THE PASTOR 
 
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JUL 11 1912 
 
 THE PASTOR 
 
 BY THE 
 
 V 
 
 REV. MEADE C. WILLIAMS, 1). D., 
 
 Pastor of the Presbyterian Church. Princeton III. 
 
 riMNCKTON, ILL. 
 .AIKUCKK A DEAN. I'KINTKJIS, 
 
 1887. 
 
This essay is in siil)stHiu'e a Lecture wliich was delivered. l>y iiivitati 
 of tlie Faculty, before the students of the McCormick 'riieolo^jii-ai Seuiina 
 in Chicasro. It is hereby respectiully addressed to youni>: "i*'" \^'1"> ^'Xp; 
 soon to be Pastors. 
 
 rriiu-eton. Ills.. Marcli. ISST. M. ( . W. 
 
THE FASTOK. 
 
 The best and most sitjijiticaut title of the Gospel minister 
 is Pastor. It is a comprehensive term, and all his varied 
 functions can be included under it. While however the 
 term Pastor is generic, and " Preacher stands related to 
 Pastor but as part to the whole,"* yet for convenience 
 sake, we have come to designate certain parts of our work in 
 their distinction from other parts, as Pastoral. In this 
 sense what is the Pastor? And what is Pastoral work? 
 
 Probably in i)0])ular estimation Pastoral labor in dis- 
 tinction from the service of the pulpit, means "making 
 calls." It is time we correct and enlarge the sense of the 
 term. I therefore make it include all if our service, as a 
 minister loJiich is outside of the pulpit. 
 
 In general then never forget that much, very much, of 
 your labor lies outside of the church building and outside 
 your study and pertains to other days than the Sabbath. 
 In the minds of some young ministers the impression forms 
 that their labor is entirely intellectual, and before public 
 " audiences." That by a platform and oratory and "mag- 
 netism" they are to " take heed to the ministry " and 
 " make full proof " of the same. I wish to modify this 
 conception by pressing the parocliial idea.f You are to be 
 
 * Viiiet. 
 
 t"As a iiarot'liial iiiiiiistei-. never be content with bein^f merely a {)reac'lier. 
 This word ' merely " is used in no disiiarauement of preadiinj^. j^ut the com- 
 mission from our Master and from our Clmrch is wider and manifo'd." 
 — Canon Miller in '• ('ler»ryman"s Mairazine" LoTidon. 
 
THE PASTOR. 
 
 related to, and solemly inducted into charge of. not an 
 audience but a Parish or Constituency. Your Sabbath 
 audience never will be coterminous with your parish. 
 Take your averag^e congregation and you can always 
 multiply it at least by two, when you want to get at the 
 total number of souls under your jurisdiction. Keep a 
 record of your church by family enumeration and not 
 simply by the connnunicant roll, or by counting heads on a 
 Sunday. Often only one of a family may be a communing 
 member, or connected witli you fis an attendant on your 
 ])reaching, when yet you may regard the whole household 
 as uiider your ])astoral charge. Then count up the aged 
 of your people who can not belong to your "hearers," the 
 sick and otherwise infirm, and the children too young yet 
 to be taken from home, and the unconverted husbands and 
 young men who while regarding you as the family Pastor 
 are themselves careless about " church going." Also for- 
 get not those " outsiders," as they are poimlary called, to 
 be found in every community, seldom seen at a ])ublic re- 
 ligious service, but who as they will express it, " believe in 
 churches," and who from some dim traditional bias, or be- 
 cause you once buried a member of their liome, or because 
 their children attend your Sabbath School or because they 
 like you as a man, will tell you they " lean to your church." 
 Some pro])ortion of these and other outlying borderers, often 
 well-nigh ])agans under the very shadow of our Sanctuaries, 
 may always be regarded as belonging to your oversight. 
 
 Thus you cannot fulfil your ministry simply by your 
 Pulpit work. There are a certain few men belonging to 
 exceptional classes whose work is bounded by the Puli)it: 
 the popular Evangelists, for instance, who are heralds only, 
 never assuming a pastoral charge; or now and then in the 
 settled ministry a man of extraordinary gifts in oratory 
 wlio gathers a large congregation; ("congregation" I 
 
THE PASTOR. 
 
 say and congregation only; a mere assembly of individual 
 hearers rather than a compact and efficient church or- 
 ganism.) Also, those whose church membership is so 
 large that it is impracticable to exercise, except in a gen- 
 eral way, much of pastoral oversight, or even to know 
 personally all their people. But to the average Minister, to 
 nine-tenths of us, these conditions do not apply. Our use- 
 fulness and power must be seen, il apparent at all, in the 
 various lines of pastoral labor concurrently with our 
 preaching. We can not count on our one talent of public 
 discourse being so exceptionallj^ commanding that it will 
 overlap our deficiency and neglects in other lines, or atone 
 to the people for the one-sided development they would 
 receive at our hands. And very few are the parishes, 
 which either by their great extent or by the social con- 
 ditions of city life, make this pastoral care impossible. 
 In the whole state of Illinois, for instance, with its 
 nearly five hundred Presbyterian churches, there are 
 scarcely fift5^ which are not in rural districts or in villages 
 and towns ranging in population from a handful to a few 
 thousands. And the ministers in the smaller communities 
 have an advantage in this respect, according to good 
 Archbishop Leighton who commiserated the Clergy of 
 London in that the size of their parishes disabled them 
 from giving much attention to the individual soul. 
 
 The "good Shepherd knows his sheep" and "calletheach 
 by name" and seeks after the one that is maimed or out 
 of the way. Besides preaching to the multitudes on the 
 Mount, on the sea shore or in the wilderness, much of our 
 our Lord's ministry was in the line of private and personal 
 interviews, either with single individuals or with small 
 groups of Jews, or with his band of the Twelve. The dis- 
 courses in John's gospel are largely of this kind. The 
 Apostle Paul tells us his general practice of warning every 
 
THE PASTOR. 
 
 ijjan, teaching every man tliat he might present every man 
 perfect in Clirist.* In bis report of labor at Ephesus,t 
 where for over two years he liad been a resident Pastor, he 
 claims to have taught "from house to house" as well as 
 publicly,:^ and that he had "warned every one night and 
 <lay with tears." And under his burdening sense of re- 
 sponsibility for tliem Ins (-omfort seems to have been the 
 testimony of his own conscience to his i)astoral fidelity, 
 that thus he was "pure from the blood of all men." He 
 bids the brethren of Thessalonica remember how he dealt 
 witli every one of them, or "each one" as the R. V. 
 lias it; how "we exhorted and conjforted and charged each 
 one of you."i| His habit of friendly, pastoral interest in 
 individuals is further l)et()kened in his e])istles by his ex- 
 pressions of affectionate desire to see again their faces; by 
 his discriminating salutations to one and another in the 
 churches; and by the sjiecific counsels he apportions ac- 
 cording to liis personal ac(]uaintance with the varying 
 wants and ex|)eriences of those to whom lie writes. >^ 
 
 But the thought is often indulged tliat the intellectual 
 demands ujxui the puljiit in this day preclude such minute 
 and j)ains-taking (;are in the oversight of a church. 
 Now I would regret exceedingly to be understood as 
 disparaging the imi)ortance or the claims of .the 
 work in the Study. 1 urge that you carry your seminary 
 habits of studionsness into your pastorates, aiid that you 
 bring always well-beaten oil to the sanctuary. But J 
 object to the unfortunate and unwise judgment tliat it is 
 im])ossible for the same man to sliow a record of work ex- 
 
 M'olds.. \:IK + Acts '.'tills :i"). 
 
 + \\'liile tlie (liciples (»n»'ii licld tlicir services of \V(»rslii|i in piivatc Imiiscs, 
 (lloiii.. Mi:.")-. I Cor.. Ifcl'.t). yet tlie contrast witli '• publicly" makes tliis most 
 prol)ably a reference to the Apostle's jiersonal ministry witliin the homes. 
 (Ml this then lake Heiiyel's remark: " Ne upostnluo -inidem muiieri tam late 
 jiateiiti imhlica pra-dicatione satis tiebat. (luiil /(/.-/'/;//'«.•■ facien(him ?■" 
 I 'I'hess. 2:11.- -M« .-((./.Tr.,! t;li'om. H".:! lO; I'liilip. I:i;i 
 
THE PASTOR. 
 
 teiidiiig in both departments of ministry which the 
 Master can pronounce " well done," This does not neces- 
 sarily imply a low grade of excellence in either line but it 
 does imply a high degree of diligence and fidelity in 
 both.* Pulpit work, preaching, is indeed our highest 
 function. But is that style of sermonizing which takes 
 on no coloring, and receives no bent froui personal 
 contact with the people, is that the best way of beating 
 the oil? "At home among books but at sea among men?" 
 All study and abstraction from the current of adjacent 
 life will make you dull in one sense at least of the word, 
 and I fear you <\ould answer to the description given of a 
 certain minister that he w.as "invisible six days of tlie 
 week and incomnrehensible the seventh." + Mr. Spurgeon 
 gives the advice to preachers "stand in the stream and 
 fish. " Endeavor to be acquainted with your people in their 
 secular life. Know what vocations they follow, what 
 cares opi)ress them, what company they mingle in, 
 and what sins do most easily beset them, and let your in- 
 fluence be felt in the social and family life of the congre- 
 gation.:^ Seek skill in binding up the broken-hearted, and 
 wisdom to drop a word in season to him that is weary, and 
 grace to sympathize wqth those in adversity. Cultivate a 
 con)passionate spirit towards the poor, a tender thoughtful- 
 
 *" I do not envy a clergyman's lite as an easy lite, nor do I envy the clergy- 
 man who makes it an easy life." -Dr. Samuel .Tolnison in 15os\vell, ^'ol. \\[, 
 p. 2(i.">. 
 
 tOr you might possibly bebroughtunder the coniical imputation, which as 
 the story goes, once attached to the celebrated Hossuet. just after he had been 
 appointed to a l»ishopric. Some of the peoi)le being asked how they liked 
 him. said tliev would have preferred a man who had finislied his education, 
 for whenever they called at his house they were told the Uishoj* was at his 
 studies! 
 
 :j:Hyle in his '• England A Hundred Years ago," tells of William (irimshaw, 
 Curate of Ilaworth. that of nearly all of tlie several hundreds who belonged 
 to his charge -he was as well aciiuainted with their several temptations, 
 trials and mercies, both personal and domestic, as if he had lived in their 
 families." 
 
THE PASTOR. 
 
 ness for the aged, a readiness in spiritual ministry with the 
 sick, a winning manner with children, and great fidelity to 
 the unsaved. 
 
 Settle it then in your mind that the sermon is 
 only one of a number of co-operating forces in the Pastor- 
 ate. You are not only to be Preachers, Heralds, Ambas- 
 sadors with a message, but you are to be entrusted with 
 oversight. People are to be looked up, looked after and 
 overlooked. The most sagacious John Wesley left an 
 observation which I wish every young Timothy would 
 carry with him as he leaves the seminary. " By repeated 
 experiments,'" he says, "we learn that though a man 
 preach like an angel, he will neither collect nor preserve a 
 society which is collected, without visiting them from 
 house to house.'' And will you i)lease adopt as a 
 cherished aphorism the remark of Dr. Chalmers, "a house- 
 going minister makes a church-going people." 
 
 I liave said it is a mistake to conceive of Pastoral work 
 as merely making calls. So it is. But e(]ually is it a 
 mistake to exclude that conception. I ju-ess its impor- 
 tance. It is often disesteemed and by some held in contempt. 
 It has been "taken oft" in derisive wit as "])eddling civil- 
 ity round the parish," and as degrading the minister of 
 the gospel into a mere "social roundsman" wlio has to dis- 
 tribute " attentio7is," and discuss in the homes of the peo- 
 ple sucli trifling subjects as the weather, the childrens' 
 colds and the incidents of the sunuiier vacation I Yea, 
 it has even been intimated more seriously, that the 
 Pastor's call on a family in the absence of the husband 
 is a matter of (piestional)le ])ropriety. How these critics 
 would liave been liorritied by the rej)ly u certain faithfttl, 
 hard-working country curate in England once gave his 
 Bishop. Tlie l^isho]) wishing his clergy to be "well up" 
 in the Patristic literMtnre of tlie early church, asked 
 
THE PASTUJR. 
 
 this clergyman if he studied the Fathers. "Not very 
 much," he answered. "The fathers are generally out in 
 the fields, but I study the mothers a great deal." Three 
 fourths or more in our congregations are of the female sex, 
 and we cannot ignore our pastoral relation to them 
 because of prudish hyper-criticism. We do not forget 
 however what careful decorum and delicacy are here 
 demanded on the Pastor's part. Paul, in his Pas- 
 toral Epistles so replete with practical counsels to young 
 ministers, has not forgotten to touch on this very subject. 
 "Entreat the elder women as mothers; the younger wo- 
 men as sisters," * that is, as being all ahke to you in the 
 relationship that is in Christ. f This counsel is the more 
 significant by reason of the apostle adding the words 
 "with all purity. "I Need I say further that in reference 
 to these and to many other delicate relations in which 
 a Pastor stands, as in reference to his whole line of re- 
 sponsibility, he needs a fair measure of good sense. This 
 endowment, desirable in any calling in life, is particularly 
 so in the Pastor's. As a natural possession it is often of 
 more practical avail than brilliant parts. To some extent 
 it is like the poet's art, in-born and not acquired. So that 
 i John Brown, of Haddington, used to say to his students, 
 " If ye lack grace, ye may get it by praying for it; if ye 
 I lack learning, ye niay get it by working for it ; but 
 I if ye lack common sense, I dinna ken where ye are to get it." 
 
 ' It is an easy thing surely to utter gibes about Pastoral 
 visiting. Formerly it was lampooned as too grim and in- 
 quisitorial. Now the critics seem to have taken another tack 
 and they deride it as too light and inconsequential a cus- 
 tom. At the caricatures of it ive can be amused as well as 
 
 * I Tim. 5:2. 
 j tEllicott quotes in loc the rule of .lerome; -oinues pnellas et virgines Clu-isti 
 jaut nequaliter iguora aut aniualiter dilige." 
 
 JTlieir reference is to the r^uripar. 
 
10 THE PASTOR. 
 
 they without our conviction of its real and earnest import- 
 ance being in the least disturbed. Of course, by pastoral vis- 
 its is not meant merely formal religious calls, but also the 
 friendly "dropping in," the calls of civility and courtes3% 
 the calls of sympathy, the calls of politeness to strangers 
 and new comers, the neighborhood calls. All such, not 
 purely social and not purely religious, but yet christian, 
 and done in a familiar and friendly manner, in your ca- 
 pacity as Pastor, are pastoral calls, and can be tributary 
 to your work. But furtlier, we Uiust not think of house 
 callinfi of whatever kind, as the only method of week- 
 day pastoral intercourse. Be not too ceremonious or too 
 systematic. Think not that a ])ersonal communication , 
 on spiritual things can only be made by a gradual zigzag 
 course of approach as if you were laying siege to a forti- 1 
 fication. The casual remark, the tract, the wayside seed, 
 the conference on the street it may be, the brief word in the! 
 business house or shop, the little note written in love and 
 ])rayer ; by these " out of season " as well as the " in season" r 
 methods, this sowing by all waters, thus too will you be| 
 illustrating pastoral diligence. Oh, these private interviews 
 with the unconverted I Pastoral work indeed! No limit 
 to it I There is danger of forgetting its importance. 
 Baxter says he seldom dealt thus witli men alone with- 
 out their going away with some seeming convictions and 
 promises of new obedience, and that he found an ignorant 
 sot would get more knowledge and remorse of conscience 
 in half-an-hour's close (conversation than he did in ten 
 years preaching.* And it is the famous ancient writer 
 on rhetoric *^ wlio illustrates the same advantage by saying 
 you are more likely to fill narrow-moutlied l)ottles by tak- 
 ing them singly by the hand and pouring water into them 
 than to j)ut them togetlier and |)()ur water upon the whole 
 
 *'riu lif'ttn iii»'<l I'astdi. i-liji. .'). + C^uiiitiliaii. 
 
THE PASTOR. H 
 
 €ollrction. And these persons in our congregations ex- 
 pect us thus to approach them and wonder we do it so 
 seldom. And thus doing you will often be surprised and 
 stand rebuked for your misgiving and weak faith by find- 
 ing, if not at once their obedient response, at least their 
 grateful appreciation of your kindness and their increased 
 esteem for you. And the benefit to yourselves, my Breth- 
 ren in this hand-to-liand work, whether with the unsaved 
 or witli your experienced fellow-christians ! It will re- 
 fresh your own spirtual life, it will drive away " the blues," 
 it will dispel the sometime rising shadows of doubt from 
 your mind and will keep you in fresh and close contact with 
 the simple trutlis of the Gospel. 
 
 In regard to such lines of pastor work as I have been 
 indicating, certain counter-views lie perhaps unspoken 
 but operative in the minds. of some young ministers. They 
 think of their vocation too exclusively from its intellec- 
 tual side. Their chief conception of responsibility, it 
 would seem, is in being "leaders of opinion," and in "keep- 
 ing abreast of the times," and in bringing forth their 
 "latest thought!" This state of mind will often interfere 
 with a congenial appreciation of pastoral occupations. 
 Then along with this, I fancy that in the minds of some 
 of the brethren such services are ranked as very lowly and 
 inferior, are associated with mediocrity of talent, and are 
 thought not to comport with a "manly" and "forceful" 
 character, or with the ambition of what is called a "bril- 
 liant career." May the Lord give us grace and reveal to 
 us what be the first principles of the minister's calling! 
 Who have been the eminent men, I will not say of the 
 Pulpit, but of the Ministry? The most useful models for 
 you to study are not the famous triad of the French 
 court; nor the tew illustrious preachers at the English 
 universities, who in their freedom from parochial afiairs 
 
lii THE PASTOR. 
 
 are called occasionally to prepare a great Pulpit "effort." 
 As illustrating the homiletic art, their productions may 
 be profitably studied ; but for you, who expect to be 
 ministers in parish charges, I would present another class 
 of men. 
 
 Think, for instance, of Richard Baxter. Was he lacking 
 in the strong elements of a man? A student of the scrip- 
 tures in the original tongues, well versed in ancient pagan 
 and scholastic philosophy, of extensive theological erudi- 
 tion, and the author of over one hundred and sixty publi- 
 cations, preaching or lecturing every day of the year, 
 having six hundred communing members in his Kidder- 
 minster church ; yet the most abundant and pains-taking 
 in pastoral labors, visiting his whole congregation, looking 
 after the children, the sick, the poor and the unconverted, 
 and securing a family altar in nearly every home. 
 
 Or what would you say of Dr. Chalmers? Does he 
 strike you a,s w^anting in the fibre of intellectual or manly 
 character? Well, he was the most remarkable Pastor ol 
 modern days — he whom Peter Bayne calls a "great mass 
 of common sense." At the very time when living in a 
 blaze of unparalleled popularity, with a fame for learning 
 and pul])it eloquence which extended throughout the whole 
 kingdom, the world "wild about him," he is pastoriziug a 
 Glasgow parish of two thousand families. Besides estab- 
 lishing schools and other measures for tem])oral good, we 
 find him looking after barefooted children, and the servant 
 classes; we see him diving into noisome kennels, feeling 
 his way up dark, winding stairways, seeking out destitu- 
 tion and sin, bringing tlie truth and consolation of the 
 gospel, and visiting personally all his families. 
 
 Or, turn to that other Scotch Thomas, Dr. Guthrie. 
 No weakling was he, either. A man of intellectual 
 standing atid force of character. Aye, ])erhaps we might 
 
THE PASTOR. 18 
 
 apply to him as regards pulpit ability, that favorite adjec- 
 tive of to-day which expresses the popular ideal of excel- 
 lence, "brilliant." Yet Guthrie was known as the "house- 
 going minister."* It is written of him "he might have 
 been met almost every day in the w^eek visiting from cellar 
 to garret, tht? crowded homes of his neglected parishion- 
 ers," and his people of all classes prized him as their 
 faithful Pastor, as well as admired him as a great Pulpit 
 orator. The same use, if not in the same degree, could be 
 made of Arnot and Norman McLeod. 
 
 But what say you to Frederick Robertson, of Brighton? 
 In a different way from these Scotch compeers, yet while 
 remarkable for the originality and highly intellectual char- 
 acter of his preaching, and at the same time a perfect type 
 of soldierly manliness, he was in his own methods also an 
 earnest pastor of men — visiting the homes, attaching to him- 
 self the humbler classes, promoting by week-day measures 
 the interests of working men, training his Sunday-school 
 teachers, with great imtience and care preparing his con- 
 t^rmation classes of children, and studying to make the 
 
 illest understand the elements of spiritual truth. 
 
 And very much of the credit and favor which the 
 ritualistic clergymen in England are now receiving is due 
 not to the sentiments they teach or the ceremonial forms 
 of worship they introduce, but to their pastoral diligence. 
 The Non-Conformist ministers likewise of the same 
 country, as we learn, are as regular in tliis branch of 
 work as in their Sabbath preaching. In oar own land, too, 
 could be named some of the foremost ministers of the 
 present day, with a pulpit fame which is not only metro- 
 politan but national, as tar as churches and christian ranks 
 are concerned, who are systematic and conscientiously 
 diligent in the humbler work of household visitation. 
 
 *So dubbed by Chalmers. Lite of (Jutlirie. vol. 1. p. :^S1. 
 
U THE PASTOR. 
 
 I said at the outset that pastoral service did not mean 
 merely making calls, or the matter of personal intercourse 
 with the people, but that all the variety of ministerial 
 work which lies outside the pulpit and the conduct of 
 public worship is included in it. All these different feat- 
 ures might be embraced under the general term parochial 
 admifnstratio7i, and go to make up what Dr. Jas. Alex^an- 
 der called his "parochialia."* For one thmg a Pastor 
 should l-uo/p his field. Like a merchant, often take in- 
 voice; know what you have got and have it well in hand. 
 There are certain data, numerical and other kinds, which 
 if ascertained would greatly aid you in forming an intelli- 
 gent estimate of the state of religion among your people, 
 and would furnish materials for a more precise and tangi- 
 ble report to the Presbytery than we generally get in the 
 annual "narratives" on the subject. A Pastor of course 
 knows the number of his membership, the average attend- 
 ance on public meetings, and the size of the Sunday school. 
 But why not, at the cost of some ))ains ])erhaps, inforni "^ 
 hin)self on such other points as these: How many fami-''^li 
 lies have tlie altar of ])rayer? How many church papef'^r 
 and missionary periodicals circulate in the bounds of tlie 
 congregation? What is the character of the secular lit- 
 erature in the homes? What forms of worldliness are 
 prevailing? Is tbe sanctity of the Sabbath maintained? 
 Is religious benevolence growing? etc., etc. 
 
 For another thing let us remember that an organized 
 church is not a mere collection of individuals and families. 
 It belongs to a kingdom and is part of a working force and 
 a marching army. Concerning all tlie details and with an 
 eye tx) the general movement, the Pastor is exj)ected to 
 know and to suggest and to lead. 
 
 Among the Pastoral items is the carp of flic cliildren of 
 
 *■ Forty ^'^^•ll•s' ('onvspoiulcice. vol. II, p. ITn. 
 
THE PASTOR. 15 
 
 tlie church. I refer now to instraction additional to that 
 of the palpit and the Sunday school. Old fashioned cate- 
 chising, it is thought, is becoming one of the "lost arts," 
 but the practice of bringing children into personal contact 
 with the Pastor for instruction in the truths of the Bible 
 should not be obsolete. You ought not conclude if, in 
 these days of "optional studies" you can not induce them 
 to take the Shorter Catechism, or at least an eclectic 
 course in it, that there is no method of pastoral instruction 
 of the youth. I have referred to Kobertson's pains with 
 his confirmation classes. The "confirmation" principle 
 aside, why should not every minister have his class among 
 the church youth for simple indoctrination, and thus also 
 promoting on their part confidence and freedom with him. 
 Call it "Pastor's Class," or "Young Communicant's Class," 
 or, if you choose, by no name at all. Thus could we best 
 watch the first buddings of the tender vines, and note the 
 growing stages of that knowledge to discern the Lord's 
 body and tliat faith to feed upon him, when we can say to 
 them, "come with your parents to the communion table." 
 
 Then again, there is the Pastor's responsibility in refer- 
 ence to discipline. In Paul's counsels to ministers he 
 charges them to be gentle, and averse to strife, seeking in 
 meekness to instruct those that oppose the truth. But 
 this is not to be confounded with weak-spiritedness, for the 
 young preacher is told to "let no one despise him,"* and he 
 is reminded that Grod has not given him "the spirit of tearful- 
 ness, "t and that there are times when he is to "rebuke 
 sharply."]: Reprimand and counsel failing, don't forget 
 the power of the keys lodged with the Session. McCheyne 
 tells us that at the first of his ministry he greatly de- 
 preciated the importance of cliurch discipline and sup- 
 posed his almost only work was to pray and })reac}i, but 
 
 *Titiis2:ir). til Tim. 1:7. H. \'. JTitusI:i:i 
 
16 THE PASTOR 
 
 that afterwards, as a result of observation in certain eases 
 when this painful process was required, a new light broke 
 on his mind, and he saw that if preaching was an ordinance 
 of Christ, so also is church disciphne.* 
 
 The administration of church charity among the poor is 
 another item in pastoral oversight. Wherever you go you 
 will find, few or many, the needy and dependent — among 
 your pious church people, to some extent, and largely in the 
 outside community. In the pastoral epistles this subject 
 is brought to Timothy's attention, and the germs and 
 principles, easy to be expanded, are there given of a great 
 subject, a subject which in the near future, and especially in 
 our cities, must be more thoroughly considered by the Prot- 
 estant ministry and the Protestant churches than it lias 
 ever yet been. "The poor ye have always with you;" "I 
 w^as sick and ye visited me; naked and ye clothed me;" 
 "visiting the widows and the fatherless." Tlie spirit of 
 these sacred behests is not fulfilled bj' county poor houses; 
 neither is it by the desultory and diminutive work of our 
 present Diaconate system. Uhlhorn's late book on the 
 "Charities of the Early Church," ilhistrates what care of 
 the poor bi/ the church once signified. The day must soon 
 come in tliis country, as it is already in other cln-istian 
 lands when Hospitals, Orj)han Asylums, Relief Boards, In- 
 dustrial Homes and such like eleemosynary institutions 
 must belong to Protestant church organism as they do to 
 the Komish. In its measure now each local church lias 
 responsibility of this kind, and to stimulate such benevo- 
 lence and direct in its discreet and christian application 
 will always be the |)art of the Pastor. 
 
 * Memoir l)y IJonar. j). Ii»i. 
 
THE PASTOR. 17 
 
 Now, briefly, the Pastor in his personalit5^ We some- 
 times protest against being regarded as of a separate order 
 or class from our fellow-disciples. But as reasonable as 
 our protest may be, society will always insist on drawing 
 this distinction. The Pastor stands on a different level 
 from the layman, and is judged by another standard. He 
 comes to a community an utter stranger; his extraction, 
 his antecedents, his personal traits entirely unknown. 
 But he is not required first to earn respect and confidence. 
 The people may be uncertain as to his talent and his dili- 
 gence in work, but it never occurs to them to suspend 
 judgment on the question of his character. They take 
 for granted his uprightness and his purity. Where a bus- 
 iness man, or one in the other professions, must slowly 
 make his way and first prove himself w^orthy of confidence 
 and social consideration, the Pastor and his family are 
 spared this probation. They step at once into the favor 
 and good will of all. But while such general confidence 
 is tlius spontaneously given him, there is this serious col- 
 lateral fact that he may sooner and more irretrievably for- 
 feit it than the layman. It takes much fewer and slighter 
 deviations from rectitude to nullify his influence and 
 destroy his name than with those in secular callings. 
 Mathew Arnold says, "character is three-fourths of life."' 
 In the Pastor's case may we not say it is the whole of it? 
 Good character is his reserve capital If that be gone he 
 is hopelessly bankrupt. "Be sure your example exhorts 
 as well as your words," as Baxter says; or as Leighton 
 writes, "either teach none or let your life teach." 
 
 The Pastor has many a care and vexation of spirit. But 
 on the whole his can prove a happy lot; and I mean too in 
 its comforts and rewards this side of Heaven. Only show 
 yourself sincerely the servant of Christ and the people's 
 servant for Christ's sake, seeking not their's but them, and 
 
18 THE PASTOR. 
 
 the glory of Him who sent you, aiming rather to make 
 your ministry a blessing than "a success,"* and there is 
 not a church in the land where, unless you are too nomadic 
 in your pastorate, you will fail to receive that esteem and 
 a|)preciation which will be a constant tide of refreshment 
 to your spirit. You will meet a welcome every time you 
 call at the homes of your people and will lind yourself a 
 guest whom they delight to honor. They will admit 
 you to family confidences. They will tell you their joys 
 and oh yes I their sorrows too. They will teach their chil- 
 dren to cherish the name of him who baptized them, and 
 when the marriage days come the bride will feel it would 
 hardly he marriage unless solemnized by her own Pastor. 
 At the family altar along with petitions for home and kindred 
 they will pray for you. In times of affliction they will re- 
 gard it as one of their chief comforts that they have your 
 presence. You will be admitted to the sick room when 
 perhaps the invalid can see no other friend, and your voice 
 in the whispers of scripture hope and in the hushed tones 
 of prayer will be among the last sounds to fall on the ear 
 of the dying. And long after the sad funeral day, 
 mingled with thoughts of the dear one gone will be a ten- 
 der remembrance of the Pastor who stood beside the 
 mourners at the grave. 
 
 In other respects too there will come much that is grat- 
 ifying. Outside of your church families and throughout 
 the whole community, unless your lot be cast in the large 
 engulfing cities, your influence will ramify, your name will 
 be known, and you will find yourself treated by all classes 
 with the utmost respect and deference as an educated chris- 
 tian gentleman who identifies himself with the locality 
 seeking to do good. 
 
 * TlievH is a smack of carnality about tliis i)o])Mlar word in sndi con- 
 iifction, suHicient at least to siififjest a iu'etVrcncc for tlie other term wliicli 
 savors more of the divine seal and of "the honor that comet h fr(»m <!od only." 
 
THE PASTOR. 19 
 
 Domestically I believe the Pastor generally has more 
 than the average of satisfaction and happiness. Despite 
 his sometime anxiety in temporal things occasioned by the 
 "res angustae'' of salary, the Manse is one of the brightest 
 and most cheerful homes in the whole congregation. 
 Within its walls is seen more of innocent and rational en- 
 joyment than in many a more pretentious house, while in 
 the closet there are fewer of those skeletons which mean 
 social disgrace and shame. And in the outcome of the 
 minister's boys and girls, there is more that rejoices the 
 hearts of the parents when they are old. 
 
 The Pastor. Scriptural office ! Scriptural work ! Script- 
 ural name! Unto the church Christ has given pastors, 
 7rr>(/ue»'at,* writcs Paul. Ouc notablc instance of such 
 appointment by the Savior was when after his gra- 
 cious forgiveness of Peter, he said to him Trui/jaiye ru 
 7r|uo/3a7-a yuov,f "fccd my shccp;" that is nurture them, 
 tend them, pastorize them. Did Peter thus charged re- 
 tain ever a solemn and tender association with that par- 
 ticular word? And was it in part as expressing his sense 
 of the grace of Him who entrusts his work to those who 
 have for themselves first known his love, that long years 
 afterward this Apostle addressing all fellow-laborers in 
 tlie Gospel bids us Pastors think of that Lord, from wdiom 
 we have our commission, as the apxi^oii^eiw^l the "Chief 
 Shepherd," THE PASTOR. 
 
 *Ei)lies. 4:11. t.lohii '21 :1»). JTIVt. 0:4. 
 
DATE DUE 
 
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