316 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1874- 



its counterpart in individual indifference to theological 

 acquisition and thought. If nothing new is brought out 

 except in the way of sermons, books of practical religion, 

 and apologetic, it is only natural that our ministers and 

 students in great measure confine their reading to these 

 less profitable topics, and that their pastoral efficiency 

 is correspondingly impaired. Finally, this indifference 

 to theology is not confined to the ministry. It is widely 

 spread among the members of the Church, and takes 

 shape in depreciation of the value of a regularly trained 

 ministry, and in an inclination to believe that personal 

 earnestness, some natural eloquence, and a fair measure 

 of familiarity with the easier parts of the Bible, and 

 perhaps with the Shorter Catechism, are all that can 

 reasonably be thought necessary to fit a man for the 

 office of a teacher in the Church. 



Against all these delusions we possess, humanly speak 

 ing, only one strong practical barrier the institution of 

 the divinity hall for the systematic training of our 

 ministers. When we part for the session, after spending 

 five months together in practical protest against tendencies 

 which surround us on every side, and which sometimes 

 threaten to exert an evil influence on our own minds, it 

 is fit that we should endeavour to carry with us a clear 

 conception of the purpose and value of the methodical 

 studies on which we have been engaged. I propose, 

 therefore, to spend the rest of this lecture in an attempt to 

 develop, in a constructive manner, the subject which in my 

 remarks up to this point I have approached indirectly, 

 and in the way of criticism of current habits of thought. 



Christianity is a new life. The Christian takes his 

 place in a society where his life is guided by new motives, 

 and supplied with strength arising from his new relation 

 to God. Every point in this new situation implies 

 knowledge of a quite definite kind. The believer s 

 relation to God is not of the nature of a physical union, 

 which can be realised in him without his knowing what 



