THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 THE PREVALENT AND TRUE THEORY EXAMINED. 
 
 BY F. W. CONRAD, D. D. 
 
/. i I ' 1 ^ 
 
 ^ PRINCETON, N. J. ^ 
 
 .l.:^ralf ti the ministry 
 
THE 
 
 JUL 11 1912 
 
 CALL TO THE MINISTRY 
 
 THE PREVALENT AND TRUE THEORIES EXAMINED 
 
 BV F. W. CONRAD, D. D. 
 
 [from the LUTHERAN QUARTERLY, OCTOBER, 1 883.] 
 
 i^I 
 
 GETTYSBURG : 
 
 J. E. WIBLE, STEAM PRINTER, CARLISLE STREET (SECOND SQUARE). 
 
 188.^ 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 Jesus Christ represented the world under the similitude of a 
 ^reat field, in which a spiritual harvest is growing, wide in ex- 
 tent, priceless in value, ripe for the sickle, and ready to perish. 
 The ability and willingness of the Lord of the harvest to send 
 laborers into this harvest, and the duty of the Church to pray 
 to him to call an adequate number to gather it, as well as to 
 make the necessary efforts to induce those thus called to devote 
 their lives to it, are both declared and enjoined in the word of 
 God. Notwithstanding this, the disproportion between the num- 
 ber of the laborers and the extent of the harvest has continued 
 for ages, and the moral results have proven most disastrous to 
 mankind. Because the laborers were too few, much of the har- 
 vest of the world-field perished during the past ; because their 
 number is still inadequate, vast proportions of it are perishing 
 now ; and if no remedy has been devised and can be applied, 
 the full harvest can never be gathered into the garner of heaven. 
 
 The questions accordingly arise : Must the laborers always be 
 too few, and much of the harvest continue to perish ? Has the 
 Lord of the harvest been unwilling to call an adequate number 
 of laborers, or has the Church entertained erroneous views con- 
 cerning the call to the ministry, and failed to make the neces- 
 sary efforts to induce those called to enter her service ? To us 
 it is manifest that the latter, and not the former, is the true 
 cause of the inadequacy of the number of ministers to preach 
 the Gospel according to the great commission of Christ to every 
 creature. This we hope to establish by an examination of the 
 prevalent and true theories concerning the call to the ministry. 
 
 THE PREVALENT THEORY STATED AND FOUND WANTING. 
 
 A theory embraces certain ideas, which operate as govering 
 principles in practice. The ideas generally entertained concern- 
 ing the call to the ministry, consequently, constitute the theory 
 
4 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 and influence the practice of the Church. According to the 
 prevalent theory it is held that a call to the ministry emanates 
 directly from God ; that it is addressed to particular individu- 
 als ; that the conviction of their call is impressed upon their 
 minds in an extraordinary manner, through the immediate influ- 
 ence of the Holy Spirit ; that these will be introduced into the 
 ministry by the grace and providence of God ; that those called 
 are either in the ministry or else in a course of preparation for 
 it ; that few if any who have devoted themselves to other voca- 
 tions and professions, were called to the ministry ; that the num- 
 ber thus called is entirely inadequate to preach the unsearcha- 
 ble riches of Christ to the poor and famishing millions of the 
 world; and that, however much the Church may regret this de- 
 ficiency and mourn over the consequent ruin of souls, she is 
 neither responsible for, nor able to remedy it. 
 
 As theory determines the practice of the Church, so, too, does 
 her practice reveal her theory. Holding the views concerning 
 the call to the ministry just expressed, and impressed by the 
 danger of introducing uncalled men into the sacred ofifice, she 
 has not felt the weight of responsibility resting upon her ; and 
 deeming it best to withhold her hand from the subject, she has, 
 to a great extent left the supply of ministers to the judgment 
 of individuals, influenced by their own impulses and convictions 
 of duty, believed to have been produced by the internal work- 
 ing of the Spirit, and corroborated by the external leadings of 
 the providence of God. That this theory is erroneous, we 
 trust will be demonstrated by a due consideration of the follow- 
 ing arguments. 
 
 I. Because it is unreasonable. It is unreasonable to expect 
 the attainment of an end without making ample provision of 
 the means adapted to attain it. A husbandman who has a thou- 
 sand acres of wheat to harvest, cannot reasonably expect to 
 gather it if he be unwilling to employ the number of men in- 
 dispensably necessary to accomplish it. The moral harvest rip- 
 ening in the world-field will not gather itself; it cannot be gath- 
 ered without an adequate number of laborers ; and, hence, if the 
 Lord of the harvest has failed to call them, as the theory we are 
 combating presupposes, he cannot expect that it shall be gath- 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 5 
 
 ered. But the Lord of the harvest does expect that it shall be 
 gathered, imposes the obligation upon the Church to do all that 
 is necessary to save it, and reveals the period when it will have 
 been accomplished. But if the theory under consideration were 
 true, that an inadequate number of men are called into the min- 
 istry, then the duty imposed upon the Church to preach the 
 Gospel to every creature, cannot be performed, and, humanly 
 speaking, the kingdoms of this world can never become the 
 kingdoms of the Lord and his Christ. 
 
 2. Because it is inconsistent with the adequacy of all the other 
 provisions of redemption. Man is guilty, and needs pardon. 
 Provision is made to secure it through the atonement of Christ, 
 who, by tasting death for every man, became the propitiation 
 for the sins of the whole world. Man is depraved, and needs 
 the sanctification of his nature. Redemption makes provision 
 for this, through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, 
 whom God has poured out upon all flesh, and promised to give 
 to every one that asketh him. To reveal to man the atonement, 
 and to regenerate his heart, the Gospel is indispensable ; and 
 God has commanded his ministers to preach it to every creature, 
 and given the assurance that it would prove the wisdom and 
 power of God unto salvation. But as the Christian ministry 
 constitutes an essential part of the provisions of redemption, 
 and as all the provisions just mentioned are characterized by 
 universality, that pertaining to the ministry must correspond 
 with them in this respect, involving the call of an adequate 
 number of ministers to proclaim the Gospel to all nations. 
 
 3. Because it limits all the provisions of redemption by the 
 measure of the inadequate part. The strength of a chain, ca- 
 pable of raising a thousand pounds, is limited by a single link 
 adequate to bear only a hundred pounds. An adequate supply 
 of medicinal remedies is limited, in its saving efficacy, by the 
 number of physicians engaged in applying it to the diseased. 
 In like manner, will the adequacy of all the essential provisions 
 of redemption be limited by the degree of inadequacy attaching 
 to the deficient part. Just in proportion, therefore, as the num- 
 ber of those called to the ministry is reduced, and rendered in- 
 adequate to make Christ and his salvation known to all men, in 
 
6 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 that proportion are all the associated provisions of redemption, 
 the atonement, the influence of the Spirit, and quickening power 
 of the Gospel, limited in their saving efficacy. But as such a 
 deficiency in the number of the ministers called, and the conse- 
 quent limitation of the provisions of redemption, involves the 
 perfection of the plan of salvation, the consistency of its parts, 
 as well as the wisdom and mercy of God, it cannot possibly be 
 true. 
 
 4. Because it throws the responsibility of the inadequacy of 
 the number of the ministry and consequent loss of the harvest 
 upon the Lord of glory. The value of a single soul transcends 
 all human calculation. Its ruin constitutes the greatest calam- 
 ity of the moral universe — its salvation, the greatest achieve- 
 ment of redemption. An adequate number of ministers is in- 
 dispensable to save the moral harvest ; and if the Lord of the 
 harvest be unwilling to call them to the work of gathering it, 
 and in consequence thereof any portion of it perish, it is impos- 
 sible to discern how the responsibility of such loss can be re- 
 moved from him. But as his perfection forbids such a suppos- 
 ition and as he himself challenges the universe to lay the re- 
 sponsibility of the loss of mankind upon him, by the interrog- 
 atory : "What could I have done unto my vineyard, that I 
 have not done unto it ?" the theory that involves it must be 
 false. 
 
 5. Because it is unscriptural. An induction, in order to es- 
 tablish its truthfulness, must include all the facts pertaining to 
 it ; and just in proportion as the number of facts increases that 
 cannot be interpreted by it, will the probabilities be strength- 
 ened that it is not founded upon a scientific basis. An hypoth- 
 esis that can produce no facts to sustain it, is utterly false. And 
 the same tests must be called into requisition in determining re- 
 ligious questions. Let us apply them to the theory under con- 
 sideration. Not a single example can be cited from the Scrip- 
 tures where a person presented himself, either to the apostles, 
 or to a congregation, as one called by the Lord of the harvest, 
 as a laborer (minister), on the ground that he possessed the nat- 
 ural and spiritual qualifications fitting him for che work, and 
 that he had been brought to this conclusion by an internal call 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 7 
 
 from the Holy Spirit. Nor can a case be adduced where such 
 an apphcant was accredited by the apostles, and accepted or 
 chosen by any Christian congregation. The case of Isaiah (vi 
 8), who, in answer to the questions put to him by the Lord of 
 glory, -Whom shall we send ?_and who will go for us >" said • 
 "Here am I. send me," is ruled out by the fact that he was not 
 on this wise called to the prophetic office, but to some special 
 work as an accredited messenger of God; and the declaration 
 of the Son to the Father, "Lo I come, in the volume of the 
 BoQk It is written of me, to do thy will, O God !" cannot be le- 
 gitimately appropriated in bolstering up such pretensions Al- 
 though the head and exemplar of the ministry, and although 
 conscious, even from his childhood, that he was called by the 
 Father to be the Prophet of God, like unto Moses, and the Min- 
 ister of the New Covenant, yet did he not assume this office un- 
 til he was designated as such by the baptism of John, the visi- 
 ble descent of the Holy Spirit, and the audible voice of God 
 "This IS my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased " A the- 
 ory left unsupported by a single relevant example must be 
 purely hypothetical, and prove both delusive and inadequate to 
 supply the Church with a sufficient number of well qualified 
 and duly called and accredited ministers of Christ. 
 
 6. Because the scripture passages and precedents appealed to 
 to sustain it are misunderstood and misinterpreted. Moses and 
 the prophets were directly called by God, and the apostles and 
 evangelists by Christ in a similar manner. They were inspired 
 by the Holy Ghost, endowed with the gift of tongues, and in- 
 vested with miraculous powers, as attestations of their divine 
 appointment. But the immediate call of prophets ceased with 
 Malachi, and that of apostles, with Paul, and ministers are now 
 called into the sacred office, mediately through the Church 
 The extraordinary influences of the Holy Spirit, involving di- 
 rect inspiration, and the power to perform miracles, have also 
 ceased, and all revelations of the divine will, and all communi- 
 cations of religious truth, are now made through the written 
 word, and the ordinary influences of the Holy Spirit, involving 
 a conviction of a call to the ministry, a knowledge of havin- 
 passed from death unto life, and spiritual assistance in the exert 
 
8 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 cise of prayer and preaching the Gospel. The Anabaptists and 
 other enthusiasts that arose in the Reformation, perverted the 
 passages and precedents of Scripture, referring to the immedi- 
 ate call of prophets and apostles, and their inspiration, and 
 claimed that they were called to the ministry in the same man- 
 ner, and endowed with the extraordinary influences of the Holy 
 Spirit, superceding the necessity of education, premeditation 
 and study, in prayer and preaching. The following quotations 
 from Luther and Melanchthon, exhibit the fanatical pretensions 
 of these "heavenly prophets" as they were styled in derision. 
 
 Melanchthon on the Zwickau fanatics to the elector of Sax- 
 ony : "I have heard them. It is wonderful what they proclaim 
 concerning themselves, viz, that they have been sent to teach 
 by the clear voice of God, that they have had familiar conver- 
 sations with God, that they see future things ; briefly, that they 
 are prophetical and apostolic men. How I am moved by this, 
 T cannot easily say. For important reasons, I am inclined not 
 to despise them ; for that some spiritual beings \_quosdam spir- 
 itiis\ are in them, is apparent by many proofs, but no one can 
 readily judge thereof except Martin." Concerning this mat- 
 ter Luther writes to Melanchthon : "I do not approve of your 
 timidity, since you excel me both in spirit and learning. In 
 the first place, when they give testimony concerning themselves 
 they are not to be at once heard, but, according to the advice 
 of St. John, the spirits are to be proved. You have, too, the 
 advice of Gamaliel to differ ; for so far nothing has been said or 
 done by them which I have heard, that Satan cannot do or 
 imitate. Do you then for me, try if they can prove their call. 
 For God never has sent any one, unless called by man, or with 
 his call attested by signs — not even his own Son. Formerly 
 the prophets derived their authority from the prophetical law 
 and order, just as we now through men. I am entirely opposed 
 to their reception, if they proclaim that they have been called 
 by a revelation alone, since God was unwilling to call Samuel 
 except with the authority of Eli attesting it. So far as to the 
 public function of teaching. 
 
 Test also their private spirit. Examine whether they have 
 experienced those spiritual sorrows, and divine pains of birth. 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. g 
 
 deaths and hells. If you hear them proclaiming bland, mild, 
 devout and pious things, even though they say they have been 
 carried up to the third heaven, do not approve them. For the 
 sign of the Son of Man is wanting, which is the only test of 
 Christians, and the sure discerner of spirits. Would you know 
 the place, time and mode of divine conversations ? Try them, 
 and do not listen even to Jesus when he boasts, unless you first 
 see him crucified." 
 
 Concerning a conference between Luther and Melanchthon, 
 Mark Stubner and Cellarius at Wittenberg, Camerarius says : 
 
 "Luther very camly heard Mark narrating his claims. When 
 he had ended, Luther thinking there should be no discussion 
 against such absurd and futile pretensions, gave them this ad- 
 vice : They should consider what they were doing. That none 
 of the things that they mentioned were supported by Holy 
 Scripture, and that they were either the invention of curious 
 thoughts, or the insane and pernicious representations of a lying 
 and deceitful spirit. Cellarius, with frantic voice and gestures, 
 stamping the floor with his feet, and striking the table with his 
 hands, exclaimed that it was an outrage for Luther to presume 
 to have any such suspicions concerning a divine man. But 
 Mark said more calmly: 'That you may know, Luther, that I 
 am furnished with the Spirit of God, I will tell you what you 
 are thinking about. It is this: You are beginning to be in- 
 clined to believe that my doctrine is true.' Whereupon Luther 
 replied: 'May the Lord rebuke thee, O Satan.' After this, 
 Luther thought he should have no more words with them, and 
 dismissed them.* 
 
 The early Puritans and Quakers fell into similar errors, and 
 set up similar pretensions, in regard to the immediate call and 
 direct revelations from the Spirit. 
 
 In corroboration of this we present the following quotations: 
 Alt in his "Geschichte des Christlichen Cultus" speaks thus of 
 the views of the English Puritans : "As a rule, there was always 
 one in each congregation, who generally filled the office of prin- 
 cipal speaker, nevertheless he was not the preacher appointed 
 
 *Seckendorf, I., pp. 192, 193. 
 
10 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 by the congregation, but only that member of the same on 
 whom, above others the gift of teaching had been bestowed. 
 And when the Spirit seemed to have departed from him, they, 
 without any hesitation, elected another in his place. For the 
 prevailing of the Gospel was not to be a matter of office and 
 calling, but a work of the Holy Spirit, and the preacher became, 
 in the Old Testament sense of the word, a prophet." 
 
 Barclay in his Apology sets forth the theory of the Quakers : 
 "As by the light or gift of God, all true knowledge in things 
 spiritual is received and revealed, so by the sanie, as it is 
 manifested and received in the heart, by the strength and power 
 thereof, every true minister of the Gospel is ordained, prepared 
 and supplied in the work of the ministry. * * Moreover, they 
 who have this authority may and ought to preach the Gospel, 
 though without human commission or literature." Further, Bar- 
 clay says that this light or gift of God is of such a nature "that 
 these divine revelations are not to be subjected to the test, either 
 of the outward testimony of the Scriptures or the natural rea- 
 son of man, as to a more noble or certain rule or touchstone ; 
 for this divine revelation and inward illumination is that which 
 is evident and clear of itself"* 
 
 Although most of those who hold the prevalent theory of a 
 call to the ministry discard the extremes into which the Ana- 
 baptists, the English Puritans and the Quakers were led, never- 
 theless, in so far as they deny that the conviction of a call to 
 the ministry is called forth according to the laws of the human 
 mind, as affected by the truths revealed in the Scriptures, under 
 the ordinary influence of the Holy Spirit, and maintain that it 
 originates in some impulse, impression, or intimation wrought 
 by the direct influence of the Holy Spirit, they occupy substan- 
 tially the same ground on which all the other extravagant pre- 
 tensions of the enthusiasts and mystics are predicated. 
 
 THE TRUE THEORY STATED. 
 
 The constitutional endowments, spiritual gifts, and voluntary 
 exercises, that enter into the constitution of a call to the min- 
 istry are the following : Such natural talents as would, if properly 
 
 *Schwenkfeldt, Bohme, and most of the mystics entertained similar views. 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 1 1 
 
 cultivated, qualify the individual for the successful prosecution 
 of the work of the ministry. Such measures of saving faith and 
 divine grace as would render him a "workman that needeth not 
 to be ashamed" in the kingdom of God. Such views of the true 
 object of life, namely, to glorify God by doing good, as to in- 
 duce him to devote himself to its attainment. Such a convic- 
 tion that in the ministry he could do the most good to his fel- 
 low men, and glorify God in the highest degree, as would bind 
 the conscience, and impose the obligation to choose it as a pro- 
 fession, and induce the formation of a governing purpose to 
 prepare for and enter it. Such a knowledge of the work of the 
 ministry itself, and of the character and service of the church in 
 which he expects to prosecute it, as will render it both interest- 
 ing and attractive to him, and impel him to persevere in the 
 prosecution of his course of preparation unto the end, notwith- 
 standing the honors and emoluments held out to him by the 
 world, and in spite of any providential obstacles that might 
 stand in his way. 
 
 This call is not miraculous but rational, not extraordinary 
 but ordinary, not immediate but mediate. It is not communi- 
 cated in an arbitrary, but in a natural manner. The conviction 
 of its existence is not found in any notion or impulse, impression 
 or desire, that may have at a certain time originated, been felt, 
 or repeated in some peculiar manner, nor by any special indica- 
 tions of Providence, but brought about according to the natural 
 laws governing the exercises of the mind. Neither is it called 
 forth by any special revelation of some particular truth, nor by 
 any inward voice or immediate assurance given by the Holy 
 Ghost, but through the instructions contained in the Sacred 
 Scriptures, apprehended and received through the ordinary in- 
 fluences of the Spirit of God. 
 
 The natural talents and spiritual graces, as constituent ele- 
 ments of the ministerial vocation, are all capable of develop- 
 ment. In order that the conviction of a call to the ministry 
 may arise in consciousness, they must be brought into volun- 
 tary and consistent exercise — in other words, rationally and 
 spiritually cultivated. They cannot develop themselves. If not 
 brought under the influence of their appropriate means, they 
 
12 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 will remain dormant. Tf neglected, and left to develop them- 
 selves spontaneously, without mental culture and religious train- 
 ing, the result would be abnormal, irrational, and fanatical. 
 Their cultivation cannot, therefore, be safely left to chance, ca- 
 price or hap-hazard, but must be accomplished by intelligent 
 and persevering effort. Take natural talents — how can these 
 be cultivated without schools, colleges and seminaries? True 
 piety — how can this be attained without the diligent-use of the 
 means of grace ? The true object of life — how can correct 
 views concerning it be imparted without special instruction ? 
 The conviction that in the ministry highest usefulness could be 
 attained and God glorified — how can that be called forth, with- 
 out an adequate knowledge of its nature, requirements, adapta- 
 tions and usefulness? The attractiveness of the work and ser- 
 vice of the Church which calls him to enter the ranks of her 
 ministry — how can these be exhibited without portraying the 
 divine origin, the special mission, and the glorious consumma- 
 tion, designed to be accomplished by the Church of Christ, and 
 without an acquaintance with the history, distinguishing charac- 
 teristics, achievements and field of usefulness offered him by the 
 Church to whose ministry he proposes to devote his life? 
 
 In giving, developing and responding to a call to the min- 
 istry, three parties are specially interested — God, the person 
 called, and the Church. God, through creation, confers the 
 necessary natural talents ; through his Son he redeems the can- 
 didate, through the Scriptures commands him to believe in 
 Christ, to consecrate himself to the service of God, and to glo- 
 rify him in eating, in drinking, and in all other things; through 
 the Holy Spirit he works faith, renews and sheds abroad the 
 love of God and man in the heart, leads him into the kingdom 
 of God, induces him to choose the ministry, and to devote his 
 life to winning souls. Through Providence he preserves his 
 health and life, directs him to suitable fields of labor, and opens 
 to him doors of usefulness. The Church must call into requisi- 
 tion all the agencies and instrumentalities, and put forth all the 
 efforts, required to develop the talents and graces conferred, 
 that it may become manifest to her, that this and that young 
 man, found in her families, congregations, schools and colleges, 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. I 3 
 
 possesses the necessary, natural, spiritual and acquired attain- 
 ments to qualify him for the ministry and by her counsels, in- 
 structions and prayers, render him such assistance as will enable 
 him to form an intelli^^ent judgment that he is called to the 
 ministry. And the candidate must so appreciate the instruc- 
 tions and heed the advice of the Church, as to respond to her 
 call for laborers and enter her service as an ambassador of Christ. 
 
 OF THE CHURCH CALLING HER ELECT SONS INTO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 God having conferred the natural talents and spiritual gifts 
 adapted to qualify many of the sons of the Church for the office 
 of the ministry, it becomes her bounden duty to call them out and 
 employ them in her service. Among the agencies and institu- 
 tions through which she is to supply herself with an adequate 
 number of well-qualified ministers, we mention — 
 
 I. The Family. God instituted marriage, and founded the 
 family as the home of childhood, the guardian of youth, and the 
 nursery of the ministry. In order to attain this exalted end, it 
 is manifest that the family must be constituted according to the 
 Christian ideal. The parents should be intelligent and pious — 
 should consecrate their children to God in holy baptism, that 
 the blessings of the covenant of grace may be sealed unto them 
 — and recognize him at the domestic altar. They should bring 
 them under the constant influence of Christian nurture, involv- 
 ing religious instruction, faithful discipline, and a consistent 
 example, that they may become wise unto salvation through 
 faith in Jesus Christ. They should keep constantly before the 
 minds of their children the ultimate end of life, to glorify God, 
 and make w-ell-directed efforts to induce them to devote them- 
 selves to its attainment by cultivating excellency of character 
 and doing good. They should give special heed to the consti- 
 tutional peculiarities, disposition, bent of mind, tastes, or genius, 
 adapting them for some particular trade, profession or business, 
 and give them timely counsel in choosing an honorable and 
 useful calling, as well as afford them the necessary facilities to 
 prepare them to engage in it. They should consider the claims 
 of the ministry as a profession affording opportunities of high- 
 est usefulness and possessing corresponding attractions, recog- 
 
14 * THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 nize the probability that one or more of their sons may possess 
 the requisite talents and graces to fit him or them for its prose- 
 cution, and endeavor by advice, instruction and assistance, to 
 lead them to devote their lives to the glorious work of saving 
 souls. 
 
 2. The Congregation. The Christian congregation, as a su- 
 pernatural organism, is the legitimate outgrowth of the family, 
 and becomes its indispensable auxiliary in calling forth minis- 
 ters. Provision should, therefore, be made by every congrega- 
 tion to furnish a due proportion of candidates for the ministry. 
 Sunday or parochial schools, or both, should be established, in 
 which the religious training begun in the family may be carried 
 forward in forms adapted to the growth and mental develop- 
 ment of youth. Catechetical instruction should be maintained, 
 every pastor diligently prosecute it, and every baptized child 
 brought by parental authority under its moulding and indoctri- 
 nating influence. It should be taken for granted that there are 
 some young men in every congregation, who possess the natural 
 and spiritual endowments constituting the marks of a call to 
 the ministry ; and Sunday-school teachers and officers, elders 
 and deacons, pastors and church members, should regard it 
 their duty to look after talented, pious young men, call their 
 attention to the claims of the ministry, and in all rational and 
 scriptural ways endeavor to convince them that the Master has 
 need of them, and calls them to labor in his vineyard. The call 
 to and the supply of the ministry should constitute subjects for 
 occasional discussion in the pulpit ; regular and liberal contri- 
 butions should be made to beneficiary education, and the prayer: 
 •'Lord, send forth laborers into thy harvest," should find frequent 
 utterance from every Christian lip, in the closet and at the family 
 altar, no less than in meetings for social prayer, and in the sup- 
 plications of the great congregation engaged in public worship, 
 3. The School. As education consists in cultivating all the 
 intellectual and moral faculties of the soul in due proportion, all 
 schools designed to impart it must adopt such a course of in- 
 struction as will be adapted to the attainment of the ultimate 
 end of education, which is character. Every school, whether 
 popular or academic, that discards moral and religious instruc- 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. I 5 
 
 tion, cannot be adapted to the training of the sons of the Church, 
 among whom she must look for her candidates for the ministry. 
 
 The American system of popular education is acknovvledgedly 
 characterized by many excellencies. Its greatest deficiency is 
 found in its want of adequate religious instruction. In a great 
 majority of our public schools the Bible is read, the Lord's 
 Prayer repeated, and a general religious impression made, but 
 it cannot be claimed that this is all the moral instruction needed 
 by the American citizen, and much less than that which the 
 Church should be satisfied to secure for the children she has 
 dedicated to God and covenanted to bring up in the nurture 
 and admonition of the Lord. From many public schools, how- 
 ever, the Bible has been excluded, and no religious instruction 
 whatever is given to the pupils. If this process of divesting 
 our public schools of their religious character should continue, 
 and the American system of popular education become thor- 
 oughly secularized, the Church cannot safely patronize them ; 
 and if she cannot redeem and make them Christian, she will be 
 compelled to fall back on the parochial system, and establish 
 not only her own colleges and academies, but also her own 
 parochial schools — as indispensable to the proper education of 
 her sons called to the ministry. 
 
 4. The College. The course of education commenced in the 
 parochial or common school, and continued in the academy or 
 high school is completed in the college, which becomes one of 
 the most important agencies, not only in giving candidates for 
 the ministry the necessary literary outfit, but also in multiply- 
 ing their number. Most of their students are distinguished by 
 a thirst for knowledge, and a due appreciation of higher educa- 
 tion, and among them a considerable proportion are found pos- 
 sessing the requisite natural talents, which, if properly cultivated 
 and sanctified, would fit them for the work of the ministry. 
 Some of them, although dedicated to the service of God in bap- 
 tism, have not yet voluntarily confirmed the vows made by their 
 parents in their name. Others, who have already become pious 
 and united with the Church, have not yet chosen a profession 
 in which to prosecute their life work. The college accordingly 
 becomes a nursery, where the sons of the Church, as choice 
 
1 6 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 household plants, are set out, and subjected to the highest men- 
 tal and moral culture, and among whom the Church must look 
 for the evidences of a call to the ministry and induce them to 
 enter her service. 
 
 The establishment of an adequate number of well manned 
 and adequately endowed colleges, becomes a necessity to every 
 Christian denomination ; and upon their religious character, the 
 bearing of their pious students, and the efforts made by their 
 instructors, will depend their efficiency and usefulness in edu- 
 cating and multiplying the number of able and successful min- 
 isters of the Gospel. A high standard of piety should be main- 
 tained by the professors of religion in colleges, that the students 
 having the ministry in view may be led to carry out their pur- 
 pose to enter it. Those known as candidates for the holy call- 
 ing should set such an example of Christian consistency in their 
 walk and conversation, that they may not become a reproach 
 and by-word to the impenitent and a stumbling block to pious 
 students who have not yet decided the question of a profession 
 for life. Ordinary, as well as special efforts should be made by 
 the pastors of college churches, the president and the professors, 
 to bring the non-professing young men under their care to a 
 saving knowledge of Christ. The claims of the ministry as a 
 profession, adapted to the attainment of greatest usefulness, 
 should at all suitable times be presented, and such counsel and 
 instruction given to those exhibiting the natural and spiritual 
 traits, indicative of a call to the ministry, as will enable them to 
 come to an intelligent, conscientious, and satisfactory conclusion, 
 that it is their duty to become ministers of the Gospel. 
 
 5. The Pulpit. The pulpit is made to stand by metonymy 
 for the preacher, the sermon and everything else pertaining to 
 the ministry. As pastors of congregations and representatives 
 of the whole Church, they are charged with the duty of giving 
 succession to the ministry, which requires careful observation, 
 sound judgment, and the application of necessary tests. The 
 natural and spiritual qualifications for which they must look, as 
 manifest indications of a call to the ministry, are specifically set 
 forth in the Scriptures ; and it is expressly enjoined upon them 
 to exercise proper caution, subject to adequate trials, and guard 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 1/ 
 
 against undue haste in committing the ministerial office, "by 
 the laying on of hands," to their successors. Ministers should 
 take a deep interest in the lambs of the flock, notice children in 
 their visitations, keep an eye on the boys in school and young 
 men in college ; and those, in whom they discover the natural 
 and spiritual qualifications adapted to the prosecution of the 
 work, they should endeavor to convince that they are called to 
 the office of the ministry. They should place a due estimate 
 upon the ministerial profession, make themselves thoroughly 
 acquainted with, and inculcate correct views concerning it in 
 their conversations, ministrations and writings. 
 
 The indirect influence of the pulpit in calling forth ministers 
 is no less important. As the sons of the Church, elect of God, 
 are to be nurtured in the family, trained in the congregation, 
 and educated in the school and the college, and as the manifesta- 
 tions of the marks, as well as tne number and character of the 
 ministry, depend upon the efficiency of religious training and 
 Christian education, it follows that just in proportion as pastors 
 labor to promote Christian nurture in the family, to elevate the 
 standard of intelligence and piety in the congregation, and to 
 improve moral and religious instruction imparted in popular and 
 parochial schools, academies and colleges, in that proportion 
 will the number and character of candidates for the ministry be 
 increased and elevated. No greater service than this can the 
 pulpit render to the Church, and the low estimate placed upon 
 the ministry, and its consequent general neglect, must be set 
 down among the principal causes that have led to the paucity 
 and inefficiency of ministers. 
 
 6. The Press. The press is the most important of modern in- 
 ventions in stimulating, preserving, and communicating knowl- 
 edge, and the Church has wisely availed herself of its almost 
 omnipresent influence in every department of her work. She 
 has accordingly provided herself with a religious literature, 
 priceless in value, and all-permeating and powerful in its influ- 
 ence. In the form of books, she has treasured up and dissem- 
 inated a permanent and sanctified literature, and through her 
 periodicals she has supplemented and greatly widened the sphere 
 
 Vol. XIII. No. 4. 75 
 
18 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 of her influence ; and the bearing of both forms of religious lit- 
 erature upon the increase of the number and the elevation of 
 the character of the ministry, is very great. Distinct treatises 
 on the ministry, the symbolical writings of her confessors, the 
 works of her theologians, the discourses of her great preachers, 
 the achievements of her pastors and churches recorded by her 
 historians, and the commentaries of her expositors, are all cal- 
 culated to set forth the nature, character, qualifications, useful- 
 ness, and claims of the ministry, and to exert a corresponding 
 influence on all Christians interested in and obligated to take 
 part in calling forth candidates, and in advancing the standard 
 of ministerial qualifications. 
 
 The weekly church paper, originated in America, and scarcely 
 three-quarters of a century old, has not only become an indis- 
 pensable means of spreading religious intelligence, cultivating 
 personal piety, fostering the spirit of liberality, and stimulating 
 Christian activity in every department of church work, but has 
 also proven the most efficient auxiliary to the agencies hereto- 
 fore mentioned in calling the attention of the churches to the 
 deficiency in the ministry, and in urging the duty of making in- 
 telligent and constant effort to increase their number and im- 
 prove their character and efficiency. These important results 
 are attained by the church paper, through the publication of 
 articles on the call and other aspects of the ministry, reports of 
 the contributions made and the number of beneficiaries sup- 
 ported by our synods, the number of theological students sus- 
 tained by their parents, the proportion among the young men in 
 our preparatory schools and colleges having the ministry in 
 view, the notices of licensures and ordinations taking place at our 
 synodical meetings, the destitution in our own and the still 
 greater destitution in foreign lands, the calls of our missionary 
 boards and their secretaries for more men, accounts of mission- 
 ary meetings at synods and conventions, reports of home and 
 foreign missionaries, as well as references to the writings of min- 
 isters, and their addresses and sermons on special occasions, the 
 labors of pastors and missionaries at home and abroad, with the 
 additions made to their congregations, reports of revivals of re- 
 ligion, in which scores and even hundreds are brought to the 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 1 9 
 
 knowledge of the truth and gathered into the kingdom of God, 
 together with such other articles bearing more or less directly 
 on the ministry, and such other items of Church intelligence, 
 as are calculated to foster church love, religious enterprise, and 
 Christian benevolence, and referring more or less directly to 
 the subject and claims of the ministry. On this wise, the church 
 paper sounds the call of Jesus addressed to talented and pious 
 young men : "Son, go work to-day in my vineyard." It becomes 
 an assistant to parents in the family and to pastors in the con- 
 gregation, and a co-worker with the teacher in the school and 
 the professor in the college, in calling forth and educating an 
 adequate number of able ministers to preach the gospel to ev- 
 ery creature, and convert the world to Jesus Christ, who is "head 
 over all things to the church," "God blessed forever." 
 The truth of this theory may be argued: 
 
 1. From Scriptural Analogy. The ordinary call to accept 
 the Gospel embraces the general call, to believe in Christ, and 
 to go into his vineyard and work, as well as the special call to 
 perform such a part of the work required as each one was spe- 
 cially fitted for. In this manner members of the church at 
 Jerusalem received and responded to the general gospel call, 
 but when the special work of distributing alms was required, a 
 certain number of them received a specific call to attend to it, 
 the qualifications required were pointed out by the apostles, the 
 Church directed to choose them, and when thus chosen the 
 apostles set them apart to their work. In this manner the 
 office of deacon was instituted and the call to the deaconship 
 developed by the Church. A special service of a similar char- 
 acter was called for among the women, then secluded from the 
 ordinary society of men. Certain qualifications were required, 
 those possessing them were regarded as called to engage in it, 
 and the Church appointed them. Thus the office of deacon- 
 esses arose and pious women were called to fill it. 
 
 2. From Scriptural Precedent. The informing or governing 
 idea of the call to the ministry, viz, that of special fitness for the 
 performance of its duties, runs through the procedure of God 
 in calling Christ, of Christ in calling the evangelists and the 
 apostles, and of the apostles in calling pastors, and other officers 
 
20 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 to the performance of specific services in the Church. God, the 
 Father, having determined to redeem the world, needed a Re- 
 deemer. Finding the quahfications necessary to accomphsh it 
 in his Son, he called him to the work of redemption, and when 
 he communicated the call to him, the Son responded: "Lo, I 
 come, in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy 
 will, O God !" And he accordingly expressly declared to the 
 Jews, "I came not of myself, but the Father sent me." 
 
 A special service became necessary, viz, to make known and 
 to prepare the way for the coming of Christ to certain places in 
 Palestine. The Saviour apprehended the qualifications required 
 to perform it, and finding them in the seventy disciples, he sent 
 them forth as his evangelists. 
 
 Witnesses of his resurrection, and mediums of divine revela- 
 tion, were necessary to establish the Christian Church. In the 
 twelve apostles and in Paul, Jesus discovered the requisite quali- 
 fications, in consequence of which he called them to the work of 
 the apostleship. 
 
 As Jesus had called evangelists and apostles, so, too, did he 
 authorize the apostles to call pastors, evangelists, teachers, proph- 
 ets, "for the perfecting of the saints and the edifying of the body 
 of Christ." And those in whom they found the necessary qual- 
 ifications, through their own observation, inquiry among the 
 members of the churches, or otherwise, they regarded as called 
 of God to perform such parts of the work required as they were 
 severally best fitted for, and through their own agency and the 
 cooperation of the churches, they convinced those called of their 
 duty, and induced them to devote themselves to the offices 
 above designated. 
 
 3. From the Analogy of Faith. The truthfulness of any the- 
 ory propounded in the domain of science can only be demon- 
 strated by showing that all the facts pertaining to the subject 
 accord with it. Newton, having conceived the tlieory of gravi- 
 tation, viz, that the force of gravitation operates directly as the 
 quantity, and inversely as the square of the distance, demon- 
 strated its truth by showing that the movements of all the plan- 
 ets and their satellites accorded with it. In other words, when 
 the subjective idea and the objective law correlate a theory is 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 21 
 
 demonstrated. The truth of the theory under consideration 
 may be tested in the same manner. In order to demonstrate it, 
 all the passages bearing on the call to the ministry must be 
 collated, and interpreted by the theory, and if such interpreta- 
 tion accords with the principles of hermeneutics, the demonstra- 
 tion becomes complete, and theological truth is established. 
 
 Having subjected our theory to a partial induction, embra- 
 cing scripture analogy and precedent, we now extend it to all 
 other passages of Scripture having reference to it, and render 
 it all comprehensive. We herewith give a number of them : 
 
 "No man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called 
 as was Aaron," Heb. 5:4. A bishop then must not be a nov- 
 ice, apt to teach, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, 
 rightly dividing the word of truth. They must also first be 
 proved and have a good report from them that are without. 
 (See I Tim. 3d c.) "But when it pleased God, who separated 
 me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace to re- 
 veal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heath- 
 en ; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood," Gal. 
 1:15, 16. "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was 
 given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the 
 presbytery," i Tim. 4 : 14. "Necessity is laid upon me, yea, 
 woe is unto me, if I preach not the Gospel," i Cor. 9 : 16. 
 *'Lay hands suddenly on no man," i Tim. 3 : 22. "The things 
 that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same 
 commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others 
 also," 2 Tim. 2 : 2. "For this cause left I thee in Crete, that 
 thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting, and or- 
 dain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee," Titus 1 : 5. 
 "And when they (z. e. Paul and Barnabas) had ordained them 
 ■elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they com- 
 mended them to the Lord, on whom they believed," Acts 
 14: 23. 
 
 From a careful examination of these passages, each class of 
 which could have been considerably enlarged, the following 
 points are clearly and consistently set forth : That no man 
 has a right to take unto himself the office of the ministry at his 
 own option or choice ; that those designed to preach the Gospel 
 
22 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 must be called of God ; that this call is not now given by him 
 immediately, but mediately, through the Church, that is through 
 her members or pastors ; the qualifications, natural and spiritual 
 for which the representatives of the Church must look and by 
 which they are to be governed m their judgment and choice, 
 are explicitly and fully set forth in the Scriptures ; that both 
 their qualifications and character must be proved, by the appli- 
 cations of the texts just referred to, not only before the eyes of 
 the Church, but also of the world ; that a number of constitu- 
 tional and intellectual deficiencies and defects of character are 
 also stated in the Scriptures, as constituting marks of unfitness 
 for the ministry, and from the exhibitions of which, in any 
 given case, they were to draw the conclusion, that such persons 
 were not called to the ministerial office ; that in accordance 
 with these instructions, they should take adequate time in de- 
 ciding every individual case, and lay hands suddenly on no man ; 
 that when all these requisitions had been fully complied with, 
 then, and then only, were they authorized to commit the office 
 of the ministry to such as proved themselves to be "faithful 
 men," and worthy to be ambassadors of Jesus Christ ; and that 
 Paul and Barnabas, Timotheus and Titus, acted according to 
 these directions, in selecting pastors for the congregations then 
 organized, and by their instructions and example, settled the 
 Scriptural theory of a call to the ministry, by which alone her 
 elect sons can be called out, educated and ordained in sufficient 
 numbers, not to supply her own pulpits, but to make known 
 the glad tidings of salvation among all nations. It is hardly 
 necessary to remind the reader that all the points just presented 
 accord with the scripture precedents and examples heretofore 
 set forth, and render our argument from the analogy of faith 
 complete and conclusive. An attempt to make all this accord 
 with the prevalent theory of a call to the ministry, might, in- 
 deed, be made, and by artfully mixing up references to exam- 
 ples of the extraordinary call like that of Paul cited above, 
 through the direct influences of the Holy Ghost, with the ordi- 
 nary call, mediately communicated by the Church, and devel- 
 oped by the ordinary influences of the Spirit through the truth, 
 but such a course perverts the testimony of the Scriptures, con- 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 23 
 
 founds calls that are distinct, is illogical, and can never be es- 
 tablished, and successfully carried out, as the present threatened 
 famine in the ministry abundantly proves. 
 
 4. From the Universality of the Priesthood of Believers. 
 In the Mosaic economy, the priesthood was confined to the 
 tribe of Levi, and the high priesthood to the family of Aaron, 
 and transmitted by natural descent, constituting an hereditary, 
 sacerdotal order. The Romish Church modeled its priesthood 
 after the Levitical pattern, constituting an indelible priesthood, 
 or clerical order, according to which he who is "once a priest" 
 remains "always a priest." Luther, under the guidance of the 
 New Testament, held that all hereditary restrictions in the priest- 
 hood had been abrogated with the Jewish dispensation to which 
 it belonged, and maintained that in the Christian economy all 
 believers became priests. The positions taken by him, and the 
 arguments by which he sustained them, are so characteristic 
 and conclusive that we subjoin a translation of the principal 
 parts thereof: 
 
 All Christians are priests through Christ; the preachers have 
 only an ecclesiastical office. Christ is priest, therefore all Chris- 
 tians are priests ; that this is a true and Christian inference is 
 evident from Psalm 22 : 22 : "I will declare thy name unto my 
 brethren," and again Ps. 45 : 7, "Therefore, God, thy God, hath 
 anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." 
 That we are his brethren is effected alone through the new 
 birth ; therefore, we are also priests as he is, we are sons as he 
 is, kings as he is. For he has "raised us up together and made 
 us sit together in heavenly places," that "we should be made 
 heirs" and that God should "with him also freely give us all 
 things." Eph. 2 : 6, Tit. 3 : 7, Rom. 8 : 32. And we have be- 
 sides also many similar scripture passages in which we are identi- 
 fied with Christ, as one bread, one drink, one body, one member 
 with another, one flesh, bone of his bones ; yes, that we have all 
 things in common with him. 
 
 But let us proceed and prove also from the offices of the priests 
 (as they are called) that all Christians are in the same way 
 priests. The priestly offices are chiefly the following : teaching, 
 preaching and proclaiming the word of God, baptizing, blessing 
 
24 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 or administering the sacrament of the altar, binding and locrs- 
 ing from sins, praying for others, offering sacrifices, and judging 
 all other doctrines and spirits. 
 
 The first and most important, upon which all the rest depends, 
 is the teaching of the word of God. For with the word we 
 teach, bless, bind and loose, baptize, offer sacrifice, judge and de- 
 cide everything ; so that we cannot at all withhold anything 
 that belongs to a priest from him whom we entrust with the 
 word. But this same word is the common heritage of all 
 Christians, as Isaiah says, 54 : 13 : "And all thy children shall 
 be taught of the Lord." Jer. 6 : 45, Rom. 10 : 17, Ps. 49 : 6 
 and following. 
 
 That the first office, namely, that in the tvord of God, is com- 
 mon to all Christians, is further improved by i Peter 2:9: "Ye 
 are a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people: that" 
 ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you 
 out of darkness into his marvelous light." Who are they, I 
 beg of you, who are called from darkness into the marvelous 
 light? Is is not all Christians? But Peter gives them not only 
 the right but also a command, that they show forth the praises 
 of God, which surely is nothing else than the preaching of the 
 word of God. Now let them come along with their two sorts 
 of priesthood, one spiritual and general, the other special and 
 external, and pretend that Peter is here speaking of the spir- 
 itual priesthood. What is then the office of their special and 
 external priesthood ? Is it not to show forth the praises of God ? 
 But Peter here imposes this duty upon the spiritual and com- 
 mon priesthood. 
 
 Christ teaches the same through Matthew, Mark and Luke, 
 when in instituting the holy supper he says : "This do in re- 
 membrance of me." But this remembrance is nothing else than 
 the preaching of the word ; for Paul thus explains it, i Cor, 11 : 
 26 : "As often as ye eat of this bread and drink of this cup, ye 
 do proclaim the Lord's death till he come." 
 
 Now, to proclaim the Lord's death is the same as to show 
 forth the praises of the Lord who has called us from darkness 
 into his marvelous light. * * St. Paul also confirms the same 
 truth, I Cor. 14 : 26, when he says to the whole Church and to* 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 2$ 
 
 every individual Christian : "Every one of you hath a psalm, 
 hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an inter- 
 pretation." And in verse 31 : "For all may prophesy, one by 
 one, that all may learn and all may be comforted." Now, my 
 dear friend, do tell me what he means when he says everj/ one f 
 What is the meaning of the little word all ? 
 
 The second office is baptizing. They have themselves by 
 daily custom made this general, even allowing women to per- 
 form it in cases of necessity. 
 
 • The third office is that of blessing or administering the holy 
 bread and wine. * * Christ said : "This do in remembrance 
 of me." This he said to all who were present, and to all who 
 thereafter should eat and drink of this bread. and wine. * * 
 Paul also witnesses to this i Cor. 11 123; Matt. 6 : 25. 
 
 The fourth office is binding and loosing. Here comes the 
 word of Christ, Matt. 18 : 15, which he spake not only to the 
 apostles, but to , all the brethren. Also verses 17 and 18. 
 
 The sixth office is praying for others. But Christ gave to 
 each and every one of his Christians a single daily prayer, which, 
 of itself, sufficiently proves and confirms the truth that there is 
 but one priesthood common to all. 
 
 The seventh and last office is \\\2X oi judging all doctrines. 
 John 10 : 5 : "My sheep do not hear the voice of strangers." 
 And Matt. 7:15: "Beware of false prophets." Matt. 16 : 6; 
 Matt. 22 : 2, 3 ; John 6 : 45. 
 
 We are told, Matt. 23 : 8 : "One is your master, even Christ, 
 but ye are all brethren." Therefore we are all equal and we 
 have all only one right. For it is not to be at all endured that, 
 among those who are called brethren, and who have all a com- 
 mon inheritance, one should be above another, should receive a 
 larger share and have a better prerogative than another, espe- 
 cially in spiritual matters, of which we are now speaking. 
 
 Now, what we have here said has reference only to the com- 
 mon right and power of all Christians. For, although all the 
 things we have mentioned are said to be common to all Chris- 
 tians (as we have indeed shown and proved), yet it is not be- 
 coming in any one to put himself forward and appropriate to 
 
26 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 himself what belongs to us all. You may assume this right 
 and exercise it where there is no other one who has received 
 such a right. But the right of the community demands that 
 one, or as many as the congregation may please, be chosen and 
 appointed, who, in the stead and in the name of all the rest who 
 have the same right, may publicly perform the functions of 
 these offices, so that there arise no abominable confusion among 
 the people of God, and that the Church, in which all things 
 should be done decently and in order, as the apostle teaches, i 
 Cor. 14 : 40, be not changed into a Babel. It is one thing for 
 a man to exercise, by the authority of the congregation, a right 
 that is common to all, and it is quite another thing for him to 
 assume for himself to do it in a case of necessity. In a congre- 
 gation where the right is free to all, no one should assume the 
 exercise of it without the will and choice of the whole congre- 
 gation ; but in a case of necessity any one who chooses may 
 avail himself of it. 
 
 Now I think it clearly appears from all this that those who 
 administer the word and sacraments to the people neither can 
 nor should be called priests. If they are called priests, that is 
 done either in imitation of the heathen or it is a remnant of the 
 laws of the Jewish people ; hence it has wrought great harm to 
 the Church. But in accordance with scripture usage they should 
 rather be called servants, deacons, bishops, stewards, who also 
 in view of their age are called presbyters, i. e. elders ; for Paul 
 says, I Cor. 4:1, "Let a man so account of us as of the min- 
 isters of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God." (He 
 did not say — regard us as the priests of Christ ; he knew very 
 well that the name and office of priest was common to all). 
 Hence comes that familiar word of Paul, dispensation, or in 
 Greek, oiKov6}xia ,- in German, hmishalten, [stewardship] ; also, 
 ministerium, minister; in German ^/^;/5/ [service] ; <?;;// [office], 
 and diener [servant]. 
 
 If then they are merely servants, then there is an end, too, of 
 the ineradicable mark of their priesthood, and of the perpetuity 
 of their priestly dignity. That one must always remain a priest 
 is an invention ; on the other hand, a servant can be dismissed 
 if he prove no longer faithful. But he can be kept in office as 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 27 
 
 long as he is deserving and is satisfactory to the congregation, 
 just as every one who, among equal brothers, exercises a com- 
 mon office among them in secular affairs. 
 
 We have here learned, clearer than the day and more surely 
 than sure, whence we are to take the priests or servants of the 
 word ; namely, we are to elect them from the mass of Christ's 
 followers, and nowhere else. For, as it has been sufficiently 
 proved that every one has the right to administer the word, 
 yes, that it is his duty to do so if he sees that either there is no 
 other one at hand to do it, or that those who do are teaching 
 wrongly, as Paul states, i Cor. 14 : 27 sq., so that the praise of 
 God may be shown forth by us all ; how much more should not 
 a whole congregation have the right, and this duty too, that by 
 a general election it could commit such an office to one or more 
 in its stead, and set these apart as office-bearers over the others 
 with their consent. 
 
 This is what Paul does, 2 Tim. 2 : 2, when he says : "The 
 same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach 
 others also." Here Paul throws aside all ceremony — cares for 
 no consecration, demands only such as are capable of teaching, 
 and all he wants is that to them alone the word be committed. 
 When thus the office of the word is conferred upon some one, 
 there are conferred with it all the offices that are administered 
 by means of the word in the Church, i. e., the authority to bap- 
 tize, to bless, to bind and loose, to pray, and to judge or decide. 
 For the office of preaching the Gospel is the highest of all. 
 
 Condition. Although every one has authority to preach, yet 
 we should not employ any one to do it, and no one should un- 
 dertake to do it, unless he be better fitted for it than others. 
 And others should give way to him, so that suitable honor, dis- 
 cipline and order be observed. For thus Paul commands Tim- 
 othy, 2 Tim. 2 : 2, that he should commit the preaching of the 
 word to those who were fitted for it, and could teach and in- 
 struct others. For he who is to preach should have a good 
 voice, a good delivery, a good memory, and other natural gifts. 
 If any one has not these, he will do better to be quiet and let 
 another speak. 
 
 The Lutheran Church adopted Luther's doctrine of the uni- 
 
28 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 versality of the priesthood, according to which all believers be- 
 come priests of Christ, and each one is called to perform that 
 part of the work for which he is peculiarly fitted. 
 
 According to this view, the ministry does not constitute a 
 peculiar order, but an office of special service in the Church, to 
 which all are called who possess the requisite qualifications to 
 "labor in word and doctrine." It accordingly becomes the duty 
 of the Church to look out for the scriptural marks of a call to 
 the ministry, and endeavor to induce an adequate number of 
 the universal priesthood to respond to her call to devote them- 
 selves to the office of the Christian ministry. Although all 
 believers are priests, and each one is endowed with the func- 
 tions of the common priesthood, nevertheless, as all are not en- 
 dowed with the qualifications necessary to the exercise of the 
 functions of the ministry, it becomes necessary for the common 
 priesthood or Church to invest those specially qualified to preach 
 the Gospel and administer the sacraments, with the preroga- 
 tives of the ministry, through ordination conferred by the laying 
 on of the hands of the presbytery or ministerium, and then to 
 elect or call them to exercise the office of the ministry as pastors 
 of their respective congregations, and to commission and send 
 forth as many others as may be needed to supply the waste 
 places at home and in foreign lands. 
 
 4. From the Lutheran Doctrme of the Ministry. This is 
 stated in the Symbolical Books as follows : 
 
 God has appointed the ministry to preach the Gospel and 
 administer the sacraments. Aug. Conf. 
 
 "Concerning Ecclesiastical Orders, they teach that no man 
 should publicly in the Church, teach, or administer the sacra- 
 ments, except he be regularly called." A. C, Art. XIV. 
 
 "The Church has the command of God to appoint preachers 
 and deacons. While this is very precious, we know that God 
 will preach and work through men, and those who have been 
 elected by man." Apology, Art. IV. 
 
 "The churches undoubtedly retain the authority to call, to 
 elect and to ordain ministers. And this authority is a privilege 
 which God has given especially to the Church, and it cannot be 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 29 
 
 taken away from the Church by any human power as Paul tes- 
 tified, Eph. 4 : 8, II, 12." Smalcald Articles. 
 
 Schmid, in his Dogmatic, summarizes the Lutheran doctrine 
 of the ministry as follows: "This office is, therefore, one of di- 
 vine appointment, and God has, at times, himself called single 
 individuals into it ; while now he does it only mediately, namely, 
 through the Church, which has received from him the right and 
 the authorization to do it." "Individual teachers must now, 
 therefore, have received their call and authorization from the 
 Church, if they are to have legitimately the right to teach and 
 administer the sacraments." We subjoin but a few quotations 
 from those given by Schmid, to sustain the statements quoted 
 above. "By the divine call is understood the appointment of a 
 certain and suitable person to the ministry of the Church, made 
 by God, either alone, or by the intervening judicial aid of men." 
 Hollaz. 
 
 "God calls men to the ecclesiastical office, sometimes immedi- 
 ately, as Moses and the apostles, and at other times mediately, 
 viz, through the Church, which in the name of God commits 
 this office to certain persons." Baier. 
 
 "An immediate call is not to be expected in the Church to- 
 day." Hollaz. 
 
 "The difference between the mediate and immediate call con- 
 sists always and only in this, that the former is effected through 
 ordinary, means, divinely appointed for this purpose, but the 
 latter through God himself The mediate call, therefore, is to 
 be considered no less a divine call — for it is referred to God as 
 its author — it is based upon apostolic authority — and the same 
 promises belong to those thus called." Gerhard. 
 
 "The less (or minor) principal cause constituting the ministry 
 is the Church, to which the right has been granted by God of 
 electing, ordaining and calling suitable ministers of the divine 
 word — nevertheless with the observance of becoming order in 
 the exercise of this right. Therefore the examination, ordina- 
 tion and inauguration belong to the presbytery, and the con- 
 sent, vote and approval to the people." Hollaz. 
 
 From the above quotations, the Lutheran doctrine, concern- 
 ing the call and office of the ministry, may be summarily set 
 
30 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 forth as follows : That Jesus Christ, the head of the Church, 
 has conferred the power of calling pastors to preach the Gos- 
 pel, administer the sacraments and discipline, and ordain minis- 
 ters, upon the whole Church. Under the proper distribution 
 of the powers, thus conferred, the right to call or elect their 
 own pastor belongs to the laity, and the authority to preach the 
 Gospel, ordain pastors, administer ordinances, and enforce dis- 
 cipline, is ordinarily vested in the ministry. 
 
 The "whole Church," is made up of congregations, congrega- 
 tions of families, and families of members. All church mem- 
 bers are invested with the same prerogatives, and obligated to 
 discharge the same duties. As each member is interested in 
 the ministry and partakes of the benefits conferred by their 
 labors, so too is each one privileged and bound to take part in 
 looking out for those young men, who give evidence of possess- 
 ing the natural talents and spiritual graces, which, if cultivated 
 by education and the means of grace, would fit them for the 
 work of the ministry. And as parents, teachers, professors, 
 church officers, and pastors, are brought into frequent and inti- 
 mate contact with boys and young men of riper age, it becomes 
 their special duty, to improve the advantages thus afforded them, 
 and by their counsels and instructions, assist those adapted by 
 nature and grace for usefulness in the church, to come to an in- 
 telligent conclusion that they are called to the ministry, and to 
 induce them to prepare themselves to labor in the vineyard of 
 Christ. And having in these and other ways taken part in 
 multiplying the number, and improving the character and effi- 
 ciency of the ministry, they are permitted to exercise the right 
 of electing pastors to exercise ministerial functions in their re- 
 spective congregations. 
 
 TH* PREVALENT THEORY AS SET FORTH BY ITS ADVOCATES. 
 
 The distinguishing features of the prevalent theory may be 
 learned from the following quotations : 
 
 Dr. H. S. Storrs, in his Lectures on Preaching, in referring 
 to his relinquishment of the study of the lavv', and his entry upon 
 that of theology, says: "When my plans of life were changed, 
 under the impulse, as I thought, of God's Spirit, and I had de- 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 3 1 
 
 Voted myself to the ministry, I determined to fit myself for it, 
 and to preach without reading." 
 
 Dr. T. D. Witherspoon, in referring to Saul's preaching Christ, 
 says : "The call of Saul of Tarsus was in many respects extra- 
 ordinary. * * But though the call was thus in its method 
 extraordinary, in essence it was the same that every one must 
 have who would enter upon this office. There must be an im- 
 pression deeply wrought in the heart by the Spirit of God, that 
 it is our duty to serve him in the ministry, that thus we can 
 best honor him and best fulfil the mission he has given us in 
 the world — a conviction that grows stronger as it is prayerfully 
 deliberated upon and does not yield in prospect of the self-de- 
 nials and sacrifices which such a life entails." 
 
 Bridges, in his Christian Ministry, describes the ministerial 
 call, as follows : "The internal call is the voice and power of 
 the Holy Ghost, directing the will and the judgment and con- 
 veying personal qualifications. * *" An inward movement by 
 the Holy Ghost must imply his influence upon the heart, not 
 indeed manifested by any enthusiastic impulse, but enlighten- 
 ing the heart under a deep impression of the worth of souls ; 
 constraining the soul by the love of Christ to spend and be 
 spent for him ; and directing the conscience to a sober, search- 
 ing, self-inquiry; to a daily study of the Word; to fervent 
 prayer in reference to this great matter; and to a careful ob- 
 servation of the providential indications of our Master's will." 
 
 Bishop Simpson, in his Lectures on Preaching, .sets forth his 
 views in the following explicit and discriminating manner : "The 
 first evidence of a divine call is in the con.sciousness of the indi- 
 vidual, and is a persuasion which, slight as it may be at first, 
 deepens into an intense conviction that he is called of God to 
 preach the Gospel." * * "In its slightest form it (the call) 
 is a persuasion that he who receives it ought to preach the Gos- 
 pel ; in its strongest form, that God requires him to do this 
 work at the peril of his soul." * * "It is God's voice to the 
 human conscience saying, 'You ought to preach.'" "Admit- 
 ing the existence of this conviction, how is it known to be of 
 divine origin." * * "I think there is nothing unphilosoph- 
 jcal in referring it to a purely spiritual source, even to God him- 
 
32 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 self." "In this respect it resembles the work of conversion." 
 "Peace springs up in the heart, but whence that peace comes, 
 consciousness alone cannot tell." "Yet the true Christian at 
 once and correctly ascribes it to a divine source." * * "That 
 a young man may be truly called of God, but it is impossible 
 for him to know it, except by way of inference from surround- 
 ing indications." "This philosophy I believe to be radically 
 defective." "Admitting, however, that this knowledge is not 
 absolute, but merely strongly presumptive, there are other indi- 
 cations which are confirmative." "We are commanded to try 
 the spirits, whether they be of God, and we have tests by which 
 the trial can be made." * * "That which is discovered by 
 one, soon becomes manifest to all, and the Church, in whatever 
 way it may operate, opens for him a door-way leading into the 
 ministry." "This call of the Church added to the conscious 
 call, greatly strengthens the conviction of duty." 
 
 "Some writers * * distinguish between what they term the 
 ordinary and extraordinary call." "In the ordinary call they 
 teach that the young man arrives at the conviction that he 
 should preach, from consideration of his qualifications, mental 
 tendencies and surrounding circumstances ; that the same influ- 
 ences lead him to enter the ministry, which, with some changes 
 would have led him to enter the profession of medicine or law, 
 or to have engaged in some secular pursuit." * * "So he 
 selects the ministry believing that thereby he can best promote 
 his own happiness and the welfare of humanity." 
 V From a careful examination of the quotations just given, the 
 'following points become manifest, and deserve special notice. 
 The phraseology employed in describing the call to the minis- 
 try varies, is somewhat vague, and leaves an ambiguous im- 
 pression on the mind of the reader. No attempt is made 
 to explain intelligently the manner and the, means through 
 which the person obtained the knowledge and assurance of the 
 fact that God designed him for the ministry. One of these 
 writers says that the Holy Spirit communicates a knowledge of 
 this call by awakening an impulse, another that he accomplishes 
 it by an impression, and a third, that he does it by calling forth 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 33 
 
 2i persuasion, each of which culminates in a conclusion, that it is 
 his duty to devote himself to the preaching of the Gospel. 
 
 Webster defines the meaning and explains the manner in 
 which impulses, impressions and persuasions produce convic- 
 tion and oblige the conscience, as follows : Impulse, he repre- 
 sents as "a supposed, supernatural influence or motive on the 
 mind." Impression he illustrates thus : "the truths of the Gos- 
 pel make an impression on the mind." Persuasion, he defines 
 as "arguments or reasons that move the will to determination." 
 Conviction he declares to be "a strong belief or settled opinion, 
 oh the ground of satisfactory evidence." These definitions and 
 explanations show, that such impulses, impressions and per- 
 suasions, culminating in a conviction of a call to the ministry, 
 can only be produced by the apprehension of such truths con- 
 tained in the Scriptures, concerning the ministry, as constitute 
 arguments, reasons, or motives, adapted according to the laws 
 of mind, to call it forth in consciousness. And as this rational 
 and scriptural method of communicating the knowledge of a 
 call to the ministry is denied by the advocates of the prevalent 
 theory, there remains no other method, but that of an immedi- 
 ate call of the Holy Spirit, without any medium of communica- 
 tion, which is tantamount to the reception of a direct revelation 
 by inspiration. 
 
 In corroboration of the conclusion just drawn, we call atten- 
 tion to the fact, that these writers make no careful discrimina- 
 tion between the direct manner in which Christ made known 
 their call to the apostles, and the apostles to the elders or pas- 
 tors of the churches, and the indirect manner in which the Holy 
 Spirit now convinces men of their call to the ministry, through 
 the truths pertaining thereto, revealed in the word of God. No 
 passages of Scripture are quoted and no apostolic examples 
 cited in support of the views maintained. And in so far as 
 reference is made to the call of Paul, it is done in such terms as 
 to leave the impression, that every minister in our day is au- 
 thorized to look for a revelation of his call by the Holy Spirit, 
 as real, immediate and unmistakable as that made by him to 
 Saul of Tarsus, the miraculous circumstances attending it alone 
 excepted. 
 
34 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 We are told that this persuasion may at first be very slight 
 in the consciousness of the individual, and that, although it 
 deepens into an intense conviction of his call, it amounts to lit- 
 tle more in the end than a strong presumption, which is to be 
 verified by confirmatory tests drawn from the Scriptures. But 
 no such uncertainty attached to the divine call in the Apostolic 
 churches, and this admission of uncertainty as regards the real- 
 ity of the call in our day, throws the veil of doubt over the sufifi- 
 ciency of the knowledge communicated by the Spirit, and proves 
 that his revelations on this subject have become defective, and 
 cannot now be relied upon with any great degree of certitude. 
 
 It is also stated that conscience must impel to the study of 
 the Scriptures, as a confirmation of the inward call, but the 
 Word is not recognized as the instrument of the Spirit in call- 
 ing it forth. The Church is also mentioned, but her office is 
 represented as that of recognizing and endorsing the judgment 
 of the individual, that he has received a direct call from the 
 Spirit, followed by ordination through her ministers, and sub- 
 sequently by an election from the laity. But no part is as- 
 signed her in calling out those whom she judges to be pos- 
 sessed of the proper natural and spiritual qualifications, to fit 
 them for the office of the ministry. 
 
 It is further maintained that a person, in whose consciousness 
 the conviction has arisen, that he is called to the ministry, has 
 the same reason for attributing it to a spiritual source, yea, 
 even to God himself, as the Christian has for believing that the 
 peace which sprang up in his heart at the time of his conver- 
 sion, was imparted to him by the direct witness of the Spirit. 
 But as the Father bears witness to his existence and attributes 
 through the effects produced in nature, and the Son bore 
 witness to his messiahship through his works, so, does the 
 Spirit bear witness with our spirits, that we are the children of 
 God, through the effects produced on our minds and hearts ; 
 in other words, through the work and fruits of the Spirit, as de- 
 scribed in the Scriptures, and not by any new and direct reve- 
 lation made to the soul. And the manner in which the Spirit 
 bears witness of a call to the ministry, is the same, viz., through 
 the truths revealed by him in the word of God, 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 35- 
 
 The prevalent theory, as thus explauied by its advocates, lies 
 open to the following objections : 
 
 1. It constitutes the individual himself the sole judge of his 
 call to the ministry. He has in some mysterious manner be- 
 come convinced that he is called to the ministry, and he believes 
 that the fact has been communicated to him by the Holy Spirit. 
 He feels bound by conscience to devote himself to the work of 
 preaching the Gospel. He communicates the intelligence either 
 to his parents, pastor or the education committee, who are ex- 
 pected to accept his judgment and recognize the validity of his 
 call. 
 
 2. The age, circumstances and manner in which it is claimed 
 that the knowledge of the call was communicated to the indi- 
 vidual, invest it with doubt and uncertainty. It takes place 
 usually at an early age, before his natural talents have been de- 
 veloped by education, and his moral character has been fully 
 tested. He has little or no knowledge of the work and require- 
 ments of the ministry, nor of his adaptation, through his natural 
 and spiritual gifts, for its successful prosecution. Neither has 
 he any intelligent apprehension of the means and manner in 
 which the Holy Spirit now begets a conviction of a call to the 
 ministry, but takes it for granted that he received his impres- 
 sions immediately from the Holy Spirit. A youth of tender 
 age, immature in mind, without a proper knowledge either of 
 himself, the workings of the Spirit or the ministry, without ex- 
 perience and without counsel, decides that God designed him 
 for the ministry, and, as might well be anticipated, mistakes his 
 calling, and proves a failure. 
 
 3. No satisfactory evidences are furnished, and no adequate 
 tests can be applied to verify this immediate call. The min- 
 istry is the highest of all professions, and imposes the greatest 
 responsibilities. It involves not only the character, usefulness 
 and destiny of the incumbent, but also the interests and salva- 
 tion of men. No man has a right to assume it without satis- 
 factory evidence, and no one should be invested with it without 
 having been "proved" according to the Scriptures. But such 
 is the nature and source of this call, that it rests upon no other 
 evidence than the testimony of the individual that the Holy 
 
36 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 Spirit has revealed to him the fact. No satisfactory proofs can 
 be furnished to substantiate it, and all the tests furnished by the 
 Scriptures as safeguards against the introduction of novices, 
 blind guides, and false prophets into the sacred office, are shut 
 out. Christ himself did not ask men to accredit him as a mes- 
 senger from God, without appealing to the witness of his char- 
 acter and works ; and a theory of the ministerial call that ex- 
 cludes spiritual credentials and scriptural tests, cannot be the 
 true one. 
 
 4. The Anabaptists and other enthusiasts of the Reformation 
 period, as well as other religious pretenders in both ancient and 
 modern times, have set up the claim that they had a direct call 
 from the Holy Spirit, that he indited their utterances, and that 
 they had received immediate revelations. While most of the 
 advocates of the prevalent theory would repudiate such extreme 
 pretensions, and some of those mentioned above have uttered 
 express disclaimers against such delusions, it nevertheless re- 
 mains true that the language they employ in setting forth their 
 views makes the same impression. And their disclaimers, al- 
 though designed to guard against such an interpretation, simply 
 reveal their inconsistency, and constitute a corroboration of the 
 true theory, extorted from them by the manifest absurdity of 
 such pretentious claims. 
 
 5. A man's entrance upon the ministry, according to the 
 prevalent theory, becomes an exception to his selection of any 
 other calling in life, whether secular or ecclesiastical. The se- 
 lection of some vocation becomes indispensable to all men. In 
 making the choice, the person's adaptations, qualifications and 
 preference must be taken into due consideration. The counsel 
 of parents and the advice of judicious friends are in most cases 
 sought in coming to a final decision. In employing men in any 
 department of business, or in electing them to any office of pub- 
 lic trust, their characters and qualifications become the control- 
 ling considerations in making the engagement on electing the 
 incumbent. Nor is a different course pursued in ecclesiastical 
 affairs. Any officers that were needed were selected on the 
 ground of their fitness to discharge the duties of the special 
 service called for. Now the theory that lays all these prece- 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 3/ 
 
 dents aside, and encourages men to choose the ministry, with- 
 out taking their natural and spiritual qualifications into consid- 
 eration as the basis of a just decision — without the judgment of 
 any of the representatives of the Church, through a direct call 
 of the Holy Spirit, is not only at variance with the uniform 
 practice in both secular and religious affairs, but also inconsis- 
 tent with Scripture precedent and apostolic example. 
 
 Nor can we overlook another still more glaring inconsistency 
 into which these writers have fallen. While they object to the 
 rational, logical and scriptural method, according to which the 
 Holy Spirit, by means of the truth, enables an individual to 
 draw the legitimate conclusion, that it is his bounden duty to 
 preach the Gospel, they, nevertheless, admit that the source 
 whence the impulse, impression or persuasion has arisen in the 
 consciousness of a person, is unknown to him, and accept his 
 conclusions, that it must have come from the Holy Spirit, yea, 
 from God himself; and that it must mean that he is called to 
 the ministry, on the ipse dixit of the individual, without any 
 reference to his natural or spiritual qualifications, or the appli- 
 cation, at the time, of any scriptural tests whatever, as a verifi- 
 cation of his inferences, and the validity of his convictions of 
 duty. In other words, they reject the legitimacy of the conclu- 
 sions, logically drawn from premises furnished by nature, grace 
 and Scripture, and rely upon those drawn from the imagination 
 of the individual himself, unsustained by any other proof. 
 
 Further, when God, the Father, testifies that a m^n is not 
 called to the ministry, by creating him, without those constitu- 
 tional endowments of mind, heart and speech, indispensable to 
 the successful prosecution of the work of the ministry, it is pre- 
 posterous to suppose that the Holy Spirit, who knows the mind 
 of God, the Father, to contradict his testimony by bearing wit- 
 ness directly to the same individual, that God has called him to 
 the ministry. And yet the simple statement of an individual^ 
 that he has received a call from the Spirit, is credited by the 
 advocates of the prevalent theory, in spite of the notorious fact, 
 that in many cases, such pretensions are unsupported by the 
 testimony of the Spirit, given in the Scriptures, setting forth 
 
38 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 the qualifications that those whom he has called must possess, 
 and contradicted by the testimony of God, the Father, as mani- 
 fested by the deficiency of constitutional endowments. 
 
 THE TRUE THEORY EXPLAINED. 
 
 The faculties of the soul brought into operation in imparting' 
 the knowledge, and producing the conviction of a call to the 
 ministry are the understanding, the heart, the conscience and 
 the will. Through attention, the understanding apprehends 
 truth and accumulates knowledge; through knowledge, thus 
 obtained, the heart is moved and puts forth emotions; through 
 the knowledge and feelings thus excited, the conscience is acted 
 upon by moral considerations and imposes a sense of obligation, 
 and through the combined operation of truth apprehended, de- 
 sires awakened, and convictions of duty realized, as motive forces, 
 the will is impelled, to form determinations, culminating in 
 corresponding action. These faculties as conferred in crea- 
 tion, cannot in their natural state, by any form or degree 
 of cultivation, develop a true call to the ministry. In order 
 that this may be effected, it becomes indispensable, that these 
 natural faculties be transformed into spiritual graces. This is 
 accomplished by the Holy Spirit through the means of grace, 
 whereby the natural man is begotten of the truth, born of the 
 Spirit, and made a new creature in Christ Jesus. As in produc- 
 ing conviction of sin the Spirit uses the law and in working 
 faith ana regenerating the heart, he reveals the things of Christ, 
 in calling forth the conviction of a call to the ministry, he 
 brings into requisition all the truths of Scripture bearing upon 
 the subject. Through this spiritual transformation, the under- 
 standing becomes enlightened, the love of God and of man is 
 shed abroad in the heart, the conscience becomes sensitive to 
 moral impressions, a clear conviction of duty ensues, and the 
 high resolve is formed to devote life to the service of God, in 
 the work of the ministry. Correct views are entertained of the 
 glory of God as the ultimate end of life, a deep and abiding in- 
 terest is felt in the spiritual welfare of man, a conclusion legiti- 
 mately drawn, that in the ministry, the greatest usefulness could 
 be attained, and a governing purpose formed, so deep and com- 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 39 
 
 prehensive, as to effect a permanent change in the radical dis- 
 position, and rendering the candidate and the minister suscep- 
 tible to, and interested in, all ethical and religious subjects and 
 ecclesiastical affairs. 
 
 The following passages may be quoted as having a direct 
 bearing on the call to the ministry: "Ye are not your own, for 
 we are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body 
 and in your spirit, which are God's." "Whether therefore ye eat 
 or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." 
 "Diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." "Son, 
 go work to-day in my vineyard." "Go thou and preach the 
 kingdom of God." The parable of the ten talents ; the pas- 
 sages describing the qualifications, duties and promises made to 
 ministers ; the directions given by Paul to Timothy and Titus, 
 embracing the tests they were to apply in determining the ques- 
 tion of a call to the ministry : the examples furnished, illustrat- 
 ing the truths contained in the passages quoted and referred to 
 together with all the warning against rushing into the ministry 
 unbidden, and all the threatenings declared against hypocrites 
 and false teachers, to whom, as "wandering stars, is reserved the 
 blackness of darkness forever." 
 
 Now, as the holy Scriptures contain the whole revealed will 
 of God, and as such are able to make us wise unto salvation ;" 
 as all men are warned against "being wise above what is writ- 
 ten," as it is enjoined upon all to go "to the law and the 
 testimony" of God for information on all subjects pertaining to 
 life and godliness ; as it is declared of those who speak not ac- 
 cording to this word, that there is no truth in them, and as all 
 men are forbidden to add to or take from the word of God, it 
 follows that all communications now imparted by the Holy 
 Spirit are made alone through the word of truth. But the doc- 
 trine that the Holy Spirit communicates the knowledge of a 
 call to the ministry to all who are designed for it, by an imme- 
 diate and special revelation, contradicts the position sustained 
 by the passages just quoted, and can no more be established 
 than can the claims of the enthusiasts that they had received a 
 direct call from the Spirit, and spake under an immediate in- 
 spiration conferred upon them by God. The views just ex- 
 
40 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 pressed constitute the legitimate outgrowth of the doctrine, held 
 by the Mystics, and, in some respects, accepted by the advocates 
 of the prevalent theory of a call to the ministry, namely that the 
 Holy Spirit now makes communications to the mind and heart 
 directly, without the written word, and which necessarily ob- 
 scures the call to the ministry and envelopes it in the mists of 
 doubt and uncertainty. In referring to this, Dr. H. E. Jacobs, 
 in an article on The Lutheran Doctrine of the Ministry, says 
 \_Evangelical Review] : "Wherever the former mystical theory 
 (of the word) is held, the doctrine of the call to the ministry is 
 obscured. The individual is turned away from the revealed 
 word of God, to search within himself for an undefined inner 
 call. The candidate must declare, that he has been inwardly 
 moved by the Holy Ghost to assume the ofifice, whilst but little 
 importance is attached to any test whereby a true, inner call, 
 by the Holy Spirit speaking in the outward words may be dis- 
 tinguished from the vagaries of the individual's fancy." 
 
 To the Church the "lively oracles of God are given," and she 
 has become "the pillar and ground of the truth." On her the 
 Holy Spirit has been conferred and the authority given to ap- 
 point and commission Christian ministers to preach the Gospel, 
 and administer the Sacraments. Through the word preached, 
 and the Spirit accompanying it, the different truths bearing on 
 the call to the ministry are disseminated, a correct knowledge 
 of the subject is obtained, a deep interest is felt in it, and con- 
 science awakens a sense of obligation concerning it,.culminating 
 in a conviction of duty, and moving the will to choose and en- 
 ter it as a profession for life. 
 
 But as the Church is constituted of the ministry and the laity, 
 and all are commanded to become epistles of truth, the obliga- 
 tion to make known the truths concerning the call to the min- 
 istry, rests not only upon the clergy, but also upon parents, 
 teachers, church officers and members. And while preaching 
 is the principal agency of imparting the necessary instruction 
 concerning the ministry, the Church is bound to resort to all 
 other instrumentalities of conveying information about it such 
 as personal conversation, epistolary correspondence, the re- 
 ligious press, and permanent literature. As the petition, "Thy 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 4I 
 
 kingdom come," implies and imposes the obligation to do every- 
 thing necessary to make Christ and his kingdom known in all 
 the earth, so does the prayer, "Lord send forth laborers into 
 thy vineyard," involve the duty of using all the means adapted 
 to induce an adequate number of talented and pious young men 
 to respond to the call of God to enter the ministry. As the 
 expectation that the kingdom of God will come, through the 
 daily repetition of the prayer, "Thy kingdom come," without 
 the use of means, would be a perversion of its true meaning and 
 prove abortive ; the same may be said of the expectation that 
 an adequate number of efficient laborers will be called into the 
 world-field of Christ, by the repetition of the prayer, that God 
 would call them forth through the direct influence of his Spirit, 
 without the use of the appropriate means by the Church. 
 
 Dr. Phillips Brooks, in his "Lectures on Preaching," empha- 
 sizes the duty of exercising greater vigilance, on the part of the 
 Church, in introducing men into the ministry, as follows : "Let 
 us ask then, first, what sort of man a minister should be ? It 
 would be good for the Church, if it were a more common ques- 
 tion : "Partly because the motives which lead a young man to the 
 ministry are so personal and spiritual, partly because of our sense 
 of the magnitude and privilege of the work, which makes us 
 fear to be the means of excluding any worthy man from it, 
 partly because, at present, while the harvest is so plenteous, the 
 laborers are so very few — for these and other reasons, there is 
 far too little discrimination in the selection of men who are to 
 preach, and many men find their way into the preacher's office 
 who discover only too late that it is not their place." 
 
 In corroboration of the views just expressed, we present the 
 following quotations : v 
 
 "The certainty of a call to the ministry," says Hollazius, "is 
 derived, not from a new, peculiar and immediate revelation of 
 the Holy Spirit, but from mediate revelation contained in holy 
 Scripture. For Scripture teaches the gift, with which a suitable 
 minister of the Church should be endowed. It also teaches that 
 the Church has the power of entrusting the holy ministry to 
 certain persons. If, therefore, a candidate of theology knows, 
 for the spirit of man knoweth what is in man, that he has been 
 
42 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 divinely furnished with those gifts which holy Scripture requires 
 in a minister of the Church, and he sees at hand, before his eyes, 
 a written call from any church, having a right to call, he is cer- 
 tain, without any new and immediate revelation of the Holy 
 Spirit, of his lawful call to the ministry." 
 
 Dr. S. S. Schmucker describes the internal call to the minis* 
 try as follows : "The conviction of the individual, that God has 
 designed him for this office. This conviction is not at the pres- 
 ent day produced in an immediate, extraordinary, or miraculous 
 manner, as in the case of the ancient apostles and prophets. 
 The ordinary evidences of a call are, undoubted piety, at least 
 mediocrity of talent, and a desire, or at least an ultimate willing- 
 ness to serve God in the ministry, and the cooperation of divine 
 providence by the removal of all insuperable difficulties." — Pop- 
 ular Theology. 
 
 Dr. H. Ziegler expresses the following views in his "Pastor :" 
 "The internal call consists in those personal qualifications, which 
 are requisite to the faithful discharge of all the duties of the 
 Christian minister. It is never immediate or supernatural, but 
 always mediate and ordinary." 
 
 Vinet in his Homiletics, after maintaining that no extraordi- 
 nary call, through the direct influence of the Spirit, can now be 
 expected, continues : "Now, as the sensible, direct call from 
 God is wanting, by what can this be supplied ? In other words, 
 how may we know that we are called ? * * The call to the 
 ministry evidences itself, like every other, by natural means 
 under the direction of the word and Spirit of God." 
 
 Rev. John Eades, in exhibiting the process of mind through 
 which the conviction of a call to the ministry is produced, says: 
 "All those who are inwardly called of God to the sacred office, 
 have laid to heart the spiritual necessities of their fellow crea- 
 tures — are willing, ready and desirous, like their blessed Lord, 
 to undertake the work ; not from any selfish or worldly motive, 
 but from a principle of glorifying God in the conversion, edifi- 
 cation, and salvation of precious and immortal souls." 
 
 Dr. C. P. Krauth, in his Theses on the Ministry, distinguishes 
 between the mediate and immediate call as follows : "Calling 
 or vocation is a sacred act, whereby God either immediately by 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 43 
 
 a direct personal call, or mediately, through the Church, sepa- 
 rates and appoints, as seems'good to him, certain men to be his 
 co-workers, and stewards of his mysteries. All legitimate call- 
 ing is either immediate or mediate. We ought not now to ex- 
 pect the immediate calling, either external, by some miraculous 
 act of God, or internal, by some new revelation made to the 
 soul of the person called. But no man should seek the office 
 of the ministry without a persuasion that it is God's will that 
 he should do so. The mediate calling, legitimately made, is no 
 less really divine than the immediate. A legitimate mediate 
 calling is an act whereby men whose fitness for the work of the 
 ministry has been tested and proved, are chosen by Christ, 
 through his Church, to teach the Gospel and administer the 
 Sacraments." 
 
 Dr. L. A. Gotwald, in his Holman Lecture on Church Orders, 
 says : "As regards the office of the ministry, as well as all other 
 offices in the Church, these two points from the word of God, 
 are clear, viz., that the endowments or qualifications, which men 
 may possess for these respective offices, are the gifts to them of 
 God, and that these express, both to their possessor, and to 
 others in the Church around him, that the will of God is, that 
 he upon whom he has thus bestowed such gifts, should exercise 
 them also, in the particular office for which he is thus especially 
 fitted. In other words, the divine endowments of a man for the 
 ministerial office constitute essentially the divine call also to 
 that office and the will of God, that a man should be in the 
 office, is expressed by the peculiar fitness which he gives him 
 for it." 
 
 The manner in which the conviction of a call to the ministry 
 was called forth by the Church in the case of John Knox and 
 Calvin, against their own misgivings, illustrates the theory 
 maintained in this article. John Knox was endowed with such 
 talents, graces and attainments, that it became manifest to the 
 Church that he was adapted and called to the work of the min- 
 istry. He was accordingly frequently solicited in private by his 
 brethren to undertake the work of preaching, but "had persist- 
 ently refused, on the ground that he had no talent or call to 
 these sacred functions. His friends, however, did not desist 
 
44 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 from their purpose, but having consulted with their brethren, 
 came to a resolution without his knowledge, that a call should be 
 publicly given him, in the name of the whole membership, to 
 become one of their ministers. The manner in which this de- 
 termination was carried out, as stated in McCree's Life of Knox, 
 was as follows : 
 
 "Accordingly, on a day fixed for the purpose. Rough preached 
 a sermon on the election of ministers, in which he declared 
 the power which a congregation, however small, had over any 
 one in whom they perceived gifts suited to the ofifice, and how 
 dangerous it was for such a person to reject the call of those 
 who desired instruction. Sermon being concluded, the preacher 
 turned to Knox, who was present, and addressed him in these 
 words : 'Brother you shall not be offended, although I speak 
 unto you that which I have in charge, even from all those that 
 are here present, which is this : In the name of God and of his 
 Son Jesus Christ, and in the name of all that presently call you 
 by my mouth, I charge that you refuse not this holy vocation, 
 but as you desire the glory of God, the increase of Christ's 
 kingdom, the edification of your brethren, and the. comfort of 
 me, whom you understand well enough to be oppressed by the 
 multitude of labors, that you take the public office and charge 
 of preaching, even as you look to avoid God's heavy displeas- 
 ure, and desire that he shall multiply his grace unto you.' 
 
 "Then addressing himself to the congregation, he said : 'Was 
 not this your charge unto me ? and do ye not approve this vo- 
 cation ?' They all answered 'It was ; and we approve it.' Over- 
 whelmed by this unexpected and solemn charge, Knox, after an 
 ineffectual attempt to address the audience burst into tears, 
 rushed out of the assembly and shut himself up in his cham- 
 ber. His countenance and behavior from that day till the day 
 that he was compelled to present himself in the public place of 
 preaching, did sufficiently declare the grief and trouble of his 
 heart," &c. 
 
 The case of Calvin corresponds, in all the main points, with 
 that of Knox. He was diffident of his abilities, shrunk from 
 assuming the office of the ministry, and preferred to remain a 
 lay worker. But such were the impressions made upon those 
 
THfe CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 45 
 
 who attended his instructions, that they were convinced that he 
 was called to the ministry, and he yielded to their judgment 
 rather than his own preferences in entering the ministry. 
 
 Calvin at Bourges became a teacher both in private confer- 
 ence with inquirers and by discourses in more public assem- 
 blies. "Before a year had elapsed," he says, "all who were de- 
 sirous of a purer doctrine were in the habit of coming to me 
 though a novice and a tyro, for the purpose of learning." 
 
 In engaging in such efforts Calvin seems to have yielded to a 
 constraining sense of duty rather than to have followed the 
 bias of his own inclination. "I always preferred the shade and 
 ease and would have sought some hiding place, but this was 
 not permitted, for all my retreats became like public schools." 
 
 Neither of these distinguished men claimed that he was led 
 into the ministry by an inner call, but was rather deterred from 
 assuming it, by a consciousness of their deficiencies, as was the 
 case with Moses, Jeremiah and other prophets, and present 
 striking contrasts to those who insist that they have received 
 an inner, direct call from the Spirit, plead that it was accom- 
 panied with such a burning desire to preach the Gospel, as to 
 give them no rest until they resolved to engage in it. Bishop 
 Simpson, in his Yale Lectures, maintains that the hesitancy of 
 Knox and Calvin are shared by all who are truly called of God. 
 "There is not an instance," says he, "in Holy Writ, where a true 
 man was ever anxious to bear the divine message. He always 
 shrank from it, hesitated and trembled." 
 
 The term prevalent, by which we. have designated the theory 
 we are combatting, indicates that it has been generally accepted 
 as the true one by the Reformed churches. Bishop' Simpson 
 declares that it is the theory of the Universal Church, the cor- 
 rectness of which we question, and over against which, we place 
 the Lutheran theory, as stated in her symbols and maintained 
 by her dogmaticians. The prevalence of the mystical notion of 
 a call to the ministry may be accounted for by the radical ten- 
 dency among the Puritans in their opposition to Romanism, of 
 running into opposite extremes. Rome so emphasized the "let- 
 ter" in establishing an outward succession in the ministry, 
 
V* 
 
 46 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 thereby ignoring the operations of the Spirit in the heart of be- 
 lie\^ers, while the Puritans so emphasized the "Spirit" that they 
 relied upon the Holy Ghost to call out the ministry without the 
 use of the "letter" of the word as disseminated by the Church. 
 The Anglican by accepting episcopacy from the Roman Church 
 became at the same time inoculated with its claim of the trans- 
 mission of ministerial grace by the Spirit, through the laying on 
 of the hands of the bishops. Accordingly every bishop must 
 declare, as a condition of ordination, that he was moved to take 
 this office upon himself by the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Inasmuch as the Lutheran Church has accepted Prelacy, not 
 jure divino, hut j'uj'c lunnano, in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, 
 and has been exposed to Puritanic influences in this country, it 
 would not be strange if mystical tendencies should be developed, 
 even among her ministers. The following may serve as ex- 
 amples. Although Dr. Schmucker assures us that an immedi- 
 ate call in an extraordinary manner is not to be expected now, 
 nevertheless, by stating that the call consists in a conviction of 
 the individual that God has designed him for this ofifice, and that 
 he cannot be absolved from the obligation to persevere in his 
 preparation for it except by insuperable obstacles placed in his 
 way by Providence, he seems to contradict himself; and makes a 
 vague, if not a Puritanic impression. Dr. Ziegler also declares 
 that the call to the ministry is not now direct and extraordinary, 
 and yet he admits that there are special cases which on account 
 of some remarkable spiritual manifestations at their conversion, 
 become exceptions to those -who have received the mediate call 
 from the Church, through the ordinary means of grace, and re- 
 fers to Dr. Cannon, who in his Pastoral Theology says : "The 
 internal call may be accompanied with a power of the ?Ioly 
 Spirit, and attended by circumstances and events in the lives 
 and the conversion of some minister of Christ, which when 
 compared to those of the many, who piously engage in the 
 good service, may appear to be extraordinary." But to guard 
 against the perversion of such cases, he adds : "But let it be ob- 
 served, that whatever is uncommon in these instances does not 
 belong essentially to the internal call of God." 
 
 In regard to the interpretation given to any peculiar manifes- 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 4 
 
 tations, claimed to have been received from the Holy Spirit at 
 the conversion of an individual, viz, that they indicate that he 
 is called to the ministry, it may suffice to remark that they can 
 not safely be accepted as marks of a call for which others are 
 authorized to look, and do not constitute examples by which 
 others ought to be governed. Extraordinary experiences of 
 this kind are the boast of the enthusiasts, and they no more 
 prove the genuineness of the conversion of the subjects of them, 
 than that they establish the claim of a call to the ministry set 
 up by religious pretenders. And as the pretensions of the lat- 
 ter when subjected to the tests presented by the Scriptures, 
 prove to be unfounded, so, too, are the interpretations of the ex- 
 periences of the former, when weighed in the balances of the 
 word of God, found wanting. 
 
 Dr. H. E. Jacobs, heretofore quoted, says : "All our theolo- 
 gians recoginize a true movement of the Holy Spirit on the 
 mind of the individual in leading him, through the study of the 
 outward word, to the conviction that it is his duty to seek the 
 holy office and quotes the testimony of Gerhard, as follows : 
 
 "We grant that God, by an inner impulse and inspiration, 
 breathes into some this disposition to undertake the ministry of 
 the Church, without regard to dangers and difficulties to which 
 belongs also that mysterious impulse by which some are drawn 
 to the study of theology. * * And if any one desire to 
 apply, in a proper sense, the name of secret call, to these dispo- 
 sitions, both of which are especially worthy of praise, we do not 
 greatly object. Yet, in the meantime, we give the warning, 
 that in order that the doors be not opened to the disturbances 
 of the Anabaptists or the revelations of the enthusiasts, no one, 
 by reason of this secret call, ought to take upon himself the 
 duties of the ministerial office, unless there be added to it the 
 outward and solemn call of the Church." This inner impulse 
 Gerhard afterward declares not to be the call, but "an accident 
 of the same," and a description of the proper disposition or 
 quality in the persons called. 
 
 By designating the operations of the Spirit, in convincing a 
 person, through the Word, that it is his duty to preach the 
 Gospel, by the term call, dividing it into an internal and exter- 
 
48 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 nal c2l\\, and representing it as constituted of divine and human 
 factors, as has been done by writers on this subject, it becomes 
 almost impossible, so to distinguish the ordinary call to the 
 ministry now, from the extraordinary call in apostolic times, as 
 to prevent misapprehension and confusion. 
 
 Illustrations of this are found in the following examples. 
 Vinet, heretofore quoted, says : "The word call has, when ap- 
 plied to professions of a temporal order, only a figurative sig- 
 nification. * * But applied to the ministry the word approaches 
 its proper sense. When conscience commands, and obliges us 
 to discharge a certain task, we have that which next to a mira- 
 cle, merits best the name of a call, and it must be nothing less." 
 
 Dr. G. Diehl, (Diet Lecture, 1877), remarks: "God, who 
 called the prophets in ways so manifest, and by speech so dis- 
 tinct, as to produce absolute certainty in their convictions, does 
 now, in ways less marvelous, and circumstances less imposing, 
 produce a similar conviction in the mind of every man whose 
 ministry heaven has authenticated." * * 
 
 The careful reader will observe, that while the advocates of 
 the prevalent theory have employed words and phrases in de- 
 scribing it, that express ideas that accord with the representa- 
 tions made concerning the true theory, and vice versa, that some 
 of the words and phrases used by Lutheran theologians, in de- 
 scribing the operations of the Spirit, in begetting a call through 
 the Word, correspond with those employed in setting forth the 
 prevalent or mystical theory. This may be accounted for from 
 several considerations. Striking analogies exist between the 
 two theories. Their respective advocates agree that the agent 
 who imparts the knowledge of a call is the Holy Spirit, that the 
 subject to whom it is communicated is a true believer, a new 
 man in Christ Jesus, and that the form in which it is developed 
 in the consciousness, is that of a conviction, so deep as to bind 
 the conscience and lead to the determination to enter the minis- 
 try. The main point of difference between them is whether the 
 Holy Spirit imparts a knowledge of the call directly to the soul, 
 or whether he does it mediately, through the several truths per- 
 taining to the ministry, revealed in the Scriptures, and whether 
 the individual is to determine the question of his call from his 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 49 
 
 own religious experience, or from self-examination in the light 
 of the Scriptures, the Counsel of relatives and Christian friends, 
 and the judgment of the ministers and members of the Church. 
 The subject is a very profound one, involving the manner in 
 vyhich each aspect of truth revealed in the Scriptures concern- 
 ing the ministry is adapted to effect the several faculties of the 
 soul, and call forth in their combined operations such a convic- 
 tion of duty, through the super-added influence of the Holy 
 Spirit, as constitutes a call to preach the Gospel, as well as the 
 manner in which the same Spirit communicated the knowledge 
 of a call directly to the apostles and other ministers in the apos- 
 tolic churches. To set this subject forth in a consistent and 
 scriptural manner, requires the clearest conceptions of every 
 factor that enters into the subject, the most careful and rigid 
 discrimination of the influence exerted and the impressions 
 made by each, and the use of the most terse and forcible terms 
 in describing them. And as such insight, power and discrimi- 
 nation, and felicity of expression, are not the gift of all writers, 
 such discrepancies and deficiencies as we have just noticed, must 
 be looked for in the discussion of all intricate theological points. 
 But we nevertheless insist that there is no medium ground on 
 which these opposite theories can be fully harmonized by the 
 introduction of a third theory, as a cross between the two. The 
 advocates of the immediate call of the Spirit, according to the 
 prevalent theory, cannot consistently recognize the Scriptures 
 as the test of verifying it, while they reject them as .the means 
 of calling it forth ; and the advocates of the indirect call of the 
 Spirit, through the truth, cannot consistently admit that, in ex- 
 ceptional cases, the Spirit may now operate directly, indepen- 
 dent of the word, in disposing a soul to engage in the work of 
 the ministry, without surrendering the point at issue, and open- 
 ing the door of admission to the mystics and enthusiasts. 
 
 DEMITTING THE MINISTRY. 
 
 In the Romish hierarchy, the priests constitute a perma- 
 nent clerical order, none of whom is allowed to lay down his 
 priesthood. The Church of England imbibed, with episcopacy, 
 the Romish idea, that a clergyman could not be relieved from 
 
50 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 the sacred functions assumed at his ordination, and the British 
 Parliament passed a law declaring that "a priest or deacon could 
 not, and ought not to divest himself of his clerical character." 
 In 1773, Rev. Home Took divested himself of his clerical robe, 
 studied law, but was refused admission to the bar. He was sub- 
 sequently elected to Parliament, and although his claim to a 
 seat was at first resisted on the ground that he v;as still a cler- 
 gyman, he was afterwards admitted. This case, however, be- 
 came the occasion of the passage of an act declaring the ineli- 
 gibility of persons in his situation. The Lutheran Church, re- 
 garding the ministry not as a clerical order, but as an office of 
 special service in the Christian Church, maintains that should 
 an individual, under a conviction of duty, be inducted into the 
 ministry, and be afterwards providentially prevented from dis- 
 charging its duties, he has the right to lay down the office of 
 the ministry, and the body which invested him with it has the 
 authority to relieve him of its obligations, to divest him of its 
 title, and restore him to the position of a layman in the congre- 
 gation. 
 
 This view of the subject is based upon the constitution of the 
 Christian Church, whose members are called to perform various 
 kinds of service in different offices. If now a person be disa- 
 bled from performing the duties of one office, and be able to 
 perform those of another, he has not only the right, but it be- 
 comes his duty, to lay down the one and assume those of the 
 other office. Philip devoted himself at first to the office of a dea- 
 con, but afterward relinquished it and became an evangelist. If 
 this had been reversed, he would have had the right, for ade- 
 quate reasons, to relinquish the office of an evangelist and re- 
 assume that of a deacon, or to become again a layman. 
 
 This view of the office of the ministry is a legitimate devel- 
 opment of the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. 
 Christians constitute a universal priesthood, each one of whom 
 is endowed with talents fitting him for the performance of some 
 particular service, and some of whom are qualified and called to 
 devote themselves to the special work of the ministry. Should 
 any one of the latter discover, after a full trial, that he has missed 
 his caUing, or be so disabled that he cannot continue to preach 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 5 I 
 
 and administer the sacraments, and that he is able and com- 
 pelled to engage in some secular pursuit to make a living, he 
 has the right to ask, and it becomes the duty of the ecclesiasti- 
 cal body to which he belongs, to release him from his ordination 
 vows, which he cannot meet, and to allow him to take his place 
 again among the common priesthood, and to perform such ser- 
 vice as his gifts, means and circumstances will permit. The 
 Lutheran view of the subject has made such progress in Eng- 
 land that Parliament passed a law entitled "The Clerical Disa- 
 bility Act," in 1870, according to whose provisions any minis- 
 ter of the Church of England may resign his preferment, and 
 resume again the position of a layman. 
 
 The following incident, narrated by Dr. Thomas Guthrie in 
 his Sunday Magazine, must have occurred at the time when 
 this act was under consideration, and comes in point in this dis- 
 cussion : 
 
 "In making statements against the retention in the ministry 
 of those who a;jp unfitted for it, at a dinner table where a bishop 
 was present, I was met by one appealing to him how that could 
 be, seeing that every candidate for holy orders, in seeking them, 
 declared himself to be moved by the Holy Ghost? An objec- 
 tion to the bill brought into the House of Lords for allowing 
 clergymen of the English Church to demit their office and loose 
 themselves of their ordination vows, which I met with was 
 this, namely, that such candidates must have been mistaken, 
 since God never calls a man by his Spirit to any office for which 
 he is not fit." 
 
 In the United States a similar change of opinion and practice 
 has been inaugurated. About twenty years ago, a Methodist 
 bishop in the South asked to lay down his bishopric, and after a 
 full discussion of the subject, his request was granted by the 
 House of Bishops. Consistency with the views of the Luth- 
 eran Church on the call to the ministry, demands that she should, 
 under similar circumstances, take the same course. Accordingly, 
 the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, at its annual session in 1870, 
 relieved one of its members of the clerical office, and the East 
 Pennsylvania Synod did the same at its meeting in the fall of 
 the same year. And several similar cases have occurred since. 
 
52 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 The right to abdicate the ministerial office ought not, however, 
 to be exercised at random or from caprice, nor granted without 
 good and sufficient reasons. Men called to devote themselves 
 to pursuits cognate to those of the ministry, such as teachers, 
 professors and editors, may consistently continue in the minis- 
 terial profession. But when a man, in his youth or the prime 
 of life is disabled from discharging the duties of the ministry, 
 and is necessitated and able to prosecute some secular calling 
 for life, it becomes his duty to ask, and that of the synod to 
 grant him, the privilege of demitting his office. But should a 
 minister not thus disabled, from choice and worldly motives, de- 
 vote himself to business for life, he would prostitute the holy 
 office, imitate the e.Kample of Demas, if not of Judas, and, should 
 he not voluntarily demit the ministry, ought to be divested of 
 its name and functions. 
 
 The opposite view is as unreasonable as it is unscriptural. 
 It compels a man to bear a name which becomes a misnomer, 
 and to retain an office, with its solemn respon^bilities, whose 
 duties he knows he can never again perform. It exposes him, 
 in some degree at least, among those ignorant of his disability, 
 to the odium that attaches to a clergyman who abandons the 
 ministry for the sake of filthy lucre, and even prevents his high- 
 est usefulness as a layman. Hence the ministerial office becomes 
 to him a sinecure, its name an unmeaning sound, its solemn vows 
 a disturber of his conscience, and its ecclesiastical relations and 
 duties a serious inconvenience, if not an oppressive burden. 
 
 STATISTICS SHOWING THE PRACTICAL WORKING OF BOTH SYSTEMS. 
 
 As a tree is kn'own by its fruits, the respective character of 
 the two theories we are contrasting will become manifest by a 
 comparison of their results. The subjoined statistics setting 
 forth the proportion of the number of ministers to the number 
 of the communicants in the Presbyterian, Congregational and 
 Unitarian denominations, as well as those of the Lutheran 
 Church, reveal the legitimate results of both systems, and con- 
 stitute a practical balance in which they may be duly weighed. 
 
 Dr. Herrick Johnson, in his sermon as Moderator of the last 
 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, said : "We are 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 53 
 
 threatened with a famine of the ministry. We have 5,744 
 churches, and, take eveTy pastor, stated supply, home and for- 
 eign missionary now in the field, and there are yet 2,000 churches 
 uncared for. Add all the retired ministers, presidents, profess- 
 ors, teachers, editors, etc., and there are still 601 churches with- 
 out a shepherd. In the last ten years one-third of the increase 
 in our ministry has been due to accessions from other denom- 
 inations. We are making less ministers than we made ten years 
 ago. The Church is losing her grip on the Christian colleges as 
 nurseries of ministerial candidates. 
 
 "What is the cause of the steadily lessening number of min- 
 isterial candidates? It is not the trials of the ministry, nor its 
 inadequate support ; not the inducement of brilliant prospects 
 in other callings, nor the intellectual demands made upon the 
 ministry; not the lack of adequate provision on the part of our 
 Church for collegiate education, nor chiefly the lack of general 
 Christian conversation. It is still the same peril I have talked 
 of — the peril o[ truth's perversion, of losing the spirit in the 
 form." 
 
 The Interior published Dr. Johnson's sermon, accompanied 
 with the following significant comments and portentous facts 
 and figures : 
 
 "We are losing ground. For ten years we have almost 
 every year declined from the record of the preceding year in 
 number of candidates for the ministry. 
 
 "Comparing the colleges for the past ten years presents a most 
 discouraging exhibit. The number of graduates is increasing, 
 but steadily the number of those who look toward the ministry 
 is decreasing. 
 
 "But the most astounding facts come into view in comparing 
 the number of candidates for the ministry from the different 
 sections of the church. Thus in the southern section, where 
 are the colored churches under the care of the Freedmen's 
 Board, and in the fo'reign field together, there is one candidate 
 to every two hundred and fifteen communicants ; in the western 
 section of the country there is one to every nine hundred and 
 sixty-six ; and in the eastern section one to every twelve hun- 
 dred and fourteen. That is to say, the colored churches and 
 
54 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 the foreign mission cliurches furnish nearly twenty per cent, of 
 the ministers ; while in the old Presbyterian centers, with more 
 than a hundred years of Presbyterian history, and a handy sup- 
 ply of the very best schools and colleges, the number of candi- 
 dates is alarmingly small, and steadily decreasing. Brooklyn 
 Presbytery, with almost twelve thousand communicants, has 
 only two candidates. Erie, with nearly eight thousand, has not 
 one candidate on the way to the ministry ; and the whole Synod 
 of Michigan, outside of Detroit, with more than ten thousand 
 communicants, has only one candidate." 
 
 A writer in the Atlantic Monthly, on "The Decline of Con- 
 gregationalism," shows that while the population of the United 
 States has increased twelve millions or thirty-three and a third 
 per cent., the Congregational Church has not kept pace with 
 this ratio, having increased only twenty-three per cent., or two 
 and three-tenths per cent, per annum, while some of the other 
 Protestant churches have increased more than twice as much 
 proportionally as the population of this country, and we might 
 add, that in this respect the Lutheran Church excels them all, 
 having increased during the last decade nearly one hundred per 
 cent. And that the proportionate decline in the membership 
 of the Congregational Church indicates a corresponding decline 
 in her candidates for the ministry, is evident from the gradual 
 decrease of their number in the graduating classes of Yale, and 
 the conclusion is that this decline is general as given in the fol- 
 lowing extract from the New York Observer : 
 
 "Of eighty-five professors of religion in the last graduating 
 class at Yale — there were in all 149 — only five express an in- 
 tention to study for the ministry. This is a very small number. 
 Does it not indicate on the part of young educated men, a de- 
 cline of interest in the ministerial profession ? It is far below 
 the average of former years, especially the early years of Ameri- 
 can colleges. We fear that the decline is general, and it is time 
 to ask the reason for it." 
 
 Nor is this decrease in the ministry confined to the orthodox 
 churches, but exists in a still greater degree among the Unitar- 
 ians, as indicated by the following statements made by a candi- 
 date for the ministry in Harvard : 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 55 
 
 "The decrease in the number of students who study for the 
 ministry is very marked. It seems strange that out of so many 
 young men, representing all classes of society, and every shade 
 of belief or unbelief, so few choose the work of advancing the 
 kingdom of God. Nothing can show the steady decrease so 
 forcibly as a few figures. Between 1642 and 1650, 53 per cent, 
 of the graduates entered the ministry. Between 1861 and 1870, 
 7 per cent. Down to 1701 the per cent, of graduates entering 
 the ministry was 52. In the eighteenth century it was 29 per 
 cent. In the first seven decades of the nineteenth century it 
 was 1 1 per cent. During the last ten years only 4 per cent, 
 have chosen the profession which we have in view. In my 
 class there were seven out of 177 graduates. Here is a falling 
 off in a ratio of 13 to i in two hundred years." 
 
 While America is threatened with a famine in the ministry, 
 Germany has been favored with a special ingathering. With 
 the recent revival of orthodoxy and evangelical piety, the num- 
 ber of candidates has greatly increased. In verification of this 
 gratifying fact, we quote the following testimony, taken from 
 the Sunday-School Tunes of July 7th : 
 
 "Now when the cry is going up from the theological seminar- 
 ies of the various denominations in America, that the supply of 
 ministers is falling short of the enlarged demand here, and that 
 even a smaller proportion of college graduates than formerly 
 is entering the ministerial profession, it is encouraging to look 
 away to what has happened in Germany, and what is now hap- 
 pening there. Germany has already passed through that state 
 of spiritual dearth wliich many are now fearing for this country. 
 There was a time when the cause of Christianity seemed to the 
 fearful to be almost lost in Germany. But within the past few 
 years a change for the better has showed itself. Sunday-schools 
 are spreading ; the cities are being stirred by evangelistic move- 
 ments; and the study of theology is once more attracting the 
 more scholarly youth of Germany. Since 1876, the number of 
 theological students in the nine Prussian universities has more 
 than doubled. Great as this increase is, it seems all the greater 
 when compared with the increase in other than the theological 
 faculties. The number of students of philosophy, and of law. 
 
56 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 in the Prussian universities, increased last year less than two 
 per cent, each ; and of medicine, less than fifteen per cent. ; 
 while the students of Roman Catholic theology increased in 
 number nearly ten per cent, and those of Protestant theology 
 more than twenty-one per cent. These figures would certainly 
 seem to show a return towards Christianity on the part of Ger- 
 man students; and they certainly mark a new stirring of the 
 spiritual life among the people. If it be true, as has been 
 claimed, that we haVe latterly taken our fashions in skepticism 
 and in theology from Germany, and that the present relative 
 falling off in the number of theological students is due to the 
 influence of that form of skepticism which is now going to 
 pieces in the country that gave it birth, what may we not look 
 for in the near future, now that Germany is setting us a better 
 fashion in the way in which the higher class of young men are 
 there pressing forward into the ministry of the Christian Church." 
 The following are the statistics of the Lutheran Church in 
 this country showing the number of candidates for the ministry 
 in her principal Theological Seminaries and Colleges. 
 
 GENERAL SYNOD NORTH. 
 
 In the eight district synods represented in the Theological 
 Seminary at Gettysburg there are 86,039 members. The num. 
 ber of students in the seminary, from these synods, is 26, and 
 from other sections of the Church 11, an aggregate of 37, of 
 whom 17 are beneficiaries. During the last ten years, the aver- 
 age number of theological students entering and leaving the 
 seminary is about 1 1, an aggregate of 1 10. 
 
 In the regular classes of Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg, 
 there are 107 students, of whom 47 are candidates for the min- 
 istry, which with 2 in the preparatory department, makes an 
 aggregate of 49. 
 
 In the Theological Department of the Missionary Institute, 
 at Selinsgrove, Pa., there are 13 students, of whom 6 receive aid 
 from the Church; and in the Classical Department there are 15 
 with the ministry in view. The number of ministers sent forth 
 from the institution during the last ten years is 47, of whom 30 
 were beneficiaries. 
 
THE CALL TO THE ML\ISTRY. 57 
 
 The number of communicants in the three synods in the States 
 of New York and New Jersey is 15,139. At Hartwick Semi- 
 nary, there are 5 students in the theological and 7 in the pre- 
 paratory department, who intend studying for the ministry. 
 Since 1876, 6 have entered the ministry, and 2 more will com- 
 plete their course this year. 
 
 The number of members in the five synods supporting Wit- 
 tenberg College is 19,606. The number of students in the the- 
 ological department of Wittenberg College is 7, and the num- 
 ber sent forth during the last ten years is 60. In the collegiate 
 department there are about 30 students who have resolved to 
 prepare themselves for the ministry, a total of 37. 
 
 There are six Lutheran synods in connection with Carthage 
 College, Illinois, containing 9,261 members. During the last 
 ten years, 5 young men from these synods have entered the 
 Lutheran ministry, and 2 that of other denominations, and there 
 were 5 students in Carthage College in 1882-3 who were can- 
 didates for the ministry, out of 26 in the classical department, 3 
 of whom were beneficiaries. 
 
 GENERAL SYNOD SOUTH. 
 
 The General Synod South numbers about 18,000 members. 
 All its district synods are formally pledged to the support of 
 the Theological Seminary at Salem, Va. There are 10 students 
 in the seminary, of whom 8 are beneficiaries^ The number of 
 theological students that have entered the seminary, since its 
 removal to Salem, ten years ago, is 54. Of the 100 students in 
 the regular classes of Roanoke College, 13 have the ministry 
 in view. In Newberry College, Newberry, S. C, there are 8 
 candidates for the ministry out of 25 students in the college 
 classes. 
 
 GENERAL COUNCIL. 
 
 The number of communicants in the General Council is 196,- 
 948. There are at present 52 students in the Theological Sem- 
 inary in Philadelphia. During tiie last ten years there were 
 graduated from this institution 148, and hospitants (students 
 taking an elective course, but not matriculated), 18. During 
 the last five years the Pennsylvania Synod supported 54 stu- 
 
58 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 dents in the Seminary in Philadelphia and 72 in Muhlenberg 
 College, a total of 126 — or an average of about 25 a year. 
 
 In the regular classes of Muhlenberg College there are 74 
 students, 39 of whom propose to devote themselves to the min- 
 istry. Thereare also 4 in the preparatory, making 43 in all. 
 
 Thiel College Greenville, Pa., has, since its organization thir- 
 teen years ago, furnished 25 ministers, and has 12 theological 
 students in the Philadelphia Seminary. There are at present 
 30 candidates for the ministry in the institution. In the col- 
 lege classes there are 43 young men, 23 of whom are candidates 
 for the ministry, 14 being self-supporting and 9 beneficiaries. 
 There are 12 candidates in the preparatory department, 9 of 
 whom are self-supporting and 3 beneficiaries. 
 
 The Swedish Augustana Synod numbers 50,991 communi- 
 cants. There are in the theological department of Augustana 
 College, at Rock Island, 111., 35 students, and in the collegiate 
 department there are 80 students, 50 of whom are designed for 
 the ministry. These all are supported by supplies and contri- 
 butions from the congregations. During the last ten years 103 
 candidates have been educated and ordained by the synod. 
 
 INDEPENDENT SYNODS. 
 
 The Joint Synod of Ohio has 50,600 members. There are 
 39 students in its Theological Seminary, at Columbus, O., about 
 two-thirds of whom receive support from the churches, and 90 
 ministers have been sent forth from it during the last ten years. 
 In Capital University there are 41 students in the college classes, 
 four-fifths of whom have the ministry in view. 
 
 The German Synod of Iowa has 25,000 members. Thereare 
 in the theological department of Mendota College 59 students, 
 all of whom, with rare exceptions, receive aid from the congre- 
 gations, and 17 in the gymnasium, nearly all of whom are pre- 
 paring for the study of theology. As the number of candidates 
 for the ministry furnished by the congregations of the synod, is 
 not adequate to provide them with pastors, from six to ten 
 young men, in various stages of preparation for the ministry, in 
 the gymnasia and theological institutions in Germany, are sent 
 to Mendota, where they complete their studies and enter the 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 59 
 
 mission field of the synod, mostly in the northwest. Nor is 
 this all. The Lutherans in Germany, with whom the Iowa 
 Synod keeps up an ecclesiastical correspondence, not only fur- 
 nish young men, but also provide the means to sustain them, 
 and one-third of the students in the seminary are supported 
 from the beneficiary treasury of Mecklenburg and the contribu- 
 tions of a few other congregations. 
 
 THE JOINT SYNOD OF MISSOURI. 
 
 The Missouri Synod has 185,000 members. In its principal 
 Theological Seminary, at St. Louis, Mo., there are 105 students, 
 two-thirds of whom are sustained by their parents or friends, 
 one-sixth by the congregations from which they come, and one- 
 sixth from a common beneficiary treasury. At their Pro-Theo- 
 logical Seminary, at Springfield, 111., there are 184 students. In 
 the Gymnasium (College), at Fort Wayne, Ind., there are about 
 200 students. In the five Pro-Gymnasia, or College Institutes, 
 there are I14 students, preparing for admission into the Gym- 
 nasium, at Fort Wayne. All the students last mentioned, 
 whether pursuing the regular course in college or preparing for 
 it in the collegiate institutes, are, with here and there an excep- 
 tion, preparing for the ministry. In their Teachers' Seminaries, 
 or Normal Schools, there are 156 students, preparing them- 
 selves as teachers in the parochial schools of the congregations. 
 These students also study theology to some extent, and are 
 thoroughly drilled in Dietrich's Catechism, the confessions of 
 our church, etc., and are pledged to the.se confessions in the call 
 extended to them, and are thus fitted to give proper instruction 
 in the catechism, Bible history, and kindred subjects. The sum- 
 mary of these statistics is as follows : Theological students, 289 ; 
 candidates for the ministry in course of preparation, 314; total, 
 603 ; students in Teachers' Seminaries, 156; grand total, 759. 
 
 The statistics above given, furnish the data for the following 
 comparative statements, showing that, other things being equal, 
 just in proportion as the true, or Lutheran theory of a call to 
 the ministry, has been adopted, and the Lutheran methods to 
 develop it have been carried out in the family, the parochial 
 school, the catechetical class, and the congregation, in that pro- 
 
6o THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY, 
 
 portion, has the number of the candidates for the ministry been 
 increased, and just in proportion as the prevalent theory has 
 been adopted, and the Lutheran view and methods abandoned, 
 in that proportion has the number of candidates for the ministry 
 decreased. 
 
 The General Synod North has 130,000 communicants, and 
 168 candidates for the ministry in its institutions, being i for 
 every 774 communicants. 
 
 The General Council, excluding the Augustana Synod, has 
 145,957 communicants and 130 candidates, being i for every 
 1,123 communicants. 
 
 The Swedish Augustana Synod of the General Council has 
 50,991 communicants and 85 candidates, being i for every 600 
 communicants. 
 
 The General Synod South has 18,000 communicants and 31 
 candidates, being i in every 581. 
 
 The Joint Synod of Ohio has 50,600 communicants and 71 
 candidates, being i for every 713. 
 
 The German Synod of Iowa has 25,000 communicants and y6 
 candidates, being i for every 330. 
 
 The Missouri Synod has 185,000 communicants and 603 can- 
 didates, being i for every 307 communicants. 
 
 The aggregate number of communicants in the synods named 
 above is 605,548, and the number of candidates for the ministry 
 1,164, oi* about I for every 520 communicants, revealing the 
 fact that the three European Synods — the Swedish Augustana, 
 the German Synod of Iowa, and the Missouri Synod — with 
 260,991 communicants, have 764 candidates, being i for every 
 342 communicants; and that the American Synods — the Gen- 
 eral Synods North and South, the General Council and the 
 Joint Synod of Ohio — with 344,557 members, have 400 candi- 
 dates, or one for every 861 communicants; and that the Mis- 
 souri Synod, with 185,000 communicants, has more candidates 
 for the ministry than the General Synod North and South, the 
 General Council, the Joint Synod of Ohio, and the German 
 Synod of Iowa combined, with 420,548 communicants. 
 
 The following comparative statements of the number of min- 
 isters sent out by the Lutheran ecclesiastical bodies mentioned 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 6l 
 
 above, during the last ten years, exhibits about the same rela- 
 tive proportion. 
 
 The General Synod North has sent forth from its institutions, 
 during the last ten years, 228 ministers, being one annually 
 for every 5700 communicants. 
 
 The General Council, not including the Swedish Augustana 
 Synod, has sent out during the same time 251, being one annu- 
 ally for every 7850. 
 
 The Swedish Augustana Synod has sent out 103, being one 
 annually for every 4950. 
 
 The General Synod South has sent out 54, being one annually 
 for every 3330. 
 
 The Joint Synod of Ohio has sent out 90, being one annually 
 for every 7850. 
 
 The German Synod of Iowa has sent out 70, being one an- 
 nually for every 3570. 
 
 The Missouri Synod has sent out about 500, being one an- 
 nually for every 3700. 
 
 In corroboration of the statements just made, we present the 
 following survey of the views and practices, prevalent in the 
 different Lutheran ecclesiastical bodies in the United States. 
 
 The General Synod, the oldest of the Lutheran general bod- 
 ies in America, has generally adopted the prevalent theory, and 
 its practice has been governed by it. Its results in the States 
 of New York and New Jersey, Prof. James Pitcher, Principal of 
 the Classical Department of Hartwick Seminary, describes as 
 follows : 
 
 "In 1876-7, there was but one young man from the synods in 
 the states of New York and New Jersey studying for the min- 
 istry, and he was in Pennsylvania College, at Gettysburg, and 
 has since taken a theological course and is now in the ministry. 
 In 1878-9 there were 4 students having the ministry in view at 
 Hartwick Seminary; in 1879-80, there were 1 1 ; in 1880-81, 
 there were 15 ; in 188 1-2, there were but 12 ; and this number 
 has been maintained in the last two years. There are at pres- 
 ent 3 candidates for the ministry from the State of New York, 
 studying in other literary and theological institutions." 
 
62 ' THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 In Pennsylvania and Maryland, Ohio and the adjacent States, 
 under the direct influence of Pennsylvania College and the The- 
 ological Seminary, the Missionary Institute and V/ittenberg 
 College, the best showing in that body is presented ; while in 
 the far West, on the territory of Carthage College, a more dis- 
 couraging exhibit is made. 
 
 In the English and Pennsylvania German churches of the 
 General Council the prevalent theory has also held the sway, 
 but the Lutheran theory is dominant in its German and Scandi- 
 navian churches; and while their influence, in this respect, is 
 making itself felt in the English churches, its ministerial statis- 
 tics indicate a marked and hopeful advance. And in this re- 
 spect, Thiel College, although but thirteen years old, presents a 
 remarkable ministerial record, which stands in striking contrast 
 with that of Carthage College, only a few years younger. 
 
 Scandinavian and German Lutheran bodies in this country- 
 have generally not only adopted the Lutheran theory, but also 
 developed it by Lutheran methods. The Swedish Augustana 
 Synod is a fair representative of the views and practices that 
 prevail among the Swedes and Norwegians. Dr. Hasselquist, 
 President of Augustana College and Seminary, Rock Island, Ills., 
 furnished us the data for the following statements. 
 
 Among the pious Scandinavian Lutheran families, many par- 
 ents are desirous that at least one of their sons shall serve the 
 Lord in his vineyard, and when they see such talents in them 
 as would fit them for the ministry, they encourage them to 
 study, in order that they may discover the will of God concern- 
 ing them. Teachers of the parochial schools pursue a similar 
 course with talented boys, and pastors do the same with their 
 catechumens ; and on this wise natural and spiritual traits, con- 
 stituting the marks of a call to the ministry, are discerned in 
 the boys and nurtured in the young men, culminating in a con- 
 viction that they are called to the ministry, and are sent forth 
 approved by parents, teachers and pastors. 
 
 Dr. Sigmund Fritschel, President of Mendota College and 
 Seminary, Illinois, gave us an interesting account of the opera- 
 tions of the German Lutheran Synod of Iowa, from which we 
 present the following digest ; 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 63 
 
 It is imposed upon pastors by the synod, as a duty, to look 
 out for talented and pious young men, giving promise of adap- 
 tation for the ministry, to confer with their parents on the sub- 
 ject, and to see to it, that they be sent to the College at Men- 
 dota. The younger boys of this class are first sent to the Teach- 
 ers' Seminary, at Beverly, la., where they are taught the rudi- 
 ments of an education, and such as develop the necessary traits 
 of mind and heart, and are then sent to the college and semi- 
 nary, at Mendota. Pious German Lutheran parents appreciate 
 the ministry, and are gratified when one or more of their sons 
 are deemed worthy to enter it, and such as are able, cheerfully 
 support them during their preparatory studies. The parochial 
 school, with its educated Christian teacher and positive religious 
 instruction in the catechism and the Scriptures, is also brought 
 into requisition, in discovering the elect sons of the congrega- 
 tion and pointing them out to the pastors, who, through a thor- 
 ough course of catechetical instruction, are able to test both 
 their talents and their piety, and to assist them in coming to a 
 just conclusion concerning their call to the ministry as a pro- 
 fession for life. 
 
 The Missouri Syn6d is the largest and wealthiest among our 
 German ecclesiastical bodies. It has adopted and carried out 
 in the most rigid manner and to the greatest extent the Luth- 
 eran theory of the ministry, and both the number and the char- 
 acter of the ministers they are calling out and educating, chal- 
 lenge special attention. 
 
 The teachers of the parochial schools have the best oppor- 
 tunity of finding out the most promising boys, and of calling 
 their attention to the work of the ministry. They also confer 
 with their parents on the subject, and encourage them to edu- 
 cate them for the holy ofifice. The general result of this whole 
 system of religious training in the family, the catechetical class 
 and the parochial school, in its bearing on the call to the min- 
 istry, is thus described by Rev. H. Walker, pastor of St. John's 
 German Lutheran church, York, Pa., to' whose kind offices we 
 are indebted for the statistics heretofore given and the facts sta- 
 ted above. "Although now and then," says he, "a boy does 
 not turn out as well as was expected, and must, therefore, be 
 
64 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 dismissed from the institution, yet, as a rule, they come up fully 
 to our expectations and hopes, and, by the grace of God, be- 
 come well educated, faithful ministers and teachers in church 
 and school." 
 
 The subjoined extract from a letter written by Dr. S. A. Re- 
 pass, Professor in the Southern Theological Seminary, after a 
 conversation had with him in Virginia last summer reveals the 
 true state of things in the Southern churches, and abounds with 
 such judicious reflections that we present them as the results of 
 his experience and observation for many years : 
 
 The points in^the conversation which you desired noted were 
 these : The small munber of yming men preparing for the min- 
 istry, and tl{e cause of this. As to the first, I had stated that 
 from one of the largest synods in our Southern Church only 
 one student was in the Seminary at Salem during the past year, 
 and one at Gettysburg ; that I could not at that time recall any 
 in our college who were preparing for the holy office ; that from 
 another synod there would be no representation the coming 
 session, and perhaps none the session of '84-85. • In another 
 of our synods only one student has been in the seminary here — 
 and none elsewhere — since it was transferred, a period of ten 
 years, although from this same synod come frequent appeals 
 for men. The same might be said, with very few exceptions, of 
 our Church in general in the South. Appalling as these state- 
 ments are, they apply, according to your own confession, to the 
 Lutheran Church in other portions of the country. In fact, as 
 large a proportion, perhaps somewhat larger, extending the 
 comparison over several years, enter the ministry from our 
 Southern Church as from any of the English portion of the 
 Church North. But we can find no comfort in such statistics. 
 Rather does the comparison increase our shame, in view of the 
 fact of the destitution facing us everywhere. 
 
 We spoke also of the cause of this state of things. There 
 must be something radically wrong in the system, or the one 
 now in operation is miserably worked. That a congregation 
 fifty or seventy-five years old should in all that time furnish no 
 candidates — and we know of some such — cannot be according 
 to the will of God, except, indeed, we interpret that will as a 
 
p- 
 
 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 65 
 
 judgment. The opinion was confidently expressed that there is 
 and has been most culcable neglect in our pastors in presenting 
 the claims of the ministry upon the Church. The opinion prac- 
 tically obtains that the Church has little to do in the matter 
 apart from authorizing those who apply, or in educating such 
 as make up their minds to the belief that they are called. The 
 view was expressed that the current notion on this subject did 
 not operate healthfully ; that it kept out of the ministry some 
 of our best young men ; that almost all who enter are depen- 
 dent upon the Church for help. Whilst not saying aught 
 against beneficiary education, there is certainly something ab- 
 normal in the facts as they present themselves, viz., that so very, 
 very {q^n of our ministers come out of our wealthier families. 
 It is wresting the word of God to quote here this, "not many 
 mighty, etc., are called," for there is no Scripture to warrant 
 the conclusion that God has excluded from the privilege and 
 honor of preaching the Gospel those who are able to educate 
 themselves. 
 
 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 The ministerial statistics of the Presbyterian Church, given 
 above, exhibit in an unmistakable manner, that the practical 
 tendency of the prevalent theory is, to decrease the number of 
 the candidates for the ministry, until the supply gives out and 
 famine prevails. That in such a Church, with its intelligence, 
 wealth, institutions, and educative funds, the number of candi- 
 dates for the ministry could run down to two, in the Presbytery 
 of Brooklyn with twelve thousand communicants, to one in the 
 Synod of Michigan with ten thousand, and to zero in the Pres- 
 bytery of Erie with eight thousand, proves beyond question, 
 that a theory under whose practical operation such results are 
 possible, cannot be the true one, and must prove disastrous to 
 the Church. And this exhibit becomes the more remarkable, 
 when it is considered, that this threatened famine in the minis- 
 try, has occurred in the largest, best equipped and most influ- 
 ential Calvinistic denomination in this country. And as, accord- 
 ing to the Calvinistic doctrine of election and grace, God not 
 only determines the individual number of the elect, but also the 
 
56 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 means by which they are effectually called and persevere unto 
 salvation, and as the calling of an adequate number of ministers 
 to preach the Gospel, through which every one of the elect must 
 be brought to a saving knowledge of the truth, is indispensable, 
 it would seem that God has either overlooked the pastoral 
 wants of his elect people, by calling so few ministers among 
 them through the direct influence of the Spirit, or' else it must 
 be concluded, either that those called did not understand the 
 import of the impulse of the Spirit, or that, understanding it, 
 they all with one consent made excuses, and refused to obey it. 
 
 The particularity of the prevalent theory accords, indeed, wi-th 
 the Calvinistic doctrine of a limited atonement and election, ac- 
 cording to which the number of the redeemed and elect is com- 
 paratively so small, that a correspondingly small number of 
 ministers is needed to preach to them the Gospel, and hence the 
 Spirit, who limits his effectual call to the few elect, confines his 
 direct call to the ministry to the very small number predesti- 
 nated as the elect ministers of Christ. But it cannot be made 
 to harmonize with the universality of the Lutheran doctrine of 
 the atonement, of the call of the Gospel, of the Spirit, and of the 
 priesthood of all believers, according to which, the Church is 
 bound to call forth and send out an adequate number of minis- 
 ters to preach the Gospel to every creature, in order that, ac- 
 cording to the universal purpose of God's free grace, none should 
 perish, but that all should be brought to repentance and salva- 
 tion. 
 
 The gradual diminution of the number of the ministry in the 
 Presbyterian and other Puritanic denominations, in America, 
 while it may well startle them, is not, when duly considered, at 
 all strange. It is the legitimate outgrowth of the prevalent 
 theory of a call to the ministry. In the natural world no end 
 can be rationally expected and attained, unless the adopted 
 means for its accomplishment are employed in a timely and 
 propitious manner. And the same law has been establislied in 
 the supernatural world. Conviction of sin, as an end, cannot 
 be expected on the part of the Spirit, the reprover of sin, unless 
 a knowledge of the truth concerning the law, as the means of 
 the Spirit, be made known by the Church. Faith in Christ, as 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 67 
 
 an end, cannot be reasonably expected, unless the truths con- 
 cerning the person and work of Christ, as the revealed instru- 
 mentality of the Spirit, be proclaimed by the Church. Should 
 the Church fall into the error, that the Spirit would reprove the 
 world of sin, and work faith in Christ directly, without the writ- 
 ten word, which he moved the holy men of God to reveal foj 
 this very purpose, and consequently neglect to promulgate it, 
 their hopes would be disappointed, and sinners remain in their 
 ignorance and unbelief And this is just the folly and incon- 
 sistency into which these churches have fallen, in adopting and 
 relying upon the prevalent theoi*^ for an adequate supply of 
 able and successful ministers, through the direct call of the 
 Spirit, instead of his indirect call, through the dissemination 
 and practical development by the Church of the truths revealed 
 in the Scriptures, and inspired by the Spirit, concerning the 
 qualifications which constitute the infallible mark of his call to 
 the ministry. 
 
 The family is the divinely appointed nursery of the ministry. 
 Those called to it are entrusted to parents for their education, 
 religious training, and judicious direction in matters pertaining 
 to their vocation and course of life. But how lamentably is all 
 this overlooked in most of our families ! Many parents neglect 
 the education of their children, or trust their religious instruc- 
 tion to others, fail to impress upon their minds the true object 
 of life, refuse to dedicate their gifted sons to the ministry, and 
 instead of urging upon them its claims, rather prejudice them 
 against it. And should any of their sons, under other influ- 
 •ences, resolve tAfttudy for the ministry, in spite of such inex- 
 cusable indifference, fathers not unfrequently refuse to support 
 them and even mothers turn a deaf ear to their entreaties for 
 help. And while they thus withhold their able bodied, strong 
 minded sons from the service of the Lord who made and bought 
 them with his blood, should one of them be possessed of a fee- 
 ble constitution and a weak mind, they prevail upon him to 
 choose the ministry, as an easy way of making a living. 
 
 In the patriarchal age, the first born son, in every family, was 
 set apart as the priest of the household, and in apostolic times, 
 it was believed that sons of some families were called to the 
 
68 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 ministry in every Christian congregation, but under the pre- 
 vailing theory of a call to the ministry, it occurs that, not only 
 in the great majority of families, but in scores of congregations, 
 yea, in whole synods, not a single candidate for the ministry is 
 brought out. 
 
 , The primitive churches embraced the true theory of a call to 
 the ministry. Accordingly they believed, that an adequate 
 number of men was called not only to supply each congrega- 
 tion with one or more pastors, but also to provide missionaries 
 to go forth, organize and supply other congregations. Under 
 this procedure, inaugurated "by Christ and his apostles, Christi- 
 anity was rapidly made "known through Palestine, Asia Minor, 
 Greece and Rome, and but for a departure from it, would long 
 ago have encompassed the habitable globe. Under the oppo- 
 site theory, it is believed, that in scores of congregations con- 
 taining many hundreds of talented and pious young men, only 
 here and there one, is called to the ministry, and it is regarded 
 neither as a reproach nor a calamity, that large and wealthy 
 congregations should send forth no candidates for the ministry, 
 during ten, twenty, fifty, years, yea, during their entire history. 
 
 Were but the lowest number, namely two, regarded as called 
 by the apostles who ordained "elders," in each of the primitive 
 churches, it would give the General Synod with its thirteen 
 hundred and fifty congregations twenty-seven hundred candi- 
 dates for the ministry; and the Lutheran Church in this coun- 
 try with its six thousand, three hundred churches, twelve thou- 
 sand six hundred young men called to the ministry. It would 
 revolutionize its aggressive character, enable it to supply all its 
 destitution at home and take its appropriate position in the 
 prosecution of the work of converting the world. 
 
 Parents on presenting their children to God obligate them- 
 selves to bring them up in the faitJi in which they were bap- 
 tized, in other words, they solemnly covenanted with God to 
 give them a Christian education. The nece.ssity and importance 
 of establishing parochial schools by Christian congregations, 
 and the duty of parents to see to it that their children receive a 
 thorough religious training in them, are both involved in In- 
 fant Baptism. In Europe full provision is made in this respect. 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 6g^ 
 
 and the parochial school was brought by our fathers to America, 
 and their establishment was enjoined by constitutional provision 
 upon every Lutheran congregation. A school-house became a 
 necessary appendage to every church. The Scandinavian and 
 the Germans, as we have seen, encourage their congregations 
 to establish and support parochial schools. The English Lu- 
 theran churches, and a goodly number of the Pennsylvania Ger- ' 
 man Lutheran congregations, have given up the parochial, and 
 availed themselves of the common schools, as their substitute. 
 But the best of these schools, in which the Bible is still read, 
 the Lord's Prayer repeated, and ^iristian hymns sung, are so 
 deficient in positive religious instructions, that they cannot pos- 
 sibly give a child even a general religious training, and those 
 schools from which the Bible has been excluded cannot be 
 styled Christian in any proper sense. The inconsistency of the 
 Church, in turning her baptized children over to the State, 
 which can give little more than a secular education, instead of 
 providing religious schools herself, and giving them a positively 
 Christian education, must be apparent to all. And the superfi- 
 cial notion, that our Sunday-schools constitute an adequate sub- 
 stitute for the common school, and that scarce an hour's reli- 
 gious instruction on Sunday can make up for its neglect during 
 all its school hours in the week, is proven to be deceptive by 
 the opinions and conduc^^ the children educated in these 
 schools. And the practical effect of the parochial and the com- 
 mon school systems on the number and character of our min- 
 istry, the reader will see by a comparison of the statistics fur- 
 nished by each as given heretofore. 
 
 The pulpit should not only be the guardian, but the efficient 
 propagator of the ministry. Its opportunities and advantages 
 for presenting, at proper times and in all manner of forms, the 
 truths concerning the call, character, service and blessed results 
 of the work of the ministry, and of urging its claims upon young 
 men, and its due appreciation upon all church members are so 
 numerous and great, that the expectation would naturally be 
 cherished, that they would do full justice to their own office. 
 But under the demoralizing influence of the prevalent theory of. , 
 
JO THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 a call to the ministry, its incumbents fold their hands and wait 
 for the Spirit to give the call, instead of looking out for the 
 marks of the call, in the talents and graces conferred, and of 
 making intelligent efforts to convince the young men possess- 
 ing them that they are called, and ought to devote themselves 
 to the ministry. And we question whether one of our minis- 
 ters in fifty has ever preached on the call to the ministry, and 
 urged its claims from the Lutheran standpoint. 
 
 The repeated and various forms in which the religious press 
 is adapted to present the Church and her service, the min- 
 istry and its claims, ChristSn nurture in the family, religious 
 training in the school, 'the value of a sanctified literature, 
 and the achievements made in the mission field of the world, 
 render it the most powerful agency, and efficient assistant to 
 parents, teachers, church officers and pastors, in disseminating 
 religious intelligence, calculated to awaken attention to the office 
 of the ministry, to exhibit its true characteristics, to incite efforts 
 on its behalf, and to induce many young men to choose it as their 
 profession for life. But so illiterate and penurious are many 
 of our church members, that they can neither appreciate the 
 character, nor estimate the value of a first-class church paper to 
 themselves and their households, and as a consequence not more 
 than one family out of four or five, and not more than one mem- 
 ber in fifteen or twenty, can be induced to take the Observer. 
 In these families the door is barred to all religious intelligence, 
 and as the parents know little or nothing about the Church and 
 her work, they take little or no interest in it, and as the sons 
 read nothing about the ministry, and hear nothing but com- 
 plaining and disparaging criticisms of their pastor, they lose 
 all respect for the office and never entertain even a thought, 
 tnat the talents and graces conferred upon them, would enable 
 them to render God service in the ministry and that it is their 
 duty to prepare for and prosecute it as their life work. 
 
 That God has not discriminated in favor of the sons of the 
 wealthy, to the disparagement of those of the poor, in confer- 
 ring constitutional and gracious endowments, and that he has, 
 * .consequently, called many poor as well as rich young men into 
 the ministry, needs no proof That all such require both liter- 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 7 1 
 
 ary and theological culture for the successful prosecution of its 
 work is equally apparent. The necessity of providing the 
 means for the education of indigent, talented, and pious young 
 men, becomes consequently, manifest, and the duty of contribut- 
 ing to this cause to such a degree that no worthy candidate 
 possessing the evident marks of God's call imprinted upon his 
 intellectual, physical and moral constitution need be rejected. 
 
 Notwithstanding this, the contributions of the churches have 
 been for many years inadequate to educate the acceptable can- 
 didates presenting themselves, under the operation of the preva- 
 lent theory of a call to the ministrj^, to say nothing of the scores 
 and hundreds of young men, endowed with the necessary quali- 
 fications, who might have been brought out by proper eflbrts, 
 and educated for the ministry, according to the true theory, if 
 the means had been provided. But so large has been the num- 
 ber of beneficiaries, who proved failures, on account of their im- 
 proprieties in conduct as students, deficiency of intellect, blem- 
 ishes of character, slowness of speech, and lack of common 
 sense, as to bring the whole system into disrepute, in spite of 
 the large numbers, educated by the Church, who have proven 
 themselves worthy and successful ministers of Christ. In the 
 discussion of the subject, thus called forth, some have suggested 
 that the Church should provide for the education of large num- 
 bers of her young men, and then select those possessed of the 
 requisite abilities, and endeavor to convince them of their call 
 to the ministry. Others have maintained, that the temptations 
 held out to young men to choose the ministry as a means of 
 obtaining an education and bettering their chances for life, are 
 so strong and the number of tliose who failed to refund the 
 money advanced them for their education, after they had be- 
 come able to do it, so great, that this plan had better be aban- 
 doned as found wanting. 
 
 Two years ago, the Pennsylvania Synod abandoned the sys- 
 tem 'of beneficiary education, as such, and now only advances 
 money to such as need and apply for assistance, taking their 
 notes, without interest, and relying upon their honor to refund 
 the sums loaned, after they enter the ministry. The result, 
 thus far, has been, that the number of applicants has been' 
 
72 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 greatly reduced, an illustration of which is found in the five can- 
 didates of the Freshman class of Muhlenberg College, not one 
 of whom has applied for aid and all of whom support them- 
 selves. But so long as the Church fails to select her candidates, 
 according to the marks of a call pointed out by the Scriptures, 
 and waits until those claiming to have received a direct call 
 from the Spirit, offer themselves, these failures will be repeated, 
 in spite of any other expedients that may be adopted, arid the 
 discrepancy between the number of the laborers and the extent 
 of the harvest continue. 
 
 Self-protection has compelled the churches, in a measure, at 
 least, to discredit the reliability of the direct call, and by sub- 
 jecting all applicants for aid, to a preparatory course of train- 
 ing at their own expense, adequate to fit them for College, and 
 without which, as a practical test, they cannot be received on 
 the funds of the synod, the result of which has been, that the 
 number of applicants has been considerably reduced. For ex- 
 ample, in the East Pennsylvania Synod, with 13,616 communi- 
 cants, there was but one candidate for the ministry, who applied 
 for assistance. There was, consequently a balance of more than 
 $2,200 in the beneficiary treasury, awaiting applicants, and no 
 assessment was, accordingly made for beneficiary education in 
 1883-4. And when it is recollected that this synod includes 
 the cities of Philadelphia, Lancaster, Harrisburg, Pottsville, 
 Reading, Allentown, and Easton, the outlook for the supply 
 of ministers is not reassuring. And although the above require- 
 ment was a step in the right direction, the system cannot be re- 
 lieved of all defects, until the true theory of a call to the min- 
 istry be restored, and the Church select her candidates, instead 
 of accepting those who offer themselves, footing the bills, and 
 taking all the risk. 
 
 The beneficiary system, in its practical results, has not only 
 made itself liable to objections such as have just been referred 
 to, but it has become the occasion of a wide spread impression 
 that the Church must get her candidates for the ministry from 
 the families of the poor and educate them at her expense, while 
 the majority of families of the wealthy refuse, on this account, 
 to induce their talented and pious sons to devote themselves 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 73 
 
 to the ministry, and educate them rather for any other profes- 
 sion. In corroboration of these statements, we present the fol- 
 lowing statistics, showing what proportion of the students in 
 our theological, and of the candidates in our literary institu- 
 tions, come from our wealthy families and support themselves, 
 and what proportion are drawn from the families of the poor, 
 and are supported by the Church. 
 
 Ten years ago, the startling fact was stated to us by Dr. J. A. 
 Brown, that there was not a single theological student in the 
 seminary at Gettysburg, who was supported by his parents or 
 friends, and that all were beneficiaries. It is matter of gratifica- 
 tion that a marked improvement has taken place in this respect 
 since that time. Of the 37 theological students now at Gettys- 
 burg, 20 are supported by their parents, and 17 are benefici- 
 aries. Of 49 candidates for the ministry in Pennsylvania College, 
 25 are beneficiaries. Of 13 theological students at the Mission- 
 ary Institute, 7 are self-supported, and 6 receive aid from the 
 churches. Of 15 candidates in the classical department lO sup- 
 port themselves and 5 are beneficiaries. Of 7 students in the 
 tlieological department of Wittenberg College, 3 support them- 
 selves and 4 are beneficiaries, and of 30 candidates in the col- 
 lege 1 5 are self-supported, and 1 5 are beneficiaries. In Carthage 
 College of the 5 candidates for the ministry, 2 are self-supported 
 and 3 are beneficiaries. In the German Theological Seminary 
 at Chicago, 7 students are reported, all of whom receive assis- 
 tance from the Church. At Hartvvick Seminary, of 12 candi- 
 dates for the ministry, one-half are supposed to be self-support- 
 ing and one-half beneficiaries. [Estimated.] Of 52 theological 
 students in the Philadelphia Seminary, 32 are self-supported, 
 and 20 are sustained by different synods. Of 43 candidates in 
 Muhlenberg College, 23 are supported by themselves, and about 
 20 by the synods. In Thiel College, out of 35 candidates for 
 the ministry, 23 are self-supporting, and 12 beneficiaries. In 
 Augustana Seminary, at Rock Island, there are 36 theological 
 students, and in the college about 50 candidates, all of whom 
 are supported by the churches, but pay their own tuition. Of 
 10 theological students in the Seminary at Salem, Va., but 2 are 
 self-supported and 8 are beneficiaries. Of 13 candidates for the 
 
74 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 ministry in Roanoke College, 4 are self-supported, and 9 receive 
 aid from the Church and the college. In Newberry College, S. 
 C, there are 8 candidates, 5 of whom are self-supported, and 3 
 are beneficiaries. Of 59 theological students in the Mendota 
 Seminary, and 17 candidates for the ministry in the Gymnasium 
 of the German Synod of Iowa, hardly any are supported by 
 their parents, and nearly all are sustained by the churches. Of 
 39 students in the Seminary at Columbus, O., 13 are self-sup- 
 ported, and 26 are beneficiaries, and of 45 candidates for the 
 ministry in Capital University, 17 are self-supported, and 31 are 
 assisted by the Synod of Ohio. Of 105 theological students in 
 the Concordia Seminary, at St. Louis, about two-thirds, or 70, 
 are self-supported, and one-third, or 35, assisted by the churches, 
 and of 184 theological students in the Pro-Seminary at Spring- 
 field, 111., about two-thirds or 192 support themselves, and one- 
 third or 97 are supported by the churches, and of 200 candi- 
 dates for the ministry in the Gymnasium at Fort Wayne, and 
 114 in the Pro-Gymnasia about one-half, or 157 are self-sup- 
 ported, and the other half, or 157, are supported by congrega- 
 tions, and the general beneficiary fund. Total, 349 who educate 
 themselves, and 254 who are educated by the Missouri Synod. 
 The following summary exhibits the proportion of the theo- 
 logical students in the seminaries, and the candidates for the 
 ministry in the colleges who are supported by their parents and 
 those who are sustained by the Church in the several ecclesi- 
 astical bodies mentioned above. In the institutions of the Gen- 
 eral Synod (North) of 173, 87 are self-supporting, and 86 are ben- 
 eficiaries. In those of the General Council — not including the 
 Swedish Augustana Synod — of 120 students, yd> are self-sup- 
 porting, and 52 are beneficiaries. In the Swedish Augustana 
 Synod there are 85 theological students and candidates all of 
 whom are supported by the churches — their tuition excepted. 
 In those of the General Synod (South) of 31 candidates for the 
 ministry, 1 1 are self-supported and 20 are beneficiaries. In those 
 of the Joint Synod of Ohio, there are 87 candidates of whom 30 
 are self-supported and 57 beneficiaries. In those of the German 
 Synod of Iowa there are 76 candidates, nearly all of whom are 
 supported by the churches. And of 603 candidates for the 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 75 
 
 ministry in the institutions of the Missouri Synod 349 support 
 themselves and 254 are sustained by congregations and the 
 general beneficiary treasury. 
 
 Revivals of religion have marked the development of the 
 Church in America. They consist of the simultaneous conver- 
 sion of many persons, under the appropriate use of the appointed 
 means of grace. And although unscriptural methods have been 
 resorted to in promoting them, and spurious religious excite- 
 ments have abounded, genuine revivals constitute the promised 
 seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and their 
 fruits, tried by the tests of Scripture, will compare favorably 
 with those gathered through the regular preaching of the word 
 and the instructions of the youth in the catechetical class. The 
 bearing of revivals of religion cannot therefore be overlooked 
 in the discussion of our subject. 
 
 In revivals many persons are converted in a comparatively 
 short period of time, a due proportion of whom are young men. 
 The first impulses of the new born soul are characterized by 
 benevolence, prompting to usefulness. The claims of the min- 
 istry are frequently presented, at such times, in various forms 
 by ministers and others, and the question of highest usefulness 
 decided by many in its favor. 
 
 This is especially the case in college revivals, where the sub- 
 jects are all young men, most of whom have not yet determined, 
 in the light of conscience and the word of God, what their life- 
 work shall be. It was our privilege to preach series of dis- 
 courses, five times to the students of Pennsylvania, three times 
 to those of Wittenberg, and once to those of Roanoke College, 
 in which about three hundred young men turned unto the Lord, 
 more than one hundred of whom devoted themselves to the min- 
 istry, and the majority of them are still alive and doing good 
 service in the cause of Christ. The examples cited by Prof. 
 Tyler in his Prize Essay on Prayer for Colleges, prove beyond 
 all cavil'the importance and value of college revivals, in replen- 
 ishing the ranks of the ministry. 
 
 Ministers, as spiritual fathers and the religious teachers of the 
 people, render them the most useful and valuable service, and 
 deserve at their hands the highest consideration. Accordingly 
 
jd THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 the Scriptures enjoin upon all the members of the Church to 
 esteem their pastors very highly, to receive "with meekness the 
 ingrafted word," to submit to their .rule in the Lord, to cooper- 
 ate with them in every good word and work, and to pray for, 
 and to render them a just and adequate support. And while 
 the performance of each of these duties will add something to 
 the comfort and usefulness of a pastor, the combined result of 
 obeying them all will be to invest the ministerial ofifice with 
 its legitimate functions, rights and emoluments, and exhibit it 
 in its true and scriptural light. Just in proportion as this is 
 done, will the office of the ministry appear desirable and attrac- 
 tive to young men, and just in proportion as the ministry is re- 
 garded with disrespect, its counsels unheeded, its authority de- 
 spised, and its support stinted, will the office appear repulsive 
 and young men be deterred from entering it. When such un- 
 justifiable burdens are added to the ordinary privations and 
 trials of the ministry, it is not to be wondered at that the office 
 must go begging, and that the great majority of thoughtful 
 young men can without compunction of conscience disregard 
 the command of Christ : "Son, go work to day in my vineyard." 
 And as the prosperity of the Church depends upon the number 
 and character of her ministers, their proper treatment or their 
 cruel neglect become important factors in determining the meas- 
 ure of the supply and the extent of the deficiency in the ranks 
 of the ministry. And a proper regard for or disregard of the 
 ministers affects God himself, who, while he promises to call an 
 adequate number of laborers into the harvest, on condition, in- 
 volving the proper treatment of his servants, he on the other 
 hand threatens to remove the candlesticks from the churches 
 that refuse to hear, honor and maintain his messengers, as the 
 lights of the world. 
 
 The bearing of the inadequacy of ministerial support, upon 
 the supply of the ministry, is so direct and telling, that we can- 
 not forbear calling attention to it. God made ample provision 
 for the maintainance of the priests and the levites, and Christ de- 
 clared that the laborer was worthy of his hire, and that those 
 who preach the Gospel should live from the Gospel. And yet, 
 so little are the principle and command of Christ heeded by the 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. yj 
 
 churches, that the great majority of ministers obtain an inade- 
 quate support, and but few receive such salaries as to be able to 
 provide for themselves and families during their active service, 
 as well as when disabled by sickness and the infirmities of age. 
 And the effect of this injustice, and consequent want and suffer- 
 ing, upon parents and their gifted sons is such, that fathers are 
 tempted to dissuade their sons from choosing, and the sons from 
 considering the claims of the ministry. 
 
 The following extract from the letter of Dr. John Hall, called 
 out by the threatened famine of the ministry in the Presbyter- 
 ian Church, is strikingly in point here : 
 
 "We are a people growing in wealth more rapidly than any 
 other. We have our largest church served by a ministry with 
 an average income of about ^500 a year. We have thrown 
 away the principle and the burdens of an "establishment," and 
 we have a clergy in whose straits and privations the writer of 
 touching columns finds the readiest material for rousing cheap 
 sympathy. 
 
 "We in the religious world are lamenting — I had almost said 
 whining — over a deficient supply of candidates for the ministry, 
 and we are making things artificially and unhealthily easy for 
 such as come ; and side by side with our joy over ten millions 
 of communicants is the pitiful tale of domestic distress and 
 pinching poverty in the homes of those who minister to these 
 millions. 
 
 We invite the sons of such men as can educate their boys at 
 their own cost, as physicians, lawyers, artists, engineers, some- 
 times sending them to Europe for greater advantages — we in- 
 vite them to the ministry, practically telling them in our litera- 
 ture and our life that we shall reckon closely the minimum on 
 which they can live, and "retire" them without pension when 
 they have passed their prime. And we wonder that they do 
 not come to our seminaries. We may tell them, indeed, that 
 the disciple has to take up his cross ; but the average American 
 youth has sense enough to know that ministers are not specially 
 singled out for the cross ; that it is for all ; and that it is possi- 
 ble to serve God faithfully without being in the ministry. And 
 
J% THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 SO they stay away, and we have to adopt exceptional methods 
 to draw good and educated men into this profession." 
 
 Of the same tenor are the following remarks made by Dr. 
 Thomas Guthrie ; 
 
 "The calamity which I stand in dread of, and which is next to 
 the withdrawal of the divine blessing, the greatest a church can 
 suffer, is that the rising talent, genius, and energy of our coun- 
 try may leave the ministry of the Gospel for other professions, 
 'A scandalous maintenance,' Matthew Henry says, 'makes a 
 scandalous ministry.' And I will give you another equally 
 true. 'The poverty of the parsonage will develop itself in the 
 poverty of the pulpit.' I have no doubt about it. Genteel 
 poverty, to which some ministers are doomed, is one of the 
 great evils under the sun. To place a man in circumstances 
 where he is expected to be generous and hospitable, to open 
 his hand as wide as his heart to the poor, to give his family 
 good education, to bring them up in what is called genteel life, 
 and to deny him the means of doing so is enough, but for the 
 hope of heaven, to embitter existence. 
 
 "In the dread of debt, in many daily mortifications, in harrass- 
 ing fears what will become of his wife and children when his 
 head lies in the grave, a man of cultivated mind and delicate 
 sensibilities has trials to bear more painful than the privations of 
 the poor. It is a bitter cup, and my heart bleeds for brethren 
 who have never told their sorrows, concealing under their cloak 
 the fox that gnaws at their vitals." 
 
 In natural husbandry, the forces of nature must be brought 
 into contact with the germ or life force in order to secure ger- 
 mination, growth and fructification. And analogy requires the 
 same procedure in spiritual husbandry. In order that the 
 Spirit may call a soul into the kingdom of God, through a su- 
 pernatural begetment and spiritual birth, it becomes indispen- 
 sable that the truth, as the incorruptible seed of regeneration be 
 brought, by the Church, in contact with the mind, heart, con- 
 science and will in the formation of a new creature in Christ 
 Jesus. For the Church to expect such results, by the direct 
 inward illumination of the Spirit, without the written word, as 
 the enthusiasts maintain, would prove a delusion and a snare 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 79 
 
 and fill her folds with hypocrites and fanatics. Notwithstand- 
 ing the number and character of the passages, pertaining to 
 the call, qualifications and work of the ministry, contained in the 
 Scriptures, their adaptation so to impress the faculties ot the 
 soul as to develop the conviction of a call to the ministry, and 
 the corresponding practice of Christ and the apostles in calling 
 out those who bore the marks of a call, and setting them to 
 work in the kingdom of God, the Church in this country, un- 
 der the inflluence of the prevalent theory, has settled down into 
 a state of indifference in regard to the call to and supply of the 
 ministry. Scarcely any interest is taken in the subject, and 
 little or no sense of obligation is felt by any one, to make an 
 intelligent effort to impart information and to endeavor to con- 
 vince any talented and pious young man of his call to the min- 
 istry. 
 
 All the agencies of the Church, which ought to be brought 
 into requisition in bringing the truths concerning the call to the 
 ministry, its qualifications and work, in contact with the minds 
 and hearts of young men, are derelict in duty and greatly at 
 fault. In most households God is not recognized at the family 
 altar, and the claims of the ministry are shut out from the con- 
 sideration of the baptized sons of the Church. In the con- 
 gregation the prayer : "Lord send forth laborers into thy har- 
 vest," is seldom if ever heard in a prayer meeting or in the 
 pulpit ; no elder, deacon or member thinks that he has anything 
 to do with looking out for the marks of a call to the ministry 
 in young men, and very few of the largest and wealthiest con- 
 gregations contribute enough money to sustain regularly even 
 one candidate for the ministry. The Sunday-school teacher be- 
 comes the substitute of the parents in imparting religious in- 
 struction, and the Common School and the State University 
 take the place of the parochial school and the Christian Col- 
 lege, in the education of the sons of many church members, and 
 from neither do they ever hear a word about the office of the 
 ministry, and their obligations in regard to it. ' In the pulpit, 
 discourses on the call to the ministry are seldom, and in many 
 never heard, and all references to it are so tinctured with mys- 
 tical representations about the call of the Spirit, that no Scrip- 
 
80 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 tural impression is made thereby, either on parents, young men, 
 church officers or members. And the church paper, however 
 highly it might be freighted with instruction on the call to and 
 work of the ministry is voluntarily shut out of tens of thousands 
 of the homes of professed church members, and whose sons 
 never receive a ray of light on this great subject. And while 
 the foregoing presents a glance at the negative side of the sub- 
 ject, its positive side must not be-overlooked. Beneficiary Edu- 
 cation, by perversion from its true design, becomes the means 
 of drawing an undue proportion of the sons of poor families in- 
 to the ministry, and the occasion to the rich to withhold an 
 undue proportion of their sons from the ministry, so that not one 
 of our wealthy and cultured families in a hundred, yea, scarce 
 one in a thousand, has a representative in the ministry of the 
 Church. So great has the dread of spurious revivals, with their 
 unscriptural methods become, that no prayers are offered and 
 intelligent efforts made to promote genuine ones, and thus 
 these prolific sources of ministerial supply have been cut off. 
 And so inconsiderate and unkind has the treatment of the min- 
 istry been on the part of many congregations, so inadequate 
 the salaries paid them, and so onerous the trials and sorrows to 
 which they and their families have been subjected, that the min- 
 isterial office, high and noble as it is, has been divested of its 
 true attractions, and is shunned rather than chosen by many 
 gifted and thoughtful young men. In a word, under the de- 
 moralizing influence of the prevalent theory, the niinistry re- 
 ceives little consideration anywhere, and is ruled out almost 
 everywhere. The relative merits of the prevalent and true the- 
 ories of a call to the ministry are not thoroughly discussed in 
 our theological seminaries, and our ministers are sent out, either 
 with no definite views on the subject, or with mystical and un- 
 Lutheran proclivities. The professors in our colleges and the 
 teachers in our classical preparatory schools, who possess the 
 best opportunities for discovering such gifts of mind, heart and 
 speech, as give promise of adaptation for, and indicate a call to 
 the ministry, do not avail themselves of them, and students, af- 
 ter years of daily intercourse, pass from under their care, with- 
 out having been spoken to on the subject of the ministry, or its 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 8 I 
 
 claims as a profession for life urj^ed upon them. And education 
 committees have given so much weight to the account given 
 them by applicants for aid, of the time, place, circumstances and 
 manner in which the Holy Spirit called them to the ministry, 
 that they accept them without demanding such other corrobor- 
 ative evidences as the Spirit requires those to furnish, whom he 
 has called, according to his own testimony given in the Scrip- 
 tures. And so much veneration have they for this mystic call 
 of the Spirit, and so much do they stand in dread of keeping 
 one of God's elect out of the ministry, that they continue appli- 
 cants on the funds from year to year, whose deficiencies of tal- 
 ents, grace and gifts of speech, have become notorious among 
 their class-mates and fellow-students, if not to their teachers in 
 the college and their professors in the seminary. Furthermore, 
 the prevalent theory has paralyzed all the springs of intelligent 
 effort in calling out the elect sons of God into the ministry of 
 the Church, while she has folded her hands, and watched with 
 complacent inactivity for a larger increase in the number of 
 ministers, through the mystic call of the Holy Spirit. The 
 question concerning the call and supply of the ministry has 
 been taken out of the department of the origination and use of 
 adapted means for the attainment of spiritual and ecclesiastical 
 ends, and removed to the sphere of inspiration and of mysti- 
 cism, in which enthusiasts are engaged in endeavoring to dis- 
 cover by dreamy introspection, the inner call to the ministry. 
 It ought not, therefore, to awaken surprise, that so few of the 
 pious and gifted young men of the Church have entered the 
 ministry, but rather excite wonder that so many have devoted 
 themselves to it ; that so large a proportion of them have by 
 their ability, fidelity and success, given full proof of their minis- 
 try, and received the divine seal of the legitimacy of their call 
 and investiture of the sacred office. 
 
 APPEAL TO THE ELECT YOUNG MEN OF THE CHUKCH. 
 
 Redemption presents the greatest of all subjects, the Bible is 
 the most wonderful revelation, and the ministry the first of all 
 professions. Its great theme is "Christ and him crucified." Its 
 special work the moral recovery of man. Its ultimate end the 
 
82 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 salvation of a lost world. Its Exemplar was Jesus Christ. It 
 has been graced by prophets and apostles. To its service illus- 
 trious men "of whom the world was not worthy," have devoted 
 their lives. In its prosecution martyrs have died. And among 
 its supernatural associates, angelic messengers as ministering 
 spirits, sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation, are found. 
 
 The Church is "the pillar and ground of the truth," the bearer 
 of the redemption powers, designed to recover to holiness and 
 happiness a ruined world. The Lutheran Church constitutes 
 the most numerous Protestant branch. Her origin marks the 
 greatest era of modern history, and her ecclesiastical achieve- 
 ments stamp her with renown. Reorganized after the model of 
 the apostolic and primitive Church, her distinguishing charac- 
 teristics doctrinal, liturgical, governmental and ceremonial, place 
 her mid-way between ecclesiastical extremes, and, in their com- 
 ■ bination and consistent development, constitutes her a great and 
 glorious Church. And the service to which she calls her sons 
 is, therefore, at once, the most interesting, useful, happifying 
 and ennobling, and the field of labor to which she invites them 
 in America, is wider in extent, richer in material, and more 
 promising in results, than that opened to the sons of any other 
 denomination in this land. God by creation has conferred upon 
 hundreds and thousands of the young men in the Lutheran 
 Church, the natural talents, by Redemption, the spiritual graces, 
 and by Providence, furnished the means and opportunity to pre- 
 pare themselves for the work of the ministry. The considera- 
 tions presented to them in this article, prove that the question 
 of vocation must be determined by highest usefulness, and as 
 the ministry stands unrivaled in this respect, those endowed 
 with the necessary qualifications, bear the marks of the call to 
 the ministry, and are morally bound to devote themselves to it. 
 Upon the conscience of all such, we lay, with mountain weight, 
 the call of the Lord of Glory to enter the great harvest, and as- 
 sist in gathering it into the garner of heaven. 
 
 Let them not magnify its labors and trials, nor overestimate 
 its difficulties, but let them study its claims, until, with Paul, 
 they are constrained to cry out, "Necessity is laid upon me, yea, 
 woe is me if I preach not the Gospel." Let them not consult 
 
THE CALL TO THE MINISTRV. 8^ 
 
 with flesh and blood, but respond to the Master's call, prepare 
 thoroughly for his work, prosecute it with fidelity and perse- 
 verance, bear hardness as good soldiers of the cross, and they 
 will enjoy the approbation of conscience, the esteem of men, and 
 the favor of God. And, finally, after a triumphant death, they 
 will be recognized and greeted, at the general resurrection, as 
 the deliverers of those whom they were instrumental in bringing 
 to the knowledge of the truth ; and in presenting them as the 
 trophies of their ministerial labors, each one may exultingly ex-' 
 claim : "Here, Lord, am I, and children that thou hast given me," 
 to which he will respond : "Well done, good and faithful ser- 
 vant ; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make 
 thee ruler over many things, enter thou into the joy of thy 
 Lord." "They that be wise, shall shine as the brightness of 
 the firmament ; and they that turn many to righteousness as 
 the stars for ever and ever." 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page lo line 5, for ''prevailing" read "preaching." 
 
 Page 24 line 5, for '^teaching" read "preaching" 
 
 Page 24 line 13, for "that in the word" read "the preaching of the word" 
 
 Page 65 line 2, for t'culcable" read "culpable." 
 
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