THE OFFICE AND
OF A
CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
BY STEPHIEN IT. TYNG, D.D.,
RECTOR OF ST. GEORGE'S CURCII IN TIE CITY OF NEW YOR.
PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF TIIE STUDENTS AND FACULTY OF TE'
SCHIOOL OF THEOLOGY LI TIIE BOSTON UNIVERSITY.
NEWV YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
1874.
DUTY
I. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by
HIARPER  &  BROTIItrs,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
- I
X,,. 
,  
t;=_  \  Go I c
X v )
THE
OFFICE AND DUTY OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
LECTURE I.
September 29, 1S73.
AT the request of the authorities of the Boston
University, I am here to address students preparing
for the Christian ministry in the SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY Of this promising and important Institution.
The subject proposed for my consideration is the
practical one, which comes under the title of PASTOrAL THEOLOGY. I have accepted this invitation with
much pleasure, both as a token of the personal confidence and respect which it expresses, and as an occasion to manifest my abiding interest in young men
so occupied, and my cordial sympathy with this noble foundation for the promotion of evangelical
truth among the influential and intelligent population of this city.
It has been one of the joys of my life to mingle
in the mutual offices of edification, encouragement,
At 
TIlE OFFICE AND DUTY
and sympathy with "all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." Under the providence of
our common heavenly Guide, my own ministry has
been pursued in that old Church of the Reformation,
one of the fruits and progeny of which is the active
and widespreading Christian body to which this
school of theology belongs.  But I gratefully acknowledge "one body" among all thie disciples of
our gracious redeeming Lord; and in this assembly
I feel myself in reality as much at home as if I had
as openly taken the arm of Wesley, as I have truly
desired to imbibe the spirit and to exercise the power
of Whitefield, in the great purpose and warfare on
earth, in which both were so equally and truly engaged.
The direct object and purpose of my present personal effort among the young servants of Christ, to
whom I now address myself, is not to bring any
scheme of mere dogmatic theology, or to make any
attempt at learned or critical course of theoretic instruction. I have been invited to give them, on the
general subject proposed to me, some of the results
of my own observation and experience in a long and
active life in the Christian ministry; as a familiar
testimony of facts, rather than as a preconceived
8 
OF A CIIRISTIAN PASTOIl.
theory of opinion: and this I shall desire and endeavor to do.
Miore than fifty-three years of active ministry, forty-four of whichl have been passed in the two great
cities of Philadelphia and New York,]have certainly
given me large opportunities for such observation
and experience in this most important field of social
and religious life.  And much ought to have been
gathered from such a field which might be made
usefuLl to younger brethren in this comprehensive and
all-important worlk.
A life so active and occupied has given little opportunity for those collateral and incidental pursuits
in literary and scientific attainmnent which are the
delight of the educated mind, and the peculiar claim
and distinction of the age in wlich we live. The
successful professional man becomes habitually too
exclusively professional to allow himself the relaxation of much diversion, or to permit the distinction
of eminence in any walks of mental research beyond
the limits of his own selected path.  iUnder this constant pressure, I have been compelled to say, in the
language of the great apostle, "This one thing I do."
But I have found a life so organized and occupied a
most happy sequestration of time' and thought, of
A 2
9 
THE OFFICE AND DUTY
energy and means of influence, when thus completely
given to ministering to my fellow-men, "both publiely and from house to house, the unsearchable riches
of Christ."
Some of the results and acquisitions of such a life
I have been requested to give to you, my younger
brethren in Christ. This I shall endeavor to do in a
manner perfectly simple and conversational; and with
some illustrations in facts, which must be considered
unavoidable, and will be regarded perhaps as not altogether undesirable, in the line of thought and suggestion which I have been requested here to exhibit
and impress.
In. carrying out this effort, I shall assume an entire
unity of general sentiment and purpose with me
among those to whom I particularly speak. As an
earlier traveler in the road of our united selection, I
come back to aid, if I may, those who are following
me, by telling them something of the path as I have
found it; some of the things which I have seen and
learned upon the road; and some of the joys and
trials, the mistakes and the means of safety and success, which I hlave met; as prepared for others who
travel it with a sincere, upright, and earnest spirit.
Fifty-four years have gone since I left this old
10 
OF A CIIRISTIAN PASTOR.
and much-loved Boston, my father's home, as a home
for me. But age and years have in no degree lessened the home love of a " Boston boy;" and to other
boys of another generation I.come back to speak of
the interesting subjects proposed to me here.
To give some aspect of form to utterances which
would be likely to become too desultory and heterogeneous without some scheme proposed, I shall proceed to speak of PASTORAL DUTy, rather than PASTORAL THEOLOGY: of the concrete of action, rather than
of the abstract of pri ci2le and power. In accomplishing this design, I shall cast the whole subject
into a consideration of the CHRISTIAN PASTOR, in HIS
OBJECT, HIS QUALIFICATIONS, HIS INSTRUMENTS, HIS AGEN
CIES, HIS POWER, and HIS ATTAINMENTS.
In introducing the general subject, I mnust remark
that the Christian pastor is the Christian preacher,
occupied in the private, relative personality and application of his work. The two separate titles present
aspects which are reciprocally complemental and adjuvant to each other.
But they involve tasks, to say the least, so separate
and discriminate in their details, that it is by no
means actually frequent that the same person becomes equally successful in both departments. In
11 
THE OFFICE AND DUTY.
deed, each of these departments of duty so completely
demands the whole man, that the success in the one
exercise is frequently rather the alternate of success
in the other; and yet they are but two parts of a
living organism, properly conjoined, and improperly
separated. They ought never to be, and they can not
safely be, torn asunder. The same man can be both,
and can be better in each when they are properly
united than when purposely giving his whole mind
and attention exclusively or mainly to either apart.
To place these two offices of the Christian ministry
in comparison for mutual illustration, we may say
the Christian preacher is the public official teacher
of divinely revealed objective truth. Tile Christian
pastor is the private aclknowledged minister of the
same truth, in its personal application and subjective
individual experience.
Distinctively, the one exercise of this twofold office
requires especially an intellect divinely enlighltened
and the peculiar ability publicly to expound these great
things divinely revealed, as ministering salvation to
the soul of man. The other needs especially an affectionate and sanctified heart, and the power of an
active, discerning sympathy, ready to meet the varied
conditions of ignorant, suffering, or advancing man.
12 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
The special gift for the one is extending knowledge
of the great and glorious revelations of the Gospel.
The gift needed for the other is a deepening personal
experience and observation of their practical worth.
To the one, a clear intelligence and comprehension
of these divine declarations of truth, in their general
aspect, are essential. For the other, a discriminate
consciousness of the proper persons, and the appropriate conditions of human life, to which these
heavenly instructions are to be applied, is needed.
Together they present a vast field for human attainments, and for relative, personal influence upon
man.  Age and study, prayer and faith, love and
earnestness, and persevering fidelity, are indispensable
to them both.  But in the Christian ministry, as in
the medical profession, younger men, with whatever
talent, must practice mainly by their knowledge of
the efforts of others, as desciibed in books or imparted in lectures; while older and more mature agents
habitually prescribe upon the results of their own observation and individual experience.
Thus is it with the ministers of the Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ.  Youth presses on, in an opening,
expanding road, under the imparted guidance of
those who have successfully preceded. Age even
13 
THE OFFICE AND DUTY
more firmly rests for its duties in the future upon its
own retrospection of the way already traveled. The
incidents, facts, and principles of action, which have
been already demonstrated in the light of the past,
become the advisers and guides for the obligations
of the future.
It is scarcely possible to separate these two offices
of the Christian ministry in our personal consideration of them. But we must not forget that the
Christian pastor is the generic office and character.
The Christian preacher is this pastor in the exercise
of a single gift, in the fulfillment of a single office, in
this one great and comprehensive purpose and work,
appointed and established by the Lord of all.
In proceeding to consider the special relations of
the pastoral work, we can not magnify the influence,
the usefulness, or the dignity of this divinely established office among men. The Almighty Saviour,
the great iHead of the Church of God, is himself the
Chief Shepherd; and his whole redeemed Church are
his flock-the sheep of his pasture. Hie feeds them.
Hie leads them forth. Hie goes before them. Hie is
their guide, their example, their watchman, and their
provider.
And he says to those whom he calls to unite with
14 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
him and to follow him in this gracious work, "As
my Father hath sent me, even so have I sent vou."
"Feed my sheep.  Feed my lambs."  " Lo, I am with
you alway, even unto the end of the world."
Such is a general view of the office and work of
a Christian pastor. In the impressive language of
the Episcopal Liturgy, they are "called to be messengers, watchmen, stewards of the Lord; to teach, to
premonish, to feed, to provide for the Lord's family;
to seek for Christ's sheep that are dispersed abroad,
and for his children, who are in the midst of this
evil world, that they may be saved throulgh Christ
forever."
In proceeding to discuss the specific and relative
character of this office, in the details of its operation,
I can not enter upon any particular discussion of
preaching, as a portion of its proper fulfillment.  My
appropriate purpose leads me to consider with you
the private, personal ministrations of the Gospel of
our Lord as the special field for the pastor's office.
To the importance and special efficacy, under the
blessing of God, of this ministration for Jesus from
house to house, "in season and out of season," the
combined experience and wisdom of the Church of
Christ will testify in perfect harmony.
15 
TIlE OFFICE AND DUTY
Dr. Watts has said that the man who has the happy talent for parlor preaching may often be made
the instrument of more good in a few hours than
others can do without it in many years.
Fifty years ago a very distinguished layman of the
Methodist                Church, who had h imself been long a local
preacher a man of education and large influencesaid to me: "They are not the great preachers in
our Church whlo are the most useful to us, but the
faithful, earnest pastors. Our revivals come more
from prayer and private exhortation than from public preaching."
About the same time a very influential layman in
the city of WIaslhington said to me of one of the Episcopal clergymen of that city, by no means a great
or eloquent preacher, "MAir. H       is an angel in a
sick-room.  H~is visits are to me like heavenly visits."
M~y whole personal experience and observation in
the long period since passed have fully confirmed the
truth of such estimates.
I knew a very fine preacher in the Episcopal Churci
who was wholly unsuited in his tastes and absent
habits for the work of a pastor. His ministry became the subject of conversation, and the question
was asked, " Why is not Dr. S        more practically
16 
OF A CnRISTIAN PASTOP..
useful?  Thee work does not seem to prosper with
him."  The answer made was, " I-e loses the whole
of his Sabbath influence in the week.  I-e is like a
farmer wlho had surrounded ills land with finely
turned posts, but neglected to put up his panels of
fence, and wondered why the cattle strayed in upon
his ground.  Well-turned posts will not keep cattle
out, nor secure the prosperity of the field. You must
put up your panels of fence. Your weekly pastor
work is your fence.  Nothing else will guard the Saviour's work, keep out opposing influence, or secure a
harvest for the honor of the Lord."
But we will proceed to consider our subject more
distinctly in the order which we have proposed:
AVlhat is the personal oJECT of the pastor in the
Church of Christ?  What I,as he been sent into the
world to do? The attempt to discuss such a theme
as is here proposed in a single address like this, with
any practical efficacy, will prove, in the necessity of
the case, an extremely superficial and fragmentary
work.  But still I propose to you the question: For
what is this Christian pastor intended, ill the personality of his office, by the Lord who has sent him forth
and commissioned him for his own service on the
earth?
17 
THiE OFFICE AND DUTY
I answer you: In the very character and structure
of his office, hlie is a divinely appointed messenger,
an embassador, an agent of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the everlasting Saviour of men, to proclaim and minister his great salvation to the souls of fallen men.
He is the authoritative bearer of a divine messageof reconciliation - of pardon - of acceptance with
God-of spiritual consolation and strength from a
God of infinite love to the homes and hearts of sinful, weary, waiting, suffering men.
He is not merely a Christian gentleman amnong his
fellow-men. Hie does not go on a voluntary neighborly visit, as a private Christian friend. Ile does
not speak to others simply as a sympathizing, intelligent companion, upon his important theme. iHe
goes as an appointed messenger of Jesus Christ his
Lord, bearing special tidings of salvation in his Master's name, to a selected household, or to an individual immortal soul. He has been called and appointed by the Lord himself for this special work and
message now intrusted to him.
Of the particular character and evidences of this
call from God I can not now speak; but I can take
no lower ground than this in the general consideration of this subject in which I am now engaged. In
is 
OF A CHRISTIAN PIASTOR.
the Liturgy of the Episcopal Church, the first question which is proposed to the applicant for ordination
to the ministry is, "Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you
this office and ministration, to serve God for the
promotion of his glory and the edification of his
people?"
In our present contemplation of the subject, there
is to be considered and conceded a distinct divine
call, an inward, personal mlotion, to this ministry, for
the promotion and attainment of a twofold object,
separately relating to the gracious Saviour, by whom,
and to the souls of his people for whom, we are employed and sent. And our mission has this twofold
object always in view: To  GLORIFY THIS FXALTED
SAvIOUR; and to lead the souls of sinful n men gratefully to receive, to accept, and to live in  IM, and
for uHm-the HONOR OF JESUS and the SALVATION OF
rEN.  And this twofold object of the Christian pastor's life and mission I ask you to consider in their
successive aspects.
The FIRST impelling, attracting purpose in this,
great work of your life will be the HONOR of that
great redeeming Lord, whose you are and whom 
you serve. This will be to you a distinct, conscious,
19 
TIIE OFFICE AND DUTY
and defined purpose of your miniid and hleart.  If
the love of Cl-hrist really constrain you, this motion
of life and action will be no shadowy imaginationno sanctimonious pretense; but a consciousness as
real, as clear, as practical as any personal impulse
can be, of human friendship, of grateful recognition,
or of social duties, in any of the individual relations
of active life.
Others may discuss as they please, in the cold indifference of intellectual, unbelieving speculation, the
reality of the Saviour's being and history, the scale
of his nature, the questions of his authority.  To
your practical, individual experience of his love, and
earnest consciousness of your own personal love for
him, equally distinct, there will be no distracting or
retarding, questions. here.
vWe "know whom we have believed."   To us the
word of Jesus is infallible, unchanging truth.  His
love and active goodness are unsearchable riches of
grace.  His authority is absolute and entire.  "In
him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
And we are complete in him.  Ile is the brightness
of the Father's glory, and the express image of his
person."
WVe are called to represent him. We go from him.
20 
OF A CIIRISTIAN PASTOR.
We go for him.  We are the bearers of a divine
message to be delivered to others, by his authority
and for his lhonlor.  It is a message of direct salvation from God to man.  From God forgiving, to man
condemned. This is a message of facts perfected;
of a work accomplished; of purposes, invitations, and
offers founded upon these facts-the offer of a complete, immediate, everlasting salvation, presented to
the faith, to the grateful acceptance, to the affectionate trust of man, in the freest, fullest message:
"Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life
freely."
This is your message to each, td all to whom you
are sent.  It is "the old, old story;" yet it is always
nlew, always living,, and by God's Holy Spirit always
to be made effectual.  WVhlerever we go, we have the
same great and gracious work committed to us; and
we "are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, the
power of God unto salvation to every one who believeth."  We love to tell this precious story-over,
over, and over again-in every house; at every bedside of sickness; in every chamber of sorrow; to
every anxious, burdened heart; in the midst of every
afflicted household; to every waiting sinner like ourselves, \wherever we may find him.
21 
THiE OFFICE AND DUTY
We are never wearied with proclaiming this gracious message from God. We love to repeat this effective intelligence of pardon for the chief of sinners,
through the atoning blood of an Almighty Saviour.
We feel its blessedness; we know its power; we delight to meditate upon it; and we do not fear nor
hesitate to proclaim it freely, whether men will hear
or whether they will forbear. In this great work, to
which the Lord has, been pleased to call us, we desire
to set him always before us; and to see Jesus only,
clothed with glory and honor.
You can not throw yourselves upon the power and
truth of the divine message too simply, too constantly,
too completely. You need never fear failing in your
work by preaching the gracious work of Jesus; or
wearying those who hear you by an unwearied clinging to the simple Gospel of a crucified and risen
Saviour.
Go, tell the world abroad, from house to house, in
season and out of season, the things which God hath
done, and which God hath revealed.  The glory of
a divine incarnation-" God manifest in the flesh."
The mercy of a personal assumption, by an infinite
Saviour, of the condition and responsibility of lost
and ruined man. The gracious offering in sacrifice
22 
OF A CIIRISTIAN PASTOR.
of an atoning death-a "propitiation for the sins of
the whole world;" the accomplishment of a glorious
resurrection; an accepted obedience; a complete and
unalterable victory, for guilty but believing man,
over condemnation and death. Go, tell with all the
earnestness of a loving, grateful heart, of perfect reconciliation from God to man; of real and joyful
hope for man in God; of newness and holiness of
life-life eternal, a full assurance of hope; all constituting, all meeting in a glorious Christ-a crucified
Christ; presenting to every believing soul, complete,
perfect, everlasting salvation in him, in whom alone
all fullness must dwell forever; and from whose personal fullness believing souls must receive "girace
upon grace."
This is your great pastoral work for Jesus on earth.
We do not say to you, Go, discuss this great subject;
argue about it; show how it can be, or may be, true.
Waste your time in no such outside folly. Deliver
your message on the authority of the infallible word
of God.  "Obey your orders," simply, constantly.
A chaplain at Walmer Castle, the official residence
of the Duke of Wellington, attempted to apologize
for a sermon at which the Duke was unexpectedly
present. He was instantly met with the blutff but
23 
THE OFFICE AND DUTY
appropriate reply, "What are your orders, sir. What
are your -iaster's orders."
You go forth to obey your orders.  " In the morning sow thy seed.  In the evening withhold not thine
hand.. For thou knowest not whether shall prosper,
either this or that; or whether they shall be both
alike good."  AWherever you are, tell your precious
tidings to some one.  The message of that which God
has done is thie offer of that whiclh man may have.
Complete forgiveness in a Saviour's death; everlasting cleansing in the power of a Saviour's precious
blood; unchangeable acceptance with God in a Saviour's perfect obedience for man; eternal life, the
gracious gift of God in him.
sever be afraid to deliver this message freely.
Unlimited in its relation to persons. Unconditional
in its offer to individuals. Perfectly candid and free
in its approach to every sinful man.  Immediate in
its full blessing upon the soul believing. To be at
once accepted-entire, undivided, indivisible. Bringing perfect, eternal salvation to all who will receive
the message, with faith and grateful love toward the
one glorious Saviour of the lost, perfect and complete
in him.
If any object, or revile, or oppose, we simply say,
24 
OF A CIIRISTIAN PASTOR.
"WVe are not careful to answer you concerning this
matter."  "We are doing a great work; we can not
come down; wherefore should the work cease, while
we leave it and come down to you?"
Richard Cecil, a faithful evangelical preachler of
the Church of England, received a visit from a gentleman in his study, who camne with the proposal to
discuss with himr the subject of a preceding discourse.
Cecil answered him, "3Iy dear friend, I am willing
freely to tell yout all I know, and to answer any question which I can; but my mind is perfectly settled
and satisfied upon the whole of this great subject,
and I do not desire any discussion about it."
You do not go out to discuss about the glorious
miessage whichl you are sent to carry to your fellowmen.  You go simply and plainly to teach ill your
Alaster's name, and with his promised presence and
help. You will gain every thing by a simple, honest,
affectionate delivering of your message.  You will
gain nothing by a discussion of its truth or its authority.  You will deliver your message.  You will earnestly impress its importance. You will beg its grateful acceptance.  And you may say, with the servant
of Abraham, " Now if you will deal kindly and truly
with my Alaster, tell nme; and if not, tell me: that I
25
B 
THE OFFICE AND I)TTY
may turn to the right hand or the left."  But deliver
your message distinctly, kindly, positively, and without fear.  The Lord will bless the faithful witness.
Forty years ago, I was quietly seated in my study,
ill Philadelphia, when a very respectable gentleman,
a stranger to me, introduced himself and said, "I have
been round among the churches of this city, anxious
to know the wvay of truth and safety for my own soul.
You seem always to speak as if you were perfectly
sure, and had no doubt upon the subjects of which
you speak.  I have been much impressed by your
simplicity and constancy of statement, and I have determined to unite wvith you.  I came to lay my case
before you, and to confer with you upon the great
subject of your teaching."  That visit led to his grateful acceptance of the Gospel and of the Saviour's
love. That man still lives to show the fruits of this
precious Gospel in a life of Christian usefulness, protracted to a iery advanced age.
Far later in my work, a young man came to me in
the city of New York. Hie was a lieutenant in the
United States Navy.  Ie had heard me as a stranger,
and he came to my study to present the same general difficulty, and to propose very much the same
questions as the one just alluded to. I-e described
26 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
the different uncertain and Insatisfying directions
which he had received. With great earnestness and
emotion, he begged from me a simple guidance in the
way of divine truth. I expounded to himn, in as clear
and short a manner as I could, the full and triumphant
scheme of God's salvation as revealed in Jesus, and
presented in the one perfect offer of a complete Saviour in him, to every believing soul.  I-e listened with
intense interest, his countenance glowing with emotion.  I said to him, as I closed, "'Now, in accepting
this glorious system of grace, do you feel yourself a
man to be saved by any thing that you can do, or as a
man already saved by that which the Son of God has
done for you a"
He answered me, after a little thought, with flowing
tears, "I do not see, in your statement of the matter,
but I am a man already saved."  "Well," said I,
"what, then, has a saved man to do?" "I do not see,"
he replied, "that he has any thing to do but to love,
trust, and be happy."  "What more can he do?" I
said.  "That is heaven.  That is the whole of such a
life forever."
In profuse weeping, he covered his face with his
handkerchief and said, "Oh, excuse me. sir.  But I
have never heard such teaching before."  lie left me,
27 
TIlE OFFICE AND DUTY
rejoicing in the freeness and fullness of this precious
Gospel of a Saviour's grace and love.
I trust I have thus presented to you, with sufficient
clearness, a distinct and conscious object in the pastor's work.  This is his first object.  lie goes forth
into the field of a Gospel ministry to proclaim a Saviour's fullness, and to honor and glorify this Saviour's
character and name.   This is the first, controlling,
commanding object of his life —the honor of Jesus,
his glorious Lord.  "The sound of his BIaster's feet
is behind him."  If Christ shall be imagnified in him,
this is "all his salvation, and all his desire." And
this rewards him for all his toil, whether in life or in
death.
I wish you to realize this great principle and fact.
WAVe are extremely tempted and prone to lose sight of
this great living, practical result of our office and
work; and to put some other, but inferior results,
which may be the rightful consequences of this one
higih purpose, before it in place and in degree.
. Let me earnestly entreat you, in public and in private, to make all your work, in its highest purpose, its
first and its last design, consciously, clearly, constantly,
a grateful labor for the Saviour's glory; and a dcterminied purpose to couLllt all things but loss for his
28 
OF A CIIRISTIAN PASTOR.
honor.  You are charged with a positive, distinct messag,e from him, to be delivered simply and faitlihfully
to every class of men and to every condition of man.
And you will glorify him by "taking of the things
which are his, and showing these to men."
This wvork, in its highest manifestation, is the work
and office of the Holy Ghost, and our ministry becomes a ministry of the Holy Ghost, and is in the
power and purpose of the Spirit, in the degree in
which we unite with him, and under his guidance, in
testifying always and only the unspeakable fullness
of this glorious, atoning, exalted Saviour.
We will pass from this rst controlling object in a
Christian pastor's life, to consider another, which is
secondary to this, though in our work indissolubly
connected with it. I speak of the effect to be produced upon the souls and the condition of men to
whom we are sent. And I shall define this object to
be, to bring lost men to a living Almnighty Saviour,
that they may find eternal life in him. We are to
persuade their grateful acceptance of his boundless
grace, that by the Holy Spirit of God they may be
converted unto him; united with him; transformed
after his image; made partakers of his fullness;
made  one with him by the divine power; living
29 
THE OFFICE AND DUTY
upon his work of grace and love for them; and bringing forth the fruits of all goodness to his glory.
This is the fuill restoration of man in character and
condition to God; their new creation in Christ Jesus;
presenting them perfect, in the fullness of Christ, as
an all-sufficient, unchanging Saviour; clothed by
him with the garments of his salvation; covered
with the robe of his righteousness; and reigning in
life through him, by him, with him forever; made
thus the temples of the Holy Ghost; the restored
children of the living God; renewed in holiness, after
the image of him who hath created them; and enjoying the restored presence and glory of a reconciling God in his kingdom forever.
Thus you now go forth upon your mission, as the
messengers and ministers of the Son of God, to a
world of immortal beings, in the various conditions
of their human life and of their heavenly privileges.
As we behold the multitudes with whom we meet,
however they may indefinitely vary in the aspects
and elements of personal character and condition,
they present to our view but two distinct classes of
persons. Their separation may not be always perfectly discriminated. But it is real and actual. These
two classes must never, in themselves, be confounded
30 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
by us; nor shaded off on either side to a tfird, and a
finally indistinguishable class.
We meet them, and we find them, unaffected by
varied knowledge, talent, or personal claims, in the
reality of their condition by nature or their condition
through grace.  They are all either converted or unconverted in their relation to God.  They are believingi, or unbelieving in their relation to the appointed
and exalted SavioLur.  They are the temples of the
Holy Ghost, who dwelleth in them, or they are without, and are resisting and despising, the Spirit of God.
They are the children of God or the children of the
Evil One. They are living in Christ and for Christ,
or they are living without Christ.
This is a division which, in its elements and distinctions, is vital; and is unalterable but by divine
power. We can not close our eyes to its observation,
or in our minds refuse its consideration.  Our whole
ministry to men, in all its details, must be governed
by it.  To each and to every one of those to whom,
in your pastoral worlk, you are sent, you have a special
message to bear from your glorified Lord; differing
in its contents and its application, and with a dis tinctly different purpose in view.
Whether in. your public or your private ministry,
31 
TI-ITHE OFFICE AND DUTY
you must keep always in mind this vast and vital dis tinction among those to whom you minister. It will
regulate your whole work. It will guide you in the
language of exhortation, of direction, or of counsel.
You can not bless those whom God has not blessed.
You can not refuse those whom  he has acknowledged and received.  You must "take heed that you
offend not one of his little ones;" nor "break the
bruised reeds nor quench the smoking flax."
With all these, of every class, without reference to
their personal, transitory distinctions, your object is
one —the restoration of all in peace to God; the salvation of all in the fullness of Christ; the sanctification of all by the power of the Holy Ghost.  To
them all, we cease not to teach and to preach Jesus
Christ the Lord: the living Head, the heavenly Manna, which alone can give life to all who are in the
world.  But our pastoral application, our particular
message of the Word, in its presentation to the varied
persons to whom we are sent, will much vary, according to our perception of their special character and
condition. To each must be given their special portion in due season.
I am perfectly aware that multitudes, and many
whose apparent character I am ready to regard with
32 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
sincere respect, will not accede to the precision of my
statement upon this subject.  I know that the minds
of many in our time, who claim a special intellectual
cultivation, may be disposed to look with much contempt upon assertions and judgments which seem
to them so completely fanatical and unreasonable.
There is a vast temptation pressing upon those who
desire to gratify, or who shrink from offending; or
who indulge themselves in imaginations of such advancing light and refinement in the generations of
cducated men, as shall overturn and banish all such
narrow-minded and old-fashioned distinctions of human character as the Word of God has made, to withhold and refuse such precise and positive statements.
They would dig down these precipitous cliffs of divine
affirmation.  They would shade off these antagonistic
colors.  They would graduate and neutralize these
disagreeable demands. They would claim for men
externally refined a concession of real and acceptable
goodness, which may not belong to those of a coarser
nature or a more ignorant condition.
To such imaginations or aspirations of human
pride or personal vanity you can yield nothing.  You
are to speak to all, not according to the wisdom of
men, nor in the words which manl'swisdom teacleth,
B 2
I'D 3 
THE OFFICE AND DUTY
but according to the wisdom of God, in words which
the Hloly Ghost teacheth.   The question, What is
popular? can never be allowed by us.  Our demand
is, What is true? You can not forget that God often
chooses the weak things of the world to confound
those which are mighty. And he will never fail, in
his own way, to prosper the fidelity of his servants,
or to honor the faithful ministration of his own Word.
You may meet with painful rejections of your message, and with great trials of your fidelity. But Jesus
will always honor those who truly honor him.
A very upright and much respected merchant in
Philadelphia, whose wife was an earnest Christian
woman under my ministry, and who was himself often
at church, respectful in his deportment there, and
personally extremely kind and friendly to me, was
suddenly brought to the last hours of his life. At
his wife's request, I visited him in his sicklness. I
pressed upon his attention the Saviour's love, and the
salvation offered in him to believing man. I-e coinpletely, coldly, almost angrily, rejected my whole appeal, and finally exclaimed, "Sir, it is impossible. God
must have provided some better place than hell for a
man of my respectability."  And he turned from me,
and would hear no more.
34 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOr.
I was elsewhere called to the sick-room of an old
and respected physician, who had been most civil and
agreeable to me in social life.  To him I carried the
simple message of the Saviour's love; the full salvation in a glorified Christ.  Ile instantly turned his
back to me, with ullconcealable displeasure.  "I don't
believe a word of it," he almost screamed.  "Shall I
pray for you?" I said.  "You shall never pray by
me-I will not hear you," he replied. I-e thlrewv the
bedclothes over his head, and roughly bade me leave
his house. And thus he died.
A  Nwealthy planter in my first country parish had
been one of my chief supporters and friends. I had
often pressed upon him this precious message of the
Gospel, but in vain.  At midnight, I was sent for to
visit him as dying.  As I came into his room, lhe
turned to me, with the utmost affection in his manner,
but with an expression of real distress, and exclaimed,
"Oh, my dear friend, I did not think it would come
so soon." I tried to present to him still the pardoning
love of Jesus.  I knelt by his side and prayed.  But
his last words, often repeated, were, "Oh, it is too late.
I did not think it would come so soon."
Ve are not always received, but we are not always rejected, in our personal efforts'to save the souls
35 
THE OFFICE AND DUTY
of men.  A very distinguished man and merchant of
Boston, whose name is still here venerated in his posterity, and who was well known to me in our family
relations, but whom I had not seen since I was a youth
in a counting-house with which he was connected,
met me many years ago in the parlor of a hotel at
one of the Virginia Springs.
I addressed the few visitors and the families on the
Sabbath morning from the words of the Apostle,
"Let us go forth to him without the camp, bearing,
his reproach."  This gentleman was a man of unsurpassed aspect and influence and position in society.
But he was one of the very men  whomn I should have
expected to be most likely to be offended with the
earnestness of my exhortation.  Durirng, the address
he wept in tender emotion, and at the close he came
up and took my hands in his and said, "W What a joy
it is to hear you preach such a Gospel.  Every word
went to mv heart."  Bfit I was then v,ery young in
my workl, and he was a man of age and great dignity
in life.
Another very distinguished citizen of Boston, a
hilgh military officer in the state, was in m1y church
in-New Yorkl on the Sabbath. Preaching on the importance of simplicity in our message from Jesus, I
36 
OF A CHRISTIAN  PASTOR.
said as an illustration, "We must surround the walls
of Jericho again and again, and blow this trumpet of
the Lord, until the walls shall fall." I knew this
gentleman well, and I saw him much moved as I
was speaking. Ile came lup to me when the service
was over, and shaking my hand most earnestly, he
said, while shedding tears, " iy dear friend, I bless
God, the walls of Jericho have fallen flat.  What a
glorious message this Gospel brings."
Now, my young friends, with this heavenly message you are charged. It belongs to all. It is divinely arranged for all. All have the right to demand
it, always and in all places, from those who are sent
to preach it. It must be divinely applied to all. It
is a simple message from God, whose ambassadors
you are.   Nothing in it is left to mnan's invention.
When it shall prosper, it is impossible for you to decide.  The poser is of God alone, by his own accompanying Spirit of Grace and Truth.  If you are made
the blessed instruments to bring men to' Christ, to
edify believing men in Christ, to glorify an exalted
Lord in their salvation-their walkl in newness, holi nless, usefulness, beneficence of life-the work is whol ly his; and the glory will be his forever.
I pray you never to forget that our success in this
37 
THE OFFICE AND DUTY
work is not from the wisdom, the power, the eloquence, the magnetism, as it has been called, of particular men.  It is wholly from the presence and
power of the Hloly Ghost. In all truly successful
men, it is the power of prayer-the power of humble,
self-renouncing faith-the power of a close, patient,
loving walk with Jesus.  This is the power which
will always attend the faithful, simple preaching and
teaching of a crucified and living Saviour-" an historic Christ," as some have profanely called him; of
the work which our Lord Jesus Christ has personally
done and personally completed; and the fullness of
the merit and the power of which dwells in him
alone.
WVe do not preach, as this work of salvation for
nan, the work which a ruling Saviour may do successively, accretively, as the race and the ages go by
-the fruits of his divine dominion.  But the work
which he has once already done, never to be repeated;
and the reality of which is increasingly demonstrated
by its living power to bless all who believe it, accept
it, trust it, rejoice in it, and thankfully look back to
it as the one unchanging fountain from which must
flow all the streams of that river which makes glad
the city of our God.
38 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
This, my dear young friends, is your pastoral work,
in its exalted OBJECT. It is to glorify the name and
the work of Jesus; to lead all men to embrace the
fullness of his love and power; to build up all in the
unsearchable riches of his grace; to prepare all for
the fullness of his glory; to make ready a people
prepared for the Lord.
Let me press upon you this threefold object, in
your own personal work for Christ. Let this glorifying of Jesus be the Sun which lights your public
preaching; the outspreading light which makes clear,
attractive, and effectual your private ministrations;
the dawvn of the morning in the cheerful opening of
your life-work for a beloved Sayiour; the glowing
beauty and radiance in the occident of your day completed.  Alake this, keep it, the calm twilight of your
old age, apparently retiring, but only to reappear in a
higher glory for a nobler day; when Jesus shall be
ALL for you, in a heavenly rest, as he has been your
ALL in your earthly work of thankfulness, confidence,
holiness, and love.
39 
TIIE OFFICE AND I)UTY
LECTUP,E II.
September 30, 1873.
Als young friends, I hlave attempted, in my previolus
lecture, to consider with you the twofold OBJECT of a
Christian pastor. Every experiment in which we
shall unite, in speakliing or in hearing, will deepeni
your impression and enlarge your conception of the
extent and importance of the subjects which we treat,
and of the office for which yoLu desire to be prepared.
You will find it quite impossible for nme, in a few
lectures like these, to do more than to offer to you a
general guidance and somle friendly fraternal suggestions for the anticipation of such a work.  Withl
the sincere desire to do this in an edifying and acceptable manner, I shall proceed to our second subject proposed: the necessary QUALIFICATIONS for the
work of a pastor so employed.
As you associate with your fellow-men in the duties
of a pastor's life, you find them arrayed in two classes,
perfectly distinct, and to be accurately discriminated
40 
OF A CIIIRISTIAN PASTOR,
in your personal relations to them.  They are UNCONVERTED, perishing in uinpardoned guilt, to be brought
to Jesus by the hIoly Ghost for their soul's life;
or they are CONVERTED, living really in Christ, to be
edified and instructed in the full knowledge of his
salvation, and enjoyment of his favor and presence.
And now we ask, What are the qualcations which
a Christian pastor requires for a work so delicate and
so important as this?  What is he?  What ought he
to be? And I answer, he needs:
I. A real it,?annity, with all the consciousness and
sympathies of man. It is quite remarkable how the
first apostles for the Lord insist upon this entire humanity of their ministry.  In all their worlk, this must
be considered and must not be forgotten.  "Stand
up," said Peter to the bending centurion; "I myself
also am a man."  "We are also men of like passions
with you," said Paul to the men of Lystra.  "Who
is Paul? who is Apollos? but ministers, even as the
Lord gave to every man."  "We have this treasure
in earthen vessels; the excellency of thie power is of
God." It is made the definition of a true minister of
Christ, and the reason of his selection, that "he is
compassed about with infirmities, that he may have
compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out
41 
THIIE OFFICE AND DUTY
of the way."  This is the divine pleasure that by the
mouth of sinful men this great message should be
ministered to a world that is to be saved.
This humanity of the ministry makes an important
element of its power and of its usefulness. When
its trials beset us; when its responsibilities overwhelm
us; when its apparent failures disappoint us; and our
hearts are sad and anxious in this survey, we must
look at the fruits of this experience.  We must not
forget that of our glorious Lord it is said, "Because
the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he
also himself likewise took part of the same."
The whole work and provisions of the Gospel are
addressed to the weakness, the necessities, the experience of our humanity.  Thus all is plain.  The
Saviour's love for sinners led him to partake of their
infirmities.  And in our ministering the knowledge
of this love to our fellow-men, all our own humanity
is demanded.  We must enter into the sorrows which
we would assuage and heal. We must taste of the
infirmities which we are called to alleviate and sustain.
This is by no means a light aspect of our work, or
of the demands which it will make upon us. It often taxes our highest powers; demands our utmost
42 
OF A CIIRISTIAN PASTOR.
patience and skill; exhausts all that we can know or
do; employs our deepest consciousness of personal
sinfulness; and compels us to renew the remembrance
of the guilt and danger which we have ourselves
tasted and felt. The conscious bitterness of our own
unbelief; the sorrows of our perverse alienation from
God, and rebellion against him, are made the strange
instruments of comfort to others. And we are constantly teaching and encouraging the weak, the weary,
and the desponding, from the sad recollection of our
own wanderings and falls, as earthen and broken vessels.  How sweetly the Lord intimates this thought
to Peter: "I have prayed for thee, that thy faith
fail not.  When thou art converted, strengthen thy
brethren."
We never get deeper convictions of personal sin
than ill our attempts to console and guide others in
their hours of darkness and guilt. We are never
more truly or effectually made the "sons of consolation" to them than when we are secretly weeping,
in the bitterness of our own souls, over past personal
transgressions, of which they have no consciousness
or knowledge; "comforting others by the consolations wherewith we are comforted of God." tIlow
Paul recalled the bitter cruelty of his own career,
43 
TIIE OFFICE AND DUTY
when he was pouring out his mortal life for the glory
of his Lord and the defense and guidance of his people. Htow often in the history of the Church the
vilest of men, like Augustine and John Newton, have
been called to the widest, deepest, and most experimental consolation and instruction of the people of
God.
You lhav-e thus to go out upon your life-work as
pastors in the flock of the Great Shepherd, with a
constant reminding, and with a deepening humiliation under this growing consciousness, that in the
very experience of your humanity you are prepared
to be the comforters of those who find no other friend.
You need not describe the errors and follies of your
life past.  But if you have tasted the bitterness of
death; if you have been with Jonah in the deep, with
the weeds of death wrapped around your head; if
you have been consciously in your spiritual state once
dead, and then made alive again by the power of
the HIoly Ghost, the very sorrows and sins of your
human history have been a gracious preparation, under the amazing goodness of God, for your deeper
and wider ability to comprehend and to meet the sorrows which others bear, and the sins with w.hieh they
are laden. This ability is one effective element in
44 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOPR.
the usefulness of your pastoral life. You know and
feel and understand all the difficulties, trials, weaknesses, and sins which others meet in striving to gain
their foothold firm on the rock of God's salvation.
II. The Christian pastor must be a CONVEIRTID man.
Ihis important worlk can not be accomplished by the
wisdom and power of man  in the mere force of his
own intellect, or by his own knowledge of the amenities and advantages of a mere virtuous life.  lIe goes
out to gather and to feed the flock which Jesus has
purchased by his own blood.  To suppose an unconverted man divinely called to this important work, is
to suppose a wolf intrusted with the sheep by an infallible Shepherd-aan evil against whichi the Saviour
most earnestly warns.  "kavenin   v wolves in sheep's
clothing," lie calls them.  That a man unconverted
should be called in that state to minister the Gospel
of the Son of God by the Lord himself, must be esteemed an impossible thing. The experience of a
converted man is essential to the pastoral work. The
whole work depends upon personal qualifications.
The guidance which is to be given calls for a personal
klnowledge.  On no other basis can the pastor sueceed. A man may be converted after he has entered
upon the minlistry. But lie can not be a true minister
45 
THE OFFICE AND DUT"
of Christ until lie is converted.  To confer with an
awakened, anxious mind, or with a sick and suffering
soul, in the mere formalisms of an outward Christianity, is a fearful assumption.  The man who is alive to
God will know how to point out the way to others.
I-e is at home in this great crisis of immortal life.
Hie speaks the things which he knows. And the
Spirit of God guides him and follows him with his
new creating power.
Sometimes the directions which are required will
be very peculiar in appearance. I will illustrate this
by anl incident which gave me much encouragement
in my early ministry.
At an inquiry meeting which I held in Philadelphia, where more than fifty persons were assembled,
I marked a young man, well dressed, but with a flashy
air, which awakened some suspicion of his sincerity,
and I left him until the last, when we were left alone
in the room.   "For what purpose did you come
here?" I said.  "To find salvation for my soul," he
replied. "Are you really sincere in this?" I said.
"Perfectly sincere," was his reply. It was late ill
the evening; I said, "Will you meet me in my study
to-morrow evening at eight-o'elock?"  "I will," lie
said.  At the appointed hour I was waiting, and he
46 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
came. I-Ie gave me the history of a wild and selfindulgent life; of a faithful Christian wife, slighted
in a refusal of her expostulations, and distressed by his
wanderings.  I opened to him the way of salvation,
and urged him to embrace it.  But he declined to
take any religious stand, though apparently sincere
in his anxiety and desire-withheld apparently by
the opposition of his own pride. After anl adequate
conversation and prayer, I said to him, "If you are
really sincere in the wish you express, are you ready
to go honme and say to your wife,'I have lived a
sinful life long enough, I am determined from this
hour to give up this life of sin, and live for Christ
alone;' and kneel with her, and pray for the Lord's
blessing and acceptance?" - ie was silent for a while,
and then replied, " No, I can not."  " Then," said I,
"I have nothing more to say,"  And I took up the
book which I had been reading.  Three successive
times I said to him again, " Are you ready now to do
this?"  At last I heard him draw a heavy sigh, and
saw his eyes glistening with tears.  "Will you go
now?" I said.  "I will," he replied, and rushed by
me and departed.  I had never seen the young, man
before. The next evening was one of my weekly
lectures.  As I stood in the desk, I saw this young
4y
47 
THE OFFICE AND DUTY
manl come in, with a young woman leaning onil his
arm, whom I had often seen there alone weeping,: a
woman of a sorrowful spirit. They camne forward to
the front benchl before me, and knelt together on the
floor. WNVhen the service was over, I approached them
and said, "Is this your wife "  lie answered, "Yes."
I turned to her and said, " This young man promised
me last night that hle would go home to you, and say
that he was determined to live for Chlrist, and kneel
and pray with you.  Did he do it?"  " I-e did," said
she.  "'And how do you feel to-night?" I said to him.
"Oh, sir, I am the happiest man in the city of Philadelphliia."  That young manl lived to adorn his Christian stand in a useful life; and after a lingering consnmptioul was called to die.  The last time I was at
his bedside, I said, "William, do you re'member the
evening you were in my study?,"  "Remember it!'
said he, raising his wasted hands and arms to his utmost reach, "Oh, I shall never forget it through all
eternity.  It was the birthday of my soul."
This interesting illustration is by no means singular.
You will often find a truly converted ministry for
Christ thus rewarded.  But to be useful ambassadors
for him, you must. really understand what conversion
is, and ask and expect the blessing from his gift.  To
It
48 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
be a converting minister, your pastor's life must be
a converted ministry.
Let me present you another illustration.
Some years since I was sent for to visit some strangers at a hotel in New York. They were a widow
lady, whom I had known in South Carolina, and her
son, a young man, who was very ill. I learned from
her that a clergyman whom I knew had visited him,
but had no conversation with him. From this gentleman I received the statement that hle found the
young man so much excited and talking so strangely
that it was impossible to hold any conversation with
him, and he therefore only said a prayer at his side
and left him.
I was introduced to the chamber of the young man.
Upon a cot in the middle of the room lay a singularly interesting youth, perhaps twenty years of age.
Beside him sat a female cousin, a young lady about
his own age.  His mother said, "Julian, this is Dr.
Tyng." He fixed dlis earnest black eyes upon me,
and stretched forth both of his hands to me and said,
in the most beseeching tones, " Dear Dr. Tyng, my
mother has often told me about you. I am very sick,
and must die.  My mother has always told me I
must be converted. I must be converted. I am not
C 
49 
THIE OFFICE AND DUTY
converted.  Oh, how can I be converted "  These
earnest expressions he repeated several times. I told
him simply of the love and fullness of Jesus; of the
open way of salvation, in loving and trusting him;
that real love and faith toward Jesus was the workl
of the Holy Spirit, and was conversion. Hiis countenance was the very impression of anxiety and earnestness.  I prayed with him for the Saviour's own
teaching and acceptance, and left him. The next
day I called again.  tie was lying as I had seen
him before, apparently in repose.  IHis counitenance
was the emblem of perfect peace. lie awvoke and
welcomed me with the sweetest, loving smile, and
said, "Oh, dear Dr. Tyng, I understand it now. Jesus
has forgiven me all. And I truly love him. And
the love of Jesus is conversion. How sweet and
precious it is. Dear mother, I am converted. Amn I
not converted a,"
This was the peaceful, heavenly state of his mind
for some days; and in this he departed, happy and
at rest.  His young relative, who was with him, was
converted by the gracious influence of this occasion,
and became a very valuable servant of the Lord.
His brother, who was also there, a young physician,
despised it all, and avowed himself to me an Atheist.
50
IP 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
I present you these illustrations of the way in
which the Lord is pleased to honor a ministry which
strives to honor him. This whole point of a truly
converted ministry I wish to impress upon you. The
pastoral ministry requires all the sympathy of a converted man.  The whole efficacy of its work is dependent on this. In vain will you attempt to deal
with awakened, convicted, inquiring, anxious minds
without the experience and tenderness which really is
in Christ. The ministry demands the example of a
converted man.  One great purpose inl the human miuiistry is in the pattern which its truly sanctified character presents; so that it can say, " Be ye followers of
me, even as I am of Christ." Others will follow us, if
we truly follow Jesus. The ministry demands the motives of a converted man.  Its trials in a faithful pastor's life are peculiar, unending in time. Our difficulties and our warfare change, but they never end
till life itself must end. All shams and pretenses
will die under this pressure. Nothing but the love
of the converted heart for Jesus, and for the souls
of men for whom he died, will keep the heart up to
the work.  Every motive will perish, but a real, living faith in a Saviour, known and loved and chose??,
as our only portion and our only subject.
51 
THE OFFICE AND DUTY
III. The Christian pastor must be a man called of
God. I can not go withl you into a didactic exposition of a divine call to the ministry in these simple,
practical lectures. It is the infallible testimony of
the Word of God, "No man taketh this honor unto
himself, but he that is called of God." And it must
be to you a most important and impressive subject
for personal examination and thought. "I How shall
they preach except they be sent?"
Such a call to the ministry is the subject of personal, individual experience.  Paul says, "It pleased
God to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach
him among the heathen." In all its aspects, this
divine call is a transaction between the soul and its
Redeemer. It gains its interpretation from the sacred
Scriptures of his inspiration, and the man himself
must feel it and know it. 
It can be nothing less than a deep and solemn
conviction and constraint of personal obligation.
"Woe is me, if I preach not the Gospel." You can
never safely look upon the ministry as a profession,
the entrance to which is spontaneous and subject to
choice.  It is a dispensation, an "Oikonomia," a law
of the household of God; rising above the mere acknowledgment of duty, to an experience of the con
52 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
straining love of Christ; to an appreciation of the
infinite value of the Gospel, which we have been
taught by his own Spirit and power, and the joy and
hope of which we have truly and clearly received.
This sense of obligation to Jesus, to the souls of
perishing men, is absolute and constraining. His
precious Gospel has given life to our souls.  This is
the life by which we really live. We know its power;
we feel its truth; we comprehend its worth; we must
preach it to our fellow-men. Its unsearchable riches
of grace we must and will proclaim, whatever it may
cost; whatever it may bring of earthly care or of
earthly trial.
The pastoral ministry can be effective only with
such a call from God.  What I mean, I will take the
liberty to illustrate by a short statement of my own
experience in connection with it; not as a rule for
others, but as partly the source of my own conviction.
After being graduated at Hiarvard University, I
was for two years in a large East India counting house on India Wharf, in Boston. I lived a formally
moral life, though with no real knowledge of a Sav iour, nor having any pastoral ministry over me which
could instruct me in his truth. My earthly engage ments and prospects, in the engagements which I had
53 
TIIE OFFICE AND DUTY
made, were considered by my friends very brilliant
and secure. I was wholly devoted to the demands
and prosperity of my worldly plans, and I had no
want beyond them.
I awoke in the early morning of the 19th of July,
1819, with a voice which seemed to sound in my ear,
with the solemn appeal, "What a wasteful life you
are leading!"  I answered in my silent conscience
and heart, "I will live so no longer."  I immediately
arose from my bed, and, without dressing, knelt upon
the floor, and gave myself in my poor way to a Lord
whom I did not know, but by whose voice I fully
believed I was called. I went down as usual to my
business.  But my whole mind and purposes and
plans were changed.  The world of wealth had passed
out of my view. A load of sin pressed upon my
heart.  But I knew no outward instructor who could
comprehend my wants or guide my way. Thus I
groped for days, without one earthly comforter.
Nearly opposite the head of this street in which
we are assembled, adjoining the Tremnont Ihouse, you
may see a smnall quadrant spot of grass inclosed. It
is all that remains of a large and beautiful yard,
which was then the residence of Mr. Adam Babcock,
one of the leading men of Boston in that day. The
54 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
whole residue of the property has been incorporated
in the site of the hotel. In that court-yard dwelt a
retired nurse, long, in the family, in rooms prepared
for her. She was a venerated Christian woman, who
was familiarly called by all the branches of the family Aunt Minott.  Some of my young female connections told her the strange news that "Stephen
Tyng was out of his head in thinking and talking
about religion." The old lady sent a message desiring to see me. She was a Methodist. The family,
like myself, had always been in the congregation of
Trinity Church.  Her Christian home was "Bromfield Lane Methodist Chapel."  That old lady was
the first Christian friend I found who knew a Saviour's love, understood a Saviour's Gospel, and could
enter into my heart, having received this Gospel nei ther by man nor from man.  With her I could talk
of Jesus, and not be deemed insane.
A single month passed before, under the pressure
and guidance of that Spirit by whom I had been
called, I left all the business of earth and gave my self simply and wholly to my Saviour's work.  I was
considered insane by many, in a world which looked
only to its own things. I have no doubt that many
of my friends really lamented over me as insane.
55 
THIE OFFICE AND DUTY
But whether I was beside myself, it was to God. I
gave up all thle prospect of wealth before me, and de termined to preach my Saviour's Gospel. My dear
father, with whom I lived, replied to my proposal of
this change: "Are you crazy?  You are throwing
away the most brilliant prospects of any young man
in Boston."  I answered: "I was never more sane in
my life, sir. I can not help it. I know that I am
called to preach the Gospel. I know that there is
some place between here and the Rocky Mountains
for me to preach my Saviour's love. I am going un til I find it."  The venerated man was overwhelmed.
"Well," said he, "you will spoil a first-rate merchant
to make a very poor parson."  "It may be so, sir;
but I must go." ile was spared to me for ten years
after that interview, to value most highly my poor
attempts, to encourage with the utmost affection my
efforts in the Saviour's cause, and to gain part of his
consolation in death from my  grateful ministry.
This was" my manner of entering in."
I sincerely, deeply felt that I was called to preach
this precious Gospel. More than fifty-four years have
since passed by, and I can not say that I have ever
had one doubt of the Gospel which I preach, or of
the fact that I have been called of God to preach it.
56
t 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
With great self-abasement, but with entire confidence, I can truly adopt the language of St. Paul:
"When it pleased God, who separated me from my
mother's womb, and called me by his grace to reveal
his Son in me, that I might preach iiIM, immediately
I conferred not with flesh and blood."
I really do not speak of this in vain boasting, but
humbly to illustrate what I understand and mean
when I say to be an effective Christian pastor you
must be "called of God."  You must be taught the
way by a heavenly power, and willingly go where
his Providence shall send you, spending and being
spent, publicly and from house to house, that you may
bring sinners to the knowledge of a Saviour's love,
and build up his saints in their most holy faith; by
his grace preventing you, going before you, giving
you the good-will, and working with you in carrying
out that will to good effect.
Thus qualified by the sympathies of a loving manhood-by the new creating power of the Holy Ghost
truly converted-by a conscious, satisfying call from
Christ your Lord to your important workl-you may
become thus far prepared to be effective, faithful
Christian pastors for the flock of Christ.
IV. The Christian pastor must beta man of a sym                        C 2
57 
THE OFFICE AND DUTY
pathizing nature and habit. It is impossible to inmagine a hard mnan-a censorious, fault-finding mana man fretful, easily annoyed-a man taking gloomy
views of men and tlings, of divine providence and
guidance-to be an effective, useful pastor. Hlow simply and tenderly the apostle describes the office, as he
had felt it and had endeavored to execute it!  "We
were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishleth
her children. Being affectionately desirous of you,
we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the
Gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye
weredear untous." "We exhorted,comforted, charged
every one of you, as a father dothl his children."
This is a temper which does not become fatigued
or worried with the unceasing calls upon a pastor's
sympathy, consideration, and effort. I think there
is no employment on earth which involves the same
amount and variety of occupation and care.  There
is no question or interest of domestic, social, or personal life which does not come before a faithful pastor's mind and notice with some particular and pressing demand in the prosecution of his appointed work.
He must care for all, plan for all, bear with all, and
strive to "become all things to all men, that by all
means- he may save some."
58 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
To meet all these demands effectively, he must
maintain the constant life and power of religion in
his own heart; the life of God in his own soul. HIe
must grow in an increasing sense of his own personal
need. Hle will meet with many trials of temptation
and of temper, which will show him what manner
of man he is, whether easily provoked, self-indulgent,
and unyielding, or whether he is really becoming
forbearing, patient, disinterested, and gentle.
Hie must grow in an enlarging perception of the
fullness and blessedness of a Saviour's love.  Nothing can sustain him amid all the worrying trials of a
pastor's life but a deeper work of this twofold growth
of true piety;. the stock of the one bearing a ripening
humility, and the branches of the other blooming
and waving with a higher, brighter, more  abiding
and precious hope.
All acceptable ministry rests upon this twofold experience. WVe can not effectively, privately teach beyond the line of our own personal attainments and
real sympathy of feeling. When we get beyond that
which we have felt and seen, I will by no means
say that all our teaching is false and a sham, because
it may be perfectly sincere in its motive and desire.
But it is a mere lecture from second-hand informa
59 
THE OFFICE AND DUTY
tion. We are telling the things which we have heard,
and of which we really know little. Our own deepening experience of the need and power of the Gospel
is essential to our advancing usefulness. We become
the more qualified to be the guides, helpers, and teaclhers of others as we suffer and gain the more for ourselves.
This twofold power of our ministry, wherever we
may be in our pastoral work, depends upon the reality
of this growing sympathy. We sometimes receive
very severe lessons of peculiar ministerial experience,
to test and to increase our forbearance and our pastoral strength and usefulness.  Among the many rules
for a useful and happy life in the ministry which my
venerable relative and teacher,Bishop Griswold, gave
me in my studies with him, one was, " Never vindicate
yourself." I do not know that I have ever violated this
rule in a single personal instance.  Every pastor will
meet with some trials which will demand and test it.
In my first permanent charge, in the southern part
of Maryland, there was one man of commanding influence and wealth, from whom a large proportion
of my support had been derived. Circumstances entirely beyond my control led to his personal alienation from me, and excessive persecution of me. tie
60 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
publicly defamed me, by charging me with lying.
I took no personal notice of the charge. When one
neighbor after another among the planters of a wide
country parish came to me to ask the truth of his
statements, I made but one reply: "Go, ask Mr. C.
himself."  "But he has already said so.  What is the
use of going to him?" was the answer. "Well, if I
should contradict, I should simply throw the charge
of falsehood upon him. What should I gain by that?"
Five years of that persecution passed, in which he
yielded nothing.  It cost me much of comfort and
peace. I removed at that time to Philadelphia.
There, some months after, I received a letter from
my successor, saying, "Mr. C. is very ill, and can not
live. lie begs me to write to you for him, and ask
your forgiveness before he dies. Hie is filled with
bitter remorse. He says he has never ceased to re spect you during the whole period of his persecution
of you, and that he can not die in peace without re ceiving your forgiveness." On the outside of the let ter was a memorandum of the hour of his death.
You can judge the comfort which I received from
the remembrance that I had never avenged myself,
even by words, nor been suffered to be cast down by
the distress of the persecution.
61 
THE OFFICE AND DUTY
Thus in our own suffering we are made to understand the sympathy of personal endurance.  But, beyond this, there will be an active sympathy denlanded from you in every variety of human woe. No
class or station of those to whom you minister will
be found released from burdens or sorrow. The
troubles may often be imaginary in their source; but
the sorrow and the suffering are always real. You
must not only appear to sympathize, but your heart
must really go out,." weeping with those who weep,
and rejoicing with those who do rejoice."
The widow and the fatherless, the poor and tlhe
neglected, the downcast and the forgotten, the sick
and the sorrowing; those for whom no other man will
care, and whom no other man will help; the convicted, the persecuted, and the sinning, are all the portion of your inheritance, and you must sympathize
with all.
If you have no heart for all this line of outward
demand upon your time, your thought, and your affections, the pastor's office is not your gift.  What
a perfect description you have of what a successful
pastor really enjoys, and of what a faithful pastor really does, in the 29th chapter of Job. What can
more perfectly describe the unfailing sympathy of
62 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
which I am  speaking?  "I delivered the poor that
cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to
help him.  The blessing of him that was ready to
perish came upon me. I caused the widow's heart
to sing for joy.  I was a father to the poor, and the
cause which I knew not I searched out." The apostle
Paul brings all the illustrations of this fine testimony
upon an evangelical basis of description and experience when he says, "Who is weak, and I am  not
weak? who is offended, and I burn not?  I will very
gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more
abundantly I love you the less I be loved."  " I seek
not yours, but you."
I would urge you, my young friends, watch over,
cultivate this spirit of coterminous sympathy with the
sufferings and the sorrows of all whom the Lord shall
commit to your charge, and so illustrate the mind
and fulfill the will of Christ, your Great Example
and Lord.
V. Besides all these, and through them all, the true
CHRISTIAN PASTOR must be a vatient man; enduring,
in all long-suffering and patience, the ignorance and
the infirmities of others.. Perhaps I have seen parish
difficulties arise as often from the impatience of ministers, as from the discontent or the hostility of the
63 
THIE OFFICE AND DUTY
people. A sensitive and weary student is often very
little able to contend with the petty annoyances of
local life.
I knew an unhealable breach made between a very
distinguished minister and a contiguous neighbor,
which ended in the removal of the former, from the
killing of the minister's chicken by the layman's son.
"Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth."
A clergyman of some celebrity called on me with
this statement: "I  am  in great difficulty in my
parish; all the women have turned against me."
"Well," said I, "then you must certainly go.  No
man can stand in a useful ministry against the hostility of all the women.  But what has been the cause
of so much difficulty?" Hie replied: "The organist
in my church is a young lady belonging to one of the
best families in the parish. Hier mother is the leader
of the choir.  The choir is a voluntary one, under
their direction. They all serve without pay. One
Sunday, when I was going from the vestry-room into
the church, I heard the organist playing a very light
and improper tune, as a voluntary. I rose from my
private prayer, and, turning to the organist, I said,
'Stop that music-I will not have Annie Laurie
played in my church.'  They were all so offended
64 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
that none of them came in the afternoon; and since
that all the families have taken it up, and there is so
much difficulty that I know not what to do."  What
could I say to him uinder the circumstances, but
"the sooner you remove from there, the better both
for you and the church a"
A man who could so foolishly and coarsely give
offense could not have discretion enough to avoid
offense in the future. All mere circumstantial advice would have been lost on such a man. He removed to another state, and has since departed.
An impatient, hasty man can do nothing as a pastor. He may be esteemed, perhaps, as a very fine
preacher, and be acceptable in that office while an
u.nexamining popularity attends him.   But such a
man can do nothing as a pastor. tie is too self-seeking to be sympathizing; too explosive to be patient.
Hie will find endless quarrels with vestries, trustees,
and committees- withl women and families-until
his peace has gone, his reputation has been destroyed,
his presence is unsought, and his iwhole heart is worn
out.  The best excuse you will ever hear of him is
the equivocal defense, "The poor man is too sensitive to be happy or useful."
The trials of patience, of self - possession, for a
65 
TIlE OFFICE AND DUTY
faithful pastor are sometimes very great. I-ie is often, as Jude says,'" pulling men out of the fire." As
Paul describes it, "Fighting with beasts at Ephesus."
But even in such a crisis, a faithful, patient, self-possessed pastor will always succeed at last. Let me
give you an illustration of such a trial.
A very fashionable and wealthy family were professedly under my care ill Philadelphia, but living
wholly ill the world and for the world. By the blessing of God, the Word reached the hearts of the
mother and the eldest daughter, a young woman.
They were converted. Their whole manner of life
was changed.  The ball-room was renounced; the
prayer-meeting was adopted. The life of fashion
gave way to a life of faith.  The father was a mnerchant, of wealth and great social ambition; he had
delighted much in the beauty and style of his wife
and daughter. Hiis indignation was intensely aroused
by their change of character and life; his anger knew
no bounds.  lie watched the gates of the church, to
prevent their attendance by authority and force.
When we received them to their public Christian
profession, we were obliged to admit them through
the back window of the basement in the church.
These painful circumstances required all of a pas
66 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
tor's wisdom to visit, to counsel, and to aid them.
One night, at a very late hour, as I was retiring to my
rest, and my family were all withdrawn, a sudden
ring of my door-bell summoned me to answer the appeal. It was a servant of this lady, who said, "M rs.
B. wishes you to come immediately to her house."
She could give me no further account. I prepared
myself to go, telling my wife whither I was going.
I supposed that I should meet some scene of violence, and I knew not what might be the result to
me.
I was admitted to the house by the same servant
who camne for me. A single lamp lighted the hall.
All seemed dark beyond.  I was led into the front
parlor, where, seated upon a sofa behind the door, I
saw this man, with his face covered with his handkerchief, and his wife sitting at his side.  She simply said, " ir. B. thought he would like to see you,
and I took the liberty to send." With that he exclaimed in broken accents, "I wish to know whether there can be salvation for a wretch like me."
"Surely," said I. "But what has led you to askl such
a question of me l," "This angel woman," said he.
" I thought you the blackest of human beings. You
had broken up the peace of my house. You had
67 
THE OFFICE AND DUTY
alienated my wife and daughter from me. I determined to kill you. I have watched at the corner of
your street several nights to shoot you but you did
not come by. I have beaten this angel in my anger.
I have dragged her through these rooms by the hair
of her head; but she has never spoken one harsh
word to me. She has prayed for me; she has been
more loving to me than ever before; and I can stand
it no longer. Can there be salvation for a wretch
like me?" Hiis wife tried in vain to moderate the
language of his appeal.
This man united with his wife and daughter in
their Christian profession, and became to me a firm
and useful friend. By God's blessing, patience had
its perfect work; and his house seemed to them all
perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
In the same revival in our church, another very
similar man, not quite so violent, treated his wife,
under like circumstances, with intense ridicule. iHe
called her, at his own table and before her children,
"My little Jesus Christ."  Of him I heard nothing
better than continued reproach. So far as I knew,
he maintained his bitter infidelity to the end. But I
ceased not to uphold his persecuted wife with encouragement and consolation to the utmost of my power.
68 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
A Christian pastor's patience must endure through
all such scenes and trials. Hiis sympathy must never fail. i His watchful earnestness must never cease.
Unwearied at all times, night and day, in season and
out of season, bearing all things with unfailing love.
With a spirit and habit so maintained, he may be
permitted to reach large blessings from his toil. Without this, prophecies must fail, tongues mnust cease,
knowledge must vanish away.
The wise son of Sirach says: "My son, if thou
come to serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation." Without all patience and long-suffering, as
well as sympathy, knowledge, and labor, you will never be able to accomplish or to endure the demands
of a Christian pastor's work.
VI. To all these most important qualifications, I
shall add refned an d gen tle manners and Jhabits.
The Christian pastor must be a gentleman, in the
moral derivation of that title.  True Christianity in
its practical manifestation is refined humanity, in its
emotions, conceptions, desires, as well as in its habits.
Too really right to be assuming; too consciously
dignified to be pretentious or foppish; too clear and
exalted in spirit to be careless or dirty or offensive in
personal habits.  Innately conscious of the proprie
69 
THiE OFFICE AND DUTY
ties of personal relations.  Not "despising dominions,
nor speaking evil of dignities." Perhaps there is often more real pride in vulgar indifference to propriety
of manners, to places, and persons, than there is in the
cultivation of the most fastidious regard to little relative proprieties of civilized life.
The Christian pastor is admitted, by the respect and
courtesy of civilized' society, to families in every station as an equal friend. He may associate with the
best bred and the most cultivated families with whom
hlie meets, receiving their cheerful and happy welcome.
And he is wholly unfitted for his place and duty if
he disgusts by his boorish habits; offends by his
coarse and undignified familiarities; or discards the
controlling amenities and refinements of cultivated
society.
" I tread on the pride of Plato," said Diogenes, as
he walked across the Persian carpet which covered
the floor of the philosopher.  "Yes, and with more
pride than Plato," answered the philosopher to the
Cynic.
Perhaps you may smile, if I give you a few little
illustrations of unrefined habits, in some things, which
have come under my notice. But John Wesley did
not think it beneath his high sphere of duty to give
TO 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
particular instructions to his preachers, even how they
should leave their beds and chambers in the morning,
when they had enjoyed the hospitality of friends.
Within my knowledge, a minister who was lodged
in the best chamber of a Christian lady, who had wvelcomed himi with much pleasure to her house, painfully disgusted her when she found in the morning that
he liad taken the nice embroidered covering from her
bureau to wipe his face and hands, though a rack of
clean napkins was openly in the chamber.
A minister once officiating for me wiped his nose
and face in the midst of the public worship with the
sleeve of a clean linen surplice, instead of his own
handkerchief, to the great abhorrence of many who
saw him.
A minister in commencing his public prayer in a
highly furnished pulpit, in my sight, took out of his
mouth a large piece of tobacco, and laid it down upon
the marble slab which finished the desk, and when
his prayer was finished deliberately put it into his
mouth again.
I could narrate many such illustrations of coarse
and disgusting habits and acts.  But I have no doubt
that many such violations of propriety in personal deportminent have been known to youL all. i I would have
71 
THE OFFICE AND DUTY
you realize that these are not trifling or mere artificial
things, peculiar to the habits and tastes of a single
class of society. Refined and gentle habits are even
more demanded ill officiating among the poor than
among the rich. There is a sense of propriety among
the least educated and the most limited in earthly
means, which shrinks just as instinctively from coarseness and roughness, from vulgar ways and rude habits, and which is impressed just as really by the manners and deportment of well-bred and careful persons,
as among the richest families with whom you will
associate.
Affected contempt for all these external things, as
they are sometimes called, may become the disciples
of a down-treading infidelity.  But such indifference
is wholly repulsive to the refining purposes, principles,
and habits of true Christianity.
A well-educated young preacher of my acquaintance visited at her request an aged Christian woman,
whose circumstances in outward life were very limited. After his departure, her spontaneous exclamation was, "Dear bless you. - How sweet he is. Why,
he is all sunshine." The kind and graceful manners
of the young minister did her good, like a medicine.
I was once with a gentleman in the church of the
72
O.Li 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
celebrated Dr. Bedell, of Philadelphia, who was extremely impressed by his personal aspect, apart from
his ability as a preacher. lie said to me afterward,
s Dr. Bedell is the finest specimen of the mnanners of a
clergyman, of pulpit manners, that I have ever seen."
Perhaps there was never a minister who was a more
perfect example of a real, tender, pure, loving, unpretending, Christian pastor than Dr. Bedell.  He was
a perfect St. John, in that special imitation of his
divine Lord; associating with all as an equal, and
making all to feel as wholly equal to him  in his
society. I pray you, do not accustom yourselves to
think these elements of no importance in your pastoral life.
I must conclude this review of selected qualifications for a useful pastor's life and workl.  The value
of a faithful cultivation of all these you will hereafter fully estimate.  But they must be acquired at
the beginning. The certainty of an acceptable and
successful ministry will grow out from them.
With a conscience and heart rightly directed; with
a mind enlightened and taught by the Spirit of God;
with a scheme of motives sanctified and elevated;
with habits of personal religion fixed and real; with
a communion with your exalted Saviour cultivated
D
73 
THE OFFICE AND DUTY
and established; with a sincere love for the souls
whom he hath redeemed, imnplanted and cherished
within you; with your consciousness of human infirmities awakening a brother's interest in all around
you; with a real conversion, which has brought your
whole soul and life into living unity with Christ your
Lord; with an undoubted call by the IHoly Ghost,
which has separated you to the work to which your
Lord has appointed you; with a tender sympathy, an
unwearied patience, a generous and friendly spirit,
and genial and refined manners in the sight of all
among whom you dwell-your morning will be full
of promise; your whole career will be happiness continned-owned by God, honored by men; your retrospect will be gratitude and peace. The sun which
has shined sweetly through the day will sink in a repose honored and beloved, and always remembered
with delight when evening comes.
But all this depends, not on genius-not on unusual
brilliancy of talent-but on a simple, persevering,
earnest fidelity to Christ your Lord, which works colntentedly, thankfully, happily, in every place and in
every relation, because it works every where for him.
These are the qualifications which fade not, fail not,
disappoint not, discourage not.  With these, yoiu will
74 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
all be made vessels of honor, meet for the Master's
use, because you are proved to be every where vessels
of the Holy Ghost, by whom Christ is formed in you
the hope of glory, and through whose power Jesus
dwelleth in you, and you ill him.
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TiHE OFFICE AND DUTY
LECTURE III.
October 1, 1S73.
BAY young friends, in the two previous lectures I
have dwelt upon the OBJECT and the QUALIFICATIONS
of the Christian pastor ill the fulfillment of his important office and work.
I propose now to speak of the INSTRUMENTS which
he is to employ in the practical fulfillment of this
work. Suppose his object to be clearly defined and
understood; his qualifications to be ample and appropriate; himself ready to undertake his responsible
oflice and duty in the variety of practical, personal
demands which it must necessarily make upon him.
Tile question immediately arises, as a most pressing
one, IHow shall hlie be made able to fulfill the wide
and varied demands which are to be made upon his
thought and skill?  There are manifestly two separate provisions needed by him-appropriate instruments for his appointed plurpose, and skill to use them
successfu ll y.
76
dt 
OF A CIIRISTIAN PASTOR.
There is scarcely a more helpless person than (?
youthful pastor ill his first personal connection with
the souls for whom lie is to watch, and Swhom hlie has
been called to feed.  To preach the sacred Word in
public, with a few prepared sermons, is easy and
pleasant, and scarce involves any anxiety. To deal
alone with individuals-awakened, anxious, suffering
souls - demands a wisdom and discernment which
will rarely be found in the opening of a young man's
worl in this important ministry.  It is to stand, in
conscious weakness and ignorance, to meet all the
wants of an immortal being in a crisis which we but
little understand.  It may well alarm and cast down
the timorous and halting mind. And yet, if we go
forward in the spirit of conscious sincerity, leaning
upon our appropriate and promised help from the
gracious Saviour who has sent us, we rarely fail; we
are soon enlarged, instructed, and enabled to go forward with success.
I well remember my first experience of this searching demand. At nineteen years of age I had just
entered upon my regular candidateship and study at
Bristol, Rhode Island.  I was even then a constant
preacher. Comining out of church one Sunday evening after a very solemn service by the venerable
77 
TIIE OFFICE AND DUTY
Bishop Griswold, during which he broke entirely
down, and was conducted out of church before the
service was regularly concluded, I saw a company of
persons gathered round a large square pew in the
middle aisle. As I joined them, I saw a young woman under deep distress of mind, and I was asked to
speak to her. I will not attempt to repeat the follies
of my attempt. Perhaps I did not appear to others
so foolish as I seemed to myself. But if I had been
called to command and steer a ship, I should hardly
have felt more incompetent. And yet that very
mortification was very instructive to mne for my then
coming work-it made a part of my preparation for
teaching many.
But I can say most truly to you now, that no demand in life can be more serious and searching as
an employment than this spiritual dealing with awakened souls. And this is one most important department of a pastor's life.  The Holy Spirit alone can
give the ability accurately and usefully to deal with
it.  But nE will instruct and bless the feeblest effort of sincerity in the Lord's service. And while
you go forward in your Master's work with a true
and faithful heart-whether as messengers to call, as
watchmen to protect, or as pastors to feed and pro
78 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
vide for the children of God —there will be a divine
power always attending you, applying the word which
you speak in conscious feebleness, with living energy, and giving- you increasing encouragement every
day.
I will illustrate this fact by the next eperience of
mine to the mortifying one already stated. That
very Sunday night was the last of the Bishop's preaching for more than ei,ght weeks. There was no other
one besides me to be his substitute, and to maintain
the public and private worship and the meetings of
the church. And this was the commencement of a
very remnarkable revival of religion, which, under that
head, I shall hereafter describe. Within a few days
I was called to visit a poor sailor-boy who was ill in
a consumption.  He had been a wild, wandering
youth from his childhood. When I first saw him in
this bed of poverty and distress, hlie seemed to me
as spiritually ignorant as the Greenlanders amnong
whom, in his whaling voyages, he had been. I questioned in my own mind whether he was competent
to be taught the precious truths of the Gospel. With
his widowed mother he lived alone, utterly destitute
and deserted, in a small, wretched cottage in the outskirts of the town.
T9
It 
TIIE OFFICE AND DUTY
But wonderful was thie lesson which God had gra ciously prepared for me at that bedside of poverty
and distress. I daily read to him the precious Word
of God. I told himn of the love of Jesus to the lost
and the wretched. I prayed by his bedside every
day.  AIy. whole heart went out to him in loving
sympathy and earnestness. Divine light from the
Saviour's countenance soon burst uponl him and upon
me with heavenly brightness.   This poor, outcast
boy, emaciated, with his bones literally wearing
through his skin, was filled with the ioly Ghost, with
all joy and peace in believing. The gracious Spirit,
in teaching him, was ev-ery day teaching me yet
more and more abuindantly.
The poor youth partially recovered, and in the
opening spring was able to be out. Hle was visited
and encouraged by others. Hiis case became well
known in the church.   Some months after, I was
conducting one of the Conference meetings of the
church. In the dim light, inii the extieme')art of the
hall, a man arose and asked permission to give an account of the Lord's dealing with him. Hle told his
story with a deep, hollow voice, but in language of
singular simplicity and beauty.   Every heart was
moved; every eye wept in grateful sympathy. It
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OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
wvas my poor sailor-boy, whom I had thought too
ignorant to be taught. But hle had become, under
the blessing of God, my teacher. Soon after this
he departed, with the clearest hope in Jesus, and
with an intense, absorbing lo\-e for his divine iPedeemer.
The history and experience of that sailor-boy have
been to me a perennial comfort and joy in my constant remembrance of him.  So far as I know, he
was the first fruits of mly boyish ministry, and he has
been a divinely appointed guide to me, in my memory of him, through all my years succeeding.  I have
never since doubted the power or the fullness of that
exalted Saviour to raise the most sunlen, or to transform to an angel of light the most darlkened and ignorant of the lost children of sorrow and sin.  The
torch of divinely.imparted hope an,d confidence, Nwhllich
was lighted at the side of that poor boy's bed, has
never fallen from my hand, in a ministry since so
largely demanded and tried.
What, then, are the IINSTRmIENTS by vwhichl such a
ministry is to be carried out?  I do not now speak
of the rowER, by which alone, with any instruments
employed, we can obtain a blessing. But what are
the instruments in the use of whichli we may justly
1D)
81 
THE OFFICE AND DUTY
expect that blessing-the accredited instruments of a
pastor's work?
I. I answer, first, the WORD OF GOD thoroughly believed. I emphasize this word. We may truly apply
the divine testimony to this case, "Whatsoever is not
of faith, is sin." As pastors, we are sent to teachl this
heavenly truth, the Word of the living God.  It is
our duty to feed the souls committed to us with the
bread of God, here provided, for giving life to the
souls of mien.  We go with this inspired Word, in
our hands, in our memories, in our hearts. We do
not, we can not go beyond this Word of the Lord,
less or more.  We  receive it, as Paul received, as
"given to us, by the inspiration of God." Every
word of it is good, as the Lord hath appointed it, and
as it was "spoken by men, who were moved by the
I-Ioly Ghost." It is, to our implicit and entire faith,
just as clearly and truly a revelation from Clod,
turning, upon the poles of everlasting truth, as if the
Book we hold were the single copy in the world,
given from God, expressly to us, and we had received
it, as Moses, in the burning mount of Arabia, or as
John, from the opened heaven, in the glowing solitude of Patmos.
Whatever thorough or searching study we are able
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OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
to give, of manuscripts and versions, of collateral
testimnonies and subsequent objections, will undoubtedly be a part of our preparation for our work.  But
all that work of preparing and examining, necessary
as it is, must be entirely separate from this actual
preaching in the parlor, or teaching by the bedside,
and in personal conversation with the ignorant and
inquiring.
The pulpit, even, is no place for the discussion of
the authority of a message, or for any apologetic defense of the Word of salvation which we are sent to
proclaim. We are ambassadors for Christ, not to
argue the authority of our commission, nor to heed
the reproaches or the objections of those to whom
we are sent on this errand of the Lord.  Even there,
there is no worth, nor will there be any advantage
in this time-serving concession.
I was in company once with a well-educated gentlemnan in one of the Southern States, who had heard
from a minister of some repute, a long sermon, addressed to a large congregation of country people, on
the evidences of Christianity. Hle acutely remarked,
in reference to the defects of the sermon," One of the
strongest evidences of the divine origin of the Gospel
to me is that it stands, and has stood, through ages
83 
THiE OFFICE AND DUTY
of such inadequate preaching."  To  his view, the
preacher was called to preach the Gospel, and not to
defend the authority with which it came.
But if we should concede that this outside work
at any time becomes the pulpit, it has no place in
this pastoral work.  In that, we go with the clear,
calm resting of our mninds and hearts upon the certainty and fullness of this Word of God. We readily impart all the information we have; we freely
tell all we know; we aid, as far as we are able, all
the infirmities we meet; but our one instrument is
the absolute truth of the Gospel. Our message is the
love, the death, the glory of Jesus.  Our authority is
the everlasting Word of God. Our employment is
instruction, not discussion. Our power is in the great
truth which we are sent to preach, and in the attending guidance of the Spirit, who blesses and applies
it. The more simply you tell the fullness of your
Master's love, far the better is your work for all, and
especially for the educated and the reflecting portion
of your hearers.
But when we come to this work of private ministration, this daily pastor work, in proportion to our
faith and our reality, in the nse of the Word of God
is our success. All doubts and questions must be left
84 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
bellind. We are to go upon a direct, divine, personal mission, with minds thoroughly established in
the truth we teach, imparting it in the simplest and
clearest way to all to whom we are sent, as adapted
to their particular case and need.  And you will always find that the children of God delight in the
language of their Father's Word and their Father's
home.
In nay pastoral rounds in a Southern country parish, I visited a widow lady whose afflictions had been
very great.  iier only daughter, a lovely young companion in her solitude, I had buried but a few months
before. She had since lived entirely alone. I found
her in bed, with a large Bible spread out before her
in which she was reading.  I expressed my pleasure
in finding her so employed.  "] Iy precious Bible,"
she said; "'what should I have done this long and
lonely winter without my  Bible   I have had none
to talk with but that dear Saviour who speaks to me
in- this precious Bookl."  This is an illustration of the
way in which Jesus speaks in his own Word, and
gives us new encouragement to rest upon it.
Go out thus in your pastor work, with the Word
of God, thoroughly believed, steadfastly, gratefully
adopted —never yielded, never allowed to be ques
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THfE OFFIOE AND DUTY
tioned or doubted in your mind. The more steadfast and absolute you are in this, the more abundantly and really will your work prosper, and your souls
be blessed.
II. A second, most important instrument in your
pastor work will be a personal knowledge of the
Gospel, clearly understood and clearly expressed. I
have lately seen the phrase "The plan of salvation"
ridiculed, as a form of expression, by a very popular
public speaker. There is, notwithstanding, a very
clear, consistent, and well-defined plan of salvation in
the Word of God. Let us not forget that salvation
for man must be wholly an external work-by an
agency separate from man.  No man can save himself.  If he be not lost, ruined, and in despair, there
can be no real desire for salvation, nor any effective
sense of its need. The soul can not find salvation in
its own duties or attainments, nor in forms or sacraments or religious usages and observances. To direct a man to his own strength or works for salvation is but telling him to pull himself out of the ditch,
into which he has fallen, by the hair of his own head.
Yet in this skeptical and self-Confident age there is
a fearful amount of this retroverting and introverting direction suggested to men.
86 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
But we can not go forth upon any scheme of this
kind. The work which we need, and to which we
must direct, is not by human might or power, but by
the Spirit of the living God.  The edifying and nourishing truth, the truth which gives life to the perishing soul, is always and only the glorious and finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, embraced by a living
faith in the mind, the heart, the conscience of man.
The soul can not feed upon any other than this living manna, this bread of everlasting life.  And the
wisdom, the power, the discrimination of the pastoral
ministry are here displayed.
The family of a very sick lady in my flock, during
a temporary absence of mine, sent for a neighboring
minister to visit her within a few hours of her death.
She was beyond the reach of conversation, and he
did not attempt that.  3But lie proceeded to administer the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to her, in
this almost insensible condition, probably while she
was wholly unconscious of his design. Her daughters told me that she died with the bread in her
mouth, and with the wine dripping over her cheeks,
with her lips closed against it.
This was his exercise of a pastor's work in such
an extremity. It seemed to me almost a blas)lphe
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THE OFFICE AND DUTY
mous perversion. MIany similar illustrations of the
varied perversions of a Gospel ministry might be
given. The skepticism of one will rest in duties and
virtues of man.  The formalism of another will propose outward rites and ceremonies. The true Christian pastor, in private as in public, preaches and
teaches of the glorious finished work of Jesus, and
of Jesus only.  The precious evangelical message
which he carries is the glad tidings of the glorious
fullness of a Saviour's work, the completeness of a
Sa\iour's offering, and the merit of a Saviour's rightcousness, to be received, accepted, and rejoiced in by
grateful, believing man.  And the power of the Itoly
Spirit of God will attend this faithful ministration
of the Gospel, and open and apply the message, to
the salvation and the joyful experience of the believing soul.
This is our message and our instrument. By the
bedside of sickness, in the house of affliction, in all
the anxious trials to which we minister, we are to tell,
iii the simplest terms, of that one gracious, all-sufficient
RPedeemer, by whose death the sinner has been ransomed; in whose precious blood the soul is to be
washed and cleansed; by whose perfect righteousness
the believer is to be justified; and by whose infinite
88 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
power the pardoned soul is to be carried on tlhrough
grace to glory.
We are to go every where and to every one with
this message of life eternal in the only-begotten Son
of God. This is God's merciful provision, and this is
our effectual instrument.  He has given to us to understand and to value the message, to believe in its
authority, to feel its power, and to be willing to suffer its reproach. In the faithful fulfillment of this
divinely appointed work we are always caused, by the
blessing of God, to triumph in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And we suffer nothing to divert us, or to repel us, from
the utterance of this one grand message-a full, free,
and everlasting salvation, for every soul of man to
whom the message comes, and by whom it is received,
in the perfect, unchangeable fullness of a personal,
exalted, glorious Saviour.
For this persevering simplicity of teaching we are
sometimes reproached and perhaps ridiculed.  In a
meeting of ministers in the vicinity of New York, one
gave an account of a Sunday which hlie had passed
in that city.  In the morning he had been to hear
T, he said.  Another asked, "What did he preach
about? "   "Oh, he is always about the same thingforever exalting and glorifying Christ."  An  aged
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TIIE OFFICE AND DUTY
minister present exclaimed, " Did any man ever give
a nobler tribute to another than you have thus given
to him?"  You may be reproached by the unbelieving, the self-righteous, and the skeptical.   But God
your Saviour will honor your work and yourselves
for your unchanging fidelity to him.
I was requested to visit a very fashionable and
giddy lady, sick at a hotel in New York, by a faithful
friend of hlers.  The lady herself was a Universalist
by her own assertion. I found her surrounded by a
number of gay and gaudy women. Novels and newspapers were strewed over her table and bed; and the
whole aspect of the place was trifling and vain in the
extreme.  One of her friends said, "She is very sick,
do not alarm her." I declined all interference, and
sitting by the side of her bed, I told her freely of the
Saviour's work and fullness, and of her own necessity
for such a Saviour for her ruined soul. A solemn
silence filled the room while I was speaking.  All
seemed to be controlled by a divine power. I knelt
by her bed and prayed for her and for all. Whether
I should be rejected or received, I did not consider.
The event proved that the Lord had sent me, and
that it was his work in which I was engaged. That
visit, and that Gospel which she had never before
90 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
heard, for she confessed herself to have lived without
a church or Sabbath, were made the divine instrument
for her salvation.
SIy next visit found her very differently employed.
IIer only companion was the Christian friend who
had asked me to visit her, and who was a member of
the Baptist Church; and she herself held in her hand
a Testament, which she was apparently reading. She
had opened it at the eighth chapter of the Epistle to
the Romnans.  She said, "I have not been able to get
beyond this first verse,'No condemnation to them
who are in Christ Jesus.'  Oh, what a precious testiinony! What a truth that is!"
I saw much of this woman for years after this.
She became one of the most intelligent and truth-loving Christians to whom I have ministered. She has
long since been admitted to the glory of that Saviour's
presence whom she was thus enabled to accept and
love.
I would press upon you the importance of these
two great instruments in a pastor's work: your BIBLE,
accepted by yourself without a doubt of its divine an thority and appointment, and employed in your own
experience as unquestionable and sanctifying truth;
and the precious soiIEmE of free and futill salvation in
91 
THE OFFICE AND DUTY
the Gospel contained therein, and maintained, employed, presented by you every where to every soul,
with constant earnestness, with perfect freedom, and
with entire assurance.
In this system of faithful, prayerful labor, the work
of the Lord will prosper in your personal private efforts to save the souls committed to you, and to edify
the people of God in the love, the faith, the holiness
which his Word prescribes. I do not now speak of
these two instruments as elements of your own spiritual growth, and thereby secondary instruments of
your pastoral usefulness; I speak of them as direct,
positive instruments of active influence upon others;
and to be put into use and operation by you-simply,
boldly, constantly-in all your pastoral ministrations,
as messengers of Christ, and as the educators and
guides of a peculiar people, for his service and glory.
III. A third and most effective instrument in your
pastoral work is IIABITUAL PRAYER, for and with all
to whom the Lord is pleased to send you.  This will
include your own unceasing exercise of this precious
privilege in your own private hours and relations, as
God's appointed instrument for your own personal
edification. lNo class of Christian men so much need
the constant influence and efficacy of personal private
92 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
prayer as the ministers of Christ.  They are not only
compassed about with the comnmon infirmities of humanity, but they have very peculiar temptations of
their own. They need constantly to cultivate personal and relative affections, which are heavily tried in
all the circumstances of their professional life. They
need a constantly guarded reverence for God and the
things of God.  The old proverb, " The nearer the
church, the farther from God," is by no means a mere
profane imagination.
There is much in the handling of sacred things to
make them common and forgotten.  There grows a
familiarity which inclines very rapidly to indifference
and contempt.  I' every aspect of his inward experience, the minister of Jesus needs watchfulness and
prayer without ceasing, to keep him in constant reinembrance of the wants of his own soul, and of the
holiness of the Being whomi he professes to serve.
There is much in the freedomin of mutual clerical intercourse, where the natural unbending of a common
restraint among mutually confiding brethren creates
an unusual levity, which up to a certain point is a
helpful refreshment, but which also leads to a natural
excess, far from edifying, and possibly very inj urions.
And to keep ourselves in our most holy faith, alil to
93 
THE OFFICE AND DUTY
edify each other in the love of God, there is needed
for us a constant "praying in the HIoly Ghost."
We have thus impressed upon us the necessity of
the cultivation of a habit of personal, private prayer,
for our own individual growth, in the communion of
the Spirit, and in the mind and image of Christ our
Lord. The immediate secondary influence of such a
habit acts directly and effectively upon the character
of our pastoral life.  The shining countenance which
true prayer, however secret in its exercises, brings
from the presence and fellowship of our glorified
Saviour, call never be hidden from those with whom
we dwell and upon whom we act. The man of private, personal prayer is known far more widely than
lie wists, and is discovered far more frequently than
hlie supposes.
But I am speaking here of relative, intercessory
prayer: habitual prayer for all to whom we are sent
as the ministers of Christ and the pastors of his flock.
How precious is this permission for relative intercession. How much we habitually gain from the prayers
of the Lord's people, the children of our Father in
IIeaven, for us.
I was once welcomed in a visit to a very godly and
spI)iritually minded child under my ministry, confilecd
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OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
with consumption, in her last sickness (she died at sixteen years of age), with this affectionate utterance:
"Oh, my precious pastor," so she always called me,
"I.have had a most lovely night of prayer for you.
I have spent my waking hours-for you know I can
sleep but little-in telling our dear Saviour the blessings I wanted himn to bestow upon you and your dear
soni."  That son was my eldest, whom the Lord was
pleased to take from a very useful ministry many
years ago. "Perhaps I ought not to say a whole
night; but more than half the night I have been
praying for you, and I know that Jesus will hear me.
You know Jesus always hears our prayers.  My
precious pastor, this is what I think: first, God the
Father loved me and chose me to be his child; second, God the Son loved me, and came to save me, because I was his child; third, God the Holy Spirit
loved me, and came to call me, and tell me that I was
his child. Is that right, my precious pastor?" Hiow
precious to us are the prayers of such real and loving
children of God.
Thus should we constantly, earnestly spread the
names, the conditions, the wants of those whom God
has committed to our ministry before him.  "We
share the blessings they obtain."  Thleir'various trials,
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THIE OFFICE AND DUTY
their dangers, their homes and households, should be
constantly, frequently presented to a prayer-hiearing
Saviour. We should preface every distinct pastoral
effort and visitation with particular prayer. We canl
not really fulfill or endure the cares and burdens and
wants of our condition and offiee in any other way.
There will be constantly questions, applications, cases,
difficulties, wholly belonging to other people in their
immediate relation, laid upon us, in thie adjusting of
which God alone can direct or enlighten us. We
bear thus obligations, demands, entirely beyond our
wisdom or our power to meet; and which most frequently we can not communicate to any human ears.
We hlave no recourse, no instrument of relief, but the
miercy-seat of a reconciled and ruling God.   We go
upon many a personal mission in which we are at our
wits' end.  Our gracious Leader alone can open and
make clear our way.  Our people will never know on
earth what hours of care, anxiety, distress, and earnest
intercession we have watched for them.   Scarcely
exaggerated is Paul's expression, " My little children,
for whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be
formed in you."
Dut I wish to speak also of direct and vocal prayer
in our actual visits as pastors of the flock. There
96 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
may be many obstacles to this habit, especially in
large cities. But if it be possible, no pastoral visit
should be made without prayer. Let it not be too
officiously or professionally interposed, but naturally
flowing fromn our whole character and the natural influence of the visit which we have made. Far more
often than we are ready to believe, Jesus meets us
with a special blessing in this affectionate, intercessory
prayer.
A young man in my congregation, who had finished
his college course in New York, and had passed two
years in France for a scientific education, camne home
an avowed infidel. He sunk into a wasting and fatal sickness after his return. His mother, a sincere
Christian, begged me to visit him. I was received by
him personally with respect and gratitude.  But he
would yield to no instruction from me. He was unwilling to listen to me at all upon the great subject
for which I came. It became to me a very painful
and depressing mission.. But I persevered in my
visits. He tried in vain to prevent my kneeling at
his side, and to excuse himself from attending to me.
I might say unceasing prayer was made to God for
him by many Christian relations. Weeks went by,
apparently in vain.  But God who hleareth prayer
E
917 
THIE OFFICE AND DUTY
was working quite beyond us. After one visit, in
which, as usual, I had earnestly presented to him the
fullness and the love of Christ, and besought him to
accept the Saviour in his heart with love and thankfulness, I knelt as usual by his couch in prayer. He
turned his back to me and his face to the wall. In
the earnestness of my prayer, I laid my hand upon
him, and pressed him to me. lIe afterward told
his mother with delight, that in the midst of that
prayer, the tenderness of my manner and the thought
of my faithfulness to him first really awakened and
impressed him, and the love of Jesus filled his heart
with new and wonderful feeling. When I saw him
again, his face was animated and elevated in a very
peculiar degree. I needed but a glance to see that
he was really a new  creature.  Ihenceforth the
Scriptures were his delight.  Ie would have them
read to him continually. It became a joy indeed
to minister to him.  I-e sank quietly away in a
few days after. Hiis mother, listening to his dying
whisper, heard him repeating the twenty-third Psalm.
The last words she caught were, "I pass through
the valley and shadow of death. Thou art with me
-guide me, lead me."
What a gift to the ministry is the conversion of
98 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
such a youth! What a privilege to a pastor is the
open door of prayer!  What  all instrument does
prayer become in a pastor's wvork when he is enabled to pray with the spirit and with the understanding, also! Learn to cultivate this habit and
employment.  Kleep the edge of prayer bright and
sharp, appropriate, intelligent, instructive, Scriptural,
and spiritual.
Thus, with a mind established in the Word of
God, thoroughly believed, accepted in the infallible
truth of its inspiration from God; enjoying the discriminate and experimental knowledge of the Gospel, clearly understood; livlng in personal communion with Jesus as your known and beloved Saviour;
moving  and acting in the spirit and exercise of
prayer unceasing-the pastor's life will be to you
no life of trial or weariness, but a life of friendship,
influence, usefulness, and unspeaklable joy.
IV. A fourth most important instrument in a pastor's work is manifest, simple FIDELITY TO JESUS.  I
mean an undisputed life, that is really one with him,
and a living epistle for him, known and read of all
men.  You will meet with a very quick perception,
among the people over whom you watch, whether
you are real and true in your personal Christian
99 
THIE OFFICE AND DUTY
walk, or whether you are only professional agents
and shams.  The pastor's usefulness depends almost
entirely upon the confidence of the people  with
whoni lie is called to associate.  Real, affectionate
trust, meeting him, welcoming him, aiding him, is
mnore than half of his ability to do good to them.
What you need at all times is that which the
Apostle calls "simplicity, godly sincerity." I call
it here a simple fidelity to Jesus. It is being itl
the world, as he was in the world. IHaving his
cause, his authority, and his glory manifestly the
one commanding object of your life.  And of this
TI now speak, as an instrument for your personal usefuliiess as pastors of his flock.
There is sometimes an assumed separation, an apparent, studied, professional holiness, inii the aspect
and manners of a minister, which repels and dis(usts.  It comes in sight with a kind of barking
b                       zn
warnling, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; I
am holier than thou.  There is also sometimes a
cold, professional air, which gives the immediate impression of a relative loftiness, a want of sympathy
withl the weakness and ignorance of others.  There
is sometimes a levity of manner in the opposite extreme, which appears completely inconsistent with
100
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OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
the serions, commanding interests and themes which
have been committed to the Christian pastor.
I refer to all these now simply in their instrumental character; the inevitable effect which they
have in their operation upon a pastor's influence,
acceptance, and usefulness among the people to
whom he has been sent. The one of these series
will create unceasing obstructions in a pastor's way.
They shut against him a multitude of outward doors;
and they more thoroughly exclude himn from that
heart - confidence without which all his efforts and
purposes will be vain.
But in a life and walk consentient, manifesting the
kindness of heart, the wisdom of discernment, and
the watchfulness of deportment which distinguished
the mind of Christ and the character of his apostles,
the Christian pastor finds a welcome in every habitation. Every door is opened to him. Entire confidence is reposed in him. Hie becomes the chosen
adviser, the tender father, the unchanging friend,
the desired and beloved companion of every family.
All hearts are entwined around him. As a father
among his children, he moves among a united flock,
the guardian, the guide, the friend of all.
,,Iany such men have I seen, and traced from
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THE OFFICE AND DUTY
youth to age in the ministry of Christ. Their fidelity
to him was open and undeniable. They were men
of prayer, men of experience, men of holiness, men
of high and controlling motives.  They knew and
they taught his Word. They carried with them his
example and his influence. They were honored with
a peaceful and fruitful ministry. The ear that heard
them, blessed them. The eye that saw them, bore
witness to them. Their power was undeniable, and
every where acknowledged. It was not the influence of popularity, as public performers, nor the
acknowledgment of superior intellect or of literary
attainment. It was the commanding power of undeniable holiness, disinterestedness, tenderness, pureness, and love. They were universally believed to
be right; their judgments stood like a rock; their
words, their instructions, were received as uLnquestionable and undisputed truth.
You can not magnify the importance of such an
instrument for the Christian ministry; you can not
enhance its actual attainment of happiness, of usefulness, of reverence, of reciprocated love.  They attend it as a halo of light, brightening every home
of life, and crowning the memory with almost an
apotheosis of grateful transmission.
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OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
There is no other relationship in life so surely
happy or so abundantly remunerative. "Mly more
than father —my more than father," exclaimed one
of the noblest of womlen and wives whom I liave
ever known, as, weeping with joy and thanlkfulness,
she threw her arms around her pastor's neck, to
whom she said she owed every thing that a fatherless, helpless child could owe to a Christian pastor's
care and love.  "My precious pastor, my ever constant friend, what would this world have been to me
without you," said a widow, to whomi  in affliction
and solitude God had been pleased to send what she
called her highest gift in that faithful, loving friend.
Such tributes are not special nor unusual. They
follow the ministry of every man who comes from
Christ, lives with Christ, walks as Christ, every where
carries Christ, speaks like Christ, and in all his ministry, in public and in private, preaches not himself,
but Jesus Christ his Lord.
In reference to this one sure instrument of usefulness in your pastoral work, I must say to you," Covet
earnestly the best gifts, but here I show unto you the
more excellent way." Be faithful to your Lord, and
he will make all others faithful to you.  With this
undoubting confidence in the Word of God, this clear
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THE OFFICE AND DUTY
understanding of the glorious Gospel which it coin tains, this life of personal, intercessory prayer, this
walk of earnest and undisputed fidelity to Jesus, you
will be truly clad with the whole armor of God, as the
"great heart," the defender and guide of his chosen
family, in their pilgrimage through grace to glory.
V. This might seem to complete an adequate view
of necessary instruments for the pastor's worlk. But
there still remain some smaller but very important
means of usefulness in a pastor's life, which come in
connection with these, and exercise a relative influence of great value.  Among these I would refer to
a CONTENTED IIABIT and TEIPER and UTTERANCE.
The importance of this you can hardly magnify.
I have seen the best education and intellectual gifts
completely overwhelmed in their exercise by a complaining and dissatisfied spirit.
The fundamental theory of our  ministry is that
we are consecrated a living sacrifice to Christ, and
are no longer our own, or at our own disposal.  Our
whole lives belong to Jesus. Wherever we are placed,
we are divinely placed, under a Providence which is
over us as the ministers of Christ, with a peculiar,
paternal care. The Lord's gracious utterance to his
prophet may be applied with equal truth to us, "Thou
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OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever
I command thee thou shalt speak.  Be not afraid;
I amn with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord."
Our immediate location may be by ecclesiastical
appointment or congregational election. But with
either it is to be for us, with a clear perception that
the voice of the Lord is heard, and the will of the
Lord is to be done.  The spirit of contentment and
thankfulness becomes the response of our heart to
the word of the Lord concerning us. Certainly some
scenes for our ministry are hard and trying; but
they are the Lord's places, and somebody must fill
them. And if we are called and appointed to them,
they are as appropriate to us as to others.
For myself, I have been singularly overruled and
disappointed in the arrangement of my places of
ministry all my way through.  The places which I
desired and sought have never been opened to me.
I have been successively sent to places to which my
tastes were repugnant, and unexpectedly removed
from places in which I had become contented and
attached. Thus the Lord is pleased often to remove
us from place to place, "from vessel to vessel, lest
our taste remain in us."  And yet I have never failed
to find, in subsequent experience, that the Lord's
E2
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THIE OFFICE AND DUTY
choice was the best choice; and the move which I
had dreaded has been made graciously to open for
me a happy, I might say, a still happier home.
I gave uLp the wealth of earth to preach the Saviour's Gospel; and when I began that sacred work,
in this world's goods I was poor enough.  When I
was settled in my first charge I had ten dollars in
my possession, and that was borrowed. Through my
whole early ministry, I knew much of the restraints
of narrow means of living. I have had my full share
of persecutions and hostilities. I know enough, in
my personal experience, of the peculiar trials of the
ministry.  Iut I also know much of the unspeakable
happiness of serving Jesus in his own appointed
places, in this sacred work, with contentment and
thanksgiving.  And I must press this thought upon
you, that, as an instrument of influence and useful
ness with others, we need always a contented and
cheerful temper. WVith this, though we are poor, we
may make many rich.  A eheerful heart doeth good
like a medicine.
WVhat a blessing such a pastor brings to the house
of sorrow, to the chamber  of sickness, to the abode
of burdens and distress!  Ihis "countenance sharpeneth" the hope, the patience, the endurance of all.
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OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
Hie comes every where as a fulfillment of joy. Ilis
visits are anticipated with delight.  All rise up to
call him blessed.  Tile children and the "little ones"
cling around him as a friend whom they love. All
loving kindness, goodness, and truth are the spontaneous radiance from the character and life of such
a man. In his path every valley is exalted, and every hill is made low; the crooked things become
straight, and the rough places smooth. It is a pleasure to contemplate the influence and the results of
such a course.
But follow the history of a discontented, complaining man. What an unwholesome, repulsive miasma
spreads around him! Hie can not be desired nor
longed for nor tolerated but by those who are more
truly the imitators of a mlild and gentle Saviour than
hlie. He may know all books and all languages; he
may be, in his own estimation, "wiser than Daniel,"
and really "prouder than Lncifer;" he may be an
adept in all conversation and all culture; but none
desire him, and every place in which his ministry
is appointed and exercised becomes more really discontented than lie.
Such a man occurs to my mind. Hie was talented,
educated, and outwardly well prepared. But he had
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TIiE OFFICE AND DUTY
no aptitude of personal conformity to appointed conditions, and he has rolled and tumbled through the
Church, from one inferior place to another still more
so, until in age he seems likely to have no home open
to him  in any part of the Lord's work on earth.
Hle asked me one day the reason for this. He said,
"I preach the same truth as you. Why is my preaching useless?" We were near a butcher's stall filled
with a stock of most attractive meat.  "Why can
not you eat that meat, so nicely cut up, and looking
so clean?" I replied.  "Why, it is not cooked,"
he said.  "That is exactly the point," I answered.
"That which is wanting in all your worl is cookingadaptation to the wants and condition of the people
to whom you are sent. Your meat is nicely cut up
and divided, but it is not cooked."  It is a faithful,
sympathizing, pastoral ministry which alone can make
our public discourses really available, and prepare
the food for the adequate nourishment of the people
whom we are sent to feed.
John Newton once went to hear a very critical
and accurate preacher; and when asked by him how
he liked his discriminating analysis, answered, "One
great distinction you seemed to have forgotten-the
difference between bones and meat."
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Now take these important INSTRUMENTS for your
pastoral ministry, and go out with them to your work:
Scriptural, evangelical, prayerful, exemplary, cheerful, contented, conforming to the tastes and habits
of others, with a loving, dignified accommodation.
Eating that which is set before you —grateful for
the hospitality of all; as open to the poor as to the
rich; despising not the low degree; doing all in the
name of the Lord Jesus, that lie may be glorified in
you.  Thus he will make for you every lodging-place
a Bethel, every host a Gaius, every wilderness a garden, in every place Onesiphorus and his house refreshing you, not ashamed of your chain.  Be holy,
faithful, happy, in your appointed work, and you will
find households of faithful, happy ones around you,
uinisterilg to all your wants, grateful for all your
teaching, blessing you in your arrival, thanking you
in your departure, recalling you with pleasure, every
where enlarging the circle of your prayer, and their
supplication to include your names among those
whom they remember before the throne of grace.
"Such honor have all his saints."
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ZECT'URE IV.
October 2, lS73.
MY young friends, a consideration of thle OBJECT,
the QUALIFICATIONS, and the INSTRUMENTS of the Christian pastor demanded in the nature and the prosecution of his work, leads me now to ask your consideration of the AGENCIES and OPPORTUNITIES which
are prepared for him.
The distinction which I have made between instruments and agencies will, I tlhink, be immediately
apparent to you.  Instruments or tools for a workman are personal possessions: things which he brings
to his appointed wvork.  Agencies and opportunities
are characteristics of his appointed field of labor,
whatever it may be: the objects and the scenes upon
which and in connection with which he is to employ
his instruments and tools. Ite brings his own instrumnents to his workl. Hie finds his agencies and
opportunities provided for him.  I-tis actual uisefulness and success depend upon a proper improvement
110
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OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
of his agencies with his instruments. An unskillful
or unfurnished workman will often destroy the best
preparation for his success, and a well-furnished and
well-instructed workman will often achieve a brilliant success with very limited and unpromising provisions in his field of labor.
I. The first agency to which I will refer is PERSONAL VISITATION.  By this, I mean not the occasional
social visits of a Christian gentleman for his own
comfort and pleasure, promotive as they may be of
good fellowship and a friendly understanding in a
community. I refer to direct, designed, and earnest
personal effort to carry the ministry of the Gospel to
every household, and to every soul committed to the
care of a minister of Christ.
I well know the difficulty and the cost of maintaining the habit and the power of such a ministry. It
demands all the living influence of true and active
piety in a pastor's soul; all the love for Jesus and
his cause which the Spirit of God has been pleased
to bestow upon the pastor's heart; all the real interest in others, and love for the souls for whom the
Saviour died, which can be cultivated in the heart
of manl.  But of the general demands and objects
which are arrayed before the pastor's view and con
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THE OFFICE ANDI) DUTY
science, I have already sufficiently spoken. But tile
value of such an agency as that of which I now
speak it is impossible to magnify.
The power of the Gospel, ill its effective, spiritual
ministry, is a personal power in the individual soul.
The public preaching of the Gospel becomes really
effectual only in the extent to which the IHoly Spirit
is pleased to carry its divine teaching, to govern and
sanctify the inward nature of those who hear, with
his own renewing power.  But no really faithful
preacher can stop his labors at this point of application.   ie must know his sheep, and call them  by
name; he must search out his flock, and carry the
precious words of divine compassion and invitation
to every house.  I-Is voice must thus be heard by all.
I concede to you, the labor of this is extreme.
The wear and tear of nerves and affections is great.
The obstacles and impediments to success are many.
But notwithstanding all this, it remains  a part of
our appointed work, and an element of an imparted
power.  It is, indeed, the truly apostolic pattern of
preaching, "Daily, and in every house, they ceased
not to teach, and to preach Jesus Christ."  And it is
an invaluable privilege to be permitted, and to be
ab)le, to carry it out systematically and constantly.
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OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.O
This bringing the Word of salvation and tile voice
of prayer to every house is most important in its
direct effect upon the family we visit. It opens a
welcome to our whole ministry; it entwines the affectionate sympathy of every heart around the person and character of the minister of Christ; it brings
to each home, as their nearest and most cherished
friend, the messenger of divine salvation; it presents
him as one who understands and has experienced the
power and the reality of this gift of God. And
when such a ministry has been faithfully fulfilled,
it must leave behind it a blessing from God upon
the souls to whom this precious message has been so
simply and affectionately presented.
Such a personal visitation gathers the attendance
and the attention of all to the public stated congregation.  I have known irreligious families, living
wholly without a Sabbath and without God, thus won
by the personal kindness of the minister to a constant attendance upon the public worship of the
church, and to an abiding acceptance of the Gospel.
The public instruction of the man whom they have
learned to love becomes invested for them with an
attraction and a power which they have never found
before.
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THE OFFICE AND DUTY
The effect of this personal work upon your own
public ministry becomes most important. It furnishes you with practical material for preaching; it
opens individual and social necessities for a special
application of the Word of God; it transforms your
general address to a distinct personal message; it
converts the painted flame and glow of a mere lecture or harangue to the living fire of converting truth,
around which the shivering and perishing will learn
and love to gather, that they may be warmed and
filled.  "Come  see a man who hath told me  all
things that ever I did" becomes the repeated form
upon many a tongue of a similar conviction.
You will rarely find such a visit from a truly sincere and friendly pastor to be rejected or undervalued. Take the instruments for your work which
I have proposed, understood by you in their use, tried
by you ill their experience, employed by you in the
strength and love of your present Saviour, persevering, and repeated in your effort, and the Lord
whom you serve will always open to you an effectual
door, and many adversaries to the Gospel will be won
over to be your chief friends.
II. In connection with this agency of personal visitation, you will generally find a special ofpoortunity
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OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
for your reception providentially prepared in seasons of personal sickness and domestic affliction.
This is another agency divinely prepared. So antecedent to our personal work for Jesus are his provisions for us, that our habitual experience discovers
a way already prepared before us. Often when a
hesitating, timorous man delays what seems to him a
real call of personal duty, some unexpected opening,
exhibiting a family waiting anxiously for an expected
visit, will fill him with shame in a consciousness of
his neglect. There are always open doors around
us, and our duty is to seek them, and take advantage
of them all.
When personal sickness lays by the active and the
careless, or calls the child of God to bear the rod, and
hear him who hath appointed it, there is a very manifest opening for our effort and our success.  Our most
precious seasons of approach to others will be when
the world has been thus shut out, and there is time
and opportunity to deliver our message in the Saviour's name. All our appointed instruments of impression then come into use. We must be direct in
our appeal, free and full in our utterance of the mnessage of abounding grace and divine forgiveness. We
go to offer the fullness of a Saviotr's merit and love
I 1 h
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THE OFFICE AND DUTY
to the acceptance of a waiting soul prepared to hear
it. And we can not err on the side of sincere earnestness and affectionate encouragement to the weary,
the wretched, and the lost. ATe can never magnify
the blessings we may be permitted to receive in an
assiduous and faithful ministry for Christ.
In one of my regular circuits of pastoral workl I
passed the door of a household with whom  I was
quite familiar, but of whom I had heard nothing of
particular distress. Four physicians' carriages were
standing at the door.  I stopped to ask the cause.
The father of the family had been suddenly found
the subject of a virulent cancer in the face, the reality
of which he had never suspected.  The consultation
determined that no medical power could rescue or
restore him.  Aid he was left to meet an inevitable
death.
Hiere was my provided opportunity.  I called immediately after the departure of the physicians, as the
messenger of divine teaching and encouragement.
Four months of wasting and exhaustion I witnessed
in an unceasing progress.  But a most precious preparation of grace and divine goodness I was permitted
also to see. The disease was fearful-but the grace
was most abundant.  Hie lived from week to week in
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OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
agony.  But he was led on from joy to joy by the
Spirit of God.  Shlen I supposed him near the close
of his career, though still maintaining conversation
with entire intelligence, hlie said to me, "Oh, do you
not see him?"-pointing his finger over the foot of
his bed-" do you not see him "  "See whom."
I said. "Oh, Jesus. There hlie is; there he stands.
How glorious! He has come for me-I shall go with
him."  I could see nothing peculiar in the direction
to which he pointed.  But his whole pain-worn, halfeaten countenance was filled with joy.  That niight ill
his sleep he departed without a pang, and without the
consciousness of the friends who were watching around
him. Other similar scenes I have also seen in different portions of my ministry, giving incidental illustrations at least of the precious words of our Lord,
"I will come again and receive you unto myself."
Two years' constant pastoral visiting to a faithful
"dauglhter of the Lord Almighty," departing in a
lingering consumption, were closed, when vocal speech
had gone, by a most affectionate testimony of gratitude
in the very night of her departure  Drawing my ear
closely to her lips, with her wasted arm around my
neckl, she whispered, "Jesus will bless you for all that
youL have done for me, and all that yoti have told nme
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THIE OFFICE AND DUTY
of him. You can never know in this world how much
I have loved you."
Such providences as these I call peculiar preparations for our work.  I consider them a special agency,
of which we are to take advantage.  I could employ
many hours in relating to you similar illustrations
which have been graciously given to me. I present
them to you for your guidance. Be ready for them.
Expect them.  Take advantage of them.  Go out for
Jesus, sympathizing, intelligent, experienced messengers of his Word, with the glad tidings of a Saviour's
work complete and power divine; of a divine forgiveniess, absolute and free. Be patient. Be cheerful.  Be encouraging.  Be sympathizing.  Let the
very tones of your voice be a comfort and a blessing.
Let your whole manner be simple, real, earnest, hopeful. Strive to establish an entire confidence, communion, between yourselves and those whom you
visit.  An  untender, unsympathizing manner  can
have no good effect. A subservient, cringing manner
can have no more. We shrivel up, corrugated, before
a hard and cold address. We doubt the reality of a
whining, sing-song one.  Go, in the spirit of your
divine BIaster, dignified but gentle; knowing what
you say, and what to say; and hle will bless you. If
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you assume a lofty, pretentious style scolding, rebuking, censuring-you will do no good; you will shut
against yourselves every door which he may open.
This is a very important subject for you to consider.
It is a great thing to learn how to deliver your Lord's
message simply, freely, positively, to suffering souls.
We do not go in this divinely prepared agency to
offer a conditional hope, or to describe a way in which
the human soul may reconstruct itself.  We go to tell
to others that which our Lord has told to us; and the
truth and power of which he has made us to understand and feel.  Divine inspiration has taught us, and
made us partakers of the heavenly benefit. The messag,e to a lost sinner is not, God will save you, if you
obey and love him. It is, God has saved you; believe, trust, and love him. It is a salvation, accomplishled and perfect, by the power and in the fullness
of an almighty Saviour, which you are sent to proclaim.  The real power of the ministry is in the sinmple, believing delivery of this message, and our free
offer of this salvation.
We go to tell others that which God has taught us
intelligence of inestimable worth to all who are
ready to hear and to receive it. It is the declaration
of God's own reconciliation, and of man's complete
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THIE OFFICE AND DUTY
salvation, in the obedience and death of the Lord
Jesus Christ.  We present gracious invitations, which
are and must be either gratefully accepted or rebellious]y rejected by all who hear, and that at once.
The alternative is Christ or no Christ-life or death.
We can not say that the message may not be again
repeated. But so far as each present message goes,
there is the result and the end.
I was once called late in the evening to visit a
young man at a boarding-house in Philadelphia  Itie
was an officer in the United States Army, returning
from the Florida War, on his way to his Northern
home.  Ite was extremely ill.  I took him  by the
]land, and told him of this work and love of Jesus,
this great salvation and victory for him, in the precions blood of the Son of God.  Ile started from me
with a screani   "Ohl, do not talk to me about that.
That was just what my mother used to tell me; but
I would not hear her. It is too late-too late now."
I tried in vain to persuade him to hear me. I knelt
by his side, and prayed to that gracious Saviour who
alone could hear and bless. The young man turned
his face away from me, and covered his head, and
cried aloud, "Ol, go away-leave.me.  There is no
hope now."  It was midnight, and I retired.  At
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OF A CIIRISTiAN PASTOR.
daylight I was there again. The crape upon the
bell-pull told me that all was over.  The nurse said
he was quiet till his departure, and said no more.
God only could tell if the message had been effective through his abounding grace.
But thus we go forth, like the visitor in the Catacombs, with this single thread in our hands. If we
lose this, all is lost.  We have no other message.
We can not go beyond the Word of the Lord to say
less or more. Each visit may be our last opportunity.
We are always standing on the line between two
worlds. Eternity may hang upon the single message
which we now deliver. What an agency is this!
What an opportunity!  What a responsibility is involved in it! Every moment and every word be-.
comes increasingly precious; and a loving, experienced pastor will deeply feel the solemnity of the
crisis, and of his fidelity therein.
III. But this providential agency extends far beyond occasional seasons of personal sickness and domestic affliction. Our whole field of appointed labor
is a special providence for us. We are selected messengers from God wherever we are sent.  There is
some particular reason why we have been individually directed to the particular commiunity in which,
F
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THE OFFICE AND DUTY
by a power beyond our own choice, our lot has been
cast. It is a very low and inadequate view of our
ministry for Christ to consider it in any sense a mere
chosen profession, the duties and advantages of which
are a subject of our own will, and of our personal
selection. I have not been willing to esteem myself
less personally or distinctly sent to a particular community, or removed from one place to another for
my appointed work, than the first generation of the
apostles, or the present missionaries of the Gospel to
a foreign land. The reality of our power and usefullness in this great work is very essentially bound
up with our consciousness of this divine appointment
and divine message.  The whole aspect and peculiar
distinctions of the persons to whom our ministry has
been directed are really for us a providential arrangement, especially prepared for our work; and
we must endeavor to conform our efforts for others,
and our own tastes, habits, and contentment, amid
the duties of our calling, to the facts which seem so
clearly to indicate the will of God concerning us.
The man in the quietness and self-control of a retired, rural, country place, where he may command
his own time, and occupy himself in his work according to his own choice and habits, in the calm routine
122 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
of an unnoticed life; and the same man in a crowded, bustling city, where he is the subject of laws,
habits, conveniences, beyond his own will or possible
power to influence, becomes, if he succeed in his
work, really two different men. -lany a one, whose
youthful bark was first launched upon the tranquil
surface of an inland lake, where all motion was moderate and peaceful, and the whole circumference encircling him was within his own sight, when he becomes tossed upon the unresting surges of a sea which
hlie has no power to control-when his own safety or
ability to get through is often the one question which
absorbs his mind-looks back with an intense desire
to be once more as he was in former days, and to feel
once more as he felt when he was not the slave of an
ungovernable pressure, but the ruler of an unbroken
repose.
We can never get through this variety of experience creditably or happily, usefully or honorably, unless we can realize the fact that we are not our own;
our place and circumstances of ministry are not under our own direction; but as it is our commanding,
unchanging decision in every thing thoroughly to
obey the will of our divine Lord. That gracious Will
holds us in the hollow of his hand; fixes the bounds
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TIIE OFFICE AND DUTY
of our habitation; gives us the borders of our dwelling; and teaches us in his own way the special messag,e which we are to deliver, amid these agencies of
his own devising.
We are thus, from the beginning to the end of
life, the messengers of the Lord of Hosts to our
fellow-men; whether to the quiet and comparatively
orderly population of a rural district, or to the driving, swelling crowd of a populous city; to the conmparatively limited knowledge of the families of the
poor, or to the assuming or real distinctions and elevations of the educated and the rich. We are every
where the selected and appointed ministers of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and are to be contented to be in
the world, as he was in the world.
The one primary, fundamental object of our ministry, never to be forgotten, is the promotion of the
personal glory of our divine Lord. The final, satisfying accomplishment of our controlling desire will
be the establishment of his authority and the glory
of his kingdom. In order to this, and for the attainment of this, our duty, our absorbing purpose, is
to be the individual conversion of the souls of men
to him, in whom alone there is life for the perishing
and the lost. We shall unceasingly seek their edifi
124 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
cation in the knowledge and love of him; and their
walk in newness and holiness of life, under the guidance of his Spirit, and in the pattern and beauty of
his example. For this great work we are on earth
among the living. For this we have solemnly given
ourselves to Jesus as our Lord.  Renouncing all other
authority and will, we look to him to send whom he
will send; to send where he will send; and to accomplish his gracious work in his own way. And
whether our individual field be laid out among the
rich or the poor, the elevated or the low, the educated
or the ignorant, the single purpose of our mind and
choice will be to glorify Jesus, and to work for him
alone.
The appointment of our scene of labor is the
providence of that Great Riuler who holdeth the stars
in his right hand. You will allow me to illustrate
the apparent directions of this providence by some
occurrences in my own experience. At twenty-one
years of age and a few weeks over, I left my New
England home  in the character of a preacher the world before me and Providence my guide.
Four weeks afterward I found myself settled as a
pastor in a church in Georgetown, in the District of
Columbia, then the business suburb- of the city of
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THE OFFICE AND DUTY
Washington. It was a church of which I had never
heard, and in which not a single individual was
known to me. They accidentally heard me, without
my knowledge.  Their aged pastor left them but the
Sunday previous, and pleasantly said to them, "If that
young man had an II in his name, he would be the
very thing for you."  They took me at his word, and
thus made me the thing. It was a largely intelligent and cultivated audience. I had written very
little.  Ify habit of preaching, which I had acquired
in a revival at Bristol, Rhode Island, from whence I
had gone within tile previous month, was entirely
extemporaneous, and was sometimes  very  trying.
But I could not avoid the conclusion that I had
been sent to this place, and I could not cherish the
thought of flinching or running.  It proved the
opening to mv whole life's work, and gave me in
the very morning of may youth the opportunity of
an extended acquaintance which I could hardly have
expected to attain.  A large poruion of the members
of Congress at that time boarded in Georgetown.
It was here that an incident occurred which I have
seen in print, and to which I will therefore refer.
On one Sunday I went as usual to my church, with
my feeble preparation for the pulpit. It was during
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OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
the session of Congress, and, to my amazement, a
large number of public men were there, many of
whom were personal friends of my father.  I was
terrified beyond control at the sight, and my gracious
Lord left me to my own pride for my chastening. I
forgotmy text and my whole subject. And after blundering on for perhaps ten minutes in a most profuse
perspiration, overwhelmed with confusion, I suddenly closed the service and dismissed the congregation.
Walking home, bowed down with my mortification,
my wife, a daughter of Bishop Griswold, said to me:
"Now do give up this attempt at extemnporaneous
preaching.  You know my father said it would always be desultory and unconnected.   You will never succeed in it, I fear." I replied, "I will never
give it up.  This very occasion has made  me determined.  It can be acquired, and, by the Lord's
help, I will acquire it." Thirty years after that, I
saw Alr.Van Buren, who was one of my distinguished
hearers on that day, in St. George's Church in the City
of New York. iHe came up to the chancel to speak
to me, with his friend Judge Vanderpoel, whom he
was'isiting.  Referring to some things past, I said,
"Do you remember that day of my dreadful failure
in preaching, in Georgetown, in the beginning of my
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THE OFFICE AND DUTY
ministry." "Oh yes," said lie; "but you have never
failed since."
My two years' ministry in Georgetown opened to
me a country field of labor in a very rich section of
Southern Maryland. I was called to a parish which
I had never heard of, through some persons who had
heard me in Georgetown, resident in that country.
The people had the reputation of great wealth and
of fearful dissipation. They were the owners of-near
three thousand slaves. The opening was so unsought
and providential that I determined to accede to their
request. Ani older minister, who knew the place,
said to me: "Well, Tyng, I will give you six months
there. They will never stand youe." I passed with
them six happy years; and when, most unwillingly,
I left them to remove to Philadelphia, they gathered
around me with the appeal, "Why do you leave us?
You might spend your life with Lus. We will do any
thing for you; we shall never get another minister
that we shall like so much."  And yet, by the help
of my gracious Lord, I did not truckle to their habits of life. I preached in their taverns and from
house to house, wherever I could find a room or a
gathering for the purpose.
Of some of my early sermons to this people in one
128 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
of the taverns, I will repeat to you my texts. Isaiah
iii., 9: "The show of their countenance doth witness
against theim; and they declare their sin as Sodom,
they hide it not. Woe unto their soul, for they have
rewarded evil unto themselves."  Isaiah v., 11: "Woe
unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they
may follow strong drink; that continue until night,
till wine inflame them. But they regard not the
work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of
his hands. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and
opened her mouth without measure: and their glory,
and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it." Ezekiel xvi., 49: " Behold, this was the iniquity of Sodom: pride, fullness
of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and
in her daughters; therefore I took them away as I
saw good."
There was at first a good deal of bustling and
some threats, under these direct rebukes of their prevailing sins.  But I yielded nothing.  And the complaints ended, under the counsel of an old resident,
who said: "You had better let that young man alone.
You will not do much with him, and you know he is
right."
God gave me many precious souls among that peo                        F F2
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THE OFFICE AND DUTY
ple, even some who were the most repulsive at the
beginning. And their kind remembrance of me has
been perpetuated among their children and their
grandchildren, of which, after the passage of fifty
years, I have lately received a very gratifying expression and evidence.
I could illustrate this providential agency by many
successive facts in the cities of Philadelphia and New
York; but I have not time nor space for them here.
I trust you will not deem it mere personal vanity
which leads me  to refer to these individual facts.
Our providences are all our own-and they are often
very precious gifts of God. The gracious Lord, who
so wonderfully prepares our way in his work, must
hlave the honor of all that minute and gracious care
with which he directs our steps.  But we must not
be unmindful in its observation, nor silent in its acknowledgment.
III. Beyond these two aspects of agencies, prepared
for our work, there is the agency of social religious
meetings of various descriptions. These must habitually makle up an important portion of our pastoral
work in every week. In connection with our regular
Sabbath work faithfully maintained, they constitute
an indispensable element of success in the fulfillment
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OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
of our responsibility as pastors in the Church of our
gracious Lord.
These varied religious meetings are so familiar to
our knowledge in the various churches of the Lord,
whether as conference or class or prayer meetings,
that I feel no necessity laid upon me for an attempted
exposition of their character. I have been familiar
with their usefulness, and in my various fields of
labor have always desired to maintain them, as far as
the providential circumstances around me would permit.  In our different fields of labor, there is a great
difference in the facility of establishing these social
meetings, and the ease with which they may be sustained.
But it is habitually through them that much of a
pastor's personal relations to the individual members
of his flock, and his acquaintance with their religious
condition and necessities, are inaugurated and made
available.  A  wise and skillful pastor will always
throw his whole influence and mental attainments
into these openings for the revival and prosperity of
the power of the Gospel among the people. They
furnish him an opportunity for special personal instruction, for the discrimination and correction of
local and occasional errors and evils, for the cultiva
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tion of the special, personal fruits of practical religion, and for familiar expositions of the Word of
God, for which he can find no time or opportunity
in the public services of the Sabbath.
These familiar meetings are the occasion for calling forth, for the service of the Gospel, hidden talent
and experience in the minds of laymen, which may
be made of great value in the more public work of
the Lord. When they are thus faithfully and affectionately sustained by the whole power of the pastor's influence and personal aid, they are a preparation for the gracious revivals in the Church, and the
special gifts of the Spirit of the Lord with which it
pleases God, according to his own will, to bless and
edify his people. There is much pure gold concealed
by the routine of earthly occupation among the members of the Church, which the skillful pastor may
thus bring forth for the Saviour's honor. It should
be the desire of his heart that all the Lord's people
might be prophets.  A true and faithful minister of
Christ will never cultivate or allow an unreasonable
jealousy of lay influence, nor fear the undue exaltation of those whom God hath called and blessed.
Not long since I was present at the public worship
of two churches of different names on the Sabbath,
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OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
in neither of which did I hear a distinct or edifying
Gospel message. In the evening I went to the Methodist congregation, where, in the absence of the appointed pastor, a young local preacher was officiating.
From him I heard a simple, faithful, precious sermon
on the priesthood of Jesus, which filled me with
thankfulness and joy. At the close of the worship, I
went up to the young man, and thanked him for his
very acceptable service. iHe replied, "You do not
know me, but I know you well.  You have been awfully in my way to-night."  I said, " I thought so, my
dear young friend, by the way in which you have
been firing through me in your sermon. Bless the
Lord, that he gives you grace to speak so truly and so
usefully to his people." In this lay effort, you should
be always glad. You have nothing to fear from the
assumption or exaltation of these services. If they
are likely to tread upon your heels, let it excite you
to new efforts to keep your undisputed place as leaders in the real work of the Lord.
IV. I pass to a fourth agency, which the Lord has
prepared for every faithful pastor in his Church. I
mean the care and the cultivation of the youth of
his flock. The possibility of bringing religious truth
effectually to the mind and acceptance of children,
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THE OFFICE AND DUTY
and the bringing of children, in a real experience of
its power, to the knowledge of a Saviour, and to an
intelligent enjoyment of all the privileges of the
Christian household, has been an attainment of the
present generation of the Church. I ought, indeed,
more properly and truly to say, has been a gracious
gift and revelation to the Churclh in our time and
our observation.
We are in a period of divine teaching and government, in which a very large proportion, perhaps even
a majority, of the accessions to the Church of Christ
are among the children of the household: "The
feeble one is as David; and the lame takethli the
prey." This has been to me a fact, in my observation and experience, of the deepest interest.  I commlenced my ministry with little opportunity for this
observation.  Our old New England education was
one of law and duty, not of privilege and encourag,ement. The right thing was presented as obligatory, not attractive.  The fear of fanaticism, and of
the hIazardous exaltation of youth and ignorance, was
a prevailing feeling. We were taught in our childhood a dry and technical catechism, the very terms
of which it was impossible to understand. But the
conversion of children, their real-turning, in heart
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OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
and life, to the love and service of Jesus, would have
been almost esteemed an impertinence, or a whim
not to be allowed or regarded.
This was not from an unwillingness that children
should be really right and good, but from a fear of
violating old and inherited custom and order: attended with much possible evil, and with no probable advantage. Religious attention was not directed to
Biblical teaching for childhood. Indeed, Bibles were
so scarce and inaccessible upon any large basis, and
Sunday-schools were so perfectly unknown, that there
were comparatively no Bibles within the reach of
children for their use. The first Bible which I ever
personally owned I bought with my pocket-money,
at eleven y ears of age, at Andover Academy.  I then
gave one dollar and a quarter for a small, plain Elnglish Bible, and for which we now pay less than a
fifth of that suim.
But a remarkable change has taken place in public
sentiment and public experience. WVe are now living to see Christian childhood made the conceded
riTlght, the cherished anticipation, perhaps I might say,
the habitual expectation of the Church of God.
Our Sunday-schools, in their extension of familiar
Biblical instruction; in their connecting mature love
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for Jesus, in kind and experienced teachers, with the
multitudes of opening youthful minds; in their unit ing earnest prayer and direct effort, by conversation
and instruction, for the immediate, manifest conversion of children; in their vast extension of Biblical
and evangelical knowledge among the children of
the Church, have been made the instruments of introducing an entirely new era in the relation of chlildren to the Church of God.
The effect has been widely manifested. The Gospel, both in its teaching and in its requisitions, has
been made attractive to youthful minds. Pastors
and mature Christians have become convinced that
scarce any intelligent childhood is too young to understand the love of Jesus; the happiness of serving
him; the evidence and experience of real conversion
to him; or to give the clearest testimony and account
of their personal experience of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in its distinguishing evidences
and results.
I have received to the Lord's table whole classes
of youth, the precious seals to faithful teachers' usefulness and acceptance in this blessed work. I should
make no period of youth an objection, where I could
receive the testimony of personal conversion and
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OF A CiHRISTIAN PASTOR.
Christian experience so clear and convincing as I
have found it in many hundreds of these fruits of
faithful teaching in the Word of God. Perhaps the
youngest actual communicant I have received may
have been ten years of age. I should not be willing to establish any arbitrary standard of age in this
relation. Some of the most clear and remarkable
fruits of living, intelligent faith in Jesus I have found
in a literal infantile piety.
More than fifty ministers of the Gospel of the Lord
Jesus I have seen come forth from this early teaching in the precious truth and love of a divine Saviour. I might say that to me the habitual, normal
shape of a true profession of Christ has almost established itself in this influence upon youth. While I
dare not exclude any from personal hope whom the
Lord is pleased to teach and to accept, even in the
last days of age, my hope in the ministry, and my
experience of its actual gathering, have, in a great
degree, settled down to the youth of my flock, with
but here and there a person of adult or advanced
age, as monuments that God has not altogether forsaken those who have repelled his gracious offers in
their earlier age.
To carry out this experience of the past in my
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THE OFFICE AND DUTY
anticipations of the future, I cherish my opportunities to foster in every way the Sunday-schools of my
church. I have always given one half of the Sabbath's public teaching expressly to the younig, upon
subjects in the Scriptures which are adapted to interest them, and in language which they can readily
understand. The abounding grace of the Lord Jesus
has remarkably blessed my  efforts in this important work, and given me much to comfort me in
all these years of completed labor which he has permitted me to lay at his feet.
The whole effect of this gracious, providential
agency in our day has been an extension and enlargement of Christian knowledge, and adaptation to
Christian labor, which have elevated the whole standard of demand upon the preparation, the intelligence,
the earnestness, and the real devotion of the Gospel
ministry. You will start, in the very opening of
your course, upon a far higher plane of demand and
of attainment than we, who have gone so long before
you, imagined possible in the beginning of our day.
You must cultivate and maintain a spirit and purpose to work up to this rising standard of intelligence
and requisition.
There is in our time another-apparent enlarge
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OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
ment of intellectual claim, at least, which is like
moonlight, indefinitely revealing, but giving no heat
and no life; which becomes the area for human
pride, for skepticism, and indifference to all truth,
its inseparable companion. This is a flippant, boastful, Jehu temper, which overturns more carriages
than it safely drives, and injures far more than it
has power to guide to any security or peace.
I advise you to waste no time in an attempted
arg       uing    with this opposin g     spirit. Preach your
gracious Master's positive and unchangeable message, whether men will hear, or whether they will
forbear.  -Be ready to give a clear reason for your
own hope to those who ask you with meekness and
fear.  As John Newton proposed, fill your basket so
completely with wheat that Satan may find no opportunity to occupy it with his chaff. Anticipate in
your ministry all the arts and efforts of the Evil One,
by a clear, constant, earnest effort: to gather childhood in a living consecration to the Saviour, and to
win the youth to whom the Lord shall send you to
the knowledge and love of his Word.
Remember that adversaries are nothing when the
Lord is on your side. Paul gloried in the opposition of a surrounding world.  He called it "an open
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THiE OFFICE AND DUTY
door," where there were "many adversaries." A
head-wind to the steamer enhances the power of the
furnace, and increases the rapidity and momentum
of the ship. With all controversy, as well as without it, " godliness is a great gain." David was never
more happy than when he could say to Saul: " Thy
servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a
lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock.
And I went after him, and delivered it out of his
mouth.  And when he rose against me, I caught
him by his beard, and smote him and slew him."
These lamlbs of Jesus are intrusted to your care.
"Feed them," he says. "Take care of them; and
whatsoever thou spendest, when I return I will repay
thee."  Learn to feed them simply, appropriately.
An old farmer said of an unintelligible preacher
whom he heard, " When will these men give up trying to feed sheep out of horse-racks." There is nothing in the Bible which the plainest of your hearers
can not understand, if you speak to them in language which they can comprehend. Often the apparently least intellectual among the souls committed
to you, you will find "mighty in the Scriptures,"
from an habitual feeding on the Word of God.
Deal with them kindly. Be never hasty or cross
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OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
in manner or expression. Remember it was the sunshine, and not the north wind, which stripped the
traveler's cloak from him.  Iind words, a soft answer, do good like a medicine.
Never be impatient.  You will have narrow necks
to fill.  And the gentle dropping of the tea-kettle
will be far better and more successful than the
swashing of the pump.
Be really loving. Children are quick detectors
of reality in feeling.  A Christ-loving pastor will be
always a child-loving pastor.  The real victory over
a young heart is a castle for your life.
Pray for the young. Pray with them in language
perfectly simple, in terms expressive. Lay aside your
grandeur, and be yourselves little children with
them.  They will cling to the knees which  have
bent with them before the throne. You can never
have a happier ministry than this. And if you are
truly faithful in it, you will get in the affection and
faithfulness of the young of your flock a most abundant reward.
The AGENCIES which I have thus specified, as prepared for the pastor's work, are but a selection from
the number which might be referred to. Such preparations present most important openings for useful
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THE OFFICE AND DUTY
ness and success in this wvork.  In personal visitation,
in providential openings,-;in social meetings, in care
and love for the young, you will have presented to
you a large and most available field for a pastor's
thought and care and effort.  And when you bring
into connection with these prepared AGENCIES your
own appointed and sanctioned INSTIU-IE:INTS, your real
and manifest QUALIFICATIONS, the one great OBJECT
of your pastoral work in the conversion of souls to
CHRIsT will prosper in your hands, and Jesus your
Lord will be glorified in your ministry for him.
In closing this special portion of our proposed
course, let me again press upon you, as the one great,
controlling fact in your history —you can do nothing
for the Saviour but in the degree and in the reality
in which he dwells by his own Spirit in you. "Abide
in me," is his one discriminating precept for you.
"Hle that abideth in me, and I in him, the same
bringeth forth much fruit.  Separate from  nme, ye
can do nothing."
This great principle of life and conduct we need
to have impressed upon us every day anew. We
are alive when we live in Christ.  We are mighty
through him. We can do all things through him that
strengtheneth us. In his fellowship, in his light, with
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OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
his voice encouraging, his arm upholding, his love
soothing, his smile repaying, wae can go through every
trial with perfect peace.  We can endure all losses
with abiding, abounding joy. We can pass through
the valley of the shadow of death, and fear no evil.
In all your pastoral work carry this great remembrance with you: "Hle will guide you with his counsel, and afterward receive you to his glory." The
days which you have given to his service on the earth,
never to be forgotten, shall bloom in an immortal
memory-shall shine with an everlasting light in the
presence of your Lord; and shall live in the grateful
minds of hundreds, perhaps of thousands, who have
been guarded, guided, fed, and nurtured by you ~cr
the glory of him who will be their Lord and your
Lord in an eternal life.
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. I a 
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LECTURE V.
October 3, 1873.
-NLY young friends, I am grateful for the attention
which you have given to the four lectures already
heard. I come now to conclude my appointed course
with a consideration of the elements of PowER, and
the real ATTAINMENTS of the Christian pastor, whose
faithful ministry in this important field we have thus
far followed. These illustrations of actual power and
attainment I shall endeavor to place upon that which
I should esteem a moderate ground, and within the
reach and the enjoyment of every truly faitlihftil
young man in the ministry of Christ. I shall coinfine myself to the platform of thought and suggestion which we have already laid out. We shall thus
be able to bring the points of our previous consideration to their proper and adequate result.
I. The first element of power in the exercise of
this pastoral ministry which I will mention is the
sinplicity of the truth of GoD which the faithful
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. 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
pastor carries with him. I have adduced as the first
iltstruminet to be employed in his workl, "the Word
of God thoroughly believed;" that is, really incorporated and employed as unquestionable truth in the
mind and thought of the man who ministers it.
The Christian pastor's visit is a provided place and
opportunity for instruction, guidance, and individual
consolation and relief for those to whom hlie ministers.
It is not a scene for discussion or controversy, or attempted argument, or any unsettling influence upon
the minds which lie thus addresses.  Thlat is a beaiutiful diVine description of the pastor's work  and
office in which the prophet describes the appointed
work for him  who was to be the Chief Shepherd of
this chosen flock: "The Spirit of the Lord God is
upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to
preach good tidings unto the meek.  lie lath sent
me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison
to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our
God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto
them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty
for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."
G
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TrHIE OFFICE AND DUTY
This is a very precise and affecting description of
a faithful pastor's daily work in the measure and degree in which man can realize and fulfill it. In this
workl we are to employ the inspired Word of God
as his infallible and undeniable truth.  We must be
familiar with its contents.  WVe must have its instructions and testimonies laid up in our memory and
mind. WVe must remember that it is in itself the
Word of the Holy Ghost-the life-giving Word.  The
power is in tile,WOiD.
As we sit by the sick, as we strive to elevate the
sorrowing and the depressed, as we attempt to guide
the inquiring or to direct the anxious, our power is
not in our own skill or wisdom or experience, but in
the truth and testimony of the Word itself.  God's
words are better than ours. Itis own language in
our instruction, or our prayer, will be the instrument
of his own divine blessing.  A single passage or sentence of this precious Word will sometimes be impressed upon the conscience and the memory of those
to whom wve minister, as "with the poinit of the diamond, and like lead in the rock forever."
The pastor who is the most completely furnished
with this gracious Word, and who employs it the
most simply and constantly in his ministry, will al
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OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
w-ays be the most effective and useful messenger for
the Lord of iosts to the secret, personal wants of a
suffering people. hlis mind thoroughly alive with
the sacred langutage, will quickly pass, like a bird
upon the tree, from promise to promise, from  one
precious utterance to another, in the repetition and
application of God's precious truth-the living Word
which abideth forever. And his whole ministry will
be made a life-giving ministry to those for whom le
thus labors in the Lord's name. Our usefulness in
this wvork is not in the wisdom of men, but in the
power of God.
II. A second element of our power is in our own
clear perceptfio  and itterance of this discriminated,
sacred truth.  Effective skill in employing and applying the inspired Word of God is a very precious
and important gift.  This is not the fruit of peculiar
intellectual grasp or acquisition, nor the result of varied learning in Biblical criticism or the languages
and emendations of the Word. It is in the clear discernment and experience of its divine power and purpose; in a full understanding of the scheme of divine
grace and the salvation of man, which these holy
writings contain and proclaim.
Knowledge and experience of human suffering,
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THE OFFICE AND DUTY
and practical sympathy in applying the messages of
the sacred Word to the personal wants and sufferings
of those to whom we minister, is an eminent instrument of power.  In the hands of two different men,
discriminated by this one element of distinction, the
Bible seems an entirely different book. Tile power
which the pastor exercises who can sit by the bedside of the siclk, or in the circle of the sorrowing,
and without formality, or pretense, or assumed solenmnity of manner, can clearly, distinctly, gently utter
the language of the Spirit, in an exposition of the
privileges of grace, and the way of divine salvation
which the Word of God contains, can not be transcended by any other exercise of the Christian ministry.  " Salnctify them by the truth," the Saviour
said; "Thy Word is truth."
Make it your constant purpose and effort to gain
clear and comprehensive views of the divine instructions; distinct perceptions of the practical use and
design of the words of eternal life.  Seek an enlightened apprehension of the glory of the Saviour's person; of the facts of his history; of the perfectness
of his obedience for man; of the fullness of his reconciling sacrifice; of the glorious reality of his resurrection, and his eternal reign; of his personal
148 
OF A CHIRISTIAN PASTOR.
relation to his people, as their one justification and
their glorious recompense of reward; their inseparable companion on earth; their life and their portion
forever. Learn to teach and to preach in your pastor work of Jesus only-of Jesus clearly and discriminately; as really understanding the whole scheme
and fullness of his grace, and knowing whereof you
affirm.  Here is a power which will never fail you.
A younger successor of mine in the ministry, visiting an old and wasting widow in the congregation, asked her what he should do for her.  "Onlv
tell me a little more of Jesus, as my old pastor used
to," was her significant reply.
How often have I heard the poor, the aged, the
ignorant of this world, in the midst of sorrow, suffering, and death, glorifying their Saviour, with such
strong and perfect faith, with such clear intelligence
and perception of his work and worth, that their utterance and knowledge seemed like a direct inspiration from God.
, There is your element of power. You do not prevail with the hearts of your people by expostulations,
or reproofs, or earnestness of appeal alone. Jesus is
the Bread of Life; and you must feed your hungering ones with that Living Bread.  If you go upon
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THE OFFICE AND DUTY
your pastor work, carrying this clear perception, this
simple faith, this calmn and steadfast confidence in
the revelation of a Saviour's person, work, and power,
you will have utterance given to you. Jesus will
make you mighty to prevail. And you will find this
Scriptural simplicity of teaching an element of constant and very precious influence for the promotion
of his glory and the success of your worlk.
III. A third element of power in your pastor work
will be your manifest experience and e7joyment of the
truth you teach. Let your fire be real-the flame of
the Holy Spirit burning on the altar of your own
converted, believing soul, never to go out day or night.
No sight can be more sad than to see a spiritually
blind, unconverted man attempting to minister to the
sick and suffering, the awakened and inquiring. Such
a one in my acquaintance was desired to visit a lady
in his own congregation, under deep conviction of
sin. Hiis first opening address to her was, "Miss B.,
I understand you have been thinking of eternity."
"I have thought much of it," she replied.  "Would
you like to have me ask the Rev. Mlr. P. to visit you?"
naming another minister of a more serious character.
" No, sir," she answered. " If my own minister can
not guide me in the way of salvation, my Bible will."
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OF A CHIRISTIAN PASTOR.
Another of the same character, known to me, was
called to visit a sick lady.  Standing at the door of
her chamber, he said, "Will you have the Communion,
or only the Visitation?"  " Not the Communion this
morning," she answered. Hle took his Prayer-book
from his pocket, and read the Office for the Visitation of the Sick, and departed.
We may well ask, Hiow can a ministry so formal
and lifeless be an adequate ministry of the Gospel to
the souls of men?  "Taste yourselves, that the Lord
is gracious."  Be you alive unto God, in Jesus Christ
our Lord, in your own personal experience of his lifegiving power.  Let the words you speak be written
and engraved by the Holy Spirit in your own hearts,
and know what you say and whereof you affirm.
There is a power in such a ministry which every one
feels, and which none are ready to deny. Thle pastor
evidently "leads the way;" and he is relied upon with
confidence, and received with welcome and reverence.
Such a pastor is at home in every household. iHe
is cherished by every true child of God.  The family
of the Lord are really fed by him, and welcome his
coming in the very spirit of the prophetic description:
"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet
of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth
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THE OFFICE AND DUTY
peace; that publisheth salvation; that saith unto
Zion, Thy God reigneth." This is the power which
will attend a manifest, real experience of the Gospel,
which as pastors of the Savioutl's flock you are employed to teach.
IV. Another element of power will be found in
your habit of personal, inwrought pgrayer.  This
power of prayer may be considered in its twofold exercise: in your own personal communion with God
your Saviour, bringing your divine strength and guidance from him; and in your social prayer with others, making you the instrument of imparting strength
from God to them.
The truly faithful pastor lives in prayer. It is the
controlling purpose-the habitual exercise and employment of his life. Hie loves to go alone within
the veil to have a blessed fellowship, a personal converse with the God of his salvation.  Hle habitually
returns to bless his people with the blessings with
which he has been enriched by God his Saviour.
Hie is accustomed to lay the cares, the wants, the
condition of his people before the throne of an exalted Saviour.  The many questions which he has
not skill to answer, the many difficulties which he has
no power to relieve, the names and the necessities of
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OF A CIIRISTIAN PASTOR.
those committed to him, he frequently recounts before the mercy-seat of God, as Aaron carried the
names of the tribes of Israel engraven on his heart
with the power of a living affection. And hlie receives a new power for his ministry which is the gift
of God, and which enables himn to deal successfully
with cases of trial which were before beyond his
reach, insoluble by any wisdom of his own.  If you
would be truly faithful and useful pastors to the
flock of Jesus, you will find here one most important
and indispensable element of a desired and needed
power in your work.
But I also wish to speak of the exercise and habit
of prayer with others, in your personal visits as pastors.  You will find suhel exercises to be most welcome, valued, precious seasons, and instruments of
divine blessing upon your people.  I well know the
difficulties which are frequently apparently in the
way of your proposal of such an exercise in your personal visits.  But far more generally than you imagine, the expectation is cherished by others with
pleasure; and the disappointment is real, when the
desire has not been met by you. As a rule in this
peculiar crisis, the obstacle is far more generally in
the fear and the sensitive shrinking of the minister
G 2
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THE OFFICE AND DUTY
than in the hostility of the people. A truly prayerfull, faithful minister will always find an open door.
Dr. Payson was invited to an evening entertainment in a family and circle of friends, where the
master of the house was very averse to the minister's
habit of social prayer, and had his table so arranged
as to prevent the expected proposal. Dr. Payson said
to him, in his gentle way, "Who was it, sir, that said
these standing feasts were contrived by Satan, to shut
out the asking for a divine blessing "  "I do not
know," was the reply from the gentleman whom he
addressed; "but, if you please, sir, we will disappoint
him on this occasion." And he rapped for silence
among his friends, and introduced a' rayer from Dr.
Payson.
You will be delighted, perhaps surprised, to find
what an element of power you have in social prayer.
A skillful, prayerful pastor may weave the whole case
of sorrow and trial before him, and the connected
history of the family in which he is ministering, into
the language of supplication, so appropriately and so
affectionately, that, by the Lord's blessing, he will
unite and elevate all the hearts around him to the
heavenly throne in the spirit of submission and love.
Hie may impersonate the natural language of the
154
.1 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
sufferers themselves, so as to awaken in them a tender
and suitable feeling of trust, desire, gratitude, and
submission to the divine love and wisdom. I have
seen the whole company present thus lifted up in
feeling and spirit, deeply impressed, instructed, and
moved by the language of united supplication, probably far more effectively than they could have been
by exhortations addressed directly to themselves.
Such employment of the blessed privilege of
prayer is all important study. We should feel it
as much a pastor's duty to pre-tlhink his subjects and
utterance in prayer, addressed to a heavenly mind,
as his subjects for instruction addressed to the ear
of man. I do not forget that the IIoly Spirit has
promised to teach us in that same hour, in our particular crisis and call, what we otighlt to say.  But I
am also aware that his presence and power are to
prepare us for our work for Jesus as well as to accompany us therein. We ought never to be separate
from the spirit of prayer or preaching.  But we are
to be cautious how we lay careless hands upon the
ark of God, or fail to "seek him in due order."
A young man who felt himself immediately inspired
to preach, and remonstrated against the delay and
uselessness of a prescribed study,- said to Bishop
155 
THiE OFFICE AND DUTY
Griswold, "You  know, bishop, that God  has  no
need of mian's wisdom. It is the foolishness of
preaching whichl is to be made the wisdom of God."
"Yes, I know that," said the old bishop; "but God
has still less need of man's folly. Foolish preaching
may be very far from the foolishness of preaching
of which God speakls."
I would urge you to the utmost careful preparation within your power for all your service, and for
every service in the work of the Lord which you undertake, whether preaching, conversation, or prayer.
Strive to maintain the spirit of prayer as a fundamental element of power for all your work, and
carry it with you whithersoever and for whatsoever
you may be called or sent.
V. Another very important element of power in
vyour ministry will be the cultivation and exercise of
sympathizing emotions, and cheerful, happy views of
persons and things.  To makle yourselves rightly acceptable to others, is, to say the least, a vast help
toward making yourselves really useful.  It is our
dispensation to carry many burdens which do not
belong to us, and to relieve many sorrows which
come upon us only in our office. In the midst of
these, we have no time and no opportunity for mrel
156 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
ancholy, depression, or discontent. We are the ministers of a  cheerful Gospel, and  wve  should  be
cheerful ministers of that Gospel.   The language
of complaint we must never indulge; still less the
feeling of petulance, anger, or resentment. We can
do nothing in our private work  as pastors, if we
allow a cold manner, or a morose or indifferent aspect.  Life is peculiarly with us a divine dispensation and ministry. Our personal interests, our various family affairs, will compel attention as much
from us as fronm other men.  13ut we are as the
ministers of Christ under a special divine giiardiainship, as peculiarly given to the workl of the Lord.
Our bread will be given to us, and our water will be
sure.  W1e are to be contented and cheerful.  The
language of complaint can never help us. TIle utterance or the feeling of mortification or disappointment relieves no sorrow, reveals our own wealkness, and always exposes us to a just reproach.  I
may say to you that I had been in the ministry
twenlty-four years before I received for my pastoral
Work a salary sufficient to afford me  what might
hlave been considered a proper support for my
family. I never made one question or complaint
concerning it to the authorities of my congregations,
157 
THlE OFFICE AND DUTY
nor did I ever leave a people upon the ground of
personal dissatisfaction with my provision.
I would impress upon you, in all your domestic and
personal relations, learn to take with thankfulness
that which the Lord is pleased to give you; and illustrate your real dependence on his love in the cultivation of the habit of contentment  and cheerfulness, that "blessing of tihe Lord which maketh
rich, and addeth no sorrow therewith." Go every
where to increase the joys, and not to add to the distress of the people.  Do  not make yourselves burdens to your friends, and by no hints or representations exact more than is appointed you.
There is a power in such a deportment of cheerfulness, contentment, delicacy, and refinement in your
relations as pastor, which will make all your labors
among your people "as apples of gold in a net-workl
of silver." You may be "poor, yet mnaking many rich;
as having nothing, and yet possessing all things."
Your very entrance among the flock committed to
you will be giving light; and all will learn to feel
that they are always the happier for seeing and hearing you in your pastoral workl for the honor of your
gracious Lord.
VI. All these elements of power are, after all, to
158 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
be considered by us but the instruments of the divine
power. The grand power of your work is always in
the attending ministry of the ioly Spirit.  You go
forth as ministers of the New Testament-of the
Spirit, not of the letter. The Holy Ghost, who separates you for the worl to which he has called you,
will be always with you.  Hle will take of the things
of Christ, and show them unto you.  You miay seek
his presence with affectionate trust. iHe will make
your words to be spirit and life in the hearts of those
to whom you minister for him.  It is the great privilege of your ministry to be permitted to speak the
mind of the Spirit, and to say, in a loving, trusting
heart, of all your wolk, "It seemeth good to the Holy
Ghost and to us."
We have been acquainted with men in the ministry who seemed to us to be filled with the Hioly Ghost;
whose aspect and walk in life appeared always enlightened by the Spirit; whlose prayers and teaching
seemed always to be moved and prompted by the
Spirit of God; and whose presence with us in the
day of suffering would have been welcomed as a direct visitation of divine power, peace, and love.
Such a man was James W. Alexander, of the Presbyterian Church in New York, who seemed to be al
159 
THE OFFICE AND DUTY
ways walking in the beauties of holiness and in the
love of the Spirit. Often have I said of him, when
I alni sick and dying, no mani would be a more acceptable ministering visitor to me.
I have no more time to speak of this particular
exhibition of power in our ministry.  These are very
distinct elements of a faithful pastor's power, thougli
by no means all which might be considered. Let me
earnestly press these upon your remembrance.  Strive
to live in the Spirit, to walk in the Spirit, to pray in
the Spirit, to speak in the Spirit; so that, however
successful yon may be in your work for Jesus, the
glory may be wholly given to that one Spirit, who,
in a variety of ministrations, is the one abiding Teacher of the ransomed Church of God: "For I give you
to understand that no man can say that Jesus is the
Lord, but by the IIoly Ghost."
VII. With these suggestions upon the PowER of a
pastor's workl, I will close my attempt to aid and encourage you in a life of usefulness in the ministry by
some suggestions upon the ATTAINMENTS which, thllrough
the blessing of God, may be permitted to reward and
honor our efforts.  We are never left without a blessing upon a faithful ininistry for Christ.  But the extent to which we are really prospered, and the variety
160 
OF A CIIRISTIAN PASTOR.
of that divine blessing, it will be impossible for us to
know within the limits of our present life. Some
facts, however, are so clearly promised, and so readily
perceived as we go on in our course, that we can not
refuse our testimony to the Lord's faithfulness to us,
nor doubt that he has graciously accepted our labors
for his glory and his truth.
1. We shall enjoy a degree of manifest success in
our effort. From the idea of success I shall not exclude a fair measure of outward prosperity and social comfort inl our outward life.  We may expect a
fair and adequate provision for our proper wants; a
reasonable measure of personal health; the many domestic comforts which fill our habitations; the respect and kindness of our fellow-men; the "manv
fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters," w-lich have
been included in the Lord's gracious promise and
providence.
I have seen much of human society, in all the varied classes of social life; and I must give my testimony with fidelity, that no class of men are more
uniformly welcomed with respect, cherished with affection, honored in general esteem, and made comfortable and contented in their various earthly relations in our country, than the faithful and upright
161 
THE OFFICE AND DUTY
ministers of the Gospel of Christ. This habitual
result in my observation, so far from being diminished in the progress of years, was never more manifestly the characteristic and the general tribute of
the people in this nation than it is in our day.  The
ministry of the churches of Jesus our Lord have
their full share of respect, of power, of influence in
all portions of our land; and, in the degree of their
personal claims, are uniformly and every where acknowledged with reverence, and welcomed with general respect.
I must further say that this feeling and habit, in
all its local relations, is uniformly measured to individuals by their fidelity in their pastoral duties and
relations. The preacher is spoken of with respect,
according to an intelligent valuation of his personal
talent and accomplishments, as a public agent, and
not unfrequently with a severe criticism and examination. But the faithful pastor dwells as a father
among, his children in every Church, and every congregation and community.  I-e is embedded in a living home, and remembered and thought of with an
unchangeable regard and confidence.
The preacher will fade with age.   The pastor
grows brighter as he proceeds; still advancing in
162 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
human esteem; bringing forth his fruit in old age;
illustrating in a far higher measure the beautiful reflection of the aged hero of Greece:
"To the still grave retiring, as to rest;
Myv people blessing-by my people blest."
]ly young friends, this is success in the highest
earthly degree. It is a life which gathers out of this
world all that earth can give, and leaves to man no
want which is unsupplied.
2. Such a pastor receives actual seals of his ministry in the divine conversion of souls to Christ their
Saviour.  How sweetly Paul says to the Corinthians:
"Ye may have ten thousand instructors. Ye have
not many fathers. In Christ Jesus I have begotten
you thlrough the Gospel."  Hiow precious is this bond
between a faithful pastor and the child of God, who
owes to his ministry the salvation of his own soul!
I am sure I shall never forget my sailor-boy, of
whom I have already told you, as the first-fruits of
my youthful ministry. Paul employs the figure, and
I may also use it. I do not believe that any young
mother rejoices over her first-born with a more real
or a purer joy than a young Christian pastor rejoices
over the first new-born soul, manifestly given to him
as a sincere and loving minister of Jesus Christ.
163 
THE OFFICE AND DUTY
I once heard a minister in middle age say that he
did not know that God had. ever given to him a single soul as a witness to his ministry.  The utterance
shocked me then long years ago, and it seems vastly
more shocking to me now.  What is the life of a
minister of Christ worth, if no precious souls are recovered and saved by the exercise and outpouring of
his love for Jesus? All the comforts and gains of
earth would seem to me as nothing in this comlparison.  I should take up the retrospective complaint of
Grotius and Selden in such a barren review: "Vita
a,itur, operose nihil agendo"- "My life has been
spent in laboriously doing nothing at all."
But we shall not be left thus desolate if we are
sincere and faithful in the work committed to us.
The residue of the spirit is with the Lord.  IIe will
never be slack in his promise, however long-suffering
he may be toward us.  And how great will be the
joy of looking upon those whom the Lord has given
to us, as we are training them for him, and edifying
them in his service, and in the anticipation of his
glorious coming.
This is the real success of our life-the winning
souls for Jesus.  It is a joy which no man taketh
from us. And this is the peculiar result of a faithful
1646 
OF A CIIRISTIAN PASTOR.
pastoral work: feeding the sheep and the lambs of
the Saviour's flock.  The more truly wve are devoted
to this one purpose of life, the more abundantly will
he multiply his blessings upon us.  If we strive, "in
season, out of season," to lead ransomed souls to Jesus,
hiding ourselves in the light vwhich shines fromn him;
not preaching ourselves, but Jesus Christ the Lord"Of Zion it shall be said for us, that this and that
man were born there;" and "the Lord shall rehearse
it when lie writeth up his people;" when "they that
are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they who turn many to righteonsness, as
the stars, forever and ever."
3. MTe may have the great joy of receiving special
revivals of the Saviour's workl  under our ministry.
Those great revivals which refreshed the churches of
this country in former years can never be forgotten
by the men who were permitted to labor in thenm.
They wvere wonderfuLl demonstrations of the presence
and power of the Spirit of God in the Saviour's
Church on earth.  I will give you sone illustrations
in a sliortl account of two, in which my own ministry
was personally occupied, and the influence and results of wvhich I saw and knew.
In the opening of the year 1820 I was in Bristol,
165 
TIIE OFFICE AND DUTY
Rhode Island, preparing for my ministry with the
venerable Bishop Griswold. I have already referred
to the Sabbath evening on which he officiated for the
last time for two months. During all this period lhe
was confined with a severe illness to his house.  At
our weekly prayer-meeting on the previous Friday
evening, there were but tlhirteen persons present.  It
appeared to us a most depressing condition, and almost hopeless.  On -Ionday, after the events before
described, there appeared a very remarkable earnestness and interest among the people, manifested in
conversation among little gatherings around, and resuiting in a general demand for an assembling of the
people for a religious worship and conference. Tlhey
were uLnwilling to wait for the regular meeting of
Friday.  Accordingly, a meeting was privately notified to be held in a private house offered for the purpose oni Thursday evening. It became my duty to
conduct it.  I found the house at the appointed time
as completely filled as it would have been at a crowded funeral.
A small table was placed for me on the half-way
landing of the stairs, with a Bible and a hymn-book;
and there I stood, in all the weakness of a youth not
twenty years of age, to address an anxious assembly,
166 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
filling every space which I could see, and the rooms
which were beyond my sight. That meeting was the
commencement of a series of nightly public meetings,
vwhich were continued for three months.  These were
also soon connected with the appointment of another
in the afternoon, and then another in the morning, of
most of the days in different parts of thie town, and
in many  of the country dwellings around.  The
same awakened spirit was found in the Methodist
and Presbyterian churches.  We worked together in
unison and harmony.  The whole population of the
town seemed to feel the solemn impulse. The business of the people was for a season arrested. The
stores were closed. The general interest of the
people appeared to be consecrated to the one great
thought and purpose of the soul's salvation.
I have not time to dwell upon the incidents of
this wonderful season.  M,any of them were very
remarkable.  And I can not speak personally beyond the experience of the Episcopal Church. There
seemed to be scarce a person in the town unaffected
or uninterested in the one great theme of conversation.  There were some scoffers; but they awakened
no thought on their side. The whole work was too
manifestly the work of the Lord to be derided.
167 
TIlE OFFICE AND DUTY
Perhaps eight weeks had passed by, during which,
in outward ministry, I was quite alone ill the Episcopal Church to meet this whole aggregate of demand for public teaching and private conference.
Wheni tihe bishop, who was also the rector of the
church, became sufficiently restored to receive a
number at his house, sixty or seventy of the new
converts wele assembled in his dining-room.  Sitting, in his chair, a manifest invalid, he addressed
these precious souls.  You may readily conceive how
mly young heart rejoiced at the sight, and in the
sound of his encouraging voice.
I was laboring there inii the same way, not with
the same increasing numlbers, for a full year after
this occasion.  There was no diminution of religious
interest, and not much moire in public services; no
retraction of earnestness in the persons thus converted, nor in the general effects produced.  This was a
revival; thle worl  of the Spirit of God; the fruit and
the result of the truly faithful pastoral ministry and
publie teaching of the venerable man of God to whom
I have referred, who had been for near twenty years
the beloved pastor of that church. IIow much I
learned of the appointed work and blessing of the
ministry during that period you can readily see.  It
168 
OF A ClRIS'TIAN PASTOIZ.
was the beginning of nmy life, and it left an unchangeable impressioln oil my ministry.  I speak of
the whole event here as one of the blessed attainments of the ministry through the gift of the Hioly
Spirit.
In the winter of 1831, in the city of Philadelphia,
God was pleased to open to me another similar manifestation of his grace. Our weekly prayer-mneeting
was on Saturday evening.  At the close of the meeting on this occasion, after I had dismlissed the assembly, sixteen persons of both sexes, all youthful,
remained on their knees in different parts of the
room, unconsciouls of each ollher's presence. I went
round and spokle to each.  I knelt and prayed witlh
all.  And after another hour thus spent they retired.
I was overwhelmed with gratitude and amazement.
On the Sabbath morning succeeding, I gave some
account of the preceding evening, and appointed a
meeting on -ionday evening for conversation withl
all who wvere awakened to seek their personal salvation.  At that meeting more than seventy persons
came under this invitation.  I have already referred
to this meeting in a previous lecture.  This was the
commencement of a very remarkable revival.  Durinm  two years succeeding, in all the seasons, we main                        II
169 
THlE OFFICE AND DUTY
tained a morning prayer-mieeting daily, at six o'clock,
which even in mid-winter was well attended.
The  immediate results of this divine visitation
were ill the conversion of more tlhan two hundred
persons, among wlhomi were fifteen married couples
in the early maturity of life.  Some of the incidents
andcl individual cases of conversion during this gracious season were as remarkable and peculiar as any
of which I have ever heard.  I have already referred
to a few of thlese, and I have not time to dwell too
long upon others.
A very fashionable lady, the wife of a Commodore
ill thle navy, was, withl her husband and family, a portion of my congregation.  At our early prayer-meetig ill winter, on one Thlursday morninig, this lady
was present, and waited for me at the close of the
meeting, and I accompanied her to her house. I will
give you the account, as nearly as I can, in her own
words.  SLhe said:
"I have not been in bed during the lwhole night.
I have left my husband aid children asleep;  and
after having walked the floor the whole nighlt, I remembered your meeting at six o'clock, and locked
my street door, and came to meet you here.  Last
evening I wNas coining, downll Walntt Street, after
170 
OF A CHRISTIANX PASTOR.
darkl, on my return to my home.  When opposite to
WashingtonL  Sqtuare, I heard a church bell riingin,.
I felt an irresistible impulse, I klnow not why, to follow the sound.  I saw a number of persons goin,
into a church of which I had no knowledge, and I
followed them.  They ascended the stairs leading to
a lecture-roomi  over the lhall, and I accompanied
them, and sat down.  Presently I saw you come in,
and go into the desk.  I was amazed.   I know not
-what inflnence it was, but y-ou preached to me as I
never heard you, before.  },fy whole soul was aroused.
I louged to speak to y-ou after the service was coneluded; but I hesitated until yoLu were gone, and I
went home  alone.  And  now I lhave come to you
this morningi for your instructioni and guidance."
-Yo   may ilagine wvithl what astonisllment I listened to this recital.  At myv tea-table the preceding
eyeniung a gentleman called to say that BIr. Barnes,
thle pastor of tlhe church which she described, was
suddenly ill, and to beg me to supply his place in
lhis rergular wveeklly lecture.  I assented to his request,
and w-ent immediately, and this was the result.
The mnessage of Peter to Cornelius hardly appeared
to me more wonderful.  The conversion of this lady
was most entire-a \wonderful illustration of grace.
ll 
TilE OFFICE AND DUTY
She honored her Saviour in a faithful life, and ill a
subsequent happy departure.  But this was only one
of many instances of the all-stsfficient grace of a
glorified Saviour which wvere wvitnessed in that revival.
Of such revivals of the actual influence of tihe
Gospel, as distinct blessings fromi Jesus to his Church,
I can not speak but as of gifts of grace of the highest worth, and as attainments for the ministry of the
utmost value and importance. For such the faitlhful pastors of his people will earnestly labor. For
them all the living members of his Church should
pray and strive.  The language of his prophet should
be the utterance of their hearts: " O Lord, revive thy
work iu the midst of the years; in wrath remember
mercy."
4. In the pursuit of such a pastoral ministry as
I have sketched, there will be found much IIAPPINESS as a sure attainment for the faithful servant of
the Lord Jesus.  The labors of the Christian ministry are in themselves an unspeakable privilege; and
they confer unceasing pleasure upon the man whose
heart is in his worlk.  The daily dealing with those
who love the work of the Lord; the unceasing ministration of comfort and peace to the weary; the re
172 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
moving, of burdens from thie heavy laden; the permission to give our whole time to the work of the
Lord upon the earth; to see our personal efforts constantly promotive of comfort and strength to others
-can not but afford the purest comfort to a generous and loving spirit.
There is a pleasure in the public proclamation of
the Word of God when we are made successful in
awakening attention, and in commuficating religious
instruction and elevated motives and purposes to othes, which can not be transcended by the enjoyment
of any other life of man on earth.  For mere intellectutal enjoyment, perhaps the public duties of the
pulpit may be to the minister of Christ the source of
a higher or more exhilarating satisfaction; but the
daily faithful work of the Christian pastor ministers
to himself a calm, pure, and unceasing gratification.
I am perfectly sure that no class of men attain a
more tranquil, contented, or really satisfied mind
than they who have cheerfully given their whole
thought and time and faithful care to the one work
of rescuing from evil, of recalling to duty, of elevating in holiness, both by their instruction and their
example, the multitude of their fellow-mein-bought
with the same precious blood, and called by the same
173 
TIIE OFFICE AND DUTY
divine Spirit-to the same heavenly and eternal home
of a reconciled Father and God.
And when youi add to all this the final retrospect
of life and the glorious hope withl wlhichll it closes, how
filled withl satisfaction is such a remembrance, and
how aboundinog in happiness has been such a career.
Thie eminent Archbishop Williams said in his dyimg hour, "I have filled more places of trust in
Church and State than any man before me in this
kingdom.  But in this hour I should have more satisfaction in knowing that I had been the instrument
of brin,ging one soul to Christ my Lord, thei I can
now take in all the lhonor and wealth whicli I have
enjoyed on earth."
But when you pass beyond this retrospect of earthly
life to the living testimony of the divine acceptance
and favor, and anticipate that last acknowledgment
of a faithful pastor's work-" Well done, good and
faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord"-how complete becomes the recompense of
your work!  Ihow satisfying is the choice which you
have made! Itow thorouglly remunerative has been
the investment of all the powers of your life and being, in this one work, whatever you may have had to
give, and whatever it may have really cost you.
11414 
OF A CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
I thus complete the course which I was desired
to address to you, my youlng friends, in these five
lectures.  I entered upon tlhe task with no reluctance,
thoulgh not without inconvenience at my advanced
period of life. If I have really succeeded in gratifying, encouraging, and instructing you, the remnembrance of our meeting, here will be a pleasure to me
amid the many cares of a declining and closing day,
and the many obligations and burdens -which in the
providence of my gracious Lord still remain upon
me.
And with mruchl gratitude for the attention And
respect with which I have been received and welcomed, I offer you nay best wishes and nmy earnest
prayer for your full success in all the work of life,
and your final acceptance and reward from yoLuri
gracious 3Iaster's hands.
175 
t 
AP' PENDIX.
I SIIOULD scarce feel at liberty to append the following resolutions and personal expressions of esteem
and Ihonor, if it did not appear to ic ungrateful and
disrespectful to omit them, excessive as I feel them to
be in their relation to myself.  They- are the separate
action of the sttudents and the faculty of the Theolog,ical School in the Boston Uniiversity, received
withl the request for the publication which I have
now madcle.
BOSTON UNIrVERSITY, SCHOOL OF TIIEOLOGY, }
October 3, 1873.
REV. STEPHEN II. T-NG, D.D.:
Dear Sir,-As a commnittee of the students, we desire to
express the deep interest we have felt while listening to your
recent lectures before us upon tile Christian pastorate. And
we earnestly request, if it be your pleasure, that they may be
published, both for our future study and for the edification of
our brethren in the ministry.
Respectfully,
A COMMITTEE FROM THE STUDENTS.
It 2 
APPENDIX.
RESOLUTIONS
PASSED BY THIE FACULTY OF THE SCHOOL OF TIIEOLOGY IN
BOSTON UNIVERSITY.
It is encouraging, refreshing, and ennobling to meet one
whose keen intellectual perceptions appear not to have been
in the least blunted, but rather improved with his advancing
years; the pureness and chasteness of whose language, and
the simplicity of whose style, throw a rich charm over every
sentence used; and whose affectionate devotion to his Lord
and Master is the sweetest and most perfect charm of all;
Therefore Resolved, That we, the Faculty of the School of
Theology, Boston University, extend our sincere thanks to the
Rev. Dr. Tyng for his excellent lectures upon "The Pastoral
Office;" which have been characterized with the sharp discrimination of a professed dialectician; with the rhetorical
excellence of one who is a master of his mother-tongue; and
with the earnestness of one whose soul is alive to the grandest
interests of the REDEEMER'S KiINGDOM.
Also Resolved, That we recognize in Dr. Tyng one who for
more than half a century has faithfully and successfully fulfilled the duties of that office, with whose importance and
dignity he has so deeply impressed us.
And also Resolved, That in our judgment Dr. Tyng will render the Church and the ministry a lasting service by allowing
the publication of his admirable lectures.
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