refuge in others. It is an epoch in a young Christian's exist- THE PASTOR AND THE GARNER. I63 ence when he is lifted out of his self-conscious- ness and rises to the realm of responsibility — when he sees that he is not his own, that he is bought with a price and that henceforth he is to live for others. That is a distinct stage of Chris- tian experience, a new revelation which brings enlargement of heart and purpose. It is the first clear mark of Christian manhood. It shows the formation of a new character and unveils a new career. The sense of spiritual power is a sacred in- toxication. When a Christian gets out of himself he gets into a larger place ; he knows the joy of zeal and he burns with the vision of doing good. That is faith incarnating itself and asking for something to do. Now, it is not claiming too much to say that this is the essence, the summum bonum of a pas- tor's duty. If he can discover to young people the divine purpose of their conversion, he has summoned them to a new destiny and set their lives under the direction of a new principle. I believe most heartily in the divine prompting to duty, the call of God, if you prefer to call it so, but I am equally sure that one of the Lord's ways of arousing his people to a consciousness of duty is through the influence of others. The Lord does nothing that he can make us do. On one occasion I was present at the examina- tion of a young man for the ministry with a view l64 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. to his ordination. He was questioned with mer- ciless severity as to his call. The divine aspect of the case was not only insisted on but the be- wildered young man was almost required to fur- nish tangible proof on the spot that he was called of the Lord. Dr. J. B. Jeter, one of our most eminent ministers in Virginia at the time, and already quite an old man, watched the examina- tion with curiosity, mixed with impatience, and at the point when the perplexity of the candidate was at its acute state, the old preacher, with a droll solemnity, said : "Old Father Harris called me to preach." It was his way of indicating his con- viction that God worked through his old servant to lead him into the ministry. There was imbed- ded in his remark a doctrine which many of our ministers seem not to hold, that they are to point their people into the path of their life-work. That same old Father Harris, not a man of extraordi- nary abilities, had the secret of the Lord with him. He had an eye for the young who were to become shepherds to care for the flocks of God. It is known that while a country pastor, that spotless and vigilant watchman on the walls of Zion led nearly forty men into the baptismal waters who afterwards were led into the ministry. But it is not simply the duty of a pastor to look out for those who are to preach but for workers of every class and service. We may well doubt whether we ought to re- THE PASTOR AND THE GARNER. 165 ceive persons into the membership of our churches who have not already some sense of duty to be of actual worth in the church. They may feel that in the church that they are finding a home, a school, a refuge, and that is right, but they ought to feel that the church is a workshop also. I was present one Thursday night at Spurgeon's weekly preaching service in his Tabernacle in London when he was receiving new members, some by let- ter and others for baptism. One of those who asked for baptism was a small boy. The famous pastor introduced the little convert as the new- born babe of the family, and then declared that he had not consented to join the church until he had found some work to do in the service of the church. How fine that was. It goes far towards explaining that the way Spurgeon took care of so many members in his church was by teaching them to take care of themselves and to help care for the lost. There are two almost impregnable bulwarks of safety for young Christians in our churches, one is worship and the other work. Worship is the tie which binds us to the Lord, and work is the tie which connects us with our brethren and with the lost. If we can succeed in making our young people intelligent and devout worshipers, and inflame them with zeal to help their brethren and rescue the perishing, then we have done our l66 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. Utmost to save them from making shipwrecks of their faith. This double task belongs largely to the pastor. We must not imagine that it is an undertaking free from embarrassments and heart-breaking tri- als. It is the most stupendous work ever com- mitted to mortal hands. It is a thing which re- quires the highest graces of the saintly life. It is possible only with those who walk with God. Only a true worshiper can teach others to wor- ship; only a steady and joyful worker for the good of the church can teach others to work and only those who are burdened for the salvation of others can roll that burden on the new friends of Christ as they appear in the vineyard. In short, I may rightly claim that only the man who lives daily in the light of God will really watch for souls. You must fill men with eternal things before they are prepared to impress others concerning the world to come. Men who are scheming for the places, honors and titles of this world will never stir others about the world to come. Unless men believe in the garner they will slight the harvest. It hardly comes within the province of this course of lectures to deal with the reward which comes to the faithful pastor. The real scope of the lectures points to the faithfulness of pastoral service rather than to the results which may fol- low. The Lord has condescendingly offered re- THE PASTOR AND THE GARNER. 167 wards to his servants and we may be sure that these rewards will correspond with the measure- less liberality of the giver. But these glorious compensations are not paid as a salary during the service, but after the work is finished and the final account rendered. They are not placed as the animating force in our discharge of duty, but rather as an inspiration which is to wait on our convictions. They are lights at the end of the race to brighten the track as we run. But it is always unfortunate when we mag- nify the notion of reward — it strips our labor of its noblest quality. We may give that we may receive again, and we may receive again, but the ideal service is that which is rendered with a sole view to the honor of our Lord and Master, and with no reference to our ov^n emolument. Of that exaltation and honor which heaven has in reserve for the faithful, we need not, indeed, can not, speak to-day. That is liidden with God and is safe ; our great task is to see that we are in the list of those who will share in the glory of the final day. Not that we beg and scheme for prizes, but that we find a boundless fascination in duty, as in itself greater and grander than all rewards. I feel, however, that we may with propriety touch on the compensations in the kingdom of grace which appear along the way. Every faith- ful pastor is faithful at his own expense. There l68 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. is always personal loss in consecrated service. We have to give up things in order to attain to the highest point of fidelity. Men may be pas- tors and run th^ir work on the worldly sched- ules, but they can never reach the distinction of pure spiritual activity under compromising mo- tives. But when we stake all for Christ — when we empty ourselves for his sake and lay our best at his feet, there come back streams of riches and joy of which the world knows nothing, and of v.'hich the temporizing pastor knows nothing. With no desire to formulate these compensations, these daily dividends of grace, we may still glance at them as things which strikingly indicate that nothing pays so well in this world as honest and unreserved sacrifice for Christ. Faithfulness is essential to the wholesome en- joyment of self-hood. Now, wherever there is partiality of service — service reluctant or divided, it is because of an undue assertion of self. It is the exaltation of self at the sacrifice of our best convictions. For men of this type there are usu- ally self-gratifying results. They often thrive largely on their own happy conceits. They cater to their own vanity and are rewarded with high self-esteem. But that is a shallow and unsatisfy- ing exercise. It is only their weaker nature, that which the love of God has not hallowed, which they have to draw upon for commendation. THE PASTOR AND THE GARNER. 169 In their deeper consciousness there is silence, or if it utters any voice it is the voice of reproach. Our better nature never approves of half-hearted service. There is an awful chasm between the deceptive pleasures of unsurrendered men and the deep and solid joys which well up in the souls of the true and faithful. Take the pastor who has to deal with the souls of the young in the Sunday-school. We will sup- pose that he is thoroughly in earnest about the matter. He has no shallow self-consciousness, which puffs and deludes him, but a clean, straight living purpose to save and train the children for the Master, and to that he addresses himself with no reservation. He has in himself the clear sense of honesty; he knows that he is in accord with his best light, and that he is working on time and giving full measure, and as a compensation he has the approval of his own heart. That is a possession whose worth is beyond pride, vanity or worldly honor. The testimony of a regen- erated heart is a well of living water to its pos- sessor. There is also the peace and strength which come from the right kind of public respect. There are many people who are willingly de« ceived, and it is to be confessed that some minis- ters are ready to live by deceiving them. They have not the moral earnestness to depend on the innate power of the gospel. They think that something else must be brought in to meet the sit- I70 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. uation. Sometimes they resort to the ''living topics/' especially if they are loaded with scandal and richly savored with filth. By a noisy pre- sentation of such things they expect to stir the community, and they do, a part at least, and in a way. They love much to deal in fiery denuncia- tions and to paint their talk with lurid maledic- tions against somebody, not present, and this they do to show how momentously brave they are, and some believe it, and think that they are the only men who are courageous enough to tell the truth. It is a pitiable fact that some of them pet, cajole and uphold their people in their selfishness, indo- lence and wicked living, imagining that that is the way to get their bread, and sometimes they get their bread that way. But this will not do. It may secure the ful- some flattery of some people, but they are not the people. They have no standards and form no honest judgments. Their opinion, if it was stable, is not sound; it is not intelligent, not ac- cording to the will of God, and brings no steady comfort to the pastor. It may make one popu- lar, but it does not make him respectable. You must not count, but weigh public sentiment to as- certain its worth. What a pastor needs is the favor of the just — those who think according to the truth. Their favor means something, and it goes only to the faithful. You may trump up transient admira- THE PASTOR AND THE GARNER. I7I tion, but that has no kinship with the reverence felt by the wise for the faithful man. There is a bliss, all its own, which belongs to the soul winner. It is the princeliest deed of the Christian life to save a soul. That is a singularly pure and beautiful rapture which Paul expressed on account of those at Phillippi who had been saved under his labors. John declared that he had no greater joy than to see his redeemed chil- dren walking in the way of the Lord. Jesus has kindled wondrous thoughts in his people by the declaration that there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. We who have a little part in this matchless har- vest of souls know that there is nothing like it. Perhaps there is no other experience which so floods the pastor's soul with triumphant joy as to see those for whom he watches brought to a con- fession of Christ. But it is a blessing which all do not get. It is too high for carnal men. It is not a mad scramble for numbers nor a puerile am- bition to have a baptismal exhibition on Easter Sunday. It is the lofty fellowship with that spirit which brought Christ to earth on the errand of seeking and saving the lost, which thrills the soul of the pastor with ecstasy as he leads men out of darkness into light, and then moulds and trains them for service and for glory. That is ample compensation for any loss a minister may suffer in the way of duty. 172 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. Along with these things comes also the pastor's growth. He whose bosom shields a lamb has wool to warm his own heart. He who carries a burden strengthens his limbs. Spiritual growth is along the path of duty. The more we do the faster we grow ; the higher the service we render the more stimulating is it in its influence upon our progress. Finally, we live in those we save. We put our lives into them and in their faith our life is mul- tiplied. After we convert a soul we become two instead of one. Those we win are our children and we are reproduced in them. THE FACULTY OF 786^. Basil Manly, Jr. James P. Boyce. William Williams. John A. Broadus. APPENDIX— HISTORICAL. I73 APPENDIX— HISTORICAL. EMPHASIZING THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. In the minutes of the Southern Baptist Con- vention, sessions 1863 and 1866, there are two papers which deserved to be mentioned with this course of lectures. They were written respec- tively by Dr. Basil Manly, Jr., and Dr. John A. Broadus, when these men with their associates were doing work in the Southern Baptist Theo- logical Seminary while located at Greenville, S. C, and battling with the adverse circumstances of those days. The papers taken in connection with the occa- sions that produced them show how the Seminary in its early history regarded the Sunday-school cause, and especially show how these two men took the larger and prospective view of the ques- tion. They were prominent if not indeed the leaders in the movement to introduce the Sunday- school into the Southern Baptist Convention as a part of its organic work and life. In the session of the Convention at Augusta, Ga., 1863, Dr. Basil Manly, Jr., offered the fol- lowing resolution : "Resolved, That a committee of seven be ap- pointed to inquire whether it is expedient for this Convention to attempt anything for the pro- motion of Sunday-schools." 174 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. The committee called for in the resolution was appointed, consisting of some of the ablest men in the Convention, with Dr. Manly as chairman. The report of the committee is one of the papers referred to above. It was manifestly written by Dr. Manly as chairman. We submit herewith a short paragraph showing the high place which the committee gave to the Sunday-school work; " It is needless to argue before this body the importance of Sunday-schools, or the duty of promoting their establishment and increasing their efficiency in every legitimate way. All of us have felt that the Sunday-school is the nursery of the church, the camp of instruction for her young soldiers, the great missionary to the fu- ture. While our other benevolent agencies re- late primarily to the present, this goes to meet and bless the generation that is coming, to win them from ignorance and sin, to train future la- borers when our places shall know us no more. All of us have seen how Sunday-schools tend to direct increasing attention to the Bible, to ele- vate the ministry, to train young ministers, to build up churches in destitute parts, to foster the missionary spirit, to increase both our capacity and willingness for every good work. And most of us, in some form or other, have labored for their advancement. The questions before us re- duce themselves to these: Whether it is expedi- ent for the Convention to attempt anything in this direction? Whether the present is a proper time? and in what way the effort should be made? "That the subject comes fairly within the APPENDIX — HISTORICAL. 175 range of the Constitution, and accords with the design of the Convention, is unquestionable. All our state organizations embrace this, along with the methods of benevolent enterprise, and the very symmetry and completeness of our system of religious effort, seems in fact to demand that this, as well as others, should be directly fostered by our general organization, and claim its share of attention, when our brethren come up from all sections of our land. Without such recognition, it is liable to be thrust out as an intruder, instead or being welcomed as a sister and admitted af- fectionately, though least and youngest, to a place in the family." The report of the committee recommending among other things the appointment of a Sunday School Board, was unanimously adopted, and so the Southern Baptist Convention stood commit- ted to this forward movement and incorporated the Sunday-school into its organic life. This new Board was located at Greenville, S. C, and was as ably manned as any Board could possibly be, with the seminary men prominent, Dr. James P. Boyce being Vice-President for South Caro- lina, Dr. William Williams being one of the man- agers. Dr. Basil Manly its President, and Dr. John A. Broadus first its Recording Secretary and afterwards its Corresponding Secretary. The purpose of this paper is simply to show the connection between the Seminary and this new movement for Sunday-schools, but of course there was great support given by many, many others, 176 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL, prominent among whom was Col. C. J. Elford, who was superintendent of the Sunday-school of the First Baptist Church at Greenville, active in all good Christian work, and who rendered the Board excellent service officially and otherwise. At that time the Convention met biennially, but failed of its session in 1865 on account of the war, so that the new Board did not have an op- portunity to make its first report until the session of 1866, at Russellville, Ky. The report covers three years' work and is the other paper re- ferred to and was written in part at least by Dr. Broadus, who was then serving as Corresponding Secretary in connection with his professorship in the Seminary. The report taken as a whole is a wonderful paper. It tells of the immense work done under great disadvan- tages ; tells of the distribution of Bibles ; tells of having Sunday-school missionaries in the differ- ent States ; tells of the publication of song books and catechisms; tells of starting Kind Words, v;hich from that day to this has never missed an issue; tells of the large opportunities and the pressing need for the work ; and surely must have stirred the hearts of the brethren when presented to the Convention. Here are a few extracts from the pen of Dr. Broadus. Brethren are aosorbed m the exciting events of the day, and fancy that a little Sunday-school would be a small affair, forgetting that it forms APPENDIX— HISTORICAI,. V]^ part of one of the mightiest movements of the age. Ladies have not been accustomed to con- duct a school themselves, and need encourage- ment to do so. Teachers see no speedy results of their labors, and forget hat they are sowing seed for a lifetime and for eternity. Only here and there are found persons who can "kindle their own fire" and keep it burning brightly. It is all important that ministers and private mem- bers who take a lively interest in this work should exert themselves to establish and build up Sun- day-schools at all the churches they can reach. We are also very desirous to enter as soon as possible upon a general system of Sunday-school missionary work in the different States, such as was projected and attempted by us during the war. Our limited but interested experience at that time accords with the experience of other Sunday-school organizations in showing the great value of such labors— indeed their necessity, if Sunday-schools are to he rapidly increased in number and efficiency. People in general will persistently fancy that work for children is a small business, and they require to be reasoned out of the notion by others who have attained juster views, and to be stimulated to vigorous and persevering exertion by those who have learned to feel some of the lofty enthusiasm which this sublime and blessed work ought really to inspire. In conclusion, the Board affectionately urge upon the Convention and the churches the incal- culable importance of the Sunday-school work. Besides its powerful direct influence upon the 178 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. welfare of society, and its vast and blessed direct results in the salvation of souls, the Sunday- school is a helper to every other benevolent agency. The preacher and pastor finds in it the aid of many subordinate preachers and pastors, each laboring for the benefit of a little flock, and all finding their gifts and graces developed and exercised, as his own are, by efforts for the re- ligious good of others. The work of domestic missions is greatly assisted by it, for often a new Sunday-school leads to a new church, and a reg- ular Sunday-school brings on a desire for more frequent preaching. The Foreign mission work finds here the op- portunity of awakening an early and thus per- manent interest in the heathen, and forming habits of systematic and cheerful benevolence. The Bible cause is immensely aided by it in pro- moting the circulation and the study of the Scrip- tures. Its scholars all become colporteurs, intro- ducing religious reading into their homes, and it is one vast asylum to supply the highest wants of the orphaned and destitute. It brings great numbers into the ministry of the gospel, and it is an important means of ministerial edu- cation; since the man who becomes a preacher, after having for years been scholar and teacher in a good Sunday-school, has received a train- ing in various respects, which will greatly pro- mote his ministerial usefulness. Thus the Sun- day-school is a helper to all other religious en- terprises, while it is a rival to none. Everything Christians care for would greatly suffer if its in- fluence were lost; everything will gain in pro- portion as its influence is extended. APPENDIX— HISTORICAL. 179 Here is surely work enough for a distinct or- ganization, such as the Convention has estab- lished, and a work calling for the iively sympa- thy and the liberal support of all that love Him who loves little children. Surely no one could make a stronger plea for Sunday-schools. Nor has this plea lost anything of strength or power through the passing years, while the Sunday-school cause has taken on im- mensely larger proportions. Those men read th^ future, knew what ought to be done and put out their plans on gigantic scale. But the war be- tween the States had just closed, leaving desola- tion everywhere and upon everything throughout the South. Southern institutions were swept fore and aft ; many went down, all of them were brought to face the question of life and death. There had to be a readjustment of things. And after five years of remarkable success and at its own request, the Sunday School Board was moved by the Convention to Memphis, and a few years later was merged into the Home Mission Board. The Seminary men had all they could do to save that institution from destruction, and set themselves to the task with the heroism so char- acteristic of our people in that trying period. Tn giving up the other institution they were as a man thrown overboard with two of his children, and losing one heroically struggles to save the other. l80 THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. The story of the struggle to save the Seminary is one of the most pathetic and most courageous in . Baptist history. After years of sacrifice and suf- fering the final triumph came, and as a result we have the magnificent institution at Louisville tliat is among the very foremost, if not itself the foremost of all the schools for training men whom God calls to preach the gospel of his grace. The Sunday School Board at Nashville can hardly in any sense be called the successor of the former Board, and yet stands on the same basis, having been created by the Convention in the ses- sion of 189 1 and charged with great denomina- tional interests. It is operated upon almost pre- cisely the same lines projected for the other Board, and its success is giving an ever-increas- ing power for usefulness. Its union with the Seminary in producing this course of lectures gathers up the broken threads of history and puts things together that were parted years ago. In the Galveston flood a family were driven on to a roof, and then in the violence of the storm the roof itself parted, dividing the family. After being driven for hours by wind and wave in the darkness, the separate parts of the roof drifted to- gether again, and the family were reunited. The present administration of the Seminary are moving forward in the spirit and purpose of its founders. J. M. F. Nashville, Tenn. DATE DUE 4ar?5 WTT PRINTED IN U.S.