Chapter III: Ordination

Church officers, according to New Testament usage, are chosen from members of the church. No church, therefore, can properly call a Council to ordain until the person to be ordained is a member of it. Hence, the first step, after a contract of settlement, is the transfer of membership.

When the Council is organized the candidate is expected to relate his Christian experience and his call to the ministry, and to submit a statement of his views of Christian doctrine, of church organization and discipline, and of the ordinances. This statement may be either written or unwritten. In any case, it should be clear, orderly, and full. The manner of its presentation should be arranged between the moderator and the candidate. It is usually found expedient to make the statement complete, without interruption, and at its close submit to such questions as the Council may have noted and may propose, the moderator calling up each topic separately and in order, for that purpose. The candidate should also be prepared to submit to the Council, if called for, his license to preach, his certificate of graduation from the seminary, and any other papers that may show his standing and attainments. Those who officiate in the ordination are usually nominated in part by the church and candidate and in part by the Council, but all receive their formal appointment from the Council. For the sermon and such parts of the service as require elaborate preparation, a previous designation perhaps ought ordinarily to be made by the church or the candidate, if the ordination immediately follows the examination. In selecting persons to officiate it is evidently appropriate, as well as desirable, that most of those chosen should be pastors of churches in the vicinity, with whom the person to be ordained will be most nearly connected in his work.

Ordination constitutes one of the chief epochs in a minister's life. It should, therefore, be preceded and attended with much self-examination and prayer, and to be marked as a point of new and higher consecration to Christ and His church. The obligations then assumed in the care of souls are the weightiest that can rest on man, and the vows then taken are made not only to man, but also to God.

+SECTION III.+

PUBLIC WORSHIP.

The interest and value of worship, as conducted in most churches, depend chiefly on the pastor. The service is almost wholly led by him. It is, therefore, of the highest moment not only that the sermon be thoroughly studied, but also that his spirit be prepared to lead and elevate the souls of the people in acts of devotion; for instruction is not the only object of the service: it is intended to inspire and lead souls in true, spiritual worship, such as will be acceptable to God and profitable to the people. Three things are here specially to be sought.

1. _Unity of thought._ Each occasion of worship should ordinarily have one leading, pervading, governing thought which shall individualize that occasion and distinguish it from others. By this it is not meant that the subject should always be advertised in the hymns and Scriptures and prayers that precede the sermon; this might be unfortunate, as interfering with the purpose of general worship. But all parts of the service should be consistent with the subject of the discourse, and should flow naturally into it; if possible, nothing should be allowed to enter which may divert from it. The assembly should be dismissed filled with one subject and bearing away one great thought. On this account it is usually better to exclude all other subjects, both during and immediately following public worship, and when a subject out of the usual order is to be presented, such as some benevolent object, to give up the entire service to that and concentrate attention on it.

2. _Sustained interest._ The interest should rise with the progress of the service, and find its highest point at the close; otherwise, the good impressions made in the earlier part are lost in the weariness and apathy of the later. Failure in sustaining interest to the end may result from several causes: (1.) Imperfect preparation, so that the matter of the service is commonplace and uninteresting. In this age of intense mental activity, a want of freshness, vigor, and variety of thought is at once felt by the people, and the attention is lost. (2.) Defective, monotonous delivery, which often destroys the force of the best thought. For this the only remedy is persistent training, taken, if possible, under a good elocutionist; and where such a defect exists, to apply this remedy seems clearly the imperative duty of a man whose success in his work depends on power in public speech. (3.) Wearisome protraction of the exercises. Few sermons hold the interest of a congregation beyond half an hour. The effect of the first thirty minutes is in most cases destroyed by seeking to force attention through another fifteen or twenty. (4.) Too great exhaustion of the physical and nervous force of the preacher before the service in preparing for it. The pastor should secure thorough rest of body and mind before the Lord's Day services, so as to come to them fresh and strong. It is better to leave the sermons unfinished than to fail of this. Preserve at all hazards a high tone of physical vigor and a healthful, elastic nervous organism; otherwise, the speaking will lack force and magnetism, and the most able and elaborate sermon will fall flat and powerless. Some of the most successful preachers avoid all severe study on Saturday, making that a day of rest and recreation, that they may come to their Lord's Day work with full nervous and physical vigor.

3. _Religious impression._ This is the chief design of religious worship, so far as it is intended to influence men; and however much an assembly may be interested in a preacher, the thoughtful and judicious always feel a painful lack if the service has not stirred their deeper religious nature. The pulpit may be able, eloquent, intellectually stimulating; but if it does not touch these inner springs of the soul, it has fatally failed, and the great object of public worship has not been secured.