Chapter I: Front Matter

+Transcriber's Notes+

- This book is written by a seminary professor to his students and
others considering work in pastoral ministry.
- Detailed information on the Transcriber's changes are listed after
the text.

+THE PASTOR:+

+HIS QUALIFICATIONS AND DUTIES.+

BY H. HARVEY, D.D., PROFESSOR IN HAMILTON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.

PHILADELPHIA: AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY. 1701 CHESTNUT STREET.

---------------------------------------------------------------- Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by the AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. ----------------------------------------------------------------

Published February, 1904

To

The Memory of

+WILLIAM COLGATE,+

THE ENLIGHTENED AND MUNIFICENT FRIEND OF MINISTERIAL EDUCATION, WHOSE COUNSEL AND SYMPATHY GUIDED AND CHEERED THE WRITER'S EARLIER STUDIES,

THIS VOLUME IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED.

+PREFACE.+

The nature and duties of the pastoral office form a subject of great practical moment. The thoughts suggested in this volume are largely results of the writer's personal experience in the ministry and of his observation of pastoral work in our churches. The literature of the subject, however, has of late become specially rich and valuable, and the hints which a careful study of this furnishes have also been freely used. The experienced pastor, for whom some of these suggestions will be needless, will remember that they were originally embodied in lectures delivered to the classes in the Hamilton Theological Seminary, and prepared for young men who, for the most part, were as yet inexperienced in the pastoral care.

With the earnest prayer and hope that the work may receive the approval of the Master and may contribute in some humble measure, to the higher effectiveness of the Gospel ministry, it is now submitted to the Christian public.

H. H.

THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, Hamilton, N. Y., Oct. 30, 1879.

+CONTENTS.+

+SECTION I.+

THE DIVINE CALL TO THE MINISTRY Proofs of the necessity of a Divine call; Modes in which this call is manifested: 1. The internal call; 2. The call of the church; 3. The call of Providence.

+SECTION II.+

SETTLEMENT IN THE MINISTRY 1. Choice of a field; 2. Obligations assumed in becoming a pastor; 3. Ordination.

+SECTION III.+

PUBLIC WORSHIP Objects to be sought: Unity of thought; Sustained interest; Religious impression. 1. _Pulpit Decorum._ 2. _The Service of Song:_ Sympathy of pastor with choir; Selection of hymns; Devotional singing. 3. _Reading of the Scriptures:_ (1.) The selection; (2.) The reading; (3.) Comments. 4. _Public Prayer:_ (1.) The form; (2.) The matter; (3.) The order; (4.) The manner. 5. _Preaching._ (1.) Sermons: Doctrinal; Experimental; Practical. (2.) Exposition: Advantages; Methods.

+SECTION IV.+

SOCIAL DEVOTIONAL MEETINGS 1. Prayer-meetings; 2. The covenant-meeting; 3. The inquiry-meeting; 4. Meeting for examination of candidates for the church; 5. Meeting for the officers of the church; 6. Church meetings for business.

+SECTION V.+

ADMINISTRATION OF ORDINANCES Preparatory instruction; Administration--1. Of Baptism; 2. Of the Lord's Supper.

+SECTION VI.+

THE PASTOR AND THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL Interest in Sunday-school essential to pastoral success; Methods of pastoral work in the school.

+SECTION VII.+

PASTORAL VISITATION The duty of visitation: 1. Its limits; 2. The method; 3. Its advantages; 4. The visitation of the sick.

+SECTION VIII.+

REVIVALS OF RELIGION Nature, sphere, and necessity of revivals; Methods of promoting them; Evils to be avoided.

+SECTION IX.+

CULTIVATION OF SOCIAL LIFE IN THE CONGREGATION Necessity of pastoral direction of social life; Suggestions as to methods.

+SECTION X.+

THE PASTOR AS AN ORGANIZER Importance of organizing power; Necessity of the study of the people; Methods of organization; Development of intellectual gifts and stimulus to higher education; Development of gifts for the ministry.

+SECTION XI.+

FUNERAL SERVICES Necessity of simplicity and brevity; Eulogies of the dead to be avoided; Subject-matter of funeral address; Services at the grave; Attentions to the bereaved.

+SECTION XII.+

CULTIVATION OF THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT Importance of the missionary spirit; Methods of promoting it: 1. Regular missionary contribution; 2. Stated missionary sermons; 3. The monthly concert.

+SECTION XIII.+

THE PULPIT AND THE PRESS The press made to subserve the pulpit.--1. By a religious newspaper in every family; 2. By the circulation of books and tracts; 3. By the education of the judgment and sentiment of the people.

+SECTION XIV.+

RELATIONS TO OTHER DENOMINATIONS 1. Cultivation of friendly intercourse; 2. Mutual recognition of sincerity of character and intention; 3. Occasional exchange of pulpits; Union meetings.

+SECTION XV.+

CHANGE OF FIELD 1. Evils of change; 2. Inadequate causes of change; 3. Valid reasons for change.

+SECTION XVI.+

MINISTERS NOT IN THE PASTORAL OFFICE _First, Evangelists:_ 1. Foreign missionaries; 2. Home missionaries; 3. Revivalists. _Second: Teachers._ _Third: Licentiates._

+SECTION XVII.+

PASTORAL STUDY 1. The Method; 2. The Subjects: (1.) General Culture; (2.) Biblical and Theological Culture; (3.) Sermon Preparation.

+SECTION XVIII.+

PASTORAL RESPONSIBILITY What it includes; Limitations of it.

+SECTION XIX.+

THE PASTOR'S OUTER LIFE 1. Business Relations; 2. Political Relations; 3. Social Character; 4. Personal Habits.

+SECTION XX.+

THE PASTOR'S INNER LIFE Power with God the condition of power with men; The promise of the Holy Spirit; Means of maintaining an inner life "endued with power from on high:" 1. The habitual practice of secret prayer; 2. The habitual self-application and self-appropriation of Divine truth; 3. Habitual self-surrender and consecration to Christ and His work; 4. An habitual looking above for the reward.

+THE PASTOR.+

* * * * * * * *

+SECTION I.+

THE DIVINE CALL TO THE MINISTRY.

A special call from God is essential to the exercise of the Christian ministry. Reason itself would suggest that He, as a sovereign, would select His own officers and send His own ambassadors; and the Divine call of the ancient prophets, the analogous office in the old dispensation, creates a presumption of such a call in the Christian ministry. None were permitted to intrude into the prophetic office. God said: "The prophet which shall presume to speak a work in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, shall die" (Deut. xviii. 20); "Behold, I am against the prophets that steal My words" (Jer. xxiii. 30; see also Isa. vi.; Jer. i. 4-10). The proof of this is seen in the following considerations: 1. Ministers, in the New Testament, are always spoken of as designated by God. This is obviously true of the apostles and of the seventy, but it is seen also in the case of the ministry in general. The elders of Ephesus were set over the flock by the Holy Ghost (Acts xx. 28). Archippus received his ministry "in the Lord" (Col. iv. 17). Paul and Barnabas were separated to their work by the Holy Ghost (Acts xiii. 2). 2. The ministry constitute a special gift from Christ to the church; for "He gave some, Apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Eph. iv. 11, 12). The gifts for these offices are bestowed by God, and the men are sent forth to their work by God Himself, in answer to the prayers of His people. (See Rom. xii. 6, 7; Luke x. 1, 2.) 3. The nature of the office, as implied in the terms used to designate it, requires a personal Divine call. They are called "ambassadors for Christ," speaking in His name; they are "stewards of God," entrusted with the Gospel for men.

The ministry, then, is not chosen as a man chooses a profession, consulting his inclination or interest. It is entered in obedience to a special call from God, and the consciousness of this is essential to personal qualification for the work. The emphasis which the Scriptures place on the Divine vocation of the minister implies a distinction between a call to the ministry and the ordinary choice of a profession. This distinction, in one important element at least, may perhaps be thus expressed: In the case of the minister the work is one to which the conscience _obliges;_ he feels that he _ought_ to engage in it, and that he cannot do otherwise without _guilt._ But in the case of one choosing another profession it is a matter of aptitudes, tastes, interest; he feels that it is _right_ and _wise_ thus to choose, but there is no sense of imperative _obligation,_ so that it would be morally _wrong_ to do otherwise. In the one, there is the sense of positive obligation as expressed in its strongest form by Paul: "Necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the Gospel" (1 Cor. ix. 16); in the other, there is a sense of the rightfulness of the choice made and a consciousness of the Divine approbation in making it, but the contrary choice would not necessarily be morally wrong.

As to the manifestation of this call, two opposite errors are to be avoided. On the one hand, the call is conceived as consisting in a mere preference for the work of the ministry, and the result is that men influenced only by literary tastes or unhallowed ambition rush unbidden into the sacred office. On the other, it is regarded as a supernatural manifestation, like a voice from heaven, attended with intense mental struggles; and, as the result, men who ought to enter the ministry are, in the absence of such manifestations, deterred from entering it and mistake their true mission in life. Evidently, this duty is to be ascertained in the same manner as any other duty. The call, indeed, is a Divine act, but so also is regeneration; yet in neither case is the manifestation necessarily or ordinarily supernatural. The evidences of it are found in a prayerful examination of one's own experience compared with God's Word. Christian young men, therefore, should be urged to ponder carefully the question whether God is not calling them to the ministry. A pastor's utmost wisdom and discrimination should be employed in inspiring and guiding young men to right thinking in regard to their life-mission. Many a life-failure might thus be prevented, and many a noble man whose life otherwise had been devoted to secular pursuits would be saved for effective service in the pulpit. This call, I conceive, is manifested in the heart of the individual, in the convictions of the church, and in the providence of God.