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VALUE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 STUDY OF CHURCH 'HISTORY 
 
 IN 
 
 MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 
 
 A LECTURE 
 
 DELIVERED TO THE 
 
 SENIOR CLASS OF ANDOVER THEOLOSICAL SEMINARY, 
 
 BY 
 
 EGBERT C. SMYTH. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE CLASS. 
 
 ANDOVER: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY WARREN F. DRAPER. 
 1874 . 
 

 
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates 
 
 https://archive.org/details/valueofstudyofchOOsmyt 
 
/d 7}ju 
 
 LECTURE. 
 
 I am to speak to you of the Value, of the Study of Ecclesi- 
 astical History to the Christian Minister. This topic natu- 
 rally arises for discussion in the Introductory Lectures which 
 are now delivered in the Junior Year. It will be considered, 
 on this occasion, in its immediate and practical, rather than 
 in its scientific, relations. 
 
 Such a method has this infelicity. It puts the speaker in 
 the position of a pleader for his department of instruction. 
 Let me say then frankly, at the start: — I would prize more, 
 as an argument for the study of History, the results in your 
 own experience of six months actual work than any conside- 
 rations I can possibly offer. History is a general word, which 
 covers all the thought and life of the Church of Christ for 
 eighteen centuries. To plead for its study seems to me like 
 urging you to be scholars, or to be wise, or to exercise 
 common sense. And then, so great a theme has so many 
 relations and uses that, were I to mention all that occur to 
 me, I might easily omit the special advantages you would 
 discover for yourselves by the study, and the ones that would 
 most incite you to its prosecution. If, however, by my not 
 happening to allude to these benefits, you were to conclude 
 that you can wisely rank historical studies with those which 
 are of no immediate and urgent importance, and if thus you 
 should fail of discovering for yourselves their value, this 
 Address would do you more harm than good. 
 
 Let me not, then, be supposed by any one to be resting my 
 cause on this Lecture. So far as it is a plea, let its general 
 argument be this : — If History can do for a man what is now 
 to be indicated, it can do a great deal more which is not 
 even hinted at. 
 
4 
 
 The study of Ecclesiastical History, I premise, has been at 
 a certain disadvantage from several causes. 
 
 As an independent and co-ordinate element of ministerial 
 training it is of comparatively recent origin . I refer, in this 
 remark, to our own methods and practices, not to those of 
 the Church at large. At the beginning of this century the 
 chief theological discipline of New England clergymen was 
 gained by the study of Dogmatic Divinity. The founders of 
 Andover Seminary aimed at a much more liberal and sys- 
 tematic culture. The Constitution which they adopted con- 
 tains a scheme of ministerial training very remarkable for 
 its scope and intent. Pupils are required to reside at the 
 Seminary three full years, vacations excepted ; 44 a period,” 
 it is significantly added, 44 scarcely sufficient for acquiring 
 that fund of knowledge which is necessary for a minister of 
 the Gospel.” Important topics of public instruction are 
 specified which have not yet found a place in our curriculum, 
 and which are not likely to, without an extension of the time 
 of study. In this broad and generous plan the department 
 of Ecclesiastical History finds fitting recognition. But its 
 definite establishment came slowly and in a limited way. 
 Its history is a reflection and illustration of the estimate 
 which has generally been put upon the value of historical 
 studies in the education of Christian ministers. At the 
 start (1808), the Seminary was provided with instruction in 
 Dogmatic Theology and Sacred Literature. The following 
 year (1809), a Professor of Sacred Rhetoric was appointed. 
 Ten years later, an 44 additional Professor” of Rhetoric was 
 chosen ; owing, I suppose, to the feeble health of the Bartlet 
 Professor, Rev. Dr. Porter. In 1821, an assistant teacher was 
 chosen in Biblical studies, and this was followed by other 
 elections, and by the appointment of a Professor of Hebrew. 
 The 44 primary duties ” of the new Professor of Rhetoric were 
 defined to be in this department. He was, however, to give 
 instruction in Ecclesiastical History 44 so far as leisure and 
 opportunity might permit.” Not until 1824, was there a 
 Professorship of History. It did not then stand alone, but 
 
5 
 
 was connected with Pastoral Theology, and the criticism of 
 sermons. The earlier elections to the Brown Professorship 
 of History, I am informed, had special reference to the qualifica- 
 tions of the candidates to give instruction in Pastoral Theology. 
 Down to 1853, this study divided the Summer Term of the 
 Senior Year with Homiletics. The proportion of time allotted 
 to the several departments, omitting voluntary exercises, was, 
 for the entire course, as follows: one third to Sacred Litera- 
 ture, one third to Dogmatic Theology, one sixth to Sacred 
 Rhetoric, one ninth to Church History, one eighteenth to 
 Pastoral Theology. As respects History, the actual distribu- 
 tion, with the majority of students, is believed to have fallen 
 short of the proportion which has been stated. During Rev. 
 Dr. Shedd’s connection with the Seminary, historical studies 
 were carried into the last term of the course. In 1868, 
 Pastoral Theology was transferred to Rev. Dr. Taylor, Smith 
 Professor of Theology and Homiletics in the Special Course. 
 In 1871 — in view of a recommendation from the Faculty of 
 the Seminary, that a larger share of time be granted to the 
 Historical Department “ because of the great changes in its 
 relation to Theological training which have taken place in 
 the last twenty years” — the Board of Trustees voted unan- 
 imously to extend the study of History to the two preced- 
 ing years. In some other Seminaries a similar advance 
 was made earlier. Yet the correctness of the impression 
 made by the foregoing statements respecting the position of 
 History in the training of New England ministers, will not, 
 I think, be questioned. Relatively to other departments it 
 has had an inferior place and influence. Here and there, by 
 virtue of a natural taste for the study, or some special advan- 
 tages of culture, or other reasons extrinsic to the Seminary 
 influence, historical studies have received an exceptional 
 attention. But, in general, the pastors of New England have 
 not been at home in the History of the Church, as they have 
 been in either the Bible or the New England Theology ; nor 
 could this be expected. I am not surprised, therefore, when 
 one student and another, coming back from an excursion for 
 
6 
 
 a Sabbath’s preaching, reports that he finds Christian minis- 
 ters who make, as he judges, very little use of History in 
 their labors. Nor is it strange that for him the inference, 
 like sin, lies at the door, — if these most valued and successful 
 pastors get on so well without this most toilsome study, so 
 can I. Any one who observes what excellent and noble work 
 they have done might be tempted to argue that an instrument 
 of which they make so little use cannot be very important. 
 
 Closely connected witli the fact to which I have just 
 alluded, and in part explaining it, is another, which likewise 
 operates to the disadvantage of historical study. I refer to 
 the deficiency of convenient , and even necessary , aids for its 
 prosecution. Our libraries have been lamentably deficient in 
 the works necessary for independent investigation. Having 
 occasion, a few years since, to trace through the sixteenth 
 and seventeenth centuries the history of opinion respecting a 
 question which has been specially prominent in our doctrinal 
 controversies, I prepared a list of the leading theological 
 writers during the time mentioned, and took it to our Library. 
 The authors in question, were systematic theologians, — 
 each best known by his Loci, or Systema, or Compendium, 
 or Corpus, or Panstratia, or Cursus, or Medulla, or Medulla 
 Medullae, or something of the kind. I found many a com- 
 mentary from these divines on our shelves, but their dogmatic 
 works were few and far between. Our accomplished and in- 
 defatigable Librarian could tell you, if he were ever disposed 
 to speak of his own labors, what effort has been expended to 
 fill up such lacunae. 
 
 Beside this difficulty arising from the deficiencies of our 
 public collections, has been the lack of reasonably cheap and 
 convenient editions and translations of the more important 
 writings of the fathers and doctors of the church, of his- 
 torical theological encyclopaedias, of thorough monographs, 
 and even, until lately, of general histories of Christian 
 doctrine and life which would at once stimulate and reward 
 earnest study. How few private libraries have contained 
 any tolerable apparatus for patristic studies. The requisite 
 
7 
 
 aids have been out of reach. A vast amount of work, in 
 addition to that already expended during the last twenty-five 
 years, needs still to be done to lighten these disabilities. 
 And, in addition to the literary labor which is required, 
 parishes need to be awakened to the importance of providing 
 Pastors’ Libraries. Not long since a recent graduate of this 
 Seminary called here, on his way to Boston, with a com- 
 fortable sum of money in his wallet, bequeathed to the parish 
 over which he was settled for the purpose I have just named; 
 and there was, he said, a fund besides to yield an annual 
 income. Would that such gifts were more frequent! What- 
 ever may be thought of parish funds to pay the salaries of 
 ministers, there can be no objection to aid of this sort. And 
 it is sorely needed. 
 
 I will allude to but one other reason why historical studies 
 have not been more generally appreciated and helpful — our 
 past isolation and the habits this has engendered . A mis- 
 sionary who goes to Armenia, or Syria, or Greece, or Egypt, 
 or Austria, soon finds that he must study Church History. 
 He is everywhere confronted by organizations which pre- 
 serve the forms and traditions of mediaeval, or of a still 
 more ancient Christianity. The past is before him. How 
 different it has been here. Not needing History for contro- 
 versial or aggressive purposes, we have easily lost sight of 
 other ends. And then, having put the Atlantic Ocean be- 
 tween us and so many abuses of authority, we have felt 
 a little shy of anything that might convince us of its uses. 
 We have felt that the future, rather than the past, was 
 ours, and that life here was beginning anew. It has been 
 almost as easy to undervalue History as it has been difficult 
 to acquire it. 
 
 These causes are rapidly passing away. About the middle 
 of this century, a new and powerful impulse was given to the 
 study of Church History in our theological schools. Three 
 men deserve special mention for their part in this movement : 
 — Dr. Henry B. Smith, a pupil of Neander, and an inheritor 
 of his catholic spirit, who was placed in the chair of Eccle- 
 
8 
 
 siastical History in Union Theological Seminary, New York, 
 in 1850; Dr. Shedd, who began here, in 1858, the delivery 
 of Lectures on the Philosophy of History and the History of 
 Doctrines, which were received with enthusiasm, and have 
 since been published ; and Dr. Scliaff, who had sat under 
 the instructions of the leaders of the great historical schools 
 of Germany — Baur, Neander, and Dorner — and commenced, 
 in 1853, the publication, in its English form, of his own 
 attractive and valuable History of the Apostolic and Ancient 
 Church. Others — as Professor Torrey, by his translation of 
 Neander’s General History of the Christian Religion and 
 Church, Dr. Joseph Addison Alexander at Princeton, and 
 more recently Dr. Fisher at New Haven — have contributed 
 influentially to the same movement. The result is, that in 
 all our Theological Seminaries there has been awakened an 
 interest in historical studies which is full of promise. Our 
 Libraries, also, are rapidly improving. The antiquarian 
 bookstores of the Old World are frequented by no more 
 curious and eager purchasers than those who come from 
 “ America”- — as Europeans call our country. Incentives 
 and helps to these studies are rapidly multiplying in other 
 ways> Within seven years, nearly all the extant works of 
 the Fathers down to the Council of Nicaea, together with 
 several volumes of Augustine’s writings, have been published 
 in English translations. Our Methodist brethren, greatly to 
 their credit, are supplying us with a Theological Cyclopaedia 
 in which Church History and Religious Biography occupy a 
 prominent place. The best work of foreign scholars in 
 these departments is enriching, in multiplied ways, our own 
 literature. We are coming, also, into much freer and more 
 intimate relations to the older Christian communions, and 
 to the institutions and customs of the lands where they have 
 flourished. We are discovering that democracy and the 
 nineteenth century alone cannot save the republic which is 
 so dear to us. There is an increasing disposition to take 
 counsel of experience, to learn of the past. Culture is more 
 widely diffused, is becoming more comprehensive in its plans 
 
9 
 
 and aims, and is more highly prized. Some men every year 
 find out that there are new sources of inspiration and power 
 in the rich appropriations of Christ’s teachings which pious 
 souls and powerful churches have made in the past ; and 
 such ministers will soon shame, if they do not stimulate, 
 their less enterprising brethren. I would not stand sponsor 
 for the position and influence of a clergyman, in an educated 
 community, twenty years from now, who has acted on the 
 principle that, because his father was an efficient preacher 
 and pastor without History, he can neglect it. His father 
 was the peer of his brethren in the ministry, and a leader of 
 his flock. He will be, at best, a degenerate vine without 
 much root — a sort of black sheep, and with not much of a 
 fleece at that. 
 
 I speak thus confidently, because I see clearly that the 
 causes which have hitherto made History of so little account 
 in the studies and aids of a Christian minister are fast passing 
 away. History now can be studied on a broad scale, and 
 can be more liberally and effectively used. In such a state 
 of the case, the masculine, the energetic, the more thoughtful 
 minds will avail themselves of its treasures, and the rest will 
 go where weaklings must. I say these things, also, because 
 of my conviction of the Worth of History when studied and 
 used. 
 
 This I wish now to impress. 
 
 I. The study of Ecclesiastical History is an indispensable 
 aid in the mastery of Christian Doctrine . 
 
 In all our Seminaries there are chairs of Dogmatic and 
 Polemic Theology. These have usually been filled by men 
 of superior ability. Theology is inculcated in its most 
 attractive and effective forms. The student looks for, and 
 receives, the last statements which the science has reached — 
 so far, at least, as the ability of the lecturer is equal to his 
 task. It is a very natural impression, therefore, that one’s 
 note-book contains, in a condensed and useful shape, the 
 conclusions of the best wisdom of the Church, the ripened 
 2 
 
10 
 
 fruit of all past theologic thinking. To this conclusion I 
 raise no objection, but only to one to which it is a stepping- 
 stone. The study of Theology, it is sometimes inferred, may, 
 for practical purposes, at least, be reduced to the mastery of 
 the latest system. When Eschatology, accordingly, is com- 
 pleted in the dogmatic course some students appear to feel 
 that they have reached the last things of Christian Theology. 
 Here is the high-water mark. What use is it to wade in 
 the shallows of the Apostolic Fathers ; or stick and broil on 
 the flats of monkish stupidity ; or be whirled about, if not 
 engulfed, in the circlings and subtleties of Mediaeval scho- 
 lasticism ; or why take Luther, or Calvin, or Edwards, for a 
 pilot, when it is evident that they all made great mistakes? 
 Theological navigation is now a much more perfect science 
 than in their time ; we have our improved charts and com- 
 passes, and chronometers regulated by the last observations, 
 and all our sailing directions in our note-books, as exact 
 and perfect as a table of logarithims, and — u so convenient” ! 
 Well, it’s something to see a tide come in, if we do know 
 beforehand how far it is coming. It is something to learn 
 how to make a chart, as well as how to use a perfect one. 
 It is much to know a science in its principles, in its sources, 
 in its various methods, as well as in its formulas and rules. 
 It is more to gain, as a personal possession and power, a 
 love of investigation, a habit of testing affirmed results, the 
 genuine philosophic spirit which seeks to know not only that 
 a thing is, but how it became so. 
 
 There are two ways, it has been said, of studying a science. 
 One method is, to study it in its abstract propositions, or its 
 final statements. The other is, to study it in its growth. 
 Both methods are necessary. For our present purpose it is 
 needful only to show the necessity of the historical method. 
 
 It lies in this fact : The last statements of Christian science 
 are the result of a historical process , apart from which they 
 cannot he thoroughly understood . 
 
 Even the most common words we use are better under- 
 stood by us if we know their derivation and history. We 
 
11 
 
 need to know this if we are to know them thoroughly. 
 There is always a tendency in language, as it becomes old, to 
 lose its specificness and individuality. Niebuhr, in his last 
 sickness, amused himself with putting into a few exact 
 sentences the thoughts which Cooper has spread over pages. 
 Much of the matter which daily issues from the press might 
 be translated into different words, and the meaning lose 
 nothing by the change either in clearness or fulness. We 
 have, in reading, the Irishman’s feeling, that “ one word is 
 as good as another, and indeed a good deal better.” In 
 order to appreciate the precise meaning of a word we need 
 to learn its origin and history. It is so with religious, with 
 theological words, no less surely than with all others. And 
 when these have become the formulas of theological science, 
 the signs and monuments of its progress, the crystallization 
 of centuries of agitation, much more do they need to be 
 interpreted in connection with the whole preceding movement. 
 Take the words Nature, Person, Covenant, Imputation, 
 Atonement. Each has a history. Each, to be appreciated, 
 needs to be looked at in the light of its history. The fulness 
 of meaning in such terms, their various relations, cannot be 
 comprehended without an acquaintance with their origin 
 and growth. 
 
 The argument increases in force as we pass from single 
 words to literature, from language to the productions of 
 poetic genius or philosophic insight and reflection. 
 
 No one among us would think now of studying any cele- 
 brated work in English Literature apart from its historical 
 connections. No poets have been more truly original and 
 independent than Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, 
 Cowper, Wordsworth. Yet Chaucer must be studied in 
 connection with the Italian, as well as the Saxon and English 
 poets who preceded him. Spenser delights to confess Chaucer 
 to be his master. Shakespeare is not ashamed to say how 
 dear he was to him. Milton lays a leaf upon the graves of 
 each of those who had gone before him, and dares be known 
 to think sage Spenser a better teacher than Scotus or 
 
12 
 
 Aquinas. Chaucer and the Ballads gave direction to the 
 genius of Cowper, and the poetry of By dal Mount and the 
 Lakes took its rise from the publication of Percy’s Reliques 
 of Ancient Poetry. What work seemingly stands alone and 
 apart, like the Paradise Lost of Milton ? Wordsworth’s line 
 respecting its author, 
 
 “ Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart,” 
 expresses the common feeling. Yet that work is not the 
 product of one age or one mind alone, though it has the 
 stamp of both. It lays under contribution the collected 
 wisdom of centuries of thought and toil, “ the seasoned life 
 of man ” in all ages “ preserved and stored up in books.” 
 “ The old and elegant humanity of Greece,” the imperial 
 majesty of Rome, the wisdom and fervor of Hebrew prophets, 
 the u barbaric pride of Hunnish and Norwegian stateliness,” 
 the chivalric splendor and magnificence of the Norman, — 
 all mingle and flow in a deep, continuous stream. He who 
 would enter into its composition needs the broadest historical 
 culture. 
 
 The same requisite obtains no less in respect to any great 
 theological system. Every such system appropriates the 
 results of preceding movements. It draws from accumulated 
 stores of exegesis. It uses some philosophical method, much 
 of which has been previously elaborated. It has a histori- 
 cal genesis. Something in the times in which the author 
 lives — something which has a history — calls it into being. 
 We may take any system, at any point of the history — we 
 may take Augustine’s statements, or Calvin’s, or Edwards’s, 
 or Emmons’s, or Dr. Taylor’s, — no matter how independent 
 the maker, or how self-consistent, determinate, and explained 
 the system, it has received far more than it has originated ; its 
 historical materials are its largest part ; and what is peculiar 
 in it is so relatively, and to be appreciated needs to be com- 
 pared with that from which it differs. Augustine’s theo- 
 logical influence has rarely, if ever, been equalled. His 
 mind was pre-eminently original and constructive. Yet no 
 one can rightly estimate his system, without taking into 
 
18 
 
 account his personal history, the scepticism through which 
 he fought his way, his Platonism, the preaching of Ambrose, 
 the traditions of the Church, the errors of Manichaeism 
 out of which he emerged as the sun from clouds, and 
 those of Pelagianism, which lie fought with an invincible 
 ardor and prowess. He was a teacher of Literature before 
 he was a bishop. Both the old Empire and the new Society 
 ministered to his Christian science. He knew Paganism so 
 well that he could deal it a death-blow ; the Catholic Church 
 so well that he could become its foremost champion. His 
 De Civitate Dei , which describes the origin, progress, and 
 destiny of the two Cities built by the love of self and the love 
 of God, is a noble Apology for Christianity on the basis of a 
 comprehensive Philosophy of History. Or take the father 
 of scholastic theology, the saintly Anselm. No one could 
 be selected from the middle period of the history of the 
 church whose theological influence has been greater. He 
 stands at the head of a powerful movement, yet not as dis- 
 connected with the past. He feels constantly the influence 
 of Augustine. He elaborates the same doctrine of faith in 
 the spirit of that teacher. He is a master of what was known 
 of the logic of Aristotle. He is able to reproduce and recon- 
 struct, because he has appropriated and thoroughly assimi- 
 lated the materials previously gathered. He is the theologian 
 of his age, in part because he knows what preceding ages have 
 accomplished. His Monologium, in which he discusses the 
 doctrine concerning God, and his Cur Deus Homo, in which 
 he discusses the Incarnation, use or review the proofs or 
 theories before advanced. Anselm as a young man quietly, 
 diligently, perseveringly, working in the library of the mon- 
 astery of Bee in Normandy, is the necessary precursor of 
 Anselm the theologian. 
 
 Or, take the writings of Calvin or Edwards, or any divine 
 who has contributed to the advancement of theology. 
 Edwards, we are told, “ had an uncommon thirst for knowl- 
 edge, in the pursuit of which he spared no cost nor pains. 
 He read all the books, especially books treating of theology, 
 
14 
 
 that he could procure, from which he could hope to derive 
 any assistance in the discovery of truth.” He conceived of 
 Theology as a “ History of the Work of Redemption , a body 
 of divinity in an entire new method, being thrown into the 
 form of a history.” Original and prolific as was his mind 
 the substance of his teaching was Calvinism, as that of Calvin 
 was dependent on Augustine. Especially is this historical 
 dependence evident in the phraseology of public Confessions 
 or Creeds which have attained to general symbolic impor- 
 tance. In such symbols every article is like a battle-flag, 
 every important word is an inscription of some victory. 
 
 Now if our systematic Theology is thus largely a result of 
 the past, if it is nourished and shaped by History, and is just 
 what it is because of its History, it is unscientific and unwise 
 to think we can appreciate it apart from this History. It is 
 not an isolated thing. It is not an absolutely new revelation. 
 It is essentially a growth, and should be studied as a growth. 
 
 I have assumed thus far that the system before us is not 
 only the latest, but the best. We need, however, it is obvious, 
 some criteria of this, some power as well of judging for our- 
 selves what is best. Biblical study is our first aid and 
 guarantee. Philosophical study, also, comes to our help. 
 For every theological system is a product of two factors, 
 Scripture and Philosophy. Historical discipline and knowl- 
 edge are scarcely less needful. I should complicate my 
 argument, perhaps, too much, were I to dwell on the fact 
 that Biblical and philosophical study to aid us most must 
 each be in part historical. Let me pursue a more direct 
 method. 
 
 Every Christian Doctrine has a certain centre of gravitation. 
 It has an appointed orbit, or course. It has a necessary 
 substance — an essence. Then it has a great many other 
 things which at times seem necessary to it, and are more or 
 less intimately related to it or serviceable in its uses, which 
 are, after all, not essential to it. It has a constant element, 
 and a variable element. One of the best helps in finding out 
 what is necessary to it and what is not, what is permanent 
 
15 
 
 and what is transitory, is to trace its coarse through long 
 periods of time, through revolutions in philosophy, through 
 mutations of systems. Take the doctrine of Atonement. 
 Various theories have sprung up about it, and have had great 
 sway over men’s minds, and then have lost their ascendency. 
 Our own time produces them, as have past times. You have 
 before you some statement which claims to be peculiarly 
 meritorious. Test it by the History of the doctrine. Probably 
 what seems new is not so absolutely. It lias had already, to 
 a certain extent at least, a trial. But however this may be, 
 does it or does it not take up — at any rate not exclude — 
 what a review of the history of the doctrine shows to have 
 been a present and shaping element all along the line of its 
 progress ? The test is indeed not final. There is no infallible 
 bar of opinion, even of Christian opinion. But there is a 
 presumption amounting to a moral certainty, that a statement 
 of the doctrine which excludes what can be discovered to 
 have been, through the past, a constant factor in it, is so far 
 a false statement. And if we concede a possibility that it is 
 not, it still remains true that he only can understand the 
 true nature of his work and the force of evidence requisite 
 to make this possibility an actuality, who has risen to an 
 appreciation of the fact that all presumptions are against him. 
 
 It may, indeed, be said that when we attempt to find such 
 a common consent, or such a historic centre and substance 
 of a doctrine, we are not likely to obtain much that is specific 
 and important. The fact of Christ’s death for us, it may be 
 admitted, has been credited, but the philosophy of it has had 
 no fixed form. One theory has supplanted another and all 
 have shown themselves inadequate. This concedes then, 
 in part, what I claim. History has shown the impossibility 
 of a perfect theory, and gives you therefore a criterion of 
 the new philosopheme. 
 
 But I think that the study of History, which is what I 
 plead for, does more. There are elements of the dogma of 
 Atonement which no brilliant speculations have been able to 
 outshine ; which no scepticism has been able to dim ; which 
 
16 
 
 no changes in ritual, or polity, or method of caring for souls, 
 have been able wholly to withdraw from Christian teaching 
 and life. Such an element is the objective relation of Christ’s 
 death on the cross to the divine forgiveness. And Christian 
 history stamps and seals this truth as something not likely 
 ever to be lost, whatever forms, in the ages to come, the doc- 
 trine may assume. 
 
 What is true of the doctrine of Atonement is so of every 
 other article of our faith. It has a history ; and this history 
 reveals what is permanent and essential, and so far affords us 
 aid in our judgment of present statements. 
 
 Were there time I would dwell also on the advantage in 
 theological study of a comparison of systems. We are dis- 
 covering that much may be gained for our appreciation of 
 Christianity by regarding it both in its likeness and its un- 
 likeness to other religions. The history of Theology is fruitful 
 in great systems. The study of them in their antagonisms, 
 as well as in their harmonies, serves to bring out more 
 sharply and definitely, in our thinking, as well as more fully, 
 the dogmatic treasures of Christianity. No one system, 
 however complete, can teach us as much as we can learn 
 respecting the same system by studying it comparatively. 
 We are impressed by such study with the importance of 
 theological perspective and proportion, — how an excess here, 
 or a defect there, may so change, in their relations, truths 
 held in common, as to produce immense differences in their 
 practical use. 
 
 And then we ought always to remember that the systems 
 of our own time are, in part, the children of their time. 
 Theological progress betrays constantly a law of action and 
 reaction. It is almost inevitable that our theological think- 
 ing, if nourished chiefly by the products of our day, should 
 share in their imperfection. So far as this culture brings us 
 into sympathy with our own age it fits us to work in it, and 
 in this respect it is of advantage. But one-sidedness begets 
 the same. Symmetry is the ideal to which we should aspire. 
 We should strive to correct the mistakes of the past, and at the 
 
17 
 
 same time not leave as many for those to lament who come 
 after us. When we are tempted to think that our doctrine 
 of ability is indispensable to the conversion of sinners, it is 
 well to go back a century and see how in Whitefield’s and 
 Wesley’s hands an older doctrine of inability was fruitful in 
 mighty revivals. Time is ever equalizing and supplement- 
 ing. And when we think that all the power of the Gospel 
 has been put into a certain statement, it is very useful to 
 hear the calm voice of History say to us: Your statement 
 is only a half-truth, and the Gospel is much greater than 
 you have imagined. 
 
 So far as History is an aid in theological study it is of 
 service to the preacher. Its relation to the Pulpit deserves, 
 however, to be directly treated. I remark, then, secondly : 
 
 II. The study of the History of Christianity is indispensa- 
 ble to the most effective presentation of its claims . History 
 is as important to the preacher and missionary as to the 
 theologian. 
 
 God’s chosen method of addressing men is largely through 
 History. The recorded discourses of inspired Apostles are 
 no less historical in form than doctrinal in substance. Read 
 Demosthenes’ Orations, and see what an element of power is 
 his use of History ; how this shapes and clothes and vivifies 
 his argument ; what electric power it gave to his appeals. 
 
 The great work of the preacher is persuasion. Persuasion 
 requires argument. History gives the most effective logic, 
 the logic of facts. Rites, doctrines, rules of life, methods of 
 missionary labor, these have been already, and on a large 
 scale, tried. Truth and error have borne their fruits. These 
 are now secure, attested, palpable facts. They can be seen, 
 handled, and shown to men. Here is a great source of 
 argument for the Pulpit. History never exactly repeats 
 herself. Yet the same principles which the Christian minister 
 now receives from Christ and His Apostles have been working 
 in the world for eighteen centuries. By their fruits they are 
 known and they are justified. Error, too, has run its course. 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 Compromising statements, partial statements, as well as false 
 ones, have shown their defectiveness and their weakness. 
 The illusions and delusions of an age are not wholly new in 
 principle. A knowledge of the past not only makes the eye 
 keen to detect them, it makes the hand strong that strikes at 
 them. It is a growing illusion of our time that the Pulpit 
 has nothing to do with Dogma, unless to denounce it. This 
 assumes a very specious form at times. Good men, as well 
 as weak men, are saying with Erasmus and Dean Colet : Keep 
 to the Bible and the Apostles’ Creed ; and let divines, if they 
 like, dispute about the rest. There was good sense in this 
 watchword when Theology, long divorced from fresh study of 
 the Scriptures, was a decaying scholasticism. There is 
 reason in it always, when Theology in the preacher’s head is 
 merely a scientific system. But History tells us unmis- 
 takably that no permanent evangelizing, or even reformatory, 
 work among the masses can be effected without the agency of 
 strong, clear, profound dogmatic convictions and statements. 
 History can save her votary from the folly of ignoring or 
 depreciating Dogma. It can also help him save others from 
 such foolishness. 
 
 Take the dogma of the Trinity. It is not formally stated 
 in the Scriptures. It is a mystery. The more we think of 
 it the more unsearchable it appears. Every attempt to state 
 it and to make it an article of a Creed, has produced con- 
 troversy and given offence. Let the Church then, it is urged, 
 cease to confess it, and let the Pulpit be silent about it. If 
 you are seeking to convert a soul you will not trouble it 
 with questions about Hypostases. So men are reasoning. 
 
 One way to meet such a state of mind is, to show historically 
 how the doctrine sprang by a sort of logical and historical 
 necessity from the same source as our Apostles’ Creed and 
 our New Testament itself, — that is, from the Apostolic 
 Preaching and the Baptismal Confession ; to show, still 
 further, the practical religious motive and interest which 
 mainly determined the Ancient Church in resisting all 
 attempts to detract from the honor due the Son as the divine 
 
19 
 
 Redeemer of mankind ; how religious life, in proportion as it 
 becomes disconnected with this doctrine, loses its inspiration 
 and its achieving power ; and how, out of the great truth 
 of Christ’s Divinity, and his co-equality with the Father, as 
 from a celestial fountain, have flowed streams that to-day are 
 bringing life to the nations. 
 
 Or take another dogma. I will call it Augustinianism, or 
 Calvinism, or any other hard name you please — except 
 Arminianism. It is very much spoken against just now. 
 Like the Bible itself, men seem not to be able to let it alone. 
 Its essence is the Efficacy of prevenient Grace. This is not a 
 pulpit phrase. I use it for brevity, and mindful that I am 
 addressing theologians. Under this, or other names — less 
 technical but more Biblical — this doctrine has had a long 
 history in preaching. Some chapters of this history show 
 its abuse ; how it has been misused, and put into false rela- 
 tions, and variously perverted in application. Shall we, 
 therefore, give it up ? Shall we say, It is a dogma ; let it go ; 
 let us keep to the facts of the Apostles’ Creed. If you 
 incline to this, study it in its History. See what fruit it has 
 borne. See what errors come in when it is lost sight of, or 
 comes not to its rights in the thinking of an age. 
 
 A very interesting and instructive volume has recently 
 been published on the Oxford Reformers — Colet, Erasmus, 
 and More. They are put forward as opponents of dogma, as 
 apostles of the method of adhering to facts, as rejecters of 
 Scholasticism and Augustinianism. The writer’s task is 
 ably done. But one is struck with a difficulty which the 
 author himself suggests, — “ the fact that all the chief reac- 
 tions against Scholasticism — those of Wickliffe, Huss, Luther, 
 Calvin, the Port Royalists, the Puritans, the modern Evan- 
 gelicals — were Augustinian reactions”; the further fact 
 that the labors of these reformers have been marvellously 
 effective, while those of Erasmus and Colet and More, in 
 what was 'peculiar to them, have sunk into almost complete 
 oblivion. 
 
 History affirms the necessity of dogmas. It is also a judge 
 
20 
 
 of dogmas. It shows that some dogmas have in them the 
 seeds of reform, of mighty deeds of heroism and self-denial. 
 By such arguments let the preacher keep his hearers from 
 ignoring or rejecting them. Let him show what life there 
 is in them. 
 
 Beside the logic there is in history, there is also an effective 
 rhetoric. History enables the preacher to put abstract truth 
 into the forms of experience and life. The predominance of 
 Dogmatic Theology in the past training of New England 
 ministers made their preaching, at times, too abstract and 
 formal ; not too doctrinal, — for what, in the last analysis 
 is to be preached, if not doctrine, — but too much wedded 
 to a particular mode of stating doctrine, the method of theo- 
 logical science. We are experiencing somewhat of a reaction 
 from this. The growing tendency to introduce anecdotes 
 and items of religious experience, and of much that is not 
 religious experience, is a symptom of this. One source of 
 relief — and, indeed, the main one — must be a fresh recur- 
 rence to the Scriptures. Truth must be presented in Biblical 
 forms, as these obtain new vividness to the preacher’s mind 
 by his own personal contact with them and the best helps of 
 modern culture. Of these new aids the historical study of 
 the Scriptures is specially serviceable. But, in addition, the 
 preacher should make large use of the Bible as it has been 
 translating through the centuries into human lives. It would 
 commonly be a much safer way of illustrating the realities 
 of the kingdom of heaven to draw from the sifted facts and 
 the completed experiences History records than from the too 
 often merely sensational stories of the newspaper. The 
 relations of Christianity to the institutions and morals of 
 nations . — its influence upon the family, upon education, 
 xipon politics -r- in successive and lengthened periods furnish 
 inexhaustible themes of reflection and instruction, and take 
 the mind out of the realm of the abstract into that of con- 
 crete and actual life. And then there is the long history of 
 Christian experience and life recorded in confessions and 
 martyrdoms, in inspiring and heroic achievements, in hymns 
 
21 
 
 and missals and breviaries and Imitations of Christ, and in 
 volume upon volume of letters and dialogues and soliloquies 
 and itineraries, in which we see how men of like passions 
 with ourselves and those whom as pastors we would guide to 
 heaven, overcame the world, and won their crowns. And all 
 this wealth of experience is transmitted to us for our use, 
 that every truth of Scripture, as we preach it, may be seen 
 already to have had its incarnation and demonstration. 
 
 This history of Christian life is, indeed, too much as yet 
 an unwritten one. Our Church Histories, until Neander’s, 
 told us much more of the extension of Christianity and of 
 the rites of the Church and of its science, than of its inward 
 life. There is here a noble field for fresh culture. Yet the 
 storehouses which are accessible are by no means empty. 
 Neander’s Memorials of Christian Life and his General 
 History, Dean Milman’s Latin Christianity, Mr. Lecky’s 
 History of European Morals, Montalembert’s Monks of the 
 West and Ullmann’s Reformers before the Reformation, 
 D’Aubigne’s Reformation, Dr. Stoughton’s Ecclesiastical 
 History of England, Dr. Palfrey’s History of New England, 
 Rev. G. F. Maclear’s History of Christian Missions during 
 the Middle Ages and Dr. Anderson’s volumes on the Missions 
 of the American Board, Dr. Stevens’s History of Methodism 
 — these familiar works, and others which will readily occur 
 to you, suggest the copiousness of the literature. What im- 
 pressive illustrations of Christian piety, and of the influence 
 of the Gospel on individual character and social institutions, 
 are here at hand. A diligent student may now gather 
 treasures in this field that will enrich and invigorate his 
 entire ministry. Indeed, to appropriate a thought from Dean 
 Stanley, almost any text you are likely to preach from lias 
 already received its commentary in some Christian society 
 or life. 64 Look,” he says, 44 through any famous passage of 
 the Old, or yet more of the New, Testament. There is hardly 
 one that has not borne fruit in the conversion of some great 
 saint, or in the turn it has given to some great event. At a 
 single precept of the Gospels Antony went his way and sold 
 
22 
 
 all that he had ; at a single warning of the Epistles Augus- 
 tine’s hard heart was melted beneath the fig-tree at Milan ; 
 a single chapter of Isaiah made a penitent believer of the 
 profligate Rochester. A word to St. Peter has become the 
 stronghold of the Papacy J a word from St. Paul has become 
 the stronghold of Luther. The Psalter alone, by its manifold 
 applications and uses in after times, is a vast palimpsest, 
 written over and over again, illuminated, illustrated, by 
 every conceivable incident and emotion of men and of nations ; 
 battles, wanderings, dangers, escapes, death-beds, obsequies 
 of many ages and countries rise, or may rise, to our view as 
 we read it.” 
 
 Such a use by a preacher of the treasures of History will 
 lend constant freshness to his sermonizing. Freshness is 
 the capital of a preacher at the beginning of his ministry. 
 It is the secret of the relish the churches have for young 
 men. The problem for you is how to keep this capital un- 
 wasted. One needs to draw from full, deep fountains. The 
 wells of History are such. Sometimes it is thought that the 
 early advantage which won so easily a call can be maintained 
 by a change of parish. But if a man has not grown in his 
 first settlement, and kept his freshness by the power of his 
 inward life, the second call comes much more slowly and 
 faintly and doubtfully than the first. There is a presumption 
 against a man that wants to try a new place. He finds that 
 his old sermons do not “take” so well, now that the white 
 hairs begin to show themselves, as when the freshness of his 
 thought and his countenance together had an unspeakable 
 charm for the sympathetic. 
 
 A minister of the Gospel is looked up to as a guide of 
 public opinion on questions of religious truth, of morals, and 
 of Christian enterprise. He has the position and responsi- 
 bilities of a leader. With ardor and enthusiasm and an 
 open eye for new opportunities of usefulness and improved 
 methods of teaching and working, how much wisdom he needs 
 to bring his work into living connection with what is true 
 and right and helpful in existing beliefs and methods. 
 
23 
 
 If a gardener or mechanic wishes to continue a line lie steps 
 back until he can obtain two fixed points, and then he can 
 settle a third in advance. There is a line of progress in 
 Christian theology and for the church. There is a normal 
 advance in the statement of doctrines. There is a main cur- 
 rent, having a predetermined course, in the development of the 
 life of the church. It is by going back on the line of progress 
 that a point in advance is to be secured. It is by ascertain- 
 ing the main drift of past thought and living that we best 
 understand the setting of present currents, and learn in which 
 direction the stream must flow in time to come. This is 
 commonly one mark of the difference between a real improve- 
 ment in theological statement and the beginning of heresy. 
 The one is a more determinate and explicit enunciation 
 of what had all along been implied in the faith of the church. 
 The other is an error, a wandering away, a departure into 
 some side path. One of the most eminent and successful 
 inventors of this most inventive age once remarked, that his 
 inventions had always been the fruit of this method. He first 
 clearly defined to his mind what was the need to be supplied, 
 and then considered how it was to be supplied. It is in the 
 same way that Christian knowledge and piety are promoted : 
 by carefully learning what deficiencies exist in present modes 
 of apprehending God’s word, or of defending it against 
 assault, or of enforcing its claims. We learn this largely 
 through History. For History reveals the great necessities of 
 man ; tests the measures that have been proposed ; and puts 
 us upon the only successful way of suggesting more appro- 
 priate treatment. A pastor does not know how to deal wisely 
 even with an individual member of his parish until he learns 
 something of his history. 
 
 And this brings me to my closing remark : 
 
 III. The study of the History of the Church is fitted to 
 develop in the ministry personal qualities indispensable to its 
 highest influence . 
 
 In a discourse pronounced upon the occasion of his inau- 
 
24 
 
 guration as Professor of Ecclesiastical History in this Semi- 
 nary, Dr. Sliedd eloquently eulogized the influence of the 
 historic spirit in imparting to the mind qualities which are 
 apt to be dissevered, but which are necessary complements 
 one to the other ; such as reverence and vigilance, modera- 
 tion and enthusiasm, catholicity and decision of opinion . 1 
 One may sum the result up in Symmetry of character. 
 
 Without venturing into territory which has been thus 
 possessed by a sort of right of eminent domain, I will notice 
 a few individual effects upon ministerial character which the 
 study of the History of the Church is adapted to produce. 
 One of these results is Breadth . 
 
 Experience shows that the influence of an exclusive or 
 predominant dogmatic training is unfriendly to catholicity. 
 Certain qualities it produces which are of fundamental im- 
 portance, such as clearness, positiveness, firmness, intensity 
 of mental conviction. But unbalanced, it yields, also, dog- 
 matism — a forgetfulness of how much of a system so high 
 and deep and broad as Christianity cannot be taken up into the 
 definitions and propositions of science. Christianity is greater 
 than any or all of our systems. It is the wisdom and power 
 of God. It has an inexhaustible fulness of truth and 
 motive power. It is a system, and is to be systematically 
 studied. The holiest mysteries of faith are truths of the 
 divine reason, and may be more and more apprehended by 
 human reason. Yet it is great, and we cannot compass it ; it 
 is high, and we cannot attain unto it. We have to confess 
 this of the whole effort of the race. All the systems ever 
 made do not contain it. We can only make approximations. 
 The traveller among the Alps finds constantly about him 
 objects of such magnitude that only after considerable expe- 
 rience, and the toil of ascending to the highest elevations, 
 can he form any adequate conception of the different ranges, 
 and their relations to each other. His eye is filled with the 
 serrated and piercing ridge of Pilatus. He is lost in amaze- 
 ment beneath the beetling cliffs and soaring pinnacle of the 
 1 Bibliotheca Sacra, Vol. xi. p. 352 sq. 
 
25 
 
 Wetterhorn. The Jungfrau lifts her snowy summit to the 
 skies, and lie seems to have seen nothing before. He identi- 
 fies twenty or thirty Mont Blancs before the mountain king 
 reveals his glittering crown. Each individual object is 
 enough, for the time, to absorb attention. It is so in Chris- 
 tianity. Each separate doctrine is enough to task all our 
 powers. So long as we are before it, it bounds the horizon. 
 We may see all of God’s government in Decrees and Pre- 
 destination, and think this the highest peak. We may look 
 at certain facts and regard them as a Covenant, and from 
 this elevation obtain a wide survey over God’s kingdom. 
 But when the mists rise we shall see a yet nobler range, 
 even though we are on the highest peak in a theological 
 Ober-Land. And if we press on to master this, many a 
 summit will rise upon our view ; heaven and earth will 
 often have seemed to meet, ere we see the King in His 
 glory. Christ is above all. Our task, as Clement of Alex- 
 andria long ago said, is to throw ourselves into His greatness. 
 And as no one man can measure from any one point of view 
 all the Alps, so no one mind or system can give us all that 
 may be known of Christianity. 
 
 That we may be helped, therefore, most efficiently in its 
 study, we need profoundly, patiently, perseveringly, to observe 
 its unfolding in the world in its diversified relations, to mark 
 its effects on character, on society, on civilization ; on morals 
 and manners ; on science and philosophy ; on education and 
 the family ; on law and discipline ; on commerce and the use- 
 ful arts ; on music and poetry and architecture, and all human 
 and humane sentiments and powers. History is something 
 which touches and interests us at every point, and in every 
 susceptibility of our complex being. We "exist under its law 
 as really as under the law of gravitation. Every thought, 
 affection, purpose of which we are conscious is influenced 
 by what others before us have said or done. The loneliest 
 palm of the desert springs from some seed that another palm 
 has ripened, and only grows by moisture from the skies 
 and nutriment from the sands. The most solitary of human 
 4 
 
26 
 
 beings stands in indissoluble connection with the past. He 
 is a member of a race. In countless ways he is linked in with 
 the long succession. It is this great, broad, human interest 
 of History which has made it a constant element of literature, 
 of poetry and eloquence, of government and religion. “It 
 was, ” says a learned and pleasing writer on the Uses of His- 
 tory as a Study 1 , “ it was an early amusement : Achilles, in 
 Homer, is introduced singing to his harp, the glorious deeds 
 of former heroes ; and few nations are so uncultivated as not 
 to possess some means of recording their deeds ; none are so 
 dull as to listen to these records without curiosity, without 
 interest, without delight. The love of History is as insepar- 
 able from human nature as the love of fame. Hence the 
 cairn, the Runic song, the knotted threads of the South 
 American savage.” Hence, too, the storied monuments of 
 Egypt and Nineveh, sagas from the halls of Scandinavia, 
 myths of Hellas and legends of Rome, ballads of the 
 merry days of England’s youth, epics of the olden time, 
 and chronicles and sober histories of later date, — all alike 
 testifying that History treats of something which comes 
 home to men’s bosoms and firesides, and enters into each 
 one’s life. 
 
 But this human interest of History culminates in religious 
 History, as does religious in Christian History. It is as a re- 
 ligious being that man is distinguished from and is elevated 
 above the rest of the creation. It is in his religious life that 
 he rises above the conditions of infirmity and weakness, of 
 decay and death, and takes hold on eternity, and is seen to be 
 but little lower than the angels. Even in their most corrupted 
 forms, his religious convictions have manifestly raised him 
 above the brutes that perish. And in estimating the civiliza- 
 tions that have gained ascendency it is his idea of the divinity 
 that has ruled him, his practical understanding of the divine 
 government, and his sense of religious obligation, by which 
 we finally measure and judge their worth and power. 
 
 But of all religious History the most important, the most 
 
 1 Encycl. Metropol., ix, p. 15. 
 
27 
 
 noble, the most attractive, is that which narrates the Progress 
 of the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom may be said to have 
 existed from the beginning of human history. We may trace 
 it back to the first promise of a Saviour. Its antagonism 
 to the world appears in the earliest recorded events. Its 
 conflict gives the sum and substance, the pith and marrow, 
 of all succeeding history. And what other history has such 
 elements of interest ? Its factors are both divine and human : 
 and these are seen to be not merely conjoined, but united — 
 human freedom becoming real in working out the plan of In- 
 finite wisdom in communion with its Author ; human agency 
 accomplishing a divine purpose with the certainty of destiny, 
 yet without compulsion. We discover not merely a Divine 
 Providence over men, but God himself, in Word and Proph- 
 ecy, in Incarnation and by his Holy Spirit, entering into the 
 historic course, its Source and its Goal. We see this his- 
 toric course working itself out through ages of conflict and 
 the most earnest human living, not in one department merely 
 of human thought and action, but in all the spheres of life, 
 so that in the mighty movement everything that lias a human 
 interest is taken up and glorified — this is the scope and the 
 importance of the subject. There are, in universal life, no 
 other conflicts like those of the Church ; no heroes like hers ; 
 no victories, no story of human passion, of love or hate, of 
 life or death, so full of instruction, or of so deep and tragic 
 power. If the History of the Church is best narrated by itself, 
 it is only, it has well been said, that we may discern thus its 
 individual and specific character. But when this is discovered 
 we find ourselves at a centre of light, from which we may 
 survey the whole field of human History. 
 
 This breadth of the study — though it may dismay spirits 
 that have lost the sense of their birthright as the heirs of 
 eternity — is its charm and glory to those who, like Plato in 
 the realm of mind, or Kepler among the stars, or Agassiz 
 ranging through all the orders of animal life, aspire, on this 
 loftier level of spiritual and Christian science, to think after 
 Him the thoughts of God. And I know of no study so fitted 
 to enlarge the soul. 
 
28 
 
 If there were time I would like to pursue this matter into 
 details — to suggest the value to the preacher of learning to 
 think other men’s thoughts after them, and so of gaining the 
 power fairly to state opinions different from his own. Lawyers 
 gain a breadth and fairness in discussion which ministers 
 need discipline in order to secure. A protracted analytic 
 review, as a required part of ministerial education, of the 
 opinions which have been held respecting any Christian 
 doctrine, is an admirable regimen for a mind that is narrow 
 in its judgments and hasty in its conclusions. We do not, 
 moreover, understand any man, until somewhat sympathet- 
 ically we have lived through his history. We are not at our 
 best in helping him. History trains us in going beyond our- 
 selves and entering into other lives. 
 
 Especially is it through the right study of History that the 
 narrow theological prejudices, the partisan strifes, the secta- 
 rian controversies, which have disfigured our religious history, 
 are to be abated. Nothing, indeed, but the might of the Holy 
 Spirit can remove these great evils. But among the agencies 
 which he employs, in addition to that of the written word, no 
 one is more powerful and hopeful than the broad and faithful 
 study of the History of the Church — a study begun by the 
 ministry of the land before opinions are fully formed and 
 sides are taken, and prosecuted even amid the shock and 
 raging of the battle. We have been said to have all the sects 
 in this country, and all the controversies, save those which 
 spring from the union of Church and State. Whatever 
 may be thought as to the best theoretical adjustment of the 
 relations of these two societies, or aspects of society, it 
 cannot be doubted that practically, and as the world is, we 
 have great advantages for religious unity in our freedom 
 from the seductions and entanglements of secular policy and 
 power, of statecraft and political chicanery, and in the facility 
 with which those who agree in essential principles may 
 co-operate. Therefore should we give the more earnest heed 
 that in discussing the things of the kingdom of God we 
 improve our more favorable opportunities by endeavoring to 
 
29 
 
 promote the conciliation of theological strifes and sectarian 
 animosities, and the coming of the day when the watchmen 
 shall see eye to eye. 'As we review the past it will be our 
 own fault if we do not gain clearer views of what is per- 
 manent in Christianity, and what is accidental and transitory ; 
 if we do not secure a firmer tread upon soil we will not 
 abandon but with our lives, and if we do not equally learn 
 to be more patient with the weak in faith, and more charitable 
 to men whose opinions differ from our own ; if we do not 
 grow in the conviction that divine truth is attainable and of 
 infinite worth, and no less in the conviction that our highest 
 attainments are but partial glimpses of a glory that excelletli. 
 
 Another effect of patient and protracted study of History 
 which I desire to notice is, Repose of spirit. 
 
 A leader should be calm. He should have great strength 
 of conviction, stability of mind, a willingness to bide his 
 time, and superiority to action in a flurry or heat. He should 
 have the ages for his ministers and attendants. There comes 
 into the mind that has long meditated on the ways of God 
 with men — that has reflected on the length of time, and the 
 shortness of a single life — a superiority to the noise and 
 alarms and petty anxieties and vain ambitions of a less 
 cultured soul which is something, to a Christian minister, of 
 inestimable value. Its possession is worth many a vigil. If 
 it were apathy or quietism, it were an injury, rather than a 
 benefit. But it is not. It is strength to labor. It is what 
 the minister often needs more, and finds harder to secure — 
 strength to endure and to persevere. 
 
 History takes us from our balancings and disquietudes, 
 when first we discover that everything in Theology can be 
 disputed, and is disputed, and shows us some things stable 
 and fixed, through the centuries, as the pillars of God’s 
 throne. It carries us to other ages, when all the prospects 
 of the Church, to human view, were darker than now, and 
 shows how easy and how natural it had been then to be de- 
 spondent, and how foolish. The empire will not see another 
 Canossa, said Bismarck, and Europe was electrified. The 
 
30 
 
 Church, we may believe, will not see another century like 
 the tenth. 
 
 And then, what companionships History makes for us. 
 The pastor among the hills of Vermont, or in the far West 
 — remote from the centres of thought and life, ministering to 
 the same people week in and week out — how shall he keep 
 up the growth begun under the stimulus of associates and 
 teachers and libraries ? How shall his need of companion- 
 ship not draw him more and more down to the level of those 
 whose tastes and culture and range of thinking and life have 
 been prescribed by conditions so different from his own, — 
 how, when his primary duty is to enter into their lives, that 
 he may be their helper? Yet if he would lift them up, he 
 must stand above them. How shall lie raise them, and rise 
 himself? He will not do it without great effort — effort 
 which requires constant stimulus from outside of his par- 
 ish and the immediate demands of his charge. He must 
 walk at times with princes. He must have companionships 
 which will more than prove a substitute for those of the 
 lecture-room and the debating-hall. Let Athanasius tell 
 him what imperial qualities should be his who would train 
 the heirs of a kingdom. Let Augustine show him how every 
 voice of nature is a witness and symbol of One that is above 
 nature. Let the cloud of witnessess gather about him as he 
 speaks in faithfulness what an unbelieving generation cares 
 not to hear. Let him have, blending ever with his own indi- 
 viduality, the larger consciousness of his corporate member- 
 ship in the state and empire of Him who has overcome the 
 world, and sits expecting till all His enemies are vanquished. 
 Such a man will never rust out, nor fade out, nor be worried 
 out. He will have something of the calmness of the eye 
 that sees the end from the beginning. 
 
 And — one other thought — he will have a growing sense 
 of the exceeding greatness and glory of Christ . 
 
 This long-drawn conflict is but a disclosure of the riches 
 of His infinite patience and fidelity and love and power. 
 Every martyr’s death, every conquest of selfishness, every 
 
31 
 
 victory of right is a witness to His sacrifice and His reign. 
 The Christian centuries sweep by us as the train of His 
 garment as he ascends His throne. From the morning of 
 creation His many crowns have been gathering splendor — 
 through all the generations, in the years of humiliation, in 
 the hours of triumph — from each ransomed soul. 
 
 This is my crowning argument — and it needs no elabora- 
 tion — the History of the Church is to him who reads aright 
 a continued evangel of that Incarnate Word, who, in Gali- 
 lee and Judaea, in the significant phrase of Luke, began both 
 to do and teach, and who withdrew from earth only more 
 efficiently to be with His Church to the end of time. 
 
 But now, of this Lecture, as Augustine says of his En- 
 chiridion, there must be an end at last. 
 
 I do not ask you to do with my reasons for the study 
 anything more than consider and weigh them. But as to 
 the study itself, I would say : Pursue it, at whatever cost, 
 and you will have more reasons for it than you will ever 
 have time to analyze and classify and put into writing, even 
 if you should be blessed with a lifetime longer than Methu- 
 selah’s.