THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY AND THE HOLY SPIRIT.

From the Reb. R. W. Dale's Address at Wolverhampton.

IN our theory of the Ministry, the direct and supernatural action of the Holy Spirit is very distinctly recognised. We say that men should not become ministers unless they are "inwardly moved of the Holy Ghost." The imposition of human hands is worthless apart from a diviner consecration. "No man taketh this honour to himself but he that is called of God." As the "call" to the ministry is supernatural, we believe that the qualifications for it are also supernatural. Intellectual vigour, brilliant genius, eloquence, learning-we say that a man may have them all, and be utterly destitute of the powers which are necessary for this work. It is not enough that his moral character should be blameless. It is not enough that his spiritual life should have intensity and depth. I believe that many men have entered the ministry and failed, who had strong sense, adequate culture, practical sagacity, untiring industry, and genuine religious earnestness. All of us may be taught of God what we need to know in order that we ourselves may love Him with a perfect heart, and keep all His commandments; but all of us do not receive those revelations which we need if we are to stimulate and direct the religious thought and life of the Church, and if we are to make men tremble while we reason with them of "righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come."

And, as there are regions of truth which must be supernaturally revealed to the true minister of Christ, there is also a supernatural power of "exhortation" and "teaching" which is necessary to him, and without which, though he may thrill and charm vast audiences, and command admiration for his genius and eloquence, his preaching will be without any adequate spiritual results. The elements of that power escape the most critical and delicate analysis. cal treatises, but it cannot be defined.

It may receive a name in homiletiIt is too subtle for the examination of any Christian Aristotle. It is not a natural endowment. Devout and spiritual men, who can speak with clearness and persuasive force on common subjects-men who can deliver great sermons-cannot really preach. The faculty is not to be acquired by any rhetorical discipline. There is a gift of" utterance" as well as of "knowledge."

Nor is this all. There are special supernatural virtues and graces, as well as special supernatural powers, which are indispensable to the Christian minister. It is not clear that every Christian heart is necessarily inspired by God with an ardent passion for the rescue of men from the pains of eternal death, or for the development of the spiritual perfection of

* Long as our extract from Mr. Dale's address is, it is less than one-half of the whole. The second part treated of "the Holy Spirit in relation to worship," and the third "the Holy Spirit in relation to work." We trust that in its complete form it will have a very wide circulation.-ED.

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the Church. "There are diversities of operation, but it is the same God which worketh all in all." To one is given by the Spirit a tender sympathy for the physical suffering of mankind; to another, a noble abhorrence of social injustice and mischievous laws and political tyranny; to another, an unquenchable thirst for a more perfect knowledge of the mysteries of God's material universe; to another, an ineffable delight in poetry and art. Who will venture to say that John Milton would have shown himself a better Christian if he had written the "Call to the Unconverted," or the preface to the "Reformed Pastor," instead of the "Areopogetica," or "Paradise Lost"? Or that Sir Isaac Newton should have tried to write a treatise on the "Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul” instead of the “ Principia"? Or that Wilberforce should have left the House of Commons and employed his enchanting eloquence in preaching the Gospel? The indig nation which glowed and burned in the heart of Wilberforce against the slave trade-was it not a Divine fire ? And yet how different it was from that fervent zeal which consumed the soul of Whitfield for the conversion of the human race! The moral qualities which were necessary to the intellectual triumphs of Sir Isaac Newton-the patience, the humility, the passion for scientific truth, and the devout reverence with which he bowed at last before the majesty and wisdom and power of the Creator of all things— were they not of God, as truly as that deep sympathy with the fear and trouble and suffering of the soul struggling to find its way to Christ which dwelt in Philip Doddridge? Milton's patriotism and the rapture of his spirit when he heard the symphony and song of angels, and saw "the sanctities of heaven" stand thick as stars around the throne of the Eternal, were not these Divine gifts? And yet Milton could not have done Baxter's work at Kidderminster. Both the men had genius and eloquence; they were both the servants of Christ; but, apart from the purely intellectual differences which made one a poet and the other a preacher, there was given to the one and not to the other a vehement solicitude for the spiritual welfare of mankind. You will not imagine that I mean that any

Christian man can be indifferent to the salvation of the human race. If the Spirit of Christ dwell in us—and without His Spirit we are none of his"--we must be touched with that Divine compassion for sinful men which moved Him to "seek and save that which was lost." We must all bear His image, and we can have no trace of it if the brightest glory of His character is not reflected in ours, and if we know nothing of His mighty passion for the redemption of the world from sin and from eternal destruction. Anticipating the hour when we shall have to give account to Him of the deeds done in the body, and shall have to listen to His sentence on our earthly history, it appears to me that, with whatever humiliation and sorrow we may have to acknowledge other forms of sin, the most awful fears will shake the soul of that Christian man- -if there be one-who will have to confess that when he himself, through the infinite mercy of God, had escaped from all fear of the indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish,

which threaten the impenitent, he cared nothing for the rescue of those who were still exposed to the same intolerable doom; and for that man, "saved though as by fire," will be reserved, in the hour of judgment, the keenest agony and the deepest shame. God forbid that I should ever write or utter a solitary syllable that might lessen the force and pathos of any appeal to the Christian heart to have pity on those who are in danger of eternal perdition! Sooner than that, "let my right hand forget its cunning and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."

And yet it is surely true, with whatever qualifications, that with equal saintliness the depth and fervour of evangelistic zeal may vary. It was not so intense in St. John as in St. Paul, Nor is it less true that with equal saintliness, the strength of those spiritual sympathies may vary which are necessary to a man entrusted with the culture and discipline of the holiness of the Church. For a minister, therefore, to be a very spiritual man is not enough; his spiritual life must receive a special development corresponding to his special work.

According, then, to our theory, every true minister of Christ must have received a Divine call, revelations of Divine truth, not necessary to his own personal consolation and sanctity, a supernatural faculty for speaking to the nobler powers of the human soul, and spiritual affections and sympathies of a special order, originated and sustained by the special inspiration of the Holy Ghost.

If, then, we are anxious to create for the Church

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This is our theory. an adequate number of faithful ministers, what ought we do? Increase the attractiveness of the ministerial office, by investing it with greater social consideration and honour? Agitate for the augmentation of ministerial incomes? Build ministers' houses? Found a Sustentation Fund? will say nothing now of the expediency or necessity of any of these measures considered in relation to other objects; but if the strength and efficiency of our ministry are in any peril, measures like these will bring us no deliverance. No increase of salaries, no Sustentation Fund, no comfortable residences for our pastors, will secure for us the ministers we require. We must appeal to God. It is because men have never received the supernatural call and the supernatural inspiration, that the vacancies which are occuring in our ranks are in danger of not being worthily filled, and that the number of our ministers does not more rapidly increase. If men are to be "inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost," we must entreat Him to move them. If they are to receive a fiery baptism from Heaven, kindling in their hearts a passion for the salvation of mankind, we must entreat God to grant it to them. "The harvest truly is plenteous, and the labourers are few." But we cannot by any scheme of ours make them more numerous; no wages that we can promise will attract them; no training which we can give will qualify them; their call and their qualifications alike must come from God; "pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest."

not ours.

And we must leave it to Him to send whom He pleases. Loud complaints are sometimes heard that our ministers come chiefly from the less educated and less wealthy classes in our Churches. That is God's concern, If these are the men He calls, it is not for us to receive them with suspicion and doubtful cordiality. The sons of our more prosperous people, it is said, seldom enter the ministry; so much the worse for the sons of our more prosperous people. It is said that their parents discourage them, because of the social disadvantages and pecuniary loss in which the ministry would involve them. I cannot believe it; but, if it is true, so much the worse for their parents. What seems to be the fact is, that the Divine call is seldom heard by the sons of rich men; and rich men should ask why it is that their children are not "counted faithful," and why it is that "the glorious gospel of the blessed God” is not committed to their trust." Is there anything in their own temper and spirit which explains it? Do they themselves love the world too much, and Christ too little? Their sons should ask why it is that to the children of the poor, and not to them, this "grace" is given that they should preach to mankind the unsearchable riches of Christ. These are questions for them to ask, rather than for us; and they are questions which should be asked with humiliation and pain, and with devout solicitude to know the truth.

There is another complaint which, in the form in which it is very frequently made, appears rather inconsistent with our theory. Every few months the roll of our ministers is critically examined; the discovery is made that a large proportion of them have neither passed through one of our colleges, nor taken a university degree; and their presence in the ministry seems to be censured as an irregularity, for which either they or their Churches are responsible, or is at least regarded as a necessary evil. But have we any right to impose upon the Spirit of God the restraints which this complaint implies? Must the Divine call never come to any one who is over four-and-twenty, and is too old to enter college? Are we to lay it down as an axiom, that when a man has ceased to be "a novice," and when by many years of devout and holy living he has not only obtained "a good report of them which are without," but acquired a depth of spiritual knowledge, and a steadfastness of faith, and a wealth of human experience, hardly possible in early manhood, the Spirit of God cannot be permitted to stir his heart to "desire the office of a bishop," and that, if he does desire it, the desire should be suppressed as presumptuous, irregular, and illegitimate? Colleges are intended for men who are capable of becoming scholars; can we venture to say that no man who does not show a capacity for mastering a Greek chorus or the intricacies of the Athanasian controversies can ever receive direct from heaven the supernatural gifts which constitute the supreme qualification for the ministry? We do not believe that a minister is under any obligation to celibacy; why do we lead men to think that after a Christian man is married, and it is practically impossible

for him to become a "student," he has no right to be "inwardly moved" of the Holy Ghost to become a minister? Among us, is the certificate of a college committee to be invested with the same mysterious importance that belongs to episcopal ordinations in some other Christian Churches? Is it necessary to the validity of our orders? Is any symbol of inferiority to be branded on the men who do not happen to possess it?

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"If there come" into our ministry a man with a gold" medal, "in goodly apparel," with a bachelor's gown or a master's hood, " and there come in also a poor man in vile," unscholarly "raiment, and we have respect unto him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place," and let thy ministerial authority be confessed and honoured of all men; "and say to the poor, Stand thou there" afar of, in the kindly obscurity of some country village, and keep there; or, "Sit here under my footstool" as town missionary, and never presume to enter the pastorate;" are we not then partial in ourselves, and become judges of evil thoughts? Hearken, my beloved brethren; if God hath chosen the poor," unscholarly man, "rich in faith," in energy, and zeal; if God hath given him the spirit of power and of love, and of a sound mind; if he has received of God the "spirit of wisdom and revelation,"—" who art thou that judgeth another man's servant ? To his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up, for God is able to make him stand.” I feel as strongly as any of you that the portentous development of religious indifference and unbelief among the educated classes should make us strive to secure for our ministry men of the richest learning, as well as native intellectual power, and that the controversies which are troubling the thoughts of the Church on the contents of the Christian revelation, as well as its authority, impose upon us the duty of cultivating far more earnestly and courageously than we have cultivated of late, every province of theological learning-but when I think of the vast numbers of our working people who are untouched by any form of evangelistic agency connected with any Christian Church, I long to see a great army of preachers rising up among the working people themselves-preachers who shall be familiar, as the wealthy cannot be, with their sorrows, their hardships, their pleasures, the passions by which they are stirred, the hopes by which they are animated, their scepticism and their faith, and who shall speak to them in their own tongue of the infinite love of God revealed to mankind through Christ Jesus our Lord. Strong sense, intellectual activity, shrewdness, wit, humour, fancy, these are to be found among our working people in far larger measure than some of us perhaps suppose. On political and social questions they speak with great clearness and vigour. Let the baptism of fire descend upon some of them, and, as evangelists to the masses of our manufacturing population, they will have a power which scarcely any of us possess.

And if the hearts of men are touched by their preaching, and if the people they have taught to fear God cling to them with reverence and love, why should they not become the ministers of the congregations they have