BV 4010 .J68 Joseph, Oscar Loos, 1873- The dynamic ministry Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library https://archive.org/details/dynamicministrysOOjose Vi I .;)j n \- V The JAN 1924 5SICAL StV# Dynamic Ministry A Study of the Fourfold Duty of the Minister BY y OSCAR L. JOSEPH “Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfill it .”—Colossians J^. 17. THE ABINGDON PRESS NEW YORK CINCINNATI Copyright, 1923, by OSCAR L. JOSEPH Printed in the United States of America The Bible text used in this volume is taken from the American Standard Edition of the Revised Bible, copyright, 1901, by Thomas Nelson & Sons, and is used by permission. To THE REVEREND BISHOP LUTHER B. WILSON. D.D., LL.D. WISE ADMINISTRATOB AND DISCERNING PREACHER, IN APPRECIATION AND AFFECTION CONTENTS CHAPTEK PAGE Preface. 7 I. Thoughts for Transition Times. 9 II. The Advancing Protestantism. 37 III. The Distinctive Pulpit. 71 IV. The Generous Pastorate. 105 V. The Opulent Worship . 135 / Oft when the Word is on me to deliver Lifts the illusion and the truth lies bare; Desert or throng, the city or the river. Melts in a lucid Paradise of air— Only like souls I see the folk thereunder. Bound who should conquer, slaves who should be kings. Hearing their one hope with an empty wonder. Sadly contented in a show of things; Then with a rush the intolerable craving Shivers throughout me like a trumpet-call— Oh, to save these! to perish for their saving, Die for their life, be offered for them all! —Frederick W. H. Myers: Saint Paul, p. 34.^ 1 Reprinted with permission of Macmillan & Co., Ltd., Publishers, London. PREFACE This book has frankly nothing to say about programs but something about ideals. It is here concerned with underlying principles and motives. The author has tried to place the exacting work of the Christian ministry in a spacious background, convinced that if this is recognized and accepted there shall be rediscovered the opulence of our resources and such ways promptly devised as shall help to further the kingdom of our God and his Christ, through the church, which is absolutely the indispensable agency for human welfare. O. L. J. THOUGHTS FOR TRANSITION TBIES “When that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away .”—1 Corinthians 13.10. “A living church must be a developing church, and if it is to develop it must have spiritual free¬ dom and autonomy. There need be no hostility to doctrinal religion, for a religion without doc¬ trines would be a vague and nebulous abstraction, something which could neither be taught nor spread. It is clear, however, that a church is not to be helplessly and hopelessly bound by what men thought in the past. Liberty seems to be essential if the churches are to express their convictions in their own way and to keep in touch with the grow¬ ing thought of the w^orld. This is not inconsistent with religious continuity. No student of theology but knows how the early church appropriated ideas from its environment in order to express its spir¬ itual faith in terms of doctrine and still maintained the continuity of its spiritual life. And what was possible then is now possible. The continuity of the Christian religion does not lie in certain fixed and unalterable statements, but in the abiding presence of Christ’s spirit in human hearts and lives.”—George Galloway: ^^Religion and Modern Thought,'^ p. 41.^ 1 Reprinted with permission of Charles Scribner’s Sons, Pub¬ lishers, New York City. CHAPTER I THOUGHTS FOR TRANSITION TIMES The man who built his house on the sands was lacking in forethought. He made no provision for the day of emergency and assumed that he would pass his life only under fair skies. When the storm burst he found himself in ruins. It availed him nothing to throw the blame on unfavorable conditions, when, in reality, he was guilty of reckoning without all the facts. He had an evasive dis¬ position and deluded himself with the idea that he could get through somehow and escape any mishaps which perchance might overtake him. He may have talked with seeming wis¬ dom about not crossing the bridge until he gets there, and he was doubtless commended for his common sense. But his confidence was a mere assumption and his optimism was a species of make-believe. Since he was not aware of any difficulties he concluded that they did not exist. He was shortsighted be¬ cause he was self-centered and he argued in a circle which was too severely circumscribed. 11 n THE DYNAIMIC MINISTRY Indeed, his was a case of center without cir¬ cumference. He illustrates the folly of an individualism which begins and ends with one’s self, and which seeks for exceptions in one’s own favor, so as to evade the law of cause and effect that applies to everyone. To be sure, the exception proves the rule; but there are some rules that permit of no exceptions, particularly in the realm of moral rectitude, intellectual integrity, and spiritual veracity. Under no circumstances could light be con¬ fused with darkness. The region of twilight is so tantalizing because it is neither one nor the other. The Great Teacher was eternally right when he said, ‘Tf therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness.”^ He was uttering a warning against self-deception and self-delusion, which induce those who suffer therefrom to live in a fool’s paradise, a land of mirage, or one where the aurora borealis fascinates but fails to give light. It is therefore a fortunate circumstance when the builder on the sand finds out that he was misguided. It is not a happy experience to witness one’s work in a state of collapse, but if one learns from mistakes to do differently, then he might well be congratulated, for he 2 Matthew 6. 23. THOUGHTS FOR TRANSITION TIMES 13 would brace himself to undertake anew, under different auspices. If, on the other hand, he sits down amidst the ashes of his desolation and indulges in self-pity and looks for com¬ miseration instead of courage, his prospects are indeed gloomy. Nothing is really lost if one retains his faith and has an open mind. He who recognizes his mistakes and acknowl¬ edges them is in a sure way toward recuper¬ ating his losses. He who has a closed mind and insists that he is right, even when the results contradict such a conclusion, is equally certain to descend to lower depths of failure and to continue misadventures that produce vexation and vanity of spirit. In these recent years we have been making some humiliating discoveries. The Great War and the aftermath turned on the searchlight, to show us that many things we thought could not exist did actually exist. Where we sup¬ posed great advances had been made we found that things existed in a state of hapless help¬ lessness: 1. We boasted of our educational institu¬ tions and flattered ourselves that we were an enlightened nation in comparison with some of the European peoples. The army tests of intelligence for drafted men, even if considered as only partially reliable, revealed the startling 14 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY fact that more than one half of our adult population is made up of people less than fif¬ teen years of age mentally, and that the greater part of these fail to pass the twelfth year of age standard of intelligence. Of this number many are native Americans, and not all of them are among the mountain whites or of the Negro race. This fact helps us to under¬ stand why quackery of all sorts—religious, medical, political, and social—has such a fertile field in our midst. 2. The searching estimates of Viscount Bryce pointed out many of our shortcomings in his American Commonwealth and Modern Democ- racies. We received his appraisals without any seriousness and with a sort of neglige indulgence, while less authoritative critics were treated with scorn. Professor Santayana wrote: “In temper America is docile and not at all tyrannical; it has not predetermined its career, and its merciless momentum is a passive re¬ sultant. . . . The American may give an exor¬ bitant value to subsidiary things, but his error comes of haste in praising what he possesses and trusting the first praise he hears. He can detect sharp practices, because he is capable of them, but vanity or wickedness in the ultimate aims of a man, including himself, he cannot detect, because he is ingenuous in that THOUGHTS FOR TRANSITION TIMES 15 sphere. He thinks life splendid and blameless, without stopping to consider how far folly and malice may be inherent in it. He feels that he himself has nothing to dread, nothing to hide or apologize for; and if he is arrogant in his ignorance, there is often a twinkle in his eye when he is most boastful.”^ This easy-going manner has made us delightful company, but it has also exposed us to many dangers, from some of which we have not escaped. This might be illustrated from the political and economic spheres, which show too great a readiness on our part to forget and to forgive. 3. No one questioned the innumerable activ¬ ities of the church. We were given to cam¬ paigns of all sorts—evangelism and revivalism at periodical intervals went hand in hand with conventions and conferences and movements in the interest of missionary and other work. Everything was undertaken on a large scale and we were greatly impressed by numbers and quick results. All this was gratifying, and, although some discerned weaknesses in institutional religion, their voices of protest were drowned in the pseans of gratitude and gratulation that went up from thousands of ® Character and Opinion in the United States, p. 212f. Reprinted with permission of Charles Scribner’s Sons, Pub¬ lishers, New York City. 16 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY altars. Where there was so much to show of accomplishment, any questionings were re¬ garded as signs of hypercriticism. The con¬ clusions of the dissenters were, however, justi¬ fied by the investigations made during the war. It was discovered and reported in such books as Religion Among American Men that there was a serious lack of knowledge of the fimda- mentals of religion. We had assumed too much and verified too little. We explained the lax attendance at church services as due to worldliness and interest in pleasure. It never struck us that it might probably be due to misunderstanding of the real place and value of religion in daily life. How could that be when om* Sunday schools were flourishing, when our young people’s societies were active, when our church buildings were multiplying and many of them were erected on a sumptu¬ ous scale, when our leaders were busy in end¬ less ways, and when the rank and file of our membership seemed to be doing their best.^ Judged by the test of quantity, no one could register a complaint, although the test of qual¬ ity might not have been quite so satisfactory. We are now called upon to revise our judgments by acknowledging that vast numbers in our churches, men and women, are in an “impene¬ trable fog” concerning the distinctive truths of THOUGHTS FOR TRANSITION TIMES 17 Christianity and their bearing upon life. Those who are deeply interested in this matter should read The Church in America^ by Professor William Adams Brown. It is an exhaustive examination and a sympathetic interpretation of the spirit, purpose, and program of American Protestantism, with suggestions looking toward more effective ways of advance for the king¬ dom of God through the Church of Christ. The fact that a situation similar to our own has been discovered in the British churches, as indicated in such volumes as The Army and Religion^ The Church in the Furnace, In Darkest Christendom and a Way Out of the Dark¬ ness, by Arthur Bertram, only intensifies the urgency of our common need. Here, then, is a summons to give earnest thought to de¬ vising and applying such remedies as shall impart greater strength and stability to the church, to do her work in harmony with the divine purpose of world redemption, revealed in Jesus Christ our Saviour and Lord. Criticism, especially of the negative sort, is easy and popular. Far more difficult is the constructive criticism which is not popular because it offers no ready-made panaceas that save us from the exertion of thought. It is this latter, however, that is needed in this day of querulous questioning, defiant doubt, 18 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY fading faith, and bewildering burdens. It is significant of much that the modern attitude to religion shows a disposition to understand it rather than to explain it away. Since the Christian religion is historical, it can be understood only in the light of history. Dog¬ matic assertions and creedal declarations are not valid unless they have a historical basis in religious experience. It is, moreover, a healthy sign that ‘‘our age is critical, dissatis¬ fied, restless, and impatient of weakness and platitude.’’^ There is, furthermore, a desire to seek a working adjustment between the claims of authority and reason by an appeal to funda¬ mental religious experience. There is no such thing as pure authority or pure rationality. The oft-quoted words of Pascal, “the heart has its reasons which the intellect knows not of,” express a form of irrationalism similar to the lines of Tennyson about the freezing reason’s colder part. Dean Inge rightly pro¬ tests against the dualism of thought that science gives us facts without values and religion values without facts. Such a view inevitably brings us to the misleading con¬ clusion that “science tells us what is true; philosophy and religion spread over the cheer- * George Galloway: Religion and Modern Thought^ p. 53. THOUGHTS FOR TRANSITION TIMES 19 less scene the light that never was on sea or land.”^ This is an evasion that is both unhis- torical and untenable. The so-called quarrel between religion and science has really been a quarrel between theological dogmas and scientific hypotheses. We have had dismal evidence of this unfortunate recrudescence of error in recent months, instigated by men who have only a speaking acquaintance with scholar¬ ship, and who have endeavored to stampede the church by hysterical appeals to emotional¬ ism on questions that belong to the sphere of learning, and which must be settled by the schools rather than by the political caucus. There are some who suppose that a telling phrase solves a problem. They aver that a catchy word or a striking sentence is sufficiently comprehensive to express what they believe. The fact that Christian Science is neither Christian nor science, but is a cult at once pantheistic and superstitious, has not pre¬ vented the unwary from being convinced by its pompous pretensions. Fundamentalism is a new word used by certain Church people to represent what they think are the funda¬ mental truths of Christianity. An examination ^Outspoken Essays. Second Series, p. 3. Reprinted with permission of Longmans, Green & Co., Publishers, New York City. 20 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY of their platform, however, leads to the con¬ clusion that a more accurate word to de¬ scribe their standpoint would be Elementarism. These militant believers hold the elementary truths of the Christian religion, which have not been thought out and thought through by them to their developed conclusions. Their theology is that of the kindergarten order and their ideas are more akin to materialistic crudities than to spiritual perfection. They are guided by sophistry and sentimentalism rather than by the disciplined and balanced thinking of exact scholarship. The fact that they are passionate and practical must not lead to the inference that they are reliable and accept¬ able, for such a test would give a high place to the propagandists of all forms of erroneous thinking and living. The very sincerity of these ‘‘ele- mentarists” makes it all the more difficult to convince them of anything to the contrary. Over against them should be placed those who accept what might be called Essential- ism. These have learned to discriminate be¬ tween what is primary and what is secondary. They are not radicals nor revolutionaries, nor are they moved by the claptrap of opportun¬ ism and expediency. They realize that the past should be related to the present, to the point of being assimilated, but that the past THOUGHTS FOR TRANSITION TIMES 21 should not arbitrarily dominate the present. They recognize the principle of development, which does not necessarily contradict what has gone before but, rather, completes it and creates the atmosphere for yet further ad¬ vances, in accord with the apostolic precept to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”® They have a clear understanding of the relative worth of values and estimate them in the light of ideal¬ ism and pragmatism. They know that an ideal is what ought to be but is not, but that it will be though it is not yet.^ They therefore press on toward the goal, unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, encour¬ aged to do so by present attainments, which are an earnest of future accomplishments. They welcome light from every source and plead for liberty of thought, to enable the Church to express her convictions in keeping with the philosophical, scientific and social environment of the age. Above all, they are assured of the supreme sufficiency of the In¬ carnate Son of God, who, by reason of his divine-human fullness, is competent to meet all the demands of our own day. There need be no quarrel between those who ® 2 Peter 3. 18. ’ Compare In^e: Outspoken Essays. Second Series, p. 21. 22 THE DYNAmC MINISTEY hold to what is elementary and those who advocate what is essential. The latter, in their desire for clarity of thought, urge the need for simplification that calls for the omis¬ sion of certain teachings which, however, are not fundamental to the faith but rather accessories or incidentals. They view the uni¬ verse as dynamic rather than static, and their conception of God provides for the divine transcendence as well as the divine immanence. The creative and redemptive power of God is still at work, as we declare when we confess our belief in the Holy Spirit, who is still taking of the things of God and showing them unto men. When we read the New Testament we are impressed by the fact that the early church enjoyed diversity in unity and nowhere com¬ pelled her members to submit to the dead hand of uniformity. This sorry anticlimax came in the later centuries, with the rise of the Catholic Church, when ecclesiasticism sup¬ planted the freedom of the Spirit. There were many strands of thought and experience in the apostolic church, but the differences were made subservient to the fundamental accept¬ ance of the sublimely central leadership of Jesus Christ.^ Where this was acknowledged. ® Compare C. A. Anderson Scott: Dominus Nosier, p. 164flF. THOUGHTS FOR TRANSITION TIMES 23 divers accents and emphases were not only tolerated but welcomed. The New-Testament writings are not dogmatic declarations but dynamic expositions of the central verities. They took cognizance of varieties of opinion and of temperament, and reckoned with the principle of development in the conceptions and claims of the evangel, as they endeavored to meet the needs of Judaism, of paganism, and of the growing Christian consciousness. The New Testament is thus an apologetic not in defense of Christianity but as an interpretation of it. It was addressed primarily to Christian communities, to clarify their thought, to re¬ move misconceptions and misunderstandings, to suggest the relation between essentials and incidentals in doctrine, to establish and apply the permanent principles according to which Jew and Gentile, bond and free, proletariat, bourgeoisie and aristocrat, educated and un¬ learned, might find a common ground for the practice of the Christian virtues in the unity of the Spirit of Christ, which is the bond of perfectness. We are accustomed to think of Paul and John as exercising a monopoly of influence in the early church. As a matter of historical fact, there were Christian communities inde¬ pendent of these two leaders, among whom 24 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY free speculation was practiced, more especially after the early days of enthusiasm had passed. The Epistle to the Hebrews is the one book of the New Testament which illustrates this exercise of Gnosis, or Knowledge, at different Christian centers during the first century. The Parousia hopes had not been realized and apoc¬ alyptic beliefs, whatever their benefits, did not appeal to this class of Christians any more than they appeal to many thoughtful Chris¬ tians today. There was, moreover, a decay of faith and earnestness under the pressure of trials. The older categories and formulations, however effectual in the preceding generation, found no quickening response from them. They had lost their grip and were in danger of being completely bowled over. This letter of enlightenment, exhortation, and encourage¬ ment expressed the conviction that Christian¬ ity, however noble its past, has not yet run its course and that it has a peculiarly timely message for the perplexed mind and the dis¬ tressed spirit. To be sure, this epistle does not have the freshness and ardor of Paul, nor does it have the spiritual mysticism of the author of the fourth Gospel. It is a link be¬ tween them and it was written at a time of transition, when a feeling of spiritual exhaus¬ tion had overtaken the church. THOUGHTS FOR TRANSITION TIMES 25 This thinker was aware that the earlier sanctions no longer held, that is, so far as their method and manner of appeal were con¬ cerned. He, therefore, had consecrated courage and the originality of independent thinking, to adjust the eternal message of Christ to the changed and changing circumstances of his day, without modifying the accepted funda¬ mentals of the church. One who follows such a course is always exposed to the charge of inconsistency; but the writer of this epistle found it both compatible and congenial, and withal practicable and mandatory, to have aflSnities with primitive Christianity and Alex¬ andrian thought. He was very much in the position of the modem preacher who accepts the conclusions of science and philosophy, without feeling that they militate in the least against the essential truth as it is in Jesus. This unknown writer of the first century took his stand on current Christian beliefs but developed larger conclusions from them. “He was anxious to discover new possibilities, new reaches of truth, in the message that had come down to him, but only on the condition that the message itself was to stand unchallenged.”® ®E. F. Scott: The Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 76. Reprinted with permission of Charles Scribner’s Sons, Publishers, New York City. 26 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY His constant appeal is to go on to perfection in Christ, for it is better farther on. The Epistle to the Hebrews is of special interest to preachers. It was written at a time when the foundations were shaking, when nothing was taken for granted, when everything was questioned. How like our own day! There have been similar periods in the history of the church, and it was due to Chris¬ tian thinkers that the church was rescued from lapsing into a state of sheer inertia. In the fifth century, after the sack of Rome by Alaric, it was Augustine who set forth in his Civitas Dei a Christian philosophy of history. In the fourteenth century, when both church and state were in a condition of decadence, Dante expounded in De Monarckia his conception of an international empire based on brotherhood and love. Bishop Butler wi*ote The Analogy of Religion to meet the cynical skepticism of the eighteenth century. Although he stood outside the evangelical movement and was even hostile to it, he had no small share in furthering it, by compelling the thoughtful to reckon with Christianity as both rational and spiritual. These three typical utterances illus¬ trate how transition times were understood by Christian thinkers. They distinguished be¬ tween the permanent elements of Christianity THOUGHTS FOR TRANSITION TIMES 27 and their varying doctrinal expressions. The latter were necessarily subject to change under the influence of philosophy, science, and liter¬ ature. ‘‘A great financier, the elder J. P. Morgan, once said of an existing financial condition that it was suffering from ‘undigested securities,’ and, paraphrasing him, is it not possible that man is suffering from undigested achievements and that his salvation must lie in adaptation to a new environment, which, measured by any standard known to science, is a thousandfold greater in this year of grace than it was at the beginning of the nineteenth century One purpose of the Epistle to the Hebrews was to suggest how the “undigested securities” of Christianity might be utilized to greater advantage in a world of change. Its lofty idealisnji and its intensely practical interest recalled many a straggler to the things that could not be shaken. Professor Rendel Harris pointed out that it was the supreme merit of its unknown author, during the greatest crisis which the world has ever faced, to look through the flames in which church and state were being consumed together, and to assert “James M. Beck: The Constitution of the United States, p. 193. Reprinted with permission of George H. Doran Company, Publishers, New York City. 28 THE DYNAMIC jVHNISTRY that the rocks were not burning. The gar¬ ments would doubtless perish, but the inner reality they clothed would remain and be all the more precious for the purifying fire. There was, then, no occasion for alarm, but rather a summons to action, based on clear and keen thinking, that would give a more steadfast faith in God, in Christ, and in the continuous ministrations of the church. The autor ad Hehraeos is at times difficult to follow because his method of exegesis was tinged by allegor¬ ical interpretations. This is only to acknowl¬ edge that he used the thought terms of his own day, as was inevitable not only in his own case but in that of all the New-Testament writers, as well as of Augustine, Dante, Butler, and all thinkers, who, in their several days, made their respective contributions. This right and privilege—to think and to write in accord with the manner of our day—should certainly not be denied us, nor, mdeed, should we be expected to accept the theology of a pre- scientific age, even though indorsed by learned and venerable names. The early church boldly appropriated ideas from pagan thought. This has been done by the church in every century. In noting the time element in New-Testament thought, we should remember that Christianity did not grow up THOUGHTS FOR TRANSITION TIMES 29 in a cloister but was thrown from the beginning into the full current of the world. ‘‘The new religion found its converts among philosophers of all schools, votaries of all religions, moralists, social reformers, rich and poor.”^^ In the process of development it assimilated pagan elements, but this interaction only tended to preserve the distinctive character of Chris¬ tianity. It was thus increasingly acknowledged as the only religion which “expresses in their purity and with a clear consciousness of their value and meaning, those elements in human thought which can properly be called reli¬ gious.”^^ This conflict between Christianity and the religions of the first century is being repeated to-day on the mission field, especially in India, and the reactions are full of significance so far as our thought at home is concerned. The differences in doctrinal expression dim¬ ing the successive centuries have, however, not destroyed but maintained the continuity of spiritual faith and life. Our own peril is in being tempted to stereotype doctrine and cus- E. F. Scott: The New Testament Today, p. 41. Re¬ printed with permission of The Macmillan Company, Pub¬ lishers, New York City. ^ Ihid., p. 75. Compare W. S. Urquhart: Theosophy and Christian Thought, and Campbell N. Moody: The Mind of the Early Converts, 30 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY tom, and to arrest the development of truth, regardless of the growth of human knowledge. “The traditional Christian lives in a pre- Copernican universe and refuses to readjust his cosmology, which fits only into a geocentric frame. . . . The new knowledge imposes upon us new duties; and these new duties are sys¬ tematically ignored by churches, which even manifest an active antipathy to them.”^^ The Roman Church is the extreme instance of the church which forgets nothing and learns nothing. The genius of Protestantism encour¬ ages the forward look, but it cannot be said that Protestantism has consistently practiced it. We are still encumbered by the scholas¬ ticism of the sixteenth century, and we behave as though the last word was spoken by Luther or Calvin. The ancient creeds are limited by what they contain and by what they omit. “They are declarations of dogma, not directions of life. They codify Christian opinion rather than modify Christian character. As has been stated elsewhere: “We trust them with reverence as milestones in the path of Christian progress; but we do not regard them as final Inge: Ovtspolcen Essays, Second Series, p. 56. ^ F. G. Peabody: The Christian Life in the Modern World, p. 202. Reprinted with permission of The Macmillan Com¬ pany, Publishers, New York City. THOUGHTS FOR TRANSITION TIMES 31 decisions, closing the doors for further investi¬ gation and achievement or preventing yet larger discoveries of the inexhaustible wealth of divine grace. Any changes contemplated, and those that have already been adopted, affect what is vital in Christianity, not to undermine it but to illuminate and enhance it. Much of the confusion in the Protestant camp to-day has been occasioned by a doctrine of biblical authority which has failed to distinguish be¬ tween dictation and inspiration. If the Bible were divinely dictated, then those who wrote were not “moved by the Holy Spirit” but conscripted by the Holy Spirit to take down what was given them, as though they were a registering machine without any exercise of their intellectual or spiritual faculties. In that case every part of the Bible is equally sacred —Leviticus as much as the Psalms, Lamenta¬ tions as the Gospel of John. However strongly this mechanical theory might be held, in prac¬ tice it is virtually discarded even by those who espouse it, except when they convert the Bible into an arsenal of proof-texts to sub¬ stantiate any doctrine, be it Christian or anti- Oscar L. Joseph: Freedom and Advance, p. 6. Reprinted with permission of The Macmillan Company, Publishers, New York City. 32 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY Christian. This is being done by the prop¬ agandists of Millennialism, Russellism, Second Adventism, Spiritualism, who confound the unlearned and tantalize the thoughtful by their intolerant obscurantism. There are two classes of Christians to whom preachers must always appeal. The apostle Paul said: “We speak wisdom, however, among them that are fullgrown”; and he censured the Corinthians because he could not speak to them as unto spiritual but as unto babes in Christ.The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews urged his readers to leave the doctrine of the first principles of Christ and to press on unto full growth. He recognized that there are ordinary believers, satisfied with elementary teaching, who live from hand to mouth and who are content to continue in this grade of experience. There are others, however, who desire to proceed to higher “knowledge,” to understand the mystery of godliness in the incarnate Christ and its man¬ ifest claims upon life.^^ It must not be inferred that we are to talk a learned language in the pulpit to these latter. We should, however, express the truth in lucid fashion and in its 1 Corinthians 2. 6; 3. 1. Hebrews 6. 1. 1 Timothy 3. 16. THOUGHTS FOR TRANSITION TIMES 33 comprehensive aspects that lead to greater privileges and make for larger responsibilities. When we endeavor to answer the intellectual doubts and problems of those who seek for light from Chi'istianity, there should be such a directness as will help even those in the other grade of Christian thought and experience. Here, then, is the issue. We cannot put off earnest inquirers by evasive answers and passionate assertions, which really betray “in¬ tellectual frugality” on our part. These may be in the minority, but their influence is far in excess of their numbers; and it would be fatal to the cause of Christianity to ignore them in exclusive preference for the multitudes. Bishop Gore observed that a serious danger threatens the church when her ministers “take refuge in social and practical interests from the difficulties of thought.” He says that one reason why so many people do not find spiritual advantage in listening to preachers is that the preaching gives them little to think about. “A rambling and incoherent sermon, inter¬ spersed with trite observations and conven¬ tional platitudes, is heard with hardly con¬ cealed impatience, and a preacher of this type soon finds his congregation deserting him. The horror of the dull and tedious is a note of our 34 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY day.”-° This does not imply that we are to convert the pulpit into a theological chair and the congregation into a class of theologues. It means, rather, that the pulpit should be made the magnetic center, from which there shall go forth the radiance of light, the rejuve¬ nescence of life, and the redemption of love. Thus only will those who attend our services be enabled to worship in the beauty of holiness; to meditate in the atmosphere of decorum and dignity; to praise in the fellowship of spiritual uplift; and to go forth, under the spell of eter¬ nal peace, to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. We believe that Christianity has the only message for these distracted times, because Jesus Christ is the Lord of thought, the Ruler of the emotions, the Controller of the will, the Director of activity, and the Redeemer of all life. To be sure, the challenge is not an easy one, when preachers are called upon to serve tables and to discharge eleemosynary functions. The other day Dr. J. D. Jones made this statement: “Doctor Jowett once said to me that what he valued most at Carr’s Lane was that his deacons gave him an abso- 20 Galloway: Religion and Modern Thought, p. 51. 21 Titus 2. 12. THOUGHTS FOR TRANSITION TIMES 35 lutely quiet mind. How can any minister do his best work if he is harassed and worried by a hundred anxieties?” We all feel the same. Among other things, it should, then, be our business to train our laymen so that they will take a fuller share in the work of the church, in order that the minister may give himself to his work as a preacher, a teacher, a pastor, and the leader of his people in all ways that build up the church for the further¬ ance of the kingdom of God. In spite of diffi¬ culties our work must be done. Let us accept our task with the courage of consecration, and prove ourselves more expert stewards of the manifold grace of God, rightly dividing the word of Truth, for the edification of the church and the redemption of the world. 36 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY SUGGESTED READING' George Galloway: Religion and Modem Thought, Gerald B. Smith, Editor: A Guide to the Study of the Christian Religion. Oscar L. Joseph: Freedom and Advance. W. T. Davison, Editor: The Chief Corner-Stone. John Oman: The Problem of Faith and Freedom. F. G. Peabody: The Christian Life in the Mod¬ ern World. H. R. Mackintosh: The Originality of the Chris¬ tian Message. A. S. Peake: The Nature of Scripture. David S. Cairns: The Reasonableness of the Chris¬ tian Faith. H. B. Williams: Fundamentals of Faith in the Light of Modern Thought. George Cross: Creative Christianity. Lily Dougall and Cyril W. Emmet: The Lord of Thought. Benedetto Croce: History: Its Theory and Practice. W. R. Inge: Outspoken Essays. I and II Series. T. R. Glover: Progress in Religion to the Christian Era. Robert F. Horton: The Mystical Quest of Christ. Arthur K. Rogers: English and American Philos¬ ophy Since 1800. F. Melian Stawell and F. S. Marvin: The Making of the Western Mind. A Short Review of European Culture. Henry T. Hodgkin: The Christian Revolution. Charles D. Williams: The Gospel of Fellowship. A. Boyd Scott: Nevertheless We Believe. ^ Any desired book in these lists of “Suggested Reading” may be secured from your own publisher. THE ADVANCING PROTESTANTISM “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” —1 Thessalonians 5. 21. “It would seem that there can be no greater necessity than that of making decisively clear, if this be possible, whether in professing to know religious facts we are dealing with realities that are intelligible, or with the fictitious products of our imagination and the confused emanations of our desires. And there can be no necessity more urgent if, as most men would confess, a man’s religion expresses and determines his attitude toward life as a whole. Whatever else religion has meant to man—and it is difficult to say what it has not meant—it may be said that where the religious issue has never been raised, man’s life drifts. He has not faced its meaning, nor has his life any dominant purpose. He has not fixed its standard of values, nor determined what must be sought first. He is like one storm-driven in mid-ocean without a star whereby to steer, or any land in any direction for which to make. . . . Religious faith cannot be otiose nor can religious doubt or error be innocuous. For religion is a practical mat¬ ter, and so indeed is irreligion. Uncertainty in religion means hesitancy in action, and paralyzes the will the more tragically the more far reaching the issues.”—Sir Henry Jones: A Faith that Enquires, p. 3.^ ^ Reprinted with permission of The Macmillan Company, Publishers, New York City. CHAPTER II THE ADVANCING PROTESTANTISM The rise of Protestantism in the sixteenth century was the result of revolutionary forces that were struggling for expression during many years in the intellectual, political, eco¬ nomic, social and religious realms of life. It was a period seething with discontent and full of bitter class hatreds, second only to that in which we are living. The protest was negative, against the autocratic domination of institutionalism in church and State, which regarded humanity as existing for ecclesias¬ tical and imperial exploitation. It was also a positive protest, on behalf of the rights of personal freedom based on reason and con¬ science. It was the first serious attempt in any large way to break from traditional bond¬ age. It had many immaturities, as was inev¬ itable, but it turned the course of human life into better channels. It found its voice in Luther, who was a Providential man, in the sense that there was focussed in his volatile and forceful personality the divers currents of 39 40 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY thought, emotion, and will, which had their origin before his birth. His strident voice was heard above all others, but we should not overlook his contemporaries, who were working for the same cause of freedom, even though they were often at cross-purposes. Erasmus, the rationalist, Melanchthon the moralist, Zwingli the eclectic, Calvin the logician and administrator were among those who shook the foundations of error and who endeavored to substitute something better on which to build a more stable and comprehensive struc¬ ture, for the greater glory of God and the larger good of humankind. It ill becomes us to pass censorious judgment on the imperfections and failures of these strategic men. It is more to the point to real¬ ize the significance of their achievement. They destroyed the shackles that bound the human mind. Some were thereby cast on an un¬ charted sea, others happily discovered their moorings and obtained secure anchorage. To be sure, the Reformation raised more problems than it was able to answer, but what a big thing it was to get men out of the inertia of intellectual and spiritual vassalage and to com¬ pel them to seek more acceptable and more respectable ways of realizing their immortal destiny. “It was the logic of events that. THE ADVANCING PROTESTANTISM 41 whereas the Renaissance gave freedom of thought to the cultivated few, the Reformation finally resulted in tolerance for the masses. Logically also, even while it feared and hated philosophy in the great thinkers and scientists, it advocated education, up to a certain point, for the masses. If the Reformation is judged with historical imagination, it does not appear to be primarily a reaction. That it should be such is both a priori improbable and unsup¬ ported by the facts. The Reformation did not give our answer to the many problems it was called upon to face; nevertheless, it gave the solution demanded and accepted by the time, and therefore historically the valid solution. With all its limitations it was fundamentally a step forward and not the return to an earlier standpoint, either to that of primitive Chris¬ tianity, as the reformers themselves claimed, or to the dark ages, as has been latterly asserted.”^ Luther’s position at first was moderate but the compelling force of circum¬ stances, the enlargement and revision of thought and the direction of events, led him later to assume a radical attitude. “Only gradually,” 2 Preserved Smith: The Age of the Reformation, p. 750. Reprinted with permission of Henry Holt and Company, Publishers, New York City. Compare H. O. Taylor: Thought and Expression in the Sixteenth Century, vol. ii, 383 ff. 42 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY wrote Dr. Alfred Plummer, ‘‘did he reach the position that a man can be saved apart from the Pope; and he ended by saying that a man cannot be saved unless he opposes the Pope.”^ The Reformation, that is to say, emphasized the principle of development in religious thought and life. This was against the static principle which, in a spirit of half distrust due to lack of faith in the creative God of redemption, insists on the status quo, beyond which no one should go on peril of eternal loss. The Re¬ formers did not realize all the implications in the progressive ideal of religious liberty, nor could they have been expected to do so, since they had not yet completely emancipated themselves from the incubus of medisevalism. They were heralds of the better day and pioneers of a movement which has had a check¬ ered course up to our own time. Their answer was the best they could give, and we think of it, not to go back to it but to go forward from it. We should receive it at its face value and furnish a fuller answer, more commensurate with our ability and more adequate to our needs. Criticism is always a preliminary step toward ^ Quoted by Jackson and Lake: The Beginnings of Chris^ tianity, vol. ii, p. 292. The Macmillan Company, Publishers, New York City. THE ADVANCING PROTESTANTISM 43 progress. It is a healthy sign, not to be de¬ plored, even when much of it is hasty and biased. It is indeed a mark of growing interest, so much better than the perilous attitude of indifference. It is, furthermore, an indication of the desire for improvement. Dean Inge well said that ‘‘a movement has more to fear from its disciples than from its critics.”^ If we are alert and open-minded, we might learn more from those with whom we disagree than from those who indorse our sentiments. The real seeker after truth is more anxious to be con¬ vinced than to be confirmed. For instance, the primary aim in reading a book labeled “not safe” is to get the point of view of the man with whom we disagree rather than to detect errors, which would become more patent to the sympathetic than to the merely antag¬ onistic reader. Progress comes through the clash of ideas and not by passive acquiescence. The word progress is by no means an open sesame. Some who declare for progress may be as obscurantist as those who deny it.° On no subject is it more necessary to heed Doctor Johnson’s advice, “Clear your mind of cant.” In this case the cant is the confused thought * Outspoken Essays, Second Series, p. 184. ® Compare J. B. Bury: The Idea of Progress, An Enquiry into its Origin and Growth. 44 THE DYNAlSnC MNISTRY which mistakes phrases for processes and places an embargo on free thinking so necessary’’ for a right understanding of the central issues. The course of history has been cataclysmic and constructive. When the church has faced a crisis with the conscious ability of spiritual direction, and when her representatives have shown candor and conviction, the outcome has invariably been one of religious and moral advance. On the other hand, when the church has yielded to the adroit ways of compromise, she has unwittingly belittled the magisterial demands of Truth, to find herself in wander¬ ing mazes lost. Bishop Butler in the Advertisement to The Analogy of Religion, wrote: ‘Tt is come, I know not how, to be taken for granted, by many persons, that Christianity is not so much a subject of inquiry, but that it is now at length discovered to be fictitious. And accordingly they treat it as if, in the present age, this were an agreed point among all people of discernment, and nothing remained but to set it up as a principal subject of mirth and ridicule, as it were, by way of reprisals for its so long having interrupted the pleasures of the world. On the contrary, this much, at least, will be here found—not taken for granted, but proved—that any reasonable man who will THE ADVANCING PROTESTANTISM 45 thoroughly consider the matter may be as much assured as he is of his own being that it is not, however, so clear a case that there is nothing in it. There is, I think, strong evi¬ dence of its truth; but it is certain no one can, upon principles of reason, be satisfied of the contrary. And the practical consequence to be drawn from this is not attended to by every one who is concerned in it.”® It is to the credit of Bishop Butler that he compelled thinking men to reconsider their attitude to Christianity, and made it clear to them that it was not based on unreason and superstition, but that it was in perfect harmony with the most exacting demands of reason and con¬ science. He did what many were thinking about but were unable to utter. The Evan- gehcal Revival was so eflFective because of the severe intellectual labors of the lonely thinker of Auckland Castle. It has always been true that the thinkers have laid the foundations and the mystics have built thereon. They hewed a way through the forests of ignorance, the jungles of superstition, the mountains of prejudice, often at serious cost to themselves. They seldom received the just mead of appre¬ ciation, but they were sustained by the con- “ W. E. Gladstone’s edition, vol. i, p. 1. The Macmillan Company. 46 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY viction that they were the servants of the Most High and had received their commission not from councils and svnods but from the V Eternal God himself. The thinker is seldom welcome, however indispensable he may be to the cause of truth. This is doubtless because he has an uncom¬ fortable way of holding us to our premises and compelling us to reach conclusions which often do violence to our cherished presuppositions. As Robinson well remarks, ‘‘Most of our so- called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do. . . . Instead of subjecting traditional ideas and rules to a thoroughgoing reconsideration, our impulse is to hasten to justify existing and habitual notions of human conduct.”^ We thus continue to plow the sands and beat the air and travel in a vicious circle of familiar activities that begin and end nowhere; and when it is shown that we are mistaken we express our resentment by abuse, because of a native incapacity for genuine argument. Is this not the tragic story of the church which has slain her prophets in one generation and builded monuments to their honor in a later ^ J. H. Robinson: The Mind in the Making, pp. 41, 199. Reprinted with permission of Harper & Brothers, Publishers, New York City. THE ADVANCING PROTESTANTISM 47 generation, to atone for her lack of vision and forethought? And yet the lesson has not been learned, so that we continue to treat our con¬ secrated and courageous thinkers as the most dangerous enemies of God and man. ‘‘Never¬ theless, wisdom is vindicated by all that she does,” to use Moffatt’s rendering of these words of the Master.^ Definitions are invariably misleading. This refers especially to definitions of truth which cannot be “cribbed, coffined and confined,” in sentences, however stately and sonorous they may be. Who can define life which is subject to change in an unbroken continuity from the evolution of the embryo to the com¬ plete and complex organism? It is being constantly transformed as it develops new forms of expression in accordance with the exigencies of circumstances. Since religion is life, inspired by the supreme God with whom the pious hold communion, this same feature characterizes the growth of religion, as it advances from less to more, even toward a fuller apprehension of and a closer conformity to the whole will of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Religion so conceived recognizes no cleft between itself and thought but, rather. ® Matthew 11. 19. 48 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY welcomes the prerogatives of doubt, the rights of inquiry, the privileges of free discussion, and it encourages opportunities for independent initiative looking toward the greater expansive¬ ness and the richer benefactions of truth. Such a religion maintains the forward look and therefore distinguishes between traditionalism which is domination by the past and tradition which is respect for the past. This was the idea of Jesus who interpreted religion in terms of life and who made more of the authority of the enlightened reason than of the authorities of ancient doctrinanes. He set the issue forcibly before his hearers when he asked them with startling directness: ‘‘And why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right.^”^ Have you ever heard or preached a sermon on this revolutionary text? It asserts the rights of reason far more decisively than many of his other sayings. It should, however, be said that the entire tenor of the Master’s ministry was to get away from the aridities and futil¬ ities of traditionalism and to find refuge and rest in the enriching hospitality of the mind and heart of God, which fathom the depths, and scale the heights, and encompass the breadths of life, with surpassing ability and reliability. ® Luke 12. 57. THE ADVANCING PROTESTANTISM 49 Think for yourselves and decide for your¬ selves—this is the insistent summons of our blessed Lord, whose directions offer real deliv¬ erance and lead to genuine peace and blessed¬ ness. We are apt to look with suspicion on the man who asks questions and who does not passively accept things as they are in the laissez faire spirit. We are inclined to regard doubt as sinful and to view faith as an.unques- tioned acceptance divorced from reason. A faith that has to be shielded as a hothouse plant because it cannot stand the withering blasts of criticism, and v/hich has to be bol¬ stered up by authorities and to be accepted at secondhand by those who do not want to be exercised by the inconvenience and exhaustion of thinking, is not faith but superstition. Hence the misunderstanding about the realities of life which are intelligible only as they appeal to reason. WTiat is unintelligible is irrational, and this is true of religion and every other subject. If I have to be religious by insulting or hurting my reason, which is the light of the Divine Spirit in me, then so far my religion is defective. ‘‘A Gentleman with a Duster,’’ in his latest volume. Painted Windows, has pointed out the dangers to which we are exposed when reason is. discounted or neglected. In his earlier volume. The Mirrors of Downing 50 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY Street, lie declared: “We need the Puritan element in our character, the Hellenic element in our minds, and the Christian element in our souls. We must set a higher value on moral qualities, on intellectual qualities, and on Christian qualities. We must learn to see not gloomily nor heavily, but with joy and thanks¬ giving, that our world is set in the midst of an infinite universe, that it has a purpose in the scheme of things, that we are aU members one of another, and that there is no grandeur of character, mind, or soul which can ever be worthy of creation’s purpose.”^® The secret of Jesus was in his firm “faith in the absolute supremacy of spirit.” In that searching question, just mentioned, Jesus ap¬ pealed to the innate understanding of his hearers. They were able to forecast the weather as the result of experience; why did they not show a similar atbility to interpret the intel¬ lectual, social, and religious currents of con¬ temporary life? In a profound sense Jesus was both rationalist and idealist because his life was established in spiritual depths through fellowship with God. The attitude of indiffer¬ ence does not see, the attitude of curiosity - ^ The Mirrors of Downing Street, p. 171. Reprinted with permission of G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Publishers, New York City. THE ADVANCING PROTESTANTISM 51 fails to see, the attitude of self-interest cannot see, the attitude of faith is one of sober reason¬ ableness because it does see, and sees straight and sees far, and enables others to see. It is in the spirit of faith that we must face our complex situation. In this day of revolt and rebellion against conventional standards and tests, when every institution including the church is under fire, an evasive course spells disaster. Criticism, moreover, is only a half¬ way house. We must continue^our journey beyond it, by means of the creative thought of construction, which accepts the challenge of the critic, to give a reason for the faith and the faith in us, with consistency, open- mindedness, and calmness, that characterize the possessors of knowledge and assurance. We are to live on inspirations, not on sensa¬ tions. W^e should be influenced by sentiment, not by sentimentalism. We must insist, not on the random repetition of shibboleths but on the steady acknowledgment of sanctity revealed in Christ and exhibited in Christian experience. The failure to make the dis¬ tinction between the truth of Christianity and its varying interpretations is the cause of endless confusion among pious souls who mistake the means for the end, because they have not been accustomed to discriminate 52 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY between the essentials and the accidentals of our holy religion. These carry Protestant scholasticism to the extreme of absurdity and in their zeal for literalism they discounte¬ nance all the new knowledge that has come to us through biolog;^^ psychology, compara¬ tive religion, biblical scholarship, philosophy, and other subjects of learning. They fail to see that this new light has given a richer radi¬ ance to the manifold gospel of our redemption, and that we are thus enabled to separate the chaff from the wheat, to distinguish between what is fundamental and subsidiary, to stress the central things with intelligent earnestness, and to be charitably tolerant toward those w^ho differ with us in lesser matters. One out¬ standing impression of the New Testament, as we have already seen, is that the early church enjoyed divers expressions of thought in keeping with the one impression of the blessed Spirit of Christ. This is a truth seldom seriously reckoned with by ecclesiasticism. Even the Lambeth Appeal could not get away from the fallacious theory of the “historic episco¬ pate,” and argued in a circle about reordination not being necessarily a repudiation of former ministerial ordinations but expedient to officiate in Anglicanism. The gain that would follow such a surrender of the convictions of spiritual THE ADVANCING PROTESTANTISM 53 freedom is at best of doubtful value. What is obtained, at the cost of unreason and evasion and an implicit denial of the historic minis¬ trations of Protestantism, cannot serve the cause of Christianity, nor bring good out of evil. Whatever may be our defects, let us not be guilty of a lack of self-respect and discard our holy heritage for a will-o’-the-wisp.^^ V Since we have received a better perspective, we are not chary of opinions that are steps leading up to the citadel of truth. But we protest against opinionativeness which is akin to bigotry, and which, if allowed its way, would use the methods of the Inquisition to compel Christians to renounce their precious privilege to think sanely, and instead to accept submissively its dogmatic decisions. In a luminous essay on “Rome as Unreformed,” Dr. G. G. Coulton writes: “No other society that claims a moment’s respect from the mod¬ ern mind has ever organized brute force so elaborately for the suppression of differences of opinion, or has had such logical justification for this wickedness.”If we refuse the just A more chastened spirit is, however, seen in The Lambeth Joint Report on Church Unity. A Discussion by Members of the Lambeth Joint Conference (Hodder and Stoughton, Publishers). ^Anglican Essays, p. 112. Reprinted with permission of The Macmillan Company, Publishers, New York City. 54 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY demand to bring every question before the impartial bar of reason, then the alternative is to accept the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. It has at least the merit of con¬ sistency, and, within prescribed limits, appeals to the spectacular and spiritual instincts of the soul more impressively than the pseudo claims of an inconsistent Protestantism, which only emphasizes what is convenient to its tastes ahd overlooks the uncomfortable because sacrificial mandates of religion. Witness the multitudinous sectarianisms which advertise the selfish passions and heartless self-will of those who, in their strife for triumph more than truth, would either rule or ruin. We accept neither alternative because there is a yet better way. As Protestants we should cultivate the spirit of research in questions of religious faith, assured that such a method would enrich the grasp and experience of our faith beyond our fondest expectations. Unless religion appeals to the informed intelligence it cannot hold the attention and secure the allegiance of thought¬ ful souls. The historical creeds and confessions are “declarations of dogma, not directions for life.” Judged from our standpoint they are wanting in fullness of expression. Instead of ruthlessly discarding them, they should be THE ADVANCING PROTESTANTISM 55 considered on their merits, in the light of the complete revelation of Christ, unfolded in the New Testament and exemplified in varying degrees of accuracy by the history of the church. We cannot affirm that we ‘‘believe in the Holy Ghost” as we do in the Apostles’ Creed and at the same time depreciate con¬ secutive reflection, withersoever it may lead US.13 \Ye should discriminate between “fet¬ tered thinking,” which many insist is our duty, and “free thinking,” which is our inestimable privilege and responsibility as Protestant Chris¬ tians. We need the True, the Good, the Beautiful, and the Useful. They are all com¬ prised in the Christian Revelation of the God of love and the love of God, which does justice to the quest of the intelligence for Truth, to the search of the soul for the Good, to the desire of the emotions for the Beautiful, and to the demand of the will for the Useful. There is no quarrel between science and religion, between the intellect and the heart, where this highest synthesis is accepted. The great¬ est enemy of religion is not skepticism nor agnosticism but indifference, as Sir Henry The attitude of the minister to the creeds is wisely dis¬ cussed by Dr. Merrill in The Freedom of the Preacher, Chap¬ ter IV on “The Churchman” (The Macmillan Company). 56 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY Jones has so well pointed out in his Gifford Lectures on A Faith that Enquires}^ Nothing short of the wholeness of truth and of life could satisfy us. The habit of “think¬ ing in compartments” leads to partial views and to the perils of one-sidedness. Truth is a seamless robe and if we cut it into fragments, to put together as it suits our tastes, the result would be the garb of a clown, a caricature of the dignified dress of the original. The prev¬ alent distinction between religious and secular is misleading, for it implies a static God rather than the dynamic God of our redemption, who is immanent and transcendent, at once within our reach and beyond our reach, by com¬ munion with whom our experience blossoms into the perfection of blessedness. This distinction is responsible for much of the antagonism between religion and morality. Reconciliation could be effected as their domain is widened and deepened to include the whole of life, in accordance vfith the idealism which believes that all history is sacred, that man is not an isolated being but related and indebted to his social world, and that he exercises free¬ dom in pursuing ends which he may never fully achieve, but which yet steadily advances Compare my article, “Thinking Through,” in the Method¬ ist Review, November, 1917, p. 875£f. THE ADVANCING PROTESTANTISM 57 him toward the goal of ineffable bhss. “A thing that does nothing is nothing.” The reality of our religion is to be evidenced by the behavior it inspires in respect of the enrich¬ ing of family life, the elevating of social activities, the bettering of economic conditions, the stabilizing of political relations, nationally and internationally—all of which are closely concerned in the development of character and the effective exercise of an opulent Chris¬ tian influence. The traditional type of Protestantism failed to coordinate life because its outlook was parochial. The overemphasis of individualism practically ignored the social implications and applications of religion. There has been much improvement in this respect, but the church as a whole still views with suspicion any attempts toward the socializing of Christianity. “The diflSculty with so many congregations that are living at a poor dying rate, is that their mem¬ bers have never been able to form the habit of thinking of anything but themselves. . . . It is not that their wills are perverse but that their minds are limited. To be sure, the social engineer must follow the spiritual guide * ^ William Adams Brown: The Church in America, p. 338. Reprinted with permission of The Macmillan Company, Publishers, New York City. 58 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY and not precede him, for a program without power to execute it is only a scrap of paper. On the other hand, “as the torch-bearer of social idealism” the church should lead the w^ay for the social redemption of mankind. We must also beware of the tendency, common among social writers, to disparage philosophy and theology, both of which are necessary to prevent Christianity from floundering in the sands of emotionalism. Philosophy is “an attitude of mind rather than a doctrine. It is the experience of the world becoming reflective and endeavoring to comprehend it¬ self.”^® With a slight change of terms, this description equally holds good of theology. We thus come back to our major contention that the thinker is the strategic man. He is not the individual who is lost in abstractions removed from the vulgar realities of life, but one who studies the concrete problems, to know and to understand, convinced that that is the indispensable condition of doing. “Action separated from knowledge is not action; it is mere mechanical movement, mere nature, ab¬ stract and therefore not independently real.”^^ Henry Jones: Idealism as a Practical Creeds p. 7. H. Wildon Carr: The Philosophy of Benedetto Croce, p. 141. Reprinted with permission of Macmillan & Co., Ltd., Pub¬ lishers, London. THE ADVANCING PROTESTANTISM 59 ‘T did it ignorantly in unbelief,” said Paul, with reference to his pre-Christian career. He here confessed the folly and futility of misdirection. How much this is responsible for the modern debacle needs no extensive exposition. No one could read The Pomp of Power, by Laurance Lyon, a Canadian barrister, and his more recent book, When There is No Peace, without a blush of shame and a feeling of humiliation that many avoidable blunders were perpetrated during the war and since the armistice because selfish and shortsighted men insisted on holding the reins of authority, not for the sake of patriotism but of personal advantage. J. M. Barrie, in his Rectorial Address on ‘‘Courage” at Saint Andrews Uni¬ versity, acknowledged as much. “We were not meaning to deceive; most of us were as honorable and as ignorant as the youth them¬ selves; but that does not acquit us of failings such as stupidity and jealousy, the two black spots in human nature which, more than love of money, are at the root of all evil.”^^ The pages of church history recite similar tragedies. When we seek for an explanation of the slow progress of religion it must be confessed that 181 Timothy 1. 13. 1® Page 8. Reprinted with permission of Charles Scribner’s Son, Publishers, New York City. 60 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY one of the fertile causes of failure has been the refusal to follow the light, not because of a fear of making ventures as of the innate ten¬ dency to follow the old and tried course, even though they do not carry far. The fact that an idea is ancient is not neces¬ sarily an argument in its favor. As a result of the teaching of science, we have been brought to the conclusion that we are living in a world of change and development. But when we endeavor to apply this principle to religion, we are held up by those who insist that there must be no change, even when it means adapta¬ tion to conditions for the sake of greater spiritual effectiveness. Those who hold to Christianity as a static system virtually deny the creative inspirations of the Holy Spirit and confuse creed with character. You cannot read the Bible with open mind and fail to regard it as the record of man’s agonizing search for God. It was a progressive movement of the human soul that made the vision splendid clearer to those of deeper spiritual sensitiveness, whose eyes were able to see, and ears to hear, and minds to understand, and hearts to receive better than those who had preceded them. Christianity is progressive in the sense that later stages complete the earlier stages of appre¬ hension and appropriation, as the New Testa- THE ADVANCING PROTESTANTISM 61 ment itself amply demonstrates. The concep¬ tion of Christ as the Messiah met the needs of the early days, but when Christianity came into the larger world outside Palestine, and confronted the philosophical idea of the Logos, a totally different problem arose. The writer of the fourth Gospel realized the inadequacy of the Messianic terminology and restated the eternal truth of Christ in terms of contemporary thinking and so gave proof of the versatility and adaptability of the gospel for new times and new occasions.This freedom of the Spirit has been exercised by Christian thinkers in successive generations with invariably happy results. The modern Christian thinker surely cannot be denied a privilege that others have enjoyed, for the glory of Christ. The vitality of Christianity during the centuries was evi¬ denced by its ability to meet changing needs in divers environments and yet to maintain the essential unity of the faith of Christ, the Redeemer of men and the Lord of glory. We thus have an Oriental and an Occidental Chris¬ tianity, a Roman, Greek, and Protestant Chris¬ tianity, the last exhibiting a variety of sectarian “ Such a statement does not, however, conflict with the fact that this writer owed more to the Old Testament than to Hellenic thought. Compare C. F. Birney: The Aramaic Origin of the Fourth Gospel. m THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY forms. Nowhere is there uniformity and the definite mark of its progressiveness is in its spiritual sublimity and magnanimity. Differ¬ ences of accent mattered little so long as the impelling motive was one of intense devotion to Christ and the life was one of likeness to him. So also must it be to-day. “While at first a progressive Christianity may seem to plunge us into unsettlement, the more one studies it the less he would wish it otherwise. Who would accept a snapshot taken at any point on the road of Christian development as the final and perfect form of Christianity Some would have it that we are less religious than our fathers because, forsooth, we do not continue the religious practices that in their day were good for them. This is a hasty and unfair judgment of the modern religious spirit. Even though it is impatient with traditional¬ ism and seems to lay violent hands on the Ark of God, according to the oversensitive, it is nevertheless imbued with a passion for truth and for the redemption of men no whit inferior to the religious spirit of any former age. People have been divided into four classes. There is the reactionary group which desires 2^ H. E. Fosdick: Christianity and Progress, p. 155. Re¬ printed with permission of Fleming H. Revell Company, Publishers, New York City. THE ADVANCING PROTESTANTISM 63 to go back to conditions before the war: they are the obscurantists who hold that the progress of the world is like the pendulum of a clock, which swings back and forth, and who do not realize that we must go forward or perish. Then there are the conservatives, who insist that we should maintain the status quo, as though there were nothing better: these forget that the position they occupy was a legacy left them by those who had advanced beyond the positions of their own day, and that faith¬ fulness to our trust requires us also to advance, in a similar spirit of loyalty to truth. The radicals go to the other extreme of individual¬ ism: they would discard all the achievements of the past and upturn everything and bring in a brand-new world which exists only in their heated and excited imagination. Finally, there are the liberals who are open-minded, hos¬ pitable to new ideas which they first examine in their context, and whose value and validity they carefully weigh before adopting or adapting them to present needs. It is needless to say that the hope of the future is with the genuine liberals, who are neither captiously cynical toward former adventures nor perilously cowardly in the face of present complications, but who show the patience of self-control, the generosity of tolerance, the steadfastness of 64 THE DYNAmC MINISTRY faith, as they look for “more truth and light yet to break forth out of his Holy Word/’ On these rests the responsibility to think deeply, to investigate thoroughly, to understand com¬ pletely, to accept conscientiously, to act cour¬ ageously, for the kingdom of our God and the glory that shall be. Let us rejoice that “God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness; but of power and love and discipline.”^^ Fear is the stock in trade of the alarmist; it is hardly creditable to the Christian who knows that the outcome is with God who shall reign for evermore, and who therefore resolves to be a coworker with God for the accomplishment of this gracious end. In the Christian view life is a combat, and evil must be overcome by those who pray and labor and so stir up the gift in them. What we have received is a boon and not a bane. It is a sound mind, to see straight and far, and right through to the end, and thereby escape the pitfalls of fanaticism, fatalism, and fetich- ism. This blessing also gives power which means ability to do things on a large and ade¬ quate scale without the perils of overbearing force. These two are held together by love which prevents us from going to the extremes of pedantry, due to the unbalanced use of a 2 Timothy 1. 7. THE ADVANCING PROTESTANTISM 65 mind, or of tyranny, due to the unlawful use of power. ‘‘The struggle between inheritance and experience” has continued to our own day. It is for us to recognize the issues, to realize our responsibility for a new birth of freedom in Christ, to line up with those who have consecrated themselves to the duty of close thinking, and who know that this obligation cannot be excused on the plea of plunging into action. The longer we postpone the exact¬ ing effort to understand life and to purify the spirit, the more difficult would it be to dis¬ charge the real function of religion, which is to moralize life in accord with the standard of spiritual excellence in Christ Jesus. The only absolute values are spiritual. The insistent advocacy of spiritual claims preserves the independence and integrity of the individual, whose experience is transfigured and entranced as he seeks opportunities for the fulfillment of social responsibilities. For the life of all is involved in the life of each and the welfare of each in the well-being of all.^^ It is evident that we do not think in a vacuum nor are our thoughts self-created. Just as the fires of a furnace must be con¬ stantly fed in order that the heating plant may do its work satisfactorily, so the mind ^ Compare Jones: A Faith that Enquires, p. 181. GC THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY should be continually fertilized by study and meditation. It might seem like a counsel of perfection to urge preachers to keep abreast of the best thought when so many are com¬ pelled to serve tables, to satisfy the modern mania to make the church a maid-of-all-work, and to deflect the mission of the minister from that of a preacher to a packhorse. ‘‘Organized Christianity,” says Professor Foakes Jackson, “shows a growing tendency to discourage thinkers and students and to exalt the claims of less inconvenient Christians who will carry on the business of the church and dull their minds by restless activity.There are men in the ministry who realize the embarrassment of this tantalizing situation and who find themselves caught between the upper and nether millstones, exhausted by attending to the routine duties of the church and having little energy left to read the big books, to meditate on the great themes, to receive the lucid vision of the rulership and righteousness of God in Christ, and to interpret it for the edification and encouragement of their con¬ gregations. The pastor of one of the largest churches in his Conference declared that he had not read a book for six months. Another with more than a thousand members confessed 24 The Hibbert Journal, January, 1922, p. 207. THE ADVANCING PROTESTANTISM 67 that he was at a loss to know how to present living issues in this great day. Another said that he often came to Saturday night without a clearly thought-out message for Sunday. How natural, then, unconsciously, to drift into the pernicious habit of talking about trivial things and discussing the minor moral¬ ities and letting the larger questions go by the board! But such a practice has its inevitable punitive effects, so that the preacher becomes, “A Sabbath drawler of old saws, Distilled from some worm-cankered homily.” The need for a re-formation is urgent, and there are signs that a spiritual renaissance is on the way. The watchman in the pulpit should be the first to see and herald the dawn. In the final analysis, the answer to the world’s questionings must be given not by the pro¬ fessional philosophers and theologians who speak a technical language but by the preacher who must deliver the thrilling message in a language ‘‘understanded of the common people.” The call to Jeremiah was “to pluck up and to break down and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.It was to be a de¬ structive and a constructive ministry. It is needless to say that such a mission requires 25 Jeremiah 1. 10. 68 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY keen and intrepid thinking, to guard the preacher as well as his people from the misery of muddling through. IMuch of our thinking has suffered from arrested development because of the vicious habit of seeking short cuts and of the preoccupation with doing. It is impossi¬ ble to continue in such a state of intellectual and spiritual stagnation and expect the king¬ dom of God to come with power. The call is by no means to an easy task, nor would it be worth much if it were. Let us at any cost secure a spacious background of strong and sound thinking, and heed the counsel of the alert apostle: “Give diligence to present thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, handling aright the word of truth.’’-® 2 Timothy 2. 15. THE ADVANCING PROTESTANTISM 69 SUGGESTED READING Sir Henry Jones: A Faith that Enquires. D. Graham: Religion and Intellect. A New Critique of Theology. James Harvey Robinson: The Mind in the Making. The Relation of Intelligence to Social Reform. L. P. Jacks: Religious Perplexities. R. W. Livingstone, Editor: The Legacy of Greece. William E. Hocking: The Meaning of God in Human Experience. George Galloway: The Philosophy of Religion. William K. Wright: A Students Philosophy of Religion. John Oman: Grace and Personality. Arthur C. McGiffert: The Rise of Modern Reli¬ gious Ideas. James B. Pratt: The Religious Consciousness. Sir James G. Frazer: The Golden Bough. One Volume Edition. James Y. Simpson: Man and the Attainment of Immortality. Francis G. McConnell: Public Opinion and Theology. Ernst Troeltsch: Protestantism and Progress. H. E. Fosdick: Christianity and Progress. Anglican Essays. A Collective Review of the Prineiples and Special Opportunities of the Anglican Communion as Catholic and Reformed. Liberal Evangelicalism: An Interpretation. By Members of the Church of England. Sir James Marchant, Editor: The Coming Renaissance. m THE DISTINCTIVE PULPIT “Preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffer- ing and teaching .”—2 Timothy 2, “The large majority of the clergy in the periods indicated did not aspire to be heard in the great congregation, nor expect to raise their voices on any hall of Mars. They were employed in obscure spheres far from the crowded scenes of human traffic. Yet what a preferable lot was theirs, who, disdainful of material wealth and honors, devoted themselves to the highest service! Be worthy of all the glorious company, for whenever you enter the pulpit, you are encompassed about by this great cloud of witnesses. They, the spiritual men¬ tors of the ages, taught their fellows that righteous¬ ness exalts the nations and Divine Love redeems the race, turning men from the grossest degradation to belief in God and obedience to his commands. . . . . The deepest problems of earthly specula¬ tion were not more than difficult trifles in their estimation, unless they led men to Him in whom is the fulfillment not only of reason but of that which is forever beyond reason—the Will of the Everlasting Father.”—S. Parkes Cadman: Ambassa¬ dors of God, p. 89.^ ^ Reprinted witli permission of The Macmillan Company, Publishers, New York City. CHAPTER III THE DISTINCTIVE PULPIT The pulpit is between two fires. One has been lighted by those who insist that worship is the important consideration and who make more of sacramental orders than of prophetic ordination. The other has been kindled by those whose zeal oversteps knowledge and who advocate the immediacy of service, attracted by the diversity of institutional activities more than by the intensity of inspirational influence. The former magnify the priest, the latter the administrator. This new emphasis on worship and work is gratifying, but it is a mistake to give preaching a subordinate place, as though the churches were suffering from ‘‘sermon- olatry.” The ‘^speaking man,” as Carlyle described the preacher, has not become obso¬ lete, and his supreme task cannot be set aside in favor of other forms of religious ministration. We who hold the evangelical testimony should never forget that the most signal triumphs of Christianity were won by our churches through 73 74 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY the preaching of the Word and that in its wake have followed many of the social changes which wrought so beneficially for the human race, such as the emancipation of slavery, prison reform, and missionary work. When w^e cease to exalt the pulpit and dim its light we are unconsciously sounding the death knell of militant Christianity. The present impasse of the church will not be overcome by ornate services and multi¬ tudinous service, but, rather, by the enlight¬ ened utterances of the pulpit, which give direction to both. The church was never more busy than in the days before the war, but the two reports on The Army and Religion and Religion Among American Men lead to the humiliating conclusion that the church had failed to impart to its membership the kind of light and leading which would have helped them to meet their besetting temptations with adequate spiritual equipment. The confused ideas of Christianity, the crude notions of the Bible, the provincial conceptions of the Chris¬ tian life, clearly proved that the teacher- preacher had not been in evidence in the pulpit, and that religious education through this and other agencies of the church had been perfunctorily performed. Bishop Pecock, who opposed the Lollards, wisely remarked THE DISTINCTIVE PULPIT 75 that heresy was rife among the laity because of the dearth of clergy learned in logic, moral philosophy, and divinity, to expound the Scripture.^ How true this is in our own day of the riotous prevalence of poisonous “isms,” which are undermining the faith of the half- educated and are disrupting the work in so many of our churches! The solution is not to be obtained by multiplying organizations, nor could we escape the demands of thought by becoming absorbed in a ceaseless round of ecclesiastical “busy-ness.” As throwing light on the present situation, I was greatly interested to read Some Qualities Associated with Success in the Christian Minis¬ try, by Dr. Mary E. Moxcey. This investiga¬ tion was based on a study of the Minutes of the New York and New York East Conferences, covering a period of fifteen years, prior to and including 1916. The purpose was to ascertain what really constituted ministerial success, from the standpoints of sermon, pastoral, executive and evangelistic ability, as deter¬ mined by these records and the judgment of fellow ministers. Of course, such a question¬ naire has its limitations because it cannot adequately reckon with the important factor 2 H. O. Taylor: Thought and Expression in the Sixteenth Century, vol. ii, p. 46. 76 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY of personality^ the character of the membership and the changing neighborhood of the respec¬ tive local churches. These belong to the psychological diagnostician rather than to the expert statistician, who is strong in figuring but weak in interpreting. Statistics like the Bertillon measurements tell us only part of the truth and often not the most important part. Doctor Moxcey acknowledges as much and is aware of the relative unreliability of the records. Even so, the conclusions of this Columbia University thesis are suggestive as showing the trend of the modern church, which gives the first place to the executive who “makes things go,” as a skillful administrator and financier. The work of preaching is tacitly regarded as of secondary importance, and while it is profitable enough, it is not a decidedly effective agency. In other words, the modem church, according to the findings of this thesis, thinks more of managers than of ministers, of promoters than of preachers, of advertisers than of apostles, of entertainers than of enlight¬ eners, of egotists than of altruists, of the man with a program than of the man with the message of “love divine all loves excelling,” of the life immersed in the passing show than of the life which is “hid wnth Christ in God.” Well did Hankev remark in one of his letters C/ THE DISTINCTR^E PULPIT T7 that the great fault of the church is irrele¬ vance.^ This putting of the cart before the horse is one of the standing temptations and weak¬ nesses of organizations. The fact that the modern church has practically surrendered to this fatal error is one of the alarming signs of the times. If ministerial success is to be measured chiefly by materialistic standards, the church has surely fallen on evil days. We need not, then, be surprised to read a criticism of the church contained in an article on “Reli¬ gion in the United States,” in The Century Magazine for August, 1922. Here is the verdict: “I find organized religion in America to-day unstimulating; I find it intellectually dull and artistically barren; I find its spiritual¬ ity shallow in scope and impoverished in expression; but I cannot honestly say that I find it any of these things for the people who make up its membership.” Now listen to a few sentences from The Church in America, by Professor William Adams Brown, who cannot be charged with bias or petty captiousness, and whose book is a comprehensive discussion of our perils, needs, and responsibilities: “Taking the American Church as a whole, the first 3 Letters of Donald Hankey, p. 352. Fleming H. Revell Company. 78 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY characteristic that strikes us as worthy of note is its provincialism. By this I mean the ten¬ dency of each local congregation or group of congregations to think of itself as a self-sufficient whole. . . . Christian people have been accus¬ tomed to think of their churches as designed to minister to their own private interests and needs rather than as a part of the great spiritual enterprise that has for its purpose the bringing in of the kingdom of God.”^ That is to say, in this day of the world’s greatest intellectual and social revolution, the church moves along uninfluenced by and virtually indifferent to the precipitous currents that surge all around it, perfectly content if it can hold its own by paying the minister a miserable pittance and compelling him to be a jack-of-all-trades, and saving its face by handing out a niggardly support to missionary work. We are making diligent inquiries why men do not enter the ministry. Principal Oman, of Westminster College, Cambridge, recently stated some of the reasons that led men to decide to turn aside from their original purpose to enter the ministry, after they returned from the war. ‘‘On the general question of service they felt that congregations are gatherings of dull, rather timid, respectable people, tradi- 4 Pages 72, 196. THE DISTINCTIVE PULPIT 79 tional in their beliefs and negative in their morality. They said they had found more consideration for the publican and the sinner and more real effective brotherhood in the army than they had ever found in the church.”^ But if the executive is the man in demand, and when church officials anxiously ask whether the prospective minister is ‘‘a good business man,” as though that were the first considera¬ tion, what else could be expected from men with passionate idealisms? Indeed, the the¬ ological curriculum should be completely altered, in these circumstances, and some of the leading subjects taught in a business col¬ lege, such as scientific management and book¬ keeping, should be preferred. If the Bible is studied at all, more attention should be given to the book of Numbers than to the Gospel of John, and to Leviticus with its ritualistic regulations than to the Epistle to the Romans with its dynamic inspirations. We should also make a different sort of appeal in recruiting men for the ministry. Such an excellent book like Bishop McDowell’s This Mind would then be only a species of tantalizing camouflage. Let us at once call a halt to this suicidal career, for this way leads straight to spiritual desola¬ tion. A renewed study of the New Testament, ^ The British Weekly, August 31, 1922. 80 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY in the light of modern needs and of the failures and successes recorded in church history, would show us how to avoid going from the frying pan into the fire. Above all, it would challenge us to prepare for the new leadership which the church must assume, under the guidance of the preacher, who is the key-man to the whole situation. There is indeed no task comparable wdth that of the preacher, as Silvester Horne so thrillingly illustrated in his Yale Lectures on The Romance of Preaching. I mention him because there are many who strongly felt, according to the testimonies contained in his Life by Principal Selbie, that Horne made a mistake when he went into the House of Com¬ mons, in spite of what he wrote on the subject in his book. Pulpit, Platform, and Parliament. Doctor Dale, of Birmingham, whose ministry so profoundly affected the public life of Eng¬ land and, indeed, of all English-speaking lands, acknowledged in his later years that he might have done far better for the kingdom of God, had he given less strength to municipal and political work and more to the pulpit and the pastorate. Doctor Maclaren of Manchester and Doctor MTiyte of Edinburgh are two illustrious examples of men who restricted themselves, but whose influence was felt in spheres outside THE DISTINCTIVE PULPIT 81 their specific province. What I mean is that when the preacher invades the realms of social and political problems he unwittingly falls into the snare of dealing with panaceas instead of principles, and is overtaken by the perils of secularization, which sap the vitality of spir¬ itualization. Ardent sociologist as Professor Ellwood is, he remarks that social science as such is helpless without the dynamic of reli¬ gion.® Doctor McDougall concludes that “Reli¬ gion is essentially a system of supernatural sanctions for social conduct, for conduct con¬ forming to the moral code of society and especially for customs regulating the family and the relation of the sexes, on which, more than on anything else, social stability de¬ pends.”^ Is it not a big enough task for the preacher to concentrate on this work of inter¬ preting the “supernatural sanctions” for daily guidance? If we only know it, we would under¬ stand that the urgent call to-day is to set in the center of life the Christian principles of love and good will, which are preeminently competent to overcome the paralyzing pagan¬ ism of exaggerated individualism, of group egoism and selfishness, and of the unsocial ® Compare The Reconstruction of Religion, p. 33ff. ^ The Group Mind, p. 375. Reprinted with permission of G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Publishers, New York City. 82 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY spirit, which are responsible for all our present discords. There is much truth in the sciences of eugenics and euthenics, concerning heredity and environment, but these deal with life largely from the physical standpoint. And, as the Great Teacher pointed out, the life is more than meat, for, “a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”^ We must first take into account the spiritual renewal and reinvigoration of the Christian gospel, which goes farther and deeper than ethnological or humanitarian proposals. Here is where the work of the preacher requires preeminent skill and energetic attention. Do not infer that this is a suggestion to limit the outlook of the preacher, whose con¬ cern should cover all life and all of life. I have no sympathy with the plea for the “simple gospel,” made by those who have not thought out their position and who represent an indi¬ vidualistic type of piety, which, in the last analysis, is a species of complacent selfishness. Religion is not a thing apart from life, and to speak of individualistic Christianity is to utter a contradiction. It reminds one of the caustic remark of Sir William Harcourt, who, when told that Lord Randolph Churchill contem- 8 Luke 12. 15. THE DISTINCTIVE PULPIT 83 plated the forming of a Center Party, replied, “Quite so, all center—and no circumference.” There are many Christians who do not realize how much of moral dynamite is contained in the teaching of Jesus, and that its social appli¬ cations are so inevitable because it is informed by and charged with spiritual energy. But while the preacher does not pose as an expert in sociological and economic questions, he must insist that no adequate answer could be given these, unless we reckon wdth Jesus Christ. “The question is not whether changes will occur, but how they will occur, under whose aegis and superintendence, by whose guidance and direction, and how much better the world will be when they are here. Among all the interests that are vitally concerned with the nature of these changes none has more at stake than the Christian Church with her respon¬ sibility for the cure of souls.”^ As the spokes¬ man of the church, the preacher should say the timely things with spiritual authority and not weary himself and his hearers, tediously dealing with questions that no one is asking, as though he were trying to slay a dead lion. In his Yale Lectures on The Prophetic Ministry for To-day, Bishop Williams refers to three types who stand in the way of realizing a Christian ® Fosdick: Christianity and Progress, p. 115. 84 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY civilization. “One is the blind individualist, the conventional Christian, who does not see the task at all. Another is the pessimist who resorts, as pessimists always do, to the apoc¬ alyptic and eschatological. He is the second adventist or premillenarian. He faces the task and gives it up. The third is the imprac¬ ticable idealist, the visionary, the man with a panacea, who has his owm plan of the heavenly Jerusalem, the celestial ci^dHzation, with com¬ plete specifications down to the last gold brick in the pavement thereof. He keeps his eyes fixed on that far-off goal, that perfect ideal, and sees nothing between.”^® The preacher then is preeminently a prophet who brings a revelation of God to men, fresh and fructifying, and conscious that what he is saying is vital to others because he has experienced its \fitality in his own soul. He is distinct from the social critic who rouses antagonisms by his specious generalizations, and from the social reformer who meets with opposition because of his random iconoclasm. The prophet assuredly has never been popular because he is not a purveyor of pious plati¬ tudes, superficial commonplaces, and subtle camouflage. He does not say Peace, peace. Page 89. Reprinted with permission of The Macmillan Company, Publishers, New York City. THE DISTINCTIVE PULPIT 85 when there is no peace^ and he is not given to the “habit of talking nonsense solemnly/’ A great deal that passes for popular preaching is a playing to the galleries of prejudice and ignor¬ ance. The men who influenced their times and changed the course of life were invariably unpopular preachers. They were castigated by their own generation and celebrated by succeeding generations—a witness at once to the shortsightedness and hastiness of our human ways. Think of such men as Chrysostom, Savonarola, Wycliffe, Huss, Luther, Calvin, Knox, Wesley, Robertson, Beecher, Brooks, Spurgeon, Hugh Price Hughes. They sowed the seed in tears and later generations have been reaping the golden harvests. None of them was popular in the accepted sense. Pul¬ pit committees would have passed them by in favor of the safe man who has nothing to say and who says it, and whose speech is “faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null.” This means that we need not only a prophetic pulpit but also an enlightened pew, to cooperate in extending the sovereignty of God’s will of righteousness and love throughout the world. What is prophetic preaching It is that which has clear-sighted understanding of the manifold gospel of redemption, profound sanity in interpreting its manysided message, cour- 86 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY ageous ability and unlimited charity in apply¬ ing its versatile truths to discordant conditions. If insight is “a matter of intensity of feeling,” such preaching has it, for, as Carlyle well said, ‘‘intensity depends on our patience, our firm¬ ness, our lovingness, what strength soever we have.” Such a preacher is a man of his times, who speaks to his times the word that suits all times, although each age must express the truth in terms appropriate to its own times. The prophet thus moves among men, not as a cenobite but as a companion, and he is in deep sympathy with the varying aspects of human nature. He is, furthermore, skillful in the art of estabhshing connections between God and men, and when he speaks it is with passionate directness and almost colloquial simplicity of speech. Such a preacher retains and extends his power because he gives the impression that he does not take counsel with expediency nor resort to evasions lest he offend the ecclesiastical elite. He rather delivers the burden of the Lord without fear or favor, for he has felt it intensely in his very bones, and, since he has been profoundly moved by it, he has the certainty that his hearers likewise would be moved. In this respect the Hebrew prophet and the Christian preacher occupy the same platform. THE DISTINCTIVE PULPIT 87 The word that came to Jonah concerning Nineveh was: “Preach imto it the preaching that I bid thee” (3. ^). The mission of Isaiah was to “make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed” (6. 10). The reference is to the deadening of the moral sensibilities which his preaching would pro¬ duce, as is suggested in the animated question, “Lord, how long?” Such an experience was not peculiar to Isaiah, for it was common to all the prophets. Indeed, this is one of the inevitable results of preaching, as psychology tells. It is a savor from death unto death, as often as it is a savor from life unto life, and we are sufficient for these things only as we realize that our sufficiency is from God.^^ The summons to Jeremiah was: “To whomsoever I shall send thee thou shalt go, and whatso¬ ever I shall command thee thou shalt speak,” with the threat, “Be not dismayed at them, lest I dismay thee before them” (1. 7, 17). The conviction of Amos was: “The lion hath roared; who will not fear? The Lord Jehovah hath spoken; who can but prophesy?” (3. 8). This conviction expresses that of the apostle: “For “ Compare 2 Corinthians 2. 14; 3. 6. 88 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY necessity is laid upon me; for woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel.”^^ The commission of Jesus to his disciples was: ‘‘As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you/’ Their mis¬ sion was expressed in the sentence: “Y'e also bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning/’^^ This applies to all who have the vivid spiritual experience of the passion, the presence and the power of Christ, without which preaching is a blasphemous insolence. The spirit of confidence and resolu¬ tion is the same in both cases, but the content of the Christian preacher’s message is richer and fuller than that of the Old-Testament preacher, both of whom, however, proclaim the destiny of those who receive or reject the truth of God.^^ Candor is one of the first qualities of effective preaching. It has its perils and its compensa¬ tions. Those who urge caution in presenting unfamiliar or unwelcome aspects of truth are unwittingly advocating the cowardly policy of silence or the unworthy and disreputable course of evasion for the sake of a delusive ^21 Corintliians 9. 16. 13 John 20. 21; 15. 27. 1^ Compare Henry J. Pickett: The Hebrew Prophet and the Modern Preacher, for a discerning discussion of Christian preaching as the prophetic declaration of the gospel. THE DISTINCTIVE PULPIT 89 peace. Others who urge outspokenness often go to the extreme of disregarding prejudices which, even if mistaken for convictions, are held with pious zeal by many devout followers of our Lord, whose fidelity is often in excess of their intellectuality. And yet, as one of the characters in Principal Jacks’ Legends of Smokeover puts it: “Candor is a more formidable antagonist than cunning!” (p. 203). Dr. J. A. Hutton has forcefully stressed the same idea: ‘Tn the long run the church will recover after every crisis and will survive not by any display of adroitness or superficial resource, but by the truth and inevitableness of her spiritual direction, and largely by the candor and conviction of her accredited exponents.”^^ One reason for the “impenetrable fog” in which so many men in the army found themselves, although they were church members, was due to the fact that they had received such frag¬ mentary and incoherent views of Christianity. One of the army chaplains wrote: “We have not been quite honest about the Bible; we most of us hold one theory and assent by our silence to our people holding another.” The time has surely come when this sort of double- ^ That the Ministry Be Not Blamed, p. 119. Reprinted with permission of George H. Doran Company, Publishers, New York City. 90 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY dealing should cease, and the longer we post¬ pone facing it, the more complicated will be the issues. Doctor Pringle-Pattison recently sounded the note of warning, when he declared that many outside the churches, who are in sympathy with Christian ideals, are ‘‘alienated from official Christianity by the incredibilities which are mingled with its teaching.”^® We have carried the doctrine of reserve far enough, and, unless we assume our responsibility now, in the fear of God, even though we may find ourselves in a hornets’ nest, the consequences to the cause of Christianity will prove dis¬ astrous. The propaganda of the ‘‘Fundamental¬ ists” cannot be counteracted by direct argument but, rather, by patient and sustained instruc¬ tion, imparted by the pulpit, in Bible classes and in other study groups. What is true of these vigorous campaigners applies to pre- millennialists, pentecostalists and others of a like type, whose conceptions of the Bible are frankly literalistic, in common with much that is held by the average men and women in our pews, so that these latter are easily stampeded by the militant propagandists. We are in danger from those who insist that the Bible shall speak only in accents familiar to our The Duty of Candor in Religious Teaching, p. 91. Hodder and Stoughton, Publishers, London. THE DISTINCTIVE PULPIT 91 forefathers. They fail to see that the Bible is a living voice, that we should distinguish between the letter that killeth and the spirit that giveth life, and that if we put back the clock the summer of faith and joy will pass into the winter of doubt and dis¬ content. Courage is another desirable virtue in the preacher. Dean Inge has been severely crit¬ icized for his fearless utterances. After we make allowance for his questionable strictures, it must, however, be acknowledged that for keenness of thought, searching analysis and incisive speech, and spiritual intensity he is without a superior. He is the Carlyle in the twentieth-century pulpit, courageously exposing the hypocrisy and fanaticism of popular reli¬ gion, and intrepidly reasserting the funda¬ mental veracities of the Everlasting Yea in an age of mediocrity and duplicity, which does not believe in thoroughness, because success, so called, could often be more easily obtained by the ingenious device of short cuts. Principal Fairbairn once referred to the need for courage in the pulpit, as regards the choice of subjects and the way they should be handled. ‘Tt may be that want of courage is only another term for want of capacity; but whichever name be applied to the defect, it is one that 92 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY every energy should be strained to repair and to remove. The potentialities of the pulpit are incalculable; hardly any limit could be set to what it might accomplish. The whole realm of thought and feeling, truth and duty, history and life, art and literature, knowledge and action lies before it; crowds of anxious, expec¬ tant, perplexed, thoughtful men and women wait for its words. The mysteries that most appeal to the imagination, the history that most moves the heart, the hopes that most uplift, the fears that most abase, the motives that persuade the will, the ideals that control the conscience are at its command, ready to be used as means to its ends and instruments of its power.” This is doubtless too high and exacting a standard, but who wili say that anything lower is worthy of the evangel and of the evangelist of the unsearchable riches of God in Christ Jesus But courage is much more than outspokenness. It is a virtue that guards against discouragement, that keeps us diligently working at our task regardless of honors and emoluments associated with the pomp and circumstance of the passing day, that holds us to the ideal of service realized Religion in History and in Modern Life, p. 55. Re¬ printed with permission of George H. Doran Company, Publishers, New York City. THE DISTINCTIVE PULPIT 93 by our Master and magnified by its whole¬ hearted acceptance by all valiant souls who have given proof of it in cheerfulness and buoyancy and gaiety of spirit. The remem¬ brance of such is a perpetual benediction because of what they VTOught, in the strength of the eternal fellowship. It was Doctor Johnson who said of courage, “Unless a man has that virtue he has no security for preserving any other.” How very true of the man who stands in the pulpit, who must know courage as a vital experience, so that its atmosphere of serenity, geniality, benignity, and liberty might be received by those in the pew, to the joy and rejoicing of their lives. Let us also magnify confidence as part of the preacher’s equipment. Our modern life is far too subjective, and we are inclined to in¬ dulge in pessimistic introspection, as though a morbid spirit were the hall mark of piety. The air is full of hysteria; hasty thinking and rash speaking are common; an epidemic of mental confusion and religious fanaticism is laying low many a hopeful soul who has not found the right spiritual anchorage. But there is no reason for panic, and those who talk recklessly are letting their tongues run away with their brains. We may be hemmed in on all sides but the sky is our limit. 94 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY “God’s greatness Flows around oui* incompleteness. Round our restlessness his rest.” The gospel has potentialities yet to be dis¬ covered. When we try to discount the sub¬ lime heights of attainment reached by New Testament worthies and by those in later ages who caught their secret, we only betray our poverty of spiritual resource. What we mistakenly conclude to be figures of speech in the rapturous language of saints were actual experiences. Such works of Christ are still repeated on the mission field, where all is virgin soil. Recall the testimonies of Sadhu Sundar Singh in India, of Pastor Tsi in China, of Tokichi Ishii the converted criminal in Japan, and you are constrained to declare that Jesus is still able to save unto the uttermost all who come unto God through him. ‘‘New times demand new measures and new men.” Surely, but they must be inspired by the ever old and ever new Spirit of God, which is the puissant Spirit of Christ, who is the world’s eternal Contemporary, and who holds in his blessed keeping the secret of eternal redemp¬ tion. The religion of humanity is not the Positivism of Comte but the positive Chris¬ tianity that accepts the leadership of Christ, and acknowledges such a consecrated disciple- THE DISTINCTIVE PULPIT 95 ship that trusts the Teacher, who proclaims a personal God, a personal immortality, and an individual and social salvation. Let the spirit of our preaching have the assurance which says: j“What we have felt and seen, With confidence we tell.” Far too much of our preaching is of the suburban type. We dwell on the incidentals of the gospel more than on its essentials. It is an echo of newspaper headlines on sensa¬ tional topics, whose vulgarities and crudities give pain to the sensitive and the devout and cause the thoughtful to sneer, without doing a particle of good to those who are “fed-up” on the movies and jazz, w’hom such preaching presumably proposes to attract. It is one thing to secure an attendance but a totally different thing to compel attention. This latter is the sublime task of the preacher, who is an agonizer more than an organizer. If he knows anything at all, he knows that the Bible represents preaching as a strife between the preacher on the one side, and the habits of the people which weaken or strengthen their will on the other. It is not novel themes but great themes that should engage our considera¬ tion, as was the case with Newman, Church, Maclaren, Dale, Brooks, Beecher, Matthew 96 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY Simpson, Scott Holland. In pressing this point. Dr. George Jackson quotes a pungent criticism by Dr. Joseph Parker, who once observed to a famous brother preacher in his frank and friendly way: “You can’t preach except on the anecdotes of the Bible. But there’s a great deal in the Bible besides anec¬ dotes. When Spurgeon first came to London he took for his text, ‘He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.’ Now, you wouldn’t know what to make of a text like that.”^^ Rather blunt but quite to the point. We might have said it differently, but let this putting of the case stand. When we hear it said that people are not interested in preaching, first inquire whether the pulpit is an echo or a voice. Not less preaching but better is what is needed. So long as the heart of man is what it is, so long as the gospel retains its pristine glory and its vanquishing power, the preacher with the disciplined mind, the full heart, the burning conviction, the passionate zeal, the speaking ability, cannot fail to exercise the healing ministry through the pulpit, as he constrain- ingly commends the sublime verities and spiritual realities in Christ Jesus. This is an age of theological imsettlement. So much greater is the opportunity of the Reasonable Religion, p. 22. The Pilgrim Press, Boston. THE DISTINCTIVE PULPIT 97 man who has thought out his message and who has received the vision. The demand for intense study is most urgent. Let it be here observed that the range of topics should be such as shall meet the demands of the pulpit and the demands made on the pulpit. The preacher cannot be a mere individualist, for he is the representative of the church. The scope of his study should therefore be deter¬ mined less b5^ his personal interests and more by his responsibility, under God, to proclaim all of the divine counsel with the authority of assured knowledge and of a full compre¬ hension of the diversified thoughts and ques¬ tionings of his hearers, be they learned or otherwise. To be sure, there are difficulties in the way on account of the multitudinous activities that encroach upon our time and energj\ But here is the situation. If the preacher fails in the pulpit, who will make up for the loss.^ If the hungry sheep look up and are not fed by their own shepherd, who will do it? If minds are perplexed and hearts troubled and lives biased in the pew, and the work of illuminating and encouraging and directing is not done by the pulpit, where could these confused ones go for guidance.^ Listen to a layman: “With rare exceptions our pulpits are so incoherent, so devoid of any 98 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY great unifying purpose or scientific plan. To try to gather equipment for some virile Chris¬ tian conduct from the sermons one hears is like seeking an education from the pages of Tit-Bits.” Do not, however, mistake this as a demand for “overemphasis upon the intel¬ lectual side.” The call is for trained and in¬ formed men, who would not, by their much learning neutralize or nullify their spiritual influence but would, rather, enhance and magnify it. It is an unwarranted assumption, said Silvester Horne, “that prophetic power in the pulpit especially attaches to the preacher whose heart is full and whose head is empty.” What we most imperatively need is to recover the teaching function of the pulpit, for “teaching is the basis of all good preach¬ ing,” as the means of enlightening and educating the private and public conscience. The teacher here contemplated is not the dry-as- dust theologian or the self-absorbed pedant, with a dialect that necessitates the use of a Compare my article on “Pastoral Scholarship” in the Methodist Review, January, 1919, p. 36. 2° Compare Pepper: A Voice from the Crowd, Lecture IV, on “Revelation through Teaching.” Reprinted with per¬ mission of Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut. THE DISTINCTIVE PULPIT 99 dictionary in the pew. He is one who has experienced “the tenderness and healing powxr of truth”; who has mastered the wealth of ideas, new and old, that touch on the complex conditions of life; who has a feeling mind, a thinking heart, a moving outlook, a spirit at leisure, always hastening but never hurrying; who is so intellectually keen that he discrim¬ inates accurately, who is so emotionally sensi¬ tive that he sympathizes impartially, who is so spiritually alert that he produces faith creatively, who is so completely consecrated to Christ that his preaching is an assertion and a manifestation of the mind, the motive, the mercy, the majesty and the might of the Son of God, in whom “dwelleth all the full¬ ness of the Godhead bodily.” Sir William Robertson Nicoll, in his volume on Princes of the Church introduces us to thirty- four men eminent in British Christianity. He quotes with approval a saying of Principal Edwards that, “a great preacher is Christ’s last resource,” and another from Principal Marcus Dods, that “there is something about preaching that keeps life sweet.” Criticism has often turned out to be a compliment offered by the opponents of the seers and saints, whose vision and virtue they could not understand. Do not disregard these animad- 100 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY versions, for, as we read between their lines, we might see that their expectations are not always without justification. It may, after all, be one of the providential ways of leading us out into a larger place of greater influence. The task of the preacher has never been easy, but in his struggle against odds he has hitherto overcome by the creative faculty, inspired of the Divine Spirit, whereby he has interpreted truth with deep feeling and searching expres¬ siveness. He is like the painter who sees and helps others to see what they ‘‘only feel and catch a glimpse of but do not see.” The fact that they have the capacity to see is the ground of our attempting to direct and develop it, so that the vision splendid shall shine upon their pathway and lead them into the ineffable fellowship of that perfect light in which is no darkness at all. Our business is not to come down to the level of the world but to lift the world up to God in Christ, not by secular compromises but by spiritual con¬ straints. To be sure, we do not all have the creative genius of those deservedly called masters, but such should ever be our ideal, and no ideal ever becomes obsolete until it is realized. Preachers should take no odds from anyone nor permit themselves to be ousted from their THE DISTINCTIVE PULPIT 101 anchorage in Jesus Christ. He has called us to this ministry, nor has he failed any who trust him. In spite of perils and privations, of delusions and disabilities, of struggles and sacrifices, we have compensations which hearten us to continue in our adventures and achieve¬ ments. The future is with the preacher be¬ cause the future is with Christ. The states¬ man, the editor, the scholar, the author, the business man, the scientist are all necessary’*, but the revival which must soon spread its redeeming and purifying fires over the world will come, please God, through the prophetic preacher of the Christian gospel. With thoughts of God made larger by the facts of evolutionary struggle toward perfection; with conceptions of Christ made more luminous by the study of comparative religion in its effects on life; with the experience of the indwelling Spirit made richer by the testimony of the spiritual elite of every age and nation; with the outlook of humanity made more serenely comprehensive by the impact of races on the fields of commerce, ci\dlization, and war; with the task of the church made more magisterial by her activities in social and civic righteous¬ ness, by the liberation of spiritual energies and by the achievements of foreign missions, the message of the preacher should now sound the 102 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY trumpet tones of the supreme Evangel to earth’s remotest bounds, so that all flesh shall hear and come to the only Source of pardon, purity, power, and peace, to whom be glory for evermore. THE DISTINCTIVE PULPIT 103 SUGGESTED READING A. History and Theory of Preaching S. Parkes Cadman: Ambassadors of God. Alfred E. Garvie: The Christian Preacher. John A. Hutton: That the Ministry Be Not Blamed. Charles R. Brown: The Art of Preaching. William F. McDowell: Good Ministers of Jesus Christ. Paul B. Bull: Preaching and Sermon Construction. C. Silvester Horne: The Romance of Preaching. James Stalker: The Preacher and His Models. J. H. Jowett: The Preacher His Life and Work. Arthur S. Hoyt: Vital Elements of Preaching. Albert P. Fitch: Preaching and Paganism. Edwin C. Dargan: The Art of Preaching in the Light of Its History. Charles S. Gardner: Psychology and Preaching. H. J. Pickett: The Hebrew Prophet and the Modern Preacher. Charles D. Williams: The Prophetic Ministry for Today. Francis J. McConnell: The Preacher and the People. George Jackson: The Preacher and the Modern Mind. R. C. Gillie: The Minister in the Modern World. B. Recent Sermons John Oman: The Paradox of the World. W. P. Paterson: In the Day of the Ordeal. ^ For other books, see p. 133. 104 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY W. M. MacGregor: Repentance unto Life. F. G. Peabody: Sundays in College Chapels Since the War. James Reid: The Victory of God. W. L. Watkinson: The Shepherd of the Sea. Alexander Whyte: Lord, Teach Vs to Pray. J. H. Jowett: God Our Contemporary. Hubert L. Simpson: Altars of Earth. J. D. Jones: The Gospel of the Sovereignty. M. J. MacLeod: What God Hath Joined Together. Sidney M. Berry: Revealing Light. John A. Hutton: The Victory Over Victory. M. S. Rice: Dust and Destiny. J. M. M. Gray: The Contemporary Christ. William A. Quayle: The Healing Shadow. W. M. Clow: The Evangel of the Strait Gate. Henry Sloane Coffin: University Sermons. G. A. Studdert Kennedy: I Believe. Sermons on the Apostles* Creed. THE GENEROUS PASTORATE “Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops, to feed the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood .”—Acts 20. 28. “What, then, shall be our sovereign purpose in moving among men in common affairs? It will surely be to relate the common to the divine, and to bring the vision of the sanctuary into the street and the market and the home. We are to go among men helping them to see the halo on the common¬ place, to discern the sacred fire in the familiar bush. In the sanctuary men are frequently con¬ scious of the stirrings of a heavenly air, but they lose its inspirations in the streets. In the sanctuary they often catch the gleam of the ideal, and they often feel the sacred presence of the Lord in the ways of public prayer and praise, but the gleam fades away when they touch their daily work, and the Sacred Presence is lost in the crowded roads of business. It must be our ministry to help them to recover their lost inheritance, and to retain the sense of heavenly fellowship while they earn their daily bread. We do a mighty work when we keep a man’s sense of God alive amid all the hardening benumbments of the world.”—J. H. Jowett: The Preacher, His Life and Work, p. 193.^ ^ Reprinted with permission of George H. Doran Company, Publishers, New York City. CHAPTER IV THE GENEROUS PASTORATE It is a liberal education to be in the com¬ pany of great souls and to learn about their dominating motives and noteworthy achieve¬ ments. Such persons are not often given to talking about themselves except to intimate friends. Even the expert interviewer seldom gets behind the veil. Much of this restraint is removed in a biography. Its character is as varied as the types and temperaments of individuals. The test of a good biography is its ability to portray a life so that we under¬ stand both the subject and his contemporary associations. The reading of biography is, furthermore, an inspiration in giving us large views and suggesting the lessons of failure and of success. George Eliot once remarked, ‘Tt is the only thing worth reading.” Biography has always been popular and the recent appear¬ ance of a large number of memoirs, auto¬ biographies, and reminiscences proves that the interest is unabated and that we still have an insatiable thirst for facts about people. 107 108 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY But it is invariably only the lives of men and women of eminence that furnish material for the art of the biographer. This is equally true of the leaders of the church, who have occupied conspicuous positions and whose careers, therefore, seem to merit biographical recognition. And yet the larger part of the church’s work has always been done by men in obscure parishes, whose names seldom appear in the religious press, and whose influ¬ ence rarely extends outside the boundaries of their restricted fields of labor. Some of these unknown servants of God have, however, per¬ formed rich exploits. The name of Spurgeon is famous, but what about the local preacher who pointed Christ to him.^ The scholarly William Pirie Smith, minister of the Keig Free Church for thirty-five years, would never have been heard of outside of his presbytery except for the fact that he was the father of William Robertson Smith, one of the luminous lights of biblical learning. Sir William Robert¬ son Nicoll, in his book My Father, pays a worthy tribute to Harry Nicoll, who labored without fame in the parish of Auchindoir: ‘Tt will be observed that all the honor he ever received was from his own people. He dwelt among them all his life and was schoolmaster and minister in their midst for two genera- THE GENEROUS PASTORATE 109 tions. . . . He knew every house, every indi¬ vidual—it might be almost said every tree, every flower, every stone of the ‘primitive, russet, remote country’ in which he lived and died” (p. 17). The manses in which Robertson Smith and Robertson Nicoll spent their youth were very unpretentious buildings, without conveniences, but the inspiration they received was not from the material structures but from the spiritual and intellectual inspiration within. Thomas Carlyle speaks in terms of the highest honor of the Seceder clergy of his childhood. “Most flgures of them in my time were hoary, old men; men so like evangelists in modem vesture and poor scholars and gentlemen of Christ. . . . That poor temple of my childhood is more sacred to me than the biggest cathedral then extant could have been; rude, rustic, bare, no temple in the world was more so; but there were sacred lambencies, tongues of authentic flame, which kindled what was best in me, what has not yet gone out.” Toward the close of his life, Struthers wrote to an old School Friend: “I have had a very undistinguished life, though there has been much happiness in it. I have worked—I hope I can say ‘worked’ in some measure truly—quietly away, but I have wrought no deliverance in the earth.” This was a modest estimate of himself by a 110 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY man who had served a small church of the Cameronians in Greenock for thirty-five years, in spite of many alluring offers to larger fields. In the Life and Letters of John Paterson Struthers we have a revealing record of pas¬ toral devotion, and evidences of compensations far beyond the material calculations of time service. Dan Crawford, author of Thinking Blacky has dedicated his new book. Back to the Long Grass, as follows: ‘‘The Book I had hoped to place in his hands I can only dedicate to the deathless memory of Struthers of Greenock.’’ Better testimony than this we need not have. These few names represent a multitude of men who spent their strength in the Christian ministry, as George Santayana puts it, think¬ ing more of winning the prizes of life than of snatching them, and who did not abdicate the sovereignty of the inner man, as those have done who thus miss delight, dignity, and peace and really lose the prize of life.^ The work of such heroes affords us much food for thought in these days which discount the value of unadvertised service. “Success” is a relative term. Many who are adjudged failures have nevertheless exercised a most prolific influence of beneficence. They worked for eternity and 2 Compare Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies, p. 37. THE GENEROUS PASTORATE 111 saw the reward afar off, but they were satis¬ fied in the possession of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price. ‘‘Success has become a somew’hat odious onion nowadays, chiefly because we often give the name to the wrong thing.” So said Barrie in his Rectorial address on “Courage” at Saint Andrews University. We might think of such an attitude as that of Struthers, concen¬ trating his great talents in a small field, as a species of idealism, and even lose our patience with the like of him. After reading his life there is only one conclusion, which is that he was wise. In these matters each man must decide for himself, and be sure that he does not lose the vision which beckoned him in the morn of life to undertake the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Dante referred to the middle circle in the Purgatorio as full of danger. He was thinking of the subtle perils of middle age, when so many ministers reach the dead line, largely owing to being caught in the whirling under¬ currents of disillusion and self-disparagement. The greatest wreckage of ideals and of char¬ acter takes place between forty-five and sixty- five years of age. Dr. Stanley Hall, however, sets forth the case in a different light. “At forty old age is in its infancy, the fifties are 112 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY its boyhood, the sixties its youth, and at seventy it attains its majority. . . . Modern man was not meant to do his best work before forty, but is by nature, and is becoming more and more so, an afternoon worker. The coming superman will begin, not end, his real activity with the advent of the fourth decade.”^ This thesis is maintained with a wealth of illustra¬ tion that has no element of special pleading, although the author is over seventy-five years of age. Recall that Modern Democracies was written by Viscount Bryce when he was eighty- two years, and. What Christianity Means to Me by Dr. Lyman Abbott at the age of eighty- five. These three, volumes show clear vision and a masterly grasp of the problems discussed. In view of these facts, we might well conclude that, from the standpoint of youth, it is better farther on. Why, then, has middle age become the period of disenchantment to men in the pas¬ torate? As he nears fifty, the minister who began with holy enthusiasms and ardent expectations, and whose career has been checkered by disappointments, awakes to the depressing fact that he has been neglected, ® Senescence. The Last Half of Life, p. 29. Reprinted with permission of D. Appleton & Company, Publishers, New York City, THE GENEROUS PASTORATE 113 and that in all probability his work will have to be done in the smaller churches. If he yields to the pressure of despondency, he is a lost man, and the future of his days will be spent in shallows and in miseries. Is it con¬ ceivable that the man of God should surrender to such a sinister conclusion? If, on the other hand, he faces this crisis with courage, and rededicates himself to the Christ of God, he will renew his strength and discover new interests and make new alliances, which shall bring back to him the resilience of youth with¬ out its illusions, the confidence of early days without its uncertainty, the buoyancy of the mom without its recklessness. In this per¬ spective of experience he would come to a better understanding of real values and know how to stress the things that belong to peace. What is more important, he would overcome the paralysis of doubt by the energy of faith; he would counteract the insidious poison of cynicism with the assurance that the ideal can never become obsolete until it is realized; he would give the lie to sour discontent by the experiences in the secret of the Presence, where the heart is fixed trusting in God. Such a man can never be defeated, nor his soul soiled, nor his spirit stained. The light that shone upon him at the beginning of his ministry will 114 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY continue to shed its luster with an increased radiance that neither time nor tide can dim nor obscure. All this has a special bearing on the work of the pastor, since nowhere does personality count for so much. The exuberant soul over¬ flows because he is not living from hand to mouth but has an excess of resourcefulness in love divine all loves excelling. Mdiether as preacher or pastor, he thus speaks not about things but out of things.^ Pastoral work is not merely a form of institutional activity. It is the ministry of comfort, encouragement, direction, which makes the pastor a personal friend and not an ecclesiastical oflScial. His calls are not made primarily to remind the people of the church services, as though he were a messenger boy; nor to secure funds for the enterprises of the church, as if he were a financial agent; nor to capture new arrivals in town before the man of the church round the corner does it. These things are doubtless part of his task, but his chief mission is that of a representative of religion. To be sure, it is not easy to leave a religious impression in every home nor to get people to think seri¬ ously of their obligations to God and the * Compare Hutton: That the Ministry Be Not Blamed, p. 131. THE GENEROUS PASTORATE 115 church. But the pastor is the man of all men who should mediate the presence and reality of God on every possible occasion. It is not the number of calls but the quality that counts; it is not the length of time spent but its char¬ acter that is effectual for the highest well-being; it is not the sociability cultivated but the spirituality developed that means much or little for the cause of Christ. When the pastor becomes known, not as a man among men— an assumption which it would be an insult to question—but, rather, as the guide of men, women, and children in the things that really count, then the glory of the pastorate is seen in the bearing of fruit unto righteousness, truth, and blessedness. The pastor has contacts with life enjoyed by no other person. It was said of the Shep¬ herd and Bishop of our souls that “He himself knew what was in man.”^ Surely, his under¬ shepherds cannot be equipped otherwise. A deep knowledge of human nature in its divers aspects is a prime requisite of the pastor, to be obtained by him in the laboratory of daily life and to be supplemented by the most exten¬ sive study of literature, which is the literary expression of life at its best and at its worst. “Psychology,” says Croce, “is like the index ^John i. 25. THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY 116 of the book of which art is the content. The index must be brought into agreement with the book, of which it will always be an imper¬ fect representation, not the book into agree¬ ment wdth the index.”® Psychology offers a point of view rather than a program of life; it is a method of approach, a spirit purged of prejudice and open-minded in the search of truth. The psychological study of life is thus an indispensable preliminary to effective pas¬ toral work. If he is a trained observer and a sympathetic discerner, the pastor could arrive at conclusions of the greatest moment concern¬ ing the latent possibilities of those with whom he has to do. Mliat might be accomplished in this way is well illustrated in the following books: The Psychology of the Christian Soul and The Development of a Christian Soul, both by George Steven, an Edinbmgh pastor; Psychology and the Christian Life, by T. W. Pym, a chaplain of the Anglican Church; The Psychology of the Christian Life, by Eric S. Waterhouse, a minister of the Wesleyan Meth¬ odist Church; The Psychology of Christian Life and Behavior, by W. S. Bruce, a Scotch minis¬ ter; The Disease and Remedy of Sin, by W. Mackintosh Mackay, a Glasgow pastor, whose *Wildoii Carr: The Philosophy of Benedetto Croce, p. 47. Compare Croce: Esthetic, p. 87ff. THE GENEROUS PASTORATE 117 extraordinary ability as an interpreter of life is also seen in his four volumes of sermons on Bible Types of Modern Men and Bible Types of Modern Women. Unlike the professional psychologist, these men with the religious spirit and the pastoral instinct united with the scientific mind, have diagnosed motives, analyzed emotions, interpreted desires, which give clearer perceptions of life, free from the prepossessions of theories and in closer accord with the actualities of life.^ The point I desire to stress is the need for an inside knowledge of life. It is the law of affinity that explains our ability to enjoy the productions of the poet, the painter, the musi¬ cian, the dramatist. We ourselves are incapable of reaching the sublime heights of their genius but we could follow them even though afar off. Our humble intuition is stimulated and intensified by the intuition of the superb artist who quickens our sensibilities and en¬ riches our capacities. In like manner the seeing pastor deftly touches the sensitive places in human life and guides people in the befitting practical expression of their purposes. This face-to-face ministry cannot be neglected even by the great preacher. The argument “ ’ Compare my article on “A New Appraisal of Religion” in the Methodist Review, September, 1912, p. 725. 118 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY that some are called to be pastors and others to be preachers is absurd, chiefly when we remember that Jesus combined both these functions. Those who make such a plea forget that the preacher addresses real persons, and unless he understands their actual needs he might become a pedantic retailer of theological theories, which, however eloquently expressed, are merely echoes and not direct exhortations to duty in view of the immediate situation. “The preacher has admiration for his peculiar reward, but the pastor has affection; if the preacher be ill, there are paragraphs in the newspapers; if the pastor, there is concern in humble homes.”^ Principal Garvie puts the case forcibly: “The man who in the interests of the pulpit neglects his pastoral duties, unless he is exceptionally gifted, defeats his own end; for it is in the intimacy of pastoral visita¬ tion that the secrets of many hearts are revealed to him; and he acquires the knowledge which makes his sermons human.One of the more recent books on the subject is equally explicit: “It is a disaster to religion when the office ® John Watson: The Cure of Souls, p. 224. Reprinted with permission of George H. Doran Company. ® The Christian Preacher, p. 331. Reprinted with per¬ mission of Charles Scribner’s Sons. THE GENEROUS PASTORATE 119 of prophet and priest become detached. As they found their perfect union in the person of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, so it is our duty to him who intrusts us with his divine commission to try to fulfil faithfully both the prophetic and priestly aspects of our ministry.”^^ The pastoral office requires certain definite qualifications, to be cultivated with the indus¬ trious assiduity of the most ambitious artist, keen to excel in his profession. The pastor should be distinguished by the possession of the virtue of inexhaustible patience. When you think of the petty parochialism, the in¬ sipid distemper, the captious mannerism, and the almost incredible lapses from charity of the rank and file of church folk, nothing but the grace of God could sustain the pastor in the serenity of self-control in these trying circum¬ stances. Doctor Glover draws a picture of the uncongenial atmosphere in which Milton lived, and adds this pregnant sentence: “It is the inconceivable commonplaceness of the men and women round them that makes tragedy of the lives of uncommon men.”^^ But tragedy Paul B. Bull: Preaching and Sermon Construction, p. 1. Reprinted with permission of The Macmillan Company. “ T. R. Glover; Poets and Puritans, p. 36. George H. Doran Company, no THE DYNAmC MINISTRY must be turned into triumph. Think of Jesus who had to choose such unpromising folk to be his companions because he could get no better, to whom he imparted the secrets of the Kingdom. When you are tempted to complain of the hardness of your lot and how insufferably tantalizing are some of your pas¬ toral experiences, recall that unique ministry under the Syrian blue and the wonderful talents that were consecrated to the training of the twelve. Then rejoice that you are coworkers with him in the high mission of building Christian character, and that in his magnanimous companionship you could never fail. For instance, try to introduce some innovations, and the party of opposition will fall on you with the force of a sledge-hammer. The misery of it is that those who resist, be¬ cause averse to change, are among your best people. You should reckon with the prejudices of inherited custom. Do not forget in your eager enthusiasm that what you have been thinking for a long time cannot be accepted in a short time by those who have given no thought to the matter, and whose temperament is a handicap to religious enterprise. The lack of the impartiality of patience would thus lead you into courses which might indefinitely delay the progress of the work, and that would THE GENEROUS PASTORATE 121 be most unfortunate. Do not lose sight of the larger things in your keenness to push one item of interest. Above all, guard against the folly of obsessions and keep out the fly from the ointment. Lest it be thought that all is unrelieved depression, remember the annals of the average congregation. Sinclair Lewis has made America conscious of Main Street. On that highway are the stores, the lodge, the post office, the druggist, the doctors, the churches, the school, and some homes. What about the other avenues and streets.? The average town is not all drab and insipid. The romance of sacrifice, the beauty of love, the joy of kind¬ ness, the serenity of service, the genuineness of patriotism, above all, the idealisms and com¬ forts of religion, are also found in every com¬ munity. So also with the local church. ‘‘The influence of the Christian congregation upon history, the contribution of the parish to the world, is a subject which is waiting for a his¬ torian. He will lay bare a thousand almost forgotten wells, which from the centuries still feed some of the strongest currents of human life. Many types of character, much that is imperishable in literature and art, much that has become world-wide in education and the organization of charity have found their origins 122 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY in congregational In spite of much that was sordid and disgusting, Browning tells us in “Christmas Eve” of the light that never was on sea or land, that shone out of the lives of the worshipers in that little chapel of “ ‘Mount Zion’ with Love-lane at the back of it.” Thus has it always been. When the story is summed up no small place will be given to the faithful pastors, who showed pity without self-pity, and patience with the long- suffering and tenderness and forbearance and goodness of the Christ of our emancipation. Candor is an indispensable virtue of the man who would serve in this highest sphere. “If it were not so, I would have told you,” said the Candid Christ to his disciples in the upper room.^^ He implied that his dealings with them had always been frank, straightforward, and outspoken. He showed no reserve as though he suspected or mistrusted them. He gave them of his best and they had every reason to rely on him. He was not tactful in the ordinary sense of that much misused word. Generally understood, tact is a species of make-believe, a patching up, a glossing over. Sir George Adam Smith: Tke Forgiveness of Sins and Other Sermons, p. 232. Reprinted with permission of George H. Doran Company. “ John 14. 2. THE GENEROUS PASTORATE 123 a postponing of settlement, a beating about the bush. The phrase “playing politics” is suggestive of this practice which gives proof of a want of self-respect. Jesus was tactful in the same sense that he faced reality. He was sincere without rudeness, true without bitterness, outspoken without bluntness, frank without selfishness, impartial without evasive¬ ness. He meant what he said and he said what he meant, not to offend but to defend his hearers from the perversions of ignorance and the panic of despair. In doing this he did not wholly escape the misunderstanding of the bigoted and the opposition of duplicity, but these encounters would have been inevitable under any circumstances. How refreshing to breathe the open-air atmosphere of the genial and generous and crystal-pure spirit of the Son of man! His welcome by the earnest was a tacit censure of those who discarded him. A good rule which Struthers followed was to visit most of all the people he was most unwilling to visit. To be sure, visitation is always a spiritual labor and an exhausting toil, and it exacts heavy toll from our nerve force. Hear what Pepper, a layman, has to say about this. “A visit to some houses is a pleasant experience. A call at others requires an output of will-power. But the minister 124 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY should not work along lines of least resistance. He is probably most needed where it is hard¬ est for him to go.”^^ In these conditions, the people could talk back to him. But what an opportunity to disarm misunderstanding, to nip trouble in the bud, to untie in time what if neglected might prove to be a Gordian knot, to encourage the perplexed to seek for guidance and counsel from the pastor in preference to any other person. If candor is a necessity in the pulpit, it is doubly so. in the pastorate, where it is more difficult to practice, par¬ ticularly in those delicate situations which confront one. But it is treacherous to be evasive, however exhausting it might be to be positive. When we regard the pastor as a priest we are not thinking of sacramentarian functions but of that sympathetic service of instruction and guidance to those suffering from “personal distress and melancholy despair,” due to intel¬ lectual confusion, ethical discord or spiritual uncertainty. Be a good listener, for it has often happened that when a person pours out his troubles he is thinking aloud, and when he is through, the light has broken, not because of anything you said, but because your pres¬ ence imparted sympathy, which he urgently G. W. Pepper: A Voice from the Crowd, p. 86. THE GENEROUS PASTORATE 125 needed, to set him right. Here is a significant testimony from a recent biography: “My father was a brilliant conversationalist, but he had also that other gift, which rarely goes along with it—he was a 'perfect listener. He was so eager a listener that his friends and all who came to him spoke better in his presence than was their wont in other places.” One of his colleagues wrote of this same man: “I have seen him confound an old fox of a man by sheer candor. He left the enemy breathless with surprise at a simplicity he had thought faded out of the world with Eden. The man’s arts would have been a match for any arts they encountered, but artlessness dumbfounded him. The armor of light not only defended the wearer but dismayed the assailant.”^® If he has the right sort of a discerning spirit, what untold good the pastor might do in guiding the ambitions of young people, turn¬ ing some to college, others to the ministry, others to the kind of vocation for which train¬ ing would best fit them, and all of them to Christ, who winsomely appeals to these in the wonderment and amazement of adolescent days. The evils of the confessional are a fact of history but the idea underlying this institution Love and Life. The Story of J. Denholm Brash. By his Son, p. 162ff. The Epworth Press, London. 126 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY is one of spiritual and ethical direction. If this is offered in a fraternal spirit, those who seek such help will realize that they are coming to a brother man with a larger experience, even though in point of years he may be younger than many of the seekers. I am increasingly impressed with the strategic importance of this kind of work and of its rich compensa¬ tions. Christian Counsel, by David Smith; Problems and Perplexities, by W. E. Orchard; A Spiritual Pilgrimage, by R. J. Campbell, show what wonderful results could be obtained by the pastor who secures the confidence of his people and who encourages them to come to him with their vexed and vexing questions. In view of Protestant prejudices against any¬ thing that savors of Romanism, the word “consultation” might be used instead of “con¬ fessional,” but the fact remains that what¬ ever the name, this opportunity for helpfulness should be made possible.^® The British Weekly and several other religious papers in Great Britain have a weekly column for inquirers. Such a feature might be introduced by our American journals with decided advantages. It would at least help the laity to think through questions of vital interest. Happy is the pastor who has the sense of “ Compare my volume, Essentials of Evangelism^ p. 163f. THE GENEROUS PASTORATE 127 humor. Carlyle said of it: “The essence of humor is sensibility: warm, tender, fellow- feeling with all forms of existence. True humor springs not more from the head than from the heart; it is not contempt, its essence is love; it issues not in laughter, but in smiles which lie deeper. It is, in fact, the bloom and perfume, the purest effulgence of a deep, fine, and loving nature; a nature in harmony with itself, reconciled to the world, and its stinted- ness and contradiction—nay, finding in this very contradiction new elements of beauty as well as goodness.”^^ Humor helps us to think more kindly of people and to make allowance for their otherwise intolerable eccen¬ tricities. Wit has a strain of sarcasm while humor has sympathy. The solemn countenance is often suggestive of the fanatic, whose fan¬ tastic ways prove him to be without balance, and who is so apt to strain out the gnat and swallow the camel. But one whose face is wreathed in smiles and from whose eyes the light of geniality radiates, is like a ray of sunshine after a cloudy and dark day. “Peren¬ nial sunniness”—that was how Phillips Brooks was described by one who crossed the ocean with him. His Life by Professor Allen is worth reading to find out the secret of his Quoted by Glover: Pods and Puritans, p. 290. 128 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY radiant character. Principal Forsyth pointed out that Christian art developed from the fantastic to the grotesque and then to the picturesque. “Now, the great outburst of humor in Art in the Middle Age is due ulti¬ mately, but not consciously, to the importa¬ tion into all the world’s affairs of the new feeling of the Infinite. It could not happen in the first years of Christianity, for then the Infinite was too near and solemnizing a presence. The soul was absorbed and engaged with God. But when the newness of the Divine Presence was removed without taking away the security, and the dazzled eyes returned to the light and objects of common earth, then the dis¬ parity, the contrast, began to be felt and it was joined with a great pity; and then there stole over the face of Europe the dawn of that tender and sympathetic smile. . . . The gro¬ tesque art of the IVIiddle Ages, and the sweeter, deeper humor of a later time, stand out upon a background of the merciful and gracious eternity assured by the revelation of Christ.”^® What an attractive theme to discuss, but surely a far more attractive experience to possess. And blessed is the pastor who has it, P. T. Forsyth: Christ on Parnassus. Lectures on Art, Ethic and Theology, p. 93f. Reprinted with permission of George H. Doran Company. THE GENEROUS PASTORATE 129 to encounter the foibles and follies of his people, their peccadilloes and prevarications, their excuses and evasions, their childishness and priggishness, their crankiness and dullness, their snobbishness and pettiness, without losing heart, and, what is worse, without losing his temperd® “It is easy just to be impatient and restless. The lay mind is a very elusive thing. It is at many stages of development from apathy upward. It is seldom articulate on any religious topic, and when articulate it is more often critical than constructive.”^ The fact of humor implies the other fact of cheerfulness. You are the representative of the gospel of good tidings and you must have the buoyancy of good cheer. Some people are sour and morose because they cannot have their own way; others are suspicious and bitter because their ideas have not carried; others are petty and provoking because of thought¬ less selfishness parading in the guise of dis¬ interestedness. The pastor should be strictly impartial and hold the mean between the ^ For an illustration of humor in public life, though often caustic and expressive of a fiery temper, not without the strain of tenderness, read The Life of Sir William Harcourt bv A. G. Gardiner. ^ Report of Archbishops’ Committee on The Worship of the Church, p. 33. Reprinted with permission of The Mac¬ millan Company. 130 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY extremists of conservatism and of radicalism, and, like Paul, he should be ‘‘gentle ... as when a nurse cherisheth her own children.There is little hope and much scandal if he surrenders to the spirit of ill will or becomes censorious or lets despair lay its fevered hands on his soul. “In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world,” said the gracious Cheer-Bringer.^^ Without the courage of cheer, you cannot divert the streams of panic and turn on the rivers of refreshing grace. Lord Rosebery said of Doctor Chal¬ mers: “He did not shrink from his fellow men: on the contrary, he sought them, for it was the business of his life to permeate them with his message. Yet, like the Duke of Wellington, he had no small talk. Mr. Gladstone, who accompanied him on some of his pastoral visits, said that he sat embarrassed and silent. In Glasgow too he would perhaps only utter a blessing or a short prayer on such occasions. But his visits were prized, for he radiated benevolence.”^^ What, then, shall we say of courtesy and consideration.^ “Be a gentleman 21 1 Thessalonians 2. 7. 22 John 16. 33. 23 Rosebery: Miscellanies Literary and Historical, vol. I, p. 247. Reprinted with permission of George H. Doran Company. THE GENEROUS PASTORATE 131 always, although a gentleman unafraid,” said Pepper. “No doubt he is a Christian; but he is not a gentleman,” was the criticism of a preacher who was earnest but not enlightened, and who gravely erred when he took liberties with good taste, and thought he could convict the conscience by offending the sensibilities of his hearers. We have surely not so learned Christ. The true pastor moves about as “the father of his people,” helping to develop Christian experience, and to stimulate lives for the expansive influence of the kingdom of God. To be sure, he is a wise administrator, and on this subject a whole chapter might be written on questions of organization, management, finance, and the like.^^ His chief work in this respect is to train leaders and to distribute responsibility and so build up the church that it will more efficiently serve the community and magnify the cause of Christ. “What tires a man in the ministry and makes him in secret sad is the feeling which comes over him —let loose often by some trivial occasion— that his work is not worth while; that it is not a man’s full work, that it has nothing of the ^ Compare Merrill: The Freedom of the Preacher, for a wise discussion in the chapter on “The Administratoi;,” p. 78ff. 132 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY urgency and obvious value of work done with the hands; of less value maybe than the work of a politician or a publicist.This subtle temptation could be met and overcome, as one sees and seizes the manifold opportunities found in the pastorate for the versatile talents of the most gifted. Let us not minimize our calling or give occasion to any to regard it as a superfluous vocation. Indeed, there are no limits to the usefulness of the pastor, who conceives his task as a trust from God, who applies himself to the better equipment of himself by study and prayer, who gives of his best in ungrudging service, “for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ; till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”^® 25 Hutton: That the Ministry Be Not Blamed, p. 34. 26 Ephesians 4. 12f. THE GENEROUS PASTORATE 133 SUGGESTED READING A. Theory and Practice^^ Charles E. Jefferson: The Building of the Church. Henry Sloane Coffin: In a Day of Social Rebuilding. Washington Gladden: The Christian Pastor. William A. Quayle: The Pastor-Preacher. W. P. Merrill: The Freedom of the Preacher. Albert J. Lyman: The Christian Pastor in the New Age. John Watson: The Cure of Souls. Charles H. Parkhurst: The Pulpit and the Pew. A. T. Robertson: The Glory of the Ministry. George W. Pepper: A Voice from the Crowd. Jeff D. Ray: The Highest Office. W. H. P. Faunce: The Educational Ideal in the Ministry. Richard Baxter: The Reformed Pastor. John Kelman: The War and Preaching. James A. Beebe: The Pastoral Office. Ernest C. Wareing: Critical Hours in the Preach¬ ers Life. Damon Dalrj'mple: The Mantle of Elijah. David Smith: Christian Counsel. William De Witt Hyde: The Gospel of Good Will. B. Biography and Letters A. V. G. Allen: Phillips Brooks. George R. Grose: James W. Bashford. A. W. W. Dale: The Life of R. W. Dale. ^ For books written from the standpoint of psychology, see page 116. 134 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY Stephen Paget: Henry Scott Holland. R. F. Horton: An Autobiography. Dorothea Pi Hughes: The Life of Hugh Price Hughes. W. Robertson Nicoll: Ian Maclaren. The Life of John Watson. Early Letters of Marcus Dods. A Labrador Doctor: The Autobiography of W. T. Grenfell. W. P. Livingstone: The Life of Robert Laws of Livingstonia. Letters of Principal James Denney to His Family and Friends. Canon Barnett: His Life, Work and Friends. D. Macmillan: The Life of George Matheson. Harold Begbie: The Life of General William Booth. George A. Smith: The Life of Henry Drummond. J. H. Melish: Franklin Spencer Spaulding. Sir Henry Jones: Old Memories. A Gentleman with a Duster: Painted Windows. William R. Moody : The Life of Dwight L. Moody. Arthur Porritt: The Best I Remember. Joseph Fort Newton: Some Living Masters of the Pulpit. V THE OPULENT WORSHIP ‘‘Having a great priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith .”—Hebrews 10. 21. “Public worship is a force to be carefully safe¬ guarded and constantly strengthened. A church becomes a more effective working church when it has once learned to pray and sing. Bringing the heart to the throne of grace increases all its capac¬ ities and makes it capable of larger service. Public worship, moreover, is the testimony which the church bears to the community of its faith in God who has revealed himself in Christ. For this reason public worship should be full-toned and jubilant. To give it a richer and more penetrating tone, to impart to it a higher beauty, to suffuse it with a more solemnizing and subduing spirit, is to increase the power of the church, not only over the lives of its members but over the feeling of the com¬ munity. Church attendance is not for Christians an elective. A congregation devoutly engaged in worship is doing something for the community which cannot be done in any other way. It is a collective confession of Christ which outruns in influence the confession of any one individual, no matter how exalted.”—Charles E. Jefferson: The Building of the Church, p. 178. ^ ^ Reprinted with permission of The Macmillan Company, Publishers, New York City. CHAPTER V THE OPULENT WORSHIP What is the greatest need of the church? To cultivate her spiritual life in order that her testimony might be with power. ‘‘Great grace was upon them all,” was said of the early church.2 This fact explains the growing influ¬ ence and pervasive control of the church of that day far better than any other considera¬ tion. That company of Christians excelled in an earnest belief in “the magnificence of prayer,” and the atmosphere in which they lived was saturated in worship. They had little of outward success so far as material advantages were concerned. On the contrary, they were exposed to acute criticism and sharp persecution. This did not surprise them. They were taught to expect the vilifying of many, for they had the guarantee of the Divine Spirit that all who “would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”^ They, how- 2 Acts 4. 33. ® 2 Timothy 3. 12. 137 138 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY ever, overcame “because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testi¬ mony; and they loved not their life even unto death. Their declaration and demeanor were distinguished by four notes, which made harmonious music to the glory of God and his Christ. The evangelical note brought out their love for the Christ of the cross, expressing their profound interest in the atonement, as the most efficacious deed in leading them out of the darkness of sin into the light of holiness. The ethical note stressed the thought of obliga¬ tion, even at the cost of sacrifice, to give proof by the works of righteousness, truth, and purity, in a world steeped in iniquity. The social note made evident the necessity of fellowship, first for their own spiritual develop¬ ment and then for the performance of public duties in the name of the kingdom of God, not by offering any economic programs but by setting forth the dynamic principles whose application in divers fields and among all nations would make for the redemption and reconstruction of the life of the individual and 6f society. The mystical note gave meaning and momentum to the other thi'ee; it had to do with the genuine inwardness of things, of the life hid with Christ in God, of the walk * Revelation 12. 11. THE OPULENT WORSHIP 139 in heavenly places in Christ, of the communion ineffably sublime which gave them the assur¬ ance that they were a spiritual priesthood unto God. We think of the early church as a society of worship. Recall the doxologies of the New Testament, and you will at once see that these believers were transported above the things of time and sense into fairer realms of day. For that reason they were able to serve their generation in all manner of well-being and well-doing. They acknowledged the pri¬ macy of religion as an all-comprehending spirit of life. They realized that religious culture, because it fertilizes the central affections and aspirations, is an all-embracing enterprise. They rejoiced in the experience of supernatural virtues as the redemption from bondage to the manysided tyranny of an evil world order. They were thus released from the world that they might more effectually serve God in the world. The supernatural which is the spiritual at its highest was the abiding feature of their behavior. They knew that all the resources of the heavenly Father’s empire of reality were at their call for the legitimate require¬ ments of their errand. In them was therefore realized the truth of the words of Jesus, that those who believe on him shall do even greater 140 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY works than he did in the power of the divine Spirit.^ Their faith was also nourished by prolonged seasons of prayer, and, since they were recipients of a supernatural gift, they were persuaded that they could achieve, and they actually did, what the world regarded as the impossible. But they had no monopoly in the powers of the world to come. If we have a like faith, we also may discover the un¬ fathomed possibilities of God in Christ and demonstrate the might of the divine re¬ demption. Here, then, is the crux of the whole matter. New methods and improved machinery are not to be discounted, but more important is the deepened consciousness of the omnipresence of God here and now, and of his prevailing power with and in and through us, so that we shall learn and know the genius of New-Testa- ment optimism, which “beholds redemption puissantly at work.” This is the burden of Dr. J. H. Jowett’s recent appeal. “Let the church,” he wrote, “bravely begin to realize the larger ranges of her influence. Much of her weakness springs from her ignorance of her power. Let her consult her title-deeds, let her explore the wealth of her resources, and in bold and loyal venture let her openly ® John 14. 12. THE OPULENT WORSHIP 141 work for the Lord’s will to be done on earth even as it is done in heaven.”® In the face of this summons, many of the criticisms of the church are jejune. Some critics seem to go on the assumption that we are disembodied spirits. We, however, need some sort of organization to express the reli¬ gious spirit through worship and work. Under present circumstances this must obtain through the church. And, indeed, this is so realized by those who have the historical consciousness and who are convinced that the church is one of the indispensable assets of society. They also recognize that sensible changes are neces¬ sary for her more effective usefulness. She has failed whenever the order of importance has been inverted and work allowed to take precedence over worship. The fundamental aim of worship is to provide fellowship by filial communion with God and fraternal con¬ tact with mankind, in such ways as shall develop the virtues of reverence, faith, good¬ ness, and counteract the vices of flippancy, suspicion, contention, and drab ugliness. Wor¬ ship is a native instinct, but the way in which this spontaneous outflow of the soul expresses ® Compare A. G. Hogg: Redemption from This Worlds or The Supernatural in Christianity. A most penetrating discussion of the secret of Jesus and of the Apostolic Church. 142 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY itself depends upon the object toward which it is directed and the manner in which it is conducted. Worship has been well described as “the mother of all arts/’ comprehending with understanding the needs of the soul and comprehensive in the exercise of its healing influence over the whole of life. The enrich¬ ment that would follow this serious effort is contingent on the provision made for the perfection of the approach to God through all the agencies that appeal to our manifold de¬ mands for fuller and deeper life. A truly catholic worship should satisfy all temperaments and all legitimate tastes. We have concentrated far too much on a few forms to the impoverishment of our Protestant worship, with the further result that many earnest souls have been alienated from us because their needs were superficially met. When we further realize that there is a widely prevalent dissatisfaction with the existing forms of worship in liturgical and nonliturgical churches, and that many regard worship, “the most conspicuous symbol of religion,” as both tedious and unnecessary, it is not enough to reply that these complaints are due to irre- ligion and indifference. A traveling salesman, after visiting several churches in all parts of the country, reached the conclusion that the THE OPULENT WORSHIP 143 average nonliturgical church building is de¬ signed as an auditorium and not as a shrine, where the service does not satisfy the craving for worship, although the sermon is often edifying; on the other hand, he found that the liturgical type of church building, while designed as a house of prayer with an atmos¬ phere of reverence and worship, has a liturgy that reflects the sixteenth century and touches lightly the complex needs of to-day, while the sermon in only exceptional instances is worth hearing^ Is no middle ground possible where the benefits of shrine and sermon might be combined? Could there be no synthesis of the Protestant or evangelical emphasis and the Catholic or sacramental emphasis, making room for the three types of free, silent and liturgical worship? Thus only would we acquire a better perspective and have a sense of more balanced proportion to produce higher harmony, deeper fellowship, and more Christ- like conduct. Some such arrangement assumes a man¬ datory aspect when we consider the ruthless invasion of paganism upon modern life. The subtle attacks upon the home by the facilities for divorce; the vulgarising of towns and cities by the insidious play of a “moral material- ^ Compare The Christian Century, September 15,1921, p.l7. 144 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY i^m” that is preoccupied with quantity and cares less for choice products; the increasing tendency to standardize life so that a drab conventionalism compels a uniformity which is mistaken for social equality; the demand for quick returns which places a premium on action to the virtual disregard of reflection and which encourages a jostling after the front seats, not always in a spirit of malicious com¬ petition but oftener with a desire for achieve¬ ment; the tedious routine in the struggle for existence which overemphasizes the mechanical output and tacitly overlooks the inevitable restrictions imposed on the mental, moral, social, and spiritual faculties; the unsettlement and disturbances of constant shifting from one place to another due to housing and other economic diflSculties—these are among the features of our current life which prove that the shaft has not sunk down to bedrock and that the tumult and movement are only on the surface. “The enrichment of worship appears to be a correlate of the increasing impoverishment of personality that men expe¬ rience in their occupations. The world’s work is performed under greater and greater psychic pressure—pressure of time, pressure of imposed eflSciency standards, of competition, of am¬ bition, of social expectation, of subsistence THE OPULENT WORSHIP 145 necessities growing out of the beginnings of over population.”^ This complex situation calls for a solution which is far beyond the ability of the church with “pep and piety.” We need to relate the beauty of holiness to the holiness of beauty, as it bears on the practice of worship. Where this connection is made there would be seen the Classicist’s love of truth, the Romanticist’s love of nature’s beauty, and the Puritan’s zeal for goodness. There need be no breach between religion and the permanent categories of truth, beauty, and goodness. Even though they are like three divergent rivers, they trace their source to the one spring in common with the river of religion.® A careful examination of these waters reveals the fact that they all have the iron of art which gives them tonic qualities. The great lack of Protestantism is “not intellectual nor moral but artistic, not ethical but cultural.” In order that we might supply this shortcoming, we should first accept the conclusion that if art needs religion to universalize its background of mental and moral concepts and to correct its moral con- ®“Who is Enriched by the Enrichment of Worship?” by George A. Coe in The Journal of Religion, January, 1923, p. 25. ® Compare “Worship” by Canon Streeter in Concerning Prayer, p. 248f. 146 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY tent, it is no less true that religion needs art to be impressive and to gain a hearing which is one of the self-evident concerns of the church. The crying desideratum, then, is openness of mind, brotherliness of disposition, love of the beautiful, that shall fm*nish a spacious background for the reception and culture of a vitally spiritual experience of the living God in Christ, making for the deeper unity of the church. Thus only would we be able to formulate and fashion a worship worthy of the God of our redemption. It will retain all the fundamental elements characteristic of this central performance but with certain differences that reckon with the modem de¬ mand for fullness of expression. ‘'The worship of the new age will be not less but more reli¬ gious in spirit, not less but more Christian in essential character. If the spur of the scientist is the love of truth, the joy of the Christian is the Truth of Love. If the zeal of the moralist strives to achieve some association or brother¬ hood of goodness, the joy of the Christian is the Goodness of Brotherhood. If the satis¬ faction of the artist is the life of beauty, the joy of the Christian is the Beauty of Life— all life, man’s life, the Life of God.”^° Vogt: Art and Religion, p. 251. Reprinted with per¬ mission of Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut. THE OPULENT WORSHIP 147 This is certainly an alluring ideal. The healthy movement toward Christian unity calls for a reconsideration of the question of worship. It is in this field that the adequate answer will be found, that shall produce the harmonious fellowship of many, who give “diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.The passion for the ideal Whole has often been misdirected because of the excessive individualism of Protestant¬ ism. The Puritan’s revolt against art and beauty, his antagonism to symbols and forms, his advocacy of the exclusive preaching of the Word were all inevitable in an age of spiritual corruption and emptiness. But with the growth of popular education and an in¬ creased appreciation of the arts and sciences, the spirit of vandalism and intolerance is happily disappearing, and “many are feeling after the proper redressing of the balance of worship long disturbed by historical causes.” The higher unity of the churches will not be secured primarily through intellectual convic¬ tions and agreements. “Spiritual fellowship, sympathy of heart with heart, and mutual understanding must precede intellectual con- “ Ephesians 4. 3. Compare J. V. Bartlet: Article on “Christian Worship” in EncyclojpoBdia of Religion and Ethics, vol. xii, p. 776. 148 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY cord.”^^ The contemplated changes in wor¬ ship should be discussed in an atmosphere of deepened spiritual life, in which we distinguish between the things that differ, and discern the inherent value in things that are unfamiliar and even unfavorable. Nor is it easy to over¬ come offhand the prejudices of many genera¬ tions. Those who try to introduce innovations by short cuts and quick methods are doomed to disappointment. However advantageous these may be, most people do not take kindly to what conflicts with accustomed ways. Established customs, especially when sanc¬ tioned by long usage and sanctified by palpable benefits, cannot be set aside in favor of any¬ thing better until it proves itself worthy and well qualified. And this is by no means an easy enterprise. It is nevertheless worth undertaking, and that by those who are per¬ suaded in their own mind that the suggested changes have decided advantages far greater than those already controlling the situation. Canon Streeter wisely remarked, “The world is looking for guidance; but the guide must be one who has the courage to discard what is Cyril Hepher: The Fruits of Silence, p. 69. Reprinted with permission of Macmillan & Co., Ltd., Publishers, London. THE OPULENT WORSHIP 149 obsolete and the insight to create what is new.”^^ There are certain desirable features in an attractive and acceptable worship, always in good taste and indispensable for its beneficial practice. The first is reality, which discounte¬ nances slipshod ways of thought, haphazard methods of action, listless attitudes, artificial mannerisms, conventional restraints that vio¬ late the inner sanctities of life by hardening them into set forms and endangering the resilient freedom of the Spirit. Such reality looks askance at external authorities, as such, that set up barriers in the path of liberty by establishing a mechanical uniformity that dead¬ ens the central constraints. The history of Nonconformity is a protest against whatever handicaps the energy of faith and militates against the realization of the life abundant in Jesus Christ, through direct contacts with the Spirit of holiness and the culture of the experimental knowledge of God who is the only solace of the soul. It is evident that the reality of God could be verified where there is the open vision, the immediate approach, the imminent response, and the “Christ the Constructive Revolutionary” in The Spirit, p. 367. 150 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY fertile fellowship in the light of increasing spiritual splendor in the face of Jesus Christ. “The religion of Jesus is the reality of life. If a sense of unreality haunts men with regard to religion, Jesus is misunderstood or misrepre¬ sented. There is nothing remote, occult, or unreal about him. He is vital. He strips religion of everything artificial and reveals life. He is at once simpler and deeper than all expositions concerning him.”^^ Another feature of profitable worship is consideration^ which guards against the empty meaninglessness of routine. The psalmist was confused over his trials, but he found an answer to his perplexities: “When I thought how I might know this. It was too painful for me; Until I went into the sanctuary of God, And considered their latter end.”^® It is in the atmosphere of thoughtful waiting upon God that the saints have ever found the perspective of confidence, that they are the people of God and that he is a very present J. H. Chambers Macaulay: The Reality of Jesus, p. vii. This book is a quickening argument for intrinsic realities that center in Jesus, without which Christian worship is vain. George H. Doran Company. “ Psalm 78. 16f. THE OPULENT WORSHIP 151 help amidst changes and troubles. The direc¬ tion thus obtained brought to them the resolu¬ tion to stand fast in the faith as against the fickleness of the faithless, the power to be watchful as against the heedlessness of the indifferent, the ability to quit themselves like mature adults as against the puerile childish¬ ness of those who go by their feelings and not by their reasonings, the strength to endure even unto the end as against the moral sloppi¬ ness of those who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel. They therefore enjoyed present happiness and also made it possible for others because they had a heart at leisure and a spirit in the poise of contentment. The reflection induced under these circum¬ stances also gave them such a cansiderateness for others that they showed patience under provocation, tranquility in tribulation, heroism in heaviness of soul. They both had com¬ passion on them that were in bonds and took joyfully the confiscation of their belongings, knowing that they had for themselves higher and lasting possessions.^^ Their readiness to befriend the unfortunate and to show discern¬ ing leniency rather than to pass hasty judgment manifestly argued a conception of God and of human destiny that belittled neither but mag- Hebrews 10. 34. 152 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY nified both, advertising also the buoyancy of their spiritual emancipation and endurance in Christ. All this, furthermore, gave evidence of the quality of their reserve resources which were being constantly replenished from the sources of spiritual plenitude during the hours of worship. Such assurance had they God ward that the uncertainties of fortune and the emergencies of duty always found them pre¬ pared. With this surplus at their disposal they never felt impoverished. They could always fall back upon a reserve which was an increasing and not a diminishing quantity. They were therefore competent to give proof of their allegiance, however onerous were the burdens to be borne, however exacting were the demands to be met, however numerous were the tasks to be performed. We suffer so easily from spiritual exhaustion because we know little of the secret of those who wait upon the Lord and renew their strength, who mount up with wings as eagles, above the depressions of untoward circumstances, who run and are not weary, walk and not faint. These experienced believers came to the season of worship not when they had reached the end of their tether, as a last but not spe- Isaiah 40. 31. THE OPULENT WORSHIP 153 cially welcome alternative. It was with them a steady practice to which they had become habituated and which was as indispensable as the very act of breathing. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews declared the ultimate meaning of religion, in the phrase, ‘To draw near to God,” which he repeated in several connections. He thought of religion as pre¬ eminently an act of worship, whereby the believer has access to God and to the higher world of sublime, heavenly realities. “To come into God’s presence is to pass through the veil—to rise out of the sphere of change and illusion and find our true home among the things that cannot be shaken. From this it follows that worship does not consist in cer¬ tain acts of homage, performed at stated intervals, but in the abiding condition of those whom God has accepted as his people.”^^ The Christian life is thereby seen to be, not only one of uninterrupted fellowship with God in Christ but also one of attainment through the perfecting of character and of behavior in the light of the unseen power of the heavenly world. Worship under these circumstances is an offering of grateful thanksgiving to God, who gives a continuous sense of his nearness and E. F. Scott: The Epistle to the Hebretvs. Its Doctrine and Significance, p. 81. 154 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY imparts an appreciative understanding of the manifold wonder of the divine in the human and of the human in the divine. Such a conception of worship presupposes that it “stands neither in forms nor in the formal disuse of forms.” It is, rather, con¬ tingent on the spirit of devotion which “sig¬ nifies a life given or devoted to God.” God is recognized as the Transcendent One who is above us and who calls forth our reverence, adoration, praise, confession, and prayer. He is also the Immanent One, who is beside us, the Father of grace and sympathy, the source in Christ Jesus of wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.^^ Such communion and intercommunion, fructified by a growing certainty and progressing experience of “the powers of the world to come,” bring encouragement in faith, hope, and love, for the service of mature freedom, in fulfilling the divine purpose, to bring all mankind to repent¬ ance and reconciliation.^^ Whether liturgical or free prayer helps or hinders this spontaneous function of the soul depends on circumstances. Some forms are like the scaffolding for the spiritual structure, others are definite aids to devotion. Extempore prayer that flows out 2° 1 Corinthians 1. 30. 2 Peter 3. 9. THE OPULENT WORSHIP 155 of a full heart gives utterance to vital needs. Silent prayer that voices the desires of a spirit immersed in God is like the song without words. Just as the orchestra has many instru¬ ments which blend to make harmonious music, so a complete worship that would guard against the bareness of uniformity and obtain the opulence of unity in variety is inclusive of many forms which complement each other, to utter the thoughts and to meet the needs of divers worshipers, ad magnam gloriam DeiJ^- Before deciding on this matter of forms it is well to recall once more that “worship is not thought, but the orientation of the whole self toward God.”^^ It is “the adjustment of the private point of view to the world em¬ bracing purpose.”-^ This includes emotion, intellect, and will, leading to action. Worship is a means to the great end, which is the acceptable service of God in consummate living and consistent working. If the liturgical service tends to monotony, the nonliturgical service makes for vagrancy. Is it not, however, “ Compare “The Unity of the Church,” by Dr. E. C. Palmer, Anglican Bishop of Bombay, in The Constructive Quarterly, December, 1919, p. 610. Compare Percy Dearmer: The Art of Public Worship^ p. 81 . ^ Henry T. Hodgkin: The Christian Revolution, p. 197. George H. Doran Company. 156 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY true that where no regular liturgy is used the minister who monopolizes the service invariably follows certain “conventional lines,” and has a liturgy without a liturgy? Unless he is a man of exceptional spiritual gifts his prayers show little variety and less versatility, as Sunday by Sunday he acts as the mouthpiece of his congregation, presumably uttering their manifold wants and desires before God, in which the world vision is by no means absent. “If all ministers could pray always,” said Sir W. Robertson Nicoll, “as some can pray at times, there would be no question of liturgies.” The repetition of set prayers may doubtless become mechanical and dull the edge of worship. But W’ho can deny that extempore prayers, which are often impromptu prayers, frequently dis¬ sipate concentration of thought, and are partly responsible for the “lethargy" of piety” which afflicts us? If ill-conceived forms of worship that disregard the significance of the hour cramp and strangle the spontaneity of the soul, might not the same be said of prayers that generally reflect only the individualistic moods of the minister? “The plea that we should turn a deaf ear to the demand for a more elaborate worship because it precludes a prophetic pulpit is not necessarily valid; and if it were, the unchurched multitudes might THE OPULENT WORSHIP 157 nevertheless prefer that sort of worship.”^® It cannot be said that preachers generally prepare their prayers with anything like the thought they put into their sermons. We are beginning to see that ‘‘sermonolatry” may prove to be a serious interference with a many- sided worship, which should reckon with the other arts beside that of rhetoric, to develop the exercises of the sanctuary. In many of our churches we have got into the unspeakable way of hurrying through the so-called “pre¬ liminaries,” as though the sermon were the only thing that counts. Not a few people are regularly late in coming to church. They arrive in time for the sermon without any sense of appreciation of the need for the opening exercises, which in their mind apparently have no place for the culture of their devotional life.^® The tendency to entertain rather than to edify, the appeal to variety instead of unity, the demand for curiosity more than for con¬ sideration, the presence of stir and movement more than the quiet of reverent waiting upon God, the atmosphere of bustle and not of buoyancy — these are among the causes of what has been pungently described as “the *5 S. Parkes Cadman: Ambassadors of God, p. 321. Compare M. J. McLeod: Letters to Edward, p. 20. 158 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY collapse of worship in Protestant com- munions.”“^ Our need, then, is to correlate the different parts of worship, so that there shall be neither caprice nor narrowness. There should be a balanced proportion of all the varied elements that constitute a wholesome offering of praise and prayer to the living God, a healthy prac¬ tice of recollection and realization of the presence of God, and a quiet meditation upon the unseen realities of the spiritual world. The objective, it is needless to say, is to prepare the worshipers for the trying duties and press¬ ing responsibilities in the world of daily grind and tedious routine. There is, indeed, nothing else that could be substituted for regular worship as a help against the overwhelming onslaughts from materialistic passions and appetites. We should therefore welcome the timely call to enlarge and enrich the scope and influence of worship. Such worship, moreover, is not individualistic but corporate, so that it is perilous, to say the least, to leave its conduct wholly to the taste and temperament of the minister. It is not a railing accusation to say that the manners and mannerisms of some ministers, as leaders of worship, are lacking in reverence and dignity, and verge on the bizzare. ^ Compare Fitch: Preaching and Paganism, p. 194. THE OPULENT WORSHIP 159 due more to thoughtlessness than to intention. The language should be of the choicest, the demeanor the most refined, the tone most elevating, exhibiting a man who is conscious of the profound significance of the hour, dur¬ ing which he is to mediate between God and man, as a priest who approaches God on behalf of and with his people, and as a prophet who comes from God to his people with a message suited to their guidance and growth in the Christian virtues. Worship is the greatest and the finest of all arts. It, moreover, includes all the other arts as contributory to its finer development. The aesthetic and the architectural in the physical sanctuary; the musical and the literary as they accord with the religious in the spiritual sanctuary; the cultural and the traditional in the creeds and symbols which comport with the continuity and dignity of religious aspira¬ tion and deed; the sacramental and the spiritual which reckon with the sanctity of the common¬ place and recognize the eternal in the temporal; the liturgical and the informal, both of which protect the inwardness of religion and meet the desires for the familiar in accustomed forms and for the spontaneous outpourings of the soul in extemporaneous utterance—all of these considerations merit our most serious 160 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY attention. Thus shall we secure a catholic worship, having unity in diversity, harmony with good form, heartiness with fine taste, to further the culture of the intellectual, the beautiful, the spiritual, the useful, as a well- ordered whole, for the praise of the divine Majesty, enthroned in holiness and truth. When we are stressing the wholeness of life in the name of the Incarnate Christ, it is evi¬ dent we should remove all barriers that exist between religion and the manifold interests of morals, of thought, of science, of literatme, of the fine arts. All these puiport to recreate life and to redirect its impulses along the avenues that are free from the obstacles of prejudice and one-sidedness. But they have not been able to carry far because of manifest limitations. It is just here that religion should come to the rescue and furnish the stimulus that would help the pilgrim to go forward serenely and assuringly toward the City of God.^^ We contend that the Christian religion that touches the divers interests and concerns of life, past, present and future, is most com¬ petent to liberate the soul from the meshes of bondage to obsessions, be they intellectual, artistic, social, or religious. The unique genius of Christianity is its universalism, and any type ^ Compare Vogt: Art and Religion^ 29ff., 66. THE OPULENT WORSHIP 161 of sectarianism which presumes to be final is a sorry caricature of the intrinsic reality. This applies with equal force to doctrines, modes of worship, styles of architecture, ecclesiastical mandates and polities, such as tend to stereo¬ type and strangle the irrepressible life of religion. One of the unhappy results of reli¬ gious excitement is that emotionalism has frequently been made the infallible test of religious reality. Those who declare that they have had a wonderfully spiritual time often mistake physical thrills and ecstasies for spiritual enlightenment and enduement.^^ There are many strings to the violin, and, while it is possible for a Paganini to produce celestial music out of a solitary string, such a brilliant exception proves the rule that for the regular harmonies, all the strings are necessary. It is not an exclusive worship but an inclusive worship that our present necessities desiderate. It should gather up the “differing strains of religious experience” into a sublime unity, that shall sound together the matchless psean of “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Mediaevalism has had its day, and, although certain of its aspects are still welcome, the more opulent worship that our age needs cannot ^ Compare Alexander Mackie: The Gift of Tongues, p. 26 ff. 162 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY be obtained by any revival of mediaeval forms and usages. It was said of the High Church party in Anglicanism that “They are trying to recover the insights and practices of mediaeval piety; they are archaistic in devotion.”^® May not the same be said of Puritanism which has had its vogue and its influence.^ We cannot revert to the Puritan simplicities which verge on bareness. However much they satisfied the spiritual cravings of the past, they are inadequate for the present day, which calls for intellectual poise, for aesthetic beauty, for emotional control, for ethical depth, for social responsibility, for spiritual fullness, in a wor¬ ship that is free and not fettered, resilient and not rigid, vitalizing and not sterilizing. We need such a development that will retain the connection with historic Christianity and con¬ serve all that is best in the traditional worship of the church. But what has come down to us must first be remagnetized for the sake of * such advances as shall make more effective our common worship by the increase of spir¬ itual fervor. We need to enlarge our conception of the sacramental idea. Romanism with its acceptance of the seven sacraments of baptism, ^ George Santayana: Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies, p. 88. THE OPULENT WORSHIP 163 confirmation, the eucharist, holy orders, pen¬ ance, marriage, extreme unction, touches life at many more critical points than Protestant¬ ism, which is content with the two sacraments of baptism and the eucharist. To be sure, we magnify the sacrament of the preached Word. The gospel of the Incarnation, however, proclaims the sanctity of all life, and, while certain specific acts are regarded as definite means of grace, a wider inclusion of what has hitherto been regarded as merely secular would tend to sanctify larger areas of life and ulti¬ mately bring everything under the redeeming and purifying influence of the Divine Spirit. The fact that baptism and the eucharist have been associated with corrupt practices does not militate against their observance but, rather, calls for a reexamination of their funda¬ mental significance in the light of their original ordination and of their rightful observance during the centuries.^^ It goes without saying that the sense of God is mediated through the eucharist in a way that no other practice of worship affords. Anything that will restore it to its place of strategic importance for the culture of the spiritual life should certainly be ^ Compare my Freedom and Advance, Chapter VII, on “Christian Worship,” for a discussion of these two sacra¬ ments, p. 150ff. 164 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY favorably considered. “The way of escape from the dryness, deadness, conventionality, and spiritual poverty that spreads its blight over so much of modern worship, lies, I beheve, in according a yet greater preeminence to the eucharist, which the history of Christianity and the witness of the New Testament incon¬ testably make the very center of Christian worship.”^^ In an age of jazz and “sloppy irreverence,” how urgent that the hymns used in worship at the Sunday and midweek services and at the sessions of the Sunday school should express genuine Christian sentiments in appro¬ priate words and tunes. When the Bible is read so little by the people who attend our services, how imperative that a discriminating choice should be made from the entire round of both Old and New Testaments, and that the reading shall be given with clear enunciation and fitting emphasis, such as the sacred page justly merits.Since the spirit of devotion tends to become minimized, and the exercise of concentration is so much of a strain, how desirable that, instead of the invocation and the one long pastoral prayer, there should be *2 Hepher: The Fruits of Silence, p. 127. Compare R. W. Rogers: A Book of Old Testament Lessons. This volume by a devout scholar should be supplemented by a book of New Testament lessons. The Abingdon Press. THE OPULENT WORSHIP 165 frequent intervals of prayer, which focus the attention respectively on adoration, thanks¬ giving, confession, supplication, intercession, with at least one period for silent prayer.^ We have advanced beyond the ideal of a plain worship, which doubtless satisfied our fathers. May their memory be forever blessed! We insist no less earnestly than they did that the fires and fervors of the religious life should never cease in our midst, and that the altar of the burning heart should ever be conspicuous. But the means for conserving and developing these must be different. Suggested changes are bound to meet with criticism, positive and negative. Those who realize the advisability of new ways should not be alarmed by objec¬ tions nor regard these as merely the pleas of obscurantism. An interchange of thought and discussion in an atmosphere of charity, which is the mother of all virtues, would lead us out of the dilemmas of contradiction and incon¬ sistency into more favorable situations. The outlook is most encouraging, as the pioneer experimenters themselves report, and as our own observations indicate. We are on the eve of the renaissance of a more spiritual worship. Let us welcome the new day with the assurance Compare the essay on “Worship” by Canon Streeter in Concerning Prayer, p. 286ff. 166 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY of faith, the endurance of hope, and the jubi¬ lance of love, that our services and our service in the Holy Spirit may be more acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. “Immortal honor, endless fame, Attend the Almighty Father’s name: The Saviour Son be glorified. Who for lost man’s redemption died: And equal adoration be. Eternal Paraclete, to thee!” 35 1 Peter 2. 5. THE OPULENT WORSHIP 167 SUGGESTED READING A. General Von Ogden Vogt: Art and Religion. Percy Dearmer: The Art of Public Worship. B. H. Streeter, Editor: Concerning Prayer. James Hastings, Editor: Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. Articles on “Worship,” Volume XII, p. 752ff. C. A. Anderson Scott: The Fellowship of the Spirit. Arthur S. Hoyt: Public Worship for Non-Liturgical Churches. A. V. G. Allen: Christian Institutions. K. R. Stolz: The Psychology of Prayer. F. B. Macnutt, Editor: The Church in the Furnace. Louis F. Benson: The English Hymn. A. E. Bailey: The Use of Art in Religious Educa¬ tion. B. H. Streeter, Editor: The Spirit. The Worship of the Church. Report of the Arch¬ bishops’ Committee of Inquiry. Leighton Parks: The Crisis of the Churches. P. T. Forsyth: The Church and the Sacraments. Theron Brown and Hezekiah Butterworth: The Story of the Hymns and Tunes. B. Manuals W. E. Orchard: The Order of Divine Service for Public Worship. 168 THE DYNAMIC MINISTRY John Hunter: Devotional Services for Public Wor¬ ship. Book of Congregational Worship. The Book of Common Worship. The Book of Common Prayer. Manresa. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. All of the Church Hymnals. Oscar L. Joseph : Hearth and Altar. Sir Henry S. Lunn: The Love of Jesus y and Re¬ treats for the Soul. Wilbur P. Thirkield: Service and Prayers for Church and Home. Walter Rauschenbusch : For God and the People, Prayers of the Social Awakening. C. Devotional Books W. Hermann: The Communion of the Christian with God. J. Rendel Harris: The Guiding Hand of God. R. F. Horton: The Open Secret. Rufus M. Jones: Spiritual Energies in Daily Life, Cyril Hepher, Editor: The Fellowship of Silence. Basil Mathews and Harry Bisseker: Fellowship in Thought and Prayer. H. E. Fosdick: The Meaning of Prayer. R. E. Welsh: Classics of the SouVs Quest. W. Robertson Nicoll: The Return to the Cross. G. G. Atkins: Pilgrims of the Lonely Way. A. C. Hogg: Ckrisfs Message of the Kingdom, Alexander Maclaren: Pulpit Prayers. Caroline M. Hill, Editor: The World's Great Religious Poetry. THE OPULENT WORSHIP 169 John Wright Buckham: Mysticism and Modern Life, E. Hershey Sneath, Editor: At One with the Invisible. Amelia M. Gummere, Editor: The Journal of John Woolman. Alexander Smellie: The Well by the Way. John Oxenham: Bees in Amber. Francis G. Peabody: Mornings in the College Chapel, first and second series. Richard Roberts: Thai One Face. Donald Hankey: The Lord of all Good Life, William F. McDowell: This Mind. Date Due VIP f) r. I;, \* •a‘;