CULTURE AND FAITH 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE 
 
 £>pentng of Breton College 
 
 SOUTH WALES, 
 
 ON 15 th SEPTEMBER, 1869. 
 
 T. BINNEY, 
 
 Chairman of ihe Council of New College, Si. John's Wood, London , 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 HODDER AND STOUGHTON 
 
 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 MDCCCLXX. 
 
*** The title given to this pamphlet is not the best possible, 
 but it is the shortest that could be thought of and is sufficiently 
 indicative of its contents to be allowed to pass. 
 
^ 77 .* 
 
 £3- I C- 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 O We are assembled to-day formally to open this build¬ 
 ing; to devote it to the purpose for which it has been 
 erected, and to supplicate the Divine blessing on all 
 that will hereafter be attempted within it to accom¬ 
 plish and realize that purpose. It is not necessary 
 to explain what are the objects sought to be secured 
 by an edifice like this, or of this in particular. You 
 are aware of its general character, as a place of 
 academic and ministerial instruction ; and you are 
 aware, too, of its specific object, from the circum¬ 
 stances attending its original institution. It was 
 ^separated, as I am informed, from a previously exist¬ 
 ing ing college, to preserve what its friends and founders 
 A regarded as the true view of the Christian faith, in 
 1 opposition to what were deemed to be departures 
 i from it. The institution, then, has in view the pre¬ 
 paration of students for the Christian ministry; and 
 for that ministry as exercised in what are called the 
 orthodox or evangelical Churches. To secure their 
 equipment for this work, it proposes to impart a 
 
 A 2 
 
 727074 
 
4 
 
 general literary culture ; but this only as introductory 
 to, or as always connected with, a special theological 
 training, which is to fit the students for the dis¬ 
 charge of all that belongs to that high calling to 
 which, in purpose, they are solemnly devoted. 
 
 It is most appropriate that a building having such 
 an object should be opened with some little form and 
 ceremony; especially one which has been raised 
 with so much anxiety and effort, on which so large 
 a sum has been expended, which exhibits something 
 of architectural fitness and beauty, which is repre¬ 
 sentative of the zeal and intelligence of existing 
 Churches, and which, at the same time, is comme¬ 
 morative of a great crisis in the religious history of 
 the country,—the memorable secession of 1662. 
 Certainly, also, it is most meet and right that this 
 ceremony should be attended with religious services, 
 —that, by solemn and earnest prayer, we should 
 seek the blessing of Almighty God on an institution 
 so intimately connected with his own truth, Church, 
 and kingdom. His hand is to be recognized in what 
 has already been accomplished; and His continued 
 care, watchfulness, and benediction sought for the 
 future. Without Him nothing can be strong, holy, 
 or successful. 
 
 I. 
 
 The special duty assigned to me in this day’s, 
 engagements, is to offer to you a few remarks on the 
 
5 
 
 constitution and character of our collegiate institu¬ 
 tions ; and on the propriety and importance of their 
 being established and maintained. 
 
 Our Nonconformist Institutions, for the education 
 and training of men for the ministry, may be regarded 
 as occupying a middle place between two extremes. 
 
 On the one hand are the great national Universi¬ 
 ties, which, as such, may be said to intermeddle with 
 all knowledge. They take in hand, so to speak, all 
 the higher faculties of the student, and aim, by solid 
 discipline, by various and large demands on their 
 pupils, at once to secure great acquisitions in learn¬ 
 ing, and call forth and corroborate general mental 
 power. The proper idea of a University education 
 is that of a thorough mental culture, without immedi¬ 
 ate regard to particular professions. It is the discipline 
 and development of the mind, the training and 
 strengthening of the faculties of the students, simply 
 regarded as men. After this has been completed, 
 they can go their several ways, devote themselves to 
 any particular professional calling, and apply to the 
 special studies belonging to it, whatever it may be, 
 the general power which has been evoked or con¬ 
 ferred by their previous preparatory culture. This is 
 obviously the most complete idea that can be formed 
 of what will best fit men for entering successfully on 
 any of the higher departments of duty that may 
 await them in mature life. 
 
 At the close of their University career, after taking 
 
6 
 
 their degree and being thus publicly authenticated 
 as having gone through the prescribed and required 
 discipline, the students of the great institutions in 
 question may become soldiers, lawyers, legislators, 
 men devoted to science or literature, or simply take 
 their place in society as those who have received the 
 education of gentlemen. A large number, however, 
 are always intended for the Church; their designed, 
 ultimate object is to take orders, and to become 
 clergymen. Now the old idea used to be,—you will 
 see by and by why I put the thing in this way,— the 
 old idea used to be, that the possession of a Univer¬ 
 sity degree was to be insisted upon as the indispen¬ 
 sable qualification for orders, and, as such, it virtually 
 became almost the only qualification that was insisted 
 upon. Directly theological studies were but slightly 
 included in the demands on undergraduates, and 
 immediately after passing that stage, those intended 
 for the Church proceeded at once to seek ordination. 
 There was no provision for a full, systematic course 
 of what would be called technical or professional 
 education,— a course, that should come after the 
 previous general culture, and be preparatory to the 
 exercise of the special function that was about to be 
 entered upon. There was no training of the individual 
 for the various and peculiar duties which, subsequent 
 to ordination, would become his. The examination of 
 the bishops’ chaplains was neither broad nor deep, 
 and might easily be passed, or soon prepared for, by 
 
7 
 
 any one who had obtained a University degree. Per¬ 
 sonal testimonials were limited, for the most part, to 
 moral character; there was no proof required of 
 spiritual qualifications, religious experience, or 
 special adaptation for the work of the ministry,— 
 except as those might be furnished by the certificate 
 of baptism, the acceptance of the articles, and the 
 declaration, when ordained, of each professing to 
 regard himself as inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost 
 to take upon himself the work and responsibilities of 
 the sacred office. All this, I say, is what used to be. 
 Of proper theological instruction or training, there 
 was little or none; the religious requirements were 
 almost a formality; but the University degree, the 
 proof of general literary culture, was required,—and, 
 this being possessed, other things followed, where 
 there was no flagrant moral disqualification, very 
 much as a matter of course. The great majority of 
 the clergy were admitted to orders principally on the 
 ground of their academic education. Secular learn¬ 
 ing, rather than sacred, was the thing required. It 
 used to be said that men were even raised to the 
 episcopate on the ground of their having edited a 
 Greek play! 
 
 Now this extreme,—the modifications of which, 
 by recent improvements, we shall hereafter refer to, 
 but which, just as we have put it, did certainly once 
 exist, and has not even yet altogether disappeared,— 
 this extreme we place on the one side of us. It 
 
8 
 
 stands, say, on our right hand, and looks down 
 perhaps, with a feeling we need not describe, on our 
 poor attempts to give to our students a little of its 
 own “ sweetness and light ” by imparting to them 
 something of general culture. 
 
 II. 
 
 On the left hand we have another extreme, one 
 that looks down upon us from a higher and more 
 sacred elevation. This extreme is made up of three 
 or four different groups, all of whom agree, though 
 not exactly on the same ground, to condemn the 
 attempt to prepare men for the work of the ministry 
 by any equipment or training whatsoever; some of 
 whom even go so far as to question the advantage of 
 anything in the form of learning at all. We will 
 take four of these groups of our well-meaning friends, 
 who all think us mistaken, we will look at them in 
 pairs, two and two together, as their agreement and 
 difference may perhaps best be brought out in that 
 way. 
 
 We first mention those who call themselves the 
 “ Catholic Apostolic Church.” They have the highest 
 idea of an official ministry. They not only believe 
 that such a ministry was of Divine appointment, and 
 was meant to be continued in some of its original forms 
 to the end of time; but they believe that in all the 
 forms in which it existed in the first or miraculous 
 age of the Church, it ought still to exist, and that 
 
9 
 
 as such it does in fact, by special Divine interposi¬ 
 tion, so exist amongst themselves. Hence, they not 
 only believe, as we do, in “ pastors and teachers,” 
 but they believe in the evangelist, prophet, apostle, 
 angel, as specially revived forms of ministry, the 
 men being selected for each by the Holy Spirit, and by 
 Him supernaturally qualified for their vocation. The 
 “ apostles ” are called out by some direct Divine 
 call, are put into the office and invested with its 
 authority. The “ prophets,” when specially acting 
 as such, speak “in power,” that is “in the power of 
 the Spirit,” or by immediate inspiration. Other 
 offices are filled up by those who preside over the 
 Church, who judge of, or discover, the adaptation of 
 individuals for any particular work, and who appoint 
 them to that work accordingly. Of course those who 
 thus believe and think have no college, no prepara¬ 
 tory institution in which men, young or old, are to be 
 trained and qualified for the work of the ministry. 
 The very idea of such a thing would, I imagine, be 
 directly at variance with the fundamental principle of 
 the body,—the guidance of the Church by prophetic 
 and apostolic inspiration. In the first group, then, 
 you will observe, that the absence or rejection 
 of all ministerial training is the result of the 
 high idea entertained by its members of what is 
 official in the Church; that the calling to office 
 and qualification for it is something directly Divine. 
 For such a distinction no one of course can 
 
10 
 
 be fitted or prepared by any human instrumen¬ 
 tality. 
 
 Side by side with this first group we place the 
 second, who arrive at the same conclusion on a 
 directly opposite ground. We refer to those who are 
 denominated “the Brethren. ” Their principle is, that 
 there is in the Church no authorized official ministry 
 at all. The entire body of believers who meet to¬ 
 gether in any given place to break bread, have all, in 
 common, liberty of ministry. Any one at the time 
 of meeting may be endowed or impelled to address 
 himself to the rest for edification or comfort.. The 
 Spirit is in the assembly; He may move the most 
 unlettered to exposition or discourse ; He is free, and 
 should be left to his freedom. It is to be understood 
 that it is not known beforehand who will pray, or 
 speak, or give out a hymn, or that any hymn has 
 been previously selected. Nothing can be pre¬ 
 arranged. There is no official class, no bishop, 
 pastor or teacher, no one that can be recognized as 
 such, every one is in all respects “ like unto his 
 brethren.” In meetings for “ preaching the gospel” 
 it may be different. Then some one with the 
 requisite gift, which has been ascertained to be his, 
 may arrange to be present to address what will be a 
 mixed assembly, and will take his place at once for 
 that purpose. But it is as we have stated in the 
 more select gathering for the breaking of bread ; all 
 have liberty of ministry,—none are ministers in the 
 
II 
 
 usual acceptation of the word. Of course, under 
 such a constitution of things, the idea of a college, 
 an institution for educating and training men for 
 ministerial service, would be absurd. Such a thing 
 could not be, consistently with the principle, main¬ 
 tained. No class of men could, in purpose, or theory, 
 be devoted to an office which was not itself believed 
 to exist; no one could be separated, so to speak, to 
 what belonged to all; or be prepared for that, the 
 preparation for which might be given to any one at 
 the moment of action, or was supposed to consist 
 simply in the religious condition, the subjective 
 spirituality of the individual. 
 
 The two next groups that we put together agree 
 in some respects with those we have noticed, but 
 differ in others. These are, in the first place, the 
 Friends, whose characteristic doctrine makes the 
 Holy Spirit, if we might so express it, the living 
 presiding minister in the Church. He is present with 
 the congregation to move to speech, or to impose 
 silence. He may influence any,—man and woman 
 alike. Nevertheless, the Friends have an official 
 ministry, that is, there are individuals, and those of 
 both sexes, who are known and recognized as 
 “ ministers,” and recognized as such by, and 
 throughout, the entire community. There is great 
 order, too, in their laws and customs respecting this 
 matter. Much care is taken to admit into the class 
 of ministers only such as are believed to be called 
 
12 
 
 to the work. Any one at any time may be impelled 
 to speak, but the “ spirit of the prophets is subject to 
 the prophets,” and if a speaker is felt to be unspiritual 
 or unqualified, he can be put down, or at least be 
 obliged to keep silence. Even those who appear to 
 possess capability and fitness for office have to go 
 through trials, and submit to tests, and be accepted 
 by this and the other meeting, before they can be 
 endorsed and recognized as ministers. With all this, 
 however, the system of the Friends has no place in 
 it for any thing like a college, in the sense of an 
 institution preparatory to the ministry. Their 
 ministers must be raised up, called and endowed by 
 the action of the Spirit on the mind and heart, and 
 anything like human arrangement to train or equip 
 them, would be regarded as something like a pre¬ 
 sumptuous interference with Divine order, an inter¬ 
 ference that would be found as useless in fact, as 
 it would certainly be regarded as unauthorized in 
 principle. 
 
 By the side of the Friends we put a certain school 
 among ourselves, or which, at least, may be found 
 here and there within the Family and Individual 
 Baptist denominations, though it stands more or 
 less isolated in each. I refer to those who insist 
 on the necessity of a “ God-made ministry,” and 
 who show their opposition to anything else by 
 regarding ministers who are furnished by a college 
 as only a species of human manufacture. Those 
 
*3 
 
 included in this group, though they thus think, 
 have no idea of an official ministry as so Divine 
 a thing as that of the Catholic Apostolic Church; 
 neither do they reject it altogether, like the Brethren. 
 They agree with the Friends in looking for it to rise 
 up among themselves, by an action of the Spirit, 
 which in itself shall be all-sufficient; but they do 
 not, with the Friends, subject it to such repeated 
 trials and tests as may efficiently protect it from 
 immaturity, conceit, rashness, and incompetence. 
 Their churches would not be complete without an 
 official pastor or minister placed over each ; but 
 they are very suspicious of anything like learning, 
 and especially of sending men, called of God, to 
 go anywhere to learn anything. The light of the 
 Spirit is sufficient to guide into all truth ; His 
 promised help is all that is necessary for the inter¬ 
 pretation of the Bible and the preaching of the 
 Word. Human culture would only be likely to 
 lead astray, and to end in the corruption or denial 
 of the faith. God-made ministers, men already and 
 divinely such by the gifts and graces of the Holy 
 Ghost, need go to no college in search of that which 
 no college can supply. 
 
 III. 
 
 Such are the two extremes, on the right and 
 the left, between which we stand. Our place is 
 determined by the circumstance that we agree with 
 
*4 
 
 each, and yet differ from both. This agreement 
 and difference regulate and modify our peculiar 
 action. I will endeavour to explain how this comes 
 to pass. 
 
 We think that our friends, on either hand, have 
 each of them, in their theory, a right principle. 
 But we further think that these principles, as far 
 as possible, ought to be combined. Neither of 
 them is sufficient, “ being alone.” We endeavour 
 to combine them, though we have to do so under 
 many disadvantages. 
 
 Beginning with our friends on the extreme left, 
 those who attach exclusive importance to what 
 constitutes the spiritual and divine side of the 
 subject, we remark, that we quite agree with them 
 in what lies at the basis of their theory. The 
 Christian ministry is not a profession, in the usual 
 sense of the word. It is not a thing which a man 
 may choose and select, after having received a 
 regular general education, as he may, by preference, 
 enter into the army, or go to the bar. The ministry 
 is a vocation; it is that to which a man should be 
 called ; the call should be Divine; that call, among 
 other things, should include a special spiritual move¬ 
 ment towards the work—something that behoved 
 to be obeyed. This inward impulse cannot come 
 from any course of University learning in itself 
 considered ; it must spring from the depth and the 
 inward actings of a true spiritual life,—a life without 
 
*5 
 
 which no real qualification for the ministry can exist. 
 It is a right thought, then, that the true minister 
 must be God-made, in the sense of being spiritually 
 endowed and divinely called. He that has to teach 
 religion must have religion,—have it “ not in word 
 but in power,”—not as knowledge in the under¬ 
 standing, but as life in the soul. This above every¬ 
 thing must be possessed. All else is comparatively 
 nothing without it. He who has to handle the 
 things of the Spirit should be fitted for that by 
 spiritual endowments; the divine teacher must him¬ 
 self be a divine man. All this we hold to be true, 
 and, so far, our friends and we are agreed. But we 
 do not hold that it follows from this, that everything 
 is to be left to supernatural interference, and nothing 
 to be attempted by human instrumentality. The 
 influence of the Spirit of God is a moral influence; 
 it touches the heart, the conscience, the religious 
 capacity; it moves, purifies, directs the feelings and 
 desires, the aims and aspirations of the man. It is 
 not inspiration in the sense of conveying knowledge to 
 the intellect. In spite of certain figurative expres¬ 
 sions to the contrary, which we often hear or use, it 
 is in reality not so much light as warmth . It is 
 a divine breathing which awakens and animates our 
 higher susceptibilities, and draws the soul towards 
 God. But as to a full intellectual acquaintance with 
 His truth, that is to be reached by another process. 
 Knowledge must be got from where it is to be 
 
i6 
 
 obtained, and by the use of the faculties given us. 
 for its acquisition. Where, then, there is an inward 
 movement in a good man towards the work of the 
 ministry, that may be the call of the Spirit;—but, 
 even though it be, as a great many things besides 
 are unquestionably necessary for the full equipment 
 of a man to do all that is required of the modern 
 minister as “a workman that needs not to be 
 ashamed,” the individual in whom there is this basis 
 of spiritual fitness for, and aspiration towards the 
 work, may properly be placed under qualified 
 teachers of these other things , that he may be 
 thoroughly furnished, and become in all respects 
 equal to the high duties on which he wishes to 
 enter. An acquaintance with these branches of 
 knowledge it is necessary, let us say,—or say, ex¬ 
 pedient and desirable,—for a minister to possess; 
 but the Holy Spirit could not directly impart it 
 without a miracle ,—and we are not living in the 
 age of miracles. It must be got, therefore, if ob¬ 
 tained at all, by wisely applied human instru¬ 
 mentality. Now, the various acquisitions to which 
 we thus refer, however secular they may appear in 
 themselves, or however they may seem to have a 
 relation only to the intellect, yet, if acquired by 
 one who is a spiritual man, and acquired with a 
 distinct and conscientious purpose of devoting 
 them to a spiritual use, they become as really 
 “ spiritual gifts,”—powers and endowments to be 
 
*7 
 
 reckoned as Divine,—as if they had been conferred, 
 directly and in a moment, by the hand of God. 
 
 While, however, we recognize and admit that 
 there is a true thought at the root of the theory 
 which rejects ministerial training altogether, and 
 even the necessity for educational culture, we also 
 say, that there is a true thought in the theory of 
 those who attach importance to high and varied 
 general attainments. God and His Church are to 
 be served with the best that every man has. To 
 the ministry may be brought the mind in its 
 highest condition; powers the most disciplined and 
 enriched; ever faculty in its maturity and vigour. 
 All knowledge can be consecrated to this Divine 
 work. In the most unlikely outlying regions of 
 the domain of inquiry, things may be found which 
 can be employed in the service or the defence of 
 religion. The Egyptians may be spoiled by their 
 treasures being appropriated—by learning and science 
 being so possessed by God’s ministers, that the 
 worshippers of either may be fairly met on their 
 own ground, and intelligently opposed with their 
 own weapons. It is no doubt, therefore, of inesti¬ 
 mable value for ministers to interfere with all know¬ 
 ledge; to have their minds invigorated and their 
 faculties sharpened by all that a University training 
 can confer. But then the greatest acquisitions, 
 merely intellectual, are no ground for admission to 
 the Ministry without those spiritual attributes of 
 
 B 
 
i8 
 
 character which exclusively belong to spiritual men. 
 Nor will both of these united be enough—or, at 
 least, be a full equipment for the work—without 
 an appropriate preparatory course of study. There 
 needs a mental training in Biblical literature, and 
 in theology as a science, in addition to all that can 
 be acquired in the schools, and although it may be 
 the case that the man of learning is also and un¬ 
 questionably a man of God. 
 
 The most complete and thorough education as a 
 man may, then, be a great thing for a minister to 
 have received. The error ojice was, in our friends 
 on the right of us, to insist on this general education 
 as if it were everything; to require, as the proof of it, 
 the University degree ; to overlook the spiritual and 
 Divine prerequisites; and to be content with little 
 of what we may term directly professional attain¬ 
 ments. Then again, our friends on the left do away 
 with these attainments altogether, or at least with 
 any attempt scientifically to confer them; they sus¬ 
 pend everything, for different reasons, and in different 
 degrees, exclusively on the work of the Spirit in the 
 soul. Thus two things which ought to be united 
 are divorced,—the Divine and the human. They 
 are, of course, two things, but each has its im¬ 
 portance, its appropriate sphere, limits and law. 
 The conjoint and harmonious action of the two 
 must ever be regarded, if God’s own appointments 
 are to be dutifully carried out. In the case before 
 
19 
 
 us we venture to say, that with only the human— 
 that which it is in the power of man to give—a 
 ministry will do nothing for the Church; and that 
 with only the Divine—that which belongs to the 
 spiritual life—it will not be equal to much work 
 in the world. In every age the most powerful 
 champions of truth have been men who possessed 
 all the power conferred by culture and learning, 
 with all that grew out of an earnest and Divine 
 religiousness. The man of large knowledge, ample 
 acquisitions, profound thought, familiar acquaint¬ 
 ance with what men of the world regard as peculiarly 
 their own,—the man who, with all this, has an 
 underlying spiritual life,—the result of early de¬ 
 velopment or of late conversion,—a life with a 
 power in it to lay hold of all that his intellect and 
 memory contain, and to use it bravely and loyally 
 for God with all his native and acquired strength,— 
 that is the man who will have, and who cannot but 
 have, a capability in him for high service, which 
 those cannot possibly possess who, for their working 
 material, have only the one or the other of the two 
 things which in him are combined. 
 
 IV. 
 
 But very few, it may be objected, can be such men 
 —or such in the highest sense. That may be; we 
 quite admit it; but that is no reason why the. highest 
 ideal should not be sometimes brought before us and 
 
 b 2 
 
20 
 
 honestly looked at; nor should it prevent our trying 
 to make some advances towards it. Because we 
 cannot have everything, we should not be content to 
 sit down, fold our hands, and aim at nothing. 
 
 Hence it is that we establish and maintain theo¬ 
 logical institutions to provide for our Churches a 
 class of ministers as fully furnished and prepared for 
 their work as circumstances will admit. Our col¬ 
 leges are not Universities, into which men enter for 
 general education, afterwards to go their way to any 
 particular profession or calling that they may then 
 select. From the first, the students are in purpose 
 devoted to the ministry; and whatever general 
 studies they may have to attend to, their ultimate 
 destination is never lost sight of. General studies, 
 however, as well as what may be called technical or 
 professional, are pursued. Both have their place 
 and their share of attention ; and this on the ground, 
 already explained, of the importance of both—their 
 importance to him who is to be, at once, the shep¬ 
 herd of the flock, the devout spiritual guide of the 
 faithful, the expositor of the Word, the leader in 
 worship, the preacher of the Gospel,—the wise, and 
 capable Christian advocate, the intelligent and fear¬ 
 less defender of the truth. 
 
 With a view to all this, we require, in the first 
 place, earnest and undoubted personal religiousness : 
 that spiritual life which is the primary element in what 
 constitutes a Divine call. On this basis alone can a 
 
21 
 
 training for the ministry properly proceed. Then, 
 along with this, we require either the previous acqui¬ 
 sition of adequate general culture, the knowledge of 
 languages, &c.,—or a fair amount of ability and apti¬ 
 tude for entering on studies of that class. This, in 
 brief, and in very general terms, is the idea to be 
 embodied in our Nonconformist institutions. As far 
 as possible we seek to educate the man,—to furnish 
 him with human knowledge ; as far as possible we 
 seek to train the Divine man,—to furnish him with 
 that higher knowledge, necessary for his anticipated 
 work; that is to say, we wish the minister, as a man, 
 to have something like strong disciplined faculty, to 
 possess, and to be capable of using, the instruments 
 of knowledge; and we further wish him, as a 
 spiritual man, to be trained for the doing of spiritual 
 work, and to become so “ mighty in the Scriptures,” 
 through acquaintance with all the aids of interpreta¬ 
 tion, as to see into the heart, and to know something 
 of the heighth and depth, and breadth and length, 
 of the mysteries of God. In short, we want our men 
 to be able “to bring out” of 66 their treasures ” all 
 that can attract and win, satisfy and enrich,—and in 
 order to do this, we wish them to have “ treasures ” 
 out of which to bring it. 
 
 It may be shown, I think, in this way, how our 
 position is the result of our agreement with, and our 
 difference from, the supposed extremes on each side 
 of us. We agree with both and we differ from both. 
 
22 
 
 Each, up to a certain point, we hold to be right; 
 beyond that both appear to us to be wrong. We try 
 to take the right thing out of each ; thus to supple¬ 
 ment the one by the other, and by the union of the 
 two to produce something better than either. By 
 very necessity our place is a middle one between two 
 systems of action, or two forms of thought, anta¬ 
 gonistic to each other. But we have a certain sym¬ 
 pathy with each, and this at once fixes our position, 
 and determines and modifies our mode of procedure. 
 
 That there is something to be said in defence of 
 our views, may be gathered from those who differ 
 from us. A strong presumption that our theory and 
 practice are not far wrong—our friends on each side 
 of us themselves being judges—springs up out of 
 this fact, that, both on the right hand and the left, 
 we see things that more or less sustains our proce¬ 
 dure. With respect, for instance, to the old idea of 
 insisting upon a University degree, and hardly re¬ 
 quiring anything beyond this proof of general cul¬ 
 ture as necessary to ordination ;—with respect to 
 the practice of making little provision at the seats of 
 learning for theological attainment, and little demand 
 for it at Episcopal examinations ;—and still farther, 
 with respect to the utter laxity that prevailed as to 
 character, so that the most unsuitable persons, if 
 willing to make certain solemn declarations, might 
 be admitted to the Christian ministry:—with respect 
 to all these things, great and most important 
 
23 
 
 changes have been effected by the improvements of 
 the last half century. Far more provision has been 
 made at the Universities for efficient instruction in 
 theology, in Biblical literature, and correlative 
 studies;* far more serious and stringent have become 
 the demands of the Bishops on candidates for ordi¬ 
 nation, both with respect to competency in profes¬ 
 sional learning, and in relation to religious character. 
 In some cases, the young men have been required to 
 spend some time under the eye of the Bishop, to go 
 through a course of study, and to submit to search¬ 
 ing examinations, preparatory to being deemed 
 worthy to take the first step towards admission 
 to the priesthood. Certain Episcopal addresses, 
 given at such times, are models of their kind—stirring, 
 earnest appeals to the conscience and the heart, t 
 
 Then again, in addition to these manifest improve¬ 
 ments in high places, by which the learning indicated 
 by the University degree has been supplemented 
 by that which is directly ministerial, there was an¬ 
 other movement set on foot, which dispensed with 
 the degree, but made special provision for instruction 
 in theology, and was still more exacting as to per¬ 
 sonal qualifications. This consisted in the estab¬ 
 lishment of certain minor institutions, in which, not 
 
 * See note at the end. 
 
 f See in proof of this, “ Addresses to the Candidates for 
 Ordination, on the Questions in the Ordination Service. By 
 Samuel, Lord Bishop of Oxford ”—now Winchester. 
 
24 
 
 neglecting general literary culture, the main object is 
 direct professional preparation for the ministry. 
 Students from these comparatively private colleges, 
 competent to pass an ordinary episcopal examina¬ 
 tion, are ordained without their having received a 
 University education, or being able to show a Uni¬ 
 versity degree. Now both these movements, the 
 higher and the lower alike,—if they may be so de¬ 
 scribed,—are witnesses whom we call into court to 
 give their testimony on our side. They say—as 
 distinctly and clearly as anything can be said—that 
 our friends on the right no longer act as if they 
 thought secular culture could make a minister. They 
 bring us an illustration of our own first principle, 
 that, for the Christian teacher to possess human 
 literature is, in itself, a good and right thing, but 
 that care should be taken to connect with it both 
 theological training and religiousness of character. 
 
 Among the different groups on our left hand some 
 things are observable which strongly illustrate our 
 second principle, that is, the importance of piety 
 being supplemented by learning. The Friends, as a 
 denomination, have never exerted any general religious 
 influence on society. Individuals among them have 
 occasionally been eminent as speakers or writers, 
 but the most effective of these have been men who 
 have enjoyed literary advantages. Both in “ the 
 Catholic Apostolic Church,” and among “ the 
 Brethren,” there are persons of considerable power, 
 
who put forth the claims of their respective frater¬ 
 nities with great effect, and whose influential action 
 within their own bodies strengthens and sustains them. 
 But these men, in both cases, have, for the most 
 part, been trained and educated as ministers in other 
 churches, and however they may now be opposed to 
 these, their efficiency in their new position is derived 
 from the discipline through which they passed, the 
 education they received, and the habits they formed, 
 in preparing to become, or while they were, Episco¬ 
 pal or Nonconformist ministers. When either of 
 these bodies has to depend on teachers and leaders 
 furnished by themselves through that inspiration 
 which they profess so exclusively to regard, it 
 needs no prophet to foretell what will be the 
 result. With respect to those nearer to ourselves, 
 who with respect to their ministers reject and 
 repudiate all college training, it may be observed, 
 in the first place, that their influence is limited, 
 being very much confined to a certain class ; and, 
 in the second place, that they live, as Churches, 
 partly from the occasional appearance amongst 
 them of extraordinary individuals, and partly from 
 their being, so to speak, buttressed and sustained by 
 the educated ministry of those communities with 
 which they have some sort of denominational con¬ 
 nection. All the facts go to prove what we insist 
 upon and affirm, that while spiritual life and Divine 
 gifts are to be looked for and demanded in those who 
 
26 
 
 aspire to the ministry of the Church, these will not 
 of themselves be found sufficient for all that the 
 Church and the ministry have required of them in 
 these our times, and, indeed, have had required of 
 them at all times. We might have referred to the 
 Wesleyan body for confirmation of all that we have 
 said. It sprang up and grew under the influence of 
 men who had enjoyed the advantages of thorough 
 education. It had to depend afterwards exclusively 
 on itself,—on what nature and grace conferred on 
 its members. But as time went on, as experience 
 and intelligence enlarged, it was found requisite to 
 take the combined product of original faculty and 
 religious life, and to give to it those larger capabilities 
 for usefulness which, as a general rule, can alone be 
 conferred by culture and training. Hence the origin 
 of the Methodist theological institutions. 
 
 V. 
 
 I have thus given a pretty full statement of the 
 mixed nature and the double object of Nonconformist 
 theological colleges, and of the views and principles 
 which determine and modify the course of study 
 pursued in them. In drawing this part of our address, 
 to a close, I only touch briefly on two things. The 
 first is, that we do not profess to produce men dis¬ 
 tinguished by the highest attainments as scholars. 
 It is true that very accomplished men are increasing 
 in number in the Nonconformist ministry, from the 
 
27 
 
 circumstance that some of our colleges are affiliated 
 to the London University, and that some of the 
 students graduate in it before entering upon, or while 
 passing through, their theological course; and a 
 degree, it may be observed, of the London University 
 stands for something. In general, however, these 
 higher attainments are the exception and not the 
 rule. This arises from two circumstances. In the 
 first place, the classes composing our Churches, out 
 of which our ministers must be drawn, do not, for 
 the most part, send their sons to Universities. The 
 chances therefore are few, of men who have received 
 a thorough general education giving themselves, after 
 its completion , to Divine studies, and bringing to them 
 all that they have derived from such culture and dis¬ 
 cipline. In the second place, the requirement, on 
 our part, of religious character, and something like 
 a felt Divine call to the ministry, previous to the 
 admission of the student to our colleges,—this, of 
 course, throws us very much upon those who have 
 attained manhood, and whose age, therefore, unfits 
 them for entering on any course of very high literary 
 pretensions. We do the best we can, out of a very 
 limited range of material, to secure the two things 
 which often exist separately, but which we wish to 
 combine,—personal devotedness to God, and com¬ 
 petent educational culture. 
 
 The second thing that we notice is, that our 
 institutions are intended not merely to impart 
 
28 
 
 general and theological knowledge under profes¬ 
 sional instructors, but to afford facilities for the 
 exercise of those powers which are afterwards to 
 be employed in the discharge of the ministry. Our 
 students, therefore, are permitted—I might say 
 expected or encouraged—while they are as yet 
 only preparing for the work before them, to engage 
 in that work itself, by occasional preaching; at first 
 in rooms, or small chapels, afterwards to larger con¬ 
 gregations. This practice has its disadvantages. 
 It may sometimes interfere with the young men’s 
 studies; absorb time which should be given to the 
 acquisition of knowledge ; engender in some a dis¬ 
 inclination to their proper work; and, what is worse, 
 may induce in others, who happen to achieve a 
 premature popularity, a fallacious dependence on 
 the possession of an aptitude for free speech,— 
 apart from laboriously acquired, seriously sifted, 
 and well-ordered thought. Still, the practice is 
 in itself proper and important; for it is obviously 
 unreasonable that men should be looking forward to 
 a certain work and yet never have the opportunity 
 of ascertaining whether they have any peculiar 
 aptness for it, or of improving and developing 
 such as they possess. It is not only unreason¬ 
 able, indeed, but may be cruel and disastrous to 
 condemn men to silence until after they have re¬ 
 ceived, by ordination, indelible orders,—orders which, 
 if they afterwards discover that they have mistaken 
 
29 
 
 their calling, bar their return to secular professions. 
 It is told of a bishop (the story, I believe, is quite 
 authentic) that on hearing his son’s first sermon, he 
 said with some bitterness, “ I would not have or¬ 
 dained him, if I had not thought he could do better 
 than that.” Unfortunately, the young man never 
 had the opportunity of trying whether he could 
 preach or not; nor could his father have any proof 
 of his being fit for the pulpit, though he might know 
 that he had been distinguished at school and college. 
 
 While, however, we thus speak, it is not to be sup¬ 
 posed that we are always successful, and have never 
 to lament over mortifying disappointments. We 
 often find that our students turn out very poor 
 preachers. They prove to be deficient in almost every 
 qualification necessary to give power and effective¬ 
 ness to their ministry. Unfortunately, too, this 
 sometimes occurs in the case of men of high literary 
 accomplishments,—students who have taken their 
 University degrees with distinction and honour. It 
 is greatly to be lamented that we have so few posi¬ 
 tions suitable to such men,—men who have in them 
 power for valuable service, though not in the form of 
 efficient and popular pulpit ministrations. We can 
 hardly think, however, but that any man of culture 
 and ability, earnestness and zeal, might become an 
 interesting, useful, and effective preacher if he 
 thoroughly gave his mind to it, made it an object, 
 and studied and tried to succeed in what, in one 
 
30 
 
 sense, is a holy and sacred art. “ Because the 
 preacher was wise, he taught the people knowledge ; 
 yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in 
 order many proverbs. The preacher sought to find 
 out acceptable words,—even words of truth,—for the 
 words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened 
 by the masters of assemblies.” We refer, however, 
 rather to other cases, in which men, less cultured 
 but altogether inefficient, weary the congregation and 
 empty the Church. It mostly happens, too, in the 
 case of such, that they are as tenacious of perpetuity 
 of office as our clerical friends of indelibility of orders. 
 “ Once a minister always a minister ” is sometimes 
 as bad as “ Once a priest always a priest.” When 
 it is discovered that a man (whatever may have 
 been once hoped of him) has obviously mistaken 
 hi,s way,—and especially if this is apparent during 
 his preparatory trials,—he should be urged to re¬ 
 linquish his purpose by his professors and friends, 
 and he ought to have the wisdom to take their 
 advice. After a settlement it is more difficult to 
 make the change. Still, there is no doubt that in 
 many cases it ought to be made. It is not to be 
 denied that we suffer in our Churches, here and 
 there, from the encumberance of stereotyped official 
 incompetency. There needs a way out of the mi¬ 
 nistry, as well as into it. Such a way, if it could 
 be shown, would often be gladly welcomed by some 
 who have found out the fatal mistake into which 
 
3i 
 
 they fell. Too frequently, indeed, it so happens 
 that what is palpable and patent to everyone else is 
 not perceived—not even suspected—by the individual 
 himself. To him it may be a mercy that it is so, 
 but to other people it is something very different. 
 In spite, however, of many failures, which we are 
 not careful either to deny or to conceal, we do affirm, 
 that if, in addition to the possession of religious faith 
 and spiritual character, an individual have a fair 
 average amount of natural power—capacity to learn, 
 aptness to teach, the gift of utterance, and other 
 things, which may all exist in him only in germ— 
 then, institutions like ours are well adapted for the 
 culture, and guidance of that power. They afford, 
 moreover, admirable opportunities for calling out 
 whatever may belong to the raw material submitted 
 to them, so that the student may go forth with 
 adequate fitness for the duties before him, and with 
 a calm confidence that, by the Divine blessing, he 
 may become such a workman as shall be at once 
 “ accepted of men and approved of God.” 
 
 VI. 
 
 We have thus endeavoured to exhibit the nature 
 and objects of our theological institutions ;—what 
 they are, and what they propose to do. In attempt¬ 
 ing this, though we have not done it without occa¬ 
 sional reference to scriptural statements, there are 
 those who will object that the whole argument has 
 
32 
 
 proceeded on mere general principles, and that 
 nothing has been said to show that the Bible autho¬ 
 rizes or sanctions anything like a college for the edu¬ 
 cation of ministers. I will endeavour, then, in 
 conclusion, to show that it does. 
 
 Of course it is not pretended that the Bible directs, 
 by express statute, the foundation of colleges, pre¬ 
 scribes the course of study, specifies the duties and 
 provides for the support of professors, or lays down 
 any law whatever on the subject. But it should be 
 remembered that there are many things in all 
 Churches, even in those of the most simple con¬ 
 struction, for which no express direction or rule can 
 be produced, and yet it may be true that such things 
 are not only not inconsistent with the spirit of the 
 Bible, or with the ascertained forms of primitive 
 action, but are capable of defence and justification as, 
 in principle, authorized by both. This we take to be 
 the case with institutions having for their object the 
 instruction and training of men for ministerial service 
 in the Church of God. 
 
 I begin by explaining some matters respecting the 
 old Hebrew prophet, which are not generally under¬ 
 stood, or perhaps known. It is commonly thought 
 that the Hebrew prophet was always a directly God- 
 made man, just as some people think that preachers 
 who have never been at college, are not man-made, 
 but God-made ministers. This notion, however, of 
 the old Hebrew prophet, is only half the truth. The 
 
33 
 
 prophetic gift—the direct and higher inspiration— 
 was no doubt necessary to one particular phase of the 
 function, and it sometimes fell, through God’s 
 sovereign pleasure, on herdsmen and vinedressers. 
 But this was not always the case,—perhaps not 
 generally the case. The prophets were a class, a 
 large body, and they had many duties besides speak¬ 
 ing as directly and extraordinarily moved by the 
 Holy Ghost. For these duties they were prepared 
 by what might be called an academic training; and 
 many of them might run a most useful public course, 
 and do a necessary and important work in the 
 Church, and yet never be singled out, by the Inspir¬ 
 ing Spirit, to utter prophecies under supernatural 
 influence. Schools of the prophets were very early 
 established under the theocracy, and continued for 
 ages ; and there can be no doubt, that into these 
 schools young men of good character and appropriate 
 gifts were admitted, and for a time went through a 
 course of regular preparation for various forms of 
 public duty. The students were under the care of 
 some qualified head, who was regarded as their 
 father; and guided by him they pursued their studies. 
 These studies would mostly be concerned with the 
 law, especially in its social and moral aspects and 
 relations, though what regarded priesthood and sacri¬ 
 fice would not be neglected. Perhaps, at certain 
 times, this might be an especial object of investiga¬ 
 tion and instruction. It should be remembered that 
 
 c 
 
34 
 
 the priests as such were not so much instructors and 
 teachers, as official functionaries who had to perform 
 certain prescribed services. The prophets took more 
 immediately the duty of being the moral and religi¬ 
 ous guides of the people. The schools of the pro¬ 
 phets were not convents, which men entered but 
 never left. There was a term of residence, a course 
 of instruction, which had a beginning and an end. 
 One generation of students was succeeded by another. 
 Those who left took their places in society, married 
 and became heads of families—or might do so—and 
 had their appropriate public work. That work might 
 consist in education, in giving private instruction in 
 letters, in the contents of the law, in what consti¬ 
 tuted the religious basis of the decalogue, and in 
 sacred music, which was specially cultivated in the 
 schools of the prophets, and a proficiency in which 
 was very generally acquired by the people. But it 
 would also appear that they had something of a 
 pastoral function, and were resorted to by the people 
 at regular seasons, as well as on special emergencies. 
 This appears from the case of the Shunammite woman, 
 who, when she suddenly determined to go to the 
 prophet, was asked by her husband, “ Wherefore wilt 
 thou go to him to-day ? it is neither new moon nor 
 Sabbath,”—implying that, if it had been new moon or 
 Sabbath, her going to the prophet would have been 
 nothing extraordinary. 
 
 There is quite enough in the Bible to show that 
 
35 
 
 there were institutions for what we might call theo¬ 
 logical training under the old dispensation; that 
 there were several of these in different places ; 
 that a class of men would be thus prepared for 
 useful service; that they were “ prophetsand 
 that, though out of them one and another might 
 be occasionally called forth—selected as the in¬ 
 strument through which the Divine Spirit might 
 utter direct messages or special predictions,—-yet, 
 that many of them might never be called to this 
 higher work, though they did a work of great 
 public utility,—a work for which they were fitted 
 by regular scholastic training. Of course, this 
 training would be the more complete and efficient 
 in proportion as -they were personally in harmony 
 with their office, by being themselves animated by 
 religious faith. 
 
 The prophets were not necessarily antagonistic to 
 the priesthood; they were only supplementary. 
 When, indeed, the priests were ignorant, negligent, 
 and degenerate, then God called forth the prophet to 
 utter the language of warning, admonition, or rebuke. 
 But at all times there was much to be done which 
 the prophetic class in its ordinary aspects and rela¬ 
 tions could best do. It should be remembered, that 
 the Hebrew people had a religion before they had 
 the law; that the old patriarchal faith was their 
 patrimony and inheritance; and that this, the Levi- 
 tical or priestly institute did not supersede. But 
 
 C 2 
 
36 
 
 then, it is also to be remembered that the spirit 
 and tendency of a priesthood, even when Divinely 
 appointed, is to look merely at the rite and ceremony 
 —at the outside of them—the form and not the 
 meaning. But it was the meaning which was to 
 come into contact with the old traditionary faith, and 
 by which the minds of the people were, in respect to 
 it, to be at once nurtured and enlarged. Now, the 
 action of the prophetic class was a conservative 
 power against the danger that might arise from what 
 is the inherent tendency of a priesthood. By encour¬ 
 aging among the people the culture of sacred song, 
 by which the spiritual affections are awakened and 
 nourished,—and by dwelling, in their instructions, on 
 the moral meaning of the ceremonies, rather than on 
 their ritual materialism,—they might exert a most 
 deep and healthy influence on the inner life and the 
 subjective piety of the worshippers. Nor, perhaps, 
 should it be forgotten, especially by us, that in the 
 kingdom of Israel, during the years of an established 
 apostasy, when the authority of the kings, and the 
 example of the higher powers, sustained and counten¬ 
 anced a national religion subversive of the true,—the 
 true, so far as it could be preserved and taught, 
 was kept up among numbers of the people who would 
 not “ bow the knee to the image of Baal,” by the 
 teachers or prophets, who had been trained and edu¬ 
 cated in the little Dissenting Academies of Jericho 
 and Bethel. 
 
37 
 
 With respect to the principle of preparatory train¬ 
 ing for public service, as it may be met with in the 
 New Testament, I would refer particularly to one of 
 the authoritative directions laid down by St. Paul,— 
 though there are some previous facts in the sacred 
 history not without meaning and emphasis in rela¬ 
 tion to the subject. Surely, if ever there was a 
 number of men who were being gradually prepared 
 for public duty, it was the Apostles during their three 
 years’ course of instruction under Christ Himself. 
 That He had been teaching and instructing all the 
 time, and that the length of the time was an element 
 in judging of their progress^ appears from the ques¬ 
 tion of Jesus to one of them,—“Have I been so 
 long with thee, and yet hast thou not known Me, 
 Philip ?”—the state of Philip’s mind being, it should 
 be remembered, one of ignorance, or of imperfect 
 knowledge, in respect to a Divine matter, which he 
 might have been expected to have more fully under¬ 
 stood. So also, as indicative of the work which our 
 Lord had been pursuing with the twelve, to qualify 
 them to become His Apostles, we have the statement, 
 “ I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot 
 bear them now.” He had said much ; He had much 
 yet to say,—suited, however, to a more developed 
 and matured state of their minds. It is well worthy 
 of special observation, how that, after His resurrec¬ 
 tion, during the forty days which He spent with the 
 Apostles, He took them through a regular systematic 
 
38 
 
 exposition of the Old Testament. Under His first 
 ministry they were receiving a sort of preparatory 
 instruction. After the redemptive work of the Lord 
 was finished, they were formed into a higher class ; 
 and, as students of the new or perfected form of the 
 faith, which was to become the subject of their teach¬ 
 ing, their minds were opened to all the Scriptures— 
 the law, the prophets, and the psalms. These were 
 expounded to them in order, by the Lord Himself. 
 The Apostles were taught how to give them their 
 true Christian interpretation. All this was a pre¬ 
 paratory training to fit them to go forth and intelli¬ 
 gently to proclaim that, “according to the Scrip¬ 
 tures,” the Christ had suffered, and that repentance 
 and remission of sins were made known in Jiis name. 
 When Paul was selected to be an Apostle, and 
 miraculously converted,—and when, under the first 
 impulses of his zeal as a convert, he immediately 
 began to preach,—the Lord arrested him, and sent 
 him into Arabia for three years to study there;—to 
 study, doubtless, under His own guidance, and to 
 get such a view of the meaning of the law and the 
 utterances of the prophets, as he had not learnt, and 
 never could have learnt, at the feet of Gamaliel or 
 any of the Rabbins. To meet the immediate neces¬ 
 sities of the first Churches, elders were selected from 
 among the converts, and appointed over them. These 
 elders, we may be quite sure, would always be the 
 men most distinguished by intelligence as well as 
 
39 
 
 piety; and as the first Churches were Christian 
 synagogues, and consisted, for the most part, of 
 those who had belonged to the Jewish synagogue, 
 the first elders would very often be men who had 
 gone through the study of the old books, and had 
 such an acquaintance with the lessons of “the 
 Schoolmaster/’ as would be a fitting training, prepa¬ 
 ratory to the duties of their higher office, as exposi¬ 
 tors of the principles of the new form of their old 
 faith. 
 
 But I would more particularly dwell on the direc¬ 
 tion which Paul gives to Timothy, which unquestion¬ 
 ably bears on the subject before us, by embodying, 
 so to speak, the principle of a theological ministerial 
 training. “ The things which thou hast heard of me , 
 among many witnesses , the same commit thou unto faith¬ 
 ful men , which shall be able to teach others also .” Now, 
 it is of no consequence what we may call Timothy,— 
 Bishop, Evangelist, Apostle, or what we please, 
 —this, at any rate, is sufficiently evident, that in the 
 Church he was over he was in a position superior to 
 other members of the presbytery. The elders were 
 subordinate to him ; he could “receive accusations,” 
 hear and judge, “rebuke with authority,” and do 
 things not common to those who were simply in the 
 eldership. Now, among his other duties, there would 
 seem to have been the regular and formal guidance 
 —if not of candidates for the ministry—of those who 
 had just been admitted to it,—that is, “ faithful,” or 
 
40 
 
 believing men, who were possessed of such gifts as 
 seemed to indicate an ability to teach. He was to 
 take such, and to commit to them the body of Chris¬ 
 tian Truth which he had learnt of the Apostle, and to 
 do this with a view to their being able “ to teach 
 others/’—that is, fitted and prepared to discharge 
 the duties of the ministry they were about to sustain, 
 or for which they had recently been selected. 
 
 That this direction given to Timothy covered a 
 great deal of ground, and laid upon him something 
 resembling the duties of a theological professor, 
 as distinct from and in addition to his ordinary 
 preaching and ministrations in the Church, will be 
 evident from a single consideration. Only think 
 what was included in the words, “the things which 
 thou hast heard of me” What had Timothy “ heard” 
 from Paul ? Glance over his life, as the companion 
 of the Apostle, and you will see. He perhaps 
 “heard” Paul on his very first' apostolic journey, 
 when his mother and grandmother were probably 
 converted, and possibly himself. He was chosen to 
 travel with the Apostle on his second journey. He 
 went with him into Galatia, and “ heard ” him there, 
 and saw the wonderful effects of his preaching. He 
 went on to Troas, and witnessed the new and extra¬ 
 ordinary advance that was made by God’s directing 
 Paul’s mission to Europe. Timothy was at Philippi, 
 Thessalonica, and Berea. He heard Paul’s exposi¬ 
 tion of the faith in the synagogues; he heard his 
 
4 * 
 
 proclamation of the truth to the Gentiles; he was 
 with him at Corinth, and, for two years there, lis¬ 
 tened, in private and public, to his instructions. He 
 was his companion, also, on his third journey; he 
 was with him the most of the three years that he 
 spent at Ephesus ; afterwards he travelled with him 
 in Macedonia; spent a winter with him at Corinth ; 
 saw much of him, perhaps, during the two years he 
 was a prisoner at Cesarea; he was with him in his 
 hired house at Rome, where he was a prisoner for the 
 same length of time. 
 
 It is also to be remembered that Timothy was with 
 Paul when he wrote most of the Epistles, and per¬ 
 haps often acted as his amanuensis. He saw the 
 letters to the Thessalonians,—most likely that to the 
 Galatians. He was not with Paul when he wrote 
 his first letter to the Corinthians, but he was with 
 him when he wrote the second. He was with him 
 when he wrote his great work addressed to the 
 Romans. He was with him when he wrote the 
 Epistles dated from Rome; and, if the Apostle wrote 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews, he was probably ac¬ 
 quainted with that, as he is mentioned in it. It is 
 not improbable that Timothy might have taken 
 copies of these letters. Sitting with the Apostle, he 
 might have heard his remarks and explanations, his 
 reasons for, and his object in writing, in this and 
 that way, in the different Epistles. 
 
 Now, only think of what Timothy had thus heard 
 
42 
 
 and learnt. There was the explaining to the Jew 
 the spiritual meaning of the old Hebrew institute, 
 and the Christian sense of the prophetic Scriptures ; 
 there was the testifying to the Gentile the facts 
 and message of the Gospel : there was the general 
 reasoning used with the Greek, as in the Epistle to 
 the Romans ; there were the controversial arguments 
 employed in his reproof of the Galatians,—in his 
 attacks on the perverters of the Gospel by the law, the 
 adherents and advocates of circumcision; there were 
 his denunciations against Gentile philosophy at Colosse 
 and at Corinth;—the mysticism, asceticism, and 
 ritualism of some on the one hand, and the rational¬ 
 ism of the deniers of the resurrection on the other. 
 There were all these various things in principle and 
 form which Timothy had heard and learnt, and all 
 these he had to expound and explain to those who 
 had a certain work before them, in order that they 
 might be able to do that work well. All this, 
 you observe, was a very different thing from his 
 “ preaching the Gospel,” or standing up in the 
 Church at the breaking of bread and giving a 
 spiritual and affectionate address to the faithful. It 
 was another sort of work altogether. The work, too, 
 demanded in the men he taught, a great deal of read¬ 
 ing and study of various kinds, and, in fact, involved 
 in it a principle which sanctions and justifies the 
 use of theological institutions and studies now. It 
 is hardly necessary to add to all this, that, just as the 
 
43 
 
 succession of events during the life-time of St. Paul, 
 gave rise to, or necessitated, his various forms of 
 written argument, exposition, controversy, &c.,—all 
 which increased and multiplied the subjects, and the 
 modes of viewing them, on which Timothy was to 
 work,—so, all the events and changes since ,—the 
 loss of Greek as the living language of the Church ; 
 the changes of Christian opinion, the rise of heresies, 
 controversies, reformations, modern forms of unbelief, 
 misbelief, denial, &c.,—all these things increase the 
 necessity for formal instruction, and for training and 
 guidance now. It is quite admitted that a great 
 work may be done by simple piety and earnest zeal 
 in the preacher of the Gospel; but, the class of 
 simple and unlettered preachers, useful as they may 
 be, will be all the better for the support of trained 
 and learned expositors among them, or at their side. 
 
 VII. 
 
 In bringing this too protracted address to a close, 
 suffer me to say a few words to the students, and to 
 the supporters of the College;—to those within the 
 Institution and at present belonging to it, and to 
 those outside, but interested in its success and re¬ 
 presentatively before me in the persons of those it is 
 my privilege to address. 
 
 I do not attempt to say a word to the Professors— 
 it would be presumption in me to do so,—but I may 
 offer them my congratulations on their entering into 
 
44 
 
 this beautiful building, and express an earnest and 
 heart-felt prayer for their increased usefulness. May 
 they have many years of personal happiness and 
 official success; may they see one generation of 
 students after another industrious, devoted, respect¬ 
 ful, sympathetic; and may they witness their en¬ 
 trance on public life competently furnished for the 
 work before them,—their hearts thoroughly in it,— 
 their prospects of usefulness bright and encouraging, 
 from their being actuated by the spirit of their office 
 —strong in faith, clothed with humility, animated by 
 zeal. Under any circumstances the consciousness 
 of fidelity may be to the teacher a source of satisfac¬ 
 tion, but his “joy and crown” must spring from 
 the character, success, and reputation of his pupils. 
 
 To the students I would offer two or three parting 
 words, which, by God’s blessing, may not be without 
 result. Suffer me to remind you that you are here 
 for the purpose of securing certain acquisitions which, 
 if not secured now, will be impossible hereafter. You 
 must do your utmost to get all the learning and 
 knowledge you can. The principle on which you are 
 admitted here, instead of repressing, should enforce 
 this. You are looking forward to a Divine work, 
 and profess to be impelled towards it by a Divine 
 call—but such a call is to be primarily interpreted as 
 a call to conscientious diligence in all studies prepa¬ 
 ratory to the work. “ A man having separated him¬ 
 self,”—as “ called with a holy calling,”—“ seeketh 
 
45 
 
 and intermeddleth with all wisdom.” The very 
 sacredness of what is before you should stimulate 
 your desire after all secular or secondary acquisitions, 
 because these things, consecrated to God’s service, 
 will enable you to do your Divine work as “with 
 both hands.” Depend upon it, the more religious 
 and spiritual you are, and the more eagerly you long 
 to be employed in preaching, the more strenuous will 
 be your efforts to improve to the utmost your colle¬ 
 giate advantages. In proportion as you feel that 
 what you wish to do is to be done for God, will you 
 labour and toil to be fully furnished,—adequately 
 prepared for the varied calls that will be made upon 
 you. Neglect no part of your proper work now, lest, 
 peradventure, you should come hereafter to do “ the 
 work of the Lord ” negligently. Those of you whose 
 present attainments may be limited, or aptitude for 
 learning small, may yet do much by conscientious 
 diligence, to acquire what shall be invaluable to you 
 in future years; while those whose early advantages 
 were many, and who have made great proficiency in 
 classical and general knowledge, may, in the same 
 way, accumulate rich stores of material, which shall 
 qualify them for special work, in some department 
 or other of sacred literature, or fit them for official 
 positions as the instructors and guides of a future 
 ministry. All must, of course, seek to walk “worthy” 
 of their “ vocation,”—keeping constantly in view 
 those solemn responsibilities which may well make 
 
4 6 
 
 the strongest and best of us cry out, “ Who is suffi¬ 
 cient for these things ?” 
 
 When you have entered on your future duties, 
 and taken your places as ministers in the Church, 
 never forget that you are still to be students. 
 The Apostle exhorts Timothy not only to “ preach 
 the word,” to be “ instant in season and out of 
 season,” to be attentive to “ exhortation and 
 teaching,” but “ to give attention to reading,” to 
 “ meditate ” on Divine things, “ to give himself 
 wholly to them,” that “his profiting may appear unto 
 all.” The mind must be kept full, and be constantly 
 supplied by reading and thought, so that, instead of 
 drawing upon and repeating your first stock of ideas, 
 there may be novelty and variety,—constantly in¬ 
 creasing depth and breadth,—in your expositions of 
 truth; in illustration and argument, freshness and 
 force. Look forward to your work, not only with a 
 desire “to make full proof of your ministry,” but 
 also of your “ priesthood,”—a priesthood not of 
 mystic rites, officially impregnated with Divine 
 virtue and sacramental grace, but one which consists 
 in aiding and leading that worship in which God’s 
 Church, His “ holy priesthood,” presents “ spiritual 
 sacrifices, acceptable to Him by Jesus Christ.” 
 Greater attention is required by many of us to the 
 culture of the spirit of devotion, to the thoughtful 
 and reverent ordering of supplication and song, that 
 our “ prayer may be set forth as incense,” and our 
 
47 
 
 thoughts and feelings flow out with such unaffected 
 fervour and earnestness, and with such fullness and 
 power, as to meet the diversified condition of those 
 whose wants and longings, gratitude or sorrow, we 
 have to stimulate or express. 
 
 In the present day many extra services are re¬ 
 quired of the minister, in the form of lectures, 
 attendance at public-meetings, &c., which may 
 certainly be so regulated as to extend his in¬ 
 fluence and usefulness; but you young men must 
 take care not to be seduced by these into the 
 neglect of your proper work. The study and the 
 closet must be the sources of your power. Your 
 great object must be efficiency and success in “the 
 ministry of the Word—teaching the ignorant and 
 arousing the careless,—the conversion of the ungodly, 
 the “ perfecting of the saints,” the “ edification of 
 the Body of Christ.” You have to preach “ not 
 yourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord.” The pulpit is 
 not the place for the ostentatious display of either 
 natural or acquired ability; but for the exercise and 
 employment “ in all simplicity and godly sincerity” 
 of whatever powers a man may possess, that he may 
 approve himself to “ men’s consciences in the sight 
 of God.” Guard against the temptation of attempt¬ 
 ing to serve either God or man with that which costs 
 you nothing. Beware of dependence on a facile 
 tongue, instead of a labourously exercised intellect. 
 By all means cultivate free speech, rather than the 
 
4 8 
 
 habitual use of your manuscript; but remember that 
 this will not supersede, but rather necessitate, full 
 and careful written preparation. “ Nothing is im¬ 
 possible to him that believethnothing is impos¬ 
 sible to him tYiaX pmyeth. You may ask for aid and 
 guidance in all things,—the selection of texts, the 
 treatment of subjects, force and adaptation of argu¬ 
 ment and appeal; but, above all, you must ask for 
 that “ preparation of the heart,” which, while you 
 “ muse ” and “ meditate,” will cause you to feel that 
 the inward fire glows and burns, and that the warmth 
 rises and developes into light, so that objective 
 truth can be distinctly discerned through the 
 Divine Teacher thus morally influencing the mind. 
 The Holy Spirit, in this way, raises us up to His 
 revelations in the Word, helping us to apprehend and 
 grasp them, rather than by the direct infusion into 
 the mind of new thought. It will be long before we 
 get so near to the limits of what “was written for 
 our learning,” as to stand in need of further commu¬ 
 nications. 
 
 After having sought guidance, and decided on 
 your message, much, very much, remains to be 
 done; — thought and reading may be required, 
 an anxious sacred ingenuity exercised, in “seeking 
 out” and “setting in order” what has to be ex¬ 
 plained, enforced, illustrated, that the subject may 
 be brought home “to men’s business and bosoms,” 
 and impressions made on the reason, the conscience, 
 
49 
 
 and the heart, which shall not die. But when all is 
 done that human ability and genius can suggest, the 
 results aimed at must be looked for from “the power 
 and demonstration of Spirit,” and His aid and bless¬ 
 ing sought to secure them. I am an old man, and 
 may, without impropriety, refer to my own experi¬ 
 ence, especially in speaking to such as I now address. 
 Let me tell you then that I have found, what you 
 will find, that in respect to our special work the say¬ 
 ing is emphatically true, that “ in all labour there is 
 profit.” My best sermons—I may say that, for even 
 when all have been poor, there may yet have been 
 the better and the worse,—my best, if any have been 
 good—best, in the sense of likelihood to be useful,— 
 have always been those on which much conscientious 
 labour was expended ; and still more, which, just 
 before preaching, were gone over on my knees, and 
 the whole train of thought framed into a prayer. It 
 is a sad thing, young men, when the week is wasted 
 in useless reading or dissipating engagements,—no 
 sufficient or satisfactory preparation made for God’s 
 work,—for then a man feels, if I may so say, that he 
 has no right to ask for God’s help, and can have no 
 hope of being heard if he does. When, indeed, we 
 are impeded and hindred by positive duties which 
 cannot be set aside ; when our heart and conscience 
 have nothing to say in the form of reproof; why, then, 
 we may expect special assistance to give effect to the 
 slightest and most hurried preparation, and may 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 calmly and trustfully ask for it to be given. But 
 depend upon it, the best of all forms of ministerial 
 service will be found to be this;—First seeking 
 Divine help, to lay, so to speak, the wood on the 
 altar, in full measure and orderly arrangement,—in 
 other words, filling the mind and charging the heart 
 with properly prepared thought; then to ask for 
 the fire to descend on the sacred material as the hour 
 of sacrifice approaches,—when, it may be confidently 
 expected, it will come down and flame forth, at the 
 time of public utterance, in free, fervent, and unem¬ 
 barrassed speech. May this be the happy experience 
 of all of you in the course of your future ministry. 
 “ Consider what has been said, and the Lord give 
 you understanding in all things.” “ Take heed unto 
 yourselves, and to the doctrine ; continue in them.” 
 “ Hold fast the form of sound words as you have 
 been taught.” “Study to show yourselves approved 
 unto God; workmen that need not to be ashamed, 
 rightly dividing the word of truth.” “ Flee also youth¬ 
 ful lusts; but follow righteousness, faith, charity, 
 peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure 
 heart.” “Feed the flock of God; taking the over¬ 
 sight not by constraint but willingly; not for filthy 
 lucre, but of a ready mind ; and when the chief 
 Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of 
 glory that fadeth not away.” 
 
 To the supporters of the College I should like to 
 
5 * 
 
 be permitted to say one or two things. I would urge 
 upon them, in the first place, not to let their interest 
 in it subside or evaporate with the excitement of 
 these meetings, the varied and exhilarating services 
 of the day. Be concerned for its success; continue 
 to give to its managers, on whom so much responsi¬ 
 bility rests, your deep sympathy, and show this in all 
 practicable ways. Remember the College in your 
 prayers. It is wonderful how seldom we hear, in our 
 congregational devotional meetings, any interces¬ 
 sions for our “ schools of the prophets,”—their in¬ 
 mates and Professors ! What in public is so little 
 remembered, there is reason to fear may be for¬ 
 gotten in the closet and the family. The recollection, 
 however, if only occasional, might have blessed 
 results. Prayer would be answered;—and one of 
 the forms in which the answer might come, would be 
 the excitement of a livelier interest in our institu¬ 
 tions, and of a disposition “ to devise ” for them 
 “ liberal things.” The most of our colleges have 
 greatly to depend on the voluntary contributions of 
 individuals and Churches, and their special claims, 
 it must be confessed, are not generally or sufficiently 
 recognized. It is not easy, indeed, to get them 
 recognized, or at all felt, by a large proportion of 
 our congregations. Their support must always rest 
 on the more cultured and intelligent of the people, 
 who can understand and appreciate their nature and 
 object. Assuming that those who succeed in life, 
 
 d 2 
 
52 
 
 or have inherited property, must have in them a 
 natural or acquired intelligence, disposing them to 
 desire an educated ministry, I would remind such 
 of two ways by which they might greatly aid its pro¬ 
 duction. In the first place, they should give to their 
 sons a higher culture than is as yet customary; they 
 should send them to the best schools, keep them 
 longer in them, and whenever practicable give them 
 the advantage of University training. This would 
 multiply the number of thoroughly educated young 
 men amongst us, and increase the chances (if I may 
 use such a word) of our colleges receiving for the 
 study of theology, a class of men who would not only 
 not need to devote their time to preliminary acqui¬ 
 sitions, but who, having had their powers already 
 developed and strengthened by these, would be able 
 to master whatever they had to learn with a facility 
 which others could hardly understand. Of course it 
 is here taken for granted that Christian merchants 
 and men of business would not discourage in their 
 sons the movement within them—in the form of 
 devout desire towards the ministry—because, if 
 obeyed, they must give up the most of those pecu¬ 
 niary advantages that might be secured by trade.* 
 
 The second way in which our rich and prosperous 
 men might aid this and similar institutions, would 
 
 * See, for confirmation of some of these suggestions, 
 Mr. Dale’s Address at the October Meeting of the Con¬ 
 gregational Union. 
 
53 
 
 be by far larger regular contributions than is common 
 amongst us. They should not limit their gifts to the 
 minimum subscription which may be the utmost 
 that the generality can reach; they should change 
 the annual guinea into five, ten, or twenty; and if a 
 few did so, it is probable their “zeal would provoke 
 very many.” But I would venture to suggest an¬ 
 other thing, which would only be a development, 
 however, of what has just been recommended. It 
 may be well, perhaps, that the interest of the 
 Churches in collegiate institutions should be kept 
 up by frequent or regular appeals to them for sup¬ 
 port ; and it may also be well that our colleges 
 should not be altogether independent of the Churches. 
 Still, there are considerations that go a good way 
 in another direction,—considerations to which some 
 amongst us should give serious thought. We all 
 know that it is more easy to make successful appeals 
 for Societies and Missions, which immediately strike 
 the common eye, than for Colleges—however ardent 
 and eloquent the advocate. Such appeals are felt 
 only by the few,—the more intelligent and thought¬ 
 ful who understand and appreciate literary culture 
 and educational advantages. Hence, it is desirable 
 that Institutions, felt to be of the very first import¬ 
 ance, but not able to evoke popular sympathy, should 
 be raised above entire dependence upon it. As, more¬ 
 over, it is further desirable that the committees and 
 councils of colleges should be able to aid poor 
 
54 
 
 scholars,—and many such have become useful and 
 distinguished men,—therefore, on all these grounds, 
 we appeal to the more opulent members of the de¬ 
 nomination, urging them not only to give to some 
 college a liberal donation, now and then ; but to pre¬ 
 sent or bequeath large sums for the endowment of 
 scholarships, or of a particular chair, or for the 
 general uses of the Institution. In this way some¬ 
 thing would be realized as permanent property, 
 which would be independent of the fluctuations of 
 popular feeling, and which, acting as an anchor, 
 “ sure and steadfast,” would be the means of con¬ 
 tinued steadiness and efficiency,—a basis for cheer¬ 
 ful unembarrassed action,—so that smaller gifts and 
 annual subscriptions, while required and welcomed, 
 instead of being the sole, would only be a secondary 
 and subordinate source of income. 
 
NOTE. 
 
 See Page 23. 
 
 In illustration of some of the remarks on the page referred 
 to, and of others that occur in several places, an extract or 
 two may be given from what has recently happened to meet 
 the eye of the author in the public prints. 
 
 On the 15th of December last, a writer in the Times , 
 commenting on an article that had appeared in it, made 
 the following statement:— 
 
 “ ‘ However English parents/ you say, ‘ may differ in 
 their religious convictions, they agree for the most part in 
 desiring that their children should be educated under 
 definite religious teaching.’ 
 
 “ If this applies to University education, English parents 
 had better not send their ‘ children 7 to Oxford or Cam¬ 
 bridge, for Oxford and Cambridge are not places of definite 
 religious teaching. They are nearly as pure examples of 
 secular education as any that exist in the country .... 
 Any man who knows the Universities, not in their theory or 
 in one of their theories, but in their actual working, is quite 
 aware of this. “C. J. M.” 
 
 To this letter there appeared the next day the following 
 reply:— 
 
 “ Sir, —I have read with some surprise the statement of 
 e C. J. M.,’ contained in a letter which he has addressed to 
 you in to-day’s impression of the Times. 
 
56 
 
 “ He observes that ‘ Oxford and Cambridge are not places 
 of definite religious teaching/ and that ‘ religion ’ (of the 
 Church of England) ‘ has nothing to do with the instruction 
 of the University or the Colleges / that ‘ any man who 
 knows the Universities in their actual working is aware of 
 the fact.’ 
 
 “ I have been for some ten years a working College officer 
 at Cambridge, and I, for one, am not aware of the fact. 
 May I be permitted very briefly to mention the facts of 
 which I am aware ? They are as follows :— 
 
 a Cambridge has four Professors of Divinity, whose lectures 
 are open to all members of the University, and are (at 
 present) even compulsory for some. The University in its 
 public examinations requires from every undergraduate a 
 certain knowledge of the Greek Testament and of the Old 
 Testament, also a knowledge of Paley’s ‘ Evidences.’ The 
 University has its special and its regular preachers, whose 
 sermons are for the undergraduates to attend. 
 
 “ Every College provides lectures on the subjects above 
 mentioned, and four Colleges have a distinct Divinity 
 lecturer as well. In every College Chapel there is Divine 
 service twice daily, and (usually) a sermon on Sunday by 
 one of the Fellows.” 
 
 At the Church Congress, held at Liverpool in October 
 last, one of the subjects appointed for discussion was, 
 “The Supply and Training of the Clergy.” A paper was 
 read, which was followed by remarks from several speakers. 
 There was a pretty full report published in the Guardian 
 newspaper. From that portion of the paper and of the dis¬ 
 cussion bearing on “ the Training of the Clergy,” two or 
 three extracts may be given. 
 
 The paper was written and read by the Rev. T. E. Espin, 
 
57 
 
 B.D., Examining Chaplain to the Bishop of Chester. He 
 says :— 
 
 “Let me turn now to the other part of the subject, the 
 training of our clergy . We all admit that a degree at one 
 of our Universities is the best preparation for holy orders. 
 But, then, last year 167 men were ordained without degrees, 
 a larger number than ever before—between a third and a 
 fourth of the whole; and, undermanned as we are, we cannot 
 do without such men. These were nearly all prepared at 
 Theological Colleges; and though I am deeply interested 
 in more than one of those colleges, I yet think that the 
 training given at them might be improved. But their im¬ 
 perfections, be they what they may, must not be laid on 
 the managers of them. Their standard is practically fixed 
 by the Bishops; and by those Bishops in particular who are 
 content with least. Any individual college which insists on 
 more than suffices for the easiest Bishop’s examination, 
 empties itself without benefit to the Church. Even candi¬ 
 dates for holy orders are lamentably apt to prefer easy 
 examinations to hard ones. The Bishops have ihis matter 
 entirely in their own hands. Any arrangement amongst 
 them as to the qualifications they will exact must be re¬ 
 spected by the colleges. I entirely agree with my prede¬ 
 cessor, Canon Gray, in desiring a central examination of a 
 literary character, separate from that of the Bishop. The 
 Bishops should also require the colleges to establish a three 
 years’ instead of a two years’ course; to set out for their 
 approval a systematic and complete curriculum of studies; 
 and to grant certificates only to those students who have 
 completed such course and passed an examination con¬ 
 ducted by independent examiners, if possible sent down 
 from the Universities.” 
 
 After referring to the full theological course of the German 
 
58 
 
 Universities, and the many and strict examinations under¬ 
 gone by the clergy before ordination and during the first 
 years of their ministry, he concludes thus :— 
 
 “ Now, if we had more and younger deacons, something 
 of this continued watchfulness and guidance might with the 
 greatest advantage be extended to them. Employment might 
 thus, perhaps, be provided for some members of our 
 Cathedral Chapters. # New grounds would certainly be laid 
 for a demand for more Bishops, and Bishops less devoured by 
 secular and State cares than our present ones. The Church 
 would gain more real strength by doing her own holy work 
 thoroughly and well, than she has ever had from the most 
 ungrudging support, and from the most exclusive privileges 
 granted by the State. I have not a word to say against 
 such support and privileges. But let us, at all hazards, and, 
 if need be, at all sacrifices, have spiritual efficiency, and 
 liberty to expand and adapt our institutions to our work. 
 And let us have a ministry educated up to the times. Our 
 young clergy have devotedness and courage, but they too 
 often lack discipline and drill. Learning without piety and 
 orthodoxy is indeed but as the wood, hay, and stubble that 
 must perish; but zeal without knowledge in the minister 
 
 * I have often thought that the Cathedral Chapters might be 
 made instrumental in the theological instruction and training of 
 the clergy. If the appointments were made with a view to this , 
 every bishop would have in his cathedral a number of men who, 
 without very much tasking their time or strength, might direct 
 and superintend the studies of the candidates who would be 
 placed under them for a course of reading and training, ex¬ 
 pressly professional, that would supplement the University cur¬ 
 riculum. It would be like a man, after taking his degree, being 
 entered in one of Inns of Court, or reading for a couple of years 
 under some first-rate lawyer. Under such a system it would 
 also, perhaps, come to pass, that the students might be per¬ 
 mitted, under certain regulations, to find out whether or not 
 they had any special aptitude for the duties awaiting them,— 
 and to act accordingly. 
 
59 
 
 becomes year by year, with the ever-rising level of the 
 general education of the country, more hurtful to religion. 
 We do not want men who know no better than to denounce 
 and anathematise the spirit and the pursuits of their own 
 times. We want men who have studied the credentials and 
 documents of the faith, so as to have a firm grasp of its 
 reasons—who have got good sound arguments at hand, and so 
 are not short of temper, nor afraid of argument, nor obliged 
 to silence because they cannot convince. We want men 
 who are not merely in the age, like fossils, but of the age 
 in the best and highest sense; and who, because they are 
 so, can influence the age, and by the grace of God sanctify 
 it too.” 
 
 Some of the remarks of those who took part in the 
 discussion may be read with interest. The following are 
 selected :— 
 
 Mr. Mowbray, M.P., dwelt on the importance of the 
 education of the clergy to the laity. He was strongly of 
 opinion that the education could best be given at the ancient 
 Universities, and that it was of the highest possible impor¬ 
 tance that the laity and clergy should be trained together. 
 He congratulated the meeting on the opening of a School 
 of Theology at Oxford, which, after so long a delay, was 
 about to be opened this very year; and he trusted that the 
 examinations for B.D. and D.D. would be made more 
 rigorous. 
 
 The Rev. W. Saumarez Smith, of St. Aidan’s College? 
 while agreeing in the importance of a common education 
 for clergy and laity as a basis for theological instruction, 
 argued that special colleges were of the highest utility in 
 supplying the professional knowledge which the ministry 
 demanded. Doubtless Theological Colleges were exposed 
 to the danger of giving narrow and cramped views ; but that 
 
6o 
 
 danger must be diminished by care in admission, and by 
 treating matters in a broad manner. But Theological 
 Colleges had an advantage which was much needed in these 
 days—definiteness in aim. Charity covered a multitude of 
 sins, but it could not convert error into truth. He should 
 be sorry, for instance, to let it be supposed that he thought 
 Romanism was as good as Protestantism—or that Ritualism 
 had any standing place. 
 
 The Dean of Durham appealed to University men whether 
 what was taught at Oxford and Cambridge was not the 
 very slightest sprinkling of theology that ever went by the 
 name ? He considered, therefore, that there was an absolute 
 necessity of the supplemental learning which Theological 
 Colleges were designed to convey. 
 
 The Rev. W. Walsham How, said—I am not sure that we 
 have not, in our University course, supplemented by Theo¬ 
 logical Colleges, an outline of the very best clerical educa¬ 
 tion possible. There is, no doubt, plenty of filling up 
 wanted; but as a rough sketch, we may, I think, fairly say 
 that the University supplies that breadth of view, that larger 
 sympathy, that social crucible, without which there is always 
 danger of narrowness, while the Theological College supplies 
 that concentration of mind and training of heart without 
 which there is always danger of secularity. 
 
 My object, however, in speaking, is not to discuss the pre¬ 
 paratory education of the clergy, but to invite attention to 
 the necessity for the continuance of education of the clergy. 
 How monstrous is the idea that the young deacon just 
 ordained has (as they say of young ladies when they leave 
 their boarding-schools) finished his education ! “Now I am 
 beginning to be a disciple ” were the memorable words of 
 the white-haired martyr of Antioch, as he was being taken 
 to the lions of the Coliseum. The best of us are, I think, 
 but beginning to be disciples, and how are we to educate 
 
6i 
 
 our people if we are not continually educating ourselves, I 
 know not. I notice that the Dean of Norwich, in his letter to 
 the Bishops upon the functions of our Cathedrals, says that 
 every clergyman should demand two things—leisure for 
 study and leisure for devotion. These two things represent 
 exactly the two great branches of that continuous clerical 
 education for which I would plead. We all need the 
 education of the study and the education of the closet, the 
 training—-the continuous training—of both mind and heart, 
 to “grow in grace and in the knowledge.” 
 
 First take the study. How is it possible our sermons 
 can be anything else than the meagre jejune platitudinarian 
 effusions they too often are, if we are always giving out 
 and never taking in ? Many of our clergy are, thank God ! 
 pretty hard at work now. But, blessed as their hard 
 work is, it loses much of its blessedness if it is so en¬ 
 grossing as to leave no time for study. Most men could 
 get two hours a day—the busiest one—and even this, if 
 regularly and well used, will be of real value. But then 
 there is the what to read, as well as the when. And surely 
 I cannot plead too earnestly for the study of real, solid, 
 standard divinity. A great many poor hungry souls feed 
 upon nothing but pamphlets in these days. We want 
 some theology that is pamphlet-proof. The clergy must 
 read : they must read good books : and they must read 
 well, if they would educate themselves so as to be teachers 
 of men. 
 
 Then there is the closet. I believe most earnestly that 
 the greatest need in our Church is the training of the 
 clergy into a higher spiritual life. If it is true that we can _ 
 not teach others except we teach ourselves, is it not a truth 
 quite as certain, but far more momentous, that we cannot 
 lead our people upwards unless we ourselves know the 
 tracks upon the everlasting hills ? The good shepherd goeth 
 
62 
 
 before the sheep, and the sheep follow him. They will follow 
 him if they see him walking heavenward. I can only add 
 that I have endeavoured, though in the most incomplete 
 fashion, to supplement the primary view of the great subject 
 before us by carrying it on into the after-life of the clergy, 
 believing that the young deacon can at best have only laid 
 a few of the lower courses of true clerical education, and 
 that it is well for the old parish priest if he can say at last, 
 “ Now I am beginning to be a disciple.” 
 
 Dr. Brindley, of Birkenhead, thought the defective 
 character of the training given to our clergy in the Universi¬ 
 ties was proved by its comparative inefficacy in imparting 
 that feeling towards the Church which ought to be created 
 n the hearts of all intended for her ministry. The great 
 strength of the Dissenting ministers lay not in their 
 superior learning, but in the art of preparing sermons, 
 and the art of delivering them in such a way as should 
 make them pleasing, agreeable, and intelligible to the people. 
 It had often struck him that if, instead . of supplementing a 
 University education with a Theological College, the last 
 year of the course were passed exclusively in the education 
 which should train men for preparing sermons and delivering 
 them, it would give more strength to the Church of England 
 than anything else. It was said, indeed, that our clergy had 
 not a sufficient amount of theology; but he very much 
 questioned whether they might not, in the height and depth of 
 their theology, forget altogether the grand foundation of the 
 truth which the Word of God supplied. 
 
 Mr. Beresford-Hope, M.P., thought it would be a very 
 great misfortune if the education of the clergy were relegated 
 to Theological Colleges,—but it would be an equal misfor¬ 
 tune if it were supposed that the Universities were sufficient 
 without the supplement that these colleges would afford. 
 If the Church should unhappily shake hands with the 
 
63 
 
 Universities, and withdraw the education of her sons from 
 them, and exclusively set up theological seminaries in their 
 place, the result would be that the intellect of the country 
 would be divorced from the Church in a degree that it was 
 not now; and though they might become more educated, 
 it might be, in technical knowledge, good theologians, good 
 preachers, they would be wanting in that broad acquaintance 
 with the human heart which was and has been the dis¬ 
 tinguishing and great characteristic of the English Church. 
 
 Professor Swainson, of Cambridge, submitted that Liver¬ 
 pool merchants might enable a greater number of young 
 men of all classes to go up to the Universities by increasing 
 not merely the value, but the number of the scholarships and 
 exhibitions offered in connection with such local institutions 
 as the Collegiate and the Royal Institution. 
 
 The Rev. George Williams, of King’s College, Cam¬ 
 bridge, argued from his own personal observation that 
 a strictly professional and theological education had not 
 answered in Russia and the East, where the clergy, 
 although exercising great spiritual influence, were cer¬ 
 tainly not highly esteemed by the upper orders for general 
 acquirements. 
 
 P.S.—This note is much longer than was originally intended ; 
 but I found so many points on which I had touched, so ably 
 supported and confirmed by the several speakers, that I felt a 
 natural wish to give the reader the benefit of their wise and 
 weighty words. We are all aiming at the same thing,—our 
 Church friends with their larger advantages, we with such means 
 as we have,—and so far as our objects and efforts are identical 
 we may be allowed to sympathise with, and to respect each 
 other. 
 
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