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 Lectures on pastoral work ' 
 
LECTURES 
 
 ON 
 
 PASTORAL WORK 
 
^f OF Piil^ 
 
 LECTURES 
 
 ON 
 
 Pastoral Work 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE 
 
 DIVINITY SCHOOL, CAMBRIDGE, 1883, 
 
 RIGHT REV. W. WALSH AM HOW, D.D. 
 
 BISHOP OF BEDFORD, SUFFRAGAN OF EAST LONDON. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 EontJfltt 
 WELLS GARDNER, DARTON, & CO, 
 
 PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. THE EQUIPMENT, I 
 
 II. DANGERS AND DIFFICULTIES, .... 27 
 
 III. PASTORAL VISITATION, 5 1 
 
 IV. DEALING WITH INFIDELITY, .... 79 
 V. PREACHING, I03 
 
 VL THE PASTORAL EPISTLES, 131 
 
I. 
 Zbe Equipment. 
 
CAMBRIDGE LECTURES ON 
 PASTORAL WORK. 
 
 THE EQUIPMENT. 
 
 " Ars est artium regimen animarnm " is tlie 
 well-known saying of Gregory the Great in the 
 beginning of his book on the Pastoral Office, 
 where he expresses a very natural surprise that 
 while no one would think of professing himself a 
 physician of the body without some knowledge 
 of diseases and their remedies, many who are 
 wholly ignorant of spiritual complaints (more 
 subtle though they are than physical ailments), 
 and who have never learnt the method of their 
 treatment, are not afraid to profess themselves 
 physicians of souls. St. Vincent de Paul, after 
 long experience, declares that, had he in early 
 life realised the tremendous difficulties and 
 responsibilities of the pastoral work, he would 
 have chosen any other calling rather than that 
 of the priesthood. And yet God forbid that I 
 should say one word to chill the ardour of any 
 soul among you which may through God's grace 
 
4 The Equipment. 
 
 be burning now witli the longing desire to labour 
 for the souls of men. Nay, my brother, it is a 
 noble ambition which God's good Spirit has fired 
 in your breast. By that very longing God is 
 calling you. And if you are a true man and no 
 coward, the very greatness and height of the 
 calling will only intensify your eager desire. If 
 you tremble as you try to realise your lofty ideal, 
 as you shape to your soul the grandeur of the 
 cross, as you face stern foreshadowings of self- 
 renunciation and self-sacrifice, as you gauge and 
 measure the sublime standard of the priestly life, 
 tremble not alone with fear, but with the excite- 
 ment of high daring and the thrill of deep resolve. 
 For if Christianity be true, can there be any life 
 so grand and glorious as that which expends 
 itself in the training of souls for heaven ; in 
 seeking the lost and winning them to new hope 
 and new life ; in holding out a brother's strong 
 and loving hand to guide and support the frail 
 and trembling ; in strengthening with the force of 
 your own earnestness and the sympathy of your 
 own experience the strivers after a holy life ; 
 in establishing by the might of your own trium- 
 phant conviction the sorely-shaken faith of 
 weaker brethren ; in shedding the calm light of 
 holy peace upon the bed of suffering, and pre- 
 paring the dying soul to meet its God ? Yes ; 
 here is a life which may well fire the godly 
 ambition of the bravest and truest hearts that 
 
The Eqiiipmeiit. 5 
 
 beat, even, tliougli it be one wMcli extorts from 
 an Apostle the cry, " Wbo is sufficient for these 
 '' things ? " 
 
 You will note that the work we are to con- 
 sider is work which depends for its success upon 
 the personal character of the worker more than 
 any other sort of work does. I know it is some- 
 times argued that our aim should be to make 
 people love the Church for her own sake, attend 
 her services as a duty and privilege, and lean far 
 less upon the individual than they so often do. 
 By all means make them intelligent Church 
 people, acting on principle, and not from any 
 mere human affection, if you can. But God has 
 so ordered things that, practically, we must 
 depend much on personal influence to win and 
 attract and retain our people ; and he who re- 
 solves to go upon the plan of leaving Church prin- 
 ciples. Church services, and Church teaching, to 
 win their way by their own intrinsic power, apart 
 from the exercise of personal gifts, will have a 
 limited number of subjects for his experiment. 
 Thus it is most necessary for one looking forward 
 to the holy office of the ministry to foster those 
 gifts and cultivate those powers by which he may 
 best commend his teaching and his services to 
 his people. It is one of the many mysteries of 
 our mysterious life and condition that we are so 
 strangely in each others' power for good or for 
 evil. How often have I seen a good man's 
 
6 The Eqiiip7ne7it. 
 
 ministry fail because tie was cold, unsympathetic, 
 depressed, ungenial ! Mr. Heygate, in his beauti- 
 ful little book ^' Ember Hours," tells us no man's 
 work is a failure unless he himself is a failure ; 
 and this is a truth worth pondering. Yet the 
 man's failure is sometimes not in his personal 
 religion, which is what Mr. Heygate means, nor 
 in his ministerial faithfulness, but in his mere 
 manner or bearing. There are too many " round 
 " men in square holes," — not bad men, but cer- 
 tainly not fitting the place in which they find 
 themselves. So, undoubtedly, one part of pre- 
 paration for pastoral work is the cultivation of all 
 that can make that work attractive to others. I 
 shall touch upon some few qualities with this 
 end in view as I go on, but I must speak now 
 of what underlies all, and is really the root and 
 groundwork of all pastoral efficiency. 
 
 If you ask me what one thing is most neces- 
 sary for the pastoral work, I answer unhesitat- 
 ingly, Personal Holiness. No gifts, however 
 brilliant, no labours, however diligent, can ever 
 supply the place of this. It stands to reason it 
 must be so; for, since the pastor must speak 
 much of holiness, must try to make his people 
 holy, must deal day by day with holy things, 
 if he be not holy himself, what a life of wretched 
 hypocrisy and unreality it must be ! How can 
 one lead others if one knows not the way one- 
 self? Even if one could deceive others for a 
 
The Equipment. 7 
 
 time, and gain a reputation for a holiness whicli 
 one is conscious of not possessing, wliat a degra- 
 dation of the whole moral nature would this 
 imply ! At least let us be honest. But in 
 speaking of holiness as so indispensable to pas- 
 toral success, I am afraid of suggesting a false 
 motive. It would be dreadful to aim at holiness 
 solely for the sake of success, besides being use- 
 less. Holiness is a wrong word for any life 
 that has its spring in some ulterior object of 
 desire, however in itself desirable, or in anything 
 other than in God. One whose aim is success 
 will seldom win holiness. One whose aim is 
 holiness will seldom fail of success. So I do not 
 bid you aim at holiness that you may be success- 
 ful parish priests ; only you will be so, if holy. 
 Aim at holiness for its own sake. St. Paul, in 
 addressing the Ephesian presbyters, says, '' Take 
 " heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock "; and 
 to Timothy he writes, " Take heed unto thyself and 
 " unto the doctrine " ; — thyself hefore the fioch ; 
 thyself hefore the doctrine. For where self is 
 neglected, neither pastoral visits, nor sermons and 
 teaching, will do much. 
 
 Let me sketch three parishes. 
 
 In the first, the curate (I use the word in its 
 proper sense of him who has the cure of souls) is 
 kindly, pleasant, genial, popular. He wishes to 
 be friends with all. He likes to know his people. 
 He is busy in his parish, a good manager, look- 
 
8 The Equipment. 
 
 ing after liis scliools and clubs, &c. He can 
 chat about the crops, or trade, or the children. 
 He has no pride. All like him. But ask some 
 one in the parish in trouble about his soul why 
 he does not go to the clergyman, and he will say, 
 ^ Oh, he is not the sort of man I could talk to 
 ' about such things ; I never thought of telling 
 ^ him ; he does not talk much to us in that way.' 
 Not the sort of man ! Why, what is the clergy- 
 man for, if not to help poor troubled souls ? But 
 what is the secret ? Perhaps few know. Per- 
 haps he himself knows not. Yet God knows. 
 He has not taken heed unto himself. '' The 
 " flock " — yes : but not himself. " They made 
 " me the keeper of the vineyards ; but mine own 
 " vineyard have I not kept." Ah, sad confession! 
 If we could gauge and measure the true soul- 
 work in that parish, how scanty would be the 
 record ! 
 
 Now let us look at our second parish. Here 
 we find a popular preacher. His church fills, 
 for eloquence always attracts. It is strange how 
 people will flock to hear an eloquent preacher, 
 even though they cannot respect him. But in 
 this case there is nothing to forfeit respect. Not 
 a whisper of scandal is heard. His doctrine is 
 sound. He is ready in quoting Holy Scripture. 
 He can set forth in glowing language the excel- 
 lence of the Gospel, the blessed work of the 
 Saviour, the holy teachings of the Cross. But 
 
The Equipment. 9 
 
 -^(oli, how often some " but " spoils all !) — his 
 preaching is everything. In his life and speech 
 and manner out of the pulpit all can see a 
 want. He does not live quite as he preaches. 
 He is indolent, careless, self-satisfied. And poor 
 sinners don't go to the mere popular preacher 
 for comfort and help. He has taken heed to 
 the doctrine, but not to himself. He too does 
 not win many souls. 
 
 But we will go into the third parish. This man 
 is quiet, simple, unpretending. He has not the 
 easy pleasant attractive manner of the first, nor the 
 eloquence and ready tongue of the second. Yet 
 directly you talk with him, you feel he is one who 
 loves his Saviour and lives a holy life. He is 
 meek and gentle, like his Master. You do not see 
 him on his knees in his chamber, but you are sure 
 he is a man of prayer. You find him possibly 
 shy and nervous, and you say he is but a poor 
 preacher, yet you feel, ^ I could open my heart 
 ' to that man ; I am sure he is so good.' What 
 makes the difference ? He has tciken heed unto 
 himself first. He is pressing along the way in 
 which he seeks to lead others. They feel that 
 he " goeth before them." His example preaches 
 better than sermons. His life is a sermon. He 
 loves to speak of holy things as he goes about 
 among his flock. He is a ready friend in trouble, 
 a sympathiser with their sorrows, a counsellor 
 in their difficulties. Is any sick among them ? 
 
lo The Equipment. 
 
 They will not neglect to call for their priest. 
 The little children feel he is their friend. Rich 
 and poor look up to him. What is the secret ? 
 Simply this, that all his ministrations are blest 
 because they are the natural expression of his 
 own inner life of holiness. Read the spiritual 
 record of that parish, and you will read of many 
 a soul helped, restored, cheered, strengthened, 
 sanctified. A holy priest walks not heavenwards 
 alone. He would not, if he could. He seems 
 to be always speaking to his people those touch- 
 ing words of St. Augustine, " Nolo sine vobis 
 " salvus esse." 
 
 Yes, my brothers. " Covet earnestly the best 
 " gifts." Study the best ways of helping your 
 people. Spare not labours, seek to win con- 
 fidence and love. Bend all your powers to make 
 your sermons helpful and edifying. Active 
 labours are good. Faithful preaching is good. 
 " And yet show I unto you a more excellent 
 " way." Though I give my life in diligent and 
 devoted labours, and have not holiness, I am 
 nothing. And though I fill my church with 
 eager listeners by the charm of my eloquence, 
 and have not holiness, I am nothing. Personal 
 holiness is the true secret of pastoral success. 
 Holiness is a sermon without an end, yet which 
 never wearies. A good man's life is always 
 preaching. " Truth from his lips prevails with 
 '' double sway," as Goldsmith says. Our words 
 
The Equipment. 1 1 
 
 in the pulpit may be very simple and unadorned ; 
 but you know bow a very simple air on but 
 few notes may by a ricb and masterly accom- 
 paniment become toucbingly beautiful. So if 
 our teaching be in itself not very eflfective, yet 
 with the accompaniment of a holy life it will 
 find its way into the hearts of men. St. Jerome 
 says, " A holy simplicity is mightier than un- 
 " sanctified eloquence." But the words of St. 
 Bernard should be like a phylactery on the gar- 
 ment of every parish priest : — " Pasce verbo : 
 " pasce vita : pasce sanctarum orationum fructu." 
 You all know Ary SchaefFer's beautiful picture 
 of Dante and Beatrice. Surely it teaches us a 
 lesson if we would be guides of others. The 
 heavenly guide is leading on her earthly disciple, 
 who is gazing up intently into her face. But 
 where are her eyes fixed ? Not on him, but on 
 heaven. 
 
 my brothers, aim high ; aim high ! For 
 the honour of Christ, for the love of the Church, 
 for the salvation of the flock, for your own soul's 
 safety, aim high ! Never rest satisfied with a 
 low standard. Even the world itself in these 
 days expects much of you. Take heed unto the 
 flock : take heed unto the doctrine : but first take 
 heed unto yourselves. 
 
 You will not expect me to dig down to the 
 roots of this holiness that you may see how it 
 grows. You will not expect me to trace the 
 
12 TJie Equipineiit. 
 
 stream up to its fonntain-liead that you may 
 learn wlience it springs. This would have no 
 peculiar bearing upon the pastoral office, since 
 all holiness has the same root and source. Yet 
 I dare not quite pass by the thought that, since 
 holiness is the gift of God and the work of the 
 Spirit of God, it can only be won by much 
 prayer. One is bowed down with shame to read 
 of the long hours spent day by day in prayer by 
 many holy men whose lives are given to us. 
 Nor is it less humiliating to know of the extra- 
 ordinary delight experienced by some good men 
 in these long hours of prayer. It is related of 
 St. Francis de Sales that in a day's retreat, in 
 which he continued most of the day in prayer, 
 he was so overwhelmed with the joy of this 
 communion with God that he exclaimed, " With- 
 " draw Thyself, Lord, for I am not able to bear 
 '' the greatness of Thy sweetness " ; and the saintly 
 Fletcher of Madeley on one occasion prayed for 
 less delight in prayer, fearing it would become 
 more of an indulgence than of a duty. Now I 
 do not put such cases forward for imitation. To 
 strain after ecstatic devotion would be unreal 
 and unnatural. But simple, earnest, and constant 
 prayer there must be, or there will be no holi- 
 ness. I am speaking now of private prayer, for 
 I am sure the grace of a holy life is mainly 
 gathered on the knees in the closet. And here 
 let me recommend a little book which I have 
 
The Equipment, 1 3 
 
 myself found very useful. Bishop Armstrong's 
 "Pastor in his Closet" (publislied by Parker). 
 Yet I do not forget the helpfulness and blessed- 
 ness of the Church's rule for her clergy of Daily 
 Prayer. It has a vast sustaining and comforting 
 power ; and I think the healthfulness and vigour 
 of the inner life can often be fairly gauged by 
 the measure of our interest in our Daily Prayer. 
 Let me not omit to name the habit of frequent 
 ejaculatory prayer, often, I would fain hope, in 
 a busy hard-pressed life some little compensa- 
 tion for the absence of longer hours of stated 
 devotion. I remember being greatly struck 
 long ago with a few words in a diary of Bishop 
 Gray of Capetown, never intended for publica- 
 tion, in which, describing a long weary ride he 
 had to take, he expresses his thankfulness that 
 he was able throughout to hold almost uninter- 
 rupted communion with God. This again may 
 give one a hint for the formation of habits of 
 devotion in a busy life. 
 
 There is yet one more habit I would briefly 
 touch upon, now that I am treating of the pas- 
 tor's equipment for his work, I mean devotional 
 reading. This is a wholly separate thing from 
 the study, of which I must briefly speak here- 
 after. What I now refer to is the reading, 
 whether of the Bible or of other books, for one's 
 own soul's sake. This should be done as part of 
 one's ordinary devotion, and, in order that it may 
 
14 The Equipment t, 
 
 not be robbed of any of its personal bearing upon 
 our own conscience and life, it is a good rule to 
 make that what we tbus read should not have 
 any other or farther object. If we read for our 
 private benefit what we propose to use in ser- 
 mons or instruction of others, we are sure to be 
 more or less drawn away, from the simple appli- 
 cation of the lesson to our own souls, to thoughts 
 of the farther use we propose to make of it. 
 
 Do let me press this upon you very earnestly — 
 that a holy clergy will always be the best defence 
 and the truest strength of the Church, while the 
 one thing which is most ruinous to her life and 
 influence and stability is the unworthy life of one 
 of her ministers. " Who are enemies of the 
 "Church?" (writes St. Augustine, quoted in 
 Bishop Wordsworth's " Etliica et Spiritualia") : 
 " Heathens, Mohammedans, Jews. Who are 
 " yet greater enemies ? Bad Christians. Who 
 '' are the greatest enemies ? Bad Priests." 
 
 I will venture to speak to you of the terrible 
 scandals which alas ! here and there bring shame 
 and disgrace upon the Church, and ruin to the 
 souls of the people, that I may warn you of the 
 need of intense watchfulness and self-scrutiny, 
 lest you should ever be in peril of like terrible 
 falls. I know the very facts I could tell you would 
 make you burn with indignation and shudder 
 with horror. I am ashamed to speak of them. 
 But the matter is too serious to be passed by. If 
 
The Equipment. 1 5 
 
 you knew as mucli as I know of tlie frightful 
 discredit brought upon the very name of religion 
 by the evil lives of some of the clergy, you would 
 feel with me that I should not be faithful to my 
 trust if I failed to warn those about to enter upon 
 the holy ofifice of the ministry of the danger of 
 the first subtle and scarcely-noted approach of 
 sins which, unchecked, may grow into such ter- 
 rible proportions. Men do not often fall into 
 some grievous sin all at once. There, is a begin- 
 ning. And if I have pressed on you the 
 necessity of a holy life, I dare not, on the other 
 side, omit to warn you of the fearful lapses from 
 holiness into which many — ay, vowed priests of 
 God's Church — have been led, through laxity of 
 habit, or secularity of tone, or softness of living, 
 or secret unreality and hollowness in their own 
 personal religion, or good-natured acquiescence in 
 the ways of others which they have felt to be 
 unworthy, or an easy self-indulgence in minor 
 things, or a neglect of habits of devotion, or some 
 other such-like cause. 
 
 Of flagrant scandals, the most frequent is 
 drunkenness. I could tell you such sad sad 
 stories, if I chose. But, oh my brothers! what 
 was the leginning of this thing ? When and 
 how did the habit begin to grow ? Oh, some- 
 times it is such a little beginning ! Perhaps 
 the seeming necessity for support in a time of 
 depression; perhaps the supposed inability to 
 
1 6 The Equipment, 
 
 meet and go througli a time of very severe work 
 without such support ; perhaps good-natured 
 companionship with one of less scrupulous 
 habits. Oh, it needs watchfulness ! And for 
 the love of the Church, — nay, for the love of 
 Christ who loved the Church and died for it, — 
 might not the stronger among us, at any rate, 
 deny ourselves the lawful use, in horror and 
 hatred of an abuse so ruinous to the souls of the 
 flock ? The clergyman who thus brings shame 
 and disgrace on the body of Christ seems to 
 parody that touching saying of St. Augustine 
 which I have already quoted, and to cry to his 
 people, " Nolo sine vobis damnari,'^ so surely 
 does he drag them down with him. It is not 
 the fashion now to drink much. Is it possible 
 that the servants in some great house have ever 
 said with a laugh of the minister who is to speak 
 to them the next Sunday of their souls' welfare, 
 ' He likes his glass as well as another ? ' 
 
 I could tell you of things more horrible still, — 
 things which make the parson the theme of the 
 ribald jest in the beer-house, and the object of 
 the righteous scorn of all decent people. Where 
 and when were the heginning of these things ? Was 
 it an unguarded eye ? or an unrestrained imagi- 
 nation ? or the interest taken in some miserable 
 divorce case ? or a seemingly innocent familiarity 
 and affectionateness of manner ? God knoweth ; 
 but there was a beginning. Shall I refrain from 
 
The Equipment. 17 
 
 remmding you that the freedom of intercourse 
 which is allowed, and is often so blessed and 
 helpful, between the pastor and the members of 
 his flock, itself demands most jealous watchfulness 
 as to utter purity of thought and imagination ? 
 
 I have known cases where absolute dishonesty 
 (not to use a harsher word) has become habitual. 
 Carelessness as to keeping accounts, dilatoriness 
 and unpunctuality as to payments, perhaps even at 
 first little more than inexperience and thoughtless- 
 ness, have slipped into worse and worse, till ojffer- 
 tories and collections lie unpaid so long that at last 
 they cannot be paid, and the pressure of the more 
 exacting claims is perpetually postponing the 
 settlement of debts which there is no auditor to 
 detect and no claimant to demand. Where did 
 all this begin ? A short time ago I was speaking 
 to a lady about some accounts of a charitable 
 institution, which (as I said), had been allowed 
 to get into a state of '' muddle." " Ah ! " she 
 replied, ^' I often think muddle is the hysteria of 
 " dishonesty, and sometimes simulates the real 
 " complaint so closely that it is difficult to make an 
 " accurate diagnosis." Do let me strongly counsel 
 two things : ( I ) Always associate some faithful 
 laymen with you in all money matters ; (2) Al- 
 ways publish in some way or other to your people 
 the accounts of all such money matters. 
 
 I know parishes where the wonder is that any 
 abide faithful to the Church which, in the person. 
 
1 8 The Equipment. 
 
 of lier minister, is so unfaithful to them. God 
 pardon these crying sins ! Well, the clergy are 
 more than twenty thousand, and the cases of 
 scandal are not many. But there ought to be 
 none. And I dare not pretend that all such cases 
 really come to light, or find their way into the 
 newspapers. Perhaps only a small proportion do 
 so. At least most of the worst cases I have known 
 escape wide publicity by difficulty of legal proof, 
 yet are no less ruinous to souls, no less horrible 
 and hateful. 
 
 I leave (only too gladly) gross scandals. I have 
 named them that you may never be able to say 
 you have not been warned what vowed ministers 
 of Christ may become, either through the down- 
 ward lapse of progressive evil, or through sudden 
 assaults upon an unguarded heart. 
 
 Do not think positive sin, disgraceful falls, all 
 that you must guard against as special dangers. 
 Perhaps they are the least part of such dangers, 
 because the most open and obvious. A clergy- 
 man may lead a moral life, irreproachable as re- 
 gards positive sin, stained by no guilt in respect 
 of sobriety or purity or honesty, and yet he may 
 lead a life most unworthy of his holy calling. 
 What shall we say of a man spending much of 
 his time in the billiard-room and never visiting 
 the poor and sick ? Of the man hunting and 
 shooting and fishing and dancing, exactly as his 
 lay neighbours do, and of course neglecting his 
 
The Equipment. 19 
 
 parish ? Of the man who is a devoted card-player, 
 or who simply idles his time away in sheer lazi- 
 ness, smoking, novel-reading, I care not what ? 
 Why, such men are simply perjured. I know 
 this is a strong expression, but weak expressions 
 do not fit strong evils. I am not pronouncing 
 judgment on any one of the things I have named 
 in itself. I am not careful to appraise the com- 
 parative harmlessness of one pursuit more than 
 another. The man who, being vowed to the life 
 of a priest in the Church of God, lives the life of 
 a geologist or a horticulturist, thereby neglecting 
 the souls of his flock, which he has promised to 
 make his first care, is equally a perjured man. 
 But, if there be pursuits and amusements which 
 to many of his parishioners would seem more in- 
 consistent than others with his holy calling, it is 
 impossible to disguise from oneself that the pur- 
 suit of these is an aggravated offence. I have no 
 desire to pronounce a stern sentence on a clergy- 
 man for being seen in the hunting-field or the 
 ball-room, though he had much better not be seen 
 there ; but the hunting parson or the dancing 
 parson is not the man to be called to the death- 
 bed of the worldly parishioner, to guide his peni- 
 tence and prepare him for heaven. Even if he 
 have so small a parish as to have abundant leisure, 
 his tone and manner of life will assuredly drag 
 down the standard of religion, and put a stum- 
 bling-block in the way of many a poor ignorant 
 
20 The Equipment. 
 
 soul J needing, perhaps longing for, a helping hand to 
 rise above the low standard of surrounding society 
 and the deadening inj&uence of a worldly life. Oh 
 my brothers, read over your Ordination vows 
 quietly and thoughtfully, and then ask yourselves. 
 Can these vows be reconciled by any ingenuity 
 with a life in which any other pursuit is allowed 
 to engross the attention before the saving of souls ; 
 in which any other study is suffered to hold the 
 first place, and not the study of God's Word ; or 
 in which the tone and bearing is that of the 
 world, and not that which marks the man as one 
 separated from the world by his sacred calling ? I 
 do pray you, ask not, ' What is the standard of 
 ' others ? ' ' What is the standard I see the clergy 
 ^ around me adopting ? ' but, ' What is the stan- 
 ' dard the clergyman is bound, by his Ordination 
 ^ vows, to aim at ? ' You are to be " wholesome 
 *' examples and patterns to the flock." But, to be 
 that, you must stand upon a higher level, must 
 aim at a higher standard, than that of those to 
 whom you are to be examples and patterns. The 
 flock must see that you are living to God, seeking 
 ^' first the kingdom of God and His righteousness," 
 men who have renounced the world, men who 
 have given their lives, their time, their powers, 
 their interests, themselves, to the work to which 
 they are called. Even in mien and manner and 
 dress, it must be so. It is surely a shame for a 
 clergyman to seem ashamed of being one. Those 
 
The Eqidpmejit. 21 
 
 wlio adopt secular habits, and a secular dress, and 
 a secular appearance, say to tlie world, * Pray, 
 ^ don't look upon me as a clergyman. I would 
 
 * rather be mistaken for a soldier or a country gen- 
 
 * tleman.' If a man is ashamed of looking like 
 a clergyman, he had much better not be one. 
 Listen to the words of the prophet Zechariah, 
 " It shall come to pass in that day that the pro- 
 " phets shall be ashamed every one of his vision, 
 '' when he hath prophesied ; neither shall they wear 
 " a rough garment, to deceive : but he shall say, I 
 " am no prophet, I am an husbandman ; for man 
 " taught me to keep cattle from my youth " 
 (xiii. 4, 5). 
 
 And so we come round to what I have been 
 trying (I almost fear too persistently) to impress 
 upon you — namely, the necessity, if you would 
 be equipped for your office, of personal holiness. 
 And this, not alone to avoid all possibility of grave 
 scandals ; not alone to escape the peril of a life 
 faithless to the exacting vows of your calling ; 
 not alone to ensure diligence and pains in the 
 fulfilment of your appointed duties : but in order 
 that your ministry may not be barren and un- 
 profitable, but may be full of life and power and 
 blessing. He who would live up to his high 
 professions, he who would occupy his position as 
 a minister of Christ's Church to God's glory and 
 the welfare of souls, must be a holy liver, a man 
 of prayer, a man of faith, a man of self-sacrifice. 
 
2 2 The Equipment, 
 
 His people must be able to take knowledge of 
 kim that ke kas been witk Christ. It is a 
 decree of tke 4tk Council of Cartkage wkick well 
 says, "Qui sancti non sunt sancta tractare non 
 " debent." 
 
 I must turn now for a few minutes to anotker 
 part of our equipment. Tkere must be tke pre- 
 paration of tke kead as well as of tke keart — an 
 intellectual as well as a moral equipment. St. 
 Francis de Sales says, " Knowledge and piety 
 " are tke two eyes of tke priest." If tke prayer is 
 needed for any, it is surely needed for tke mini- 
 sters of Ckrist, tkat tkeir " love may abound yet 
 " more and more in knowledge and in all judg- 
 '' ment." If knowledge witkout love is kard cold 
 and barren, love witkout knowledge is nerveless 
 feeble and unstable. We must read. Of course 
 we must read for our examinations. I confess I 
 wisk tkere were as eager a desire to enter tke 
 Ministry as tkere is to enter tke Army, so tkat we 
 migkt raise very considerably tke standard of 
 acquirement. It is sadly low for tkose wko are 
 to be teackers of men. But we cannot kelp it. 
 Well ; tkis preparatory reading is sometking, and 
 at least we are introduced to a few standard 
 books wortk knowing, besides our Greek Testa- 
 ment. But we must continue to read. I 
 know kow kard — kow all but impossible — tkis is 
 in some pariskes. Yet even in our overwkelming 
 town pariskes sometking can be done by a reso- 
 
The Equipment. 2 3 
 
 lute will and economy of time. Where there is 
 no parochial school, it is really not so very hard 
 to secure an hour or two for study in the morn- 
 ing. Of course it will be liable to many inter- 
 ruptions. These we must bear patiently, doing 
 what we can, and remembering that much of our 
 reading must be done in odd quarters of hours. 
 If we have the book we are studying open at a 
 desk so as to turn to it at once after an interrup- 
 tion, we can often get a fair aggregate of time, 
 even if made up of many short portions. Cer- 
 tainly the young clergyman ought not to be con- 
 tent unless he can get a short portion of Greek 
 Testament studied, and some pages of a standard 
 theological work read, daily. If we do not thus 
 take in, how can we possibly give out ? If we 
 never enrich our minds with fresh materials, how 
 are we to edify ? If we never lay by in store 
 the precious truths and sacred wisdom of the 
 past, how can we be like the householder " which 
 '' bringeth forth out of his treasure things new 
 " and old " ? '' Seek not to pour out," says St. 
 Bernard, " before thou art thyself full." 
 
 It would be quite impossible for me in the 
 short time I have at my disposal to attempt any- 
 thing like a complete outline of study, or to do 
 more than give some general hints. It is not 
 difficult to obtain guidance as to the actual works 
 to be read. 
 
 Let us first remind you that your Ordination 
 
24 The Eqitipnient, 
 
 vows bind you expressly to the study of God's 
 Word. There is in these days so much miscel- 
 laneous literature, newspapers, pamphlets, re- 
 views, and the like, that quiet patient study, 
 whether of God's Word or of other books, is con- 
 stantly allowed to suffer. How many of the clergy 
 fall into the habit of literally reading nothing but 
 the newspaper, an occasional article in a review, 
 and some very little which they need for the com- 
 position of their sermons. No wonder we have 
 complaints of feeble preaching, and sermons with 
 nothing in them to carry away. We have helps 
 in our study of the Bible such as our forefathers 
 never dreamt of. This is an age of commen- 
 taries, and none need be without abundant help 
 to the understanding of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 Then, next, always have in hand some really 
 standard book. If I were asked to suggest a 
 plan of reading, I should recommend a threefold 
 division of study — i. Holy Scripture ; 2. One of 
 the old fathers ; 3 . One of our standard English 
 divines. Those who can give three hours to study 
 might take all three divisions the same day. 
 Those with less time might take the two latter on 
 alternate days, the Bible being studied daily. 
 
 It is an important thing to make notes of your 
 reading, and to copy out any very striking pas- 
 sage or sentence in a commonplace book for 
 future reference. 
 
 What I have said refers to the special duty of 
 
The Eqtiipiiient. 2 5 
 
 the study of Holy Scripture, and of sucli books 
 as help to the understanding of it, such as do 
 more or less all theological works of any value. 
 
 I would however utter a caution against a too 
 exclusive adherence to one class of books. There 
 is certainly a danger of cramping the mind, and 
 losing power and sympathy by unfamiliarity with 
 other classes of literature. It is surely well for 
 those who have leisure to make their reading 
 more varied, and to train and cultivate their 
 minds by some little study of history, biography, 
 natural science, and poetry. I have placed poetry 
 last, because perhaps less time should be given to 
 it than to other branches of literature, but I value 
 it very highly as a refining and softening and 
 enriching element in the training of the heart as 
 well as in the education of the intellect. 
 
 And now I must say no more, conscious as I am 
 of how little I have said of all that might be said. 
 If, however, I have left upon your minds the 
 impression of the necessity, first, of personal holi- 
 ness, and secondly, of intellectual training, as the 
 chief branches of the preparation for the pastoral 
 office, without which it must be dwarfed and 
 barren and impotent, I have efiected what I 
 desired. 
 
 May the Holy Spirit sanctify our hearts and 
 enlighten our understandings through Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
II. 
 
 ©auQcre anb difficulties. 
 
( 29 ) 
 
 II. 
 
 DANGERS AND DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 I ONCE, before conducting a retreat, sent a letter 
 to eacli of the clergy wlio were to be present, ask- 
 ing him to write to me anonymously (if lie cared 
 to do so) suggesting any hindrances or difficul- 
 ties in his life and work which he would like me 
 to touch upon. I received several such letters, 
 and they were very useful to me in guiding my 
 remarks. And since what others have found to 
 be their chief dangers and difficulties, are very 
 likely to be yours also, I think I cannot do 
 better than take the principal topics thus sug- 
 gested to me, and say to you very much what I 
 then said to them. 
 
 I. Over-familiarity ivith the things of God. — 
 This danger was especially felt in respect of 
 frequency of Communion without due preparation, 
 and multiplication of services perfunctorily dis- 
 charged. Oh, how true this is ! So true that I 
 have known those who have sensitively shrunk from 
 this great frequency of stated acts of devotion from 
 a dread of their deadening effect. I once heard 
 a clergyman say, his Daily Prayer in Church had 
 
30 Dangers and Difficnlties. 
 
 become perfectly dreadful to him from its unrea- 
 lity. I think this was only a passing phase, 
 and I am sure there must have been a fault 
 somewhere. My own experience is that Daily 
 Prayer grows in the using to be more and more 
 of a strength and comfort. But we are all of 
 us often conscious of the peril of unreality. It 
 is hard to keep the inner spirit on a level with 
 the outer utterance of devotion. Well, shall we 
 then accept the lower level, and give up what we 
 so often find dull formal and unprofitable ? Nay, 
 it is a dangerous thing to shrink from privileges, 
 because ourselves unable to rise to their enjoy- 
 ment. Surely the truer better thing is to struggle 
 manfully upward to the higher level. Let us lift 
 ourselves, not lower our surroundings. I suppose 
 our Daily Prayer, or the daily saying of the office 
 alone where its public use is for any reason 
 impracticable, is a very good test of our spiritual 
 state. We ought surely to learn to use it, and so 
 to love it, better and better. Do not let us be 
 overmuch cast down, if at times we are very cold 
 and dry. If we are habitually so, then there must 
 be something much amiss. If we cannot pray in 
 our Daily Prayer, I think we shall find our private 
 prayers are poor and scanty. Perhaps it may reveal 
 to us the startling fact that we are not men of 
 prayer. And if we are not men of prayer, can 
 we be fit to lead the souls of our people to the 
 throne of grace ? Then as to frequent Commu- 
 
Dangers and Dijficulties. 3 1 
 
 nions. Tliere are, of course, times of tlie year 
 when to every priest they must be very frequent. 
 At Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas, when we 
 should strive that all our people should have the 
 privilege of Holy Communion, most clergymen 
 would be celebrating almost daily, for a week or 
 two, for the sick and infirm, in addition to the 
 celebrations in church. This outward familiarity 
 with this most solemn and blessed service is full 
 of peril if there is no corresponding spirit of devo- 
 tion within. Do let us take care lest we fall into 
 the condemnation of the Corinthians, and by our 
 careless approach and superficial observance eat 
 and drink judgment to ourselves. I do not say 
 it is necessary to make any lengthy formal pre- 
 paration in such cases of frequency. Eather 
 what is necessary is to live a prepared life — a life 
 so near to God, so full of holy communings with 
 Him, that to turn aside to this special act of wor- 
 ship and of approach to Him, should not be to turn 
 far out of the way. Our Eucharists should be only 
 like the higher points in a high mountain region. 
 I am sure it is possible to be very constantly occu- 
 pied with holy things, and yet not to lose one 
 particle of reverence and awe. But it all depends 
 on the correspondence of the outer and inner life. 
 If the acts of frequent worship are active energies, 
 they will not suffer by their frequency. It is pas- 
 sive impressions which are weakened, while active 
 energies are strengthened, by repetition. 
 
32 Dangers and DiffictUties. 
 
 2 . Serving TaUes. — A large amount of secular 
 work falls upon tlie Clergy, — in large parishes 
 because there is so much to be done, in small 
 parishes because there are so few to do it. It is 
 very common to find the Clergy complaining of 
 the demands made upon their time and thought 
 by the keeping of accounts, the constant super- 
 vision of the parochial machinery, the arranging 
 of services, meetings, etc. I am quite sure that 
 the more we can enlist the services of our laity 
 in all such matters the better, — the better for 
 ourselves, the better for them, and the better for 
 the Church. One of the greatest hindrances to 
 all Church life in the past has been the habit of 
 leaving everything to the Clergy. It is here that 
 our dissenting friends have most manifestly out- 
 stripped us. They certainly were before us in 
 perceiving that the secret of life and unity of 
 action and hearty interest is to give every one 
 something to do. Never mind how humble or 
 how small the semce may be, the man or woman 
 who undertakes to do something for a cause 
 becomes at once a zealous and interested adhe- 
 rent. Thank God, the Laity of the Church have 
 awoke at last to their duties and their rights. I 
 have heard the Bishop of London speak of the 
 astonishment with which, many years ago, he 
 received the offer of an Officer in the Guards to 
 undertake some work for the Church. We are 
 so familiar now with the volunteer work of thou- 
 
Dangers and Difficulties. 3 3 
 
 sands of earnest manly unpretending lajmen, 
 and still more, of course, witli that of multitudes 
 of self-denying devoted women, tliat we can 
 hardly realise how rapid has been the growth of 
 such noble efforts, nor how short a time ago 
 much of what we now take as a matter of course 
 would have been looked upon as eccentric and 
 Quixotic. When we have Prime Ministers acting 
 as Lay Eeaders, and Lord Chancellors as Sunday 
 Teachers, at one end of the social scale, and 
 working men, in their guilds and associations, 
 enthusiastic in aiding the mission work of the 
 Church, and in teaching and influencing their 
 fellows, at the other end, we may surely thank 
 God and take courage. All this is good and 
 wholesome and full of promise. And yet acces- 
 sion of workers does not always diminish work. 
 Work has a way of growing under our hands, 
 and however much hearty co-operation we may 
 secure from our Laity, there is sure to be much of 
 a secular, or quasi-secular, character still left for 
 us to do. Therefore, simply entreating you never 
 to lose an opportunity of associating with your- 
 selves your lay parishioners in everything in 
 which you can employ their services, and espe- 
 pecially in all matters of finance, I would ask. 
 How shall we meet this difiiculty of the distrac- 
 tion of much secular work ? It is hard (so men 
 complain) to preserve spirituality of mind in the 
 midst of many anxious cares and engrossing 
 
 c 
 
34 Dangers and Difficulties, 
 
 matters of business. No doubt it is. It is liard to 
 preserve spirituality of mind under any conditions. 
 I do not know that the hermits found it parti- 
 cularly easy, even without the embarrassment of 
 offertory accountSj and school accounts, and parish 
 clubs, and mothers' meetings. But what if our 
 work were wholly busied with these things ? 
 what if our calling were entirely secular ? It is, 
 at worst, only partially so now. We may surely 
 thank God that our work is at least in part occu- 
 pied with the things of God. We have all of us 
 at least the discipline of our stated services, the 
 preparation of our sermons and instructions, the 
 many sermons and instructions preached to us 
 from the sickbeds of our people. All this ought 
 to help us much. It ought to be a safeguard — 
 it ^s, if rightly used, a safeguard — against the 
 undue incidence of the secular side of our work. 
 But surely the secular work itself may be so 
 received and so used as to sanctify and glorify it. 
 First of all, it must be done ; and in large part we 
 must do it. Let us receive it as God's appoint- 
 ment, as a task which He sets us. It is not 
 your choice to do this particular work, but His. 
 He has marked out this path for you. You will 
 not be allowed to suffer, if you walk quite simply 
 and naturally, as well as humbly and contentedly, 
 in the path of plain duty. That path is always 
 safe. Then, next, hallow the work, whatsoever 
 it be, by offering it as a sacrifice to God. It is 
 
Dangers and Difficulties. 35 
 
 to you a sacrifice, — a sacrifice of time, taste, 
 trouble, choice. Every sacrifice offered with a 
 pure heart and a submissive will is accepted 
 through the one all-prevailing sacrifice of Him who 
 " pleased not Himself" And then, once more, 
 mingle the spiritual with the secular by frequent 
 acts of faith and prayer. The real danger is of 
 letting the secular creep into the spiritual, mar- 
 ring and chilling our prayers and our devotional 
 reading, lowering the tone of our life. So we will 
 make the spiritual creep into the secular, tinctur- 
 ing it with its own sweet fragrance. A secret 
 upward glance of the soul towards God shall bring 
 down His light and blessing even upon the weary 
 details and barren figures of our table serving. 
 
 3. Narrowness and Professionalism. — This is 
 a danger the very opposite to the last. It is so 
 easy for one engaged in spiritual work to cherish 
 what may be called caste or class prejudices, to 
 become narrow, one-sided, unsympathetic, to lose 
 power and influence by a self-induced ignorance 
 of the feelings and opinions of those beyond the 
 circumscribed circle of his own religious aflSni- 
 ties. I know it is hard to become " all things 
 " to all men " without becoming less than men of 
 God. I know it is hard to love and understand 
 and feel for the worldly without oneself becoming 
 worldly. I know that the man who descends into 
 the plain runs a risk of the malaria. I know that 
 one who enters into society that he may learn the 
 
36 Dangers and Difficulties. 
 
 drift of the thought of the day, or who goes among 
 the eager restless spirits of the working classes 
 that he may understand their ways of regarding 
 the great problems which occupy them, or who 
 reads the terrible literature of the infidel press 
 that he may find out what he has to meet and 
 grapple with, must do so with some peril to his 
 own soul. Yet the peril is surely worth risking. 
 At any rate, the mere professional parson is not 
 likely, however earnest and devoted, to do much 
 to influence the great waves of thought or of feel- 
 ing which are sweeping over the land, and are 
 doing so much to change and modify its moral 
 and social and religious outlines and features. I 
 do not deny that he may do — I do not deny 
 that in many cases it is best he should content 
 himself with doing — a very blessed work of 
 simple pastoral tendence within the limits of 
 his own flock. This at least he ought to do, 
 whether he do more than this or no. But some 
 must do more, or the place and power of the 
 Church in the world will soon be lost to her. I 
 cannot but think that, however uncomfortable 
 the process might be, we should learn many a 
 valuable lesson, if we could only now and then 
 overhear the conversation of outsiders, whether 
 of the men of speculative thought in one class or 
 of those of drastic action in another, concerning the 
 Church and her Clergy. It would not be very com- 
 plimentary, no doubt, but we might pick up some 
 
Dangers and Difjimlties. 3 7 
 
 useful hints as to how to make our teaching more 
 helpful to souls, more direct in its bearing on the 
 great questions which are stirring the minds of 
 the people, and less apparently unreal and beside 
 the mark. We want to be, as I have tried to 
 impress on you as earnestly as I can, men of 
 God, men of prayer, men of a spiritual mind. 
 And yet we want not to lag behind, or to soar 
 above, or to travel on a different line from, the 
 thought and stir and movement of the age. We 
 want to be holy priests without professionalism ; 
 faithful teachers of definite truth without narrow- 
 ness ; self-denying in our lives without exclusive- 
 ness. Oh, how hard it is to long after and strive 
 after habits of devotion without pharisaism ; to 
 love solitude and prayer and the study of God's 
 Word without censoriousness ; to fast and deny 
 oneself without bitterness and uncharitableness ; 
 to be rich in good works without self-im- 
 portance ; to have (like the Psalmist) all one's 
 delight upon the saints which are in the earth 
 without coldness and ungraciousness towards 
 others ! All this does need much grace, much 
 prayer, much watchfulness. There is another 
 phase of the narrowness and professionalism I am 
 speaking of which is so common that I cannot 
 forbear alluding to it. It is the want of sym- 
 pathy and consideration for those who belong to 
 a different school of religious thought, or who do 
 not understand or appreciate minor points of 
 
38 Dangers and Difficulties. 
 
 usage witli wliicli we have become familiar, or 
 wliich we find of value to our own souls. Oh, 
 if only our Clergy could learn a little self- 
 repression ! How often have I witnessed some 
 little act or habit, quite insignificant in itself, 
 which I have felt sure must be irritating and dis- 
 tracting to at least some of those present ! A 
 short time ago, for example, I was present at an 
 Early Communion which was attended by a 
 gentleman who had withdrawn from the Church 
 from a prejudice against one or two little prac- 
 tices. It was to me very painful to see the 
 Curate in administering the Cup making with it 
 the sign of the cross in the face of this man. 
 Surely there was in such an act a strange absence 
 of thoughtful consideration for a weak brother. 
 It could not fail to distract and to disturb. It was 
 likely enough to prevent his coming again. A 
 quick perception of the feelings of others, and 
 a gracious tenderness for such feelings, even if 
 mistaken, are gifts to be coveted and cherished. 
 Do let us avoid by our words or by our actions 
 constituting ourselves the ministers of a party. 
 God commits to us the cure of souls of a parish 
 and not of a party. We want large-heartedness, 
 breadth of sympathy, tender considerateness, to- 
 wards all ; and surely we can have these without 
 lowering our standard or compromising our prin- 
 ciples. I suppose, if we could only go about as 
 Jesus did, bearing with us a deep and abiding 
 
Dangers and Difficulties. 39 
 
 sense of our oneness with God, and a no less deep 
 and abiding sense of our oneness with man, 
 mindful of both the Divine and the human with- 
 in us, loving God and loving man, we should 
 want few rules for our conduct. Intense realisa- 
 tion of God's presence, balanced by intense 
 sympathy with our fellow-man, would make us 
 faithful in our sacred office, and yet true to our 
 great common humanity. 
 
 4. Too much to do. — Many a parish priest in a 
 large town parish knows only too well what this 
 means. Such a multitude of things are expected 
 of him. From his early morning service till he 
 wearily puts away his books or his writing at 
 night he has no rest, no time for thought, no 
 quiet moments. One thing succeeds another 
 without intermission. He lives in a rush all day 
 long. It is of no use setting apart an hour for 
 devotion or for study. It is sure to be broken in 
 upon. His life is one of action. His prayers 
 suffer. He has to be early at Church, and has 
 gone to bed late and tired. His reading suffers, 
 or is most likely thrust out altogether. His cha- 
 racter suffers, becoming dry, formal, hasty, and 
 perhaps even impatient and irritable. In this 
 busy hurrying age I suppose this incessant occu- 
 pation cannot be avoided. All we can do is to 
 mitigate the evil and try to counteract it. God 
 has placed us where we are. The circumstances 
 in which we find ourselves are His ordaininof. He 
 
40 Dangers and Diffiailties. 
 
 means us to use tliem to His glory and our own 
 self-discipline. So we will say of this busy en- 
 grossing life of ours, first of all, This is God's 
 will, and here is God's work. And then we will 
 ask, How shall I best fulfil that will and do that 
 work ? To accept our busy life in this spirit will 
 of itself rob it of much of its hardening and dis- 
 tracting power. But let me make some simple 
 suggestions, (a) It is quite certain that a life of 
 incessant outward occupation must be hardening 
 and distracting unless accompanied by the spirit 
 of a high and pure inner life. In other words, 
 there must be, through and in all this busy exter- 
 nality, the true living by faith. We must endure 
 " as seeing Him that is invisible." There must 
 accompany us the sense of a Presence, a Life, a 
 Power, above and beyond all these outward things. 
 There must be a constant realising of the Un- 
 seen. Forgive me for quoting the familiar lines — 
 lines which no frequency of quotation can rob of 
 their exquisite truth and beauty : — 
 
 " There are, in this loud stunning tide 
 Of human care and crime, 
 With whom the melodies abide 
 
 Of the everlasting chime ; 
 Who carry music in their heart 
 Through dusky lane and wrangling mart, 
 Plying their daily task with busier feet 
 Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat." 
 
 (/S) For a very busy life Ejaculatory Prayer is a 
 
Dangers and Dijfictilties. 4 1 
 
 first necessity. It is the very voice of a living 
 faith. The flashing of the secret thought God- 
 wards is the conscious utterance of the faith which 
 realises God's presence. I know a suggestion of 
 an easier course is always perilous, and therefore 
 I almost hesitate to make it ; but yet perhaps it 
 may be that, in very busy lives and in very rest- 
 less temperaments, this habit of ejaculatory prayer 
 may be allowed to supply the lack of the larger 
 and more formal devotions possible in a life of 
 greater leisure. At any rate the constant occu- 
 pation cannot be doing much harm so long as 
 there is this frequent turning in secret thoughts 
 of prayer and praise to God. (y) For those 
 engaged in a life of distracting care I would espe- 
 cially recommend the occasional use of Retreats 
 or Quiet Days, when for a fixed time, from a few 
 hours to two or three days, all business is put 
 away, and the whole time and thoughts occupied 
 with spiritual concerns. I can hardly over-esti- 
 mate the value of such seasons to those who com- 
 plain that they have too much to do. I always 
 look back to the first Retreat I attended, lasting 
 for three whole days, as the most blessed and 
 helpful time I ever spent in my whole life. Of 
 course a good deal depends upon the wisdom and 
 power of the conductor, but more, I think, upon 
 the entire absence of distraction and the entire 
 concentration of the whole being upon the sim- 
 plest personal aspects of religion. (8) I will make 
 
42 Dangers and Difficulties, 
 
 one more suggestion of a very different nature, but 
 perhaps not without its value. Be methodical 
 in your use of time. Make a scheme for its regular 
 systematic use, even if it is often impossible 
 to carry it out. Be scrupulously punctual. And 
 make a careful use of your fragments of time. It 
 is wonderful how much can be got through by 
 these means. A great deal of study, or writing, 
 or other work, can be done by a resolute will in 
 odd quarters of hours, and very often we can get 
 no more. Nothing is more commonly said than 
 that, if you want something done, you will have a 
 much better chance of getting it done by a busy 
 man than by an idle one, and this simply because 
 the former has learnt the secret of economising his 
 time. 
 
 5. Too little to do. — We do not know much 
 of this danger in East London. But in a small 
 country parish, oh how easy it is to fall into 
 indolent ways ! Perhaps the one external thing 
 most to be dreaded by a young clergyman who 
 has not gained habits of study, and who has 
 not self-command enough to devise wholesome 
 employment for his spare time, is a parish with 
 too little to do. I confess I often hear with- 
 out any great pang of sorrow how difficult it 
 is to get a good curate for such a parish. It 
 seems to me a most hopeful sign, full of happy 
 auguries for the future, that almost all our 
 young candidates for Holy Orders who are really 
 
Dangers and Difficttlties. 43 
 
 in earnest (and tlie great bulk of them are really 
 in earnest) seek curacies where there is plenty 
 of work. This is as it should be. Still the small 
 country parishes have to be served. Some must 
 go to them. And it is well to be forewarned. 
 I know something of Welsh dioceses, and there 
 are parts of England not altogether dissimilar 
 in their circumstances ; and I can conceive few 
 positions of greater risk to the character than 
 that of a young curate in some very remote 
 parish, where perhaps all the most religious 
 people are Dissenters, where there is scarcely 
 any society, and no sympathy, where it is hard 
 to find any brother clergyman to give him 
 counsel, to help and guide him, and where he 
 himself has no tastes or pursuits to make his 
 leisure a blessing. No wonder we hear of sad 
 cases of young men falling under the tempta- 
 tions of such a life. If any young man destined, 
 for some good reason, for such a parish, were to 
 consult me as to the best way of guarding 
 against the dangers of excessive leisure, I should 
 say, Eead, read, read. We have not too many 
 well-read clergy. It is one of the evil results of 
 the high pressure of so many of our lives that 
 we cannot find time for study. So, if God gives 
 you leisure, use it to His glory by patient and 
 systematic study. If two or three neighbouring 
 clergy can meet together weekly for an hour or 
 two for study of their Greek Testament, they will 
 
44 Dangers and Difficulties. 
 
 gather mucli from interchange of ideas, and will 
 find tlieir power of handling Holy Scripture in 
 their teaching of their people greatly increased. 
 I need scarcely add that in this, as in all other 
 perils, the only true safety lies in secret devotion 
 and holiness of living. Act on high principle. 
 Live as one should live who forgets not that his 
 life is lent him by God. Say often, God, my 
 time is Thine. The very minutes are Thine. 
 I have no right to waste what is Thine. Oh ! 
 make me a good steward of the time given me 
 wherein to work ; for the night cometh wherein 
 no man can work. Let me work while it is 
 day. 
 
 6. Cowardice. — What is the squire's notion of 
 a model parson ? He is a man of great tact. 
 (Tact, by the way, is with a good many people 
 the very bond of all virtues.) He knows the 
 world too well to give offence. He can shut 
 his eyes when necessary. He has too much 
 common sense to quarrel with his parishioners, 
 especially with his rich ones. Well ; this is 
 not exactly one's idea of a brave faithful parish 
 priest. Wisdom and prudence and tact are 
 good things, and their absence often destroys 
 the practical value of better things still, only 
 let us take care that we do not make them a 
 cloak for cowardice. We are cowards as to 
 trouble, and shrink from speaking out lest it 
 bring unpleasant discussion. We are cowards as 
 
Dangei's and Dijjicultics, 45 
 
 to the opinion of others, and shrink from using 
 rebuke lest we should offend. Yet even on the 
 lowest ground we are wrong. A loving rebuke, 
 ay, even an indignant rebuke where deserved, 
 wins respect in the end. I have known rough 
 bad men speak with great respect of the faith- 
 ful words of a curate after he had left, though 
 they might not have seemed to care for him 
 when among them, and he had not much tact. 
 He spoke honestly, and men admire honesty. A 
 dear friend of mine, a clergyman by no means 
 deficient in geniality, being most popular in 
 society, was asked to dinner in a well-known 
 hunting neighbourhood, and met a company of 
 hunting men, one of whom used bad language at 
 the dinner table. I am told that the effect on 
 the company (we will hope not alone on that one 
 occasion) was most salutary, when my friend, 
 looking this man in the face, said, " Sir, if you 
 '-'' have no respect for me, I think you might have 
 " some for yourself." There was no room for tact 
 there : therefore boldness was the true policy. 
 But there is no reason why rebuke should not be 
 given with tact and wisdom. For instance, a 
 gentleman will often receive a rebuke kindly, if 
 it be accompanied by the assurance that no one 
 shall ever know that you have named the matter 
 to him. " Keprove, rebuke, exhort, with all 
 ^' long-suffering and doctrine." Cowardice very 
 often results in minor untruthfulness. There is 
 
46 Dangers and Difficulties, 
 
 a vast amount of insincerity in social conversa- 
 tion, flowing partly from a dim appreciation of 
 the beauty and dignity of absolute truth, and 
 partly from a fear of displeasing by difference of 
 opinion. Sometimes this insincerity takes the 
 form of a sort of double-facedness in intercourse 
 with persons of opposite views. God forbid that 
 I should blame the honest wish to recognise the 
 best in all, and to cherish a true and lively sym- 
 pathy for all that is good wherever to be found. 
 God knows there is enough of seizing upon points 
 of difference. Yet truth is sacred, and truthful- 
 ness is a high Christian grace, and to " speak the 
 " very truth from the heart " is the best use of the 
 gift of speech. A statesman recently dead (Mr. 
 Spring-Eice) used to say, he judged a man by his 
 answer to the first question he put to him. if 
 he answered simply what he thought and believed, 
 he was his fast friend : if he answered what he 
 thought would do, he cared no more about him. 
 It is a great temptation to most of us to answer 
 what we think will do. This is cowardice, and 
 it entails unreality, insincerity, minor untruthful- 
 ness. 
 
 7. Necessary intercourse with other Clergy whose 
 standard is low and whose life is careless, — This 
 is a serious trial and difiiculty to some. A young 
 man goes into a new neighbourhood, fresh from 
 the holy influence of his Ordination. At first he 
 almost seems to feel the abiding impress of the 
 
Dangers and Difficulties, 4 7 
 
 consecrating hands. The gift needs no stirring 
 up. He is full of loyal devotion, of noble aspira- 
 tions, of generous impulses of self-sacrifice, of 
 longings to spend and be spent for his Lord, of 
 yearnings for friends with whom he can take 
 sweet counsel, examples to nerve him to higher 
 enterprise, brothers with whom he can interchange 
 thoughts and words upon the deepest holiest 
 most momentous things which are filling his own 
 soul. Lo ! he meets his new friends and brothers. 
 They are kindly, good-natured to the stranger, 
 willing enough to enrol a new companion in their 
 ranks. But, as he begins to know them a little, 
 there is none to whom he can tell the things that 
 make his own soul tremble with eager emotion. 
 So far as he can see, they are commonplace, 
 perhaps frivolous, certainly with no enthusiasm for 
 their holy work. Can it be that he should ever find 
 something even below this ? Yes, in some neigh- 
 bourhoods certainly below this. He is thrown back, 
 disturbed, disheartened. Yet he must act. How 
 can he maintain his high aims and purposes with 
 these his only companions ? Yet how can he act 
 the odious part of setting himself up as better, 
 or at least as trying to be better, than these — his 
 seniors ? Ah ! it is a dangerous time. And we 
 have seen the dragging down. A bishop, who 
 shall be nameless, told me he had a large district 
 in his diocese into which he always trembled to 
 send a promising young curate, knov/ing that all 
 
48 Dangei's and Diffiadties. 
 
 the surrounding influences would be against Ms 
 maintaining a higli level of life or of work. That 
 was some ten years ago. Ten years have altered 
 many things. Perhaps they have altered this. 
 But how to steer between the Scylla of un- 
 worthy compliance and the Charybdis of appa- 
 rent self-righteousness — that is the problem our 
 young deacon sits down with a heavy heart to 
 try and answer. Well ; God's grace is sufficient 
 for him, and by prayer and humility he may pass 
 safely through. But he must be ready to cause 
 ofience rather than lower his standard in any 
 least degree. Very quietly, very gently, very 
 humbly, he must take his own way, and if he 
 has failed to find the earthly support he hoped 
 for, he must cast himself more entirely on the 
 heavenly. He has his parish. He has the souls 
 which Jesus died to save. He can devote him- 
 self the more to these. And, if he thus surmount 
 the trial, if he be thus seen to go on his way 
 with patient unflinching resoluteness, yet with 
 sweetness of humility and self-forgetfulness, he is 
 almost sure to have the inexpressible joy of seeing 
 some one stirred by his example to aim higher — 
 some weak but well-intentioned brother nerved 
 to take his stand more firmly for Christ, and per- 
 chance he may even be called and permitted in 
 time to counsel and help those from whom he 
 had himself looked for counsel and help in 
 vain. 
 
Dangers mid Difficidties. 49 
 
 8. One more danger and distress, among those 
 brouglit before me, I will name. It is simply — 
 
 Indolence. — This evil takes many shapes. It 
 is often constitutional, and a symptom of imper- 
 fect bodily health. It manifests itself both out- 
 wardly and inwardly. It is often the hidden, 
 sometimes the unsuspected, cause of other more 
 open sins. I can only touch upon some of its 
 more obvious form^ hoping that the mere men- 
 tion of the evil habits which have become so 
 inveterate in others, and have caused them so 
 much distress of soul, may warn the young to 
 guard against their approach, and to be very 
 watchful in resisting the insidious beginnings of 
 sloth and indolence. One man is beset with an 
 inordinate love of sleep, not fought against, but 
 indulged till it has become a habit, and seems 
 now insuperable. Another is constantly giv- 
 ing way to late rising, so that prayer is hur- 
 ried, and there is httle or no time for reading 
 or meditation. Another takes refuge from un- 
 welcome duties, such as devotion, study, careful 
 preparation of sermons, and self-discipline, in 
 outward activity and carefulness for those parts 
 of his duty which are easier and pleasanter to 
 him. Another groans over his distaste for 
 mental exertion, so that, while ready enough to 
 show all diligence in outward labours, he avoids 
 the trouble of arranging his thoughts for medi- 
 tation, of preparing heads of prayer or questions 
 
 D 
 
50 Dangers and Difficitlties. 
 
 of self-examination for liis own private use, and 
 the like, as thougli his own spiritual life might 
 be left to take care of itself. His indolence 
 even shows itself in his use of unvarying private 
 prayer, since it requires some little spiritual 
 effort to plead with God in spontaneous language, 
 the utterance of a heart full of living force and 
 energy. Once more, indolence is often the 
 parent of unmethodical ways, by which much is 
 left undone that should be done, and much ill 
 done that should be well done. These are some 
 of the forms which the sin of sloth takes. One 
 thing, under this head, I should like to impress 
 upon you very earnestly. Do fight against spiri- 
 tual indolence. It is strange how much harder 
 inward activity is than outward ; how the spirit 
 yields to a sloth and lassitude of habit which 
 the body resists. God make us all more fervent 
 in spirit, and, casting out of us these evil things, 
 make us to be '' full of the Holy Ghost and of 
 " power." Amen. 
 
III. 
 Ipaetoral IDieitation* 
 
( 53 ) 
 
 III. 
 
 PASTORAL VISITATION. 
 
 That " a house-going parson makes a church- 
 " going people " is a saying verified by every day's 
 experience. Only a certain proportion — in some 
 places a very small proportion — of the people 
 come habitually and as a matter of course to 
 church. Therefore we must go to them. We 
 have our message to speak, and if our people fail 
 to come and hear us speak it in one place, it is 
 plain we must try to get them to listen in another. 
 They are not very likely to come to church to 
 hear what we have got to say unless they think 
 we have something we are very anxious to tell 
 them and which is worth the telling. But they 
 will not think we can have any great anxiety in 
 the matter if we do not seek them out and show 
 them that we really do long to help them and 
 that we really do believe in the infinite import- 
 ance of the things we speak about. What should 
 we think of a sanitary officer appointed over a 
 district in order to improve its sanitary condi- 
 tion, if he contented himself with giving stated 
 lectures on the general principles of his subject, 
 
54 Pastoral Visitation. 
 
 but never went among tlie people to instruct and 
 advise them, and to show how to carry out his 
 principles in -their homes and habits ? I really 
 am ashamed to plead for regular systematic pas- 
 toral visiting, it seems to me so essential a part 
 of the pastor's work, and yet I know that it is 
 necessary to enforce it ; for alas ! there is much 
 neglect of it, — sometimes through simple care- 
 lessness, sometimes through extreme distaste for 
 the work, and sometimes through the pressure 
 of other duties and occupations. Yet, even if 
 your people would come to church without it, 
 attracted, let us say, by your admirable preaching, 
 yet it is certain that the pastoral visit will often 
 impart just that which the sermon fails to impart. 
 The former can come to the point, and press 
 home the specially-needed lesson, while the latter 
 can only deal with general truths which the 
 hearer must apply for himself I believe it is one 
 of the good Hammond's quaint sayings, in which, 
 comparing the effects of preaching with those of 
 separate personal dealing with individuals, he 
 asks, ' If you had a number of narrow-necked 
 
 * vessels to fill with water (and which of us is 
 ^ not a narrow-necked vessel ?) would you suc- 
 ' ceed best by getting them all together in a room 
 ' and flinging bucketfuls over them, or by pour- 
 
 * ing a little into the mouth of each ? ' 
 
 The subject naturally divides itself into the two 
 branches of the Visitation of the whole^ and the 
 
Pastoral Visitatioji. 55 
 
 Visitation of the sick ; and I will speak of them 
 separately. 
 
 Let me however, first of all, make some general 
 remarks applicable to both. The pastor should, as 
 a rule, spend some part of each day in his parish 
 among his people. In general the afternoon is the 
 most suitable time, though cases of sickness must 
 be dealt with according to their special circum- 
 stances. I have endeavoured to gather, by con- 
 sultation with various parish priests, some idea of 
 the number of pastoral visits which may be accom- 
 plished profitably, that is, without undue haste on 
 the one hand, and without undue weariness and 
 exhaustion on the other. Of course parishes differ 
 very greatly, a larger number of visits being pos- 
 sible in a crowded town parish than in a scattered 
 country one. Several of the clergy in East London 
 have assured me that it is quite within the power 
 of a man in good health to pay eight or ten visits 
 a day, partly to the sick, and partly to the whole. 
 It is not to be supposed that a clergyman can 
 find himself free for this work every day. There 
 will be necessary interruptions. I think, however, 
 an active earnest parish priest in a large town 
 parish ought not to be content to pay less than 
 thirty-six to forty visits weekly. For a great 
 many years I kept a strict account of all my 
 visits in a large scattered country parish of from 
 1500 to 1600 souls, and I found that, reckoning 
 all the fifty-two weeks in the year, that is, inclu- 
 
56 Pastoral Visitation, 
 
 sive of holidays, it was easy to average twenty- 
 two to twenty-three visits a week for the whole 
 year. I was more engaged from home than 
 many, having various duties to perform as Eural 
 Dean, Diocesan Inspector of schools for the deanery, 
 Proctor in Convocation, &c., so that this average is 
 rather low. In Lent, when parochial work was 
 least interrupted, and I endeavoured to visit every 
 house in the parish, I found it frequently possible 
 to pay from forty to fifty visits in the week, and 
 sometimes more. Perhaps I ought not to omit a 
 hint that there is a danger to be guarded against 
 in counting visits. I have known a clergyman boast 
 of the number of visits he has paid, when I have 
 found that they have been most brief and formal. 
 
 In parishes where the population is so small 
 that they can be visited as often as you please, the 
 question is not, ' How many visits should be paid 
 * in the day or in the week ? ' but, ' How often is 
 ' it desirable that the people should be visited ? ' 
 There is such a thing as overdoing it, and there 
 are small villages where the Church's system is a 
 little inclined to be grandmotherly. My impres- 
 sion is that in small parishes it is desirable to 
 visit each house about once in six weeks. 
 
 Do let me urge you all to keep a careful diary 
 of your work. You will find it most valuable, not 
 only for reference, so as to regulate your visits 
 systematically, but also as a test of your dili- 
 gence and perseverance. 
 
Pastoral Visitation. 57 
 
 I will now speak more directly of the Visitation 
 of the whole. This is in one way the harder branch 
 of the two, because the purport of your visit is less 
 obvious, and the nature of it less definite. The 
 people will generally receive you kindly enough. 
 But here at once a difficulty meets us. Who are 
 the people who thus receive you kindly ? They 
 are almost always the women. The men are away 
 at work. And one of the dangers of our pastoral 
 work is its becoming feminine. We do want to 
 get at the men. We do want to know and under- 
 stand the thoughts and feelings and wants and 
 difficulties of the strong working men of our flocks. 
 But, as we go about from house to house, we meet 
 with only the women. Well, women have souls, 
 and, besides, they have much influence over their 
 husbands, and more over their children. So, if we 
 have perforce to deal mostly with them, we must 
 do our best ; and, if we are not contented with this 
 feature in our pastoral visiting, at least we must 
 not despise it. The men are at home only in the 
 evening ; and when the man comes in tired, and 
 is waiting for his supper, it is not a propitious 
 moment to approach him. Very often he would 
 dislike being disturbed at such a time, and we 
 cannot be too careful to show all courtesy and con- 
 sideration for our people. We should treat them 
 with the same delicacy of thoughtful respect as 
 if they belonged to a higher class. But some- 
 thing can be done to get over this difficulty. 
 
58 Pasto7^al Visitation. 
 
 Sometimes we can ask tlie wife whether her 
 husband would like a call, saying how much we 
 should like to know him better, and offering to 
 look in at any hour most convenient to him, and 
 this little attention to his convenience will often 
 procure us a more cordial welcome than would be 
 accorded to an unexpected visit. If we meet 
 the man in a simple manly unpretending way, 
 studiously avoiding either lecturing on the one 
 hand or patronising on the other, he will not often 
 resent the visit, or fail to respond to our friendly 
 advances. I am disposed to think that we are 
 too much afraid of speaking about religion to 
 men. We often approach them as if we were be- 
 sieging some formidable stronghold, cutting our 
 parallels, masking our position, and waiting the 
 favourable moment, when a good honest rush 
 would have found the defences insignificant and 
 the fortress ready enough to capitulate. Work- 
 ing men are not mealy-mouthed in their way of 
 talking about things, and do not approach a sub- 
 ject in velvet slippers. They generally do not 
 understand our reserve and hesitation. My advice 
 would be to seize any opportunity of saying a 
 few honest straightforward words about religion, 
 showing plainly that that is the thing you care 
 about, without going on too long. One thing I 
 deprecate. Don't begin by saying, ' Why don't 
 ' you come to church ? ' That puts the man's 
 moral back up in a moment, and never gets him 
 
Pastoral Visitation. 59 
 
 a step nearer the churcli-door. What you want 
 to do is to get him to care about the things which 
 will bring him to church. At any rate let him 
 see that you have something deeper and more 
 fundamental to speak about first. Set some 
 truth, or some thought, working in his soul, and 
 you are more likely to get him to church than if 
 you put coming to church first (as many do, be- 
 cause it is easier to talk about,) as if it were the 
 beginning and end of all religion. I should like 
 to speak about other ways of getting hold of the 
 working men, such as by special services and 
 addresses for men (a most valuable and efficacious 
 means), by working-men's clubs, guilds, cricket- 
 clubs, &c. ; but these are foreign to my subject, 
 so I must do no more than name them. 
 
 As however I am speaking of men, I must not 
 forget that we have men of the upper classes to deal 
 with as well as our working men. If you could 
 ask the first hundred gentlemen you meet whether 
 they had ever been spoken to by a clergyman 
 about their souls, I wonder what would be the 
 number of affirmative answers. Except perhaps 
 during the time of preparation for Confirmation, 
 the vast majority have never had a single word 
 spoken to them on the most momentous of 
 subjects. I know how exceedingly difficult it is, 
 first of all to find the opportunity for such speech, 
 and then to avail oneself of the opportunity. 
 Yet I know also how thankful many and many a 
 
6o Pastoral Visitation. 
 
 layman would be to his clergyman, if only he 
 would summon up courage to speak out. I know 
 clergymen who habitually do so, and they tell me 
 with what thankful surprise and pleasure their 
 words are generally received. I have heard good 
 laymen mourn over the reticence of their clergy. 
 I have heard parents complain that their sons in 
 London, reading for the bar, in lawyers' offices, in 
 the medical schools, never get any help of the sort. 
 I believe numbers, to whom you would naturally 
 suspect that any serious conversation would be 
 unwelcome, would respond to any opening you 
 give them more than gladly. They do not want 
 to be careless and worldly. They do not want to 
 drift away from their old faith and their home 
 habits. And very often a few kind and honest 
 words may be just what is needed to save them 
 from the lapse that to the uncared-for soul is so 
 perilously easy. It will need great courage and 
 great tact to speak these words as they should be 
 spoken. Yet it is worth any effort and any 
 sacrifice of natural shyness and distaste. Only 
 there is one thing absolutely essential, and that is 
 that our words be real and truthful. We shall 
 speak to little effect unless it be true of us that 
 " we believe, and therefore speak." 
 
 The chief difficulty of an ordinary pastoral 
 visit is to make it pastoral. It is very apt to 
 degenerate into a mere friendly call. We can- 
 not always help this, and so long as we earnestly 
 
Pastoral Visitation. 6i 
 
 desire, and try as far as we can, to make our 
 visits profitable, we must not mind if at times 
 we fail. Yet it is well to remember that it is 
 not a very uncommon thing for it to be said, 
 ' The parson called to-day, but he said nothing 
 ' to do one any good, so he might as well have 
 ' stayed away.' A friendly visit has its uses, 
 and no doubt prepares the way for more direct 
 religious intercourse, but people expect more 
 than a friendly visit, and I have more than 
 once been ashamed, when I have paid a mere 
 friendly call on some poor family, and have been 
 taking my leave, to be asked, ^ Won't you say 
 * a prayer before you go ? ' 
 
 In a great many houses the children give 
 one a good opportunity for speaking of religious 
 matters, and you will find attention to, and in- 
 terest in, the children a great help with the 
 parents. 
 
 I have found it helpful occasionally to visit the 
 whole parish with one object before one, which one 
 can speak of in every house. Many years ago the 
 clergy of the diocese of St. Asaph were asked by 
 Bishop Short to obtain full particulars as to the 
 use or non-use of Family Prayer among their 
 people. This first suggested to me the plan, 
 which I carried out with one or two other 
 subjects, such as the use of Private Prayer, Bap- 
 tism, and Holy Communion, and, at the proper 
 times. Confirmation. Bible Reading would form 
 
62 Pastoral Visitation. 
 
 another very profitable subject. Very often, 
 especially among tbe simpler people in country 
 parishes, a kindly word of counsel will explain 
 and recommend a habit such as that of Family 
 Prayer or Bible Reading, which is neglected more 
 from thoughtlessness or habit than from deli- 
 berate choice. And very often the offer to come 
 yourself and begin such a practice will break 
 down the great shyness and reluctance which is 
 sure to be felt, and is by no means confined to 
 the working-classes. 
 
 I have had the working-classes in my mind 
 because our pastoral visiting is necessarily mostly 
 concerned with them. But in some parishes the 
 population is of a very different character, con- 
 sisting mainly of the upper or middle classes. 
 No doubt the difficulty with these is much 
 greater. I have never had the experience of 
 such a parish, but I have often thought that, 
 if I were to be placed in one, I should at once 
 prepare a short pastoral letter to be left at 
 every house, expressing my readiness to call as 
 a clergyman wherever my visits in that capacity 
 would be welcome, saying also how glad I should 
 be of any opportunity that might be afibrded 
 me of speaking to the servants, and stating how 
 thankfully I should visit regularly any cases of 
 sickness, of which I should be glad to have early 
 intimation. If you are that which you ought to 
 be, — one simply desirous of helping the souls of 
 
Pastoral Visitation. ^'i^ 
 
 your people, and one able to do so, — you will not 
 be allowed to complain of lack of opportunities 
 of usefulness. Bisliop Wilkinson of Truro had 
 a large parish mainly peopled by the upper 
 classes, and yet I do not think he ever found his 
 time hang heavy on his hands for want of pastoral 
 work among his flock. The difficulty with him 
 at any time was (as I have proved), to find a 
 disengaged half hour for some weeks tp come. 
 As I have named the servants, I may mention 
 that a Parochial Mission held in my parish first 
 opened to me the opportunity (then, alas ! first 
 asked for) of speaking to the servants in the 
 larger houses, and that this has been much 
 valued in several cases. Again when a family 
 in the country leaves home, it is often easy, 
 through the housekeeper or butler, to arrange 
 for a little address to be given to the assembled 
 servants, as well as for seeing them individually. 
 But I need hardly add that it is better to ask 
 permission from the head of the family first, lest 
 the eSbrt should be misunderstood. My little 
 experience makes me believe that the permission 
 would be readily enough granted in most cases. 
 Do not let us forget that servants form a very 
 important element in many parishes, and that 
 they are exposed to many peculiar temptations, 
 especially, I think, to luxury and selfishness, 
 being well fed and free from cares, and this 
 while excluded from the pastoral supervision 
 
64 Pastoral Visit atiori, 
 
 wliicli tliey would find in any well-ordered parish, 
 if living in their own homes. 
 
 I venture to mention how much may be done 
 by letter-writing. Letters are greatly valued. 
 When you are away for a holiday, or have a 
 favourable opportunity, the trouble will well 
 repay you. Especially would I ask you to take 
 this trouble for any one who has been in sorrow, 
 or with whom you have had special spiritual 
 intercourse. But I would give one caution. 
 Letters of reproof or rebuke seldom answer. 
 The reader will probably read into the letter a 
 tone you never meant it to have. For reproof 
 and rebuke there is nothing like a personal inter- 
 view. Go and tell a man his fault between him 
 and thee. If you do so very gently and kindly, 
 it will not often be resented. 
 
 I now turn to the Visitation of the sick. This 
 is perhaps the most solemn and responsible of 
 all our work, because it is, or ought to be, the 
 direct preparation of souls for eternity. All 
 individual dealing with souls in the things of 
 God is tremendous. Well might even the most 
 experienced of us shrink from it, if we realised 
 its true momentousness. So much may hang on 
 our wisdom, tact, earnestness, courage, patience, 
 nay, on our very manner. Which of us will 
 count himself a proficient in that " ars artium " 
 of St. Gregory the Great ? But, if the reponsi- 
 bility of personal dealing with souls is always 
 
Pastoral Visitation. 65 
 
 so great, how mucli the greater is it in the 
 time of sickness ! And yet if, on the one hand, 
 we feel deeply the awfulness of personal dealing 
 with a soul which may be so soon to pass 
 within the veil, its earthly probation ended, on 
 the other hand, how marvellously at such times 
 does God prepare the soul for the receiving 
 of our ministrations ! One finds the ground 
 ploughed up, and ready for the seed. And there 
 is really no part of our work more blessed. No- 
 where does God allow us so soon to see the direct 
 fruit of our labours. And perhaps no other part of 
 our work has larger indirect fruit also, for it is 
 a constant experience that faithful and helpful 
 ministrations by a sickbed have been blest, not 
 alone to the sufferer, but also to the winning of 
 relations and friends to the Church and to God. 
 
 Do let me say one thing over again, which I 
 have tried to say in various ways already. The 
 pastor who is to carry blessing to the bed of 
 sickness which he visits, must in all his life and 
 habits be such an one as his people would care 
 to send for. They must know him to be a man 
 of God. A secular habit or manner, anything 
 which could give the impression of frivolity or of 
 unreality, is a sad bar to that confidence on the 
 part of the sick person, without which it is hard 
 to do much. But chiefly the pastor's own soul 
 must be conversant with the things of which he 
 must speak. An empty soul cannot pour out 
 
 E 
 
66 Pastoral Visitatio^i. 
 
 blessings. We mustj like tlie Master, speak that 
 which we know. 
 
 But even if the clergyman is one whom his 
 people would welcome to a sickbed, they are 
 unhappily so unaccustomed in many places to 
 look to the Church for spiritual aid in the time 
 of their need, that the sick require to be sought 
 out. It does not do to wait till the sick person 
 acts upon the rubric and sends for you. You 
 will often hear of cases of sickness as you go 
 about your parish. Your district visitors should, 
 of course, be instructed at once to tell you of any 
 cases they may meet with or hear of. Take 
 every means of keeping yourselves well informed 
 of all cases of sickness, and when you hear of 
 one, go at once. Never put off. Sometimes you 
 will not succeed at first in gaining admittance. 
 Friends, or the doctor, have said that it is neces- 
 sary to keep the sick person very quiet. Any 
 excitement would be bad for him, and the sick 
 person is himself often nervous about the first 
 visit of a clergyman. He ought not to be about 
 the second. I never yet knew a sick person 
 made worse by the clergyman's visit. Of course 
 such a thing is possible, but it is very unlikely. 
 If you fail at first, go again and again. Never 
 give up. Ask if any particular time would be 
 more suitable. Tell the friends you would be 
 very short, but you feel sure a prayer and a few 
 words of Holy Scripture would comfort their sick 
 
Pastoral Visitation. 67 
 
 friend. If after all they decline, ask them to let 
 3^ou pray with them for their friend. 
 
 I cannot give any rules as to frequency of 
 visits. Very much must depend upon the size 
 of the parish, the number of the sick at any given 
 time, and the nature of their ailments. From 
 the chronic cases, which should be regularly 
 visited on special days, weekly, fortnightly, or 
 monthly, as the case may be, to the dying, who 
 have at the last to be seen several times in the 
 day, and to whom we must be ready to go at 
 any hour, night or day, paying at times prolonged 
 visits, at times sitting up at night, one has every 
 degree of urgency. 
 
 I have met with clergy who never visit the 
 sick, leaving it to a Bible-woman or district 
 visitor ! Surely such clergy entertain a sadly 
 unworthy idea of ministerial responsibility. 
 
 Now as to the visits themselves. Realise that 
 it is a dying and yet an undying soul that you 
 are to deal with. Go full of the thought of the 
 sacredness of the work, and go not without prayer. 
 Your cases of sickness should be daily laid before 
 God. Lift up a little secret prayer as you ap- 
 proach the house, and enter the house, or the 
 sick room, or both, with the salutation, ^' Peace 
 '' be to this house, and to all that dwell in it." 
 Then remember how much depends upon making 
 yourself acceptable. Be very gentle. Take care 
 not to speak loudly. Take with you an atmos- 
 
68 Pasioral Visitation. 
 
 pliere of calm and peace. Above all, avoid talk- 
 ing of common things. If not very ill, sick people 
 will try, from a nervous dread of approacking 
 more serious subjects, to turn tke conversation 
 into any trivial ckannel. 
 
 It is often very hard at first to ascertain the 
 state of the sick person's soul. You cannot ask 
 searching questions all at once. You must at 
 first be more or less general, except where pre- 
 vious intimacy gives you the requisite knowledge. 
 But you can bring home the needful points one 
 by one quietly yet clearly, trusting that God will 
 enable you to touch the conscience and to move 
 the heart. 
 
 Now this suggests the question how far it is 
 wise, or even imperative, to use in all cases the 
 service for the visitation of the sick in the 
 Prayer-book. I should answer that it certainly 
 is not imperative, but that it is very wise to take 
 it for your guidance and direction. At any rate, 
 it gives you the elements of a complete system, 
 and the outline of what must ever be kept in 
 mind. There are five main features in the ser- 
 vice, — Prayer, Psalmody, Exhortation, Faith, and 
 Kepentance. It is obviously impossible to intro- 
 duce all these features in one visit, nor is it neces- 
 sary to deal with them in the exact order in 
 which they occur in the service. I suppose 
 Prayer and Psalmody are placed first, because 
 they are fitting in all cases, and should be used 
 
Pastoral Visitation. 69 
 
 even if you have, owing to the extremity of the 
 sickness, no time to go on to anything else. We 
 want much freedom in dealing with the sick, and 
 shall be much hampered if we bind ourselves too 
 strictly to the actual Prayer-book Service. Espe- 
 cially do we need great freedom in prayer ; and 
 extempore prayer, if calm, deliberate, and solemn, 
 is all but a necessity with the sick. The trutli 
 is, almost every case has its special needs and 
 peculiarities, and no general rules can be laid 
 down which will suit all. 
 
 Yet we can to some extent classify the cases 
 we shall have to deal with. 
 
 I. There are the chronic cases. If these are 
 good devout souls, oh, what a high privilege it is 
 to minister to them ! We learn often so much 
 more than we can teach. To watch the grace of 
 God refining, purifying, spiritualising, the soul of 
 the sufferer ; to note the marvellous sweetness of 
 resignation — nay, even the very thankfulness and 
 joyousness that are attainable in suffering ; to 
 witness the delight in God's Word, the singular 
 intuition which is sometimes given, so that, where 
 we wonder, they see ; to mark the bright realisa- 
 tion of the presence of Christ, so that He seems 
 far closer to them than to us ; — all this, if very 
 humbling, is surely very blessed and helpful. I 
 could describe to you, if I had time, many and many 
 a sick-bed where the sufferer has been teacher 
 and I disciple. Few hours in your lives will bo 
 
70 Pastoral Visitation, 
 
 more precious than those you spend by the bed- 
 side of the simple lowly patient Christian sufferer. 
 
 But there are very different cases — cases where 
 all has yet to be done. You are called to the 
 sick- chamber of the godless or careless. You go 
 with trepidation. Yet here, too, how often does 
 God vouchsafe to the faithful minister a rich re- 
 ward. Especially have I known the wonderful 
 effects produced by the clergyman freely and 
 readily ministering to cases of highly infectious 
 or exceedingly loathsome disease. Only a week 
 ago, I heard of an unbeliever thoroughly won and 
 brought to true penitence and living faith through 
 the loving tendence of a curate (himself a married 
 man with a family) in East London, during an 
 attack of virulent small-pox. Quiet patient work 
 often brings startling results. The heart is melted 
 at last, and the conscience touched, and we are 
 permitted to watch the blessed work of a true and 
 deep repentance. 
 
 But in all visiting of cases of prolonged sick- 
 ness we want to be systematic. Do not trust to 
 thinking of something to say or to read at the 
 moment. Arrange beforehand. Let your in- 
 structions be continuous. Avoid vagueness. I 
 think nothing helps more to this than making 
 the time of prolonged sickness a time of careful 
 and systematic preparation for Holy Communion. 
 I mean, of course, in the case of those not pre- 
 viously communicants. As soon as you perceive 
 
Pastoral Visitation. yi 
 
 a real desire to serve God better, set this as a 
 goal before the sick person. The preparation 
 will naturally embrace instruction in all the chief 
 fundamental truths of Christianity, such as the 
 Incarnation and Atonement, Faith and Repent- 
 ance, or the six great " principles of the doctrine 
 " of Christ " at the beginning of the 6th of 
 Hebrews. For those who are already communi- 
 cants, it is well in long sickness to read through 
 some portion of Holy Scripture carefully, a few 
 verses each time, so as to avoid desultoriness. 
 Let me repeat what I have said as to regularity 
 of visits. It is a great point that your visits to 
 the chronic cases of sickness should be on fixed 
 days and at fixed hours, as far as possible. One 
 poor woman whom I always visited on Friday 
 used to call it her Sunday. 
 
 It is quite impossible to speak of the various 
 characters one meets with, and the various diflS- 
 culties one has to contend with. What a valu- 
 able book would be a volume of clinical casuistry, 
 drawn from the experience of long familiarity 
 with this branch of pastoral work ! Of all difii- 
 culties, however, perhaps the greatest is that of 
 absolute indifference, when one is met with the 
 simple vis inertice. There is languid assent to 
 anything one says, perhaps even a feeling of 
 satisfaction at the clergyman's visit. It comforts, 
 and the sick person feels the better for it. But 
 there is no getting down below the surface, no 
 
72 Pastoral Visitation. 
 
 sign of earnestness and reality. One comes away, 
 time after time, conscious of having made no 
 progress, baffled, discouraged. I do not know 
 that there is much to be said about such a case, 
 except that loving earnestness will most often at 
 last evoke a response. We must persevere, and 
 see that at least we ourselves are not cold and 
 apathetic. If they will not catch our fervour, at 
 least don't let us catch their chill. 
 
 "While speaking of chronic cases, let me remind 
 you that we should be very careful that our sick 
 and infirm should not miss their Communion at 
 the greater festivals, when we must be busy with 
 this holy work day by day. In scattered parishes 
 it is often possible to arrange for two or three 
 of those unable to get to Church to communicate 
 together. And I would plead that the surplice 
 and stole be always used, and all things done 
 decently and in order, in the administration of 
 the Holy Communion with the sick. They feel 
 as if, when they are shut off from going to Church, 
 the Church has come to them. 
 
 Cases of sudden emergency are much more 
 difficult. It is often terrible to find oneself 
 standing beside one evidently dying, one of whose 
 past life, of whose present state, one knows 
 nothing, but who is therefore one who has not 
 to our knowledge come under any religious in- 
 fluence. Sometimes the relatives or friends will 
 help one much by telling one about him before 
 
Pastoral Visitation. ']2i 
 
 one enters the room. But one must sometimes 
 ask questions. There is one thing we may re- 
 member, — the poor are not very sensitive in this 
 respect. They are accustomed to more open 
 speaking than we are, about both the soul and 
 the body. We need not fear, and indeed ought 
 often to consider it a duty, to speak of the immi- 
 nent danger of death. And in the same way we 
 may speak more freely than we sometimes think 
 of the soul's peril. But one can only do one's 
 best. Let me tell you one little story of a visit 
 of a friend of mine, a very well-known clergy- 
 man, to a sick man whom he did not previously 
 know, and who was plainly very ill. My friend, 
 after a few words of kindly sympathy, said, 
 ' And now, my friend, what can I do for you ? ' 
 ' I want you to pray for me,' the man answered. 
 ' I will most gladly,' said my friend, ^ but what 
 '- shall I pray for ? ' * Oh, sir ! ' the man said, 
 ' you know best.' ^ No,' said the clergyman, 
 ^ you must know best what you want, and if you 
 '• will tell me I will ask for it.' The man still 
 insisted that the clergyman would know what to 
 pray for, so at last the latter said, ' Well, I am 
 ' going to see another sick person, and I will go 
 ' on there now, and come back to you, and when 
 * I come back perhaps you will have found out 
 ' what you would like me to pray for.' He 
 came back in half-an-hour, when the sick man at 
 once said, ' Oh, sir ! I've been a great sinner, 
 
74 Pastoral Visitation. 
 
 ' and I want yon to ask God to forgive me.* 
 In that case tlie treatment thoroughly answered. 
 The thing wanted was to get the man to be 
 definite and to know his own needs. 
 
 There are two very obvious dangers to be watched 
 for and guarded against. One is the danger of de- 
 spondency, the fear that it is too late, the despairing 
 of forgiveness ; and the other is a false security, the 
 trusting to a few pious expressions and reliance 
 upon God's freedom of pardon without any con- 
 viction of sin or reality of penitence. The latter 
 danger is far harder to combat than the former. 
 And the greatness and frequency of the danger 
 are too fully confirmed by the evidence given in 
 the after lives of those who have recovered from 
 dangerous sickness, during which they have 
 expressed themselves confidently with regard 
 to their state of acceptance with God. I have 
 found it useful, with a view to the awakening of 
 the conscience, to read simple questions of self- 
 examination slowly and with pauses after each, 
 asking the sick person to try and answer them in 
 his own secret heart as before God. 
 
 Sometimes all one can do is to read a few 
 verses of God's Word, and to pray. But we 
 must be ready to watch as long as we are per- 
 mitted, or can find time, by the dying bed. God 
 so often gives us blessed openings for helping, if 
 not the dying person himself, yet those who 
 love him. Stay, if possible, to the end ; say the 
 
Pastoral Visit atio7i, 75 
 
 Commendatory Prayer ; and after all is over pray 
 with ttie stricken family either in the chamber of 
 death, or, if this is too trying, in some other room. 
 And then never neglect the mourners during the 
 sad days which follow. It ought to be easy then 
 to gain an entrance to their hearts which will not 
 be lightly shut against you. 
 
 Hymns are peculiarly valuable in cases of sick- 
 ness. I remember, long ago, being struck with 
 a passage in the very interesting life of the Ger- 
 man bookseller, Perthes, in which he describes 
 the manner in which hymns,- which he had loved 
 in childhood, and somewhat despised in mid life, 
 resumed their old charm, and became very dear 
 to him again in old age, — a very beautiful illus- 
 tration, by the way, of becoming as little children. 
 Certainly hymns, partly from old association, and 
 partly from the soothing power of melodious 
 rhythm, are much loved by the sick. I have 
 known even the dying, on whose ear all other 
 words seemed to fall in vain, smile at the saying of 
 some simple hymn, probably learnt in childhood. 
 
 I have said nothing yet as to visiting the sick 
 among the educated upper classes, — a task often 
 singularly difficult, and yet more often singularly 
 blessed. I am not sure that I could give you 
 any better advice than to deal with the rich very 
 much as you would deal with the poor. We think 
 of them as highly educated, yet as regards religious 
 truth it is not so. On the contrary, you will find 
 
76 Pasto7'al Visitation. 
 
 the cultivated classes, even if intelligent and 
 tliouglitfulj singularly lacking in their knowledge 
 of the very elements of dogmatic theology. Our 
 boys are not taught much definite religious truth 
 in our public schools, and still less, I fear, in 
 most homes during the holidays. In fact, I think 
 in knowledge of the Bible and Prayer-book, and 
 of the leading doctrines of Christianity, the 
 children in the Sixth Standard of a National 
 School would often put to shame the boys in the 
 Sixth Form of a Public School. Do not then 
 assume much knowledge. I have often said to a 
 sick person of the upper classes, ^ Now you must 
 ' let me treat you just like one of your poorer 
 ' neighbours, for we all need the same things, 
 ' and we cannot do better than read and medi- 
 ^ tate upon some passage in God's Word, and 
 '- then I will pray with you,' and they are always 
 glad of such treatment. Perhaps I may venture 
 to mention, that even an Archbishop (Archbishop 
 Longley) in his last illness loved and asked for 
 readings and prayers prepared for and used with 
 the sick poor. 
 
 I have, lastly, to say a few words upon a very 
 serious and difficult matter, namely, the direction 
 of the Church with regard to moving the sick 
 man to Confession. I should be indeed sorry to 
 think that, in looking forward to your holy work, 
 you are aspiring to be father-confessors. But if 
 there is any time when the unburdening of the 
 
Pastoral Visitation. yy 
 
 sin-laden conscience is needful, it is on the death- 
 bed. How can the sick man die in peace if he 
 have on his soul the load of some past sin which 
 is bowing him down, and which he has not 
 strength to throw off? It needs great care and 
 discretion to move the sick person to such an 
 opening of his grief, but many a one is very 
 thankful to have the chance of confiding to one 
 who can comfort and advise, some old wrong, or 
 some old perplexity, which perchance has troubled 
 him for years. There are few troubles commoner 
 than the doubt whether some great sin has been 
 forgiven. Indeed I have been surprised to find 
 how common is the dread lest the poor penitent 
 has committed the unpardonable sin. I have 
 known such strange things supposed to be this. 
 Surely, when the dying soul is craving the assur- 
 ance of pardon, when ignorant but well-meaning 
 friends are asking, ^ Do you feel happy ? Do you 
 * believe your sins are forgiven ? ' it is one of the 
 highest privileges of God's appointed messenger 
 to bring to the trembling soul the ^' benefit of 
 " absolution," that comfort and assurance which is 
 the truest Gospel message, proclaiming God's free 
 pardon of the sin repented and abjured. Bishop 
 Patteson was right when as a boy he used to 
 long to be a clergyman that he might say those 
 comforting words, " He pardoneth and absolveth 
 " all them that truly repent and unfeignedly 
 " believe His holy Gospel." The natural long- 
 
78 Pasto7^aL Visitation. 
 
 ing for tlie unburdening of the conscience on the 
 dying bed was forcibly illustrated by a letter I 
 received a few years ago from the Independent 
 Minister in Oswestry, who wrote to tell me that a 
 poor woman on her deathbed had made a confes- 
 sion to him which she begged him to communi- 
 cate to me, and which was to the effect that, when 
 she lived in our service many years before, she had 
 stolen various small articles, and could not die 
 in peace nor realise God's forgiveness till she had 
 received mine. I am glad to say the Minister 
 was able to convey to her my message of thankful 
 pardon, and I doubt not she (however imperfect 
 we may hold to be the ecclesiastical system under 
 which she lived) did receive also the comfort and 
 assurance of that higher forgiveness which she 
 humbly sought through the merits and mercies 
 of the Redeemer. 
 
 You will have felt throughout how much I 
 have been anticipating. I have been thinking of 
 your future life and your future work. Much of 
 what I have endeavoured to put before you can 
 only be learnt by experience. Much may also be 
 learnt by the training and example of a good 
 parish priest. May it be your happy lot to work 
 under such a one ! 
 
 And may God help us all in this most momen- 
 tous work, and make us all more fit to lead poor 
 weak simple souls to that gate of death which is 
 also the gate of Paradise ! 
 
IV. 
 
 2)calinG with Jnfi&clit?. 
 
IV. 
 
 ON DEALING WITH INFIDELITY. 
 
 The battle of our day rages, and will yet more 
 rage, around the central and primary truths of 
 religion itself. It is no outpost that is attacked, 
 but the citadel ; it is no branch of the tree, but 
 the root and life, which is threatened. The old 
 controversy with Rome, even in the days of its 
 Oxford and Smithfield fires, was child's play to 
 this. The contest with the narrowness or one- 
 sidedness of dissent is as hair-splitting to this. 
 For this is Hfe or death. The question now is, 
 not, ^ Is our Anglican position a sound one, and 
 'our Anglican creed pure?' not, 'Is this or 
 ' that theory of Inspiration correct, or this or 
 ' that mode of explaining the Atonement scrip- 
 ' tural and true ? ' — but, ' Is there any other 
 ' sphere of existence at all beyond what our 
 ' senses reveal to us ? Is there an hereafter ? 
 ' Is there a God ? ' From the philosophic calm- 
 ness of a Huxley or a Spencer to the coarse 
 ridicule of the blasphemous street-preacher of 
 atheism, the forces arrayed against us are many 
 and mighty. It would be simple madness to 
 
82 On Dealing with Infidelity, 
 
 despise them. Then, again, their influence is 
 ubiquitous. It penetrates everywhere. It re- 
 veals itself in every class. None are so guarded 
 and sheltered as to be exempt from the danger of 
 breathing the poisoned atmosphere. A few years 
 ago I spent a winter in the south of France, 
 acting as Assistant-chaplain in one of the prin- 
 cipal health-resorts of the Mediterranean. Owing 
 to the illness of the Chaplain I had to undertake 
 the visiting of the sick, who were all of the upper 
 classes. I was startled to find how few there were 
 of those who had thought at all, and were capable 
 of forming opinions of their own, who were un- 
 tainted by some form or degree of scepticism. 
 The state of belief among the more intelligent of 
 the sick whom I visited (men and women, but 
 chiefly the former,) ranged from a guarded semi- 
 Arianism to pure Theism. Of course I did not 
 come into contact with many avowed atheists, 
 though one invalid lady, of singular ability, 
 made no secret of her agnosticism. But I knew of 
 a good many unbelievers among the visitors to the 
 place, and of one Clergyman, who had renounced 
 his Orders, and who had begged his wife, if on his 
 deathbed he should utter any words of seeming 
 belief, to put them down to the illusions of a 
 weakened mind. It seemed to me, from the 
 little sample I witnessed, that the upper strata 
 of society were honeycombed with scepticism. 
 Of course much of this was unwilling and unwel- 
 
On Dealmg zvith Infidelity. 83 
 
 come scepticism, and therefore deserving nothing 
 but sympathy and tender consideration ; and some 
 whose objective formula of faith was most defec- 
 tive seemed to have most of the subjective reality 
 of faith, being ready and anxious to believe far 
 more than their intellect would admit. So that 
 one saw a sense in which Tennyson's lines — 
 " There lives more faith in honest doubt, Be- 
 " lieve me, than in half the creeds," — lines so often 
 misunderstood, and certainly so open to misunder- 
 standing, — might be most true. Then, again, in 
 conducting Parochial Missions I have met with 
 strange evidence of the way in which doubts have 
 clouded the souls of many simple loving children 
 of God. Ladies have opened their grief to me, 
 telling me how the conversation of clever men, 
 the reading of clever articles in Eeviews, or the 
 like, has engendered doubt in their souls, making 
 them wholly miserable, while not their nearest 
 and dearest had any suspicion of the trouble. I 
 need not add that, in the more intellectual atmo- 
 sphere of University life, among scientific and 
 literary men, in circles where perfectly free inter- 
 change of thought and opinion prevails, the truth 
 of Christianity — nay, the very existence of God — 
 is treated as an open question. And so alas ! it 
 comes to pass that many acquiesce either in dis- 
 tinct scepticism, or at least in a hazy uncertain 
 half-unbelieving state, which has no grasp on 
 truth, and which closes the eyes to the whole 
 
84 On Dealing with Infidelity ^ 
 
 question as one surrounded with difficulties whicli 
 it is better not to vex oneself about. I am very 
 anxious to guard myself against being supposed 
 to assume that scepticism is generally welcomed, 
 or the old beliefs lightly and wantonly cast aside. 
 On the contrary, I believe that among the large 
 number who are more or less affected by the 
 prevailing scepticism a very considerable propor- 
 tion earnestly long for, and seek after, truth, and 
 are by no means to be charged with either enmity 
 or indifference to the claims of religion. But, 
 once more, go to the less cultured classes, and 
 the same thing meets one, though, of course, 
 under different aspects. One expects, and one 
 finds, a ruder and rougher mode of dealing with 
 the great question of belief. The artizan or the 
 working man has not in general the sacred bond 
 of home influence, of tender and beautiful asso- 
 ciation, of instructed appreciation, binding him 
 to a religion which has probably been presented 
 to him, if at all, in some unworthy and unattrac- 
 tive shape. For the most part he has lived quite 
 apart from religious influence. It is therefore 
 not surprising if, when he comes within the range 
 of infidel propagandism, he becomes a ready dis- 
 ciple, and, linking his unbelief with political and 
 social antagonism to the classes who seem to him 
 most to affect the religion which he neither under- 
 stands, nor wants to understand, simply lives 
 without God, and shouts for Mr. Bradlaugh. Yet 
 
On Dealing with htfidelity. 85 
 
 among the artizaiis aud working men who adopt 
 infidel and republican ideas are a good many 
 very high-minded, thoughtful, truth- seeking men. 
 It is very difficult for a bishop to get at their 
 thoughts and feelings, even when he does get a 
 chance, as I do sometimes, of meeting them and 
 talking to them. The chief impression one gets 
 from a visit to one of their clubs is that they 
 are very hearty, very friendly, and very grateful. 
 But that does not mean that they believe any the 
 more in religion. I hope it does mean that they 
 believe there are at least some ministers of reli- 
 gion longing to understand them, ready to sympa- 
 thise with them, anxious to be friends with them; 
 and that may, in some cases, pave the way for 
 better things. But friends of mine, who go con- 
 stantly among them, and join in the free discus- 
 sions which take place upon religious questions, 
 tell me many of the men they meet are very 
 able and intelligent, and though, of course, not 
 widely read, yet keenly alive to the real points of 
 an argument, and far too astute to be put off 
 with an evasive answer, or turned aside by a side 
 issue. Yet these are the few. Of the many it must 
 be said that they " care for none of these things." 
 If unbelief slays its thousands, indifference slays its 
 tens of thousands. And that this indifference is 
 not another name for latent hostility is, I think, 
 pretty well shown by the very considerable welcome 
 which always awaits honest sensible manly and 
 
86 On Dealing with Infidelity. 
 
 self-denying efforts to bring religion home to the 
 hearts of the people. 
 
 I have tried to set before you what from my 
 own experience seems to me to be the state of 
 our country in its various classes as regards this 
 matter of unbelief. If what I have stated is true, 
 it is a treuaendously serious affair. Thousands 
 all around us are losing day by day, if not their 
 faith itself, yet at least the brightness and con- 
 fidence of their faith, while thousands more, on 
 grounds most diverse, some with utter intense 
 distress and despair, some with a reckless satis- 
 faction and sordid relief at escape from disquiet- 
 ing thoughts, some after a desperate battle with 
 conscience, some with light-hearted insensibility 
 to the awfulness of their act, have altogether 
 abandoned the faith of their childhood. Was ever 
 anything more sad or more terrible than Professor 
 Clifford's confession (one alas ! in which not a 
 few would join), that he had learnt to see the 
 sun shining out of a godless heaven upon a soul- 
 less earth ? As sad as Goethe's, " Stars over us 
 " silent : graves under us silent." 
 
 Now before trying to answer the question how 
 to deal with this terrible and ubiquitous evil, I 
 should like to set before you one or two thoughts 
 of comfort. First this, — The sifting, and testing, 
 and analysing, to which all religious truth, and 
 all traditional belief, are exposed in these days, 
 are but one application of the great truth-seeking 
 
On Dealing with Infidelity. Z"] 
 
 spirit of the age. I believe that there is a far 
 larger aniount of intellectual honesty in our 
 days than in ages of more passive and unques- 
 tioning belief. Men are resolutely seeking to 
 know the truth in all spheres of thought and in 
 all fields of knowledge. Surely this spirit is not 
 to be blamed in itself. It must be good to use 
 the faculties God has given us in the search 
 after truth. It is when the spirit of inquiry is 
 marred by pride or self-will or hastiness or irre- 
 verence or unteachableness that it becomes so 
 perilous. Nor must we except religious truth 
 from the lawful subjects of inquiry. The Bible 
 does not ; for we are told to " prove all things." 
 And surely we have at least sufficient confidence 
 in the truth of our religion to believe it can 
 endure the ordeal of free inquiry. Our faith is 
 not a tender hot-house plant, which must be 
 kept under a glass case, and which cannot bear 
 the free blowing of the open air upon it lest 
 it wither and die. We want our faith for the 
 rough wear and tear of daily life, and it will 
 hardly serve us for this if it be so very delicate 
 a thing. By all means let the free breath of 
 inquiry (so that it be reverent humble and 
 patient inquiry) blow upon it, and, if it some- 
 times seem to suffer, let us remember that it is 
 only sharing in the fate of all truth in whatever 
 sphere it be, scientific and historical, no less than 
 religious, which has to be tested and shaken, 
 
88 On Dealing with Infidelity, 
 
 often somewhat roughly, before it is allowed to 
 hold its place among the ascertained possessions 
 of mankind. 
 
 And then this thought — The truth that has 
 been tested and tried and has stood firm is a 
 far more precious possession than the same truth 
 untried and untested. If we were in an armour- 
 clad vessel in time of war, we should think far 
 more of its protection and security if it had 
 received uninjured the heaviest shot from the 
 enemy's guns than if it had never been thus 
 proved, and we were quite ignorant of its powers 
 of resistance. So in reality the process, which 
 for the moment seems to be imperilling the 
 faith, may by God's mercy be the means of 
 establishing that faith in a new and impregnable 
 security. 
 
 Once more, subjectively, the soul that has been 
 shaken with doubts, that has passed through the 
 dark shadow of an eclipse, that has wrestled hard, 
 and has even been thrown down and stunned in 
 the conflict, but has at last come out triumphant 
 into the light, with a clearer insight into the gran- 
 deur and beauty of truth, and a firmer grasp upon 
 the faith that was almost let go, is in all ways 
 stronger and braver and nobler than the soul 
 which has passed along, acquiescing without 
 thought in its traditional beliefs, and unknowing 
 of the heat and the agony of the battle. We 
 mourn over the many shaken souls now. Dare 
 
On Dealing with Infidelity. 89 
 
 we affirm that tliese are in a worse spiritual con- 
 dition than they would have been had they lived 
 in an unquestioning age, and simply accepted 
 w^ithout a serious thought a number of proposi- 
 tions they supposed to be true ? I do not know 
 that the difficulties of an earnest and humble 
 seeker after truth are more displeasing to 
 God than the superficiality of an unreflecting 
 orthodoxy. 
 
 I name these thoughts as some consolation for 
 those greatly troubled, as so many are, by tlie 
 prevalence of doubts and difficulties bringing pain 
 and distress to many an earnest soul. 
 
 And now I must come to the more practical 
 and more difficult part of my subject — how to 
 deal with the evil which in so many forms, and in 
 so wide an area, confronts us. 
 
 And first, I must sever off, and put on one 
 side, all those who either welcome or willingly 
 acquiesce in more or less definite unbelief. There 
 are not a few who will not come to the light 
 because their deeds are evil, who profess to 
 doubt because they wish to doubt, who wish to 
 doubt because they do not care to face the 
 thought of an all-seeing God or of a judgment 
 to come. You will not have often to deal with 
 such as these. Yet you may have to do so. And 
 so I will say this much : — The root of the evil 
 here is moral, and not intellectual ; therefore the 
 remedy is also moral, and not intellectual. 
 
90 Oil Dealing with Infidelity. 
 
 They want the conscience touched, and not the 
 reason convinced. Let me tell you a story which 
 will exactly explain what I mean. Some years 
 agOj in a Mission held at Bradford, a young 
 clergyman, the junior missioner in the parish, 
 whom I will call Mr. B., was sitting in the vestry 
 when a man came in, asking to see the senior 
 missioner, whom I will call Mr. A. Mr. B. ex- 
 plained that it was not the hour when Mr. A. 
 could be seen there, and asked the man what he 
 wanted. The man said he had heard much of 
 Mr. A., and wanted to ask him some questions 
 about the Bible to see if he could answer them. 
 Mr. B., seeing the man was only wishing for an 
 argument, and not seeking for instruction, told 
 him he did not know whether Mr. A. could 
 answer his questions or not. Possibly he might ; 
 but he himself would not try to do so, as he had 
 not specially studied the matter, and might be a 
 bad defender of a good cause : but he would ven- 
 ture to say one thing before he left, namely, that 
 very often, when a man has doubts and difficulties 
 as to the Bible and religion, there is something 
 wrong in the life. The man thereupon went 
 away. But the next day, when Mr. B. was sit- 
 ting in the vestry about the same time, there was 
 a knock at the door, and the man presented him- 
 self again. Mr. B. said, ' You know I told you 
 '- yesterday, that this was not the time to find Mr. 
 'A.' 'I don't want to find him,' said the man, 
 
On Dealing with Infidelity. g i 
 
 ' I want to see you. You said, as I went out 
 
 * yesterday, that very often, when there are doubts 
 ^ about religion, there is something wrong in the 
 ^ life. That's what is the matter with me. My 
 ^ life is all wrong.' And then the man told the 
 whole story of his life of sin, and I need not say 
 Mr. B. no longer declined to listen to him, but 
 gave him all the help in his power, the end being 
 that the man became an earnest believer, and a 
 humble communicant of the Church, and some 
 time afterwards said to his own clergyman in 
 Leeds (for the man had come over from Leeds to 
 Bradford to see the well-known Mr. A.), ^ If 
 
 * that young man had argued with me, I should 
 ' have been an unbeliever still.' 
 
 Let me give you another illustration. A very 
 able and earnest clergyman was giving an address 
 to the workmen at some large works during a 
 Mission, when, at the close of his address, a 
 man got up and proposed that this gentleman 
 should never come and address them any more, 
 a motion which was carried on a show of hands. 
 The clergyman got hold of the man after some 
 little trouble, and on his confessing himself an 
 unbeliever, asked him to come and see him. 
 The man came, and was primed with all sorts 
 of questions suggestive of difficulties with regard 
 to the Bible. The clergyman however would 
 not enter into these, but at once asked the man 
 whether he believed in a supernatural power in 
 
92 0)1 Dealing with Infidelity. 
 
 tlie world wliich could change a man's heart, 
 and make him what nothing else could make 
 him. Of course the man repudiated such an 
 idea, saying some men were moral because they 
 liked it, or because they were afraid, and so on, 
 but as for any such thing as real genuine con- 
 version — it was absurd. Thereupon the clergy- 
 man brought case after case before him, at first 
 quite in vain, but with such effect that after two 
 or three interviews the man entirely yielded to 
 that very power which he had at first so stoutly 
 denied, and was led to a true penitence and 
 a living faith, and he too became an earnest 
 communicant of the Church. 
 
 There was an infidel lecturer at Newington in 
 Surrey, who used to stand on a chair not far 
 from the old Church on Sundays, ridiculing the 
 Bible. One Sunday he came into Church (as 
 he avowed afterwards) to find more material for 
 his blasphemous addresses. There he heard a 
 very simple uncontroversial sermon from the pre- 
 sent Bishop of Lichfield, then Rector of Newing- 
 ton, which, by God's mercy, touched his con- 
 science, and the next morning he came to Mr. 
 Maclagan telling him the story, and asking for 
 instruction in the truth. He too became a 
 faithful communicant. 
 
 I have mentioned these cases because they all 
 tend to show that it is very often the heart and the 
 life that are at fault, and that to approach such 
 
On Dealing with Infidelity, 93 
 
 cases with pure intellectual argument would be 
 the greatest possible mistake. Most often mere 
 argument leaves an unbeliever more firm in his 
 unbelief than before. The intellectual tournament 
 may interest and amuse him : it seldom convinces 
 him. 
 
 And now, leaving those who welcome unbelief 
 because they do not like the truths they might 
 have to believe, in other words, who love dark- 
 ness rather than light because their deeds are 
 evil, let us turn to earnest seekers after truth. 
 Now it is a fact no one should ignore that 
 earnest seekers after truth are to be found 
 among the ranks of avowed unbelievers, whether 
 agnostics or sheer materialists. It is a simple 
 libel to speak of these classes as unbelieving 
 either because immoral, or because indifferent to 
 truth. Of course I hold that the unbeliever has 
 lost all substantial basis of morality, and that if he 
 is a moral man, it is in spite of, and assuredly not 
 in consequence of, his unbelief. Take away the 
 religious sanctions of morality, and though certain 
 men of pure taste and generous sentiment may 
 still lead pure and self-sacrificing lives (as they 
 do), yet for the many the morality must collapse 
 as its props are knocked away. But though this 
 is true, and a low morality amongst a pe'ople is 
 an inevitable consequence of unbelief, yet I know 
 that many high-minded thoughtful men have lost 
 their faith from other causes than moral ones. 
 
94 Oji Dealing with Infidelity. 
 
 A certain proportion of tlie more gifted of these 
 (I speak of the artisan and working class) have 
 seized upon some of the most telling arguments 
 of such writers as Mill, Herbert Spencer, and the 
 like, and have yielded their faith to a supposed 
 intellectual conviction. Has the Church nothing 
 to say to these men ? Is she afraid to set her 
 faith and its reasons face to face with their un- 
 belief and its reasons ? Are they not worth try- 
 ing to win ? Why (God be thanked !) some of 
 them ham heen won, and have proved of what 
 noble material they have been made. And the 
 man who has passed through the furnace, and 
 come out with his faith tried and purged and 
 purified, is worth a hundred advocates who have 
 never even been scorched with the fiery breath of 
 a passing blast of unbelief. Sympathy is a keen 
 weapon, and a man will listen to one who knows 
 by his own experience all he is passing through. 
 But we ought surely to be able to give an answer 
 to every man that asketh us a reason of the hope 
 that is in us, even though it be " with meekness 
 " and fear." And if we try honestly to enter into 
 the difficulties men feel, and to meet them fairly, 
 if we are patient and kindly, and at the same 
 time clear and confident, because understanding 
 what we say, we shall be listened to with respect 
 and attention. Now I by no means affirm that 
 every man is competent to deal with these diffi- 
 cult matters, nor do I think that every man is 
 
On Dealing with Infidelity. 95 
 
 bound to try to master tliem. A consciousness 
 of incapacity, an improbability from the natnre or 
 sphere of one's work of having to deal with them, 
 perhaps even a fear of the effect upon one's own 
 faith of an imperfect and fragmentary acquaint- 
 ance with them, may justify a putting aside of the 
 study of such questions. But am I wrong in 
 thinking that not many of you will be able 
 wholly to escape the battle ? And, if so, am I 
 then wrong in urging you to arm yourselves 
 beforehand that you may not be wounded, nor 
 let the cause of faith suffer, through your unpre- 
 paredness ? I need not say that the literature on 
 the subject is most voluminous, and, even were I 
 myself better versed in it than I am, I could 
 not pretend to give anything like a complete 
 list of books which might be serviceable in 
 the controversy; but I think it may be well 
 to name just two or three which seem to me 
 most likely to help towards a right under- 
 standing of the problems to be met and of 
 the best modes of solution. I think I could 
 not name any works more generally helpful than 
 Professor Flint's Baird Lectures for 1876 and 
 1877, entitled "Theism" and " Anti-Theistic 
 " Theories " (published by Blackwood). Quite re- 
 cently an excellent book on the general subject 
 has appeared under the title of " Keasonable 
 " Apprehensions and Eeassuring Hints," by the 
 Eev. H. Footman (published by Field & Tuer). 
 
96 On Dealing with Infidelity. 
 
 I would next draw attention to an admirable little 
 monograph on tlie subject of " Eecent Objec- 
 " tions to Revelation," which constitutes Appendix 
 D in the enlarged edition of Mr. Heygate's beauti- 
 ful little book called " Ember Hours " (published 
 by Masters). Probably you are acquainted with 
 the work of the '' Christian Evidence Society." 
 Some of its tracts and books are excellent, as are 
 also some of the series of " Present-Day Tracts," 
 issued by the Religious Tract Society. The men- 
 tion of the Christian Evidence Society reminds 
 me that one of the more valuable services of the 
 excellent Secretary, the Rev. C. Lloyd Engstrom, 
 is the giving advice to any who may require 
 it as to the best methods of dealing with 
 special cases ; and, as the difficulties of different 
 cases vary so greatly, it is often most useful to 
 know of some one to whom you can apply for 
 counsel. 
 
 Let me now turn to a class of doubters pain- 
 fully large, of which you are sure from time to 
 time to encounter specimens. I speak of those 
 who doubt, but shudder at their doubts ; whose 
 faith is shaken, but who yearn with an intensity 
 of yearning to feel the ground firm beneath their 
 feet again ; whose souls are clouded with the 
 mist of vaguely suggested and dimly shadowed 
 unbelief, but who long and pray to see again the 
 light of God's truth. It may be they are simply 
 conscious that the dear old truths are questioned, 
 
On Dealing with Infidelity. 97 
 
 and by some renounced, and are haunted by the 
 ever-recurring thought, ^ What if it be all un- 
 ^ true ? ' Even Bishop Wilberforce in his journal 
 tells us this question came to him at times as a 
 thought of terror. Or it may be that some one 
 particular difficulty has been strongly borne in 
 upon their minds, possibly a difficulty connected 
 with the morality of the Old Testament, or with 
 the bearing of scientific research upon the Biblical 
 records, or with the nature or fulfilment of pro- 
 phecy, or with the existence of pain and cruelty 
 in all spheres of life, or with the providential 
 government of the world. It matters not what 
 the difficulty may be, but it has seized upon the 
 mind, and pufied itself out into undue proportions, 
 till it seems as if this one thing were enough to 
 hide all the light of heaven from the soul. And 
 how then shall we deal with these ? They must 
 be dealt with very gently, very lovingly, very sym- 
 pathisingly. Do not be afraid to let them know 
 that you can fully understand and enter into 
 their trouble. Even if you can tell them that a 
 like cloud has ere now passed over your own soul, 
 you need not fear to confess it, if only you can 
 add that God has brought you out into the light 
 again. They will be far more likely to confide in 
 one who can feel for them, and of whom it can be 
 said (as in another sense of our Great Example), 
 ^' In that he hath suffered, being tempted, he is 
 " able to succour them that are tempted." A hard 
 
 G 
 
98 On Dealing with Infidelity. 
 
 denunciation of the doubt as a sin to be repented 
 of, a temptation of the devil (albeit this may be 
 true enough) to be fled from, and the like, will only 
 repelj and make the soul shut itself up in its secret 
 misery. Oh, it were hard if, when the poor sick 
 soul is seeking her Beloved, but finding Him not, 
 " the watchmen that went about the city found " 
 her, and " smote " her, and " wounded " her. Yet 
 this is the way in which the watchmen sometimes 
 deal with these poor souls. Treat the doubt as a 
 terrible trial, a bitter sorrow, a wound needing 
 healing salve, and not as a wilful sin. And one 
 other warning I should like to give. Never be 
 guilty of the folly of denouncing scientific studies, 
 because some scientific men have been unbelievers. 
 And again, never damage a holy cause, and dis- 
 play your own ignorance, by talking of science 
 without understanding it. 
 
 I will venture to set down a few topics which 
 may be found useful to bring forward in such cases 
 as we are now speaking of. 
 
 I. Our own ignorance. How little we know 
 about ourselves, about life, and thought, and 
 matter, and a hundred things with which we are 
 daily conversant ! And yet we want to under- 
 stand all mysteries ! Is it not certain, with our 
 very limited faculties, and these exercised upon 
 such transcend en tly exalted matters, that there 
 must be many difficulties, many things we cannot 
 as yet understand ? 
 
On Dealing with Infidelity. 99 
 
 2. The nature of the evidence we should look 
 for. The subject does not admit of mathematical 
 demonstration. "We must be content with less than 
 this, for so God has willed. His truth stands 
 firm rather in the converging force of many moral 
 supports than in the unanswerable conclusion of 
 one single logical argument. 
 
 3. The conclusions of men of the highest 
 ability and learning, who have grappled with 
 these difficulties and have remained un- 
 shaken. 
 
 4. The evidence of the reality of religion sup- 
 plied by the inner life of God's people. It will 
 take a great deal to persuade one who knows the 
 power of God in his own soul that it is all a dream 
 and a delusion. " If any man willeth to do His 
 ^' will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it 
 " be of God." 
 
 5 . The possibility of error in our way of regard- 
 ing the matters which cause the difficulty. For 
 example, certain difficulties concern the recon- 
 ciliation of the Bible with the discoveries of 
 science. The Bible and Science are God's two 
 great handwritings. We read His Word, and 
 we read His works. But we may easily mis- 
 read either. Men had misread God's Word when 
 they denounced as opposed to it the first disco- 
 very of the true principles of astronomical science. 
 They misread it again when geological studies 
 were looked upon with such alarm and suspicion 
 
I oo On Dealing with Infidelity. 
 
 as tending to discredit the Mosaic record. Why 
 should we be alarmed if we yet discover that we 
 have misread God's Word in some other things ? 
 I do not mean that the misreadings are neces- 
 sarily all on the one side, for the readings of 
 science are avowedly in many respects ten- 
 tative and provisional, and may have to be 
 corrected. 
 
 6. Once more, there is Patience. We can 
 wait, and watch, and learn. Meanwhile let us 
 see that no perversity of will sets us against the 
 teachings of God. Often doubts and difficulties 
 fade away in the calm atmosphere of simple 
 daily duty. There is nothing like work — work, 
 if possible, for others — self-denying work — 
 to clear the brain and remove exaggerated 
 notions. 
 
 I do not think argumentative books are often 
 of service in the cases we have been just con- 
 sidering. The unwilling doubter will often do 
 best to read books which do not even approach 
 his doubts, but which will confirm his faith by 
 showing him the beauty and harmony of religion. 
 A misty sceptic, who does not know whether he 
 believes or not, may be well recommended to 
 read Goulburn's " Personal Keligion " ; or, " The 
 " Biography of Charles Kingsley." 
 
 Perhaps I cannot conclude my very frag- 
 mentary and unworthy treatment of this terrible 
 subject better than by one piece of practical 
 
On Dealing with Infidelity, i o i 
 
 advice. Prevention is better than cure. Surely 
 we need to give far more attention than we have 
 given to the educational safeguards against the 
 perils of scepticism. I do not mean that we 
 must teach our children those arguments for the 
 faith which can only be taught together with the 
 counter-arguments for unbelief. But we can 
 teach much positively. We can fortify the young 
 with many a solid defence in the way of clear 
 conceptions of the evidence and ground of our 
 faith. We can instruct as to the chain of 
 evidence supplied by the writings of the New 
 Testament, especially the earlier Epistles of St. 
 Paul. We can give some simple scientific teach- 
 ing, and in doing so show that the phenomenal 
 language of the Bible was never meant to reveal 
 the secrets of physics. We can guard against 
 the confusions which are inseparable from a blind 
 adhesion to the once popular and still largely 
 cherished idea of rigid verbal Inspiration. We 
 can point out the strength of the argument from 
 design, and show how in many ways it is even 
 strengthened by the later views of the advocates 
 of evolution. We can magnify the great moral 
 proofs of God's dealing in the lives of His people. 
 Above all, we can inculcate true conceptions of 
 God. It is marvellous what false conceptions of 
 God are entertained. We are verily guilty in 
 this matter in that we have not taught our people 
 better. Only the other day, an infidel lecturer 
 
I02 On Dealing with Infidelity. 
 
 in London, who attended Churcli one evening and 
 heard a sermon on the freedom of God's mercy, 
 said, as he left the Church, to a person at the 
 door, " That is not a God I have ever heard of 
 " before." 
 
V. 
 
 Ipreacbing. 
 
( I05 ) 
 
 PREACHING. 
 
 It makes one tremble to think that we, so igno- 
 rant, so in need of being taught by others, must 
 ourselves be teachers of men. We are in truth 
 sharers in Christ's prophetic office. He came to 
 reveal God to man ; to bring God's messages to 
 man; to show God's will to man. And this 
 office He confers upon His ministers. " As the 
 " Father hath sent Me, even so send I you." 
 ' I have spoken to you the words of life : ye 
 ' must go forth and speak these words to the 
 ' world.' 
 
 It would seem that to be " stewards of the 
 "mysteries of God" is not to be limited to 
 (though doubtless it may embrace) the holy 
 mysteries of sacramental blessedness. St. Paul 
 certainly uses the word "mysteries" of truths 
 and doctrines hidden from man in olden times. 
 So this stewardship of mysteries must include 
 the dispensing of these truths and doctrines. 
 " It is required in stewards that a man be found 
 " faithful." 
 
 This stewardship of truth is, again, not to 
 
io6 Pj^eacJiing, 
 
 be understood of preactiing only. Every mode 
 of impartin^^ truth is an exercise of it. 
 
 We may be stewards of God's truth in the 
 teaching of our Day-schools. Where we have 
 a Church Day-school, the practice of daily open- 
 ing the school with prayer and giving a Scrip- 
 ture lesson is no less blessed to the teacher than 
 to the taught. I do not mean that we should take 
 the religious teaching out of the hands of the prin- 
 cipal teachers in our schools. They probably can 
 teach the Scriptural lesson, as they can other 
 lessons, much better than we can; and, besides, 
 the last thing we should wish is that they should 
 be regarded, or should regard themselves, as mere 
 secular teachers. But in a fair-sized school we 
 can always help by taking a class ; and I strongly 
 recommend that this should be done systemati- 
 cally for our own sakes. 
 
 1. It promotes regularity and punctuality of 
 habit, and saves frittering away the morning 
 hour. 
 
 2. It gives a minute knowledge of the lesser 
 details of the Bible. 
 
 3. It gives the power of understanding and 
 entering into the ignorances and difficulties of 
 the uneducated. 
 
 4. It gives the power of simple and clear 
 explanation. 
 
 Then there is the Sunday-school ; where it is 
 all-important that the lesson should have its 
 
Preaching. 107 
 
 spiritual bearing on tlie life and character and 
 liabits of tlie scholars. This should of course 
 be borne in mind in the religious lesson of the 
 Day-school; but in the Sunday-school it must 
 be the prominent end and object. 
 
 Again, the stewardship of truth touches our 
 visits to our people. As we go from house to 
 house in our parishes we still bear our commis- 
 sion, we are " ambassadors for Christ." We 
 need not be quite so shy as we are in speak- 
 ing of the soul's welfare. If God doth indeed 
 " beseech " men by us, shall we not grieve to come 
 away from any house in our parish without hav- 
 ing spoken one word for Him ? Better say it 
 clumsily, blunderingly, than not at all. 
 
 But of course Preaching is the chief exercise 
 of our prophetic office as teachers of men. 
 
 It is a wonderful thing that, by usage of the 
 age, such a vast number should listen, at least on 
 one day in the week, to what we have got to say. 
 What an immense opportunity ! What an im- 
 mense responsibility ! 
 
 Does any one say, ' Preaching was a mighty 
 
 * engine once, when men were very ignorant, 
 
 * and few could read, and new truths could only 
 
 * be promulgated by word of mouth ; but now, 
 
 * with our great advances in education, and our 
 
 * multiplicity of books, it has become of much 
 
 * less importance ' ? We answer. So fa,r as preach- 
 ing is r.imply to inform or convince the intellect, 
 
io8 Preachino^, 
 
 tills is true. But tMs is not the chief end of 
 preaching. Preaching aims at the heart no less 
 than the head. It is a great moral instrument, 
 which God puts into our hands, and for the use 
 of which He will assuredly call us to account. 
 Or does any one say, ^ Men have run after 
 
 * preaching long enough. "Would you have back 
 
 * the time when a dreary and slovenly service 
 
 * was barely endured while people were waiting 
 ' for the sermon ; when they came to Church 
 ' not to pray but to hear ; when it was thought 
 
 * a pious thing to have the ears tickled by a 
 ^ favourite preacher ; and what a man listened 
 ^ to was of more account than what he did ? ' 
 Nay; thank God all this is changed. Thank 
 God for reverent hearty services. Thank God 
 that the Church has awoke up to the blessedness 
 of worship. But there is a danger on both sides. 
 Even now careless and profitless preaching is 
 sometimes contentedly borne for the sake of 
 grand and elaborate ritual, as once a dreadful 
 poverty of ritual was borne for the sake of 
 warmth and impressiveness of preaching. Well ; 
 there was something sadder than either of these 
 things ; — there was a time when both prayer-desk 
 and pulpit were beset with the spirit of dryness 
 and dreariness ; when all the furniture, vest- 
 ments, and accessories of worship, were sordid 
 and slovenly ; when a meagre rendering of the 
 service was succeeded by a jejune moral essay :— 
 
Preaching. 1 09 
 
 and yet the Churcli has survived ! But, how- 
 ever much our conception of what is orderly 
 and reverent and beautiful in the service is 
 enlarged and enhanced, do not let us cry down 
 preaching. No : it still pleases God " by the 
 " foolishness of preaching to save them that 
 " believe." We dare not despise an instrument 
 which God manifestly and mightily blesses. 
 
 But oh ! when we come to the task, how hope- 
 less, how all but impossible, it seems ! That is, if 
 we really feel that we have to speak to souls that 
 must live for all eternity, and that on our words, 
 by God's ordaining, may hang the issue of that 
 eternity ! " Ah, Lord God, behold I cannot 
 *' speak, for I am a child." And yet it is just 
 the realising this — the awful nature of that which 
 we do — which can alone enable us to do it at 
 all. I do not mean to get through a sermon 
 somehow, but to speak in God's name to the 
 souls He would save. Oh ! he who realises 
 that he is himself created for eternity ; who is 
 battling with the power of evil in his own 
 heart; who is striving after true faith in the 
 love of the Father, the mercy of the Son, the 
 power of the Holy Spirit ; who is ever deepening 
 in himself the sense of sin, ever working out a 
 completer self-surrender, ever advancing in self- 
 conquest and habits of devotion ; he will know 
 how to speak to poor struggling souls. His 
 manner may not be brilliant, his voice may not 
 
1 1 o Preaching. 
 
 be melodious, his flow of words may not be 
 ready, his style may be awkward, and bis sen- 
 tences ill-arranged ; yet be will speak to souls 
 as no clever handling, no trim arrangement, no 
 easy fluency, no display of learning, no powers of 
 elocution, will ever speak. Why ? Because he 
 has sympathy. He feels he is, though a minister 
 of Christ, yet a poor struggling sinuer speaking 
 to poor struggling sinners. It is a living soul 
 speaking to living souls. His own personality is 
 engaged in the work. " Remember," says a 
 great preacher,* "that every upturned face is 
 " the face of a never-dying soul which has come 
 "to be helped on its way to eternity." And 
 another t says, " Every time we look upon our 
 " congregations let us belie vingly remember that 
 " they are the purchase of Christ's Blood." If 
 our preaching is to do any good, it must be 
 based upon sympathy. There must be heart, 
 first feeling for, and then speaking to, heart. 
 Let me show you something of the secret feelings 
 and longings of one of the greatest preachers 
 the world has ever known. St. Augustine thus 
 writes of himself, " My preaching almost always 
 " displeases me. I eagerly long for something 
 " better, of which indeed I often have an inward 
 " enjoyment in my thoughts before I try to put 
 " it into words. Then, when I find I have not 
 " power to utter the thought as it exists in the 
 
 * John An(?ell James. t Richard Baxter. 
 
Preaching. r 1 1 
 
 " mind, it grieves me tliat my tongue is unavail- 
 " ing to do justice to that which is in my heart. 
 *' What I understand myself I want my hearers 
 " to understand too ; and I feel I am not speak- 
 " ing so as to effect this." Ah ! yes. This 
 sympathy, which longs so ardently that the hearer 
 should have the full fruition of the thoughts 
 
 o 
 
 which are burning in the speaker's soul, is the 
 secret of true eloquence. 
 
 What do we wish to effect by our preaching ? 
 No doubt, in part, to instruct. There must be 
 plain and distinct teaching : and definite teach- 
 ing. People do not care for hazy shapes and 
 blurred outlines. Let the main lines be firmly 
 drawn, and fill in with no uncertain hand. Preach 
 definitely without preaching controversially. How 
 many sermons there are which are too well de- 
 scribed in the words of Bishop Wilberforce, who, 
 in an unpublished address to some candidates for 
 Ordination, warned his hearers against mistaking 
 for a true sermon " a few texts floating here and 
 " there in the turbid wash of your own feeble 
 " fancies " ! No ; there must be substance, and 
 clear distinct teaching, in your sermons. The 
 poor need it, and get it in no other way. Is it 
 so certain that the rich do not need it too ? True ; 
 they can read, and are not dependent on sermons 
 for instruction in religious truth. But do they 
 read ? I believe that simple teaching aimed at 
 the uneducated is often the very thing wanted by 
 
1 1 2 Preaching, 
 
 the educated. When I speak of simple teaching 
 I do not mean childish teaching. I mean teach- 
 ing enforced in very simple and clear language, 
 which all can understand. I am sure that very 
 easy conceptions are often made obscure by the 
 manner and the language in which they are con- 
 veyed, while very deep and even somewhat diffi- 
 cult ideas can be made almost transparent by very 
 simple treatment. As an illustration of this, I 
 heard a short time ago a clergyman address a 
 number of working men in a schoolroom in an 
 East End parish. He took for his subject Human 
 Nature, and for his text-book Bishop Butler's Ser- 
 mons on the subject, and I never heard anything 
 more absolutely lucid and perspicuous. I need 
 not say that he neither alluded to Butler nor 
 used Butler's language, but I am sure he sent 
 those working men away with some of Butler's 
 best thoughts clearly outlined in their minds. 
 Yes ; we must teach. But let me venture on a 
 caution. Be content, at least for some time, to 
 refrain from handling the great topics of contro- 
 versy which are occupying men's minds. It is a 
 great temptation to do so, just because they are so 
 much in the forefront. But there is plenty of teach- 
 ing to be done before you need touch upon these. 
 The learned and able listener will not value the 
 crude utterances of an untrained theologian, the 
 ignorant will not profit by them, the flippant will 
 find matter for irreverent remark. Be content to 
 
Preachino'. 
 
 1 1 
 
 explain what yon tliorouglily understand, and for 
 the rest to wait, and learn, and think. Surely 
 every man is not competent to handle every sub- 
 ject. Be modest and patient. 
 
 But I have said that the instruction of the in- 
 tellect is not the only, nor the principal, end of 
 preaching. Its highest end is to lead souls 
 to God. To co-operate with the Holy Ghost (if 
 I may so speak without irreverence) in convincing 
 of sin and of righteousness and of judgment; to 
 teach the love of Jesus ; to build up in Christian 
 graces ; to train souls for heaven ; — all this is the 
 chief work of the preacher. His gift is " for the 
 " perfecting of the saints, for the edifying of the 
 ^' body of Christ." To this end the preacher must 
 know something of these things by experience — 
 not much perhaps yet, but something, and more 
 and more continually. I do not tell him he must 
 stand, as it were, on a lofty height and cry, '■ Lo ! 
 ^ this is what you must aim at. Come up hither, 
 ^ where all is so bright and pure and happy.' No, 
 I would rather he should say, ^ brothers and 
 ' sisters, let us try to get up higher together. I 
 '- am but a fellow-toiler, but it is my duty and 
 ' high privilege to stretch out a helping-hand, if 
 * God will let me, to my companions. Shall we 
 ' try ? ' Yes, indeed, indeed, you will never lead 
 souls heavenward unless climbing yourselves. 
 You need not be very far up, but you must be 
 climbing. 
 
 H 
 
1 1 4 Preaching. 
 
 Now from these tliouglits will flow three rales 
 for your preaching, upon each of which I will say 
 a little. 
 
 1. Be real in thought. 
 
 2. Be natural in manner. 
 
 3. Be simple in style and treatment. 
 
 I. Be real in thought. Speak that which 
 you know in spiritual things. Do take care 
 not to soar in your words into regions which you 
 have never visited in your hearts. We all do it 
 at times. I suppose we all speak at times of 
 love to Godj tears of penitence, faith in the 
 unseen, realisation of pardon, hope of heaven, in 
 terms which we might scarcely be ready to test 
 by the experience of our own inner life. I do 
 not say it is always wrong to speak fervidly of 
 such things ; but in doing so is it not better to 
 say, ' Holy men tell us,' or ' We read of and are 
 ^ pointed to ' such a state, than to speak as though 
 it were a familiar thing to us ? I am so afraid of 
 unreality. A high ideal — a high standard — a high 
 aim — by all means ; but no false sentiment about 
 it, no high-pitched or misty language which will 
 not bear being placed side by side with our heart's 
 true experiences. I once had a great lesson read 
 me in this matter of reality. When I was a young 
 clergyman, I preached an Assize sermon upon Love 
 as the fulfilling of the law, and in speaking of love 
 to God I described the highest sort of love to Him 
 as love for His own sake, from the realisation of 
 
Preaching, 1 1 5 
 
 His perfectionSj apart from the sense of gratitude 
 for His goodness to ourselves. The late Judge Hill 
 returning from church in the sheriff's carriage 
 asked me whether I believed such love to be pos- 
 sible here on earth, adding that he had read and 
 thought much on the subject, and himself doubted 
 whether man was capable of that pure love to God 
 for His own sake, which is doubtless the love of 
 Angels, and held rather that our love here below 
 must be in large part gratitude. Whether he 
 was right or wrong is not the question. I think 
 he was probably right ; but I am quite sure that 
 he was more real than I was. It is a good rule, 
 if we speak about things higher than our own 
 hearts have attained to, to speak as if we were 
 speaking to our own hearts, — to tell others what 
 we feel our own hearts want to be told. It is 
 very instructive to note how Edward Irving owed 
 his first success as a preacher to this rule. He 
 had quite failed for some years, and was far from 
 acceptable to his hearers, until he suddenly re- 
 solved to throw away all he had written, and to 
 'preach to himself. From that time his sermons 
 began to touch others. Be real in thought. 
 
 2. Be natural in manner. Do not aim much 
 at manner. The best manner is that of entire 
 unconsciousness. Anyhow be yourself. If you 
 are naturally quiet, do not try to be fervid. If 
 you are naturally warm and vehement, use the 
 gift. I once heard a teacher of men remark as 
 
1 1 6 Fi'eaching. 
 
 to preaching, ^' Any manner will do, but not man- 
 " nerism." Any manner will do, if all is true, and 
 real, and meant. No manner is good with hollow 
 words and heartless sentiments. How often have 
 I listened to a fluency which was simply dreadful 
 in its want of earnestness ; and how often to halt- 
 ing words which have gone straight home in the 
 force of their honest conviction ! 
 
 I am sure enough stress is not laid, in our pre- 
 paration for Holy Orders, upon the cultivation of 
 the voice, and upon expressive, not to say intel- 
 ligible, reading. It is no part of my subject to 
 speak about the very important point of the read- 
 ing of the Lessons, but it is not far removed from 
 it. A good reader will generally be a good 
 preacher. How feebly and insignificantly one 
 sometimes hears a beautiful chapter read ! No 
 wonder the sermon is pointless and dull. I was 
 greatly struck lately with the reading of the same 
 passage of the same book at breakfast at two sepa- 
 rate centres on two successive Ember Days. In 
 the one case the passage was full of point and 
 vigour and beauty. In the other I should have 
 detected none of these, had I then heard it for the 
 first time. 
 
 Certainly to most hearers extempore preaching 
 appears the more earnest. It has a persuasiveness 
 about it, a sense of reality and of heart speak- 
 ing to heart, which cannot be ignored. If we 
 think of the different effect which a read speech 
 
Preaching. 1 1 7 
 
 and a direct extempore appeal addressed by a 
 counsel would have upon a jury ; or of the diffe- 
 rent effect of a read or an extempore speech, were 
 the former ever known, in the House of Commons ; 
 it seems strange that the reading of sermons should 
 have been so all but universal, and should still be 
 so common, in our churches. I believe ours is 
 the only Church which has ever adopted this 
 custom to any extent. I cannot but think that 
 extempore preaching ought to be our aim : not 
 perhaps our immediate practice, but our aim. 
 I do not ignore the value of the careful prepara- 
 tion which the written sermon secures, nor tlie 
 danger of shallowness and poverty in the un- 
 written sermon. In aiming at extempore preach- 
 ing pray do not think I would encourage you to 
 aim at unprepared or ill-considered preaching. 
 Careful notes and well-arranged headings are, of 
 course, all but indispensable. The best extem- 
 pore preachers take great pains with their prepa- 
 ration. Your cottage or school-room or mission- 
 room lectures will give you the best opportunities 
 for practice. Some will of course find it easier 
 than others. To those to whom it is easy to 
 speak extempore I would say, ' Beware of fluency 
 ' without thought.' It is important that those 
 who are thus ready of speech should write their 
 sermons occasionally for the sake of learning 
 order and concentration and clearness of thought. 
 To those who find it very hard I would say, ' Do 
 
1 1 8 Preachinc^. 
 
 ^> 
 
 ' not despair. Take pains, and in time you will 
 ^ succeed. And meanwhile do not be ashamed to 
 ' preach chiefly written sermons. You probably 
 ^ preach them much better.' I would recommend 
 to all who wish to learn to preach extempore a 
 little volume called " Papers on Preaching, by a 
 " Wyckhamist " ; and, as I am naming one book, I 
 take this opportunity of recommending a volume 
 of '' Lectures on Preaching " by Mr. Phillips 
 Brooks, the great American preacher. It is full 
 of valuable instruction and advice. In a very 
 different way many most useful hints may be 
 gathered from Mr. Spurgeon's exceedingly amus- 
 ing " Lectures to my Students." 
 
 3. Be simple in style. St. Augustine asks, 
 " What are we the better for a golden key, if it 
 " cannot unlock what we want to open ? What 
 " the worse for a wooden key, if it can ? " Those 
 who have had such an education as you have had 
 are slow to learn how many classes of words, and 
 even of ideas, are unused by, and unknown to, 
 the poor. An old weaver, to whom Dr. Guthrie lent 
 a volume of Chalmers' sermons, returned them, say- 
 ing he had no time for reading when he had to 
 hold the book in one hand and the dictionary in 
 the other. One could easily make a long cata- 
 logue of words to be avoided ; but when you 
 are very familiar with your poorer brethren, as 
 I hope you will be, having become familiar with 
 their ways of thinking and of expressing them- 
 
Preaching. 1 1 9 
 
 selves, your own instinct will tell you what to 
 avoid. 
 
 For example, use metapliors and similes freely, 
 but call them neither the one nor the other. 
 Your people will know what you mean by a like- 
 ness, or possibly by a figure ; but it is no bad 
 plan to imitate the simple directness of Him 
 who so often began, " The kingdom of heaven 
 " is like." 
 
 Utter paradoxes if you will, but beware of the 
 word. 
 
 Draw your inferences and deductions, but, as 
 you hope to be understood, say not what they are. 
 
 You will sometimes want to use a word — say 
 such a one as ^ abstract ' — for which you can find 
 no simple synonym. That is a pretty sure proof 
 that the idea, as well as the word, is foreign to the 
 minds of your people. 
 
 You must not assume that your people carry 
 your reasoning in their heads as you go on. 
 Thus you will often perplex them if you talk 
 about the '•''former " and the " latter " in referring 
 to what you have said. It is better to repeat the 
 thing briefly than to trust to relative words of the 
 sort. 
 
 Beware of the abomination of fine language 
 and of neatly rounded sentences. You can preach 
 almost as you would talk to a poor woman in 
 a cottage, so far as language is concerned, and 
 yet be truly eloquent. 
 
1 20 Pr^eaching. 
 
 Use sliort sentences, and never run into long 
 arguments. You are certain to lose the attention 
 if you do. Break up tlie mental food you have 
 to offer into smaller portions, that it may be the 
 better swallowed and digested. And do not be 
 afraid of pauses, marking off your paragraphs. 
 Chalmers, after hearing a young beginner, said to 
 him, " I liked your sermon ; you will make a good 
 " preacher ; the pauses were magnificent." 
 
 Be as unconventional as you can without 
 affectation. Set phrases (such as ' In conclusion, 
 ' let us draw from our subject some practical con- 
 ^ siderations ') are to be eschewed. They give to 
 the sermon the air of a formal composition, and 
 so impair its reality. 
 
 Be very definite. Use the concrete rather than 
 the abstract. We live in the concrete, not in the 
 abstract. Bring generals as much as possible 
 into particulars. The majority of uneducated 
 minds are lost when they get among abstractions 
 and general truths. I remember that one of the 
 first hints given me by a senior brother curate 
 when I went to my first curacy was on this very 
 point. He said, ' The people here won't under- 
 ' stand anything but the most direct words. It 
 * is no use talking about the duty or privilege of 
 ^ public worship. The only way is to say, ' You 
 * ' must come to church next Sunday.' ' Deal with 
 duties and with sins in the form in which tluy 
 meet them and think of them. They do not meet 
 
Preaching. 1 2 1 
 
 tliem in logical discussion, nor think of them as 
 matters of speculation. They meet them in daily 
 life, and think of them as something to be done 
 or not to be done. Give samples of whatever 
 you are talking about, in the way of illustrations 
 and examples. Be minute. The mind has to 
 deal with the smallest things before it learns to 
 generalise and make inductions. You will find, 
 if you preach general truths, very few will say, 
 ' That just fits me ' ; whereas, if you give a par- 
 ticular example, many will say this, though it is 
 perfectly plain that the general truth did in reality 
 cover ten times as many cases as the particular 
 example. Only it did not come home. Let me 
 suppose a case. One preacher may discourse very 
 ably upon the sin of uncharitableness and an un- 
 forgiving temper, pointing out its nature, its evil, 
 its condemnation in God's Word. His hearers 
 will acquiesce. They have no doubt it is all very 
 true, but it floats above them in a different plane. 
 It is the abstract, and they are living in the con- 
 crete. Another preacher comes. He says very 
 little about the nature of uncharitableness, but at 
 once goes to his example. ' See,' he says, ' what 
 ' hateful things this sin makes you do. You have 
 ^ had a little misunderstanding with a neighbour, 
 
 * or perhaps a relation, and some unkind words 
 ' were spoken, and then, instead of forgiving and 
 
 * forgetting, you think it all over and over again, 
 
 * and call back every bitter hard word. And that 
 
T 2 2 Preaching, 
 
 ' does not satisfy you. You must make it worse. 
 
 * And so you fancy wliat tlie other migM have said, 
 ' and what you might have answered, making it 
 ' up in your mind into a far more cruel and un- 
 ^ kind affair than it really was, and picturing to 
 '• yourself a far worse quarrel than really took 
 ^ place. And this just because you are unchari- 
 ' table and unforgiving.' Now ten to one in the 
 latter case some one in the church will say, ' That's 
 ^ just what I do.' Or again, one preacher speaks 
 of the sin and folly of seeking the praise of men 
 rather than the praise of God, and the people, if 
 they listen at all, think it all very true and very 
 good. Another will ask, ' Now, did you ever 
 ' practise any of the little mean tricks by which 
 ' people so often try to get the praise of men ? 
 
 * You are rather proud of something you have 
 ' done. You can't say boldly, ' I did a very good 
 ' ' thing one day.' But did you ever try to lead the 
 ' conversation round, so that it should seem quite 
 ' natural to mention the thing ? Or did you ever 
 
 * make a pretence of letting slip quite unintention- 
 
 * ally some little matter which would win you credit, 
 ^ when you really were very anxious it should be 
 
 * known ? Or, if you co uld not very well praise your- 
 ^ self, did you ever do the opposite, and cry down 
 ' yourself, that somebody else might praise you ? 
 ^ These are the sort of ways vain and silly people 
 ' seek the praise of men.' Again I think some 
 consciences in the church will wince as they listen 
 
Preaching. 123 
 
 to this probing home. You see, the second preacher 
 has got among the things of daily life, and is down 
 in the concrete, not floating away in the abstract, 
 and so they understand him. 
 
 You cannot believe too firmly in the ignorance 
 of your listeners. Take nothing for granted. 
 Explain what to you seems simple, and do not 
 be afraid of repetition. It is by no means a bad 
 plan to look round your congregation and single 
 out one of the most dense-looking among them, 
 resolving to do your best to make that particular 
 person understand you. 
 
 Be extremely tender to the ignorance and pre- 
 judices of your people. They want gentle leading. 
 Eemember how slowly and gradually your own 
 beliefs and opinions were formed. You have the 
 weak and the untrained in your flock. " Lead 
 " on softly " according as they shall be " able to 
 " endure." " If men should overdrive them one 
 " day, all the flock will die." 
 
 Do not be afraid of little stories and anecdotes 
 in illustration of your subject. They must of 
 course be selected with care, but, if not occurring 
 too often, they are very telling. 
 
 In the same way illustrations from the natural 
 scenery of the place are most helpful, and the 
 sight of the scene will recall the point illustrated. 
 I once heard a most striking sermon preached in 
 a church among the mountains of North Wales, 
 in which the Christian's life was illustrated by the 
 
i 24 Preaching. 
 
 climbing of one- of the well-known mountains. 
 This mode of illustration is carried out with 
 great beauty and variety of illustration in Robert 
 Wilson Evans' " Ministry of the Body," a little 
 book of a past generation worth rescuing from 
 oblivion. 
 
 And now for a very important point to end 
 with — the substance of our sermons. This must 
 be truth, brought home, not to the intellect alone, 
 but to the conscience and the heart. We must 
 preach not only because we are obliged to say 
 something, but because we have got something 
 to say that we feel to be worth saying. In 
 general I suppose it is best, as it is customary, 
 to take some little fragment of truth, and to 
 expand it, and enforce it, and illustrate it, so 
 that no one should fail to apprehend what we 
 are trying to teach. This is the justification of 
 short striking texts, and even sometimes (though 
 it ought to be only sometimes) of texts which are 
 no more than mottoes. I do not think a sermon 
 in which the preacher tries to bring in all the 
 doctrines of Christianity — the sort of sermon to 
 be concocted out of some of Bishop Beveridge's 
 Outlines — is generally very profitable. Yet in 
 dealing rather with some one small portion of 
 our great deposit of truth we must never for- 
 get its relation to the rest, but must set it 
 in the light of the great central verities which 
 give it its force and meaning. Our topics must 
 
Preachino, 1 2 5 
 
 not be " disjecta membra," but living and com- 
 ponent parts of one perfect whole. 
 
 In addition to, not as a substitute for, tlie 
 practice of preacliing upon isolated texts and 
 treating fragmentary subjects, I am convined of 
 the importance of expository preaching. We 
 want our people, not alone to examine micro- 
 scopically one single atom of truth or one brief 
 utterance of inspiration, but to gain some general 
 conception of the drift and purpose of longer 
 passages and of complete books. Thus a course 
 of expository sermons upon one of the Gospels 
 or one of the Epistles is often of great value, and 
 that, not only as giving an enlarged view of the 
 scope and purpose of the writer, but also as 
 ensuring the presentation of many and varied 
 topics in turn, some of which might never have 
 been chosen for separate disconnected enforce- 
 ment. I remember hearing the testimony of a 
 tradesman in Great Yarmouth, with whom I was 
 talking one day, to the deep interest he had 
 taken, and the great insight into the history of 
 the early Church he had gained, from a continuous 
 course of lectures given by the Vicar upon the 
 earlier chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. 
 
 I am inclined to think that, with all the 
 improvement which has certainly taken place 
 in the life and vigour and earnestness of our 
 preaching, there is a tendency to neglect the 
 old substantial doctrines, which were at least of 
 
126 Preachiitg. 
 
 the utmost moment in St. Paul's estimation, — I 
 mean such as Free Grace, Justification by Faith, 
 Sanctification by the Holy Spirit, and the like, — 
 in favour of ingenious applications of Scripture, 
 fervent appeals to the conscience, and the over- 
 frequent handling of side issues and points of 
 minor importance. The Bible is really some- 
 times treated as a sort of repertory of beauti- 
 ful thoughts, and storehouse of graceful fancies, 
 rather than as the revelation of God's truth to 
 man. Let us teach the great leading truths and 
 doctrines first, and take care never to be long 
 without recalling them to mind, and then the 
 subsidiary points will fall into their proper place, 
 and the proportion of the faith will be main- 
 tained. So I would say. As often as you can, 
 choose great subjects. We do quite enough to 
 belittle great subjects without choosing little sub- 
 jects also. Let your sermons be like pictures 
 painted by a true artist, the principal figures, the 
 grander objects, standing out boldly, clearly, un- 
 mistakably. Don't paint a dim sketchy indistinct 
 landscape with an elaborately finished primrose 
 in one corner the only thing to rivet the eye. 
 Don't paint a misty uncertain figure with an ex- 
 quisitely finished lace ruffle the one distinguishing 
 merit. Let your picture tell its story quite lucidly. 
 Study depth, unity, proportion. 
 
 Preach positively, not negatively. State what 
 the Bible teaches, and what the Church teaches, as 
 
Preaching, 1 2 7 
 
 boldly as you like, but do not attack others, nor 
 set up false arguments or untrue doctrines for the 
 purpose of knocking them down. I do not say that 
 there are not occasions when controversial teaching 
 is necessary, but it is a necessary evil even then. 
 Build up, and do not go aside to pull down. Let 
 " speaking the truth in love " be your motto. A 
 controversial spirit is a great hindrance to spiri- 
 tuality. Do not encourage it in your people. 
 
 Again, let the aim of your teaching be to impart 
 doctrine and not to catch the ear of a clique. Doc- 
 trine, not phrases. Some men delight to interlard 
 their discourses with the words ' Church ' and ' Ca- 
 ' tholic,' and some with the words ' Gospel ' and 
 ^ Protestant,' and so their sermons are duly allotted 
 to this or that side, as is desired. I would ask no 
 one to avoid a word, if it is the word he wants to 
 make his meaning clear, but it is a sorry device to 
 give one's sermons a party flavour by the use of a 
 word, and it is a great deal wholesomer for the people 
 to be taught the truth in its simplest form, and as 
 far as may be in Bible language, than to be taught 
 to judge of the sermon by one or two expressions 
 which may lead them to suppose it is of this or 
 that complexion. If you feel it your duty to 
 speak about some leading topic of dispute, about 
 which men's minds are much excited, it is best 
 to speak out plainly but kindly, clearly but 
 lovingly ; but in general such topics are not the 
 chief things you have to speak about, and you 
 
128 Preachin 
 
 can often wisely put them aside. But of all 
 things avoid short and hasty allusions to burning 
 questions. They only excite and irritate without 
 explaining. A well-known principal of a Theo- 
 logical College told his young students one day, 
 when speaking of this subject, that he could not 
 conceive why in the middle of your sermon you 
 should slip your hand into your cassock pocket, 
 bring out a little bit of red rag and shake it in 
 the face of your congregation, and then slip it 
 back again. Yet this is not a wholly unfamiliar 
 performance. 
 
 I do plead with you to preach encouragingly. 
 Don't be hard on your people. Poor souls ! they 
 want all the help you can give them, and, in 
 general, if really in earnest, they are not over- 
 hopeful. They are easily daunted and dis- 
 heartened. The Rev. Charles Anderson, in his 
 suggestive book " Church Thought and Church 
 " Work," tells about a quaint old parish clerk, 
 who, when a young curate came who preached 
 simply and stirringly, complained that he could 
 not get his accustomed slumber during the ser- 
 mon : " Yet," he added, " I like to hear our young 
 " gaffer hold forth so free, and talk so cheerful and 
 " helpful to poor folk, who know no learning, and 
 " get clemmed-like for want of any Christian 
 " comfort." Yes ; draw them by pictures of the 
 love and mercy of God, and don't try to drive 
 them by the terrors of the law. The old fable 
 
Preaching. 129 
 
 of the sun and the wind may teach us a very 
 good lesson. I dare say you know the legend of 
 the evil one, who, having entered a monastery in 
 the disguise of a monk, was discovered by the 
 Abbot, who detected his cloven foot. The Abbot 
 promised not to betray him if he would preach 
 them a sermon and tell them all about the 
 terrors of hell. This he did, and the brothers 
 were all in an agony of horror at the recital. The 
 Abbot afterwards asked him how he could paint 
 such a frightful picture if he wished to secure 
 many victims there, when he answered that he 
 did not think he should lose one soul if he only 
 painted the terrors of hell, and never said any- 
 thing about the love of God. Do encourage. 
 
 I will end with one all-embracing counsel. 
 Preach continually " Jesus Christ, and Him cruci- 
 " fied." Forget not that our religion is the religion 
 of a Person, — a religion which draws all its mean- 
 ing and all its power from its relations to a Per- 
 son, — a religion in which a Person is the centre 
 from which all life and grace and force radiate, 
 and in which all love and faith and sanctity con- 
 centrate. It is not alone the religion which 
 Christ teaches ; it is the religion which teaches 
 Christ. It is no code of dry laws, however strict, 
 and binding ; no system of profound philosophy, 
 however comprehensive and satisfying ; no order 
 of enlarged philanthropy, however God-like and 
 self-sacrificing. It is Oijpersonal thing, — a religion 
 
1 30 Preaching. 
 
 which binds us to ,a Person. In it Jesus Christ 
 is the Alpha and the Omega. Let all your 
 preaching show that you realise this. I remember 
 the time when I used to resent the complaint that 
 a sermon had said nothing about Christ. I do 
 not ask you to make any formal rule. But I 
 have lived to see that I was wrong. The hearts 
 of your people do long to hear about Him. They 
 never feel quite satisfied if they do not. Be it 
 narrowness, or superstition, or what you will, the 
 simple Christian soul craves the mention of the 
 very name of Jesus. I should like, if I dare, to 
 think it a sign of growing more like a child 
 again; but anyhow I confess that I should my- 
 self go home dissatisfied with a sermon which had 
 in it no mention of our dear Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
VI. 
 
 Zhc Ipaetoral Spietle^. 
 
( 133 ) 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES. 
 
 I AM sure that few things will help us better to 
 maintain a high standard in our work, and to 
 rule that work on high and true principles, than 
 the making the Pastoral Epistles a frequent sub- 
 ject of study and devotional reading. Many- 
 writers on the spiritual life enlarge much on the 
 virtue and profit of formal Meditation. This, as 
 perhaps I need hardly explain, consists of the 
 selection of a subject, which it is always recom- 
 mended should be done the evening before the 
 meditation; the exercise of the will by an act of 
 abstraction from all else and concentration on the 
 subject chosen ; the exercise of the imagination by 
 the vivid and minute realisation of the scene or 
 circumstance or utterance chosen as the subject ; 
 the exercise of the reason in the drawing out of 
 the lesson or lessons to be gathered ; the exercise 
 of devotion in the communing concerning them 
 with God in acts of prayer and praise ; the exer- 
 cise of the resolution in the selection of certain 
 points to be carried out in the life ; and finally 
 
134 The Pastoral Epistles. 
 
 the exercise of the memory in the culling (as a 
 mediaeval writer on the subject says) of a bouquet 
 of the sweetest thoughts God has given you, to 
 wear through the day, and to refresh you when 
 weary. This is something like making a little 
 sermon each time for one's own benefit. It is no 
 doubt a most profitable act, but it is very difii- 
 cult. I suppose some would find it less difficult 
 than others, and practice would give increased 
 facility. I can imagine it practised with great 
 blessing in a quiet regular life, in which there is 
 at least some little leisure and repose. To an 
 eager active temperament, and in the midst of a 
 very busy life, I think it is "oery difficult. Cer- 
 tainly I find it so. Therefore I never like to 
 press its use upon my younger brethren too 
 strongly. I generally advise trying this formal 
 exercise of Meditation on one or perhaps two 
 days in the week, and for the rest contenting 
 ourselves with devotional reading. For this I 
 have tried many books — all more or less help- 
 ful. Perhaps the best known and most widely 
 used are Troyte's " Daily Steps " (an adaptation of 
 Avancini's little book, " Vita et Doctrina Jesu 
 ^' Ohristi") and the more modern, but very popular, 
 " Daily Bound." These books, and others like 
 them, never quite satisfy me. Again and again 
 I come back to my Bible, and feel that I get 
 there the best course of devotional reading, the 
 best help for my own inner life. Even if there 
 
The Pastoral Epistles. 135 
 
 is ample time to study the Holy Scriptures, and 
 if they are studied, critically and exegetically, at 
 other times of the day, they will still be the best 
 and truest help we can find in that devotional 
 reading which is solely for our own personal 
 benefit. 
 
 But of all portions of Holy Scripture none is 
 (as we might expect) more helpful to us — none 
 touches us more directly — none is more full of 
 needful lessons — than the Pastoral Epistles. 
 These we can read and re-read, again and again. 
 We cannot surely know them too well, I would 
 recommend that they be made the subject of 
 devotional reading, — slow, careful, thoughtful, 
 prayerful study, — at least once every year. I be- 
 lieve by the observance of such a plan our work 
 would be better done and our life better lived. 
 
 Now it is quite impossible for me to enter 
 with any fulness into the many questions which 
 arise out of the general mention of the Pastoral 
 Epistles. I am not going to try to give you any 
 dissertation upon them. That is not my pro- 
 vince, even were I competent to do it. I am 
 regarding these wonderful letters, not critically, 
 not historically, not theologically, but devotionally. 
 Therefore I have resolved to take one of them 
 (it shall be the 2nd Epistle to Timothy) and to 
 select a few leading passages, from which I will 
 endeavour to draw out such thoughts as I should 
 like to imprint upon my own soul, as being most 
 
136 The Pastoral Epistles, 
 
 lielpful to me, whetlier in my inner life or in 
 my pastoral work. 
 
 I. I open my Bible, and turn to tlie first 
 chapter of our Epistle. Could I find words more 
 fitting for the foundation of all our conceptions of 
 our holy office than the description in the 7th 
 verse of the spirit which should animate us. 
 " God hath not given us the spirit of fear ; but 
 " of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." 
 You will note that this verse follows upon the 
 exhortation to stir up the gift of God which 
 Timothy had received in the putting on of the 
 Apostle's hands. It is joined to that exhortation 
 by the " For." Therefore it tells us the nature 
 and character of the '' gift." The " gift " em- 
 braces all the grace which God gives us for our 
 work. We cannot doubt that God does bestow 
 special grace for special work. If He calls us to 
 do or to bear anything, He will not refuse us the 
 needful strength for the doing or the bearing. 
 That which is here spoken of is the grace needful 
 for the work of the ministry. With that grace 
 God does assuredly endow us, when we seek it 
 with faithful expectant hearts. And of that grace 
 one part and element is certainly the spirit we 
 are of, the " spirit " here not being the Holy 
 Spirit, but the temper and character formed 
 in us by that Holy Spirit. And this spirit 
 is a gift that must be stirred up again and 
 
The Pastoral Epistles. 1 3 7 
 
 But of what sort is it ? What is the spirit of 
 the faithful Minister ? 
 
 " God hath not given us the spirit of fear ; but 
 " of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." 
 
 Not " of fear." For why should we fear, if (as 
 we believe) we are sent forth by our Captain to fight 
 in His name and in His strength ? If we simply 
 measured the strength of the foe, and then our 
 own strength, we might well fear. Our battle 
 is with a host of formidable enemies, strangely 
 diverse in fashion, armour, tactics, and yet all 
 banded in a vast defensive alliance. We are 
 throwing down the challenge to the world, the 
 flesh, and the devil ; and each of them is in 
 command of a very phalanx of doughty com- 
 batants. And we — oh ! how puny, and ill- 
 equipped, and ill-trained, and cowardly! Yet 
 *' God hath not given us the spirit of fear." No, 
 we go forth, as David went to meet Goliath, 
 ^' in the Name of the Lord of hosts, the God of 
 " the armies of Israel." And we know that He 
 — our Captain — is with us. It is this that dis- 
 pels fear. The enemy is " a strong man armed," 
 but the " Stronger than he " is on our side. 
 Gideon trembles as he numbers the host of 
 Midian, but the Lord speaks, "Go in this thy 
 " might : have not I sent thee ? " and lo ! " .the 
 " sword of the Lord and of Gideon " hath won 
 the victory. No — not a " spirit of fear." 
 
 " But of power, and of love." This is the 
 
1 3 8 The Pastoral Epistles. 
 
 spirit of our Captain ; it must be ours also. In 
 the magnificent prophecy, in which is pictured the 
 return of God's captive people, marching like a 
 triumphant army through the wilderness, you will 
 remember how the Leader of the Lord's host is 
 represented as coming in power and in love. 
 '^ Behold the Lord God will come with strong 
 " hand, and His arm shall rule for Him : behold 
 ^' His reward is with Him, and His work before 
 " Him." So He comes \xijpower. But how strange 
 the contrast in the next verse. What a different 
 chord is struck, when we read, " He shall feed 
 " His flock like a shepherd : He shall gather the 
 ''lambs with His arm, and carry them in His 
 " bosom ; and shall gently lead those that are 
 " with young." So He comes in Iovq. This 
 may well be regarded as a grand out-shadowing 
 of the two-fold character of Christ. For whether 
 we regard Him in the days of His sojourn upon 
 earth, or whether we regard Him in the operations 
 of His unseen presence with His Church, still the 
 two main characteristics of His relations with His 
 people are surely ^^ power" and ^^ love." And, if 
 it be true that, as the Father sent Him, so He 
 sends us, then we must go forth bearing His 
 marks, showing His Divine character. Shall these 
 two marks — " power " and " love " — be lacking ? 
 " Power " — ^Yes, for surely not in vain is spoken 
 over us the consecrating word; not in vain is 
 given to us the gift in the laying on of hands ; 
 
The Pastoral Epistles. 1 39 
 
 not in vain do we go forth bearing authority from 
 Christj speaking as ambassadors of God. Are we 
 to hang our heads, and falter in speech, as though 
 our word and commission were an invention of 
 man, or as though we were a school of specula- 
 tive philosophers, making dim guesses at the 
 unknown ? I would not that we should boast of 
 our authority, or lord it over God's heritage, as 
 though to us were given a dominion over the faith 
 of our people. But I would not that we should 
 speak timidly, uncertainly, waveringly, as though 
 doubtful of our oflSce and calling. The plain simple 
 speaking of the message has a power we often fail 
 to realise. " We preach Christ crucified " — " the 
 ^' power of God." We must speak knowing this, 
 therefore boldly, bravely, confidently. " The word 
 " of God is powerful " — not (mr word, but " the 
 ^'word of God" — His truth, His message. I 
 would that we should go forth in the strength of 
 our God, with our message ringing clear, and our 
 brow lifted up in holy confidence, and our eye lit 
 with the fire of a dauntless faith. I would that 
 our spirit should be one of power. 
 
 And then also " of love!' Power without love 
 would be very terrible in God. It would be very 
 chilling and repelling in the minister of Christ. 
 I do not think hearts are often won by power 
 without love. No boasting of authority, no set- 
 ting forth of priestly claims, no dogmatic asser- 
 tion of the Church's rights, will win souls. If 
 
1 40 The Pastoral Epistles, 
 
 we do not labour and teach with a real longing 
 love for the souls Christ died to save, we shall 
 fail. It must be no desire, however earnest, to 
 achieve great results, to show large fruits of 
 our ministry, which must animate us. It must 
 be a simple self-forgetting self-sacrificing love. 
 Of course it is easy enough to love some souls 
 with whom one comes in contact — easy enough 
 to love the pure simple humble gentle child 
 of God, and easy too to love the little ones 
 of the flock. But the uninteresting, the hard, 
 cold, rude, ignorant, degraded, — these are not so 
 easy to love ; and we are sure to be brought face 
 to face with such from time to time, and it is then 
 love will be tried. It is then we shall have to 
 say to ourselves, ' Jesus loved this soul : He has 
 ' borne with it, yearned for it, waited for it. He 
 * shed His Blood for it. He would not have it 
 ^ perish.' And then, remembering the wonderful 
 tenderness which would not break the bruised reed 
 nor quench the smoking flax, we too shall bear 
 with it, think no time, no labour, no sacrifice, too 
 great ; we shall speak in such loving words of the 
 love of Jesus as shall at last win that poor loveless 
 soul to wake up to the thought which shall be 
 like a ray of new hope and joy shot down into 
 its darkness, ' Then it is true ! " He loved me, 
 ' " and gave Himself for me ! " ' 
 
 There is one more ch ar act eristic left — ^ ' Of a sound 
 " mind." The word is aco(l)povL(7/j,o<;. Whether 
 
The Pastoral Epistles, 141 
 
 with our Autliorized Version we take it as sober- 
 mindedness, or, as some, the spirit whicli corrects 
 and restrains others, — 'discipline,' as in the Revised 
 Version, — yet, in either case, it is a protest against 
 extravagance, exaggeration, undue excitement. 
 Strong work is generally calm work. The oft- 
 quoted words of Keble in the preface to the 
 " Christian Year " are worth remembering : " Next 
 '' to a sound rule of faith, there is nothing of so 
 " much consequence as a sober standard of feel- 
 " ing in matters of practical religion." Perhaps 
 if the clergy were more ready to exercise self- 
 denial and to bear restraint in things non-essen- 
 tial, many of our sad troubles might be avoided. 
 And certainly the strangely unchastened irre- 
 verent and hysterical manifestations which 
 religious enthusiasm has of late developed and 
 defended may well make us pause and ask our- 
 selves. Is this the spirit of a " sound mind " ? 
 Surely there can be intense earnestness without 
 the extravagances of physical excitement, and 
 holy enthusiasm without the tumult of revivalist 
 confusions. 
 
 I now turn to another passage. In the 2nd 
 chapter and the 3rd verse of our Epistle we read, 
 " Thou, therefore, endure hardness, as a good sol- 
 '' dier of Jesus Christ." Are you ready for this ? 
 Or are you hoping to have things smooth and soft 
 and easy ? I fear sometimes there may lurk in 
 the secret heart of some who are hoping to enter 
 
142 The Pastoral Epistles. 
 
 this holiest of callings some miserable idea of the 
 sort. Among the various low motives which may 
 have helped to form our hopes as to the future 
 there may sometimes be found this wretched one — 
 a love of ease. I think very few are actuated by 
 such a sordid motive as that of love of money. This 
 is one great advantage we gain from the fact that 
 our profession can scarcely be considered a lucra- 
 tive one. But it is a less exacting one than most 
 others, and one can understand some being not 
 indifferent to an escape from the drudgery of the 
 counting-house or the office ; to the advantages 
 of a position of greater independence, and of a 
 calling in which the time is more our own; to 
 the probability of a pleasant home with a choice 
 of neighbourhood; to a variety of social advantages. 
 But oh ! how little have those who have been 
 swayed by such motives entered into the mind of 
 Christ ! What ! is the Master to bear all for us, 
 and we nothing for Him ? Is He to carry His 
 own cross, and ours too ? At any rate St. Paul 
 did not think so. He rejoiced that he was counted 
 worthy to suffer for Christ's sake ; and he bids us 
 to do the same. The word here is GV^KaKoiraQt]- 
 aov, " Take thy share in suffering," as Conybeare 
 and Howson translate it, — " Suffer hardship with 
 " me," in the Kevised Version. There was a 
 '' fellowship in Christ's suffering," in which the 
 Apostle rejoiced. And we too must be ready to 
 have fellowship in his sufferings, and in Christ's. 
 
The Pastoral Epistles. 143 
 
 If we have not made up our minds to " endure," 
 I think we are scarcely fit to speak in the Name 
 of a crucified Master. 
 
 Now do not think there are no blessed com- 
 pensations in our work. Nay, for there is the 
 " manifold more in this present time " — rich 
 beautiful undeserved rewards, even here. Per- 
 haps our calling is the most chequered of all, — 
 full of perils and of triumphs, of sadness and of 
 joy, of hardness and of comfort. But we have no 
 right to count up the blessings, and forget the 
 cost. 
 
 " Hardness," though in our English Version 
 only, well expresses the nature of the trials we 
 must be ready to bear. Let me briefly recount 
 some of these. 
 
 1 . 8df -sacrifice. This is a very wide word, and 
 really almost embraces all. It is the voluntary 
 surrender of self, the laying down all at God's 
 footstool, the absolute acceptance of ^ Not for 
 ' self but for others ' as the rule of life. If it 
 is said of all Christian people, " Ye are not your 
 " own," " No man liveth unto himself," dare we^ 
 of all men, lessen the stringency of such words ? 
 We have no right to live an easy self-indulgent 
 life, like some country gentleman with a few 
 light duties to be got through decently at his 
 convenience. We have chosen a life of " hard- 
 " ness " and self-abnegation. We have chosen a 
 calling which, if it means anything, means a 
 
1 44 The Pastoral Epistles, 
 
 life of labour for others, and spending and being 
 spent in their service. We have chosen to try 
 and save souls, and, while souls are perishing in 
 thousands, how can we rest ? 
 
 2. Special Self-denials, The cheerful under- 
 taking of irksome and unwelcome duties. I have 
 known clergy to whom it was a great burden to 
 teach in their school, or to visit the sick, or to 
 write sermons. Very likely some part of your 
 duty will be especially difficult and uncongenial 
 to you. Is it therefore going to be shirked, or 
 ill done ? Nay, shame on us if we are only ready 
 to do what is easy and pleasant ! Without self- 
 denial how can we be examples and patterns to 
 the flock? The Parish Priest who rises late, who is 
 particular in his food, who likes his quiet evenings 
 at home, who ignores the Church's rules in his 
 daily life, who prefers the lawn-tennis ground to 
 the bed-side of the sick and dying, is not much 
 like a " good soldier of Jesus Christ." 
 
 3. Separation. The very life of the faithful 
 Parish Priest separates him much from the world. 
 And " no man that warreth " ( — " No soldier in 
 " service," R. V. — ) " entangleth himself with the 
 " affairs of this life." You cannot be a " good 
 " soldier " and a man of the world at the same 
 time. I do not wish to particularize, but I am 
 sure that, while there may be with some a danger 
 of caste narrowness and over- clericalism, there is 
 with others a far greater danger of conformity to 
 
The Pastoral Epistles. 145 
 
 the ways and tone of their secular friends and 
 neighbours. Our work, our life, our bearing, — 
 these do of necessity cut us off from a good deal 
 of pleasant society, and even make more or 
 less of a gulf between ourselves and many 
 of our acquaintances. This is a great trial to 
 some. 
 
 4. Dislike, — Misunderstanding, — Opposition. 
 Likely enough, and, if not self-caused, wholesome 
 enough, yet very hard to bear. When these 
 things come, we must examine our conscience, 
 and see whether there may not be in ourselves 
 some self-will, or pride, or narrowness, or over- 
 sensitiveness, or love of self-assertion, which may 
 account for what we are suffering. And then, if 
 our conscience is clear, we can leave it to God. 
 It will pass. And we will pray that it pass not 
 without teaching us its lessons of humility, and 
 patience, and forbearance. , 
 
 5 . Sense of failure. This is very commonly 
 accompanied by relaxation of effort. Perhaps 
 you cannot manage your sermons. It is a great 
 labour to write them, and, when written, they are 
 dull and do not interest people. Or you are shy 
 and reserved in visiting, and go to new comers 
 with great shrinking and dislike. And then you 
 lose heart, and are discouraged, and tempted to 
 give up. Nay, where is the enduring hardness ? 
 Are you going to be cowards ? If you are doing 
 your best, it is no failure. Your people will be 
 
 K 
 
1 46 The Pastoral Epistles. 
 
 quick enough to see whether you are honestly and 
 anxiously seeking to do them good or no. 
 
 These are some of the things you may have to 
 endure. Well, are you ready ? Can you say, 
 " Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my 
 " infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest 
 " upon me " ? Oh ! beware of a life without 
 sacrifice ! 
 
 We will now pass on to a very different coun- 
 sel, that namely in ii. 14, which enjoins "that 
 " they strive not about words." Strangely anxious 
 does the Apostle seem to guard the Church 
 against this danger. Ao^oixayia is condemned 
 also in i Tim. vi. 4. It seems to mean strife 
 and controversy about words rather than realities, 
 disputes about petty unimportant points, arguing 
 for arguing's sake, making mere trifles a ground 
 of contention and acrimonious strife. There are 
 three very similar verses in this one chapter : this 
 the 14th; then the 1 6th, "Shun profane and 
 " vain babblings;" and then the 23d, "Foolish and 
 " unlearned questions avoid." And for each 
 there is a parallel in the ist Epistle. I have 
 mentioned the XoyoyL6a%/a. For the "profane 
 " and vain babblings" we have precisely the same 
 expression in i Tim. vi. 20, coupled with "opposi- 
 " tions of science " (or ' knowledge ') " falsely so 
 " called." And for the " foolish and unlearned 
 " questions," we have, in i Tim. i. 4, " Neither 
 " give heed to fables and endless genealogies. 
 
The Pastoral Epistles. 147 
 
 " which minister questions rather than godly 
 " edifying which is in faith." 
 
 Again to Titus the Apostle writes in like lan- 
 guage. Not only does he speak of " Jewish 
 " fables and commandments of men," but far more 
 expressly in iii. 9, " Avoid foolish questions, and 
 ^' genealogies, and contentions, and strivings 
 " about the law ; for they are unprofitable and 
 " vain." 
 
 All this points to some very serious evil or 
 peril in the Church. The matter could not be 
 enforced with such persistency of repetition, if 
 there were not some such cause. 
 
 Let me ask three questions: — i. What was 
 the danger then ? 2 . Does the same danger 
 exist now ? And, 3 . If so, how shall we guard 
 against it ? 
 
 I . The Apostle has in view a danger to which 
 the subtle Greek mind, so delighting in minute 
 distinctions, so accustomed to disputations about 
 all sorts of theoretical subjects in their schools of 
 philosophy, would be peculiarly susceptible. An 
 intellectual tournament was as keenly relished by 
 the ancient Greeks as the clash of armed knights 
 in the tilting jousts was by our Norman ancestors. 
 What more crafty method could the tempter 
 himself devise for drawing men away from the 
 great and glorious truths of the Gospel than this 
 setting them to the empty strife of petty dis- 
 putations about unreal and insignificant matters ? 
 
148 The Pastoi'al Epistles. 
 
 That St. Paul thouglit the danger great is most 
 plain. No one can read the Pastoral Epistles 
 through and not see how anxious he was on this 
 point. And no one can read the history of the 
 Church without seeing how this peril became a 
 most real and pressing one again in later times, 
 when the fanciful and unpractical disputes and 
 arguments of the schoolmen marred so greatly 
 the profitableness of their often really solid 
 learning. 
 
 2. But are these things of the past ? Is the 
 danger gone by ? Are the Apostle's oft-repeated 
 warnings, however needful for other times, out 
 of date and needless now ? I quite allow, and 
 with thankfulness, that in these days there is a 
 remarkable love of truth for its own sake, — a 
 great hatred of shams and unrealities. The 
 spirit of the age is against puerile word-battles 
 and foolish and ignorant questionings, which can 
 do no good. If there is a peril (as assuredly 
 there is) in the spirit of inquiry, the refusal to 
 take things for granted, the resolve to search all 
 things to the bottom, in these days, at least we 
 are saved from much hollowness and formalism 
 and unreality. Yet I cannot think the danger 
 is past or the warning needless. At any rate 
 the Apostle would warn us how easy it is to be 
 drawn off from the great central truths and facts 
 by side-issues, hot controversy about things in 
 themselves indifferent, the tumult and noise stirred 
 
T/ie Pasloral Efiistles. 149 
 
 np by party watcliwords, the dust and din raised 
 by combatants who are very often fighting the 
 old battle of the gold or silver shield. I am sure 
 all this language of the Apostle would enforce 
 solidity of teacliing upon the Church. Oh, it is 
 so hard to remember the ^' proportion of faith " ! 
 Everything conduces to efface it. The great 
 primary truths are just those not so much fought 
 about among believers, and so arousing less keen 
 interest. It is the contested things that push to 
 the front. Yes, but these are just the least 
 momentous, very often. And recollect it is, at 
 least now in our days, the great primary truths 
 which are assailed from without. Christianity is 
 attacked vehemently, persistently, formidably. 
 Oh ! God forgive us if, when the enemy is upon 
 us, we be found squabbling among ourselves ! 
 God forgive us if, when men are denying Him, 
 decrying the Gospels, ridiculing miracles, malign- 
 ing the very character of the Saviour, we be 
 found bending all our energies on the attack or 
 defence of a vestment or a posture ! Oh ! let us 
 beware lest, when the real battle is for God, for 
 Christ, for the very existence of the Church, we 
 get mixed up in those little side-battles in which 
 the enemy would fain see us engaged. 
 
 3. How shall we guard against the danger? 
 
 (a.) By realising the majesty of truth ; by 
 dwelling on the infinite excellence of those things 
 which God has revealed, and the comparative 
 
150 The Pastoral Epistles. 
 
 littleness of all tliouglits and inventions of man. 
 ^' Lord, Tliy word endureth for ever in heaven." 
 
 (/3.) By testing the things you teach by their 
 bearing on the salvation of souls. As an example 
 of the neglect of such a rule, I may mention that 
 some years ago, in passing the church of a large 
 and notoriously neglected parish, I saw on the 
 church-gate a notice of a course of Lenten ser- 
 mons, and on going up to look at the subject, I 
 found they were to be upon the " Ornaments 
 '' Kubric." 
 
 (y.) By reading standard books rather than 
 the controversies of the day. Nothing more tends, 
 to lower the religious character and to substitute 
 polemics for Christianity than the reading only a 
 partisan newspaper. If you want to be narrow, 
 bitter, unfair, uncharitable, you cannot do better. 
 If you want to be loving, generous, just, and true, 
 eschew it. 
 
 Oh ! the grand old words of the Apostles' 
 Creed ! How often, when wearied and distracted 
 with the din of petty but bitter controversy, 
 have I said the dear old words with a swelling- 
 heart, feeling, Here is my war-song : here is my 
 chant of praise : here are the simple glorious 
 eternal facts on which I build my salvation. 
 Yes; doctrine is precious; controversy is often 
 needful. But there is something before doctrine, 
 and that is History; there is something more 
 blessed than controversy, and that is Faith. 
 
The Pastoral Epistles. 1 5 1 
 
 Let us now turn to iv. 2, wliere tlie Apostle 
 urges to pastoral faithfulness. '' Preach the 
 " word : be instant in season, out of season ; re- 
 " prove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering 
 " and doctrine." 
 
 St. Paul sets us a high rule of pastoral faith- 
 fulness, not by word only, but by example. 
 *' Remember that by the space of three years I 
 " ceased not to warn every one night and day 
 " with tears." Having dwelt at length in one 
 of my lectures on Pastoral Visitation, I need not 
 do more than add a few words now. I would 
 remind you how easy it is to grow lax in this 
 matter. We have no rule imposed from without. 
 There is no minute supervision. There is no 
 diary to be shown periodically to the Bishop (as 
 the 'Timers' once recommended). It just depends 
 on our own conscience and sense of responsibility. 
 And alas ! conscience is easily lulled to sleep, and 
 the sense of responsibility easily grows dull. Our 
 public services we cannot shirk. Our private 
 ministrations we can. And human nature is 
 weak, and the heart deceitful, and easy ways are 
 pleasant. Contrast the life of many a young 
 curate in a country parish with the life of a 
 clerk in a merchant's or a lawyer's office. ' One 
 cannot help sometimes regretting the absence 
 of the discipline of regular hours of work. 
 What opportunities, never to be recalled, may 
 be lost by a single day's neglect ! No one 
 
152 The Pastoral Epistles. 
 
 can have lived as long as I have in the 
 ministry without some startling rebukes for un- 
 faithfulnesSj startling calls to greater faithfulness 
 in dealing with souls. The sudden death of a 
 godless man ; a stroke making all religious mini- 
 strations impossible ; the leaving of the parish 
 by some one quite unexpectedly; — what com- 
 moner ? But then comes the question — ' Have 
 ' I spoken faithfully to this soul when I could ? ' 
 Oh, how sadly to be answered, too often ! Which 
 of us lives up to that evKalpoi^ aKalpco^ ? I do not 
 think this means forcing ourselves, or our words 
 of warning, upon every unwilling listener, or 
 upon every inopportune occasion. But it does 
 imply a zeal and forwardness of pastoral action 
 such as shall show what a yearning desire is in 
 us to help souls. It does imply not only seizing, 
 but making, opportunities. And what if our 
 people will not listen to us ? Were they always 
 so ready to listen to our Master ? They sought 
 to kill Him at Nazareth. They prayed Him to 
 depart out of their coasts at Gadara. And we are 
 hurt, forsooth, and ready to give up trying to 
 help, if we do not always receive a gracious 
 welcome ! Let me quote to you some words of 
 St. Chrysostom, given by Alford in his Commen- 
 tary upon this passage, as to our duty when our 
 pastoral counsels are unheeded : — '' And if, after 
 '^ our warning, they remain unchanged, we will 
 " not therefore desist from our counselling ; for 
 
TJie Pastoral Epistles. 153 
 
 " fountains flow, even tliougli no one is refreshed 
 *' by them ; and rivers run, even though no one 
 ^' drink of them. Therefore, too, he that speaketh 
 " must do his part, even if none heed. For the 
 '' command of the living God lies upon us to 
 " whom is intrusted the ministry of the Word, 
 " never to omit our part, whether men hear or 
 " whether they run past unheeding." 
 
 I must now end my thoughts upon this 
 Epistle by meditating for a few minutes upon the 
 Hope set before us. Let me read you the words 
 of joyous assurance with which the Apostle 
 speaks of his approaching martyrdom. They are 
 in chap. iv. 6-Z : — " I am now ready to be 
 " offered, and the time of my departure is at 
 " hand. I have fought a good fight ; I have 
 " finished my course ; I have kept the faith. 
 " Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of 
 " righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous 
 " Judge, shall give me in that day." Oh ! if 
 only we might be able to speak thus when our 
 own time comes! 
 
 Think of the promises. St. Peter thus writes : 
 " Feed the flock of God which is among you, 
 " taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, 
 " but willingly ; not for filthy lucre, but of a 
 ^' ready mind ; neither as being lords over God's 
 " heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. 
 " And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye 
 " shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not 
 
1 54 The Pastoral Epistles. 
 
 " away." And then remember wliat Daniel says^ 
 speaking of the Eesurrection : " They that be 
 " wise shall shine as the brightness of the firma- 
 " ment, and they that turn many to righteousness 
 " as the stars for ever and ever." 
 
 Well, it is good sometimes to think of the end. 
 It will soon come. The years go by very fast. 
 
 Sometimes our work is very dull, hard, dis- 
 spiriting, discouraging. We might sink under 
 it or throw it up in despair, but for hope. I 
 know this is not the highest motive. There is 
 something better than to work for reward. To 
 work for duty is better. To work for love is 
 best of all. And yet how merciful God is ! 
 He knows our weakness. He sees how often 
 the highest motive fails us. And so He allows 
 a lower motive to help us, not in place of the 
 higher, but as a prop and support of the higher. 
 Hope of reward is a lower motive. It must not 
 stand in place of love, nor even of duty. Yet it 
 is a great support of both love and duty. Oh ! 
 we are children all — the oldest, the best. We need 
 a child's treatment. The child is led by hope 
 and fear. And by hope and fear does the Father 
 still train up His elder children for the manhood 
 of their heavenly life beyond. So we will thank 
 God for hope ; and as we press on, often weary, 
 always falling short, sometimes almost ready to 
 give up, we will look forward, and catch the 
 gleam and the glow of the hidden glory crowning 
 
The Pastoral Epistles. 155 
 
 the brow of the everlasting hills. We will medi- 
 tate on the sweet rest, and the blessed welcome, 
 and the glorious vision. We will think of the day 
 when we may lay down our sword at the Captain's 
 feet, and hear Him say, " Well done, good and 
 ^' faithful servant ; enter thou into the joy of thy 
 " Lord." 
 
 Finally, let us look more closely at the Apostle's 
 words. They are remarkable. This Epistle is 
 the latest expression of his mind. The time of 
 his departure was at hand, and his words are 
 words of very strong assurance. There are no 
 others like them. How difterent was his tone 
 when he wrote, " I keep under my body, and 
 " bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, 
 ^' when I have preached to others I myself should 
 " be a castaway." Was he presumptuous then 
 in these later words ? Nay ; surely he spoke but 
 the simple truth. It would have been false 
 modesty to have spoken doubtfully. He had no 
 doubts. Why should we have doubts ? Ah ! 
 well, perhaps we ought to doubt, as we are. 
 Yet surely we ought not to be content to go on 
 doubting about our state. God never meant us 
 to be always wondering whether we shall be 
 saved. I think perhaps we want more assurance ; 
 not the assurance of a fancied conversion or of 
 a passing elation of spirit, but rather the assur- 
 ance of a calm steadfast humble trust in God's 
 mercy through Christ, — the assurance that can 
 
156 The Pasto7'al Epistles, 
 
 say (in words taken from this same Epistle), " I 
 " know whom I have believed, and am persuaded 
 " that He is able to keep that which I have com- 
 " mitted unto Him against that day." Or again, 
 (as the Apostle writes to the Romans), '-'- I am 
 " persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor 
 " angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things 
 " present, nor things to come, nor height, nor 
 " depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to 
 " separate us from the love of God which is in 
 " Christ Jesus our Lord." 
 
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7 
 
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 Works by the Right Rev. George H. Wilkinson, D.D. 
 
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8 
 
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9 
 BY THE REV. W. ALLEN WHITWORTH, M.A. 
 
 Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. 
 
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BY THE REV. A. C. AINSLIE, M.A. 
 
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II 
 
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BY THE REV. H. W. TUCKER, MA 
 
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 LONDON : WELLS GARDNER, DARTON, & CO., 
 2 Paternoster Buildings, E.G. 
 

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