AMERICAN CHURCH

REVIEW.

NATURAL AS WELL AS SUPERNATURAL QUALIFICATIONS REQUISITE FOR SUCCESS IN THE WORK OF THE

MINISTRY.

I do not propose to write about those studies prescribed as preparatory to ordination, though of course fully admitting how essential they are to a due preparation for the work of the ministry. Nor do I intend to urge the necessity of having right and worthy views of the nature, duties and responsibilities of the Holy Office, and of entering upon it with earnestness and singleness of purpose, with a deep feeling of humility, and yet a strong conviction of a Divine call.

But what I would now say is suggested chiefly by this fact, viz. that among those who have completed with credit the appointed curriculum of study; who, so far as man can judge, are not deficient in the graces of a true Christian character; who have been declared "apt and meet for their learning and godly conversation to exercise their ministry duly, to the honor of God and the edifying of the Church"; who have sought, and received, if they sought aright, the enabling grace proffered and bestowed in ordination; there are too many who are not successful in the ministry,

who do not find a sphere of labor, vast as is the field, where their ministrations are at once acceptable and profitable. I do not refer to those who have so far forgotten the significance and sacredness of their ordination vows as to decline work save under certain coveted worldly and social conditions-or to those who, notwithstanding their professions, never had any higher aim than their own self-aggrandizement-but to men who sought the ministry with worthy motives, with high hopes, with a fair prospect before them of success, who are still in the vigor of their manhood, who are willing to work wherever they shall be invited and can be maintained, and whom yet Bishops, crying out for helpers, cannot employ.

Now it is true that in no other branch of the Church are the conditions of ministerial success so many or so difficult as in our own. It is true also that our present parochial and voluntary system opposes many obstacles to the fair trial of the capacity and worth of an individual clergyman. It is true that the office of the Diaconate has practically disappeared from among us, and that our young men are hurried into Priest's work before being invested with the authority of the Priest, or qualified, under wise direction and by exercise in the inferior office, to undertake the functions of the higher office; and that the reputation and influence of even the best, often suffer for many subsequent years from the effects of errors or indiscretions resulting solely from lack of experience or imperfect instruction. It is also possibly true that the teachings and training of our theological schools are not as complete as they might well be with reference to the actual conditions under which the work of the clergy is to be undertaken. All this may serve to account in some measure for the fact to which I have alluded, that there are among us many worthy, educated men, in Holy Orders, unemployed, though desirous of employment in their proper work. But admitting all this, success, if achieved at all, must be achieved under these same circumstances, on account of which some have failed; and what I would attempt at this time is to indicate what is necessary, over and above a sufficiency of sound learning, and purity of motive, and reality of religious character, and the grace which may be expected in ordination, to attain success.

When I speak of success in the work of the Christian ministry, I mean of course the accomplishment of that for which the ambassadors of Christ are sent forth, the conversion of sinners and the edification of the Church. It is not success to gain the applause of men, to obtain a reputation for learning, or intellectual brilliancy, or social attractiveness. It is not success to secure a comfortable settlement in a wealthy parish. To convince the unbelieving, to humble the impenitent, to reclaim the wandering, to build up the faithful from spiritual infancy to the perfection of Christian manhood, constitute the true functions of Christ's ministers, and only in doing these can they fulfil their mission. If they are not seeking, above all things else, with all fidelity, and with all earnestness to do these, they are dishonoring their vocation and endangering their own souls. If they are not efficient in these, if they are not actually accomplishing in some measure these objects for which alone the Church herself exists, or has any reason to exist, they are useless as agents of the Church. I say not that because of this infficiency they will be finally disowned by the great Head of the Church--that will not be the case, unless they have failed through slothfulness, or unwatchfulness or unfaithfulness-but nevertheless they do fail, and sadly as laborers are needed, none such are desirable. I hasten to admit also and to affirm, if need be, that for the accomplishment of this work the human agent is naught without the co-operation of the Holy Spirit; that the Spirit alone can convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; that men are washed, sanctified, justified, by the Spirit of God, if they ever experience those benefits, and that only through the Spirit are they builded together for an habitation of God, or can they grow in grace and divine knowledge, and attain unto the perfection of holiness. For the minister of Christ to forget this would be to forget sword and staff to go forth upon his mission utterly unprepared and incapable, with absurd and sinful inconsideration, with no ground of confidence, with no hope of success. For he who thus forgets or ignores his dependence upon the promised gift of the Holy Ghost and the power which He should bestow, forfeits all claim to that divine assistance, and, left to his own weakness and disowned of God for his pride and folly, can "save" neither "himself," nor

"them that hear" him. Though Paul plant and Apollos water, it is still God alone who giveth the increase.

But this great truth does not alter the fact that such men as Paul and Apollos and Cephas and John were agents in the Divine economy for the establishment and extension of the infant Church. Nor can it be affirmed that results such as were attained through their instrumentality may at any time be expected to follow the labors of men lacking their special natural as well as spiritual endowments. We cannot think that the original Apostles were chosen by our Lord without regard to some discerned natural fitness in them for the work which should be assigned to them,—a certain meetness to become the agents of Christ and instruments of the Holy Ghost for dispelling the darkness of error and diffusing the light of heavenly truth, for breaking down the strongholds of Satan and establishing on earth the Redeemer's kingdom. Can we think that another than such an one as Saul of Tarsus could have become a St. Paul to the Church? It is written indeed that our Lord" when He ascended up on high, led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men: and He gave some apostles," &c., that is, He gave to some apostolic gifts, and to others prophetical gifts, and to others the gifts proper to an evangelist, and to others the gifts needful to the work of a pastor and teacher. But while it thus becomes plain enough that special and diverse gifts were necessary for the exercise of such functions, it is not to be inferred that these special enabling gifts were thus distributed without regard to the existing characteristics of the recipient; that they were designed or adequate to supply all natural defects; or that natural qualities and endowments, and all previous training and acquisitions were hereafter to be of no value and have no determining effect upon the career or influence of the particular apostle, or prophet, or evangelist, or teacher. Every apostle received the gifts of an apostle, but every apostle did not thereby become a St. Peter or a St. John, either in character or influence. Each left his distinct personal impress upon the Church, and the work which each could do was still largely affected, its nature and extent largely determined, by his personal characteristics. We perhaps cannot judge whether the Church has lost or gained by reason of the physical defects and alleged slowness of speech of St. Paul,

seeing how his spirit was chastened and to what heights he often rose in his efforts to overcome these disadvantages. But no careful student of his career or of his writings can fail to see how frequently and how considerably his success was attributable to those qualities and methods by which men in every age and of every class and calling acquire influence and achieve their purpose among their fellowmen. And it was because he possessed these qualities and was skilled in these methods, that he was found and called of God, as one who, receiving the super-added gifts of an apostle, could do that wonderful work among the Gentiles unto which he should be sent.

There is not space nor is it needful for me to further illustrate my meaning. What I would say is first this, that in the work of the ministry, although the results sought are super-natural and can be effected by no mere human power, yet those intellectual and moral qualities and faculties which we are wont to call natural (but which proceed from the same source as the highest spiritual endowments), whereby men ordinarily win the confidence, and gain the hearts, and move the wills of their fellows, are so important a factor, that the possession or lack of them may determine the issue. And therefore, secondly, that no man not possessing these faculties and qualities in some considerable degree, should be regarded as called of God to the ministry of the Church, however strong his desire thereto, or however blameless his character or unquestionable his piety. One lacking these may be a good man, earnest, sincere, devout, learned; such a man cannot live and labor in vain, he will be useful, he may be invaluable in his proper place, but his proper place is not among those who are commissioned as leaders, for he can never be a leader, and if the functions of a leader be assigned him he will fail. There is no evidence that God ever dispensed with these qualities in the appointment of his ambassadors where they were appointed directly by Himself. But on the other hand there is abundant evidence that they are practically indispensable for success in the ministry.

I know that much may be said, and many examples adduced to limit if not to contravene the truth of these statements. The presence in a high degree of some of the qualities to which I refer may largely supplement the lack of others; intensity of re