i8 77 ] THEOLOGY AND THE CHURCH 337 



purpose, will not only be deceived in his hopes of useful 

 ness, but grievously perils his spiritual life. Personal 

 piety is no call to the ministry, unless it is also a call to 

 full and zealous preparation for the ministry. 



If the central function of presidence in Gospel ordin 

 ances is entrusted by our Presbyterian system only to 

 men theologically trained, the minister is associated in 

 all other parts of his congregational work with untrained 

 elders. But the minister who is supported by the Church 

 in order that he may give his whole time to functions 

 which the elders discharge voluntarily, manifestly lies 

 under special responsibility in these duties also. In all 

 congregational matters the minister is justly expected to 

 take a leading part, not only in the amount of work he 

 does, but in the way he does it. Yet it is absurd to 

 expect that in natural talent, in Christian experience, 

 in good sense and tact, the minister shall excel all his 

 elders. Even that pre-eminence which comes of greater 

 practice is not possessed by a young minister who is called 

 to preside in a court of old and experienced men. What 

 the Church reckons on in placing a young unpractised 

 man in such a position is simply his theological training, 

 his acquaintance with large views of truth, large principles 

 of administration, deduced from the careful study of the 

 Bible and the history of the Church. The minister who 

 is really thus equipped will not fail to take the right place 

 in his congregation, and to win corresponding respect ; 

 for all men feel that he has a claim to preside in practical 

 matters who is able to throw on them the light of general 

 principles. But the minister who is not a theologian is 

 nowhere weaker than in his own session or in the midst 

 of his congregation. He has no principles of knowledge 

 which can give him a wide grasp of administrative 

 questions. He maintains, therefore, only that influence 

 which is due to his purely personal qualities, or which he 

 can assert by clerical pretentiousness by claiming for 

 his office, as an office, the respect which is due to the 



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